‘Everything hurt. Everything always hurts. Why does everything always hurt?’ A hoof rose up and rubbed the muzzle that was apparently my face. I looked down and noticed there was a hoof in my face. Joy. Then I looked on my back and saw what was itching it so badly. There were two bat like wings idly flapping.
‘Am I agitated?’ I shook my head trying to get rid of my own insecurities. This was going to take a while to get used to. All around me was a dead barren landscape while behind me was a vast forest looming in the foreground.
“Did I really wind up in a different world? God, there’s a migraine forming and I don’t have enough sanity to deal with all that.”
A gruff sigh escaped my mouth and forced me to look up into the sky. The moon was shining but this large shadow was stuck on the moon. I knew there was a man on the moon but this was ridiculous. Rolling my eyes I quickly made my way to the forest’s edge. When I reached the shadows of the canopy there was this weird buzzing sound of in the distance. Instead of making my way towards the sound I decided not to be stupid and took cover in one of the tree boughs.
“I can’t believe Chrysalis has us on guard duty. Nopony makes their way over here. They aren’t stupid enough to come out here. You have any idea how many prisoners we actually find in one day. None! Always none. Always gonna be none.” The black insect pony shaped creature spoke aloud.
The other seemed to chitter. I think it was laughing maybe maliciously. The other insect huffed and raged with some weird sounds that obviously weren’t words. Reminded me of one of my coworkers, ineffective and full of hot air. Most of the time that was what most of his dates would say about him. I really wanted to laugh but it was better not to draw attention before I knew what was going on.
“She has a plan ready for us. We’re getting ready to take over Equestria. Now’s not the time to rush. She’s working hard to get us closer to the real prize. So shut your mandible and keep it down. Don’t need one of her spies coming around saying we need to be reevaluated. Mother knows what they tried to do to Thorax already. Sixth time he almost got dragged in for reeducation.”
Guess it sucks to be an insect pony thing. I will find out their names later but until then I don’t need to do anything but survive. Let’s see which episodes did my niece make me watch… Were they finales or openings? Crap I don’t remember…
“Let’s see… Chrysalis was a… changeling and attacked during a wedding. Right? Yeah, right. Yay me…” I quietly clapped my hooves together though I somehow managed to make it sound as sarcastic as I thought it was.
“Okay time to make my way somewhere else then here. Also should figure out what’s the deal with the moon. Shadow on the moon means I’m also dealing with time travel probably… God damn it this is confusing.”
I opened my wings and attempted to fly… only to fall flat on my face. Damn it all he didn’t give me knowledge on my wings… Or I did it wrong.
“Really you gave me knowledge on my weapons but not on my wings. Jesus Christ… Okay, not like a bird just take it easy and don’t think about it.”
I spent the next three hours attempting to figure them out. Near the end of the third hour I managed to get up to hovering range. It was flap every few seconds or fall on the ground and eat dirt. After a few more times I got enough down to fly above the tree line though I kept it to a few seconds in case the changelings were still around.
The trip through the forest was… fun. Though the screaming manticore and flying wolves made of wood were unsettling. Probably should have asked for more info on the world before he sent me through. I kept out of range of the fighting between the two groups before they headed farther into the forest. Satisfied I wasn’t going to end up a meal I stumbled around until I found a stream flowing off into the distance.
“Let’s see what he made me into, probably ugly as sin but I’m sure I could bash those pieces into place at least.”
I looked down into the surprisingly clear waters and saw the muzzle of a pony staring back at me. I think my coat was completely charcoal gray. My eyes were shining a weird amber yellow color now. I actually had fangs in my mouth which greatly calmed me down. I liked eating fish from time to time. My mane was a light shade of cornflower blue. Don’t ask how I know that color by sight. I’m pretty sure hearing one of my art loving friends rant on the difference between sky blue and cornflower blue probably destroyed half the brain cells I used to learn new things. My tail… tail, right I got one now… was the same color.
“Well I don’t look too ugly but I wouldn’t know what the aesthetics are here. Oh right wings…”
I unfurled my wings and saw that they were kind of big. Not overwhelmingly big but I think they were an inch bigger than wings I did see whenever my niece wanted to pause on a pegasus.
“Why didn’t I pay attention…” The groan I released pretty much scared the fish that were flowing through the water.
Hunger led my next actions to see if I could at least eat grass to sustain my body. Surprisingly it could… it was just really bland but filling. I began following the stream until it flowed out into a river. The forest wasn’t as dense and it seemed I had two choices now. Left or right…
For some reason I summoned my keyblade which ended up in my mouth and fitted for a pony to use. I’m pretty sure I mumbled something about figuring out hooves next time. I threw it up into the air. If I caught it I would travel left. If I didn’t then right. Turns out I sucked at catching and traveled off to the right where the river seemed to be flowing towards.
“Obviously the river goes towards the sea. Probably gonna find a city there.”
That was hopeful bullshit obviously enough. I was not looking forward to finding something to keep myself from financially secure. Still I’d rather die fighting than by hunger, at least I would have done something more impacting with my life and even if that sacrifice was pointless I wouldn’t be alive to notice it. Wow… I am going to suck at being friendly to anyone.
The trip took a couple hours and in those couple of hours I managed to figure out how to swing the keyblade in a way that wouldn’t leave me a open target until the third swing of my combo. I still couldn’t figure out how to summon the other weapons yet because every time I tried to summon them the keyblade would come out instead. As the river widened out into an estuary I looked around for a city trying to find something that would actually fit my needs. Off in the distance was that city.
“Well let’s see what this will get me into then.”
I flew across the river merely glancing at the bay I passed. There were a few boats but nothing worth checking out right away. The flight took another hour mostly due to my own clumsiness in flight. I could barely hover across and my wings kept feeling weird every time I used them.
“Must figure out the glider functions of the keyblade. Also need a list on what to figure out first.”
‘First objective: Figure out how hooves work. Second objective: Get map and figure out the area before then. Third objective: Get money to support myself and not be a lazy bum. Fourth objective: Fight heartless for training.’ I groaned as my wing mysteriously rubbed the spot between my eyes. Looks like they were long enough to do that and I have no idea how that happened in the first place.
As I drew closer to the city I finally found out what the place was called. Then I swallowed the bile in my throat from the horrible pun I just read. I was in a place only known as Baltimare. I shook off the nausea and braced myself for what was going to be a horrible experience with puns based on ponies. Now I remembered exactly why I only ever watched the show with my niece. The puns that would come up were just killing me softly.
A small shadow eked out from behind the sign and watched the weird batpony walk off for the city rather than fly. The yellow eyes shined as it sensed something pleasing. Strangely it didn’t attack and merely watched in rapt attention of the situation. The eyes turned into blue reptilian shapes as it turned bigger. It had a horn and wings with fancy armor attached to its head and chest. It didn’t move but the smile that formed was unsettling. Several more shadows rose behind it all stumpy and bipedal. The antennae on their individual heads twitched and writhed almost as erratically as their bodies did. With a fling of its wing the entire group dispersed back into shadows and awaited new orders.