//------------------------------// // Understanding // Story: Her Forest // by AliziaRoElier //------------------------------// Waking up was unpleasant. Day’s eyes opened with the quiet shriek of protesting metal. Abruptly, multiple streams of information assaulted him. Light stabbed his eyes painfully, and sound just as suddenly came back to him. He could hear ponies speaking around him, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying. The forest immediately began pumping emotional and technical information into his mind. His joints and limbs and torso actually felt like metal - he could barely move. Everything felt hard and stiff. Everything was overwhelming and disorienting and he could barely concentrate. The voices around him seemed to raise in volume, pitch, and speed. Faces floated above him and looked down at him with concern. Day tuned out the sounds and images. His forest called to him - needed him. Day withdrew from external contact. His eyes closed and he instinctively shut off his ears. He couldn’t hear the tortured protest of bending metal as his humanoid form shifted into a nondescript cube of blue metal. In the darkness of his mind, a world slowly came into being. it was small but it was his. Day stood, naked and human, in a clearing in his forest. The sky above was a calming clear azure and there was a pleasant breeze blowing into the clearing. Phantom lights floated up out of the ground and grass. They fell up into the sky to disappear from view. Vermillion eyes opened at the edge of the clearing and a timberwolf entered. Day knew what it was, an avatar of the forest, the same one that had triggered his metamorphosis. Day approached it without fear, he could feel the forest’s need to have contact with him. He sat beside it and patted its rough bark. The earlier rush of information slowly trickled over into him. The spires had done their job well. After he’d been flash-cooled unconscious, the plasma had dissipated into the sky and released a massive amount of heat and electricity. The spire had absorbed them all, redirected the excess energy into the ground, and remained standing. The forest edge had taken a fair bit of damage from lightning strikes before Day had moved to protect it. Little ones and larger animals had to abandon their homes for a time and the forest had barely stopped itself from catching fire and damaging itself further. The forest relayed the ponies’ actions after Luna had calmed down. She and Twilight had levitated his body to Fluttershy’s cottage. Behind them, the earlier group - Pinkie, Spike, the Crusaders, Rarity, and Dash - trailed them and whispered among themselves. Of all the group, Pinkie and surprisingly Spike seemed to have worried angry expressions that they kept sending at Luna’s back. The forest immediately collected a pack of timberwolves and directed them to intercept the group at the cottage gate. Six wolves quickly exited the forest and met the ponies. They bowed their heads and waited for the ponies to react. Luna bowed her head in return and turned to the group. She said something to the group and nodded to the timberwolves. The wolves turned around and walked up the path to the cottage. They laid down as a group just next to the front door. The ponies cautiously walked by them to enter the house. The forest ran out of information for him when they entered. It had no direct way to observe the goings-on within Fluttershy’s home. Day received the final bit of information from the forest in silence. He had no real idea how to proceed now. The timberwolf bumped his chest and nuzzled him. The forest spoke, Why are you here? You held such conviction before - nothing has changed. Day quirked an eyebrow, “I just got the crap beat out of me...” And you brought that on yourself, through your careless actions.  The wolf seemed to give him a disapproving look. “Well, she... she didn’t need to do that. She could have just... I don’t know... yelled or something.” Day said weakly. He didn’t want to come across as a being, well, butthurt but he couldn’t help it. The timberwolf just stared at him and Day sighed. “Yeah, yeah - I have to keep my end of the promise. It’s just... everything’s happening so fast. It’s been... what... five days?... since I got here.” Things are only going to get worse from here, Champion. Take it in stride. The forest will always be here for you. Now go... ~*~ Day opened his eyes and realized that he was in a very odd state. Conveniently, he was in front of a mirror. As a shapeshifter, he hadn’t really put much thought into just what he could turn into. His sole experience was changing back into a simulacrum of his human form. In the mirror, he beheld himself as a cube - a literal box with eyes on a featureless face. He blinked in shock, “What the fuck?” His voice seemed to emanate from nowhere - he had no mouth. He didn’t know how he could hear himself without ears, but he figured there was some kind of logical explanation. He felt hooves pick him up and turn him around. “Day! You’re alright!” He stared into Pinkie’s cyan eyes. Her mane was straight and hung limply from the crown of her head. He could see it slowly fluffing up and reverting to her usual style. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Day said quietly, “You don’t look so good Pinkie...” Pinkie smiled and her mane puffed up more, “Typical, you get blown up and you what to know if I’m alright...” Day blinked, “I don’t think that’s exactly-” “Shut up and run with it, Day.” Pinkie cut him off. She placed him on a table facing everyone else in the room. Everyone in the room was staring at him with confused expressions on their faces. He didn’t really blame them. “Alright, this can’t be the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen.” Day said grumpily. Their stares were unnerving. Day considered them for a moment before doing the equivalent of a mental shrug and shifted form again. Instead of his human or elfin form, he decided to try something new. The cube elongated and sprouted legs. A head and neck shot out and features fully formed. After a few more seconds, his form stabilized into that of a pony - a blue metallic stallion. The earlier stiffness seemed to have completely left him because he felt no resistance when he stepped off the table. He walked around in a circle and examined his backside. After the first rotation, he fell over. “How the hell do you walk like this? Gravity is all weird.” Day complained. He hadn’t looked at the ponies in the room. He was too busy trying to regain his balance. The silence was getting to him. He looked at the ponies again, “Alright. What? What’s wrong now?” Spike surprised Day again by speaking for the group, “I think you broke them... how are you so calm right now?” “Huh... well, normally I’d be freaking out but I’m not normal anymore and honestly, so much fucked up shit’s happened in the last few days I’m done freaking out about it. I’m pretty sure I could watch you all have an orgy or something and be completely okay with it.” Day probably should have engaged his mental filter before speaking because that seemed to bring the ponies out of their stupor. Rarity looked at him scandalized, “You could see us WHAT?!” The ponies around the room looked at each other with varying looks of disgust and nervousness. “We would NEVER do something like that.” Day tried to shrug but found he couldn’t in this pony form. He concentrated for a moment before shifting smoothly into his tall, elfin body. He shrugged and looked down. “Whatever, just an example, though Spike looks interested.” The mares in the room immediately turned to Spike to glare at him. Day snickered. “I need some clothes.” He looked around for his bag. It was against a wall on the far side of the room next to Fluttershy and Luna. He stood up and walked over to them for his bag. Both tensed up and watched him approach nervously. Day kneeled in front of them and pulled his bag over. He could feel the tension in the room. It was like everyone expected him to attack them or something. He searched through the bag for a moment and pulled out a vacuum sealed bag with a change of clothing, suspiciously the correct size for his elfin form. He hadn’t had the time to notice this detail when he’d looked through the bag the first time. The tension mounted when he ripped open the bag and he just couldn’t take anymore. “Alright, let’s get this cleared up now then. You guys are making me nervous. I’m not going to attack Luna. She’s not going to attack me,” He gave her a significant look, “again. Would you all just calm down? I’m just getting clothing.” “You have to admit, anypony else would be angry right now - furious.” Twilight spoke up. Luna interrupted her before she could continue. “They don’t really understand you, Day. It’s normal to fear you, at least for now.” Luna said quietly. She still had a tense and nervous expression on her face but she did her best to suppress it. “Hell, I don’t understand me. This is all just too much for me to deal with. The only way I’m going to handle all this is just accepting it and moving on.” He pulled on a shirt and the rest of his clothing silently. When the rest of the room decided he wasn’t going to spontaneously explode on them they started to relax. Day decided to move the conversation along, “Alright. So what now?” “We are going to see Applejack and ask her to join us.” Luna said. She looked frustrated, “Now that everypony in the room knows about our... mission... it would be folly not to have all the Elements accompany us. Better to have them all join us than to separate them and lose such a valuable resource.” Day nodded sat on a cushion, "So... before we go, just to confirm, are you not going to kill me now?” The previous calm was replaced by confusion and tension. Before Luna could answer Rainbow Dash made a frustrated whine. “Oh come on! Stop changing topics so fast!” Pinkie Pie giggled, “See, he’s the perfect husband for me.” “Nope! Not husband. Stop it Pinkie!” Day exclaimed to head off any conversation down that topic. Luna sighed minutely and replied, “No. We... are sorry for Our actions. We should not have attacked you so - or harmed the Everfree.” Day nodded, “Good enough for me.” Congratulations! Her Highness Luna has joined your party! All characters gain "Confused as Hell" status. Please visit the [ERROR] to associate. Congratulations! Fluttershy has joined your party! All characters gain Beaskspeak Translation Aura! Talk to ALL THE PONIES!