Bonus Mini Chapter: Isolation
April 13, 2012
Day One of the PonyFall Incident
Angel stared at the leafy canopy high above where he lay. Sunlight trickled in where it could, but the majority of it was blocked by the many intertwined leaves and branches high overhead. From somewhere close by, a bird sang an elaborate song which was answered by another bird further off. Its song was like none he had ever heard before. He tried to swivel his ears so he could hear it better. For some reason, his hearing seemed... off.
His ears wouldn't move.
It wasn't like his muscles weren't responding to his commands. It was more like those muscles didn't exist. He lifted his front paws up to feel his ears, but stopped suddenly as they came into view. He stared at the grotesquely disfigured appendages that had once been his paws and, for a moment, allowed himself to panic. His paws, his legs; everything about his body was wrong. Even his sight was off, as he could only see straight ahead. He took a sniff of his surroundings, but it was no use. It was as if his sense of smell had been dulled a hundred times over.
Well, it wasn't the first time Discord had changed his body. The thought helped to calm himself down. He would just need to adapt and survive.
Angel rolled over onto his belly and pushed himself up into a kneeling position, but upon trying to stand up he ended up falling hard back to the ground. He spat out a mouthful of dry leaves and groaned.
His legs, once lean and powerful, were now long, awkward, and weak. He doubted he could even jump using them.
He would have to learn how to use them. Fluttershy was out there, somewhere. He could sense her presence, in a way, but it was very faint. She was a very, very long way away, and he was unable to walk, let alone hop.
Gritting his teeth, Angel dug his new fingers into the dirt and began to drag his body towards the direction he felt Fluttershy was located.
..o0o..
It had been a very long time since Angel Bunny had gone hungry.
It was one of the many advantages of having a pony like Fluttershy to look after your every need. Fluttershy’s cottage was warm and comfortable, he could lie around and relax whenever he felt like it, and he always had nice meals prepared for him.
Angel looked around at his surroundings and grimaced. To think, he had complained about his custom-made meals in the past.
Grass and trees were all around him, but these weren't the green, vibrant plants he was accustomed to in Ponyville. The grass varied in color from yellow to brown; from dying to dead. There would be no point in eating it – none of the nutritional value remained. Ordinarily, he would turn up his nose at the thought of eating plain old grass, but there were few plants that he recognized in the area, and none of those that he did recognize were edible.
He dug his cracked and bleeding fingers into the dirt and dragged himself along the ground. His claws, which would have proven quite useful in his current situation, had been replaced with flat, brittle things at the end of each appendage that seemed to be completely useless, save for scratching an itch. He supposed he should be thankful, as the biting insects of this land had been attacking him relentlessly, and he had to stop every few moments for a quick scratch.
As he slowly dragged himself along, Angel thought back to the last things he could remember before waking up.
He had figured he was in for a bad day when Fluttershy’s cottage turned into a dragon. Thankfully, they had been out for a picnic with the rest of her critters when the transformation had occurred, and it didn't take long for them to both come to the same conclusion: Discord had returned.
After Rainbow Dash arrived to collect Fluttershy, the two pegasi had flown off, leaving Angel to look after the other critters, to join their friends in defeating the annoying draconequus. Unfortunately, the fight didn't go as well as Angel had hoped it would. He could remember a voice calling out that Fluttershy was in trouble, and he had sprung into action, hopping as quickly as he could towards the battle.
He hadn't been too far from Fluttershy and the others when he had been caught in the path of some kind of weird, pink shock wave. It was the last thing he could remember before waking up in this strange new world.
Fluttershy had been caught in the shock wave too. He knew it. He could sense her presence somewhere far, far away. He had to get to her somehow, but first he needed food and water. He swiveled his head around to look for something edible…
And froze.
About a metre in front of him, partially hidden under leaves and a rocky outcrop, was a banded, reddish-brown and white snake. Its thin tail was wriggling gently back and forth, much like a worm.
Angel knew of these types of snakes, which is why he knew he was in a very, very bad situation. It was using its tail as a lure to attract prey, and he had stumbled almost directly on top of it…
A death adder.
Its bite would kill him if the snakes in this land were anything like the ones in and around the Everfree Forest. It had already locked its beady little eyes upon him and, despite his much larger size, was looking at him as if he were still a bunny.
Does it know? he thought idly.
He darted his eyes about, looking for a way out. Seeing nothing to his left, he looked to his right and saw a rather large stick just out of reach. The long appendages that had replaced his paws could grasp things. Perhaps if he moved slowly, he could reach that stick...
At that moment, the snake struck. Angel launched himself backwards, but his new body was slow to move and he barely avoided a lethal bite. He had no time to think about the stick as the snake struck a second time. His newly formed hands moved on instinct, and he somehow manged to smack the reptile to the side and hold its head to the ground.
He might ordinarily have let the snake go, but these weren't ordinary circumstances. Any other time, he'd have just sprinted away. But he was lost, weary, and hungry. He gripped the reptile tightly and bent down, biting hard into the animal. It thrashed about, but he bit harder and ended it as quickly as possible.
Angel gagged on the blood that had filled his mouth and looked down at the lifeless body gripped in his hands. He'd had to bite snakes in the past to warn them or to get away, but he had never killed one. He had never killed anything before, for that matter.
Why had he killed it? It had been an easy choice to make once a decision had to be made; far too easy. Fluttershy would disown him! She would never understand, would she? But perhaps... well, there were plenty of other animals who did such things.
If he had only done it to obtain food, then...
With a moan, Angel fell onto his back and curled his legs under him. He held the lifeless snake like some kind of macabre doll, gripping it tightly and holding it to his chest. There he remained, buried under the weight of his troubled mind, as night fell. And even as he brought a shaking hand up to his mouth and bit into the scaly flesh, one thought forced itself to the front of his mind.
He would find Fluttershy, no matter what he had to do.
..o0o..
A survivor is born
Had to be done:
Also, exquisite character moment for Angel Bunny. Good thing he's been turned into one of the most stupidly enduring creatures in existence.
This appears to be an interesting story. I shall view it soon.
Slorg, you're adding pieces to a puzzle that doesn't seem to have any edge pieces! My head is spinning trying to make heads or tails of it! Maybe if I read the Discord story things will start to make sense, but knowing you guys I'll probably have 100 more pieces to add to the puzzle and NONE of them will be edge pieces!
But by god I'm invested in this story. Bring on more puzzle pieces!
3481729 The Discord story can be hard to follow at times, but it does fill in some of the blanks and is definitely recommended... if you can handle the absurdity within it.
Angel Human now I guess
Yay for minis, but why did the other mini suddenly unread for me? I didn't see any changes to it.
3481753 hi troll i think that what you are from that by the way comacarsy say he love to play with you as his new play thing and drilling for the chance but Murdock got that one on in Hervey Chan.
I really want to read this but right now this will need to go the read later group.
I'm happy that a story based in Australia has gotten so much attention. Can't explain why.
The slorg, you are the lucky one. Im sure that fluttershy would be the best looking if the main 6 were humans. Im also sure pinkie would be 3 hottest as human
SO in austalian wild life... did we go to narnia or something because this is all like 'What'
3485742 That would be Game of Thrones (the Stark family).
But in this case, no, that dimension hasn't crossed over. It's just Ashton being the lying little bastard that he is.
I only just realised that all the mini chapters end in -ation. So that's a thing.
3491502 He's the guy who found Discord.
awsomesome story but.....why no more chapters?
3498795 Because the story is now intertwined with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the Twilight Sparkle stories within the series, and I have to wait on the authors of those stories to coordinate our chapters.
3509320 Some backstory:
The PonyFall collaboration was originally extremely disorganized, consisted of 36 writers, and had no fewer than three controversies involving sexuality/wish fulfillment. The only thing we had to go on back then was the sky flashes pink, you smell fudge, then you find (pony). Good luck!
Not much to go on, but since then it has evolved into what it is today. There is an ongoing love/hate relationship with the stories, but they are what they are. I'm glad most people seem to enjoy them despite some obvious flaws.
That's one more caught up on. Finally. XD Three to go. Honestly, kinda on an internal debate as to which to go to. My top four mane six is sorta contested: Twilight, AJ, RD, and Fluttershy. So, I saved my favorites for last. XD
3600786 I say it because I'm a total pansy.
2784981 I would go to Australia just to find snakes.
OKAY, after quite a bit of procrastination I have finally caught up. I have to say, I'm quite glad I did not give up on the Ponyfall series after catching up to the Twilight/Luna story. This story is really well written, not Fallout Equestria good but still good. I just spent the last seven or so hours reading and it's now about six in the morning. I am quite curious as to who this guy is that's been working behind the scenes.The scene where he checked if Fluttershy was gone gave me idea as to what he was up to and then where Pinkie was walking by the beach gave me an idea as to how long he has been doing this. My first guess is that he is Ashton from some alternate timeline. Probably one where Discord wins and timey whimey things happen (Doctor Who reference) and cause an effect like that in the story Hard Reset. Only he can control when the resets happens plus he cant stop time or something. My second guess is that it's Doug (insert explanation as to why) but that's not likely to happen for reasons I'm not going to into. I will need to read the other Ponyfall stories to give more informed guesses, assuming this guy show up in the other stories. I'm not to sure what story of them I should read next, I just know I'm saving Discord for last. Suggestions are welcome.
3934342 Got a problem with the way I talk?
3955596 The drought went bye-bye some years back (though it's showing early signs of returning). I'm writing based off of personal experience here.
3935498
Just saying.
3935498 There's a bit of a discontinuity between your avatar and the way you talk / your character in-fic.
Just saying. It's kinda hilarious.
3484209 Worst nightmare? Wait til next time you go to your bathroom at night, I'll be waiting!
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