Fred Walsh: Diverted

by Baguettedood

Chapter 2 - Everfree in Reverse

Chapter 2: Everfree in Reverse

*Fred is illuminated by the display on his watch, amongst a dark night sky*

"Why do all my first nights end up sleeping on some kind of plant? I slept on either hay or straw last time. I swear I'm creating tradition now. If we're making tradition, I'll just find it hilarious, yet unsurprising, if I get arrested. The trickier part will be predicting why I end up detained.

"This place had better not collapse on me tonight, assuming there is even anything left to fall. This place is a mess! Gee, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that's because the place was abandoned. Yeah, that'd do it.

"Well, after falling through space and time, I have some idea where I've landed: Some place in the Everfree forest, at the very least a few days after the Summer Sun Celebration where Nightmare Moon returned. At most, I haven't a clue. As always, it's more important to know when I am, along with where I am. Ponyville can't be too far off, I'll head there in the morning."

---

Rays of the sun poked through holes in the old castle. Enough of them converged on top of Fred Walsh to awaken him from his slumber.

'What kind of bed is this? Wait...' He bolted up, then immediately regretted it. The bruises and other injuries from yesterday began to take their toll. Most of the pain resided around his left torso, where he hit the tree. The human daintily prodded the afflicted areas, feeling for the worst damage, flinching at each touch. Fred still couldn’t be certain about its extent, but it was concentrated around the left midsection of his ribcage. 'I really hope I haven't broken anything.' Fortunately, his legs were intact, so he stood up from the leaf mattress and exited the tower he slept in. Painfully of course.

The man traversed the obstacle course that was Everfree Castle as he left to, hopefully, make his way to some form of civilisation. He looked at the sky as he stood at the bridge. 'Well, the sun rises in the East, which is toward those mountains. I'd guess that'd lead to Canterlot, so Ponyville would probably be this way.' He crossed the bridge and headed forwards, occasionally checking to ensure he remained in a straight path.

'I think I preferred my last arrival here. Although I ended up incarcerated, it still beats wilderness survival,' Fred thought as he travelled the Everfree Forest. As he walked, he heard the snap of a twig. He stopped and his ears wiggled the few millimetres they could. 'That definitely wasn't me. Am I being stalked? And by what?' The human observed his vicinity until a white patch caught his eyes, accompanied by a low growl. A wolf.

As soon as he identified the creature, it began moving closer. 'Yeah, I'm going to run.' Fred turned back toward his previous destination and sprinted, difficult with his injuries. He had to be careful not to hit his ribs, it hurt enough as it is. The canine followed. After some evasion, the wolf remained close behind. He saw a river nearby and with the animal still right behind him, he dashed toward it, simultaneously unstrapping the Scavenger Watch.

The 22-year-old reached the river and leapt. He waited until reaching the apogee and threw the watch ahead, hoping it would reach the other bank. 'In retrospect, I should've waterproofed this thing, I'm not having it destroyed; I'll need it to make sure the scientists don't kill me with the same wormhole next time,' he thought in an instant as he landed with a splash of water. He turned back to face the wolf, which halted and looked down at the bank before walking off dejectedly.

Fred felt himself being tugged long the stream, so he swam toward the far bank and held on. Once he re-oriented himself, he pushed up onto Terra Firma. He lay on the ground for a few minutes, simultaneously letting the sun dry him, and letting him recover from the run, then stood up and re-acquired the Scavenger Watch, which landed safely. He leaned next to a tree as he regained his breath while going through some of the functions of the almost-smartphone.

Most of the features were rather pointless in Equestria. Nevertheless, useful ones include the camera he recorded his adventures with, some communications hardware – Wi-Fi and an accidentally uncoded walkie-talkie, the former carefully managing to communicate with Midgård when he realised the latter failed to function – and his favourite new toy, a receptor from a neuroheadset. With it, the human had managed to read extreme panic in the form of spikes in the 20-40 Hz range, but so far only on Princess Celestia. He decided he would code a short script to 'ping' the receptor every few minutes and collect information and alert him if it registered huge spikes. He didn't have much faith in the program, though.

'I'll have to get around to it, but I'll fix the radio later.' Fred Walsh, no longer dripping, locked the watch and prepared to continue onward when unorthodox water flow caught his ears. Following the sound with his sight, he noticed a purple dot nearby. Intrigued, he moved to investigate. The dot grew in the human's vision to become a snake-like form with purple scales, splashing in the river.

He cleared his throat. “Excuse me.”

The sea serpent turned to face Fred. “Greetings! I don't see many passers-by. Nice to meet you!” From this angle, the human could admire the gentleserpent's mane and facial hair. His moustache bore a small few amethyst-coloured hairs, slowly disappearing.

“Pleasure to meet you too, good sir.” 'Woah, that was formal,' “Do you know the way to Ponyville, by any chance?”

“I'm afraid I'm unsure, sorry. Although, I occasionally see ponies walking from that way,” he gestured Northwest.

“Good a place as any, thank you sir.” Fred waved and journeyed in the direction the sea serpent pointed.

Eventually, the biped found a dirt path that lead out of the Everfree Forest to Ponyville. He emerged from the forest. He could see town not far off and made the decision to approach. 'Now, to find out how smoothly this will go.'

Comments

[Knighthawker]

He should of asked how long ago his glorious mustache was cut off. Better time reffrence.