I let out a yawn as I dragged myself back into the waking world. My cave echoed the noise back to me as I staggered to my paws. A now familiar sweet smell caught my attention as I turned towards its source in a nearby corner and smiled. Staked three feet high was a giant pile of blueberries and dozens of other such fruits, countless small paw prints surrounding it. I licked my lips as I sauntered over to my daily offerings and tore into it. As I wolfed down my offered breakfast, I thought about how things had been lately.
As it turned out, shelter wasn't that hard to find around here. After I settled down in my current home, I found several dozen more caves and tunnels scattered throughout the forest a good distance apart from each other. Food wasn't that hard to find either since the forest was absolutely loaded with fruit-bearing trees. Thanks to all of the marks I left on the trees near my cave, I had no problem navigating through the forest. As soon as I had all of that taken care of I let myself freak the fuck out over my situation. Now, before anyone asks, no. I didn't scream or cry like a baby or panic. I didn't run around like a chicken with its head cut off for a few hours. And I definitely didn't spend god knows how long curled up in a corner sucking one of my paws. I did find out that it was a good call to have my freak out session in a cave though. Turns out Ninetales fire is largely emotion powered. One stream of swears and suddenly I felt a build up of power before a stream of flames shot out of my mouth. Since I didn't want to turn my new neighborhood into a bonfire, I spent about a week trying to figure out how to keep my mouth under control. I did it! Mostly...Okay I can at least keep myself from burning the forest down for the most part.
In other news, it turns out that the Pokemon World does in fact have normal animals in it. Imagine my surprise when I was looking for my favorite napping tree and found a fox tangled up in some ivy. Not a Vulpix, Fenniken, Braixen, Delfox, or other Ninetales, but an honest to god fox. As soon as I got over my shock, I helped the poor thing get free before going off to find my tree by the lake. Turns out she was the oldest mother of a pretty big skulk, so when I woke up a few hours later I was completely surrounded by at least four-dozen foxes. It was kind of weird at first, especially when the kits started nuzzling me the second the big mama (no bull shit) bowed to me. Things got even crazier when the skulk followed me around and started gathering food for me. It was a little awkward when they brought me a live white rabbit to...well, foxes are carnivores after all. Thing is, while I like meat, there's a difference between knowing that what you're eating used to be a living creature and actually seeing that creature before its served to you. So when the little guy gave me a set of big baby eyes I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Though I think the foxes were a little disappointed that I didn't eat the rabbit for some reason. Luckily, they found out I had no problem eating fish and made sure to add it to my menu every so often.
For a while, I had a hard time trying to wrap my head around all the special treatment, but then I saw that yellow Ponyta again and it all started to make sense. I was just heading out to the lake to get a drink and happened to see her talking to a bunch of squirrels in a nearby tree. I kept myself out of sight as best I could as I watched her do her thing for a few minutes, my jaw clenched as I struggled to keep my anger and fear under control. I couldn't figure out what it was about her that put me so on edge or brought the Dark Times to the front of my mind. Once I managed to drag myself away from the lake, I managed to piece together how animals worked in this world. Apparently, there was some kind of caste system between Pokemon and animals. Pokemon had control and the animals were servants for them. In a lot of ways, it wasn't that different from how humans used Pokemon, but it still didn't sit right with me. As a result, I resolved to not make the foxes do anything they didn't want to do. If they wanted to bring me food, so be it. In exchange, if someone tried to hurt them I'd turn them into barbecue.
As I licked berry juice off of my lips, a collection of yips from my cave's entrence caught my attention. I smiled as a small group of kits bounded towards me, their tails waging as they fell to their haunches at my side. I chuckled as I playfully knocked the little scrappers around, careful to only put enough force behind my paw to move them around. I chuckled as the little terrors took turns nipping at me with their tiny baby fangs as I continued to play with them. I noticed a couple of grown foxes watching from the cave's mouth while the kits took turns trying to defeat my left paw as it disabled one of their teammates with a belly rub attack. I don't know how I could tell, but it seemed like they were happy to see their kits getting along so well with me. It was weird, but a kind of weird I could deal with with a smile on my face.
I flinched a bit when one of the kits nipped a soft spot on my foreleg and the two older foxes let out sharp barks at them. The kits instantly froze at that before dejectedly walking back to their parents with folded ears and drooping tails. I sighed as I let the parents tend to their rowdy kids before heading out to stretch my legs for a bit. As much as I liked playing with the little troublemakers, I sure as hell wasn't a parent.
***
One of the things I appreciated about my new body was the heightened senses. Sharper eyes and ears made navigating the forest a breeze, but my new nose made keeping track of certain problems a hell of a lot easier. The flying Ponyta, hence known as "Lemon", had a very distinct scent to her. It was kind of like a cross between lilacs and soap with a hint of wet dirt thrown in for whatever reason. It wasn't all that hard to keep track of her scent since she seemed to pop up all over the place whenever she fucking felt like it! Seriously! I go to get a drink from the lake? She's on the other side talking to a beaver or something. I try to get some apples for a snack? She's getting apples for some animal from that same fucking tree! I go to an empty cave to practice my Flamethrower? She's there talking to herself like some nutcase!
"Is this her territory or something?" I muttered irritably to myself as I avoided my Flamethrower cave for the fifth time this week. "Fucking great. I hope this doesn't mean I'll have to battle her for some space. I don't know what the hell she can do and I only recently figured out how to do a decent Flamethrower."
A familiar sight on the forest floor made me growl, smoke sneaking past my lips as I barely kept my flames contained. Four wooden bowls of what looked like dog food laid before me like offerings, but unlike the offerings my Skulk gave me these ones reeked of Lemon's scent. Like the last ones I found, I dug a deep hole near the bowls and dumped the the pellets into it before belching out a mouthful of flames into the pit. Once I was sure the "food" was sufficiently vaporized, I smothered the fire with dirt as I refilled the hole before going about my business. This was starting to become a daily routine as I navigated my new forest home. Lemon would leave out bowls of food at random places and I'd destroy any I came across. There was no way I was going to let any of the foxes get suckered into eating her food. Who knew what she did to it before she left it out? I knew all about how some Pokemon liked to lure prey in with all kinds of fucked up tricks, using everything from scent traps to paralyzing venom to catch unsuspecting victims. Lemon was an unknown element and until I could be sure she wasn't dangerous, I was taking absolutely no chances.
"Fucking Lemon," I growled as I closed in on one of my spare practice caves.
Down Alex, deep breaths, I thought as I entered the cave. I can't do anything if I let myself get all riled up. First, I need to learn how to better control my firepower. After that, I can try to figure out how to broaden my arsenal a little more. I just need to take this one step at a time.
I took several deep breaths as I walked into the deepest, darkest part of the cave. With my sharp eyes, I was able to see almost perfectly in the near pitch-black conditions of my training grounds. I could see all of the scorch marks covering the walls from all of my past attempts to master Flamethrower. Each of the smaller burns got a small chuckle out of me as I compared them to the large swaths of charred earth on the walls next to them. Small shots were a little tricky for me, but that kind of made sense when you really thought about it. I'm not trying to learn Ember. I'm trying to master Flamethrower.
I took a wide-legged bracing stance as I picked a less charred portion of cave wall and took a deep breath. As I did that, my tails instinctively stood on end as I felt something build up inside me. It started small, like a flickering ember before it quickly grew into a massive force in my chest. I filled the force with my anger, feeling it grow in power before guiding it up my throat. At the last second, I opened my mouth and let out a loud roar as the power shot out of my mouth as a searing stream of fire. The cave shined with light as my flame slammed into my targeted wall like a burning geyser. I smiled as the tail end of my attack passed my muzzle, plunging my world back into near total darkness.
"I had more control that time," I chuckled. "Let's see if I can do that again."
***
I hummed happily as I stepped out of my training cave. Progress was slow, but I was one step closer to mastering Flamethrower then I was this morning. As I stared up at the early evening sky, I let out a happy sigh before making my way towards my cave.
I should be able to use it without damaging the forest if I strike at point blank, but hopefully I won't have to get that close to anything, I mused, keeping a sharp eye out for any evening threats. Otherwise I'll need to find someplace less green before I strike. Maybe I should see if there are any places like that around here, just in case.
My ears twitched as something stepped out of one of the bushes. I tensed, then relaxed a little when I saw it was a fox. What put me a bit on edge was that it wasn't one of my followers. All of the foxes in my skulk are Red Foxes while this was a Fennec. The tiny fox stared up at me with its ears folded back in pure terror, a pink envelope held tight in its trembling muzzle. I glared down at the small creature, baring my own fangs more from what I smelled then from what I saw. The little thing reeked of Lemon's scent to the point that I had to force my jaws shut to keep myself from roasting it.
"What do you want?" I growled through clenched teeth.
The fox let out a weak whine before it dropped the letter and ran out of sight. I took a few minutes to regain my composure before investigating what the poor thing left behind. A cold chill shot down my spine when I saw my name written on the front of the envelope.
Okay, that's a little creepy, I thought, digging a small hole in the ground. Could this be one of Lemon's tricks? Nah, couldn't be. What kind of Pokemon writes letters anyway? Still, that's way too creepy.
I stared at the letter for a few seconds, not really sure what to make of this whole thing before dropping it into the hole and lighting it up. It was probably just a crazy coincidence, but if it really was some trap set by Lemon...
"Wouldn't be the first time a girl played me," I muttered as I refilled the hole. "Better safe then sorry."
I was on high alert the whole way back home, legitimately expecting a whole herd of Lemons to come bursting out of the bushes to capture me at any moment. While that didn't happen, what did happen filled me with even more worry.
Turns out my fan club found out about how I felt about Lemon. Whenever she was close to the cave a fox would give me a heads up in the form of three high-pitched barks. The fact that one of them met me about half way to the cave wasn't what had me so worried. The fact that the whole Skulk met me with high-pitched barks however, did.
Not good,
The Skulk stopped barking as I slowly crept towards my cave. I froze as a familiar smell caught my attention as well as a few other ones that I didn't recognize. I also heard seven different heartbeats that I sure as hell knew didn't belong to any of my foxes. None of them knew how to talk and there were only five vixens in the Skulk to begin with.
She found my home, I thought, a soft growl slipping past my lips as I slowly backed away from the cave entrence. Fucking great!
As soon as I sure I was out of hearing range, I let out a frustrated sigh and continued to walk deeper into the forest.
I guess I'm sleeping somewhere else tonight. Good thing I found another cave a good distance away from here a couple days ago.
As my Skulk and I made our way through the forest towards my plan B home, I could've sworn I heard a balloon deflate in the distance behind us.
Dot's one paranoid dude. Though honestly, I don't blame him.
Really Fluttershy, he's telegraphed his desire for solitude about as blatantly as he can without actually assaulting you, would it kill you to respect that?
9848570
Amazing how repeated, subtle hints like that don't work.
Wait so Fluttershy is a normal pony/pegasus and there are normal animals without pokemon, right?
Than how dense, you can be to not see that you're the only Pokemon and to confuse a ponyta that has flaming mane and tail with a pegasus, the one thing in common is that they are horse-like
Sooo, how long is the baseless paranoia going to be running for? Fluttershy doesn’t look like a Pokemon, she’d be talking in a recognised language as well, and she’s completely friendly. If he’d done any scouting around he’d have seen Ponyville, easily, since Fluttershy generally doesn’t 2ander too far from it, and it’s quite a large town.
Also, unless you are making a pun I suspect you want ‘Hail’ instead of ‘hale’. The first is a greeting or salutation (Hail to the King), the later is a state of healthiness (He was hale and hearty.)
9848687
Paranoia is acceptable, he appeared in a forest and is a pokemon and especially now that he has followers and responsibility
The problem is that he thinks Fluttershy is a ponyta...... how?
I'm liking this
I can understand his paranoia giving the situation.
Ponytashy, by his logic could be a new regions varient of ponyta. And pinky already knowing his name is sufficiently creepy for him.
I will continue tracking this
I'm starting to worry about this guys intelligence.
9848705
Regional variant.
Are we going to get a chapter on the ponies perspectives?
9848705
I think this paranoia is more then his mistaking her for a ponyta
9848892
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9849014
It’s the way she talks. He new some one in the past who pretended to be kind and gentle, but was really just leading him on and playing with him. She hurt him bad, and now he’s weary of Fluttershy because she has the same personality that the girl pretended to have.
Try reading this without context XD
9849229
Well, when life gives you lemons....
Unfortunately, I think a lot of guys can empathize with his alluded backstory. It sucks to be constantly suspicious of the people around you, but it's better than being constantly used due to your gullibility. I'll be curious to see how you'll progress the story with his mindset the way it is.
Also, aww, he made some friends in the forest! I think in the long run that it'll be good for his sanity to have some form of companionship, even if they can't talk. Also also.... did they just try to sacrifice Angel Bunny to him? That's hilarious. The little brat needs to get a handle on that personality of his if other animals are willing to do that to him. What with the foxes looking disappointed that he let the bunny go.
9848672
He hasnt seen other ponies only Fluttershy. He doesnt know anything about MLP. He has distant memories of playing pokemon and can recognize that he is a ninetales. So logically he would assume Fluttershy is a type of pokemon. Ponyta is just a moniker he assigned to her, like Lemon, because he doesnt know what she is.
9848687
He decided to avoid her entirely and so he stays away from the direction she comes from. Hence Ponyville.
Also, yes she totally looks like a pokemon to someone who doesnt know about MLP. As for language, he is a pokemon so he is just assuming thats why he can understand her. Like how all pokemon can understand each other in the show.
9848705
He doesnt think she is a Ponyta. He just labelled her as a variant of the only horse pokemon he knows.
He sees her as a ponyta version of the pikachu clones.
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9848793
Why? So far he has shown a great amount of intelligence. He is lost in an unfamiliar body, in an unfamiliar location trying to survive and just wants to be left alone. Yet he has food, water, shelter, companionship. Not bad for a few days.
9849018
The only thing i disagree with is Pinkie being a normal evolution. She needs to be a trade evolution with a hold item.
Otherwise those were great.
I feel alittle bad for the Fennec fox. Poor little guy. He's just the messenger.
stmed.net/sites/default/files/fennec-fox-wallpapers-25467-5776191.jpg
9848793
Mainly because the only pokemon I am aware of that can talk verbally is the TR Meowth. All the other pokemon say their name or speak telepathically. Of course, I have not been a serious fan of pokemon since about the movie with Lugia and the time Misty left. It is possible other pokemon can talk like people now.
9849745
That's because the show is shown from a human perspective.
9849355
9848672
Look at the pikachu clones. The only things they share is type, cheek spots, and the fact that they are all rodents. Look at the alolan and galan variants. They have very distinct differences while also sharing certain base traits with their all-region counterparts. Hell look at alolan Ninetales and Marrowak. Neither of them share the same typing as their gen 1 counterparts, but they are still acknowledged as a type of Ninetales and Marrowak. It therefore wouldn't be too far of a stretch if our hero thought Fluttershy was a flying type regional variant of Ponyta or a new horse pokemon all together.
9849229
It looks like he's either looking out for killer fruit or old cars that break down every time you look at it funny. Either way-
oof, time skip. I like this though, you're still giving details and while it's going a bit quickly it's still working well :3
Um. Okay.
9858165
It's the sound Pinkie makes when her mane and tail goes flat.
This guy is a paranoid bloody idiot. To the the point that I'm starting hope something bad happens to the bloody fool.
If ya couldn't tell, I dislike idiot main characters, like him.
Fluttershy is more humane that this idiot.
He unreasonable beyond belief.
And dumb.
And why the fuck would foxes still help him if he keeps burning their food?
I think he never was a human in mind. He always was dumb beast.
9849638 The world has basically handed him all of those things on a platter. It has nothing to do with any competence of his own.
He hasn't even had to endure the obligatory attack by Timberwolves yet! That's MANDATORY for an HiE!!
9928358
Oh shut up the guy's obviously paranoid that's the reason why he doesn't trust the ponies or in this case Fluttershy who he thinks is a Pokemon who he has named lemon
9928358
The guy's paranoid, but he cares about the foxes.
If you pay closer attention, he protects them from dangers. (And in the case of Fluttershy, perceived dangers, like the food.) Fortunately, in this version of Equestria the foxes can hunt just fine for themselves, and it's not like the absolutely need the food.
Sure, it's a little frustrating for his to be this paranoid, especially since the reason has not yet been revealed, but it's not completely unwarranted.
Awww that's sad to know about the balloon
So far pretty decent story, cute with the foxes, and poor balloon Sometimes the solution we're best at, just isn't the best.
It does annoy me somewhat, that for someone so knowledgeable about Pokemon, he's taking unexplainably long time realising he's the Alien.
9994085
Think of it this way, you wake up one day as a pokemon in a world you know nothing about and the first intelligent creature you meet is a talking winged horse. Now remember that there are about four pokemon based on horses and that there are regional variants of certain pokemon and that he got dumped here before galaren Ponyta was revealed.
I REALLY love this so far, and he's fine to be paranoid, I shall read on, I like this so g
Far bud
How does one "wolfed" down food?
Teach me the ways of "wolfed" down food.
10097213
wolf
verb (used with object)
to devour voraciously (often followed by down): He wolfed his food.
There's cautious, and then there's paranoid nutso. What harm could there be in a letter? If he thinks Fluttershy is a pokemon, how does he think she'd sending him a letter. Pokemon don't do that. He should have at least read it, to find out what it was. What, did he think it was poisoned, so he opens it and the arsenic in the glue on the envelope flap kills him?
10171184
You really cant blame the guy he is not from a earth that know mlp
Sue me, but I like this guy.
Haven’t read the chapter yet, but I think it should be hail, right? Not hale
10171184
If this was ordinary world, I would be inclined to agree.
However, Alex is right to a certain degree. Some Pokemon's backgrounds hold some really dark and twisted things. I don't entirely blame him for being overly cautious.
Oh so I'm guessing the letter came from Pinkie but Fluttershy's scent was on it... I can kind of see some mis-understandings happening here.
Ooooh, poor Pinkie.
I think this dude has Trauma with a capital T I don't know what it could be or how Flutters sets off it could just be her color or the fact she's horse shape or even just the way she looks and sounds. Trauma is weird and brains learn patterns.
am I stupid, or is this the first time his name has come up?
I kinda thought his name would be Hale. since it was spelled wrong in the title, I thought it was a pun