In the Shadow of Another: Prelude (unedited) · 2:42pm Oct 25th, 2013
In the Shadow of Another
Prelude: First Impressions
You know, life is full of surprises.
My life was pretty good. I had a job as a computer repair technician, my apartment was nice and well-priced, and I had a pretty good girlfriend. Sure, my job wasn’t the best, my apartment wasn’t very big, and I didn’t see me still being with the same girl for more than a couple years, but I was comfortable.
Of course, life apparently has a sense of humor. I was just living my comfortable life, minding my own business when, wham, fate decided to mix things up on me. Now, I live in a world of technicolor ponies and mythical creatures. I have a shitty job as the janitor at the local bowling alley, and I rent a tiny room in the back. But you want to know the worst thing? The worst thing isn’t the ponies. It isn’t the job or room. No, it’s him. Derek, the first human in Equestria.
Mister perfect is nothing but a constant reminder of what I’m not. In his first week here he saved the world from an ancient evil that apparently killed the Princess’ parents two thousand years ago. If that wasn’t enough, he’s dating not one, but two mares and both of them are national heroes, one a princess.
How did I get in this mess, you ask? Well, where ‘Mr. Gary Stu’ arrived in a fireball during the summer sun celebration, I was simply dropped unceremoniously in the Everfree. Was that the end of my trouble? Oh no. Fate’s a cruel bitch that just loves to kick me when I’m down. How about I start at the beginning? I was just sitting at a table in Denny’s, waiting for my grand slam, when I fell into a bush…
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“Oh… what the fuck?” I grumbled as I tried to right myself. Whatever happened dropped me right on my head.
After a few minutes of struggling and a few choice words, I was right-side up and confused as hell. I looked around at the Denny’s-turned-forest trying to restart my crashed brain. When it finally did I, uh… anyway, skipping ahead a couple hours (fuck you, I’m not reliving that again), I calmed down and decided I needed to try to find some kind of civilization.
So my journey into a new and unknown world began. Of course, I didn’t know it was a new and unknown world at the time, but that’s what it was all the same. I wasn’t sure how long I was in that forest before something finally happened, but I knew it was about noon. I was cussing at the trees about not getting my grand slam when I heard this strange noise. It kind of sounded like screaming just before a loud thud. It came from a little ways ahead of me, so I figured I’d check it out.
As I rounded a tree, I saw something that caused me to stop and stare. It was the strangest looking animal I had ever seen. It looked like some kind of orange cat or something, except it looked as if someone chopped off its paws. It also had a mop of purple hair on its head… oh, and wings. Apparently, judging by the blood dripping down its head, it hit the tree at pretty high speeds.
As I studied it (aka, staring at it with a stupid expression), my stomach gave a loud grumble. I was starving, and it seemed the universe had just given me dinner. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my pocket knife, kneeling over the animal.
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And people always found it weird that I carried around a lighter even though I don’t smoke. My warm, blazing fire gave the darkening forest an orange glow as I tore off another chunk of meat from my fresh kill. The feathers were a pain in the ass to pluck, but it was worth it. The delicate wing meat practically melted in my mouth.
As I took another bite, I heard a twig snap. I looked up to see another creature like the one from earlier, but this one was light blue with rainbow-y hair on its head. She looked at the discarded bones and gasped.
“Y-y-you…” it said, breathlessly, her confusion contorting into unbridled rage, “You... you ate Scootaloo!”
Before I could respond, she charged. With a war-cry and a powerful thrust of her wings, she slammed her hooves into my chest. We tumbled back, my head slamming into the ground. I looked up at her and tried to speak, but she just started punching me in the face repeatedly.
“Rainbow, stop!” a voice called.
“He ate Scootaloo! She was the most important pony in the world to me!” cried my attacker.
“I am?!” replied the voice.
“Yes, you…” the rainbow headed one froze, blinking stupidly a few times before looking up, “S-scootaloo?”
What? Did you think I actually ate her? Okay, I was going to, but she mumbled something about rainbows and I couldn’t do it. Instead, a used my sleeve to bandage her head. Luckily, a chicken happened to be wandering by, so I decided to eat that instead. When Scootaloo woke up, we chatted for a little bit, but when I started eating, she started getting sick and walked away a bit.
“Yeah, it’s me, and the guy you’re beating saved my life,” my newest friend said.
Rainbow, as I assumed her name was, looked at me with wide eyes before scrambling off of me.
“What’s going on over here?” called another voice, this one more masculine.
I looked over to see three more figures step into the light, one was a light yellow creature like the other two, but the other, though similar, had a horn as well. The third made me want to leap for joy, if not for my bloody broken nose, black eye, and swollen lip. It was a human. One of my own, way out here with all these cat-horse-birds. I was about to say something when another gasp filled the air. The yellow one ran over to my dinner and stared at it with tearful eyes.
“You… you ate Elizabeak?” she asked.
“That was your chicken? Oh… it was just wandering around so I figured….” I trailed off, feeling kind of bad for eating her bird.
“Oh my gosh, that’s what you were eating?” Scootaloo asked, sounding a little hurt, “I was flying all over the place looking all over for her.”
“I-I didn’t know she belonged to anyone,” I apologized.
“Flutters, he didn’t know,” the other human defended me, “Come on, now. We should be getting home before it gets any darker. Come on,” he said to me, “You can stay at our place. We can patch up your face tonight, and figure out what to do in the morning.”
“Uh… yeah,” I replied.
The human raised his hand to my fire and in a blast of icy light, extinguished it. I stared at the remains in awe, him smirking knowingly. The others turned and walked away, leaving me behind with just the rainbow one. She flew up, hovering at eye level. I looked up at her and grimaced.
“Hey, I’m sorry about attacking you,” she said, “Derek told us that some humans eat ponies, and I just assumed that you-“
I cut her off with a strong uppercut to the chin, knocking her out cold.
“Apology accepted.”
Nice. Very nice. I'm assuming that this has nothing to do with any of your other stories?
1451824 It was the runner up in a poll for which story I'll be doing after the ItB collab and finale, Children of Chaos, and Dawn Shield. #1 was Star Bright, but I already have a preview of that up.
i like it. cant wait to see it brought to life!
cant wait! looking forward to more
I'm looking forward to Derek getting his comeuppance. Smarmy bastard...
I hope he turns out to be a villain that gets beaten up.