(Urgh my head. What hit me?) I thought as I opened my eye, looking around I saw nothing but trees with sunlight shining through the leaves and a small river flowing through the clearing I now found myself in. (A forest? Did someone spike the punch at the party last night and drag my drunk body here as a joke? ... Wait there wasn’t any party last night…) As I brought a hand up to try and rub some of the weariness out of my eyes I froze when I saw a claw. Quickly moving over to the river I was horrified by what I saw. Looking back at me is a dark brown furred werewolf that looked more built for agility then strength. I have two short black horns and bright silver draconic eyes. I saw something glint though my new fur and here I thought that today couldn’t get any weirder because I found that my fur was somehow growing THROUGH purple scales. After a few moments I said what any reasonable person would say in this position. “WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?!”
After that I started to walk through the forest thinking about what had happened only to stumble upon a lion with bat like wings and a large red scorpion tail standing over a man with light green skin, and sandy blond hair, was wearing leather armor and lying face down in a pool of blood. A large pack that I assumed belonged to the man was resting against a nearby tree. Upon seeing this I growled and much to my surprise roared at the beast. “Damn manticore. I’ll make sure you’ll never harm another soul!” The manticore responded with its own roar and lunging at me while trying to sting me with its tail but I dodged to the side and slashed at the tail with my claw leaving four deep claw marks as the manticore roar in pain. The beast struck me in the side with its own claw but luckily the gashes it left were shallow… even if they stung like a bitch.
The fight continued on for several minutes until I tripped over the corpse and fell onto my ass, as the manticore reared back on its hind legs I thrust a claw straight into its chest. We stayed like that for a few moments before I pulled my arm back and the manticore fell back dead. Breathing heavily I grimaced and grasped my side. (Why on earth did I do that? I’ve never been one to pick a fight and yet I fought that manticore as if it was the most natural thing in the world.) I slowly got to my feet and looked at the dead adventurer. “I don’t know who you were but I doubt you deserved to die like this.” I walked over and put on his pack before slinging his corps over my shoulder. Taking a moment to look at the manticore I thought. (Might as well take that too. I’ll have to learn how to clean and cook these new beasts sooner or later so I’ll just start with him.)
A few minutes after killing the manticore I found the ruins of an old castle and made myself a little den in one of the bedrooms on the ground floor. After taking his off armor and placing it in my room I buried the adventurer in a shallow grave near the ruin’s front door, I even dragged a stone over to it to finish the make shift gravestone. The room’s alright. It has a bed in the corner, a chair and a large desk with a few shelves. How the furniture hasn’t deteriorated over the years or been infested with mold I have no idea. As for the manticore I found a dagger in the adventurers pack and used that to try and skin the beast... needless to say the only thing the pelt was good for after that failure was a makeshift belt/kilt but it was better than nothing.
I’m not sure how to feel about how quickly I adapted to living in this forest or why I’m not more upset about being stolen from everything I’ve known and loved, but if I’m honest with myself I didn’t really have much left to attach me to Earth anyways so maybe that’s why. About a week after arriving in the forest I stumbled upon the forests edge and saw that there was a town not even five minutes away but because I was worried about how the reaction to me would be I turned and walked back into the forest. After that I started patrolling the edge of the forest to make sure none of the monsters in the forest attack the town.
It’s been two months since then and not only have I fought lots of other beasts that wanted to leave the forest but I also became more in tune with my new body and I’m still trying to figure how I came to this world. I’ve made plenty of makeshift weapons to go with the normal dagger I took from the Adventurer’s pack. Mostly daggers and spears but I do have a couple of axes. Each weapon is hanging off a long vine rope I made and hung on the wall in its ‘sheath’ with the ‘vest’ I’d made out of vines to help me carry them.
As for what monsters I’ve fought there have been a lot more manticores, a few chimeras, and a couple of some kind of stone crocodile… or was it an alligator? Weird little part chicken part reptile things that turned a manticore to stone, ever since I saw that I’ve started ambushing them in their sleep as if they were Medusa but I’ve had to fight a few of them with my eyes closed on a few occasions and last but not least a centaur like monster with the upper body of a praying mantis and the legs/body of a giant spider. That last one took almost all day to kill, but with each successful hunt I gain new trophies.
From the manticores and chimeras I gain pelts, claws, teeth, stingers, and snake scales. Skinning the stone gators was much more difficult but after almost breaking my dagger, I found that making a dagger from their teeth makes the job much easier. From the mantistaur as I’ve been calling it I got two short-sword size serrated blades, the mandibles and I estimate about thirty feet worth of spider silk which I harvested from the webs the beast shot at me, but while I now have lots of useful materials I don’t really have way to work with them.
One day I while I was relaxing and using some clean water I was storing on one of the MANY large basins in the castle and a rag I found in the adventurers pack to clean my latest injuries in my room, I heard voices on the other side of the door. “You see? There are clear signs that someone’s been here but I don’t know who it could be, but I do know from the claw marks is that it’s not a Pony.”
“Come on Twilight, who in their right mind would want to live out here? It’s probably just a Timber Wolf or something.”
“A’h don’t know Dash. There was that grave outside.”
“There’s no way that can be a grave Applejack. I’m telling ya, part of the castle broke off and that’s how it landed.”
“I’m afraid I have to agree with Twilight and Applejack darling. It’s highly unlikely that a large stone just HAPPENED to fall in just the right position look like a gravestone. What do you think Pinkie?”
“I’m not sure Rarity. While I’m hoping it’s not a grave, I’ve got the strangest feeling that it is.”
“Um… shouldn’t we knock? I mean what if someone’s in there?”
“Oh come on Fluttershy! Who on Equess would be living here?”
As this conversation was going on I walked over and slowly opened the door saying. “Can you please keep it down? I think your augment is going to raise the dead soon.”
Only to have five women scream in fear while the sixth yelled. “What on Equess are you wearing?!” When I saw the six women I was thankful for both my fur and scales since they hid the blush which flared to life. The woman who was more worried about my outfit wore a beautifully made silver blouse and royal purple dress that matched well with her ivory skin and purple hair that fit well on her model like figure and deep blue eyes. On her left is a woman with soft yellow skin, pink hair, sea green eyes, and is wearing a heavy dark green sweater that did little to hid her generous… assets and light blue pants. Next to her is a slightly pudgy woman who also had sea blue eyes who has bright pink skin and bubble gum pink hair that looked like cotton candy. She’s wearing a powder blue short sleeved shirt and camo patterned khaki jeans.
One of the women had windswept rainbow hair, sky blue skin, a pair of deep violet eyes and is dressed in a white tank top over a dark blue sports bra and black yoga pants that fit perfectly on her lean athletic body. Next to her is a woman with orange skin, straw yellow hair, a cowboy hat, emerald green eyes, a red button down shirt, blue jeans, muscular arms and her bust while big was nowhere as large as her friend in the sweater. The last woman has dark purple hair with a dark pink stripe, a moderate sized bust and is wearing a light blue T-shirt and black sweat pants.
I blinked confused as to why what I was wearing was more important to my appearance to the woman in the blouse as I covered my ears and yelled. “Before we talk can you please do something about your friends? They’re giving me a headache.” Once the screaming had stopped and the women had calmed down I coughed into my arm a few times as I tried to focus my thoughts then pointed to the woman in the silver blouse and said. “First, thank you for not screaming in fear about how I look and second, I don’t really have many options for cloths since I’ve been living in this forest for the last two months.”
“Why would you want to live in this forest?” The woman with the cotton candy hair asked after she quickly regained her composure.
I responded with a blank look and said. “Considering how most of you reacted should be reason enough.” (Keep you’ll cool man. This is the first chance to talk to anyone in two months, just ignore the fact that they’ll all attractive and you’ll be fine.)
The five women blushed in embarrassment before the woman in the T-shirt asked. “So what have you been doing while you’ve lived here?”
“Patrolling the forest’s border and killing monsters that have gotten too close to it for my liking, but may I know your names?” I replied doing my best to keep my voice steady.
“My name is Rarity darling.” The woman in silver blouse said.
Right Rarity introduced herself my vision was obscured by the color pink and two large blue eyes. “HI-I’M-PINKIE-PIE!-DO-YOU-LIKE-PARTIES?-WHAT-KIND-OF-PARTIES?-HOW-DID-YOU-GET-HERE?-WHAT’S-WITH-THE-HORNS?-CAN-YOU-mmppphhhh.” Thankfully the woman with the cowboy hat pulled Miss Sugar Rush away. But how did she say all that in one breath, and for that matter what the heck did she even say?!
“Can I get a translation? I couldn’t understand her with how fast she said that.” I asked feeling way out of my depths.
“Sorry about her. Pinkie Pie here can get a bit excited when she meets new people. I’m Applejack by the way.” Seriously? These names are getting ridicules.
“How do we know we can trust you? Fall all we know you could waiting for the right moment to attack us.” *Sigh* I should have expected this.
“Don’t be rude Rainbow. He has been very polite so far.” Rarity scolded.
“Fiiiine. I’m Rainbow Dash. Fastest flyer in Equestria!” Rainbow Dash huh? Probably shouldn’t make a joke about her hair then, but how on earth does she fly? Is she a pilot or something?
Looking at the woman in the sweater as she did was squeak and hid behind her friends. “Please don’t be mad at Fluttershy, it’s not easy for her to meet new Ponies.” The woman in the T-shirt said before extending a hand, but why did she say ‘Ponies’ instead of ‘People’? “I’m Twilight Sparkle, but I’m curious about something. I’ve never seen or heard of someone like you so… ummm. Can we ask you a few questions?” My god, what’s with these people and having puns for names? What’s next? A city name with the word ‘canter’ in it?
“Don’t worry about it. Come on in. we might as well be comfortable while we talk and I’d shake your hand but...” I said as I held up one of my claws.
“Aren’t you going to tell us your name?” Applejack asked.
“Names mean nothing to one who is alone.” I replied. When everyone was in the room I heard a gasp from Twilight as she examined the piles of hides I collected.
“Manticores, Chimeras…are those two Cragadile hides? How did you kill them? I thought it was impossible without magic because of how its hide made it to resilient to normal weapons.”
“Took some nearby vines, used them as a rope and choked em. As for how I skinned the first one, I took one of its teeth and turn it into a dagger, and let me tell you. That beast put up one hell of a fight, but it sucked that I had to fight both of them the same day. Luckily I had the dagger so the second one went was a much easier fight.” I replied pointing at the Cragadile Daggle thinking back to when I fought the beasts.
Everyone stared at the hide in awe as Twilight said. “I can’t believe no one’s thought of doing that. It’s so simple, and to figure out how to remove the hide as well….”
“What are those from?” Rainbow asked as she pointed at the mantistaur’s blades and mandibles.
“Those came from what I call a ‘Mantistaur’ since it has the upper body of a praying mantis but its lower body was that of a giant spider. I even managed to get some spider silk from it.” I said as I sat on the ground.
“How?” Rarity asked.
“Whenever I got behind it, the beast shot webs at me. It took almost the entire day to take that beast down and collect all the parts.” I replied.
“What else do you have?” Applejack asked.
Pointing at the urns on the desks shelves I said. “Those contain the teeth and claws of the manticores and chimeras, and yes I did sort before putting them in the urns.” Then I pointed to a couple urns on the floor next to the desk. “Those contain the scales from the tails of the chimeras and some from these weird little reptiles with the heads of chickens.”
“You’ve fought cockatrices and lived?! HOW! Even the Royal Monster Hunters tend to lose members when fighting those things!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Ah so they’re called cockatrices, anyways the first time I saw one was when it turned a manticore to stone. After that I fallowed it back to its nest, waited till it was asleep and killed it and its two nest mates. Since then I’ve had to fight them with my eyes closed while they’re awake. Luckily I’ve only had to do that twice. But enough about my trophies didn’t you have other questions for me? I believe the first one you wanted to ask was what I am.” I asked.
“Correct.” Twilight replied.
“Well, I don’t know the ‘official’ name for my species so I’ve been calling what I am a Lycan-Scale.” I replied.
“What’s that?” Pinkie asked.
“Who here knows of lycanthropy? You know werewolves?” I asked.
“Who doesn’t know of werewolves? They ARE one of the most famous monsters after all but do they have to do with this?” Pinkie replied while Rainbow's scowl deepened.
“I’ve got the body of a werewolf but I also have some draconic features. My horns and eyes for example.” As I spoke I held out my uninjured arm. “And if you look past the fur you’ll see I also have scales.”
Twilight immediately got up from where she was sitting on the bed and began to examine my arm. “Incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. Are there more of your kind and why don’t you know the ‘official’ name?”
“… As far as I know I’m one of a kind and just as I haven’t always lived in this forest and I haven’t always looked like this.” I said in an emotionless voice as I pulled my arm back.
“Oh…” Twilight said as she returned to her seat. The look on everyone’s face told me that they weren’t sure how to respond to that.
“Do you eat gems?” Rarity finally asked.
“Why would I eat gems? For that matter why are you even asking that?” I asked surprised at the question.
“Well most dragons eat gems and you said you have some draconic features. Plus I was curious just how similar you are to a dragon.” Rarity replied.
“Dragons eat gems here? Weird but not the strangest thing I’ve encountered within the past two months, to answer your question I haven’t really had to chance to own any gems considering I live in a forest. So I’ve never been tempted to try.” I answer then much to my surprise Fluttershy spoke up.
“Ummm. Where did you get that pack?” Fluttershy asked.
“When I arrived in this forest I stumbled across a manticore standing over a dead adventure. That manticore turned into my first kill and my first trophy. After the fight I put on the pack, slung the adventure over my shoulder and dragged the manticores corpse until I found this castle. After that I removed the adventures armor and buried him. So to answer the question from the conversation I overheard, that is a grave outside.”
“Did you take anything from it?” Rarity asked.
“Only the food, a dagger and a few rags. The dagger I’ve been using to skin most of the beasts I killed and the rags have been used to clean any injury I get. Speaking of which I should probably finish cleaning my latest wounds.” I said as I got to my feet, grabbed the rags and the basin of clean water before returning to my spot on the floor.
“What did the adventurer look like?” Fluttershy asked.
“He had light green skin and sandy blond hair. I can’t tell you any more then that because the manticore really messed up his face.” I replied.
“Did you see how his hair was styled?” Fluttershy asked.
“Why does that matter?” I inquired.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Just tell her already!”
“After I took off his helmet I saw it was blond and tied in a bun with long strands poking out of it. Why do you ask?”
Fluttershy didn’t answer and rushed to the pack. After a few moments of searching she pulled out a silver broach with a pink butterfly on it and broke into tears. Confused I looked at the others. “Did she know him?”
“He was her brother Zypher Breeze.” Rainbow said as she tried to comfort Fluttershy.
Surprised, I looked at Fluttershy. “I know it might not mean much but I’m sorry for your lost. I doubt he was the kind of guy who should have died like that.” After that everyone was quiet as we let Fluttershy cry.
After Fluttershy calmed down Twilight asked. “So what do you plan to do now?”
“Same as before, kill monsters that get to close to the forests edge. Why?”
“Well when we get to Ponyville I was going to send my mentor Princess Celestia a letter telling her about you.” Twilight replied.
“Now hold on Sugarcube. Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean I know Celestia and Luna will take the time to get to know him before rushing to avoid jumping to any conclusions, but what about your brother or the other guards? Heck some of the more… enthusiastic Monster Hunters might try hunting him down.” Applejack said.
“That is true…” Twilight sighed before turning to me. “I know I’m changing topics but what did you mean by you didn’t always look like this?”
Sighing I put down the rag. “Two months ago I was Human. Just another face in the crowd with a seven-to-seven job. One day I went to bed like any other day, and when I wake up I’m like this and I’ve been living in this forest ever since.” As I spoke Rainbow continued to glare at me. I wonder if she’s just in a bad mood or something. Doing my best to ignore Rainbow’s glare I got to my feet. “Well as nice as this chats been, it’s time for me to go back to my patrol.”
“Shouldn’t you let your wounds heal a little more?” Fluttershy asked.
“I would, but I can’t.” I replied as I made my way to the door while the others also got to their feet. “In all the time I’ve been here I haven’t seen anyone else fighting the monsters of this forest so I feel like it’s my responsibility to protect your home. Besides somethings changed in the two months. The beasts are getting more active and more aggressive as they move towards the forest edge.”
“Really now? How can you tell?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow and a disbelieving tone in her voice.
I looked closed my eyes and took a deep breath as memories of my childhood filled my head. “My Father and Grandmother used to take me hunting when I was a kid, he taught me almost everything they knew before they passed on. How else do you think I knew how to survive in this forest for all this time?”
“Dumb luck?” Rainbow guessed
“That too.” I agreed before turning to Twilight. “Go ahead and send that letter but let your Princesses know that if any of her guards attack for no reason I am going to defend myself.”