//------------------------------// // Spring: The Worst Part Is The Tentacles // Story: Earth-Chan in Equestria // by zack black //------------------------------// The screaming didn't last forever, in fact, she really had to try just to keep the initial reaction going. It got boring sitting there, screaming like a lunatic though. So, the little mare switched it up and began to scoot around in a circle, surveying the surroundings, taking time to scream appropriately as she was met with each new color. This all became rather tiresome and eventually Earth-Chan had to give up on the screaming. Which was a shame, the feeling was actually quite exhilarating. Her first thoughts were of familiarity. She knew where she was! The comfort was much needed having experienced the wonders and terrors of sight. But, how'd she get in a field? Was this her field? Was this all her? She took an appendage and rubbed it along the grass, curiously staring as she ruffled the turf, making little brickles of grass pop up. Admittedly, it was messy. But, touching this was surreal. This was her, but not. The appendage told her so. This wasn't her field. Which means... "Nugh!" She finally realized that the appendage wasn't normal. In fact, she had more. Four! Four appendages! A quartet of fuzzy tentacles. This concept was quickly accepted as fun and the mare began giggling as she rubbed the ground frantically, finding the feel of grass pleasant. What a ride! She could keep doing this all day, but there was a sudden desire for change. She didn't want to rub the grass anymore. Something new needed to take it's place. Looking herself over, she recognized blue in her coat. Colors, she knew colors! She was blue as she should be! She felt a little dejected by the lack of green. It left her sad. But short lived, such was her mind as she blazed from one discovery to another. Time eventually passed, as it tends to do and before long, the pony had figured out crawling and basic standing. Everything seemed to fit together the more she thought about it. Movement became obvious, standing on all fours became effortless. Walking.... Walking took a few tries. But for her first few hours of existence, the pony blew through her infancy stages and triumphantly took her first step. Then another. And several more. Away she went. It was too easy to evolve her foot work, from brisk walk to steady canter to a heated jog. It was hard to stay running, and she more than stumbled her fair share, but once she got going, the feeling couldn't be stopped. She craved the power of each push she made with her legs. She craved the burn. She craved for a way to turn! She hit the tree rather hard and was floored by a complete and utter stop. She squeaked in surprise as she was rendered nothing more than a pony puddle. She felt a new itch. This one slowly festering. It was also quite familiar. For a long moment, she knew pain. But, this kind of pain seemed fleeting, and before long she drew in more air and was surprised by her immediate replenishing strength. Picking herself up off the ground, she picked up a tentacle and rubbed it across her face. Touching it for the first time. A new discovery! Two even! She'd met a tree! Still touching her face, ogling her own features as she felt her snout, the pony stared happily at the tree as she took in it's structure and color. A forest sprouted behind the single tree, spanning for who knows how long. It was dark and gorgeous, giving her wonderful memories of a time before Urbanization. Well, before the excessive Urbanization. Earth-Chan felt her ears splay back, a terrible feeling wracked her body. She couldn't help but sniffle as some bad memories came back. Sitting back on her rump, careful of not crushing her tail (Past experience), she had a small whimper as she lamented her failure. Of an experiment gone wrong. Of her own foolishness. *"They deserved better..."* The pony merpled out softly, using the only Latin dialect she still knew. The pony perked her ears back up at the sound she made and found it pleasing. To comfort herself, she closed her eyes and let out a long noted vowel, letting the hum leak from her lips into a soothing sound of song. Following no real particular rhythm. She'd forgotten about this language. It'd been so long since she'd used it to communicate with the humans. And sound truly triumphed written text. For a while, nothing but Earth-Chan's off pitched singing filled the air, the tree leaves ruffling as a spring time breeze rolled past the sea of foliage. The pony ended with a soft sigh, her tears subsiding. It felt rather new and relieving to finally get to cry. "Singing isn't really your forte, is it now?" The pony was fairly spooked by the voice and quickly turned her head to the source, eyes opening wide as she was met with... Company! A snake seething goat dragon floated not a foot from her, looking down on her while it laid suspended in mid-air, as if lofting on a soft cushion or chair that wasn't there. The being had a presence that could only be described as pure confusion. From hodge-podge horns to confusing hoof and dragon claw. This creature screamed 'mistake', and for more reasons than one. The creature leaned his head towards Earth-Chan, obviously excited for her reaction. Much to his delight, he was greeted by the typical scoff of disgust he'd grown to love. Albeit, delivered in a rather new way. *"Why are YOU here?"* Earth-Chan practically spat towards the dreconequus. This elicited a devious smile from the creature known only as Discord: Spirit of Chaos (Self anointed ruler of fun). He couldn't get enough of these faces Earth-Chan unknowingly displayed with each second looking at him. It was a riot to watch her switch from expression to expression, fumbling with her features awkwardly before finally getting it right, all subconscious struggles she didn't even know she was facing. "Oh, but I feel like that's MY line~ Somepony isn't in Kansas anymore, is she?" Discord flapped his wings and began to slowly circle his elongated body around the sitting pony's head, playfully slithering around the tree she sat under as if using it for suspension. "Ho ho, no, you've caused a lot of ruckus since the last time we met. So much stir, for such a little, insignificant ball. of. Dirt~" He really knew what to say to push her buttons. It was a pain just to keep from reacting to his obvious bait. She refused to play his game, knowing the satisfaction it'd bring him. She knew how to stay civil! She was a Child of Creation for Universe sake! *"You beat around the bush a lot."* She said with a smirk, mustering past her own aggravation to try and play coy back at him. It worked. Against her. "Oh, quite, shall we get to the point? Yes, lets discuss." With a snap of his tail, the green landscape around them vanished, leaving nothing but void, and a curtain. The curtain drew and Discord stood, looking to put on a lecture, appropriate gown and vintage wig included. Earth-Chan sat in a wooden seat, propped up in a very bipedal manner, giving her a small fit of discomfort. She got over it as Discord began to speak. "You, a body of gravitational mass, broken apart by destruction and fester. Boom, a cataclysmic blast of brilliant measure! Suddenly, The sky is screaming, of pain and abhorrent displeasure We, the celestial few, could hardly deem what was the matter. Me, The one with a clue, followed the distortion to this green field pasture! You, now sporting a body anew, Need to start explaining a lot the heck faster!" The Dreconequus empathized his last verse with a slap of a ruler to a chalk board, demanding her full attention. The pony had not been expecting a song. It was intimidating to follow up and left her on the spot. She could hardly compete with such an angry number and looked away in embarrassment. *"I... I don't know. Things, were void. I-I couldn't sense anything."* It wasn't hard to stress the point that she had no recollection. She had nothing to recall. She was as lost as he was, if not as musical. Discord, for all his sudden seriousness, knew a genuine plee when he heard one. At least, he liked to think. Unsatisfied with her answer, but understanding all the same, he snapped his tail and returned them to the edge of the forest they'd been previously. It jarred Earth-Chan to switch scenery so abruptly and she had to wiggle her head and mane to get the tingles out of her brain. "Well, poo. I'll admit my only lead was you, so I'm at a loss of what to do..." He coughed into his talon, clearing this throat of all the rhymes before letting out a sigh. "Look, this is where we're at. You're a pony. You shouldn't be a pony, and you definitely shouldn't be on the surface of another planet. I've got shivers running down my spine at just talking about the anomaly of that thought process!" The Drake hybrid scoffed and threw his arms in the air. Literally. Catching them in their sockets as they fell back down. "This is more chaos then I ever had planned for this world. And it's not even the fun kind!" Earth-Chan barely soaked up what he was saying, but the underlining tone was clear. *"You're scared?"* That struck a cord with Discord, and he gave a frown. He looked her over and shook his head. "Ha, me? The chaos overlord? Hardly~" Suddenly, the Draconequus appeared beside her. "But!" It scared the ever loving fur off her own coat, causing her fluff to stand on end as she quickly back pedaled away from the creature. Her rump pushed against the tree, leaving her pinned with fright before she slowly began to hone in on those glowing red and yellow eyes. "YOU should be." He leered closer, keeping her fixed with a dark glare. "Because if this comes to bite us all in the flank, if it starts to negatively affect this world, if your presence gets her hurt. I will NOT hesitate. You will know True Chaos. Do I make myself clear?" He raised his brow inquisitively, expecting his answer right then and there. Earth-Chan could do nothing but nod softly, her little body starting to shiver like a leaf. This was not how she thought this conversation would go. If you could even call it that! She felt interrogated, she felt antagonized, she felt berated! And, she couldn't help but understand completely. She empathized with his fear. It made sense, and for what she knew of the Drake, it was rather odd to have him be so protective of anyone other than himself. Their usual interactions back when she was in orbit were very malicious, if not light-hearted at best. For all his prodding, all his mischief and deceit, the pony assumed he had grown a heart. Somewhere in there. It left her feeling shamed at having caused such a stir from him of all beings. This was her fault some how. She should make it better, but what were her options? Where did she even start? Those questions brought up memories. The same questions she'd asked when her first try at contacting the humans had failed. She'd failed again. She was good at it. With a look of dejection, the blue earth pony hung her head and whimpered, her eyes closing in a sense of defeat. *"We're clear... I will do my best to blend in with this world. Maybe that's the key to this... 'Stir'."* She offered, trying to regain a sense of reassurance. *"Maybe I can make it better?"* She didn't promise a fix, she had no intention of trying. This was beyond her. If the Spirit of Chaos was at a loss, then where did that even put her? The Spirit kept watching her for the longest time, reading her. As new to the experience as she was, it left her feeling awfully self conscious having him stare at her. With a hushed whine, the pony began to squirm and fidget wishing to escape this silence. She'd spent well over four billion years in muted silence, and she could not even begin to compare it to the unease she felt now. Why must he keep eye contact?! What was he trying to accomplish?! Discord smiled at her after a while. That snake! Had he just been playing her? Her suspicions were proven as he smirked himself into a chuckle, before finally relaxing into a sharp laugh at her expense. "Ahaha, yes, lets hope you can... Hmmm, though blending in is going to be a challenge. You don't exactly scream the word normal." Earth-Chan found herself taking offense to that, she looked herself over and gawfed. *"Ah, wha, there's nothing wrong with me!"* In actuality, she had no basis for that statement. Normal for her was being a 3,959 mile wide ball of gravity compressed rock. It suddenly dawned on her that the word pony had come up quite a few times. Was she really a horse? Were those tentacles actually hooves? Questions for later. "Nothing wrong with you? Nothing Wrong With You?! Nothing Wrong With YOU?!!" The drake blinked before giving a slight nod. "You're actually kind of right, you're not the hardest mare on the eyes. Plus, that color screams adorable." He gave a Cheshire smile as he pat her lightly on the head, her blush was slow to catch up, her embarrassment only now fitting uncomfortably on her face. "No ho, the problem is that tongue of yours, or per say, the talk that comes from it. You sound like the definition of alien." He snickered at the concept of her being an 'other worldly being'. "Here, I'll fix you're grammar up if you'll do me one favor." Earth-Chan lost her blush in place of pure curiosity, she tilted her head at him and gave him a big stare with those round, bright eyes. He suppressed the urge to break his cool and start petting her. No instead he wafted his tail up and in front of her face, almost completely obscuring her vision. "Blink." He snapped his tail, causing her almost immediately to blink as instructed. To her surprise, the spirit was gone, nothing had changed. As far as she was concerned. It was getting dark. And in the distance, she saw the color of lantern light highlighting the top of the hill. There was a village. She remembered the concept of those. Kinda. It meant people.... err ponies? Horses? Wow, this was hard to process, even for a new born such as herself. Shifting away from the tree, she began to canter out into the field of grass, following the light to her destination. Wherever that meant.