//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1- A Doozy of a Wake-Up Call 
// Story: Nebula Stepper: A New Beginning 
// by WanderingDuplighost 
//------------------------------//




A Doozy of a Wake-Up Call




As the pristine sun begins to set on the many hills miles ahead of me, I slowly stand up, my head spinning as I pull it unstuck from a mud puddle. I shake my head, flinging mud around as I try to recognize my surroundings. It seems like i’m deep within a forest, as I'm surrounded by small wildlife and hundreds of trees as far as I can see. Staring ahead doesn't seem to help, as I'm only met by darkness and feral animal calls.

"H-hello?" I call out, immediately noticing my voice becoming somewhat softer than before. I decide to raise my hands to amplify my voice, but quickly yelp and tumble back as I'm meet with two brown hooves. "But.. I... When did...? How is this even- Argh!" I yell out, seeing my once okay body now being short and long. I quickly make my way over to the cleanest puddle of water and look into it, almost fainting at what I see.

Two small brown eyes stare back at me, darting around quickly at the situation at hand. My brown coat almost seems to blend in with my long and jet black mane and tail almost blocking my vision in the darkness, and a strange marking on both sides of my rear being the only colorful thing enough for me to distinguish well. The marking depicts two dark brown horseshoes on a white cloud, similar to the ones overhead me.

As I sit there contemplating on what actions to take next, I overhear multiple feminine voices heading in my direction and, without any further thought, I quickly jump into the nearest bush I can find. As I see six figures lumber over ahead, I silently start wishing that, whatever's in store for me, good or bad, could at least explain what happened, why my body was like this, and how do I could go back to the only place that mattered at the moment: home.

~~~~~

"It's not my fault we're lost in this forest again!" The rainbow-mained pegasus yells, "If anything, its Fluttershy's for wanting to check on that family of ducks near that huge puddle!"

Six mares walked along the forest path, some panting softly from the trip exhaustion, while one in particular seemed to take out her agitation verbally.

A trembling yellow pegasus whispers back "B-but... I hadn't seen Ms. Duck and her children in months now since I last saw them, it would be mean to just ignore them like that.. I'm sorry if I interfered with our mission."

Her mumbling was muted as another mare, a hatted orange one, began hollering back. "Consarnit Dash, stop blaming flutters for the time you wasted trying to race me and the birds round here! I'm plum tired of this trip already, Rarity, Pinkie, how you two holdin' up?"

"I'm superwonderfulicious, thanks for asking AJ!" the cheery pink mare at the far back of the group sings,  bouncing impossibly high as the white mare with a petite and fashionable raincoat around her gasps and begins ranting.

"How are you all okay with this!?" She gawks at her companions  "It certainly is most NOT okay! It's not even raincoat season and here I am wearing the absolute WORST one because of the urgency of this mission. For Lunas sake, I let Sweetie Belle and her friends run the Boutique during this expedition!" She starts to tear up while sing-talking, "I'll most certainly lose valuable customers and lots of bad publicity is going to affect my career and Sweeties never going to become a successful fashionista like me and-"

"That's enough, Girls!” An authoritive yell silences everyone. The 5 turn their heads to face the lavender pony at the front of the group, map and compass tightly grasped in her magic aura, with even more notes hanging out of the satchel at her side. She slowly takes a deep breath before speaking in a more calmed tone, "Sorry about that everypony, I'm just tired from this mission Princess Celestia assigned us. Now, how about we all settle down and get to the reason we're here; It's our duty to go and see what landed around here."

Dash speedily flies next to the leader, putting her hoof around her and giving a weak smile. "We're sorry, Twi, we've been a little on edge too, and while it might be someponies"- she stops momentarily to glance at Applejack, her replying with a scoff - "fault were a bit behind on schedule, I'm sure we'll find whatever weird thing decided to land here."

"Thanks, Rainbow," Twilight smiles back as she turns to face the group. "Now, we're about right where the princess told us a small, strange form dropped and collided last night. It could be dangerous, but it could also be the next big discovery for pony kind!" She squeals before composing herself, "Because of this, I brought along the elements, so I want you girls to be ready for anything."

After preparing, they all nod before waking into a clearing, most of the plants and other scenery being knocked some distance away from presumably the small crater in the center. Rainbow's eyes light up in excitement and fear before shakily turning to a jaw-dropped Twilight, "Whoa... The princess said small? For this kinda explosion?"

Twilight quickly recovers from her shock as she pulls out wads of papers with notes scribble on them, "T-this cant be! The Princess saw what she saw! She even described it as pony-like when she could make it out in the moonli-" She freezes, dropping all of her materials onto the soft soil, unable to move as her pupils became the size of needles, "Unless...".

Pinkie Pie began to tremble as she looked around, "Twitchy tail, itchy mane, left fore hoof trembling..." She finally lets out a loud gasp at she points at a nearby bush, "There's something, somePONY in there!" The whole group freezes as they hear a small whimper come from the bush.