//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Deal of a Lifetime // by Killercraft //------------------------------// I awoke to my head throbbing like a bullet train passed through it. I sat up steadily, my headache not helping me in the slightest. As I opened up my eyes I saw something that was not supposed to be there. A loading screen. This is new I thought as I blinked and rubbed my eyes to try to get the screen. Unable to get rid of the screen, I saw that the loading bar was at ninety-nine percent, once it reached one hundred everything went black. "Ooook. That happened." I said into the darkness. The words 'choose your species' appeared a few feet away from me as an outline of a human was below the words with an arrow on each side as if to scroll through them. I hesitantly poked an arrow and a new form appeared where the human was, but instead was a four foot tall unicorn in its place. I pressed the same arrow and another pony appeared, this time a pegasus. The next few species I flipped through where the same species, but one was a regular pony, a pony with both a horn and wings, a zebra, a bug...pony.....thing, a griffon, a minotaur, and what looked like a hippogriff before rolling back to human. Not wanting to learn to walk again, I picked human and the world around me went black. "Hello Darkness my old friend~" I sung as a customizer appeared where the species selection was at. I'll save you the details, I chose a six foot tall male with blue eyes, black hair and I replaced my original beer belly with rock hard, six pack abs. With my character created a warning screen popped up in front of me saying, 'This will be your default form for a human, are you sure you want to continue?' yes and no buttons were on the bottom of the warning. Pressing the 'yes' button, the world became black once again. Now this is getting old I thought. Soon after I felt my body go limp and I went unconscious. --------------------- Fluttershy was on her daily walk through the everfree forest. The Pegasus never did go far into the unnatural forest, she just went in far enough to admire the beauty of the light piercing through the canopy of the trees overhead. As the sun began to duck under the tree tops, Fluttershy began to head back to her cottage with all her animal friends. As she followed the path back, she heard growling and voices off the path I wonder what that noise is? Fluttershy asked herself. She began to follow the noise and as she got closer she began to see what looked like a manticore fighting a funny looking ape. It wore clothing and looked like it didnt have any hair on it except on its head. Fluttershy ducked as the manticore threw the ape right at her, the ape flew into a tree a few feet away from her, hitting it, and making the tree snap in half. The cream colored pony rushed to the apes aid, when she got there, she stared in awe and worrieness as the animal picked itself up, looking as if nothing has happened. "I'm gonna turn you into a rug you mangy cat!" yelled the ape, his arms were enveloped by red and black tendrils, turning his front appendages into long blades that looked like it could slice through steel. Fluttershy let out an 'eep' at the creature as it walked towards the manticore who responded with a loud roar. When the ape got close enough the manticore shot its scorpion tail at the ape, the ape rolled away, causing the tail to get stuck into the ground. With a swipe of the apes arm blade, the stinger of the tail was gone and a pained roar erupted from the manticore. The ape jumped onto the back of the manticore, wrapped its bladed arms around the manticores throat, and pulled. Blood. Was. Everywhere. Fluttershy couldn't speak. Couldn't move. And for a moment, couldn't breathe. She stared at the headless body of the manticore, soon she saw the head in the hands of the ape. Black and red tendrils covered both the ape and the rest of the manticore forming into a formless mass, a second later, only the ape remained. He looked at fluttershy, staring right in her eyes. The yellow pegasus promptly fainted. "Crap." said the ape, as it began to walk towards the unconscious mare. He looked into the sky and saw it was a light blue color. "Crap." he said again, he looked back at the pony and sighed. "Alright, let's get you to camp." he picked up the unconscious pony and headed toward his camp. ------------------ Fluttershy was lulled awake by the sound of crackling fire, she rose from a pile of leaves that acted as a comforter. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves and the world started to come together. Looking around she saw she was in a strange looking area covered in a hard black substance. The area had a fire a few feet away and what looked like a black glistening hammock between two trees, even the ground under her had a black sheen to it, more chitinis than regular ground. She tried to walk around but found that her leg was chained to a tree, the chain looked like the the ground, it was soft yet firm on her leg. Looking around, she found a pony near the fireplace. The pony was jet black with holes in its hooves, gossamer insect wings, curved horn, teal blue eyes, a fin on its back, fangs and was staring right in her eyes. She screamed and backpedaled into the tree she was chained to "Changeling!" She shouted, the Changeling jumped back and let out a screech of its own at the sudden noise. Fluttershy tried to escape by pulling on the chain to get away from the emotion stealing monster, the Changeling rushed towards the pony and put her muzzle through one of the holes in its leg. "Be quiet. Do you want to alert the animals to our location?" The Changeling said, Fluttershy shook her head and it sighed "Look, I'm going to remove my hoof and you are not going to scream. Ok?" She nodded meekly. The changeling removed his hoof from the pony and backed away back towards the fire. Fluttershy was shaking in terror at the presence of the Changeling, knowing that this is not going anywhere the bug pony asked if the pony if she knew any calming techniques. Fluttershy using the breathing technique Twilight taught her, for stressful situations. Once Fluttershy was mostly calm, she decided that she needed to get out of here quick and back to her friends. "W..who...who are you?" she asked the Changeling. "My name is Chitin. What is yours?" Chitin asked. "My name is F...Fluttershy." She said. "I was wondering, h...how did you get here? If you don't mind me asking." "I was exiled from my hive and sent here to die. What about you? How did you get here?" Fluttershy shivered. "I was walking my usual path through the Everfree, then I heard some noise and it led me to...to." she gulped at the memory "I saw an ape, if it even is an ape, fight a manticore and ...and kill it. There was so much blood." She mumbled the last part. The Changeling shook his head. "I told that man to lead the animals farther into the forest." Chitin said. Fluttershy looked at the Changeling in shock. "It kills innocent animals on purpose!?" Fluttershy yelled in disbelief. "No, he's a bounty hunter. You said it was a manticore right. Well, that manticore killed like, ten ponies, and needed to be put down." "How do you know that?" "I asked" Was his reply. Before any more questions could be asked a set of hoofsteps could be heard clicking against the black substance. Out of trees came a gray stallion wearing leather armor, two swords on his back, yellow cat-like eyes, shoulder length white mane and tail and a distinctive scar on his eye. The changeling waved at the pony. "Hey James, how was the hunt?" he asked. The pony grunted an answer then morphed into the ape she saw previously. "Good. Almost got cut off from a deal, again. So that was fun." Said James as he walked towards the yellow pegasus who shied away from him with every step. James could hear her heartbeat as he got right in front of Fluttershy, he put out a hand "My name Is James. What is yours?" he asked politely. "f..f...flu..Fluttershy." She stuttered, a grin was plastered on his face. "Well Fluttershy, I'm guessing you have some questions about me?" Fluttershy shakaly nodded. "Well then. Ask." Fluttershy swallowed the lump in her throat. "Who... Who are you?" She asked, fearful of the answer. "Me? I'm going to be your new ruler in a few years that's who I am." Said James triumphantly, letting out a evil laugh as Fluttershy fainted.