Reborn

by Pensive


Chapter 1 - I'll Protect You (R)

Marks was having one of the worst headaches he had ever had.

For a second, Mark thought it was going away, but it came back. 'Everything hurts. Now wha- STARLA!'

Mark proceeded to get up, only to fall down again.

This time, he slowly got up, head still spinning. He was doing fine until he noticed something. 'Oh god what's wrong with my body. I was, a horse... I-'

"Mark?"

Turning around a towards his sister's voice he saw... another horse. Pony 'But... this horse looks like it could have been... Starla... It is Starla.;'

"S-Starla...?" Mark shakily said, "is that..."

"Mark..."

Mark started to tear up as he went up and hugged, well tried to hug her. Luckily for Mark, she was next to him.

"I-I t-thought you got hurt," Mark tried to saw, tears coming like a waterfall, "I heard an explosion... a-and..."

Mark felt her tears as she cried as well.

"Y-You idiot," Starla hugged back, "don't scare me like that."

Time felt like an eternity. All Mark could do was hug tighter as both of them cried. Moments later when there were calm, Star began to ask a question.

"M-mark...?" Starla said, "w-what h-happened??"

Mark only looked at himself and Star... 'She is a pony if I remember from an old book I had about equine anatomy as a baby... she had a baby pink, or extremely light shade of red coat(plus a hint of white) with a more red-ish mane that had a strip in it. Her tail had the same colors. What surprised me the most is... she had wings... and a horn.'

A check to himself, Mark found he had the same, only I had a very light brown coat, with a more normal brown mane and tail. The noticeable parts were the wing and horn as well.

"I...I don't know..." said Mark, now looking around, "I don't even know where we are."

They were in some kind of forest. The trees seeming bigger than a normal tree. That wasn't the worst part. It was late. As in the sun was going down and barely able to see it over the trees. Looking at the situation, Mark couldn't help but be a bit negative inside. 'And I don't think... with what's available, or in this case wasn't, we wouldn't even be able to pick up what we need to make a shelter.'

Looking at his sister, seeing her shaking Mark gave her another hug.

"Don't worry, Star," Mark said trying to comfort her, using her nickname, "I'll protect you."

She only nodded and hugged back. Still, they had to find shelter soon. Luckily there was a nearby cave.

"Star," Mark softly whispered to her, "there's a nearby cave. We can rest there til morning."

"ok..."

As they got up and stumbledwalked to the cave, it became easier to get used to their new... bodies. By the time we walked the distance, they were a little more accustomed to walking. Though not much. As they got to the cave it was... much larger than he originally had thought. 'It would have to do.' They went in deep to be shielded from the cold but not deep enough to be in the dark.

After a bit, they curled up together for warmth and went to sleep.


"What is this I see, feathery ponies with no place to be?" A voice in the dark said, "Perhaps I should take them, les' something dangerous zaps them."


"Mark."

'Go away, my everything still hurts.'

"Mark."

...

"Mark!"

"Oof," Mark's world of pain increased.

"Finally what took you so long?", said Star in a hushed whisper, "quickly get up."

Her tone already had Mark up despite the pain. He noticed the problem the second his eyes were open. They weren't at the cave. They were in a hut. More specificity on a large bed. In a hut that was larger than what should be... 'Don't tell me that we're smaller than we should be. That would make things harder if everything was oversized.'

"What happened?" He asked knowing she probably wouldn't know else she would have woke me up before.

"Don't know. I woke up on that other bed,"

As Mark looked at the hut and the room they were in, He saw the door, which was large for our size as well, and the popout bed that was in the wall which his sister was on before she woke up.

"Do you think the one that brought us here has harmful intentions?"

"I don't think so," she replied, "I don't think they would leave in beds if they were bad..."

'Ok, this situation doesn't seem good so far. We could try to escape but the one who lives here could be a friend. There could be hundreds of possibilities damnit! Can't really do much but go out, I doubt we could escape if they are hostile.'

One Sigh Later

"Well, look like we only have one option," Mark said looking at the door.

As they walked to the door, Mark managed to get it open by using his forelegs to hop on the door and use his mouth to pull the handle down.

The door slowly pushed open and what we saw was, a room with a pot in the middle that was boiling hot. This room looks like it'd be your typical witch room in fiction. Pots and bottles hanging every day and a strange cauldron in the middle.

There was a chair next to the cauldron so I was able to see a thick bubbling liquid inside. Mark had gotten close on top a chair. Seeing a bowl near it he tried to reach out for it.

Creeking

Fear

Fear is the reaction Mark felt when he heard a door creaking open. This caused him to fall off the chair. Though he landed on his hooves

"And who are you?" said an ominous voice, "to disturb my brew?"

Mark quickly got up protectively got in front of his sister and saw ..a 'a zebra?! I stared for a moment before gaining my sense back.'

"Who are you?!" Mark half yelled said trying to keep the fear out of his voice. 'Which if I do say so myself was doing quite well.'

Unfortunately, his response was returned in kind with the zebra glaring at Mark, his mental defenses holding up. Well, it was until she started speaking again.

"I take you from danger, and you are ungrateful?" she said, rhyming, "even for a stranger, you should at least be grateful."

Mark felt like his heart just dropped and he felt like a child caught stealing cookies. 'I couldn't say anything because... there was nothing I could say to that. What was I supposed to say?'

"I-I.. um.." Mark's pathetic response died into a whimper as I looked to the ground.

I couldn't think of anything to do as the situation turned awkward...

"Well?"

...

"Umm, s-sorry about my, brother," said the voice of his sister stepping out a little from behind me with her head lowered, "he's just a little... worried."

This just caused the zebra to look at his sister. At least I didn't fell a glare on me anymore... This was getting awkward and I was a bit shameful I just jumped straight to conclusions...

"Foal or not, get some rest," said the zebra as she points back to the room we came from, "less' I make a bowl of pony soup out of you."

This caused us to gulp. We nodded and wobbly walked back to the room. We both just relaxed down on one of the beds together and waited in silence. This was just awkward now. It felt like she was treating us as misbehaving children! And I really don't know how to feel about that. Scratch that It's slightly infuriating.

The moment only grows longer as they just relaxed with nothing to do. Mark was just thinking about what happened while his sister was probably thinking about something too. Neither of us felt like talking with fear the zebra would come back.

A few minutes later the zebra came back, still glaring at Mark... 'I don't even need to see the glare to know it's there...' He felt his ears fold back and he whimpered slightly. She came in with two bowls on her back. She then puts the bowls of... glowing green...sigh... liquid.

"A brew, to renew your strength."

"Thank you." his sister replied quietly. 

The zebra than looked at Mark.

...

"At least the filly in my care has the decency to easily thank me."

"s-sorry..." came Mark's pitiful reply, the moment getting even more awkward.

He didn't have to look to feel the glare melting through him. Then as if all tension in the room just disappeared she spoke almost a little cheery in her voice.

"Eat up," she said with a smile, "less I have nightmares of dead foals."

She was just walking out as if nothing happened... The sound of giggling Mark could hear quite clearly to his left as his sister looked at his bewildered face. Well, at least his sister isn't worrying anymore.

Sigh

"Well, guess we should eat this..." I'm having a hard time calling this thing something edible, "brew..."

With one spoon full Mark and his sister dived right in... only to cough it right out. 'I swear, I'd rather get another four shots in a five-minute time frame than eat this garbage.'