Darkness. All around me was Darkness. There was nothing else. No light. No sound. Just a black and empty void. Before finding myself in this void I had gone to sleep and awoke to find myself in this never-ending darkness. I found that I couldn't move at all. I tried and tried but nothing came of it, as I started to panic a voice called out to me from the darkness.
"Fear not little one. You are in no danger." the voice said booming all around me.
"Who are you? Where am I?!" I shouted into the void near the point of hyperventilation as panic began to grip at my soul.
"This is the void between life and death. You passed away in your sleep." the voice answered it seemingly coming from all around me. My heart skipped a beat at hearing that. Dead? No... there’s no way I could be dead. The doctors said I had a year at least! This… This had to be some type of dream cooked up by my chemo-addled mind. Well, it’s one hell of a dream. I'd give it that or would it be a nightmare? Doesn’t matter now anyway since this is a dream I might as well play along I might as well see where this rabbit hole goes.
"Why am I here then? Shouldn’t I be in heaven or hell instead?" I questioned into the void skeptically.
"You have been given a chance to live another life. Do you wish to accept this gift or do you want to move on into the afterlife?" the voice boomed from the void.
I thought for a while. If I chose to move on then I'd find out what heaven or hell was like, but I was also curious about what reincarnation was like. Or something else entirely could happen this was a dream after all. Candyland could be right around the corner.
"I wish to have another life," I answered into the abyss. And the abyss answered . Not even a second after I gave my answer the world went white as I blacked out. Not knowing what was about to be in store for me.
It was a peaceful night in Equestria. The moon was high in the sky as the stars sparkled in their many patterns. Princess Luna had truly outdone herself tonight as the very night sky looked as if it were to be sitting in an art exhibition instead. Only a few ponies noticed this however as almost everypony was asleep. The few that weren’t were assigned to the night shift or worked as security guards as well as the Princess of the night herself. She was looking around the dream realm for any disturbances when suddenly she was thrown out of her trance by an earsplitting bang reverberating all throughout Equestria.
The cause of this sound, despite the distance, created an earthquake that could be felt all the way to Canterlot, possibly even Griffonstone with the amount of energy it must have contained. The earthquake was accompanied by a giant pillar of crimson red light that stood high in the sky. It was as if a star had suddenly appeared in the night sky. Its light illuminated Equestria in a deep crimson glow. But just as quickly as it appeared the light became smaller and smaller until it vanished and the tremors stopped as if they had never happened to begin with.
"What in my sister's name is going on?!" Luna said in shock as she began to hear the sound of the panicking populous below her.
My eyes slowly fluttered open as I found myself lying on the ground in the middle of a forest. It was night but I could still see clearly as the forest was illuminated by the full moon in the sky. When I tried to stand up and get my bearings I immediately fell down again hurting myself in the process. ‘Wait... pain?’ I thought in confusion. This was supposed to be a dream! It’s impossible to feel pain in a dream. Panic once again gripped at my soul.
‘This isn’t a dream’ I thought grimly. ‘That means everything that voice said is true... Oh god… I really did die!’ I scream mentally, panicking. I could feel myself begin to hyperventilate as the facts began to set in. I really did die and was reincarnated into some forest. I needed to calm down. I am in a forest with no immediate civilization around. If I kept panicking nothing would get done and I really didn’t want to see how many reincarnations I got to work with. I slowly began to get my breathing back under control and began to calm down. I could deal with it later right now I needed to see what I was working with. As something definitely felt wrong.
When I lifted my head again I noticed that I was no longer human, but a horse of some kind. As if dying and being reincarnated wasn’t enough I had to be reincarnated as a horse...thing. I had dark red fur with a few white spots here and there, a long frazzled brown mane and tail, dragon-like wings and a tube mark of some kind on my flank. I noticed a pond not far away and forced myself up on all four hooves. It wasn't easy and I tripped and fell about five times before I could get a look at my reflection in the water. When I looked into the pond I saw that my eyes had slit pupils with fiery yellow iris', I had long sharp teeth even though I was some kind of horse and I had a long orange horn sticking out from my forehead. I looked like a monster out of some children’s show.
"Well, this is not what I expected reincarnation to be like," I said in a deep booming voice. My old voice was notoriously known for having a high pitch and now I sounded like freaking Batman!
Not long after I said that I heard sounds coming from the bushes behind me. When I turned around I came face to face with a lion and scorpion hybrid-like creature that was staring angrily at me. Why God why did you have to do this to me?
"U-um....Nice Lion?" I said nervously, beginning to back up as best I could. It didn’t go very well as I tripped backwards and fell onto my flank.
The Lion-Scorpion didn’t take this too well and answered by roaring at me and for some reason, a form of instinct took over and I roared back with all my might.
The roar I let out was extremely loud and sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard causing my own ears to instinctively flatten against my head, but it was effective in catching the creature in front of me off guard. Before I could think about what just happened my horn began to glow and my mouth opened as a pink beam shot out of it and hit the Lion-Scorpion point-blank in the chest. I fired several times and when I stopped the creature was nothing but a pile of bones. I was shocked and felt like I wanted to throw up, but my body wouldn't let it happen. I decided to just look away and walk the opposite direction in shock at what I had just done. I had just killed something, sure it was in self-defense but it still felt horrible now that the adrenaline rush had worn off.
After walking for what felt like days I heard three small voices scream in fear. I wasn't sure if I should jump in or not, but the voices sounded like children and that meant danger. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave those children in danger if I could help it. I started to run in that direction the best that I could as I almost tripped over several times. But with those children lives on the line tripping wasn’t an option if I wanted to get there in time. After a few minutes of running and tripping, I found the source of the voices. Three small ponies were being chased by a wolf that looked like it was made of branches and leaves. The ponies were all different, one had wings with orange feathers in contrast to my red bat-like ones, the second and a small white horn and the third one didn’t have either. Normally I would've ran away as fast as possible when faced with danger, but with those children's lives in the balance, my impulse took over and I jumped out from my hiding spot and intercepted the wolf. I couldn’t care less if they weren’t human, they were still children and they wouldn’t be left to die when I could do something to stop it. The wolf growled at me and got into a pouncing position, and I answered by roaring at the top of my lungs. The sound alone caused the wolf to recoil slightly, but it didn't back down as it prepared to attack again. My horn began glowing once again.
'Oh God no. Not again!' I thought as I opened my mouth to once again fire a pink beam that went right through the thing. Incinerating everything it touched. When I closed my mouth once again the wolf had been completely disintegrated. Only ash remained where a fearsome creature once stood.
I looked behind me to check on the three fillies, who were sitting behind me with their jaws hanging wide open and eyes at the size of dinner plates. Were they terrified? Amazed or in shock? I couldn’t tell as they sat there looking up at me.
"Are you three alright?" I asked them in the most friendly voice I could muster hoping to ease their fears. These horses were clearly like me so the fact that they could speak and were sentient wasn’t out of the question.
"That. Was. AWESOME!!!" the winged pony exclaimed in awe.
“Wuh?” I did a double-take. They weren’t scared?
"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!?!" the one with the horn shouted.
"THAT WAS SO COOL!!!" the one without either added.
They continued to shout in excitement and awe asking me questions and introducing themselves as the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’. From what race I was to how I shot that beam from my mouth, their questions were endless and I couldn’t answer a single one of them! One of the questions was about the mark on my flank. Apparently it was called a ‘Cutie mark’. When they finally ran out of breath It was my turn to ask the questions.
"What were you doing out here?" I asked them. Three unattended children in a forest where clearly dangerous creatures lurked, where the hell were their parents!?
"There was a big explosion around here last night and we wanted to check it out." the now-named Scootaloo said.
"YOU wanted to check it out!" the other two named Sweetie Belle and Applebloom said in unison.
I chuckled at that statement as they looked at me again.
"What's your name by the way?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"My name is Destoroyah." Wait what? That wasn't what I meant to say.
"Desto- What now?" Scootaloo asked.
'Okay. Just excuse yourself and say your name. It shouldn't be too hard to say 'James Connor'. Right?
"Destoroyah."
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
I DID NOT MEAN TO SAY THAT! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!? WHY CAN’T I SAY MY OWN NAME?!
"Cooooool." Scootaloo answered.
Fuck it. It’s too late now. I might as well roll with it.
"Anyway now that that’s out of the way, I think you three should head home. From what I've seen this forest isn't a place for fillies like you." I said. Hiding my shock and confusion over the name thing.
"I guess you're right, but can't you come with us?" Sweetie Belle said.
'Well. This day can't get any weirder. Right?' I thought amused.
"Why not? I don't have anywhere to go so-" I wasn't able to finish that sentence as the three fillies somehow climbed up on my back and one of them managed to crawl up on my head. I got the urge to shake them off, but I couldn't pay it any thought as the filly on my head began giving directions.
Remember when I thought that the day couldn't get weirder? I was wrong.
Very wrong.