Sunlight streamed through the leaves of nearby trees. One of the stray rays pierced a set of closed eyelids, causing their owner to stir. Slowly a pair of eyes opened revealing the red irises underneath. Cerberus's middle head craned up and blinked away the sleep from his eyes, looking around from his position in the forest.
The few trees that he knocked over last night were still in the same place, but a noise on the wind caught the guard dog's attention. Listening closer, Cerberus heard what sounded like laughter dancing lightly through the wind. Nudging awake the other heads, both of which groggily opened their eyes. The middle head growled lightly to catch the attention of the other two heads and motioned to listen.
After a few more seconds all three heads we listening to the sounds coming from the distance. They looked at each other, silently conversing with one another before Cerberus began getting up, his body creaking and joints popping as he moved.
Once fully standing, Cerberus began making his way towards the trees previously toppled and stepped into the open. All three heads looked right to follow the distant sounds. Sticking close to the trees, he stalked his way toward the sound at a rather casual pace, not worried about what could be making the sounds.
As Cerberus began getting closer he realized how much the noise, that was getting louder by the second, reminded him of his owner, the one he couldn't find. Thinking on it, he started getting angry. Angry at the fact he can't find his owner. Angry at the wolf for stealing his prized bone. Angry at himself for acting so selfishly.
Red began filling the dog's eyes as shouting from the nearby town started irritating him further. Growling loudly, Cerberus picked up speed and begun bounding towards the town. Seeing a gap between some houses, he snarled and jumped, landing roughly in the middle of the town.
Ponies stared at him in shock as he snarled again. One pony in particular—a pink one with a poofy pink mane and tail that was a few shades darker than the rest of her coat—shouted something to the rest of the ponies surrounding Cerberus before screaming.
The many ponies around the 'monster' proceeded to follow her lead, only confusing the dog, whose anger slowly drained out of him at the ridiculousness he was witnessing. Looking around he saw what looked like red chew toys on top of a building and wandered his way over in the panic. Each head went to a different 'toy' and gave them a quick sniff before biting onto their individual one.
Chewing for a few seconds, a sudden urge came to Cerberus. Letting go of the toys, he made his way to another building before turning and lifting one of his hind legs.
Suddenly a shout from his left caught his attention, looking over, he saw a lavender pony with a purple mane and tail, with a pink stripe running through both. Finishing up, Cerberus let his leg fall and watched the pony as they got into a battle stance, the horn on their forehead glowing. Seeing the threat, the guard dog walked up to the pony and ROARED.
Ethan, hearing something off in the distance, snorted awake in his tent and brushed off the leaves that fell onto his face throughout the course of the night. Grimacing as the light from the sun caught his eyes.
Poking his head out of his make-shift tent, the human gazed towards his friend's (even if the centaur won't admit it) tent. He snickered to himself as he saw one of Tirek's claws twitch outside the tent. Clearly he was still asleep, if his snoring didn't give it away, and Ethan didn't feel like dealing with his bitching.
Crawling out of his tent, the resident human stood up and stretched his hands as high up as he could, standing on his toes in the process, and felt his back pop multiple times. Relaxing himself, he turned his head sideways to crack his neck, getting a few satisfying sounds and sweet relief for his troubles. Looking around, Ethan frowned as he noticed Cerberus wasn't anywhere to be found.
'Now where could that mutt have gone off to? String-bean didn't exactly throw the bone that far from the looks of it...' He contemplated to himself on where exactly the giant dog could have gone.
Shrugging to himself, Ethan grabbed a large stick and began twirling it in between his fingers, occasionally arching it in a strike. After getting some practice in and managing to twirl the stick for twenty seconds in one go, one handed, the human heard his stomach give a low growl. Looking at Tirek to make sure the centaur didn't hear, Ethan released a low sigh when he saw he was still asleep.
'Really need to get us some food. I think Tirek can eat meat, but we might have to deal with fruits for the time being till we can get some actual weapons. I don't even know what's edible here... Guess I'll just have to grab anything I find.'
Ethan went towards the campfire and grabbed one of the sticks with a lot of charred wood. Making his way towards the treeline, he looked up towards the sun, seeing it sitting just shy of halfway through the sky. Deciding to come back a little after noon, he marked a tree with an arrow pointing towards camp using the charcoal stick and began his hunt for food.
Several hours later.
Ethan grabbed a few blue berries that looked edible enough and looked at the sun. Seeing it a decent ways past the highest point Ethan decided to call it a day. Adjusting his shirt-bag—just his shirt sleeves tied together and thrown over his neck—he looked at all the fruits inside. There were plenty of what looked to be apples, blueberries, and strawberries.
'Well hopefully some of these are actually edible. I wouldn't wanted to have wasted my time out here.'
Glancing around showed only trees, bushes, and the occasional rabbit or squirrel. Both of which gave the human the creeps with how animated their faces seemed to be as they watched him. One would think they were trying to communicate with the strange creature.
Although looking closer, Ethan could swear he saw one of the rabbits wave a paw at him from a ways away. Choosing to ignore it, the human noticed the trees seemed to thin out to his left. He marked the tree next to him and made his way towards what looked like the edge of the forest.
Ethan stepped out into the open area and took a deep breath enjoying the sun beating down on his skin. After a few moments of standing still a loud howl filled the air and Ethan could feel a slight vibration through the ground. Instead of being scared, he simply smiled to himself and looked to his left expecting to see the big lug that he's grown attached to. Instead he saw an oddly colored pony racing towards him with a floating ball behind her.
Realizing what was racing towards him, Ethan quickly dove back into the treeline and hid in a bush, making a hole in the leaves so he could see what was going on. Several seconds passed, with the shaking of the ground getting more intense as they neared his position before he watched Cerberus and the mystery pony begin running past him. Cerberus though, ground to a halt and sniffed the air around him before looking at the bush Ethan was hiding in.
The pony, realizing Cerberus stopped following the ball, screeched to a halt and called out while shaking the ball in the air. “Cerberus! Ceeerbeeeruuus! Come on, we still have a ways to go before you're back home,” said the pony as she (Ethan hearing the tone of voice assumed the pony was a she) began walking towards the dog.
Said human meanwhile began to slowly panic inside as Cerberus walked right up to the bush and one of his heads peered into the hole he was looking through. Ethan, realizing he was screwed if he didn't get Cerberus to go away, quickly began whispering to the massive dog. “Nonono, please go boy. Now's not the time. Let the pretty pony lead you back home, then I'll follow and immediately let you out, okay?" pleaded Ethan as he pat the head looking at him.
His stomach began forming a knot when he heard the clop of hooves getting louder. Thankfully, Cerberus understood the desperation in his owner's voice and whimpered slightly but backed away and closed the distance to the pony. Who at this point was only a few yards away from the bush.
“Finally! Here come get the ball now,” said the pony, before a sound in the direction Cerberus was facing caught her attention. Ethan on the other hand was screaming internally at himself. The sound in question was the loudest growl his stomach could have made, and at the worst possible time.
“Is anypony there?” asked the pony as she stepped closer to the treeline. Ethan immediately held his breath and prayed to whatever god ruled this world that she wouldn't follow through with her curiosity. After a few seconds of complete silence the pony mumbled under her breath, with Ethan catching what sounded like "don't have time for this”, before turning around to the dog currently chewing on a ball.
Ethan watched as the ball begin levitating in front of Cerberus's heads causing him to try and snag it from the air, but the ball always floated just out of reach at the last second. Soon enough they took off at a fast pace in the direction of Tartarus.
Ethan, knowing he'll have to follow them, quickly reached into his shirt and grabbed some probably-blueberries before devouring them and racing to catch up to the speedy duo.
'Risks be damned. I'm way to hungry for this shit.'
Back at camp
Tirek, who had been up for a while now, tapped his claws against his chin as he thought about where
the human could have gone.
'That fool is probably doing something useful and getting us food. Even perfect beings like myself need sustenance ever now and then... Still, it's pretty boring without him around. He can at least take insults and throw some back.' Tirek thought to himself as he began to poke out the charred sticks from their firepit.
Looking around, the Centaur tried to find something to cure his boredom, with minimal success. Minutes passed and Tirek's mind began to wander while laying in his tent.
'It should only be a few months before I get my powers back fully, but the question is if the human would truly follow my rule. I did promise to follow through with his no killing rule. So maybe he will. Might as well keep him around for a while regardless. He could be useful in the future.'
He tapped his claws together as he sneered. 'Those ponies on the other claw—especially those princesses—are going to be a real problem if they catch me early. Eh, worst comes to worst, I throw the fool at them and make a break for it. Cerberus seems to have taken a liking to him as well, so the mutt might actually have some use.'
Tirek chuckled darkly to himself at the prospect of using the princesses own guard dog against them. Suddenly, Tirek's stomach rumbled deeply causing him to grunt. The centaur shifted his gaze around hoping to catch sight of his fellow escapee.
After a few seconds, he slouched down with a sigh. Standing up, Tirek started wandering towards the treeline to go scavenge for nearby fruits.
Ethan
Ethan panted as he leaned forward to catch his breath. The sky was beginning to turn slightly orange as the sun neared the horizon. Having lost track of both Cerberus and the pony a while ago he relied on them sticking close to the forest they passed.
Once he caught his breath, Ethan slowly jogged only to pause as he hardly saw a purple blob on the horizon. Knowing it was that purple pony he went towards the trees and picked a particularly wide one to hide behind. This time around the pony seemed to be taking her time. Ethan almost wanted to peek out to check if she passed yet, but thought better of it.
Eventually the light clopping of hooves could be heard as she began passing him while mumbling to herself. Ethan took a risk and poked an eye around the tree to watch the pony. Her head was drooped slightly. She was no doubt tired from running for miles, and soot covered her.
'Huh wonder how she got so messy?'
Slightly debating to himself about whether or not to follow her for a while. Ethan nodded to himself and chose to follow, curious to see if what Tirek said about the ponies of Equestria had any relevance. Making sure he wouldn't be stepping on any leaves, Ethan started trailing a little ways behind her, silently hoping for something to happen.
The mysterious purple pony was still walking.
By this point the sun was half past the horizon, and Ethan was beginning to get tired. The pony seemed to finally notice how late it was (thank god) and stopped. She looked around before the human noticed her ears fall slightly and the pony trudged towards a nearby tree before laying down against it, resting her head on her hooves.
After a while of watching the pony, the stars were out and the moon glowed in the sky, Ethan slowly got closer to the pony and circled her to try and see if she was asleep. Noticing her eyes were closed, and her chest rose and fell at a steady pace.
Ethan was about to turn around and head back in the direction Cerberus was so he could get back to camp (No doubt Tirek is having a hissy fit about me being gone all day), but sudden movement from the pony caught his attention. She had curled into herself more, with her tail resting across her body now.
'That's kinda cute.' The human couldn't stop himself from thinking it, but a sudden gust of wind caused the pony to shiver slightly. Ethan looked on in disbelief as she continued to shiver and squirm. 'The irony right now is unreal. How is she the one who's cold? She has a coat of hair for crying out loud!'
Shaking his head, the human peered down at the shirt wrapped around his neck, then fruit he had inside it. Grinding his teeth slightly, Ethan took off the shirt and placed it on the ground before removing the now small amount of fruit inside. He undid the knot connecting the two sleeves and walked over to the shivering pony then put the shirt over her body, covering most of her, with her head and part of her butt the only things uncovered.
The pony seemed to somehow get even smaller as she turned her head and rested it on part of the shirt covering her. The human swore he saw her nostrils flare, but with the light from the moon being blocked by him, it made it hard to be entirely sure.
Ethan watched the pony for a few more minutes till she stopped shivering. Rolling his eyes and huffing loudly, he turned and started towards the fruit on the ground. Grabbing two apples, he placed them in front of her and began his trek to retrieve Cerberus.
Tartarus...
Ethan arrived at the massive gateway to Tartarus. Thankfully being able to take the same trail that led him away from them in the first place. Unlike pushing it open before, this time there seemed to be a weird hole in the middle of the gate to grab onto. Putting his hand inside, Ethan tried pulling the doors, but they didn't budge.
'Hmm seems that pony actually locked the door this time.'
Stepping back, the human looked at the weird symbols that surrounded the hole in the wall. Four diamonds made themselves apparent. Each one slightly raised out from the gates and on their own corner of a bigger diamond, with a hole in the middle of it. Ethan reached out a hand and touched the top diamond, attempting to push it inwards with no luck.
'Maybe if I turn it? Lefty loosey righty tighty, right?'
Turning the diamond left caused it to shift till it rotated one-eighty, then it glowed a blinding white. Smirking in triumph, he did the same with the rest of the diamonds and upon turning the last one the gates clicked and creaked open, forcing the human to take a step back.
Before the gates had even fully opened Cerberus was through the gap and tackling the human. Who shrieked at the massive dog taking him to the ground and covering him in slobber from rapid licks. “Okay! Okay! I get it! You missed me! I was pretty bored myself without someone to keep me company,” Ethan exclaimed in exasperation. Shoving the heads off him, he stood up and wiped off most of the saliva. Once cleaned, he made his way back through the gates to grab a particular something.
Once back inside Tartarus, Ethan looked around and saw the same creatures that him and Trek left behind yesterday. The human waved to a few of the creatures, getting a wave back from a couple, as he made his way towards Tirek's old cage. He reached the raised platform and started to search for a particular item that was forgotten on their initial leave.
Seeing the lunchbox next to all the broken bars on the ground He walked over to pick it up—checking to make sure his ice packs were still inside—and went back to the gates. On the way back out Ethan couldn't help but feel bad for the creatures he left in the cages. "I promise to let you guys out someday, but if too many of you are missing it could cause the ponies to start searching for Tirek. So please, just be patient. I'll try to be as fast as I can," He said to the locked up creatures, many of which nodded or roared in assurance.
Cerberus, who had, surprisingly, waited patiently by the gates, ran over to the human and lowered his heads to be easily pet. Ethan smiled at the gesture, but as he looked at Cerberus's slightly hunched form he couldn't help but notice just how large Cerberus was and how easy the dog could carry him. Wanting to give it a try, if only because Cerberus was much faster than the human, Ethan went ahead and asked. “Hey Cerb you uh, think I could ride you? I'm not exactly fat and you got some muscle on you so it shouldn't be too hard right? What d'yah say?”
Cerberus seemed to think on the request, all three heads looking towards one another. Ethan was slightly confounded by how expressive each head was, only reminding him just how different this world was from his own.
'How long have I been here anyways? It hasn't felt like too long, but Tirek did say Tartarus's time was warped. Who knows? I could've been here for thousands of years already and I wouldn't even know it. Come to think of it... I haven't really thought much about back home. I wonder how mom is doing... Man, I sucked at keeping contact with any of my family, but still, she probably misses me. It had been a few months since I last visited.'
Not wanting to get depressed thinking about his world, Ethan blocked the thoughts. Focusing on Cerberus, whose heads looked back to him, he watched as the guard dog turned and lowered himself. The head closest to him beckoned him towards his back.
A giddy feeling overtook him and Ethan closed the gap between them. Carefully grabbing the middle head's spiked collar, he got on slowly, so he didn't choke the middle head on accident, and threw one leg over Cerberus's back. Ethan kept his grasp on the collar and got comfortable.
“There we go. Okay, I should be good to go. You good Cerberus? I'm not digging into you at all am I?” Asked Ethan in concern. Cerberus just shook his heads and glanced back at his new occupant while taking the time to get adjusted to the foreign weight on his back. Said occupant waited patiently. He assumed this was the first time anything had rode on his back before.
After a couple more moments Cerberus was good to go, already beginning to walk in the direction of camp. Instead, Ethan decided to nudge him towards the path he took to get to Tartarus originally by giving a light pull to Cerberus's collar. The human had one last thing he needed to do before they returned to camp.
Ethan kept Cerberus along the forest where their camp was located, searching for something. As Cerberus continued forward Ethan barely managed to see what he was looking for. Pulling on the collar to get his noble steed to stop, the human hopped off and turned around to see the three heads of Cerberus looking at him curiously.
"Stay here for a sec. I just have to grab something quick,” said Ethan before he began moving further up the treeline, lunchbox in hand. Coming to a stop. Ethan gazed down in the low light and saw the berries he had left laying on the ground, some of them having gone missing. He shrugged and gathered what was left, placing everything but the couple of apples near the pony into the lunchbox, which was becoming slightly damp inside without the cool air of Tartarus preserving the ice packs.
After zipping the lunchbox back up. Ethan looked up and caught sight of the pony he had covered with his shirt. Walking closer, he noticed she had changed positions in her sleep. Somehow laying on her back with her hind legs splayed haphazardly. Her forelegs gripping the shirt covering her body in the crook of her legs. The apples he had placed earlier were still untouched.
Taking a moment, Ethan looked at her—actually looked at her—in the moonlight. Ignoring her lady bits, which were currently out on display, he saw the horn sticking out of her forehead.
'Tirek did tell me unicorns are a thing here. I wonder if he doesn't know of some of the creatures here... He did say he was locked up for a long time.'
Shaking off the thoughts, he continued his evaluation of the pony, now confirmed unicorn, in front of him. Besides the obvious size and color differences, it was fairly easy to tell these ponies were nothing like the ones on Earth. 'She probably reached just under half my height, maybe my chest if she was on her hind legs' Her muzzle was too short, and her mouth was a lot smaller. Her eyes were huge too, but the weirdest part was the weird butt tattoo that could be seen when he nudged one of her hind legs to cover herself. It looked like a pink star with a large white star hidden behind it, and a few more smaller white stars surrounding them.
'Maybe it's a cultural thing? Definitely isn't a branding, there's hair still over it. Its almost looks like it was printed on her ass. So definitely a butt tattoo then. Kinda kinky, but I'm not one to judge.'
Ethan giggled lightly to himself at his last thought before frowning when the purple unicorn suddenly shifted slightly, his shirt sliding off her partially. This made him all too aware of his shirtless status, it still wasn't very cold to the human, but that was his only shirt.
Moving forward, Ethan went to snatch the shirt from the sleeping unicorns grasp, but when he pulled on the shirt lightly he found her grip on it was much tighter than he'd think possible for one without hands. Giving slightly more effort only caused the sleeping unicorns face to scrunch up slightly in a cute way. Only for Ethan to panic as he noticed her eyes slowly beginning to open.
Thinking fast, he quickly but silently went around to the other side of the tree and peered around it at the unicorn, who now was beginning to sit up, the shirt slipping off her and piling by her legs. The unicorn yawned widely, before stiffening suddenly as she seemed to remember where she was sleeping.
Ethan held his breath as her ears shot up and swiveled in every direction possible while her head darted around as she searched for a non-existent predator. Ethan thanked god (again) that she wasn't in the mindset to think of looking up as she looked around, or else she would've seen the human's eyes peering at her.
After a few minutes of searching for nothing she seemed to relax and slowly laid back down. When she fully laid down she noticed the two apples in front of her causing her head to dart around one last time. Suddenly her stomach growled lightly, and if Ethan had more light, he would've seen the fiery blush that overtook the unicorn's cheeks. The human almost cracked up, but managed to hold it together, if barely.
The unicorn looked back towards the apples in front of her and a faint pink aura, almost imperceptable, came over the apple and the unicorn's horn, levitating it closer to her face. She gave the apple a quick look over and a sniff before taking a small bite. A small whinny was heard, if it wasn't quiet besides the natural sounds of night creatures, he easily would've missed it. A small smile came to the human's lips as he watched her enjoy the apples he left her.
Once she finished, the unicorn curled back up, causing the shirt by her legs to move slightly, catching her attention. Her horn glowed again, but this time nothing seemed to happen. Ethan couldn't see the unicorn's face from his position, and was too nervous about making noise to move, but he could assume she looked confused at the very least.
He watched as she tried again with the same results, and on the third try she huffed and gave up. Instead opting to grab it by hoof, causing Ethan to smirk at her laziness. Bringing it closer to her face the unicorn looked at it intently from all angles, trying to figure out why her magic wasn't working on it. As she began turning it around, a loud yawn cut her off. Ethan saw her give what looked kind of like a shrug and laid her head down, using the shirt as a blanket again. The human saw her nostrils flare as one of the sleeves settled near her muzzle, and saw a small smile come on her face as she snuggled the shirt more before falling asleep.
'Oh boy, I think I might've hit it off a little too well with her; even if she doesn't know it yet. Tirek would never let me live this down if he found out about this. Even ignoring the fact he hates ponies with a passion. Although I guess he did get imprisoned by them, regardless of whether or not he deserved it. Which he totally did, I was a little surprised he told me about his brother and all that other crap. The stuff about the ponies being disgusting power freaks doesn't seem to be very true so far... Although I am curious who those two princesses are, cause if he's as powerful as he said he is then I can only imagine how powerful those two are to be able to imprison him in the first place.'
Realizing he got lost in thought, Ethan focused on the sleeping unicorn before slowly reaching for his lunchbox and removing the berries he had left. Setting them all in a small pile in front of the unicorn.
Ethan made his way back towards Cerberus, who seems to have wandered off. Shrugging, the human walked back towards the direction of Tartarus hoping to see Cerberus nearby. Thankfully the guard dog only seemed to have found a small stream just a ways away, where all three heads were currently drinking out of. The stream in question made Ethan curious if it was the same small river that passed through their camp. If it was... then they just found their lucky break.
Deciding to take the risk, he got Cerberus's attention by patting his side. "Hey I think we just found a shortcut back to camp. What do you say we try it out?” asked Ethan before yawning, the high amount of running today was finally catching up to him. Cerberus shrugged in response and lowered himself for the human, who quickly got on.
Ethan pointed in the direction of the river moving away from Tartarus. “We should go that way since our camp is pretty far from Tartarus. I think you'll be okay to squeeze through the trees if you walk over the stream until it gets too wide to walk over,” he said while giving a slight pull to Cerberus's collar, who began walking in that direction.
The two had finally arrived at camp. Ethan was surprised to see embers from a recent fire still lit in the campfire. Even more surprising was Tirek—who was fast asleep in his tent—had gone out and gathered enough berries to last the two of them for days.
'Eh I probably shouldn't get my hopes up. He'll definitely be pissed when we talk tomorrow.'
After dismounting Cerberus he wandered over to his own tent, but heard murmuring coming from Tirek's tent. Getting curious, Ethan moved closer to hear what was being said. Only to crack up at hearing Tirek mumbling about, "Gram Gram”.
Shaking his head, he slipped underneath his tent, suddenly wishing he had his shirt because the grass was slightly itchy. Putting up with it, Ethan thought back onto all that had happened that day and couldn't help but smile and shift to get a better position. Only for his eyes to suddenly shoot open and a horrified look plastered his face.
'Oh my god... I just stalked a pony. Jesus I'm such a fucking weirdo.'