It was dark, granted it was night time but it was darker than user. Which could be attributed to the thick mass of trees that surround me. actually now that I think of it, how in the hell did I end up in the middle of a dank forest? I was just walking down the streets of my home city, just getting off my twelve hour shift from work at the shop, heck, I even decided to splurge on getting some donuts from an all-night coffee shop. But still, how in the hell did I go from there, to ending ass up and upside down in a bush? Maybe someone thought it would be fun to prank a random bystander by teleporting them to the middle of nowhere. Though that would be incredibly stupid, aside from wasting a rare power on a prank, it would also basically setting off an alarm to signal that an Un-natural just used their powers. well whatever the case, I gotta find out where the hell I am, and find a way back. after unsticking myself from the bush I pulled out my phone to look up where my location was, but the damn thing had no signal!
“Great. No service.” I grumbled in annoyance as I pocketed the damn thing into my jacket.
“Guess I gotta do this the old fashion way.” And with that I went about choosing a direction, one that looks the easiest to walk through, and departed.
As I began trotting through the forest path I kept my eyes open in case I spot a wider, and more man-made path, or if was lucky spotted someone. Though given that it was in the middle of the night I highly doubt I’d run into anyone, at least, not a normal person that is. I continued to make my way through the trees and underbrush of wherever it is I was, kept checking my phone to see if I’d get a signal but each check only made me grown more. but my groans and annoyance was put on hold when I heard something rustle in the bushes, which caused me to take a defensive stance, my hands held out to my sides. Ambient amber yellow energy brimming from my palms. A second later something came out from the brush, something that I did not expect to see. Or even thought was even possible!
“What the fuck are you supposed to be!?” I balked as I looked at the three wooden wolves that were stalking towards me! Okay I’m used to seeing weird shit, but this! This is a whole new level of weird, I mean what the fuck causes a bunch of sticks, twigs, bark, and other stuff to make a wooden wolf?
“Whoa!” I cried out when one of the wolves leapt at me with surprising speed that I almost mis-timed using my powers. creating a dome force field around myself just in time to block the attack, causing the wooden mutt to crash face first into it, breaking its muzzle and causing what looked like thick gooey sap seep from its busted muzzle.
“That’ll be enough of that bucko!” I then caused my field to quickly expand out, smashing into the wooden dog and causing it be bounced back a few feet with great force, where it skidded a few feet from its pack mates while whimpering.
The other two looked away from their downed pack mate and charged at me, but the moment they were a foot from me I shrunk my field till it was as small as I could make it while standing. Then when the two mongrels were half a foot from me, I quickly, and violently, expanded my shield to its previous width. Smashing both wooden wolves into it and launching them into the trees with such force that they smashed through a few branches, before falling to the ground whimpering in pain as more sap bled from their battered bodies. However these things seemed heartier than normal wolves, though that should’ve been a given as they were made from wood. So I quickly encased them in a large energy dome, trapping them which caused the wolves to lashes out with their claws, but that’s when I made my attack. Manipulating the energy of the field I caused the wolves to be, in lack of a better phrase, being ping-ponged within the dome. Slamming their bodies against the walls of the dome, which just increased the speed and power when they ricocheted off it. after a minute of bouncing and ping-ponging them I removed my field and just let them go flying whichever direction they were being flung to.
“That should take care of them, but I better pick up the pace before more of those things show up.”
And I did so. I began hauling ass as I ran through the woods, occasionally looking around to look for a better route to take. But as I rand I started to wonder, just where in the bloody world did I get zapped to that had wooden wolves that bled tree sap?
“I’ll have to put that thought on hold until I find a way out these woods.”
And bam! The moment I finished saying those words, I burst out of the woods and came into the open world…while also finding that a steep bank and began tumbling down. all the while cursing as I rolled a few feet before crashing into a tree.
“FUCK!” I belted as my back smacked into the stump of the tree, causing me to roll on the ground and rub at my new sore spot.
“This is just not my…day?”
Now I was even more confused. As I lay on the ground and looked up, expecting to see the night sky and the moon, I instead said that it was day time. What hour exactly I wasn’t sure, but I was more confused on how it could’ve been morning when it was 11pm when I got off work, and then got warped to the woods. I pulled out my phone which thankfully survived the tumble and looked at the time, which did indeed said it was 11:20pm.
“…I’m starting to believe that something incredibly strange has happened to me, more so than I initially thought.” I mumbled to myself as I sat up, my back aching for a bit before the pain drifted away.
Using the same tree that I crashed into as leverage I managed to haul my ass up before looking around, checking to see where I was now. And from what I could see, I was on the edge of what looked like a grove of trees, all of them bearing bright red apples. But…something was, off, about them. the apples on the tree that I crashed into didn’t look like apples I’m used to, instead they looked so, glossy, like they were made out of plastic. They were just to shiny and polished. Actually now that I took a better look around the whole place that I stood in looked unusual. The trees looked more like they were drawn, smooth and with no bark cracks, and they felt almost to smooth to the touch. even the trees from the forest I came barreling out looked like they were more drawn, rather than being actual trees. even the grass that covered patches of the ground looked to be drawn, while the spots on the ground that had no grass didn’t have loose dirt grooves or disturbances. Not even any pebbles or specks of condensed dirt. Everything looked so, tidy.
“Okay. If I wasn’t wigged out before, I am right now.” I continued to look around for anything that would give me a sign of where the hell I was, or even give me some kind of explanation on whey everything looked so, strange. And it seemed my luck paid off!
While I was looking around I spotted what looked to be wooden carts of some kind just a dozen feet from me. I approached the cart and found that compared to me, it barely went about my waist, and was just a fair bit bigger than a shopping cart. There were also a few woven baskets around the cart, mostly at the base of the trees, but there were a few inside the cart. Each full of apples. Clearly someone worked here, and this was also clearly someone’s farm. Or is the correct term orchard? Whatever the case, someone clearly owns the land that I’m standing in, and hopefully if I go look for them they won’t hold me at gun point, and yell at me to get off their land before I could get a chance to explain what happened to me.
“Then again if the people that owns this, bizarre looking, land are normies then they might find it even more suspicious in how I got here.” I then started to pace around in a circle in figuring out what my next move should be. But that’s when something came to me. if I was on a farmers land, then there should be a town or something nearby where they can sell their produce.
“So I can just bypass the farmers and just walk to the town. However…I gotta first find out which direction of said town was in.”
In the midst of my pondering a yawn escaped me and a drowsy sensation then coursed through my body, reminding me that I was tired and ready for bed. the sooner I find this town, the sooner I can figure out where I am. And even find a place to crash for the night, or day. I started to walk through the orchard until I found a road of something that could lead me to town, and as I was walking something zipped above me as I heard something fly through the air. I didn’t paid it any mind, thinking that it was some kind of plane or something the like and continued to look for a road. A few minutes of walking around blindly go by, and eventually I did find a road, as well as the farmers house. Which also looked strange to me as the whole place from the house, to the barn, to…everything looked like it was drawn. And like the apples and trees, looked way to clean, or tidy.
After spotting the farmers homestead I went in the opposite direction, hopping the fence once I was sure I was out of view from the house, and started walking down the dirt road.
While making my way hopefully to the nearest town I pulled out my phone again, now seeing that it was 12:10am in the morning, I scrolled through my phone as I also dug out one of my ear buds and stuck it in place, before turning on some music to listen to. luckily my phone was on a charger the whole time I was at work, so it was at 100% as I started to vibe to the music playing in my ear. While walking and vibing I occasionally looked around my surroundings to see what was around me, which wasn’t much except for fields of grass, flowers, and the odd bunch of shrubs and trees scattered about. Aside from the scenery I would also spot a bird, or a squirrel look at me before scurrying off, and like the scenery they to look off, with the rabbits having heads as big as their whole bodies, and the squirrels looking like living plush toys. They even had very, and I mean very animated expressions when they looked at me, giving me straight up looks of shock before they ran off.
“This place just gets weirder and weirder by the second.” I mumbled to myself as I rounded around a bend in the road and finally seeing a town!
“Oh thank god!”
I said out loud as I quickened my pace as another yawn left me. but as I got closer and closer to the town I could see figures wandering about…but they weren’t people. I skid to a stop when I was right at the towns entrance where I got a good look at the towns occupants. What I saw weren’t people staring at me with shock and awe, what I saw blew my mind away! More so than anything that I’ve seen in the last thirty or so minutes. Standing before me were, I shit you not…3ft tall, brightly multi-colored miniature horses.
“What the fuck!?”
Was I could say before the horses, or ponies, whatever they were screamed and yelled before galloping away as I just stood there, utterly dumbfounded as they ran into the closest building they could reach, and slammed the doors shut while covering the windows with blinders or whatever they had.
“What the fuck?” I repeated as I continued to just, stand there. my tired brain just couldn’t process what the actual hell I just saw. and honestly, I’m pretty sure my mind was trying its best to deny seeing what it is it just saw.
Just then as the song I was just listening to ended and began switching to a new one, I heard something flying above me again, but this time it was accompanied the sound of someone screaming their head off. that’s when my nerves perked up, and told me that danger was nearby. On instinct I surrounded myself with another force field, and then a few seconds later something clanged off against the field from behind me, and when I whipped around to see what struck my field and it was one of small horses wincing in pain it held its left hind leg. This one was blue in color, sky blue or cyan, and had a mane and tail that was basically a rainbow, with wings flapping at sides. And as I looked at the pony, or pegasus, I noticed that its wings were way to small to actually allow it to fly. But I was torn away from inspecting the pegasus when I heard the damn thing speak, speaking in freaking English!
“I don’t know what the hay you are buddy, but you better leave Ponyville before I make you leave.” The pegasus threatened as it, or she if her gruff voice was of any indication, jabbed a hoof in my direction. As for me I just stared at her, not exactly sure what the heck I should do.
“This really cannot be happening.” I just grumbled as I knelt down and placed my face in my hands.
“Hey!” the pegasus shouted as I just kept my face in my hands. “Don’t just ignore me!” I just looked at the pegasus before she started kicking my field again, causing ripples to spread across the field, and with each kick she got more and more frustrated.
“Rainbow Dash what are you doing?” another voice called out, this one sounding like a normal girls voice. But as I heard the words ‘Rainbow Dash’ and saw the pegasus cease her kicking and looking behind me, I couldn’t help snicker. Is that her, name? seriously! I turned to look behind me to see what else kind of creature there was, and it was a trio of ponies.
The trio comprised of a violet unicorn with pretty straight laced mane of various dark purple colors, and was looking between me and the pegasus that flew over to the unicorn, though she seemed to keep her attention on me. there was also a pink pony that had the craziest poofy pink hair I’ve seen on anything, and was circling around my field while looking at me with a very cheery smile, while on occasion tapping my field with a hoof and ‘oohhing’ with each tap. The last pony was another normal pony, but she was orange in color, and had a tied up blonde mane, and was wearing a stetson on its head and was eyeing me with a bit of suspicion in its green eyes.
“What is literally happening in my life right now!?”
“It talks!” the pink said in a very, very, VERY bubbly high pitched voice before she looked directly at me, her face practically pressing against my field.
“Who are? What are you? Where did you come from? Are there—Whoa!”
The pink blabber mouth was lifted into the air by a strange light purple aura and was brought to the other ponies, all of which also looked visibly surprised. Well at least the violet and orange one, the cyan pegasus just keep staring daggers at me like she was waiting for me to attack somebody. The unicorn of the group walked up to my field and looked me right in the eye, a spark of curiosity and mild hesitation in her eyes before she spoke up.
“Can you understand me?” she simply asked.
“Yeah.” I simply replied back as I flopped onto my but, legs getting numb after remaining crouched for a bit too long. The mare just looked more surprised and even a bit delighted as a small smile graced her really small muzzle.
“What’s your name? mine is Twilight Sparkle.” I had to resist the snicker that almost came out of me as she introduced herself, and began introducing the others.
“And these are my friends. that is Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and you’ve already met Rainbow Dash.”
The other three, or the two non-pegasi ponies, waved as their names were called. Though the one labeled Applejack still looked a little hesitant, but nevertheless gave a curious smile. Meanwhile the pink one dubbed Pinkie Pie just gave the biggest grin her face seemed to allow while waving wildly at me. seriously these names are ridiculous. After introducing the others the unicorn, Twilight, turned to look to me and waited for me to introduce myself. It took a moment to get my bearings and recollect myself while rubbing my tired face before I finally spoke.
“My name is, Barricade.” This is going to be a long night…day…whichever.