//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Meet the Family // Story: Life through Love // by SentientHydra //------------------------------// “Uuuuuh...” I woke up uneasily, twitching against the fabric of a feather bed. My limbs and skin felt numb. My ears felt weird, my hooves just ached. Wait... Hooves?! I stiffened in shock as my last few memories came flooding back, my horrible WoW session. Discord, the deal, DISCORD!? I couldn't move, it was just too hard to do. My legs were sluggish, all of my four legs refused to obey me. I couldn't even speak, my mouth felt scratchy and unworkable, with a thin tongue that fluttered lithely around my fangs Thus came my first thoughts 'Fangs? I have fangs? What the hell do I have fangs for? I'm supposed to be a pony, a herbivore, a muncher of flowers and grasses. But no, I didn't have the mouthful of grinding teeth like a pony, I have a giant pair of damn sabres sticking from my upper jaw.' I silently raged, unable to voice my anger, aside from a high pitched hissing/whining sound. 'Okay... Okay... Calm down me, just calm down. We can deal with dental differences later' I thought, trying again to shift in my bed. I managed to make the tiniest of movements with a single hoof, just enough to realise that I was chained down, my hooves were hidden beneath the blanket but I could hear the clink and rustle of shifting metal, even feel the cold band of the cuff if I concentrated hard enough. My mind fell into a flurry with that. 'Why am I chained to a bed?.. Why am I in a bed?! I got dropped near a lake! Maybe someone found me, it's a soft bed with a proper over so they care about me, the fangs must have scared them... yeah. My fangs must have scared them.' I calmed down through slow breathing and effort of will Well here came my chance to ask my captors, I lay still on my bed as the clip-clop of hooves grew closer and closer on a wooden floor. I couldn't see them enter from where I lay facing the wall, so I only had their hushed voices to go by on. The first was a girl, or a mare (I could just tell from the smell and the sound) “is he awake?” her query came with a nervous tremor, I guessed then that she was young, maybe a late teen or pre-adult. Something about the one that spoke told me that she was nervous, but not about me, she was instead nervous about her partner's reaction. Her accent placed her as from Baltimare, with old connections to Cloudsdale. Listening closely to her breathing, I built up a mental picture of the mare, giving her a light build and small chest, a definite pegasus (I could hear the rustle of feathers) she was tall, with a longer neck than usual (Mareabian perhaps?) I didn't know how I knew all that info just from her voice and breathing, maybe it was leftover knowledge from whoever owned this body before me. The male grunted “Can't tell with it's creepy bug eyes. Ah heard it make some noises earlier, so maybe it's just fakin'” His accent was thick southern, Appleoosa or Dodge City, it had hints of Baltimare in it though, so he must have moved. He sounded at least fifteen years the mare's senior. His deep voice gave me a picture of thick barrel and stout posture, an earthpony for sure, with heavy muscle and enough height to rival Big Mac from the show. 'Bug-eyes?!' I thought briefly, before returning my attention to my two captors. There was the clop of light hooves when the mare edged closer, earning a hissed ”careful there sunshine, it might be dangerous” from the stallion. Must be a husband, or a close relation. I could almost see the mare's face in the corner of my eye when she came up behind me, her light voice soft and stealthily quiet “How could he be any trouble? He was weaker than a puppy when I dragged him inside.” I could dully feel the hard edge of a hoof poke my numb side, soft then hard. I tried to move, I really did, but all that occurred for all my mental straining was a slow shift of a single hoof and a whole load of spasmodic twitching. I tried to growl in frustration, but all it came to was a gurgling pathetic whine, and a raspy intake of breath. As soon as I even twitched, the mare was pulled back by the stallion, his voice warning “Are y'all kidding me? That thing's bigger 'n me, and ah hold mah-self to be a pretty big fella. Ah wouldn't trust that there monster farther 'n ah can throw it.” 'I'm bigger than Big Mac?' I wasn't sure whether to feel proud or nervous. I heard the crack-slap of hoof striking flesh as the mare (presumably) clipped the stallion's ear/cheek “Stop calling him 'it' and 'thing'! He's a living creature like you or I, and I won't have you calling him 'monster' in our house.” There was a sputtering sound while the stallion marshaled his angry response, all pretense of hushed stealth thrown aside “ah know a villainous creature when ah see one, and y'all can't tell me it don't look like something that ya dress up as on Nightmare Night.” “I said stop you insufferable bigot!” Perhaps hearing me still trying to make a noise, she trotted over and laid a wing on me (I could hear her do it, but I couldn't feel anything) “the poor creature can barely move. I still don't see why the chain is necessary” What smelled so good all of a sudden? The mare seemed to be letting off the most delicious sweet scent I've ever sensed, breathing it in deeply seemed to lend me strength, a few more moments of this and I might be able to start moving more than a single hoof at a time. The stallion snorted, I could almost imagine him rubbing a reddened cheek with an angry expression “Iof course I chained the thing down! Even an injured wolf is still dangerous! Just look at those fangs, it's wings, that horn!” 'I'm an alicorn?' I thought then, trying to move my wings, flare my horn. Be damned if I couldn't feel the flutter of something wing-like on my back, and see a small shower of sparks from a black spur on my face. The rooms other occupants didn't seem to notice. The mare rose on her hackles, the sweet scent stronger than ever “so what! With Discord himself floating about who knows what happened, he must have been caught outside and gotten mutated.” 'Close, but no cigar.' The stallion snarled in frustration, If he were human I imagine he would be pinching the bridge of his nose. “Fine then, you can play with a Tartarus damned monster if you like, but don't come crying to me when it takes a chunk out of you” His hooves made the floor bounced as he stomped out. The mare snorted in annoyance, I could hear her brush her wing gently up my side, speaking gently “It's alright, I don't care what you look like. You're welcome to stay until you recover.” A pony's face entered my vision, a cute blue face with bright cerulean hair and snowy-grey eyes. She hung there for a moment, perhaps searching for something in my eyes. Apparently finding nothing there she leaned down to plant a tiny kiss on what seemed to be the tip of my muzzle, breathing out “you wouldn't take a bite out of me, would you?” Then she was gone, floating from the room on soft-beating wings. It took an age, it took an effort that would have left me sweating (I don't think I have sweat glands), but I eventually managed to breathe out, “Never...” it was impossibly quiet, my strange new mouth turning the word into clicks and buzzing, but I felt better for saying it... I would never hurt that pony.