//------------------------------// // Prolouge // Story: When Lacking Responsibility or how one moron's power leads to ruin. // by AhopelessEndevor //------------------------------// The green foliage burst outwards as A strange creature sprinted through the darkness of the Everfree forest, gasping for breath, furious pace driven by adrenaline and fear for his life, Terror, panic, overwhelming fear. There were but a few of the things going through Marks mind as he ran for his very life. The roars of his pursuers were drawing ever closer, and several times his mismatched legs almost gave out from under him. If they caught him now he would die, there was no doubt about it. 'Well it's another fine mess I've gotten myself into' 4 days earlier: (Marks perspective) Scroll* Scroll* stare Scroll* A young man sat, white face glued to the computer screen, eye's staring blankly at rows and rows of text, this is you. A Brony. You live by yourself at a small rundown flat, living off state benefits. The thought of leeching off the state disgusts you and inflicts a heavy blow to your already nonexistent self esteem. 'It's just until I can get a job' you constantly tell yourself, you haven't even applied for 10 yet... You are once more on Fimfiction, it's seems you spend more and more time on it everyday, having already spent 7 hours glued to the dammed screen. Sigh You wonder what's wrong with you, why can't you stop reading about ponies, where did your social life die, when.... another interesting fic catches your attention from your internal monologue. "How did I get here"? you say aloud, your sleep addled mind making you sound like some kind of zombie. Oh look at the time, 3:06 AM,HA you suppose you've got plenty of time before you usually fall asleep. Which would be anytime between 4 and 9 in the morning, you were gradually getting later ever since you left collage... a move which you regret in hindsight. At only 700-1000 words per chapter it doesn't take you long to get half way through, turning towards the clock you notice it's now 3:43 Am, It's becoming very difficult to read this story, you mind is struggling to process and understand the text, and turn it into a personal movie inside your skull. The best it can do right now is a B-movie. it's pretty boring to say the least. You thrust your head back up as you realize you almost face-planted the keyboard, swaying back and forth you stare towards the blurring white computer screen, schitt man your near catatonic, you'd better get to bed... What HA! did you really just say that, sleep is for the weak! You sit up straight and take a deep breath, Wake up , you try and will yourself into full consciousness but it's having little actual effect, "ok.... OK I'm pumped!" you state loudly. you take another deep breath and slap your face with both hands as one would do in the morning. "I'm pumped" came a bit louder this time. Standing up you take another deep breath and clench your fists as hard as you can, you grit your teeth and strain. Imagining yourself to be punching an old schoolyard bully in the face, then proceeding to hospitalize that little bugger sends a wave of adrenaline and desperately needed testosterone into your system. You feel great, 'fuck yeah, what now natural sleep cycle, what now!' shaking you sit back down onto the chair. 'Time to read this mother-fucking fanfiction' you state rather loudly in your mind. Try as you might you find yourself just too Psyched to read anything, 'holy shit I feel great, i could stay up all night long, wonder if anyone else is- oh god why does my chest hurt!'. Indeed why does your chest hurt, there seems to be a gripping pain in your chest, a stitch perhaps? why would you have a stitch whe- OK now your getting pins and needles. You stare Blankly forward as a strange form of terror grips your heart, you gingerly reach your hand towards your chest, slowly placing your fingers above your heart. you hold your breath for a good few seconds in utter panic. Sigh "of course..." your're having a heart attack, strange now that your greatest fear is confirmed you feel so little. you stare at your chest, 'Well that sucks' you briefly consider calling an whambulance but consider it a waste of time, human resources suck and they'll never get here on time, the best you can hope for is minor brain damage. 'nah, not worth it' you decide, might as well die with some dignity then a 40 year old virgin. Speaking of dignity... You take a moment to close all Mlp related content on your browser, all 19 tabs, and then clear browsing history. Gonna have to hurry up, your getting nausea and the numbness is getting worse in your legs. "let's see, gonna have to delete all these folders filled with reaction images" it takes you all of 5 minuets to delete all MLP content from your computer, god forbid your relatives find out. The thought alone makes you blush, the shame. 'I'd thought death would be more daunting, or scary' strange, you always wondered what it'd be like to die, now that it's happening all you can feel is a clam acceptance. You feel so peaceful as the ends draws ever nearer, 'wonder why'... OH yes that right, nobody will care that your gone, you have no friends, only your parents, and you've always had a feeling they were disappointed in you, wait that's not right you KNOW they're disappointed in you. A lone tear drops from your face as take another shaky breath, your traitorous undersized ego cuts deep into your soul, 'perhaps it's better this way' You briefly ponder how your death will have an impact on the world, you can find none. 'shame dat'. the end is drawing near now, your feeling weak and it's hard to concentrate on anything. you lie your head on the keyboard, the sound of the keys pressing brings you a strange sense of comfort. Eye's drawing heavy, a multitude of final thoughts passes through your mind, you remember all the good times in your life and the bad, another tear falls, but this is a tear of happiness, as you remember all the good times playing down the creak as a kid, all the water-gun fights of the summer and the scare heavy snow of the winter. And all the good times you've had at collage with friends. mostly spend catatonic under the effects of alcohol. 'I've had a good enough life'. Closing your eye's you take your last shuddering breath and then all is silent, you think about all the regrets you have, the way you let yourself become TOO addicted to ponies, the way you never got a job, the way you've spent the last 6 months after your 18th birthday coped up in the room living off British state benefits. 'Shit...' you forgot to empty the recycle bin on your computer. And then your're dead. - - The first thing Mark felt upon becoming conscious was a strange tingling in every part of his body, he didn't particularly care about nor register this, being too tired to actually give a damn. Seconds later the blissful peace was replaced by discomfort he became aware of was a cold dampness all around his form, as if his entire bed was wet. It also didn't feel as soft as it usually did. It was cold, he began reaching over to grasp the quilt cover... only to discover to his shock, that it was non-existent. "urgh.." groaning, A black claw reached around in the damp grass, soaked in early morning condensation. He couldn't find the quilt, 'fuck, now I have to pick it up' he rolled over onto his back and opened his eye's to admire the tree tops. It took a few seconds to sink in... "What. The. Fuck?!" his eye's burst open and darted round to view the lush, thick woodland canopy growing over head. His mind finally registered where he was, lying on wet grass in the middle of a forest. 'no seriously, what the actual fuck'. He liked to identify himself as fairly madcap, but this was ridiculous and for once he was actually too stunned to move, little could phase him and he'd seen some pretty wild things before dropping out of college... 'wait....that's right ' he thought, didn't he die of a heart. So why was he in the middle of the woods, why would somebody save him then dump him in the middle of nowhere, he lived in the middle of the city for christ sake. The nearest woodland should have been more the 30 MILES AWAY!. To be honest, the only reason he wasn't freaking out right now was because the forest was just so damn quiet and peaceful. Finally getting out of his stupor, mark managed to roll onto his claws and knees at which point he completely lost it. A rather girly shriek echoed throughout forest followed by a multitude of curses. Once again mark found himself lying on his back in wet grass, only now he was staring in absolute shock and puzzlement at his shaking new set of reptilian appendages. What confused him more-so was that one was noticeably bigger then the other. His right arm had enlarged and was covered with hardened black scales while his hand had become a scaled claw (which unbeknownst to him was actually draconic in nature). His left arm however was relatively the same size, and just as skinny, it was a dark grey with a rough texture and had elongated fingers ending in sharp talons. He couldn't for the life of him match it to any other animal known. Hyperventilating he began to feel around to see if there were any other unwanted changes, he found to his horror that he was naked, but that was the least of his worries. His body was longer then he ever remembered it being, and his legs seemed to have shrunk and became stubby in comparison to human anatomy, one leg had become a clawed lizard foot complete with a talon. While the other had become a lions paw, dark orange appearance. Black fur began somewhere near his abdomen and ended at his legs, it extened halfway down his whiplick tain until it ended in grey feathers. What he found more disconcerting was the fact that he only appeared to have one shoulder, the larger arm seemed to have an enlarged shoulder while the other seemed almost anorexic and smaller in comparison. He became aware of movement on his back and discovered a pair of mismatched wings, one, a dragons wing, was again bigger then the other but this time it was on his left side which helped balance out the size difference between his arms. the other was feebly small and seemed to belong to some kind of red bird. it wasn't even half the size and there was no way he could use them to fly, not that the thought even crossed his mind at the moment. Now sitting up and gasping in panic, he grasped his head in is hands, it again was reptilian, filled with mismatched Sharp teeth that seemed to have originated from at least a few different predators. His snout was short, and strangely his left eye was noticeably bigger then the other. All in all he looked pretty goddamn hideous. "Oh what the fuck" A confused and panicking mark managed to get to his feet, and began whirling around looking every which way which only gave the same result, no-matter which way he spun, nothing but tree's and woodland. Sitting back down to ponder his currant predicament. He wondered if he was dead, he recalled having that heart attack and falling onto the keyboard. Perhaps this is what it was like to die, maybe he was in heaven or hell, even though he never really believed in an afterlife, and proudly renounced all religion as "retarded", right now Mark was having second thoughts as clearly he was wrong about there being no afterlife. How would his family react... oh fuck that's right he forgot to empty the goddamned recycle bin on his computer! It took mark around 10 minuets to regain his composure. "ok, might as well get moving. It's better then staying here to starve", getting up, he began taking shaky steps in a random direction, and then promptly lost his balance and face-planted into a tree. Looks like his first task was learning to walk.