//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Society & a Monster 
// Story: Tumult 
// by Shattered Heart 
//------------------------------//

	"WATCH OUT!” That voice sounds so familiar... Where have I heard it before? "You're gonna be alright! YOU HERE ME?! The medics are on. STAY WITH ME." Her voice sounds so familiar. So familiar that it bothers me. Almost as if these words would make me see something, as if... No I can't remember. Wait. there's another voice.
"Do you wish for another chance? Then accept this body that I have created! Walk the many roads no _______ has ever walked! Oh. and don't think this body is just like any pony else... but if you want to live, this is your only choice! Mwahahaha, you'll thank me later... I'll be keeping an eye on you! After all, life has been such a bore lately!" Huh? What. what is a ____? Why can't I say ____? It doesn't matter. The real problem is... Why am I hearing voices?
Wait. I can hear something else now? It's the sound of birds. The sound of birds chirping. I open my eyes, blinded by the lights, “Twilight! He's awake!" The small purple one called for Twilight then began talking to me, "Hey, you okay? You were asleep for nearly a whole day! 20 hours to be exact. You either sleep too long, sleep to little, or you were just too tired." Come to think about it I blacked out for a while when I adapted 5 times the day before didn't I? I ask the little one where I was, but it seems he doesn't understand sign language. After being given a quill and pen I begin to write out my thoughts. "Oh. We're at my house, Twilight's as well. I was watching you when you were doing your magic thing and you just suddenly collapsed. It reminds me of kinda what happens when you blow out a candle." I write to him that it I don't know if it's magic, but I call it "Adapting," I then explain how it works. "OH! Wait here lemme get something... “He runs out of the room then back in, “OH! My name is Spike by the way!" He then runs out of the room again, but re-enters with a book, “Take this one! I wanna see! I wanna see if you can 'adapt' using this book!" 
I look at the glowing book and read the title, “Dragon biology, All Information Currently Available by Twilight Sparkle." I look at Spike who stares at me with hopeful eyes. I flip through the book... its hoof written... or magically written using unicorn magic. I suppose Spike wants me to learn about him? I'm unsure of his intentions, but since I have 3 more adaptions after this available. 3 without causing me to faint anyway I decided. The glow of my eyes startle spike, but my eyes are too focused on the book to really pay attention to him, suddenly my eyes stop glowing and the book is gone.  "A new road has been traveled. An unusual road can now be made." Uhhhhh... Made? That's unusual. All the other times... The voice had stated that many roads were already made... So why can I create one? I feel as though I have gained odd knowledge...
"So Have you learned anything?" Spike asks looking disappointed. I explain all that I had learned from the book, to which he states, “Wow that is so useful. HERE try this!" 
Spike forced a book with pictures of boxes with circles and ponies in them, without even meaning to do so, I heard a voice “A new road has been traveled. Many roads are now possible."  
"Cool the comic book is gone," Spike laughed while clapping. "Oh hey what did you learn? What did you gain from 'adapting?' “Thinking really hard I began to remember everything in the comic book... morals... I learned many morals from that comic book... A hero stands up for those who cannot protect themselves! Not every pony can be a hero, but anyone can save others! As I explained to Spike all the morals I learned from the comic book Twilight had walked in " Oh hey Twilight," Spike said, waving at Twilight who was at the door. I turn to the door and get out of the bed.
"You don't need to push yourself," Twilight states, but I shake my hoof, letting her know I was fine. "So Spike, I see you had him... 'Adapt' to that book of dragons I wrote... The only. Copy." Spike shrugged and left the room humming a song, stating he had chores to do. "So now that you are up, if you were up for it I thought I would show you around Ponyville. Here, take this quill and notepad in case you you need to talk to anypony." I nod my head and follow her out the door, after taking a type of satchel holding the quill and notepad onto my back. The moment I step out the door suddenly I'm blinded by some sort of light. Rubbing my eyes I look to see a young colt holding a camera. The little colt ran off after taking the photo. "Oh sorry. That was the Free Foal Press. They are often doing school newspapers, and ponies are usually buying them since they tend to have interesting stories, but keep in mind they are still young so their material may not be grammatically accurate. or nice. However buying them not only helps fund the school, it also encourages them and build character. I recommend buying the paper whenever you have spare bits lying around. As I walk around town I have come to notice something... Every other pony seems to have a mouth, and a nose. I guess that my face really is weird. The book I read about ponies bodies really didn't say anything about features like mine.  Suddenly the sounds of whispering filled my ears. I look around and see that I am being pointed at. "I'm sorry," Twilight began to explain "They all mean well, they just... aren't very used to strangers. Especially if they look different. But they are all actually very nice ponies!"  I reply with a nod, until suddenly I hear a familiar voice.
"Oh! Why hello dear Twilight I see you are bringing the nice gentlecolt around town I take it?" It’s the white one. I think her name was Rarity? She was wearing a hat... A tall shiny hat... It was a blinding purple color. "No wonder every pony wasn't looking at my hat! They were too busy paying attention to you Tumult." I signed to her that I thought the reason no one looked at her hat was because of how blindingly bright it was, but Rarity stared at me in confusion. Twilight seemed to find Rarity's confused face funny, I can see her giggling. Suddenly I feel something wrap around my neck ,"Here you go darling~ Now you have something to grab the attraction of all those ponies, now they will be too busy looking at your fabulous scarf rather than your... Er... Well... Plain face..." Twilight seemed a little worried about my feelings... 
I begin to think to myself what kinds of books I should 'adapt' to. Like maybe a book of Laws of this world, that way I don't wind up in trouble. I look at the scarf that Rarity had given me, it’s so long, that I have to wrap it around my neck twice to prevent it from touching the ground, but even then it still barely hovers off the ground. The black color looks rather... slick? I suppose the slickness is just the silk material it is made out of. I'm not sure how to express my thanks, suddenly a word from the dictionary I adapted from made me think of a word, “Hug: Noun: To squeeze (somepony) tightly in one's fore legs, typically to express affection." I'm not sure if this counts as a proper time, but the word must have come to mind for a reason, I lean in and hug Rarity.
"Whoa! Thaaaaat's kinda creepy dude," a voice from the air came around, I look up to see the blue one," When you hug somepony, you're supposed to smile... Or say thanks, but I guess you can't talk huh?" Twilight and Rarity gave her a mean look, "What? Its true isn't it?" Rainbow Dash asked in confusion.
"Well I appreciate the gesture Tumult," Rarity stated with a smile. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to smile at this time. I give the best smile I can possibly give with my eyes. "Oh my darling smile you have! It’s so original~ though I'd think some eyeliner, and make up could really spruce up your face. Though I do envy your complexion." After touching my face she asks," Oh my, your face is so smooth, how in Equestria did you get it like this darling?" Twilight and Rainbow Dash suddenly started coughing and started shaking their heads, after they got Rarity's attention. "Oops. My apologies dear."
As time passes I become more accustomed to the town noticing that every pony seems to be very unique. Though there are some that are similar they all seem to give off some unique feature that makes them special. Though I suppose that is obvious due to the cutie marks. I couldn't keep the other pony's eyes off me though, so I tried covering the bottom half of my face with my scarf, but it didn't work out. Ponies still wound up staring at me. One thing I noticed however is that there are a lot of mares in this town, I think there are like 8 mares to every 1 stallion. While I'm lost in thought I realize that I had in fact lost Twilight, Rarity, & Rainbow Dash. A familiar voice did come around just as I noticed the mares were missing, “Why if it ain't that Tum fella!" I turn around and notice that the orange one from last night had been attending to a stand. An apple stand. "In case ya don't remember, my name is Apple Jack! Good to see yah Tum." I look at her in confusion. Tum? I try signing her, but she stared at me in confusion,"Uhhh I don't understand. Are you hungry?" Hungry? Come to think of it I don't think I ate these last few days, suddenly something in myself began to rumble and a groaning sound could be heard, "Whoo wee. You sound hungry alright. Here! Have an apple, these babies will get you ah hungerin' for more! At Sweet Apple Acres, my home, we grow the best apples in all of Equestria!" Applejack states throwing me an apple. Something about the apple just looked really nice and alluring, as I put the apple to my face Applejack suddenly screamed, "AAAAHHH!!! Wha?! I was wonderin how you were gonna eat it, but golly lookit that mouth!" With no mirror or such to see my reflection I ignore her yelling, and the ponies gathering around to watch me eat, and chew the apple as they gasp. The apple was very delicious, suddenly I feel a tug on my scarf.
"Mister are you a monster," A small yellow filly with a ribbon in her hair asked. Applejack scolded the filly, but I waved to signal that it was fine. I have no feelings after all. Suddenly a white filly, and an orange filly approached me, pulling at my scarf looking at my face, "Wow you got no nose mister! And no mouth? But how did you eat the apple? I missed it! Can you eat another? I'll buy it for yah!" The yellow filly's accent reminded me of Applejack, who pushed the filly aside and apologized to me. "My name is Apple Bloom! And these are my friends Sweetie Belle & Scootaloo! We are the CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS! We are looking for our cutie marks!" Apple Bloom explained to me for a while what they often did and what they had tried, as well as why they wanted their cutie marks so badly. I don't remember being a colt so I don't think I ever had the needs to find a cutie mark.  "Hey Mister, what does your cutie mark represent?" Apple Bloom asked, I grabbed a quill and notepad Twilight had given me earlier and began to go into detail about how it’s about adapting and the roads I must walk. Their eyes suddenly began to sparkle and I had suddenly felt as though I had done something bad, “What if OUR cutie marks are in adapting too? Let's go to the Everfree Forest! We can probably adapt to that environment too!" Suddenly the fillies began to run off, Applejack yelling at them to come back.
"Oh no! Uhhh Tum! Can yah please go bring those fillies back? The Everfree Forest is too dangerous for little fillies or for anypony at all! I can't leave this cart until I pack it up! I'll get my friends and follow you in there ASAP," Applejack requested. It seemed to be my fault that they ran there in the first place so I start following, but those fillies sure ran fast. I lost sight of them once entering the forest, I ran through the forest for nearly half an hour. No sounds could be heard but the cries of random critters. Suddenly hearing screaming I chase down the noise, only to see a parrot which had been screaming. This is bad. I can't find the fillies. If they die this will be my fault. Searching through what seemed like miles of running I finally found small hoof prints. and large paw prints. I don't know what is going on, but something tells me I have to follow these tracks fast.
Chasing down the tracks I finally begin to hear the cries of help. I found them! Many wooden creatures surrounded the fillies, their stances being low, something from the comic book I had absorbed had told me that they were about to attack just from the way those creatures were crouching. I dive down in front of the fillies, taking them by surprised they all shout in relief of my presence. The fillies began to scream, as the wooden creatures began to snarl at me. The image of grabbing the fillies and running come to mind, but suddenly as I begin to turn my head to grab them a phrase goes through my head, "A hero never runs in the face of danger! Especially to protect the weak! A hero must stand strong to defend the weak, even if it means fighting to the death." As the phrase goes through my head I turn to the wolves then back to the fillies. I'm no hero, all I am is a stallion who will die if I don't run away with these fillies. Suddenly another phrase goes through my head, "A hero isn't determined by survival, riches, or even the glory he is given to others, but determined by the bravery he displays from helping others! Any pony brave enough to help another is a Hero in their own way!" Bravery... Running away is cowardice... But to stand up and fight is bravery. Why does it matter whether or not if we run or fight as long as we survive? Why is it that I am standing my ground against them still?
Suddenly the girl's screaming became mute. The snarling looked less threatening. I glare at the wooden creatures that suddenly begin to snarl and howl at me, causing more to show up. Seeing as fate is not on my side I whisper to the fillies, "Run." The moment I finish my one word sentence I leap forward, causing all the wooden creatures to lunge at me, biting me from all directions, I feel as though my whole body is being punctured. I turn my head the best I could with a wooden creature biting my neck, and saw the fillies escaping safely. as far as I can see. I did a good thing. Suddenly the pain of being bitten from all directions starts to sink in. I really am in danger. How am I going to survive this? "Ngh... I can't die.Not yet. I only just started this road," With so many of these wooden creatures on me it’s hard to move, but I don't need to move. As I cast my spell, suddenly I'm right next to pile of wooden creatures that were sinking their teeth into me... The only problem is about 5 had come with me, but seeing as that is an improvement to the many more I saw before me, I take advantage of the low amount atop of me, slamming my knee onto the wooden monsters biting at my hooves, their heads splitting in half as if I were cutting wood with an axe. I hit the wooden monster biting my neck grab it smashing it into the ground, then kick the last two off my legs.
Alright I'm finally free! Suddenly I limp. I'm too injured. With all these wooden creatures will I be able to survive this? I can't do this. There are more than 20 in counting. I only gotten rid of 5 of them and I’m all injured. Another wooden monster lunges at me, many of them lunge at once, without even thinking I ran underneath them, and kicked them where they landed. 2 more down, but still more to go. As I kick however 2 more of them bite onto my shoulders. Suddenly I find myself being bitten by many of them all over again. I think i'm losing blood fast, there is so much all over the ground, it's hard to believe its all mine. I'm going to die if I lose too much blood. If only I could adapt to something. Anything. Suddenly a bright light shone in my eyes, the area around me feeling hot, and the wooden creatures had gotten off of me. I look around to see what happened, but all I see is fire. A voice echoes in my head, "You have done more than walk a path, you have gone off path and created your own road. Limitless roads can be created."
The wooden creatures, now looking scared started to huddle together, destroying each other. Finding this too odd I do not move. Something is about to happen. Those destroying themselves is too convenient. Just as I finish the thought, the dismantled corpses began to glow, they floated into the air and came together, and one giant wooden creature nearly 10 times my size formed, and roared at me. The wooden giant raised its paw and swung down on me, but nothing happened. Before I myself could even notice, my hoof had blocked the hit, the ground beneath me destroyed as the wooden giant's paw hits my hoof. Looking at my own hoof I see something different. Scales. My hoof had grown scales. Before I could think about why this had happened the giant wooden creature leaned in, snapping its jaws at me. Jumping backwards with great speed another thing came to vision. Wings. What is going on?! No. I can figure out what has happened after I deal with this monster. Wait, this thing is the monster? Something about this is humorous. " If you're a monster... That can only mean that I'm a bigger monster than you are" I say to the giant wooden monster. It must have understood me because it gave a mighty roar, shaking the ground. 
Suddenly I feel heat swelling up in my stomach. If it’s a roar of monsters, than surely I have one as well. Feeling my body become hot from the heat I inhale air, almost as if I'm feeding the heat or maybe even cooling it down, with no mouth to show I shout at the top of my lungs. An ominous roar shaking the ground I question if this roar is really coming from me, but the shattering of the ground beneath me shows that I am the cause of this. Flames all of a sudden sprouted all over the wooden creature’s body as it yelped in pain. Flapping my wings I dive into the creature flames blazing from my hooves as I tear through the wooden giant. Before I know it the creature burst into multiple wooden monsters, back to the size that had attacked me in the beginning. 
My wings and scales suddenly disappeared, the flames disperse, but the smoke remained. "That's probably not good for the environment." I say to myself. Looking around the forest that I nearly burned down and destroyed, the terrain was either burned or smashed, the smell of burning wood filling the air. Suddenly the sky comes to view along with the smoke from my fires. I had fallen onto my back. As I lay on my back I see something running towards me, my vision being blurry from the impact of landing on my back suddenly because vivid as the 3 fillies come to vision and cover my body with theirs. All I can hear are apologies, and crying filling the air. "Fillies sure are a handful aren't they?" I think to myself chuckling a bit. 
"Lookit all these holes in his legs, and his neck, and his back! We have to get the adults!" Apple Bloom had shouted. Almost as she said it the group of mares all came together.
"What happened here?!" Twilight had shouted, she was most likely shocked by the terraforming of the Everfree Forest.
"Never mind that!" The small white one shouted, “We need to bring this stallion to the hospital! We can talk later!"
The others agreeing with them, I am picked up by Rainbow Dash. Feeling fainter than ever, I close my eyes and finally rest. It’s so odd. When you're sleeping time is irrelevant. You could be asleep for an hour and have spent years in a dream world. But what had happened was no dream. Staring into the darkness a spotlight from nowhere reveals a figure in front of me. Having no clue who it was, I walk around him. Wait. That's the scarf Rarity gave me. This scaled creature is me. I look like some sort of dragon. My wings have some sort of horns coming out of the tips, my hooves giving off some sort of flame, and my unicorn horn still seems to be there. As a matter of fact it’s glowing. This must be what I became. But why did I become this creature? The creature covers the bottom half of its head, the area where the mouth would usually be and a voice is heard, “It’s time for you to wake up..."
I open my eyes and all I can see is white, my blurry eyesight becoming vivid I see that I am staring at a roof. Ugh. I feel heavy. I feel like spots of my body are heavy, I look down to see the 3 fillies from earlier laying on top of me, sleeping. Looking around I see a white curtain surrounding this bed I'm in, and a silhouette of 7 ponies. I hear the sounds of a stallion talking, “Quite honestly I have seen nothing like this. His face has some sort of line going around his head in a vertical line up the side of his head, you just have to move around his coat and you can see it. You say he grew a horn, but his horn looks as though it has been there all his life, the x-rays don't even show his skull or bones. Also his mane shows no signs of being singed at all despite his scarf obviously looking as though it’s been set on fire. The wholes from the teeth of those Timberwolves should heal in about 2 weeks. I don't know how he did it, but he should feel lucky to have escaped a Timberwolf pack attack, much less a Dire Timberwolf attack. I'm sure those stories you were told about him turning into a dragon was just the children's overactive imagination, due to the traumatic shock they were put through. If anything he is indeed a hero... Or a monster hahahaha."
Suddenly I hear the door close and the curtain is opened, all the mares from earlier were here. "Oh you're awake. I hope you don't mind those little ones, they all were very worried about you," Twilight explained. Looking closer at the sleeping fillies, their faces were wet with what I assume were tears. Even the blanket around their faces were wet. I try to sit up, but I feel none of my muscles cooperating, using magic I write with a nearby pen and paper stating that I couldn't move, and that I wanted to know where I was. "You are in the Ponyville hospital. Can you tell us what exactly happened to you?" Twilight asked. Grabbing the pen with my magic again I begin to write. The pen however ran out of ink. Suddenly remember talking to myself in my dream I use magic to cover my bottom half of my face with my scarf, and suddenly I became able to talk.
"I chased down the fillies, just as Applejack asked. When I found them, they were surrounded by what you call Timberwolves. I couldn't let them attack the fillies so I dove into them and gave them time to run away. I had no clue they were watching from afar," I explain. Twilight asked about why I was now capable of talking," I had a dream that I was talking to myself, and the me I talked to covered his mouth with a scarf to talk. The Timberwolf attack was so. Weird. I was scared. I thought I was going to die. If it weren't for Spike I think I would have died," I explain. The mares look at each other in confusion and ask about why Spike was the reason for my survival. I reply, “He gave me this book on dragons. The book Twilight wrote, I think when I used that book to 'adapt' it allowed me to somehow transform, when all hope was lost. I became a dragon yet a stallion at the same time. It was so weird." The mares talked among each other confused about my "transforming" and the story, but I don't blame them.
"If anything we owe you a very large debt of gratitude to you Tumult. You saved those fillies. You saved our sisters," Rainbow Dash explained, rubbing Scootaloo's head, but turning red once the other ponies began to giggle. "I mean you saved the little fillies... Ahem... My number 1 Pupil I mean. And you did it in a totally rad way too! You should show me this 'transformation' sometime!" All the other ponies agreed, they all seemed interested in the transformation. I don't even know if I can do it again, much less control when I can do it.
Suddenly I hear groaning, looking down I see the fillies on top of me of me yawning and waking up. I admit if there were a word to describe this I would say adorable. All 3 of them seeing me all at once their eyes grew wide, as well as their pupils, "Malty!" They shouted. Suddenly being dived at pain and confusion surge through my body. Shouting in pain from the areas I was bitten, it takes a while but I finally calm down. Asking about why they were calling me "Malty" Scootaloo responded, “Your name Tu-Tum-Tumul.... ARGH! We can't even say it! We heard your name and the last part sounded like 'malt' you know, like a milkshake or something. So we decided to call you "Malty" since calling you 'Malt' seems weird, and your real name is too hard for us to remember. Is that okay?" I wanted to say 'no' but their big eyes had already sealed the deal to my response. I agreed to let them call me 'Malty.'
"Okay my little ponies I think it's time to let 'Malty' sleep," Twilight announced. Rainbow Dash and Applejack began to chuckle because of the name, while Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie awed. I for the first time in my life, feel embarrassed.
"Wait! This could be the perfect time for us to try and see if we can get a nurse cutie mark!" Apple Bloom shouted as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle joined in, raising their hoofs. "Cutie Mark Crusaders: Nursing is a go! YAY!!!" Being shushed by a passing by nurse, they whispered "yaaaay...." Twilight levitating them, began to walk out with them out the door, but I told her it was fine for them to stay if they really wanted to. Twilight and every pony but the "Crusaders" were against it for some reason, but I stated that if they wanted to stay it would be fine... Hours later I see why they were so against the "Crusaders" staying with me.