• Published 31st Oct 2013
  • 7,475 Views, 340 Comments

Don't Go Into the Everfree Forest, TD - BronyWriter



TD goes into the Evrefree Forest after one of Fluttershy's lost chickens, and comes across something that will change him forever...

  • ...
41
 340
 7,475

It Just Might Change You

Knock, knock, knock.

I cracked an eye open and glanced at my door. The fact that it was still night out told me that I really didn't want to answer it right now, but the small conscience at the back of my mind told me that it would be rude not to, since whoever was on the other side obviously knew I was here.

Of course, the other part of my brain told me that said pony should know that I was sleeping, so they shouldn't bother me, should they?

Eh, I figured that I might as well see what they wanted. I knew that Twilight and Co. wouldn't ever knock unless it was an emergency, and I would help in the event of an emergency. I groaned and pushed myself up before slipping on a shirt so I would be decent when I opened up the door. I opened it up and, to my utter lack of surprise, Fluttershy was on the other side. She was nervously pawing at the ground and her wings were fluttering. She was clearly nervous about something. She widened her eyes when she saw me, and, I kid you not, threw herself at my feet.

"TD! Oh thank Celestia you're here!"

I sighed and rubbed my temples. "What is it, Fluttershy? Not to be rude, but it's late and I'm tired, so it had better be important."

Fluttershy vigorously nodded. "It is! I promise it is! Abbywing got out through a hole in the chicken coop and ran out into the Everfree Forest! I have to get her before something happens, but it's dangerous to go alone!"

I groaned and facepalmed. "Okay... are you sure I'm really the best guy for this? I can't fly and I can't do any magic."

"Please!" Fluttershy wailed. "Twilight doesn't get back from Canterlot until early tomorrow morning, Rainbow is in Cloudsdale for a weather conference, Rarity is up all night working on an order that she has to deliver to Baltimare in two hours, Pinkie is working with the Cakes for another important competition, and Applejack is getting ready for a trip to Appleloosa tomorrow!"

Fluttershy's lower lip quivered, and I knew I had been roped into it right then. Oy. Seriously, the most hard-hearted jerk in the world wouldn't be able to resist Fluttershy whimpering at them. They say that they would, but they really wouldn't. I sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll help you find your chicken."

Fluttershy squealed and wrapped her forelegs around my legs. "Oh thank you, TD!" She released me and began hovering a few feet into the air, grasping my hand with her hooves and pulling me towards the forest. "We haven't a moment to lose! She might be in danger already!"

I pulled my hand out and took a moment to put my shoes on before following her towards the forest. I half-listened to her talk about how worried she was that Abbywing, or whatever the chicken's name was, was in the forest, and how dangerous it was for her and all that, but my mind was back in bed where my body should have been. I didn't really care to go into one of the most dangerous places in Equestria after a chicken in the middle of the night, thank you very much.

Still... maybe if we found the chicken and it was dead, I could eat it. I mean, it's not like she's going to do anything else with it...

No, I had to focus on Fluttershy. It would be insensitive. If she dragged me into the forest to rescue it, she wasn't going to let me eat it if it was dead. She was probably going to give it a proper burial and all that. I inwardly sighed as we reached the edge of the forest near Fluttershy's cottage, and tuned back in to Fluttershy.

"... and I've just been so worried about her! You know how the Everfree Forest can be!"

"Uh-huh."

I swear I wasn't trying to be rude. Anyway, we walked into the forest through a path through the trees that was there for some reason. Probably because it led to Celestia's old castle. Made sense to me. The moonlight shone on the ground, and I saw little chicken tracks heading into the forest. Perfect. All we had to do was follow those and get the chicken.

So it's just our luck that the dumb bird had to go off of the path. I sighed and led Fluttershy through the increasingly long grass, pushing it aside every once in a while to see if we were still following the tracks. "So, you had another chicken who did this already, right?"

Fluttershy vigorously nodded. "Yes! The Crusaders scared my chickens and Elizabeak ran into the forest too. She was turned into stone by a cockatrice, the poor thing!"

I sighed again and shook my head. Fluttershy doesn't want her chickens going into the forest, but she has holes in her fences and she lives right next to it. Brilliant move there, Fluttershy. Your chickens go missing, then I have to go get them late at night. Yuck.

I saw a thick set of branches before us, but the tracks went that way, so I led Fluttershy towards it. I began to push some of the branches aside so that the two of us could go through, and, since I was chivalrous and all, I stepped through first to make sure that nothing was waiting for us on the other end. Nothing really bad was, but the second I put my foot down, I felt a wetness soaking my leg. I grunted and noticed that I stepped in a pool of water that has gone up to my knee, and it's only the fact that I'm holding onto a tree branch that kept me from falling flat onto my face.

"Oh goodness, are you okay, TD?" Fluttershy poked her head through the hole in the branches that I made. "Are you hurt?"

I grimaced, and Fluttershy let me lean on her while I pulled my leg out of the puddle. "I'm fine. It's just wet is all." I shook my leg to get some of the water off of it, but I could already tell that I was going to be miserable until I could get out of those pants. My leg was already starting to itch like crazy. "Let's just find your chicken and get out of here, okay?"

Fluttershy nodded and went through the hole, being careful to avoid the puddle. "Of course. We only have to... there she is!"

I looked up and saw that she was pointing towards a small bush. Sure enough, there was her silly little chicken, clucking and hopping around like it doesn't have a care in the world. Fluttershy flies over to it and begins scolding it like it’s a person. I rolled my eyes, but since her special talent is animals, maybe the chicken could understand her and I just didn't know it. The chicken did hop onto her back at any rate.

Fluttershy turned back to me with a smile. "We're all set to get out of here, TD. Abbywing seems fine."

"Goodie," I grumbled. I moved the branches aside again and allowed Fluttershy and her dumb chicken to go through before I went through myself. We walked through the bushes and found out that the chicken did have a use: we followed her tracks back out of the forest, and given that we didn't have to spend any time looking around for anything, we were out of the forest in five minutes. Fluttershy brought her bird back to the chicken coop, and moved some heavy tree branches in front of the hole so no more chickens would get out.

I was so ready to be done for the night. I had thought that I was already going to be done for the night, but I guess not.

I had just finished moving the last branch in front of the hole when Fluttershy flew over to me with her smile still on her face. "Thank you, TD. I couldn't have found her without you."

"Don't mention it," I grunted.

"I'll hire somepony to completely build a new fence around the coop so this doesn't happen again." Fluttershy's smile faded, and her ears flattened. "I hate having to bother ponies like this."

"It's nothing. Like I said, don't mention it." I scratched my wet leg, which was steadily getting itchier, and stood up. "Well, I'll see you later, Fluttershy. Take care of your chickens, okay?"

* * * *

I cannot tell you how happy I was to get my wet clothes off and get into bed. I mean, talk about a rough night. Sure the whole thing took probably about half an hour, but that's a good half hour longer than I wanted to spend in the Everfree Forest. I got out of my wet pants and into bed within a minute of entering my house. I was asleep probably another minute or so after that.

I woke up to my alarm clock going off, and I turned it off quickly. The first thing that I registered once the ringing had died down was the fact that the leg that had gotten dipped in the puddle was itching like crazy, so I began scratching it, hoping that it would dull the itch, but... something was off.

I opened my eyes and raised my hand above the covers. When I scratched my leg, I felt something... weird. Almost as if something was coming off of my leg. I moved my hand closer to my eyes to examine it and I saw something under my fingernails.

Skin.

I sharply inhaled and threw back my covers. What I saw made me actually cry out in fear. The skin on my leg, from the knee all the way down to the sole of my foot, was peeling. I'm not talking something like "few days old sunburn" sort of peeling, I'm talking "you can see your muscle now" peeling.

I whimpered and slowly poked my leg. I could still feel it, but it itched like crazy, and I really wanted nothing more than to scratch it, despite the fact that I knew it would peel off more of my skin. I took a deep breath and tried wiggling my toes to see if my brain could still send commands to my decaying leg, and, to my horror, I found that my toes were completely unresponsive. I looked at my foot to see if they hadn't flat out fallen off yet, and I let out another shriek when I saw what was wrong. My toes were gone, but not in the way I expected. They were fused together almost completely, to the point where it looked like I just had an elongated foot.

Sliding to a sitting position, I accidentally moved my leg, and more of my skin on my calf came off. I flinched back, but my mind didn't hesitate to tell me that I had scratched the itch a little bit, and scratching the itch did help. A lot. Those places where the skin was completely peeled away? They didn't itch anymore. The idea that I could stop all of the itching was... tempting. That's how bad it was.

No. I couldn't do that. I had to save as much of my leg as possible, and to do that, I had to resist the urge to scratch my leg. Still, a little examination couldn't hurt, though. I gently leaned forward and bent my leg so that I could take a closer look at it. Well, more specifically the places where the skin was completely gone. Exposed muscle wasn't something that I wasn't keen on, but if that was infected then that was a very bad thing.

However, closer examination of my leg revealed that the portions where the skin was gone wasn't replaced my muscle, but a light red hair. I gently brushed my hand over it, and my eyes widened when I realized what the texture reminded me of: pony fur.

My skin was being peeled away and replaced with pony fur.

With a yelp, I shot to my feet, subconsciously surprised that my right foot still supported my weight, and tried to think through my options. There was only one pony in all of Ponyville that could help me, and I hoped that she was back already.

* * * *

Putting on a fresh pair of pants to hide my deformity resulted in a lot more of my skin being peeled off, but I wasn't ready to go walking around Ponyville with my leg on full display. I limped towards Twilight's treehouse, praying to whomever that she would be there, take one look at my leg, and say "Oh, that's just a nasty case of the Equestrian equivalent of poison ivy. Not Poison joke either, something else. I can have a cure ready for that in ten minutes."

Somehow I doubted that would be the case, but I couldn't help but hope. It's all I had to go on at the moment.

I reached the tree house and began pounding on the door. It wasn't too early, about ten in the morning, so unless Twilight's train was delayed, she would be there. Luck was slightly on my side in that endeavor, and within a few seconds the door was opened by Spike. He gave me a greeting nod. "Hey, TD. What can we do for you?"

"Hey, Spike, is Twilight here?" I grimaced and looked into the library behind him. "It's an emergency."

Spike's eyes widened, and he stepped aside. "Yeah, come in! She's making some tea right now, but she should be done any minute."

I walked past Spike and into the library where Twilight was walking into the main room, a cup of tea being levitated in front of her. She looked over to me when she saw me and smiled. "Hello, TD. How are you?"

"Horrible. I'm—" I tensed up as the itching feeling in my leg intensified, and I subconsciously reached down to scratch it, but held back. However, I did notice one thing: the feeling was spreading. I only got wet up to my knee, but I felt the itch at my hip. I balled my fist and bit my lip. "I think I'm turning into a pony again."

Twilight's eyes widened, and she quickly set her teacup down. "What?! What do you mean?!"

"I went into the Everfree Forest after one of Fluttershy's chickens last night." I grimaced and sat down on the floor with my back to one of the bookshelves. "I stepped in some sort of water, and now my freaking skin is peeling off." I tensed up again as the itch got worse. "You gotta help me get rid of it. My leg is half pony already!"

"Okay, come down to the basement." Twilight ran over to one of the bookshelves and levitated a half dozen books off of it. "I'll see what I can find about it. Hopefully we can get it fixed up, but we have to find out what caused it first."

I nodded and followed her down to the basement after Twilight ordered Spike to hold down the fort while she dealt with me. She directed me to a nearby chair and put the books on a nearby desk. "Alright. Let's see your leg."

I nodded and took off my shoes, socks, and pants, and flinched back when I saw my leg. It had gotten worse, even though I hadn't been scratching at it. My leg was now two thirds pony fur. I gingerly poked at my foot, which had begun molding into a different shape, and felt that it was a little harder than normal. It was turning into a hoof.

I looked up at Twilight, who was looking at my leg with wide eyes and an open mouth. "TD, I... I've never seen anything like this before. I've never even heard of anything like this before!" Twilight levitated one of her books over to her and began flipping through it. "What did you say happened? You stepped in a puddle?"

I nodded and clenched my fists so hard my fingernails began digging into my palms. I couldn't scratch my leg. I'd lose more skin if I did that, and who knew if I would get it back? No. I had to control the urge.

Still... the bits that were pony fur now didn't itch. Maybe just a little wouldn't...

No. I had to focus. I couldn't do that. Twilight would find something about how it was some enchanted water, and she'd cook up a cure in ten minutes and I'd be as good as new.

"Tell me you have something!" I snapped after a few minutes.

Twilight shifted uncomfortably and snapped her third book shut. "I don't really have much to go on, TD. I mean, all you said is that you stepped in some water in the Everfree Forest. That's too vague for me to work with."

"Well that's all that happened." My left arm twitched as the itch continued spreading up to my ribs. I couldn't scratch it. It would only make things worse, and I couldn't be all pony. Maybe once I became all pony the transformation would be permanent. That was certainly an unsettling thought. I clenched my fists harder.

Twilight shook her head and put the book down. "Okay, the only thing that I can think of to do is to go to where the water is, get a sample, and start running some tests on it. If I can figure out what it is then I can figure out a cure."

"Whatever it takes," I said through clenched teeth. "Just help. Me. Stop. The. Itching!"

It felt like insects were crawling under my skin, and I couldn't do anything about it. Not if I wanted to keep my human form, which, if my foot was any indication, was rapidly going anyway. Still, I had to show Twilight where the pool was, so I slowly pushed myself to my feet...

And immediately collapsed onto the ground when a searing pain shot through my damaged leg. Without thinking, I clutched at it, tearing off more skin... but satiating some of the itch.

"Are you okay, TD?" Twilight ran over to me and took a closer look at my leg. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't think that I can go on an Everfree trek," I groaned. "I can't put any weight on my leg for some reason."

Twilight sighed and straightened up. "Well, then I guess you have to stay here while I go. You said that Fluttershy went with you, right?" I nodded. "Well, she'll have to show me where the water, or whatever it is, is located so I can get a sample." Twilight gave me a small smile and put a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm going to help you, TD. If I can't then, I'm going to get Princess Celestia to help you."

"Whatever it takes."

Twilight nodded and trotted up the stairs, leaving me alone in the basement. I hoped that she would be back soon, but I had no reason to think that she wouldn't rush back as soon as she could. Meanwhile I just had to sit here and endure this rapidly spreading itch that just would not go away. It only went away if I scratched it, and couldn't scratch it!

Or could I? I mean, maybe a little bit wouldn't hurt. Just to take the edge off. Just a little bit. After all, it's just a little skin. I... I have more.

Author's Note:

First chapter of two. This is a teaser really. Next chapter it gets really good.