Chapter 2 Horses of Houses
Ryan walked past a short, wooden fence she assumed bordered the apple orchard.
It had taken a good deal of hopefully not walking in circles, but she’d finally made it out of the farmland. By her estimates, it had been hour since her encounter with the earlier beast of burden. She reflected that she probably spent more time than was really needed hiding in the tree, but who could really blame her? Every time the rationality in her head said it was safe to come down, the forceful will of fear would sit her back down until it finally decided it was safe for itself.
Now walking down a gravelly road, the expansive farm behind her, she could see the beginnings of a small town up ahead. To some confusion, she could make out not the typical small town structures she expected, but also what looked like old fashion wooden houses complete with thatched roofs. Again, where on Earth was she? Some traditional people’s land in the middle of nowhere? She certainly couldn’t recognize any of her close surroundings, having not checked the distant landmarks yet. Speaking of which…
Ryan looked off into the distances. Maybe with closer attention she’d recognize a mountain range or something. She’d seen the Appalachian mountains within view of her home town enough times to get a sense of them, right? To her left were… no actual mountains to look at. Forward… nope. To her right… just a castle. She turned around, walk-
She shot her head back fast enough to give her whiplash.
She wasn’t just seeing things. There was a massive castle built into the side of the mountain, going more vertical than horizontal. Even from her distance of hours of walking away, she could sense the pure regal vibe the grand architecture gave off. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in the mood to admire anything. Instead, she was dumbfounded, her mind gone completely blank. Well, except for one question that continued to repeat in her head to an even greater extent.
If only she had her phone, she could probably get a signal in the oncoming town, giving her some much needed answers, but that was long gone. The now music-deprived woman had gone back to the spot where she’d thrown it at the foul creature, but either she had misjudged where it was or the horse had stolen it. She could almost imagine it listening to her tunes with an evil smirk what with its hat and all. She shook her head. Maybe later she would go back and look again, but that was second priority to her current goal.
Turning away from the grand castle, forcing her curiosity into determination, she returned to her pace, passing a sign that was written in words she couldn’t read. After a castle, it didn’t surprise her too much. Just more fuel for the fires of mystery. In a bit of time after passing it, she was just about at the border of town.
Ryan felt a swish of air go by above her head, stopping her. It was stronger and too random for a simple breeze of air. Following the direction she went in, she traced it to a bird flying a bit upwards. Oddly, it was either closer to the ground than her eyes told her or it was a gigantic feathered flier… that also had a tail of hairs instead of feathers that were billowing in the wake of flight… and that also had a blonde mane going down its elongated neck… with the unmistakable shape of hooves hanging off of its four limbs…
Ryan stared blankly as it landed on the ground in front of a house on the outskirts of town, knocking on the door. In a few moments it opened to reveal another similarly built creature, this one without wings but sporting a monotone coat and mane of gray shades, who smile at the flier. It, oddly enough, as if it wasn’t odd enough already, moved its mouth as if talking, even forming its lips into different positions as one would when making a variety of sounds. The flier bobbed its head into a nod, then proceeded to reach into a bag at its side and pull out a letter, giving it to the one at the door, then, with a wave at more “words” from the other, took off and glided down the street and out of sight.
The wide-eyed woman watched it as far as she could until she turned her complete and total attention to the town in front of her. Only now did she see the clearly non-human residents doing clearly human-like things from gardening small patches of homely flowers in a yard to operating behind business stands, stacks of products standing with them ready to be distributed to the ones that took a spot of the line. From windows she caught sights of the unnaturally colorful things working away at their daily lives or thoroughly slacking off with just as much effort. Even smaller, possibly younger ones, were running wildly about, much to the annoyance of the adults that tried to mind themselves. It was a lively and quaint little town brimmed with its equine community.
Ryan broke her intensive staring. She took a few steps backwards in a distant manner, before promptly turning and picking up her pace, soon finding herself in a brisk run for the second time that day, aiming for nowhere.
Her departure was quick and quiet; she almost escaped completely unnoticed.
The human leaned, hunched over, panting as she put a hand to a tree trunk for support. She wasn’t an athlete, never had been, but could endure when she needed to.
Ryan was overwhelmed. Not just now, but ever since she’d awakened in that blasted farm where she was chased by a blasted horse that stole her blasted phone that could tell her why a blasted castle was on a blasted mountain! All that she needed was a tip, one little push, before she careened off the rails of a bridge expanding over a canyon, sending her down to a chaotic flurry of twisted rationalization and illogical conclusions. The woman considered herself a sensible person but there was only so much she could take. A town completely consisting of seemingly intelligent horses doing human things was just a bit past her line. The fact that at least one could fly, something straight out of mythology, certainly did not help.
She collapsed to the ground, ending up in a sitting position. Nothing made sense. She resented this forsaken land for it. A brutal mixture of confusion and frustration welled up inside her, threatening to burst open. However, she wasn’t keen to the idea of letting it hold inside of her, letting it simmer and erupt in a much worse manner later. So she yelled.
“What the hell is going on?!” Ryan cried out into the forest around her, a brief echo audible. She waited for a moment, almost expecting an answer, but, of course, none came. She didn’t feel much better.
With a sigh, she leaned back against a tree, her mind a buzz. The woman had no idea what was going on. She figured it was probably bigger than a simple asking of “Where am I?” now. There was no place in the world where horses ran around acting like they were human. Something bigger was going on. To her misery, however, there was nothing she knew she could do. She was stuck here, alone and without any guiding.
Ryan scooted down a bit until she was fully lying on the grass. She gazed up at the tree canopy. It wasn’t too dense, letting in a few shafts of light. Pondering, she ran her hand through her dark blonde hair, unintentionally reaching a scar that had yet to fade out, and probably never would, on her forehead. Maybe I’m just asleep. Maybe if I go to sleep right now I’ll wake up at home. It was an appealing, easy solution to her frayed mind.
A strand of an idea flowed to her as she simply lay, distracting herself with thoughts. She gave it a moment’s consideration, more than she felt it deserved, before dismissing it. Never would she go to those hellish creatures for help. Just the thought of them were automatically repulsive to her, if not fear-inducing.
Maybe that’s where I am, she thought, emitting a small chuckle, hell. Certainly would fit, if not for the lack of fire.
The tree above her exploded into a mess of embers and woodchips, the upper half being blown some distance away as it suddenly timbered in an instant and began spreading its newfound flames to its former neighbors.
Ryan shrieked in surprise, scrambling away on all fours as splinters rained down on her, cutting gashes into her skin, her clothes doing nothing in the way of protection. Cringing in pain and disoriented from the exposure to such a randomly intense ball of heat, she rolled herself clumsily behind a different, thankfully not burning tree. She peeked around aimlessly with no clue as to what had caused the inferno. Hopefully it wasn’t the tree itself. She backed a bit away from her wooden cover. Exploding trees really weren’t needed at the moment and after seeing what else this land had, she wouldn’t put it past the greenery to spontaneously combust.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, she discovered her answer wasn’t explosive trees, but instead was the form of a serpentine… thing slithering about the ground, hungry intent in its eyes. The woman gasped; it was easily a foot wide and the length of limousine!
And it was also staring at her…
Looks like it was actually “unfortunately.”
It bared its mouth of fangs, saliva dripping off of its mouth, and let off a predatory hissing sound, not unlike a cat but much more sinister, before bellowing a great breath of red, fiery blazes. Ryan screamed as it shot past, barely leaving her an ashen spot on the ground but grazing across her side. She jumped up and ran, hurtling through the course of shrubbery, trying to get anywhere but here. Her escape was thwarted, however, as she soon found out rather painfully that she couldn’t outrun it.
Razors of jagged teeth sank into her leg at the calf muscle. She collapsed, tears springing to her eyes, catching a glimpse of the monstrosity that assailed her enjoying the taste of a hunt. It only got worse as it pulled out of her leg, impossibly more painfully, and loomed up to her more vital torso area.
Ryan stared back at the embodiment of death. She was crying and in an innumerable amount of pain, but something else was going on inside of her. All the frustration of the day came back to her. Everything from the town to the castle to that damned horse. All of this boiled up in an oily mix and was sparked by the monster that had decided to make her day. She remembered that it holding in emotion always ended up exploding out in the end.
With an angry screech and in a blind, instinct-driven haze she swatted the beast with the back of her hand, catching it off guard for a brief moment. That was all she needed. She took the fleeting second to zero in on her now best defense: a rock just within reach. Seething, she grabbed it with her other hand and brought clashing against the serpent’s skull, forcing its head to the ground next to her side in a daze. She wasted no time. Leaning forward, adrenaline disregarding the pain for her, she brought the stone down on the beasts head again and again, blind anger fueling the weapon of her hand.
At the sound of a large cracking sound ringing out, she stopped, watching the thing’s lack of movement. A moment of morbid satisfaction whispered to her before pain yelled back at it. She landed headfirst on the ground as an odd numbness started coming up from her bitten leg. She prayed it wasn’t poison, but that it was just the peace of going to sleep or something. Anything but poison.
But what did it matter anyway, really? some part of her still-conscious mind reflected. If it was poison, she wouldn’t wake up to find out.
From the bushes watched a shadow that had been following the strange, bipedal creature ever since spotting it leave town. She was drawn first by its appearance, then by its random yell in the forest. Then she was treated in awe yet also horror as the wyvern-like creature of the Everfree attacked it but actually ended up as the loser of their gruesome match, much to her surprise.
She pushed her glasses up onto her horn as realization took over. The biped was probably dying as she sat around and thought about it! She raced over to check how bad it was. Its leg was, as she already knew, torn open by the wyvern’s long fangs, but a better opportunity to examine it showed a number of splinters scattered along her body accompanied by the singe of clothing and, to her disgust, skin. The thought to check for a pulse came, but she didn’t know where that would be on the different species.
Hope driving her, she gently set the biped onto her back and galloped off in search of the one pony she hoped could help.
Stats
Page generated in 0.039 seconds
Total duration
1,041 users online
2,165,816 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh god, the moment when she wakes up...
4980682
She'll scream and run out; even when the occupants of the town realize why she's scared, they won't know how to deal with it.
4980682
I do think this is how she is going to see it :
media3.giphy.com/media/uILS8Hat0PqAo/giphy.gif
..Maybe with more incoherent screaming.
Can't wait!
I feel like she hates horses more then fears them, it would be better then just screaming and running away because that would be irritating. But I do like this story can't wait for it to update!
remember stay classy
Interesting.
rs1ci.memecdn.com/315/5046315.gif
A mare with glasses? I can only think of two, and one is just a filly while the other wouldn't be prowling around the edge of town, and she doesn't strike me as the curious type that would follow a creature like that.
4980989 No, it really does not add to the story, and that comment tells me you have no idea what a true phobia entails. Size has nothing to do with the situation, a true phobia results in either near-paralyzing fear or a full panic response with no regard for reason.
I once saw someone with a phobia of heights (acrophobia) trying to climb, and he totally froze up as soon as he got a few feet off the ground. It did not matter that a fall from that height would barely hurt or that he was strapped into a safety harness, he could not push past about two feet without major encouragement.
She will most definitely lock up and/or run when confronted with a horse as we saw in this story, just like someone with arachnophobia will lock up and/or run when confronted with a spider. Size means absolutely nothing to someone with a phobia of a specific creature, all that matters is that what she is seeing registers as the object of the phobia in her mind (this frequently includes similar objects such as zebras and horses).
4983302 I have acrophobia and it's hard to get up a ten foot ladder with it, so yeah size is irrelevant.
WHO THE FUCK NAMES THEIR DAUGHTER RYAN!?
4983973 Not sure, but it does happen.
4983983 I don't know why, but it bothers me to the point where I can't read the story anymore.
4984020 I am honestly sorry to hear that, but it does sometimes happen.
4983973
I once knew a girl named Bulimia. Seriously, her parents named her Bulimia. Happily, she changed it when she was old enough.
4983973
the same parents that would name their daughter "Anita" when their last name is "Cok"
4987462
People who don't love their child? Also, would Harry be a good middle name for Anita?
4988388
of course!
Suuuuuuure you don't want to go to those... hellish creatures, for help?
interesting
Question to you all:
Do you all prefer the somewhat-frequent 2000-word chapters or would lengthier chapters that take a few extra days be preferred?
Thank you all for your support!
4983973 I knew a girl named Jo.
4980718
Every size chart is an estimation made by the fans, and the sizes themselves jump around in the show itself. There about as canon as any other fan made guess. There is absolutely zero obligation to hold the size charts as canon or a rule.
Glasses? ...Hm, only adult mare I can think of is... No. It can't be. SONATA?
She finds the, to us, expected town of ponies? cue total panic music... [youtube=Xhx_B45xxxQ]
The word you're looking for here is Immeasurable. Continue
okay, gotta call bs. So applejack just GAVE UP following her? WHat, she goes "oh my, got hit in the face with a phone, I guess I'll go wander off and leave this weird alien to its own devices?"
5301793
I imagine she noticed how fucking weird that situation was, and went to get help from either RD (to help in the chase) or Twilight (to see if she knows anything).
5301793
Since she didn't know what it was she probably thought it was just a random animal and she needed to talk to Fluttershy about explaining to the varmint about leaving her crop be.
I think it was meant more like she threw the phone and AJ got hit by it, then she fell into a heap as she tripped, since she was disorientated.
Ryan just ran into the everfree, that girl has poor luck.
But honestly, can't the Ponies just set a big ass sign in front of the everfree forest that unmistakably marks the danger of that certain area?
Like I dunno, A very big black skull? Or a red manticore rearing up on his hind legs with a yellow background and a black skull on the left site? Yellow, red and black are colors that draw attention, and if one sees a manticore in an aggressive pose with a skull on the other side, then it means clearly means danger ahead.
Here's the big problem so far: Ryan just doesn't seem all that afraid of horses/ponies, and we're being told she's afraid of them more than shown it. I think about how I would handle suddenly being in a world with giant, sapient, society-building spiders and compare it with what we've seen of her reaction so far. She's handling things much better than I would, to put it lightly. (The description does have it that this is a world of "pure horror" for her, after all.)
Altogether, a lot of the writing in this story is disappointingly weak. That said, while I did have higher hopes for this story than it's living up to, it's nevertheless holding together pretty well. The story manages the get it right where it counts, such that the individual weaker points don't add up to terribly much. So long as the aforementioned issue with the characterization of Ryan's supposed phobia doesn't get worse, I think I'll continue to like this story.
She's gonna go see Lyra!
5301793 I thought she knocked her over? The phone knocked over the farmer, the human quickly found a tree to hide behind, the farmer assumes the missing human must have used cartoon logic to escape when she wasn't looking.
I am preeety sure the distance is days away, since they are going to Canterlot by train!
Venom. VENOM! Poison comes from plants and has to be inhaled or ingested. Venom has to enter the bloodstream via open wound. You can drink venom and unless you have stomach ulcers, all it will do is give you indigestion.
I was expecting more fear. She has a phobia and they are usually horrible, especially how she got this one. i expected a panic attack.