• Published 1st Jun 2015
  • 11,330 Views, 1,086 Comments

Four Hooves - destinedjagold



A human was transported to Equestria and transformed into a pony. Unfortunately, he needs to get back home, and Equestria doesn't look the same as in the show.

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2 - 07

The gloomy forest’s ceiling is full of dark green leaves, leaving little gaps for the morning sun to poke its rays through, beaming at random spots on the foresty floor like little spotlights here and there. I pass through a beam of light, softly hitting my eye as I listen to the melodic chirps and tweets and the occasional rustling noises from scurrying squirrels and other rodents that echo all around, helping me tolerate this rooty, slightly rocky, uneven and littered-with-dead-and-decaying-leaves path that Sienna and I are trekking on. A soft breeze must have passed the treetops, accompanying the current forest music with soft rustling melodies of the leaves that lasted for a few short seconds. The air here is cool, calm and refreshingly fresh, soothing my lungs in each inhale I take.

“Jay...” I hear Sienna call, who’s walking a few hooves behind me. “What did you tell him?”

“Hm?” I stop and look back at her. “Tell him?”

She stops walking, her emerald eyes rolling. “The predator, Jay. Who else am I talking about?”

“Ah...” She is a very impatient deer, no? I return my gaze ahead and resume my walk, feeling the saddlebags brushing against my furry sides each step I make and feeling my ears slightly twitch after I hear Sienna’s soft hoofsteps behind me. “Reykan... Well...” I see a low-hanging branch up ahead, devoid of leaves.

And then a small, brown squirrel suddenly scurries up the tree from the ground and settles on that branch, scratching or cleaning its cute, little head, it’s long and bushy tail curling on its back.

I stop with a blink. Back home, I was never able to make a squirrel go near me, even if I was offering it some nuts. They eat nuts, right? If they don’t, then I’ve been nuts all along. Pun nut intended.

“Hello,” I say with a smile. Whew, this little guy’s cute, especially it’s cute, twitchy nose. “How are you today?”

“Uh...” I hear Sienna say from behind me. “...Are you...talking to a squirrel?”

I blink at that.

The little squirrel looks at us, turns to the tree, scurries to the trunk and quickly climbs up to the green sea above.

Sienna walks beside me, giving me a weird look. “...You know that they can’t talk, right? Nor can they understand us?”

“Er...” I feel my ears droop in shame. “I...I knew that! Um...”

She rolls her eyes but didn’t say anything, but the look she’s giving me tells me that she doesn’t believe me.

“Eh heh heh... Um...” I move forward, ducking my head to avoid the branch. “We should move on...”

Hm... I guess it’s safe to assume that not all animals here can talk. I wonder if talking and understanding speech is only exclusive to bigger animals like ponies and deer and panthers, while smaller animals like rabbits, squirrels and birds can’t.

Huh... That reminds me... I wonder where Fluttershy is in this world. She’s the only Mane Six pony I’ve yet to meet, or see.

“You didn’t answer my question, by the way,” Sienna suddenly says, breaking my train of thought.

Blinking, I give her a side-way glance. “Oh, uh, sorry... What did you ask again?”

“Reykan,” she answers. “You told him to leave, right? I want to know what you told him.”

“Oh... That... Well...” I look ahead, thinking of a response. Hm... “...I told him that you don’t like him, so he walked away with a broken heart.” I throw a pouty look at her.

She rolls her eyes yet again. “Well, at least he’s gone.”

Actually, no, he’s not. I simply told him to stalk us but not jump on us until we reach Swan Lake. If I hear him and see where he’s hiding, then his ‘training’ failed and I won’t help him move on to the next step...whatever the next step may be. ...I’ll...just come up with something.

...Reykan’s actually doing a good job though if even Sienna haven’t noticed his presence yet. It has been...what...almost an hour now since we left Twilight’s dead tree home. It’s...actually kinda scary... I know Reykan’s out there, stalking us, and I have no idea where he is.

...Well, at least he’s a panther of his word. I told him no biting, plus, I told him to stalk us until we reach Swan Lake, so there’s that, I guess...

“So...” I hear Sienna say, “...there’s no chance for you and Twilight to be mates, huh?”

I roll my eyes as I slightly shake my head. “No, Sienna. And please drop it already.”

She takes a second or two before she replies: “It’s just weird that you’ve spent a lot of time looking for her, but you two won’t end up being mates.” A pause. “It’s just...weird.”

I blink. “In...this world, maybe?”

Forest music, and then she mutters: “...If it was me, I’ll drag him back...”

I blink, and again. I look at her. “...Him?”

She quickly shakes her head. “It’s nothing...”

But I heard it. Who’s ‘him?’ Well, she won’t talk about it, so I might as well not ask. I return my attention ahead in time to duck my head from another branch.

“Is it normal in your Equestria?”

“Huh? What is?”

“You, or anyone else in your Equestria, searching for someone, but not ending up getting what you really want.”

I slightly shake my head. “Sienna, I don’t want Twilight and I to be mates. Nor do I need us to be one.” I close my eyes, take a breath, and reopen my eyes. “In fact, I’m not looking for a mate. Period. I just...” I let out a sigh... “...want to go home.”

Silence...save for the natural foresty noises all around us.

I take a breath and sigh through my nostrils. “Different ponies and other creatures pursue stuff with different intentions and purposes. Not everyone’s the same, you know.”

“I suppose...” She pauses. “What is it like?”

I turn my head to give her a side glance. “What do you mean?”

“Your Equestria,” she says, looking really curious. “Twilight showed us what your Equestria looks like. And it’s... I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “I don’t understand what I saw.”

Hm... I return my attention ahead as I think of a response. But...how can one explain civilization to someone who doesn’t know what civilization is? ...Derp... “Well, uh... The food’s not grass?”

I hear her chuckle.

“And uh... No predators?”

A pause. “Really?”

I shrug. “Well, I don’t think so, at least. There are still wild animals in forests running around, but they’re not sapient, I think, and ponies and other sapient creatures don’t live in forests. So yeah...”

“No predators...” she mutters. “...That sounds like a nice place to live.”

I smile a small smile. “Well, you could say tha—”

Rustling noises.

I stop, and so does my deer companion. We turn our heads and look at the direction where that rustling noise is coming from. Our gazes land on that rustling pile of bushes meters away from us. And then something...black, shiny, sphere-like head thing pokes out from the shrubs.

“Uh—”

“Don’t move,” I hear Sienna hiss. “Don’t make a sound either.”

“But you’re mak—”

“Shh—!”

I shut my mouth as I stare at that weird head, which is slowly looking left and right before it settles to face us, or at least at the direction where Sienna and I are standing. And then it pulls its head further out of the bushes, but instead of a neck, I see it’s shiny, black, cylindrical and segmented exo-skeleton body thingie emerging from the bushes, it’s many tiny legs click-clacking on the wet forest earth as it crawls its way towards us.

It’s a millipede. A very freakingly big millipede! I honestly find millipedes cute, but that’s when I’m a tall human and the bugs are small, but damn, this millipede’s height is almost at my pony-shoulder-level! Oh yeah, the little-big bug is crawling in between Sienna and I, it’s long, shiny body moving, moving, moving, still moving, moving, aaand finally it’s shiny bum passes by, the clicking-noise of its many feet hitting the ground fading slowly as it moves away.

I glance at Sienna, but she’s still standing still as a rock. I slowly turn my head over my shoulder and see the bug crawling through the bushes again, it’s shiny tail disappearing behind the green, disturbed leaves.

“Phew...” Sienna sighs in relief as she relaxes. She turns and looks at the direction where the millipede went. “It didn’t see us.”

Yeah, about that. “I thought millipedes eat decaying forest litter.” I tilt my head to the side as Sienna looks at me. “And why was that thing so freaking big?”

She arches an eyebrow. “Leg Crawlers are very dangerous creatures, Jay.” She slightly shakes her head. “They’re not fast, but they can kill a deer, and ponies too, I think.”

I blink. I...can’t understand how a slow-moving, albeit giant, millipede bug thing is dangerous.

She looks at the direction where the millipede made its exit. “They also release this...” she makes a face, “...very nasty smell that can make you dizzy.”

Uh huh... “If they’re as scary as you say, then why didn’t we just run away?” I blink. Oh, hey! That rhymed!

...Okay, paying attention now.

Sienna looks and blinks blankly at me. “I...don’t know?” She shakes her head. “Ma and pa and the rest of the deer in our herd told us not to move or make a sound if we see or hear a Leg Crawler.”

Ma and pa and a herd, huh? Makes me solidify my theory that she really did left her herd to be more independent. Kinda like Reykan, I guess. But then there’s this ‘him’ business... Sienna left her herd to look for her lover, maybe? Who was exiled or something?

Or maybe I’m overthinking this and maybe I should focus on more important matters.

...Like that giant millipede. “Leg Crawlers, huh?” I ask as I resume walking, Sienna following close behind.

“Yes.” A pause. “There are no Leg Crawlers in your Equestria?” she asks.

Hm... Was there ever a giant millipede shown in the show that’s half as tall as a regular pony? Hm... I shake my head. The only giant bugs that I know of are from fanfictions. “Eenope. Not that I know of.” Wait... I wonder if the Bug Bear counts...

“Sounds like a very peaceful place,” Sienna says.

I chuckle. I roll my eyes with an amused smile. “Oh... You could say that.”

“How do you mean?”

“Hm...” I hm as I walk over an exposed root. “Well, Equestria still has a few bad things going on, but there are ponies who make an effort to stop it before it can harm anyone else.”

“Really?”

“Well...” I give her a side-glance. “...yeah!” I return my attention ahead.

And then there’s silence, save for the natural music of the forest and the quiet sounds of our hoofsteps against the forest floor.

Hm... I might as well ask her something. I wasn’t able to ask this to Twilight earlier, not with an angry deer that kept on glaring at me at the time. “Hey, Sienna,” I call.

“Hm?”

“Uh... How do ponies protect themselves, or their pastures, with gems?”

A pause. “...You really don’t know?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I—” I bite my lip. “N-no, I don’t know...” I glance at her. “And I’m curious.”

Sienna shakes her head. “I don’t really know how ponies use the gems, but we use them to scare off predators from entering our pasture.”

Uh huh... “How?”

“The gems glow when the sun sleeps. It keeps us warm at night, and shelters us from sudden rains and storms.”

I blink. How...can gems do those things? Magic?

“We can also fire beams of mana at predators with the gems if the glow isn’t enough to scare them off.”

Oooooooookay... I glance at the saddlebag on my side. “...So... These here gems are ray guns?”

A pause. “...Ray guns?” She blinks a curious blink at me. “What are those?”

“Er...” I smile a small and awkward smile. “Eh heh heh... Uh... Never you mind about it!”

She arches an eyebrow at me for two or so seconds before she shakes her head. “Well, I think the non-horniecorn ponies here uses the gems the same way we use them.”

There’s that word again. I nod my head anyway. “All right. Thanks.”

Aaand silence. I smile as I let my ears concentrate on the forest music echoing all around us as Sienna and I continue our trek towards the swans.

“What are the deers over there like?”

Aaand I fight the urge to groan... “Hm... Well...” I slightly shake my head. “I’m not really sure. I mean... I don’t really follow the comics to know what the deer kind are like there...”

“Oh...” I hear her say. “What’s a comics?”

Derp.


Meanwhile...

Reykan blinks slowly, his big and nervous sapphire eyes reflecting the big and shiny black head of the giant millipede...or Leg Crawler as Sienna liked to call it.

The Leg Crawler’s big, dull and empty black eyes reflected the nervous feline’s face a few centimeters in front of it, its large feelers feeling the furry cheeks, head and neck of the panther cub.

After a few agonizing seconds that must have felt like hours for the feline, the Leg Crawler pulls its two feelers back, lifts its head and crawls on top of the panther cub—

“Oof—!”

—pushing him down on the moist ground as the giant bug continues moving over him, its many legs thankfully clicking on the ground on Reykan’s sides, the bug’s rough and vulnerable underbelly brushing against his fur.

After a minute or two, the Leg Crawler finally crawls off of him, nonchalantly moving on towards its destination...wherever it may be.

“Mrrrf...” Reykan exhales his nervousness out, calming himself down. “...Whew...” He chuckles a quiet and nervous chuckle. “I almost became worm food. Hah...”

After taking a few more seconds to completely calm himself down, Reykan rises on his four paws, stretches, and finally puts on a confident grin, continuing his ‘test’ as he returns to stalking the two brown figures far ahead who are walking through the gloomy forest.

Author's Note:

Since the fic's a first-person point of view, I'm not sure if suddenly going to a third-person point of view using Jay's narrating style is good or not, nor am I sure if I pulled it off properly. Oh well. I may or may not do it again. :pinkiecrazy:

And a lot of you guys pointed about the drop of quality of this fic as the fic goes on. I apologize for that. December's fast approaching, and this time of year is really busy for the company where I'm working, and it's kinda draining... So yeah... While I said that I enjoy writing this fic for myself, I kinda still want to publish a chapter at least once a week. I guess that doesn't mix well, and for that, I apologize.

I'll try my best to fix the quality. And I apologize in advance if I won't be able to publish chapters at least once a week in the next weeks. :/