Chapter 2 - Everything has changed
“...ardly alive!” The voice was drowned in water and echoed in the darkness. It also held a very thick, deep, gravel-like accent. Almost like the voice hardly spoke English.
I forcibly pried open my eyelids, sideways slits gradually let light in to reach my pupil.
“Comrade...” The second voice sighed with irritation. It was like the first. Drowned in a strange way, but had different vocals. It was close to that of a grown adult’s? Both were male obviously. “Just, leave it! It’ll be fine… Whatever it is.”
Loud stomps of water made themselves apparent in the acoustic world. The sound of crunching leaves slowly drew farther away as I tried to regain my strength. It felt like an eternity when I tried to raise my arms, but I was able to lift my body up to slouch in a sitting position in the end. For a while, I was unaware of my surroundings and felt like I was sick to my stomach. It was when I felt a cool breeze hit my back that I wondered where I was. I knew for certain that I was not in my home.
Twisting my body to my right, my eyes wandered and scanned the regional area. Trees, wet brown grass, and a few ponds…
I stood to my feet in a panic. My hands shook rapidly with grass filled palms, my knees rattled between my bones and my brain went dark like old soup. Many theories flooded my head as to why I was away from civilization and not in my bedroom sleeping and enjoying the warm blankets. It was swamp like and the sun radiated heat like a humming microwave.
Two bags and a guitar rest against a nearby tree stump near my side. It appeared as if they had been teleported by someone who was watching my progress. A bag on the stump and the guitar next to it? Was it purposely dropped here? Was this an elaborate prank done by my friends or family to try and enlighten my day? If I were to guess, I’d say this was a dream. Now that I think of it, swamps don’t reside near the town of Sutton, or anywhere around it! I slowly sidestep in the direction of the luggage that lay on the stump.
“Why are these here?” I ask no one in particular.
I knelt down to get a better view of the objects and its contents. My left arm slowly carried itself forward, my hand reached down to grab the strap of the guitar. As my eyes drew closer, I found words imprinted into the material in gold lettering.
Just do it!
“Who would put that on a guitar strap?” I smirked.
I picked up my computer bag and placed its strap on my right shoulder, it hung off my left side. I then place the other strap, the guitar, over my left shoulder and let it hang from my right. I shuffle my body and adjust the weight of the computer and guitar. It was heavy, but it was also light in some off way.
My attention immediately drew to the voices I perceived when I woke up. “I wonder whose voices I heard earlier?” I questioned. “I guess if were important they’d have stayed around.”
“Right!” I say aloud in hopes of anyone hearing me. “I need to work out where I am!” My hands hovered over the ground. I begin to look around and track my surroundings. No paths, no signs, and certainly no people! I was out in the middle of a forest with no sign of hunters or hikers. Even as I look at the ground, not the slightest hitch of human footprints. Could be a prank, so I thought that if I start walking I would eventually bump into someone. “Okay, best go where the wind takes me!”
I then lick my finger with my tongue and point it into the sky to try and pinpoint where the wind was blowing. However, and to my surprise, I find that the direction of the wind was rapidly changing. As if it was being constantly altered.
’That’s strange?’
I reach down towards my back pocket. “Please be here,” I muttered. Searching in said pocket. I managed to wrap my fingers around a smooth circular object. I pull my arm close to my chest and examine the old heirloom. “Yes, it’s here!” I whisper.
I placed my thumb between the opening and the lid and open the compass to see a small red arrow floating in strange glowing liquid.I still remember the time it was first given to me. Old? Yes, but it was still working. To most people, it would seem weird using an old manual compass, but for me? It was like riding a bike. After years of having to use it to navigate around the peak district as part of my Duke of Edinburgh Qualifications and to eventually complete my gold award meant that I had now become very efficient at using it over the new technological methods. Also, it helps that it doesn’t need recharging every so often.
I point the compass towards the direction of the arrow. Said it was facing south. “Right! If what I remember is correct, walking north should lead me somewhere.” I couldn’t be that far from civilization anyway, right? I was only dropped here by my friends or family. I shut the lid, slid the compass back into my pocket and began to walk in a straight line in the hope of finding living people.
It was boring and my legs were burning in agony. The walk was a bit long, long enough to make anyone complain anyway. Ahead of me, I started to see light pour through the edge of the forest. I smiled but kept my current pace. The sudden intensity of light from the sun hit my eyes. My pupils dilated and began to adjust to the bright scenery.
It was quite green and the birds were loud. I wanted to get a better view of the sky, so I brought my eyes to the sky and searched for the sun. But as I examined the skies, I saw something that truly surprised me. There was a large blue bird with clouds following it close behind. The proportions of the body looked wrong. I stepped back under the cover of the trees in the swamp. I contemplated what I just saw, I peeked my head back out into the treeline to comb the skies. The strange bird was nowhere in sight.
It was an odd sight to see. Even as I thought for a logical explanation for the anonymous flying vehicle, or thing rather, I had no other excuse other than a hallucination. I thought for a second that it was an unmanned jet, but the way the bird moved was something I’d never seen before. As I pondered the strange appearance I walked out of the forest.
I saw a road ahead of me. I thought If I follow that path it might lead me to a town, or at least somewhere so I can work out where I am like a rest area for cars and trucks. I walked onto the path and hoped it would take me somewhere more civilized and clean.
As I continued to walk down the path, I was still unable to find a single sign of civilisation. No blacktop, no train tracks, not even an aeroplane in the sky! Only this dirt road. And to make matters worse, I’d not seen anybody else since I woke up… Well, I did hear someone but It’s not very comforting being alone. Although I was used to the feeling of solitude.
It felt just like home, or even back at school all those years ago. All the memories of my misfortune, based solely around my bullies. They would beat me up for the fun of it, messing with my social life as well. For every time, I asked them why they teased me they never really gave me a viable reason other than to cause me grief. This always left me thinking... What were their reasons for the constant torture and why did they never know why they did it? It never made any sense.
Whilst I was deep in thought, it had yet to occur to me to check where it was I was going. Before I was able to realise where I was, I found myself surrounded by tall dark trees. No paths, no signposts, not even footsteps once trod could be seen in the neighbouring area.
I finally came to the conclusion that I was indeed lost. There were key methods for finding a landmark and using that to find an escape route to civilization. I see a steep hill in the distance.
May be the clearest landmark around, might find some sort of trail,
I was hoping for a miracle when I walked towards the clear green hill. Admittedly it wasn’t as high as some of the hills I climbed before but still a fair height. Reaching the top, I saw something that made me cringe. I noticed very familiar signs. Some of the places I noticed included a very basic looking town hall, a small red barn in the distance, but the most shocking piece of evidence was the large tree that had windows in it. I crouched down on the floor. I look off down the hill I stood on to see the most damning evidence of all. Ponies! Three talking ponies!
“This. Is. Ridiculous!” The three ponies recently aforementioned stared at my position. They were obviously curious about the voice that spoke above them. I thought of a couple ways this could end. Would they attack me? Would they run away?
After staring at them for a short minute. I took a running stance and fled the scene.
Behind me, voices chattered and argued with one another. “What was that thing!”
They could talk?
“I don’t know!” The voice was scratchy and sound somewhat male.
I run down the hill with incredible speed with help from the steep surface. My arms threw themselves forward and back, helping with my decent. My body almost tumbled as I reached the bottom.
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Monster Hunters!” Boomed loud voices from behind.
Three small figures in the distance started to grow. They came towards me at slow speeds, but they were closing distance.
“Fuck this!” I said before facing the woods ahead of me and sprinting into the green jungle. My existence faded from the sight of my three pursuers.
“I think I heard something over here!” The voice from earlier yelled. Footsteps followed afterwards.
“Oh come on!” I shouted as I quickly ran from the voices down a grey gravel path. I stay on the path and continue my run for a few seconds before swerving off and hiding behind a nearby tree. I laid in the dense lush growth of green shrubs, hiding from the hunters that screamed their names.
I see the three small ponies run up to the tree I hid behind.
“Where did he go?” One of the pursuers asked, their steps kicked the leaves under them.
“Maybe it went further into the forest?”
“I don’t think so,” The one with the scratchy voice pointed with its hoof at the ground, then to the tree I sat next to. “Look at these tracks it left behind. It leads over to that tree!”
Shit… Not good I thought as I shifted in my hiding spot.
As the three animals approached, I could hear the sound of growling wolves in the distance. The ponies ears pointed to the sky, their heads swivelled back and forth searching for the ominous sound.
“What’s that?” The small yellow pony with the large red bow in her mane asked in a panicked tone.
There was silence for the minutes that passed.
“Whatever it is it’s not good.”
“I told ya this was a bad Idea Scootaloo!”
Hearing the loud howl sent a message and a damn good one at that. These three small little ponies could get caught in the teeth of a large predator and or predators! Unlike most people who would run from the situation at a moment’s notice, I was worried for the three now damsels in distress. I could hear the fear in their voices, I shook my head at my own decision. I rose from my hiding spot, put my hands near my mouth and quietly yelled at them. “Hey!”
Their immediate reaction? “Monster!” They screamed. I quickly put my finger to my lips and tried my best to calm the trio down while making a “shushing” sound. They calmed down after a minute of endless screaming and they open their eyes to find themselves still alive and breathing. They took a glance at each other and ask themselves “Why are we still alive?”
“Yeah, shouldn’t we be dead?
“Girls!” I called to them. “You need to leave and get out of here!” I glanced around, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings.
The girls gasped, one of them putting a hoof to their mouth with amazement. Their expressions showed an immediate interest in my ability to talk. “It talks!”
“That’s so cool!”
“Whoa. Who are you!?”
As much as I wanted to answer their question, I was worried more for their safety. “Did you not hear me! You girls need to-” I was cut off by the sound of a breaking stick. I stood to my feet as quick as I could and glanced back and forth between us and the forest around me. I startled the little fillies as I stood up, but they stood their ground. Yellow eyes from within the bushes and trees pierced into my soul. I looked back at the fillies. “You need to leave,”
“What, why?” The red bowed foal asked with scepticism.
“Yeah, why should we trust you?!” The orange one joined in.
“Do you have much choice right now?!” They were completely oblivious to what was happening. “Just run when I say the word!”
The growls from the trees sent the fillies in a panic. All three of them raised their ears in the air and whimpered. They stared at me with puppy dog eyes. They nodded their heads at my previous statement and stood close to my side. Paranoia quickly settled in and that’s when one of the pairs of yellow eyes emerged from the forest and attacked. I reacted to this swiftly and kicked the mass of branches away from us.
“Run!” I yelled.
We raced away from the large four-legged hunks of wood. It shook itself off as leaves fell from its body. It motioned towards us and sprinted in our direction. After walking around this strange forest, you would think that I would know my way around, right? Well, you thought wrong because the only thing I know around here is a small gravel road which leads to… Somewhere safe I hoped.
“We’re trapped!” One of the girls shouted as we reached the end of a steep rock wall.
I turn around to see a familiar wood creature that had attacked us previously and I say “Stay near me, I won’t let them hurt you–” I glanced down at the young fillies. “–you have my word!”
Not that it means much right now... What can I even do?
As I leer a way out of our corner, two more wooden abominations join their friend. One of the creatures pounced towards us with its legs outstretched and claws ready to tear into our flesh.
“KEEP AWAY!!!” I cried. I closed my eyes, tears start to form in my green eyes. I was expecting my life to end here with the sensation of endless and unbearable pain. But as I propelled my fist into the air and in the direction of the wood mass, I hear a loud yelp followed by the snapping of wood and a shaking arm. I open my eyes slowly and fearfully, scared to see what had stopped the animals advance. But instead of immeasurable pain, I found myself in possession of a black blade. I held it in my left hand. It was pierced through the head of the wood animal. Scorch marks and splinters launched themselves through my clothing and on the ground. The blade was 6 inches in width and possibly a meter in length. As said before the colour of the blade was black almost obsidian-like, crimson red lines were inscribed in the sword with runic symbols and strange lettering that I have never seen before. The handle was made of the same texture as the blade but was more soft which held more support. Sharp thorns protrude out from the side of the sword and it felt really light and warm.
I then grasp the handle of the blade with both hands and swing it, decapitating the large tree. I’ve never used a sword in my life. This could be the first time ever actually? I see another one of the wood animals jump at the girls, tree sap oozed out of the animals like saliva. It barked as it advanced unto the foals. I dash in front of the beast and swing my sword at the approaching predator. It collides with the edge of the blade which causes the predator’s leaves and branches to ignite into flames. It screeches and yelps in pain, it shakes itself off before running back into the forest.
In my thoughts, I had to chase them down before they could harm anyone else. If I let them escape now they would never learn from this experience...but right now, I had lives to protect. I look back at the girls. They were untouched and unharmed. “As soon as I attack the beasts ahead of us, I need you three to run.
“What about you?” The scratchy-voiced, yet orange foal asked. Fear stuck in her throat.
“I’m expendable! I’ve got nobody to care for or to care about me, BUT!” I pointed my finger at the group. “You all have family or friends that care about you, don’t you?”
“Yeah!” The three instantly replied.
“Wait! You’re alone?” The same orange foal asked. He ears tilted to the side with her brow raised above her forehead.
“Yes,” I then strengthen the grip on the ominous sword. “Now get ready to follow me, On my mark!” They nodded their heads at each other and stood next to me. “Three. Two. One. Go!” I then run forward and out of our little corner, followed by the little fillies. I could see more four-legged trees approaching. I cleave through the dog like plants in front of us, in turn clearing the path for me and the girls to run through. Unfortunately, more of the plants kept appearing each time I cut down another of their pack but every time one went for either me or the girls, I instantly sliced through their thick branches, either severing their heads or completely cutting them in half which caused them to ignite in flames on contact with the blade.
This went on for a few more minutes until we reached the end of the forest and once we left its territory they stopped at the forest’s dark edge. They snarled at us but soon retreated back into the lush dense woods.I begin to think and ponder the situation.
Why did they cease their attack? I thought as I wheezed and coughed while taking in deep breaths of fresh air.
I look at the sword in my hand to see that the blade had faded from existence, almost like it never existed in the first place.
“Are you okay sir?”
I look down at the orange foal “Don’t call me sir,” I coughed. “My name is Craig! I haven’t earned that right yet, miss,” I grip my shoulder, remembering the splinters and fire that entered my arm. “Sorry, I forgot to ask–” I stand on my knees, then my feet. “–What are your names?”
“Name’s Applebloom!” She was the one with the red bow.
“My names Sweetie Belle!” She said cheerfully, she had a white coat and curly mane.
“My names Scootaloo, number one fan of Rainbow Dash!” The orange one said next.
A soft and warm smile appeared on my face. I look at the third pony and pat her head gently, she blushed as I did so. I take my bags off my shoulder and proceed to open one of them and pull out a clean white shirt. “Well, it will have to do.” I close the bag and attempt to use the shirt as a bandage to stop the bleeding. However, I found it almost impossible with only one hand and sigh with frustration.“Even with all of my training! I can’t put on a simple bandage!”
I then see Applebloom walk over to me and carefully tie the shirt over the wound “Why? Why are you helping me?” I ask.
“You saved us so... We might as well help you,” A soft smile grew on her face.
“A monster like me doesn’t deserve the help of innocent creatures like you,” I said trying to put the bag back over my shoulder, but was unable to find the energy to do so.
“You said in the forest you were alone? What do you mean?” Scootaloo stepped in, ears falling flat to the side of her head.
“I have no family, no friends, and no one to love. What I mean kid is that you all have people who would throw their lives down for you… but me… I’ve got nobody who would do that for me,”
Sweetie Belle jumps in. “Then where will you go?”
“I have no idea… I’ve got nowhere to go.”
I then look back towards the ever free feeling as if that was the only option for me at the time. The form of scootaloo caught me off guard and startled me, she put herself between me and the forest.“No! You’re not going back in there! Did you not just see what happened in there! Are you crazy!”
I look at her with shock .“Where else is there… I go into town, I’ll be attacked! There’s no way I could defend myself.”
“But you jus took on ah the whole bunch of Timba W-”
Sweetie Belle had cut in with: “What if we were with you?” She asked looking back at me and my arm. She cringed at the putrid smell of burning flesh.
I put my hand to my chin and think of the outcomes that could possibly happen while in their pretty little town.“Let me think... Three young kids stand next to a strange creature nobody’s ever seen before? I’d say that your families would think I’m attacking you and then would try to kill me.” I flatly said.
“I wouldn’t let em’ I’d tell my sister you weren’t a threat and to get her to help ya” Applebloom inquired.
“One pony ain’t gonna persuade a whole town to not attack me girls, and besides, even if I did go in I don’t know how I made that sword earlier. If I was attacked and that happened again I could kill someone. I don’t want the thought of that looming over my head,”
“We could get Twilight! I’m sure she’d help, she could even get the princess to come.” Sweetie Belle said, pointing towards the town.
My left eye then twitched. I had this strange feeling when the young girl brought up that familiar name? Twilight “I’m sorry girls, but I can’t...I’d only cause trouble. I’d only be hated more–” I had a strange sense of the future “–It would be a complete repeat of my past...” I then shiver. I’m not sure what it was, but I began to feel weak inside. I then collapse and mutter, “I can’t go through that again...”
I then hear Applebloom ask, “What can’t you go through again?”
“I can’t” My vision began to blur. “I can’t go through my own personal hell again...”
I feel someone touching my shoulder, the feeling was cold and hard as my vision began to fade, blacken within seconds, and finally, I was unable to feel anything around me. All I could see was the was the endless colour of black and darkness.
Stats
Page generated in 0.029 seconds
Total duration
980 users online
375,384 hits today, 2,156,967 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.®
Okay, this ISN'T the story I was thinking of. The source story you have labeled "cancelled" is way too young to be; you had me worried you were remaking a much older, probably equally misguided (likely less, to your credit) story of the exact same name from like three years ago.
6704437 This is the story I had been working on for the last year, I had to rewrite due to the mess it was in and then due to other issues I decided to rewrite it however I wanted to keep the old one as a reminder.
Oh man, we've only just started.
6705011 Ok I'll give you that one... but let's face it he was just fired from a job he loved. So he did feel like hell to begin with.
6705250 I remember when I got fired from my first job and it looked like the pic below.
i.imgur.com/Po3kB2A.gif
6705011 Did you just... Did you actually?
6707063
... Yes.
6707935 Welp. You win this round.
6704437 Out of my own misguided curiosity, which story is that?
6711893 Exact same title, written at least three years ago by some guy whose name I forgot. I'm not even completely certain it's on FIMFic; my co-runner at Fan/fic/ Theater 3000 just found the story and ran it for riffing before I ever joined, so it's entirely possible it's a FF.net exclusive.
This isn't related to the rest of the description.
You have my attention!
6744788 Why have I Got your attention?
6744796 I find your story interesting, by the way, if you do any crossovers in the future, my characters from 'For the Emperor and the UNSC!' are ready and
waiting!
Ave Imperiator!
6744803 Umm actually I'm always waiting it's basically a rewrite of my old story if you want to drop me a PM and we'll sort something out
6744813 No problem! And check out my story some time soon!
well this is fun
Why the fucking hell is this guy so emotionally weak.
Your pupils dilate in the dark and contract in the light.
Well, bravo I say! Bravo! You are one of the very, very few people to throw most of my guesses for the future for a loop! Splendid job! I've yet to meet many on this site able to do such a thing, but you, sir, have! Marvelous! Keep at it!
The white knight is strong with this one.
Getting annoyed with this guy now.
What an insufferable little bitch.
I'm out.
Um, if you don't mind me, asking what was the sword he summoned?
A real shame... I can see that this story would interest me, but I can't get past the errors in grammar and punctuation! They simply keep breaking the immersion despite my attempts to remain immersed. ARRGH!
8527564
I know, but each time I got an editor for this, they kept jumping ship and not helping me anymore, I guess after a while of it i lst hope someone would persist with editing this so I left it.
8528066
I can edit! I never jump ship! (Unless you have an editor already...)
7209432
Because if you're writing an HiE your character needs to be a badass with no weaknesses or has to have a mental breakdown twice a chapter
At least based on the HiEs I have read.
Mr. Killjoy Nitpick time! :D
A microwave (oven) doesn't actually radiate heat. It's a common misconception - easy to see how our minds, used to conventional ovens, would go there - but it's not at all how it works. If your body didn't contain any water (or metals of any kind), you'd feel absolutely nothing if you were to stand inside a microwave oven.
In fact - in a way, you are standing in such an oven every second of every day, because microwave radiation is nothing more than radio waves* emitted at a specific frequency and power. In fact, it's within the 2.4 GHz WiFi spectrum - being at 2.45 GHz, it occupies the same space as channels 11 (2.451~2.473 GHz) and 12 (2.456~2.478 GHz) - enough to cause interference sometimes. And you don't feel any heat from your router's antennas, do you? (NOTE: if you do, look into replacing the device, as it's clearly overheating if it's reaching the antennas...)
So why doesn't WiFi cook you? Simple: it doesn't dump nearly enough power into the air. Microwave ovens work through dielectric heating - making molecules move without impacting them directly. If you recall your HS physics, the faster something is vibrating, the more heat energy it has. And microwave ovens specifically target water molecules for this process. This is why food heats up unevenly during this process, and you can end up with a burger that is scalding hot in its meaty middle, but cold to touch at the buns' ends (incidentally, the rotation of the platter is intended to mitigate this issue, and it does).
So no, a microwave oven doesn't radiate heat. It can induce it in foods that absorb the microwaves, but exposure wouldn't feel "hot". If anything, you'd feel burning from inside your tissues, which I assume would be as eerie and confusing as it would be painful.
* which explains the "mystery" of blowing metal objects up inside a microwave oven - since it's radio waves, the metal acts as an antenna much like it would in your old stereo, and you get electrical induction going; since a microwave oven dumps amps of current at high voltages (enough to cause arcing) into its emission, there's a lot of energy being pumped around - enough to spot-weld, actually (in fact, microwave oven transformers can be - and in poorer countries, often are - adapted into poor-man's spot-welders)
The feeling of power is intoxicating. No other reason is required.
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Yeah, this sounds about as bad as the old one. :/
Don't get me wrong, your storytelling is quite fine, for the most part - your technical writing workshop is fine. What I find incredible (and not in the good way) is your characterisation. The human psyche doesn't work that fast, nor is it ever that comprehensive. Your character just blew through the first 3 of 5 stages of grief and went straight into the 4th, in a manner of minutes. Not only that, but he then proceeds to be emotionally unstable - but if he were emotionally unstable, he'd have burned half of the fucking forest down after his inevitable and immediate meltdown.
As it is, this character feels completely two-dimensional - like a blown egg, a cardboard cutout that immediately feels what you mandate him to feel, at the drop of a hat.
Human psyche just doesn't work that way - there are irregularities, transitional periods, freakouts. This feels unnatural, unrealistic. It feels faked, forced for the sake of plot.