The Tale of the Opal Serpent

by LunarEclipse77

(1) Stranger Danger

The Tale of the Opal Serpent

By: LunarEclipse77

I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or any characters contained within. My Little Pony: FiM is copyright of Hasbro and Lauren Faust. I do, however, retain copyright of my own characters.

Chapter 1: Stranger Danger

“I’m going on a walk!” I yelled as I walked out of our small trailer. There was probably a reply of some kind, but I didn’t care. I was way too angry to care.

Besides, my aunt and uncle were probably too drunk to actually notice my absence, even though I did everything. I cooked, I cleaned, and I picked up after them. Heck, sometimes I even had to do their jobs. Can you believe that? A fourteen year old kid, having to do his guardian’s jobs. Both of them. It’s actually kind of sad, when you think about it, considering that I did them better than they did.

Anyways, I needed some air. I headed towards the small ponds in the middle of the trailer park where I lived. Don’t be too impressed with that fact. The ponds were scummy, the grass was hardly ever mowed, and the geese there were worse than anywhere else, but it was my favorite spot to escape to when the stench of alcohol was strong enough to get somebody tipsy from just breathing it for too long. I had to go there a lot.

Unfortunately, I often ran into the local neighborhood idiots there. I was typically a pretty levelheaded person and not prone to violence, so I generally ignored them. The few times that any of them tried to talk to me always ended in a fight. You see, I can have a very abrasive personality when I want to. Sometimes, it shows through what everbody always sees me put up. A great big, all encompassing facade.

You see, I have a tendency to burn bridges so fast that a completely random stranger can think I'm nice one second and hate my guts the next. I'm serious, that's happened too many times to count. It's the reason that I was living with my aunt and uncle. My parents despised me, and the other relatives that they'd shuttled me off to ated me just as much. The only family that I had liked were my mom's parents, but they had died a few years ago.

Now, don't get me wrong. I could be nice when I wanted to. But, more often than not, I didn't want to be.

As I walked around the pond, I came across a twenty-something man dressed in jeans and a sky-blue shirt sitting on a bench. Odd. That bench wasn’t there yesterday. Blinking the thought away, I simply strode past it.

I got about two steps before I heard him say “So, My Little Pony.”

I instantly froze on the spot. “Wha…what did you say?”

He chuckled. “I said ‘So, My Little Pony.’ You do watch it, right?”

“Who wants to know?” I challenged, perhaps a tad apprehensively. Nobody, and I mean nobody knew that I watched that show. Just another thing I’d be teased for.

“That is none of your concern. What is of your concern is that I have the ability to send you to Equestria. Or near it, at least.” He said the last bit with a frown.

I gave him a flat look that very clearly said “You’re kidding, right?”

He chuckled at me. “Actually, it was more of a ‘You belong in an asylum’ look.”

“What? That…I didn’t say anything!” I said. At this point, I was either going to bolt from this guy or use my... sparkling personality to either make him shut up or go away. He was kinda creepy.

“You mean you can’t see…? Whatever, it’ll make sense some day. Anyways, I’m quite serious. If it works, you’ll be in Equestria with a new body and life. If it doesn’t work, then you can just be on your merry little way, back to your aunt and uncle.”

I considered his words very carefully for all of two seconds before giving him my grudging answer. “…Fine.”

This seemed to elate him. “Excellent! Now, what do you want to be? Not a pony, too generic…not a human…too may changelings, they don’t need another…griffin?” He said, shooting the last bit as a question at me.

I quickly shook my head no. I don’t know how he got me into the idea so quickly. He just seemed to have this kind of…aura around him. I can’t really explain it.

“No, they don’t seem to be your type. Hrm…How about a dragon?” He asked. He was getting a little closer to what I wanted. I almost said yes, but then I remembered the dragons in the show: rude, overconfident, and overbearing. I didn’t want to be like them.

I grinned a little sheepishly at the man. “If you’re letting choose what I want to be, could I be a snake, but keep the wings?”

He gaped a little at that, causing me to quickly backpedal. “I mean, if that’s okay…” I suddenly realized how stupid this was. “Just, can you get this over with? Like, soon?”

He grinned at me. “Certainly. And, yes, an amphiptere, as the creature you wish to be is known as, is well within my power. In fact, I am perhaps a little more suited to that than anything else. Now let me…” He trailed off. “Vae*! I’m sorry, but it seems that there’ll be a bit of a…wait…yes, that’d work!” He said, seemingly talking to himself more than me. He then turned to me. “I can get you there, in the body you desire. Just...don’t expect to eat. Or breathe, for that matter. At least, not normally.”

“WHAT?! What is that-” I was cut off by the snap of his fingers, which was much louder and sharper than it should have been. A breeze burst from the spot.

Right as my vision faded, I heard him say something that I couldn’t understand.

---

I slowly faded back in to consciousness. I slowly opened my eyes, but quickly shut them again. There was no way. I instead focused on trying to get up. I maneuvered my…what the heck?! Why can’t I move my arms? I thought.

‘Simple.’ Another voice said in my mind. ‘You don’t have arms.’

‘What the…?! Who are you?!’ I thought at the voice.

‘Remember the one who sent you here?’ He asked, and after receiving an affirmative thought from me, said ‘I am he.”

Right at that moment, I figured out that I wasn’t breathing. I tried to suck in air, but it didn’t work. I opened my mouth to gasp it in that way, but…nothing happened.

‘Hey. Why can’t I breathe?’ I asked. I was a lot calmer than I should have been, considering the circumstances.

The other voice in my head replied with a bit of playful scolding. ‘Tsk tsk tsk. Don’t you remember what I said? You don’t have any internal organs. You aren’t breathing because you have no lungs, and you aren’t panicking because you have no adrenaline, nor adrenal glands to produce it. You are freed from most processes that limited you as a human. Think about it!’

‘So, if I don’t have a brain, how am I talking to you?

The voice took a little longer to reply this time. ‘Don’t think about it! It’s fine. I believe that you read once that anything on TV can be explained with ‘Cartoon Physics and Magic’?’ He challenged. ‘Now, open your eyes and look around. You haven’t even looked at yourself yet!’ He chided.

I did what he told me to, and confirmed what I had gotten a peek of earlier. I was in a wasteland. The soil was bare and exposed, and cracked like clay. There were massive gashes and scars in the landscape, with great swathes of land scorched and blackened.

‘Where…am I?’ I asked.

‘You are in the Dragon Badlands, named so because the dragons fought for territory here, and burned it so badly that nothing would and will grow here. Ever. Now, look at yourself. I want to know how good I did on your form.’

Strangely enough, the thought hadn’t crossed my mind. I actually looked at myself, and boy did I like what I saw! I was white and shimmered like an opal. I basically looked like an enormous white snake. The ground for about a two foot radius around me was covered in frost, which I thought was pretty neat as well. My body was completely smooth, which made no sense if I was…nevermind. Nothing about this scenario made sense, so I figured I’d just roll with it. Anyways…my wings (Yes, he remembered about them. Squee!) shimmered like an opal, just like the rest of my body. They were purple tinged at the tips, which I thought was pretty cool. The only problem was…

‘How do I use these? Or, better yet, how do I even move at all?’

‘Whoops! Sorry, I’ll get right on that…’ I heard. My vision went fuzzy for a second before clearing. I suddenly knew how to move in this body.

I opened a wing and flapped it experimentally before turning to look…wait. I cursed and instead just closed my eyes. ‘How did you do that?’

‘Magic. Anyways, I suggest you get moving. Dragons don’t take kindly to their territory being invaded.’

I snorted. Of course they would be mean and fiercely territorial. In any case, I followed my instructor’s advice and got moving, leaving a trail of ice behind me. If you want to know how slithering was, it was…different. My head was just above the ground, moving very rapidly. If I still were human and hadn’t had whatever served as my brain re-wired a bit explicitly for this, I’d constantly be flinching for fear of my face being run into the dirt. The one time that did happen, I didn’t feel anything. No pain at all. Just the dirt against my face as something that was there.

It was…different to say the least, not having any organs or…anything else really. I figured that the reason for that was because I didn’t have any nerves or a brain to process the information that they would have sent.

I asked the other voice in my head how I was functioning after I figured that out.

‘Your consciousness, mind and body operate entirely on magic now.’ Was his answer. As he said that, it struck me how odd this situation was – an outcast from Earth, in what seemed to be a completely different dimension, with a body that operated purely on magic – a concept that humans didn’t – and wouldn’t – ever understand.

I stopped slithering suddenly as the ground in front of me seemed to vanish.

‘What’s the problem?’ The my guide asked me. I gestured impatiently to the enormous canyon in front of me. ‘Oh. Well, I still don’t see a problem. You have wings, don’t you?’ I mentally facepalmed, since I can’t actually do that anymore, unfolded my wings, and flew over the canyon.

Flying was wonderful. I’ve had flying dreams since I was just a little kid, and this was all of that and more. I soared over the landscape, wishing that I never had to land again.

‘You don’t, you know.’ Guide (For lack of a better name said, startling me out of my bliss. ‘The Pegasi and Griffins aren’t the only ones who can manipulate and stay on the clouds.’

I smiled. It made sense, really. I began to look for clouds, but the only one that was in the sky was a tiny little thing. It didn’t look like it could even support my weight, let alone fit me on to it. I sighed inwardly. It had been a novel idea, but it looked like I’d have to land after all. Whatever. It was disappointing, but considering that I was in the Dragon Badlands I guessed it couldn’t be helped.

Guide said a couple of words. I almost plummeted mid-flight. ‘Well, you said you wanted a cloud. These words will help you with that, especially considering that the sun is going down. Now, say it! And stop calling me Guide! My name is Sapphire!’

I repeated the words that he said, and immediately a cloud generated under me. It was actually kinda weird, just having a big, fluffy cloud appear after uttering what sounded like two Latin words.

I smiled at the clouds. Even though I couldn't feel...anything, they were still incredibly comfortable. Unfortunately, my inner pessimist was showing through in my mind. 'It's not always going to be this easy. Something is going to go wrong eventually. Everybody will hate you.'

'Shut up.' I told it. With that, I promptly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Author's Note:

Yay, a rewrite. I'm trying to flesh this out more, and I've had a few new ideas of where to go with this story, and thus, this happened. Tah-da!

Comments

[Knighthawker]

Ok then... restart out of nowhere.

[LunarEclipse77]

982350
It wasn't going anywhere exiting, and I felt it was painfully short, and thar you have it.

[Knighthawker]

982357 Good enough for me

[AppleTank]

make since: sense

Interesting, desert instead of forest. And a solid mass of muscle apparently. Can you still talk?

[LunarEclipse77]

982392
*COUGHSPILERSCOUGH* Yes, Opal can physically talk with magic, by causing it to vibrate the air. He can also imitate many different voices and things. And if you think that 'It's magic, I need no real answer!' is my solution to everything involving Opal, then you're absolutely right.

[PieisGood4U]

Well this works.

[AppleTank]

982410
Does he need food?

[LunarEclipse77]

Only to actually grow larger, and even then he needs a specific kind of food.

[AzureSkies]

...
Suddenly, a new chapter update.

I like it, but I feel that there is not enough pre-Equestria character development. Or it could just be me...

Also, do you have a proofreater?

[LunarEclipse77]

984018

Yus I do. His name is Lunar Eclipse.
...
...
...
...
...
Wait a minute.
I guess I don't XD.

[Mad Pancake]

983213
I think it was specifically mentioned among things that he doesn't need to do anymore, along with eating and what not.

[Cystenian Remir Rhys]

984057

No internal organs? At all? "It's magic, I ain't got to explain crap!" Okee-dokie-loki...

[FoxyMuffin]

Blublublublublub

[Cobra 1]

He doesn't have lungs how can he live.
Answer is pretty much this, It's magic... ooooh, with wimsy.
And also, snakes, I love snakes.
I'm liking this so far, that is after chapter 1.

[Hipparcos]

This is moving rather quickly, but I have no qualms with that.