• Published 15th Sep 2019
  • 18,687 Views, 952 Comments

Cold Fire - Arcanum -Phantasy



A cynical and distrustful man has a drunken conversation at a bar with someone and finds himself waking up in a land of talking ponies the next day. The catch? He's now a Ninetales. "Great...where's the bar?"

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Ch.1 So...I'm Foxy...

Pain. That's the first thing I felt as I started to wake up. I didn't know how much I drank last night, but I knew it had to be more than ten considering how bad my head felt. The other thing I noticed was the abundance of bird songs I heard and the feeling of soft grass under my head.

I guess I passed out in a park. Great. Who want's to bet I got mugged or something?

A sharp spike of pain shot through my head at that, forcing an agonized groan past my lips.

Okay...comedy kills... who could'a guessed?

I slowly opened my eyes and thank all the fucking gods of ethanol I managed to pass out in some shade. Bacchus could be a dick sometimes, but sometimes the guy can be a saint when you pull that giant stick out of his ass. I'd kiss whoever pulled it out if said god's product wasn't trying to kill me at the time.

Through bleary eyes, I saw another gift from the gods; a lake roughly five feet away from me. My dry mouth burned as I took in the sweet sparking surface of my salvation. I dragged my arm forward and tried to drag myself over to the water, giving absolutely no fucks about all the stuff I heard about park water as I slowly closed in on the lake. As I did, I noticed that something didn't feel right about my body. Maybe it was from whatever I drank last night, but my whole body just didn't want to move the way it was supposed to. I didn't hurt anywhere so I knew I didn't brake anything this time, but everything just felt...weird.

"Finally," I rasped as I dragged myself the last few inches towards the lake.

I wasted no time shoving my mouth into the water and gulping down mouthful after mouthful of sweet relief. I felt my hangover slowly fade away as the sweet giver of life filled me with its blessings before I reluctantly pulled my mouth away from the lake for air. Deep panting breaths shot in and out of my mouth as I stared up into what was now my favorite tree's branches. I stayed like that for god-knows-how-long, sitting like a frog and staring up into my new friend's branches as I enjoyed what little relief my drink had given me.

"That...was...amazing...." I gasped, light chuckles slipping out of my open mouth as I leaned down for another gulp.

What I saw reflected in the water made me freeze in place. First, I noticed a pair of pupilless solid red eyes, then I noticed the yellowish gold fur. After a few blinks, I noticed the familiar fox-like head staring back at me and the body attached to said head covered with a matching fur coat. I tilted my head. The fox in the water tilted its head. I stuck my tongue out. The fox did the same. I slowly turned my head towards my arm and my heart sank when I saw a furry canine foreleg. Nervously, I looked down at myself and made a few discoveries that didn't make me feel any better about my apparent situation. I was, indeed, covered with a thick coat of yellowish gold fur and aside from what you would typically see on a man, my body was completely different from what it was supposed to be. A strange set of tingles ran up my spine as I slowly started to come terms with what I was seeing. I gulped as I looked over my shoulder. Sure enough, I was greeted by a cluster of thin fox tails firmly attached to my spine just above my ass. I blinked owlishly at my discovery as my barely sober brain struggled to make sense of what I was seeing. When I did, I turned my head back towards the lake and what was apparently my new face and laughed.

"Great!" I cackled. "I went from a guy with a dead-end job and crippling debt to potentially some ten-year-old's pet! Perfect!"

I rode out my laughter at how shit my situation had become for what felt like forever when something brought my self-hating mirth to a sudden and brutal halt.

"U-Um excuse me?"

I flinched at the faint female voice behind me. My heart pounded as fear ran through me while I slowly turned towards the source. What I saw made me freeze as fear switched places with confusion. It looked like a horse but was a lot shorter than any I had ever seen. It was also a bit heftier than any horse I'd ever seen with an oddly expressive face with large teal eyes. Even the color was weird, as evident by its bright yellow coat and long pink mane and tail. What really threw me for a loop was the pair of wings on the horse's back.

"What the fu-" I started, only stop as a thought hit me.

Ah, so that's it. Not only did I suddenly get turned into a Pokemon, but I got dumped into the Galar Region. Fuck it! It makes about as much sense as everything else that's happened so far! But who the hell was talking?

The sound of someone clearing their throat pulled me out of my thoughts.

"U-Um, are you okay?" the horse...thing asked.

The female horse thing.

Fear shot through me again as memories I'd much rather forget tried to jump to the front of my mind. I instinctively jumped to my feet, er, paws and crouched low with my fangs bared. A ton of weird tingles shot up my spine as my tails stood on end and formed a shadow over me. My display seemed to startle the horse thing. She cringed and slowly stepped back.

"I-It's okay," she whispered, I guessed trying to look friendly as she gave me a small smile. "I'm not going to hurt you."

A deep growl echoed past my fangs as I stood my ground. All the while, memories I didn't want to deal with kept trying to creep to the front of my mind. A sweet face, a kind voice, love, then pain. Lots of pain.

"Go. Away," I growled.

"You can talk?" she blinked.

"GO THE FUCK AWAY!" I roared.

The horse thing let out a startled yelp as it ran back into the tree line behind it. Once the sounds of snapping twigs and crunching leaves faded into the distance, I let out a calming breath and assumed what felt like a relaxed stance in my new body.

"Thank god for that," I sighed, falling to my haunches.

I took that moment to give my surroundings a better look. Instead of a park, it looked more like I was in some kind of forest. Considering my circumstances, I probably should've been glad I didn't end up on a volcano or something worse. The dense canopy kept most of the sun at bay, keeping my surrounding's reasonably cool for the most part as I looked around.

Alright, first things first. Find shelter and food sources. The lake takes care of some of my problems, but I'm screwed if I'm out in the open.

I cringed as some of the pokedex entries I've read over the years came to me. For such cute, cuddly creatures, some Pokemon can be seriously evil little bastards.

Doubt all of the ones I'll run into here are going to be as jumpy as Lemon-flavored Ponyta was, I thought as I rose to my paws and walked towards a nearby tree.

I better learn how to breath fire before that happens or I'm hosed. I'm a pretty tough Pokemon, but that won't do me any good if I don't know how to work this new body.

I clawed some bark off of the tree and moved to the one behind it to repeat the process.

So, step one: Find Shelter. Step two: Find Food. Step three: Freakout. Step Four: Figure out how to use my new body.

"Seems easy enough," I muttered as I cut a mark into my tenth tree.

As I walked deeper into the woods a large part of me wanted to say to hell with it and jump strait to step three, but I managed to keep that under control. Last thing I needed was to flip whatever switch triggered my Flamethrower in the middle of a forest after all.

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