The Fused and The Severed

by Golden Cake

Learning The Hard Way

Author's Note:

This chapter’s perspective will be between Dan’s fusion with the Mane 6, and Dan himself.

…

Even when we were all done forming, it took a bit of time to get all of our thoughts together.

We opened our eyes, and looked around to everypony else in the barn. They looked so shocked.

As we saw Dan’s clothes and Applejack’s hat lying on the floor around us, we slowly stood up on our four hooves, one at a time, and gently felt our muzzle with our… hands.

We slowly opened our mouths to speak, but we couldn’t find the words, so we stayed quiet, as we put a hand to… my head.

“Well…” Octavia said, as she blinked. “How do you feel? Are you all ok?”

I looked down at myself and felt my body with my hands, I felt my bare human chest, my crazy equine tail, my wings, and my equine face, my horn, and my very out of control mane.

I think I looked a bit like some sort of… cin… centaur, I think they’re called. I guess Dan was a bit into ‘greek mythology’, whatever that was.

I opened my mouth to speak again.

“This… is… so strange,” I said slowly.

At that moment, our body twitched and shook spastically.

This was too much… this… THIS NEEDED TO STOP!!

We let out a scream of mixed, distressed feelings, as we all suddenly split back into our separate selves with a large flash of light, falling to the surprisingly clean floor of the barn.

After the burst of light, I then opened my eyes and held my arms in front of me.

Dan… I was Dan. I felt slightly off, though, for some reason.

I looked to everypony else, who were still laying down, motionless, as I slowly stood up.

“Guys! Are you ok?”

I crouched down to Twilight and gently shook her until she opened her eyes, while Octavia and everypony else helped the rest of them.

“What… happened?” She asked slowly, as I helped her to her hooves.

“Wow,” she said, stunned. “I had no idea that’s what it would feel like. I almost felt myself… fading.”

Twilight then looked at me, concerned, as she tilted her head.

“Dan… are you ok? You look a little different.”

I asked her what she meant, and felt myself with my hands. I actually did feel sort of different, in an unpleasant way. I think I was… changed, even though I was myself again.

For starters, my ears were weirdly pointy, and I was losing feeling in my fingers and toes, I could hardly control them.

Twilight told me that my hair was turning sort of yellow, and after feeling more of my body, I found that my face was more elongated than it should’ve been, I could tell just from my basic perspective of vision, and there was also a little stub protruding from my upper rear, below my back, almost like… a tail.

“What IS this?!” I asked, breathing quickly as my panic grew.

I looked down at my glowing bracelet, then at everypony around me, as they all were awake by now and standing up on their feet.

I then squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth as I ran out of the barn, into the farmhouse, to get a knife from the kitchen and get this bracelet off of me, somehow.

It was raining by now, and I was getting wet. I realized only then that I was completely naked, but I didn’t care, I just needed to stop this, whatever it was.

As I crashed through the front door of the house, I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a large knife from a drawer and held it above my bracelet, as I tried to break the mechanisms.

As I feared, though, a knife wasn’t strong enough to break through the solid material these bracelets were made of.

Luckily Twilight and her friends stopped me right before I was going to start cutting into my hand to get it off.

Twilight levitated the knife out of my hand, away from me, and held me still in the air with her magic.

“DAN!! WHAT IN TARTARUS ARE YOU DOING?!? She cried, as she released her magic and set me down slowly.

I looked to everypony else as they stood in the doorway, looking at me with terrified eyes.

I held my hands in front of my face, and when I realized I couldn’t even feel them, or move them, almost like they were stuck together, I blacked out, before Pinkie swiftly slid beneath me and caught me before I hit the hard floor.

When I woke up, I was in the living room, on the sofa.

I was wearing my clothes, too. I guess they’d redressed me.

Rarity was in the same room as me, looking out a window at the intense rain. When she noticed I was awake, she immediately rushed over to me and she called out Twilight’s name, which was followed by Twilight’s hoofsteps quickly rushing down the stairs, before she stood right in front of me.

“Dan, what is wrong? Tell me,” she asked imploringly.

I hadn’t told her this out loud, but I really appreciated how much she cared for me.

I looked at her, as my eyes started watering.

Then the eye watering turned into a full on ugly cry, as she held me tightly with her hooves, while I held her with my stiff hands.

I sunk my… muzzle deep into her coat as I continued sobbing. Luckily, she didn’t seem to mind the tears and snot I was leaving on her coat.

When I was done breaking down in her tender, caring embrace, I told her how I was feeling.

“This is scary, Twilight!! This shouldn’t happen, fusion is one thing, single body transformation is a whole other thing!!” I blurted.

I’m not normally one to completely melt down like this, but this was a terrifying situation for me. I was witnessing firsthand my body becoming something else completely, and it seemed that there was nothing I could do. I just needed someone to lean on in this moment.

When we eventually broke the long hug, we both stood up off of the sofa and left the farmhouse, standing on the porch, as Rarity followed us.

Twilight put her hoof on my leg.

“Everypony else is still in the barn preparing defenses,” she said. “We might hide there when the wave hits.”

As the three of us ran through the rain and into the barn, I shut the door behind us, and looked to everypony, who looked at me fearfully.

“Dan,” Fluttershy said suddenly. “Are you ok?”

I looked at her. I was surprised she had the confidence to talk to me directly.

I shook my head, as Twilight put her hoof on my leg again.

“Dan, I can only guess how scary this must be for you,” she said sympathetically. “I’m sure if I were to turn into a HUMAN, I would be pretty terrified, too! Erm, no offense, I mean.”

For the briefest of moments, I sort of forgot about my body changing, and thought mainly of Twilight and her friends, as I smiled. They were all so strong, supporting each other through the hardest of times. They were the exact kind of friends every person deserves.

I then wiped my eyes dry and looked down at my lower body, and sighed, looking at Twilight sadly.

“Are you all still up for fusing to defend the farm?”

Twilights looked at me sympathetically.

“Dan! But, your body-“

“Is changing, I know,” I said. “I don’t like it, but if this is the way it has to be, I may as well go all the way, instead of being stuck… like this.”

I looked at everypony in the barn, all the same pony’s who I’ve only known for a few days, but trusted, as they’ve accepted me for exactly who and what I am.

“You’re all such great friends, and I trust you all. Now, let’s defend ourselves and our farm from those monsters, together.”

Once we regained the courage to have another go at fusion, we all touched each other and re-fused with a large flash of light.

Aloe, Lotus, and Octavia were working on the final touches for the defenses of the barn, while we were still trying to get used to our new body.

The next few minutes, I was honestly distracted from working as I was just getting a feel for myself, as I was trying to form my own feelings.

I sat down and put a hoof to my chin.

I had to mind where I sat, though, as I was about twice as tall as the average pony and had trouble getting into the more cramped areas of the barn.

And while I’ve been all together, my body has been shaping a bit over time. I used to have arms and a… human torso, but by now I have the same basic body shape as any normal pony should.

‘I sure hope Dan won’t completely freak out later’ I thought in my head. ‘I’m sorry Dan, I’m so sorry, sugarcube.’

After a while, I felt quite comfortable being me, but I was startled when I, and the other ponies in the barn heard a loud, primitive sort of war cry, coming from the northeast.

As I was startled, I… WE, started twitching, and split separately back into our seven different forms.

After the flash, when I could see and feel again, Twilight and her friends regained their senses and stood up a second later, as they all looked to me, Dan, or at least what was left of me.

I shut my eyes and held my hooves in front of my face sadly, as I felt Twilight lift me up to my hooves with her strong, but gentle, magic aura.

“I’m sorry, Dan, but we have to defend the farm now, the severed will be here any minute,” she said urgently. “We’ll hide for now, but if they spot us, we’ll all need to fight back, and we’re going to need ALL of us to do it.”

My eyes stayed shut as I was lost in my thoughts.

When I thought of everypony I’d lost to get to this point, and the ponies around me who were currently helping me fight through this harsh world, I opened my eyes and looked at all of them with as much confidence as I could muster.

I looked down at my hooves, then to everypony around me, who were all in defensive positions behind the barricaded front door and windows, as I slowly used my four hooves and walked to Rainbow and Applejack, who were pushing hay bales in front of the barn door. We didn’t have time to barricade the door earlier, so we had to make every second count now.

When I got to them, I awkwardly pushed a bale of hay in front of the door to help. It took quite some trying, but I was helping as much as I could.

It was only right when we were hearing the feral snarls and growling of the severed, who sounded like they were arriving right outside the barn, that we all stood completely still, and stayed quiet, as me, Applejack, and Rainbow were leaning against the bales of hay we hastily blocked the doors with.

I heard a severed from behind the front door sniffing, and I put my hooves over my mouth as Rainbow and Applejack looked at me worriedly.

The severed then stopped sniffing and was silent for a moment, before it suddenly let out a monstrous screech, which I knew would alert many of them to us.

It took only a minute for things to turn into anarchy after that, Twilight had quickly equipped everypony with weapons we’d had in the barn, and she handed me a knife. Even though I was in a different body, I still knew how to wield a blade, I would just have to change some things up.

When we were all armed, several severed were trying to break in through some of the windows and by ramming the front doors.

Me and AJ were trying our hardest to keep the doors shut, while Rainbow and Octavia were covering the windows.

Fluttershy was keeping Applebloom safe, as they were hiding in a pile of hay, and Pinkie, Twilight and Rarity were keeping the lower windows secured with Octavia, and Aloe and Lotus started helping me and AJ with the doors.

As the four of us were holding the door shut, I looked to a wall which I heard a loud banging coming from, until three severed smashed right through it.

I ran to the severed, holding my knife in my muzzle, as I tackled one to the floor and somehow managed to successfully jab my knife into it’s head.

I looked back and saw the other two severed standing over me, glaring at me angrily, before they were both shot through the back of the head with Twilight’s shotgun, as Twilight stood over them, reaching out a hoof for me to grab.

As Twilight pulled me to my hooves, she looked to Rarity, and tossed her shotgun to her, which Rarity quickly caught with her magic aura, and used to blast a severed who was poking it’s face through the window she was defending with.

Twilight then used her magic to wield a small dagger from the table of weapons.

I said nothing, but looked to her questioningly.

‘What could that tiny thing possibly do?’

Twilight then shut her eyes, and used her magic to make the blade fly all around the barn, through the windows which were being torn down, and to the hole in the wall that more severed were coming through, as it pierced right through the skulls of at least five severed in the span of just a few seconds.

My jaw actually dropped as her blade flew back to her.

She looked back at me, and smiled shyly, before she shut her eyes in focus and let the blade fly around again.

I looked to Pinkie, who was wielding an axe, as she was swiftly decapitating the increasing amount of severed coming through the hole in the barn. She looked like she was putting way to much feeling into it, based on her thunderous expression, as she cut off a severed’s head with one swing.

“We need to block that hole!!” I yelled.

I pushed a large bale of hay to block the hole, and struggled with it, before Rainbow flew down and helped me push, as we blocked the hole, and stood against the bale, keeping it secure.

We were holding things down here, but more and more severed were coming, and eventually, it was just too much.

Despite my best efforts, as more and more severed were breaking through our defenses and getting into the barn, I couldn’t save Lotus, and two severed got past us, biting her in the chest and neck as she fell to the ground. She screamed briefly, before her life ended.

Twilight gasped when she saw Aloe, and quickly pulled out her shotgun and shot both of the severed in the head with one piercing shotgun blast, as she gritted her teeth, and had small tears in her eyes.

Aloe screamed when she saw Lotus’s torn open corpse, and rushed over to her, her eyes filled with tears.

I tried pulling her off of Lotus, and told her that she was gone, but she smacked me harshly on the cheek and knocked me back.

I looked to my left and saw a severed pegasus flying through a, now open window, as it flew to Aloe, opening its mouth and showing its sharp teeth, ready to bite her.

I quickly got up to my hooves and dashed in front of Aloe, with my knife in my muzzle, and jabbed it into the severed’s eye, as it’s fang like teeth were only inches from my neck, before I pushed my knife in as deeply as I could, until it hit the brain, and the severed fell to the floor.

As I looked down at the severed, with my knife still deep in its eye socket. Before I could reach down to pull it out with my muzzle, two more severed tackled me to the ground and looked down at me, screeching into my ear painfully.

I looked to my right for a second, and saw Twilight fighting three severed who were all around her at once with her shotgun, before she looked to me and used her shotgun to shoot the severed that were on me with two shotgun blasts, before she was tackled to the floor by one of the severed she was fighting.

I quickly ran to her, and jumped onto the back of the severed that tackled her, before I used all the strength I had and twisted it’s neck, snapping it. Applejack used her mallet to smack the other two severed next to Twilight in the head, as they fell to the floor, before she stomped their skulls in with her powerful hooves.

Right when I thought I was hearing the sounds of even more severed outside the barn, I also heard… somepony else fighting outside?

I could hear grunting and slicing, and I also heard wings flapping, it sounded like a pegasus.

Right as I wondered who they could be, she flew in through an open window, right in front of me, as she looked at me inquisitively.

“W-Wild?!” I choked.

She raised an eyebrow at me.

“Who are you?” She asked.

I looked down at my pony body, then back up at her.

“Wild, it’s me, Dan! You have to believe me!!” I said quickly.

Wild looked at me questioningly, before she snapped her eyes forward and used… my special knife, to quickly kill two more severed who came in through a window.

She ran to Twilight, and they both put theirs backs against each other.

“Who are you?!” Twilight said quickly.

Wild looked back at her, before she looked forward again, to the severed that were still coming in through a window.

“Name’s Wild Wind, I’m looking for a human named Dan, you seen him?” She asked, as she dashed to the severed and turned around, bucking its head clean off its body.

Twilight looked to me, and Wild followed her eye contact, and looked back at her doubtfully.

“He’s a pony! I’m looking for a human!” She said.

Twilight looked at her.

“That IS Dan. A lot has happened recently. I can tell you about it later.”

After Wild got there, things actually started calming down, and soon we only had one or two severed coming at us at a time, until they just stopped completely.

When things were calm, me, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, and Wild carried the many fallen severed’s bodies into a grassless area, so we could burn them, while everypony else showered and took care of a few other small chores. Today had been hard on all of us, so I think Twilight was ok with being more lenient about chores.

The rain had also stopped, and we had some clouds in the sky, but it mostly just complemented the orange, luminous sunset.

Once we all took care of that, we all stepped out of the barn, which was now almost completely torn apart, as Wild looked at me.

“You… you’re Dan?” She asked.

I looked at her, as Twilight and the rest of them took this as their cue to give us some privacy, and went into the farmhouse.

“Yeah… something weird happened,” I said.

“Clearly,” Wild said, eyeing me up and down.

Wild then looked me in the eyes sadly and pulled me in a tight embrace with her hooves and wings.

“I… was worried I’d lost you. You mean a lot to me, man, never forget that,” she said quietly.

I just looked at her for a moment, as I didn’t expect the sudden display of affection, but I quickly returned it as I held her tightly with my hooves.

Wild then looked up at me, but was still tightly holding me close to her.

“How did this even happen to you?” She asked worriedly.

I lifted my right hoof in front of my face, as me and her looked at my bracelet.

Wild looked back at me quickly.

“You didn’t fuse with anypony your bracelet wasn’t synced with did you?!” She asked aggressively.

I shut my eyes and nodded.

I heard Wild sigh, before I felt her hoof on my cheek, as I opened my eyes to looked at her.

“You dummy, you really should’ve been there when General Celestia was breaking down how these bracelets really work,” she said.

She then put her other hoof on my other cheek, as she pulled my face closer to hers.

“You should know by now how much I hate it when you do stupid stuff,” she whispered, before she gently pressed her lips against mine.

I was surprised by her sudden display of more-than-friendly affection, and after a brief moment of thought, I returned it.

Wild was a strong pony, one who I was very close to. I’d never felt this way for anyone in the past, as far as I knew, but I thought I’d give this strange feeling a chance, and show her how I felt.

Our kiss was long and warm, but didn’t go too far with it, as we only locked lips, before we broke it after a few minutes of bliss.

As we were breathing heavily, we held each other just as close as before we broke the kiss, as Wild looked at me with loving eyes, and I looked back at her, as I smiled.

“Wild, I never understood why I felt closer to you than anypony else, and now I think I know.”

She smiled as her eyes started watering.

“I… I… love you,” I said slowly, with passion burning in my voice.

She then held me close and pulled me into another hug, which I immediately returned.

“I love you, too,” she said happily, before she then looked up at me with a sad expression.

“I just wish you hadn’t done this to yourself,” she said.

I looked down at my body, at my bright orange coat, my yellow tail, and my wings which were stemming from my back, before looking back at her.

“I didn’t know this would happen,” I said quietly.

“Clearly,” she said.

“…But I don’t care what I look like, I’m still me, and I will fight to do what I can to protect everyone in both world’s, just like I always have,” I said determinedly.

Wild smiled back at me with the same determination.

I then looked at her curiously.

“What are you even doing here? You should be at the camp.”

Wild looked into my eyes with annoyance.

“General Celestia said she would send a team to rescue you, but I decided to take matters into my own hooves.”

I looked at my knife, which she was wearing on a belt that was above her flank.

“Can I… have that back?” I said, pointing a hoof at her belt.

Wild looked at her waist, then took off the belt and the knife and held them out with her wing for me to take.

As I wrapped the belt around my waist, I thanked her, before she looked at me sadly.

“I’m sorry I took that. I know how special it is to you, but I needed something to fight with to come get you.”

I told her it was ok, before she backed up a bit and looked at me seriously.

“Dan. The reason I’m really here… is because I had a feeling that you were in trouble, I sensed danger coming for you.”

I tilted my head, before I smiled at her.

“I already know that you have a special sense, Wild,” I said assuringly. “General Celestia may not believe it, but I do, and I’ve seen how it’s helped the both of us more times than I can remember.”

Wild looked me in the eyes, worriedly.

“It’s not that,” she said. “I can still feel it, I still feel the sense of danger.”

My eyes widened.

“What?”

“The severed wave wasn’t it, something else made me come here,” she said.

When she said that, she was suddenly shot in the side of her head with a beam of magic.

I instinctively looked in the direction of where the shot came from, before a second beam of magic hit me in the forehead, causing me to fall to the ground, as I laid across from Wild.

We looked at each other for what we thought might be the last time, before we both slowly shut our eyes, as a blurry shadow loomed over us.