Morning Sun
Y'know, I'm not entirely sure what happened.
But one thing I'm certain of is that I am no longer in my bed. How do I know that? Well for starters, I'm fairly certain that my bed isn't made of dirt, twigs and rocks. Am I on a forest floor? Man I hope not. But knowing my luck, my "friends" thought it'd be funny to break into my apartment while I was asleep and just drop my sorry butt down in who-knows-where. I'm pretty sure they drugged me too. I don't think I'm usually this...fuzzy. Maybe they had the decency to wrap my in a blanket before they left me to my fate.
. . . Stupid friends.
As I lay in my face-down position somewhere in a forest contemplating why I am so fuzzy, I am struck with a rather interesting thought--why can I feel my mouth and nose pressing against the ground, whilst my eyes and forehead hover several inches above said ground? Such silly questions must be answered with haste. I slowly reached up with my right hand and felt for the reason for my discomfort. What I felt...surprised me.
'Is this a, muzzle?'
I glanced over to my hand. Only it wasn't a hand. It was orange. And fuzzy. And it had claws.
'Uuh...is that a paw?'
My eyes traced the mysterious appendage up to a wrist, then a foreleg, then a shoulder. Which was attached to my shoulder. A large, orange, fuzzy shoulder. Which was my shoulder. I think its my shoulder. Is that my back too?
'Umm...what's going on?'
I slowly push myself up and try to stand on my back legs. It did not go well. I waved my arms around frantically as I tilted backwards. My brilliant arm waving strategy didn't seem to work, as I quickly found myself landing rather roughly onto my back.
"Ouchie." I groaned.
After several more attempts of trying to stand on my hind legs, I finally, and wisely, relented myself to standing on my hands...er, paws and feet.
It was surprisingly comfortable. Natural even.
"Alright, I'm in the middle of a forest, appear to be some kind of...animal, and I have no idea how I got here."
They must have used some hardcore drugs for results like these. I'm not even mad. Kudos to you my friends. Kudos.
After standing around doing nothing and likely looking like an idiot doing it, I decided to find some water. Not just to quench my thirst, but to also see what kind of image my drug addled mind cooked up for me.
This is gonna be good.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to have to relearn to walk, from two legs to four? It's really not all that hard. Once you get the first few steps down, your body just kind of adapts and before you know it, you've gone from staggering, to walking, and then to running.
Drugged me is a fast runner.
For several minutes, I dodged and weaved between trees and jumped over logs and rocks. I was a pretty good jumper too. Eventually, after a few minutes, I came to a shallow, but wide stream. "Well, time to see what the ol' brain cooked up for me."
I was not prepared for what I saw.
My jaw dropped as I looked at what was staring back out at me. It was a dog. But I knew it wasn't any ordinary dog. The orange fur, the proud expression across the muzzle, the fearsome eyes. I was definitely no ordinary dog. I was the combination of a dog, a bear, a lion, and a tiger. I was a Pokemon. I was the Legendary Pokemon.
I was an Arcanine.
And I flipped my lid.
After about five minutes of jumping in place, running in circles, and about 500 fangirly screams, I thought out loud about the last thirty minutes or so, walking in a circle as I did.
"Okay Chris, keep it together. You're only the most awesomely awesome Pokemon that has ever existed and that will ever be! SQUEEE! NO! No. Bad Chris. You're an Arcanine now. You don't squee, no matter how appropriate it seems. Also, don't get your hopes up. You've just been drugged. None of this is real."
I paused.
"But...but what if it is? I've never been able to run or jump like that before. There is no way my brain would be able to so realistically create a breeze like that on my fur. I was never very hairy as a person to begin with. Then again, I've never been high before. I could just be making this up as I go along."
I continued to ramble like this for several minutes, going through possibilities of this being real or just all in my head. Finally, I came to a decision.
"If I am high, I'm going to at least enjoy this. If not, I'll still enjoy this, but for a lot longer." I grinned at my brilliancy. "This is gonna be fun."
I was about to take off running again before a thought came to me. 'Why is this forest so frickin' dark?'
I looked around. It wasn't just dark. It was freakishly dark. And noisy too. Along with the bad smell. I must not have noticed before because I was too busy trying to figure out what was going on with me. Now that I thought about it, this forest didn't look like any of the forests around where I lived. It didn't feel right either. Like it just wasn't natural.
I chuckled at that last thought. "Not natural, huh? I'm not exactly natural. It's probably just my imagination."
I looked across the stream and saw, just a few yards across, was a large boulder whose peak poked just out the top of the treeline. Deciding that would be a good place to get my bearings, I tensed my legs to prepare to jump across the river. Before I jumped however, when a thought came to me.
'Arcanines are fire type Pokemon, which means I'm weak to water.' I looked back at the stream and gulped, releasing the tension from my legs. I walked down to the stream and stopped just a few inches from it. In my excitement of figuring out that I was an Arcanine, I never did have a drink. Tentatively, I reached a paw down to the surface of the water, stopping just inches above the surface. I took in a breath and closed my eyes. "Hope this doesn't hurt." I muttered before sticking my paw in the water. I felt it breach the waters surface and felt...
Nothing. Just a cold paw.
I opened my eyes and looked at my paw. It wasn't steaming, or hurting. Just wet and a little cold. I withdrew my paw and brought my head down to the water. Then I remembered something. I had no idea how a dog drinks water.
I looked at the stream and narrowed my eyes. "Maybe it'll just come to me, like walking did." Shrugging, I brought my muzzle to the water. Sure enough, my hypothesis proved correct. My body just knew instinctively how to drink the water.
I spent about twenty seconds just lapping up the water, enjoying the cooling sensation as it ran down my throat. Before long, I looked back across the stream to the boulder. No longer afraid that falling into the stream could kill me, I backed up several feet to get a running start on a jump. I crouched down, tensed my legs, and fired. After one great stride, I pushed off the ground with all my might and sailed across the stream.
It was freakin' majestic.
Until I realized I had overshot the jump and crashed into a tree. Headfirst. Fortunately, I didn't suffer any further humiliation by landing in the stream. Unfortunately, it was traded for a splitting headache. Several leaves and twigs were shaken loose from the impact and fell around me. Groaning, I pushed myself up from the ground and scowled straight at the tree.
It was mocking me. Stupid, smug tree. "You're lucky I don't know how to breathe fire." I growled.
Deciding I would get revenge later, I gave the tree a warning kick as I scurried over to the boulder. I decided that since I was able to jump across the stream, jumping up to the top of the boulder would be a cinch. I leapt about halfway up the boulder, grabbing onto an outcrop on the side with my claws before heaving myself up to the top.
Looking around when I got to the top, I really wasn't surprised with what I saw. Looking in the direction of where I came, I saw trees. Lots and lots of trees. To be fair, there were some mountains in the distance. But mostly just trees. The only thing of any real notice was a castle or fort of some kind. It was old too. Like, hundreds of years old. The walls were crumbling and parts of the roof were missing. Even a tower or two had fallen. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by a crevasse and from my distance, I couldn't see a way to make it across. Making a mental note of it, I turned around.
I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw.
Near my boulder, about 100 yards further, was a short cliff. Just beyond the cliff, the forest extended for a good while before abruptly stopping. On the edge of the forest, I could see a small town. And just on the outskirts of the town, I could see some kind of structure. It almost looked like a tree and a castle merged into one. Also, it looked like it was made out of crystal. On the other side of the town, I could see what looked like a farm, most likely an orchard from the number of trees I could see. Most of the buildings within the town were strikingly similar in design except for a few noteworthy buildings. The towns buildings looked old fashioned too. Like from medieval Europe.
I would have continued to stare at the strange looking town longer if I wan't snapped out of my trance by the sound of screaming children. My eyes widened and and my ears perked at the sound. I looked down to the edge of the cliff. That was where the screaming came from. I bared my fangs and let out a guttural growl before leaping off the bolder towards the screams. Anyone who was going to scare children for fun was going to have to deal with me first.
<///>
It was early morning when the Cutie Mark Crusaders ventured out into the Everfree Forest, despite the repeated scoldings and punishments they went through for going into the forest. Unfortunately, grownups just don't understand the importance of discovering cutie marks that have to do with the Everfree.
Today, the three were romping through the forest to find some poison joke. But fret not, they came prepared. Each of them were wearing saddlebags filled with goggles, jars, lids, tweezers and most importantly, snacks! One cannot go romping through the Everfree forest without a good snack.
The orange pegasus, Scootaloo lead the three, closely followed by the young apple farmer, Applebloom with Sweetie Belle in the back of the little procession.
"Do ya think were gonna get our cutie marks makin' poison joke potions?" Applebloom asked the other two, adjusting the straps of her saddlebag. "Ah mean, what kinda potions are we gonna make even if we find the plant?"
"Of course were gonna get our cutie marks doing this." Scootaloo replied. "And were obviously going to make prank potions. What else would you make out of a plant called 'Poison Joke'?"
Sweetie Belle looked past Applebloom and yelled to Scootaloo, her voice cracking as she did so. "You said we were going to get our cutie marks the last few times we did what you wanted to do. Like the trapeze artist one, and professional hoofball players, and even the one when we launched you out of that catapult."
"Yeah? Well, this time it's going to be different. I just know it!" The young pegasus shouted, her wings buzzing with excitement.
Applebloom rolled her eyes. "That's what you said those las' times too."
"Whatever."
The three continued walking for several minutes before Sweetie Belle started looking around the trees nervously, her ears flicking around at the slightest sound. "Umm, girls? I-I think that we should turn around now."
"What'sa matter Sweetie?" The red maned filly asked, not bothering to look over her shoulder.
"I'm getting a bad feeling. Like were being watched."
Scootaloo stopped walking and started glancing around. "Yeah. I kinda got that feeling too."
Applebloom was next to speak. "Say, uh, girls? How's about we head on back to the orchard and think of sumthin' less...Everfree forest oriented."
A sudden *CRACK* of a breaking branch rang out from behind them and the three squealed and clung to each other.
"I-I-I'm with A-Applebloom!" Sweetie Belle stammered. "L-L-Lets go back!"
The sounds of rustling leaves and breaking branches were rapidly getting louder and closer. The fillies tightened their grip on each other and gulped. Suddenly, the bush right in front of them parted and out lept...Applejack.
"APPLEBLOOM! SCOOTALOO! SWEETIE BELLE! WHAT THE HAY DO YA THINK YER DOIN' OUT HERE?!" The three fillies sighed in relief that it was somepony they knew, and not a monster from the forest. Their relief however, was short lived. They now had an irritable adult to deal with.
"We're sorry sis. We was just gonna get our cutie marks in poison jo- er, potion making." Applebloom said, grinning nervously.
Applejack raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing the three. "Potion makin'? Ya know that Zecora's hut is that way don't ya?" She said, pointing to the opposite direction they were heading. "And what was that ah heard about poison joke? You three know better than ta muss with that stuff."
Scootaloo glanced around and smiled nervously. "P-Poison joke? Nopony said anything about poison joke! Heh heh!" the young pegasus remarked just a little too fast.
Applejack narrowed her eyes. "Sweetie Belle? What was that ah heard about poison joke?"
The young unicorn 'eeped' and started sweating anxiously. "Umm... see, the thing is...uh... we weren't gonna...uh p-poison joke isn't-heh-"
Applejack leaned closer to the unicorn. "Well?"
Sweetie Belle couldn't help herself. She broke. "WE WERE GOING TO MAKE PRANK POTIONS OUT OF POISON JOKE THAT'S WHY WE WERE IN THE EVERFREE FOREST AND WE KNEW NONE OF YOU WERE GONNA LET US GO INTO THE FOREST WITHOUT TELLING YOU AND YOU WOULDN'T HAVE LET US GO IF YOU KNEW WE WERE LOOKING FOR POISON JOKE WHICH IS WHY WE LEFT WITHOUT TELLING YOU WERE SUPER-DUPER SORRY AND WE PROMISE WE WONT EVER DO IT AGAIN AND PLEASE DON'T TELL MY SISTER CAUSE SHE'S GOING TO GROUND ME AND I JUST GOT DONE WITH MY LAST GROUNDING AND I DON'T WANT TO-" Sweetie Belle took a moment to catch her breath.
"AHA! Ah knew you three were up ta no good again!" Applejack interrupted, pointing a hoof to the three of them and smiling in victory. "Now come on!" she said, turning around and heading back the way she came. "Let's get you three home before-"
Applejack paused, her ears flicking around. Something was growling just over to her right. Something big. Slowly, she turned her head towards the source of the sound. Out from behind the bushes, came a large creature with the body of a lion, the wings of a bat, and the tail of a scorpion.
"Horseapples."
The manticore roared and charged out from behind the treeline, and the three fillies screamed in terror.
<///>
I've always liked kids. Not the kids of today who are always on their cell phones and being rude to everyone around them. I like the innocent ones who always try to make everyone around them happy. So when I heard kids screaming, I came running as fast as a could.
I stopped at the top of the small cliff. I'll admit, this also wasn't something I was prepared for. Down at the bottom, I saw what looked like horses, but their were a few things wrong with them. First of all, the colors were all kinds of weird. Purple? Red? Orange? And is that a stetson? Secondly, they looked waaaaaay to cute to be horses. Thirdly, WHAT THE *BLEEP* IS THAT THING?
Now that I think about it, it could have passed for some kind of new Pokemon. A bat-winged lion with a scorpion tail? Neat-o.
I was brought back into the present when the bat-winged thing attacked the bigger orange horse. The little horses ran for cover, cowering at the base of the cliff while the bigger one dodged all the attacks the lion thing threw at it. The horse kicked the lion thing a few times, but it looked like all that did was make it angry.
Eventually the lion thing (I've got to come up with a name for it) started using it's tail too. Now I saw that the little horse thing was having trouble. Now all it could do was dodge, and sometimes it was just barely ahead of the lion thing. Suddenly, the lion thing roared and swung its paw at the horses legs causing it to stumble and fall. The lion took this opportunity to bash into the horses body with it's shoulder, throwing the horse into a tree. The lion quickly ran to the horse and swung its paw again, flinging the horse in front of the three young horses.
Then I heard them scream again.
The horses were the ones that were screaming. Then I heard them talking, no begging the big horse to get up and save them.
I decided I had enough.
I jumped off the side of the cliff, bared my fangs, and roared.
<///>
"APPLEJACK!"
"GET UP APPLEJACK!"
"SIS! WE'VE GOTTA GO! PLEASE STAND UP!"
Applejack was breathing heavily and clutching her side. 'Darn thing gotta good hit on me.' "A-Applebloom. Get yer friends...and get otta...*huff*...here."
"N-NO! WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE YA HERE!"
The manticore watched from a distance before it began to saunter towards the group, licking it's chops hungrily.
"Applebloom. Don't argue...with me." she grimaced. "Thing musta broken a rib. Go and-"
Applejack was interrupted by a loud, bark-like roar. Everything in the area looked up to see a massive creature diving from the top of the cliff. When it landed, the ground around it shook its massive bulk touched down on the ground between the ponies and the manticore. The beast crouched down and let out a slow, menacing growl at the manticore.
"Wha...What is that?" Scootaloo whispered, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.
Applejack, a similar look on her face, was the one to answer. "Ah...Ah don't know girls." she replied, propping her back up against the cliff face.
The creature in front of them was even larger than the manticore with thick muscle covered by a coat of orange, black striped fur. It's tail, knees, face, chest and back was covered with thick, dull yellow fur. Its large jaws were filled with razor sharp teeth and it had two large fangs that stuck out past its upper lip.
The creature barked at the manticore in a challenge and the manticore responded with a roar. Flaring its wings, the manticore attempted to make itself bigger as it stood on its hind legs. The creature snarled and charged forward several feet before puffing out its chest and roaring, swinging one of its large paws as it did so.
The manticore backed up, not used to a creature returning a challenge. The manticore growled and flared its wings again, steeling itself. The manticore turned its head to the sky and let out a roar. Several howls answered the manticores call and seven timberwolves stepped out from behind the brush.
"Th-the manticore has timberwolves? TIMBERWOLVES?!" Sweetie belle screeched.
Applejack wrapped her hooves around the three fillies and pulled them to her. "Stay close ta me girls."
"What'er we gonna do sis?"
Applejack looked into the eyes of the three young fillies before looking up to the dog monster. "Hope fer the best."