The first thing I remember was a blinding light shining in my face. I winced and squinted, holding my arm over my face to block some of the light and let my eyes adjust. Underneath me, I felt the texture of dirt against my chest, belly and legs, telling me I'd slept outside. I didn't remember camping, and I don't usually get drunk. As far as I could tell, the night before had been pretty normal; I went out and met some friends from college, they took me to a party at one of the frat houses, and I didn't want alcohol because I was driving, so I got some Pepsi instead, and... oh crap. I think the Pepsi was what got spiked. Which means I was probably naked on the campus grounds. Great.

It took almost a whole minute before the pain went away, and I could finally observe my surroundings. It wasn't the campus; I'd never seen this place before. I was out in the forest, the trees were tall and had dark brown bark, almost black, and a thick canopy of leaves that barely allowed any sunlight to enter. The fact that I was naked in the woods would have been scary enough without the black paw hanging over my head.

I yelped and rolled away at the same time as whatever creature was there made a barking sound. On my back, I looked up and saw nothing there. I looked left, nothing, right, nothing, down, a pair of black, scaly legs. Jumping up, I tried to climb to my feet, and ended up faceplanting on the dirt.

Something was here, something big and scary and most likely dangerous, and I was face-down and ass-up on the ground.

I tried to groan, and heard a strange growling noise in place of my own voice. I pushed myself up and looked around, but the thing still wasn't there. I did notice a black wing behind me, and spun around, catching a glimpse of a body and--wait a second. I turned my head slowly, and realized something peculiar: either I wasn't in my normal body, or I had a strange creature's head rammed up my rear end.

Without any better ideas, I experimentally moved my right leg, and the creature's right hind leg moved as well. I even felt the dirt under my toes when I put my leg back down. Flexing a new muscle I felt under my shoulders, I saw the wings flex as well.

Well that's a relief, I thought to myself, At least my ass hasn't been violated. I sighed and sat on my haunches, taking a deep, calm breath and then--WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BODY?!

Well that's what I was thinking. When I tried to say it, however, it sounded more like a lion and a wolf mating. Don't ask how I know what that sounds like. I hacked and grabbed my throat with a clawed paw, then tried to speak again and just got more growling noises.

This was getting me nowhere, so I decided to calm down and try to figure out just what I'd been turned into. Looking myself over, I was a scaled quadruped with dragon wings, a warg-like body shape, and a lion tail. My scales were black, no scratch that, dark teal, and my mane and tail tip tuft were a dull mid-tone gray.

Where had I seen an animal like this before? Oh yeah, that one video game on Steam. That meant... I was a freaking shadewing. I tried to remember what I could about shadewings; apparently there were two kinds, and you could tell which was which by the color of their eyes and horn. There was nothing reflective around for me to look at my face with, so I opted to cross my eyes and try to see my horn instead.

Now, I realize I would have looked really dumb, but shadewings don't have visible pupils or irises. Their eyes are covered by a sort of one-way mirror shell, and I couldn't tell you what they look like underneath. I couldn't see my horn anyway, so the other option would be to try to use my shadewing powers and do something.

The first type of shadewing was the red eyes, blue horn type, which could turn invisible. I stared at my legs and focused on cloaking myself, straining to do something I had no idea how to do, hoping that instinct would take over the rest. After a moment of straining myself, I let out a breath and gave up. Clearly, I couldn't turn invisible.

The second type was the green eyes, orange horn type, which could move things telekinetically. This time, I stared at a nearby rock, and focused on moving it towards myself. The rock twitched, but I wanted to make sure it was really me and not some burrowing animal, so I pulled a little harder. Next thing I knew, a big lump of gray was racing towards my face, followed by tremendous pain.

OW, ME SCHNOZ! I thought, roaring a vocal expression of pain. I ducked my front down so I could grab my muzzle with my forepaws. OK, so I'm the green-eyed variety. That's good to know.

Now that I had a hold on what I was and what my brand of mind powers were, I needed to learn how to control my new body. Checking my paws to make sure I wasn't bleeding, which I wasn't thanks to my nice scaly hide, I got back onto my paws and started walking around. It wasn't as hard as I expected, though I did trip on a few roots. As my confidence grew, I tried to move faster until I reached an all-out run.

Man, did running feel good! I never enjoyed it that much in my human body, but like this, it was incredible. I was moving so fast, and it just got easier the more I did it! I felt swift, powerful, unrestricted; I felt like I was truly free.

I was pulled out of my prancing when I picked up the sound of something in the distance. It was a voice, but I couldn't tell what it said. My ear swiveled until it locked onto the source, and I turned to follow it. I prowled silently; the voice became clearer the closer I got to it until I was able to tell what I was listening to. It sounded like a small child was crying, and I don't mean just simple "I lost my dog" crying, I mean they were crying hard, and judging by the shortness of breath, they'd been crying for a while and showed no signs of stopping.

Peeking through the bushes, I gaped at what I saw. Pink fur, leafy green mane, and most importantly, hooves. Tiny, soft, fuzzy hooves. There was only one place where creatures had hooves like that: Equestria. Oh yeah, the gigantic eyeballs kind of clued me in, too.

Great, I thought, I'm in Equestria, and I'm the most feared predator on another planet. What would they think of me here? Here in... I looked around and it finally struck me. Oh, shit... I'm in the Everfree Forest!

I looked back at the crying filly, at least I guessed she was a filly by the sound of her voice, and tried to project my thoughts at her.

Hey, can you hear me?

No response. Maybe if I moved in closer...

"Hey, trying not to scare that little pony?" said a twig under my paw, "Allow me to play you the song of my people!"

SNAP!

The foal jumped up and her ears perked forward. She turned her head and saw me in an instant, freezing in place at the sight of me.

I froze in place, and I could feel my eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Uh, hi--

"AAAAAAAHHH!!!" the filly shrieked and recoiled away from me. Her back was already against a tree, so she rolled to the side and tried to run.

I quickly sprinted in front of her and blocked her path. I'm not going to hurt you, I thought.

She scrambled and turned tail, and I jumped in front of her again.

Hey, can you even hear me?

The foal fell on her side and put up a foreleg defensively. "P-please, don't eat me!" she screamed, "Help! Somepony, please help!"

I am not. Going. To. Hurt you, I tried to project, but for some reason, she wasn't getting a word of what I had to say. So much for shadewings being telepathic. Or maybe ponies simply weren't receptive to shadewing telepathy.

Either way, the truth still stood: we were lost in the Everfree together. The sun looked as though it would be setting soon, and the predators would be coming out to hunt. We needed a safe place, and soon.

I stepped forward towards the trembling filly, and gently put a paw on her head. She froze at my touch, and I proceeded to stroke her mane, trying to calm her down. When she looked up at me, I tried to smile without showing too many teeth, an effort that was probably already wasted due to my saber fangs jutting down from the end of my muzzle. Either way, I think the message got across.

"A-are you... gonna eat me?" she asked.

I shook my head, and stepped closer so I was almost over her.

The filly sniffled. "I... I just wanna go home. I want my mama and my papa."

I nodded. Don't worry. I'll help you find them.

If we were in the Everfree, that meant Ponyville must have been nearby. Recalling the map Hasbro made, the Everfree was due west of Ponyville. That meant we had to go north. Hey, since when has Hasbro been right about anything they made up? For all I knew, the sun went backwards in this world, and the moon was warm.

Ignoring my cynicism, I nudged the filly with a paw, and then nodded my head to the side to tell her to follow me. Come on. Let's get out of this forest.

She shied away from me and whimpered.

I sighed and nodded sideways again. Let's go.

"Are you gonna take me home?" she asked.

Yeah, my telepathy definitely wasn't working. I nodded, and turned partially, keeping my eyes on her to make sure she was following.

The pony slowly got to her hooves, then sniffled again and wiped her tears off her face with her foreleg. She joined me by my side and looked up at me, still showing nothing but fear. If she trusted me at all, it was probably a desperate trust.

And then we were off. I led her east, hoping that Hasbro had given me an accurate map as we trekked through the thick brush and seemingly endless span of trees. Maybe we'd get lucky and find Zecora's hut, and she could show us the way to Ponyville.

I heard a low growl coming from beside us. OK, so maybe we wouldn't get lucky, and get eaten by forest monsters. I snapped my head in the direction the sound came from, and saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes preceding a head made of logs and sticks emerging from the trees around us. Timber wolves; of freaking course.

My muscles tensed up, and my mane bristled like a cat. I stepped over the filly protectively, flaring out my wings to look intimidating as a deep, loud growl rolled out of me. I could hear the foal under me whimpering, and felt her huddle up into a tiny ball. Looking at my opponents, I noticed that their claws and teeth were also made of wood, but I knew full well that even wood could be powerful; after all, if a tree could survive having a truck wrapped around it, they could probably get hard enough to pierce my scales.

I focused on the legs of the one that dared to step closest to me, probably gauging my threat level, and pulled a tendon in the middle of its hind leg, causing it to stoop backwards into a very silly position. Then I lunged, newfound instincts leading me directly towards the creature's throat. Logic took hold just a second too late when I remembered these beasts were made of wood; attacking the throat probably wouldn't do much damage. At least I had their attention now, and I threw my wood-be prey (ha ha, get it?) into one of his pack mates as another tried to jump me from the side.

I rolled under him and threw him with my wing, then jumped up and grabbed a rock with my mind, launching it at the next attacker. One of them got me from behind, and sank his fangs into my... uh, flanks, causing me to roar in pain. I was right; their teeth were sharp, and their jaws were so strong, I almost felt like it would break my lower spine if it held on any longer.

I grabbed one of his buddies in my psychic grip, and swung him around myself. The two wolves shattered on impact, and I took a second to check my wound. It was too dark to tell if I was bleeding, but some scales were definitely ripped out.

One of them snarled as it jumped up at me, and I ducked and pushed it away with my mind. I figured out something interesting doing this: if an object was already in motion when I pushed it, its momentum stayed the same, provided the change in direction wasn't too great. That gave me an idea, and I grabbed one and began to swing it around before firing another impulse from my mind, shooting the fanged missile into a large tree and blasting it into thousands of unrecognizable splinters. So increasing the momentum made my throws even deadlier; good to know.

I flapped my wings and jumped over the next one, landing on him and using another impulse to rip his body in half with his hindquarters sliding along the ground away from us.

The last mobile wolf grabbed onto my wing and shook its head, trying to rip my nice new limb right out of its socket. I rounded on it, pinned it down, then ripped its head off. Taking no chances with this one's body being more intact than the others, seeing as timber wolves could revive themselves over time, I looked up and launched the head off into the distance.

At last, all was quiet. I panted heavily, tasting tree sap in my mouth; timber wolf blood, I figured. I turned and checked my wound more closely this time, and instinctively licked it a few times to clean it out. The blood had already stopped flowing to it, even better that it might make us harder to track if I didn't smell hurt.

Speaking of smells, I took a whiff of the air and caught the scent of the filly, then followed it to a hiding place she'd found under a bush. Opening the side of it, she gasped at my appearance and shrank away.

I smiled down at her, and extended a paw in what I hoped she would interpret as a friendly gesture. Eventually, she caught on, and apprehensively extended her foreleg, wrapping her hoof around my paw. I gently pulled her out of the bushes, and as soon as she was clear, looked her over for any signs of injury. Everything seemed to check out with her, but my inspection was making her even more nervous.

She started to mumble something, then cut herself off. My ears perked up, and I watched her expectantly, waiting to hear what she had to say.

"C-can I... please go home now?"

I looked up at the sky. The sun was going down, and it would be night time soon. Timber wolves were already fine and dandy with hunting in the daytime, as it seemed, so what kind of creatures could we expect at night? I didn't want to find out. Looking solemnly at my new charge, I sighed and shook my head.

"What?" She took a step back. "Why not?"

Because it isn't safe, I tried yet again to project to her. When she didn't react, I turned and looked for some kind of alternative method of communication. Finding a patch of dirt that still had some light on it, I went over too it, scratched it with my claw, and motioned for her to come read what I'd written.

NOT SAFE OUT
CAMP UNTIL DAY

She looked at my writing, then back at me. Then, with tears and a sniffle that broke my heart, she looked down at her hooves, crestfallen. She started to cry softly, causing me to bite my lip to keep from... well, doing whatever the shadewing equivalent of crying was.

Instead, I walked up to her and gave her a gentle nuzzle. She looked up at me again, and I stood next to her and held a wing over her, tilting my head forward to tell her to walk with me.

As we quietly made our way through the dark forest, I kept my eyes and ears at attention, scanning for danger and a place where we could stay the night. I didn't want to pick some place open and exposed in case a manticore or an ursa were around. Thinking about the other monsters that lived here, I remembered something very important, and stopped to write another note in the dirt.

IF YOU SEE A CHICKEN
DO NOT LOOK AT ITS EYES

I wanted to make sure she at least knew how to avoid probably the easiest thing to fall prey to here. Cockatrices could petrify someone just by making eye contact, and if we ever met one, I wanted to make sure she knew to look away from them. If I kept my head down, I should have been able to fight and throw them before they could get us, but there was no sense in sparing caution in these woods.

She simply nodded her compliance and continued following me.

The stars were coming out when we found ourselves at the mouth of a small cave. I could see pretty far into it, despite the darkness, and attributed it to shadewing night vision. At least it was empty, and it didn't smell like it had been used in a long time. This would be where we would sleep tonight.

I led her inside, and grabbed some plants to cover the entrance with. I also pulled up an array of strong-smelling flowers, taking care to make sure they weren't poison joke, and sprinkled them around to cover our scent. Confident that we would at least be hidden until morning, I took the filly to a mossy spot in the cave and laid down like a dog, lifting my wing to invite her to sleep up against me.

She cautiously stepped closer, then after dubiously shifting back and forth, finally, and reluctantly, stood next to me. She then lowered her torso to the ground and tucked her legs in, making a neat little pony loaf of herself before she leaned against me and rested her head against the crook of my foreleg. As I lowered my wing over her, I heard her sniffle again.

"I want my mama..."

Soft sobs would be my lullaby that night. I watched her in silence before resting my head between my forelegs, taking in a deep breath and letting it out through my nose.

I know, kid. I know.

Beams of light ranging from green to pale yellow filtered down through the forest canopy. My eyes fluttered a bit before mustering the strength to stay open. I let out a long yawn, then observed my surroundings.

Where am... oh, that's right. I saw the cave we slept in, my body still in full shadewing form, and the little foal nestled under my wing. I guess it wasn't a dream after all. Great.

I looked at the angle of the sun, feeling some reassurance in at least knowing which way was east. If we kept following the morning sun, it would lead us out of the woods, and hopefully to Ponyville. Then my little pony companion would find her parents, and I could find some way of asking the Mane Six to help me get home. That was the plan, at least.

The foal stirred under my wing, starting to wake up. She worked her eyes open, hazily staring around before she realized where we were, and jumped away from me, screaming her head off and scrambling back until she bumped into the wall of the cave. Clearly, I was not the only one who wished yesterday was a dream.

"Where am I?!" she screamed, "Mama! Papa!" Then came the crying again. I felt for this girl, I really did, but if she kept bursting into tears, this was going to get old fast.

There's no one here but me, kiddo, I thought as I got to my paws and stretched, letting out a yawn and some kind of weird moaning noise at the same time. My back cracked with several satisfying pops, and I relaxed my muscles and stood up. Come on. We're wasting daylight.

I looked outside and checked the sun. It was still rising, so I had a good lead on what direction we were headed. Turning around, I went back to the pony and nudged her, startling her out of her sobbing. I nodded towards the mouth of the cave.

"Are we gonna find my mama and papa now?" she asked, her breath shuddering from crying.

I nodded, and led her out of the cave into the sunshine.

Calling her 'the pony' or 'the filly' was getting old, too. I scratched another note into the dirt and tapped beside it to get her attention.

NAME?

She looked at it for a moment, then looked at me and pointed to herself. "You w-want to know my name?"

I nodded.

"It's... Strawberry Patch." She wiped her eyes on the back of her hoof. "W-what's your name?"

I scratched the dirt again.

HUNTER

Judging by her reaction, mine was a name that didn't go over well with ponies. What was I supposed to do, though? Lie to her? Make up a name on the spot? It's not my fault my father, who was a big game hunting enthusiast, had high expectations for his unborn child.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out my nose, then scratched another note.

THATS JUST MY NAME
I WONT HURT YOU

She read what I wrote, then looked up at me with sad puppy dog eyes. "P-promise?"

I gave her the most affirmative nod I could.

Right on cue, we heard a distant roar followed by birds taking to the skies. Strawberry Patch whimpered and crouched down, looking around. I nudged her, then lowered myself and pointed to my back. She got the message right away, and climbed onto my back with her back hooves tucked under my wings. I wrote her one last message before we departed.

HOLD ON TIGHT

She complied by wrapping her forelegs around my neck and biting my mane, which didn't hurt at all.

Coiling my muscles, I lunged forward and took off into the woods, running towards the rising sun as fast as I could, jumping logs and rocks and weaving between trees. I thought I heard noises behind us, but rather than check to confirm my suspicions, I just ran faster until I couldn't speed up anymore.

Patch was making noises like she was trying to talk, but nothing intelligible came out. She was probably telling me to slow down, but I was too focused on getting us out of that forest. I could see light up ahead; we would be out soon.

Suddenly, I felt Patch slip off my back. She screamed as she tumbled behind me to a stop, and I spun around on my heels and ran back to snatch her up. That was when I heard the roar from earlier again, only this time it was louder. Something was tracking us.

I grabbed Patch in my psychic grip and pulled her back to me just in time to see an enormous manticore barreling through the trees. This thing in no way resembled the nice-looking one Fluttershy met in the show, oh no, this guy was ugly like you wouldn't believe, and if I didn't know better, I'd swear it had rabies to boot, judging by the red-stained froth coming from its mouth.

The cat jumped into the air, trying to pounce on us. I threw Patch to the side and jumped back, grabbing a branch and shooting it at the creature's face. The stick just glanced off its face and got stuck in the mane, and I had to roll away to avoid getting sliced in half by its claws. It struck at me again, this time with its tail, and I barely avoided becoming shade-kabob. I jumped up on its back and bit into its tail, trying to rip the segmented appendage off. The manticore rolled on its back to crush me, and I got off in time to avoid that, but not fast enough to keep from getting pinned under its enormous paw.

I struggled and clawed at the ground, trying to pull myself out, but the beast did not relent. I looked up in time to see it raise its other paw to take my head off, but before it swung, a small rock flew at it and bounced of its head with a pathetic little thunk. The manticore and I both looked to see Patch standing there with probably the most adorable look of bravery I'd ever seen in my life.

"Leave him alone, you big bully!" she shouted.

The manticore let me up in favor of this easier prey, and started going after Patch.

Oh hell no! I grabbed a flat stone of the ground and launched it, slicing halfway through its tail.

The beast erupted in a primal scream as I leaped up and grabbed onto its tail, ripping it off the rest of the way. The tail writhed and squirmed, almost like it was trying to stab me even though it wasn't receiving any commands from the brain... or so I'd imagine, at least.

Holding it by the stinger over my head, I took aim at my enemy. He reared up, raising his claws yet again to fillet my small pink companion.

Get away from her, YOU BITCH! I thought as I launched the scorpion tail spear at my target.

The tail went right through the manticore's rib cage and, though I couldn't see it from there, probably poked out the front a bit, too. Its heart, if anything was even left of it, had definitely been struck by the tail, which looked like it might have taken a good chunk of the left lung with it as well.

With a brief howl followed by a sickening gurgle, the manticore's lifeless body collapsed to the ground. This time, Patch didn't hide; she came running up to me and clung to my foreleg. I gave her a once over: some brambles in her fur, a few scratches, thankfully nothing serious. I myself, however, had received some new patches of missing scales on my back from when the manticore had me pinned, probably ripped out by its claws. It made me wonder how long shadewing scales took to be replaced; hopefully they'd grow back soon.

I knelt down and let Patch climb back onto me, then, looking back into the darker part of the woods, I took a deep breath and released the loudest roar I could manage. I just pwned a manticore, Everfree forest! Don't you dare fuck with me!

Feeling a sense of triumph, I looked over my shoulder and shot Patch a grin. She smiled back at me, then grabbed hold of my mane. I turned back to the light, and ran. Within minutes, we reached the edge of the forest and broke through the tree line. I skidded to a halt, and what I saw made my jaw drop: open fields, rolling, grassy hills, and a narrow dirt road stretching as far as the eye could see from the north to the south.

Patch climbed off my back and began to wander around. "Mama! Papa!" Her words were answered only by the sound of wind passing us. She called out a few more times, each time her voice becoming more broken, then she turned back to me. "Where are they? I don't see them!"

Speaking of things we don't see, I thought as I looked around, where the hell is Ponyville? I scratched in the dirt.

WHERE DID YOU LAST SEE THEM?

She read my note and looked at the horizon. "We were walking on this road, and then these gryphons were coming from the other way." She pointed north. "When we saw them, Papa told me and Mama to run and hide. Then..." She started to sniffle again. "Then the gryphons grabbed them up and flew away with them!"

My eyes widened. Your parents were abducted by gryphons? But why? What is going on around here?!

Patch fell to the ground. I rushed to her side, thinking she might have been hurt, but she was covering her face while she cried again. I regretted what I thought earlier about her crying so much; she had all the reason I the world to be scared.

I nudged her and tried to get her to calm down. A few minutes passed, and she stopped again. I had written her another note.

WE WILL FIND THEM
LETS GO NOW

She looked up at me with those fawn eyes. "You're gonna help me?"

I nodded, and lowered myself again. She climbed on, and I wrote WHICH WAY? She told me to go north by pointing down the road. Making sure she was set securely on by back, I tucked my wings in tight against my sides to help hold her in place, and broke into a run down the dirt road.

Hopefully we would find the bastards who took Patch's family, and I'd be able to find some answers of my own.

Author's Notes:

If you'd like to support my writing, please visit my site!

Well, I'm sorry, everyone. I tried to resist, but could not. This story just popped into my head, and the next thing I knew, I had an entire storyline planned out that just wouldn't leave me alone. You guys ought to know how it works by now.

Anywho, shadewings are an original species from my game, Kyrodian Legends, which, at the time of this writing, has yet to even release the first game. So for those of you wondering what a shadewing looks like, here's a picture of them.

In case you're wondering, no, I will not be including any characters or mentioning any events from KL. This story is its own story; I'm just using an original species. Hopefully I'll be able to get something done soon. For now, enjoy this stuff.