As my eyes opened and light came gushing in. I saw that I was no longer in the white space or the pavement I was shot in or the hospital. I was in a forest. And damm, did it look off. Now that I look at it, everything looks off. The colors were all funny and seemed very..... unnatural.

As my eye adjusted to the brightness, my eye started to hurt. This worlds colors were literally hurting my eyes. I shielded my eyes with my hand until I could get used to the insane amount of color. Something else took my attention though.

My hand was all black and seemed very..... smooth. I had five fingers that seemed awfully pointy. Claws, maybe? There was a tree near me and I took swing at it with my hand. It left impressive marks on the bark. Claws it is. I took a look down a bit to see that I was wearing a grey jumpsuit with large sleeves. I felt my head with my hands. It had a cylinder like form. I also glanced at my sleeve and noticed something I recogniced very well. The symbol of the Nobody.

I needed to see myself better. Since a mirror or other alternatives are not available, that nearby pond shall do. I slowly walked to the waters edge, took a deep breath and looked down. Staring back was a dark grey, cylinder shaped head with six diagonal lines, three on either side. How I could see so clearly was a mystery. My body was slender, except for the wide hips, which made me look just a bit ridiculous . My legs were shaped as if I was wearing some weird boots and my feet were long and pointy. My grey jumpsuit body had two zippers on either sides of my chest. I don't think they have any physical finction. They just are there for appearances, I guess. On my waist was a dark grey, what I believe to be a belt or a sash.

Basically, a reflection of a Samurai. One of the highest ranking Nobodies. Also, the coolest in my opinion. Dagon wans't pulling my leg. I really had transformed into something else.

I would have felt very happy.... except I was not. I mean, I was feeling happy about this turn of events yet, at the same time, I didn't 'feel' it. It's like there is a blank spot in your memory. It's empty, there's nothing there, yet you are aware of it's existance. Is this what Dagon meant when he said that my feelings would turn a bit shallow? Mysterious. Guess that means that my soul was really broken into pieces.

I quit my self discovery zone and start thinking of other things. First, make a plan.

1. Look for locals.

2. Find civilisation.

3. Learn about this world.

4. Search for those missing pieces of me.

5. Don't die.

6. ???

7. Profit

…..... Seems solid enough. Better get moving.

As I walked amongst the trees, I opened my other sense to the forest. I could hear birds singing somewhere and smell the grass. The wind was blowing and making the leaves rustle. It was really peaceful. That peace shattered as I heard a scream coming from nearby.

I started to run to the direction I thought the voice came from. I arrive to an edge of a clearing and hid behind a bush. What I saw was something I could only describe as weird. There were four unnaturally colourful horses. They were surrounded by what looked like a pack of large dog like things. The horses seemed scared and were huddled together, shaking from fear.

”Not on my watch.”, I said quietly and started to get my sword in my hand..... Only for my hand to fell empty. I looked and saw that I my hand was grasping at air. Don't Samurais usually have two swords on their backs? Well, if I had some sort of weapons, I didn't find them. Looks like I need to take care of this with 'that fancy kung-fu stuff', as my friends put it.

I looked around to see a big stone next to me. An idea rushed to my head. I grabbed it and aimed for one of the dogs. I threw it with all my might and it nailed the thing right to the back of the head. The dog fell on the ground, unconcious. I must have thrown it a little too hard. The rest were first looking at their fallen comrade, dumbstruck, then into the forest.

”Go find who did that!”, the largest of the dogs said, and two of the others left to my direction. So they speak? Fascinating. And that big one must be the leader.

The two dogs were only a step away from me. I noticed that I was actually bigger than them. I quickly got up and grabbed both of their heads and smacked them against one another. Both were knocked out. I let them fall as I jumped out of the bush and began walking towards the rest of the dogs.

The look on their faces was pure gold to me. They all seemed suprised and shocked by my appearance and the way I had deal with two of their kind so effortlesly. They were just gawking at my presence. The leader, however was a different story.

”Don't just stand there like imbeciles. Get that thing!”, The leader roared at his minions. Six of them broke from their formation and ran towards me.

I smirked. Time for something special. I had made my own style of fighting. In my martial arts class it got me the title of a ”cheating hack”. My teacher banned me from using it against other students simply because it was overpowered. It was simply an parry and attack technique. It mainly used palm attacks, which was basically pushing someone around with a little more force. Only that with a little technique and more power added to the mix, a simple jab with my palm had enough force to dent a lamp post, bending it a little. It was one of my ”cool” aspects. I called it the Palm of Hax, you know, for laughs. If I was gonna be called a ”cheating hack”, might as well name my technique appropriately.

Two of the dogs tried to take a swipe at me with their clawed hands. I just smootly dodged and countered with a jab with the palm of my hands on their foreheads. I put as much force into the center of my palm as I could and turned my palm a little, making both of the dogs fly backwards and spiral around a little until hitting the ground.

One tried to jump me from behind. I just spun around and landed a solid hit to the jaw, followed by another palm to the ribs. The remaining three dogs had kept their distance and were now looking very scared. I'm not suprised. I took three of them down like it was nothing. What chances would they have.

All three dogs were looking at their leader. He was staring back at them with a very intimidating and soul piercing gaze. I could just see their faces lose color. I took a step closer. They flinched. Two of them got over it pretty quick and attacked me. I just evaded their punches and jump kicked the other. The kick landed on the side of the dogs face, knocking it out. The second tried to attack me while I wasn't looking. I just moved slightly to avoid the hit, then grabbed the dogs arm and threw it over myself, slamming it's head into the ground.

I glanced at the last remaining dog, who, quite humorously, simply couldn't take the stress and fainted. I turned my attention back to the leader of the dogs, who was fuming.

”That is it? Pathetic!” He yelled in pure rage. The dogs around him inching away. His eyes landed on me ”I'll take care of this one myself."

The leader dog charged at me and drew a sword..... A sword?! This could get troublesome. The leader attacked with a horizontal slash. I reacted based on instinct and bent backwards. The sword just passed over me. I was in an odd angle, bending my back over 90 degrees. I had almost forgotten that Nobodies have unbeliavable flexibility. I jumped back and assessed the situation. The leader of the pack had a sword, advantage to him. He was however slow, advantage to me.

The leader took another swing at me, I jumped and evaded it and also managed to punch his face. He flinched slightly, but otherwise seemed unaffected. I jumped to get some distance. I know I can't beat with power alone. Solution: strategize. I need to finish this one quickly. I don't know how long I could last if I prolonged this fight. The leader took another vertical swing, but this time I was prepared. I moved my hands above my head and clapped my hands together, stopping the blade.

'I have always wanted to do that.'

I threw the blade aside and slid under the dogs field of vision. I jumped and slammed my palm to his jaw from below. He staggered and, seeing a window of opportunity, I dived under his legs. I jumped up and put all the power I could muster into my right palm. I smashed my palm down onto the back of the leader dogs skull. His eyes bulged slightly out of their sockets. He fell down, making a thud when he hit the ground. His pupils coud not be seen and I saw that his mouth was foaming.

'I may have given that one a concussion. Well, not that he didn't deserve it.'

The rest of the dogs just looked at their leaders unconcious body. Then at me. When I turned to look at them, they all immediatly whimpered and scattered, carrying their leader and the knocked out ones away. I gave myself a big hand. I single handedly just scared away a bunch of talking humanoid dogs. Go me!

The horses on the other hand looked even more scared than before. I took a few steps to their direction.

”P-please don't hurt us.” One of them said. A small one, maybe a child. She was light blue and had a dark blue mane. The voice sounded feminine. I'm going to say it and be done with it. Cutest. Thing. EVER!

They can talk too, huh. I kneeled over the small horse and looked at her. ”Why would I do that, little one?”

She looked at me, still scared. ”Y-you can t-talk?”

I chuckled. ”I could ask you the same thing.” The child seemed to relax a little and ran to a couple of other horses. Parents, perhaps? I rose up and looked at them. ”What are a group of horses doing in the middle of the woods?”

One of them, a large orange colored one with a brown mane spoke up. I could tell that this one was male. He one didn't seem as afraid of me as the rest. ”We are ponies, not horses.” Really? Talking ponies? I have seen everything now. ”You see, me and my family were heading to our new home Trottingham and decided to take a shortcut through the woods. All seemed fine, but then we were ambushed by those diamond dogs.”, He said, looking at me sternly. My appearance must not invoke trust.

”Diamond dogs? Those things I just got rid off?” I said. I also couldn't help notice that the mentioned place also sounded like a bad pun.

He nodded. ”You don't know what a diamond dog is?” I nodded. ”Well that figures. What are you anyway? You ain't any kind of creature I have ever seen.”

I would propably get that kind of attention a lot here. ”I am a being called a Nobody.”

”Nobody, eh?”, He said rubbing his chin with his hoof, then shaking his head. ”Never heard of them. Now scram!”

Hostile, are we? Another pony moved towards the one who had just told me to beat it and gave him a glare. It seemed to shut him up. She then turned to me. ”I'm sorry for my husband. He can be a bit...... harsh as times. Thank you for saving us.” The female one was butter colored and had a white mane.

Finally some recognition. ”It was my pleasure.”

The stallion, I think that's the right word, spoke up (Ps. Need to start remembering proper terms for these ponies. -Brain) ”There, you got your thanks, now scram!”

”Dear!” The mare said to him. ”Is that any way to treat someone who just helped us?”

”But I-” He started.

”No buts.” she interrupted him, making him shut up. She looked at him with an intense look and then turned to me with a softer expression. ”My name is Mayfly. This grump here is my husband, Stone Gear.” He just scoffed, looking away. ”This is my younger daughter, Twinky.” She pointed at the young filly I had just talked to hiding behind her leg. ”And this here is my older daughter, Silver Gem” This pony was much older than the younger one. Looked pretty much like a grown up to me. She was dark grey in color and had a long smooth silver colored mane. Her eyes were golden yellow, unlike the rest of her family, who had brown eyes. She just nodded, acknowledging her introduction.

”It's a pleasure to meet you and your family Mayfly.”

She smiled. ”And who might you be?”

”My name is Hollow.” As much as I wanted to object, my name made pretty much sense right now. Nobodies are the bodies and souls of those who had their heart stolen. Technically I was just that. A hollow shell with nothing inside.

”Well, Hollow, how about escorting us out of the woods? We could use the protection. Everfree can be quite a dangerous place.”

So this place is called Everfree. I like that name. ”If I may ask,” I began ”But if this forest is as dangerous as you say, why did you come here?”

Mayfly just glanced at ther husband, who looked away. ”Because somepony was very adamant about saving time.” That explains it.But really, this guy endangered his family just to save time? What an ass!

”I see. I don't see why not. I also couldn't just let you go on your own.”, I said. ”My conscience would never shut up about it.”

Stone Gear desided spoke up ”Now hold just a minute! You are allowing this thing to come with us?”

Mayfly looked at he husband sternly. ”Why not? He seems nice enough AND he risked his own life to save us from those diamond dogs.” That is too true.

”What if it's just plotting to gain our trust and get us in our sleep?” He said in protest. I'm getting some bad vibes from this guy.

I decided to speak up. ”If I might add to this convesation, those dogs could return to finish what they started. Also, there could be other dangers in this forest. It would be wiser to have some protection than none at all.”

Stone Gear opened his mouth to counter that but couldn't, since my logic was pretty solid.

Mayfly couldn't help but smile a little. ”Then it's decided.” She turned to the her children ”Now dears, Hollow here is going to be coming with us for a while. Be nice to him, alright?”

Silver said something that I didn't quite hear. I noticed little Twinky, looking at me. Not because of fear anymore, but curiosity. Kids. You just gotta love 'em.

After Mayfly talked to Stone for a while, seemingly giving him a piece of her mind from the looks of it. After that was over, Stone moved to the cart, that I somehow had missed until now, and put on the harness in the front. Guess he was pulling it. There was a load of stuff on it. Mayfly and her children also climbed aboard. Mayfly also gestured me to come too.

I happened to take a look behind me and saw that the diamond dogs had left one of their own behind. The one who fainted when I beat up the ones that attacked me. This one was smaller than the rest and had white fur with some black stripes on the arms and legs. It also seemed to have somewhat leaner built. An idea sprung to my mind.

”Wait a moment. You got some rope?”, I asked. Mayfly seemed confused at my request but threw me a bundle of rope.

”Why do you need rope?”, she asked.

I just gestured at the diamond dog with my thumb. She seemed to get it. ”I just want to take this one along so I'll get some answers.” I said as I moved to the dog and quickly tied it up, binding it's arms to the body and tying the legs together. I picked the dog up, it was not as heavy as I thought it would be. I got to the cart and threw the dog in, miracolously it didn't wake up. Must be knocked out cold. Or in a coma. That I might feel bad about.

I took a seat at the back of the cart, near the dog so I could keep tabs on it. I crossed my legs in a lotus position, like I usually did when sitting. I signaled that all was okay. And so we started moving. One thing was going on in my head right now.

Stone Gear is one strong mofo. Next Chapter: Complete again Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 25 Minutes