Corps-á-Corps Chapter 1: "Arrival" (Rewrite)

>You feel something start to lick your face.
>You open your eyes to see Mous, your dog, sitting in front of you.
>His leash was on the floor in front of him.
>You got the idea.
“Fine, I'll take you... It's pretty late, though."
>You get dressed and grab the essentials.
>Your phone, your knife, your MP3 player, and your headphones.
>You put your headphones around your neck.
>Your friends are confused as why you still bring your MP3 player everywhere when you have an android phone.
>You just don't like wasting the battery on your phone with music.
>You get to the front door and see Mous waiting for you.
>You grab the leash and harness from Mous and start attaching it to him.
>After the harness is on Mous, you get on the task of walking him.
>After about twenty minutes, you get to the usual split in the road.
>You decide, instead of your usual route, to take the path that leads to the forest.
>Mous is pulling on the leash harder than usual, so you decided to let him go to see where he runs off too.
>That was a bad idea.
>You run after him, doing your best to keep close behind.
>You've been running for a good five minutes, and you're starting to wear down.
>As you are about to stop, you notice that Mous had stopped at the base of some tree.
>Tired as all hell, you still question Mous aloud through panting breaths, “Mous... What's up... Boy...."
>He stopped at some sort of footprint and is now sniffing at it.
>You walk up to him and grab his leash.
>You tug at the leash, trying to get him to move, but he's still sniffing at the foot print.
>He won't budge.
>You take a step towards the foot print and see it's more of a hoof print than a foot print.
>You bend down and take a look.
>As you examine the hoof print, you hear a bush move.
>You turn to see a hooded figure walk out.
>"You there!"
"What do you want?"
>You stick your hand in your pocket for your knife.
>"Quickly, before it is too late! Flee now, before your way home is closed off by the gate!"
"Not answering my question."
>As soon as the figure said that, it turned back into the bush.
>You swear you saw a tail.
>You start to ponder what it said, too.
>Gate? What'd it mean by th-
>Your thoughts are cut short when Mous runs to the bush the figure was in, pulling you along.
>He gets though the bush before you can regain control and stop him.
>He's still pulling, but not able to move.
>You turn around and start pulling.
>That's when you see a familiar looking hoof print.
>Did that figure..?
>Nah... Couldn't be.
>You get back to pulling Mous out of the bush when you notice something.
>The path is gone.
>THE PATH IS GONE.
"THE PATH IS GONE!"
>You start to panic.
>After a few minutes of old fashioned panicking, you calm down.
>You put your hands in your pocket and feel something.
>Oh. Yeah. You brought your phone...
>You felt your MP3 player.
>Don't know why you weren't listening to that.
>You pull out your phone and turn the screen on.
>No signal.
>Your heart sinks when you see that.
>You're lost in a forest for the night.
>You make note of the time, 11:30.
>You should make a camp for the night...
>You pull me back over to the tree and make a makeshift anchor for his leash.
>You look around for anything you can use as bedding or blanket.
>You find some moss, and some huge ass leaves.
>You make the bedding with the moss.
>You empty your pockets next to you, stabbing your knife in the tree.
>You lie down next to Mous and use him like a pillow.
>You scratch behind his ear.
"It's okay boy, I'll get us out of here tomorrow."
>He set his head down and closed his eyes.
>You fall asleep shortly after.

==

>You wake up slowly.
>You stretch and open your eyes.
>You are Mous.
>Yeah, you’re the dog now.
>So what?
>You look around, taking in the sights.
>The forest is still dark.
>Everything smells different though.
>It also looks different.
>You can't quite place it, but everything looks strange.
>You look around and start to panic.
>A lot of panic happening in this place.
>You make the move to run, but as you try to get up something feels off.
>Your rear is higher than it should be.
>You look down to your paws and see that they have changed.
>They look like the things the guy who feeds you has.
>You look around even more.
>You see yourself sleeping on the edge of the clearing.
>You see yourself.
>You shake your head.
>You're right here, how can you be over there?
You start to run around.
>You run straight into a tree and knock yourself out.

==

>You are now Anon.
>You wake up with a start.
>You heard a crash.
>You look around and notice something is off.
>Everything is black and white.
>Where'd the color go?
>Then you notice something else.
>THE SMELLS. OH GOD. THE SMELLS.
>You try to cover your nose but fail.
>Fucking paws. They ain't good for shit.
>Wait. Paws?
>When the fuck did you get paws?
>Shit shit shit.
>More panic. Great. Just what this story needs. More panic.
>After a solid minute of panic you try to stand up.
>It's like when you were younger.
>You had a strange habit of walking around like your dogs.
>You are able to stand with minor difficulties.
>Now to try and walk.
>Left front paw. Right back leg. Right front, left back.
>Repeat.
>Okay. Good so far.
>You keep on walking until you feel the leash start to pull on the harness.
>Right, harness.
>Gotta fix that.
>You walk up to the anchor you made and get on the process of undoing it.
>It'd be easier with thumbs, but your teeth will do fine.
>A few tugs later, you have the leash unhooked. You get back to walking.
>As you walk, something catches your eye.
>You walk closer and see your body passed out at the base of a tree in an odd position.
>You walk up to it and poke it.
>Oh god. Did you really smell that bad?
>Smells like you shit your pants.
>On closer inspection, you see that your body, indeed, shit its pants.
>Great. Just great.
>You get back on the process of waking the new resident of your body up.

==

>You are Mous.
>You feel something poking at your side.
>You think it's that guy again trying to make you move.
>Fuck him. It's your spot.
>He just keeps on poking.
>You swat your paw at him.
>You make contact.
>You hear a yelp and feel some hair.
>Must have hit his head.
>A few seconds later, you feel that leg get bitten.
>Your eyes pop open and see that some dog is biting you.
>You look closer and see it's you biting yourself.
>You thrash around for a second and hit the dog a few more times.
>Its grip doesn't loosen.
>You start to calm down when you see your paw.
>You recall what happened earlier.
>You're now in your owner’s body.
>Just great.
>Now how are you going to clean yourself?
>You sit up and stare at your body.
>This sucks.


>You are Twilight Sparkle.
>The smartest pony in all of Ponyville.
>You have gotten a warning from Zecora about a creature that is stranded in the Everfree forest.
>She said something about a doorway closing on it or something.
>You can't tell what she was saying most of the time.
>But never mind that.
>She described the creature as a 6 foot tall hairless ape.
>You brought Rainbow Dash along to assist you in the search for it.
>"Twilight, why are we looking for this thing again?”
"Because, Rainbow, Zecora said it'd be unable to defend itself. And you KNOW how dangerous the Everfree is."
>"Yeah yeah yeah... I get it."
"Now, can you please go up and see if you can spot it from the air?"
>"Fine, I'll be back in a few seconds."
>True to her word, she went up for about five seconds and came back and started yammering about how she spotted something.
>"I SAW IT! IT WAS THERE WITH SOME BIG DOG!"
"Where?!"
>"This way! And we should hurry! I saw a Manticore heading towards it!"
>Oh no... That can't be good.

==

>You are now Anon.
>And now that Mous is up you're going to have the time of your life.
>And by that you mean running from some giant man lion scorpion thing.
>And you can't even run.
>Every time you try, you trip over your legs.
>Shit's NOT fun.
>You start fast walking with Mous at your side to the tree that you slept under.
>You WISH you could use your knife, but nope.
>Hell, that'd be useless to you even if you could.
>You'd probably die.
>You gather Mous and cower under the tree.
>Mous keeps on trying to go up to the thing, but your grip on his... your shirt won't let him.
>Your life flashes before your eyes and you start to regret things.
>Like last night’s dinner.
>Who would have guessed that Mac 'n Cheese would be your last dinner?
>Not you.
>Fuck. That thing’s getting closer.
>It's fucking RIGHT THERE.
>If you had your arms, you could reach out and touch its nose.
>It's now floating.
>Wait what.
>The giant manlionscorpion thing is floating.
>It's in a fucking weird ass aura. Floating in the middle of the fucking air.
>HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?
>"See Rainbow? A simple levitation spell is all that was needed."
>Oh. Magic.
>MAGIC!?
>"Last time you tried that it didn't work."
>"That was a long time ago. You KNOW I've improved. Remember the Ursa Minor?"
>"Yeah yeah yeah... You don't have to tell me again..."
>The hell's going on over there?
>Wait. Why are you still standing here? You should have BEEN running.
>Well. Fast walking.
>First things first, you get your shit.
>You pull Mous to the ground and grab your phone and MP3 player.
>You do your best, and put them in the soiled pants.
>Mous looks like he's trying to get up but can't into two legs.
>You turn back to get your knife that was embedded into the tree.
>You do your best to get it out of the tree without cutting your mouth.
>Little bit of a jiggle and it came free.
>Unable to close it, you are force to drop it on the ground and kick it under the beast.
>Hey. It worked. Went right to the other side.
>You get back to Mous, who has finally gotten back up, and grab his shirt.
>You pull Mous and make your way around the beast thing.
>You head toward the voices.
>Expecting people, you can say that you were MILDLY surprised to find talking horses.
>No bigger than Mous to be exact.
>Today is the second weirdest day of your life.
>You shudder at the thought of the first one.
>You make your way to the one with the... Glowing horn thing.
>Your knife was RIGHT next to them.
>You pick it up.
>"Hey, Uh... Twilight. They're over here now... The dog’s got a knife..."
>"Good... Wait, what?"
>"It's got a knife."
>"Can... Can you take it?"
>"I think."
>Oh. They don't like the open knife.
>You drop it to the ground.
>The blue on picks up the knife, wary of the blade.
>"Rainbow... You got it? I'm getting tired.
>"Yesh"
>"Good, now on the count of three, I'm going to drop it and teleport us out of the way. We can't go far, or I'll be too tired to move."
>"Okay... Ready when you are..."
>"One. Two..."
>She lowers her head and you see her horn light up even brighter than before.
>"THREE"
>She drops the beast and after that all you see is white.
>The white only lasts a few seconds and is replaced by a nauseating feeling.
>That is soon replaced with vomit.
>Not a lot, considering how little Mous has eaten recently.
>You see Mous blowing his own chunks out of your body.
>Again, not that much.
>"They okay?"
>"It's a first time effect for most ponies."
>"Huh, why didn't it happen to me?"
>"Seems like you're not most ponies."
>"Cool. I guess."
>After the last of the contents of your stomach were emptied on the ground, you turned to the horned one.
>You slowly walk to it and lick her cheek before collapsing on the ground next to her.
>Too tired to move.

==

>You're now Twilight Sparkle.
>You just expended the last of your energy teleporting away from the manticore.
>You're unsure of how far you got from it, but you hope it's enough.
>You're thoughts are disrupted when you feel something wet on your cheek.
>You regain focus on the situation at hand.
>You look to see the dog sitting next to you.
>It seems to be thinking of something.
>You turn your head to Rainbow.
"Hey, does something seem odd about that dog?"
>"Other than the knife it was carrying?"
>You had completely forgotten about that.
"Can I see the knife?"
>She kicks the knife that she dropped on the ground to you.
>You pick it up with your magic and start to examine it.
>You feel something prod your side.
>You then see a paw go in front of your face and point to something on the knife.
>It looks like a tab of sort.
>It makes a motion on the tab but it won’t depress.
"You want me to press down on that tab?"
>It nods.
>You depress the tab.
>The dog puts its paw behind the blade and pushes it.
>The blade goes INSIDE the handle.
>What the buck.
>It grabs the knife out of your spell and puts it in the apes clothing.
>"What just happened?"
"You tell me."
>Rainbow was about to say something when a loud roar cut her off.
>"I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU COULD GET US AWAY FROM THAT THING!?"
"I must have been more tired than I originally thought.
>"Ugh, It doesn't matter now. I'll distract it; you get those two, AND MOVE!"
>As soon as she said move, you turned to the dog, and he was already getting the ape moving.
>It seems it was waiting for you.
>You hear another roar.
>"I SAID MOVE!"
>She didn't need to say it again.
>You are out.

==

>You now Rainbow Dash.
>And you are now thinking of a way to distract a bucking manticore.
>You would crack a joke right about now, but you have ponies to save.
>The manticore jumps out form from the bush, swinging its tail.
>You jump to the left and fly around to its back.
"Hey ya moron! I'm over here!"
>It turned and swiped with its claw, almost hitting your side.
>You back up on it, and start flying circles around it.
"What's wrong? Can't hit me?"
>It tries to hit you with its tail.
>Each swipe with the tail, you dodge with little effort.
>That is, until it swiped at you with its claw and grazed your wing.
>You fall to the ground and yelp out in pain.
>You're on the back and can see the manticore advancing in on you.
>You roll over, and start to run.
>Your wing is useless, and you can feel the manticore gaining.
>You need to go faster.
>You push your body as hard as you can.
>Running with all you had.
>Running, harder and harder.
>And then the world gets flipped right upside down.
>You tripped over a root.
>The manticore is right there.
>You roll just in time to miss being hit by its massive paw.
>getting back on your legs, you can't seem to stop shaking.
>Your legs feel like jelly.
>Looking at the manticore once more you see its paw raised above its head.
>You shut your eyes and brace for impact.
>You feel its paw connect with your side, and you're flying through the air.
>You felt something break as you collide with a tree.
>Must've been your ribs.
>At least Twilight and the other ones got away...
>You can feel your consciousness fading.
>You look up to the manticore.
>It's making its way to you.
>You close your eyes and let out a weak plead for help.
>It's answered with the sound of the manticore letting out a pained roar.
>You open your eyes to see the shape of a dog latched on the neck of the manticore.
>You let out a thanks before falling unconscious.

==

>Oh god, oh god, oh god...
>What are you doing?
>You're Anon, and you're running to save the other pony.
>The one called Twilight found a tree that had a hole big enough for you, Mous, and herself to enter.
>As soon as they got inside, you took off to find the cyan one, Rainbow or something.
>You're running when you catch a scent.
>It smells like...
>Blood.
>You pick up the pace.
*Please don't be dead, PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD.*
>You run until you hear a faint sound.
>"Someone..."
>You run towards the sound, and see the cyan pony there.
>You didn't have time to look at it closer, as you were running straight to the manticore.
>You launch your body at the beast's neck, barely missing its jugular.
>You start to squirm, when you feel the beast shift its body.
>You let go.
>A claw barely misses your head, as you fall.
>You jump back up, this time getting the jugular of the beast.
>You start to squirm and feel a chunk of its flesh peel off in your mouth.
>You feel something connect with your side.
>You go flying off with the chunk of flesh in your mouth.
>You make contact with the ground and roll onto your side.
>It hurts.
>But you have to get up.
>You don't know what's driving you to save this horse, but you'll be damned if you let it die.
>You get back on your paws, the beast looking at you.
>It's bleeding. That much is sure.
>You weakly run at the beast and jump hitting the same spot you had before.
>You latch on harder than you did before and start to squirm as fast as your body will allow.
>You feel blood gushing into your mouth.
>Out of the corner of your eye, you see a claw heading at you.
>You let go, and drop down just in time for it to miss your head by an inch.
>You jump back up, biting down on the same point and squirming.
>After a few squirms, you feel the beast struggle.
>You swing your body back and forth until the chunk of flesh is ripped off.
>You were swinging so hard that you ended up swung away from the beast.
>You land on your side and slowly rise to a sitting position.
>You see the beast is wobbling around.
>It looks like it's about to die.
>Well, that's what you thought until you were flying through a tree.
>Your sight is encompassed by darkness.

==

Manticore POV

>You have lost a lot of blood.
>Your vision is failing.
>Your limbs feel heavy.
>You need some sleep.
>Sleep sounds good.
>When you wake up, you can get some food for your cubs
>Yeah, that'll be good.
>You fall over.
>You shut your eyes and drift off to sleep.
>Only to never open your eyes again.

=

>You've been resting for almost an hour.
>And that's what irks you.
>You haven't seen hide nor hair of the dog or Rainbow.
>Get a hold of yourself Twilight, nothing good will come from worrying.
>You've regained enough energy to look for them.
>Then you remember the strange animal.
>You look over at it, and see that it's in the corner, asleep.
>You hope that it'll stay there.
>But... a small sleeping spell won’t hurt...
>You rack your brains looking for the spell that you need.
>After remembering the incantation, you started the spell
>Thankfully it was one of the easier spells, so the amount of energy required to use it was small.
>You set out on trying to find those two.

==

>You're now Mous.
>You're running.
>Running in a forest.
>You have to get away.
>The beast is catching up.
>Faster.
>Faster!
>FASTER!
>The beast lunges onto your back.
>It starts to tear into your skin.
>You jolt awake.
>You look around the room.
>There's no sign of either of the strange horses, or that guy.
>You get up, still in the strange body.
>You're slightly more used to it, but it's still weird to walk in.
>Making your way to the exit, you walk out.
>You see foot prints in the ground heading off in the direction we came from.
>You attempt to catch a sent, but you can't seem to smell anything.
>How did that guy live like this?
>Yesh.
>You'll have to riley on your eyes.
>You start to follow the foot prints.

==

>You're now Twilight, and you've been walking for about 10 minutes.
>You haven't seen any sight of either of them.
>That is, until you see a small trail of blood.
>Oh god.
>Please, Rainbow, please be all right...
>Following it, you arrive at a tree.
>And what you saw made you turn white as a ghost.
>Rainbow and the dog lying motionless on the ground.
>Rainbow is in a small puddle of blood, and the dog looks like all of its ribs are broken on one side.
>You run to check on them when something else catches your eye.
>Turning your head, you see the manticore, in a pool of blood.
>Did that dog...
>Not the time to think about this.
>They need help.
>You rush to Rainbows side first to see if you can stop the bleeding.
>That's when you notice something.
>The wound looks like its clotting.
>It shouldn't be clotting that fast.
>This isn't making any sense!
>You touch your horn to her body.
>A glow over takes her body as you check the extent of her injuries.
>Dear Celestia! How is she even alive?
>She has a punctured lung, lost a lot of blood, and almost all of her ribs are broken!
>Then you notice something else.
>Her body is using the minimal requirements to stay alive.
>She's in a sort of stasis.
>It seems magical in origin, too.
>What's going on here!
>You pull away from her body, and shake your head.
>Focus.
>Even in this stasis, she doesn't have long.
>You set out on fixing the more serious injury.
>You set your horn on her body once more, and beginning repairing the lung.
>You move the ribs that were obstructing the lung, and realign them.
>You can't fully mend them, unless you want to stay here and you doubt RD could survive that.
>Next you set out on mending the lung its self.
>This will take a bit of energy, but you should be able to manage.
>You focus your energy, and start the spell.
>You can feel the wound close as your energy leaves you.
>There! It's closed!
>You let out a sigh.
>She'll be able to survive until you can get her back to ponyville.
>You sit down and take a short break, only to jump back up.
>Something's moving behind you.
>You can hear it.
>Turning to look at where the sound was coming from, you see a bush rusting.
>Please be the wind...
>Something walks out from the bush.
>It's that strange creature...
>Wait, what's on its back?
>That's... That's a manticore cub!
>Where in Equestria did he find THAT!
>The creature looks around before spotting you.
>it then bee lines straight towards you.
>It stops right in front of you.
>You keep your eye on the cub.

==

>You're now Mous.
>You've caught up with the strange horse, and along the way, found a small pup.
>It seems to have lost its mom.
>It's now resting quietly on your back.
>You notice that the horse is keeping an eye on the pup.
>Wonder why.
>You shake it from your mind and walk on up to it.
>Your eyes end up falling onto your body.
>That's slumped on the ground with blood all over.
>You quickly rush over to it and start looking over it.
>You hear that horse speak up
>"Hey, it's fine. The dog will be fine."
>She walks up to you and you notice her horn glowing.
>The world goes white for a second.
>Next thing you know you're in front of a huge den of sorts.
>You look to the horse and see that it's passed out on the floor
>You hear some voices from the den and see more horses run outside.
>They pick up the winged one, your body and the horned one and carry them inside.
>You decide to follow.
>You're making your way inside when you hear one of them say "No pets." and got kicked out.
>You move around the building and find a place to lie down.
>It's near a window, and the sun is shining in the right spot.
>You lie down, and shake the pup off your back.
>You shut your eyes and let the warm glow of the sun overtake your body.
>You quickly fall asleep.
End One.