Hello, everypony! This was inspired by and dedicated to "Roger from LOTF Obsessor". I'm both a brony and a LotF fan, so I've always wondered how things might turn out if all of the children were ponies! Enjoy. Oh, and if you're a brony-hater, you aren't welcome here. I'm more than happy to receive constructive criticism and more than happy to let you share your opinion. But please—nopony likes a hater. This is supposed to be a fun/easy project to balance out some of my serious ones, so overanalyzing it or hating on it is pretty much a waste of time.
For anyone who's wondering, I didn't count this as a crossover because I'm not using any characters from MLP. It's an AU of Lord of the Flies.
Oh, and everyone involved in my other fanfic: the next chapter of "Dear Fandom" is coming out soon. I JUST got home from a place with no WiFi, so I'll try and publish it tomorrow.
Before the story begins, I'd like to introduce our cast. I'm going to link you to images of my pony-fied versions of each main character, uploaded to Imgur just for you. It's so you can visualize them better. They're slightly stylized because they're adapted from my sketches, so they might look just a bit different from on the show. (Note: Please insert "Imgur . com" [without the random spaces I added] in front of the links in your text box. Apparently I can't post that link directly.)
My Little Pony © Hasbro; LotF © William Golding
Ralph: /a/Xhu0s
Jack: /a/xrCAS
Piggy: /a/1Wql1
Simon: /a/gNMHk
Roger: /a/OzZGQ
All right, time to start the story. FYI, the first few chapters or so are going to be pretty much the same as the actual book, but just bear with me—it'll be slightly different; I promise.
Really long AN...Oh, well.
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Chapter 1—The Assembly
We're definitely not in Canterlot anymore. The fair-haired colt picked his way around the ugly scar smashed into the jungle, all that was left of the plane that had crashed and stranded him and who-knows-how-many others in the middle of nowhere. He stood on his hind legs, peering around the crevasse and watching the heat waves make everything shiver. Sweat broke out on his forehead.
Seeing no one, he turned around and trotted into the jungle. I wonder if this is an island, he thought. Well, maybe it is an island...I wonder where all the other foals went. As he walked on, several birds suddenly took flight, making the leaves tremble.
"Hey!" called a voice behind him. "Wait a minute!" The fair colt twisted his head around and saw another colt, shorter than him and very fat. He was a pale grey Earth pony and wore glasses. Now he started forward, cantering after the fair colt.
"Where are all them others?" he asked. "There was more of 'em in that there plane."
"I haven't seen anypony," said the fair colt. "Maybe they all went in, in the—" He cut himself off and looked toward the ocean, which was partially hidden by a screen of lush greenery.
"I don't think so," said the fat colt. There was a short moment of silence. Then, suddenly, "What's your name?"
The fair colt cocked his head but answered the grey pony's question. "Ralph." He turned again and headed toward the beach, pushing himself to a gallop. Just when he thought he would escape the fat pony, he tripped on some roots and tumbled to the ground.
The fat pony wandered up beside him. "Them others," he said, "I expect—"
But Ralph paid no attention. He scrambled to his feet and ran out to the beach. As soon as he crossed the screen of leaves, the sunlight poured down on his face and warmed his skin. He frolicked and laughed delightedly, then turned and stood on his head.
The fat foal wandered out of the forest and sat on a raised slab of pink rock that resembled a platform. After a long pause, he said, "I don't care what they call me, just as long as they don't call me what they did back at school."
Ralph glanced up, faintly interested. "What was that?"
"They used to call me 'Piggy'."
"Piggy? Piggy!" Ralph frolicked again, jumped in the air, and collapsed into the sand, giggling. "Piggy!"
Piggy sighed as Ralph galloped away and leaped into a sparkling blue lagoon not far from the platform. He stood and wandered toward him, then sat again on the edge of the lagoon. Ralph swam, splashed, and played in the clear, glittering water.
"You're pretty good at swimming," Piggy remarked.
"Thanks," said Ralph. "My daddy's a Royal Guard, you know. Soon as he gets leave, he'll come and rescue us."
"I used to live with my auntie," said Piggy. "My dad's dead, and my mom—" He cut off suddenly. "Oh, how does anypony know where we are? I know we was going someplace, but they don't know we're here now 'cause we never got there!"
Ralph glanced curiously at Piggy. "The Princess has a map of every island in the world," he said. "Sooner or later we'll be rescued. Like I said, my daddy—"
"But even Princess Celestia don't know we're here," said Piggy. "She don't know, my auntie don't know, nopony don't know...we might never be rescued."
Ralph seemed to wilt as the energy seeped out of him. He climbed wearily out of the lagoon and sat beside Piggy. For a moment nothing was said. Then, suddenly, Ralph turned his head.
"What's that?" he asked.
"What's what?"
"That—there. The shiny thing." He climbed off the platform and trotted to the beach. Piggy followed closely.
When the colts saw it, they gasped in delight. "It's a shell!" exclaimed Ralph.
"Not just any shell," added Piggy. "That's a conch. You can make a cool noise with it, like a horn. I know 'cause one of my friends had one; he used to call his mom with it." There was a short moment of silence.
"Hey—I know!" said Piggy suddenly. "We could use it to call the others!"
Ralph glanced at Piggy. "It's nearly buried under the sand. How are we gonna dig it out?"
Piggy shrugged. "You're a unicorn. Can't you just lift it with your horn?"
Ralph smiled sheepishly. "Not...really. I've never really studied magic before. All I can do is pick up and move stuff, and a few other things."
"So you can't even dig it out of there?"
"I can try." Ralph's horn glowed, and soon the conch was glowing too. Slowly, sand moved out of the way until there was a small hole in which the shell sat. "Hurry, grab it! I can't hold the sand this long!"
Piggy reached into the water and retrieved the gleaming shell, and at once the sand shifted back into place under the waves.
"Whew!" said Ralph. "Didn't know I could do that. Still pretty cool, though, huh?" He looked over at Piggy, who was too busy examining the shell to listen. It was creamy white with brown flecks, and the inside was tinted a soft pink which faded around the lips. The pointy end had worn away into a small hole.
Ralph lifted the conch out of Piggy's hooves with his horn and held it with the open end facing his mouth.
"That's not how you do it. Other way."
"Why can't you do it?" Ralph asked, slightly annoyed. "You seem to be the expert on conch-blowing."
Piggy sighed. "My auntie said I couldn't because of my asthma."
"Ass-mar?"
"Yeah. Can't catch my breath. You'll have to do it. You call the others."
Ralph spun the shell around and placed the conch-hole against his lips. Then, he took the biggest breath he could and blew. There was an airy whooshing sound, but nothing else. Ralph looked at Piggy doubtfully.
"You have to kind of spit," said Piggy.
Ralph tried this; and the shell, vibrating, emitted a deep, farting noise. Both colts were so amused that Ralph continued farting for several more minutes. They laughed and laughed until both their faces were bright red, like tomatoes.
"Blow from your belly," Piggy instructed.
Ralph turned back to the shell and did all that Piggy said. Immediately a harsh note boomed across the island; it seemed to make everything shudder. Birds took to the air and the leaves near them trembled. Several small animals scurried into the forest.
"Whoa," said Ralph. "You could hear this for miles. Hey—wouldn't it be funny if I got a conch-blowing cutie mark?"
"Yeah, I guess so," said Piggy as Ralph continued blowing.
It wasn't long before small ponies found their way to the beach. As they arrived, Piggy escorted them to the platform and asked their names. Ralph followed, but didn't bother to greet the little ponies. The conch was far too much fun!
Soon there was a whole slew of young foals sitting before Ralph and Piggy. Some were nearly their age; others were much younger. There were yellow ponies, green ponies, blue ponies, and red ponies of all types. A few of them stuck together as though they were brothers. One pair particularly interested Ralph and Piggy because they were nearly identical. When asked their names, the colts laughed and pointed at each other.
"I'm Sam," said one.
"And I'm Eric," said the other.
Piggy repeated their names until he got confused and the twins started laughing again.
The colts chattered and laughed and argued. A few of them sat staring at the ground without saying a word. Several of the younger ones looked as though they were about to cry. Others carried hoof-fulls of fruit and were gobbling them like dogs, juice dribbling down their chins. Piggy was the only one who dared to wander into this mess and take names.
"That one there is Johnny," Piggy told Ralph. "And that one's Steven, and he's Percival, and—"
But Ralph was not paying attention. A dark shadow was moving across the beach, shimmering in the heat. "What's that?" he asked.
"I dunno," said Piggy. They waited, and the shadow grew closer still. Now they could see that the shadow was mostly just a group of foals, walking in two straight lines and dressed in heavy black robes. Each foal had a matching cap on his head with a silver badge on it, and each robe had a cross printed on either side of the flank. The leader of the group was dressed the same way, but his cap badge was golden.
The leader, a bright red unicorn with startling blue eyes, turned to the group. "Choir, stand still!" The ponies obeyed wearily, swaying in the intense heat of the sun. The head colt then turned and vaulted onto the shaded platform.
"Is there a stallion here? A stallion with a trumpet?"
Ralph glanced at the gathered foals. "No...no stallion. Just us."
Just then, one of the smaller members of the choir collapsed on the sand and the lines broke up.
"Merridew..." one of the choir colts began, but his voice trailed off and he fell silent. Several of them dragged the fallen pony to the platform and let him lie.
Merridew rolled his eyes, trying to regain whatever dignity he'd had. "He's always fainting. Happens at almost every concert, and it's happened several times just today. Just...don't bother." He turned to the choir. "Take off your robes."
The choir threw off their heavy black robes and gathered together on Ralph's left. Merridew joined his choir, but sat in a way that he remained a head taller than all of them.
"Okay," said Ralph, standing. "Um, we should probably have names, so I'm Ralph."
Piggy spoke up. "That's Sam and Eric, the twins. And he's Peter. And those are Henry and—"
"Shut up, Fatty!" said Merridew. He stood and turned to the assembly. "These are all foals' names. I'm not Jack. Why should I be Jack? I'm Merridew." Jack Merridew sat down, still keeping his snout turned slightly upward.
Ralph gazed at him with slight admiration, a little indignation, and even some fear. Jack definitely knew his mind, and he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
Now Ralph turned his attention to the choir, whom Piggy had asked to introduce themselves. Next in size to Jack was Maurice, a yellow Pegasus pony with a blue mane who wore a smile as naturally as anypony else might wear a straight face. There was Roger, a smaller, dark foal whom nopony knew because he never spoke. After him was Bill, Robert, Harold, Henry, and a few others. The colt who had fainted leaned up against one of the trunks on the platform and said that his name was Simon.
"All right," said Ralph, standing before the assembly. "I think we should have a chief, just so we know what we're doing."
The foals turned to each other, chattering, whispering, and giggling.
Jack stood and stomped his hoof on the ground. Suddenly his horn glowed, and out from his robes came a sizable hunting knife. Glaring at the assembly, he stabbed a nearby tree with it and the ponies were silent. "I should be chief. I'm the head foal and top student at my school back in Canterlot. Plus I can sing a C sharp."
The colts stirred and whispered amongst themselves. This went on for several minutes until the dark foal, Roger, spoke up at last: "We should vote."
All of the sudden, the colts were active and passionate.
"Yes! A vote!"
"Of course!"
"Let's vote for chief!"
"Okay, then," said Ralph. He turned to the assembly and lifted the conch with his glowing horn. "All right! Whoever wants Jack to be chief, raise their hoof!"
Weary and obedient, the choir members lifted theirs.
"Who wants me?"
Almost the entire assembly voted immediately. Even Piggy had his hoof in the air, although a few seconds later than the others.
"That makes me chief!" Ralph's giddiness soon melted into a heavy kind of fatigue. Jack was standing now, his face turning purple and hiding his freckles.
"Um, the choir is yours, of course!" said Ralph quickly, eager to appease him. "They can be hunters...builders...what do you want them to be?"
"Hunters," Jack shot back. "There are pigs here; we saw them on the way over. We'll need someone to get meat."
"Oh, and another thing!" said Ralph. "We don't know for sure if this is an island. So we need to go exploring. I'm going, and—"
"Me," said Jack.
"And..." Ralph scanned the assembly; almost every pony was staring up at him eagerly. "And Simon."
Simon stood, blushing and giggling and looking around at the ponies surrounding him. He was a small, younger Pegasus pony with a black mane and bright green eyes. "I'll go."
"That's three, then," said Ralph. He turned and headed toward the mountain, Jack at his side and Simon gliding behind them.
