New Surroundings

Light, one of the life giving elements of the universe, was the first thing that Calico felt as he took his first steps outside into the new world he would have to call home.

'Hopefully, this is only temporary,' he thought to himself,

He noted the wondrous warmth of the planets primary star. The warmth nearly stabbed through him causing him to ruffle his wings a bit as he shook off the momentary change in temperature from the house to the outside. Did the purple one have an air conditioner or something in that….tree? Calico turned around and noticed that he indeed had just walked out from the inside of a really large tree. He reached out and touched the tree with his left hand, inspecting the amazing sight before him. It was around this time that he looked down at his right arm. It had been in a makeshift sling that he had completely missed since his eventful fall from grace… and the second story loft of the tree house.

It was of no real concern to him though, the fall just made it easier to break the ice as it were. He turned back to look at where he was originally going to go. The path seemed to lead almost straight into what looked to be the center of town. He was suddenly caught by a brisk breeze that blew at his fur and made him close his eyes with almost a sense of pleasure. When he opened his eyes back up he noticed something that had eluded him moments before and that was the fact that every single pony in the area was staring at him. Whether from fear or just straight amazement, they stared at him, most not even moving a muscle. Not one to be held back by his own lack of social graces, he cracked a grin and started walking in the direction that he saw the unicorn run.

He didn’t get far; he never seemed to on this planet. His path was blocked by Applejack, Rarity, and Pinky. Not a major issue but they seemed to be insistent on something.

Applejack spoke up first asking, “Just where do you think ya’ll are going?”

A slight falter could be heard in her voice as she realized that this may not have been a smart thing to do. She was standing only chest high to a creature that she had never dealt with before and for that matter had never known existed anywhere. The giant winged wolf could instantly react the same way the timber wolves did and that would end in quite a bad way if he did. Nothing about this felt right to her. His smile didn’t help the situation at all.

Calico couldn’t contain himself; he saw how spooked this little pony was. She may have been the hardass of the group at any other time, but for this one moment she was vulnerable and he took his chance at it. He widened his grin to show off a big toothy smile that was sure to show off his fangs.

“I’m going for a walk, I enjoy taking walks,” he said enthusiastically. With suddenly no resistance he walked through the party of ponies in front of him as they parted to let him through. Applejack looked at Rarity with a slight hint of shock in her eyes.

“Did he just…?”
“Play you like a fiddle? I believe so,” Rarity said with a smirk as she started after him, Pinky Pie hopping along in tow.

As Calico walked along, he couldn’t help but wonder if where he was going would provide him some answers to the questions that were nagging at the back of his head. He decided to push those thoughts out as looked around the town at the elaborately designed buildings. Most seemed to remind him of designs from a few old world towns on a planet he once visited, but a few of them were really out there. He took particular note of places like Sugar Cube Corner. With a name like that, he could only imagine what was sold there. As he continued on, he spun 180 degrees on the ball of his foot to talk to the three ponies as he walked backwards facing them.

“It’s so serene here, almost like there is not a care in the world.” There was amazement in Calico’s voice. This again didn’t last long as he snickered a bit at a building he saw that he had unwittingly passed. The sign that hung above the door read the fabled words of “Tax Office.”

“Well I guess it’s not quite paradise after all.”

Not quite paradise was true. It took less than two seconds, but suddenly Calico found himself on his tail with his legs being propped up on a little yellow pony with red hair.

“Apple Bloom, what in tarnation are ya’ll doing out here? Didn’t I tell ya to stay with Big Mac while we dealt with the commotion here in town?” The scolding voice that Applejack gave to the little one didn’t go unnoticed by Calico.

“Ah’m sorry sis, but big bro told me to go and get him some nails from the farm. This is the quickest way back,” Apple Bloom said trying to talk her way out of getting too badly scolded by her sister. “As soon as Big Mac saw the thing stick’n outta the town hall, he ran to see if he could help. I stuck with him till he told me to git his stuff. Town hall don’t look like it’s going to hold up much longer.”

“Then best not to keep him waiting, git em and come on back,” Applejack said nudging her with a hoof out from under Calico’s legs.

Apple Bloom started to run off but then turned around to apologize to the pony she tripped only to notice it wasn’t a pony at all. She stood there frozen for a moment as the wolf stood up, towering over her. She saw that he was banged up and burned but showed little pain when he rose. What had drawn her eye though was a collar around his neck. It was pure black with a single small D-ring on it and a tag attached to that. It didn’t take long for AJ to snap Apple Bloom out of her daze as she apologized to both AJ and Calico and ran off to get the stuff for her brother.

“Damn gravity.”

Rarity piped up for the first time since they had been in the house saying, “It does have a particular fondness for you.”
Calico looked down at her with a smile. He reached around and dusted his rear end with his left hand to wipe away the dirt that had stuck to his uniform pants –turned- shorts.

“I like you white one.” Calico turned and headed back the way he started. He didn’t take is slow like before though. He opened up his stride as he now seemed in a hurry to see “The thing” that the little yellow filly was talking about. This of course made the ponies behind him have to pop into a fast trot to keep up with him.

“My name is Rarity,” she said in a huff. Apparently even large intrusive off world beings still deserved a scolding for not being polite in her eyes. “Furthermore, where are you going?”

“If my guess is correct, I’m going to your town hall and my home.”

“Your what?” asked Rarity.

Calico didn’t respond as he finally saw town hall come into view and the sight of his ship hanging out the side of it about 20 feet up in the air. He broke into a run for the last 100 yards or so to get to his home, all the while his collar lightly clinked with the sound of his tag. The small clink was enough to alert Twilight to his presence as he ran up but slowed down as he got next to her.

“Who let you out of the house?” asked Twilight in a bit of a panicked tone.

“Let me out? Am I suddenly your pet?” Calico’s smile was slowly changing as he spoke. He was stone faced as he assessed the situation and the best way to remove his ship and home from the building without making it collapse. There was a bit of a sullen look on Twilight’s face as Applejack and Rarity caught up with him.

They both looked at Twi as she blurted, “No, that’s… that’s not what I me…”

Calico didn’t let her finish before he started walking over to the structure. He watched as he saw two Pegasus ponies surveying the damage and a group of earth ponies and unicorns going over how best to deal with this disaster. He could over hear them talking about how to remove the hulk of metal and brace the building at the same time. Their chat about the structural integrity of the building was of major interest to him.

As he approached the building he looked at his home. It was amazingly undamaged on the outside, but there was a smoldering smoke that was coming out of the side door. The startling thing that Calico noticed was that the door was hanging over nothing, so how did he...

“Hey purple-corn, how did you find me?” Calico asked as he looked back at Twilight.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, not purple-corn. Why are being so rude to everyone?” Twilight glared at him.

“Oh I don’t know, let me think…Oh yeah, it’s because I have crash landed on a planet that I don’t know. I’ve been charred and broken my right arm and I am surrounded by a bunch of horses that are candy colored and seem to regard me as a pet.” Calico scowled as he continued, “My house is hanging out of a building that I am most likely going to be responsible for and I don’t even know if I will ever be able to leave.” His whole rant had seemed like he was more inconvenienced and annoyed rather than very angry about everything.

Twilight and the rest of the ponies just looked at the ground. It hit them hard. They never considered any of the issues that were bigger than what was happening in their normal world. He may not get back.

Trapped for good, never to return home.

Author's Note

Chapter 2 and more need for review and criticism. Please tell me everything you think about it and I'll try to continue to improve as I go to make this a good story.