Chapters Darkness is an amazing thing. For some it is a place filled with fears and horrors. For others it is the epitome of calm and rest just like sleeping without dreaming, a place of mending for one’s mind. For the select few it is a place where strength can be pulled from. Not just strength but power, power that is unheard of and is dangerous no matter what the reason one chooses to use it for. Within this darkness could be seen a lone figure. A tall, lean, wolf floated there, suspended in the darkness. His grey and white fur waved ever so slightly as if the darkness had a slight breeze to it. For Calico, it was a place of solace at this moment. The darkness he was dealing with wasn’t that of evil, fear, or dark power but the darkness that came with a soft and dreamless sleep. His sleep wouldn’t last for long though. It never really did.
He opened his eyes slowly as light flooded his vision. He was staring straight up at the roof of the building that he was in, a building that he didn’t recognize. He rolled his head back and forth a bit on the pillow to try and see where he was. If he had to make a guess, he was fairly certain that he was lying in some sort of library or if nothing else he was in a home whose owner really enjoyed reading. There were shelves that were carved straight out of the woodwork that were filled to the bursting point with books of all sorts and sizes. This unfamiliar environment instantly lead Calico to want to explore and find out more. Maybe he could find something explaining how he came to be here. He turned over onto his side and sat up. He had been laying on a bed of very nice quality. It was soft and covered in nice smooth sheets. He placed his feet on the floor, taking note that his boots had been removed. He tried to stand up and straighten his legs to full extension, then felt as they gave out under him and he tumbled directly forward and off of the loft that he had been on while sleeping. His body landed with a very unceremonious thud against the floorboards nearly 9 feet below him. His body looking like nothing more than a ball of fur and… feathers? Something was definitely off about this wolf.
The sound very quickly drew the attention of a certain purple unicorn that was busy and somewhat furiously searching through a stack of books nearly as tall as the loft that Calico had just fallen from.
“Oh Goodness, are you alright” the unicorn asked as she rushed over to try and help Calico up.
Calico could do nothing but nearly scream in agony as he started to realize that his body was badly broken. He curled up holding his left arm tightly against his right. The near blinding headache that he had was enough to not be able to see clearly. He barely opened his eyes to try and see the form of the soft voice he heard.
“Try not to pass out on me there. Hang on let me get you a wet rag,” she turned to run when she was stopped mid turn.
“No need dear, I’ve gotten it already.”
The second female voice was soft and yet held an air of poise to it. From the very first word Calico’s ears twitched in the direction that it had come from. This had been the first time that he thought about the fact that he wasn’t alone in this house, well besides the first female. This lead Calico to wonder just how many people were around him. He tried opening his eyes to see if he had regained his sight properly yet. To his chagrin, it was still a bit blurry but clearing up. It was clear enough for him to realize that his right arm was wrapped in bandages. He slowly tried to sit up but found it quite hard to as his body didn’t want to react as it should. To his great fortune he felt something nudging him up into a sitting position. He looked down to see that his clothes had been mostly torn off but thankfully for him, his pants still remained. Well what remained of them anyway. They looked to have been cut into something like shorts but there were charred edges and burn spots all over them. His fur fared no better, looking like he had just gone 3 rounds with a flamethrower. He also noted the bandage wrapped around his head, seems like much more went on than he knew. Thankfully the feeling of the cool wet cloth that was being pressed against his head was taking his mind off of the disaster that was his own body. His mind was immediately invaded by the question of what was pushing the cloth against his head because he saw no hands obstructing his vision.
“What is going on? How did I get here? What are you?” Calico couldn’t help but blurt it all out. His brain was going a mile a minute trying to piece together how he got into this strange house and what had happened to his body.
“I think that’s the question we should be asking you sugar cube,” yet another female voice spoke up. Thankfully his vision had returned enough to see that he was being addressed by a modest sized orange pony with a blond…well… ponytail. The cowboy hat pulled the look together. He momentarily stared her right in the eyes of the cowpony unsure of what to make of the whole situation. He stared at her very intently, seeming to really analyze her eyes. This was beyond even his expertise, something that even he hadn’t dealt with before. He continued to look right into the cowpony’s eyes until she backed away somewhat nervously.
“Anyway….what’s your name stranger,” she asked turning to help Twilight with cleaning up the rag that was used.
“You’re a pony,” he said somewhat flatly but seemingly amused.
“He’s funny,” A pink bouncing pony said as she bounced into his vision, “Hi I’m Pinky Pie.”
“Heeee, a pink bouncing pony with a poofy mane, I must have hit my head harder than I thought,” the dumb expression on Calico’s face telling everyone that he didn’t really believe what he was seeing. He reached out his left hand to try and touch Pinky but was just out of reach until she walked up under his hand without trepidation. Everyone else however was ready for the worst to happen; to them this was a matter that should have been handled by someone less…what’s the word…spastic.
Calico’s hand did nothing more than flop onto Pinky’s head. His eyes opened wide for a moment as he leaned into see just what it was that he was touching. He pulled a few strands of her hair forward and looked closely as they fell between his fingers, his hand visibly shaking. He couldn’t help himself but to sniff what he had in his hand, then to everyone’s surprise, he licked the strands that were in his hand. His eyes growing wider than before as he looked directly into the large eye of Pinky.
Calico opened his mouth in shock for a moment before announcing, “You taste of sugar and muffin batter. My god this is real.” His shock slowly subsided as he leaned back against the shelving that he had been against before.
“Wow you can taste that? I haven’t made muffins in like 3 days and I’ve bathed since then. What else can you taste?” Pinky was bouncing with joy over this.
Calico thought about it for a minute then answered, “You have a very weak shampoo and there is a taste there I would rather not say out loud.” He somewhat smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, almost as if trying to get the taste out of it.
“What about your name? Can you tell us that?” Twilight interjected before Pinky Pie asked something else that would interfere with the “mission” she was on.
“Oh sorry, where are my manners. I am Captain Calico FlashFlicker. I have no idea how I got here or even where here is. So I would refrain from asking questions about that, because I don’t know what happened.” A large grin was across his face as he looked at Twilight. “Speaking of which, where am I? Also where did you find me?”
At least it was an easy question for now, but Twilight was a bit worried that the answer may upset him. “You are in Ponyville, in the land of Equestria.” To the letter, she told only the straight facts and nothing more.
The grin on his face dimmed a bit as he looked around. “Marvelous, but that doesn’t tell me very much. I don’t know of any place known as Equestria. What planet is it that I am on?” It took a minute for his brain to process what he had just asked. Without a single moment’s notice, he threw his left hand to his head and groaned a bit. Certain images started flashing through his mind about where he was before he blacked out. He remembered a ship that he was on, a modest sized thing that he could live in comfortably but not take up much space on the ground.
“You’re on…” A loud knocking at the door suddenly broke Twilight’s train of thought. The door slammed open as a tan and grey maned mare wearing spectacles burst through. Twilight turned to see who the intruder was.
“Twilight we need your magic. The building is growing unstable and it might fall.”
“I’ll be right there Mayor Mare. Applejack, can you take care of things here?” Twi looked at AJ and she just nodded. This seemed like the optimal time for Calico to stand up and take a wobbly step towards the door. His legs were weak but he was still able to take a few steps thankfully. It kind of made him wonder why he fell the first time.
As soon as Twilight had left, AJ turned around to see Calico standing in front of her. Tracing up his body caused her to near instantly fall back on her haunches. Before her stood a nearly 7 foot tall Calico, his wings now clearly defined against his back. The pony, even at standing height only came up to his chest. Calico wasted no time in stepping around Applejack and heading out the door that Twilight had bolted through, ducking slightly so as not to hit his head.
Taking his first steps out into this new world, Calico knew that things would never be the same for him again.
Author's Note
So this is the first story I have even tried to write in about 5 years. I really really NEED feedback, both good and bad. I am hoping that the subsequent chapters are going to be better but I have always had a hard time with initial introductions to characters and locals. Once the world that is in my mind is established then the story will flow much better.
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…?”
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.”
“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.
Metal Hulk Down.
Calico stood there looking at his ship and his home. It was teetering and hanging out of the second story of the Ponyville town hall. He stared at it for a moment, but he wasn’t actually looking at it. He seemed to be looking through it out into space. As some would call it, he had the thousand-yard stare, something only a trained sniper on a battlefield would have. This world couldn’t have snipers in it though it is far too perfect. Well it was, until he interrupted the serenity of their nice little town and not only destroyed their building but also probably destroyed his chances at making something a kin to friends in this strange world.
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
Twilight was confused; shouldn’t she be the one to say that? She had been insensitive and didn’t think about what was going through his mind since he awoke. She had been too interested in finding out about him. She wanted to write to Princess Celestia about his arrival as quickly as possible so she could be apprised of the situation.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at you all like that. You don’t deserve my anger,” said Calico, his head still turned towards the ship. He reached up his left hand to rub his head a bit as he looked on at the task ahead of him now that he had cleared his mind of his faux pas. He kneeled down and stood quite still on just his flat feet, leaning forward over his folded legs for balance as he began to draw in the dirt, occasionally looking up at the smoke coming from the main door. With some level of frustration he decided it was easier to sit fully and try to concentrate on what he was doing.
Twilight and the rest were still somewhat stunned that he was the one to apologize in this situation. The only thing she could do was look at the other three ponies and see what they though. A shrug was all she got from all three of them. Fat lot of good that did. She watched as Calico sat down and was drawing. What caught her eye was the way he sat on the ground. She could see his butt was on the ground but he couldn’t keep his wings flat against his body as he had been the whole time he was walking around. Instead she watched as he opened them up a bit and formed almost a tent shape around his body with them. It seemed almost like they moved in slow motion as they formed the A frame. He eyes bugged a bit at how large they were.
‘They had to be large, they hung down to his upper legs. What was I expecting?’ Twilight thought.
“I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to be so inconsiderate and I don’t think of you as a pet.” Twilight said as she slowly walked around to his front. The other three ponies followed as well with Pinky Pie hopping instead of walking as she often did.
“No worries, it was my fault for allowing my anger to let loose on you. Past that, we have each said our peace about the situation so now we have a bigger one to focus on.” His voice was stiff, like he was talking, but not really focusing on the conversation.
“Well, ya’ll got the Apples here to help fix it up, uh, once Apple Bloom gits back that is.” AJ said confidently looking over to see that her brother was already setting up a ladder and prepping to take a closer look at the damage himself. The second story balcony was still holding up really well, but the ship had the luck of landing itself right in the doorway that lead outside.
“So Sparkle, do you have any ideas? All in all I think the building would stand alright if I just backed that thing out of there.”
“Do you think it will still fly?” Twilight asked skeptically.
“Oh, oh, oh, I wanna ride in it.” Pinky said as she bounced in place.
“Only one way to find out and no, you can’t ride on it right now.”
Calico’s statement made the fluffy maned pony visibly sad. Her bottom lip quivered and she gave him large puppy dog eyes, trying obviously hard to change his mind. Calico smiled, some of the anger that he had earlier waning, and he couldn’t help but put his hand out on top of her head again and rub her mane a bit.
“Don’t be too sad, I said right now. Once this is all taken care of, I’ll take you for a ride.” Calico said with a smile to her. He couldn’t help but feel like, of this little group of ponies, the pink one had to be the slightly mentally challenged one. Noting what he had said Pinky perked up and smiled again.
“No time like the present to test the theory,” Calico said standing up, his wings quickly folding up against his back, almost snapping against him. He stepped up and hopped up onto the railing grabbing the top of the second floor balcony with his working left hand. With minimal effort he kicked off the banister and flipped head over heels up to the balcony. He rolled his body one hundred and eighty degrees perfectly to land on his feet facing out towards the ponies he had just left on the ground. The acrobatic move slightly stunned Twilight and her friends, but then they really didn’t know what to expect from him. Calico turned to head towards the door of his ship when he noticed that Twilight’s horn had begun to glow. In an instant she disappeared and then reappeared right next to him on the inside section of the balcony railing.
“The Hell was that?” Calico yelled in shock. Twilight looked at him like it had been nothing at all.
“You’ve never seen someone teleport before?”
“NO! Do I look like I come from a land of magic...” Calico stopped and thought about this for half a second and before Twilight could speak he stopped her, “Actually, never mind, don’t answer that.”
Twilight just looked at Calico as though he was crazy; to be fair that assessment had been rolling through her head since he had started to talk to her the first time.
“Well, if you can do that, you may be useful in other ways. Come on into the ship, lets see if we can get this hunk of junk moving.” Calico said with a slight look of dismay. His survey of the outside of the ship was indeed good, but who knows if the thing would still fly.
“I thought you said this was your home? Why would you call it a hunk of junk?”
“It is my home, but sometimes my home is a pile of junk. Have you never had to live in a heap of trash at some point?”
Twilight somewhat gazed away from his eyes. He looked at her and didn’t need an answer to that question, though there were so many others. All the questions could wait though; he needed to move his home. He walked towards the open door that was half swung open. The door hung over a fall that would probably hurt most non-flying creatures to jump from. With one quick leap he landed inside the doorframe and the ship heaved heavily backwards and creaked loudly in disagreement to the sudden shift in weight. The smoke that was still pouring out of the door was a bit concerning for him but he was prepared to put it out as fast as possible.
The smoke was thankfully less dense than he was expecting but it still did a number on his eyes as he tried to find the suppression system. There was another heave to the ship as Twilight suddenly appeared right behind him. She immediately started to cough, not expecting the smoke to be as thick as it was given that it had a way to vent itself. Calico had found his fire suppression system and was directing its spray right at the fire that seemed to be emanating from what appeared to be a kitchen.
“This is what caused all this smoke?” Twilight questioned as she started to cough. She waved a hoof in front of her face to clear away the smoke. Thankfully the smoke had already started to settle now that the fire was fully extinguished. Calico surveyed the area before answering to see if he could find the culprit in the wreckage of his single counter kitchen.
“Hmm apparently I was making a Cheese sandwich before I crashed.” Calico sniffed the remains of what must have been the pan he was cooking in and the crusted and charred remains of the sandwich.
“You’re saying a sandwich started all this?”
“Possibly, Ill make a mental note not to make cheese sandwiches anymore. That should stop me from crashing landing onto random planets.” Calico eyed the charred sandwich and took a moment to take a slight lick of it. The revolting taste made him instantly retract his tongue and spit away from Twilight. “Too much butter.”
Twilight now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Calico was indeed crazy.
“How could this burn for this long? You’ve been unconscious in my house for over two hours?”
“This counter is made of slow burn materials, which is weird since the rest of the ship cant really burn at all…being fully metal I mean.” Calico looked at the now burned and melted counter top with a new question in his head: why did the ship designer make this flaw on purpose?
Twilight eyed the interior of his ship, interested in what saw. It wasn’t as large as it seemed from the outside for starters. The interior was slightly cramped and tight, but was probably fine for one occupant and that was it. It looked somewhat reminiscent of a Winnebago, if she had known what one was. She looked towards the aft section to see the engine systems jutting out from the back wall. Her curiosity got the better of her and she got closer to investigate it. Calico wasn’t too far behind her, as he also needed to check the engine to see if it would function enough to fly. To his chagrin, it would, but not for long. The fuel cells were draining which could only mean a leak in the system somewhere.
“What is this? Ive never seen anything like it in my life,” Sparkle said with amazement. This was something alien in more ways than one and her brain did its normal function in trying to make her learn and understand everything about everything.
“Sure I’ll tell you all you want to know when I land this thing. Preferably someplace where I can keep an eye on it and out of the way enough to not be a danger to others if something happens. You know a place like that?” Calico said with a bit of a rush to his voice.
“There is a large clearing behind my tree, will that work?”
Calico just nodded knowing that as long as he was in the air he would be able to find a place to land but being close to the tree seemed like the best place for now. He knew that he might be reliant on this little unicorn for a while so being close by would make things easier. He turned away from Twilight for a moment and headed for the door. With one quite shout he had told everyone to move away and stay clear as he moved the ship. He waved his one good hand at Twilight to make her come to the front of the ship where the window and main control panels were.
“Have you ever been a navigator before?” Calico asked as he sat down in the only chair. He quickly reached all around the small control panel and above him to flip a few switches and turn a knob or two.
“Not for anything like this.” She said wide-eyed, as though he was asking her to perform maintenance on the thing.
“That’s ok, I just need direction.”
Calico looked down at the last thing that he needed to do to get the whole system running properly, he simply needed to turn the key...with a broken arm. I had to put it, Calico thought, on one side and not centrally.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight noticed the bit of over-reactive sadness in his face.
“I can’t turn the key. My working arm cant reach over that far to turn it.”
Twilight turned and saw what he was talking about and without hesitation her horn started to glow, as did the key, and it started to turn. She looked over to Calico with a somewhat smug look on her face.
“You have a key to start your ship? Isn’t that a bit old fashioned?”
“What do you mean old fashioned? This ship is a marvel of spaceship engineering and it’s…. yes it’s old fashioned. What were you expecting though?” Calico said as he started to pull back on the control system and getting the ship free of the building.
“It is, I’ve also locked it in this thing a time or two.”
Twilight looked at him with a slight bit of shock. It was short lived though as she looked up and pointed with a hoof in the direction that Calico should go. He followed and saw the giant tree that they had been in not but 15 minutes ago. He saw the clearing and tried to land as quickly as possible. It was not quick enough for the ship though because as Calico swung the ship around and leveled it out, the engines failed entirely.
Twilight screamed as she started briefly floating before slamming into the ground with an unceremonious thud. Ship had literally fallen straight out of the sky and landed some 25 feet below in a heap on the grass in the large field outside of Twilight’s home.
Calico got up out of his seat and reached down to grab Twilight and help pull her back up. She was visibly shaken and in a slight bit of pain but rose easily enough. Calico smiled and stood fully up, looking around to see the mess his place was in. Items were strewn everywhere and of course, his kitchen area was melted to the floor, in the midst was that sandwich.
“Seems like this isn’t quite as homey as it used to be.” Calico frowned a bit. He slowly walked over to the engines and looked at the state of them. Bled dry, they were. No fuel left, no power, and no ability to fix it with the items and equipment that he had.
“Well, I’m definitely stuck here. Wonderful.”
Twilight looked at him, her heart went out to the stranded stranger.
Author's Note
I hope this is up to scratch. This whole chapter felt like it was taking me so much longer to write and I just wasn't as inspired to do this scene. The next few are starting to get into Calico's life in Ponyville, so I hope its worth the wait.
Calico stood there with a look of dismay on his face for a moment as he realized his situation. He was trapped on a strange planet, had no food, not much of a shelter to speak of, and was sure that he was missing something rather important. Didn’t take him long to figure it out.
“Hmm have you seen my arm Twilight?” Calico asked with the same amount of
“You mean the one I bandaged? It was pretty badly burned and looked…” She stopped as she looked up at him and noticed that his entire arm from just below the shoulder joint down was completely missing. Calico was already searching for it as concern that he would have if he were asking where the butter was in a refrigerator. She was talking and with a smile he had produced it from the far side of the chair he had just been sitting in.
“Hmm must have fallen off when we hit ground. Now where is that other one?” He said a bit under his breath. Within seconds he was busy searching through the debris that littered his floor and checking the few locked cabinets left intact.
“Your arm… quick get over here so you don’t bleed out.” Twi yelled. The look of panic was obvious on her face and she was ripping a sheet that she had found in a strip with her magic.
“I’m not bleeding, its synthetic,” he said as he held it out for her to see. She noted the metallic ring that had some sort of wired connections on it. Calico in a bit of a huff all but tossed the arm in front of Twilight as he continued his search.
“What the hell are you? What happened to your arm?”
Calico turned to Twilight and just smiled. He had found his spare arm and was holding it as he said, “I told you what I am, as far as the arm, that’s a story for later. Until then I need to find my tools.”
“What do you need those for?” Twilight inquired with a bit of annoyance in her voice.
“To fix my arm…” Calico mentioned as he flipped up one of the bench style seats where his dining area had apparently once been.
“What do you have two broken arms?”
Calico stopped searching then slowly looked up at Twilight from his bent over position. He achingly slowly stood up, never taking his gaze off of her. His face showed no expression past his eyes seeming to be a bit wider than before. This creeped Twilight the hell out. To her chagrin, Calico simply nodded his head up and down and said “Yes, exactly…”
Calico immediately went back to searching through his cupboards and other random places that didn’t even seem like storage areas. Twilight sat there for a moment before assuring herself once again that Calico was indeed insane. Her contemplation was thankfully cut short as the sound of hoof beats on metal hit her ears. AJ and Rarity had finally come to check on everything.
“Twi, are you ok in here?” Applejack called as she finished stepping inside the hulk of metal. Surprise was the least of the things that she felt when she saw not only the state of the interior but also all the strange things that she had never seen before.
“Yeah, but what took you so long?” Twilight asked.
“Ah was helpin’ Big Mac shore up town hall.” She replied. AJ noticed Calico holding a small box in his left hand and also jumped at the fact that his right arm was all but missing. She all but yelled, “What happened to yur arm?”
It took only a fraction of a second before he popped off with, “She stole it. Look its right by her hooves.”
Twilight looked shocked and nervous at the same time, like she always did when she felt like she had to protect herself from lies.
“I did not, you threw it at me.” She said defensively.
“Only after I wrestled it from your grip. I threw it at you to try and escape.” Calico half yelled at her, defending his position.
“Twi?” AJ looked at her incredulously. She knew something was up.
“I didn’t…he…he”
“I did it because I was hoping it would distract you, you …you monster.”
A smile broke on his face when he noticed that she was finally speechless. She just didn’t know what to say at the wild accusations being thrown her way. Twilight’s mouth just hung down, unable to move as if stuck in a perpetual state of shock.
Applejack couldn’t help it, she started to chuckle. Calico soon followed suit now feeling like it was appropriate to. He walked over to Twilight and reached down to pull her jaw up to a closed position.
“That was too easy.”
“You are so not a nice…wolf…thing” Twilight said with slightly gritted teeth.
“Ill make it up to you then. If you provide me with a place to work on my arm and some food, I will tell you everything you want to know about me. Seems like a fair trade. “
Twilight thought for only a minute then agreed to the deal. It only took a moment for Calico to gather up his tools and extra limbs to be brought to the tree house library that resided only a few hundred feet away. In very little time the group of three was sitting around the table in the kitchen area of twilights home while she looked around to see what she could make up for a meal.
“This would be so much easier with spike here. He would have an idea of what to do with all these random food items.” Twilight said, obviously frustrated. She never really was much of a cook but why would she need to be when she had her loyal assistant there to make amazing meals, even being such a little guy as he was.
“Need some help there, Twi?” AJ asked as she got up from the table to go to the aid of her friend. Rarity stayed in her seat, looking up only to watch as Applejack left the table. Her eyes were focused on the fact that there were two arms sitting on the table and one arm that was nimbly working on the other two. Her gaze wandered up briefly to see the stump that was Calico’s right upper arm.
Calico saw her look at him even while his eyes were looking down at the undamaged arm in front of him. He continued his work but was intently waiting for the question that he knew was coming.
“So, Calico, tell us about yourself.”
That wasn’t quite what he was expecting. Given the current situation, he figured he would have to tell them about his arm and how he had lost the flesh and blood version of it. No matter though.
“What do you want to know?” He looked up for only a brief moment as he looked for the proper screwdriver in his little kit. He was noticeably fumbling to get a screw into place but will little success as it kept popping out of its slot. “Damn lack of magnetics.”
Rarity saw his plight…if one could call it that. A slight blue-ish glow started to emanate from her horn as she lifted and replaced the screw in its slot, holding it there so that he could screw it in. Calico of course looked dumbfounded as this was yet another thing that he was not expecting to see happen in this world. He couldn’t help but smile a bit and start to screw the last piece into place.
“How about you tell us where you are from first.”
“Heh, that is a long story. Considering that I don’t really know where I am at currently in the universe it may be hard to explain where I am from but I will try my best.” Calico showed a little bit of dismay at the fact that he really had no idea where in the universe he was at nor any idea as to how he got there.
“Well to help you out a bit, we are in the Milky Way galaxy and this planet is called Earth.” Twilight said from across the kitchen. She was now doing the dirty dishes with her magic because Applejack was now the one cooking.
Calico was dumbfounded once again.
“What…what year is it?”
“It is the year 1264 of the rule of Princess Celestia.” Twilight answered again.
Calico was very confused. None of this made sense.
“I think when all things here are said and done, I will need a history book on this planet. I’m sure you have one here.”
“There are 15 copies of various historical textbooks…” Twilight was cut short as Calico threw up his hand.
“I didn’t need to know that quite yet. Anyway I’ll tell you what I can. I’ll say this, until we understand how I came to be here, some of this is going to sound completely insane.”
Cant be any worse, Twilight thought, than what I already think of you. She walked over with some empty plates in her magical glow and placed them around the table while Applejack finished her preparations.
“Go on then Calico. Tell us all about yourself.” Rarity urged. She was very interested in hearing this story.
“Well originally I come from a planet called Argnurus 4. It was a beautiful land for so many millennia. We explored the stars and made contact with so many peaceful races.”
Calico stopped talking for a moment. His mind was desperately trying to pull certain memories to the surface but had problems getting them to be completely vivid in his minds eye.
“We met one not so peaceful race. I species beyond anything even we had seen in five thousand years of searching the heavens. To this day those monsters roam free, destroying everything they come in contact with and annihilating every species they saw for the sake of resource collection. It was a chilly day when they hit our planet. Hundreds of warships rained down from the sky and simply destroyed major cities. There was a resistance.”
Calico stopped again. This time not to think but to pick up his now fixed arm and look at the connection ring and check it one last time. A sudden knock at the door caught Calico off guard and he dropped the arm to the floor narrowly missing his foot. He took a moment to put his wings back into place as they had fluffed out quite a bit from the fright. He let out a slow breath and placed his head on the table for a moment. When he looked up, he was greeted to the sight of a cyan blue Pegasus with a prismatic mane.
“Heya RD, now where have you been?” Applejack asked as she sat down at the table, nearly all the empty spaces filled with food or dishware for dinner.
“Napping, what else? What is this thing and when did you build that new shed?” Rainbow’s ability to be crass and ask abrasive questions came as little surprise to AJ, but Twilight was looking at her like she had just cursed the sun itself.
“Rainbow really, how rude.” Rarity said in a tone that would make most mothers feel bad about something they had done wrong.
“Heh, um…sorry. Didn’t mean to upset you,” she said, as she looked Calico square in the eyes. He only blinked and reached down for his arm that lay on the floor. He lightly tossed it up just enough to shift his grip from the wrist up to the connection coupler and proceeded to lock it into place on his stub of a right arm. He let out a rather pained groan for a moment then settled down to test his fingers and make sure they all functioned properly.
“You didn’t upset me, your arrival did startle me though. No harm, no foul.” Calico said with a bit of a smile that could even be heard in his voice. “Now where was I?”
“Something about a resistance to the army attacking your planet…” Twilight said as she started to dish out food to everyone that didn’t have magic. Rainbow Dash was even sliding in next to Calico since that was the only seat left open.
“Ah yeah, well when the war first started we didn’t have much of a chance it seemed. But we quickly amassed a force that could do some good to protecting our planet. I had already spent time as an interstellar pilot but decided that I wanted to do some land warfare, because a death in space means that your body will never rest in peace…only in pieces. I was squad leader because of my past experience leading large ship crews.”
Calico looked down at the plate being set in front of him. His surprise was evident when he saw a nice salad mix on one small plate and a larger plate with cooked potatoes and something similar to a burrito filled with black beans and some form of salsa. It took only a single bite of the food for Calico to sigh loudly.
“Is something wrong with the meal?” Twilight asked, not taking into account that he might not eat the same things that ponies eat.
“It tastes amazing.” He said biting down another mouthful
“What were you expecting?” Dashie asked like it was something that she never doubted in the first place. To be fair it wasn’t.
“I don’t know what I was expecting…maybe something with hay or grass.”
There was a simple little chuckle from the group as they all ate dinner together. This seemed very odd to Calico though. Usually it takes a great deal of time for a group to become accepting of an interloper in their midst. He could see these 4 were probably friends and something like this would be normal, but to have an alien share a meal with them so easily seemed a bit strange indeed.
“Anyway, sorry. I tend to get sidetracked easily with long stories. So anyway I retained my rank as a captain, a rank just high enough to be a large group leader but also low enough that I could be out with a team directly instead of staying in the clear and just hearing about my team’s day. It was a position I valued for a very long time.” Calico took another bite but noticed something was missing.
“Could I trouble you for something to drink, Sparkle?”
“You can just call me Twilight and yes let me see what I have.”
With a nod of appreciation, Calico resumed his story.
“To break away from the boring details, one day I was out on mission with another team from a separate unit and we ended up being pinned down. After some still unknown number of hours, we realized that we were screwed. I called for the team to pull out and retreat back to our safe zone. My team began to run for it and I tried to suppress the aliens enough to let them escape. I played my trump card and was able to make my escape also but unlike the remaining members of my team, I didn’t get out free.”
Calico didn’t need to say it; it was very obvious what he had meant. He looked down to see the mug of some slightly frothy brownish liquid sitting in front of him. He grabbed it in his now reattached right hand and held it for a moment, looking more at his arm then at the drink before him. A small sip was all it took as he noted a bitter taste that he knew all too well from many a quiet night.
“Hard cider huh? I’m surprised this would be the first drink you would give me. I expected water.”
“Well we all have some so I figured it would be alright to offer you too.” Twilight said kindly as she passed mugs around to everyone at the table. Calico wasn’t as much stunned as he was confused and he finally let loose something that was on his chest since the start of the meal.
“Ok that’s more than I can handle. What the hell is up with you all? Is this normal for you to just be so inviting of an alien creature that has wrecked part of your town, disturbed the peace and is a total unknown to you?” Calico’s suspicions were at an all time high by this point.
“Partner, you landed in Ponyville, the town voted “The most friendly town in Equestria” 6 years running.” AJ said, pride just dripping off of her every word.
Calico just sat there a bit dumbfounded. This was going to be a long evening. He took a long chug of his drink and set the near empty wooden mug down. Drown me again, Calico thought, in the bitter waters of memory oh sweet cider.
“You okay there, partner?” AJ asked as Calico as he finished his second mug of cider in three solid gulps.
“Just fine. Now then to continue, my team and I were able to return to our base that was about 15 miles away. We had lost two of our own but ended up with the remnants of the team that we were supporting. A lot of good soldiers died that day and I was lucky enough to only be wounded. When I finally got to the medic tent they said it had been too long and that saving the arm that was dangling by nothing more than skin was all but impossible.” Calico said with a hint of despair in his words.
“How did you escape? You mentioned a trump card, what was that?” Rainbow Dash exuberantly asked. Her eyes sparkled a bit like she had just gotten to the best part of her favorite Daring Do novel.
“My trump card was a heavy weapon. I fired a very large incendiary round into the midst of their fire line.” Calico noted the looks on the pony’s faces as they internally questioned what he was talking about.
“Sorry, think of it like…” Calico looked around and noticed the horse head sitting on the table in the middle of the library, “like a self propelled version of that horse head. The difference is that it was smoothed into a dome shape on top and was filled with something that causes fires that burn hot enough to melt darn near anything.”
There was a slight look of horror on all of the pony’s faces at the mention of this. The thought that someone could not only kill, but would use something that did that to kill others was ghastly.
Calico looked down and stared at his near empty mug.
“We scattered. They overtook our base and we had no chance. We were lucky though because so many of my kind made it to escape vehicles and took to the heavens. I grabbed that little ship outside and found a way to make it like home until I landed on a planet that had been doing prosthetics and cybernetics for a long time and they hooked me up with this arm…well both of them.”
Calico looked at his newly attached arm and rubbed his hands together before putting them both down on the table. He took one look into his mug and nudged it a bit. What was going through his mind, no pony knew, but what they did know was that this wolf was indeed, out of this world.
“Twilight would it be too much to ask for one last mug?” He asked almost flatly. His vocal tone was all but gone as he tipped the mug a bit from the top ring using only his finger.
“But what happened next? How did yawl get here?” AJ asked. The puzzle in her mind was slowly being put together but stuff was missing.
Calico shook his head. “No more right now.” It took only a single swig to finish off the last of the cider in his cup. “I’ll tell you all more later. Trust me, you’ll not be left without.”
Calico stood up from his seat and started to gather the dishes.
“You don’t need to do that Calico,” Twilight said as she was beginning to levitate most of the dishes off the table and towards the sink. “I’ll take care of them a little later, they aren’t important right now.”
Not stopping himself, Calico grabbed the last of the dishes and brought them to the sink and placed them in the side that was quickly filling up with water and suds. Twilight had to dang near nudge him with her horn to get him to stop and leave them alone. With a slight amount of resignation, he let it be and walked into the central section of the library, the ponies following soon after.
Calico saw the spot that he had been laying against not but a few hours before, the small amount of blood that had spilled from him still staining the floor. He stepped over and leaned down to rest against the shelf. With closed eyes he let out a breath and tried to relax.
“You alright there, sugarcube?” Applejack asked. She could see something was up but couldn’t quite put her hoof on it.
“I’m…” He couldn’t finish his statement. He couldn’t say anything. All he could do was look deep inside himself for the will that he always had to weather the storm. Finally after a few silent moments he said, “Yeah, I’m alright.”
“Maybe we should give him some time.” Rarity said quietly to the rest of the ponies. It was low enough that any other pony would never have heard anything, but Calico was a wolf with well-tuned hearing. He smirked a bit but said nothing. Some alone time would be nice right about now…not to mention a shower. His fur still had bits of char and dirt all over it.
The ponies all agreed it would be fine to call it quits for the night, but Rarity insisted on one of them staying the night for the sake of protection for Twilight. Rainbow Dash volunteered and things were settled. Goodbyes were said and the other two ponies walked out. Twilight turned from the door that she was now closing with her magic to look at Calico, who was still sitting on the floor leaning against the bookcase with his eyes closed.
“Calico?” Twilight said trying as softly as possible to get his attention. Calico simply hummed slightly to show he was listening. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine Twilight. Nothing to worry about.” His voice seemed sure of this fact and yet…yet… “Twilight, is there a place I can wash up? I’m tired of smelling like a corpse.”
“Yeah, there is a bathroom upstairs. You go get cleaned up and Rainbow Dash and I will set up a place for you to sleep.” With a simple nod Rainbow agreed with Twilight and proceeded to follow her.
Calico headed upstairs and noted the nice large shower and tub basin that would give him that little bit of comfort. Downstairs Twilight and Rainbow worked on setting up a place for the evening guest.
“Twi this seems a little weird.” Rainbow said as she grabbed a few pillows and balanced them on her back between her wings.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow face hoofed.
“Are you really comfortable having a predator sleeping here all night? What if he goes nuts and decides to make a pony sandwich in the middle of the night?” Rainbow by this time was making gestures with her fore hooves while being suspended by her flapping wings, the pillows now nothing but a heap on the ground next to a makeshift bed.
“Somehow I doubt that. He doesn’t seem to be aggressive. Crazy maybe, but not aggressive. I do think he is hiding something though.” Twilight said. Rainbow nodded and nothing more was said for a few. After having made a makeshift bed and setting things up in Twilight’s room for Dash, they decided to do a little reading while they waited. Twilight chose the book that she had been in the middle of reading for a report to princess Celestia and Dash grabbed a copy of the latest Daring Do book.
It was about fifteen minutes before Calico finished his shower and was headed back downstairs. He stopped 3 stairs from the bottom and looked into the library to see Dash and Twilight sitting close to the fireplace that was acting as the primary light source for the room.
“A fire place and a good book. Sounds like a classic plan for a chilly night.” Calico said as he finished descending the stairs.
“Did you enjoy your shower Calico?” Twilight asked as she finally took her head out of her book to look at him despite hearing him come down the stairs.
“Immensely, at least now I only look a mess instead of smelling of one too. I do need to get some new clothes though. My cabinet with my old stuff burned with the cheese sandwich.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight as though she had missed something.
“You kept your clothes in your kitchen?”
“There weren’t many other places I could keep them. Its not like that ship is very large.” Calico said with a frown. It wasn’t very large but it was his home and now it was in ruins.
“Well we could talk to rarity tomorrow to see what she could do. She is an amazing seamstress.”
“Meh I’ll check my ship later, maybe something survived.” Calico said. Twilight noticed one thing about him. He was not wearing the top that had been burnt up and shredded anymore. Without it though much could be seen on his body. He was fit but not bulky. His arms were toned but not swollen like Snowflake the bodybuilding pony.
The biggest things though were the scars his body sported. While they were few in number they were not by any means small. A large gash across his chest and one circling his right side right were his fake arm was attached that went around to his back. Twilight wanted to ask about it badly but didn’t have the heart to. Dashie however…
“Wow what happened to you? You look like someone sent a manticore after you.” Rainbow said unabashedly. Twilight looked horrified as is Rainbow had just insulted him.
All Calico could say was, “huh?”
Rainbow got up and walked over to him and looked closer at his back.
“Your wings are all messed up. When was the last time you preened them?”
Calico had to think back. When was the last time he had touched them? His mind sparked and he suddenly realized when it was.
“About a month before the crash…this is assuming that I wasn’t knocked out for long before I landed in your town hall.” Calico dropped his head thinking about the damages he caused. “Sorry about that again.”
“Hey don’t worry about that, you need to worry about your wings. They are in bad shape. I bet you can’t even fly with them like that.” Rainbow said as she nudged him a bit closer to the fireplace.
“Easy there, Ill take care of them.” Calico said as he sat down cross-legged on the floor about eight feet from the fire. “Besides its not like I fly with these things that often anymore.”
The look on Dash’s face was one of amazement.
“What the hay? Why?”
“When you spend years in space, there isn’t much room to fly around.”
That reason seemed logical considering. Twilight however was running a question through her mind that she had to let out.
“Calico, how old are you? You’ve said you have spent years in space before the war on your home planet then more after you left it.” Twilight asked as she stepped over to be closer and in his line of sight instead of asking questions to his back.
“You would have to ask me a math question.”
The quizzical look that Twilight gave him told him he had best explain.
“I measure my age based on the planet I am on. I do the math based on hours per day and days in a year. I know that this planet moves much faster than mine just from being outside today. So why don’t you tell me those figures and Ill tell you my age.” Calico was soft in everything he said. He was slowly working on his wings trying to get them to look right again. He sadly was failing.
“This is a bit weird but we have 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year.” Twilight said in a matter of fact voice. She saw the surprised look in Calico’s face and saw as he was tracing his finger on the ground to figure out his answer.
He had to redo it several times.
“Problem?” Twilight asked.
“No just making sure I was right… this is freaking crazy. I felt old before, now I’m archaic.”
“Well how old are you?”
“Umm…I’m roughly twenty seven thousand years old on this planet.” Calico said, still shocked at the answer himself.
“So you suck at math and you suck at preening. Don’t feel bad we all can’t be as awesome as me.” Rainbow Dash said doing her normal show off posture. Her wings were erect and even shining a bit in the light of the fire as she held her head high.
“Wish I did suck that bad at math. I’ve done this calculation hundreds of times. I know I’m right.”
“How is that even possible? You don’t look like you are more than 25 or 30 years old if I was just to go off of how your body structure is.”
“That nice of you to say. However it doesn’t change the fact that I am twenty seven thousand years old."
“How old were you on your planet?” Twilight asked.
“Around eight thousand years old. This planet is moving at almost three and a half times the speed mine did. Crap…I’ll need a cane soon to help me walk.” Calico said with his tongue out and a smile on his face. “Of course I don’t need to tell anyone that I’m that old, I could just give them the eight thousand age.”
Speechless, that is all that Twilight was in that very instant, speechless. How could he be so fine with this? What was wrong with him? Her worst question was how long could she stand to be around him and his insanity. He wasn’t normal and this was going to make for a very long night if things kept up like this.
Author's Note
These last two chapters took me quite a while because I originally had broke down the 4th chapter into two because I thought it would be too long but I was kinda wrong. Anyway, I don't know if anyone is actually enjoying this or if I'm just digging myself into a hole here. I would appreciate any and all comments on this story so I know if i should really continue or if I should just to do small one shot things.