Inhuman

Chapter 1: A Regular Ponyville Evening

"Twilight! Twilight!"

The lights turned on inside the Golden Oak Library, shining on a terribly groggy and cranky unicorn that had just been awoken by the shrill voice of her assistant.

"Spike! What?! What is it?" she asked irritably. Her horn glowed, lighting up the magic-powered lamp on her nightstand. Her assistant had already crawled out of his basket and was shaking her furiously.

"An explosion. An explosion!" the baby dragon shouted, waving his claws around in panic. He quickly wore himself out, collapsing on his back with a heavy thud on the ground.

The bedraggled Twilight Sparkle was already sitting up in her bed.

"I know. I'm up! How could I have possibly not been awoken by such a thing? It was so loud!" she exclaimed, as she climbed out of her bed. Underneath her ragged appearance, she wore a look of concern.

As she looked out the window, she noticed several dozen ponies had already made their way onto the streets. Some of them were unclothed, but others who preferred to sleep in nightwear were still dressed in their pajamas.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in Ponyville before. Random explosions in the middle of the night just don't make any logical sense, especially for an explosion of such a size... Spike, did you happen to hear where the explosion came from?" Twilight asked, after turning to her assistant.

The little dragon bounced on his claws like a jittery insect.

"Uh, I was asleep, but when I woke up and heard it, it seemed to be coming from that direction..." he said as he climbed onto the window beside Twilight and pointed towards the western gate of the village.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, it seemed to come from outside of Ponyville, but I definitely heard it in that direction."

Twilight peered out of the window again.

"Over in that direction is White Tail Woods. I'm surprised the explosion didn't occur in the Everfree Forest, but I'm even more surprised that it would happen in a quiet place such as White Tail Woods."

Twilight cantered away from the window, grabbing her saddlebag off of her dresser.

"Come on, Spike! We need to head out into street and see that everyone's alright!" she stated, levitating the baby dragon onto her back. Spike settled into position, while Twilight burst out of the library and onto the streets.

"Twilight!"

Twilight didn't hear her name getting called at first, but the voice called again when she reached the middle of the square. Other ponies were milling around; some of them seemed to be looking at her for direction or answers, seeing as she was an Element bearer after all.

"Twilight!"

She definitely heard her name being called that time, and so did Spike. She recognized its tomboyish quality and the fact that it seemed to be coming from somewhere above them, so she began looking around.

"Rainbow Dash?! Where are you?"

"Right here!" Dash's voice exclaimed. There was a gust of wind, and as Twilight looked overhead she saw the speedy pegasus zoom down towards the ground, touching down next to Twilight just seconds after she had spoken.

Twilight coughed wildly at the cloud of dust that Dash had unsettled, as the pegasus stretched and folded her wings, looking somewhat proud.

"Dash! What are you doing?!" Twilight asked, looking a little annoyed at the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"My guess is... probably showing off," Spike said blankly, as he climbed off Twilight's back.

"Hey, I was just asleep in my house when I heard this huuuge explosion come from somewhere in White Tail Woods. I made my way here as fast as I possibly could, but it seems like everyone is alright here!"

Dash looked just as in the dark about this as everypony else.

"There's no fire coming from White Tail Woods! I don't see any smoke!" a stallion in pajamas exclaimed suddenly. Twilight and Rainbow looked over to where the stallion was pointing. He was correct; there were no signs of smoke or a fire from where the explosion seeming occurred.

"That's strange..." Twilight said to herself, "With an explosion like that, you would think that there would be a fire with so much vegetation around the site."

She trotted forward.

"Still, I'm getting a very weird feeling about all of this..."

Rainbow Dash looked at her oddly.

"You don't think there's something freaky going on, do you?" she asked. Twilight didn't respond to her. Rather, she remained pensive and continued to stare ahead towards White Tail Woods.

"I don't know..." she said, "But whatever it is, we need to make sure this doesn't happen again, and we need to make sure that nopony is in any immediate danger."

"So, what do we do?" Rainbow Dash asked, intent on following Twilight's instructions.

"Hmm..."

After a few seconds of deep thought, Twilight's horn lit up. She disappeared in a flash of purple energy, landing on top of a box in the center of the village, which she used to address the ponies of Ponyville who had gathered in the street.

"Attention, everypony! I'm sure you're all just as confused as I am with regards to the strange explosion that occurred in White Tail Woods not more than ten minutes ago! I think it would be best for all of you if you went back inside your homes and locked up for the night. Rainbow Dash and myself will take over the investigation of this strange phenomenon, so you can all rest assured!" Twilight exclaimed.

She had gathered several dozen ponies, and they were all looking at her. They were used to Twilight Sparkle taking over a kind of leadership role if the Mayor was not present (and she wasn't), but an "investigation" of sorts seemed a little strange for the mare. Nevertheless, they trusted her and agreed to the terms.

"But wait, I saw Pinkie Pie heading for those woods a little earlier. Does she know about this?" a red-maned pony, Roseluck, spoke up from within the crowd.

Twilight's eyes widened, and fear graced her visage.

"What? How long ago was this?!" she barked.

"I-I saw her about fifteen minutes ago as I was coming home from Lily's. She seemed to be wheeling something along with her, but I don't know what it was. All I do know is that it was right before the explosion occurred..." Rose explained.

Twilight looked even more afraid now.

"Okay, everybody get back into your houses immediately! I will take Rainbow Dash and pursue Pinkie Pie right away. Under no circumstances should you leave the house until morning now, okay!" She tried to make her voice sound as authoritative as possible.

"What are we gonna do, Twilight? If Pinkie Pie is out there..." Spike made his reservations known as he appeared next to the box that Twilight was standing on. Rainbow Dash also looked conflicted.

"I don't know, but we have to hope that she's okay. If what Rose said is true, she could've easily got caught up in the explosion. We need to get over there now and find her!" Twilight cried.

Rainbow Dash turned and prepared to zoom off.

"I'll go get the others!" she shouted, but she was halted by Twilight's magic. She struggled in mid-air for a few seconds, flailing her hooves above, before she looked at Twilight in annoyance.

"What?!"

"We don't have time for that! We need to head into the woods right now! Forget about waking up the others!" Twilight demanded of her friend, who looked like she wanted to protest.

However, Dash appeared to let it go, and folded her wings as she hit the ground.

"Alright! Let's go!" Spike said, jumping the gun a little bit. As he turned to take a step, an aura of purple magic grasped his tail and hoisted him into the air upside-down.

Twilight raised the baby dragon to eye level, fixing him with a disapproving glare.

"Oh no you don't, Spike! There's no way I'm going to let you tag along with us while we search for Pinkie Pie! It could be dangerous, and you've been up far too late as it is. I want you to head back to the library and lock the door, and don't answer it for anyone. Understand?"

Spike looked unimpressed, but as Twilight set him on the ground, he agreed anyway.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it..." he said in annoyance. As he ran back to the library as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him, Rainbow Dash once again looked to Twilight for instructions.

With Spike out of the way, Twilight was free to head to White Tail Woods.

"Alright, Rainbow, we don't have much time. Let's go, now!"

"Uhh..."

Zachary considered rubbing his eyes, just to make sure that he wasn't still asleep. To tell the truth, he didn't know if he was ever going to believe what he was seeing right in front of him.

"What the fuck..."

He was currently perched once again in some bushes next to the side of the trail.

"God damn it. I hear something coming... or something being wheeled down the trail, and I lose it immediately! But, it seems I at least had a good reason to stay out of sight..." he thought.

As he peered out of the bushes, he saw that the person walking along the trail wasn't actually a person at all. Rather, it was a vibrant pink... pony... thing that was wheeling a small sky-blue cannon alongside it.

Zachary didn't know why he was breathing heavily; it wasn't like he was afraid of this thing. Still, he was just struck dumb by how odd the pony thing looked. He called it a pony, but it was barely comparable with ponies he had ever seen before. It was simply the most comparable.

For starters, besides the fact that the pony was a shocking pink color, there were a few other features that set it apart. It was smaller, much smaller. He wasn't exactly the tallest guy around, but he doubted that the pony's body would reach past his chest.

And its eyes... its eyes were HUGE, and its muzzle was small. Honestly, it was the pony's face where Zachary was most unnerved The eyes sparkled with curiosity and giddiness, and a wide grin was broken out on the ponies face. This pony could display such a range of emotions, ones that were impossible for a real-life horse to display. Zachary wasn't positive by any stretch, but the pony's face and emotions were so detailed that he could sort of recognize it as a female.

"What the hell is this?"

On her flank was a tattoo of sorts, three differently colored balloons all in a row. He had no idea what that was supposed to be; maybe it was a brand or something? Whatever the case, it didn't look branded into the pony's body the way it seamlessly merged with her fur.

He watched as the small horse began to twitch, a bigger grin coming onto her face. Zachary tensed in alarm; she seemed to be looking for something. He had heard a saying that horses could smell fear, did that mean she was looking for him? It didn't explain why she was so happy though.

The thought unnerved him more, given how disturbing it was to see a pony display such a human-like range of emotion.

"I don't get it... This pony thing; I've never seen anything like her. I haven't even heard of such a thing existing on Earth. Maybe she just has a weird owner or something, and it just a normal pony? That doesn't explain the emotional capability, and I can't shake the feeling that this pony is intelligent... huh?"

While Zachary was lost in thought, he didn't notice that the pony and her cannon had disappeared. A cold feeling settled into his gut.

"Hi!" a cheery voice right next to him chirped.

"YAAGHHHHH!" Zachary shouted in alarm, as the pink pony he had just seen had managed to find her way into the bush not a foot away from him and scared the living shit out of him.

Not to mention- HOLY CRAP TALKING PONY.

Zachary fell on his ass, clutching his heart as he began to breathe heavily.

The cannon fired, blasting Zachary's face with confetti.

"You must be the new pony! Oh wait, but you're not a pony, are you?! But is it okay if I call you the new pony, because even though you're not a pony I've only ever welcomed ponies and I'm gonna treat you like a pony so you're practically a pony!"

Zachary brushed a leaf of confetti off of his face, and continued to stare dumbly at the pony, who was beaming at him. Questions exploded into his brain like firecrackers, and he said about the only thing he could at the moment.

"Uh, w-who are you?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie, the party pony of Ponyville! My Pinkie Sense went off when I was a sleepy-weepy twinkie Pinkie, and I realized that there was a pony in Ponyville I hadn't welcomed yet! So I went to find you, but then some really scary explosion happened right as I was heading into the woods. It really scared me! And then I saw you're some super mysterious creatures I've never seen before that can talk, but that doesn't mean that super mysterious creatures will get left out of their welcome party!"

"Ponyville? What the hell is Ponyville? Who the hell would name a town Ponyville? Unless..." Zachary's imaginative mind was starting to work out possible scenarios to what happened and where he could possibly be. All of a sudden, random teleportation, talking ponies, and a town called Ponyville seemed to give credence to the idea that a place like this didn't exist on Earth.

"Yeah, I just remembered I have to, uh... go somewhere..." he trailed off, creating a lame excuse to the pink pony. Sticking around here and the talking pony would probably just lead to trouble, and he needed to know if there were any people around, though the feeling in his gut told him that that wasn't the case.

As he turned to walk out of the bush, Pinkie was there, hanging upside down from a branch in a manner that seemed physically impossible. Zachary gaped.

"Don't you wanna at least see your party before you go?"

Damn. He wasn't going to weasel his way out of this one so easily.

"What party? It's the middle of the night in some forest... how can there be a party?"  Despite his thoughts telling him this, and despite the fact he was still freaked out by this pony, going along with what she said seemed like the best option for now.

"Uh, hey! Y'know what, sure! I'll accept your welcome party, but I wanted to ask you something. This Ponyville, what is it?" he asked, trying to turn things around. If he couldn't shake off Pinkie so easily, then he should at least get some information while having to deal with her.

Pinkie Pie looked at him weirdly.

"Don't you know? Ponyville is the most super, terrific town in all of Equestria. My gosh, it's like you've never been in Equestria before!" Pinkie exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Equestria? Definitely not Earth..."

"Uh, nope... I'm just from... out-of-town.  I was just passing through on my way to... some other place, but I need a place to rest for the night.  But I haven't heard of your little village. Tell me, are there any humans that live in Ponyville?" Zachary asked, hoping and praying that there would be people in this world.

"Humans? What are those?"

And with those words, Zachary's world came crashing around him.