Chapter 1
Hal was putting his hair into a ponytail. His silvery mop had only recently become long enough to put up this way, and he liked having it out of his face. When he explained this to people, however, they just asked “Why don’t you just cut it?” He didn’t have an answer to that. He didn’t know himself.
Right as he was trying to handle the frizz was when he heard it. It was a sounded sort of like Velcro ripping, but magnified a thousand times over. Unlike the common fastener, the noise was long and loud, and struck a chord deep into his soul. Or maybe into his head, as the wavering note dug deep into his ears, a sound like the whole of the universe screaming as it intensified. Then it suddenly ended.
Hal looked up from the floor. There was a smell like a vacuum cleaner bag having been torn open. By the end, he had curled up on the ground in the fetal position, but he now stood up. His mind was still frazzled from the cacophony; he tried to think what it could have been. He stumbled out of the bathroom, and down the hallway towards the door marked “Hal”. But what he wasn’t expecting was what he saw when he opened the door.
Lying on his bedroom floor was a pony. A literal fricking pony. And not a normal brown pony, like one you would see on a farm. This was a bright white pony, about three feet tall, with a disheveled but still nicely curled purple mane, a single horn, and three blue diamonds on its flank. Hal stopped. He recognized her. This was Rarity. From My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. His eyes bulged out of his head. His brain was trying to comprehend what he was seeing, but it was too much for him. He collapsed on the floor, and everything went black.
***
Hal came to with a moan. What happened? He sat up, only to see the unicorn again. He lay back down slowly, trying to understand how exactly Rarity was lying in his room. He had been a fan of the show for a year or so. He had fun watching the colorful ponies and their (mis)adventures, and wholeheartedly embraced it, even though he got weird looks from people at school for wearing t-shirts with these colourful cartoon characters on them.
But this – this was completely different. This was an actual, living pony lying on his bedroom floor. He stood up and walked over to her. Her coat was a bright white, the same color as a particularly pure pearl. Her mane and tail were the same as on the show, albeit a bit disheveled. All these thoughts quickly flew from his mind when she let out a pained groan. Hal’s eyes widened. He hadn’t even considered that she might be hurt from… well, however she got here. He would think about that later.
He quickly inspected her body, blushing a bit when his eyes wandered farther down her underside then she would probably have been happy with. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong, so he couldn’t see why she was still unconscious. That was, until he flipped her over to her other side. Hal gasped. Rarity’s left side was covered in a huge bruise, extending all the way from her hip to the bottom of her collarbone. The mottled skin was only red, showing that she had only just been injured. It looked like she had been slammed into a brick wall. Her head had a large gash just above her ear, and had reopened when Hal had rolled her over. As he pushed a lock of hair gently out of the way of the wound with his fingers, Rarity whimpered. He lifted her up, and placed her down gently on his bed. He pulled a blanket up over her unconscious form, and left the room, closing the door quietly.
Hal started walking down the stairs. It was too much for him, the realization that the diva unicorn from a children’s show was laying in his room at this very moment. He sat down suddenly on the landing, putting his head into his hands. Rubbing his face, he groaned. His phone buzzed.
“Oh, not now”, he said, and took it out.
It was just a text from his friend, Lisa. Hal had a couple of platonic female friends, he just got along well with women, he supposed. He put his phone back in his pocket and stood up.
He was about to go to the ground floor when he heard a shriek from upstairs. He turned around, stumbling, and ran upwards. He stopped at his door, hesitated for a second, and then pushed it open. Rarity was pushed up against the headboard of his bed, clutching the sheets to her chest with her hooves. She was breathing heavily, and as soon as Hal came in, her pupils widened to the size of chestnuts. She gasped, as if she was going to start screaming again, but nothing came out but a tiny squeak. The two just stood there, staring at each other.
“I-I’m not going to hurt you!” Hal stuttered.
He held is hands out in front of him, to show the pearly unicorn he meant no harm. At his words, the equine gave a start.
“It can talk?!” she exclaimed in a shrill voice,
with just a hint of an English accent. Hal frowned at this. He came out of the position he had been standing in, a slight crouch.
“I’m not an ‘it’, I’m a ‘he’, thank you very much.”
Rarity was still just sitting there.
“Lyra was right”,
she muttered, with a surprised look still on her face. She tried to sit up, but gave a yelp when her injured side moved.
Hal rushed over to the bedside to check if she was alright. When the purple maned equine saw him rushing towards her, she gave a quick intake of breath, and her horn lit up with a transparent sky-blue aura, sparkling faintly with the power it held. Hal suddenly found himself floating in midair, unable to do anything but flail wildly. Then Rarity gave a groan. Her magic flickered, and he fell onto his floor with a muffled thump. He looked up. The unicorn was rubbing her head, wincing.
“I said I wasn’t going to hurt you,” Hal said, “I was just trying to see if you were alright.”
He reached out his hand. “Are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine, thank you,” Rarity stuttered, “I think I hit my - my head.”
Hal raised an eyebrow sympathetically. “You think?”, he said.
The pearly equine lifted her hoof to her head, and when she brought it away, it had blood on it. “Oh dear”. She collapsed, falling off of the bed, but Hal stepped forward in time to catch her before she could hit the floor.
“Th-Thank you, sir” she said, before closing her eyes and falling into a deep, exhausted sleep.