They Came from Up There

Chapter 4: Friends and Amends

"So you're saying you can't get rid of them?" Mikar asked.

"Not without a special potion. But to remove my stripes would be an embarassing notion!" Zecora replied.

"Why is it embarassing? Don't you have fur, like me?" Mikar said.

"I do have fur, that's a fact. But to me, my stripes are an artifact. Priceless, rare and unique as can be; These stripes are like a friend to me." Zecora replied again, in her usual rhyming tone. That rhyming is really getting on my nerves, Mikar thought, as Zecora went back towards her home to meet the mailmare. Mikar thought the mailmare was quite strange- Her eyes were crossed, and she flew haphazardly, as if she were dodging the air itself. She spoke in a queer tone, but she seemed intelligent, talking to Zecora about the many chemicals in her love potion that Zecora had given her last week. Lastly, Mikar thought she was cute... For a pony. Mikar loved the color blond... It reminded him of Oregam, a long-dead friend. Although he knew only little of the Forbidden Green World, he knew that the dominant species there were ponies, griffons, zebras and dragons.

He caught a glimpse of the mailmare's flanks as she whizzed by, looking at Mikar with a strange face, then waving and flying off. She slammed headfirst into a tree, making Mikar cringe, but she just shook her head, saying 'I just don't know what went wrong.' Mikar didn't know why, but he couldn't stop looking at pony's flanks when he saw them. He had only seen a few ponies, though, so that kind of narrowed it down. They were all female, too, by the looks of them. So far he had seen the mailmare, a few lost ponies who asked for directions, a blue mare who called herself "Great and Powerful" who screamed and ran after seeing Mikar, and a lavender pony with a purple mane who hadn't seen Mikar yet. He thought that she had nice flanks.

"Admiring the flanks of passer-by will not make you heal and fly." Zecora chimed in, interrupting Mikar's thoughts, who flushed a bright pink before looking back at Zecora with a goofy grin. All of his sharp teeth were showing. Zecora caught another whiff of his breath, and wrinkled her snout. She shut his mouth for him with her hooves and got to work removing the bandages on Mikar's chest. It hurt a lot, but Mikar held it in. After taking a look at his wound, he knew it was bad. The fur and skin around it had turned a sickly green overnight, and the stitches that Zecora put in had come undone. It was infected. Zecora took one look and went back to her hut without a word, leaving the confused Mikar to stare at her flanks as she trotted inside.

What has she got there? He wondered as Zecora returned a moment later with a red bottle and a large blanket. She walked over to Mikar and stuffed the blanket in his mouth.

"What'ff thiff fing for?" Mikar mumbled.

"It is so that no creature will hear, and so they will not run away in fear." Zecora popped the top of the bottle with her mouth and almost poured it into Mikar's wound until he stopped her with an outstretched paw. Spitting out the cloth and standing up, he turned to Zecora with fear in his eye.

"What do you mean? Will it hurt?" He asked.

"Indeed it will, but only for a trill. It will sting quite a lot, so stuff your mouth with that cot." She answered, pointing with her hoof towards the blanket. Mikar reluctantly did what he was told and laid back down on the ground, on his back. Zecora counted to three before pouring the liquid into Mikar's wound. He whined loudly, and bit down hard on the blanket. The liquid made a loud fizzing noise. Zecora poured more in, patting Mikar gently on the side, who was now roaring all-out into the blanket. After Zecora had emptied the bottle and the infection had been cured, Mikar spat the now torn blanket onto the ground and looked at Zecora with a half-angry, half-funny look.

"You didn't tell me it would hurt that much!" He whimpered.

"Don't be such a foal, it's only a sting. To a monster like you, no pain it should bring!" Zecora replied.

Just then, a loud knock could be heard from the front of Zecora's hut, and Zecora gave Mikar a 'hush' gesture with her hoof and trotted off to meet the visitor. Mikar laid his head down on the pillow Zecora lent him and waited for Zecora to come bandage his wound again. He looked down to find it bleeding slightly again, and he almost thought about calling Zecora back, until she returned. She spoke in a hushed tone.

"Mikar my friend, your new pals are here. Be sure to move slowly, so they don't run in fear."

"Gotcha," Mikar answered as Zecora ran back out to the front of her hut. She came back with three young ponies. One was orange with a maroon mane, one was light beige with a red mane and a bow, and the third was white with a light pink striped mane. Mikar noticed that none of them had their cutie marks yet. He had studied that cutie marks appeared when a pony found their special talent. They also wore red capes with blue and gold symbols on them.

They didn't notice Mikar at first. The orange one was busy arguing with the white one about not knowing the meaning of words. The beige pony with the bow was trying to break them up. Zecora gave Mikar an apologetic look, and cleared her throat loudly. They followed Zecora's gaze, and looked straight at Mikar. Straight at his open, bleeding wound.

Shock showed in all of their eyes, until Zecora whisked them off. She had forgotten all about Mikar's wound; She bandaged it up and called them back. They looked at the rest of him now, and the one with the bow spoke first.

"What'dja do ta him, Miss Zecora?" She asked in a strange accent.

"Yeah, he kinda looks like he got in a fight with a Manticore!" Said the orange one. Mikar felt tears well up in his eyes after hearing this, but he pushed them back and waited for the next speaker.

"Wooow! My sister's gonna be real upset about how ugly that big band-aid is..." Said the white one. Zecora laughed at this, and nudged the fillies closer with her snout. They seemed scared at getting close to Mikar, but Zecora kept pushing. Mikar put on his best smile, showing all of his sharp teeth. The white one fainted at this, but the one with the bow caught her just in time.

"Little fillies, this is my friend, Mikar. He comes from the sky, on a cloud up very far." Zecora told the girls about how she had found Mikar lying in a tree, and slowly, they became more accustomed to him. The white one woke up shortly after, and quickly tuned in to Zecora's stories. They laughed at nearly everything Zecora said- She was sugarcoating the story, obviously, but she probably didn't want them to know all the boring details. She told them of how he almost cried when she bandaged his gash, and about how he always stared at the flanks of mares passing by. The fillies laughed especially hard at this, and the orange one called him a "pervert", whatever that meant.

"Well little fillies, you should tell him your names. Then I can leave, and you four can play games." Zecora said, after all the stories were told and the fillies had their laughs.

"Ah'm Applebloom!" Said the one with the bow.

"My name's Scootaloo!" Said the orange one.

"And I'm Sweetie Belle!" The white one giggled.

"And we're..." All three of them said together, making Mikar brace for the worst...

"THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" Mikar let out a small laugh at the great show the girls put on of introducing themselves. He had expected "going to kill you" from them. There was a group similar to the three fillies back on the cirrus called the Cloudscapers. The fillies reminded him so much of the group that he almost called Applebloom a Cloudscaper. Like the ponies, all of the Cloudscapers were female.

"I'm Mikar, girls. It's wonderful to me-" Mikar was cut off by a game of 20 questions coming from the girls.

"Where do you come from?"

"Is your poison real?"

"Do you really live on a cloud city?"

"Are you an alien?"

"Do you ever wear clothes?"

"Are your wings real?"

"Can you flap your ears up and down like this?"

"Can you fly?"

"Whoa! Whoa. Easy, one at a time!" Mikar almost had to shout to make himself heard over the babbling fillies. He told them more about where he came from, answered their questions and played some games with them. They played a game of Truth or Dare, in which Mikar had ended up with his lips turned pink from Sweetie Belle's lipstick. They later played 'soccer', where the fillies tried to kick a bouncy blue ball past Mikar, who blocked almost all of the shots with histail and wings. They had lots of fun late into the day, and soon, all of the fillies were sound asleep against Mikar's warm body. Eventually, he too fell asleep, his wings keeping the fillies warm from the chilly night air.

"GIRLS!" Zecora yelled from behind her home. Mikar jumped up, whacking his head against a tree limb. The fillies moaned, but quickly stood up and thanked Mikar for keeping them warm. Zecora trotted over, with an apologetic look on her face. She whispered into Mikar's ear, who nodded and shuffled slowly back behind Zecora's home. He caught a glimpse of two mares in front of the treehouse. One was white, the other was orange. Both were tapping their hooves impatiently. Zecora turned to the fillies. They were awake and bristling with excitement by now.

"Yes Miss Zecora?" All three chimed happily, putting on the sweetest smiles Mikar had ever seen.

"It's about time you go. Enough you already know. It's getting quite dark outside, my dears. Go home so your families won't fear!"

"Awwww!" All three whined in unison.

All three fillies were sad to leave, but Sweetie Belle came over and gave Mikar a little kiss on the cheek, wishing that he would get home soon. They said their goodbyes as the Dark One raised the moon. Maybe Zecora could tell him more about the princess that raises the moon?

"Well," Mikar told Zecora, "That went better than expected. They're not scared of a total stranger, or an alien for that matter." Mikar wiped the lipstick from his lips and spat loudly to get it out of his mouth.

"Indeed they are brave, I'll admit to you. However, we have important things to do." Zecora replied in her usual rhyming words. They were really getting on his nerves, but after the death of his 'girlfriend' and the supposed death of his scaly pal, he learned that patience was a virtue, and he decided to let it wait until morning. Zecora gave him some painkillers and went off to bed, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Why do they do that? Mikar thought as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

The first thing she knew was that her head hurt. a lot. It felt like someone was driving a hot nail into her forehead. Her ribcage hurt too; She felt like she was in a vice-grip. She smelled blood, and opened her eyes slowly. All over her beak was a crusty, orange liquid. She didn't know what it was, but she wanted to find out. She slowly pushed herself up, and looked around.

She was on a cloud, not too far from the ground. Darkness surrounded her. Below her was the Everfree forest, where she could hear loud snoring. In the distance was Ponyville, bright street lights and the sounds of a celebration making it hard to miss. She ruffled her wings, straightened the feathers on her head, and brushed the crusty orange stuff from her face. She gave it a lick, and then she remembered what it was. Blood. Soon, everything came back to her. All of them except her name.

Flying around Ponyville, thinking of a way to apologize to Dash.

Seeing a blue thing swoop past, then a gray thing smash her head.

Waking up with blood everywhere.

Being accused of killing someone named 'Mikar'.

Getting chucked into a cloud.

Blackness.

Now she was more disgusted than angry, and wiped her face all over the cloud. The orange stuff came off easily, and she checked herself for any injuries. A broken rib and a twisted wing were all that she found. She slouched over the edge of the cloud, seeing a giant gray mass snoring loudly on the forest floor. She thought about it for a second, then realized: That was the thing that nearly killed her.

"That gray dweeb!" She shouted loudly, and she almost dived off of the cloud after it, when her stomach growled loudly. How long was I out for? She pondered as she settled back into the cloud. She quickly put it off and lay her head on the pillow-like cloud. She let her mind overwhelm her. Why can't I remember my name? As she was drifting off, she didn't know that a sneaky pegasus was pulling her over towards a giant cluster of clouds. When she was shoved into a loud, thundering cloud, that's when she opened her eyes.

All around her were thunderheads, booming and crackling loudly. She screeched like the eagle she was, and leapt from cloud to cloud until she was on top of the large, black mass of clouds. She looked around to see that she had been moved quite far from her normal spot, and glared angrily at a pegasus who was staring her in the eye.

"Eheh, sorry about that, dude! Didn't see ya there, you were so chill."

"Ugh... Whatever." She replied grumpily.

"Say, aren't you that dude who was all, like, RAWR in Fluttershy's face?"

"Yeah, what's it to ya, dorkface?"

"Dude, that was some gnarly duff. I always hated that filly. You're Gilda, right?"

"... Oh, umm... Yeah." Now she remembered her name. Gilda.

"Ya wanna grab a late-night snack with me? I'm running on an empty tank, dude."

"Sounds good to me. And you are?"

"Dumb-bell."

"Nice to meet you... dweeb."

They both chuckled happily as they flew off towards Cloudsdale's late-night cafe. They had no idea they were being watched by a giant, blue dragon who was exacting revenge.