Our World

Hulio yawned as he woke up and glanced at the clock, as he normally did when waking up from a good night's rest. He gasped and yanked the electric-alarm clock from his dresser and stared at it in disbelief. Was it really 12:37 at night, or was he just imagining things? Shaking his head, he knocked on the clock's glass - the 7 instantly turned into an 8. Nope, wasn't imagining, apparently.

Hulio looked out the window. It was pitch black outside with a few stars, twinkling in the dark sky. He got out of bed and opened the window. It was a little windy, and as he looked more, he could have sworn he saw something run across the grass without a sound. After all the news articles about murder, assault and kidnapping he read, he was finally starting to feel afraid of them. He hadn't felt this scared as he did on normal nights. Infact, he was more scared than he ever was in his entire life. Hulio shook his head and closed the window. He stepped back slowly.

He jerked his head around and saw the door in a slightly open state. He gasped, and was about to shriek before a dark figure slammed him to the ground, knocking the breath out of him. He was about to yell at the black silhouette before it came into view - a yellow pegasus.

"F-Fluttershy?!" He loudly whispered. The shy pony seemed to have thick, faded, pink marks across her cheeks - her eyes also seemed to have bags, as if she hadn't slept in days. Fluttershy's eyes were a filled with tears, and more were flowing from her eyes. Her wings were shaking, her hooves were rough and her hair was messy and seemed to have small bits of dirt in it. Hulio quickly sat up and started to pet her. She crawled into his lap, tears flowing onto his knees and legs. He lightly touched her face and she flinched.

"W-What's wrong? Why are you looking so...abused? Who did this to you?" Hulio whispered to her as he pet her back. He yanked his blanket off his bed and covered it around her. Her wings stopped shaking and she looked up at him in fear.

Fluttershy gulped and pulled her head into his lap. "I-I...don't know...it happened so fast I didn't get to see his face..." She muttered loud enough for Hulio to hear her. "I know it's a 'he' because I heard him grunt when he was chasing me. I-I'm not sure if he's still looking for me or n-not, b-but I don't want to take any chances..." Hulio's eyes widened. He could now tell that her entire body was full of fear, and he started to feel scared as well. Were the other ponies hurt like this as well?

"Tell me what happened." Hulio said firmly, looking around the room.

"W-Well, o-o-okay." She stuttered, softly coughing. "First, I went outside to check on my animals. After what happened yesterday I didn't worry about if anypony f-found me. All I really worried about was if my poor animal friends were harmed. So, when I checked on the squirrels, I noticed I still had to check on the birds, so I put the squirrels to bed in their homes and I flew to the nest I know the birds live in.

"Then, I checked on them. There were small eggs inside, and I was surprised and happy. I-I remember hearing a crack behind me, though. So I turned around and expected a stray d-dog or something, but it was actually a tall figure like you...it didn't have paws or anything, it just had fingers and shoes. S-So then, I gasped and was about to apologize because I thought the birds were already owned by somepony, by then the person hit me with something." Fluttershy lightly caressed her cheek before she flinched. "It felt like a whip or something, but I didn't pay attention. All I remember after that is running - just running. I ran and ran, and I tripped on a rock once or twice, but all I did was run. Then, I heard a grunt and a thud, but I kept running. After that, I reached the house and stopped. I was too exhausted and sc-scared to run any longer, so I looked back and saw nopony behind me. After I realized I wasn't being chased anymore, I flew back into the window I escaped out of and sat in bed. I shut the window and hoped they hadn't come into the house, but I was too scared to stay there so I came in here, hoping you'd know what to do..." She explained, and finished with a cough.

"What's going on?" A country voice whispered from the doorway. Both Fluttershy and Hulio looked at the cowpony standing before them, watching in horror. Her orange coat and white freckles made Hulio know that Applejack was watching with her mouth open, her hooves shaking. The athlete's eyes were forming tiny tears.

"Wha...what did...why...how did she get like that?" AJ managed to say, rushing towards her shy friend. Fluttershy flinched when she approached her, but calmed down when Hulio continued to pet her. Every single breath in the room would strike fear into everyone's chest. Every time someone cried and a tear dropped on the floor, it seemed like the only sound coming from them for a few moments.

"She was hurt when she was being chased by someone," Hulio grumbled. He wasn't happy about Fluttershy being hurt. "Whenever I find who hurt her, I swear I'm going make them wish they never chased her." Soon, the other equestrian friends started coming into the room. They were awoken by all the ruckus coming from Fluttershy's crying. Hulio's hand formed a fist and he clenched it and un-clenched it.

I hope she's alright, He thought in his mind as he glared outside. and I hope that man doesn't hurt any of the other ponies. Fluttershy will have to be in my sight all the time, along with the other ponies. I still don't understand why they came to this world. Did they come by accident? I've seen Twilight using spells and levitating items around the room. Either way, just to be sure, all of these ponies will have to sleep in my room for the rest of the time they are here, whether they like it or not." And with that, he shut the door and went to bed. RD slept on the fan hanging from the ceiling, Fluttershy and Rarity slept under the blanket and AJ and Twlight slept on top of the blankets.