My Little Willow

I walk through the door with about a million different thoughts streaming through my mind. There was no scientific reasoning behind my discovery while on my walk with Gracie. How does a cartoon pony just come in to this world? How do you just randomly find a cartoon pony in a hole in the middle of nowhere? A bat pony nonetheless.

I take off Gracie' leash and place it on the hook near the entrance. Gracie excitedly runs throughout the house barking, looking for something to play with. That's when I felt the squirm and whimper of the creature in my coat, I knew I couldn't have Gracie around just yet, the poor foal was traumatized enough as it was. Grabbing a treat from the cubbard along with with one of Gracie's many balls scattered around the house, I walked towards the spare room that recently became Gracie's 'doggy room' and placed both beside her dark green dog bed. Sure enough Gracie came running towards the room, engulfing the treat in a matter of milliseconds. I bent down, still grabbing tightly to the filly inside my coat, and pet Gracie before walking out of the room closing the door behind me.

I walk out towards the living room and pull down all the blinds and closed all the curtains. It was nearly sundown and it wasn't all that bright, but I wasn't going to take anymore chances with hurting the little pony. I grab one of Gracie's nearby blankets and place it on the black leather couch. I then sit down and slowly and gently pull the now awake filly from out of my coat and placed her on top of the baby blue wool blanket. She lies down on top of the soft surface and immediately begins to lick her wounds, whimpering in pain. I thought  of giving her a bath in the sink, but then giving up on that idea due to how traumatized she already was. I slowly got up and walked towards the linen closet and picked up a small washcloth along with a tube of Neosporin. Before returning, I also grabbed a glass of water to dip a bit of the washcloth in to help get rid of the dirt. I walked back to the filly still licking her scratches, and sat down beside her. Cooing her quietly.

"I know..it hurts a lot, but you know what? I'm going to help it feel a lot better." I said gently as I took a small dot of the Neosporin, placing it among each scratch mark.

I then proceeded with taking a bit of the washcloth and dipping it into the water, rubbing it smoothly along the tuffs of her ear and mane. I knew that in a few hours her fur would become a bit hard from the dried water and Neosporin, but decided it beat trying to give her a bath. It would best to give her at least one night to get used to me.

When I finally finished with doctoring her up a bit, she started to lick at her hooves. I gently grabbed the hoof she was licking and spoke to her calmly.

"No sweetheart you can't do that, the medicine is going to make you feel better, plus you could become ill."

I think she truly understood me because she stopped and instead started licking my hand slowly. I have to admit, it was pretty cute. Her tongue felt like a little piece of sandpaper being dragged along my hand while two little fangs bumped along behind it. It reminded me of when I first got Gracie and how she would just sit on my lap for hours just licking my arm not having a care in the world. However the little pony only licked for about 2 minutes before she carefully got up and walked slowly towards the cup of water I had placed beside me in the couch's built in cup holder. She looked inside not knowing what to do, I hadn't filled the cup up much so I knew she couldn't reach it.

"Are you thirsty?" I asked in a soft tone, her quickly turning towards my direction and staring close up at me.

I gave a quiet chuckle.

"Okay, I'll take that as a yes." I got up and walked into my kitchen, making sure she could still see me, and I received a small white bowl from the cubbard, filling it halfway with water from the sink. I then dawned on the fact that she might be hungry, who knows entirely how long she was inside that hole. My thoughts then turned towards the fact that she was a bat pony. Bat. As in drinks blood? My knowledge of anything cartoon horse was extremely limited. I've only seen a few episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and that was only because I was curious as to why so many men my age and older were so infatuated with a program for little girls. It was okay, but I didn't really get into it, I was not a brony by no means. In fact, I only knew she was Bat pony due to to tremendous amount of bat pony avatars there are on the internet. But something that I vaguely remember was that among those avatars some included those ponies eating an assortment of different fruits. It was worth a shot I guess. I grabbed a nearby red apple sitting on the counter and sliced it  in half, taking the smaller half in cutting it into little bits and placing it on a paper plate. I then grab the bowl of water along with the plate of apple bites and brought it back into the living room.

I sit back on the couch placing both bowl and plate in front of the filly. The filly immediately goes towards the bowl of water and drinks it profusely, her little tongue making minuscule splashes with each sip. She then looks at the plate of apple bites and stares at it for what seems like the longest time. She then bends her muzzle down and sniffs it, no sooner than the whiff of apple aroma reached into her nose, the filly sunk her tiny fangs down into a piece of the apple one by one. I took notice that she wasn't exactly eating the apple, rather drinking the juice inside leaving a shriveled, almost colorless looking apple bites along the plate. After she was done with the last piece, she burped quietly before trotting herself slowly back over to me, placing herself on my lap and rubbing her head gently along my stomach. My heart felt like it was going to explode, as much as I hated to admit it, ponies were freakin' adorable. I chucked, placing my hand on top of her snow-grey mane, petting it gently as she screeched quietly. Her mane was one of the softest things I have ever felt. It felt like petting a giant box of feathers. She looked back over at me, her rose-slitted pupils focused on me as she gave me the biggest smile I have ever seen.

"You just know you're cute. Don't you little filly?" I asked.

Even though I thought it was impossible for her to smile any wider than before, she had done just that,  before echoing and screeching a bit more, continuing to rub her head gently along side my stomach.

Yep. That settles it. She knows she's a cute little filly.

I then pondered as to why she didn't speak. The ponies in show spoke. I remembered one of the episodes I watched and how it involved a group of young ponies that dubbed themselves as the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders'. She looked a bit like them, maybe just a few years younger, as to her body looking slightly smaller in comparison. Was she just not old enough to speak? Maybe she couldn't speak in this world? I knew it wasn't because she was cautious around me, she was obviously too affectionate. I guess that would just have to be something I keep an eye on..If I even have her long enough for that..

Then suddenly something else had hit me, should I even give her a name? I mean, I don't know how long she is going to be here for. I might wake up and 'poof' she's gone. Not to mention if that does happen, won't it just be all the more tragic since I named her? Then again, I can't just call her 'filly' all the time. What if I have her forever, soon she'll be a full-grown mare and I doubt she'll appreciate being called that. So, I decided I should give her a name. I thought about my daughter..how she never got to have a chance of living..her life was over with before she even had a chance to breathe. Maybe this little filly was God's way of giving me my daughter back? As crazy as it sounds, I suppose anything is possible? Me and my wife were going to name her Willow..and honestly I like the way that name sounds for the little filly..It even sounds sort of night-like and woodsy.

"Would you like that name..Willow?" I asked, not sure if she could even understand the full grasp of a name.

Sure enough however, she smiled once more, this time placing her fore hooves on my chest, carefully climbing herself up to my face. She placed her muzzle against my nose, giving a gentle boop, before carefully licking me once on the cheek.

"Willow it is then." I say smiling and laughing at the same time.

Willow then proceeds to drop herself back down to my lap, giving a muffled yawn and wrapping herself up like a little furball. Its nighttime now and it kind of wonders me as to why she is going to sleep right now. I thought bats were suppose to be nocturnal. Unless its because she's still a filly and maybe her sleep patterns are more consistent to being diurnal. Ether way, while I didn't know  how long she'll be here, I'm going to make the most of it for her.

I then look over at the clock that was hung on the wall, directly above the flat screen TV. It read 11:23 p.m. Almost an hour and an half past my normal bedtime. I stroked Willow's soft mane gently. Speaking quietly as sure as not to wake her up.

"I've know you less than a day and you've already shook my life up some."

I gave a small little chuckle, before closing my eyes and falling asleep, holding on to the filly that would drastically change my life forever.