My Little Tia… and Others

Ch.1 “Little Miss Sunshine”

John Johnson was a dude, and he drove his car down the freeway like any other person making their way to the Los Angeles suburbs. He was in his mid twenties, had uninteresting brown hair, boring blue eyes, and wore a Hawaiian button up shirt and unimaginative black sunglasses.

At the moment he blasted music loud as it would go in his blue Toyota Corolla. He was in a good mood, and bobbed his with the music. He even sang along with the lyrics a little bit.

“I use to think maybe you love me, now baby I’m suuurrrre.”

He wasn’t very good at it, but he was in the car by himself… D-GAF

“N I Just can’t wait till the day you knock on my dooooorrrrrr.”

His whole body bobbed up and down with the beat now, and he tapped his hands up and down on the steering wheel like a drummer. It was a good day, good things had been done, and good things were planned for the evening. Yep, John Johnson already enjoyed his life and where he was at. The music rolled on a bit more and eventually approached the chorus.

“I’m walkin’ on sunshine, wooOOOOOAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

A small white creature had wandered onto the freeway and into dangerous traffic. John slammed on the breaks as he screamed in fright. Rubber screeched over pavement as the car rapidly decelerated, but not enough.

There was a small bump to the front of the car as John hit the white creature just before he came to a complete stop. The unfortunate little thing was hit had enough that it tumbled head over hooves for several yards. The music in the car felt no obligation to stop.

“I’m walkin’ on sunshine WOOO-O!”

“What the hell!”

The screech of more rubber came from behind, and several cars stacked up behind John, luckily no one crashed, but there were lots of angry horns honked. He just raised his hands in frustration.

“Guuuh, Idiots! If you’re going to dump your dog, don’t do it by the free way!”

Traffic was effectively stopped in his lane, and the thing he had hit stirred a little. He supposed he should go check it out, and atleast move it to the shoulder if it was dead. Cars behind him already started to move around and back into traffic. John absentmindedly scratched the top of his head after he got out and closed the door. Today had been a good day, well, it still could be, this was only a little interruption, and how much of an inconvenience could this really turn out to be?

First he took a quick look at the front of his car, and found his bumper had sustained a noticeable dent. He growled under his breath, people really shouldn’t dump their dogs by the freeway. Then he walked over to see what he had hit.

Rather quickly, he found out it wasn’t a dog. Dogs don’t have wings… Or horns… or hooves… or long fluffy tri-colored manes and tails. His eyes got steadily wider as he soaked in the details. There was a large bruise that rapidly developed along the little horse’s entire left side, which darkened the pretty alabaster coat. He hadn’t turned off the music in his car, and it continued to blare.

“N don’t it feel good! Hey!”

Another loud beep behind him reminded John that the freeway was not a good place to stand still, and idly stare. He shook his head then scratched it, at a loss of what to do. He didn’t really pick up strange animals like this.

A sad little whimper came from the small horse creature. John looked down at her, how did he know it was a ‘her’? Maybe the long eye lashes and really weird proportions for a horse gave him a rough guess.

The pathetic little twitches added to the ‘pity points’, which steadily built in John’s bewildered mind.

“Um…”

Another loud car honk made his anxiety spike.

“Fine, until I can figure something else to do.”

He walked over to the small horse… what do you call a small horse again? A pony? Ya, that’s right, a pony. Either way, he put his hands around her barrel, and hoisted her under one arm. She was a bit larger than a small dog. More soft whimpers escaped her as the sensitive bruises stung.

“Sorry, but you were a dummy for walking into the freeway… Man, you’d think there’d be some instinct in animals to avoid loud, large, dangerous roads. Sheesh. Atleast you didn’t become road kill…”

The words were toned softly, but still carried a critical air. The little white pony whimpered some more. In another few moments John made it to the passenger side of his car, opened the door, and placed the winged, horned, dirty, gravel bitten, pathetic mess onto the seat. He closed the door and made his way to the driver side. The music still played.

“I used to think maybe you loved me, now I know that it’s true.”

John sighed and pushed a button to turn off the music, he was no longer in the mood. With his foot on the accelerator he brought his Corolla back up to speed, and on the way back to his suburb. Now he was thinking of a few detours to take.

One short glance towards the pony… thing, normal ponies don’t have those extra appendages, or those proportions… Especially those freakishly large magenta eyes she now stared at him with. Atleast john was pretty sure that’s not how normal miniature horses were…

Anyway, the short glance revealed her to be in the midst of a terrible shiver, and her eyes, well atleast the right eye, the left eye was almost swollen shut, were open and stared around with fear. She defensively cradled her left foreleg, which was swollen around the knee, and an unpleasant shade of purple.

John frowned.

This was not how a good day was supposed to go… The only toss-up he played with now was whether he would go to the vet or the dog pound first. Would a dog pound take in ponies? Maybe, but a proper animal shelter was more like it, but he didn’t remember what part of town that was. He just knew where the pound was by previous experiences. Experiences he didn’t remember fondly… Or there was the vet, he could atleast make sure the poor thing would get some proper care first, before she was put in some cage, and later ‘put down’ for getting an infection or something.

He glanced at her again, and the same fear, the same nervous shiver was there. More pity points were made. It would be the vet first.

At the vet-

“What is this?”

A wide eyed older veterinarian stared at the creature John held under one arm.

“A little horse thing... Anyway, I just want to see if you can give her a quick patch, her front left leg probably has a fracture. I plan on taking her to a shelter or something. She wandered up on the freeway, and I was the one that bumped into her.”

“Well, a cast is easy enough, would you mind if I take a few x-rays? I just haven’t seen the like before.”

“Neither have I, but go ahead. Only please be quick about it, I’ve got a few other things planned today.”

“Don’t we all, I’ll have it done in a jiffy.”

The old vet gave a smirk, and the pony was lifted from one human to another. She let out a yelp, partially from pain, partially from fear of strangers, partially from being partial.

“Oh, easy there, easy.”

“I’m trying to be! There’s just bruises, everywhere!”

They finished the awkward transaction, and pony was successfully given from smooth youthful hands, to crusty old wrinkly ones. The experienced vet went into the back room, and John turned about to sit in the reception area.

The seats were nice and cushioned, unlike many doctor’s waiting areas, that seem to be frequently outfitted with hard plastic, almost as if they wanted their patients uncomfortable before the actual appointment came. No, this vet wasn’t like that, he was a nice old guy, and John had come here before a few times oddly enough. It was odd, because he personally didn’t own any pets. He would sometimes look out for his neighbor’s dog, which had ended in some interesting events. Let’s just say John knew where the vet was, because of more than one occasion. His neighbor Tom was an affable and forgiving sort, so there were no hard feelings… John hoped.

He twiddled his thumbs while he waited.

Old man vet returned, and the pony was wrapped like a mummy, had a cast on both left legs, and wore one of those hilarious dog cone collars around her neck. John couldn’t help himself, and he snorted. Strangely enough the young equine reacted to the humored noise, and turned to him with a glare, her brow furrowed angrily, and her mouth portrayed a very strong frown. The exaggerated expressiveness caught John off guard, and he was momentarily stunned. Then she made a dismissive little ‘humph’ as she titled her snout up at him, and tried to preserve what little dignity her predicament gave her.

There was something disconcertingly intelligent about those motions, and he blinked several more times to make sure the little thing was indeed there. It was just, so, odd. The vet proceeded to address him.

“You were right about the fractures, but they were fairly minor, she should be fine in a few weeks. Again, I must say I’ve never seen anything like her. Are you sure you want to take her to a shelter? I mean, I could hold onto her if you’d like, I know a few-”

“It’s alright, I’ll take here there, and save you the trouble.”

John interrupted the old man before he could ramble, and reached out and grabbed the little pony. There was another pained induced yelp as she wasn’t handled very gently. The old man resisted a little, as if he didn’t want to let go. John raised his eye brows in a scrupulous manner, and the vet pursued his lips. With a surprise tug, John was able to yank her away, and put her back under his arm. She whimpered, and he threw a suspicious look at the old professional.

“Thanks doc.”

“Have a good day John…”

A little bell jingled as John made his exit through the front door.

He forgot to pay the bill… oops.

They were in the car, and John debated with himself again. The turn between the dog pound, and his house was a few more miles down the boulevard. In that time he muttered under his breath and fumed a little. The look and gestures she gave him earlier bothered him, that wasn’t something a normal animal would do. The expressiveness in her face was entirely off, it was too much.

“What are you?”

He looked at her during a stop light, she looked up at him. The stare lasted for a while longer, and the grumpy face she made was rather adorable, and sad, because of the state she was in. He put out a hand to pat her on the top of the head. She pulled her head away even as his hand reached, but he continued to reach, and she continued to back away, and he kept up the reach, and she kept up the backward scoot. She ran out of space, and was corned, that hand patted the top of her head…

“If only people put dog collars on horses. It’d be easier to find your owners, or have a name or something.”

“Tia.”

“What?”

“Tia.”

John froze in his seat, did he just hear someone else speak? Cars honked behind him, the light had turned green, and he hadn’t moved yet. Slowly he put his foot on the accelerator, and tried not to be too freaked out by what he ‘thought’ had just happened.

It was just a little squeak, that’s all it could’ve been, just a really weird squeak. There were already so many things that were profoundly odd about this pony already. The fact that it could make a strange noise that sounded like speech shouldn’t surprise him.

“I’m Tia.”

“AHH!”

John made a rather unmanly shriek. Ok, it could parrot? He didn’t know horses could do that… Ya that must be it, the previous owner taught this weird little horse creature how to parrot, or make sounds like one. That must be it…

“My name is Tia.”

This made John rapidly pull to the side of the road and hit the brakes. He hit it harder than he intended, and the little pony was launched from the passenger seat into the dash board. He hadn’t buckled her in. When she hit the dashboard she made a little shriek of her own.

“What the hell was that?”

He shouted, and the pony cowered, she whimpered openly and tears came from her eyes. Her bottom lip trembled something awful, it was devastatingly cute, profoundly sad, yet adorable at the same time. She couldn’t hold it in any longer, and she began to openly wail and sob.

John’s brain blew a gasket… Did not compute… Critical processing error… Blue screen of death… The way the pony cried sounded way too much like human toddler. Horses didn’t cry like that. Horses didn't really look or act like that. Horses didn’t have freakin’ wings and horns or cartoonish proportions either!

“Hey, hey, hey, shhh, it’s ok, it’s ok. I’m not going to hurt you.”

There was obvious disbelief in those terrified magenta eyes, and she continued to bawl. John thought he was ok with kids, he didn’t have any of his own, but he didn’t mind playing around with his nieces and nephews every once and a while.

When they got to a state like this, that’s when he’d usually hand them off to his brother or sister. Why did he just compare this pony thing… guh, he wasn’t sure he could really think of it as just a pony at this point. It acted too much like an upset kid. If he wasn’t hallucinating, he had just heard her speak a whole sentence.

He reached out his hand again, and the little white filly flinched at the outstretched appendage. He tried to sooth her with gentle pants, and he removed the silly cone collar. She seemed to appreciate that, and allowed him to continue with his soft ministrations of reassurance.

“I guess I shouldn’t take you to the pound…”

A brief scenario popped into John’s head.

“Here take it! It’s your guy’s job to pick up strays!”

Imaginary John held out a bandaged little pony that cried.

“That’s not a dog sir, this is a dog pound.”

A large staff attendant sat behind the reception desk with bored, and uninterested grey eyes. A large bristly mustache wrinkled as he talked, and John was reminded of a walrus. He continued his plea despite the apathy of the attendant.

“Come on, it’s totally a dog, it’s got fur, four legs, a tail, and a wet nose. I’m pretty sure it eats and poops. That means you take it.”

“Sir, we can’t hold on to it.”

“Please?”

“For the last time, we don’t take pony children.”

“What?”

The term ‘pony children’ threw him off. The little white horse turned it’s head towards John and gave the most pitiable look he had ever seen on equine features. The cute little voice dug daggers into his emotions.

“Why John? Why do you hate me John? Why are you trying to put me in the dumpster? Do you want me ‘put down’? Then why didn’t you just leave me to be road kill?”

Imaginary John freaked out, and dropped her.

“This isn’t real! This isn’t real! This isn’t real! Ponies don’t talk! Ponies don’t look like that! PONIES AREN’T CHILDREN!”

The scene in John’s head disappeared, and here he was. The pony’s… Tia’s, yes Tia, the little creature had said her name, so why not refer to her as that now. Tia’s sobs and fearfulness had died down a good deal, and the continued strokes along the un-bandaged side of her neck had the desired effect. Mainly some quiet time for John.

He was on his way back from a relaxing picnic on the beach. A brief incident on the freeway meant he had some creature with him now, and it only seemed more and more alien as he interacted with her. It could talk, simply at least, and displayed uncomfortably human emotion. The dog pound no longer seemed like an option. So he turned to go back home. The drive back was silent. Little Tia only sniffled occasionally, but she didn’t say anything else.

When he pulled into the drive way he clicked the remote in his car, and the garage door opened. Once he was inside, and the garage door was closed he got out, and retrieved Tia from the passenger side. He still held her like he would a dog, slung under one arm, but he did it gently, so her injuries wouldn’t be agitated… much.

He had no idea what he was doing, and no idea who to ask about it… might as well be the internet right? It was the source of all profound knowledge after all. He spent his days running an online business anyway, so it wasn’t like hitting the search engine was anything foreign.

The garage door was attached to the kitchen, and after he took a few steps in there was a little growl. It rumbled and tickled his ribcage slightly. He looked down to the pony slung under his arm.

“Hungry?”

“Ya…”

It still felt unreal that she could answer him… with words… But he decided to ignore that for now. It was near evening and he felt a little hungry himself. So he placed Tia on the tiled kitchen floor, and started to rummage through the fridge. There were a few take out boxes from Cheese Cake Factory, and he pulled them out. There was a good portion of alfredo pasta, and some bread sticks, and the other box had some pecan cheesecake. He never really liked pecan, and he couldn’t quite remember why he ordered it. Hmm, Horses like sweet stuff right? Ofcourse… everything likes sweet stuff.

John placed the take out box with cheese cake down infront of Tia, in a manner reminiscent of placing a dog bowl. Then he put the alfredo in a microwavable bowl to heat it up, a few button pushes later and it was well under way.

Tia tore into the cheese cake, rather like a dog… and large chunks of the creamy sweet cheesy pecan flavored desert were gobbled with her mini, yet merciless maw. The mess that got all over her face was kind of cute too. John wasn’t much of a fluffy bunny guy, but such adorableness couldn’t be ignored by rational minds.

The sun had set and the moon was up. It was a full moon tonight, and john was feeling rather tired, and was in the mood to relax. He had a grand piano set up in his living room, and he moved over to sit down on the bench.

After he had wiped the mess off of Tia’s face, he put her down on the carpet of the living room so he could keep an eye on her. It wasn’t exactly like Tia could move much, she had two splinted legs, and one of her wings was wrapped up in the bandages, but still…

John cracked his knuckles before he started to tickle the ivories. Brilliant moonlight trickled into the room, and added a soothing atmosphere to the serenade he made. Beethoven was very good at what he did, and John appreciated it enough to learn one of his sonatas. This particular piece moved him at the same time that it relaxed him.

Little Tia’s ears perked up as the piano was played, and her eyes started to slowly close. She lay down on the floor on her side, and let a shuddered sigh escape her petite muzzle. John closed his own eyes and let the muscle memory take over as he played on.

The full moon continued to shine over the California night sky, and for the briefest of moments a little twinkle sparkled over it’s surface. Tiny Tia’s eyes opened and she look up towards the heavenly body.

A moment later there was a thud. A small dark form suddenly appeared glued to the living room window, and John stopped playing the piano. His eyes bolted to the window, where the small figure slowly slid down, and made a window wiping noise as it descended.

“What now?”

Nervousness crept right up John’s spine. He hoped it was just a raccoon at his window… it better be. The strange tingle in the air made it seem otherwise. Tia suddenly made an effort to get up, but clumsily fell back down, her splinted limbs made it impractical. This could not dissuade the excitement in the childish equine’s face however.

“Lulu!”

“What, now?”

Author's Note

In case you missed the two links in the text, they were these.

and

and i do sketches