Why Humans Shouldn't be Allowed in Equestria

“Billie.” It wasn't her real name, but everyone uses that nickname. Forgot if it was a middle name or not.

“Who is this Billie?” A step back clicked on the floor. “No, I cannot be replaced like this! The change is complete! This semblance of a proper life... I could not survive doing it again...”

“Terra.” That was the real name. Don't know why she didn't use that. No one really minded. It wasn't the kind of thing that needed investigation anyway.

“There are more? Does he keep a harem? Have I made a terrible mistake?...”

“Calm, Aranea, you are in my care. Time will heal the burden you bear.”

“Aranea?...” I muttered, barely returning to consciousness by degrees. My eyes fluttered open and I the first thing I saw was

“Aranea!”

I jumped from my place, which was apparently the floor, and hugged her tightly, pressing my head to her shoulder.

“Oww, the hell?” Then I looked down and noticed it. The blood.

“Aranea, you're bleeding! What happened?”

“Actually Nohbodi, that is your blood.”

“Better than the alternative. I thought you were dead! What happened, where did you go?”

That's when I noticed it. The holes were back. Not only back, but going from the extremities almost to her torso. She was starving to a degree I'd never seen. I was surprised she could stand. How did she lose all that so quickly?

“What happened? You're barely holding on!”

“I do not know. I fell asleep while you were hunting. Strange, lurid dreams inundated my mind. I awoke here, starving.” I ignored the pains and odd, fuzzy feeling on my arms and held on to her again, raining kisses on her face. Some holes near her upper arms and thighs shrunk, but it wasn't enough.

“From your place in the forest you were retrieved, I do not know the answer to be believed.”

“You need love now, lots of it!” I wasn't in the mood for this, it seemed like it wasn't a proper time. Of course, this was different. 'Proper time for it' was considerably different when they literally ate the effects of intimacy.

“You would trust this one with names, is he collecting females for fame?”

“Names? What are you talking about?” This wasn't the time for... whatever she was going on about.

“You called on a Billie and a Terra in your sleep, what insurance of your love do we keep?”

“In my sleep? I don't know!”

Zecora planted her plot firmly on the floor. “If you must for her act on your intention, but I will not leave until you justify your mentions.” Damn. I'm not an exhibitionist, I can't perform when there's a crowd, at all.

“Save it. You're costing her way more than me. You know it.” Zecora paused in thought.

“Very well, I will do as you ask, but if you cause further harm you will be taken to task.” she left the hut after that. Weak as she was, we wasted no time. It took an hour at least to restore her. When it appeared she was fine again, I opened the door and Zecora returned.

“Sorry for kind of kicking you out of your own house. I, uh, can't do that with an audience.”

The zebra wasted no time. “You have done what you must, now give answers for trust.”

“If I was sleeping I can't remember it. What does muttering mean when I'm out cold?” No response. Knowing that she wasn't going to stop, I asked for the names again and wracked my brain. “Oh, yeah! That's what those two were.” Good thing it wasn't two separate names, or I probably wouldn't be able to answer. I explained to her that it was one person from work that I was going to be working with tomorrow. Well, tomorrow a month ago, before I was here. There wasn't anything more to it than that. Thankfully, she took me at my word. Having a fight wouldn't be any use to any of us.

Snapping back to the immediate, I looked down and finally realized that my arms were stiff from being covered in some kind of wrapping. “You got a mirror? What's all this from?”

Zecora retrieved a polished bit of metal from the wall filled with miscellaneous items and held it in her mouth at me. Both hands were bandaged pretty tightly, one up to the elbow. I remembered that was the one the timberwolf got it's jaws around. My nose was the cause of the blood, obviously broken. I still had two black eyes, but the swelling had gone down enough to see. There was something green under the bandages.

“Oh shit, I can't have gangrene from that. Does it even show up that fast?”

“It is not.” Aranea chimed in. “It is a poultice of herbs Zecora concocted for healing wounds.”

“Huh, didn't think anything here worked on me. It's all magic here, right?”

“Your summation is incorrect, not all is magic as you suspect.” Further explanation indicated that it was a simple rash from one of the plants. Ponies don't get it, but they get others. It didn't look dangerous, only annoying, so it was packed with the rest so it wouldn't spread.

“So there is nature as I know it here. Kind of comforting really, even if I found out this way.” I remember camping back as a kid. Good times. “Too bad I can't show you the forests of home Aranea... Aranea?” She was out again. Back in a changeling's body. I put a hand to her forehead. It was cool. She must be something like cold-blooded. If feeling heat was something from a human form, that must've been why I thought she was gone. The three of us stayed in silence for a while, Zecora meditating, and me looking at Aranea. There was something on the edge of her now-hoof.

A pinprick-sized hole.

I stared at it, thinking she was so starved that our time didn't completely fill everything. One little spot couldn't be harmful. She was much worse when I met her.

It was growing.

I'd never seen anything like it before. She went for until the hydra on one time before. But here she was, literally wasting away in front of me. It was slow, but I saw it. Another appeared slightly above the other. I got Zecora's attention and we looked over Aranea with worry.

“Aranea, wake up. Wake up!” She didn't move. I put myself next to her and held on. A flash of green covered that curved horn, and attempted to cover me. Aranea knew better, it must be a subconscious reaction. I ignored it and held on. Her eyes screwed shut harder, and spines of some kind appeared at the joints. She began to buck wildly until I was thrown off. Then her form and movement reset to changeling and none. More holes. It had been about four hours since I saw the first. Approaching again, I put a hand where a spine was. It reappeared and shot forward, taking my hand with it. I'm lucky it didn't punch through. Hours I saw there, at something like a safe distance, watching the growing problem and worrying about what it meant.

Eight hours. They were up to the knees.

Twelve. They were back to the torso, almost as bad as I found her when I woke up.

She woke up. She got up and immediately stumbled. I jumped forward to catch her.

“Aranea, what happened?”

“I do not know. I had another dream, and woke up as I did before.” She was, again, almost too weak to stand. Zecora examined the gaps.

“There is no known difference to mind. The loss' only difference is time.” I held on to Aranea again, though with a little trepidation at first.

“Why do you falter Nohbodi?”

“I tried when you were sleeping, when I saw the holes come back so fast. You tried magic, then grew spikes and kicked me off. We've been watching it get worse 'till you woke up.” Nothing happened this time, except for her feebly returning the embrace. Again, it slowly worked. I looked to Zecora with a pleading look. She nodded and left.

Again, she was whole. I opened the door and we all wondered what had happened. None of us could make any sense of it. Then a knock at the door. Zecora opened it as Aranea and I held on to each other. She looked tired again.

“Twilight and Luna, welcome! What for you of my skills can be done?”

Luna stepped forward and stared us down. “We have received word from your watchers.” Oh yeah, forgot I was being spied on. “Between the two of you, three timberwolves and a hydra have met their end. This display is troubling.” It was sheer dumb luck that 'monsters' like them weren't protected, being a danger across the board.

I held up my hands to Luna. “It was self-defense. I wouldn't have been as lucky if they weren't magic. The practically fell apart on contact.”

“And the hydra?”

“That's harder to explain. Didn't know she had it in... Aranea?” She was out again. No amount of talking or jostling would rouse her. “Oh no, not again!”

Luna and Twilight looked on with curiosity and concern as I stared at her prone form. I put a fingertip to a joint, ready to pull it away. Just as before, a spine jutted out, then retracted when I was at a distance. I stared on with horror as, again a few hours later, the small holes appeared at the hooves.

I turned to Luna and Twilight. “You know about this kind of thing, how to I fix her?”

They looked at each other, then Twilight answered for them. “Nohbodi, you know more about this than anypony, er, anyone else – even us.” Of course she was right.

“Can't you give her more magic or something? Something to keep this from happening?”

Luna stepped forward “She has quite enough magical power as it is, Nohbodi. That cannot be the cause.” Even that voice wouldn't wake her.

We kept watch again. Luna and Twilight like the study of a dissection, though as the hours wore on they showed far more concern. Zecora with that stoic, meditative stance, but aware of it. I was freaking out.

Twelve hours again. Aranea woke. I jumped up and held her both tightly and upright, easing her into a sitting position. I looked at Zecora.

“Princesses, this action must be. Please excuse yourselves with me.”

I opened the door, Aranea complete, and myself increasingly haggard. They returned, and noticed the smell.

“You didn't...”

“Of course I did! It's the only way to make her better, at least for a while. Nobody knows what's going on.”

We collectively attempted to find theories as to the cause. Nothing. Aranea passed out again. This time, I joined her in sleep, having been up for two days doing that.

Twelve hours. Aranea woke me, needing that much love just to stay alive. I obliged. As she lay sleeping again, I went outside to find Twilight and Luna waiting.

“We heard it was every twelve hours she'd wake up. Do you have time to talk?”

“Thought you hated me.” Looking back at the hut's entrance. “But if it helps her it doesn't matter.”

“I don't hate you!” Twilight exclaimed. She looked sheepish for a moment. “It's just that... Well, you're dangerous.”

Luna interrupted, being far more well-versed in international (Interdimensional?) relations. “If you care about the changeling that-”

“Aranea.”

“-Of course. If you harbor that much concern for Aranea, we should help as we can.”

Us three walked for a short distance, trying to make sense of it all. Nothing could be ascertained at all. Except one thing. I only noticed it when we were discussing physiology. She'd been getting bigger.

“Yeah, maybe an inch each time or so.” I hadn't thought about it directly until then, being far more worried about keeping her alive.

“Do you think it's some disease or condition?” I froze.

Was that it? For that matter, was it some War of the Worlds thing?

Was I the one that brought it on her?

Did fate demand I find her alive only to watch her slowly die, unable to keep away this issue I caused?