"So what exactly is this thing supposed to be, Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia, Bearer of the Element of Magic, triple PhD graduate from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, furrowed her brow as she looked over the still unconscious creature Fluttershy was tending to, knowing that the truthful answer was the one she dreaded giving to any question: "I don't know, Spike, and that's what concerns me the most. Here we have a wounded creature that is clearly intelligent, given how it is capable of using a sword and wears clothes, and judging by the lack of any packed provisions it must have come from somewhere nearby, and yet it isn't mentioned in any of the books detailing all the known sapient species on Equus. Judging by the difference in the length of it's fore and hindlegs, it's likely bipedal, which narrows down the list, but none of those options come close. It is far too slender in build and lacking horns to be a minotaur, but the lack of claws and hair apart from the mane on it's head in addition to the wrong skull shape rules out it being a Diamond Dog either. I just hope it wakes up soon so we can ask it directly." Taking her eyes off the creature, Twilight moved over to the common room of Fluttershy's cottage where she and her friends had gathered after their semi-regular foray into the Everfree Forest to save the Crusaders from the consequences of their latest plan to get their Cutie Marks in monster taming, of all things. After having sent Rainbow to fetch Spike, she had dived into the cache of books she had requested her assistant to bring with him from the Golden Oaks Library. And after two hours of looking through all the written sources on different species in her entire library, including the mythical sources, and what did she have to show for it? Nothing but unanswered questions that increased in number the more she delved into her examination.

Her friends in that time had moved little from where they had been when she began, with the exception of Rarity and Applejack, who at some point must have finished scolding their little sisters for going into the Everfree without telling anypony, yet again. At least this time they didn't get themselves covered in tree sap, Twilight bemusedly thought to herself.

The fashionista and farmer, meanwhile had kept themselves occupied till now by looking over the creature's belongings. Rarity, finished with appraising the creature's clothing, was currently vigorously scrubbing the dirt off of the royal blue waistcloth that was attached to a hardened black vest that she had previously been cleaning with her magic, while Applejack seemed to have recruited Rainbow to help her examine the creature's armaments.

It had caused a variety of recoils of shock and horror amongst her and her friends when it had been discovered that a great deal of the creature's belongings incorporated the use of leather. Animal hide leather, cured and tanned into a material that felt soft and pliable while retaining excellent durability, which explained its use on the sword-grip, the scabbard and the belt keeping it on to the creature's waist and the strange coverings that the creature wore on the ends of it's limbs, all of which ended in appendages reminiscent of Spike's claws and feet sans the scales. It was on closer examination of its texture that the vest had also turned out to be leather, having been hardened and then dyed black with silver etched onto its surface in beautiful, flowing patterns, seemingly with the intent of making the outfit suitable for ballroom and battlefield alike. The most eyecatching feature of the creature's ensemble, however, was an almost absurdly large hat and a steel mask that remained on the creature's face by straps of its own. Not certain of the mask's signifigance to the creature, they had opted to leave it on, as unlike the hat it was not getting in the way of Fluttershy's efforts to bandage the injury on it's head.

Having come to the conclusion that the book in front of her would not offer any further insight into the unusual being laying on the bed, Twilight closed The Budding Wayfarer's Bestiary of Sapients with a sigh and trotted over to where Applejack and Rainbow were still keeping the sword and shield under scrutiny, asking in a hopeful tone: "Any new insights about the sword, girls?"

The orange earth pony and cyan pegasus both turned to face the lavender unicorn, looks of uncertainty evident on their faces, wrangling the question of whether what they had discovered could be considered noteworthy, until Applejack broke the brief moment of silence by replying: "Well Twi, to be frank with ya, Ah'm no expert on what makes a good sword, but Ah know good steel when Ah see it, sugarcube, and these here sword and shield have had no small amount o' love and dedication put into their making, an' it looks like they've been well kept, too. Sure as hay looks finer than e'en what them Royal Guards have for spearheads. An' judgin' by how the grip was made, it don't seem too likely that this was made by a pony smith, and Ah can't think o' many other places where ya could get steel this good. Oh and Twi? Ya know how none o' us could figure out why there was that leather wrappin' on the blade?" Twilight nodded, now eyeing the aforementioned blade and finding the wrapping lying on the floor next to it. "Well, RD an' Ah noticed these laces that when loosened let us just slide the whole thing off, an' we found what it was covering, what looks like somepony carved a message into th' blade, but we can't make heads or tails of it."

Thrilled at the possibility of gleaning further insight into the creature while waiting for it to awaken, Twilight levitated a copy of the Learned Linguist's Litany of Listed Languages to her and began scanning the pages for a match to the strange script etched onto the blade. Just as Applejack and Rainbow were about to trot away to give Twilight room to think, she exclaimed: "Ah-ha! I found it, girls! The letters and symbols used on the engraving match Old Griffinic alphabet! Its almost an exact match, though the vocabulary doesn't seem to have any of the same words, not to mention the grammar and pronunciation would seem to be wildly different. But still, progress!"

Her victorius outcry finished, Twilight looked around the room, finally noticing the bemused expressions on everypony, which prompted a sheepish grin from her as she realized she might have gotten a little too excited at her success. "Eh-heh, what I mean to say is that even if the creature turns to not know Equish, we might be able to communicate with it using written messages and a two-way translation spell."

"She, Twilight," a quiet voice behind her intoned, prompting her to jump in surprise, spinning around to notice Fluttershy standing there.

"O-oh I'm so sorry Twilight, I-I didn't mean to startle you!" The quiet pegasus hastily squeaked out, while Twilight held a foreleg over her chest, trying to get her pulse to slow back down to normality.

"Its..." Twilight took a deep breath, then put on a gentle smile and said: "Its alright, Fluttershy, no harm done. But what was it you were saying?"

Suddenly having everypony's attention on her, Fluttershy retreated behind her mane and quietly said: "W-well, she had those wrappings on her chest and I thought that they might be old bandages, so I thought I would, um, change them since they were pretty tattered. But," even with her face hidden, they could see the blush rising on her cheeks, "They were actually covering her, um, mammary glands."

Realization dawned in everypony as their eyes widened slightly and gave a soft "Ah". Even though most ponies walked around unclothed, it was still considered incredibly rude to intentionally look at those areas. Twilight's face flushed, and then replied; "I assume that you put them back on, then?" prompting a near-inaudible "Meep" and a nod from the canary-yellow pegasus.

It was then that Rarity chose to interject: "Oh Twilight, darling, I think I've found something to hold your interest. Be a dear and come over here, would you kindly?" As the lavender unicorn trotted over to her, she continued: "At first I thought that this pouch that attaches to the belt was empty with how light it felt, but as I just levitated it, I could have sworn I felt a sort of tingling sensation from it, as though it were enchanted. Can you feel it as well?"

"Hmm," Twilight closed her eyes in concentration, holding the seemingly ordinary satchel with her magic, "You're right Rarity, it does have that feeling of latest magic, hmm... Feels like a pocket dimension and weightlessness enchantment, powerful ones at that, interwoven into the satchel. The sheer complexity of the spellwork, not to mention the raw power requirement... I'd be hard pressed to replicate it on the same scale as here, if I had to rely on my own internal magic reserves alone. Spike, add this to the current hypothesis on the creature's civilization. Her home must be incredibly advanced in thaumaturgical craftsponyship if she can carry such powerfully enchanted items during what we can only assume is routine, everyday life."

As her assistant scribbled the writing onto the parchment, Twilight noticed on the edge of her vision Fluttershy staring at the floor with downcast eyes, and asked in her softest voice: "Is something bothering you, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy looked up, her teal eyes meeting Twilight's, and replied in a hushed tone: "It might be easier to show you. I-if that's alright with you, that is," and began moving upstairs, beckoning Twilight to follow with a foreleg.

Twilight fell into step behind Fluttershy, wondering just what had her friend so distraught, until she saw her opening the bedroom door, giving her the realization that it had something to do with the creature's condition. Given its- her size and shape, the only bed large enough in Fluttershy's cottage was her own bed, and even then they had to put her on it sideways to keep her much longer hindlegs from dangling off the edge. The creature was still uncoscious, her chest rising and falling in a steady rythm underneath the covers, which looked mildly damp with sweat. Twilight's eyes widened slightly as the creature's breathing became frantic, her body twitching and shivering, cold sweat running down the sides of her head. In a blur of movement, Fluttershy was at the creature's side, gently humming a lullaby, succesfully soothing her nightmare into restful sleep once more.

It was then that Fluttershy turned to face her again and said: "She's been like this for the past hour or so, peacefully sleeping one moment and thrashing around as though in pain the next. I've been able to calm her down for now, and it seems like they're lessening in severity, but that's not quite what I was going to show you," while slowly pulling the covers away, causing Twilight at first to recall Fluttershy's words and involuntarily avert her eyes, but prompted by the pegasus giving her a reassuring look, she returned her gaze to the creature and her mouth dropped open in shock at what she saw.

At first glance, the creature would not appear to have much physical prowess, lacking the bulk of a minotaur's body in favor of a more slender build, even by pony standards. But the light-toned skin was taut, and at a touch Twilight's hoof met supple, corded muscle, hard as a rock, which would likely cut a powerful figure on the creature when standing. It was also covered in scars, many of which looked like they would have resulted in mortal wounds. It shouldn't be possible for any living being to survive such injuries.

What have you been through, Twilight pondered, her face mirroring the sullen look on Fluttershy's at the evident hardship the creature must have suffered throughout her life, judging the various ages between the scars.

Both of them noticed the creature on the bed begin to stir from her slumber.

Author's Note

The actors are in their places, and the stage is set. Now once more, with feeling...

Note: In my DS2 headcanon, Lucatiel never found her brother, but in this crossover, she winds up in Equestria just before she would go Hollow at the entrance to Aldia's Keep.