The Forest's Edge

Chapter 2
Sorry about the wait, for those of you interested. I've been presented with a variety of paths to go down with this fic, each pertaining to the rest of the Mane 6. If anyone is interested, I can post the rest of the ones I had written. (Applejack, Rarity, and I'm beginning on Pinkie Pie.)

Your stomach rumbles, quite audible to Fluttershy.
"Oh! Are you hungry?" The prospect of food is enough motivation to get up, and hobble slowly around the room. Your knees could barely function. About thirty seconds into your stand, you notice you're only dressed in your briefs, shirtless. At least it wasn't cold.
“Um…” Fluttershy had noticed, and a blush was slowly creeping across her face.
You open your mouth to speak, but she quickly takes the initiative.
"Oh, um, I'm sorry. The clothes were wet. They would have frozen you." She looked apprehensive as she retreated behind her hair, apparently embarrassed. You begin to stride over to Fluttershy on her wooden chair, bare feet clapping against the wooden floor, sounds which Fluttershy paid no attention to. You then stop at the chair, slowly and gently lift her up from the chair, and hug her.
“Denver?” She asks, sounding like she feared for her life.
“You know that if it weren’t for you, I’d be dead?” You say, still embracing her. “Starved, frozen or eaten. I owe you my life.” A small smile appears on her lips, and she returned the embrace.
The two of you stood there in the sun shining in from the window, disparity between your heights easily visible to you. You were a head above her, with her hair contributing an inch or so.
You stand there like this for what seemed like hours. It was in fact, only a few minutes, but it felt like a moment of perpetual peace.
An hour later, you were bus discussing your life until then over a lunch. Was a vegetarian’s but it was filling. “So why were you out there in such weather?” She asked, concernedly.
“Travelling.” You said, taking a bite out of your sandwich. “Didn’t really have a place to return to.”
“Why not?”
“Parents are long dead.” She flinched at this. “Don’t worry about it. Didn’t even know my father.”
“But, you grew up without parents? How?”
“Stayed with some relatives, friends. Enlisted, sooner or later. Went overseas.”
“You were a soldier?”
“Did my service,” remembering nights spent at the perimeter. “Wasn’t something I was proud of.”
“Why? That is… if you don’t mind me asking.” She said in a small voice.
“I thought, and still think, that we weren’t there for good reason. A protracted charge of the light brigade. And you?”
“I don’t think the Equestrian military’s been involved in a conflict, let alone a foreign one, for years.”
“Well yeah, my service ended a few years ago.” Then you notice what she said. “…Equestrian?”
She looks at you, concern reappearing. “You do know where you are, don’t you?” She said, apparently picking up on your confusion.
“Not past the few maps I have. And even then, somewhere in…. South Carolina?”
The look of confusion remains. “Allow me.” You say, reaching towards the jacket on the kitchen counter. It was damp and warm, and you wound up rifling through the pockets. You found what you were looking for.
“These,” You say, spreading the maps on the table before her, “Are the maps.”
She glances at them, and the confused look reappears when she looks back up at you.
“I don’t recognize these… At all.”
How? How on Earth didn’t she? “Well, to simplify things, there’s my destination. Manhattan.” She gives you a quizzical look. “The state of New York.” Determined to make comparisons, you ask for a map of hers.
She finds the requested map, and rolls it out onto the table, holding one side so as it wouldn’t curl in on itself. “It’s a bit outdated, but it was accurate at the time.”
Examining the map for a few minutes left you confused and deflated. You sighed, hunched over the table, looking for anything familiar to you. You recognized nothing, aside from a few misspelled names. Seaddle, Detrot, Fillydelphia…Manehattan? In entirely different places from their real counterparts. A bad dream. Or she’s just messing with you. Or you died in the snow, and this is Heaven, explaining the strange geography. And the realism. But surely you’d have been briefed on this. You notice Fluttershy looking at you, somewhat frightened, a look you’d become so accustomed to seeing for the amount of time you’d known her.
“I…” You stumble across your words, wondering what to say. “Don’t know.” You slump in your chair, defeated.
She takes her seat again, allowing the map to roll up. “So what do you do?” You ask, willing to shift the focus of the conversation.
She looks frightened at this sudden change of direction, but responds. “I take care of the animals.”
You expected her to continue, but she didn’t. “Just the animals?” You ask. “Are you a farmer?”
“Not really. My friend, Applejack takes care of those kind of things.”
What kind of name was Applejack? “What kind of animals?”
“Woodland creatures, generally.”
“What, like back there?” You gesture to the forest you noticed outside of the window. “From what I’d heard, I was lucky to get out without a missing leg.”
“Oh, you mean the Everfree Forest? Oh yes, it’s dangerous… and scary.” She said, taking a few timid glances out of the kitchen window to ensure her chicken coop wasn’t being raided by a stray fox or bear, and returns to the conversation. “I’ve been there a few times with my friends.”
‘Everfree Forest?’ You don’t recall the maps referring to it as that. And really? Her, taking down a few bears, armed or not? Deceptive appearances, perhaps.
She noticed your look of scepticism, and decides to elaborate. “I’m good with animals.”
You were about to change the subject, when a loud knock is heard on the door. A panicked look crosses her face, before she apparently decides to lean out from her position and check to see if anyone was visible at the doorway. She smiles. “I’ll be back in a minute,” She says to you, the smile still visible.
She strides out of your sight, and you hear voices, eventually a muted conversation. Hers, another female, and what sounded like a young boy. “You know, Twilight, there’s someone here you might be interested in meeting.” She said, directly addressing the purple haired, uniformed visitor.
“Who? And why?” Asks Twilight, apparently interested in the prospect of meeting someone new.
“Oh, well, he might have something to do with your… magic.” She said, referencing the time she’d walked into the library, in search of some books regarding horticulture, but instead found her holed up in the basement, looking like she’d been studying for days. When she asked, she responded with scientific and magical terminology that she could barely understand. She remembered the evening and following night quite well.
It was a rainy day in Ponyville, a few months before. Everyone had retreated to the safety of their homes to brace themselves against the storm that was due that night, and Fluttershy was the sole person on the street. The weather worsened as time went by, and she wound up staying the night at the library, much to Angel’s chagrin when Fluttershy returned the morning after. Conversation was had with Spike, which helped pass the time. She had wound up going to see how Twilight was down in the basement. She went unnoticed down the stairs, and spoke up. “Umm… Twilight?”
The woman in question paused, and quickly turned around, a murderous look in her eyes, which caused Fluttershy to squeal in terror, and take cover behind a stack of books, cowering. Twilight had apparently regained her composure, and said: “Hello Fluttershy. Sorry about the mess.”
“Oh, um, it’s okay, Twilight…” She said, peeking out of the safety of the books. One thing Twilight would never do was harm a book. “So… What are you doing?” She emerged from her cover.
“Oh, I’m studying the possibility of parallel universes, or just other universes, and various possibilities regarding transport to and fro. It’s complex, but I think I’ve worked out something…” She lapsed into silence, returning to her books.
Fluttershy, knowing not to interrupt her for fear of not being able to reach adequate cover in time, left. “Oh… Um, well o-okay, Twilight. I’ll leave you to it.”
Discussion between the two had increased as time went by, as Fluttershy was the only one polite enough to really listen. In due time, she gained a relatively rudimentary understanding of magic. Not a topic she generally cared for, but she was learning.
“Fluttershy, you’ve just got to look for inconsistencies. Not just in the space-time continuum itself, but also in the way people act, but their personalities, attitude, physique. Those kind of things. Depending on who we manage to get in, if any at all, they could be aggressive. On varying levels. Our parallel universe selves will almost certainly be nothing like us.”
Fluttershy was visibly shaken. “A-And you want me to look for these kind of people? But what if they’re… scary?”
“Well, depending on which parallel universe, out of a near infinite number of possibilities we pluck our person out of, their behaviour will most likely be…. Quite different from ours.” Said Twilight. “Just keeping an eye out would be great.”
Well, Fluttershy thought to herself. Twilight can be very bossy.
“Oh, um, of course, Twilight. I can do that?” She said, the statement turning into a question as soon as she noticed Twilight staring at her strangely. She remained pinned under this terrifying inspection for as long as it took.
“Ok, thanks, Fluttershy. Though it’s too bad that nobody else will help out.” She said, returning to her usual, friendlier state.

A look of comprehension, and eventually a triumphant grin, replaced one of initial misunderstanding. “Very well. Spike, are you coming in?” She asks, the young, green haired boy beside him, clad in a purple shirt, and barely awake.
“Sure Twilight.” He said, yawning. “Does this mean I can nap on your couch, Fluttershy?”
“Spike!” Said Twilight, scolding the boy’s attitude towards mornings. “Besides, there’s a new person in town. Wouldn’t want to be impolite. And, your late nights helping out mightn’t have been in vain!” She added, with a smile.
An eyebrow shot up at this, the trio striding towards the kitchen. “I’d like to see that.” He muttered. “Remember that time you visited yourself in the past? And then had me on overtime?”
“You slept for most of that. And when you weren’t, you were eating ice cream, saying how it’d be ‘Future Spike’s’ problem.” She replied. “And what makes you think our friend is from a parallel universe?”
“Well, he’s quite tall.” She responded.
Twilight stared at her, dumbfounded. “And that’s it? He’s tall? So therefore, he’s from another universe?”
“…Well, he was confused, a-and disoriented.” She said, willing to defend herself. “Oh, and, he also had maps of places I didn’t recognize. Some place names were very similar, and he said he served in the military.”
The triumphant look reappeared on Twilight’s face. “Where did you find him?”
“The Everfree forest.” She said, satisfied for having so successfully rallied against Twilight’s aggression. “Oh, and his clothes were too thick for this kind of climate. Even for the winter.”
“Well, winters this far south aren’t so mild, Fluttershy, I mean-“
“Well sure, but he looked like he was freezing anyway.”
A sceptical look appeared on Twilight’s face, but it quickly disappeared. “Well then. I think this is, at the very least, worth investigating. For magic, of course.” She was about to open the door when Fluttershy grabbed her hand.
“Wait!” She said, trying to get Twilight to be quiet. Fluttershy, in her usual manner of reintroducing animals into the wild, paused by the kitchen door, and whispered to them.
“Now, be quiet. I’m not sure how he’ll react around you two. No sudden magic, Twilight.” She said, giving her a stare, which Twilight mentally braced herself against, but to no avail.
“And Spike,” she said, turning to the boy,” Don’t burn anything down.” The green haired boy grins at this, grin which quickly falters as she realized she wasn’t returning the smile, but had a terrifying look replace her facial features. “Yes ma’am.” He said, barely refraining himself from cowering beneath her gaze.
“Okay then,” She said, her face becoming friendly again, and the temperature in the room rising by a couple of degrees. “Are you two ready?” Twilight had a poorly concealed look of anticipation on her face. This could mean so much for her. Recognition as a magical pioneer, newfound respect among her peers, fame, wealth, the list went on.
No, this isn’t like me. She thought to herself. Friendship first. That’s why Princess Celestia sent you here in the first place. Besides, he could just be a traveller. A singular dimension one, that is. No need to get ahead of yourself.