I have no idea what to call this

The weather patrol had announced the week before of an impending thunder and windstorm. In response to that, the populace of the little forestside town Ponyville had prepared for all and then some. Each household had a different approach to spending the storm. The Cakes on one hand kept their pastries for safe keeping from two storms: the one outside and the resident Pinkie Pie. Other than that, it was the new parents Carrot and Cup Cake with their baby twins, who for some reason were not earth ponies like their parents, but a pegasus Pound Cake and a unicorn Pumpkin Cake, all blanketed together. All the while Pinkie Pie being on the ceiling for no sensible reason.

The two mares Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops were cuddling tightly despite the overkill of blankets piled on top of them, a sight which any mundane pony would assume that the two mares in question were copulating under the sheets. Still, whatever method they had on the progress, is working just fine to keep their minds off the storm. Carousel Boutique had the two sisters Rarity and Sweetie Belle enjoying a couple of drinks, a hot cocoa for the filly Sweetie Belle and an overly-intricate blend of a triple-shot Espresso based drink involving apple cider of Apple family origins for the older unicorn respectively. How she managed to balance two contrasting flavors in a mug is beyond any mundane pony.

Speaking of the Apple family, the three-generation family consisting of the elderly Granny Smith, her firstborn grandson Big Macintosh, her firstborn granddaughter Applejack, her youngest grandfoal Apple Bloom, and the family canine Winona, are all huddled up to their homestead’s fireplace, each eating a slice of their family’s proud heirloom; their sweet apple pie recipe. On the other side of the town, near the edge of the Everfree forest, the cottage of the creature cuddler Fluttershy contained the usual resident animals: the mouse family enjoying a slice of cheese, the owl who always keeps watch during nighttime, a honey badger, and the white lagomorph Angel, eating the food he so frequently demands, and Fluttershy so frequently spoils him, carrot cake with carrots selected by the pretentious rabbit himself.

Also present in the cottage are Tank the tortoise and her owner Rainbow Dash, as the obvious effects of a storm on a cloud house which can involve electric discharge, are substantially lethal to the shelled reptile and his winged mare owner, if given, Rainbow Dash could go on about how she and Tank got electrocuted during the previous storm and survived with extreme bravado. The tortoise, Tank, chose to hide in his shell for the sake of convenience, as he does this ninety percent of the time of day, according to his very impatient owner, while said owner lay down on the couch along with the resident Fluttershy, their wings acting as warmth nets for each other, especially for the canary mare, as the cyan mare had a history of protecting her foalhood friend. Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy as the timid mare nuzzled up at Dash.

Twilight Sparkle, resident of the library Golden Oaks, chose to spend her time experimenting with various alchemic agents, and scribbling down notes with her quill, while the barely eager baby dragon Spike tidies up the mess of books and notes of the purple unicorn.

“And I thought the sight of her brother and her old foalsitter getting married would make her focus less on this…” the dragon muttered out of the borderline-mad unicorn’s earshot. “Sure wish a distraction would arrive.”

And lo, the door swung open, but in a different manner than how the storm should have swung it.

Twilight, after slipping and applying 35 milligrams of sodium acetate on the mix instead of 3.5 milligrams, and screwing up the intended balance of the mixture she was attempting to make, grunted and approached, more like stomped toward, the hooded figure responsible for opening the door and riling her up.

“Who do you think you are, barging--”

The figure collapsed on the floor, hood out, revealing a dark gray stallion with pitch black hair. He had a circular apparatus grafted to his chest, with three exposed beams of cable connected to pinnately-organized branching of smaller cable. Twilight Sparkle examined the stallion, carefully removing his coat with her magic, and discovered the stallion having gryphon-size wings. This piqued the mare’s curiosity. A metal apparatus, and gryphon-size wings, and as she was wondering, the stallion had carnivorous teeth!

“Is that a skull with tears as a cutie mark?” she wondered.

“Am I… back home… my motherland… Thrace…” the stallion said, before passing out.

After tending to the mysterious visitor in his unconscious state, Twilight rested her head upon the bedside, slowly muttering out, “Spike… I’ll finish… the potion…tomorrow… ” and fell asleep. Moments later, the stallion awoke.

“By Maverick, whose home is this?” he wondered. Noticing a sleeping purple Unicorn on his left, he carefully slid out of the bed. “Nah. I won’t carry her. Physically, that is.” He rolled down the blankets, aimed his chest at the sleeping mare, and with a heavy breath, the fixture on his chest released a beam of red magic. With it, he levitated the slumbering mare onto the bed, and afterwards rolled up the blankets to her chin level. The bed; and the mare in it; were released from the red magic, as the chest fixture ran out of the energy needed to continue operating, as elected by the stallion to whom it was grafted to. “Goodnight,” he whispered.

After going downstairs to proceed to leave, he was stopped by an interruption by Spike. “Yes, dragon boy?” he asked without bothering to turn around. The startled Spike replied, “A-uh, mister? I had made tea for you as requested by Twilight Sparkle.” The gray stallion merely gestured with his hoof; for the dragon to proceed. “What brings you here?” Spike hesitantly asked. The stallion smiled. “I am Icarus, a Thracian. I differ from Equestrian ponies in several ways.”

“Good question.” He took a couple of seconds for him to form his explanations. “First of all, we are carnivorous. As per our teeth which are made to rend flesh and meat. Similar to how a bear eats fish or a dog eats steak. Thracians eat sky wyrms, land wyrms, sea wyrms. But a Thracian village can only make a wyrm carcass last for a year.” Noticing the confusion in the dragon’s eyes, he said, “Wyrms are very large dragons. Steer clear of those; unlike you, they do not eat gems, but rather, dragons like your kind, the gem-eaters.” Spike’s confusion turned into instant fright. “I think I’ll need the tea more.”

Icarus continued on. “Another difference is that a Thracian’s racial skill is ten times as innate and involuntary as an Equestrian’s. Thracians were pushed to the limit when the nations were established by Equestria,” Icarus said to Spike, making a tornado shape from a napkin. “Imagine ten Equestrian pegasi you know closely, attempting to make this tornado spin. Now imagine weather manipulation with one Thracian pegasus.” Spike could not believe his ears. One Thracian? As good as ten Equestrians?

Spike’s mind rattled on with intrigue. What other thing are Thracians different from Equestrians? Icarus thought and said, “Lastly, Thrace is home to a large number of zebras and llamas.” With that, Spike had painted an image of Thrace in his head. “What creatures live in Thrace aside from ponykind and wildlife?” the dragon asked, hoping for more information on the lands of the stranger’s origin.

The Thracian smiled. “I think it’s best for you to see Thrace with your own eyes.”

The sound of hoofsteps approached the table. “Good morning,” Twilight said with a yawn. “May I ask you something?” Icarus, seemingly understanding the mare’s question, replied. “Icarus. I am from Thrace.”

Twilight’s eyes immediately widened. “You, are a Thracian?” Icarus smiled, showing his sharp teeth. “Wow, the carnivore ponies are real! I only saw a Thracian emissary arriving to Canterlot when I was starting out my magic training as a filly, but I heard him ask for a bowl of grasshoppers and frogs.” Icarus simply smiled sheepishly. “Oh, you mean Thracian trail mix? That fool must have eaten his rations then, the glutton.”

“What brings a Thracian to Ponyville?” Twilight asked. Icarus replied, “I am moving here. Ponyville is renowned for its relative peacefulness over other towns in the whole planet. It is in first place, with Edō and Irkutsk as close second and third respectively. But there appears to be a problem.” “Oh, the storm. Well, you can stay here for the moment.” Twilight said.

Twilight showed Icarus the spare room, saying he would sleep there for the moment.  The next day, Spike awoke to a conundrum.

“Twilight? I have a problem. I don’t know where to find food for our guest.”

A half-woken Twilight said to him, “I don’t know either. Something big but not a woodland critter, as Fluttershy would not stand for that.”

“I can hear you perfectly. I have my supply of wyrm meat, it is in my rain cloak. Also, do you have berries in these lands? Those are the only plants we can eat.” Icarus said, while browsing for a book on botanical fruit classification. “I may possibly eat some fruits, most are poisonous to Thracians.”

Twilight, having understood the Thracian, asked, “How about fungi? Can Thracians eat fungi?” Icarus nodded. “Depends on which isn’t poisonous, other than that, I don’t really see any problem with them.”

“Are you planning to go back to Thrace despite your plan on staying in Ponyville?” Twilight said. “I want to see Thracian wonder in its purest.”

“In Thrace we have several innovations, some of which were shared with Equestria in development and usage. You’ll see when I take you there, among other innovations Thrace has made, let alone shared with the world. I trust you are not seasick, no?”

She shook her head. “Uh, yes. No. Actually, I don’t know.”  Icarus chuckled. “It matters not. Thrace has air and sea transport, the likes of which will leave the steamboats here in the sandbars.” Icarus waved his hoof to tell the mare to follow him. Twilight said to Spike, “You heard him, take a slab of wyrm meat from his rain cloak, and,” she paused to check if the stallion is within earshot, and made her voice a whisper, “it’s egg day today. Prep him that accident we discovered, okay?” Spike smirked and gave his mentor/sister a thumbs up.