A Tale of Something New

Twilight Sparkle was prepared for many things. Her speech to Cloudsdale on friendship, her friends interrupting said speech, even the eventual rhythmic swaying of the crowd as it found her speech a bit 'hypnotic'. What she was not prepared for was the sound of a loud explosion in the far-off distance followed by what seemed to be a tiny pink and blue object heading in her direction. She quickly glanced over to her friend, Pinkie Pie, to ensure she wasn't up to any of her antics. Only to find her in awe at the tiny object.

Starlight Glimmer was the first to make out the shapes, or so she thought. "Rainbow! That's a-" before anything more could be said, a blur of light yellow and pink was all that could be seen. The next thing all the ponies saw was Fluttershy nuzzling two tiny injured creatures. “Right… never mind then. How are they doing?” she asked while rolling with the situation.

“They both seem to be alive, but the filly,” Fluttershy motioned to a tiny pink unicorn with a red mane, “she seems to be a bit worse. Maybe she took the brunt of whatever hit them both.” This was followed by Starlight Glimmer wrapping the filly in her magic aura and levitating her closer. “The cat, though a breed I’ve never seen before, seems to be doing better, but is still in bad shape. I’ll take her to Dr. Fauna.” She said and began to fly carefully down. “I’m out of supplies for felines, and she isn’t one to usually turn away an injured pet.”

This left Starlight, Twilight, their other friends, and a rather large crowd of pegai staring dumbfounded. “I better teleport too,” Starlight finally said to break the silence, “don’t think Cloudsdale Medical Center is equipped with anything to be able to care for unicorn fillies, and I know a certain nurse who will be more than willing to watch this particular one.” With that, Starlight teleported away with the foal.

As all ponies stood trying to wrap around the exchange, Twilight was the first to speak up, “While that particular set of events was… unexpected, I do believe we have a speech to finish.” The large amounts of ‘awes’ from the crowd, and a cyan Pegasus near her were rounded, Twilight continued with a slight chuckle. “Alright, I’ll see if my friends could add to the speech, and make it a bit more entertaining.” The ‘yays’ that followed told her that she made the right choice.

==========================================================================================

Arriving back in Ponyville, Starlight Glimmer quickly made her way into the hospital. To her relief, the very mare she was hoping to see was sitting at the front desk. “Nurse Redheart,” she said stepping up to the mare in question, “we have an emergency.” Nurse Redheart looked at her questioningly before following her magical aura to look at the ‘emergency’. Then she let out a gasp.

“Am I ever going to meet this filly when she isn’t injured to the point of near death?” she let out as she signaled to another nurse for a stretcher.

“Didn’t you see her just a few days ago?” Starlight pointed out, “and haven’t you been visiting her every month prior to that for a year?”

“Those don’t count seeing as she was still a patient,” countered Redheart while both were moving down the hallway. As they reached the operating room, Starlight was instructed to remain outside.

==========================================================================================

As Fluttershy came in to check on her friend, she was happy to see that Starlight taking a nap. “Waiting must have been quite the task for her,” she quietly stated. Sitting down next to her caused Starlight to jump shouting something that didn’t make too much sense out of context. “Oh, I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t startle you.”

“No, it’s fine,” responded a now more than awake Starlight Glimmer, “how did it go with Dr. Fauna?”

“She... was rather surprised with her initial inspection of the cat,” offered Fluttershy.

Starlight tilted her head in confusion asking, “Was it in worse condition than we initially thought?”

“Oh no! In fact, quite the opposite,” Fluttershy quickly responded, “and that’s why she was rather surprised.” She took a moment to look around, and then turned back to Starlight. “When I left the cat in her care, the last thing I could hear was her saying things like ‘how are you still alive?’ and ‘this doesn’t make sense at all’ over and over again. I knew the species didn’t seem like one you normally find, but my initial take on it made me feel like I was staring at a cat version of Discord.”

A small silence gathered. Starlight broke it quickly however, “I have felt something odd about her. I believe her name was Azurinne.” Starlight then thought back to her own observations back when she had visited the village. “You know, those two were almost inseparable. It also felt like, Cherry Blossom, the filly that was attached to her when you saved them, would converse with her when they were far enough away from any other pony to hear.”

“It’s not strange to talk to your pet. After all, most pets are there for companionship,” offered Fluttershy.

“That’s just it though, it didn’t seem like she was talking to her pet. It seemed like they were talking with each other. I could have sworn I had even seen that cat tilt her head to her and mouth off something. As if she could talk.” At the sound of this new information Fluttershy could only stare blankly at her friend. Talking animals was nothing new to her, but those animals were from species with a known evolution to their voice boxes. Cats, as naturally evolved for social interaction as they were, have never shown signs of having the ability to speak. At least to her knowledge. “Maybe it’s something I should bring up with Twilight?” asked Starlight.

At that moment the doors opened, and a light amber coated unicorn stallion, known as Doctor Horse, came out. “Starlight, Fluttershy, are you both here for our tiny patient?” He continued only after he received two nods in response. “She’s doing quite well. Luckily the damage didn’t reach too far internally, and what did was able to be repaired thanks to her expedited arrival here by Starlight.” This caused the mare in question to blush and him to chuckle before continuing. “She is doing much better than when I first saw her over a year ago in your old town, Starlight, but she did still receive a lot of injuries. She’ll be out for maybe two weeks.”

“Maybe two weeks?” repeated Starlight questioningly.

“Yes, well, in my experience with this particular filly,” added Doctor Horse, “she tends to heal faster physically. We also decided to take some scans of her while we had her available.” His tone suddenly became even more sullen, and one could swear that the room became even quieter, if that was possible. “What we found was... wrong. No matter how you look at it, that filly shouldn’t be able to be alive.” This statement caused the two mares to stare at each other worriedly. “You may want to see the results yourself. You may also want to bring Princess Twilight.”

==========================================================================================

Twilight and all her friends were sitting in the map room of her castle after a visit to both the hospital and the vet. The air was quiet, and most of her friends sat worried as Twilight pondered what she had learned. Finally, she broke the silence, “So we have a talking blue cat with other possible abilities akin to, but not as powerful as, Discord, and a filly whose physiology leaves her with an impossible amount of natural magical build up that should have killed her at birth.”

“Why not just call Discord and ask him if he made those two?” asked Rainbow Dash. “We all know he likes to mess with the laws of nature. Is it really that hard to believe he made them?” The Grimace these two questions brought was clear.

“Ah’m inclined to side with Rainbow on this one,” Spoke up Applejack in her usual accent, “We all know he’s reformed, but would any of ya’ll put it past him to do something like this?”

“While I am inclined to agree with you, Applejack and Rainbow Dash,” spoke Rarity in her usual elegant tone, “this seems rather tasteless when compared to his usual antics.”

“Yeah, it just doesn’t seem like fun, and Discord loves having fun,” added Pinkie Pie. These two insightful thoughts caused everyone to stop and think creating a silence in the room.

“Maybe it’s her familiar?” proposed Fluttershy. Everyone suddenly turned to her causing her to hide behind a bang of her mane.

“Why would you suggest that, Fluttershy?” asked Twilight inquisitively.

“Well, something clicked when I thought about everything that we’ve learned so far,” said Fluttershy while clapping her front hooves together. “Familiars are a form of magical pet, but they only come into existence if their master was born with a large enough magical reserve. While speaking with Starlight, those two are almost inseparable, and it would explain why I can’t remember that species of cat. It might not even exist.” More staring.

“Fluttershy, you’re a genius!” shouted one Twilight Sparkle in excitement. “I have to look up more information on familiars, but if what you say is true, then at least half the mystery is solved.” She then shuttered before continuing. “As sad as it sounds, we can’t find out more about... Cherry Blossom was it?" asked twilight who then got a nod in response, "Right. We can't find out more about Cherry Blossom until she wakes up. So, let’s all talk to her once that happens. In the meantime, I say we all go about our days normally until then. Pinkie Pie, it may be a bit much for her if we begin to barrage her with questions. Could you prepare a party just in case?”

“Okie dokie loki,” responded Pinkie Pie with a salute before they all departed the room.