Author's Note

Welcome to my second story on Fimfiction! I've been toying with an idea like this because I've recently gotten back into The Walking Dead games upon the return of one of my favorite youtubers, Cryaotic. This Javier follows the same moral path as his did, with (of course) variations from this point forward.

Season 3, while it wasn't the absolute best of the four-game series, holds a special place in my heart. I love all of the games, Season 1 being my favorite simply because of Lee and Clem, with the game marking the start of the game series, but Season 3 stood out to me because of the themes of family, abuse, and the conflicts involved in such a short time.

I could probably gush all day about the characterization of the kinder Javi that tries to keep everyone alive, but we should probably get right into this.

Head Trauma

Previously, on The Walking Dead...

"How fucking dare you!"

"That's enough! Stop it!"

"David, stop!"

"Oh my god!"

"... I love you!"

"No, stop saying that!"

Pain explodes across his face as metal connects with bone. He hits the dirt, face down, and only has time to roll onto his back before he's pushed back down under the weight of his brother.

"Dad, no!"

The sound of metal hitting flesh rings out again. There's no pain.

"Gabe!"

"Oh my god!"

His nephew hit the dirt, clutching his face. David turns back around, his attention back on Javi as he presses the flat side of the pipe wrench to his throat; Javier puts his hands under the metal, struggling to hold it off.

"You're not taking my family from me!"

"David, no!"

"I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

The wrench is getting pressed harder to his throat. It already feels like he's choking.

"Fucking stop!"

"I'm warning you, stop!"

There's not much he can do.

"... I love you, brother."

"No!"

The wrench is raised again. He's powerless to stop it from coming back down.

But that's okay. If nothing else, he's kept his promise to Papá.

Pain, against his temple, vision reeling and blackening around the edges. Ears are ringing. Was there a gunshot? All Javier knew for certain was that his brother had rolled off of him, and his world was going dark.

"Ah, fuck!"

David's voice was muffled, but he sounded like he was in pain.

Javier heard others talking, but he couldn't make it out. The world was spinning underneath him and his limbs wouldn't respond. It felt like someone was coming near, shaking him, trying to rouse him— he barely felt the hand on his shoulder— but everything was growing more and more distant.

With a light touch, his temple felt like it exploded, and then there was nothing.

Everything was black for a long time. His half-conscious mind couldn't quite keep track of it, but sometimes, he would hear something odd. Sounds he never thought he'd hear again.

The world had grown quieter after the dead started walking. The only pervading sounds nature would make on any day were the sounds of wind blowing and the rustle of leaves, the muertos, or dead ones, having eaten any animal they could get their rotted hands on in the past several years. It didn't matter if it wasn't human; The noisier the animal was, the more likely it was that it had been eaten.

Mornings out in the world were always silent and dead.

This was where confusion set in, as the chirping of crickets and birdsong rose up through his senses. There was the occasional hollow knocking of a woodpecker on a tree looking for its early morning meal, and far away, he heard the distant howling of some kind of wolf. They were sounds that were impossible.

So where was it all coming from?

Eventually, the sounds became closer and more consistent. With his hearing restored, he felt his other senses slowly pull in as well. Black turned to the dark red of his closed eyelids. Below him, he felt he was laying on soft grass, and a morning breeze tickled his face. The air smelled cool and refreshing, lacking some distant, metallic tinge that had been present ever since the world had gone to hell.

He tried, experimentally, to move his fingers. And finally, after a few minutes of laying there, he found he could open his eyes.

It was the early morning, and the sunrise painted the sky with vibrant oranges, pinks, and even purples. Contrary to his expectations— which may or may not have involved being left in a shed as a prisoner with someone playing the sounds of nature over a speaker— he found he was in a forest that was teeming with life. Birds sang and zipped through the trees overhead, bugs crawled about below, and, in the spot he could see from his position on the ground, a family of bunnies foraged through the underbrush.

He laid there and stared for a solid minute, blinking to see if the animals would vanish.

They never did.

Swallowing dryly (and damn, was he thirsty), Javier picked himself up. He wasn't able to get very far; The world spun and his head throbbed with renewed pain. His movements startled the family of bunnies, sending them charging off through the forest as he finally settled for sitting upright.

"Dios mio, what hit me?" He slurred, grimacing. Why was he slurring?

Wait. David swinging that pipe wrench, taking out his anger on whatever pissed him off next, which happened to be him.

Trying to kill me...

Javier brushed the side of his head with a hand again and found the large patch of dried blood caked into his hair. Swearing quietly, he tried once more to stand as carefully as he could, trying not to trigger the dizzy sensation any further, but ended up back on the ground in a similar state that he'd been in when he was outside the garage.

Wait... The garage.

"Kate?" He called when it passed. "Gabriel? Clementine?"

The garage was nowhere in sight, and it certainly hadn't been located anywhere near a forest.

"... David?"

Even if the man had tried to kill him, David was his blood. His family, and Papá had always emphasized the importance of family and sticking together. He wouldn't be alone in the wilds if his brother was around. It was worth a try.

After a few minutes of silence, however, he didn't dare call again. A muerto could show up at any time, and he wasn't entirely convinced by the presence of wildlife that they were gone. Besides, if he'd been dumped out here by David or some other party, he had no way to defend himself. He was in no condition to do anything.

He swore again. What was his last memory? Something had to lead them to getting to this place, and Kate, Gabe, and Clem wouldn't just dump him out in the open.

There was... David was on top of him, trying to crush his windpipe with that wrench. Gabe had gotten hit across the face while trying to stop him, and Kate and Clem were shouting at David to stop. Then came the second hit with the pipe wrench, right on his temple, and he hadn't been able to avoid it...

Javier took another look at his surroundings. Not a speck of civilization was in sight, and the fact that there was animal life that teemed all around him seemed too good to be true.

So... Was he dead?

Had David hit him hard enough that it killed him? Had Javi left Kate, Gabe, and Clem to fend for themselves around his brother?

He clenched his jaw. No, he could still remember some snippets from after the impact, hazy though they were. Someone touching him, shaking, and everything going fuzzy. Then— no, there had been an explosive pain in his temple before he blacked out.

All of the breath left him.

"Did... they shoot me?" He whispered, more than a little horrified.

Javier was still too quick when he put his hand back to his temple. A similar explosive pain shot through his skull, and he hissed as he almost blacked out a second time, but he had to know. He waited for it to ebb before he tried again— going much slower and touching much softer this time— and though it hurt to feel out his injury through his lighter touch, he couldn't find any sign of a bullet's entry point.

So... No, they most likely hadn't shot him. Maybe... Yeah, someone had been trying to rouse him. Maybe they accidentally touched his injury too roughly, just as he had. He didn't think that alone would kill him...

Javi was never a religious man, but since the start of the apocalypse, he had thought all too much about what came after death aside from the threat of turning like so many others had. Death was something that he and everyone else faced every day. He always found himself wondering if there was an afterlife, or if there would be nothing when he inevitably died; And if he died to a walker bite, if he'd be trapped in his undead body if he was allowed to turn.

Currently, having full control of his actions put away the last idea, though it didn't strike down any ideas of there being an afterlife. He could still be dead despite the injuries that his body still carried— and if being dead meant keeping any injuries he'd sustained in life, then even death sucked; Considering how things had been going for him over the past couple of weeks, though, it was a perfect addition to the fuck-you his world had been giving him— but whether or not his body turned, he was here now.

Just to be safe, he decided to check himself for any bites. He was still covered in muerto guts, and dios, it smelled. Even the bugs in the soil weren't interested in the scraps, giving him a wide berth as they crawled on by.

He still ached from the beatdown his brother had given him, but otherwise, he was clear.

Javi's eyes then traveled back to his surroundings. Alive or dead, his fuzzy mind considered the situation, and he realized that his outlook was pretty grim.

He'd still been able to think for a short time after the final blow. His brain... probably wasn't destroyed. If they hadn't shot him by now, and he had actually died, his body was most likely walking to try and kill them right now. So, if he had died and turned, was this forest where a person went when their body became one of the muertos? Or had they shot him in the head after he'd gone, and kindly sent him to some kind of afterlife?

"Still no closer to answering that question." He slurred, muttering to himself. "Shouldn't keep dwelling on it."

After making another effort to stand, he found he was still far too unbalanced for it and was forced to sit back down, propping himself up on his arms. At the very least, the position gave him a chance to keep an eye out for potential threats... Or lack thereof.

If this isn't my home in life, and this truly is the afterlife, then there shouldn't be any muertos around; Only the people who had been turned into them.

He still hadn't spotted either of those things.

There were just bugs, trees, and animals.

The sun was higher in the sky, now, the hues of sunrise having disappeared while he was having his internal crisis. He wasn't sure if, or when, anyone would be coming back for him. The only thing he could do in his current state was crawl to a more secluded spot and wait until the dizziness subsided to a more manageable level, that way he could move without risking further injury to himself.

He was pretty sure he had a concussion.

Javier dragged himself to the base of a large, slightly hollow tree and sat back down. The moment he did, the bushes that were once behind him rustled.

He jerked, trying to determine what direction it was coming from and sending his vision everywhere in the process. He whipped his gun from his pocket despite his current inability to aim with it, and when his vision had mostly stabilized, he found himself staring at a very small horse.

A very concerned-looking small horse.

It was yellow, its mane was a bright pink, its muzzle was small, and it had huge eyes that shone with emotion. Most notably of all, though, were the two wings at its sides, flared in what must have been some kind of threatening manner, despite the trembling of the limbs. A family of bunnies gathered around its hooves, glancing between the yellow pony and and Javi himself. They looked identical to the ones he accidentally scared off earlier.

Despite the attention the little bunnies continued to give it, the yellow pony's wings slowly drooped, and Javier stared at the now watery-eyed little creature that was more expressive than any human he'd met.

"... What the hell?" He breathed out slowly.

Focused on the pony, he hadn't realized that it wasn't alone until a group of strange, colorful, and mythical creatures had followed it out. To his utter disbelief— whether they had beaks, or muzzles, or chitinous armor— all of them displayed a startled, followed by a horrified expression that was far too human as they caught sight of him.

This... No, this was too strange.

Gasping, Javier tried to scramble backwards in a bid to get away from the unholy levels of disbelief he was feeling at the sight of these creatures. There were two giant bird hybrid things, one with clawlike hooves and the other with both bird and cat limbs, as well as a small orange dragon, some insect-horse thing, another small pony (without wings), and some big, furry, horned creature that he wasn't sure really existed. They were all staring at him with those wide eyes and horrified expressions, and while they might have been cute little creatures that Mariana might have adored at one point, Javier couldn't wrap his head around this. After all of the situations and the dead he'd faced, something had frayed at the sight of these technicolor things. He thought he'd seen everything.

Guess not.

In his attempt to get away, he'd launched himself back-first into the tree he'd chosen and forgotten about, slamming the back of his head against it and sending a shooting wave of pain through his head, causing him to cry out as the gun slipped from his grip.

It hit the ground and misfired, shooting a bullet into the air with aloud bang.

It knocked the group of creatures out of their horrified trance. A few of them started screaming, and he spotted the yellow winged pony running towards him.

"Oh god, stay away from me!" Javier panicked. Adrenaline barely kept him awake. It must have been lunging for his jugular. One hand reached to recollect his weapon, and the other went up to block any incoming blows, but the yellow one was already on him.

"Oh my goodness, you poor creature!"

The reach for his gun was immediately stopped.

It was so much stronger than it looked. It had stopped the frantic movement of his arms with hardly any effort at all, holding him still with its forelegs and hooves, and now, it was fucking speaking.

Feathers blocked some of his vision as its wing moved over his head. Javi's heart was in his throat, hammering away as the yellow pony-thing— A pegasus?— gently pet his hair, being especially careful around the bruises and the patch of crusted blood that decorated his face.

Dumbfounded, he didn't reach for his gun again.

It distantly occurred to him that anything that moved that fast was not to be fucked with. And yet here it was, despite its speed and strength, trying to soothe the primal fear he was feeling with a hug and soft words of reassurance.

"What...?" He barely breathed out.

"Miss Fluttershy," one of the strange creatures, the bug-pony thing, spoke up shakily. Javier still couldn't wrap his head around this insanity. "Wh-what is that?"

Mythical, technicolor creatures, and they could all speak.

Javier let out a shuddering breath.

Feels like ages since I've taken drugs, but this is making me wonder.

"This is a creature that needs help," the little yellow pegasus, (Fluttershy?) responded. If she (and he guessed it was female; The voice was the only real thing he had to go by) was perturbed about the crusty bits of dried blood that rubbed off of his clothes and stuck into her fetlocks, she didn't show it.

"Gallus, Ocellus, it looks like he's got a really bad head injury. From the looks of things, I don't think he can walk, and he's far too big for me to carry on my own. Can you go get headmistress Twilight?"

The cat-bird and bug-horse nodded, both taking off as fast as they could. The others, though they had stopped screaming, were nervously dancing in place or otherwise trying to vent their apparent anxiety about the situation.

"Wh-what's he covered in?" The bird-horse thing quivered in place. The orange dragon was grimacing, plugging its nose.

"Ugh, it smells awful. Like meat left out in the sun for too long."

Javier's eyes darted from creature to creature, but none of them looked particularly hostile. In fact, Fluttershy had looked away from him, and he found it much easier to move without those eyes on him.

"Class, I think we're dismissed for today. You can go enjoy yourselves for the rest of the period."

Class? Were these kids?

Kids. In a class, meaning they still had some semblance of structure in their society. And, whether it was a crazy fever dream, the afterlife, or a hallucination, these things were... innocent. They couldn't handle the sight of blood. Every single one of them looked squeamish at the sight of him except for the pegasus, and while Fluttershy had plenty of opportunity to kill him while he was down, she didn't. Instead, she'd talked about helping him; He, who was a total stranger whose intentions weren't clear to her, who had nearly shot her a minute ago, yet she hadn't even acknowledged that he'd been aiming a gun at her.

One hand shakily reached for his dropped pistol. It took a moment to actually find and grab it while the world was spinning, but once he had it, he tucked it safely away in his pocket.

The movement caught her attention, but she didn't seem to bat an eye about the retrieval of his gun.

"Don't you worry." Fluttershy tried to reassure him. "I know it hurts, but we'll help in any way we can."

The gentle handling should have been soothing. It felt like it should have been soothing, at least, but... This wasn't normal. It couldn't be, his mind rejected this reality, but here it was.

Unsure what else to make of the situation, he didn't know if he should just go along with them or try to get them to leave him be. He knew he needed help, but he didn't know if he was simply alone, hallucinating, or dead.

Perhaps these beings would want something of his in return for helping him?

He considered it. That... wouldn't be the worst scenario, so long as it wasn't something he couldn't replace. Any help was a godsend, what with the way the ground still tilted.

All but the pegasus were now walking away in the forest he'd mysteriously appeared in; A forest which was filled with animals and had no muertos in sight, leaving him alone with something that had pinned his arms to his sides with a simple hug.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore," he muttered as he came out of his musings and looked to the sky. The winged pony jumped slightly at his voice.

Javi was even more bewildered than before. He wasn't a weightlifter, but before the apocalypse, he'd been a professional baseball player who prided himself on his swing. He had only gotten better over the past few years; He practically played ball during the apocalypse by knocking muerto heads into the sky, and missing a swing could mean the end of his life, so by no means were his arms twigs. Yet a simple hug from this small pony...

She was so strong, but at the same time, she was about as timid as Mariana.

Fluttershy, once her students were well out of sight, released him and began inspecting his wounds more closely while they waited for her supposed help. With his attention on her, she looked like she was about to clam up and hide behind her pink curtain of a mane, but she didn't let her feelings get in the way of helping him.

... Okay, Javi thought, I guess this is happening.

He had to take a deep breath to try and settle his nerves.

"... Fluttershy, was it?"

The little pony shied back. The corner of his mouth quirked up slightly.

"... I, take it that it's a more literal name?"

He hoped she didn't mind the small quip, even if his speech was still horribly slurred. Slight, teasing humor was a cushion for sanity, and he needed that right now.

Fluttershy appeared more relieved than anything else. She nodded, then remembered that she had a voice.

"I, um. I'm sorry, I wasn't sure if you could..." She frowned, trailing off. Javi could practically feel her gaze on the bruises and gashes on his face, now. "Respond. This looks really bad. What happened to you, mister...?"

Javier grimaced.

"Javier. Javi, for short... It's a long story, though. Got in a fight." He paused. This strange being seemed like she genuinely wanted to help, even though he still wasn't sure if she was real. He still wondered if this was a hallucination, death, or if someone had drugged him before tossing him outside for a laugh (Joan specifically came to mind, but she wouldn't waste potential medicine on someone she could just kill herself), but for now, he'd have to stick this out. Recent experience told him that trying to get up and move around was still a bad idea.

"Listen, I don't know if I'm tripping and imagining you as a little yellow pony or not. Can you tell me where I am?"

Fluttershy lifted a hoof, quirking a brow at him in genuine concern before she shuffled closer.

"But I am a yellow pony. A pegasus pony, really..." One of her wings brushed over his hair again, holding a few locks away from the scabbed-over head wound as she inspected it again. "You're in the Whitetail Woods. Do... You not remember how you got here, Javier?"

"Whitetail Woods...? Last I checked, Minnesota didn't have any mythical creatures running around." Javier joked, raising an eyebrow of his own. He grimaced as his head throbbed again, and he was forced to relax, or face a potential blackout. "Not really. I... just woke up here."

"Oh, dear."

The sounds of both buzzing and beating wings interrupted their conversation, and the cat-bird and bug-horse (pony?) landed in the clearing. Following right behind them was some strange kind of winged unicorn, who seemed to be panting as she landed.

Javier squinted, head lulling to the side.

"... Maybe I should stop questioning this..."

"I came as fast as I could!" The newcomer exclaimed, her eyes frantically searching the forest around them before finally landing on Fluttershy and Javier. Similarly to the other creatures, the mare immediately stopped in her tracks with her face frozen in horror.

"Thank you for coming, Twilight," Fluttershy nodded to her, then glanced at Javi. He shifted uncomfortably against the tree. "This is Javier. He doesn't know how he got here, but... he was like this when I found him. I think he's got a severe concussion, and could have more than just these bruises elsewhere on him."

Twilight's mouth moved, gaping like a fish for a moment before she finally was able to say anything.

"Is that blood?"

Javier watched as the bug-pony and cat-bird— Ocellus and... Gallus, if he remembered right?— grimaced uncomfortably, probably at the knowledge that everything covering him was gore.

"... Real smooth, miss Light."

Fluttershy didn't comment, and if he'd gotten her name wrong, Twilight didn't correct him. Fluttershy returned her attention to the students.

"Thank you. I'm going to be busy, so class has been dismissed for the day. You two can head back and enjoy the free period. Try to get this out of your minds."

"Y-yes ma'am." Gallus nodded, taking off. Ocellus seemed to linger behind before deciding she should follow him.

Once they were gone, Javier watched the strange ponies in front of him.

"Don't think about it, Twilight." Fluttershy sniffled. "I need your help moving him. I don't think I can carry him to the hospital on my own."

"O-of course." Twilight nodded.

Javi was still more than a little freaked out, but for the moment, he had to power through. These little ponies were actually really cute little creatures that Mariana would have loved— especially Fluttershy, he felt— but he felt that seeing them at all meant he'd gone absolutely insane.

However, Fluttershy had insisted that she was a little yellow pegasus pony, and hadn't seemed very concerned about his gun; She could have been sheltered from knowing what a gun was, or maybe she just didn't recognize its design, but he felt he had to warn them about it so these creatures didn't end up killing themselves by messing with it.

"Hey, before you start moving me around?" Javi paused for a moment as they both looked at him.

"There's a weapon in my back pocket." He admitted. "The safety's off." Twilight's eyes widened, while Fluttershy blinked, as if just now remembering the gunshot that had gone off earlier.

"You guys... you seem helpful, but I don't want anyone stealing it or setting it off. You could get hurt. Same goes for everything else on me. If you find it, it's better to leave it be."

Fluttershy just looked to him with concern.

Javier grimaced again as the throb in his head intensified. He'd tried to keep still, but any movement after hitting his head a second time against a tree was setting it off. He tried to suppress the hiss that came through his teeth.

"I only plan on using it," he paused, waiting for it to ebb again, "if there are any of the dead around."

Both ponies looked to each other.

"The... dead?" Twilight asked, confusion evident on her face. "I'm not sure what you mean, Javier."

"... You can just call me Javi." He shrugged. They didn't know about the dead, the muertos, the walkers... whatever anyone wanted to call them. If they truly didn't exist here, he didn't know if he should be feeling overwhelming dread or happiness. His family still had to deal with the things, after all...

"If the dead aren't walking, then you don't have to worry. Just... don't mess with it. I don't want anyone getting hurt because of me."

There was a beat where the ponies considered his words.

"We give you our word." Fluttershy nodded with a hint of finality.

Twilight looked nervous, but after a minute, so did she.

"Now, come on;" Fluttershy scurried under his knees, lifting up his legs on her back before Twilight's horn glowed. Fluttershy blushed and let out a small, embarrassed cough as Javier found himself weightlessly suspended in the air, his legs no longer hanging over the yellow pony.

"We're getting you the help you need." Fluttershy nodded before both ponies began... Trotting?... While he floated in the air between them.

This was the moment that Javier gave the most credit to the drugged theory. Wide-eyed at the strange display and at the fact that he was fucking floating, Javier blinked between the two ponies, his jaw working for a moment before he gave up. He watched both the strange corona over Twilight's horn and the similarly colored field that held him aloft. His head was kept still and supported by some invisible force, and he could only guess that it was the work of that same field.

It was an extremely weird experience.

It didn't take too long for the ponies to find a trail to follow, marked with imprints of horseshoes in the dirt. Twilight made a remark about knowing these trails because of something called the "Running of the Leaves," but like anything else in this strange place, he just couldn't parse what the event was. Maybe it'd make more sense when he was less concussed.

Over the course of a few minutes, the trail became a bit wider and more well-traveled, slowly becoming more compacted as they approached what looked like a town. While many of the roofs were made of thatch, and others had shingles, Javi stared at the large, blue tree that glittered in the distance, light refracting off of many angular faces. It struck him as funny that the ornament at the top looked like the star tattoo on Twilight's flank.

"Have you ever been to Ponyville before, Javier?"

Right. Fluttershy had taken up a position beside him as whatever Twilight was doing carried him. They had been talking to him, making sure he stayed awake.

"... No. I'd make a quip about it, but the last thing I need is to be dropped."

If he was hallucinating, it was far too consistent. Fluttershy and Twilight hadn't changed in appearance, always had the same voices as when he'd met them, and— now that they were in the town— everywhere he looked and wherever he expected a person to be, there were nothing but ponies.

Some stopped and stared at the new arrivals, just now having noticed the two ponies holding a large (compared to them) body of a human between them. Their wide-eyed stares were interrupted the moment one started screaming and galloped down the road.

Two other ponies followed suit; Screaming, running inside of their homes, and even going as far as closing up the shutters before the screams stopped.

Javier startled, frantically looking around for what caused the pandemonium, but every one of the ponies around hardly reacted to the pandemonium with anything but tired sighs or resigned laughter.

Twilight and Fluttershy seemed to sigh with resignation of their own.

"Don't mind them, Javi." Fluttershy looked to him. "They do this a lot."

Javier slowly scanned the area one more time, trying not to trigger the onset of dizziness again. When nothing dangerous turned up, he took an uneasy breath.

"I'll take your word for it."

The surreal experience of sitting in a bed in a sanitized, orderly hospital again left Javier in a trance.

Fluttershy had tried to keep him talking, and normally, he wouldn't have a problem with that, but everything about this world left him in a state of disbelief. The longer it went on, the less fuzzy his head felt, and the more he began to question everything.

The ice pack on his head certainly felt real. So did all of the items— and magic, which tingled and felt cool against his skin— that the nurses used to clean the dirt and blood off of him. The building even had air conditioning. When he asked if they had any water, he'd been given a clean cup of it, no questions asked.

Despite the doctor pony's insistence that Fluttershy or Twilight take him to the vet, she still scanned Javi with the magic (and he still couldn't get over that) from her horn to make sure he wasn't bleeding internally; Beyond that, because of Javi's differing anatomy, the most the doctor could do right now was place an ice pack upon his head and tell the two ponies that brought him in to keep him awake. They'd drawn some blood for testing, apparently to see how similar it was to their own and whether or not their painkillers would work on him, but that was about it.

It was too complex and stable for a hallucination or a dream, and didn't match up at all to anything from his world that wasn't sheer mythology. Appearing on another world entirely was just too unlikely for anything that even remotely involved the last few moments before David beat the hell out of him... Though, that bug-pony from before (Ocellus?) certainly made him think of aliens.

If all of those had been crossed off his list, the only other option was that this was the afterlife. Nobody knew what that was like, but even so, why would it be structured like this? If he was already dead, why would injuries persist? Why would the occupants be ponies and other mythical creatures, why would there be hospitals, and just where were all of the other humans that had died?

Nothing made sense. This had to be something else.

A hoof nudged his side.

Brought back to awareness, at least for the moment, Javier looked over to see Fluttershy eyeing him with concern. Twilight was situated in one of the chairs nearby, writing a something with a red and gold quill while looking between Fluttershy, himself, and his shed clothing that had been cleaned and sterilized with magic (he was just about ready to tear his hair out, but maybe he should start taking these little blessings in stride). His bat rested to one, easily accessible, side of the bed.

"Sorry," Fluttershy drooped. "I wanted to make sure you were still with us. Are you feeling any better?"

No, he wasn't. He really, really wasn't.

"Pain-wise? It's tolerable. The ice pack helped." Javier shrugged. He was still slurring, but less so. Something that doctor did with her horn must have helped him. "Mentally, though, just being anywhere around here is so..."

Javier stopped himself. The last time he'd cursed in front of one of these colorful horses, he didn't get very positive reactions from these two. Seeing as they were the ones that were helping him, it wouldn't be a good idea to piss them off.

"It's confusing, 'Shy."

It looked like Fluttershy had relaxed, perhaps having tensed when she thought one of his swears was coming, but her face soon betrayed her own concern and curiosity. Before she could ask, Twilight had beaten her to the punch.

"Why is that, Javi?" The winged unicorn— or alicorn, as she'd corrected him already— tilted her head. "You were talking about using your weapon earlier, but only on the dead... if they were walking. Can you clarify?"

Javier hesitated as both she and Fluttershy looked at him for an answer.

Innocence was the first word that came to mind when he looked at these two. While Fluttershy hadn't cowed at the state of his bloodied clothing, he'd learned that it was her job to help treat and take care of animals. She was more used to it.

Twilight, however, was more obviously squeamish at the sight of blood; Despite their reactions, though, these two clearly weren't violent beings.

If they knew what fresh hell he'd come from...

"You... don't have to answer, if you don't want to." Twily added, rubbing at one foreleg. "I didn't mean to pry—"

"No, no. It's... Complicated." Javier sighed. "And gruesome. I wasn't covered in muerto guts for fun. Are you sure you really want to know the answer?"

"... Muerto?" Twilight blinked.

"Dead ones."

"Oh."

The ponies paused to consider his earlier question. After a time, Twilight slowly nodded, while Fluttershy sat down near the bed and put one of her hooves on his hand.

"I think..." The pegasus started. "Maybe you should get this off of your chest. You seem really bothered by it, so maybe by talking about it, you can start feeling better, and we'll know how to help you."

Javier stared at the little ponies, slightly wide-eyed but impressed at their resolve nonetheless.

"... Alright. I'll... try to keep it short." He shrugged, wracking his brain, thinking about where he should begin.

"It started about... Five years ago. The dead started walking again. This sort of thing was happening everywhere, the dead and dying were getting up and killing people. Unless their brains are destroyed in some way, they just keep getting up, and if they bite you, or you died without significant head trauma... You turn into one."

The ponies weren't taking this well.

"Why?" Twilight stressed. "How were they coming back from the dead? And if they were awake again, why would they—"

Javier shook his head.

"They weren't really awake, 'Light, just... reanimated. And nobody knows why it happened." Javier rubbed at his face, thinking of a few painful instances that involved his Papá, Mamá, and his uncle, Hector. "Whatever makes them the person they were, is just gone. Once someone's been bitten, or becomes one of those muertos... the only thing anyone can do is put them out of their misery. And a lot of the time, they'll beg to be."

Fluttershy was holding herself with her wings, clearly upset, but she hadn't removed her hoof from his hand. After a moment, Twilight swallowed, clearly absorbing the subtext.

"S-so, you've... You've... killed someone before?"

Javier flinched.

"Sometimes, it's the only way. I try to keep everyone alive, Twilight, but you've got to protect your group, your loved ones... and deal with a bite, if they're still alive to ask you to. It's a mercy. If you get to it in time, you can chop off a bitten limb, but otherwise... there's nothing you can really do."

The ponies were trembling, but they seemed to understand.

"... How are you so calm about this?" Twilight asked.

"... Five years is a long time to have to get used to it." Javi grimaced, shrugging.

Fluttershy, though her wings were folded tightly against her sides, looked at Javi's discarded clothing, remembering the weapon he was talking about.

"Is... It really that common? Is that why you have a weapon?"

Javi followed her gaze before looking back to her, nodding.

"Is..." Twilight was looking down at the floor with no small amount of panic, one hoof rubbing at her head. "What is the purpose of their bite? Why do they bite anyone..?"

"I don't know, Twilight." He frowned, shrugging. "People have been trying to figure out why since they started. All we know is that they exist, they walk in herds, and they eat whatever living thing they get their hands on."

Twilight looked just about ready to lose her lunch.

"That's awful," Fluttershy trembled weakly. "I can't imagine living in that nightmare, I..."

"And how is everyone feeling?" A nurse, at that moment, entered the room.

She looked around, her neutral smile soon turning into a frown when she saw a green-faced Princess Twilight trying to recompose herself, Fluttershy close to bursting into tears, and the I-fucked-up expression of the creature she'd helped clean the blood off of earlier.

"If you need a moment..."

"No, no, it's... It's fine." Twilight took some deep breaths, going through some kind of breathing exercise before cracking her best smile. "Javier was just... telling us what happened."

"Alright, well..." The nurse wasn't entirely convinced, but she flipped up a page on her clipboard with one wing. "How's the patient been?"

Javier shrugged, leaning forward to reach for his shirt. "... Still dizzy, bit of a headache, but it's a far cry better than before."

The nurse hummed, lifting a small flashlight.

"Eyes open, please." She instructed, and Javi complied. "Any vomiting? Nausea? And I don't mean from Princess Twilight," the nurse chuckled.

Princess Twilight? Javi asked himself while Twilight smiled sheepishly.

"No."

"Alright, in that case, the doc says you're clear to go." The nurse stowed the flashlight. "Spend the rest of the day resting. No reading, working out, and don't do anything that could risk you knocking your head into anything else. Not until your symptoms pass." She then paused, looking between Twilight and Fluttershy. "One of you should bring him back for the blood test results tomorrow; If he needs any anti-inflammatory or pain medications, we should know if it's safe by then."

Javier listened, actually able to focus more on the here and now instead of meandering off the way he had before. Though, something was... off.

"Hey, uh... Nurse?"

"Yes... Javier?"

"Well— I was wondering, with how bad it was earlier, how did it get better so quickly? More "magic?""

The nurse stared at him, one eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Is... that not normal for your species?" She frowned, flicking through her papers again. "Aside from the scan, we never cast any spells. The doctor noted you had an unusual magical signature, but... We just chalked it up to it being a part of you."

"That's..." Javier shook his head. Should he call bullshit? "That sounds really far-fetched. I've never met a human that could do magic."

"Perhaps it's latent?" Twilight offered, shuffling in place. At first, she'd looked looked really, really excited, but it suddenly dropped into more horrified territory and Javier wasn't sure why.

"Well... if it's helped me heal faster, I guess I can't complain." He chuckled. With a shrug, the nurse turned and headed for the door.

"In any case, you're all clear to leave. Try to take it easy."

Magic... Huh. Javier thought as he covered his lower half with one of the sheets to redress himself. Still have to wonder if I've gone crazy, but...

Fluttershy and Twilight were still in the room, though they seemed to be mulling something over.

"So... Javier," Twilight twirled a hoof, seeming to be considering what she was going to say next. She seemed nervous. "About your... magic, and your world..."

"Yeah?"

Twilight swallowed dryly. One of the papers she'd been writing upon hovered in her magic, and the quill was frantically scratching down more.

"Javi, do you think magic had anything to do with the... muertos?"

He paused for a moment, turning to sling his bat back over his shoulder.

If they didn't already know all about this from others that had come through, then the afterlife theory was struck down, and this had to be something else entirely. Or maybe he really was crazy, talking to technicolor horses in some grand delusion he was having as a result of that last blow to the head he'd taken.

"I know a lot of people thought the outbreak of the muertos was supernatural, but humans never had magic to begin with." Javi frowned. Unless they were pulling his leg— despite humanity never showcasing any real use of it— if they detected magic, then there wasn't harm in getting it checked.

Hell, it was probably the best idea. Nobody knew how it really happened to somebody, whether it was a virus or something else, so what if the supernatural was involved? Anything that died back home became a muerto, whether they were bitten or not, meaning that everyone was infected...

Including him.

"Oh my god."

Apparently, the two ponies seemed to come to the same realization. Fluttershy shook, suddenly backing away from Javi and considering the remainder of the dried blood that had refused to come out of her fetlocks, while Twilight leaped out of her chair, back arching like a cat's.

"We're... going to need a rain check on that," Javier stared at them, wide-eyed, just before Twilight lit her horn and it suddenly felt like he'd been sucked down a giant drain.

With a cold snap and a flash of light, the two ponies and one human were dumped inside of a crystalline structure. The air smelled like ozone, and both Fluttershy's fetlocks and the tip of Twilight's horn were smoking. The alicorn lit her horn again and a bubble of pink light popped into existence around Javier.

"What the fuck!?"

Twilight looked close to hyperventilating.

"O-okay, Javi, don't panic." She started.

"It's a bit late for that!"

"Look, we have to quarantine this until we're sure!" Twilight actually looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, we can't let this spread throughout Equestria. Just— I need to run some tests on you, and when we're done, as long as we're sure you won't contaminate the rest of us, I'll let you out. I promise!"

Javi grimaced, unsure of the pony's honesty. It sounded reasonable, but...

"Please, Javier. Twilight isn't a bad pony," Fluttershy approached the bubble. "She just wants to help."

"... What about the hospital?" Javier asked. "I don't want to hurt anybody there, I swear."

"My teleport should have taken care of any pathogens on the surface, but I can't do anything on the inside of a body or that sample they took; It's too risky. I need to warn the doctors and the nurses, take them here to test their magic after I test yours, make sure they incinerate that blood sample..." Twilight paced outside of the bubble, biting her lip. "And if this infection came with you and has the capability of spreading, then I need to make some kind of vaccine, or countermeasure, or..."

This can't be happening. Javier shuddered, slowly sliding down the side of the bubble to sit on the floor.

"Twilight."

The alicorn ceased her pacing and looked at him guiltily.

At the very least, they knew what to expect. If it spread and infected other creatures, maybe this place would be better prepared than his home was; Especially since they already had patient zero on lockdown.

Javier sighed.

"Do what you need to do. It's my fault you're in this mess, so you have every right."

Twilight and Fluttershy both shared a glance, both taken aback. They were just as scared as he was, but that kind of permission...

"Okay, Javi." Twilight grimaced. "I'll... Let you stay in one of the castle rooms while you're here, but not without this shield being active at all times. I also need to contact Princess Celestia about quarantine, notify the doctors... Fluttershy and I should probably be quarantined until we're given the all-clear, too..." She shook her head, trembling in place. Two papers floated over to her, and she drafted a new letter before sending it off in a flash of light.

"Now, we need to head to my lab." The bubble Javier was in shrunk a ways, and he involuntarily shuddered. "We're going to start testing as soon as possible. I promise you, we'll get this sorted out."

He certainly hoped so.