Chapter 2: Harvest

Sound returns to Twilight haltingly, the omnipresent ringing in her ears and the numbness of her head causing her senses to teter and roll as she tries to put the ground beneath her hooves. Slowly, she finds her way upright, fighting with all the willpower left in her body against the sensation of swimming that comes after a botched teleport spell.

Taking a few deep breaths once her hooves are firmly planted on the hard-packed earth, Twilight tries to will her senses back into order next, and finding no luck with that focuses on staying standing as bit by bit the rest of her senses return. Her sense of smell comes next as the ringing in her ears lessens, the smell of burnt wood and scorched earth filling her lungs and causing her to cough. The coughing continues, a fact that causes her earlier hot chocolate and her to become reintroduced, causing her senses to swim a little bit more.

Sight, unfortunately, returns next as the ringing in her ears and the numbness of her head slowly abates enough for her to chance a glance around. But once her eyes are open they stay open, as the bright light and stinging sensation cannot force her to look away from the meter of blackened, smoldering earth around her. Nor can it tear her attention away from the fact she’s standing in a crater up to her chest, with an apple orchard beyond the devastation, a few of the trees closest to her entrance aflame.

In a panic, Twilight attempts to light her horn, only for a searing pain to race through her skull, causing her to drop to her haunches and grip her head with a shout. Realizing her magical reserves are not just low but also likely in the dangerous burn out range, Twilight does her best to fight through the pain so she can go get help.

Putting one hoof in front of the other, Twilight grits her teeth and starts moving, stopping only as the last of the ringing fades and she starts to hear voices.

“The explosion came from over here, Sergeant,” one of the voices says, causing Twilight’s ears to perk up and forward. Guards? That’s good, that means she hopefully didn’t go too far.

“Don’t let your guard down, men,” a grumpy male voice replies, “don’t know about you, but a training operation is a perfect target for damned Rebels.”

Rebels? There were no rebel forces in Equestria… so she can’t be in Equestria!

Panic gripping her heart, Twilight stumbles towards a tree, her horn sparking as she tries to cast an invisibility spell, her only reward being sharp pain through her whole head. She strifles a whimper and crawls into the hollow at the base of the tree, doing her best to look small and beyond notice as she runs through all the nations that might possibly have rebel forces near Equestria.

The Griffon Empire was one, of course, but they were hardly all that good at agriculture, and the brief look she got of the orchard screamed that someone on Applejack’s level of skill tended the grove, perhaps the Zebra Nations? No… no, the air was too humid to be there. Not dragons, too, the voices weren’t gravely enough.

“Holy shit, sarge, what kind of bomb did this?” another voice asks, this one female.

“The kind that explodes,” the gruff voice replies.

Minotaurs, perhaps? She’d heard something about them being good farmers, and they had rebellions every once and awhile.

“Do you taste copper?” another voice asks.

“Everyone back up! Masks on!” The gruff sergeant’s voice barks, and Twilight can hear what sounds like a rush of hooves, or whatever these creatures have, as the group rapidly backs up. “Corporal, what’s the dosimeter saying?”

“Three point six?” the female voice replies.

“Mmmm, not great but not terrible,” the Sergeant says, “we’ll need showers when we get back. Before we do, though, fan out. Make sure there’s nothing else hiding around here waiting to go off.”

A chorus of ‘yes sir,’ follows and Twilight hears something coming closer. Closing her eyes she pushes back against the tree she is hiding behind, her horn sparking again as she once more attempts to instinctually cast an invisibility spell. The resulting pain causes her to yelp, and then cover her mouth with her hooves as the sound of whatever creatures are approaching her stops.

Something clicks nearby, and the sounds of soft impacts against the charred earth and grass come closer, causing Twilight to curl her tail around herself, desperately lighting her horn again as she fights through the pain as her magical aura wraps around a nearby fallen branch in preparation to defend herself. However, when the thing comes around the corner all she can do is stare with wide eyes.

“Oh, shit, it’s just a little horse,” the creature says, its voice coming from behind a mask with a clear face plate and a large black thing covering the lower part of the face with two large bulges on it. The creature’s voice is female, though, and as Twilight stares she slowly lowers a black object she had been aiming at Twilight, another click issuing out as she looks around the tree. “Sarge! You’re not going to believe this, but someone dyed a little horse purple and stuck a horn on it!”

The female backs up a little, and Twilight is able to lower her eyes to the rest of the creature, taking note of what looks to be a full suit of armor as well as a belt with cylindrical objects and a few pouches. The creature grips whatever the object she had been pointing at Twilight with claw-like digits, not terribly dissimilar to those of a minotaur or a griffon, just without the claws of a griffon.

The first creature is shortly thereafter joined by five others, one of them not wearing the armor the others are, and unlike the others has dark brown skin. The sergeant’s stripes on his hat, though, mark him as the one they were all deferring to.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” the sergeant grunts, “it really is a little painted horse with a damn horn on its head.”

“Pony,” Twilight says softly, causing six pairs of eyes to snap to her, and more of the object from before being pointed at her with a series of clicks as various buttons or levers were pulled back on the objects. Twilight puts her forehooves up in front of her face, instinct causing fear to spike up. They’re clearly soldiers, and those objects must be weapons.

“Sir?” one of the others says, this one male, says after a few moments.

“Yes, private?” the sergeant replies.

“The horse talked, right?”

“It did indeed,”

“She,” Twilight offers softly, still cowering. “I-I’m a mare.”

“Mhmm, and you’re speaking English,” the sergeant states, “any explanation for that, miss mare?”

“N-no… no I don’t,” Twilight offers, “I’m not even sure where I am? One moment I was back in the Castle in Canterlot, and then my spell failed and I… I don’t know what happened?”

“Well, from the state of this orchard, I’d say you blew up,” the sergeant replies as he lowers his weapon, “still, you’re not attacking us, and you don’t seem hostile.”

“Uh, sir, what about first contact protocols?” the female asks.

“What about them?” the sergeant asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Well… uh, you know like in the serials? Shouldn’t we… I don’t know, take her in for study o-or I don’t know, contact the Captain?”

“Of course we’re going to take her in and talk to the Captain,” the sergeant barks, “gotta figure out how she got here, and why she exploded!”

“I told you, my spell went wrong,” Twilight offers with a frown, lowering her forelegs back to the ground.

“Spell, like magic?”

“I think one of the crystals I was using to channel the magical energy I had stored in the mi-” Twilight starts.

“Crystals, of course, clearly that’s how magic works, that’s really a horse of a different color,” the sergeant grouses, causing Twilight’s ears to flatten.

“You don’t have to be sarcastic at me,” Twilight says softly.

“Yeah, Sarge, she doesn’t seem like a threat, and she seems scared, should be nice to her,” the female soldier says.

“Did I ask your opinion, Corporal Rosewood?” the sergeant growls, turning to the female with a glare.

“No, sir,” Rosewood replies.

“Then keep your mouth shut,”

“Well, sir, what do we do now?” One of the other soldiers asks, looking around, “we can’t stay here, the explosion will have attracted attention.”

Grunting, the Sergeant taps an ear -- or at least Twilight assumes it’s an ear it’s a bit small -- and speaks.

“Healy! This is Johnson, we’re coming back to base,” Johnson barks, then frowns as he hears something in reply, “of course it has something to do with that explosion! We think we found a source, and we’ve got a friend for you to look at. Yes, yes, I bet Mack is curious as to what tore a hole in the middle of this orchard. He can peek in too if it’ll get him to stop bugging me.”

As he stands there arguing, Twilight blinks and slowly lowers her forelegs, wincing as she realizes just how sore she is from the botched experiment. Her wince draws the attention of the Corporal, who lowers her weapon and gets closer, kneeling down so she’s at eye level.

“You okay there, little pony?” Rosewood says.

“Twilight,” Twilight says softly, “my name’s Twilight… and no, I’m not alright.”

“Natalie, and anything I can help with? I grew up around horses on my family’s farm. I might be able to help?”

Twilight shakes her head, then groans, “No… no I’m fine, except the pounding headache and feeling like I’ve been tossed through a tumble dryer…”

“Considering the damage you did to the orchard I’m surprised you’re still able to… well talk? I mean, horses around her don’t talk, so…” Natalie offers gently, “Still, when we get you back I’m sure the doc will look you over and make sure you’re okay.”

“Hopefully he knows what he’s doing,”

“Oh, Healy is one of the best, don’t you worry,” Natalie winks as she stands up, “Uh, you can walk? It’s a long way, I’m sure one of us can carry you though?”

“I’m not sure I can go too far feeling like this,” Twilight starts, “but…”

“But nothing,” the sergeant interrupts, “and none of us will be walking, Command is sending a pelican our way. We’re riding home.” He then looks to the others, “Till then, spread out, take pictures of the damage with your helmet’s.”

At this the others spread out and start surveying the damage, some of them with little instruments and others simply tapping their helmets every once and awhile. Natalie sticks close, though, along with the Sergeant who both keep looking at Twilight every so often. Twilight, for her part, sits there focusing on breathing and not panicking. A task made all the more difficult as the realization of just how far from home she likely is sets in.

“Hey, what’s this?” One of the soldiers asks, causing Twilight to look around her tree towards the large creator her arrival made. “Looks like saddle bags?”

“They are,” Twilight says as she stands up, grunts when her body rebels and the world swims a little, “they’re mine… please don’t open them, the reagents inside might be unstable from the accident.”

The trooper holding it, a male if Twilight’s cursory observational hypothesis on gender dimorphism in the species before her is right, makes to drop the bag and forces Twilight to light her horn and fight through the headache to catch the bags and lightly set them down. The casual, or at least hopefully what looked casual, feat of magic causes the others to stare at Twilight as she pants and makes her wobbly way over to the bags.

Reaching her bags, Twilight sits down with a soft sigh and noses them open to see what the damage is. Luckily, nothing explodes in her face, not that she wouldn’t perhaps welcome it at this point so the omnipresent pain of her horn wanting to break off would be quiet. In the absence of a blessed release from the pain, Twilight instead finds the inside of her bags mostly intact, with the spare crystals she had procured all shattered into a fine dust save one.

Digging a little deeper, Twilight sighs softly as she pulls an old photo out of the bag, along with some feathers.

“And who do we have here?” Natalie asks as she comes up behind Twilight, the soldier who had dropped Twilight’s bags coming over to look as well. “That’s a pretty big pony, heck, she looks like she’d put some of my larger stallions to shame.”

“It’s Princess Celestia,” Twilight offers, looking at the photo with a gentle smile. She runs the fetlock of a hoof along it, “She’s my mentor, and the co-ruler of Equestria.”

“Princess, eh? That makes you, what, royalty by association?” Natalie asks, looking closer at the picture and the feathers, “and what’s up with you having some of her feathers? It mean something?”

“Well, no, I mean,” Twilight stammers, “my family is minor nobility already. Mom got knighted for services rendered she won’t talk about, and dad got inducted into the Order of the Stars after Luna, Celestia’s sister, came back…”

“Knights, eh?” Natalie chuckles, “that’s actually pretty coo-”

“And my brother married Celestia’s niece, Princess Cadence,” Twilight continues, putting the picture back in her bag.

“Oh, so you’re…?” the male soldier behind them says slowly.

“I’m not anything, just a scholar,” Twilight offers with a smile.

“Right, and I’m the tooth fairy,” the male soldier offers with a frown.

“Yeah, well how is that tooth collection coming, Red?” Natalie smirks.

“Quite well, gained a few more a-” Red starts, his voice making his smirk clear, only to stop when Sergeant comes over and puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Private, if I wanted to hear what you and your fuck buddies do while drunk, I’d ask,” he growls before looking to Twilight, “alright, Miss Sparky, pack your bags our transport arrives in T-Minus right now.”

The sound of a loud roar starts even before he finishes talking, and Twilight puts the feathers she had been holding in her magic back into the bag as she huddles down and against Natalie, ears back against her head in fear.

“What the hay is that!?” Twilight shouts over the roar, eyes wide as she scans the area.

“Pelican, brass is really pulling out all the stops!” Natalie shouts back.

“THAT IS NOT A BIRD!” Twilight shouts as she puts her hooves over her ears to try and quiet out the roar of whatever it is, though likely a dragon from just how loud it is and how long it has been roaring. Something suddenly goes over her head, and Twilight cringes until she realizes the sound has grown less, and she opens her eyes to find she is wearing a helmet of some kind.

Looking up and putting a hoof on the helmet so it won’t slip, she finds Natalie kneeling above her protectively, and when the human notices her looking up she winks from behind her mask. Natalie then nods towards something, and when Twilight looks over she finds a large machine hovering nearby as large struts extend from the bottom.

The ‘Pelican’ lands quickly after that, and the roar dies down as a large ramp lowers from the back of it, allowing a team of what look to be more humans wearing large camouflage patterned suits with tanks attached to get off and rush forward. They quickly encircle the group Twilight is with, and one of them -- clearly an officer from the salute he gets from Johnson -- says something to the sergeant and points to the roaring vehicle, then at Twilight who shrinks down a little beneath Natalie.

“Right, we’re going back to base,” Johnson’s voice comes over what is clearly a radio in the helmet, “and escorting our purple pony friend to the Commander.”

Twilight looks up to Natalie with a frown, hoof still atop the borrowed helmet, as the militia around her start heading towards the strange craft. The human simply smiles and nods towards the pelican with a shrug. The gesture inspires some comfort in Twilight, but with so many unknowns her mind is already running full speed through all the potential possibilities and outcomes, and there was a nine in ten chance she was walking into a situation where she’d end up in some laboratory as a research curiosity. Of course, so long as they don’t dissect her that isn’t too bad, right? She’d get to learn about this strange world’s sciences, and perhaps if she ever went back to Equestria she could bring it with her?

Her hooves hitting the metal deck of the ramp jars her back out of her own mind, causing Twilight to blink and look around. She had started forward with the others, but had gotten so wrapped up in her own thoughts on what was going on that she hadn’t been paying attention. Now that she is here, at the bottom of the ramp, she finds herself hesitant, even scared, to step forward. What if they did dissect her? What if they hurt her? What if she never got to go home?!

Sensing she doesn't have much of a choice, surrounded by soldiers as she is, Twilight steels herself and ascends the ramp to find an open space with chairs lining the walls. Quickly moving towards the chair directly beside Natalie, Twilight takes a moment to strap herself in with a combination of her vastly depleted magic and her hooves. The position is uncomfortable, as she is sitting with her back against the padded backrest instead of laying down, and also earns a few raised eyebrows and whispers from the other soldiers in the craft.

Before she can really dwell on the odd looks, there is the sudden feeling of gravity increasing, followed by up and forward momentum as the entire craft shakes and roars. Looking to the side, she sees the ground rapidly falling away, causing her already abused stomach and head to spin as a fresh wave of vertigo makes itself known, and she is forced to close her eyes and grip the straps holding herself in tightly.

The feeling of being touched causes Twilight to jump slightly, and open one eye to look over at the form of Natalie gently resting a clawed appendage on her shoulder with a reassuring look.

The rest of the flight is blessedly quick, and Twilight sends a silent prayer to Sun and Moon that she’ll never have to fly in one of these metal contraptions again.

As they land, Twilight once more looks out of the back of the craft, the sight of a large field filled with the same kind of craft as well as what look to be wheeled vehicles of some sort bringing her to the conclusion they’re in some sort of military carriage pool. The troops that came with the pelican quickly disembark and move off to one side as Johnson’s soldiers all rise from their seats and wait, with Twilight slowly removing her own seating straps as her unease increases.

“What are you waiting for?” Twilight asks softly as the engines die down.

“That pretty lightshow you put on caused radiation sensors to spike, we need to be decontaminated,” the Sergeant replies gruffly, clearly not looking forward to whatever has to be done.

“Radiation? Magical Radiation shouldn’t be harmful to you,” Twilight replies with a frown.

“Can’t take that chance,” Johnson states in a tone that brooks no argument, “you’re going to go through it too, so try not to kick or bite anyone.”

Before anything more can be said there is a whistle from outside the craft, followed by a voice, “Alright everyone, you know the drill! Off the craft so we can wash her down!”

The group starts forward, with a very hesitant Twilight in the middle of them.

Beyond the ramp of the pelican Twilight finds a large group of creatures dressed similar to the ones that had come to get them, with the latter being hosed down with what looked like a combination of long-necked hoses and brushes covered in some sort of soap. Twilight’s group is led down a hastily constructed corridor of rubbery looking sheets that fully encloses them, and towards a tent, the heavy flap of which seems to be constructed out of multiple pieces of an opaque hard substance.

Once inside the tent-like structure, the majority of Twilight’s group is led into their own partitioned off cubicles, creatures with instruments swarming around them and muttering under their breaths and through their masks as they take readings. Twilight herself is reluctantly led into a cubicle where she finds a raised basen with a drain and tall showerhead, an attendant standing beside it with what Twilight can only describe as a push broom and an unmarked bottle of brown looking liquid.

“What do you need me to do?” Twilight asks, looking up at the masked face of the creature with her.

“Step into the basin and I’ll start the shower,” he, for the voice is clearly male, states calmly.

Doing so, Twilight stands stiffly upon the cold and slightly damp material and looks straight ahead. After a few moments the water is turned on, causing Twilight to jump slightly, then relax a little when it warms up.

“Alright, so in the interest of… well, explaining all this, I’m going to be applying some of this soap, which is made out of a combination of iodine and liquid soap, to this brush so we can scrub whatever radiological contamination you may have on you.”

“Is it going to hurt?” Twilight asks simply, looking up at the soldier.

“It won’t be pleasant,” he admits.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight nods and looks straight ahead again.

The following few minutes are very unpleasant, and Twilight has to take the brush from the soldier a few times so she can scrub some of her more sensitive areas while he turns around and allows her what little privacy he can. Once she is done, the attendant offers her the showerhead, which detaches from the pole above her, and lets her rinse herself off until all the soap has been washed down the drain.

She is then offered a rough towel and led back out of the tent and loaded into the enclosed back of a large wheeled vehicle along with the rest of the group she came with. The vehicle starts forward with a rumble, and Twilight sits in silence along with the others as they are taken to Celestia-knows-where.

After the first ten minutes, despite how anxious she is, the fatigue from her spellcasting, as well as all the stress, catches up with her and she curls up against Natalie’s side with her head resting in the creature’s lap.

After what feels like only moments Twilight is gently shaken awake by one of her companions, and opens her eyes to look up at the bleary face of the creature she had been resting on.

“We’re here, time to get out and let's see if the Doc can’t clear you so we can take these masks off, hm?”

Yawning and stretching, an action that causes Twilight to yelp softly as her body protests, Twilight gingerly makes her way off the bench and out of the vehicle to find herself in another one of those makeshift corridors. She takes a moment to look around, and find that she is alone with Natalie, the rest of the group being conspicuously absent.

“Where are the others?” Twilight asks, looking at her companion, who is now dressed in a pair of short lower coverings and a white upper covering with short sleeves.

“They went ahead of us,” Natalie replies as she gestures for them to start walking down the corridor, “I volunteered to stay behind because I grew up on a horse ranch and can help the Doc assess you. Plus, it’s regulations that a female has to be present for any uh, inspections of a female.”

Twilight blushes a little and tucks her tail between her hind legs at that last comment, frowning. “How invasive is this going to be?”

“Shouldn’t be too bad,” Natalie shrugs, “I think the doc will draw blood, we’ll look at your teeth and hooves, take some x-rays. Standard stuff, really.”

“That doesn’t sound that bad,” Twilight says with a small smile, “just a checkup?”

“Yup! And if you don’t have any weird alien diseases I’m sure we can talk the Captain or the Commander to let you out into the general population,” Natalie replies with a wink from behind her mask.

At this the two come to a pair of glass double doors, which Natalie goes to and opens and gestures for Twilight to enter. Quickly doing so, Twilight finds herself in a hallway lined with more of the material from outside, with a sharp turn at the end of the hallway and a door with a red cross open.

Knowing full well what a red cross means, Twilight canters down the hallway at a good pace and then turns to enter the medical office.

Inside Twilight finds a creature like the others looking at a clipboard. Unlike the others, though, he’s wearing of all things a haywian shirt under a lab coat, another pair of the short lower coverings, and some sort of strange paw coverings that barely do anything other than provide soft padding under his lower extremities. His mane is also shaggy and unkempt and he seems to be humming something off-key under the mask he is wearing.

He, however, doesn’t catch Twilight’s attention for long, as nearby is another creature on a pedestal. This one is wearing a hat like Applejack’s and a long coat with boots. He’s also tiny and see-through, like some sort of illusion magic.

“Look, Doc, I just don’t know what to tell you,” the illusion says, causing Twilight’s ears to perk forward as he sounds a lot like AJ’s accent too. “All the Captain said was the alien that blew up that orchard was a tiny horse.”

“I swear, if Johnson took this time to suddenly develop a sense of humor I’m going to be out a lot of money in the betting pool, Mac,” the doctor says without looking up from his clipboard. “And I really don’t want to buy Jenkins a full case of whiskey.”

Clearing her throat, Twilight steps forward, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but are you the doctor I’m supposed to talk to.”

Both the illusion and the doctor look to Twilight and flinch. The illusion recovers from his shock quicker than the doctor though, as he laughs.

“Oh, sweet tin stars! Doc, ain’t that the cutest little horse ya’ever did see?”

“Nope, this is obviously a prank,” The medic replies before walking to the door, his strange lower appendage coverings slapping with each step, “Rosewood! Are you throwing your voice for this thing or do I have to check it for speakers!”

“No need to shout, Healy,” Natalie chuckles as she walks in the door, “and no, I’m not throwing my voice, I can’t do that, let alone do so from inside a gas mask.”

“I will not believe this is an alien,” Healy replies, gesturing to Twilight with his clipboard, “she’s adorable, and small! I’ve seen dogs bigger than her!”

While the two debate, Twilight wanders into the room and finds her way onto a low cot, sighing softly as she rests her still sore body and head. Resting her chin atop her folded forelegs, she starts to close her eyes again despite the need to be attentive in this unfamiliar environment, when the illusionary creature suddenly appears at her bedside.

“Hey there little mare, y’alright?” he asks, tipping his hat backwards as he sits on what Twilight assumes is a projection device.

“Tired, expended a lot of energy,” Twilight says softly, yawning, “could use a nap.”

“Just’a nap?” the illusions asks, raising an eyebrow.

Twilight opens her mouth to say that, yes she just needs a nap, when her stomach rumbles loudly and she blushes.

“A snack, too, perhaps,” Twilight coughs, only for her stomach to rumble more, “or well, it’d be about dinner time right now back home I suspect.”

“Well, my little equine friend, why don’t I separate the good Doc over there from the private, and we’ll see ‘bout gettin’ you that food, hmm?” The illusion offers before smirking and looking towards the door.

For a moment, Twilight is confused as to what he expects to do from all the way over here, but then the lights start blinking and the door opens and closes a few times, causing the doctor to groan and turn around.

“Okay, okay I get it I need to play along with the joke or Sergeant Major Killjoy is going to come in here with his cigars and glare at me,” Healy grumbles as he comes over to Twilight’s cot. “Well, lets get this farce over with, Rosewood get your butt over here.”

Twilight is soon joined by the private, who stands at her bedside while the doctor stands in front of her with his clipboard raised as he looks to Twilight.

“Name?”

“Twilight Sparkle,”

“Right, okay, uhm, ‘race’ I guess?”

“Pony, Unicorn specifically,”

“Date of Birth?”

“Nine-Hundred-Seventy-Nine, in our year of Celestia’s Reign,”

“How old does that make you?”

“Twenty-One,”

“Occupation?”

“Personal Student of her Majesty, Princess Celestia Everfree,”

“Okay, uhm, that’s… mmm, would that make you a foreign dignitary?” Healy asks, lowering his clipboard.

“I don’t know? Princess Celestia just teaches me about magic and I write letters to her eve-” Twilight pauses, her eyes going wide, “Oh no, I can’t send her reports on my progress! I wouldn’t even know how to-” Twilight’s panic is quickly cut off by a gentle touch on her side, causing her to flinch and look up at the masked form of Private Rosewood next to her.

“It’s okay, Twilight, we’ll figure out how to get word home for you, don’t worry,”

“Don’t jump to conclusions, Rosewood,” Healy states, the frown evident in his voice.

“With all due respect, Private First Class, she’s not hostile, I’d want to know she’s alright if I was her friends, family, and monarch.”

“Not our call,” Healy offers, then looks to Twilight who has her ears lowered and tail wrapped around herself, “I hope you understand, we can’t just… well there’s protocols and… why am I telling you this? I’m still not convinced you’re not a prank.”

“Shall we move on, Doc? Got Comannder al-Cygni demanding to know when we can clear the alien,” Mac says from the table.

“Right right, no time for fun in the military,” Healy sighs, “any family medical history or diagnosed conditions?”

“Uhm, none of my family suffers from anything major, though I uhm, I have bouts of anxiety and manic behavior with obsessive tendencies?”

“Right, well, this next one is really important, and I cannot stress how important it is,” Healy says, looking a suddenly very nervous Twilight in the eyes. “Have you, in the past month, traveled off-world?”

For a moment Twilight just stares at him, then snorts, “Are you serious?”

“Yup, gotta know, super important medically,” Healy chuckles.

“Well, the answer is yes, I have,” Twilight says rolling her eyes.

“Thank you for your honesty, Miss. Now, next of kin?”

“My parents, Nightlight and Twilight Velvet,” Twilight offers, “Uhm, and my brother and sister in law, Shining Armor and Cadence.” Twilight then pauses and lowers her ears, “Well, okay, Cadence isn’t actually her name. She doesn’t really like using her real name but this is an official document so… my sister in law is Princesss Mi Amore Cadenza…”

“Ah. Well, I’ll be sure to make note that you are, in fact, very much a foreign dignitary, lest we accidentally dissect you and make your teacher and sister in law angry,” Healy deadpans.

“Are those all the questions?” Twilight asks.

“Well, I do have one more, and this one is really important,”

“What is it?”

“Well, you’re clearly a smart practical joke, right? So, do you know what Trypanophobia is?” Healy asks, causing Twilight to blink.

“That’s the fear of needles, isn’t it? I read about it in a medical textbook when I was learning how to calm Spike, he’s my dragon assistant, down when he had to go in for a checkup,” Twilight starts, entering lecture mode as she starts talking about what she had learned.

As she does, Healy stands up and goes over to a cabinet to pull out a few items, nodding along and replying to Twilight’s comments about the treatment of the phobia, and when he returns he’s got Twilight so engaged in talking about the topic that she only pauses when she realizes he’s put on a tourniquet and inserted an IV into one of her forelegs to draw blood. Twilight stares at it for a moment, then looks up at the medic.

“What? You think you’re the only patient that I have that suffers from anxiety, and is really far away from home for the first time?” Healy asks, raising an eyebrow.

“You got me talking to distract me from what you were doing,” Twilight says slowly, “and mitigated my anxiety by getting me to talk…”

“Like I said, not my first rodeo, pun intended,” Healy chuckles.

After the blood is drawn, Twilight is subjected to a battery of other tests from a series of x-rays, a dental exam, and a physical performed by Natalie and Mac since Healy had no idea how to make sure a horse or pony was healthy.

All of it ending with Healy taking off his mask to show off the remnants of a hastily shaven beard and a smile.

“Okay, well, results are in and you are not carrying a deadly pathogen that will kill off all life on this planet as we know it,” Healy offers nodding to Natalie who takes off her own mask. “That said, I am now going to have to reluctantly admit I was wrong, you are in fact some sort of alien horse creature, that convergent biology exists, and apparently horses exist elsewhere in the galaxy.”

“So, now what?” Twilight asks.

“Now, we get you some food, whatever the heck you actually eat,” Healy says, “and then I suspect we’ll see what the Commander has to say and go from there.”

“Well, you heard the doctor, let's go find you something to eat,” Natalie says with a smile as she rises from the cot next to Twilight, extending a steadying appendage when Twilight nearly falls over when she rises. “Woah, careful there, blood draw and your hunger are nasty things. Don’t rush it.”

Offering a thankful smile, Twilight starts for the door slowly, hopeful to find some more food. And possibly more friends.

Author's Note

Harvest, such a peaceful planet, I'm sure nothing could ever go wrong here! Right?

Right....?