A Strange Creature in Ponyville

A Strange Creature in Ponyville

Stage 1: Crashdown

It was a normal day in Ponyville, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and there was a light breeze just to stop everypony from getting to hot. Twilight was walking through Ponyville to get to Sugarcube corner to meet up with her friends.

“Isn’t today wonderful, Spike? The fresh air, the warm sun on your mane.” she asked

“Yeah, I suppose.” said Spike

Spike didn’t really want to tag along but when Twilight mentioned that Rarity would be there he practically begged to come, also the allure of sweets and other treats made the temptation too much for him to handle. Spike was just sitting on Twilights back watching ponies go about their daily lives, he waved to a few of them but was mostly just sitting back basking in the sun.

“Well we’re here Spike. Hiya girls!”

Twilight waved to Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were already sitting, waiting at a table they looked over and waved back.

“How y’all doin’?” asked Applejack

“Yeah, took you long enough” said Rainbow

“Rainbow, what is wrong with you today?”

“Nothing, sorry, I’m just SO tired I’ve only had a few hours sleep this week and after what happened this morning well.”

“Why, what’s happened?” asked Twilight taking a seat opposite to Rainbow Dash

“Yeah Rainbow, your one of the coolest ponies I know” said Spike who sat next to Twilight

“ONE of the coolest?”

“Uhh, yes...?” Spike said and chuckled nervously, glancing to Twilight pleadingly; she looked back at him in a “dig yourself out of this one” smirk

“Huh” huffed Rainbow, turning her nose up to Spike. “Well anyway, I’m wanting to tell you when the rest of them get here”

Spike breathed a small sigh of relief and Twilight started to chat to her two friends about their day so far, before long Rarity showed up looking irritated with Pinkie Pie bouncing along side, “What has Pinkie Pie done this time?” was the collective thought at the table.

“Well really Pinkie, do you really think THAT’S how a lady is supposed to act?” Rarity stated “I mean really that was a group of elderly ponies visting from Manehattan for a birthday celebration.”

“But that party needed some livening up, besides I think they liked it” as always Pinkie was in a cheery tone.

“It wasn't a party... UGH never mind, oh hi girls, and Spike.”

Spike had to stop himself from drooling as Rarity gracefully waltzed over to the table and sat down next to him.

“So what was your day like Rarity?” asked Spike

“Slow, not many orders to take care of and Sweetie Belle is away adventuring with her friends.”

“And what about yours Pinkie?”

“Well, first I woke up after having the most wonderful dream about a place called Candy Mountain then I went down stairs
and ……”

Pinkie described every single thing that had happened that morning, in a freaky attention to detail. There were also a few mentions of twitchiness in her tail and in other parts of her body that made all the ponies at the table look at each other worryingly but she assured them that there was no need to worry, there was no twitching now.
An hour past with the friends giggling and talking, but after a while they started to turn their attention to the lack of one of their number, Fluttershy had yet to appear and was starting to worry the group when all of a sudden she showed up, galloping towards them and came screeching to a halt right in front of the table where her friends were sitting.

“WHOA, what's got your mane in a tangle Sugarcube?” asked Applejack

“Oh… sorry I’m late girls but um… all the animals at my home were in hysterics and I just had to calm them down” Fluttershy
was obviously out of breath and panting heavily.

“That’s weird” said Rainbow “Ok, now we’re all here I want to tell you what happened this morning.”
“I was just flying around and clearing the skies but then I was shouted down by two of the royal guards and they started questioning me, they were strange questions like ‘Did I see anything while flying’ and ‘did I feel anything strange while I was up there’ ever since then they have been asking passersby the same questions.”

“That is quite strange” said Twilight “The princess hasn’t told me anything about this, Spike take a note, Dear Princess Celestia...”
she began but before she could say another word there were screams from ponies all across the town square, all of them fixated on something in the sky and all of a sudden the wind picked up into a gale, but it was unnatural.

“WHAT IN THE HAY IS THAT?”
screamed Applejack pointing her hoof at a massive, what looked like a storm cloud in the sky but it was to straight edged to be a cloud but it did kind of looked like a rip in the sky…

“A PORTAL?!” screamed Twilight

“WHAT’S THAT?”

“A PORTAL!”

“AH HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME AH MEANT WHAT IS A PORTAL?”

“IT’S ---.”

Before Twilight could finish, something rocketed out of the tear and as quickly as it appeared it dissipated and left something hurtling towards Ponyville. This only made ponies scream louder, run about faster and before long it smashed the ground and left a trail of destruction from the library to right outside Sugarcube corner, there was smoke, dust and debris all around where the thing had crashed. There were ponies coughing and still screaming everywhere.

“Is everypony ok?” shouted Rarity.

There were shouts and groans of agreement with more coughing and spluttering. As soon as the dust started to clear and everypony was back on their feet, attention turned to the thing that crashed right next to them.

“ugh, this dust is ruining my mane.”

“What do you suppose it is?” asked Applejack

“I don’t know” said Twilight “and to tell you the truth I’m not sure I want to know.”

“But Twi, what if it’s dangerous, I think that ---"

“That’s the point Applejack, it must have been going at some sort of speed to cause that level of destruction behind it, " she pointed a hoof along the wake of shatterd road "and if it’s still intact then, I just don’t know.”

“That’s why we have to investigate, to protect everypony---"

“Every…pony?” said an unfamiliar voice. which then set about moaning, groaning and wimpering.

"And what in tarnation was THAT?" asked Applejack

"You know I said 'what if it's still intact'...."

It took them a while to realise what Twilight meant, this made them all jump back at this realization. The only one who didn’t jump back was Fluttershy who stood wide-eyed at the crater.

“Fluttershy!” whispered Rainbow dash “Come here!”

“I…I can’t.” whispered Fluttershy “T…T…There’s a living being in there and I…I need to help it.”

“Fluttershy, now is not the time to get over your fears, get over here now!”

“I… I can’t.”

She was whimpering as she started to shift towards the crater, her friends were calling after her to come back but she couldn’t stop herself. Before she knew it she was at the edge and was peering in, the dust in and round the crater had yet to dissipate and it was hard to see her hoof in front of her face, still Fluttershy knew she must press on after all what kind of pony would she be if she let a poor innocent creature die like this.

Through the haze she caught a glimpse of something moving and approached cautiously, the closer she got the more of the thing she could see, it looked normal enough from this distance, even though, she appoched even more slowly, whatever it was she didn’t want to startle it into making a rash decision that might involve violence, she nearly had a heart attack when she heard one of her friends call her name.

“FLUTTERSHY!” It sounded like Twilight “ARE YOU OK?”

Calming her nerves she said just loud enough to hear “Yes, I’m fine, could you be quite please I don’t want to startle this creature.”
After a minute she began walking forwards again, but stopped almost immediately when she heard her name a second time.

“F....fl....flutershy?”

This was different though, it sounded weaker, more croaky, but closer. “It must be the creature” she thought

“Y…yes, thats my name, w... what's yours?” she said to it out loud.

Almost immediately she heard sobbing and a shout that nearly drove her back into the protection of her friends

“IT WORKED, IT… IT WORKED” there was a little bit of laughter but then there was sobbing again.

“Oh… it’s ok d…don’t cry”

“it worked.....it worked......it worked” laughing and sobbing in equal measure

The creature was a lot quieter and Fluttershy was almost on top of it, now she could make out features of it's body aswell. They all semed out somehow, the hind legs (or what she ASSUMED were hind legs) were longer than the average ponies and the hooves were misshapen, being longer agian. The forelegs were even WEIDER, shorter tjan the hind legs but the hooves again were mishapen, this time with what looked like claws but without the sharpnes, they were just cylindrical. With all the animals Fluttershy had seen, befriended and studied she had never even heard of a creature like this. What had happened to this poor thing?
Hovering over it now Fluttershy breathed "What manner of creature are you?"

Hearing this the creature shakily moved it's forleg and it's 'claws-that-weren't-claws' reaching out to her and said "hu...man"

It looked at her with deep, tearful, gray eyes, smiled weekly and colapsed unconscious leaving a very confused Fluttershy staring, processing what just happened.