Providence

Chapter Three: Meetings

"Who knows when we'll be coming home at last?"

They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity – the first real encounter between a local and a foreigner to this planet. Jordan barely showed how panicked he was about the encounter; what was he supposed to do? He had spent a considerable amount of time trying not to be found, just to walk into this. Was there a window he could jump out of? First of all, there were none, at least not insight. Second of all, he leg would probably prevent him from doing that. The pony was standing between him and the door, and said pony was basically the wielder of a powerful weapon (though he couldn't wrap his head around how her Element, Kindness, could be used as a weapon), so that was a "no". How could he get out of this?

Fluttershy, on the other hand... or hoof... was actually waiting for him to say something. He was holding a book on the history of the world with one hand – like a monkey's – and a spoon in the other. She had never seen or heard of anything like this from anypony. Wait... actually...

"Humans sit like this!" Lyra insisted to Bon-bon as Fluttershy passed them.

This creature looked like it was one of Lyra's humans. But humans were made up, a little delusion in the energetic lyrist's mind. No wonder she got along well with Vinyl. Not that she didn't get along with Vinyl's housemate, Octavia, but she seemed more relatable to the DJ. Fluttershy still wondered how the electronic artist and the classical one got along so harmoniously, since there was just a little rivalry over which style was better. But she was getting off track. The musicians had little to nothing to do with the task at hoof.

She kept looking at the sitting form and spotted something on his leg, slowly dripping to the floor. Blood! Fluttershy was right. He was hurt! Little did she know that Jordan was feeling a different pain.

The headache just suddenly creeped up on him. It felt like his brains were pressing against his eyes and skull. He wanted to dig into his skull and scrape the throbbing out. He put the book he was holding aside and rubbed his forehead. He was sure it wasn't helping, but the pulsing did go away, replaced by a difficulty seeing. His vision kept turning black and fuzzy for a few seconds, switch from that to normal eyesight, and back again. Finally, it stabilized. None of the bizarre problems repeated, no new ones came up. However, he felt... different. He couldn't put a finger on it, but he felt... energized. He thought back to when he came down, he felt the headache then, too, right? He felt a little bit energized after he felt and cut his leg, but that was adrenaline, this wasn’t. They were normal tension headaches in his temples. This, however, felt like a migraine, and the flashing didn't happen before. Something was going on with him... maybe from that cut? No, it couldn't be.

He removed his hand and tried standing up, but put too much pressure on his damaged leg. Wincing, he sat back down on the floor, clutching his leg.

"Oh my goodness!" the pony – Fluttershy, her name was – said. "Do you need help? I could help you! I mean..." her voice became timid. "If you want it... if you don't then..." The rest was barely audible squeaking as she tried to hide from his gaze behind her mane.

Jordan thought for a moment. She was offering help to him – a gesture of peace, obviously. Would it be all right to accept? Or should he reject the offer to be careful? The leg was really getting to him now, and his survival instinct told him that if he didn't have it treated, he could get an infection. At worst he could die. Second worse was losing the leg. He wanted to keep his limbs, so accepting her offer was a good idea, but he had to be cautious.

"Yeah," he whispered. "Can you?"

Fluttershy looked up, apparently surprised that he spoke, at first, but that lasted a second. She gave a sympathetic smile and trotted to the stairs. "Let me look for the First Aid Kit," she told him.

"It came to town," Applejack said worryingly. "This ain't good."

The girls had followed the glowing red trail through the woods, coming out to see it get closer and closer to Ponyville. Whatever they were looking for, it had sneaked past them and went into the town. It might have been seeking out help, or spying on them, or something dark. What if it was evil? Would it go after the townsfolk? That was a worry on Applejack's mind, as well as Rainbow Dash's. Pinkie Pie, though saddened by the devastation to the north, still considered throwing a party for the newcomer; a "Welcome to Equestria, Space Pony" party. Rarity and Twilight had their reservations. They would certainly consider the foreigner as being ethical and well meaning, but knew that it would be wise to keep their guard up. Regardless of how she thought the encounter would happen, the librarian knew she would need something – somepony – there when it happened.

"This way," Twilight said, taking the lead. "It went through the park."

"You know, Twilight," Dash said. "We're getting close to the library. You don't think..." Whatever she had to say, she chose not to finish it. The unicorn could imagine what she was trying to imply, but didn't; she was focused on the trail. Now the glowing of the drops started to dull. This was something she had seen in her experiments: the glow is more intense when whatever was being used to track the origin – which had to be a living being – had been outside of the body for longer. The duller the glow, the closer they were.

"We're getting closer." I hope Spike sent that letter. We'll need her soon.

Fluttershy tightened the gauze strip around the now clean wound. "There," she said. "It won't become infected now. I think..."

Jordan, though he had become comfortable around her, became slightly apprehensive. "Think?" he asked.

"I... I haven't treated anything like you before. Not even monkeys." The pegasus stepped back a few feet. "Can you stand?"

He tested his leg. The timid pony worked wonders on his leg, apparently. There was no pain at all! He stood up and stretched a bit and cracked his neck. The single dull snapping sound gave Fluttershy a brief moment of panic, but she calmed down when she realized what it was. Rainbow Dash tended to do the same thing around her, she just never got used to hearing it.

"Thanks," Jordan said to her, moving the bandaged leg around. "Feels great."

"Not too tight?" Fluttershy asked, just to be sure.

"Nope, like I said, it feels great." He lifted his foot up behind him and grabbed it, as if he was stretching for a run. It wasn't too tight, wasn't too loose. It was perfect. So perfect it felt like it wasn't there, in fact. "You're good at this. Better than most doctors I've been to."

"Oh, I've had practice," she said, turning away with a blush. "You're a first, though, Mister..."

Jordan realized he had never introduced himself. Rude of him, but understandable; he hadn't got the chance before. "Polter, Jordan Polter. You can call me Jordan, Fluttershy."

"Okay... Mister Jordan..."

"I'm... sort of younger than you, I think. Sixteen. So, just 'Jordan'."

Well, how would she have known he was younger than her? She was in her twenties, but since she was a pony, it wasn't easy to assume how old Jordan or something like him would be by appearance. "Well, Jordan," the pegasus said. "How did you know my name?"

Jordan picked the book he was reading up. "It's in here. Elements of Harmony, Princesses, all that."

"Oh, of course." Fluttershy had no idea she was put into a book. "But... you've never heard of the Princesses before?"

Jordan sat down on the floor with a sigh. This would be the interesting part. Obviously, Fluttershy was unaware of the fact that he had come from the ship. She probably had no idea what came down, only that something did. There was no telling how she would react or what she would think if he told her what he actually came from. No doubt she would find out eventually, so flat-out making it up was out of the question. He was stuck between two options: the truth or a lie. Between the two options was the answer.

"I come from pretty far away," he said simply.

"I can tell," the pegasus said. "Where, though?"

"Just... far away." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth, either. "It's a place called Buckingham Pond."

Fluttershy looked down and sat on her haunches. "You live near a pond, then."

"Lake, actually. The town itself is called 'pond'."

There was a pause before Fluttershy looked back up at Jordan's face. "How is it there?"

Jordan smiled, remembering the park and lake he would visit on the weekends, just one of few memories of his life back home. But then, he hadn't been there for eighty-five years. It could have changed. "I haven't been there in a while, but I remember the park and the lake. I like going there early in the morning during the fall. Then, when winter came, I would go there just to see the frozen lake."

Fluttershy imagined how it must have looked. Somehow, she ended up imagining Ponyville in the wintertime instead, specifically around Hearth's Warming Day. Glittering snow blanketing the ground, the reflection of the early evening sun shining of the frozen pond and river, and snow ponies standing in their places (some better looking than others). When all the bunnies, except for Angel who always stayed inside with her, were deep in their burrows. When all the birds have flown south for the season. One would say it was her yearly vacation from her animals, but in reality it wasn't; she still had the ones that didn't hibernate or migrate to take care of, like all her friends' pets.

"Sounds beautiful..." she said. "Just like here, in Ponyville."

"Uh... yeah," Jordan muttered. Something about the town bothered him. Maybe it was the fact that it was so aptly named after the species that the entire country populated.

"Which way is it?" she asked. "It's far away, I know but... which direction? North, east, west? If you don't know... I won't mind... I'm just wondering... sorry."

Jordan sighed. He knew this was coming. Before, he told himself to not tell the whole truth if she didn't specifically ask. Now, she asked what direction it was in. There was only one answer for that.

"If I said... up," he started slowly. "How would you react?"

Fluttershy was puzzled for a moment. Why would he ask that? But before she could think of a reason, there was a series of pounds on the door. Twilight and the others would have come right in, so it had to be somepony else. "Um, I think I should get that."

Jordan stood up and picked his gun up from the table. "I'll be in the back," he said, head towards the kitchen door. "Can you... not tell anyone I'm here?"

Fluttershy could imagine why he didn't want anypony to know he was there. He was, to say the least, different. It would take a very rational pony to understand his presence, and rationality would be lacking since the thing came down from the sky that morning. Nevertheless, she nodded and continued going to the front door while Jordan slipped into the kitchen.

From where he was sitting up above, Spike could see and hear everything that had just happened.

He knocked on the door again. Somepony should be answering by now, he thought. Turning away would have been a step he would take, but this wasn't a normal situation. He was on duty, and doing what he was ordered to do. Nothing else mattered. He raised his hoof to knock again, but the sound of the door unlocking stopped him. The door creaked open a bit and two blue eyes gazed at him. "Who is it?"

"Royal Guard, ma'am. Is Twilight Sparkle in?" he asked.

"N-no..." Fluttershy answered. "She should be back soon, though..."

"Fluttershy, is it?" the guard said. "Could you come out here please?"

"W-why?"

Just as he was about to answer her, a yell from behind caught his attention. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight Sparkle and the other Bearers had returned from wherever they went. Her highness, standing a short distance away, looked upon her student and her friends with a smile.

"Thank goodness! We've been following the trail and-" the protégé began.

"Hold on a moment, my faithful student," the Princess said. "You're yet to explain what has happened in greater detail than 'something big fell from space'. Spike wrote that letter didn't he?"

"Y-yes, he did, Princess," Twilight stammered. "But we have a serious problem! That 'something big' crashed in the fields just north of here, and is still in flames, by the looks of the smoke." She looked up and behind her at the rising black cloud.

Fluttershy's eyes widened as she heard the direction. North? No. It couldn't be. Those bunnies... were... were they dead? No! It just couldn't be true! The object probably hit close to the burrow instead, probably more towards the west. Yes, that's right, the bunnies were alive. But the tears still welled up in her eyes, forcing her to face it: the chances went towards them being gone. It crushed her to acknowledge this, but she had to, hard as it was. If it was true and the burrow was destroyed, her only hope was for them to have gone in their sleep. No creature should have to live through the terror of watching their imminent doom approaching, not even the mean and scary ones.

"And we found something else," Twilight continued. "When it came down, I saw something fly off of it. When we checked it out, we found out the entire object was a ship of some kind, and the piece that came off of it... it looked like somepony was inside it. I used a spell I've been working on to track it by following its blood because we found some by the object, and the trail comes here."

The Princess nodded. "So... it... has come here to Ponyville."

"Princess, not just Ponyville," Twilight said urgently. "Here, at the library!"

Fluttershy backed away from the door as she put the facts together.

It hurt itself.

Following its blood to the library.

"If I said up, how would you react?"

Is that why Jordan didn't want her to mention him? He was in the object... that came from space. It made sense. He said he was from somewhere far away without being exact, until she asked him which direction. Now he was hiding in the back and she was torn between telling her friends he was there and keeping her promise. She went through the door and stood in front of it. She might be able to stall them for a little while. After all, she was the only one that saw him. The others came to her.

"Did you see him, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Is he in there?"

"Uh... um..." Fluttershy desperately thought for a moment. "Not... really?"

The others stared at her with half-closed eyes. "He's in there, ain't he?" Applejack asked monotonously.

"N-no..."

"He's in the kitchen," Spike, who had been standing in the doorway, said. "He asked her not to talk about him."

"Oh dear," Rarity said quickly before they all went inside. Princess Celestia ordered the guard to stand by the door while they were inside. After the doorway was closed, Fluttershy voiced her worries.

"Please... his leg was hurt," she said. "Don't do anything to hurt him again."

"We won't, sugarcube," Applejack assured her. "We jus' wanna know what happened."

Twilight approached the door to the kitchen. After pausing for a moment, looking back at her friends and teacher, she pushed the door open gently. The kitchen was empty, though.

"Spike, I thought you said he was in here!" Twilight told her assistant.

"I don't get it! I saw him go in!" the baby dragon responded.

"And then, when you weren't looking, I went upstairs," a voice called from above.

They looked up to see Jordan leaning over the railing. He waved to them. "I was looking for a back door because I knew Fluttershy wouldn't be able to keep you away forever."

"Hi, Jordan!" Pinkie waved back. The others, including Jordan, gave her an odd look. "I have to throw you a party sometime! What's your favorite flavor cake? I like them all, but I notice a lot of other ponies are picky about their favorites, so I usually ask about this when I'm planning a par–"

"Anyway," Twilight said, stuffing a hoof in the blabbering party pony's mouth. "Jordan, is it? I'm Twi–"

"Twilight Sparkle," he interrupted. Taking turns, he pointed to each of the mares and said their names. "Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie. The Elements of Magic, Kindness, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty, Laughter." Bowing his head he added: "And her highness, Princess Celestia."

"Okay, so you know about us," Twilight said. "Now we need to know about you."

"Ship crashed. From space. Talked to Fluttershy," he listed. "I don't want to talk about it, so... bye." He walked away from the railing, heading towards the balcony. Rainbow Dash wasn't about to let him go, however, and followed him up.

"You can't just go!" she told him pointedly. "I mean, I don't see any wings on you! You can't fly off the balcony!"

"Right..." Jordan replied. "Because I was planning to fly."

"Just tell us what happened!"

His headache was coming back, but he hid it well. He turned to her with a grim look. "A lot of things happened, and there's a lot I don't know and never will. So if you'll excuse me, I'll just be going." With that, he turned and, with a running start, vaulted the balcony railing.

Jumping was an interesting choice. Sure, he landed unscathed, but when he stood back up, he noticed something that wasn't there when he came. A small crowd had gathered a short distance away from the front of the library, and they all saw his escape. While many of them kept a nonplussed expression, Lyra was visibly excited.

"I told you so!" she told Bon-bon, who maintained her shocked expression instead of responding.

"Well, look at that," Vinyl Scratch said. "Ly' was right. What about that, Octy?" She turned to the cellist next to her, who would make a comeback at her, but was stuck in the same expression as Bon-bon.

Unlike Lyra, however, the town's mailmare, Ditzy Doo, had a very different view as to what this creature was. Wow! A giant monkey! My little muffin will want to hear about this!

Jordan didn't care about any of their reactions, though. Gripping the gun tightly by its forestock, he made a mad dash to the north. As he passed by the crowd, Lyra stuck her hoof out. Without thinking, he raised his hand and slapped it, as if he was high-fiving her. After he ran farther away, he looked at his hand and wondered why he did that. It didn't matter though. What mattered was they all knew, now. There was no telling what would happen, how they would all react. As he ran through the park, he considered turning back. Maybe he could get their help. No, a voice inside him said. How would they be able to help? What could they possibly do to help? All they want to do is ask him questions and waste time. The longer he spent with them, the lesser a chance the others would make it out. He had to do something.

He crossed into the threshold of the woods, but a few yards in, his progressing headache suddenly took a harsh and aggressive turn. He tripped over a stone and landed on his side, cushioned by ferns. Clutching his violently throbbing head, he forced himself to crawl up against a nearby tree. Every second, he thought the throbbing could never get worse. Every second, it did. It wasn't just in his head, though, it was all around him. The bird landing on the tree branch above, the wind blowing through the leaves of the tree he was under, and his foot grinding against the dirt sent waves into his brain.

His vision became blurry, his face became wet, and he fell back on his side. For a moment, he thought he saw something – someone – walking between the trees. Then, the already blurry world around him turned black.

Back on the balcony, Rainbow Dash got ready to chase the runner, but a certain somepony clamped their teeth on her tail to prevent her from doing so.

"Woah there, hun!" Applejack said through her mouthful of tail. "Whaddya think yer gonna do when yah catch up t' him? Ask again?"

She had a point. What the flier was going to do was pointless. Even if she did catch up to him, he wasn't going to answer anything, by the sound of it. It made her suspicious of this newcomer. He had to be hiding something... something bad. Worse than bad. Maybe even... evil. That's stupid! He was with Fluttershy this whole time, why didn't he do something then? She was by herself! But what if... just what if he was waiting for what he felt to be the right moment? That was it! Jordan had to be a bad guy! Of course, everypony else had much cooler heads than her, so her suspicious were hers and hers alone.

Everyone from inside the library left. As the Princess came out, the previously surprised ponies snapped back to reality and bowed before her. The Mayor got up after a moment and approached.

"Your majesty, your presence here is unexpected," she said. "But I think the ponies need it, what with the strange happenings all day. If you ask me, that thing falling from the sky was the most terrifying, but I trust your visit is regarding it."

"Mayor," the Princess said. "We have a lot more than the object to discuss... I need you to do something for me."

"Anything, your highness," the Mayor said dutifully.

"Could you gather the ponies – even the ones that aren't here – in the Town Hall for a meeting? And prepare a podium, we're going to have a speaker."

"Who will be speaking, Princess?"

"Let's just say it will be a surprise speaker," the Princess of Sun said, giving the Mayor a knowing smile.

The gray-maned official frowned and raised a hoof and pointed towards where the creature she saw just seconds earlier landed. It was a silent guess, which the Princess nodded to in response. The Mayor quickly returned the nod and turned to the crowd, giving them the instructions she was just given. The Princess gave the same instructions to the guard, telling him to find ponies that weren't told about the meeting and inform them of it. The guard nodded, but didn't leave immediately.

"Your highness," he said. "What about him?"

"The Bearers and I will retrieve him," she said. "He will come back here with us."

"If he refuses?" the guard asked.

"He won't. Now, I believe you have duties to perform." The guard saluted her and took to the sky, searching for the uninformed. The Princess turned to the six mares and one dragon behind her. "Before we follow him, you'll need these." That said, her horn glowed, and there was a flash. A box, wrapped in golden aura, appeared before the Bearers. A certain box they all knew what the contents were of.

They weren't seeking him out as six mares of Ponyville now. They were seeking him out as the Elements of Harmony.