A Strike of Change

“I-I’m not going to hurt you Fluttershy… Why are you scared of me…?”

Lucius stares at the frightened mare with raised eyebrows and an emotion on his face that showed confusion and sympathy. Fluttershy cowers on the floor, still curled up in a ball, she attempts to talk but hesitates and is unable to speak any words.

All that comes out is a small whimper. The rain had cleared now, and by Lucius' knowledge it was about 5pm from the looks of the sun's position, but he had no idea what it was like in this place and how they managed time.

She must be overreacting, humans aren’t aggressive, and my species wouldn’t be able to intimidate these ponies to this extent. A thought of war, pollution and destruction caused by his species crosses his mind. I guess we are frightening, but how did humans get here and what did they do? Even I’m not aware of how I got to this place…

*Knock* *Knock* “Fluttershy? I brought the book you were looking for, you said you would be at my library by this afternoon but you weren’t there, so I decided to bring it to you.”

Fluttershy was apparently unaware of her friend who was at the door; she was too busy shuddering to have noticed. Lucius turns to the red wooden door and slowly creeps toward it, he doesn’t want to frighten anymore Pegasi, and unwanted attention could lead to him being in a dangerous situation. Lucius didn’t know what punishments they had here; jails or some sort of confinement was his best guess, Pegasi jails? Now that’s a bit farfetched for me, but seeing what they had already, I wouldn’t be surprised.

*Knock* *Knock* “Fluttershy? Are you there…?”

Lucius pauses for a moment to figure out what to say to Fluttershy’s friend, at least she doesn’t sound as shy as Fluttershy, heck, even her name has shy in it, so it wouldn't be hard to beat her in confidence. I just hope her friend is more understanding. By now Fluttershy had jumped up and ran upstairs, however, Lucius was oblivious of the yellow Pegasus, he was too focused on the door. Having someone who would at least listen and not cower would be very beneficial to him, he just wanted to get home by this point.

Lucius didn’t know what the physical power of a Pegasus could do to him, Fluttershy seemed to have quite a bit of strength since she lifted him with ease, but the power of their wings probably wouldn’t be able to hurt him. I hope I can get home soon, this place is starting to scare me, the only thing I’d miss is the delicious fruit though…

A soft but audible mumble comes from the door, causing Lucius to pause again. “Hm… I guess she isn’t here, I’ll just come back tomorrow. Now I just need to schedule the quick visit, maybe in the afternoon? Or maybe…”

Her voice trailed off as trotting could be heard from behind the door, Lucius let out a long sigh before relaxing his tense muscles. Phew, that was close, being assaulted by mythical creatures isn’t really quite that high on my list.

*Creeeak…* “I’ll just leave the book here, I wouldn’t want her to…“

The large door opens tardily, revealing a purple hoof and the head of what seemed to be a unicorn, since she had a small horn above her forehead. Both Lucius and the purple unicorn stare at each other with emotions coming and leaving their faces; fear, confusion, curiosity. They stare for a few long seconds until it was broken by the loud ‘Eep!’ coming from the stairs.

“TWILIGHT! RUN! The human will kill you!” Fluttershy screamed loud enough for Lucius and the unicorn to flinch from the sheer volume.

Lucius stands up straight and spoke with a 'tad' bit of confusion, “Kill? Why would I KILL you? You saved my life!”

The three exchange perplexed glances as the purple unicorn burst into laughter, Lucius is now mentally ripping his hair out considering the events that just unfolded. Twilight wipes a tear from her eye and calmly trots around Lucius while tapping her fore-hoof to her chin, is she studying me? What the hell is going on!? She looks up to Lucius and gives him a warm grin and a twinkle appears in her eye.

“So this is what a human looks like…”

“Wait, you’re not scared or intimidated by me…?”

Twilight looks to him with and shakes her head and looks over to Fluttershy angrily, the Pegasus glides down the stairs and lands beside Lucius and Twilight.

“I-I’m so sorry… I d-didn’t mean to scare you…” Fluttershy whispers in an almost inaudible voice, she tilts her head down and at stares at the floor while tapping her hoof to the ground, just like before, but now in an apologetic and sympathetic manner. Lucius’ face was white when Twilight had first entered Fluttershy’s cottage, he had thought that this was a misunderstanding at first, turns out he was correct. My assumptions seem to correct all the time… then again I’ve only made an assumption twice. I hope that continues, at least I'll have that advantage.

“It’s ok, I still have to thank you for saving my life earlier today. I’m very grateful you turned up.” Well thankfully I can calm down now, knowing that I’m really not a threat to… Hold on, I thought this place only had Pegasi living here, but Twilight was a unicorn, or at least I think she is… What other race of equines haven't I encountered? Bah, whatever, the more questions I ask the worse this is going to get.

“Oh right! I still haven’t introduced myself! My name is Twilight Sparkle, but you most likely already knew that from my friend’s little outburst just then… “

“Heh, yeah… Well, nice to meet you Twilight! my name is Lucius.”

Fluttershy tilts her head at Lucius and starts to become slightly paranoid again, with quivering lips. “S-So you won’t murder me…?”

Lucius looks to her with a soft and caring expression, “Of course not! I would never hurt you in any way! I told you already, you saved my life and I wouldn't harm you.” He responds almost immediately and in a reassuring way.

Fluttershy quickly regains her composure and becomes noticeably more relieved now. Twilight is standing awkwardly, just listening to their conversation, but is occupied by the millions of questions rushing around her head, just like Lucius. He was probably more confused than Twilight is, although she was mostly focused on finding out about this creature. Humans were not widely known to them apparently, or at least they weren’t interpreted correctly since Fluttershy almost had a heart attack when Lucius had mentioned that he was a human.

Lucius looks back at Twilight again, “Uh… Twilight? Could you please explain to me what’s going on?”

She now has a large grin on her face, I guess she likes explaining things? She does seem like a bit of a stereotypical nerd to me though, having books and her choice of words.

“I’d be delighted to! What would you like to know first?

“Um… How about we start with EVERYTHING?”