Equestrian Humanity

First Response

"Keep going," Fluttershy called to her friend,"we're almost out!" Twilight looked past the pegasus to see a break in the tree line. She broke into another spasm of coughs, as the smoke in the air became increasingly thicker.  She looked behind her to check on the creature. It was still unconscious, and had only slightly stirred since they found it. Even so, the unicorn had to focus on keeping it as still as possible, lest she risk injuring it further.

'Easier said than done with all this smoke,' she thought bitterly as she started hacking again. She didn't have to wait long however, as they soon ran out of the tree line and onto open ground.

Once they were a safe distance from the forest, the two stopped to catch their breath. Twilight looked back to the forest to see a group of pegasi manipulating a large cluster of clouds, which had formed a localized storm, that poured torrents of water onto the raging fire below.

They looked like they were struggling to keep the  flames from spreading, as well as to keep control of the storm.

"Oh. I hope Rainbow knows what she's doing," Twilight thought aloud, her voice tinged with worry.

Fluttershy, appearing to have not noticed the struggling pegasi, called to the unicorn. "C'mon, Twilight! We have to get him to the cottage as soon as possible!" She then took off down the road towards her house.

Twilight, unsure of her friends sudden boost in assertiveness, but even more unsure of how she knew the creature was a 'he', shrugged her shoulders and took off after her friend, with the creature in tow.

Rainbow Dash grunted in her effort as she forced the cloud she was pushing into the next mass of clouds. They had grouped together any clouds they could find into several large masses, both to spread out the water coverage and to prevent the storm from getting too out of hoof. Well... at least no more than it already was.

All of the pegasi were soaked with water, and many were sporting small singes on their fur due to lightning.

Rainbow looked down to the forest. The fire at the crash had been put out for the most part, with only a few patches still holding on. The fire that had spread to the surrounding forest was still a problem.

They had been making headway, but it just wasn't enough.

Rainbow let out a frustrated cry, catching the attention of several nearby pegasi. "Uuugh! We need more power!" She complained.

"We're giving it all she's got Captain!" One of the ponies protested.

"Well we've got to think of something else!" Rainbow argued. "At the rate this thing is spreading, we'll never get it out in time!"

"Wait! I know!" A voice called out from behind her. She turned to see a familiar black maned pegasus hovering behind her. "If we take the cloud groups and we put them ahead of the fire, the trees will be too wet to burn right away, so it will be stalled. Then, we can use the funnel formation that we used to clear the snow in Winter Wrap Up to blow the fire out!"

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. This Rookie was quickly becoming one of her favorite ponies today. She gave the Rookie an accepting nod before turning to the others.

"Alright everyone, you heard him. Gather the clouds an get in formation. If this works, we'll have this warped up and be home by dinner!"

The other pegasi cheered, their moral having been boosted, and sped off to do their duties. Though Rainbow held a look of confidence, a small part of her couldn't help but think about if this didn't work.

Fluttershy burst through the front door of her cottage, causing several animals to scatter in surprise. She turned around and ushered Twilight inside, who still had the creature suspended in her magical grip.

"Hurry," she urged. "Take him upstairs and put him on the bed."

The unicorn obeyed, and climbed the stairs to the pegasus' room and  carefully set it on the bed there with a grunt as she killed the levitation spell. She sat on her haunches and rubbed her head to suppress an oncoming headache. Never before had the young mage carried something so large for such an extended period of time.

'While running through the woods and dodging burning tree limbs,' she added.

"Oh, are you okay Twilight?"

The unicorn turned to see that Fluttershy had come into the room, a worried expression on her face. "I-I didn't make you push yourself too hard did I?"

A feeling of warmth passed through her when she realized that her friend was genuinely worried about her. "I'm fine Fluttershy," Twilight confirmed. "Just a bit light headed."

The pegasus smiled, and put a glass of water in front of the mage who smiled in thanks. Opting to pick it up in her hooves, she quicky downed the glass, soothing her parched throat.

Fluttershy excused herself to retrieve some medical equipment, and left the unicorn with the creature.

Twilight leaned her head against the bedside dresser and closed her eyes. Feeling herself relax, she exhaled a deep breath from her nostrils.

She then looked over to unconscious form of the creature, it's chest rising and falling as it breathed. The unicorn looked closer, only now getting a chance to truly study it.

As her earlier observations confirmed, it was very tall and seemed it would be able to easily look the princesses it the eyes at its full height. It had one set of legs, and it's upper limbs being similar to that of a manticore, also, as she observed earlier.

It also wore clothes, something that confused her. Through further observation she learned that the creature was seemingly fur-less, with the dark red mane on its head being the only exception. This lead her to hypothesize that due to a lack of body hair, the creature wore clothes to keep itself warm.

It was then that the situation fully dawned on the young mage. She ad rescued a creature, an alien, of unknown origin or intention, and had brought it to Ponyville.

A thousand thoughts and questions ran through Twilight's mind. Was it friendly? Where did it come from? Was its destination here intentional or accidental?

She thought about the vessel, and, noticing no wings or horn on the creature, wondered if that was its method for traveling long distances. This caused her to wonder if the creature was simply the first of many, and if there were going to be more of his kind coming.

Countless questions with no immediate answers flooded the unicorns mind in a few moments. Yet there was only one that was more pronounced than the others.

Twilight pondered this question as she stood beside the the creature, voicing it as if expecting it to answer.

"What are you?"

But of course, it did not answer.