The Foreign Factor

Chapters

Chapter 1: Whoops...
Chapter 2: Through the Clouds
Chapter 3: Rough Landings
Chapter 4: Comatosed Minds...
Chapter 5: Awkward Second Encounter
Chapter 6: A Civilised Conversation
Chapter 7: Rules Broken, Amends Made

Chapter 1: Whoops...

Twilight Sparkle was hard into a study fest. She had been finding it harder and harder to find the time to study, now that she had five friends that ate up a lot more of her time than she thought they would, but didn’t resent them for this. In fact, she was glad they did. It made the time she did get all the sweeter. So, after randomly choosing a selection of books from the around the library (replacing the ones she had already read), it was down to work.

She couldn’t help but think that she had gotten a rather good selection of books to study; especially when she found a book on restorative magic. She knew it would come in handy: she could help out Redheart a bit now. Once most of her pile had moved from one side of the desk to the other, the next book caused Twilight to raise her eyebrow a bit. The book was small and thin, looking old and weathered, the pages beginning to yellow. Carefully she opened the book.

The ink was faded and smudged in areas, but for the most part still readable. To her surprise it was indeed a journal, of sorts. There were pages after pages of scribbled notes, odd diagrams, magical formulae - so advanced that some through Twilight for a loop - and coffee stains. Deciding to pick up at the natural place, she turned to the beginning of the journal. She started reading, her face furrowing with interest:

They shun me. Call me a fool, say my research is fruitless, and say it will never work. Even my own team has abandoned me now – heresy!

I’ll admit… I can see why they left, I can see why. I know why I am mocked openly by my peers and teachers and colleagues. They want to keep their reputation in their fields intact. They want to still command the respect that their respective break-through or research has gained them in the field of magic. However, what disheartens me is that nopony is even willing to me give a chance. Nopony is willing to look over my research, and give their opinion based on that, not on foolish assumptions! Foolishness!

I tore a hole in the page. I have to calm myself.

The Arch Mage has kicked me out of the university. He said my research was too farfetched and unlikely to yield suitable results for the cost of the materials needed to research it. I understand his position. I’d likely do the same should our positions be switched. So, I –begrudgingly- packed my things and left. A few of my students were sad to see me leave – I hadn’t told them prior. I was quite happy to though, leave on such positive reenforcement.

I’ve decided that I am going to continue my research. I’m not going to let some narrow minded tots dictate my work. I’m just going to do it in my home here, in the Tree. It is secluded enough, miles from anyone, so if something goes bang it shouldn’t wake anyone (I’ll never forget that time in the university – too classic). I am fully aware that if something does go bang, it may well be myself. The experiments that I am going to have to run, in order to get anything out of my theories, will be… well, dangerous is an understatement. We all know what happens when teleportation goes wrong. I guess that (through using some early data of course) that the effects will be magnified a-hundred-fold. However, I fear that I am getting near the end of my rope, as it were. My bones are creaking at me to stop using them whenever I stand. I fear that I may not be able to finish my research: such a pity. Mass Teleportation on this scale, not just two people or pony’s, but tens, if not hundreds of them, in one fell swoop of a spell could be delivered to Canterlot from… well, anywhere! The spell also works on an infinite distance principle too! Oh, if only I could figure it out.

I’m done. I have now the bells tolling my name. I have not written like this for many years now, but all my notes and research are within. I ask of you, the reader or finder of this journal, that you continue an old colt's dream, my research. I feel I am close, but alas, my age… Well, I can only hope that this has not been fourteen years wasted. I can only hope, that this one day, helps. I really can only hope can’t I? Please… please continue, or find somepony who can…please?

Her interest sparked, she began flipping through the pages of the journal. To anypony else, it would have looked like a mess of figures and diagrams. Being honest: it looked that way to her too. Except she could make sense of it. She came to the end, and licking her lips went back to the beginning to read more thoroughly. She had a hard time thinking of any research that she had seen better documented and maintained. The amount of detail presented was making her mouth water, things clicking into place as she began to see where this long dead colt was coming from. Better yet, she felt she could continue on the research. Sure, this old colt did loss his posisition, but back then ponies were very sceptical of any new magic. Conservatives.

Her eagerness built rapidly and she quickly restocked all of her other books - bar a few she felt could help - and floated over to herself a quill and several scrolls. She quickly laid the scroll out on her research table - a surprisingly small thing that faced her on a tilt - and began feverishly taking notes and writing out new magical formulae.

"This colt may not have been able to do this, but with all the teachings of the Princess behind me, I'm sure that I will be able to crack this. Hey, magic has come a long way since when this was written - I think - I'm sure it was simply... the constraints he was under that kept him from figuring this out... yeah." She rapidly scanned her notes and immiidiatly found a mistake. She scored it out thoroughly. "Right?"

****

"Come on Twilight, you need to get outside and see your friends. You’ve been at this for nearly a month now! Don't ya think you should give it, you know, a break?" Twilight was hunched over her research table, her mane looking jagged and frazzled - as though she had been electrocuted- and her eye twitching dangerously and erratically. She was glaring intensely at the scrolls in front of her, threatening to put holes in them as she scavenged in the many formulae and diagrams for the mistakes she had made. She hadn't even heard Spike through her own thoughts, which consisted mainly of, "why don't you work!"

Spike was truthful when he said it had nearly been a month now. The research had initially been going well - or so it appeared. She quickly learned however, that this wasn't the case. The first time she tried the spell, she had to rebuild half of the library. So, it was back to the drawing board; this is now the fifth time she has had to go back to the drawing board. Needless to say, she was a little sick of it. Everything she could think of checked out. There was, as far as her extensive knowledge could tell (as hindered as it was by a lack of sleep), nothing wrong with any part of her execution of the spell, or the spell it self.

She grunted as she slammed her face into the table, crying out, "I can't do it! I just can't figure it out! And there I was thinking this was going to be so very easy, oh how wrong I was - wasn't I?!" Spike walked up to her, putting his clawed hand on her shoulder.
"Come on Twi, I really think a break is in order for you. Why don't you go brush your mane, havecup of tea, and go outside and get some fresh air? And while you're out there, you could-” Spike was cut off when Twilight fused a tackle and a hug in one, pressing him tightly against her chest.
"That's it, Spike, thank you! Fresh air might be just what I need to help me figure this out, thanks Spike, bye!" And then, too quickly for Spike to follow - his world was still spinning after all - her supplies and herself were out the front door (after a quick recoil at the harsh light of course). All Spike could do was huff a little.
"That wasn't what I meant at all! Gah. At least she's outside...geez, women."

It had taken Twilight half an hour to a find somewhere where she wasn’t being interrupted by everypony wanting to talk to her and find out why she was being so reclusive. One even asked her if she was having a relapse. But, after going through the town centre, the park, the hill and even behind the spa, she found herself amongst the orchards of Sweet Apple acres.
"Nopony except the Apples come around here and... I missed Apple bucking season? Wow. Well, since the trees are bare, there'll be no bucking, so nopony at all should disturb me!" She was quite happy with her reasoning, so she lay herself down next to one of the larger trees, splaying all of her scrolls and other odds and ends around her, and began scrutinising them, hoping that the presence of fresh air and a gentle beeze would help.

To her surprise, it did. She -surprisingly quickly- found herself identifying mistakes. Her confidence in her previous work confused her now, as she was finding very simple arithmetic mistakes. But her confidence in her editing was now growing with each and every mistake, but despite this, she could see errors that she simply wasn't sure how to fix.
"Sugar - oh no, w'it happened? W'at's eating at ya Twilight? Come on, whatever it is, ah'm sure we can figure it out!" Twilight twisted her head to see the source of the panicked voice. Applejack was standing there, her orange coat and blonde mane being whipped by the breeze, with an expression that matched her tone to a tee.
"Hi Applejack, what's the matter?"
"Huh? Ya mean... yi're not goin' crazy?" Slightly bemused, Twilight could do nothing but blink at her for a few seconds before finding her tongue.
"No and what in Equestria would give you that idea?" Applejack, herself becoming a tad confused, pointed at her with her hoof,
"Your mane. Last time it was like that, y'all went crazy and caused quite the ruckus." Twilight flushed up in embarrassment as she remembered both the event, and the horrible state of her mane.
"Oh," she started, the embarrassment spreading down to her smile, "yeah, I forgot to brush it. I guess you could say I was driven a little crazy this past month. It's because of this spell, it has been... difficult to say the least. I am trying to work some of the kinks out of it but..." she looked at her notes again and sighed heavily, "it hasn't been going too great."
"Oh," Applejack looked relieved that her friend wasn't going mad again, "so that's why you've been relapsing." Twilight flustered a bit but calmed down when Applejack sat down next to her (being careful not to sit on the papers). "So, what is this spell that's had you up in a pickle?"
"It's a spell for the mass teleportation of ponies and goods over potentially infinite distances using - absurdly - low levels of magic." All she got in reply was a confused blink and,
"Complicated then?" Twilight let out a strained chuckle at the simple generalisation of her torment.
"In a word, I suppose." She looked back at the scrolls and sighed discontent as she found another mistake. She scored it out.
"Well, m'be ah could help?" Twilight shot her a look, so she elaborated, "nah, not with the whole making the spell stuff. I mean, maybe you could bounce a few things off me. Yah know, openly talk about what you're doin'. Might help?" Twilight didn't need to take much time to think it over. After all, Spike's suggestion had yielded good results, so maybe her friend’s help would too.
"Okay then, it's a very sound suggestion Applejack."
"Might ah make another one?" The look on her face told Twilight she was missing something obvious.
"Yes...?"
"How's about we go inside, hm?" Twilight was about to ask why when the answer became blatantly obvious.

It was bordering pitch black outside. She hadn't noticed due to the light her horn made naturally when using magic. She figured that must have been how Applejack found her.
"Oh. Hahaha... yeah, let's go inside." They shared a laugh as Applejack led the way back to the ranch.

"If I do this... move this here... get rid of this entirely- no, move it here... will this work? Yes! That'll let me do this... so I can do this... simply remove this... I've done it!“Applejack nearly jumped through the roof at the sudden proclamation, but smiled a wide, though exasperated smile. After nearly three hours of basically doing nothing, offering only tid-bits of help and advice - where she could - when asked, she just wanted to go to bed. Twilight hugged her tightly, repeatedly thanking her for help and advice. Applejack just blew it off, saying it wasn't a problem and looked at the clock longingly. It was 3:21 AM.
"Twi, Ah'm real glad you got this, but could I possibly get some shut eye? I got sellin' to do in the morn-"
"Oh my, yes, it is a bit late isn't it? I'm sorry for keeping you up so late Applejack. I'll leave and let you get some sleep." With that, she quickly bunched all her stuff up and left the Apple household, intending to test the spell as soon as she got home.

****

"Anypony know what the hay this is all about?" Rainbow asked, sounding somewhat impatient as she lazily hovered in the middle of the library. After all she had just helped make a storm, and there was nothing better than relaxing after making a storm. To Rainbow Dash at least. All of Twilights friends - Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash - had assembled in the library at Twilights request, which consisted of showing up in front of them out of the blue and saying, "Be at my house tomorrow, thanks bye!" Pinkie was the most confused at this, strangely enough.
"I can't say that ah do for sure sugercube, but I think it might have somethin' tah do with some spell thing-y that she was working on for a while...don't know much else, ah was much too tired to pay 'nough attention to catch anything."
"A spell?" Fluttershy asked curiously. "Is that why she has become a bit... reclusive?"
"Reclusive is exactly the word I would use dear." Rarity said, "She hasn't been out in months! And as such, I haven't been able to get her dress off of her for the Grand Galloping Gala, for me to fix it. And it would be terrible if she turned up with nothing, so I just re-made it. With improvements of course." She glowed with pride at the remark. She must have really liked her improvements to the design.
"Yeah! Since she has been cooped up in here, she has missed five! Five parties! Can you believe that! I mean, if I missed five parties, I'd go mad. Wait! What if that is why she has been staying in doors for so long? Maybe she's a crazy pony!" Pinkie was quickly silenced by the sound of the bedroom door shutting, but was (only slightly) disappointed to see Spike emerging and coming down the stairs, naturally carrying a small mound of scrolls and books.
"No, she isn't crazy - yet," Spike commented, eyes rolling, "but she sure is happy about something."

Some time passed - filled with idle conversation and the occasional discussion on the beginnings of the universe - before a tremendous blue ball formed in the middle of the room. All ponies were quickly on their feet, fearing possible hostility, but were shocked when the ball of light receded, leaving none other than Twilight in its wake. She giggled slightly at the stunned expression on her friends’ faces before smiling at them all.
"Hi girls! I'm sorry that I'm late. I got so caught up chatting with the princess, that I- Whoa!" Twilight was found herself in a firm embrace from her friends, who all insisted that she not be so secluded when working in the future. After numerous promises that she would indeed not lock herself in her home for a month ever again, and scraping all of the ponies off of her (except Pinkie, who’s grip could easily be compared to a vice, so Twilight just let her cling to her leg), she was asked the obvious question; why? "Well, I have been working on a spell.”
"Yeah, we've heard that from Applejack but what kind of spell? It must be big if it took you," Dash jabbed her hoof at Twilight, "a whole month to finish." Twilight quickly hid a blush at the implied praise and pulled out a scroll from a drawer in her study table.
"This, this is what I have been working on the past month. This is a spell that allows for the mass teleportation of ponies, over potentially infinite distances, using very minimal power." Twilight couldn’t help but smile a little as she finished her, by this point, well-rehearsed explanation of the spell.
"Excuse me Twilight," Rarity stepped forward squinting at the scroll, "I admit I don't know much about magic. I admit that my ability with magic is minimal also, but I do know enough to know that teleportation is exceptionally difficult with even two ponies over a small distance. How have you managed to come out with something like this, assuming it works of course?" Twilight knew to expect a lot of doubt over the spell, including from her fellow unicorn. She knew Rarity, and expected her to speak her mind. And she guessed from the look on the others faces; they were of similar opinion to her as well. She knew there was only one way to convince them that it worked.

"Well, how about a day trip to Canterlot then?" The collective gasp and chatter of the ponies nearly drowned out the sound of light knocking at the door. Spike - who was lounging in a chair away from the conversation - was the only one to notice it, so he hopped off the chair and opened the door. Standing there was a dripping wet and shivering Scootaloo. Her mane was plastered to her face and shoulders and the saddle bags she wore were also dripping.
"Oh my, er, come on in Scootaloo." Scootaloo gratefully obliged, nearly toppling Spike as she darted in and gave herself a shake, soaking the poor dragon.
"Oops, sorry Spike. I'm just here to drop off that book I borrowed for my school project." She opened one of the saddle bags and pulled out the damp book. "Sorry it's a bit wet!" Spike was able to decipher from the noises she made around the book.
"It's alright, all things considered with the weather out there, it is much better condition than I thought it would be. How did the project go anyway?" Scootaloo trotted over and put the book on the table in front of the couch before hesitantly replying,
"Not... really well. I think I should have actually read the book and talked about it, instead of talking about what a book is..." Spike almost had to strangle himself to stop from snickering.
"Ehh... Yeah, maybe." Scootaloo then noticed the group of ponies standing near the base of the stairs to the upper floor. "Hey, why is everypony here?" Spike through himself back onto the couch before answering.
"Twilight is going to prove to them that the spell she had been working on for a month - in complete solitude nearly - actually works, by taking them all to Canterlot."
"What good will that do?"
"Well, the spell is a teleportation spell. So she is going to teleport them and herself to Canterlot, to show it works." Scootaloo looked at the group as they talked, when her eyes widened.
"Do you think they would let me go too?" Spike looked up from a book he had picked and shrugged.
"Sure, the purpose is to show it works with a lot of ponies, I'm sure she'll say yes."

Scootaloo ran over to the group and after squeezing her way past Pinkie and Applejack - and off course fussing over Rainbow Dash - she asked Twilight if she could come along, with the promise that she would behave.
"Sure you can Scoots, I wouldn't go if my favourite li'l filly couldn't come." That note from Dash sealed the deal, and Twilight said she could go.
"Spike, you okay just watching the library while I am away?" Spike waved at her lazily with a nod.
"How long will you be?"
"Eh, a day or two I think sounds reasonible". Spike nodded again, and slouched back into the couch with a content sigh, giving them a mock salute as he sunk.
"All right then." She turned her attention back to her friends and Scootaloo. "Stand still everypony." Complying with Twilight, all ponies present stopped any fidgeting and watched in fascination as Twilight read from the scroll (even though she knew the spell, she was just being careful). Her horn began to glow, waves of colour splashing across it as the spell approached its climax. And then, in a flash of green, they were gone.

But to where?

Chapter 2: Through the Clouds

Twilight Sparkle growled, frustration continuing to mount up as she yet again worked on the infernal scroll that had caused her so much pain. She was starting to consider making a bondfire out of it would be a better way to spend her time. Instead, she simply let her head go limp, and slammed it into the cloud bellow her, with an unsatisfying 'poof'. Scootaloo and herself were lying away from the rest of the group, who were sleeping soundly a few meters away, despite the sun beginning to rise.

The group of friends was quite surprised when the blue light around them receded and they were not standing in front of the main gates to the castle in Canterlot; instead they found themselves floating high in the air, far above the clouds. They didn’t stay floating for long however, of a certain cloudwalking spell, and for Rainbow’s trademark speed in catching, things could have gone very sourly for the non-Pegasi members of the group. This however, was only the first trouble to beset them. Once they had safely landed on the clouds, and some obligatory checks had been made to assure everypony was alright, the issue roused itself: where were they? Rainbow quickly volunteered to check out the situation below the clouds, and with a quick salute, vanished bellow the cloud layer.

No more than twenty seconds passed before Dash darted above the clouds again, trailing powdered snow behind her. She landed, shook the white snow from her before sheepishly explaining that the winds were simply too strong, at least storm level winds, that coupled with the fact that there was exceedingly thick snow falling, simply made it impossible to see anything. That was her excuse, and she was sticking to it. And she did for the course of the day, as she went to try again routinely every few hours, each time only to be stopped by the extreme weather, meaning that she couldn’t even lift them off of the cloud to find some shelter. Thus resulting in the group having to sleep on the cloud: hungry and without any answers; all except Twilight. She couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty. She felt that it was her fault, and the others blamed her for their current position, she thought she could see it in there eyes. So, being the overly dedicated pony that she is, she pulled herself awkwardly from her friends – they were all piled together to keep warm -, took a seat close by and began working, the moonlight proving bright enough. However, it wasn’t just her dedication to her friends that was making her try to get as much work done on figuring out what went wrong: it was also the lack of magic. Usually she could feel the constant hum of magic around her, traveling down from the sun and the moon in comforting, soothing ripples. Here however, she didn’t feel that. There was no magic in the moon, or the sun. And this…disturbed her. She shivered, as though it weren’t the heat of the sun that warmed her, but the magic itself. She turned back to the scroll and began working through the night…

The next day presented the group with the opportunity to see where they were. This confirmed it for Twilight: they weren’t in Equestria anymore. The ground bellow was orange and white, glittering in the already setting sun. They were directly over the top of a small –normally grassy- field, about an acre in size, with the two sides of a town on either side of it. One side of the town looked like something that reminded the group of the large cities, like the Fillydelphia working class areas and industrial areas, but much less… friendly looking. It seemed like age and decay had sucked the life and colour from the place. Immediately next to the field was a fair sized school –the field obviously belonging to it- with homes near and far from it. The homes looked down right scabby, with small, sometimes smashed, windows. All of the homes themselves were completely rectangular in shape and looked weathered down. Some didn’t even have a proper front door to them. The large area behind the housing looked to be the town centre or market. It seemed to be like a concrete and glass beehive: shops were crammed together wherever they could be, as though huddling for warmth and many strange creatures that walked on only two legs, were quite tall –with the occasional small one- and smothered themselves in clothing – the group thanked Rainbow Dash for this information – going into them and spending their money. The roads themselves were habitat to strange, roughly rectangular shaped vehicles, which buzzed along the roads which littered the gaps between homes and businesses alike.

On the other side of the field however, things seemed to be a bit better. The homes were roughly the same size, but unlike the other side, they were detached homes with triangular roofing and were made of red bricks, some decorated with fine stone pebbles instead of seemingly great grey slabs. They had large, inviting windows and pleasantly painted front doors. It truly looked like a separation of the classes. The whole thing however, would turn into a headache for Twilight as the questions began to flood towards her, the restraints she had put up yesterday completely forgotten. After finally shushing her friends, she turned to them and sighed, annoyed at herself.
“I'm sorry girls, but I do not have any answers here...I honestly have some questions myself...” The group looked at each other, as the reality that Twilight didn’t have the answers sank in. She tried to move the conversation onto something else, but was lost for ideas and made the mistake of mentioning her lack of progress with the spell. This caused them to begin debating as to what the best course of action was, but became quickly focused on something that Dash suggested:
“If Twilight can’t figure out the spell, why don’t we simply ask those creatures down there for help? They have these things moving by themselves; surely they must know something about magic?” This created a divide in the group. Twilight Fluttershy and Rarity were with Twilight’s reasoning, that being that the risks were simply too great.
“We don’t know anything about this species, at all. It would be entirely unwise to make first contact between our species in a manner like this. There is also the potential that they couldn’t help us as I feel absolutely no magic at all coming from down there. Also, they could be violent, we never know. I mean, look at those homes down there...I don't know, they might not be, but there is the potential.” Twilight wasn’t happy with her strong wording, but it got the point across.

The others disagreed, simply calling her paranoid, with Rainbow thinking that they were being cowardly. Applejack took the reins of their argument. She acknowledged Twilight's points, saying that they were valid worries and should not be forgotten, but that their situation was dire. They were stranded on low clouds, with no food or water (and already empty stomachs) and no perceivable way to get home anytime soon. They were simply running out of options - though they did come to an agreement. Twilight would continue to work on the spell until tomorrow. If there was no progress made, then they would seek out the aid of the creatures on the surface. Twilight wasn’t happy with the arrangement, but the rest of the group were somewhat content. And so, Twilight went back to work.

Darkness fell and the moon rose, and nothing she tried with the spell would give her a desirable result, and before she knew it, the sun was rising of its own accord. The sun - she couldn’t help but notice – stayed for only a very short time, and was already on the verge of setting before anypony stirred.

Scootaloo awakened groggily, her eyes still drooping, and stretched out her limbs and wings, shivering as a strong, cool breeze ruffled her mane and feathers. She looked over to Twilight who was still hard at work on the scroll, her head being propped up lazily by her hooves. Wanting to see what the key to going home actually was, she trotted over to her and lay down next to her. She found herself transfixed by the scroll, gazing in wonderment at it, the magical symbols and glyphs scrawled on the parchment captivating her. She just really thought they looked cool. When Twilights face became buried in the cloud below her, she began mumbling to herself, illegible through the muffling of the cloud; though from the tone of it, this was probably for the better. Such things shouldn’t be heard by children after all. Scootaloo gently nuzzled her side, saying,
“It’s alright Twilight. We have faith in you. If there was anypony who could ever figure this out, anypony ever! It would be you Twilight.” Twilight slowly lifted her head, blowing her mane out of her face, and turned to face her. Her tired, bloodshot eyes gazed into her large, purple, hopeful eyes, and she saw a confidence in her, for her, that she herself was lacking. Seeing that hope though, brought back some of her drive to find the problem and fix it. She gave her a small, thankful smile, returning the compliment with a hug.
“Thanks Scootaloo… Now, how about you wake the others up then? They've been sleeping most of the day, it's almost sunrise!” Glancing upward to confirm Twilight's claim, she nodded and hopped off toward the nearby group.

Suddenly, she fell through the cloud, the change in air pressure making her lurch forward, nose diving. The snow was coming down hard and fast once again, and it had finally eaten at the cloud they were on, thinning a few areas just enough that they looked perfectly fine, but would give way if stood on. Scootaloo was unlucky enough to do just that. Hearing her scream out, Twilight dashed next to the hole, trying to catch her in a levitation spell before she fell from sight, but she was already swallowed by the perpetual white bellow.
“Dash, Scootaloo fell through!” Hearing Twilight yell for her, Dash (who had been awoken by the scream) shook off the remaining sleep, and bolted like lightning through the hole, darting after the little filly, desperate to catch her before she fell…

Chapter 3: Rough Landings

The young teenager was lazily making his way through the frozen miniature landscape. He was a little miffed at having to come through here, having missed his usual bus and needing to take a different one. It wasn’t the safest place to be; it was right next to the old housing, where most of the… wrong crowd, tended to take up residence. So he was lazily making his way through due to being quite tired, but made sure to remain alert enough to see if anyone wanted to have a piece of him. Then again, no one would have been able to see him anyway. The snow was coming down thick and furious, the wind screeching as it tossed his hair - and himself at times – every which way it could think to toss him.
“Though naturally, it would be coming mainly fae the front,” he griped with a sigh as a powerful gust nearly pushed him to a standstill. The wind and the bag he had on his back trying to topple him with every step. He hated winter before and now with the blizzards that seemed to be cropping up, he would be happy to dig a hole in the mountains of snow, and live in it until spring.

“Bears have the right bloody idea…” He was somewhat dressed for the weather at least. He had a heavy narrow jacket which revealed a midnight black body warmer beneath (which the snow stuck to like Velcro), which concealed his school top. He wore black school trousers and black boots. He didn't mind wearing all black, but it was his school's choice uniform.

Taking his hand out of the comfort of his jacket pocket, he shielded his eyes from the continual barrage of snow, and titled his head up to see how far he could, before the snow began ravaging his eyes once more. As he neared his limit, he saw through the snow the faint outline of something. He though it was a plane but found himself discarding this thought, as it was much too close… and appeared to be falling fast towards him.
“Oh -” before he could even curse his situation, the something connected with face, sending both him and the something rolling back along the remnants of the path he was following.

He came to a gradual stop a dozen feet or so away from where he was. He lay there for a moment, collecting himself before saying,
“Ah…Christ that hurt…” Sitting up, he looked down to his hands to see he was holding what had hit him. “A... horse?” In his arms was a small orange, snow coated foal. He examined it for a moment in stunned silence before he began muttering to himself. “From the jaw line…probably female…very interesting coat and mane colour under all that snow… But how the hell did you fall out of the sky?” His exclamation was punctuated by a sharp gust of wind, coating them both in another layer of snow, sending a chill up his spine and making the poor filly shiver fiercely. Deciding the questions –which he wasn’t getting an answer to anyway – could wait; he picked himself up and dusted the snow off both his jacket and body warmer, took them off and wrapped the foal in them, much to its dislike as it wriggled and squirmed to get away.
“Shish, it’s aw-right. I’m going to get you somewhere warm, ‘n’ safe.” He looked a little awkward as he took up what he realised was a very uncharacteristically comforting and soothing tone of voice, but was relieved when it worked and the young animal calmed down.

Throwing his bag on (stumbling as it shifted him forcefully); he began to quickly make his way to the newer, more comfortable looking houses; he began making his way home.

****

Scootaloo felt it was best if she remained quiet, the lessons about stranger danger Cheerilee had given the class finally being put to use. She did feel a bit disappointed that she could not comply with the most basic rule: stay away from strangers, but she was content in the jacket wrap, tucked closely to the creature's chest - It was warm, comfortable and snow free. Despite this, Twilight’s words of warning still echoed lightly in her mind. Her warnings that these creatures might in fact be violent was making her tense, making her realise that her current position, was one that didn’t allow her to get away easily, if at all. She could only hope that it didn’t have any malevolent intent.
“Hey there boy, what you got there?” She tensed up as she heard the unfamiliar voice from her cocoon of jackets.
“Nothing much mate, just a puppy. ‘Nother mouth to feed.”
“Really noo? Just a puppy? ‘Re, ya sure ‘bout that?” There was something about the man’s voice that made her stomach twist. It was creepy and made her shift uncomfortably.
“Aye, I’m sure. Look, she’s moving: probably the cawld ‘n all. On that note, Ah think I should git a move on. Goodbye to you.” She heard the other voice grunt in reply as the sound of crisp cracking snow distanced them from the other voice. “Don’t worry, Ah’m no letting anything happen t’ you lass. Nobody's gettin' at you either.” She blinked at the strange mashing of words but settled down again at the message they gave her. She believed him for some reason. The tone of the other voice, the sludgy, disgusting tone, was one that would cause her too panic and flee (not that she would ever admit that). While whoever was carrying her, had kept his cool and even kept her out of that voice’s grasp. She couldn’t help but be impressed and feel, just a little safer.

“Fucking thieving scum, absolutely everywhere.” He grumbled as he put more distance between himself and the would-be mugger. He knew these sorts of people; he had lived around them all his life, so he had figured out how to disarm most situations with them; remain calm and talk in a social manner, slipping back into his towns’ accent. It brought them both to the same level, and he knew it was easier to talk someone if you are not flaunting over them.

Making quick work of the rest of the journey to his home, he shuffled through an exposed pocket in his jacket and pulled out a set of keys as he approached the front door (painted white with a peep hole at the top). After going in and locking the door behind him, he peeled away the protective jackets from the small for of Scootaloo and hung them over the nearby radiator. Scootaloo took in her surroundings. There was a living room to the left as they entered the home with two comfortable looking fabric couches and a good sized TV almost hidden by the open door. Leading off from it was a dining room with a large table, the varnish making it gleam in the light. Back in the hallway, there was a set of stairs leading to the upstairs landing, but the hallway continued into the kitchen, which is where they headed next. The kitchen itself was split into two areas – a cooking area to the right, and a dining to the left. The dining area had a door (which she presumed led to the actual dining room) and a smaller, circular table tucked into the corner. Furthermore, leading off from the kitchen, there was a conservatory with a few couches and a good sized garden.

He pulled plopped Scootaloo onto the table and pulled out a seat in front of her as she sat on her haunches.
“All right, let’s take a look at you.” Scootaloo frowned in annoyance as he began examining her, but let him continue; moving her head around, examining her hooves and legs and body in general. “Well, ya seem to be fine; did-nay hurt yourself when you fell on me –‘cept for a bruise. Though, saying that…” He regarded her quickly again, as though making sure he was right. “You are mockit fae the fall; who’d ‘ve thought with all the snow between you ‘n’ the dirt, eh?” Frowning in confusion at the strange word ‘mockit’, she watched the being walk over to the sink. He turned the taps and put in a soapy liquid. The sink filled, he stuck his elbow through the frothy liquid. He nodded, satisfied with the temperature, he marched over to Scootaloo, swept her up and gently placed her into the water.

The only thing that had kept Scootaloo from the degrading fact that she was now being bathed by some strange other worldly creature, was that it felt strangely pleasant. She had felt a bit uncomfortable having so much mud matted to her fur – though she was usually not one to bother – and she was glad to have it removed in such a…pampering fashion. She would never admit this either, and certainly didn’t show it, as she sat there on her haunches with a rather ‘Less-than-impressed’ expression on her face. The being just snickered.
“Well, you don’t look too happy do ya? Don’ worry, I will-nay be too much longer, but it’ll be a heck of a lot more comfortable for you with aw that mud and crap off you… Now, ‘hind the ears.” He reached up and scratched behind and around her ears, trying to get at some persistent flakes of mud that had managed to bury themselves as deep into her coat as they could. Scootaloo would be purring if she could; the persistent rubbing and scratching behind her ear feeling simply amazing. It reminded her of the serenity and comfort she felt when she raced her scooter around town, except in a mini massage and without the adrenalin and the burning in her wings. Speaking of them…
“Wait a moment… the fuck? Are they wings?” He had found her wings. He stretched the one closest to him (her left) out to its full on foot span and gaped at it. He looked between the wing and her, making her feel very nervous, making her question how he was going to react, if the fact that she had wings was some sort of punishable offence her, if-

Her mind stopped as he sighed in disbelief, and simply began cleaning them more thoroughly.
“More bloody questions that I ain’t gonna get any answers for… It would be bloody ideal if you could talk, me wee lass. I’ll be honest, fae the looks in yer eyes, you certainly look smart enough to do so, shame you don’t have the vocal cords for it. Ah well, back tae scrubbing!” She was about to tell him that she could talk, more in self-defence of herself than anything, but was cut off as his magic fingers went back to getting at the dirt behind her ears. All was forgotten.

“Well, you certainly look cute when you’re all fuzzy.” Scootaloo had been taken out of the sink, wrapped in a towel and taken up stairs. She was covered in darkness as the towel continued to rub her down, drying her off, before revealing the much fluffier form it had caused. Chuckling lightly, the creature patted her down as she took in her new surroundings. The room was dark, but not to the point where you couldn’t see, just a sunset light. The room itself felt somewhat small, but comfortable. It was painted white, but was faded somewhat with age and had several red stains in several places. The room was furnished with a few items. There was a lass table near the entrance (so much so that you might jab yourself if you entered unprepared to jump) with multiple objects on top of it, mostly papers and strange rectangular devices made of plastic, some with wires coming from the front of them to odd looking controllers. The floor had a cream carpet and was also looking a little worse for ware, but still comfortable. There was a wardrobe to her right and the most of the left wall was made of a window, the glass having black checker pattern streaks. There was also a small bedside table made of the same material the wardrobe was: dark pine with a dark varnish: Pleasant. “There we go, sorted.” He took a seat on the pillows at the end of the bed and reached under the bed, pulling out a slim, large device that lit up when he opened up the device. “I really need to turn the brightness on this laptop down… there we go. Now, let’s see if-“ A crash from downstairs stopped him, and his friendly demeanour changing entirely; his face turned flat, calculating, and his movement no longer casual and lazy, turned fluent, practised, precise. The laptop was flung under the bed and his hand was in the top drawer of his bed side table. Scootaloo gasped loudly as a large, sharpened knife was drawn from the formerly innocent looking furniture. This struck it home; this situation was serious, and her new friend knew there was danger.

She was taken by surprise as the covers were deposited on top of her head. They parted briefly to show the creatures face as he whispered,
“Stay in here, please just do not move.” With that darkness filled her vision. Her own panic was starting to rise now that it was not be abated by simplest things, like being able to see. The need to see something, coupled with insatiable curiosity, made her part the covers a little.

Her new friend was standing by the room door, knife held expertly ahead of him. He kept his breathing steady as he listened to the intruders coming up the stairs. There are… a lot - six, maybe seven. The footsteps are pretty fucking weird thou… maybe they are trying to confuse me? Bah, forget it. Getting his thoughts back into order, he steeled himself once more. He finally hears their voices.
“Where do you think it is? I really don’t like the idea of wondering around here blind!” The boisterous voice of a young woman sounded, evidently taking no care to not be heard.
“Be quiet Dash, y’all‘re gonna get us in a heap o’ trouble blowing your trumpet like that. Now shush.” The silence that followed did not last long, as they began quietly conversing while searching the rooms one by one.
They are a bunch of bloody amateurs. What the hell do they think they are doing breaking into my house? How should I deal with them…? He formulated his course of action quickly as they got to his side of the landing and the only other room left. He pressed his ear to the door, feeling his pulse begin to quicken slightly as his blood was saturated with adrenaline.
“Okay girls,” (A new voice, at least three) “this is the last door, they must be in here. Open it carefully Applejack.” He raised an eyebrow at the interesting name and back up a little, pulling the knife back, ready to slash the persons hand as the door opened.

There was a squeak. And then a creak as the door handle was slowly lowered. It wasn’t loud enough for Scootaloo to hear, but she saw her friend tense up, his face showing his brain running the numbers, so she hid.

Finally he saw that the door handle was as low as it would go. He heard muttering.
“Three, two…one.” The door opened a little slower that he thought it would, but it didn’t even phase his ability. He slashed out fast and precisely. Blood drops splattered onto the wall and carpet, quickly being drunk up by the hungry fabric. The fresh blood on the knife making it look evil, grinning in the light. He was ready to slash again, ready to tell them to get out of his home, or face the consequences, but he stopped. He hadn’t been prepared for what was in front of him. He would never have guessed that the invaders were not even human.
“Ponies? The hell?!”

In front of him stood the six friends, all of which wore expressions of shock and anger, with no exception to Applejack, who was glaring at him and blood flowed from the slash across her face which had just missed her left, arcing smoothing over it. Acting on impulse, she swiftly turned herself and put all her weight onto her front legs, raising her hind legs high in the air.

Just as realisation flashed across his eyes, she bucked with the kind of force that known for – and then some. There was a sickening, crunching sound as her hooves connected with his chest, an all imposing sound that refused to quiet down as it seemed to echo off the walls of the room, so it had to be smothered. The force of the impact sent him soaring into the glass table, the sounds of metal squealing as it was violently twisted and torn, glass shattering and piercing him, all the knick-knacks on the table following around him and the 'thunk' and crack of the TV falling on his damaged chest with the subtle undertone of his cry of pain, announced the silence that followed.

Using the lull to her advantage, Twilight entered the room and quickly found a horrified Scootlaoo standing on the bed, mouth open as her young mind tried to process the quick change in events. She didn’t even notice that she had been ferried out of the room (through levitation) until they were at the top of the stairs.
“Wait! Stop, he isn’t bad!” They stopped, all of them in different stages of going down the stairs, and turned to her. “He isn’t as dangerous as you think Twilight; he is actually quite nice, honest!”
“Scootaloo, maybe you didn’t notice, but that thing in there just foalnapped you and attacked us, cutting Applejack quite badly.” Twilight turned them both to look at Applejack – who was being fussed over by Fluttershy – and at the gash on her face. It was bleeding quite badly, but she would definitely be okay. Scootaloo had already thought of a response.
“I know, and I am really sorry Applejack, but from our position, you could have been anypony! I couldn’t tell him it was you’s because you were being too quiet, I couldn’t tell. And the way he reacted… it was as if it had happened before, so I didn’t really question him…” Scootaloo observed the awkward glances that were being shard up and down the staircase and was about to insist that they check on him before going, but was interrupted by the sound of shuffling and broken glass moving…

Their eyes opened wide and their mouths gaped as they stared at the figure with disgust at what they saw, and with pity that what they saw had happened at all.

The creature emerged slowly from the room, using just his arms to carry his body across the vast plain of the landing. His clothing was ripped and spotted with holes, revealing bloodied and bruised flesh beneath, and un-natural mix of blue, purple and crimson, littered with sprinkling of glass, shards both large and small, all painful in their own right. Most concerning however, was not the disfiguring of his nose –snapped out of place by the TV - or the angle his right leg sat at – broken out of place by the sturdy frame of his table -, it was his breathing. There was a disgusting gurgling sound every time he took another shallow, fast breath. There was another disturbing choking sound every time he inhaled just that little bit harder. It sounded wet. Pulling up in front of the staircase, he never even notice the line of ponies as he turned himself round onto his back, crying in pain as he relieved his arms of his weight and made the glass in his back eat and shred away at his flesh, making the sticky red liquid run down the stairs, despite the ever hungry carpet. He reached and grabbed one of the larger shards of glass that had somehow made residence in his chest, and pulled, scrunching his eyes as the pain tried to stop him. It didn’t. Discarding the shard (5 inches), he pulled apart the hole if had left in his shirt and examined his chest.
“Oh…fuck.” Scootaloo found herself almost thrown down the stairs to join Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack, who had charged away, fearful of vomiting up the food they had picked up while down stairs initially. Twilight, Fluttershy and Dash were still atop the stairs, hauntingly mesmerised by the disturbing sight, and the desire to help, but held in place by the brutality of the wounds.

His ribs were blatantly broken. They caved in at awkward angles, making his chest comparable to a picturesque mountainous valley. With one on the right reaching high above the others, having torn free of the skin that had kept it so neatly contained before, glistening in the light from above, red pouring down the bone. Not quite a mountain. Despite himself, his breathing rate increased rapidly as he brought quivering hands to the bone. The faces on the three that had remained went from horrified to ill as they looked away just before the resounding crack permeated house. This time, nothing smothered his scream. They didn’t dare look. They didn’t want to. But was he okay? Is he even alive after that? They looked. They wished they didn’t.

He was shaking violently all over, his limbs having their own will as they twitched violently. They hadn’t even noticed the colour gradually draining from him, but it was too obvious now. The blood just kept on coming out from his chest like a water fountain. No, those are grand things that shoot out water, this was like one of those pathetic little one that you would keep in the house. But just the same, it sent shivers down the spines of all who witnessed it.

He knew he was done for. He had tried to reach a phone, but he couldn’t. He hoped that he would have been able to survive this ordeal, just like the last, and the one before that, and before that and… But it seemed he had finally rolled snake eyes.

No.

He wasn’t ready to throw himself to reaper just yet. Hoping that he may be able to make it to the phone at the bottom of the landing, he rolled over and tried to pull himself over the thresh hold of the stairs.

He couldn’t. The energy was flowing out of him, being drunken by the carpet bellow him, the ever greedy carpet… his vision was going, but he was determined…determined to not lose, not now.

It wasn’t to be. His cold hands wouldn’t respond any more. His eyes rolled back, and the last thing he saw before the cold dark took over, was a yellow blurry smudge, coming towards him…

I wonder if anyone is tolling the bells... And the darkness came.

Author's Note

Edit (28/8/13): So unhappy with the chapter now looking back on it...I might re-write some of this - that end scene comes especially...we'll see.

Chapter 4: Comatosed Minds...

Everything was very lucid, not quite as it should be. He felt, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure if he was. It truly felt like floating (didn’t it?), floating in a liquid world where there was no real need to do anything, no real desire to do anything. No need to move… no desire to know the ‘how-s’ and ‘why-s’ of the world around… no need to bother the mind with any though or question at all. Even the most natural act of breathing itself felt, mundane and unnecessary – unwanted almost, as it tried to destroy the complete serenity of where he found himself now.
Serenity… Peace…

This felt alien and bizzar to him. Unwanted, undesired. It stirred in him – ironically, it stirred in him the closest thing to actual fear he had ever felt. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but be amused by this: considering the world he lived in, this – peacefulness – frightened him?

He didn’t like this feeling…not just the fear, but the feel of the place: Too peaceful. Too much like the ultimate goal to be real.

No. It wasn’t like the ultimate goal. This was dark. Black. Unnatural. He didn’t like the feeling of…lacking, that this place seemed to thrive on, to feed of off. The air around him pulsed like a heartbeat, constricting him, trying to force him to not breath, to stop violating the world with his life.

He tried to move. He had to get out of this unseen force before it began to work.

He couldn’t move. Something was binding him, outside of the pulsing, which tried to squeeze the life from him. It pulsed again. It didn’t like him much. He tried again, putting as much of his will into moving his arm as he could. Was his arm burning? Was that a bead of sweat running down his face? He couldn’t tell. This place was keeping things like that from him. This place scared him a little. He continued to push – or was he? No, he could feel a build-up in his mind, telling him he was doing something. Something…at least he knew that. Something was comforting – it meant that he could at least feel, and this knowledge fueled him.

There it was: movement. Slight, almost invisible to the eye, but his mind recognised it. Movement. With it, a few other sensations began to form, as if traversing the obstacle of movement opened the gate to more movement. He could move his arm freely now - and his other now! Now his legs too. The movement brought its own sensations too; the feeling of touching something soft… fabric. But they were dull… as though being muted… only a ghost of the true feeling.

He realised he couldn’t open his eyes. The world pulsed, forcibly pushing the air from his chest, and blood from his arm. He revelled in the feeling of the warm substance flowing down his arm, even though he knew what it meant, he couldn’t help but welcome the new sensation of warmth. River hadn’t even realised he was cold. He forgot to breath. He felt air being forced down into his lungs. Where had that come from? He felt pressure at the bleeding wound. More pressure. The bleeding stopped.

Were there two forces? One: trying to kill him, another... fighting for his survival? Were they aware of each other? The world pulsed again, removing his breath once more. It was replaced by the other force - again. What was going on?

Voices He thought, No, one - maybe two. Two, mostly just the one though. He could hardly hear it. It was faint, but it was there. He couldn’t make out what it was saying, but it sounded exhausted, desperate – concerned. Was it one of the forces? Which one was it? The world pulsed violently, shaking in rage that the intruding life had not been removed – it could hear him breathing and it hated the sound. His whole body was wrapped in pain: his new found movement allowing him to convulse in pain – not a lot, not enough to offer any kind of relief.

“Oh no.” The words were plain and simple, but they were heard. The voices went back to its muffled un-clarity, but that was at least one question answered – the voice was trying to help him. His elation was quickly destroyed as the pain quickly asserted itself once again. It wasn’t very hard to do when the entire force of the world around you was trying to do so.

This place wasn’t anywhere close to the ultimate goal. This place was evil.
There was a different kind of pain - a prick. And then peculiar warmth entered him. It spread like wild fire throughout his body, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake, as it steadily eradicated the encompasing agaony. The only down side was that he felt weaker, and almost everything lost what little clarity it had. But he didn’t care, the encompassing pain had left him and that was all that mattered. Even the pulsing of the world had lessened, reduced to calming gentle waves that ferried him around in the void.

It was tranquil…peaceful.

No! I have to remember… this isn’t…safe. I. Am not safe. Think damn it, think, what is this…place? He began thinking intently, forcing his mind to work through the haze. Its protests fell on deaf ears, (I just had another argument with myself) and he eventually – after what felt like several days - found something of note. The something was a theory on what the person in a comatose state might ‘see’. The theory stated that the person might be in their own mind, essentially sifting through memories and feeling until they woke up. He adapted the theory to his situation and it made sense. The sensations could be what my physical body is feeling… the pulsing…and pain could be me…dying? My chest was pretty badly destroyed after all. The…helpful one…a nurse maybe? Okay, this doesn’t help me wake up. He debated mentally for some time, trying to remember if there was anything he had stumbled across that might help him now.

'No' was the simple answer to that. He needed to figure this out on his own.

His eyes. He tried to open them, but it felt like trying to lift two great lead slabs, the kind that would keep the most valuable treasures locked away for an eternity. His gut spoke out; it was telling him that opening his eyes would lead him to the waking world. Non to chuffed at the idea that simply being unable to open his eyes was keeping him in a comatose state, he re-doubled his efforts, desperately trying to pry open his eyes. It simply wasn’t working, they were refusing to budge. Maybe it would be best if- the thoughts of doubt were demolished as light burst into the abyssal darkness, lighting the candle of hope in him. It was just a slit, a measly crack, but it was enough to force him onward, pushing his eyes open more and more, a fraction at a time, the world of shadows almost screaming and writhing around him as it was banished.

Elation filled him finally as the light spilled into the darkness, throwing him back into the world of awareness and life, but not before all his memories flooded him in one fell, crippling swoop. He felt sorrow again. And again. And again. And again…

Chapter 5: Awkward Second Encounter

Fluttershy collapsed, a loud thud dispersing the surreal silence of the room for a moment before sighing in relief, stretching out her tired limbs before again sighing in content, realising that this was the first time she had been able to really take a break for the past week.

Being Ponyville’s unofficial veterinarian, she had dealt with a lot of patients with a wide range of injuries, from a small mouse that had broken its leg to a bear with back problems.

But nothing like this - nothing with such extensive injuries or such strange, though interesting design. If she were asked what her most difficult case ever had been, she would have had to definitely say ‘that strange bipedal creature we almost killed when we went to that other universe.’ The damage was so extensive that she was unsure for the first time that her knowledge and healing ability was going to be enough to save him, and being away from all of her supplies didn’t help this. Though, (“by Celestia, he has a hospital in this cupboard!”) the kitchen revealed to them many wonders, mainly the fact that it seemed he had raided a hospital and stashed the loot in an unfortunate cupboard, which looked like it was going to need to stretch out to fit everything in it.

This discovery – along with Twilight’s newly founded medical spells – were the only things that gave him a remote chance at surviving. And he did…but to say he was walking a thin line was an understatement. He was walking on a firing line, lined with broken glass, blackened from the blood of past victims.

Things were initially a whirlwind of confusion and feverish activity. Everypony was doing something to help after being coaxed into it by the unusually commanding Fluttershy, ranging from finding those medical supplies to moving him to his room and generally being helpful by staying out of the way or moving supplies to the Twilight and Fluttershy who were casting spells and bandaging as though they were racing each other.

As she looked back at it, she realised that it was Twilight who had one of the most difficult things to do in all of surgery, especially for someone who had never practised medicine: she had to remove bone fragments from the lungs. She had to use a spell to isolate and ‘disintegrate’ them, but any slip up in this process could have been fatal. She didn’t tell her this until after the fact though, after all, she didn’t want to put her under more pressure…though she did nearly faint from the stress anyway.

However, after the initial drive to save him, an argument quickly broke out between the group members. On one side of the argument were Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie who were trying to persuade Twilight, Scootaloo and Fluttershy to leave. The argument got pretty heated, Dash saying that it was simply far too dangerous to stay there, taking the incident much more to heart than any of the other ponies.
“Besides, it’s all bandaged up, it’ll be fine. I was after they got bandages on me.” This argument proved ineffective to those who knew what they were talking about. Twilight responded by pointing out that if he did become a hazard yet again, he could easily be dealt with by her magic.
“Furthermore, does he look like he is in any fit shape to simply be dumped on his own? Whether we like it or not, we are currently responsible for his current condition and we must look after him. And don’t you look so down Applejack, we all would have done the same thing.” They tried to reason their points once more to Twilight, Pinkie going as far to sing about it, but all their objections were ceased in one fell, quiet cry from Fluttershy. He had stopped breathing. The others ultimately ended up waiting outside the room, occasionally fleeing down the stairs in order to get something for Twilight or Fluttershy. They ended up just bringing the box of supplies up stairs.

It was an exhausting hour for the two of them. After getting him breathing the first time, he had a heart attack and then decided to stop breathing again. This would be the first of the many exhausting hours that would come that week, but needless to say, the argument was won in their favor.

After that things fell into a routine, of sorts. Fluttershy would spend most of her time looking after him, with some help from Twilight whenever she was needed. Rarity would have her O.C.D kick in at times and would leave rooms spotless in under half an hour. Applejack, Pinkie and Scootaloo really just hung around, cooking for everypony when a meal came around and spent the rest of their time discussing anything that seemed relevant. Dash spent a lot of time in the air, more so than she did on the ground. The others weren’t sure what she was doing but every time that she came back she seemed to be hiding frustration – though somewhat poorly. Having said that, she wouldn’t talk about it and would quickly try to change her tone whenever she saw any of them, trying to be like her normal self. The others just shook it off as Dash being moody.

That day was only different for Fluttershy, who was enjoying the break. In fact, she was enjoying so much that she never even felt her eyes getting heavy, and sleep taking her. The sleep itself was surprisingly peaceful; a dream of being home and being greeted by a mass gathering of her animal friends greeted her with open arms. Despite this, she was never a heavy sleeper, and a sound roused her. It was slight, barely rearing its head before dissolving to silence again, but it was enough to break the silence that had blanketed the room, except for the slight snoring from Fluttershy. She raised her head as she looked over the room, trying to find the source of the noise.

There it was again, it was from behind her. It came from the creature. She was on her legs immediately, tensing slightly and ready to bolt out of the room at the slightest movement. But he didn’t move. Only his mouth, very slightly as he murmured something before resuming his motionless slumber. It seemed sort of robotic the way only his mouth would move.

Curiosity overwriting her normal timid nature, she kneeled up on the bed and put her ear next to his, her mane tumbling onto his face sloppily. It took a minute this time, but he eventually muttered something that confused her slightly. Most of it was illegible, but she was able to understand a few words:
“…Sorry…have told…helped…no excuse…” She stayed there for a moment more, hoping to catch something that would let her piece together what he said, but the only sound she got was a gasp. Presuming he was having a heart attack or was about to stop breathing, she pulled away, already calling Twilight and preparing to do CPR, when she froze, rigid as steel.

Their eyes connected, surprisingly similar in colour, if his only being a touch darker. The similarities ended there. Fluttershy had always been a reasonably good judge of character, and one that she knew you tell character, was through someone’s eyes. Her eyes were big, soft an innocent, the kind that you could trust. His eyes on the other hand were dark, they had not the light in them that could be associated with someone who had love and joy in him. They were glazed and hardened from tough years, and showed experience and wisdom that should not be in someone his age. It was chilling to see this in what she ultimately saw were a child’s eyes. Strangely however, instead of seeing anger and a desire to harm her, she instead saw curiosity, a bit of suspicion and uncertainty. They were both intimidated by their situation.

Summoning her courage a bit (a lot) she said the first words.
“Oh…eh, h-hello, my name is em, Fluttershy. What’s your name?”

He stared at her blankly for a moment before it hit him that a horse had just spoken to him. There was a very awkward silence in the room for about a minute before the room door burst open, Twilight trailing with an adrenaline needle levitating next to her.
“I’m here Fluttershy, what’s…” She stopped, seeing that she had turned to her, with the creature also doing so. “Oh. He’s awake.” They all looked between each other, the rather awkward looking creature trying to wedge himself into the wall.
“Aye…I um. Who’re you two, ‘n’ wit ‘re wantin’?” He sounded somewhat hostile, making Fluttershy ‘meep’ and jump off the bed, taking up a defensive position behind Twilight.
“What’s going on in here?” came the booming voice of Dash as she and Applejack came through the door. They too quickly caught onto the situation. “Oh” was the response.

After a minute all those who wanted to be in the room to hear what was to happen were present. Funnily enough, it happened to be those who were already present. Rarity had the feeling that things of a rather ugly nature were going to be talked about, so she didn’t want to hear any of it, so she took Scootaloo back down stairs, and Pinkie just said “Oh it’s fine, I wouldn’t want to scare him with all my over the top antics and personality.” Twilight closed the door at this point and turned back towards the creature, taking lead of the conversation.
“So, I hope you don’t mind, but we have some questions we would like to ask you.” The creature lay there for a moment, before turning on his side so he was facing them. He took a moment to breath before replying. Breathing hurt.
“I…also, have some questions… I’ll answer…your…questions if… You answer mine - Deal?”
“You’re not really in any position to be making any deals you know.” Applejack kicked Dash lightly before replying herself saying that that was fair. “Now…how’s about some…introduction…?!”
“Of course. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am Princess Celestia’s star pupil and have been sent to Ponyville to study the Magic of Friendship. This is Fluttershy; she tends to all of the animals of Ponyville, and is the one who took care of you while you were…uh, in a coma. She pretty much saved your life.”
“Really now?” He raised his eyebrows and looked at her, and she nodded modestly, muttering that Twilight helped a lot too. “Well, you most certainly have…gah! My-my thanks…” He went taught as pain from his chest flared up suddenly, destroying his track of mind in a fiery explosion. This lasted only seconds before it disappeared. He looked down lazily to see a different needle to the one that Twilight had floated into the room being used along with it.
“Ah, morphine my God, how I love-ith thee…” He used his hands to direct his face back to the ponies and take the needles out. He pointed lazily at Applejack. “And, you are…?”
“Ah… Are y’all alright? Should we maybe do this at a better time?” He shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, I’m good. I ain’t dead, therefore I’m fine. Continue.” The other two quickly introduced themselves, explaining their roles. Applejack – Apple farmer. Rainbow Dash- Weather Controller (?). The two who weren’t present were Rarity who was a dress maker and had a good eye for fashion and Pinkie Pie was pretty much the resident party pony and worked at the local bakery.

He had to summon a lot of mental control to keep himself losing his poker face and erupting into laughter. ‘For fucks sake, they are having me on? Right? Wow…right, okay. Try and find out as much as you can. Could be interesting after all.’
“You may have…the first question.”
“Thank you. Now, can you give us some, general information on you?”
“I don’t see why not,” he replied with a shrug. “I’m…hm. Re-phrase. Well, my species, we are called Human. My personal ID is River. Not my name, my ID. I’m only fifteen and am currently immobile. Now, my question to you. Why the fuck were you committing home invasion?”
“Because you foalnapped Scootaloo!” Dash growled, almost knocked her head against his as she spat her answer in his face.
“I kidnapped no one. If Scootaloo is that small filly, you will find that she landed on top of me. Now since ponies falling out of the sky is not a common happening, I decided to take to my home to offer her shelter and any help I could. Goes to show what happens to those who try to help, dun-it?” Needless to say his tone was dangerous. Even though he was bed ridden, she didn’t take her chances and backed up, gaining glances from her friends. She just huffed and faced him, Applejack deciding to give him a proper answer.
“We are ‘cos you had Scootaloo. See, she fell from the cloud we had been camping on and Dash wasn’t able to find her as she fell due to the snow storm that was brewing. She was able to find you however walking away from where she thought she may have landed, with your jackets off in a bundle. We assumed that you were foalnapping her so we followed you to your house. We…then broke in and tried to sneak about. We weren’t good enough at it evidently, as y’all know what happened next. Ah’m really sorry ‘bout what happened ‘n’ what Ah did, I feel right awful about it.” He frowned with a smile, seeing sincerity that he wasn’t used to seeing.
“Hey, chin up lass. It’s fine, honest. If I had-nay been so damn trigger happy this may not have happened the way it did, but the only reasons why people break into people’s houses…well, it ain’t for a chat, that’s for sure. And plus the past seven or eight times it’s happened, it hasn’t been underlined with a good reason, so I think I was somewhat justified. I’m getting off subject here, your question.” There was a silence as the group thought this statement over, their already pre-existing sympathy for this boy, River, growing, making their faces droop a little. Except for Dash, who was wearing a scowl that no one had noticed yet, as though it were invisible.
“Right em, back to the questions, where are we exactly?” The words left her mouth and simply caused River to laugh. A light chuckle at first, but it soon blossomed into a full blown hysteric fit. Calming himself down, he had moved to a sitting upright position.
“You really don’t know? Where the fuck ‘ave you lot been living for the past fifty odd fucking years!? Or are you lot laboratory creatures, would explain the odd colouration.”
“We’ll explain where we live and our ‘odd colouration’ to you, after you answer our question.” Dash said a bit too forcefully. River just smirked a little, moving a strand of greasy black hair from his face.
“Alright, but I’ll tell you this now, this little planet that I live on has had a bad run recently. So, if em-body here ain’t wanting to hear this, I suggest leaving now.” They all looked at each other, their eyes searching each other’s for the desire to leave.
“Fluttershy, you sure you want to hear this?”
“Oh, I’m fine Applejack. I like learning about different animals.”
‘So, you see me as an animal do you Fluttershy?’ he thought, not sure if he should be offended or not.
“Okay, we’re all staying. Continue.” He just smiled. If his hunch was right, these ponies were in for the worst horror story of their lives.

He detailed to them some basic history, telling of how a few things came to be, the world wars and the general violence that followed. Needless to say, they were shaken, even Dash’s seemingly unwavering scowl was drooped at the corner, her eyes widening at the ease that he could talk about such things. If she were to even think of all those bodies, she would be sick… she had to imagine them.

“Now, that was over one hundred years ago. We were recovering, prospering, life was getting better. We still had our wars, but nothing on the scale of those two. Things in the world as a whole seemed to be improving - Until around 2016. On October 12th, the state of Alabama was ravished by a large explosion near the states capital, Montgomery. The explosion originated from the largest nuclear explosion to date, decimating the state, destroying half of the land in an instant and rendering land as far as neighbouring states radioactive to this day. The area is so large; it looks like a glow stick burst open over the earth when viewed from space. This incident brought to the front of all media a message from companies, that people were simply too dumb to work effectively, or had no work ethic and done things as sloppily as possible. The governments of the world got together and decided to introduce something called the “IQ Card”. The card, as you may imagine, shows your tested level of intelligence, as well as your grades and what-not. It soon became so that you have to have a certain IQ or higher to do a certain job. However, the levels were set simply too high for too many years, an in 2022, global riots struck out. There wasn’t a place on earth where there weren’t riots, and like bacteria in a dish, the rioters multiplied, and the anger growing stronger as defence forces were overwhelmed, even with the use of lethal force.

“The government eventually relented, slacking the IQ restrictions a bit, and it was enough to quell the active riots, but no one is happy. No one. Only those fucking bastards up top where they had to rake in the fucking money with a bulldozer- or a fleet of them. But it wasn’t long ‘till all that unrest boiled over again. Gangs, they were the backbone of the initial unrest. People didn’t feel right simply walking out into the streets with no banner behind them. So, they turned to gangs. Mainly, “The Left Hand of God” and several others. By the end of the ‘civil unrest’, it was estimated around 46% of all people were involved in some gang or another. The gang culture continued to grow and flourish, unabated by the weed hackers that were supposed to be the world’s governments. This was a grave mistake by all. By 2025, the attention on gangs was immense. The sheer amount of advertisement from minor graffiti to managing to sneak on actual TV broadcasting stations and advertise their message, was getting a lot of attention, and by 2025, it was estimated that 61% of all world populace, were part of gang culture. The specifics varied in each country, but in the former USA, it was roughly 76%. Seeing that they had the numbers, “The Left Hand of God” struck in America, taking four states in couple of days. The armies were sent in, but the sheer numbers right across all of the states, was too much for them, and they called in their allies to help in the fight. They weren’t the only one. “The Left Hand of God” had made itself one or two allies of its own in countries that shared certain goals with them, so they pulled in their allies. In the end, World War 3 erupted, all fought on American soil. For a time.

The gangs were not only present in America. Like a parasite, they had managed to amass large amounts of members in key countries and allies including the United Kingdom, Europe and China. They struck, and to be able to contain their own problems, they had to remove all of their armies from the US, and this left them up shit creek without a paddle. Most of the States have fallen by this point. Only three remain, and they all have agreements with them…though they are breaking down. The desire for nukes is strong in the US. What else to say? Governments have been doing deals with the gangs for many years now, their power is only there because the gangs allow it, at least it is certainly the case for most members…”

“Death toll? Well, I am surprised you asked. Are you sure you want to know…? It is maybe only a number, but the way you lot acted… Alright, I never said you lot wimps. The amount injured throughout the entire World War 3, was 3.82billion - All suffering from wounds that ranged to broken bones to violent mutations. The total dead was 2.23billion. Almost all of the world’s population was either killed or injured. If there is one thing that we humans are good at, it is killing each other. We do it like no other; nothing can even hold a fucking stick to what we can do to each other.”

They all just stood there, gasping from the horror that was presented to them. Fluttershy couldn’t even brake down in the tears she wanted to spill at hearing of the extensive suffering, she was shocked into place. Twilight was the one to voice herself first.
“That…that is horrible! How could your own kind to that to each other? Wars against other species have happened in our world, yes but not for hundreds of years.”
“There are no other sentient species here on earth.”
“That doesn’t excuse the face that you are all killing each other. And I was not saying that we had other species to take anger out on. It just happened sometimes, and they were never on the scale of any of your ‘World Wars’. It’s…”
“It’s plain wrong!” Everypony jumped at Dash’s outburst, but she wasn’t done as she flew right up into River’s face, who just looked at her blankly. “What the heck is wrong with you things!? I have been seeing what you’s do to each other in the streets, and the stuff I’ve seen, it is horrific enough, but what you’ve told us here? Just shows that you are all a lost cause. Heck, you yourself are probably just a thieving murderous scum.” She noticeably spat the last words. Without any warning, River grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall, pulling a knife out of seemingly nowhere and placing small blade at her throat.
“Listen here.” His voice had dangerous whispers of malice in it for the first time. “I have tried for a long time, to make myself the best person that I could in a world that would sooner kill me than help me off the floor if I fell. I have tried for the longest time to help others where I can. I have tried to aid the same people who would mug me in different circumstances. I. Have tried, which is more that I can say most of the scum who now inhabit this world. I have tried to help, even if that means that I have had to kill, but I am the lesser of two evils. After spending most of what little I have had of my life, trying to better this place in any way I can, putting my life in more danger than you have ever,” he pushed his own face closer to hers, “been in. Who the hell… who the fuck do you think you are, that you can come along here – in my own fucking home! And call me something like that, with not even any justification. And I could see through-out that entire meeting there, that you do not like me. I can even see that you thought I wouldn’t be a problem to deal with. Don’t even ask, I have dealt with people who can conceal their thoughts and intentions better than you. All I have to say is this; if you, or any of you come at me with the intention of removing me – I will kill you. It will not be hard. Hell, you didn’t even check my mattress for weapons?” He just sighed and let his voice fall. He looked at Dash, her eyes were sunk into her face with fear. He removed the knife and stopped pinning her. She flew over to her friends, almost breaking the sound barrier in the process. “Just don’t fuck with me and everything will be fine.” He lay back down, staring at the ceiling.

There was a hot silence as the three friends looked between Dash and River, trying to clock exactly what happened and whose side they should take should they need to. They didn’t need to thankfully as River got to his feet – ignoring the pain as he did so – and took off downstairs after saying: “You can all stay here if you want. It’ll be a stretch to provide for you all, but I’ll manage to do it. I can also keep you all safe and away from people – the government will not find you in my house. However, if you decide to go, I recommend going north to the hills if you can. Resources will be more plentiful there and there is a slimmer chance of you being discovered, but be wary of military operations and gang smuggling activity, it is very abundant up there. Less people, you know.” They turned to Rainbow as groans and sharp creeks could be heard coming from the bottom stairs.
“Rainbow, what in tarnation did you think you were doin’? That was blatantly rude and dangerous.” Dash fidgeted a bit, still calming her racing heart.
“I really don’t know…it’s just all of the stuff that goes on out there. And then hearing of this, I… It just put me over the edge.”
“It’s okay Dash, we understand.” Dash smiled at Fluttershy before returning to her sour expression.
“Okay… I think we should stay here. I know, Twi, a complete U-turn, but…even if he is dangerous, I…I believe him. There was something in his eyes…his face. The way he wasn’t even trying to put any pressure on me or the knife… I don’t think he will hurt us: only if we push him. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like him still, but I have a feeling that he is much more capable than we- I think he is.” Twilight looked a little shocked at this, but just sighed what she wanted to say to this change away.
“All right, we have your vote, now we have to get the others up here for theirs. Girls! Can you come up here please!?”

Rarity and Pinkie thundered up the stairs like the like the flames of hell were after them, dragging a rather startled Scootaloo along for the ride. River being down the stairs had startled them, it seemed. Despite this, the votes were cast and the decision was unanimous, despite the slight fear in the air about, they were confident that all would be well. He came upstairs again with a cheese sandwich in hand, his second, chewing on it vigorously: he never realised how hungry he was.
“River,” Twilight announced, “We have come to the conclusion that it would be best to take up your offer, and stay here with you. If the offer is still there…?”
“Yeah it is. I forgot to ask: how long was I out for?
“Oh, me, me, I know. You were ‘out’ for a whole week!” Pinkie answered helpfully.
“Oh…sugar.” He finished off his sandwich somewhat swiftly – regretting not being able to savour it though - before going back down the stairs, hands wringing, muttering, “I had fucking homework to hand in…”

Auther note: I simply must apologise for how long this chapter took. The quality does not reflect the time taken, and for this I must also say sorry for. But, the next chapter should be out sooner than this one. Thank you all.

Author's Note

Edit (28/8/13): ...my God...it's worse than I had ever realised...it...it's so bad! It...it's a monster!
Yeah, this needs re-done. I'm putting this on the list of things to write - I struggled a lot with this one and golly does it show. But I'll re-write this as a side project.

Chapter 6: A Civilised Conversation

“So, how long I am going to be bed ridden?”
“Oh, um, I think two weeks at the least Mr River, sir. Your legs are fine, as you said, but moving around is simply too stressful on your chest. You might hurt yourself with all the running around you seem to want to do…”
“Eh, not happenin’. As much as I love to fuck around to do bugger aw, no’ fir a fortnight. A week -tops. I’ll be fine by then.
“Oh no, no. You simply must stay in bed for at least a fortnight. I already took it down from a month!”
“Don’t make me laugh Fluttershy: that would hurt me, ‘member? A month? I simply couldn’t be inactive for a month. People would assume the home was abandoned, and they’d have a go at looting it. Furthermore, my studies would suffer horribly. I cannot stay in bed for so long.”
“But if you don’t, you- you might hurt yourself more! And we can’t have you doing that, not with how hurt you already are. So if you just stay in bed, everything will be fine.”
“I disagree, everything will not be fine, but that is beside the point. Heck, I feel pretty-fucking-dandy right now. I think I’ll be good if I get out of bed now.”
“No, you mustn’t! You are in no condition to-“
“Yeah, yeah, let me up.”
After having making his way down the stairs, in his rush to bet to his schoolbag, River had promptly discovered that morphine does not last forever, and became incapacitated half way down the stairs. He was then levitated by Twilight back into his bed, despite his protest.
Fluttershy had spent the past two hours arguing with him, trying to make him stay in bed until he was better, but he wasn’t really having any of it. And arguing for two hours straight could even ware down on Fluttershy, so when he tried to get up, she lost it.
She jumped right up into his face, her wings spread out far behind her, and her eyes shrunk down as she stared him down. Catching on, River glared back at her, their unwavering, commanding glances not wearing down, both determined to stare the other into submission.
The intensity between their gaze could light a glowing splint
Over time they both began to sweat, Fluttershy’s soul piercing glare and River’s sheer defiance working against each other, both forces like titans clashing.
But, all fights must come to an end, and the one to fall, to both of their amazement, was River.
“Christ, alright, a gee in. I swear, that gaze o’ yours c’d make a grown man cry n’ fear.” He got himself settled in the bed once more as Fluttershy sighed in relief, herself close to the buckling point. “A week, no more lass, you hear?” Fluttershy nodded in agreement, not willing to spend another couple of hours arguing her point.
“Okay. Em, is there anything you need?” River nodded after frowning in thought.
“Aye actually, some info. Our talk was cut off short ‘fore Ah could get anything about your world. Please tell.”
He sat there, mouth slightly unhinged from its tight constraints from the description of her world; it was utopian, blissful, calm, warless, no suffering or corruption and rulers that cared for their people.
All he could do was laugh.
“Lies.” That was all he would say. No matter what Fluttershy said, no matter what image she presented of her world, he simply said, “Lies.” Telling him about the dangerous mythical creatures in her world – trying to make it sound a little less utopian – didn’t help her case at all. “Bull-shit. No, I don’t believe a thing of what you have said. Though, I have a felling from that insistent look that you ain’t gonna tell me anything else.” From there the conversation led into details about her world. Though River didn’t believe a word she was saying, he found the picture she painted fascinating.
‘So very different to reality. Quite the imagination she has. Her living in a house at a forests edge, surrounded by wildlife that she takes care of daily? Centuries of peace throughout the land? And rulers that are looking out for their subjects and take actions in their best interest, even when they do not profit themselves in anyway? Only in paradise.’
They conversed well into the night before Fluttershy began yawning.
“Off to bed now?”
“I think so, will you be okay? Are you sure you don’t want anything, a drink of water maybe?” River smiled at her, and she took that as a yes. River sighed as she left the room, glad for the peace it brought. ‘I forgot how much having company in the house changed things...’ His enjoyment of this peace however was cut short by the sound of door opening announcing Dash entering the room.
“Hey…”She looked a little uncomfortable.
“’Sup?” She scratched her head as she looked around the room, trying to find something to occupy her attention other than River, but saw nothing but the red speckles on the wall.
“Eh, why are there so many red bits on the walls?” The question came out feebly, but was answered.
“Because exactly what I done to Applejack has happened to several robbers who ended up in my room. There are a couple throughout the house, some that I missed in cleaning. I just leave the ones in here…they don’t matter to me, I am usually the only one who sees them…” This did creep Dash out a little. Why would he not bother to clean blood off his walls, just because it was only him who saw it? She asked this. “Well…I don’t see how it is any of your business, after all, it does not affect you now, does it?” She sighed, disappointed by the lack of an answer but it a point not to touch the walls.
“Twilight sent me through…she said I should apologise for offending you…I’m sorry.”
“The amount of sincerity is overwhelming, any more enthusiasm I might have been knocked out!” She scowled at him, just wanting him to drop it and forget everything, but he waved his hand at her, immune to her glares.
“Dash; there is no point in apologising when you mean nothing of what you say. A hollow and empty apology is as bad as the act which you must apologise for. You may apologise to me, when you mean what you are saying, and when you truly know what you are saying sorry for.” Bewilderment spread like a rash across Dash’s face.
“I know exactly what I’m supposed to be sorry about. I insulted you – nothing else to it.” River shook his head, looking slightly amused at the response he got.
“Oh Dashie, you know…not much about this sort of thing do you?” The question hung in the air for a moment before River continued. “You don’t know why I was offended. Granted, I told you something about me that gave you an idea as to why I was offended, and using that you have crafted the illusion that you know why. You haven’t seen it. For example, people know there is a lot of suffering in the world, but they do not see the true extent of it and don't know exactly why they should feel sorry for them Granted this was in the past, people don't care anymore, but the example works all the same. You don’t know why you should apologise, as much as we didn’t know exactly why we should help those less fortunate. Words are all well and good, but when they are coupled with meaning and context, then they become something that matters.” Dash felt frozen as she listened. She hadn’t expected this. She had hoped he would have dismissed her immediately; throw her out the room even, but not this. And as much as she disliked him, his words made sense to her, even though she didn’t entirely understand his meaning.
“I will say this to you now though – I am sorry. I’m sorry for acting so rashly to what you said. It was irresponsible of me and there was no real reason for it. I guess I was still getting used to the idea that there really are talking pastel coloured ponies somewhere out there, and I apologise for scaring you. Don’t give me that look, fear is a hard thing to hide from those trained to see it, especially if you aren’t used to hiding it. The eyes reveal all, remember that.” Dash stormed out the room.
‘Scared! I was not scared! Well…maybe a little, but come on! He had a knife to me. Anypony would…but it’s not cool to point it out…grr… But he’s right though, darn it! I was scarred! Well, I’ll fix that, I’ll not be afraid of him anymore, besides, it’s not like he would have actually used that knife. Yeah…’
Fluttershy nearly bumped into Dash as Dash marched out River’s room and into her own. She was forced to glance back by her concern to Rainbow’s room as she went into River’s room, intending to check up on her.
“Wow, that is impressive Fluttershy.”
“Huh?” River pointed at her head, where a large glass of water was perfectly perched.
“That. That takes skill. Shows you have a superb sense of balance too, I bet you could make a great acrobat if you wanted to.” Fluttershy blushed and he took the water from her head, letting her stretch her neck in relief.
“I was actually considering being an acrobat when I was a little filly, but I couldn’t fly well and was very shy. But I then discovered my love of animals, and I could never leave them after that.” River nodded as he sipped the water, unconsciously checking for anomalies.
“Trading one love for one you love even more. I can understand that.” She smiled again before yet again asking if he needed anything. “Just an answer to the one question: why do you all have tattoos on your flanks?” He figured it was one of the first questions he should have asked. They all had markings on their flanks, Dash had a multi coloured lightning bolt coming from a fluffy white cloud, Rarity had three light blue gems in a typical diamond shape and Pinkie had three balloons on her. Twilight had a large purple star with smaller stars around it, Applejack had…apples and Fluttershy herself had three butterflies.
“Well, they are our cutie marks.” River raised an eyebrow, ‘that sounds like a fancy name for-‘
“Everypony in equestrian gets their own when they discover their special talent. Mine shows my love for animals and desire to care for them. ‘Never mind that then.’
“So, everypony in the wor- I mean, “Equestria” goes to a tattoo parlour when they decide they know what makes them unique?”
“Oh no, not like that. It appears magically almost immediately after a pony finds what they are best at… Don’t humans have them?” River shook his head, not completely believing her, but finding it hard to dispute her after putting in a little thought. After all, Twilight could use magic; she had used it on him to get him to his bed after all, so he knew that is existed in her world. But the idea that every person in that land had their speciality marked permanently on them for everyone to see, didn’t sit right with him. There was no real mystery to a person that way, you didn’t need to get to know them to know anything about them, one glance at their ass and presto, he is a joiner. Uninteresting, next.
“That is really…I don’t know. That is weird to me, it seems that, once you have acquired this mark…that it dictates the rest of your life. People would judge you by it, employers would bias against it, and if you lost interest in that thing that your cutie mark represents,” the word tasted weird in his mouth, “wouldn’t it be kind of…annoying? Having this mark stuck to you showing publically something that you no longer want to have shown?” ‘At least someone who’s special talent were murder would be easy to spot.’ Fluttershy thought about it for a moment before shrugging it off, saying that to her knowledge, it had never happened before, ponies always remained in love with what their special talent was and often would seek out a job or living that suited that. It still didn’t settle him, but he felt better with a bit of an answer. “Alright, if you insist. So, if the tattoos are natural, are the coats too?”
“Um, what do you mean?”
“The colour of your coats and manes: those cannot be natural. They simply can’t.”
“Um, they are though. I’ve never dyed my mane, ever!” He stared at her as thought she had just fallen off a couch.
“You’re joshin’ me right? No, hawd it, you’re telling me that; a Pegasus with a yellow coat and pink mane, a unicorn with deep purple coat and mane – with a pink stripe in it and in the tail, an orange, yellow maned earth pony, a bubble gum pink one too, another unicorn, crystal white with blue eye shadow and a cyan Pegasus with a Rainbow mane!... Is normal? Oh, and not forgetting the wee filly with muddy orange coat and purple mane too.” Fluttershy hovered for a second, getting used to Rivers’ scrutiny of something which was so normal to her.
“Yes, it is natural. The eye shadow on Rarity isn’t, naturally, but everything else is completely natural. Even Rainbow Dash’s mane – though it is unique. Rarity thinks it is dyed, but Dash insists it is natural.” River found himself once again bewildered into silence, his face involuntarily betraying his normally set expression.
“Christ on a bike man, I’d fucking love tae huv a peek at your genetics. Must be some LSD shit going on in there for fucks sake… Tell me, this almighty ruler of yours, Celectria or something, wits she like, what has she done?” Fluttershy wondered what he meant briefly by their genetics, unfamiliar with the term, but smiled as she spoke, feeling a little wanting for home.
“It’s, um, Celestia by the way. She is really, really nice. She has a love for everypony and also loves animals. She has her own pet too, a phoenix called Philomena, a beautiful bird and really nice too…”
“You act as though you have met her, Celestia that is.”
“I have, but, it’s not that important. Not to say that she isn’t important, or that she isn’t a nice pony but it’s not something I like to brag about, or even mention…”
“Alright hen, I get where you are coming from, don’t stutter yourself in-tae a hole. I’ll let you get to your bed now lass, your lookin’ dark under the eyes now.”
“Oh, okay then, goodnight River.”
“G’night Fluttershy, enjoy your beauty sleep.” She left the room, being careful to close the door as quietly as possible.
River lay there, staring at his celling in the darkness, smiling for no real reason. But if the smile could be seen, it would be questioned. It looked melancholy, out of place with his thoughts. And memories.
‘Hope they aren’t here long…I just got used to living alone for fucks sake… Makes me wonder how Robert would react to them. Wait, who? The fuck am I on about…? Ack, never mind, probably just a slip of the…mind…?’ He rolled his eyes at his own slip, deciding to blame it on a lack of and his strange position. ‘I know I should be doing my job - I’ve been in worse shape than this…sorta. That bitch has one hell of a fucking kick - I’ll have to be wary of her. But…I want to learn all I can about them before that. When I go off to my job, things might not end well.’
He rolled over onto his side, being stunned momentarily by a strike of pain through his chest. “That was quite the potent sting…” It passed down into a dull ache, letting him sigh. He felt a little ashamed. Out of everything, this encounter was the one that had the longest lasting effect, the one where he felt he was the closest to death. He knew of course that he had been in worse shape, but adrenaline can let you ignore even the worst scrapes and bruises, and he wasn’t covering behind a crate, being shot at. Therefore – no adrenaline.
“I need music…in fact nah, it can wait. I need sleep. But what the hell am I going to do about them…ponies? Are they really the things that came through – fucking equines?” He rolled back onto his back, wedging himself right at the wall, enjoying the cool feeling it brought. He continued to think all through the night, mostly about what he was going to do, but found each conclusion to be unsound.
He was interrupted by a chap at his door. He blinked suddenly, realising that the wall was warm and soft streetlight light was being blocked by his blinds, the old fabric paling but still going strong.
“Come in.” He croaked, making him aware of his thirst as he tried to physically shake away the odd loss of time. Fluttershy poked her head through the door, quickly followed by Twilight.
“Hey there River, how are you today?”
“I’m…knida shitty, but I can’t complain – felt a hell-of-a lot worse in recent days. What time is it anyway?” He replied while lazily rubbing his shoulder, willing blood into it after having squashed it all night.
“It’s night again, nine o’clock –at night- and considering that you still haven’t slept yet, that’s not surprising. I have had my fair share of ‘staying up all night’, reading of course, and it isn’t a very pretty feeling. I’m surprised you haven’t fallen asleep.”
“You really should sleep River; it will help you to recover much quicker.”
“Believe me; I do not need lectured about sleep.” His tone made it clear that he had dealings with the subject before. “Besides, as a teenager, sleep is one of my favourite activities. I just couldn’t do much of it last night. Unlike you girls?”
“Oh yes. The bed was wonderful – one of the most comfortable I’ve ever slept on.” Twilight nodded, agreeing whole heartedly.
“I am curious; why do you have so many spare rooms?”
“Well, I happened to come into a bit of money a wee while back and was able to purchase a house, and since I sometimes have to cater to more people than just myself, I decided that it would be best to acquire a house that could just that. It isn’t often mind you, but it happens.” Twilight looked at him as he smiled a little, happy with his explanation but still felt it wasn’t the whole story, like he had just made that up on the spot to satisfy her. But he sounded very sincere and there was no reason to disbelieve him, remembering he was still a stranger, she brushed it off as trying to kindle her doubts of him.
“Um Twilight, you said you could check him?” She looked over to her with a questioning look but blinked, embarrassed for forgetting why they were there.
“Oh yeah. Hold still for a moment please.” She walked up to him with her horn glowing and began hovering it over the length of him.
He scanned his eyes over them both, hoping to get an answer, but after getting nothing but a smile he asked what she was doing, just to be ‘shh’d. He promptly huffed and slouched.
Twilight pulled back after a few minutes, smiling with pride.
“It’s working a treat! I must share that spell with Celestia when I get home...” River could see that sombre look beginning to come on, so he cut it off by asking what the spell was (the fact it was being used on him having nothing to do with it at all). “Well, it is an advanced healing spell. See, you were in very rough shape. We all knew Applejack could kick, but she accidently –accidently! Done a lot of damage. And that table of yours had some really weird glass in it. It was very tough and managed to hurt you a lot as well.” Both ponies were cringing at the memories, and River could get why.
“Yeah, she hus a kick an’ a half that woman does. I’m never goin’ tae piss her off. And the glass, it’s bullet proof: Designed to take high intensity impacts from things moving at over three hundred meters a second, so the fact that she was able to kick me through it – just damn. But anyway, the spell?”
“Wow…” She briefly considered asking why he had such glass in a table, but decided against it. “Yes, erm. The medical spells I could remember just weren’t potent enough, so I took aspects from some of them, blended them together, made a few tweaks, and made a new spell.”
“And what does it do exactly?”
“Oh it does a lot of different things. It can help mend the bones of an injured animal, positioning them correctly for the animal – I hope – while fusing it back together, it can cure infection that…” She continued to explain to River exactly what the spell did to River for nearly half an hour. Fluttershy eventually realised that it would take a while and left, but River kept on listening, fascinated at all he was hearing, asking questions that eventually lead to the roots of magic and what it was. He found out, as best he could understand, it was basically a different type of energy that only unicorns could channel directly and manipulate correctly.
“Fascinating. Oh, by the way. You said that the heall-y spell was working – how well?”
“Oh very well. You should be able to walk, but don’t exert yourself too much. Your chest was badly hurt after all, and the only problem with the spell is that it cannot be localised to a specific area so I can’t make it heal any quicker. And the spell takes a while to work anyway, though I’m surprised it has only taken about three days to produce such good results. But still, I’m just sorry I couldn’t make it work any quicker…” She sounded genuinely disappointed, which made River scoff a little as he got up.
“Twilight, please. This spell of yours puts medical science to shame.” They were interrupted by Applejack as she hollered from downstairs.
“Soups on everypony!” River looked to Twilight as he got out of bed, and pulled on his dressing gown over his bandaged form.
“Shall we?”
“She didn’t know you’d be up, you weren’t cooked for.”
“That’s fine, I prefer to cook for myself, and others to be honest, but I have to ask a few things while down there, so.” He motioned to the door. “Shall we?”
The first thing that struck River was how odd the kitchen looked when filled with pastel coloured equines. The room itself was no different from how he had left it – clean, functioning and cool. It may have even been a little cleaner, but he wasn’t sure, he wasn’t paying attention. But the room did feel odd. Used, occupied, useful once again. It made the room seem a little brighter.
“Howday there Twilight, hop on a seat and…oh, hello there River.” The (almost) carefree smiles and conversations ceased when they all noticed him. They were all sitting on the chairs around the table, the thought that they had to jump onto the chairs somehow amused him. He didn’t show it of course, instead he sighed. Knowing he wasn’t welcome or wanted, coupled by the almost fearful expressions held by most but Dash and Twilight, who were just glaring at him and not minding him respectably.
A familiar buzz began at the back of tongue, one that needed satisfied before he could do anything. He hung a quick right and opened the fridge. He reached to the very top of the fridge, and took out a large label-less black bottle and brought it over to the right hand counter, letting the fridge door close with an elegant tap. Opening the cupboard in front of him revealed to him cups and glasses. Including shot glasses. He reached for his largest shot glass and in a much practiced motion, had the glass filled with a dark liquid before it touched down on the counter.
“Eh, ‘scuse me River, Ah know it isn’t mah place to be askin’ but are you drinking the, eh, heavy stuff?” He took a deep sniff of the intoxicating liquid before replying with a satisfied sigh.
“Yeah…this is a blend of liquor and a gin. Hard to do right, but I know just how to do it – and it is fucking delicious.” And with that it was gone with the flick of his wrist, showing off his familiarity with the technique. “Delightful. Now.” He punctuated with the glass being placed. “The main reason that I’m down here: food and answers. Talk amongst yourself until I’m done.” He took his time making his sandwich so he could listen in a bit. It wasn’t exactly light hearted banter, but it was casual enough, with a lot of the energy coming from Pinkie, who was almost throwing herself around the table as everyone talked and laughed. But Dash kept on giving him the evil eye, hoping he wouldn’t see with his back turned; she was completely forgetting about her reflection in the window. River couldn’t help but laugh to himself.
‘Wow, another person that doesn’t like me. Take your place at the end of the line kid, you got a lot of much more dangerous people than you ahead of ya.’
He jumped up onto the table top and sat, taking a content bite from his cheese sandwich before clearing his throat, getting all of their attention immediately.
“Now…eh, where’s the wee one by the way?”
“Oh, the poor dear was tired and went to bed early. She doesn’t need to be here, does she?” Rarity asked. River shook his head.
“Naw, just wonderin’ is all. Can-nay have em’body missing.”
“Why do you care anyway?” Applejack looked at Dash sharply, telling her to pipe down, but River cut her off.
“Naw, it’s ‘k… The reason is that you are all currently freeloading from me. As well as this, you are all lodging here too. I have nothing against this, but I have a sense of responsibility to you lot now – even if it is unwanted, I am now looking after all of you. Even the little one.” The group of ponies looked to each other, not sure how to feel about what was said, but Dash was trying to supress a mocking laugh.
“You, look after us? I’ll give you this, you are quick and kinda intimidating. But, come on, we took you out easy! I think we can handle anyone else.” Despite the looks the rest of the group were giving her, there was a general feeling around the table that she had a point – he had gone down without much problem and hadn’t done much in the way of proving he was capable of much of anything. Furthermore, the six of them did in fact know how to fight, a little.
However, Dash’s smug grin and firmly folded forelegs loosened when River just sat there, shaking his head, munching his sandwich and smiling the smile of someone who knew someone was saying something very stupid.
“Hey, what’s so funny?”
“Nothing what-so-ever. I’ll just demonstrate something after I get an answer for this question: How long are you lot going to be staying here for?” All eyes turned to Twilight as the air in the room seemed to solidify.
“Well…that is a difficult question…”
“How so?”
“Because…” She looked around the room, not wanting to have to admit this to her friends, but sighing when she realised there was no help for this. “Because I have no idea what is wrong with the spell. Ab-solute-ly none.” She looked down in shame at this admission, feeling all eyes on her. Then forelegs. She opened her eyes to see all of her friends giving her a supportive hug, understanding in their eyes.
“It’s all right.” They said as one. She returned the hug.
River had the slightest of frowns on his face, completely flabbergasted by the over the top show of affection, only able to mutter,
“Woman; weird creatures, even when they are horses.” All eyes immediately turned to River. Afraid he had been heard, he started to cough, only for them to frown at him. He just sighed, trying to get back on track. “Alright, since you lot have no idea how long you’ll al be here... Okay, you all seem like decent enough folk –‘cept you Dash, you just want to kick my ass for whatever shallow reason – and because I somewhat like the lot of ya, you can all stay for as long as you need tae.” Faces right across the kitchen light up in delight, the whole area around them almost glowing.
“Oh thank you, thank you, and thank you!” Pinkie said in a mix between prancing and hopping in front of River. “That is soooooooo nice of you, I never would have thought that you’d be so nice! If I’m honest, I honestly thought you would say something like ‘I hate you all and I’m a stick in the mud, get off my property’ but no! You’re so nice! Isn’t he nice!? Oh! I need to throw a party to celebrate!”
“Pinkie!” Rivers voice was finally heard over the insulating sounds of Pinkie Pie.
“Yes?” Pinkie asked with blinking eyes.
“Ground rules. First: you will do as I say. I don’t want to hear objections – if I tell you to throw yourself out the fucking window? You throw yourself out the window. There is never no reason to anything I say, so if I ask something of you, there is a reason. You do not question the reason either.
Rule two: you do not go outside under any circumstance. If you do you will be placing yourself in a lot of danger. The kind of danger you have not dreamed about yet.”
“Oh yeah? Even more dangerous than a hydra?” He raised an eyebrow to the group, expecting them to shake their heads or smile, something to show Dash was kidding. Just a dead audience is what he got.
“Hmm, fascinating, but yes. You can get away from a Hydra, not this danger though – far too many methods of getting to you. Third: No snooping in my room. You may only go in there if I am there, and I have my methods of knowing you were there or not, so: don’t even try. Five: Do not, for the love of God, do not be loud. The last thing I need is inquisitive neighbours or the police chapping at my door.” He got off the counter and poured another shot of his custom drink and downed it. “Oh, and six. Break a damn thing, I break you.” He poured another to take up stairs with him and was about to leave the room when he turned and added, “Oh yeah, fourth rule: waken me fae my sleep and you will rue the day you did. Oh and don’t worry yourselves about cooking your dinners, I’ll handle those. All vegetarian yeah? No vegans? Thought so. Anyway, goodnight my little ponies, I will see you all…tomorrow at some point. Tell…Scootaloo, that’s it, tell Scootaloo I said hello.” And then he was gone, imeditly upstairs and sipping happily on his drink, laptop pulled out and chilling.
They all converged their attention back to each other.
“Well,” Applejack started, “Ah reckon that is reasonable.”
“There was no need to call us freeloaders though.” Rarity complained. “It’s such a crude term, so rude.”
“It is true though Rarity, we aren’t actually contributing to him in anyway. I think that he is being very nice letting us stay here given the circumstances. Remember, if it weren’t for us jumping to conclusions, he wouldn’t have nearly died. Added to that Rainbow’s less than stellar behaviour,” She said with a hard glare “and the knowledge that we may be here for months taking his resources… I am honestly surprised that he just turned around and basically said, ‘Yup, you can stay so long as you obey a few standard household and safety rules’. It’s remarkably generous and kind of him, so I think we can tolerate his language and habits.”
“I, eh really, really don’t think he should be drinking like that though…especially in his condition.” Fluttershy added.
“Yeah, a bit of social drinking can be good at a party, but not like that! Wait, do you think he might be an…alcoholic?” Pinkie gasped a little too loud at her own suspicion.
“Ah really don’t recon it is our place to judge even if he is. Though I think we should put his bottle past.” Twilight did just that before re-joining her friends.
“You okay Dash, you’ve been a bit quiet.”
“I’m fine Twilight, just fine.”
“You’re not thinking of doing something foolish are ya?”
“Oh no, not at all Applejack. Don’t worry about me; I’m just going off to bed: It being half past nine and all.” With that she was off, up the stairs and in bed in seconds.
“What are the odds that she is planning on doing somethin’ very reckless tomorrow?” Everypony nodded, agreeing with Applejack. However, the time announcement jarred the rest of the ponies into going to bed as well. Applejack turned at the doorway to see Twilight still sitting there.
“Y’all alright Twi?” Twilight turned to her with a weak smile.
“Yeah, I’m alright, it’s just, whenever something happens like this, like we end up somewhere, it never ends in a simple way. Honestly, can you remember that last time we had a truly uneventful trip? This one has already put lives in danger and it is entirely my fault…” Applejack pulled her face down so they were looking into each other’s eyes.
“Now you listen here: this is not your fault. Yes, the spell mucked up, big deal! You can get us home – don’t doubt this. There is no other unicorn in Equestria that can do what you can with magic. Setbacks happen. This is just a setback. Besides, I’m sure that this gives you the opportunity to learn a lot of new things. That River fellow seems smart, and these humans don’t have magic. I’m sure it will be interestin’ for ya to learn how they coped without magic, and about the times before all this violence. Would you have been able to do that if this didn’t happen?” Twilight shook her head, already feeling a bit better. “Exactly. Now you get off that chair and head off to bed, a new day brings new adventure and you will want to be well rested for it.” Twilight pulled herself out of the chair, but quickly remembered something.
“Didn’t River say that he wanted to show off something…?
“Eh, I reckon that he’s forgotten or he’ll do it at a later time. But right now – to bed with us all!”

“Why were they having a meal at nine at night? Never mind - not important.” River sat at the spare desk he had pulled out from the room where Twilight was now spending the night, the library area of the house. He was sitting on his swivel chair, leaning as far back as it allowed him tossing a small blue rubber ball up and down, deliberately catching it with the same hand each time. He reached out to the drink he had poured himself but stopped himself with a sigh and went for a green ball on the desk instead, adding it into the mix, still only using the one hand.
‘Rainbow Dash will definitely break the rules at some point. I know her type, hell I wouldn’t be surprised if she broke them tomorrow.Though I wonder how she'll do it...’ He reached for a red ball from the table and added it to his one-handed juggling. ‘I should just hand them in already. What the hell do I have to lose, company? Please, as though I need it. But…I’m curios. I really want to know what everything I can about them. And they don’t seem like they are that bad to be honest…they had just better not pry into my business or life will become very suddenly oh so very difficult for them.’ He sat there, not thinking for some time before he heard something at his door.
“Come on in.” There was some scraping at the door for a few seconds before the handle was pulled down and the door swung inward, a little filly hanging from the handle. “Well hello there. What brings you in here?” She dropped from the handle and turned to him with small, tired looking eyes.
“I just wanted to say sorry. If I hadn’t been so careless and fallen on you, you might not have gotten hurt. It was my fault…” She dipped her head as her resolve to face him began to weaken. It had taken her this long to try and apologise, having herself convinced that it was all her fault.
She turned to leave and had taken only a step when an arm hooked around her and pulled her back, much to her surprise and up on to River’s lap. She turned her head away from River, but he pulled her face gently to face him. Happy he had her attention, he pointed to his other arm, which was still busy juggling the three balls.
“You see that?”
“Yes… That’s actually quite cool. Isn’t that hard?”
“To master yeah, but you get the hang of it. Point is though, do you think I would be doing this if I wasn’t alright?” Scootaloo looked from the balls to River and back, trying to figure out where he was coming from. “Well?”
“Emm, no?”
“Exactly. And that means that…?”
“That you’re…fine?”
“Exactly. I am perfectly fine. I am not hurt. You have no reason to be sorry what-so-ever. If you hadn’t landed on me, I would have had a very boring day, and things might not have worked out too good for you or your friends either.” The image of Scootaloo lying broken in the snow nearly made his smile waver.
“I suppose… I still wish there was a better way that we could have met.”
“Likewise. But the past is the past. We can’t change it. No matter how much we might want to…” River got a melancholy look in his eyes as he looked past the walls of his room…
“Are you alright?” He caught himself before his mind drifted too far and continued to smile at Scootaloo.
“I’m fine, just remembering a few things I wish I could have done differently too.”
“Like what?” his mind flashed back to what he had just thought to himself before the young filly had chapped on his door, but sighed when he realised that even if he had the heart to hurt them, the look he was getting then and there, would stop even bullets and make them cry for trying.
“I prefer not to talk about things like that wee one. Very personal you see.” Scootaloo nodded in understanding.
“I know what you mean. I don’t like talking about some things too…” There was a gentle silence in the room as River stopped tossing the balls up and down, using both of his arms to place them on the table which was now behind him.
“River, why doesn’t Rainbow Dash like you?” River lay back in the seat and frowned at the ceiling.
“That is a good question. The thing is, she doesn’t like my species. I guess that she has been out scouting around hasn’t she?”
“Yeah, like every day she fly’s around for like an hour and comes back in a really bad mood. She tries to hide, but it is so obvious.”
“Yeah, figured. She doesn’t like what my species do to each other, and has chosen to direct that hate to me, since as I am the only one of my kind that she can have safe contact with.”
“Why? What do you all do to each other?”
“…My kind…we don’t like each other, so we often fight.”
“Why?”
“Well…there is no real good reason. People are just angry constantly, to the point where they have forgotten why.”
“But don’t they realise they are hurting others?”
“Can’t they see the suffering they cause? No. Sometimes Scootaloo, people are blind to what they see the most. They have forgotten what the consequences of their actions are, they have forgotten that they are all people, that we have to help each other, that we can live without taking what each other has. We have forgotten a great deal of things…”
“But if everyone else is like that, why aren’t you?”
“Sheer willpower and nothing else. It is exhausting being the way I am. It would be much easier to be like the others, I would get noticed much less, I could stop the mental fight that goes on every day - the urge to conform is almost overwhelming – but I can’t do that. It would be my worst defeat. And besides, I would be too dangerous. Much too dangerous…but that will never happen. Once someone has realised what I have, it is difficult to ignore it.”
“Then…why haven’t they?”
“Because they are blind to what they see most, remember? They are too used to their way of thinking, that they cannot see the reality of the situation. And a lot of them are far too stubborn to care for any other way of thinking. It is quite frustrating, but it will not be that way forever, I assure you…” An all too cunning smile slipped onto his, making Scootaloo think that he knew what he was talking about, so she smiled too.
“Is it true that we are going to be staying here for a while?”
“Well, while you are here you will be staying in my home yes.”
“Alright! That’s awesome!” She threw her forelegs around his neck, taking him by surprise with her enthused hug. He looked awkward, but slowly placed a hand on her back too.
“You like me?”
“You sound surprised, of course I like you.”
“I am surprised, we barely know each other.”
“Well, do you like me?” She pulled back and looked at him in the eye, her fore-hooves on his chest so she could do so.
“Yeah…I suppose I do.”
“There you have it. Just because we only met recently, doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends.”
‘Yeah, try that in this world kiddo, you have to be suspicious of someone ‘till they prove they can be trusted. But then again, the wisdom of a kid is still wisdom. It just doesn’t always work.’ But then he looked at the overly happy face on Scootaloo. It was the kind of look only achieved easily upon waking up on a Christmas morning to three feet of snow and presents pilled even higher. He shook his head at how cute even he found the sight and clapped her head, ruffling her mane.
“Aye, you’re quite something. An’ you’ve got a point. I’ll try to remember that. Now, ya wee scamp… off to bed.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, you have to. You’ll find that you actually are pretty friggin' tired right now, you just don’t feel it. Now off tae bed with you, I’ll see you in the morning. Or not, I might just sleep right the way through the morning too. “
“Okay River. See you tomorrow.” With those parting words she hopped off River and scampered off to her bed.
River got out his chair and closed the door with a sigh, feeling somewhat better at having talked with the only one of them that really didn’t seem to mind him that much, but at the same time, it made his position much more difficult.
“What the fuck am I meant to do…? I can’t keep them here forever…I can’t hide them anywhere…but I can’t just…” He sighed as he was back again to the same position as before, except with that little face smiling back at him.
He slumped into the light switch, turning it off and casting the room into complete darkness. He sat down on his chair once and grabbed the three rubber balls from his desk and started tossing them into the air once again as he thought, staring off into the darkness of his mind.

Author's Note

Edit (28/8/13): Oddly enough, not my least favorite chapter. It has a few mistakes that could be combed out, but as a whole there is nothing bone brakingly bad here...I think.

Chapter 7: Rules Broken, Amends Made

It was remarkably warm for a winters day - bright sunlight had completely dried the damp roads and pavements, even going so far as to warm the very breeze that ruffled the grass and spread a fresh scent through the dreary streets as the people went through their routines, buying groceries, working, playing and harming.

10:30 was a very established time. A time where things had already been set in motion - which always made River feel a little odd whenever he wasn’t doing anything, or worse, found himself bored.

Not that day however. He was much too…grouchy. Twilight had tried to go into his room around nine to announce breakfast, but she slowly closed the door upon seeing River. He had sat there all night, and it was obvious. His hair was frazzled; his face had odd twitches, his foot tapped rapidly as he tried to keep himself awake. His eyes were wide, sore, staring dead ahead of him as he juggled several balls of various colours with one hand, his eyes resembling the red ball a bit too closely to be healthy. Not to mention he was breathing as though he were barely containing a cry of furstration. Rainbow Dash, who had just left her room with a bit of a cocky grin, stopped when she happened to glance at Twilight’s face as she closed the door..
“You okay Twi’? You look like you just saw an Ursa.”
“No…” She gave the door a cautious, but perplexed look before adding, “Much scarier.”

River himself was not truly aware of the passage of time or even the interruption that had occurred - he was focused. He had tried to sleep, but it did not come to him, even in his bed. His mind had been so invaded with questions and doubts and solutions and counter arguments, that his mind was comparable to a government body: irritating and chaotic.
‘I’ve already fucking dismissed that one, why will it not go away!? Oh, because it is the easiest option- well fuck you I’m not doing it! It isn’t happening, and- neither is that one for fucks sake! And that is simply absurd… Fuck off! I don’t even have access to cannons that large!’ Needless to say, he was not quite in control of his thoughts and nothing short of an explosion would pry him from his mind…

A very loud noise, akin to that of an explosion, pulled Rivers attention, just enough for him to realise something wasn’t right. Then the shockwave hit his house, buffeting the reinforced glass of his bedroom and the loud gust of air smothered the sound of his thoughts, blowing them out of sight and out of mind. He immediately threw himself to the ground, the balls dropping around him as he quickly shuffled directly under the windowsill, pulling out a carefully concealed handgun from behind the radiator. He looked up out the window however when something seemed amiss...

Colour. A rainbow of bright, vibrant colour poured into his room, bringing the walls to life as the colours bled and swam. He rose to his feet and gaped at what he saw outside the window: An explosion that displayed the full full beauty of the light spectrum pooled out among the clouds. A large disk of Rainbow light dominated the sky right across from his neighbourhood and beyond, gracefully rippling like a pebble drop in the sky, with a rather conspicuous rainbow line coming from the middle.
“Son of a bitch…” He said to no one particular. As much as it was said in awe, there was a sharp edge being directed at the rainbow’s source. The magnificent wave began to fade away as well as the rainbow trail, but his anger could not have the same said for it. “That little bitch.” He dug his fingers hard into the window frame as the rest of him froze up dangerously. “I knew she’d try something... But this…ohhh I’ve had it with shit!” He heard a door close down stairs, and he stood there for a moment, trying to figure out just how much pain he could put her in before both killing her and before her friends could stop him. Deciding the best thing would be to not kill her just yet and wait for a more opportune time where he could get her alone, he followed the sounds of some very nervous and angry ponies to the top landing, where he stood and listened.

“...What in the hay did you think you’re doin’?!”
“Disobeying orders.” She said with no small amount of pride, brushing her chest casually with her hoof. “What do you think, good way to go about it or what?”
“There was no need to go and do that what-so-ever Dash. That was without a doubt one of the most irrational things you have ever done. River is gonna be mighty ticked at ya.”
“Ack, let ‘im! I’m sick of the way he’s trying to boss us around. He’s only been awake three days and he thinks he owns us or something.”
“No, he thinks he owns the house – which he does! And he is well entitled to impose rules, Ah know Ah wouldn’t let folk go gallivanting around mah house without laying down some laws.”
“Please, do you really think that he is even competent enough to enforce them?”
“Even if he weren’t it ain’t right to go around givin’ him a hard time. It’s just common decency, and Ah also think that he is much more capable than you give him credit for.”
Dash and Applejack had been going at it ever since Dash had gotten through the back door and into the kitchen. The two of them stood there arguing while the others stood off to the side in the tiled cooking area, glancing uncertainly to each other. Needless to say, the air was tense even before the others noticed River standing on the stairs, looking on in the conversation.
“Common decency? You haven’t seen what they do to each other out there. Out there, there is no common decency. And besides, if he were to do anything, he would have done it by now. I bet he slept through the whole thing!” Evidently finding the idea funny, she erupted into a fit of laughter, with Applejack’s stern gaze and further comments going completely past her.

Neither of them noticed River quietly vault the stairs banister and move into the doorway. The rest of the group eyed him nervously, especially Twilight who was pawing at the ground as she saw the anger etched in his eyes. It was almost like a madman, except he was trying to hold back a little. Just a little.
“Girls,” he started slowly, as though talking to an irritating child, “I want to have a word with this… Delightful little git here…
“Oh, eh, howdy River,” Applejack said in a slight sweat. “Look, it ain’t that bad sugercube, honest. How’s about you let us handle this, what do ya say?” River lowered his head, glaring through Applejack straight into Dash, both ponies feeling unnerved by his glare. Dash suddenly realised that perhaps shattering the light spectrum wasn’t the best thing to do.
“Rule one: Do as I say. And considering how pissed off I am, do you really want to make this situation worse Applejack? Well?” His words were very airy, sounding as though he were hissing every single syllable. Applejack's eyes went everywhere as she began to sweat heavily, trying desperately to avoid his gaze. ‘Do Ah really want to leave Rainbow with this…? Alright, I’ll listen in at the door, and step in if Ah have to.' Trying to get a handle on her nerves, she spoke up.
“Okay, okay, calm yourself down a little here. Alright, you’ll take over then. We’ll just leave through that door behind ya’ll there,” she said nudging her head, encouraging her companions to leave with her.

She closed the door cautiously before pressing her ear right up against door - followed immediately by all of her friends, squashing her.
“Same idea, ‘ey girls?” She grumbled, to only be ‘shh’d by everpony.

The thunk from the door was the only sound in the kitchen for some time. Nearly two solid minutes passed as Dash (who was on her hooves and bore a straight face) gazed at River, waiting for him to make a move. River himself stood there motionless, eyes trained on Dash, soaking in every detail they could; her recently frazzled mane, her slightly nervous posture but that bold defiant (irritating) look in her eyes. He slowed his breathing as he began to speak in the same tone as before, but emphasising the glaswegian words to their fullest.
“Well, Rainbow Dash, wit are we going tae do wit’ you? Because, if this is how you are going to play this game, I am going to have to play back. And to be, quite frank with you li’l Dashie, I really cannot be arsed playing with you. Especially not by the rules you see fit to play by.”
‘God I hate speaking like this...’ He hung his face for a moment before twisting a table chair around and sitting down.

From behind the door her five friends could tell the air was hot already. The silence was worse; they could feel their pulse in their ears as they pressed harder against the wood, desperate to hear any details they might be missing. All except Fluttershy of course, who had backed off to give the others room.

The silence quickly began to bother the blue Pegasus, turning her expression into a snarl.
“Well, go on!”
“I’m waiting for an answer.” She quickly noticed that his demeanour had radically changed, sounding very cool and collected, posture being professional but relaxed and eyes still focused entirely on her, but without the overwhelming malice, almost like a chiding teacher. This did not do well to help her mood as frustration boiled up at the lack of a response from him.
“An answer to what?!”
“To my question.”
“Which was?” River frowned with false concern.
“It was “what are we going to do with you?” You don’t suffer from short-term memory loss, do you Dashie? Or does head-butting the light spectrum give you a bit of a headache?” She growled at him, not taking his sarcasm very well.
“You know you are really starting to annoy the hay out of me.”
‘Is ‘hay’ really the best curse that these grass-munchers have? I mean, come on!’ He pulled his leg up and folded it over his other leg, a smirk forming on his face.
“It’s not nice, is it? So why, oh why, do you want me to feel like that? That’s exactly what that stupid stunt of yours has done. And that is the least of your problems.”
“Oh, just shut the heck up!” She said stomping her hoof. “I’m sick of listening to you always saying ‘Things will get even worse for you if you keep doing what you’re doing!’ It is really annoying, and I can take care of myself. Heck, we can all take care of ourselves.” She flew straight to his face as she finished with, “Quit bullying us around!”
“Please, remove yourself from my face before I do so forcefully.” Dash hadn’t realised how close she was until she felt his breath on her nose.
She pulled back, putting herself back onto the ground in front of him. Dash tensed unconsciously as he raised his arm, but he brought it to his face, wiping away Dash’s spit.
‘This one is really pushing it, but I think I can work with what she just said…maybe if I try this.’
Once his face was dry once more, he returned to gaze to her, but this time, it was somewhat softer. He pulled out the adjacent chair, and motioned to Dash.
“Take a seat.” Rainbow Dash flinched, somewhat taken a-back by the out of place request. Seeing this as a sign of defiance, he added “Please.” Suspicious of his motives, she glanced at the chair, then back to him, then to the door where they both knew her friends were listening in. Nodding to herself, she hopped up onto the chair and righted herself to face River.
“A bully you say? Is that why you don’t like me?” Rainbow blinked, yet again taken a-back by the curveball in the conversation.
“Eh, yeah I suppose.”
“That all?”
“Huh?”
“Is that the only reason why you don’t like me? If it is that is a very weak foundation you have.”
“No…I have more reasons, believe me.”
“Share them.”
“What? Now? Here? To…”
“Yes now, here and to me. Come on, don’t be a woose, if you can’t say something to someone’s face there’s-“
“Alright, I get it, geese.” She began thinking intently, trying her best to find her most compelling reasons to explain why she hated him… Until she drew a blank. Suddenly she realised that she had already said almost all of what she could say to him. Picking up on this, River said,
“Well? I’m all ears, don’t be shy.”
“Q-quiet, I’m just trying to find the best ones. There being so many and all… You assaulted me, for one.”
“Hmm, alright. Though I say you were provoking me and it wasn’t exactly assault, but I will apologise for that. However, I actually have a hypothesis of my own. If you’d like to hear it?”
“A Hypotha-what?”
“An idea of my own on why you dislike me. And to why you are so…aggressive toward me. Care to hear it?” Thinking that it may give her more ideas she had missed (somehow), she nodded in agreement.

He began to explain what he had hypothesised with Scootaloo the night before, that it wasn’t really him that was the source of her anger. She immediately tried to tune out, but he seemed to have a way of noticing whenever she was not taking in whatever he was saying, and would stop in his tracks each time, forcing her to listen.

As he kept going however, he found he no longer needed to stop. Rainbow was actually listening intensely, drinking in his words and seeing sense in them. And as she thought about it rationally (though she loathed admitting it) he did seem to be correct. It made her wonder herself how she did not see it. Every time she flew, she would see more cruelty being committed, and every time she looked at River after that, she disliked him even more.

“I won’t deny that you are probably annoyed at me for trying to cage you. I have a strange feeling that you are a bit more of a free spirit – doing what you want when you want kinda gal.” She smiled a little at this, but to say it was melancholy would be to say the least of it. She felt like an ass. Realising that she had been taking her irritation out on River, well, got her down. “Hey, what’s the matter hen?” She lifted her eyes from the ground to him, and he raised an eyebrow when he saw genuine regret in her eyes and voice.
“It’s just…it’s kind of funny actually. I was the one just accusing you of being the one that was the bully…” Now it was River’s turn to be flabbergasted. ‘Wow that was a lot easier than I thought it would be… But God… face…that face is heart retching!’
“Hey, hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. Do I look bothered by it?”
“You were.”
“But I’m not bothered anymore, am I?” She studied his face, trying to find something false about the smiling, sympathetic face. She failed.
“I suppose you aren’t. But what about the Sonic Rainboom, what’ll happen about that?” It took a brief moment for River to catch her meaning.
“Oh, is that what you call it? Yes as...impressive as that was, it is going to cause a bit of a commotion…but don’t worry. I’ll have it sorted…somehow.” He sighed as he realised why he was angry in the first place – how the hell was he meant to hide that? Hundreds, potentially thousands of people had seen the spectacular show of luminescent light, and if it was on video, it border lined being a…precarious situation.
‘I’ll phone in and see if I can have strings pulled, I think old Ricky still owes me for Nevada .Taking out Sherriff wasn’t easy after all…’
“Aye, I know how to handle it, don’t you worry. And by the way, if you need to fly, come to me first. I can find out when the commercial flights are and you can avoid them.”
“What now?”
“Aeroplanes. You are lucky as hell to have missed them thus far. If it weren’t for the strike in the industry, you’d have been seen for sure. And how you haven’t been noticed any military activity is amazing.” She opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, but decided against it.
‘It’ll be more confusion than it is worth. Besides, I need to chill for a while, maybe even nap on what I’ve heard. Yeah…now that’s an idea’. Plan set in her mind she hopped off the chair with a flourish of her wings and glided over to the door, a hint of a mischievous glint in her eyes behind the sincerity she was showing River.
“River…I, I guess I was a little judgmental. I think I’ll go take a nap.” She grasped the handle silently, and after a mental count down, opened the door with a wide flourish, the four nosey mares behind it spilling to the ground with satisfying “oomph!”’s, making Rainbow Dash beam with self-satisfaction.

River chuckled heartily at the slapstick as he rose to his feet. The ponies expressed their slight irritation to Dash as River entered the conservatory and rummaged behind one of the couches, his entire front half buried behind it as he muttered illegible obscenities, searching for his prize. It took just enough time for the search to become annoying but he rose up with his bounty in hand.
“What are those for?” Inquired Applejack, the rest of the ponies milling around in the kitchen, doing whatever caught their fancy.
“Oh, this just a soldering iron. Well, a rigged soldering iron.”
“Oh…what the hay is it for?” River couldn’t help but smile in amusement as she tilted her head for the question – it was adorable.
“Usually? Electrical circuits. Re-wiring things and the like.” He said like it was the most common thing in the world.
“Oh…” She still had no idea what it was, but decided not to ask.
“Hey Dash, could you please come to my room in about twenty minutes? Thanks.” Finished, he sprinted out the room with his soldering iron and a marble slate in hand and jogged up the stairs, hints of amusement still on his face.
“Aw…but I wanted to nap…”

****

As instructed, twenty minutes later, Rainbow Dash nosed open the door after being invited in and closed it gently behind her. She walked into the room proper and saw River sitting on his bed, his face hidden by his long wavy hair as he leaned over the smoking soldering iron.
“Ah, Dashie, a moment more, if you please,” came the concentrated, yet chilled voice of River. It almost struck Dash dumb hearing him sound much more light-hearted.
“Okay…what are you doing anyway?” She asked as she hovered over to him, trying to peer through his hair to get a glance at the smoky work, only to be patted away.
“Ah, ah. I think you’ll like this, just give me a moment…” He suddenly raised his head and blinked at her as an idea struck. “In fact, may I have your hoof?”
“My hoof…?”
“Yes, may I?” He asked and extended his hand expectantly.

She hesitated for a moment, but placed her limb in his grip. He took her hoof gently in both hands and cupped it softly in his hand, making a ring around it with his thumb and fore-finger.
“Thank you.”

He swiftly went back to his work, concentration filling his features once again, smoke slipping through the gaps in his hair. Though, after only a few moments the black smoke stopped slithering into the air and he opened his top drawer, pulling out a scalpel and then vibrant gold thread and needle from his middle drawer.

Dash raised an eyebrow at the items but made no comment, deciding instead to stay silent and not put him off his work. He was about to place the soldering iron down but jerked his arm back at the last second, putting it onto the marble slate instead and then both to the ground. Her head tilted slightly in puzzlement.

“It’s very hot you see,” he explained, “placing it on the bed would likely…well, definitely burn the thing.” He glanced up to see her nod in understanding before refocusing his attention once more, placing the sharp needle between his lips. Dash was now able to see what he doing, but wasn’t able to tell what it was he aiming for. She watched as he took the scalpel and began working carefully, guiding the blade through the tough, black leather with a glass maker’s precision and care, licking his lips every time he moved to another part of the belt.

Dash, who would normally have been bored into scuffing her hooves or hovering had anypony been doing the same, was oddly complacent and interested in his actions. It seemed - like his gentle smile - to be a whole new dimension of him. Seeing someone she had not even an hour ago loathed and thought to be nothing more than a brute putting up a facade, sitting down and working on what looked like an arts and crafts project was unnaturally jarring, and thus interesting to her. The strokes of the blade, (short, long, deep, shallow) worked to make his vision a reality, the cool leather beginning to take the shape River desired.

With a final curling cut he placed the scalpel back into his drawer and took the needle between his fingers, and with elegant finesse that would have made Rarity proud threaded it in a smooth, dignified motion. He brought the needle down to the tough leather, lacing it with the golden thread at a speed that would make a sowing machine blush with envy. He worked to embed the belt with gold, his pace giving him RSI but he trundled on, ignoring his wrist’s wails of neglect. He coiled the belt, pursing his hands in a ring shape to match it, marking a spot in his mind before sowing it in place. Finally he cut off the excess belt and added one last final incision. ‘The devil is in the detail,’ she thought as River looked over his creation once more, ensuring its quality.

He placed his tools back into his drawer and took his creation in hand, extending the other to Dash.
“May I have your hoof? Your left, if you please.” Following his direction, she placed her left hoof in his grasp. He took his creation and undid the ring, letting Dash notice the clasp that had been sown into it. He slid it around her hoof and pulled it tight; the leather felt strong and comfortable against her coat. Securing the clasp, he let her hoof go, letting her look at his creation properly.

He had crafted a custom watch for her. He had taken a digital watch piece of a cool dark blue and cut the straps off soldering the metal body to the leather. As a tribute to his precision and expert skill, the leather looked completely unmarred by the soldering, the metal seeming to blend effortlessly into the leather as though it were there since birth. Even the way it was melted was done with aesthetic flourish; the edges had been pressed in, like a finger mark in clay, burning away the blue to give a glinting silver concave all the way around the watch. The belt itself had had elegant patterns and swirls engraved by the scalpel, and despite their air of sophistication they captured Rainbow’s gaze.
‘Those are pretty bucking sweet…’ Along the edges of the belt (now made watch) was the golden thread, double lacing it. It was a surprisingly eye catching piece, especially on the otherwise bare Pegasus.
“I think you’ll like the back.” Eager to see what he thought would be the centrepiece for her, she took it off (after discovering turning it was not too easy with hooves) and gazed gleefully at the back of her new gift. It bore her cutie mark, gouged lightly by the scalpel and then sewn into the belt itself; the mark caught the light differently from the rest of the thread, making her mark shine as she twisted it from different angles.
“Wowsers… Uh, this is something else…” River smiled lightly at her comment and lay down on his bed, propping himself on his shoulder to look at her.
“Yah, it’s so you can fly.” She raised her head and gave River her attention. “I considered just giving you a watch, but it wasn’t big enough to fit ‘round your hoof. So I thought that it was a good excuse to make you a wee somethin’. You like it, yes?” Dash looked back down from Rivers inquiring look to the watch, not even bothering to resist the smile forcing its way onto her face.
“Of course I like it! This is awesome. Nopony’s ever done something like this for me, and it is made…really well! You’re good at this- you should do it more often.” She said, the whole time looking at her new toy. River just smiled, finding amusement in her praise in what he found to be a trivial skill.
“Hay, what’s this on the inside say?” He looked to see her scrunching her eyes at the text he scrawled into the belts inside, sticking her tongue out as she tried to decipher it.
“Oh…it’s pretty cheesy. ‘May bonds of friendship never be forgotten’.” Dash gave him an incredulous look before giving a good natured nicker.
“That is pretty cheesy,” she chided as she put the watch back on, “but it’s true. “ She finished with a grateful smile, a gesture that River returned.
“Thank you. I’m no poet, but hey, I can try.” There was a moment of sheer understanding, where both realised truly that they had not been seeing the other’s true colours, and they forged an unspoken friendship.

“Oh, eh, if you’re wanting to fly I suggest going and doing so now. Just be back by eleven ten, okay?” Like a child on their birthday Dash’s face beamed. The excitement of her gift had given her a second wind of energy, and a quick glance of the watch revealing she had twenty five minutes, she was hungry to burn it out. She flew out the room and turned down the stairs at break neck speed and was nearly in the kitchen before she hightailed it back, stopping at Rivers room door.
“Thank you. I appreciate this.” A still smiling River waved his hand at her.
“You go have fun.” And with his dismissal she was away, dragging her friend’s manes in her wake as she battered through the kitchen and outside once more.

River gave a sigh that he found to be oddly contented as he lay back on his bed proper, sinking into one of the pillows for a moment of luxury before thinking,
‘That was a hell of a lot easier than I thought it would be… Well, not that all is well in the kingdom of River, the question still remains – How am I going to keep this lot safe?’

Author's Note

Well then! If it hasn't been something close to a year I don't know what! Thought this was cancled? So did I oddly enough but recently a drive to write has been sparked by the possibility of a new project between me and a good friend. Won't be going up for a wee while now, bu t I figured with that new found inspiration I would go back and fix this up a bit. Yeah, in reality this has been done for...7months? More? But it was so God aweful that I never released it. But here it is now, and I will also be doing chapter 8. But this means this is the last piece of work that will be released in my 'older style' of writing (ie. Shit).

I do have something to ask you, anyone who might see this crappy wee thing; Should I continue this story? I have already agreed to do chapter 8 (I owe to myself even to do that) but should I continue onward from there and finish this thing? If you think yes, or if you think no, I need to you comment - and telling me why you hold the opinion you do would be quite nice also. You know, as a wee bonus?

Ah I'm rambling now. tl;dr? Should I continue this story or not - you decide!

Update: 30mins later - ...okay, more like 15months but still!