Strange Hooves

Ow. Who would’ve thought that untreated, unbandaged bite wounds, combined with a few hours hike, two hooves to said injuries and finally nearly suffocating at the hands of a Pegasus would cause unconsciousness, eh? Heh…hehh…

The thing falls over backwards, releasing the now terrified Pegasus and lying down on the ground, and passes out to go greet the familiar nightmares of its memories.

Several hours later, inside of Fluttershy’s cottage, the thing lay on an improvised cot, pink blanket draped over it after hours of medical “care”,” with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash by its side, the rest going up to tend to their mutual friend, Twilight. Fluttershy hadn’t had to dress up this kind of injury before. She only had to cover up scrapes and small cuts before. She had already moved Twilight to her bed upstairs, where she fell asleep, when she saw Rainbow Dash try to strangle the thing.

How *dare** she do such a thing to a poor creature like that? Well, at least she apologized.*

She told off Rainbow Dash, than told her to apologize to the thing, which tried to hug back with its restraints, looking pretty awkward with that flabbergasted look on its face, which was kinda funny. Then it passed out.

Poor thing. It must be exhausted and hurt. It’s okay now, thank goodness. Whatever had bit it had bit it deep, but I took care of it as best I could.

Everypony was watching as Fluttershy desperately applied medicine and bandages to the poor thing’s wounds in its midsection, and Rarity was cleaning the wounds, as well as the areas around them because it was also covered in blood. After the first aid was administered, Rarity dragged an unwilling Fluttershy into the washroom to wash the blood off their respective hooves.

There was blood everywhere. I must get Spike here. He can send a letter to the Princess! She'll know what to do.

“Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Twilight’s awake.” comes Applejack’s voice from upstairs, causing the two ponies to leave the thing’s side and they flew upstairs to hear what had happened.

“So what happened, Twilight?” Rarity broke the silence.

“Well, I was waiting for it to arrive, and it did come from the Everfree Forest as I predicted, and… it was carrying rocks for some reason.”

“Why would it be carrying rocks?” even Pinkie Pie was confused at this behavior tilting her head at a comical angle.

“I don’t know. It was laying a trail of them from the edge of the forest to the cottage, but before it could get to Fluttershy’s door I tried saying ‘Hello’ to it. It froze up, dropped the rocks. It reared up to its full height, which was a bit scary because I didn’t know it could be so tall, then it bolted off into the Everfree forest. As you know, I chased after it. What happened next was that I chased it all the way into the Foggy Bottom Bog.”

A collective gasp was shared by the group as they remember the hydra that lives there. Nopony was allowed there since it was learned that such a dangerous creature from the deep Everfree forest would be living there.

“Yeah. We actually ran into it. It picked me up and tried to run away, but the terrain and the hydra’s feet making the ground shake made it drop me, which is how I hurt these legs. Anyway, after that, it charged the hydra, yelling at the hydra in the thing’s language. It then got swallowed by the hydra.”

This causes another gasp.

“ The hydra forgot all about me as it thrashed about in pain. I realized that the thing was doing something inside the hydra to hurt it. It fell over after quite some time. The thing broke out the back of the hydra, than it took me here. The rest you know.”

The room is silent, with everypony sharing a new respect for the new creature which had slain the hydra, something which could only be claimed by the greatest of warriors and heroes, all of which are now dead or part of the Royal Guard because they had accomplished such a feat.  The silence is finally broken when stirring noises where heard downstairs.

Should’ve figured I would be in a pink blanket, considering all these things look like they walked outta kid’s show. Are these bandages? They sure know how to give first aid, I’ll give them that. Hmm. What now? I guess begin diplomacy? You idiot, you’re not an ambassador, you’re a refugee. What am I going to say, “Take me to your delicious leader, organic meatbags.”? I might actually say that, considering they don’t know a thing I’m saying, and I don’t know a thing they say, so this’ll be very awkward. At least I’m not restrained. Here they come.

The 5 ponies come downstairs to greet their “guest”. It doesn’t get up, but only acknowledges with a nod and something from its tongue. The ponies have no idea what it means, and when it realizes this, it gives out a hearty laugh.

Okay, that was pretty funny. Better not do something like that again.

The laugh should’ve lightened the situation some, but it just disturbs the ponies.

Hmm. Humor didn’t work. Let’s try empathy, which’ll be easy, since I’ve been hiding a ridiculous amount of pain.

It suddenly howls softly in pain, which causes Fluttershy to come to its side, obviously trying to help.  The other ponies come closer more out of safety for their friend then to help the thing.

That's a little better.

Fluttershy hums to the thing softly while petting its head. This seems to have a profound effect on the creature, as it relaxes back into the pad, eyes closed. This causes all the ponies in the room to give a sigh of relief.

Whoa. That’s pretty good humming. I can see why she's an animal caretaker.

It cracks a smile, which eases the tension of the room a lot. It finally seems to go to sleep again, and Fluttershy’s eyes dart to the clock on the wall.

Almost midday. Better not keep the Princess busy.

Fluttershy turns her head to Rainbow Dash, whom makes eye-contact with a confused look.

“Rainbow, um, could you go get Spike for me? I’d like to send a letter to Princess Celestia.”

“Oh. Sure, Fluttershy.”

With more speed than what was really necessary, Rainbow Dash flies out the door and into the midday blue. She spots Spike walking around town, obviously looking for something.Or someone.

Spike looks up to see Rainbow Dash land next to him. “Ohey Rainbow! Have you seen Twilight anywhere? I haven’t seen her since yesterday when she told me that she’d be helping Fluttershy with the lizard.”

“It’s not a lizard, Spike. It is at Fluttershy's with Twilight and the girls, and she’s fine. Come, we need your help.”

A polite knocking on the door. Rarity opens it to admit Spike and Rainbow Dash in.

Spike looks around at all the ponies in the room looking quite serious. Even Pinkie Pie was had this look on her face.

This isn’t good, is it?

“Where’s Twilight? And for that matter, where’s the lizard?”

It can speak their language. Another dominant species, maybe?

Spike looked to his right and saw it under the pink blanket on the cot on the floor, looking right at him.  Spike, with a curious look, went to the cot where the thing lay, Fluttershy lying by it, also solemn.

Man, that’s a pretty big pony.

“But where’s Twilight?”

“Upstairs, Spike.”

Rushing up the stairs to see Twilight, Spike gives a sigh of relief as she sees him come in. “Hi, Spike!” She seemed a bit cheerful to see him again, after what happened.

“What happened?”

“Well, Spike, after I left…”

The ponies downstairs continued to stare at the thing, as it continues to stare at them. It raises a strange paw/hoof to them, and they recoiled at the sight. It draws the arm back in, muttering something.

No handshakes yet. They’re still scared. I’m still scared.

Spike comes downstairs with a look of awe on his face.

So, this is the thing that took down a fully-grown hydra? That explains the moods.

“Spike, can you take a letter, please?”

“Oh. I don’t even have a paper and quill with me.”

“I have some.”

Fluttershy goes to get a piece of paper, and a quill from a dusty cupboard. Spike takes them in his  claws, ready to scribe.

Fluttershy opens her mouth to speak, raising a hoof, but then she was stricken by her namesake, whimpering something about “not disturbing the princess”.

“Oh dear. Spike, could you scribe for me? I’d like to take the letter.” Rarity thinks for a while, but then speaks.

“ Dear Princess Celestia,

Something has arrived in Ponyville yesterday. We can’t actually name what it is, because we have never seen it before. It seems like a small bear with unusual paws, and it is clothed in from neck to hoof, but it seems to have the intelligence of a pony but not the language. It was chased by Twilight, but saved her life from a terrible Hydra, somehow slaying it in the process. It brought back Twilight, whom has sustained minor injuries, here at Flutterhy's house, and it is severely injured due to the fight, having several bite marks in its midsection, but it has been taken care of by Fluttershy. We await your wisdom and instruction concerning this.

Your faithful seamstress, Rarity.”

The letter is shot off into the air by green flames and it is off to its destination, Canterlot.  Curious looks could be seen on the face of the thing.

What happens now?

Wait. Something’ s missing. Something very close to my heart, and it's something I can’t actually live without, hard as I try.

Where are my glasses?

The thing sits up and attempts to move to the door, surprising and shocking everypony. Even it seemed surprised at its newfound mobility hindrance. Fluttershy coaxes it back into the mat with a voice that tamed Manticores, the thing sitting back up on the mat. It mimes something across its face with an expression of frustration, repeating something in its language over and over again, and then points at the door.

Does it want to go outside?

How on earth or whatever this place is called do I get them to realize I’m practically blind without me glasses? I’ll try miming again.

It draws lines around its eyes, and then draws lines to its ears. It keeps making this pattern until Pinkie Pie, whom was as confused at this behavior as anyone else, suddenly whips back to her old behavior, though not as excited.

“I think it wants those glasses it dropped outside.”

“What glasses?” Rainbow Dash said, remembering now.

“Thoseonesthatflewoffhisfacewhenyoukickedit! Itwassocool!” Rainbow Dash lowers her head in shame as she remembers Fluttershy lecturing her while using the stare.

“I don’t see why it should be without its correctional lenses. I’ll go get them.” Rarity trots outside looking quite dignified to the world.

The thing stops these motions, seemingly giving up on the idea of telling everypony about its glasses.

Rarity comes back in, glasses flying in from behind her. The thing seems overjoyed to see its glasses again, not even minding the fact that they’re floating, but Rarity goes into the washroom with the glasses. The thing seems scared, but the sound of running water can be heard.

Oh.

Rarity comes back out with a smile on her face, glasses being returned to its owner with a visible shine and cleanness. It puts them on its face, then looks around with a gasp, being sure to look at everything and everypony around to take in the new visual details.

They are absolutely *adorable*. Not just the cartoon puppies and kittens and balloons and glittering that tastes like diabetes adorable, but the real life kittens and puppies making their little kittens and puppies sounds which is so adorable that you want to bury your face in them. These ponies are the latter. I was observing them from afar and it was dark when I rescued that one pony, but now that I see all this awesomeness… wait. I really did fall into a TV show, didn’t I? I must’ve fallen off the sane wagon. Oh well, Imma enjoy every second of it anyways. Better than dying at the claw and tooth of those post-people.

“Poor thing. It really couldn’t see without these glasses.”

Spike holds a claw to his mouth to indicate that a message is coming. He burps it out, and everypony comes around to read its contents.

That is a living, breathing e-mail system. *I’ve got to have one*.

Spike reads over the letter and what is inscribed in it, and everyone waits.

Spike looks up, clears his throat and starts.

“Dear Rarity,

The description of said animal is unfamiliar to me, and Luna has never heard of such a creature in her libraries, which is remarkable, considering that we have been around a very long time. I’ll be along to visit shortly. Stay where you are.

From,

Celestia.”

Everypony now has a question. What do we do?

Oh, boy. They’re all staring at me again. I’m still feeling lightheaded, which would explain my earlier mental rantings when my full sight was restored. Darkness creeps at the edge of my vision again.

It falls over backwards into a deep sleep.

That helps.

Spike runs upstairs, and a conversation can be heard between him and Twilight. All the ponies in the room look at the thing resting somewhat peacefully. They notice that what was once a deep dream sleep with a smile on its face is slowly but surely showing signs of a nightmare, a frown and contorted face, then twists and turns on the pad, a bit subtle at first but then it gets more and more obvious as sweat starts to show on its face. Fluttershy is the first to say something.

“Oh dear! He must be wakened.”

It taps the thing on the right shoulder, which causes it to wake up, screaming in terror as it sits up.

...Oh yeah. That’s why I don’t sleep so often. They come back. Theys n a back and theys afters me and theys a coming…

It shakes, holding its shoulders. It slowly rocks back and forth on the mat, looking ahead with a thousand-yard stare.

“Oh, poor, poor thing. Living in the Everfree forest is sure to give anypony nightmares.”

Nods from all around the room confirms the agreement of all in the room. Spike immediately comes down the stairs after the scream, and asks, “What happened?”

“I think it tried to sleep, but it had a nightmare. *Sigh* I hope Princess Celestia can help it.” Fluttershy  attempts wraps her front hooves around it, but as she is hugging it from the side, she simply can’t reach all the way around it. She rests her head on its shoulder, doing what she does best.

Theys a coming theys after—huh?

It stops its rocking, expression changing from a terrified grimace to one of surprise as it is hugged again. It looks down on the mare, and then it looks around, meeting everypony else’s eyes, even Spike, who has stopped to observe. After a pause, it grabs Fluttershy and returns the hug, eyes closed and with tiny tears welling up, causing everyone else in the room to start to tear up as well.

Everypony wipes their eyes and Applejack and finally breaks the silence again to ask Spike “Well, what did you talk about with Twilight up there?”

“Well, Twilight wants to come downstairs.” Spike does his best to hide his respective tears, which causes Rarity to hide a giggle, albeit badly.

Fluttershy breaks the hug to sit down next to it, not willing to wander far from her very worst patient.

It wipes it eyes, and starts to pet Fluttershy with its front paws.

“See, everypony? It’s a really nice being. It never wants to hurt anyone. It was only protecting Twilight. Now let’s get her downstairs for Celestia.”

Canterlot grows ever and ever smaller in the distance as a white Alicorn makers her way from her royal palace to a very specific site that she rules over. It is in a place called Ponyville, and she can’t wait to see what the commotion could be about. The letter describes something that should be impossible. Sure, there were other species of intelligent creatures (well, intelligent enough to start their own kingdoms), but what Rarity was describing in her letter can only be a new species, originating from the Everfree forest as well. She carried a small saddlebag on her back, paper and quill within to take necessary notes.

Impressive that it survived this long in there enough to gain sentience.

She soon sees Fluttershy’s Cottage at the edge of town. Pleasant memories flood through Celestia’s head as she remembers the time that her phoenix was under Fluttershy’s a little more than a year ago. The cottage grows from a dot until it filled Celestia’s view as she landed on the front lawn. Celestia spots something in the grass. She lowers her head to inspect as to what it is. It seems to be a—she hadn’t seen anything like that since… She trots over to the door, the murderous piece of metal floating and sliding into the bag, but before she raises a hoof to knock, the door opens as an excited Pinkie Pie greets the Princess the only way she knows how.

“HeyaPrincesshasn’titbeenawhilewejustgotyourletterhow’djagetheresofast—“An orange hoof covers Pinkie’s mouth, ending her short-lived bout of excitedness. Another familiar face shoves itself in front of Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter, and Celestia smiles as she recognizes the face of Applejack.

“Oh howdy, Princess.” Applejack managed with a nervous smile. Both of them stepped further inside to allow the Princess entrance.  She stepped inside, and looked around.

The living room of Fluttershy’s Cottage has not changed too much since her last visit, but there are a few differences. All the elements of harmony sat around the room, with various reactions to the Princess’s visit. Twilight was lying on the couch, obviously injured and scared. They were all looking at her, waiting for advice. They all looked to something on the floor and the princess followed suit. What she sees is… interesting. Fluttershy was lying next to a pink cot lies on the floor, barely able to contain the thing within. It seemed at first to be a pony with clothes, but immediately there are obvious differences. The lack of hair all over its white-skinned body, with only a short mane and slight, almost undetectable fuzz on its face, lacking a typical pony snout, but remaining a lot of the same features. 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth, but the ears are shaped differently, and are lower on the head then what pony ears would be. A most interesting aspect is that it was wearing some type of glasses that seemed to be fitted perfectly with its head. It seemed to wear some sorta coat of some sort of black fabric on its midsection, but it is obvious that it is lying on its back, its midsection itself flatter and less rounded than normal ponies. The forelegs (or arms) are tucked under the soft pink blanket that Fluttershy probably draped over it after helping its wounds. The legs are straighter and longer than what would normally be on ponies, and Celestia made a mental note to add these details to her notes.

She also noticed a slight blood stain on the cot that obviously was red and had originated from the thing. She also noticed that the color of the skin should be pale due to this. The most important thing about the creature right now is that it was looking directly back at her, finally making eye contact.

It’s got a tiara. I really did fall into a TV show. That, or this and the crisis didn’t happen and I’m just in a 6-month coma or something. It seems the former is looking more and more likely, though, as I really don’t have a reason to be in a coma.

It looks down at its midsection, obviously deep in thought. The fact that it’s going through a mental dialogue is both fascinating and scary, considering what others have been able to do with this level of intelligence.

I actually don’t know how the crisis happened. All I know is that it started in the spring, and I started to read these stories about riots in the major cities of the globe, and that the local populations started to go crazy from fear of the end. The fact that anonymous users from the internet keep posting “evidence” of the various “Armageddons” that was supposedly occurring. The level of work put into these forgeries is staggeringly high. People thought that they were zombies and started biting people. Those people go insane from the fear that they too would become zombies and bite other people. This was one of the types of riots that started to sweep the globe. Rouge states that were already showing signs of aggression before have taken the opportunity that was the riots to start WW3. That and the increasing number of natural disasters that happen to hit population centers start to make things very mad. I was in a very stable region, so the panic didn’t hit my town ‘til fall. I hid ‘til the nuclear winter blew over, and then ran to the wilderness. I spent a couple weeks there, surviving on rations and what I could find and hunt. Heh. I knew what I was doing. I’m an Eagle Scout. I could’ve never prepared for when the region suddenly changed one morning. There were now monsters and the forest seemed… darker. I thankfully lasted enough days to find this “city”. I never thought I’d find anything like this. I acted too quickly. Let’s see what happens now.

Iti looks up again, making eye contact with everypony in the room. It finally looks back at the Princess, and it spoke something in its fascinating tongue. After a pause, it looks down again.

Not even the one thing that’s bigger than me that doesn’t want to eat me knows what I’m saying.

It reaches up to scratch its head, which draws a curious gaze from the princess.

I’ve never seen such paws or claws. Is it claws, or is it paws? Is it both? I’ve got an idea.

Celestia’s horn begins to glow softly, and the thing looks on in curiosity. She abruptly brings it down on its forehead, and both their faces turned expressionless, eyes closed.

Bad! Bad! BAAD! My vision went black! What happened? Did I die?

No, you didn’t die.

BUWA?!

Calm yourself. It’s only a spell that allows me to communicate directly to you, no speaking nessesary.

Okay, if I haven’t gone completely nuts, prove it.

Celestia raises her head up, eyes open and the thing raises its head to re-establish eye contact. To everyone’s surprise, Celestia spoke something in its tongue. Then she lowered her head again, and the link is re-established, both their eyes closed again.

Okay, so you said “You’re not crazy.” That actually helps, considering all that I’ve been through.

I’ve only looked into your knowledge of the English language, though. This is why I can speak and think in English. Let’s have a look at what you know…

The silence goes on for several minutes, and it is obvious that both parties of the mind-meld are showing some exhaustion.

Why would they do *that** to each other?*

I haven’t a clue.

…

What was *that*? I feel weird.

I’m teaching you Equestiran. I’ve learned so much without having to use words… so many sad and horrible things. It’s only fair that you learn our language as well. I’ll leave the rest of your brain alone. I’ll also spare you the rest of equestrian knowledge. It’ll be better that you learn it firsthand from the girls here.

I thought they were girls. Shouldn’t assume anything, though. Thank you, (I think) Mrs…

Celestia. Thank you for saving her from that Hydra.

Celestia raises her head again, and looks at everypony in the room.

“Thank you for taking this gentlecolt in. He’ll fit right in. He just needs some time to digest our language.”

Everypony then turns to look at the thing, which seems to be staring off into the distance again, clearly trying to think about the language that was just transferred into its brain.

Celestia turns to leave the room. “Girls, keep taking care of him. I’ll see to it that he has a peaceful intergration into society as we know it.”

She turns to the thing, which causes it to look back.

“Welcome to Equestria.”

She takes off, leaving the ponies and the thing looking confused. They all turn back to the thing, waiting for something to happen.

It opens its mouth and says “That… awkward moment when you realize you absolutely have no idea what is going on.”

Notes: I don’t know if anyone is reading this but at this point I don’t even care if this is popular or not.. Even though I’m making it up as I go along, I want to see how this ends. Support is welcome, though.