My Lightning Pony

Chapter Three

First Contact

They say that dreams are windows into the mind, and that we can learn a bit about ourselves from them if we can decipher their meaning.  Still, when a dream is undecipherable, then what is one supposed to do but just go along with it?  A somewhat dreamless sleep filtered through Cole’s brain, with images flashing through his mind in no coherent sequence at all.  An apple orchard, an exploding volcano, a balloon carrying baskets of muffins: it was all so...random.  It had to be chaos: how else could he imagine chocolate rain and ballerina bison?

With a grunt Cole shook off the last vestiges of unconsciousness and slowly opened his eyes, reaching up and wiping away the grime coating his outer eyelids.  All around him a whispering group of multi-colored ponies stood, looking at each other as he himself looked around.  Glancing about, Cole saw several white curtains and felt an overall sense of cleanliness: he was in a hospital of some kind.  Well, as close to a hospital as one could get, given the circumstances: there were colorful ponies, after all.

“Shush, he’s waking up,” someone said. Oh, so they talked, too: maybe he was still delusional from that carriage crashing into him.  Still, as if by magic, the dull chatter in the room ceased when they noticed his wakefulness, and every eye turned to him.  Well, at least one per pony: a winged one seemed to be focusing on something on the other side of the room.

“Where am I?” Cole grunted, shifting his head to look around.  “What happened?”  He had to say something, though he did so with a bit of cautiousness: did they speak the same language as he did, even though he understood what they had said?  Could he have misunderstood a language that simply sounded like English, but meant something completely different?

A purplish unicorn walked to the front of the group, followed by what seemed to be a small... purple dragon.  Why were so many things here so many odd colors?  “You were in an accident,” the unicorn said, seeming both concerned and intrigued by his appearance.  “Our carriage was going down a hill and the brakes shattered on a bounce.  You were lucky to survive the impact, never mind recover so quickly.”

Cole let out a small cough.  “I've survived far worse,” he said, feeling better by the minute as his powers went to work on his body.  Judging from the amount of pain he still felt, it would still take a while longer than a bullet wound like on Earth.  Then again, if he had to guess, he was quite a bit larger than back on Earth and thus he had more “stuff” to heal on the inside.

“Who exactly are you?” the small dragon asked, looking up at Cole with a curious expression.  Cole blinked; these were the same two from before.  Their names were -he wracked his brains- Twilight something and Spike.  No last name for the dragon: perhaps he simply didn’t have one?

“My name is Cole,” he said, pulling one of his arms from under the covers and holding it out for the small dragon to shake.  “Cole MacGrath, at your service.”

The small dragon named Spike shook his hand, the small arm barely reaching up to Cole.  “I’m Spike, and this here is Twilight Sparkle,” he said, gesturing to the purplish unicorn.

“Pleased to meet you,” Cole said, unsure as to why fate had placed him in this place.  This was like something out of a bizarre fantasy world, one he doubted anyone he knew could imagine up.  Perhaps he was being punished for his past decisions.

“I’ve read all about kirins before, but I never thought I’d see one,” she said, walking around his hospital bed while looking him over. It was slightly unnerving, as if she were undressing his body with her eyes.  Not in a fun way, either: anatomically, not physically.  “It is said you are the descendant of a cross between a dragon and a pony of some kind, likely a unicorn.”

“So that’s what I am; a kirin,” Cole thought, glad one mystery was solved.  “So where am I?” he asked, trying to find the solution to another conundrum.

“You are in the hospital in Ponyville,” Twilight said in a concerned manner.  “Since we’ve never seen someone like you before, we already contacted Princess Celestia.”  She grimaced slightly at the mention of never seeing him before: maybe something had happened similarly with an outsider that hadn’t gone so well?  “We’re sorry about the whole thing.”

“That’s quite all right, Miss Sparkle: no real harm done,” Cole replied.  He was silent for a second or two, a thought entering his head on something she had mentioned.  “You people, I mean, ponies have royalty?” Cole asked, somewhat surprised when he managed to piece the picture together as a whole.  There was still royalty back on Earth all across the planet, but it was nowhere near as prevalent as it had been.  Royalty among animals, even anthropomorphic, was something he had never considered, besides queen bees and ants and all that.

“Do you not have royalty from where you come from?” a white unicorn asked, her purple mane curled into a rather fashionable twirl.  “They are amongst the most sought-after social companions, as well as great friends when you get to know them.”

“No, not really,” Cole said, knowing he’d have to tread carefully around the topic of governance in this place: any of his old world’s ideas of ruling bodies might cause confusion or even change.  “Where I come from, the majority our leaders are elected by the citizens.  Other places have royalty, but many are not the heads of the country.”

“What an odd form of government,” Twilight Sparkle said, looking both puzzled and intrigued.  Several other ponies came to the front of the group, including a pale yellowish pegasus who was looking at the ground.

“Just who are all of you?” Cole asked, sitting up straighter and laying back on the pillow so he was more exposed.  “Not that it’s really important, but I’d just like to know, for posterity’s sake.”  The yellowish pegasus shied away, as if startled by his appearance.

“Well, as you know I’m Twilight Sparkle,” the purple unicorn said.  “These are my friends.  Meet Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.”  As she said each name, she pointed to a different equine: a pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane, the yellowish pegasus, an orangish-looking pony, the white unicorn and a bouncing pink pony.

“I need to start preparing your recovery party,” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing in place as she continued to ramble on about balloons and cake and some other things.  With a great big smile and a quick motion she left the room, soon followed by most of the other ponies: it seemed the novelty of a strange visitor had worn off and they were likely going back to work or something.  Soon, only the doctor, Twilight Sparkle and her other friends were left in Cole’s room.

“I was wondering if you would show me around,” Cole said, getting out of bed as his powers finished healing him.  Thankfully that aspect of his Conduit abilities still held true in this world: rapid healing, but thankfully h didn’t need a source of electricity to do so anymore.

“I thought you were injured,” the yellow pegasus called Fluttershy said, her voice barely above a whisper in volume.  Well, at least now he could see why her name was Fluttershy: she was certainly the shyest-looking pony he had ever seen.  Then again, Cole hadn’t been here long and didn’t really know any other ponies, but still...

“Nah,” Cole said, stretching as he walked away from the bed.  “I have an increased rate of healing compared to others.”  He had a feeling none of them would know a thing about conduits, so he’d just let them assume it was magic or something similar that allowed him to do this.  With a yawn he stretched out his wings, easily spreading the width of two hospital beds.

“How is that?” Twilight asked, seeming interested at Cole’s explanation.  Before Cole could respond with a more truthful, and by all means detailed answer, a pony came running into the room, screaming.  “Twilight,” she said, almost out of breathe.  “A hydra is coming towards the town!”  The ponies looked at each other, nodded and dashed out of the room.  Now why in the world would they do that?  Weren’t hydras terribly monstrous creatures that could easily eat the likes of these ponies?  Cole, curious as to what was going on and a bit concerned for his caregivers, trotted out of the room after them, feeling much better already.

Outside the hospital, Cole saw the group of ponies running over a distant bridge.  “They are fast,” Cole said, leaping into the air.  “I’ll have to catch up quick if things go south.”  Pumping his wings, he quickly caught up with the ponies as they came to a stop near a group of tall trees.  The ground was shaking with every blow from the hidden hydra’s feet, though they couldn’t see it: it knew it had been spotted and was likely approaching to ambush some unsuspecting pony.  “So where is this hydra?” he asked in an almost bored voice, noticing the shock on the ponies’ faces as they saw him.  Truth be told, he did feel a bit excited, but as to what he was going to do, he had absolutely no idea.

“How did you catch up so quickly?” the one called Rainbow Dash called out, her voice a mixture of surprise and awe.

“I flew, Miss Dash,” Cole said simply.  Looking up, he saw a monstrous shape burst through the trees; the hydra.  Cole blinked in surprise: he hadn’t expected that to happen so fast.  Below him the ponies scattered, with Twilight and Rarity firing beams of what could only be magic from their horns.  None of it seemed to be doing anything, and then out of the blue Cole felt the urge to burp: when he did the plume of fire shot out and singed the end of the one of the head’s chins.  With a roar the creature’s multiple heads swung towards the flying kirin, intent on eating him: partly due to hunger and partly due to revenge.

Cole ducked in surprise, swooping this way and that to avoid the four-headed creature’s jaws.  Its growls and roars grew in intensity as it missed the flying creature that had burned it.  Stamping its feet in rage, it began to trample everything under it, which almost included Rarity, if it had not been for the quick actions of Rainbow Dash to swoop her out of the way.  The monstrous creature turned towards Ponyville, letting loose another roar as it lumbered forward: one swipe of it’s tail managed to connect with Cole and sent him spiraling up into the air.  It was like getting hit with a tree trunk, but as with all his endeavors, whatever didn’t kill Cole only made him stronger.  Now, not only was he stronger, but now he was mad.

“I don’t think so, bub,” Cole said, his horn glowing a bright blue.  With a blast he sent out several strands of lightning, each arcing over the head of the hydra like a Tesla coil.  It wasn’t much, but it must have been more than enough to get the message across that Cole would be too difficult to eat and Ponyville would not be worth the effort.  With howls of anger and pain, the monstrous beast turned tail and ran back the way it came, crashing through trees as it retreated to its hiding place in the swampy biomes of the lower hills.  It soon vanished completely out of sight, and a little while after that its roars faded out of earshot.  Considering Cole's hearing was much, much greater what it had been as a human, the monster must have been far away indeed.

“Wow,” the pony called Applejack said as Cole landed near them: the rest had gathered and were staring at the kirin in abject awe.  “I ain’t never seen ah creature that could do that before.  Are you sure yer a kirin and not some sorta weather creature?”

“How in Equestria can you shoot lightning?” Twilight asked, nearly bouncing with enthusiasm as her shock wore off from the enounter.  “I’ve read so many books and poured over so many scrolls, and power like that has never been displayed by anyone but the princesses and other alicorns!  Are you related to them some way?”

“No,” Cole said, noticing the looks the unicorn named Rarity and Spike the dragon were giving him.  They seemed both intrigued and a bit scared, seeing as this newcomer to the area was suddenly shooting bolts of lightning from his horn.  Completely understandable: people back in New Marais and Empire City had reacted the same, and Cole couldn’t blame them for it.  “When I mean I’m not from here, I mean I’m not of this world.  I come from a place I’m sure none of you have ever heard of, never mind seen.”

“What in tarnation are ya talkin’ about?” Applejack asked, a confused look on her face.  “Not from this world?  Then where in the hay are ya from?”  The others nodded in agreement, also looking nonplussed at his statement of “not of this world”.

“I’ll explain everything, but can we talk somewhere else?” Cole asked, noticing the sun slipping in the sky.  He must have been out for quite a while: he must have been in that deep sleep for at least a whole day, if not more.  Besides, who knows what else that hydra might have scared up in it’s rampage?  Cole could think of those wood-like wolves patrolling the darker forest: he sincerely didn’t want to fight again, simply because he just didn’t want to.  No more reason than that, and he wasn't willing to put these ponies in danger.

“Come to the library,” Twilight Sparkle said, pointing to an odd-looking tree in the middle of the town.  “I’ll be busy writing a letter to Celestia: in the meantime, Fluttershy here can... where is Fluttershy?”

“Up here,” a soft voice called out.  Everyone looked up to see the yellow pegasus clinging to a large branch high in a tree, one that had thankfully not been damaged by the hydra.

“Fluttershy, please come down from there: it’s getting late,” Twilight called out.  “We’ve all got other things to do and you’re headed in that direction anyway: could be a dear and please show Cole the way to the library?”

The yellow pegasus squeaked slightly, as if out of embarrassment, but soon beckoned Cole to follow her as she fluttered down from her hiding spot in the tree.  For a split second, Cole saw something Trish-like in her doe eyes, but it disappeared as soon as it came.  Maybe it was a way of his brain trying to connect his old life to this one, but it was unwelcome in his present state: he was in a whole new world, and he had left the old one behind.  As Cole walked away, he couldn’t help but feel there was more to this world than met the eye, never mind the magic, monsters, and talking ponies.  Who would have thought he’d have ever found himself in such a place?