My Lightning Pony

Chapter Four

Introductions and a Rescue

Cole walked quietly with Fluttershy along the edge of the forest, the only noise the sound of their steps.  Out of the corner of his eye, Cole could see the smaller pegasus furtively glance up at him every now and then.  It wasn’t out of morbid curiosity: Cole could have told if it was.  No, it was more... shy intrigue, as if she was interested but unsure of what to say or do about it.

“Is there something wrong?” Cole asked, turning to face the pegasus.

Fluttershy let out a small squeak, but quickly recovered from the sudden question.  “I was just wondering how you can... do what you do.  You know, your power.”  Her soft voice was barely an octave above a whisper.

Cole let out a small chuckle.  “That is a rather long story, and I don’t think I have the time to tell you now.  Suffice to say, it was a long and painful road to be where I am today, and I have suffered for it.”  he didn't want to tell her about the life-changing decisions he had had to make: the ones who had cost him friends and loved ones.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened at his comment about suffering.  “But how could you suffer?  Equestria is such a peaceful land.”  Her soft voice was not unlike an early morning breeze.

Cole looked into her eyes as he approached the door to the library.  “I’m not from Equestria, or anywhere else you may have heard of.  Where I come from, there is no true harmony and friendship is rare.”  The pegasus didn't say anything after that.

Reaching the library door, Cole placed his hand-like claw on the door handle and turned to Fluttershy.  “If I have any free time, I’ll tell you all about where I’m from.”

Cole opened the door and bid the pegasus farewell, closing the door behind him.  As he walked into the tree-like building, the first thing he noticed was the sheer amount of literature in the building.

“Smells a bit like mold,” Cole thought as he wandered past a bookshelf.  Looking down, he saw on particular book on top of a large stack of more books.  It said “The Complete History of Equestria”.

“Might as well read it,” he thought.  Picking it up, he sat down on his haunches and opened it with his claw-like hands.  Thankfully he didn’t have actual talons, or else he might have torn the thing apart.  Carefully turning the introduction page over, he began to read.

An hour later...

Twilight walked in to the library, feeling rather exhausted.  She had just finished the letter to Celestia when a whole bunch of ponies pelted her with questions about the kirin in town.  Truthfully, she didn’t know anything else about him, but she was intent on finding out.  Spike was busy helping the Cutie Mark Crusaders with something and Twilight felt like she needed something to eat.

Opening her fridge, she picked out a dandelion sandwich Spike had made for her earlier.  Quietly munching it, she swore she heard a snort upstairs.

“Oh,” she thought, remembering she had told Cole to stay at the library.  “That must be him.”  Finishing her sandwich, she walked up the stairs to see Cole’s wings folded over his body.  A sigh rumbled from his throat: he had fallen asleep.

Walking around the sleeping figure, Twilight quietly summoned a pad of parchment and a quill.  “Large wings; suitable for extended flight,” she muttered, looking over the mysterious kirin.  “Long tail; perfect for balance.”

She walked around to his front, the quill refilling itself after writing down what she said.  “Dragon-like front arms: equine hind legs. Large eyes signify enhanced vision and likely the ability to see in the dark.”  She carefully moved a wing to the side to see the rest of his head.

“Horn on head similar to that of a unicorn, but exudes lightning instead of magic: must investigate further,” she muttered, scribbling in her notes as fast as she could.  “Row of spines along back are likely for protection, but the underbelly seems soft and covered with fur.”  She carefully lifted up a corner of his mouth, exposing his teeth.

“Sharp incisors indicate a not-entirely vegetarian diet,” Twilight muttered, unsure whether to feel afraid or intrigued.  “Molars indicate plant consumption as well: likely an omnivore.  Unknown if consumption of jewels and other precious minerals is possible: must investigate in the future.”

Finishing with her notes, Twilight gingerly walked up to her room and went to bed.

The next morning...

Twilight awoke to find something missing from her house/library.  Looking around, she realized it was Cole that was missing.

“Oh boy,” she thought as she ran past Spike’s sleeping form.  She couldn’t wake him up: he had been up all night and deserved some rest.  Running outside, Twilight enabled a locator spell and followed her horn on the path of the mysterious missing kirin.  Winding through the streets, she eventually found a footprint leading into the forest.

“Why would he go in there?” she wondered, trotting into the tree line.  Within a few minutes, she spotted a dark form disappear behind a cluster of trees.  Leaping over a few bushes, she landed in time to see a bolt of lightning fly through the air and impact a rock, blackening it.  Another one soon followed, striking the rock in the same place.  For a second, it seemed as though Cole couldn’t see Twilight.

“Cole?” she called out, trying not to sound awed by his lightning.  It still amazed her that he could wield it so effortlessly and yet so accurately.  She saw him turn his head and the frown of concentration disappeared.

“Oh, hi Twilight,” he said, walking up to her.  “I was just practicing my powers: it never pays to get rusty.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight said, not sure what he meant by ‘rusty’.

“If I don’t keep up the practice, I will slowly but surely lose skill in that area,” Cole said, somewhat puzzled by her question: wasn’t it obvious?  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some blasts to work on.”  With that, he leaped into the air and flew high above the canopy of the forest, almost instantly disappearing from view.

Twilight, not exactly wanting to miss what was sure to be an opportune time to study the kirin, ran out of the woods in time to see a ring of lightning fly through the air.  Within seconds it slowly disappeared, likely dissolving from the air as it lost energy.

“How do you do that?” she called up to the circling kirin, not sure if he could hear her.  Apparently he did, as he soon came to a gentle stop on the grass, his large wings folding to his sides.

“I have powers because I was given them, albeit against my will,” Cole said, feeling as though too much information might make the pony afraid of him.  “I was not always like this, you know: my old body was like nothing I’ve seen here, nor like anything described in any of your books.”

A million questions raced through Twilight’s mind, but for now she was content to simply listen.  It seemed this kirin was not entirely what he appeared to be.  She would have to write a letter to Celestia again: twice in two days might seem weird to others, but Twilight knew Celestia must hear of this strange creature.

“Try me,” she said, sitting down on the grass and taking a small journal out from her pack.  Cole sat down as well with a small sigh and looked down at the ground, drawing small circles with his claws.

“Where I come from, there is no magic,” he said, drawing a crude representation of Earth.  “We have science and technology, but some of it is far more advanced than many of us were lead to believe.  I lived in a large city, with buildings that seemed to touch the sky.  There was not much of what I would call nature in the city: a few parks were all the greenery there was.”

Twilight scribbled furiously in her journal, intent on not letting a single bit of data slip by her.  In the back of her mind, her excitement reached a peak: she could publish a book on this!  To think: sentient life outside of Equestria where there was no magic and things were so very different.  It was like nothing any of her books had ever described!

“My kind was something similar to what you know as a monkey,” Cole continued, drawing a crude picture of a human.  “We lacked tails, walked upright and had larger brains than our counterparts, which eventually lead us to develop culture.  With this, we spread across our world, and over time used our five-fingered hands and brains to change everything.”

He looked down at a small circle he drew: the Ray Sphere.  “I was a courier, a simple bike messenger: I could never have known the path laid out before me.”  His voice had grown soft and a bit strained as if recalling a painful memory.

Twilight’s brow was so furrowed with concentrating on her magical writing she was surprised when her quill ran out of ink.  Dipping it quickly again in her little ink pot, she looked up to see Cole had stopped; his head was looking back into the forest.

“What is it?” she said, noticing the strange look on his face.  He looked almost... tense.

“What does your friend Fluttershy do?” he said, getting up on all fours.

“She takes care of animals: why?” Twilight asked, looking back over her shoulder.

“I heard a scream: it sounded like her voice,” he said, starting to run towards the forest.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Twilight said, quickly following him and leaving behind her writing supplies.  All of a sudden, a distant echo came through the tree line.  It was a scream alright, and it was definitely that of Fluttershy.  Twilight’s eyes widened in shock as Cole picked up the pace: why was Fluttershy screaming?

“We have to hurry,” Cole said, leaping into the air and flying into the sky.  He had barely flown out of sight before he dove into the forest amidst a chorus of barking and howling.

Twilight ran to the edge of a clearing in the forest and saw something that made her blood run cold: Fluttershy trapped by a pack of snarling timber wolves.  There were cuts all over her wings and blood was running from a bite mark on her rump.  She was backed against a large boulder, with a single wolf climbing up over the edge.

“Fluttershy!” she called out, preparing to blast the bark-laden wolf with a burst of magic.  Before she could, the howling creature leaped into the air, falling straight for the injured pegasus.  As the glistening wooden fangs seemed to sprout from the creature’s open maw, a blast of light smashed into it, sending it careening across the clearing and into a tree: it exploded.  Twilight looked over to see Cole charging forward, another beam of light emanating from his horn.  His face was contorted into something akin to fury and intense concentration.

The timber wolves turned at the sight of their flying pack member and howled with fury upon its disintegration.  As one large mass they charged the kirin, regardless of the bright glowing emanating from his horn.  Almost instantaneously the pack and Cole leaped into the air, colliding about three feet off the ground.  From there, it descended into madness.

A bolt flew out from Cole’s horn and struck a wolf, sending it flying into another.  He turned in time to feel a wolf sink its jaws into his shoulder.  Roaring in pain, Cole reached down and clamped his jaws on the neck of the wolf, causing it to release its hold.  With a great heave he tossed the wooden wolf high into the air, the journey ending when a tree branch arrested its descent.

Cole spun quickly, narrowly avoiding a lunge for his exposed throat.  Like a great bear, he swiped the timber wolf away with his hand, electricity crackling all over it.  Another leaped at him from behind: raising his tail, Cole smashed it downwards, driving the bark-laden creature into the soft ground.  It’s parts flew everywhere, so great was the force of such a hammer blow.

In the midst of the fighting, Twilight rushed over to her injured friend, noticing the blood had pooled by her back legs.  “Fluttershy, are you all right?” she asked, retrieving a large bandage from her pack.  She always carried them around, but this was the first time she had actually needed to use one.

Fluttershy was shivering: whether from blood loss or fear, Twilight did not know.  “W-Why is h-he here?” she said, looking over at Cole as he fought the wolves.  “H-How did y-you find m-me?”

“He heard your scream: we came as quickly as we could,” the unicorn said, dabbing some of the blood off the wings of the pegasus.  “We need to get you to the hospital: why were you out here?”

The pegasus winced at Twilight’s ministrations.  “I-I was coming to h-help a family of s-s-squirrels who needed a n-new nest after t-that storm a f-few days ago,” she said, looking back at her unicorn friend.  “They c-came out of n-nowhere: t-the first wolf b-bit my flank.  I p-panicked and k-kicked him a-away: it hurts so bad,” she said, more tears forming in her already glistening eyes.  Twilight continued to dab the wound as best she could, but if her friend didn’t get the help she needed, there could be problems with her leg for the rest of her life.

Cole had to admit he wasn’t doing as well as he could have been: some of his more dangerous powers were too powerful to use while the ponies were so close.  He was winning, but still the pack came, biting and clawing at every available bit of his flesh.  With a blast of his horn, Cole threw the creatures off of him.  Standing his ground, he looked to see the creatures flee into the forest, supporting wounded comrades on their backs.  There were bits and pieces of the wooden creatures scattered all over the area, signifying the pack would likely not return after having lost so many of their kin.  He turned back to the two ponies before slumping over in pain: even with his healing abilities, he could still bleed.  The puddles and splatters all over the ground were a testament to that.

“Are you all right?” he asked, limping his way to the pair of ponies while ignoring his own stinging pain.  Cole felt his wounds begin to heal, but there was still the problem of getting the injured pegasus out of the forest; the wolves might try to attack again, or something worse could come along, like a hydra.  In his current state of healing, he would be highly vulnerable to a larger or more powerful creature: Twilight and Fluttershy even more so.

“What about y-you?” the woozy pegasus said, taking a painful step forward.  Twilight continued to administer to her wounds the best she could, but the bandage could only do so much.

“I’ll be fine: we need to get you out of here,” Cole said, looking at Twilight.  “Can you get out of here safely?”

“I can teleport out of here, but I’m not sure Fluttershy can travel in her condition,” Twilight said, unsure what the kirin was thinking.  “I can’t just leave her here: she needs to go to the hospital, and if I teleport her in this condition, she could lose a lot of blood in the No-Space Dimension through which teleporters travel.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Cole said softly.  With a gentle glow emanating from his horn, he tapped a weak but still surprised Fluttershy on the head.  An instance of binding light faded to reveal an unharmed pegasus; the blood and wounds gone as if they had never been there.

“How did you do that?” Twilight gasped, both shocked and overcome with happiness that her friend was no longer hurt.  Fluttershy could only look up into Cole’s eyes and blink in astonishment.

“She is still weak: I’ll carry her out of here,” Cole said.  Gingerly and with a grace that exemplified her nature, a careful Fluttershy pulled herself into Cole’s outstretched arms.  With a great gust of wind, Cole flew up into the air and disappeared over the treetops.

Twilight, still a bit shocked, teleported out of the woods and back to where her notes were: she needed to write to Celestia immediately.

As Cole flew over the trees, Fluttershy snuggled into his chest, almost entirely captivated by the sight of the strong and not-unhandsome kirin carrying her to safety.  As it was, she was unsure of the feelings she was experiencing.  It wasn’t fear or sadness: it was something so close to happiness she could barely recognize it was different.  She would have to ask her friends after she got to the hospital: they would surely know.