Author's Note: Be sure to check out my friend's deviantart: http://cris-25.deviantart.com/gallery/
This is my first story I have ever written. Please give me constructive criticism.

Human Meets Pony - Chapter 1: The Cage on the Road

By: Light_Arrow

It was a cool fall’s day as I drove down an old forest road. On both sides of me there were forests surrounding the area. My window was down and I could smell lush green scents of the forest tree’s aroma. It was quite a pleasant smell mixed together with tree sap. Since it was in the middle of fall, the trees around me looked beautiful. The mixture of orange and red was a sight to see. Some of the leaves were already falling and I could hear them crunch under my truck’s tires. The sun in the sky was covered partially by light grey clouds, signaling a future rain sometime soon. There were quite a few animals running around the area: squirrels were gathering up their pecans, nuts, and other such delicacies getting ready for the winter to come. Birds were chirping about frantically, probably setting up their plans to start to fly south for the winter. I even saw a deer out in the woods, nibbling on some grass out on a nearby pasture.

I kept on driving until I came to a fork in the road and took a right.

“Goddammit!” I mumbled under my breath.

Why did I take a right? I always take the left when I come to this fork in the road. Luckily, I knew my way around this place and remembered that this path meets up with my old path eventually, though it will take just a lot longer. Feeling a tad bit annoyed with myself, I slouched a bit in my leather seat. However, I came back up when I noticed something strange on the side of the road a bit further down. It looked like…a cage of some sort.

I drove up to the cage, pulled over, and got out of my truck. I walked over to where the cage was and to my dismay there was a small pony inside of it. The cage had rusted iron bars and a flat metal top. It also had a handle on the top and a slat on the side. I walked up to the cage and crouched down to see a small purple pony. On closer examination, I noticed it was a female. She also seemed to be a bit smaller than most regular ponies I’ve seen, only being about as big as a medium sized dog. As my eyes scanned the pony, I became quite confused and intrigued. I had never seen an animal such as this. Her body proportions were much different than that of regular ponies. Her head was also much different. It looked as if it had some human characteristics to it. Her mane was a deep violet and had an indigo and pink streak down the middle. What was really strange was that she seemed to have what looked like a horn protruding out of her head. I scratched at my chin in awe. Her flank was covered with a weird star symbol. She seemed to have a big pink star in the middle and a couple of white stars around it. It seemed as if someone had dyed her coat and mane purple and branded her flanks with that symbol. My mouth then gaped in horror as I noticed the condition in which she was in.

Her mane was all lopsided and was stained with dirt and mud. Her entire body was covered in several bloody scratches and bruises. Her tail was all deformed and looked as if a child just came by and cut out random parts of the hair out with a pair of scissors. The area above her hooves were swollen beyond belief. It seemed as if someone tortured her to the full extent, stuffed her in a cage, and threw her off the side of a random forest road to die. It also seemed like she had been in here for at least a couple of days. There was a pool of blood in the cage and she was so skinny that her ribs were showing. She hadn’t even been moving and I was beginning to suspect whether or not she was dead. I just sat there aghast. I didn’t know what to do and my mind was racing with many thoughts at once. I couldn’t comprehend how this could actually happen. My mind was filling with so many questions. Why would someone do all these things to an animal? Why did they stuff her in a cage and throw her off the side of a forest road? What am I going to do? Why is she so much more different than normal ponies? I snapped back to reality and gathered my senses.

“Holy shit…” I whispered to myself. “Who could’ve possibly have done this?”

Just as I said that, the little pony started moving. She shuffled about a bit and turned her face towards me. Her face amazed me. She actually had lips and could show off emotions with it just as humans can. Her muzzle was also not like a normal pony. I was just speechless at seeing this kind of animal here. Everything about her was much different than what I am normally used to seeing. However, her face was not in the best shape. It had a long scratch going all along the side of her face as well as plenty of bruises to go with it. It disgusted me to think how someone could’ve done this to a gentle pony. Then I noticed the horn again. It couldn’t be what I think it is…could it? I laughed at the idea and reassured myself that unicorns are fictional. There has to be a logical explanation for her appearance. Her big eyes were looking at me cautiously and they started to well up with tears. I knew what I had to do.

I carefully picked up the cage and softly set it down in the back of my truck. I got some hooks out of the trunk in the bed of my truck and tied them to the cage. I wrapped them around and hooked them onto the ends of my truck. I made sure it was secure so it wouldn’t roll around while I took her home.
“Don’t worry little pony.” I said with a gentle and kind tone. “I will take you home and care for you.”

The pony just stared at me with her cute, big eyes and I could see her try to crack a small smile. She sniffed and wiped at her tears with her foreleg. This is incredible. My theory was actually correct. This pony has a mouth resembling a human and can even smile or frown with it. Not only that, but she seems to act like a human as well. I just couldn’t grasp at how this is even possible.

I drove home as fast as I could. Luckily for me, there was no traffic, almost as if the world knew I was headed home on an emergency mission to care for an abandoned and tortured pony.
I got home in no time and prepared to take the caged pony inside.

I took the frightened pony into my house immediately and let her out of the cage as gently as I could. She struggled to stand up on all fours, but her weak and frail body wouldn’t allow it. I attempted to pick her up and was amazed at how lightweight she was. She was so soft too. I felt as if I could just cuddle up with her all day based on how cute and soft she was. I carried her as gently as I could to the shower and cleaned her up with soap and water. There was so much dirt and grime on her, that there were literally chunks of it clumped together that wouldn’t even go down the drain. I even had to clean myself up because some of the dirt rubbed off on me as I was carrying her. I was kind of disappointed that I couldn’t get any of the dyes out of her, but I figured it would probably take awhile for it to come out. I tried to examine her weird horn-thing, but she pulled away whenever I touched it. I keep getting more evidence to suggest that it is a real horn, but I just can’t accept it yet. I decided it best to not mess with her horn at the moment. Whenever I got near a cut, I tried to go along softly, but she still cringed a bit.

“Sorry.” I said as kindly as I could. “I’m being as gentle as possible.”

The exhausted pony was so frail and tired that even if she wanted to resist me, she just wouldn’t have any energy to do so. It was pitiful really and I felt so sorry for it. By the time I was done she was breathing so heavily and still seemed quite scared. I tried to reassure her thoughts about me by rubbing her gently and trying to calm her down.

“It’s going to be alright.” I said in a caring tone.

Her breathing started to normalize and her ears perked up as I tried to soothe her. It really warmed my heart to know that she started to trust me now.

After I cleaned her up, I could only imagine how good it must feel to be so clean after being that dirty for so long. I grabbed the softest towel I had from my cabinet and dried her off. I carried her out of the bathroom and set her on my couch in the living room. Next up was to examine those wounds. Most of the cuts were small ones, but there were many of them scattered about. Luckily, none of them were infected. There was a much bigger cut near her hoof so I decided to make sure it would heal and not get infected. I got a bandage out from the bathroom cabinet, dabbed a little medicine on it, and wrapped it around the cut. I felt there wasn’t a need to do this for the other cuts as they weren’t as deep. I took this moment to sit next to her and put my arm around her and softly rub her head and mane. Her mane was as soft as a pillow and just the act of rubbing it seemed to calm me down. Her eyes were a deep shade of violet just as her coat was. If you looked past all the scrapes and bruises, she was actually really beautiful. That horn though…I still can’t take my eyes off of it. I just couldn’t accept the idea of a unicorn and continued trying to convince myself that it was something that happened to her during the process of getting all mangled up. I ignored the horn for now and continued to slide my hand through her mane. She seemed to enjoy this act quite a bit and was looking happier than usual now. It made me feel good to know that she was smiling now.

“I’m going to take good care of you.” I whispered. “I’m going to make sure you stay alive.”

As I was stroking her soft and beautiful mane I looked down and noticed her ribs. This reminded me of something very important. Food! I quickly went to the kitchen and cut up some fresh apples and carrots and put it on a plate. Then, I poured some fresh water into a bowl and set both of them on the floor in the living room. I picked up the pony as carefully as possible to set her down to eat. She ate pretty fast, gobbling most of up in one gulp and I don’t even blame her for it as she probably hadn’t eaten in days. Once she was finished eating, she leaned over to the bowl and drank some water. I picked up the plate that had the food and set it in my dishwasher. I kept the bowl of water there just in case she wanted to drink some more soon. I came back into the living room and stood there scratching my chin.

“What should I do now?” I thought to myself. I couldn’t help but think. "I can’t believe this has actually happened. I really don’t know what to do here. I’ve never experienced something like this before." Many other thoughts raced through my head. I wanted to keep her until she was nursed back to health. I didn’t want to take any chances and give her to anyone else. She trusted me, and I had to keep the promise I made to her.

While I was thinking to myself, the purple pony struggled with herself to stand up. She got up slowly and was standing on all fours. I stood in anticipation as she limped over towards me. Then, I experienced something that would forever change my life. She jumped up onto her hind legs and wrapped her forelegs around me. A flood of emotions poured into my body and I entered a state of complete shock. As I was trying to overcome my shock at what just happened, I heard a soft, faint voice.

“Thank you.”

Author's Note

Be sure to check out my friend's deviantart: http://cris-25.deviantart.com/gallery/
This is my first story I have ever written. Please give me constructive criticism.