War of the Worlds

It was the day after her coronation ceremony. Or you could say, the night. A whole day as a princess. Twilight still couldn’t believe it. She lay there, unable to fall asleep from the ordeal that had happened those past few days. She was still in the library for now, but this time, 2 guards were posted at the front door. Spike slept like he usually did, with absolutely no care in the world.

Twilight sat up, and looked at Spike as he slept. She smiled at that little baby dragon, remembering all of their adventures since they arrived in Ponyville. She looked at her new wings, and then glanced out the window. The starlit night sparkled with a radiance that always captivated Twilight. She sighed, a flood of memories washing over her mind. So much had happened in Ponyville; It seemed like forever ago since she came here. And now, she was a princess. It was all a bit of a rush.

Suddenly, a flash of light burst from downstairs. In a fit of curiosity, Twilight raced to the staircase, confused as to what was going on. What she saw drew he breath away. In the middle of the library floor was a giant hole, a portal of some sorts.  It spiraled, looking as if it was going to suck everything in its belly. It was what came out of the portal that frightened Twilight.

A figure, about as tall as Princess Celestia, walked- no, limped- from the portal into the center of the room. It didn’t walk on 4 legs like most creatures, but walked on 2. From what Twilight could see in the darkness, the creature had no hair on its body, except for its head. It wore clothing, almost as black as a starless night. It was clutching it’s left side, and was dripping some fluid on the floor. It was mumbling  something, But Twilight couldn’t make it out from where she was. As soon as it was through, the portal closed, and the figure collapsed to the floor.

Twilight was stunned, unable to think of what to do. She cast a spell that lit up the room, and what she then saw horrified her. The reason the creature was clutching it’s left side at about it’s shoulder was because its arm was missing, and the fluid was blood, pooling under the collapsed figure. She quickly rushed down the stairs, unsure of what to do. She wanted to call for help, but the guards weren’t near fast enough to get help. As she neared the creature, she could hear what it was mumbling. She was surprised that it was actually speaking. It kept saying “No…I…I failed….Again….Forgive me…” She ran to the door as quickly as possible.

“Twilight?” she heard Spike say from behind. She let the spell fade, not wanting Spike to see the trauma the creature had suffered.

“Don’t worry, Spike. I’ll take care of this.” She ran out the door, startling the two guards at the door. “There is a creature in the library. It’s injured, and I’m going to get help. Stay put and watch over it, understand?” she told them. Reluctantly, the guards looked at each other, then they nodded, acknowledging the command they had been given. They went in the library, and shut the door behind them.

Without hesitation, Twilight spread her wings and took off for the hospital. She wasn’t anywhere near as fast as Rainbow Dash, and the concept of flight was somewhat new to her, but that didn’t matter. She had to get to the hospital as fast as possible, and flight was still much faster than running there the whole way. As she flew, she looked down on Ponyville, seeing the houses and the residents sleeping. Though Ponyville was asleep now, It had seen it’s share of action tonight.

Twilight arrived at the hospital in almost no time at all. She burst in, and explained the situation to Nurse Redheart, who always seemed to be on duty. She called for one of the winged emergency medics, a team of flyers trained to deal with intense situations. In almost 5 minutes, the team was ready with equipment, and they took off towards the library. In a roundtrip of about 15 minutes, Twilight had returned with the team, but when they burst in the door, they were shocked.

The guards had a frightened look on their face, and that was suprising, even for them. Spike was sitting at the base of the stairs, his eyes wide with fright. The creature still lay in a pool of blood, but this time, something was weird. Maybe Twilight was just imagining it, or maybe she just thought his arm was gone, but whatever the case, the creature’s left arm was there. While the team checked the creature out, Twilight ran over to Spike, concerned for her dear friend. She shook him a couple of times, and finally, he looked her in the eyes. “Spike, what happened here?” she asked.

As Spike turned his face, the look of horror was still on his face. He then said in a low voice, “It…It…”. He turned to Twilight and said,” It screamed for a while in pain, and then….it’s arm grew back…”

Twilight turned from her friend and looked at the creature. It rolled over, laying on its back now. It looked like nothing she had ever seen before.  It had every facial feature all animals share; a nose, ears, 2 eyes, and a mouth. Its hair was black and was somewhat long, but it was spiked up to hide the true length. It had a body that looked like some form of monkey, but without a tail. The clothing it wore was black, and its left sleeve was cut off right at the shoulder. Even with the darkness of the clothes, Twilight could see the soaked blood in its shirt.

As the medical team examined the creature, Twilight led Spike up the stairs to their room. She tried sitting him down on the bed and tried talking to him, but he was still scared of whatever the creature did. No amount of words would get him to respond. “I’ll be back, Spike. I have to check on that…thing downstairs,” Said Twilight. Still Spike did not respond.

When Twilight got down the stairs, she looked around the library. The guards had regained their strength, although the look of shock was still on their face. The team had ended their inspection, and started cleaning up the blood around the floor. The creature was covered in a blanket, resting.

One of the team members saw Twilight, and walked over to her. “We have finished examining that thing over there. From what we can tell, it suffered a few broken ribs, and its left leg has been fractured. Frankly, I’m amazed that it was able to walk, from what you told me as to how it got here.”

“Was there any sign that its left limb had been recently removed?” Asked Twilight, shuddering at the thought.

The medical pony looked at her with a strange look. “Removed? No, nothing like that. Although, it would explain the amount of blood loss. It passed out from the pain, so we won’t be able to see until it wakes. Maybe Fluttershy would be able to understand it.”

Twilight said, “We won’t need Fluttershy. The thing can understand speech, and can speak itself.”

The medical pony looked surprised. “It spoke? Surely you must be imagining, your Majesty. A monkey that can speak?”

“So you have confirmed it’s a monkey?”  Asked Twilight.

“Well, not exactly. It seems like a monkey, but I have never seen a monkey like that. At any rate, we would like to move it, but we don’t have hospital beds near big enough to hold it. Also, this thing is really heavy to lift, we would have to get a cart to carry it.”

Twilight thought for a moment. She then responded, “Leave it here, then. If one of you will stay to watch its progress, then the guards will be able to protect us should it awaken.”

The medical pony stared at Twilight for a second, stunned by the idea. But the more he thought about it, the better of an idea it sounded. “All right. I’ll stay behind and monitor its progress. I have some more investigating to do on this thing.”

Twilight looked at a door to the far left of her and said, “Down there is the basement. There is a large bed down there, too large to get out. It should be enough to lay it in. My guards will help you take it downstairs. I’ll make some tea, I feel like it’s gonna be a long night.”

The medical ponies cleaned up their materials, and then helped the guards move the creature downstairs. First, Twilight went upstairs to check on Spike. He was still shocked, although he was starting to calm down. Since he was still up, Twilight wrote a letter to Princess Celestia explaining the situation, and had Spike send the letter. Then, she tucked Spike into his bed, hoping that he would fall asleep. Surprisingly, the moment he hit the pillow, he passed out, all the worries that had troubled him seeming to fade away with sleep. Twilight smiled, wishing that she could be as carefree as him. She looked up at the clock, which now read 2:17 in the morning. Twilight was amazed at how much time had passed by since the thing first came through the portal. She hurried down the stairs, racing to get some tea ready. The other medical ponies were just leaving, and the lead of the group, who stayed behind, was coming to give another report.

“I can’t believe that thing is so heavy. I’m surprised that it didn’t wake up from all the shaking around we did.” Twilight looked at the door, than looked back at the medical pony.

“Can you give me a full report?” The pony looked at her, and slightly bowed his head. “Of course, majesty. We removed its bloody clothing and dressed its wounds. It won’t be walking for a while, but we will try to transfer it to the hospital or the vet or something.” Twilight nodded, acknowledging the fact that she may have a creature living in her basement for a few days. “There’s something else. This creature has some strange objects with him. It had a bag full of strange curved sticks, small metal cartridges, and what looked like 2 small swords. It has a strange ring on his right hand, and a wristband that wouldn’t come off. But it has something even stranger than that.”

Twilight leaned in, curious to hear what the pony had to say. “What is it?” asked Twilight. The pony started to scratch his head. “Well, it looks like it has a Cutie Mark on its right arm, around the upper portion hidden from view. This is the strangest mark I’ve seen, though. It appears to be a sword, with two dragons curling around it, and a number is under the sword and above the dragon’s heads.  The first number says ‘X-303’. The second number, above the dragon’s heads, says ‘S-11’. I don’t know what to make of it.”

Twilight, confused as to the prospect of this thing having a Cutie Mark, decided that it was time to try to get some rest. She made tea for those staying awake, which she felt she would be included in this. She shrugged off the questions she had, though, feeling that in the morning, she would be able to ask it herself.