Chapters Spitfire peacefully swam through the Wonderbolt’s pool, her wings moving in tandem to propel her through the water. The therapeutic feeling of being submerged in water was he preferred way of relaxing after a show. Unfortunately, her idyllic swim was interrupted when a huge sphere of light appeared above the pool and exploded with an ear-splitting bang. A strange figure shot out of the explosion and zoomed straight to the bottom of the pool. In a state of shock, Spitfire began to sink to the bottom of the pool, but she snapped out of it and swam back to the surface.
When she had finished calming down, Spitfire remembered the figure that had landed in the pool. Against her better judgment, she swam to the bottom of the pool to search for the thing. After searching for a few moments, she caught sight of what appeared to be a strange bipedal creature. It looked… well… she didn't know what she could compare it to. It wasn't hairy or bulky enough to be an ape, and it just straight up couldn’t be one even by the farthest stretches of the imagination. It wasn't like a dragon either; the creature had neither scales nor claws. She continued to go over the creature in her head as she swam towards it.
Her curiosity got the better of her, so she decided to save the creature from a watery grave. Besides, she mused, I don’t want a corpse in my pool. Even though it was quite a sizable creature, Spitfire was still able to lift the creature onto her back. She carried it out of the water and dropped it beside the pool.
Spitfire heard hoofbeats, which was to be expected; with how loud the explosion had been, anypony would have dropped what they were doing and investigated. Fleetfoot charged into the room, followed by a large group of other ponies. "Holy shit! What the heck is that?" exclaimed one of the many ponies now crowding the creature. "Spitfire! Explain yourself!" her manager shouted. "W-well, I was swimming in the pool, and then there was this explosion of light and then this... thing, shot out of the explosion and down into the water. I went to go and see what it was, saw that it was alive, and pulled it out of the pool before it drowned.”
"How do you know it's even still alive?" Fleetfoot pointed out. Spitfire looked back at the creature and realized that she wasn't quite sure herself, but only until she saw it breathing. With how shallow its breaths were, she couldn't be sure it would be alive for much longer. "Well, it's breathing. It wouldn't be breathing if it was dead, right? Anyways, somepony needs to go get help. It won't be breathing in a few minutes if we just sit here staring at it!" she exclaimed.
"I'll go call the doctor!" Soarin volunteered. The manager of the team quickly shot him down. "No, don't call the doctor, get the physician to come here and help. We can't have news of this getting outside of the facility; the effect it would have on this team's reputation could be detrimental if the media finds out." Soarin nodded and bolted out of the pool room and down the hall towards the Wonderbolt's physician's office. "Now, somepony write a letter to the princess and deliver it personally! We don't want anypony to intercept this letter… You all know how the ponies on other teams are. They'd do anything to hurt our reputation."
Fleetfoot nodded and went off to write the letter. "Now, everypony go back to your jobs and don't tell a soul about this. Spitfire, you will stay here and wait for the physician. This creature is your responsibility until we figure out what to do with it, understood?" Spitfire nodded as the crowd in the room began to disperse. "Good, now if you’ll excuse me, I have some very important work to do," said the manager as she exited the room, leaving Spitfire alone with the creature.
A couple of minutes later, as the physician was walking into the room, the thing woke up with a start. "Wha- what the hell? What is this witchcraft?" the thing exclaimed, before passing out again. Spitfire and the physician stared at the creature, awestruck. A sentient being landing in my pool... imagine that. Of all the things to happen to me this is definitely one of the more insane occurrences. I wonder what its favorite food is... "A little help here? These casts aren't exactly easy to put on a creature you've never seen before." Spitfire shook her head. "Oh, Sorry Quick Fix. Here, let me get that for you."
The two ponies worked for about half an hour bandaging up the thing. It had a lot more wounds than Spitfire had originally thought; cuts, scrapes, and bruises covered almost all parts of the thing’s body, and it had cracked two of its ribs in addition to breaking its left arm. Additionally, both it and its clothes had been burnt rather badly. Man, this thing can take a serious beating. I can't imagine how any pony could still be alive after all that.
“Alrighty then, that's pretty much all I can do for now. I cast a couple of healing spells on it, so it should be okay in about three or so days. I'll send somepony over to take it to your room, seeing as it is your responsibility." Spitfire nodded and walked back to her room to wait for the mysterious creature to wake up. I really hope this thing is friendly...
Ah Jesus, why does everything hurt... You open your eyes to inspect yourself, but, unfortunately, you don't even get that far. You were too distracted by the fact that this wasn't your cozy bed that you went to sleep in last night. You are on a concrete floor beside a swimming pool. "What the hell!" you shout, your brain in overdrive and out of control. "What is this witchcraft?" Unfortunately, the stress is just too much for your very frail and exhausted body, and you pass out again.
Your eyes flutter open as you begin to wake up. I feel like I was hit by a train, but now at least it doesn't feel like I was hit by three... You sit up from the couch and rub your head. "Oh good, you're finally awake." You look over to see who had just spoken and, to your surprise, there is an orange pony sitting across the room on a bed with a gold and orange duvet. "DAFUQ?!" was the only thing that was able to leave your mouth before you had fallen onto the floor. "Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" shouted the now very concerned pony as she rushed to your side to help you up. Or at least you think it's a she. It'd be rather disturbing if it was a male with a super feminine voice. You lift up your arm, which now has a cast on it and reply with a muffled "it's cool. I'm fine..."
She sighs with relief and begins lifting you onto the couch, but you stop her from doing so. "It's okay, I've got it..." She opens her mouth in protest but quickly closes it again, realizing that you were probably right. You stand up and sit back down on the couch. "So... what are you exactly?" asks the pony. You look at her questioningly, but then you realize that you weren't quite sure what she was either. "Well, I'm a human, and in the future, so you won't have to call me 'human', my name is..." Wait a minute... What was your name again?
Uhh... am I Steve? No you idiot, your name isn't Steve! How preposterous! Well, is it John? Hell no! Well, what is it then if you're so smart? How should I know? I'm you! Good point... Well fuck. I don't want everyone just to call me “Anon” or something, that'd just be stupid.
"You kind of trailed off there buddy, would mind finishing that sentence for me please?" You look at the pony again. "I can't remember..." The pony gives you a look of sympathy. "Well what would you like me to call you then?"
Hmm... soup? No... that's just stupid. Cucumber. What the hell are you smoking, bro? Just let me pick... Let's see, our name is... Goyathlay Quigg Paul Ambrose Dahl! There, problem solved.
"Just call me Quigg I guess." The pony looks at you quizzically. "Quigg? Really? I'll just call you 'Q' for short, how about that?" You shrug, saying "Close enough. Anyways, what's your name then?" you ask. "Oh, I'm Spitfire! Wait a minute! I was supposed to contact the manager as soon as you woke up so we could bring you to see the princess! Stay here, I'll be right back." With that, she shot out of the room like a bullet, leaving you alone.
Hold up, hold up. I just had a conversation with a pony and I didn't freak out. I suppose that's good, but I really missed my chance to flip out, didn't I. You sigh, "Oh well, maybe next time I see a random pastel colored animal that can talk I’ll remember." You spend the next ten or so minutes inspecting your bandages. Just as you finish, Spitfire comes back into the room. "Alright, if you would just follow me, we're off to visit Princess Celestia now. It turns out she came here. She told us it'd be too risky if we took you outside the facility."
You get up to follow her and limp towards the door. The gash on your leg really wasn't helping you walk. You and Spitfire exit the room and went into the hallway. The two of you walk down the hall and exit the building which seems to be some sort of dormitory. You walk along a path to a bigger building, where Spitfire leads you inside and down more hallways until you reach a pair of double doors. I guess this is where I get to meet the 'princess'. With that, you push open the doors and step inside. "Okay, what the..."
As you entered the room, you noticed what was possibly the strangest creature you'd seen in your entire life as it swam in a large pool. It was a cross between a pegasus and a unicorn, but it was almost twice the size of the other ponies and had a rainbow-like flowing mane. "Why, hello there!” said the creature. “I would ask you to swim with me, but you’d end up getting your bandages wet. I am Princess Celestia. My sister couldn't make it; she unfortunately has more important matters to attend to." You stood there stunned for a moment, then quickly got your thoughts in order. "Oh, yeah, um, I guess you can just call me 'Q'."
The princess climbed out of the pool and, with a mysterious glow from her horn, dried herself off. "It's a pleasure to meet you then, Q. In any case, as you may have guessed, I have a few questions." You simply shrugged and said "That's understandable, ask away." The princess trotted over to and sat down in one of the chairs around the pool. The sunlight from the glass roof made her coat glimmer, nearly blinding you when you looked at her. She noticed your plight and her horn glowed for a fraction of a second. A few moments later a few clouds had formed and were now blocking the sun a bit more.
"So, tell me a little bit about yourself, Q. I'm very curious to know where you come from. The Everfree, perhaps? Or maybe somewhere else?" You chuckled slightly, "Definitely somewhere else. I come from Earth, actually. It’s probably in a completely different solar system. Heck, I don't even know if it's in the same galaxy, or even the same dimension. I don't really know where on Earth I'm from, and I can tell you about the planet and solar system all that jazz, but I don't really know where I fit in in to all of it." The princess nodded, and spoke again, “fair enough, you can tell me more about that when we meet again. What I really want to know though is what you are and if you're dangerous. That's really the main reason I came here, actually."
"Well, I am a human, of course, and I'm only dangerous to someone who is threatening me. Seeing as no one has threatened me yet, though, everyone should be perfectly fine. I have a question for you now. How long will I be here? I can tell you now I have little desire to return to Earth. I'd rather not return to a place where I wouldn't even have an identity. Sure, I don't really belong here either, but I have more of a life here already than I'd have if I went back." Celestia twirled her hoof about, obviously thinking about the question. "Well... you'll probably be here most of the time, at least for the next couple of years. The public would completely freak if they learned we had a creature from another planet living here in Equestria, however cheesy that may sound. Your safety would be at risk as well, too many ponies would try to get at you, some to ask questions, some to kill you, and some might try to do a little something… else… Trust me, it's for your own good."
You sighed, knowing she was completely right. Celestia stood again and said, "I must leave now, for I fear I've already stayed to long. Until our next meeting, Q." With that she disappeared in a flash of golden light, leaving you alone beside the pool. You exit the room to see Spitfire waiting outside the door. "Have you been waiting that entire time?" you asked the orange mare, looking down at her. You just now realized that she was only four feet tall. She moved her hoof in small circles on the ground looking a little embarrassed. "Kind of..." she trailed off. This made you laugh a bit, but the laughing unfortunately hurt your ribs, immediately ending your amusement.
"It's fine. What should I do now? I'm kind of going to be stuck here now, so I'll need something to do." Spitfire tapped her hoof in thought, "Well... You can't swim with the bandages... You could maybe-" She was cut off by the growling of your stomach. "I don't think I even have to finish that sentence now. Come on, let's get you something to eat."
The two of you had finally made your way to the eatery (which really was more of a restaurant) to grab something to eat. For all you knew, you hadn't eaten anything for a few days now. Then you realized another problem, another two problems in fact. You didn't know what you liked to eat, or even what you were allergic to. Then again, that might not be a big problem since you likely were allergic to anything and you supposed you could always just eat stuff and see what you liked. The other thing, though, was in fact quite troubling. Ponies don't eat meat. They eat things indigestible by humans like hay and other grasses as well as flowers and such. Additionally, when you glanced at the menu when you walked in you saw that pretty
"Uhh... Spitfire? What am I supposed to eat?" She gave you a questioning look. "What do you mean? There are a lot of things on the menu!" The two of you sat down at a table in the far corner of the eatery and picked up your menus, which had been lain on the table. You looked at this menu and again saw nothing you had the ability to eat, even the pizza's crust had straw mixed in. "There are plenty of things I can't eat. You see, humans can't digest things like hay or flowers, and simple salads won't really fill us either. I suppose I could eat the pizza if I could get it without the straw mixed in, but I'd really hate to have them go through the extra work of making another batch of the dough just for me."
The mare simply chuckled, "If you want it without straw then just ask for it without straw! You're going to be living here for a while anyways. I'm sure they'll just save the stuff left over for next time you order it." You felt quite stupid now, but you thought it best not to bring up the meat thing. If anyone was going to hear about it, it was going to be Celestia. She's probably the only one that wouldn’t flip their shit if they hear you need protein to keep your body in a proper state. In any case, the rest of the meal went on fabulously. You and Spitfire talked for quite a while as you ate. Finally, once both of you had finished eating, you noticed it was about 3 o'clock and left the plates on the table for a waiter to pick up.
I really think I'm going to like it here.
