//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: A strange storm // Story: Hand among hooves // by anonymouspony5X //------------------------------// Hand among hooves Bam! Fluttershy flinched as another lightning bolt struck; causing her to drop the kettle she had been carefully carrying with her mouth. Luckily, the kettle was empty, or else Fluttershy would have had another mess to clean up, besides the braches that now covered her yard from the storm. “What was that?” Spike asked from the couch, having heard the clang of the kettle falling. “Oh, just my n-nerves.” Fluttershy stammered as another bolt hit. Dear Celestia, this is a big storm. Fluttershy thought, picking up the now dented kettle to make tea for Spike and herself. Fluttershy found tea always calmed her nerves in a storm, and it was only kind to offer Spike some. After all, he was stranded at her cottage until the rain stopped. “Man, Twilight’s gonna be mad that I’m not home…” Dejectedly, Spike lowered his head. “I’m sure she’ll understand,” Fluttershy yelled (or at least said louder) from her kitchen, “She’ll be glad to see you’re okay tomorrow, so she won’t yell at you.” “You sure?” Spike sounded doubtful, but picked his head up anyway. “I’m sure.” Fluttershy watched the rain pitter onto a window until the tea was ready, then carried the kettle (even more carefully now) and two cups into her living room. Placing the cups down, Fluttershy began to pour. “Thanks, Fluttershy. Not just for the tea, but for letting me stay.” Spike said, downing his tea in one mighty swig. Heat was nothing to Spike; he was a dragon after all. “Th-thanks…” Fluttershy began to blush, unused to being complimented. Sipping on her tea, Fluttershy felt much calmer. “So… I hear the Cutie Mark Crusaders paid you a visit yesterday.” Spike said with a grin on his face. Anytime those three came up, Spike couldn’t resist chuckling: misadventure seemed to follow those three like a plague. “Oh, yeah…” Fluttershy looked down at her hooves, the memory still fresh. “Don’t be shy, tell me about it!” Spike pushed, but gently so as not to hurt the pegasus’s feelings. “Well, there’s not much to tell. It seems Scootaloo got it into her head that she was a chicken, so she asked to sleep in my coop for the night. Then the other two tried to-“ BAM BAM thud Fluttershy squeaked at the sudden loud noise, and dashed under the table to defend herself. “What was that?” Spike asked, raising himself from his seat. “N-n-nothing, I—I’m sure…” Fluttershy quivered uncontrollably. “It had to be something. Come on!” Spike tried to pull the yellow pegasus out of her hiding spot, but even her dainty frame was too such weight for Spike to drag. “Y-you look!” Fluttershy’s mind swam with frightening images, each making her quiver like a marshmallow in an earthquake. “Fine.” Spike marched to the door, and then opened it. Fluttershy could not see Spikes reaction to what was at the door, as her hooves were in her eyes. If she had, however, Fluttershy would have seen at least five emotions run across Spikes face, from fear, to curiosity, to sympathy. After about ten seconds of shock, Spike ran back to the hidden pegasus’s side. “You gotta see this.” Spike sounded serious, and excited. “Wh-what is it?” Another shake went through the frightened pony’s body. “I don’t know. I think it’s harmless.” “You think?” Fluttershy uncovered one of her eyes, to see Spikes grinning face. Whatever was out there, it had the dragon excited. “Yeah, it looks… kinda… I can’t explain it. Come on!” His emotions taking over, Spike ran back to the open doorway, which was letting the wind in. Fluttershy reassured herself that it was nothing, and slowly made her way from the table, across the room, and to the door. “What is it Spi- EEK!” Fluttershy stopped dead, not sure of what to do. The figure lay on the ground, face down. It looked like it was covered in clothes, but what kind was unclear to the duo, which were looking at the figure, dumbstruck. The only visible hair was where the mane should have been, and where hooves should have been, five digits could be seen, much like Spikes. Another striking thing about the figure is that it had no tail. The duo looked at the thing, then each other, Spike having suddenly grasped the gravity of the situation. Whatever it was, it was important. In fact, this was an understatement. “…What do we do?” Spike asked after several minutes of silence. Fluttershy just shook her head, apparently too terrified to respond more. Thoughts were racing through her head faster than Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush: What is it? Where did it come from? Why is it here? Why did it come to her cabin? What should she do with it? “Well…we should at least take it inside.” Spike said, seeing it as the only thing they could do. “…Sure.” Fluttershy’s voice was half gone from shock, but she bent down to help pick the figure up regardless. Almost as soon as she started this, however, several grunts escaped from the pegasus: the thing was bucking heavy. A sudden sound from Spike told Fluttershy he was finding he had similar problems. Undeterred, however, Fluttershy and Spike wrestled the thing into the cottage, enough so they could shut the door and stop any more rain from entering. Tired by their 10 minute struggle, the pegasus and dragon flopped down, too tired to move. “…Huh…Fl…uttershy…” Spike gasped, winded. “Wh…at, Spike?” Equally winded, Fluttershy let one of her hooves fall on to her table. The hoof crashed down at surprising speed, shattering an empty tea cup. Immediately, the figure on the floor jerked awake, emitting a deep grunt as it pushed itself up. Woozily, the figure rubbed its eyes, stretched, and looked up. The first thing it saw was Fluttershy’s panicked face. Silence filled the room. Time seemed to stop for what seemed hours, but what was actually seconds. At the same precise same moment, the three beings yelled. “EEE!” “AHH!” “COOL!” Fluttershy ducked beneath her couch as quick as her wings could carry her. Spike jumped up and ran to the now sitting figure, which crunched into a ball when it saw the approaching dragon. The pony and thing quivered in fear, while the baby dragon scratched his head. “Well hello to you to!” Spike seemed almost nonchalant in the way he addressed the figure, which stirred as he talked. “…Y-you can talk?” The sound barely managed to escape the figure, but the dragons keen ears picked it up. “YOU can talk?” Why this amazed Spike no pony knows, what with almost every species being able of speech. Fluttershy continued to whimper. “…Well, come on man, no need to worry. Fluttershy here can’t hurt you, and I don’t plan to.” Spike adopted his most soothing voice to try and coax the thing to interact with him. Spike always tried to be patient, but the excitement in the room was cranked up to 120%, and the dragon couldn’t take much more suspense: he HAD to know what this thing was. With what seemed agonizing slowness, the thing pushed itself back into a sitting position. Another lapse of silence filled the room, Fluttershy’s quivering even stopping in the suspense. “So…” Now that something had happened, Spike felt unprepared for having the things attention on him. “Uhh…” The thing had similar feelings to Spike’s, plus a mounting sense of panic. “…What are you?” Spike asked abruptly, the first of thousands of questions he had. “I’m…a human.” The thing, apparently called a human, looked confused by Spikes question. “Where am I?” “You’re near Ponyville.” Spike felt he was more confused now more than ever: what was a human, and why did it not know where it was? “Ponyville? I…I don’t even…” The human slumped down onto the floor, looking dejected. “So, you don’t know where you are, you’re the only one of your…kind, and…that’s all I got.” Spike teased, trying to get the human to cheer up: he knew what it was like to be alone among others who weren’t your kind. “That’s about sums it up.” The human sat up again. “So, I think introductions are in order. I’m Adrian.” “Spike.” The dragon reached out to shake Adrian’s outstretched hand, trying to remember the last time he had done this with someone without hooves. “And who is that?” Adrian pointed behind Spike, to where Fluttershy remained hidden. “Oh, that’s Fluttershy.” Although I doubt you’ll get to meet her face to face anytime soon. “So…what do you suggest we do?” Adrian scratched his hair, trying to get a knot out of it. “About what?” Spike was preoccupied trying to drag Fluttershy out from the couch, not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. “About me being here. I don’t know how I got here, and I’d like to figure that out. I haven’t eaten for hours, too.” “There’s food in the kitchen.” Adrian heard Fluttershy half way through her sentence, but was able to piece it together. “Thanks, uh…Butterfly.” Adrian walked into the kitchen, humming tunelessly. “It’s Fluttershy, Adrian!” Spike shouted after him. Spike was just able to pull the terrified pegasus out and sit her down as Adrian re-entered the room, several half eaten apples in his hands. “Desh thins are breat! Bwhere’d dyou get ‘em?” Adrian said, juice streaming down his chin. “Uhh… m-my friend Applejack.” Fluttershy squeaked out, avoiding Adrian’s gaze. Suddenly, Spike’s head jerked up. “That gives me an idea!” Spike yelled, his outburst met by a squeak from Fluttershy, and caused Adrian to half choke on an apple. “What, we need to go get more apples?” Adrian said through coughs. “No, we have another friend who’s super smart! I bet she could help us!” At Spikes idea, Adrian’s eyes lit up. “Well what are you waiting for man, an invitation? Let’s go!” Adrian ran to the door, and had it open before Fluttershy or Spike could react. “WAIT!” Yelled Spike as Adrian flung the door open, which managed to freeze the overly-enthusiastic human in place. “Won’t it cause a panic if you go into Ponyville now?” “Well…yeah, but what else can we do?” Adrian stood in the open doorway, the cold forgotten in the heat of the moment. “I’ll just go get her. She’ll come if I tell her what happened.” Spike looked from Adrian to Fluttershy, who was shivering. “You should probably stay here and help Adrian if he needs anything, Fluttershy. I’ll get Twilight to teleport us back.” At the sound of the word teleport, Adrian’s face twisted in confusion again. “W-well, as long as you’ll be careful, Spike.” Fluttershy said her concern for the baby dragon audible. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. Bye guys!” With that, Spike ran out of the cottage, down the path that connected the house to the road, and towards Ponyville. Adrian watched him as long as he could see him, and then shut the door. Turning, Adrian realized he was alone with Fluttershy. Crud. Now what? I have to do something! Think, man, think. Adrian could feel his stress level rising: he had never been good with women, and now he was alone with one who didn’t even know what he was! Fluttershy’s mind was also working through what was happening, but at speeds Rainbow Dash would envy, and torn between whether to run, scream, talk, or just plain faint. Half of what she thought even Fluttershy didn’t understand, her mind was about as clear as Pinkie Pie’s. Needless to say, a very uncomfortable silence fell on the pair. “So…what’s that on your side?” Adrian finally broke the silence after about five minutes, noticing Fluttershy’s cutie mark. “W-what’s what?” Fluttershy panicked, trying to get a look at her sides: was there something wrong with her? “Those…three butterflies.” Adrian pointed to indicate what he was asking about. “Oh, th-those? That’s just my cutie mark.” Fluttershy replied, thankful there was nothing out of the ordinary (aside from the strange creature that was talking to her). “Cutie mark?” Great, another thing I don’t know, Adrian thought. “I-it shows what a pony’s special talent is.” Fluttershy thought it odd she had to explain what a cutie mark was for, before she remembered Adrian wasn’t exactly from Equestria. “What’s yours for? Butterfly catching?” Adrian asked, wondering how a pony could hold a net comfortably, aside from the obvious. “N-no, animal care.” At this, Adrian perked up a bit. “I love animals. What kinds of critters do you have?” Thank God, something I know something about. “Oh, all kinds,” Fluttershy replied, her timidity out the window now that she was on her favorite subject, “Bunnies, otters, birds, cute little kitties, chickens, fish, all kinds of animals really. I love taking care of animals, it’s so rewarding.” “Well, I’d love to see them, uh…Fluttershy.” Adrian remembered, the pegasus’s name slipping his memory for a moment. “It’s all little rainy out for that, don’t you think?” Fluttershy asked, a boom of thunder driving her point home. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Adrian conceded with a grin, “But since you take care of animals so much, can you answer something for me?” “Sure, I’m sure we have time.” “Well, you see…” * * * “Fluttershy, you here?” Twilight called out after teleporting into the pegasus’s living room. Whatever Spike was talking about had her worried. On the other hand, Spike had been talking so fast and had been so out of breath he had formed about one complete sentence, but still whatever had Spike this excited must be important. “Hold on a second.” Twilight heard a series of clops over Spikes hyperventilating, and then watched as the yellow pony walked down the stairs, “Hello Twilight.” “What’s the matter, Fluttershy? It sounded like you were in trouble.” Twilight grew even more befuddled when she saw her timid friend had a smile on her face. “What? Oh, no, I’m not in trouble. There’s…something we need you to see.” Fluttershy turned her head towards the stairs, then shouted “Adrian?” “Yes?” A deep male voice emanated from the stairwell. “Come and meet my friend. She’s the one we were talking about.” Fluttershy turned back to the now very confused unicorn. “Fluttershy, why did you want me to look at a colt? And why is he…” Twilight lost her train of thought when she saw not a colt come from Fluttershy’s room, but a strange creature that walked on two legs. “Twi-light, meet Adri-an.” Spike managed in between gasps. “Hi.” The creature said. After that, everything went black for Twilight. * * * “Was it something I did?” Twilight heard, the darkness slowly edging out of her sight to reveal Spike looking down at her. “Oh, she’s awake!” Spike cheerily announced, which was followed by a loud series of thumps. Groggily, Twilight pushed herself up. “What happened?” The dazed unicorn asked, looking around. Twilight felt like she had hit her head, but didn’t remember doing so. “Well…it’s a long story.” Fluttershy said, picking up a broken tea cup from the table. “I have time. Not like I have anything to do, what with the weather like this.” With this, the pegasus and dragon looked at each other, seemingly having a silent discussion. After about ten seconds, Spike turned towards Twilight. “Ok, can you promise to not think we’re crazy, Twilight?” After the purple unicorn nodded, Spike continued, “Well, after the storm started, I sent you a letter to tell you I was stuck here. So, me and Fluttershy decided to have tea and hang around until I could get back home. Then we heard knocks at the door. I opened the door to see what it was, and there was this…thing lying outside the door. “Fluttershy and me decided we might as well get the thing inside, so we dragged it in. Only, the thing woke up when Fluttershy broke a cup, and then things got weird. Long story short, there’s something called a human here, who doesn’t know where he is or how he got here, and we got you to figure out what we should do. Only, you fainted when you saw the thing.” With a gasp, Spike finished. “You expect me to believe this how?” Twilight asked after several seconds, thinking Spike was pulling her leg, and Fluttershy was in on it. Spike I get, but why would Fluttershy lie like this? “But Twilight, don’t you remember seeing him come down stairs?” Fluttershy was put off that her friend wouldn’t believe her, even if it was so strange. “…I thought that was a dream.” Twilight admitted, looking away from the pegasus. “So did I, at first.” The trio looked up to see Adrian leaning of the stairs bannister, an apple core in his hand. “Twilight, I’d like you to meet Adrian. Adrian, this is Twilight Sparkle.” Spike tentatively said. Yet again, an uncomfortable silence fell. “Well, that was anticlimactic.” Adrian joked, snickering at the stunned unicorn. Twilight seemed to be imitating Discord, she was statue still. Adrian turned his head to Fluttershy. “Is… she going to be okay?” “I’m sure she’ll restart soon.” Spike said, waving his hand in front of Twilights eyes. No reaction. “Not to be rude but so far your friend hasn’t been that much of a help.” At this, the unicorn finally stirred. “Hey, I resent that!” Twilight said, glowering. At Twilights retort, Adrian brightened. “Ahh, so you can speak!” Adrian smiled, which showed that he had a piece of apple skin stuck in his teeth. Twilight giggled. “What, do I amuse you?” “Uhh…you have something in your teeth.” The human flushed red, much like the apple in his teeth. Twilight waited for Adrian to dislocate the food before continuing, “So, what happened?” “I was kind of hoping you could answer that for us, Twilight.” Fluttershy said, “Adrian doesn’t know...what happened, so we decided to get you. I hope it isn’t a bother.” “No no no, it’s not a problem.” Twilight waved the pegasus’s care away with a hoof. “But I can’t help without SOMETHING to go off. You remember anything, Adrian?” “Not really, I can remember going to sleep in my bed, then waking up in a bush.” Adrian replied with a shrug, “Although I have had this weird tingly feeling since I got here.” “Hmm…maybe it’s a reaction to magic. You have magic where you’re from?” Adrian shook his head at Twilights question, “That’s probably it. Sometimes non-unicorns get that when they’re around powerful magic. If you wouldn’t mind, may look to see if you’ve been near magic?” “Sure…will it hurt?” Adrian said with a hint of concern. “No.” “Fire away then!” Adrian seemed to brace, for what he didn’t know. Twilight called to mind the spell, and then let the magic wash from the tip of her horn, into every inch of her being. She could feel the power coursing through her, beating like a second heart within her chest. Storing the magic up, Twilight collected it in her horn then released it towards Adrian. An invisible wave of magic flowed through Adrian, causing shivers to run down his spine. After a few seconds, a return wave of magic washed towards Twilight. WALLA WALLA Ding fwong boyoing sheiks sixth sheeps 45365445465464484654854684564848456464645484848489778910010.005564stop sIgn turtle mekka mekka high cotton candy pie ballonS apple puppets milk rain Clowns elements checkmate statue pOcket knife gRiffons tail bat wing trolls moon laughter ?^%&@#^&$@?D!~@${!@$”$@$$#%@# All these thoughts and more surged through Twilights mind in a mere half second. It took all of the unicorn’s concentration to remain standing after the mental barrage of images, sounds, and…pure chaos. “Oh! Twilight, are you okay?” On seeing her friend reel in shock, Fluttershy immediately helped steady her friend. A look of deep concern past between the two males in the room. “Th-thanks, Flutt-ershy.” Twilight said her head swimming in a sea of confusion. “I- I thing I know what’s wrong.” “Well, what is it?” Adrian asked, nervous about the answer. “I think it would be best to talk to everyone at once. Spike, can you send a letter to the rest of the group?” The dragon was already on it, pen on paper. “What should I tell them Twi?” The dragon stopped his writing to hear her response. “Tell them…Discord is back.” Fluttershy fainted on the spot, while the color drained out of Spike. Adrian looked lost. “That doesn’t sound good.”