Chapter 3: First Contact
Richard wasn’t awake. He wasn’t exactly asleep, either. He could feel the world move around him. The contrast of the cool fresh air of the sea against the muggy hot air of a building was not lost on him. He could feel as his body was lifted to and from places, or when he shifted in his near-sleep. He lay there for days unending, not sure why he would not awaken. Was he dead? It would explain this entirely new experience. He had never slept this long.
Nurse Redheart fidgeted slightly in the cold wind. Other ponies gathered around her as a crowd slowly formed around the creature. She had brought it into town a week ago, and it still drew in the crowds. Whenever she brought it out for some fresh air they would be there waiting, staring and talking quietly as she pushed its wheelchair out the front door of the hospital; she always waited until the crowds dispersed to go in. It made her feel uncomfortable to leave in front of so many ponies.
She felt movement from the wheelchair. She looked down to make sure one of the brakes hadn’t dislodged, gripping the back of the chair with her mouth.
“Get me…inside…”
Redheart jumped from the sudden voice, the shock of hearing the creature speak pulsing through her.
“Whuh!?” spluttered Redheart around the chair still in her mouth.
“I asked you to bring me inside; I can feel the breeze so there’s no fooling me,” the creature said in a dispassionate voice.
“Okay!” said Redheart, pulling the chair backwards through the door.
“Don’t let anyone know I’m awake,” the thing said, letting its body go slack as if he were still in his coma. Redheart pulled him through the hallways of the hospital, ignoring the curious glances of fellow staff until they reached his room. She used her neck to push him through the door, pulling it shut behind her with her tail.
“Now, err… Mr. … Thing, what do you want?” asked Redheart, keeping a cautionary distance.
“I want to know where I am.” He looked straight at her as he said this. Actually, maybe he was looking at her and maybe he wasn’t; how could she tell with the helmet on?
“Well… you are in Ponyville, one of the towns in Equestria.”
He continued to look at her intensely for several moments, until she felt too uncomfortable to continue the silence.
“Why are you staring at me like that?!” she yelped, her fear overtaking her rational side.
“I’ve never seen an alien as odd as you.”
She was odd in Richard’s mind, closely resembling a horse-- no, smaller… perhaps a pony? She was obviously capable of human speech, easily conversing with him as she had, with no alien garble to separate her voice from a human’s. She was also a strange color: a pastel white with light pink hair, drawn neatly into a bun on which a nurse’s cap rested. Adorning her flank was a tattoo closely resembling a red cross, a small pink heart in each corner. She certainly looked the nurse she claimed to be.
“Me, an alien? You would be the alien in this case.”
Richard considered this for a moment; he wasn’t used to being called an alien. A demon or a super-soldier certainly, but never an alien. It certainly was a change to be the invader.
“I suppose you’re right, Redheart…”
The small-horse drew back, a horrified expression on her face, though it quickly grew into suspicion.
“How do you know my name!?” she asked, taking what he assumed was supposed to be an intimidating pose.
“You told me when I boarded your ship-- right before I saved your life, I might add.”
Redheart though about this for a second. Was he telling the truth? He was there when the ship was attacked, that much she believed, but how did she know he wasn’t the attacker?
“How do I know you weren’t the one attacking my ship? You could have killed the actual defender.” She said this in an accusing manner, hoping to draw some response from him.
“That’s fair.” He shrugged as he spoke, loosening his sore muscles. “I could have been the one who attacked your ship and killed that other alien. But you don’t think I am, do you?”
Redheart was taken aback, partly because he had hit her feeling dead-on, and more for his intimidating full size. He stood at least twice as tall as the tallest pony, Celestia excluded.
“Fine, Mr. Alien, I don’t believe you’re a murderer.”
“Well, that’s a mistake on your part,” he said, readjusting his helmet more comfortably on his head, “because I’m a bred killer, through and through.”
[A/N- Richard is pretty much used to dealing with alien at this point. He just doesn’t really get surprised anymore.]