The Alicorn Ring

by Dull Mist

The Rocky Road to Wherever

The Rocky Road to Wherever

The zebra entered first, and behind her came two more creatures of a similar build and shape as her, with four legs, a big head, and large eyes. As they walked in, I saw them eyeing me much in the same way that the zebra had been before. Hesitantly, like I was a feral creature that could bite their heads off at a moments notice. Little did they know, I was thinking almost the exact same thing about them.

I recoiled slightly as the door closed behind the three of them, backing up from the edge of the bed that I was sitting on. The three of them stood on the opposite side of the room, motionless as statues, with their eyes glued on me.

My surprise and growing nervousness was interrupted by a thin slice of confusion. The one that had helped me so far, the zebra as I had started to call her, looked nothing like these other two. Instead of being black, grey and white, one of them was lavender coloured and the other was butter yellow. Their hair, or manes as the case may be, were longer and different colours, with the lavender one having a darker purple mane with a single pink stripe running down the length, and the yellow one having a long, baby pink mane that hid half of her face. They were draped over the sides of their faces, much unlike the zebra’s short mohawk that stood straight up on her head.

I was under just as much scrutiny as the lavender coloured one and the yellow coloured one started to converse with the zebra in hushed tones as they examined me from afar. Not that it would have mattered if they spoke loudly, as I still wouldn’t have understood their bizarre language anyway. Many sideways glances were thrown my way as they stood huddled in front of the door, although from my perspective, it was more like they were huddled in front of the only exit. I remained where I sat on the bed, watching them like a hawk for any signs of hostility.

I wasn’t able to effectively read these creatures, unfortunately. I could definitely tell that they were intelligent beings, more then just mindless animals, although whether or not they realized that about me I didn’t know, but their vastly different physiognomy made it difficult to determine their emotions. I was thankful that their eyes were so big and revealed a lot about how they were feeling; otherwise I’d be running completely blind. I could tell, however, from the way that their hushed whispers grew louder and more frantic, that they were agitated about something. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was with the way they were gesturing and looking at me.

The lavender one seemed to be the most anxious, whether from fear or excitement, I couldn’t tell. All that I could see was that she was trembling slightly and that she had a slightly manic look in her eyes that I did not like one bit. She seemed a little bit too interested in me, much more than the zebra and the yellow one was.

The lavender one and the yellow one sounded like they were having an argument while the zebra just stood next to them impassively, watching. Eventually, the lavender coloured one broke off from the little group and started to quickly walk towards me, the crazy gleam still present in her eyes. It was then that I noticed that, unlike the other two, it had a pointy protrusion coming out of her forehead, a horn of some sort, much like a mythical unicorn. It looked dangerous, and with the way the lavender one was approaching me with a wide smile and unblinking eyes made me jump to conclusions that I did not like one bit, all of which involved me being perforated like a sheet of paper.

I yelped and scrambled away from the edge of the bed, resting my back against the wall on the other side. The lavender stopped walking and looked shocked for a moment before a loud noise from behind her drew her attention.

The yellow one looked angry, and she quickly marched over to where the lavender one was standing while jabbering away in that language of theirs. Its voice was distinctly feminine, I noticed, before it quickly grabbed the lavender one’s tail with it teeth and started to pull it back towards the door, eliciting a little “eek” from it. The lavender one was female too, it seemed.

And she was also in a lot of trouble. The manic gleam had left her eyes almost completely as the yellow one gave her a tongue thrashing of a lifetime. She didn’t yell, but I didn’t need to understand their language to know that she meant business just by her tone. The lavender shrunk away from the yellow and nodded meekly, mumbling what I assumed to be an apology.

My heart was beating strongly in my chest from the fright as I observed them. The zebra was watching me closely. After the yellow one had finished with the lavender one, it looked at me, her eyes quickly going from hard and stern to soft and concerned. Or at least I think that they did. It was hard to tell, really.

Now it was her turn apparently. Ever so slowly, she made her way to where I sat with a panicked expression on my face. Her head was low and partly hidden behind her long pink hair, and her eyes were locked on mine. And then she started to speak, softly and quietly.

I had to strain my ears to catch her voice. It had to be the smallest, most delicate noise that I had ever heard that had come out of a mouth. I couldn’t understand her, but for some reason, she was managing to ease my nerves with just the sound of her voice, soft and pretty like the whisper of a note from a filled crystal glass.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see the lavender one observing the yellow one closely. The zebra had a small smile on her face, and seemed to be nodding in approval.

She was now at the edge of the small bed, less then a meter away from me. My panic had almost completely dissipated at this point. There was something about her that disallowed me to feel fear in her presence at all. It sort of reminded me of my own mom, the way she used to make the biggest fears seem small with just a few comforting words.

I inched closer to her, and her face lit up with a small smile. Not a crazy grin like the lavender one had worn, but a gentle, encouraging one. I slid closer still until I was less then a foot away from her. I could reach out my arm and touch her if I wanted.

I couldn’t help but return her small smile with a small one of my own. Before I could stop myself, I hesitantly reached out my hand towards her, stopping a few inches away from her forehead because my entire arm was trembling so much from nervousness. The yellow equine then did something that took me completely by surprise.

She gently closed her eyes and moved forward so that her head was resting against my palm. I could feel the soft hairs of her coat and the longer strands of her mane in between my fingertips. Her eyes remained closed as I moved my hand and fingers a slightly, enjoying the feeling of the soft hairs on my skin.

At first I was confused as to what she was doing, but realization soon struck as I looked upon her downturned face with her closed eyes and peaceful expression. I realized that this was a sign of trust. She was putting herself in a vulnerable position in front of me, and in doing so, was telling me that she trusted me to not hurt her. This equine, putting herself at the mercy of a creature that she didn’t know for sure was a friend or foe, was basically telling me that she trusted me, and that I should trust her.

This epiphany struck me with the force of a hammer. I drew my hand back and she opened her eyes to peer up at me. I could see the question in her eyes, and I nodded my answer to her. She smiled sweetly and nodded back at me.

A small noise from the lavender one drew both of our attention. The lavender was looking at the both of us curiously, and she seemed to ask a question to the yellow one which she promptly answered with a word. The lavender one then made a brief remark and gestured with her head towards the door, and the yellow one nodded once more before turning back to me.

To my surprise, the yellow reared on her back legs slightly and reached out with her two forelegs, taking my hand in between them. They were smooth and hard, and she was surprisingly strong as she started to gently tug at my arm while giving me a meaningful look, still wearing that small smile. It took me a moment to understand.

I slowly got off of the bed and stood up. The yellow one smiled slightly wider and nodded reassuringly at me before letting go of my hand, seemingly unperturbed about my height that was double hers. Then, to my great surprise, a wing that had gone unnoticed until now popped out of the side of her body and gently lay across my back, nudging me forward a little bit. It was the exact same colour as the rest of her coat, which combined with my high strung state of mind; was probably why I didn’t notice that she had wings. If the lavender one was a unicorn, then this one was a pegasus, but I briefly wondered whether those wings actually granted her the ability to fly. From what I saw, they seemed a little bit too small in comparison to her body to do so, but I may be wrong.

My surprise wasn’t allowed to stay long however, as the yellow one was still gently urging me to move forward. I had noticed that the lavender one had opened the door and was standing next it expectantly.

They wanted to take me somewhere. I nervously looked over at the zebra who was standing on the side, observing everything in a stoic silence. She quickly caught my eye and gave me a brief nod.

I quickly weighed my options. On one hand, I could co-operate with these creatures. I didn’t know anything of their intent, but they seemed to be friendly enough, if a little worrisome in the lavender one’s case. On the other hand, I could refuse to leave, something that probably wouldn’t endear me to these creatures, and the way I saw it, the more that they liked me, the less likely they would be to suck my brain out of my ears or something.

I quickly chose to co-operate, figuring that if the yellow one trusted me to not harm her when she was vulnerable, then I should extend to her the same courtesy. Besides, the lavender one worried me and I didn’t want to know what she would do if a put up any resistance. So I started walking and made my way out the door, the yellow one right by my side as the lavender one gave me a disconcertingly piercing look, except she was looking at my legs and how they moved for some reason. Weird creature.

With words of what I assumed to be goodbye towards the zebra, the lavender one followed us out the door with the zebra close behind her, stopping at the door as she saw us out. I gave her one final look behind my shoulder, one that conveyed equal amounts of confusion at my current situation and gratitude for all that she has done for me thus far. With one more nod and smile, the zebra closed the door.

The yellow one walked forward a few steps before looking back at me and gesturing me forward with her head as the lavender one went to stand next to her. I looked around nervously, eyeing the thick foliage around me with the eyes of somebody who has recently learned not to trust forests. The only thing I could hear was the chirping of birds in and above the treetops as they merrily flittered about their business. I had to admit; in the morning, this forest was actually pretty peaceful with the clean morning light filtering through the leaves and the sleepy stillness of a world still asleep.

I took a step forward, and the two equines took that as their cue to start leading the way through the forest. They stepped through the bushes and into the tall grass, and I followed, equal parts worried and curious as to what the destination to this little field trip of mine was going to be.

---

Thankfully, we soon came across a well worn trail that made our walk much more tolerable. As we walked through the forest, the two equines leading the way as I followed, a feeling of calm started to pass over me. A fond nostalgia started to bubble in my stomach as I remembered the many hours I used to spend in the forests around the house I grew up in. Now that there weren’t any vicious animals that didn’t belong anywhere but in nightmares chasing me, I was starting to feel much more at ease.

A little bit too at ease, it seemed. I accidentally reverted back to an old habit that I had developed where I would whistle as I walked amongst the trees. Right now, I was whistling one of my favourite walking songs, The Rocky Road to Dublin, without even realizing it. I started to tap my hand against my leg and bob my head slightly to the tune, and for the first time in what felt like days, I was enjoying myself.

The enjoyment was short lived; however, as I realized that the two equines were staring at me. My jaunty tune petered off to an end as I met there eyes, one pair shining with amusement and another sharp and piercing as they bored into me.

They started to converse quietly, the lavender one shooting frequent glances back at me. They seemed to be arguing again. The yellow one was shaking her head like a mother denying her kid a cookie that he really wanted, and the lavender was acting the part of the kid with her mouth pouting and her voice anxious. I couldn’t fathom the nature of their dispute, so I didn’t pay it too much mind, instead going back to observing the peaceful surroundings.

Something about the two equines caught my attention, however. I noticed that they both had pictures on the muscles above the rear legs on both sides of their body, the flank I think it was called. The yellow one had a trio of pink butterflys while the lavender one had what I could only describe as a purple six pointed star surrounded by 5 smaller white stars. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I figured that the pictures must have been tattoos. There was no way that they could be natural.

All in all, it took a little over an hour before we finally got out of that forest. I breathed a little sigh of relief as the last shadow of the last tree passed over me and the sky reappeared in all of its glory. I dimly noted that I still didn’t recognize my surroundings in the slightest, something that only lent more credence to my ‘I’m in another world/dimension theory,’ but any more thoughts about it were instantly pushed out of my head as I beheld something in the distance that I deemed to be much more important to think about.

In the distance, down the hill that we were standing on and across a few fields along the dirt trail, was a small town. And when the two equines automatically started to go down the trail leading into it, I knew that it was our destination. I felt a small surge of excitement at this small piece of normalcy, the first that I had seen in a long time, but I also felt a small stone of fear settle in my stomach as I wondered how normal this town really was.

---

15 minutes later, I was walking down a wide dirt road with my jaw dragging on the ground behind me and a pain in my neck from twisting my head around as I tried to look at everything at once. The town itself was normal enough; although the buildings were strangely colourful and all looked a little bit too small. The residents of the town however, well that was a different story altogether.

Everywhere I looked, I saw the same quadrupedal equines like the ones that were escorting me through the streets. Hooves, manes, and in some cases, wings or a horn, were present everywhere I looked, all in every different colour of the rainbow. As I stared at the equines surrounding me, awed slightly as I did so by the incredible strangeness of my situation, they stared back at me with as much disbelief on their faces as was on mine.

I glanced at the ring on my figure and compared the design on it with the creatures surrounding me, most of them looking at me with wide eyed expressions and all of them looking at me with curiosity. I saw some with horns, and some with wings, and some with neither, but I couldn’t see any that had both horns and wings. My curiosity bubbled as I considered the implications of this. Maybe the figure on the ring was a type of God or Goddess, or a figure of legend from their culture? I pushed the thought out of my mind, refocusing on my current situation. It wouldn’t be prudent to be distracted in such an unknown environment.

One thing that I was sure of now was that this ring had something to do with all of this strangeness. There was absolutely no way that the ring that had a picture of the equines that I was no seeing in droves was not related to them in some way.

What struck me most about the strange town wasn’t the beings that inhabited it. It was the fact that, just by the buildings and structures alone, it looked eerily similar to a rustic human town. It sort of reminded me of a 50’s style small town that one could find kilometres away from the big city’s and sprawling metropolis’s back then. The houses, albeit small, were almost exactly the same as the kind you would see in such small towns, mostly made of painted wood and red brick with quaint gardens at the front. Benches, streetsigns, streetlights, and mailboxes were common sights as we walked past shops, houses, market stalls, and even a hospital as identified by the big red cross over the front entrance. I even saw a clocktower in the distance.

Our walk was interrupted as I hard a loud braying noise from above us, and our attention was drawn skywards where I saw something that took my breath away for what had to be the tenth time in half the amount of minutes. I had seen several equines with wings (I called them pegasi) throughout the town, but this was the first one that I had actually seen fly.

This one had a blue coat and a colourful mane of all the colours of the rainbow. The mark on its flank, something that I had noticed all the equines had but was unique to each one, was a picture of a white cloud spewing a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt.

It flew down in front of the yellow and lavender ones, giving me a wide berth as it did so. It started to converse quite heatedly with the two, and there was much arm waving and hoof pointing, mainly in my direction. Finally, after a few incomprehensible words from the lavender one, the pegasus gave me a suspiciously curious look before taking to the sky and flying away at dizzying speeds.

The lavender one sighed as the yellow one looked back at me before nodding encouragingly. They took off again in the same direction that they had been walking, and like a puppy keeping close to the heels of its owner, I dutifully followed. I wasn’t worried so much about being attacked by these equines any more, as all of their faces showed only surprise and curiosity with the rainbow one being the exception, but I still made a point to keep a watchful eye out for danger.

The thought that I was in a dimension or world other than my own surfaced in my thoughts again as we continued walking. The mere implications that I may be on a foreign planet filled with foreign life, possibly lightyears away from anything from home, had me feeling sick to my stomach. It took a tremendous amount of willpower to force those thoughts from my mind. It wouldn’t do me any good to throw up surrounded by alien creatures whose intentions with me I still didn’t know.

I must have had a pained expression on my face as I thought. The yellow one looked over her shoulder at me as we walked, and her gaze instantly turned into one of concern. With a few flap of her wings, she floated to where I was walking and landed beside me. She gave my hand a small, comforting nuzzle, and I couldn’t help but smile at her. Out of all the creatures that I’ve met so far, this one was definitely my favourite. I doubted that she could so much as hurt a fly, much less me.

Before I could attempt to assure the yellow pegasus that I was alright, We turned a corner I saw something that took the words right out of my mouth. A giant oak tree, bigger then the ones that were in the forest, was standing right in the middle of the town. At the base of the tree facing us was a small red door (small for me, but probably not for them). This coupled with the multitude of four paned windows that dotted the trunk of the tree at different altitudes resulted in what had to be the most literal tree-house that I had ever seen.

What most amazed me however was the fact the tree was unquestionably alive even though it had holes poked into it and has been hollowed out. The bark was a healthy dark brown colour and the canopy was full of bright green leaves that swayed gently in the wind. I couldn’t help but awe at the fact that these beings had somehow managed to hollow out an entire tree, yet still keep it alive.

“They must have some incredible technology at their disposal.” I mused to myself as I gazed at it.

The unicorn walked up to the door of the tree-house where the unicorn promptly opened the door and entered. The kindly pegasus looked up at me and nodded encouragingly, so I bent my head low and followed.

First impressions told me that this was a library or archive of sorts as the walls were carved into the shapes of bookshelves that were filled to bursting with books of all sizes and colours, all of which had titles written in a language that I couldn't understand. I was standing in what seemed to be the main room of the library. Small chairs and small tables, all made of wood, were scattered around the room, probably to give the guests a good spot to read. I could see the entrance to what looked to be the kitchen from where I stood, and at the end of the room a long winding wooden staircase ascended into the floor above us.

Looking around, there wasn’t much that I could see that wasn’t made of wood except for the books themselves. I did notice a desk that had a number of strange metallic and stone instruments on it whose purposes I didn’t know. Judging from the looks of this place and from how familiar the lavender one seemed to be as she walked inside, I figured that she must live here as some sort of scholar or something.

I could hear the pitter-patter of little feet thumping away on the floor above me. The sound moved to where the staircase leading up the second floor ended, and a small purple body appeared at the top. To my surprise, it wasn’t walking on 4 legs like all of the other equine creatures that I have seen so far, instead it stood on two stubby legs It peered down, and when its eyes fell on the lavender unicorn, it smiled, showing two rows of little pointy teeth.

It started to say something in an excited tone of voice, but then it noticed me as I was being escorted in by the yellow pegasus. Its eyes widened drastically, and it made a small, awed sound that I knew just by its tone translated into the word ‘woah.’ The lavender unicorn let the little purple…thing stare at me for a few seconds before saying a few commanding words that were received with a stiff salute as the creature quickly made its way down the rest of the stairs. It grabbed a long piece of paper from the desk with the numerous instruments on it in one hand, and a big fluffy feather in its other hand. A quill, I realized as it dipped the thin tip of the feather into a small pot of ink and held it above the paper while looking at the lavender one expectantly, occasionally shooting me a few curious glances.

The lavender unicorn started to talk at a face pace, and the quill immediately started to scribble along the piece of paper as the little guy wrote what she was saying. This added more credentials to the possibility that the lavender one was a scholar of some sorts, as she seemed to have her own personal scribe.

I took advantage of the attention leaving me to examine the little bipedal creature and hopefully glean its species if I could. It was a shiny purple colour, the shine coming from the light reflecting off what I realized to be the scales that covered its small, stubby body. It had green spines on the side of its head and all along its back and the small tail that protruded from above its legs, similar to the way that a dinosaur would have spines on its body to help regulate its body temperature.

The dinosaur comparison may be more appropriate then I thought as I realized that this creature was definitely reptilian. The pointy teeth and spines suggested that it might even be more closely related to the ancient giant lizards than most of the reptiles that I’m more used to back on my planet, lizards and such.

I briefly entertained the idea that it actually was a living and breathing dinosaur in the flesh, but I quickly dismissed it as being highly improbable. Not only was the creature tiny, about the size for a newborn baby, but unlike the dinosaurs, it was also definitely intelligent; something that was plain to see as it dutifully wrote down every word that the lavender unicorn said.

After about 5 minutes of nonstop talking on the unicorn’s part and writing on the little lizard’s part, the river of words finally stopped, and the piece of paper was then promptly rolled up and tied with a red ribbon. The little lizard gave the unicorn a questioning look, and when she responded with a nod and a few words, it promptly blew green fire on the scroll where it quickly disappeared.

My eyes must have grown to the size of dinner plates. A spurt of green flame flew out of the little lizard’s mouth and bathed the rolled up piece of paper. To my increasing bafflement, instead of being set on fire and disintegrating into a pile of ashes, the paper disappeared completely in a puff of smoke that trailed through the air and flew through an open window at the back of the room.

I blinked several times as the unicorn and the little lizard, or should I say, little dragon eyed the window that the smoke had flown through. I looked to the yellow pegasus to see if she looked as surprised as I did, but she had a completely content look on her face, as if this was a normal, everyday occurrence.

I started to knead at my brow as a headache started to form, no doubt due to all of the mind breaking that has been going on as of late. Before I could dwell on it however, there was a crash from outside of the tree-house, and the front door violently flew open, making me jump in fright.

A flash of prismatic colour zipped in and out of my vision in the blink of an eye. All of the sudden, I found myself nose to nose with the face of a very irate looking blue pegasus who was hovering in front of me by rapidly flapping its wings. Its magenta eyes were narrowed and its mouth was curved into a thin, disapproving frown. I felt my body freeze like a deer in headlights as it tried to decide whether or not fight or flight would be the best response to this situation

The pegasus started to say something, its sandy feminine voice sounding upset at what could only be me. From the tone of the voice and from the way that she paused, as though waiting for me to respond, I realized that she was asking me a question.

“Meep.” was all that I was able to force out of my constricted throat. Her eyes narrowed even more, and she opened her mouth to speak again. Before she could however, she let out a strangled yelp as something forced her out of the air and away from me.

She looked behind her to see the yellow pegasus with her rainbow coloured tail in her mouth. She mumbled something angrily at the blue pegasus, her voice muffled by the hairs in her mouth, before spitting her tail out and walking over to my side where she stood protectively, shooting the blue one a glare that made her slink away from me sheepishly.

Look at me, terrified shitless by a colourful flying creature that's half my size and would be considered cute in any other situation. I was more than a little ashamed to realize that I liked having the yellow one close by me to protect me from the crazy inhabitants of this place.

I soon noticed that there were three more strangers in the room who were standing off to the side next to the lavender one and whispering quietly amongst each other. One was snow white unicorn with long, curled purple hair and another was bright orange with a yellow ponytail topped by a brown stetson hat. They had their mouths behind their hooves and were shooting me furtive, nervous glances as they conversed. The third was a light pink equine with poofy, curly hair, also pink. It, however, was standing ramrod straight, its eyes shamelessly glued on me with its mouth hanging open slightly like a baby looking at something supremely interesting.

The one with the rainbow coloured mane slunk off to the side to join the others where she sat on the ground with a moody expression on her face. The lavender one leaned over and patted her on the back, nodding in what I assumed to be understanding.

My nerves stopped screaming at me after I had a few moments to breath, and I suddenly felt extremely tired. I was tired of being afraid, tired of seeing all this crazy shit, and tired of feeling like a child being introduced to a world that was completely foreign to them with no context to help them make heads or tails out of it.

As my body was wracked with a wave of fatigue, my legs gave out from underneath me and I collapsed to my knees next to the yellow pegasus who looked at me with surprise. Before I could stop myself, tears started to pour down my face. I buried my eyes into the crook of my arm in an effort to preserve what little dignity I had left at this point.

“I just…want to go home…” I managed to choke out, my voice quiet and raspy. My shoulders heaved and shuddered as I was assaulted by soundless sobs.

A hush fell on the room as all eyes in the room turned on me. Nobody spoke a word as they watched me, a crumpled pathetic heap on the ground, bare my grief for all to see. I heard a ruffle of movement beside me and felt something soft, like a thin blanket, lay against my bent back.

I raised my eyes to see the yellow pegasus with her wing stretched across my back and her eyes wide with shining concern. A sob escaped my throat, and her eyes widened even more.

She moved closer to me pressed the side of her body against mine as she held me tightly in the embrace of her feathery wing. She nuzzled her head against my shoulder, offering me comfort in the only way that she could without the use of words.

It took a few minutes, but my tears finally subsided. When I finally was able to look up again without collapsing into another fit of sadness, my vision was slightly blurry. I saw the other equines standing in the same place that they were before, but with entirely different expressions on their faces.

The orange one and the white ones had expressions that varied between shock and concern. The pink one had eyes swimming with tears as she bit her trembling lip as she sat on her haunches, the tip of her pink tail firmly under the hoof of the orange equine. The blue pegasus and the lavender unicorn were both wearing expressions of guilt on their faces as they looked at me nervously.

I sniffed once more before attempting to stand on unsteady feet. The wing across my back was removed as I slowly rose, my knees shaking slightly. I took a deep shuddering gasp to calm myself, and gave the yellow pegasus a grateful nod, to which she replied with a smile.

Still tired, I looked over at the other equines who were watching me with a variety of expressions. They looked torn with indecision. Do we do something, or stay back? Do we say something, or keep quiet? I could see the lavender one struggling with her words as she thought of something to say, but whatever it was rendered moot as a commotion from outside drew our attention.

A bright light quickly flashed through the windows, elongating our shadows across the library floor for no more than a second before disappearing as fast as it came. The reaction to the ones around me was instantaneous. The lavender one sprung into action, quickly moving towards the front door as the others started to whisper amongst themselves. The yellow pegasus was watching the lavender one with interest, but stayed next to me.

As the lavender one approached the door, it swung open, seemingly on its own accord. She stopped dead in tracks for a brief second before hastily stepping to the side of the doorway so that whatever it was that she seemed so excited about could make its way inside. I figured that it was just another equine like themselves, short and colourful with cute faces and big eyes. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The figure that stepped through the open was much taller then the equines that I had seen so far. Instead of being short and sort of stumpy, this one was tall and slender. It was pure white with a multicoloured mane of light pink, blue, and green that seemed to billow in an invisible wind. Its legs, body, and neck was longer than those of the others with the end result making her to be almost exactly as tall as I was. It, like all of the other equines similar to it, had a tattoo above its rear legs, its being the image a yellow sun with orange rays emanating from it.

What struck me the most about this newcomer however was the fact that it had both a long spiralling horn and large feathery wings. I became very aware of the weight of the ring around my finger as the being’s eyes fell upon me as she entered. The picture on the ring and this newcomer looked strikingly similar.

She, for its voice was decidedly female much like the others, exchanged a few words with the lavender one, who for some reason seemed breathless with excitement. I gulped nervously as I noticed that crazy look returning to her eyes. The tall newcomer studied me closely, her face impassive behind stony eyes. I squirmed under her scrutiny, wishing that I was somewhere else right now. Something about her gave me the feeling that she wasn’t one that I would like to cross.

Suddenly, her stoic mask broke as it blossomed into a kindly smile. She slowly walked up to me, her eyes never leaving mine, and stopped a few feet away. I could feel my knees trembling a bit, but the presence of the yellow one stopped me from darting away like a frightened deer.

The tall white one spoke, very quietly and slowly as all of the others watched on. I figured that she was speaking to me with the way that her eyes never left mine. I shook my head slowly in an effort to tell her that I didn’t understand a word of what she was saying.

She nodded, as though she was expecting that. And then, to my surprise, she moved a little bit closer to me and lowered her head, pointing her long horn directly towards me. I jumped away, suddenly suspicious of her and her sharp horn, and she looked at me with surprise. I didn't like the look of that horn and how sharp it was, but of course, she didn't know that.

The yellow one said something to the tall one who then nodded in sudden understanding. She gave me one final look before she bent her legs and lowered the back of her body to the ground and gave me an innocent, yet expectant look.

I glanced towards the yellow one who nodded encouragingly at me. At this point, I had been placing my entire life in the hands of the yellow pegasus who had been so kind and helpful to me, so I swallowed my nervousness and began to approach the newcomer like I would a sleeping bear.

I gradually got closer until I was standing right in front of her. Her expression that had been as blank as a new sheet of paper now showed previously hidden signs of personality. I saw a face on which a smile seemed natural under eyes that twinkled with lights of kindness and laughter in their midst. It struck me then, how similar our two species were. For the short duration that I have been in this world, I have seen many things that these creatures are capable that I used to think were purely human traits. Language, science, and most importantly to me, compassion and kindness are all things that I have noticed are possessed by these creatures in spades what with the way that they have helped me thus far.

I took a brief pause to reflect on how I’ve been acting for the past few days. I realized that it was probably rather foolish of me to continue this having this fearful distrust of the ones that I owed my life to, probably several times over. Besides, from what I can tell by their reactions, humans aren’t exactly commonplace around here, and I haven’t exactly been representing my species very well. It’s about time I change that.

“Alright, as Ozzy Osbourne would say, no more tears.” I thought to myself with conviction.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I steeled my nerves, much as I would do in my meditation sessions that I used to do. I forced the tumultuous and roiling ocean that was my mind to calm. My fists clenched briefly before relaxing, and I opened my eyes once more.

She had a look of minor befuddlement on her face which quickly turned into one of slight amusement. I took one more step towards her so that I was standing right in front of her. She smiled charmingly at me.

She wasn’t really all that scary now that I forced myself to think about it. She had an almost motherly aura about her, one that gave the feeling of love and support. I gave her a small nod and she reciprocated before lowering her head once more, pointing her horn directly at my forehead.

I wasn’t scared anymore, but I wasn’t exactly at peace either. These equines have proven to me that they didn’t mean any harm to me, but that didn’t change the fact I still didn’t know their motives. I trusted them at the moment, but it as a very flimsy trust.

“I just hope that lulling them into a false sense of security isn’t how they get all of their victims.” I thought as the horn came into contact with my forehead.

I felt a sudden rush of sensation like all of my blood flowed into my head, sending my ears pounding and my eyes spinning. A bright flash of light from inside my head consumed my vision so that it was nothing but whiteness. And then, as soon as it came, the sensations stopped, like a camera flash that left you blinking and seeing spots.

I wobbled on my feet a bit before righting myself. I carefully looked myself over, wondering what on earth just happened to me and what effects it had on my body or mind. My fingers were all in one place, my nose was where it was supposed to be, and I could think just as clearly as before, so it seemed that it didn’t do anything dangerous to me. I looked up at the tall white one in confusion.

She looked at me for a moment, her face just as impassive and unreadable as it was earlier, before opening her mouth to speak.

“Can you understand me?”

Comments

[Brony2893]

Me thinks this is missing a proper OC character tag

[Poyoarya]

2194020 Humans are indeed OC, even if they are not equine.

I must say, that is a beautiful quote from a previous chapter: "Friends are a lot like snowflakes. When you pee on them, they disappear."

[Hi]

Hmmm...

[strijer987]

i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/TheAmish/this-is-gonna-be-good.gif 1.bp.blogspot.com/-iLbS-5dQh84/ULfBPdFES-I/AAAAAAAADjQ/rWa-E47fhUA/s1600/dis-gun-be-good.gif

[Arez]

The way in which you portray the mixture of emotions that Kael experiences is what really interested me.

I like it!

[Ghij of Prophecy]

MOAR

[Jack Kellar]

This would've been a lot better without the old and cliched language problem solving translation spell, if you ask me. I'll just read on for now.