//------------------------------// // An Unexpected Friend // Story: An Everfree Meet up // by st6nbones //------------------------------// Solem was walking through the forest when he stumbled upon a cave. There was something off about it. He just couldn't place what though. He entered it, curious. Glitter Harmony trotted bordily around the village, longing for an adventure. There was nothing she could do without complaining of being bored. Her parents told her to never set a hoof into Everfree because of what happened before. I don't want to get in trouble again. She thought to herself. But it was so fun in there... So much adventure. Besides, that creepy dragon is probably gone now. And no one is watching... She slowly crept towards the entrance of the forest. Eagerness grew in her stomach more than ever. She took a deep breath, and trotted into Everfree. Elsewhere, a fight had broken out, leveling entire mountains, forests, and villages to the ground as two beings dueled each other. But Harmony trotted along, humming mindlessly to herself. "Adventure, adventure, adventure!" she hummed loudly. She heard a soft scutter of paws but kept humming, louder and louder with each trot. Happiness swelled through her body as she went deeper into the forest. She finally couldn't suppress her happiness any longer and yelled, "ADVENTURE, HERE I COME!" Suddenly, a loud crack rang through the forest as roaring winds began to rise up out of no where. Snow began to fall, a crevice began to open through the earth, spewing molten rock up from below.  Rock formations began to rise from the ground. Harmony fell silent. She stood there, wincing at the loud sound. She looked up at the sky. Snow! Where was this coming from? And the rocks.. How did they get here? She took off and raced to the nearest shelter she could find. What am I doing? I shouldn't be here! What if that creepy dragon comes again! She ran behind a tall jagged rock and stayed parked behind it. She panted heavily and crouched down, hopping she could stop the noise and wind as much as she had started it. A bipedal figure came walking through everything. It seemed unaffected by the events going on around it, but as it walked past Harmony, a choked breath was coming from it. It had a severe limp and basically dragged itself across the ground. It was hard to see through the wind and snow that was coming down. Poor thing! Look at it! Its limping! Harmony wasn't even worried if it was dangerous or not. She was just worried if it was in pain. She rushed over to the creature but still careful not to scare it. "Hello? Are you o-ok?" she asked nervously to the creature. It whipped around to look in her direction and began to come to her. "Uhhh... uhh?" she lowered her body to a crouching position. "I'm not going to hurt you...! Don't eat me..." She gulped at slowly backed away. The figure came closer, and she could see it had a third arm and three heads and a tail that slowly swayed. As it aproched, she could also hear its raspy, choking, whispering breath. She opened her mouth to scream but it only came out as a weak squeak of terror. She stumbled backwards and yelped, "I'm sorry!! I didn't mean to bother you or make you mad!!" Soon she could see that its actually some creatures basically melted together into one form. There seems to be two creatures per arm and head. Its center head is a wolf with a jagged bird beak on the left side of its head, a stone bear creature on the right head with a tan dragon on the left side of it, and on the last head, a alligator fused with a silver burning fox. Its tail was the combination of a dragon's melted into a silver fire fox's. She froze and stopped yelling with a mixture of fear and amazement in her eyes. The creatures were cool but scary all at the same time. "Hey, you're actually pretty cool. I like those animals. They're pretty cool." She held out a single hoof in greeting. It came closer and stopped. It growls. It wore a pair of jeans and a white shirt and a black hoodie with torn sleeves. Its glowing gold eyes boar into hers. The other two heads head red eyes. She drew her hoof back slowly. "Ok, I'll let you make the first move." She fixed herself in a simple non-threatening position. "I like your jacket," she added quietly. "Can you talk?" It opens its mouth save for the slits that were teeth that melted together and makes a garbled static noise. "No? Ok. Well, I guess you can use nods and shake your head. I saw you limping when you walked past. Are you ok? It looked like something hurt you." It motions to its legs and Harmony could see that they were partially melted onto the ground, leaving a trail behind it with every step it took. Harmony nodded. "That must hurt. I'm sorry that happened. Can I teach you how to speak? It might be useful one day." It shook its center head. It makes some motions that she couldn't understand. She tilted her head in confusion. "I don't understand. So where did you come from? Did you come from a different universe?" Nods. "Then how did you get here? Did someone bring you or did you teleport?" More motions. Then it hears something. It starts beckoning for Harmony to leave. "What's the matter? Is something scaring you?" She looked around franticly, tying to figure out what was bothering him. She looked at the creature. "I don't see anything. I think its ok." Then, there was a whistling noise as a large arrow pierces through the creatures shoulder. Its heads roar in union and push Harmony away. The wind begins to pick up and the earth begins to act up more. snow falls quickly. Harmony gasped and shrieked, "No!" She tried rushing over to the creature to help him but the wind kept blowing her backwards. She could hardly see as the snow fell down harder. She stumbled around blindly, trying to find the three-headed creature. "Where are you..." she murmured. The monster runs past and grabs Harmony as it goes. More projectiles rain down around them as it flees. "Wait where are we going?" she yelled over the wind. "What's happening?!" The monster doesn't speak as it navigates the terrain at high speeds, the right and left heads growling, the center whimpering. More projectiles fly past, but fewer and it begins to slow down. The creature stops and hides behind something, it's breathing heavy and fast. Harmony waits a few moments before asking the creature if it is ok. She sighs feeling guilty for what she did. What will my family say to this? She thought to herself. The creature nods the center head, sighing. "I'm sorry..." she whispers. "I shouldn't have came in here. I always get myself into trouble..." She lowered her head feeling shameful. It shakes it's head and does more paw things and smiles. It began to look around, checking for the unknown pursuer. All seemed clear, so spoke in a weird and garbled language, like a ton of people began to talk at once in many languages and styles and accents.The wind and snow began to fade and the ground returned to it's normal state. Harmony blinked. "Hey, what happened? Why'd it all go away?" She looked around, questioning if she was imagining what had just happened. Half of It's main head smiled and pointed to itself. Part of the main head scowled. Harmony looked at the head that smiled. "You made it go all away?" she gasped. It nods and grumbles something. "H-How did you do that?!" she stammered. "I didn't know you had powers!!!" A red gas seeps out of it's middle left jaw, which the opposite hand respons with a quick flick to the head and growling. Harmony blinked, having no idea what it meant. "Umm, okay....!!" She nodded and attempted to look like she understood. The creatures right head muttered something that sounded like disaproval. She frowned. "It's not my fault I can't understand your mystery language!" she protested to the right head. "Can you at least try to make a normal word??" The far right head began to grunt and struggle. The other head looked at it worried and confused. "I'm sorry!! I shouldn't have said that! Your language is completely fine!!" she said quickly. The head kept trying and straining, the left head was trying to stop it, the center head brightened up a bit, even chuckling a little. Harmony reached out her hoof slowly and patted the right head nervously. “You can stop now... I’m sorry if I upset you.” she said in a low voice. The creature stops after a bit. She gulps and nervously smiles. “Uh. I-I think I’m going to head back home. I don’t want to cause anymore trouble.” One head nods. She dips her head sheepishly and mumbles, "Thanks for helping me. Y-You're really nice. I won't come back here again. All I do is cause trouble." The head that tried to talk whimpers. It began to speak to the other heads. Tilting her head sideways she asked, “Do you want me to stay with you here? Or do you want to come back with me??” It stands to it's full hight and holds up two claws. “Uh. Hmm.... Okay, if you want me to stay nod your right head. If you want me to leave nod you middle head. If you want to come with me nod your left head.” She didn’t know if this would work but it was worth trying. The right head looked like it was having a wierd sezure, the middle stood still and the left nodded. ”Alright! Well since the left head nodded... you’re coming with me! My village isn’t very far from here. The ponies might be a little freaked out to see you but it’s okay...” She went on talking as she lead the creature back to her village. It followed in an almost dog-like fashion, tail wagging gleefully and grinning, knuckles dragging on the ground. When she reached the village all heads turned and stared at her, jaws open wide. One pony screamed and yelled, “What is that thing?!!” In less than a second, ponies were running around in a flurry of panic. It sat, crosslegged as it's waiting. Glitter Harmony gulped. “Come on...” she said nervously. “I’m sure my parents and brother w-won’t mind...” She slowly trotted over to her house. The creature got up and followed Harmony, leaving a trail of weird muck as it went. She knocked nervously on the door. “Mother, May I come in?” She glances at the creature behind her. “If she freaks out, don’t go a rampage, okay?” It nodded understandably and waited for Harmony. The door swung open, and her mother stood in the doorway. When she noticed the creature she let out a scream, which was cut short when she passed out. ”Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea...” Harmony mumbled. The creature walked over to her mother and picked her up. It looked at Harmony with a questioning look. ”I guess you can bring her into the house?” suggested Harmony. “My dad is out of town for the month and my brother is more than likely asleep.” She stepped to the side to let it in the house. The creature nodded and walked in, ducking under the door frame. ”This way,” she whispered. She lead it over to the couch. “Put her on this but do it quietly so my brother doesn’t wake up.” It sets Harmony's mother down on the couch and sits on the ground. ”I’ll be right back! I’m gonna go get my toys and then we can play!” She began to run up the stairs, then halted. “Don’t touch anything, okay?” The center nods, then flicks the other heads, which causes them to nod. The pony trotted quietly up the stairs and entered her room. She grabbed toys and a notebook and began to make her way downstairs. “Harmony...?” A sleepy voice mumbled. “Is that you?” ”Ah! Go back to sleep, Bolt!” she yelped to her brother. She heard his hooves clomp on the floor as he proceeded to the stairs. ”Why did I hear a scream??” he asked drowsily. The creature heard Bolt's hooves as it was waiting for Harmony and moved out of the main room. Harmony darted downstairs and looked for the creature. “Where’d you go?!” she whisper-shouted. Bolts hooves got louder as he clipped noisily down the stairs. ”Harmonyyyyy... Where’s mom?” he mumbled. The creature had hidden itself as a multicolor vase. It began to tremble as it could not hold its form. Harmony watched in horror as her brother stepped down the stairs. He was blinking sleepily but he was staring right at his mother. ”Did she fall asleep?” he asked. Harmony nodded quickly and then gave her brother a shove. “Go back to sleep! I have one of my friends over.” She casted a glance at the vase, then frowned. Can that thing seriously turn into a vase? Part of it began to melt and become undone and began to tremble more. Bolt noticed the vase and scowled. “What the...? What’s that?!” He stared at it in terror and then turned back to Harmony. “What the heck?! What’s going on?!” He began to walk to the creature. The creature regained its form and fell on it's back, dazed and tired. Bolt’s eyes opened wide in shock. He stumbled back, knocking over a chair. “W-What are you? G-Get out o-of m-m-my house!” he stammered. Harmony trotted up to him. “Relax! It won’t hurt you. It’s pretty nice.” It feels so weird calling the thing “it”! She thought to herself. I’m just gonna refer to him as a “he”.  It sat up and rubbed it's center head, groaning. It's arm that was holding it up began to melt into the floor. ”Don’t melt away!” Harmony gasped. She ran over to the creature. “It’s alright! No one is going to hurt you! Don’t leave!” It made a shushing sound and patted her head, leaving some weird goop in her mane. It's arm began to reform back into a solid state and gave out a garbled, but relaxed, sigh. And then a weird yawn as it fell back and rest it's eyes. Harmony turned back to Bolt, who was standing there frozen in shock. “He doesn’t have a name yet but he’s nice. Now go upstairs and leave me and my friend alone.” Without waiting for a reply, she shoved her brother towards the stairs. The stallion made a weird whimper sound and scampered upstairs. The creatures left head was up and running. It heard Harmony about the name and had gotten an idea. She turned back to the creature. “What’s wrong now?” She tried her best not to sound annoyed but it didn’t work. “Are you ok?” It raised a thumb up then began to use it's index claw to dig into it's arm. ”Don’t do that!” She pushes its hand away and frowned. “You’ll hurt yourself!” It ignored her and continued, scratching out a word in it's arm and showing it to her. It said EXOSTALKINGTON.