The sun was shining and it was going to be a regular day in Ponyville, for now anyway. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were casually hovering around the edges of Ponyville chatting and having a good time after working the whole day, not having a care in the world.
"Yeah! They're thinking I could be captain one day, that would be so cool! So, you know how Twilight's doing with her princess duties?" Dash asked.
"Oh, I haven't heard too much. But other than a few usual stressful moments, I heard she's doing just fine-" Fluttershy said before Rainbow interrupted her.
"Hey, who are those guys?" Rainbow pointed towards then Everfree Forest, where Fluttershy could see three forms crawling out of there.
Fluttershy and Dash decided to see what was going on and flew in the direction of the three forms walking out of the forest, as they got closer they could hear the forms speaking.
"YES! Finally! Civilization!" the smallest one shouted.
One of the forms pointed towards the two pegasi.
"Hey, do you guys see that? I think those things are coming towards us."
As Dash and Fluttershy got closer, they could see the forms more clearly. They were three ponies, specifically three foals...no, two foals and a young stallion, one of them a filly and the other a colt. The foals didn't seem that old, they looked between the ages of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the six students at the School of Friendship. As for the stallion, he seemed to be around the age if not a few years younger than the two mares and their friends. The two pegasus mares landed in front of the three strangers and finally got a good look at the three of them, and the three ponies suddenly stared in shock and took a step back as if seeing something completely alien which they both found odd. These ponies seemed fairly ordinary, but at the same time, there was something off about them that neither mares could put their hooves on.
The young stallion was an earth pony just like the other two and the tallest of the three, he looked like he might've been a head taller than even the two mares, but he wasn't big or strong. He was really scrawny with legs that were as thin as matchsticks, the mares thought it was a result of being in the Everfree but after careful observation and seeing the foals, it seemed his skinniness was more of a result from an unhealthy lifestyle than starvation. His coat was white contrasting to his light brown baggy eyes and messy mane, and his mane had three strands of hair sticking up which they didn't think was possible, extending from his mane was an unshaven stubble that was just as uncared for as his mane with strands of beards growing longer in a few parts of his muzzle with remnants of a mustache on the end of his snout. But perhaps the strangest thing about this stallion was the fact that he had no cutie mark! Neither Dash nor Fluttershy have ever seen anything like it, most ponies would get their cutie marks at an early age, usually younger than even the two foals by his side, which made him especially curious. They could only wonder what could have caused this.
The filly was pink with a straight orange mane and greenish-brown eyes which made her stick out like a sore thumb from her two companions, she seemed to be the same age as the colt though built a few inches taller than him and a bit chubbier than both her companions, though not to the point of looking like Mrs. Cake. The filly seemed like the more normal one out of the three of them, she also has a very cheerful aura to her that was represented well in her cutie mark which was the shape of a smiley face. Actually, the fact that the two foals had cutie marks made the stallion's case even odder. Looks like she could get along well with Pinkie, which is funny since they're both pink... Dash thought.
Perhaps the strangest of the three was the little colt, he had a white coat similar to that of the stallion but with dark brown eyes and mane and his mane was wavy but unkempt, unlike the stallion's just plain messy mane. Contrary to the pink filly, the colt had a very sour and unpleasant aura, nothing sinister but it was enough to let some pony know they wouldn't have a pleasant time with this colt. The thing that caught the mares' attention was the colt's clothing, it was a messy mash of colors and styles that would have made Rarity have a panic attack and faint. The colt was wearing a purple turban with a red gemstone and feather, which raised questions on its own but that was just the beginning. He was also wearing a black t-shirt topped with a dark blue Hawaiian shirt used as a coat, and there was something on the shirts that really caught the mares' eyes and confused them more than before. The t-shirt had a large picture on it, which was of a large hat or saucer-shaped metallic object floating on top of a forest, and underneath were big white letters that formed the sentence "I WANT TO BELIEVE". Believe in what? And what does a flying metal plate have to do with believing? Dash thought in utter confusion at staring at the colt's t-shirt. His Hawaiian shirt consisted of a pattern of the same saucer-shaped objects on the t-shirt, his clothing seemed to connect to his cutie mark which was a green question mark and was nearly covered by green short pants patterned with the same marks.
After a few seconds of observation, the mares realized that the three strangers were still staring at them with wide eyes in complete fear and confusion while hugging each other, never taking their eyes off them.
"What the hell are those things?!" the young stallion yelled while shivering intensely, which only added to the mares' confusion even more.
"Did the gay pride flag grow wings and flew off with a terrible anime girl OC before turning into horses?!" the colt asked with a scared but also mocking tone, neither Dash nor Fluttershy understood what he was trying to say.
"Guys," the pink filly spoke up, her tone significantly calmer than the other two. "I think they're supposed to be what we are right now." Dash and Fluttershy just stared at each other trying to decipher what was going on and what they were trying to say.
"Wait, really? Oh yeeaahh." the colt said while observing his own body as if it was something he had never seen before.
Finally, one of the mares spoke up.
"Um...goodness, are you three alright?" Fluttershy said with a calm and comforting voice.
"Alright? Well, let's see...we were just walking out in the woods trying to take photographic evidence of UFOs, then those weird mushrooms that I ate of the ground must've been hallucinogenic because after that I started seeing a glowing empty archway which made me reenact that scene from '2001: A Space Odyssey' when I walked through it and then I couldn't feel my fingers anymore and my friends look like weird coloured horses and we had to walk through this jungle filled with creatures that came out of an 8-year-old fantasy fan's wet dream and now we're being confronted by even WEIRDER coloured horses with wings and..." the little white colt stopped himself from continuing and redirected his attention toward the two pegasi. The colt took a few steps toward the two mares which made Fluttershy take a step back and carefully observed their wings.
"Holy shit, you two are actually winged horses...like the Pegasus!" the colt said with eyes full of amazement.
"Language!" Fluttershy shouted in shock while Rainbow just snickered, the fact the colt just swore distracted them from the fact that he didn't know what a pegasus was.
"But how? Who are you? Where are we? Why are we like this?" the pink filly momentarily panicked.
This time the mares looked worried, the filly if not all three of these ponies are suffering some form of memory loss.
"Woah, woah. Calm down there, kid. Look, we'll answer all your questions later, but you all look pretty tired and hungry, you should probably come with us to get something to eat first." Rainbow Dash said in order to try and calm the little filly.
"Rainbow Dash is right, maybe you can come with us to Sugarcube Corner. It should give you some strength back, we'll lead you there. Oh, I almost forgot to introduce ourselves! My name is Fluttershy..."
"And I'm the Awesome Rainbow Dash!" the cyan pegasus cut in striking a heroic pose.
"Who?" the colt asked in a deadpan manner.
"Rainbow Dash. The Element of Loyalty, performed the Sonic Rainboom, saved Equestria multiple times?" Rainbow answered in a slightly annoyed tone.
"Never heard of you." the colt still said in a deadpan and uncaring tone. Rainbow grumbled at that statement.
"Um, well...uh, what are your names?" Fluttershy attempted to redirect the conversation back to the original point. The pink filly was the first to answer.
"Ah, my name is Hal..."
"AHEM!" the shorter colt fake coughed stopping the pink filly from going any further before he took over the conversation.
"Um...what were your names again?"
"Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Why?" the yellow pegasus answered a little confused.
The colt took in the information he just heard for a moment and then focused on a spot behind the mares, and they both became embarrassed when they realized what the colt was staring at, Fluttershy in particular beginning to blush. Is that colt staring at our flanks?! Rainbow thought. After that, the colt shifted his attention to his own flank and his friends, and the mares could almost see the gears in his mind working. After a few moments, the colt finally spoke.
"Ah, well. My name is Question Mark..." the colt moved next to the pink filly "...this annoying hyperactive idiot is Smiley Face..."the filly looked at him with an irritated face, then the colt moved next to scrawny stallion still sitting on the ground "...and this braindead moron is called Doofus Dweeb!" The colt introduced both his friends with a voice full of smugness and disliking.
"HEY! How come I...OW!!!" the stallion yelled with a very angry tone before the colt kicked him hard on his foreleg and shot him a glare. The two mares just stared in shock and disbelief and winced seeing the little white colt's treatment of his friends.
"Hey, you shouldn't treat your friends like that." the yellow mare said in a quiet but stern voice.
"Yeah! That's not cool, dude." Rainbow chimed in also displeased with what she just saw. "These two stuck by your side in the Everfree Forest, you should treat them with more respect. Especially the adult. Who is he anyway? Your brother?"
"Brother?! HA! The day I'll be related to that waste of space is the day the apocalypse comes and the Great Old Ones swallow reality. There's no reason I should treat these losers with any respect, they're too stupid to live! They act like they're always by my side and help me solve my problems, but I'm the one who does all the work while they stand there like cardboard cutouts and I'm the one who has to save their asses every time!" the colt ranted with an annoyed smile.
"But even if that's true, these friends still remained by your side and didn't abandon you. Try being nicer to them." Fluttershy explained with a warm smile.
"Well, I don't really care about this kid too much. I mean, he just makes my life more miserabl...OW! WHAT THE HELL?!" the skinny stallion called Doofus Dweeb tried to explain before he was kicked on his foreleg again by the pink filly this time.
"I mean...Yeah! I'm the oldest and I'm the one who's taking care of you two! You should at least show me a little bit of respect and not treat me like an embarrassment all the time!" Doofus tried to explain to Question Mark.
"You don't want to be an embarrassment? Why don't you stop sitting in that position you're sitting where your dick is exposed enough for these two girls in front of you?" Question Mark answered with a bored and frustrated tone while pointing to the area between his friend's hind legs.
"Wait, what? OH SHI...!!!" It took the stallion a second to process what the colt just said before looking down before panicking and crossed his legs as fast as he could while trying to stand up at the same time which just resulted in him slipping and falling back to the ground.
"Hehe...God, what an idiot." Question Mark mocked in a low voice.
Fluttershy was a bit flustered after what happened but felt bad for the poor stallion, but Rainbow couldn't help. but giggle a bit at his antics.
"Why do you have to be so embarrassed? It's not like none of us have ever seen one before. " Fluttershy attempted to comfort the stallion while helping him back to his hooves.
"Ugh, you don't need to tell us about your sex life." Question Mark said in disgust while holding a hoof in front of his face.
"Who said anything about sex?" Rainbow asked with an annoyed expression. Fluttershy was shocked to hear such a young colt talk about an inappropriate subject like that, but Rainbow has heard other foals his age talk about such things when no adults were around so it didn't surprise her as much as it did Fluttershy.
"Wait, wait. So you're telling me that you guys never wear clothes?" Doofus said with a nervous tone.
"Well, unless it's a special occasion, work-related or you just feel like wearing them I don't think there's too much of a reason to wear them." Fluttershy explained.
"Yeah, unless you're Rarity. Although I do have this jacket I like to wear a lot." Dash added.
"And you all just casually walk around in public naked with other naked ponies?" Doofus asked again, this time a little panicked.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn't say anything, but the confusion on their face seemed to tell the scared-looking stallion all that he needed to know.
"Oh, god. This can't be happening. Don't look at me!" Doofus this time actually panicked and took a few steps back then jerked his head around desperately trying to find a place to hide from the sight of the two females.
"Oh for Christ's sake, you dweeb! They just explained being naked is normal around here." Question Mark exclaimed, clearly getting tired of the antics of the stallion.
"Yeah, Ma...I mean, Doofus." Smiley Face chimed in, the pink filly clearly didn't like addressing her young adult friend by that name. "If what they said is true, then they would've been used to seeing guys like you not wearing clothes. So you being...er, exposed wouldn't bat any eyes." she assured her friend.
"But...they..."
"But nothing! You're gonna be fine."
Question Mark cut into the conversation. "Look on the bright side, nobody's gonna laugh at how small it is anymore!"
"You know what? You're right..."
"Now people can just laugh at you for being a pathetic loser like they usually do!"
"Oh, shut up."
The two mares became extremely worried about the young stallion's condition. They've never seen a pony this uncomfortable and panicked about the fact that they weren't wearing any clothing, they could only wonder what these three especially the stallion have gone through. Jeez, what happened to this guy? Rainbow couldn't help but wonder.
"Uh...tell you what! Why don't you come with us to town and get something to eat, then you can tell us all about you and we'll help you adjust around here. How's that sound?" Rainbow asked attempting to hide her worry behind a reassuring smile.
"Hmm...you know what? Yeah, I'm starving." the colt answered first.
"I bet there'll be lots of candy there!" the filly exclaimed.
"Eh, why not." the stallion answered plainly.
"You know, I would tell you not to take all the food to yourself. But you would probably already finish all of it by the time I reach your face from behind your ass. AHAHA...OW! GODDAMMIT!" Question Mark mocked his filly friend before she hit him on his withers.
Normally Fluttershy would speak up and tell her not to hit another pony especially a colt, but she kept quiet. This colt was clearly treating his friends very badly, and she couldn't blame how his friends were reacting to his behavior, although that didn't mean he deserved violence. Fluttershy decided it would be best to help these ponies with their problems and help them become better.
"Alright then! Follow us, we'll lead you there." Fluttershy said before the two mares walked back to the direction of the town with the three strangers following close behind. They could see the stallion blushing and attempting to look in another direction, clearly trying not to stare at their flanks.
"Hey, uh...what's the town called anyway?" Question Mark asked from behind them, him and the filly looking a little awkward from being behind them but still being completely fine compared to their tall skinny friend.
"Oh, it's called Ponyville." Fluttershy answered.
"Ponyville? Oh my goodness, why am I getting a bad feeling about this?"
And the five of them continued to walk towards the town.