//------------------------------// // Chapter 02 - A Wobbly Start // Story: Backyard Anomaly // by Marmo //------------------------------// The Backyard Anomaly Chapter 2 – A Wobbly Start Michael is sitting on the guest bed, carefully watching the white horse in the room finishing the various fruit on the plate. He studies her appearance, being intrigued by her as his inner scientist clearly wants to know more and even more. However, if he wanted to start some common ground relationship with this creature, he needed to make her more comfortable. She is still clearly confused, scared and hurt. It’s just now that he noticed some wound around her left front fetlock. The blood is mostly dried up but also bleeding a bit as well. “You’re hurt. I have some bandages.” The horse just huffs and shifts her foreleg away so he can’t see the wound anymore. “I’m fine…I heal quickly.” An awkward silence falls over the two. Michael looks to the side uncomfortably. … "So…" He pauses for a while “...You are a talking horse with wings and a horn?” She just flares her nostrils after hearing this. “I am a Pony. And you happen to be a talking monkey?” “I am a human…. And ouch that hurt.” The white pony just huffs and looks away. “Well, you started it.” -Well, she is right.- “That’s fair…” Michael’s eyes shift towards the creature’s butt. There on her white fur, he could see a big tattoo of the sun covering her entire upper hindleg. It looks like fine art. Whoever dyed the fur like this had a talent. His every grew bigger. It seems as if the fur itself- “Are you finished ogling all over my flank?!” She spits at him in annoyance. Michael, quite taken back by her harsh voice looks back into her eyes. She is anything but comfortable right now. “S-Sorry I just never have seen a fascinating anomaly like you.” The white horse snorts and shakes her head in disbelief as he calls her that. -Great start so far Michael. Get out of your scientist role!- “An anomaly huh? Have you ever considered that your prisoner has a name?” She spat. Standing up from the bed he looks at her for a while. She just looks up into his small, green eyes, just realizing how big her captor really is. Noticing his mistake, Michael then sits on the floor opposite of her cross-legged. He emits a soft sigh, clearly being a bit tired after this long day of his. “Of course. I’m sorry.” He clears his throat and extends his arm towards her carefully. “My name is Michael, what is yours?” She eyes his hand for a while, studying his claw-like appendage. Not seeing any dangerous claws, she extends her uninjured foreleg and puts her hoof into his hand. She shivers in mild discomfort as he gently wraps his fingers around her hoof, shaking it carefully. “I’m Pr-… My name is Celestia.” “It’s nice to meet you, Celestia.” Silence falls onto the two. First, they look at each other for a while and then both look away, not wanting to make the other uncomfortable. After a while, Celestia shifts her body a bit to the left and right, trying to catch her captor’s attention. Michael is quicker though. “Are you a Queen?” He gestures towards her golden tiara with a huge gemstone in it. Celestia tenses up a bit but then quickly replies. “It’s a fashion accessory, and quite dear to me.” “Damn. You must be quite rich huh? Looks good though…” he shifts his legs awkwardly. “The tiara and stuff.” “Why, thank you.” He gets the first smile in response. … Another few empty seconds pass and Celestia awkwardly clears her throat. “Mister Michael… Could you kindly release me? I need to get back to my home immediately.” “Oh, I could. But trust me, you don’t want to run around in the streets all alone. The local government and other facilities which are specialized in capturing anomalies like you would surely catch you in no time.” Celestia tilts her head in confusion, narrowing her eyes at the human. “Are you saying that there are organisations in this area that capture ponies like me?” “Well yes, they are called ACASC for short. They capture and study anomalies. I work for them actually.” Celestia just snorts, shaking her head. “Well, that explains a lot, mister Michael. But I am no anomaly. I am a pony.” Michael slaps his own face after realizing his mistake. “N-No! It’s not what you think! The anomalies usually don’t talk and are not… well…” He gestures towards the talking pony with a tiara in front of him. “…Well, sentient. But I’m pretty sure they won’t treat you too well. Sometimes even I feel sorry for a few of our anomalies." “So, you were concerned for my wellbeing and therefore used your magic device to make me fall unconscious so you could lock me up in one of your rooms?” She asks in a challenging tone. Michael points his two index fingers together, smiling sheepishly. “T-That’s pretty much what I did yea. To keep you from being snatched up by them! Plus, I gave you food and water! Plus-Plus its technology and not ‘magic’”. Celestia just looks at him, clearly not having it. He sighs. “Now that you say it, it does sound kinda bad. But you wanted to run away!” Celestia wanted to say something to challenge him but decided to change her mind “Well, I appreciate your honesty. But I am perfectly capable of caring for my own well-being. And as I said, I need to go home. To Equestria. And I am not an ‘anomaly’. So I’d like to talk to your governing bodies since I’m a skilled politician. I’m sure they can help me out.” Michael is just sitting with a deadpan expression on his face. He imagines a pretty pony with wings and horns in congress, discussing politics with other winged unicorns and humans. A distant cricket could be heard chirping. “Uhh. Wait-what? You wanna go to where?” Michael scratches his head in confusion. “To Equestria. You surely must have heard of it!” She sounds a tad bit annoyed again now. Michael shakes his head. “Uhh, nope. Not really…” Celestia quickly stands up, her head held high as she looks down towards Michael with a somewhat condescending look. “Please tell me where I am…” Michael stands up as well now, reaching up to about a head taller than her. Just the tip of her horn reaches up to his forehead. “Well. You are at my house. In Newport. Which is in the country of Wales. And I'm pretty sure this 'Equestria' does not exist.” “Newport? Wales?” She slowly opens her eyes in confusion and tenses up a bit. “Do you happen to have a map of this country?” Michael gestures towards the wall behind Celestia where an entire world map was conveniently taped against the tapestry. “Well, how about you turn around and see for yourself.” She slowly turns her head, still vary of her captor. However, as she sees the map taped against the wall, she quickly turns her body around and walks towards the map. Michael slowly follows her, leaving a foot of air between him and her as she looks at the map. “This is the map of the entire Earth. And you are riiiight here with me.“ He points to the left side of Wales, but Celestia is already all over the place scanning the entire map for anything familiar. Her eyes grow bigger and bigger and soon he could notice her breathing heavily as she goes from continent to continent, not finding anything she knows. Soon she realizes that this really is an entirely different planet. A planet she has never even heard about. “N-No this—This cannot be! H-How could Twilight… How?” Michael looks at her with a sorry look as she starts to hyperventilate, slowly sitting back on the bed as she tries to catch her breath while looking at the door which was still open. "T-This can't be!" She quickly bolts out of the room and uses her magic to slam the door shut. “H-Hey! What the? Fucking wait!” She doesn’t listen. Looking to the left and right she notices the stairs to the ground floor. Not bothering to take them she jumps down the entire stairs just before Michael opens the door to chase after her. Celestia lands in the living room with a powerful thud, a few glasses and bottles tipping over from the force. “Don’t go outside!” Celestia scans the living room for a potential exit and just sees the big windows towards the luscious garden in his backyard. “D-Don’t you DAREE!” With a powerful wing flap, she propels herself forward through the glass, sending shards everywhere. She quickly shakes the glass debris of her coat and mane like a dog while Michael shrieks like a girl after seeing the expensive windows destroyed and his living room looking like a bomb went off. He just sees her bolting off towards the front side of his house. Using the quicker way, Michael opens his front door and sees Celestia dashing over the street while flapping her wings. “Oh no…” He whispers, already seeing the future playing out. Now it was a late evening and not many people nor cars are usually outside at this time. However, it is still the suburbs of Newport… A loud honking car tried to come to a screeching halt. But it was too late. The car drives straight into Celestia, flinging her a few meters across the street. She tries to get up but soon falls unconscious to the hard concrete ground. Michael stands in front of his house in shock. He goes through his black and curly hair with all his fingers while thinking about what he should do. Immediately he sprints towards the car. An elderly woman is in the car. Her glasses are shattered and lay on the dashboard. She is frantically searching for them while breathing heavily, clearly being in shock. Otherwise, she seems to be okay. -Bad for her, but this could come in handy- Sprinting towards Celestia, he lets out a sigh of relief. She is breathing and from her appearance seems to be mostly uninjured. Her tiara is laying on the road a few meters away from her, looking all scratched up and dirty. He quickly picks it up. “Y-You crazy fucking horse you!” He shouts-whispers and looks to the left and right. So far no one else is seeing any of this shit. Celestia just groans, trying to reply but no words would exit her mouth. He quickly picks the mare up with all his strength and carries her around the house into the garden, laying her onto the soft grass. He just stares at her for a second and curses the situation. “Just stay here, please…” She groans a bit more, rubbing her sore head with her uninjured hoof. Michael then bolts back to the demolished car. The front bumper is beyond repair and even the hood, front window and headlights are a goner. It looks bad, and he hopes that Celestia is not too badly hurt. “Mam’ ae’ you alright? Do you need an ambulance?” The police soon showed up. However, In the end, everything seemed to turn out okay. The car got totalled, but the old woman seemed to be okay-ish. Though she really insists to the officers that a winged unicorn appeared out of nowhere on the street. The officers just nod and shake their heads, clearly thinking that this old woman has some screws loose in her head. One officer turns towards Michael though. “Have you seen anything like what she’s describing?” He chuckles and gives off a fake laugh. “A winged unicorn? I’m pretty sure this was just some deer or something completely normal.” He is sweating a bit and tries his best to not glance towards his house. “I see. Yea it’s quite uncommon, but some deer still manage to get into the cities.” Answers the other policeman. “Aight, thanks for the help. I have something on the stove. If you need anything just ring the door.” The policemen wish him a good evening while the elderly woman brabbles something about him apparently clearly having seen the winged unicorn. Michael just tries his best to ignore her while walking towards his home. While opening the door, he glances towards the street and sees one of the policemen eyeing him. Closing the door, he leans against it with his back and slowly lets himself sink towards the floor. -This was too fucking close.- Had he not removed the golden tiara from the street, things could have ended badly for him, since everyone knows that hiding anomalies is forbidden and a crime. Especially for an ACASC scientist. He groans while rubbing his temples. Michael then looks towards his devastated living room and windows with Celestia still laying in the garden. He could see her slowly and drowsily waking up. Not bothering anymore Michael just keeps sitting against his front door while Celestia gets on all fours. He feels like an empty shell of a man right now. -I-I just wanted some chill evening!- Celestia rubs her head with a hoof and then looks to the right and left her fight or flight mode kicking in once again. Quickly noticing the mess and destruction she caused, she turns towards the house and looks with remorse towards the wrecked living room with Michael sitting behind the mess. He is clearly in distress and even seems to be angry as he gets up on his feet walking towards her. His plastic slippers allow him to walk over the glass shards. They crumble and shatter under his weight. She should be running and flying but something tells her to stay here and endure an incoming verbal assault. Running would make no sense since she has no idea where to go. This she knows now after being able to think clearly again. This weird but seemingly friendly human seems to be her only option right now. She stands still as he advances towards her, a mixture of emotions visible on his face. But mainly rage. Not hatred but he was clearly PISSED OFF. He wants to yell at her, but he realizes that the police on the other side of his house could still hear him yelling. Instead, he just opens his mouth and tries to shout-whisper something to her to bring across how fucked up he thinks this is. At first, he just manages to wheeze out a few incomprehensible words while gesturing towards his wrecked living room. He also gestures to her, clearly not happy with her actions. “Wha—What--- Wh- Wha- Why? … B-Bloody fuckin’… horse!” Celestia cringes at his silent outburst and choice of words. She tries to cut him off with an apology. “I-I-I’m sorry, Mister Michael. I-I just panicked and…” “You fucking destroyed my living room.” He is finally shout-whispering now. “Y-You just decided to run off and get hit by a freaking car!” Celestia rubs her forelegs together. Clearly, it’s not one of her greatest moments. “Uhm, what exactly is a car?” Michael looks at her with a deadpan expression, not even blinking for a long time. “Fuck this…” He turns around and walks through the broken pile of glass right into his living room. Grabbing his now cold Burger, he lets himself fall into his recliner. He closes his eyes for a second and bites into the burger, munching away in peace. Maybe if he kept eating with his eyes closed, she would vanish. He swallows and opens his eyes, but she is still standing in the garden, looking at him with mild compassion. “Look, if you really want to, then go. Just go away. Maybe the ACASC will treat you well when they capture you. They might also just dissect you. What do I know, I just happen to be a scientist there, so. Celestia carefully walks into the living room, clearly a bit ashamed of her impenetrable actions. She notices her dirty tiara on the living room table and quickly levitates it onto her head. Then she turns around towards the broken windows and starts channeling some magic into her horn. After a few seconds, all glass shards in the entire room begin to shake and move. Michael just gawks in amazement and even light fear while Celestia starts repairing the windows with her magic. Slowly but steadily the individual glass shards are put together like a perfect puzzle. The cracks seem to vanish and soon the entire windows are in perfect and pristine condition again. They even look like they have been wiped clean recently. Celestia turns around and gives the human who is still sitting in his recliner a soft smile. His mouth is hanging open. “Sorry for bolting off like that and damaging your fine residence. I- I had a bit of a panic attack.” Michael just blinks a few times, still in disbelief. “How about we start over again? I am Princess Celestia, and I seem to be lost.” She pauses a bit. “What is your name?” He looks at her with wide eyes as this winged pony gives him a soft smile. Dirt and several bruises as well as the bump on her head still clearly visible. But she radiated with strength, power and friendliness. He swallows the last bits of his burger and slowly replies to the magical pony princess standing in his living room. “M-Michael. Michael Keller.” “It’s nice to meet you, Mister Keller.” She gently grabs his hand and shakes it with a smile on her face. He looks back into her big eyes, nodding. “Likewise, P-Princess.” -They are soooo gonna dissect her-