//------------------------------//
// Ima 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"Hey!" Pinkie yelled, but not too loud, but loud enough to be heard by the pony she'd spotted. "Hey, you! Over here!"
The stallion froze at first. He looked towards Pinkie, hooves planted on the ground, completely unsure as to what to do. She also had an unconscious pony with her, he noticed. The pegasus he'd seen earlier.
"Come here!" Pinkie called again, walking towards him. "I'm a friend."
After a little moment of inner deliberation, the stallion began to walk towards Pinkie as well. He wasn't yet sure of what he wanted to do, but he knew for sure it wasn't running away, and he reasoned all the other options involved getting closer to Pinkie anyway. So there was no reason not to. So he did.
"Is everything okay?" Pinkie asked him, shaking him from his thoughts. She was already close. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do.
"Yes," he said, and he wasn't sure if he was lying or telling the truth or what. "She's still passed out, but she doesn't seem worse." He kept walking closer. Too close? "How about you, everything okay?"
Pinkie nodded, bouncing closer still while balancing the pegasus on her back. "As okay as things can be right now, at least." She paused for a moment, put a hoof under her chin, and tilted her head to the side. "Hey..." She straightened her head and blinked, seeming somewhat surprised. The stallion flinched slightly under her gaze, stopping his step and almost walking back.
He did not have time to react further though, as a moment later he found himself in the middle of an almost violently aggressive hug, just barely managing to stand on three hooves and only miraculously able to keep Applejack balanced on his back, unsure himself of how she hadn't fallen. The hoof he'd kept up as he'd stopped pawed the air for a moment, then, somewhat awkwardly, he partly returned the hug he was receiving.
A few seconds later, Pinkie let go of him and took a step back. "Thank you," she said, slightly nodding towards the mare on his back. "Now, where were we going?" She began to look around, one hoof to the side of her throat.
The stallion looked at her, still unsure of what to do, even more so than he'd been before. The mare wasn't even looking at him. At that distance he could get a good shot in, and even if she managed to avoid it he could just point his horn at the pony on his back and use her as leverage.
"This way!" Pinkie pointed straight with her hoof in a seemingly arbitrary direction after a bit of turning around, then without even waiting for a response she started to walk that way. "Careful not to trip," she said to him, but she didn't even turn around for that.
The stallion stared at her, silent and motionless for a couple of seconds. Finally he shook himself and began to follow behind her. Carrying three unconscious ponies around all on his own would be too much, he thought to himself. But even he wasn't particularly convinced.