"Mom!"
Cass burst through the front door, slamming it wide open.
"Mom! Mom! Wake up! There's a creature outside that needs help!"
Cast bolted through the house and up the stairs, slamming into a blue-coated, black-maned mare at the doorway of his parents' room.
"Ow! Cast Rune!" Cast's mother scolded him, rubbing her forehead with her leathery wings, "What is the meaning of this?"
Looking up at his mother standing in the doorway, Cass winced at his full name. She reserved calling him that for times when she was truly peeved at him; for example, when he woke her up in the middle of the day.
"Mom! We found a creature at the edge of town and it's hurt really bad! It's bleeding and it talks and we don't know what it is and thought that you would because you know everything about-"
"Cass, dearie, calm down. You're going to hyperventilate again." The softness of her voice helped Cass recover. He took deep breaths and counted to ten, just like Mom taught him.
A muffled, tired groan came from the bed behind his mother, and Cass winced once more, realising that his obnoxious yelling had also woken his father up.
"Let's go downstairs, dear. Your father needs his sleep," Cass' mother whispered, gently closing the door. They made it to the living room, and she asked, "What's this about a hurt creature?"
"It's outside mom, come on!" Cass hurriedly - yet quietly - ushered his mom along. "Me, Star, and Fly found it near the East entrance. It looks really badly hurt."
"Why were you three there in the first place? In the middle of the day, no less?"
His ears folded back, and Cass knew that there was no getting out of this one. He had been sneaking out of town with his two friends whilst everybody was asleep almost every day for the past two weeks. He also knew that anything he could say would just make things worse, so he opted to stay silent and examine his suddenly very interesting hooves.
Luckily, Cass's friends saved him from his Mother's scrutiny.
"Mrs Moon Glint!"
"Hi, Cass' mom!"
"Hello, Star, Fluffy." Moon Glint greeted. Fluffy - or Fly, as they liked to call the small, pink, batpony colt - grew beet-red at the mention of his real name. "Where's this creature I've been hearing about?"
Fly pointed timidly at the cart he had been harnessed to. "Um… It's o-over there. We don't know what it is-"
"It's big, broken, and it talks!" Star Streak cut in, "We found it at the entrance to the town,"
"Oh dear," the older mare remarked, after peering into the cart. "Quickly, children, bring it inside. Don't you worry, you poor thing, momma Moonie's here to fix you up."
The human breathed a painful, shaky breath. The horses had continued talking as they reached the house. The unicorn had disappeared before coming back with what seemed to be his mother, Moon Glint.
It was a strange name. In fact, all of the horses he'd heard of so far had unorthodox names. All except for the unicorn, Cass. But at least they all had names. No matter what he did, he couldn't manage to rack his brain for any memories of who he was. It was as if they had been wiped.
"Hey, I'm going to lift you up again. Is that okay?" The unicorn, Cass, asked him after appearing in his line of sight once again. The human noticed the worry in his deep blue eyes. While he was grateful for the care that Cass seemed to be taking, he couldn't help but question why an alien creature he had just met seemed to be so concerned about him.
"Set him on the table dear. I'll be back in a second."
"A-are you r-really sure it's n-not d-dangerous?" The human twisted his neck as far as it could go without it feeling as if it was being torn off of his shoulders. He saw that the voice had come from a pink horse with a white mane, similarly fanged and winged to the brown-maned one. When it realised that he was looking at it, it visibly shrank and backed away.
It was cute. If he wasn't in the state he was in, he might have tried to befriend it. Alas, he could do little to ease its fears of him.
"I-I d-d-don't b-bite-"
He only managed those few words before his lungs exploded into a coughing fit.
Hoofsteps clacked towards the table, and the human heard a creature prop itself up onto it. A fuzzy limb rested on his forehead while a cup found his lips.
"Drink up, honey. It won't taste great, but you'll feel better once you've had it," Moon Glint instructed him.
Just as the motherly mare said, whatever liquid he had just ingested was unpleasantly bitter. But it didn't take long for it to take effect as a painkiller. He was soon able to relax.
"T-thank you," he half mumbled and half spoke.
"So you do talk?" Moon Glint raised an eyebrow in intrigue.
"I... Y-Yes, Ma'am, I do."
"There's no need to be so formal, just "Moon Glint" will do. You should save your energy and rest up." She turned to the pink horse. "Fly, could you be a dear and get that pillow over there for our new friend?"
The human watched the pink creature's eyes widen before stripping a couch of one of its pillows and hesitantly shuffling towards him. It held it in one foreleg like a shield, hiding behind it. Its eyes never left him, and it looked ready to bolt away. It seemed almost convinced that the human had been faking his injuries and was just waiting for the right moment to pounce specifically at it.
The whole thing was so adorable that the human couldn't help but smile. Showing off his sharp canines while there were still blood stains running down his mouth might have been the wrong move, however, as it caused the pink horse to freeze and stand there paralyzed. It looked like it was on the verge of crying.
"H-hey, it's okay, I won't hurt you," He wheezed out, "I'm n-not dangerous, I swear."
The other of the unicorn's friends, Star, trotted up to Fly and gave him a slap on the rear, earning her a glare from Cass. "Come on, chicken, you heard what it said. I mean just look at it! It couldn't do anything to you even if it wanted to in the state that it's in!"
"I-I..." Fly sputtered, seemingly building up the courage to start approaching once again. "Y-You're r-right. Here's y-your pillow!" Fly stretched a leg out to him with one hoof, eyes clenched shut.
The human thanked Fly, almost proud to watch the creature overcome its fear of him. While it was a heart-melting scene to witness, he ended up a little confused. He had been able to tell from the voices of the others who was a mare and who was a colt. Fly was the sole exception. He made a note to ask later.
"Now that that's done, you two need to go home. Do your parents know that you're still up and about?" Moon Glint asked, with Star and Fly refusing to meet her gaze. She snorted, "I thought not. Now shoo! Go to bed!"
"Yes, Mrs Moon Glint," they sighed in unison, turning for the door.
"Seeya, Cass."
"Bye."
"And we are going to have a long talk, mister." Moon Glint glanced disappointingly at her son.
"Yes, Mom," Cass sighed.
"But first, you also need to sleep. It's long past your bedtime and I still have to finish up with our guest here." Moon turned to the table, dropping a heavy tome that she had carried into the dining room that the human had seemingly failed to notice. Cass disappeared upstairs.
"Now don't worry, this shouldn't take long." Moon Glint reassured, opening the tome and shutting her eyes. When she opened them again they were black and misty, with a bit leaking away at the sides. Her slit pupils were a shining white surrounded by her dark azure irises.
She started a chant in a language the human couldn't make out. His eyes swept the room, somewhat expecting the furniture to begin floating. It wouldn't have been completely out of the blue. He wouldn't be lying on the table if it wasn't for the existence of levitation in this strange new place he had found himself. But the couch had remained firmly on the ground. Instead, Moon Glint's voice began echoing. The words pierced his ears from all sides.
"W-What are you doing?" The human fretted. His worry grew when the mare ignored him and continued on.
"Wait, no..." A flood of weariness replaced his concern and he quickly approached unconsciousness.
"I..."
Whatever objection there was faded from his mouth, just as he did from the waking world.
"Whew! Wow," Moon Glint panted, falling onto her rump.
"This might take longer than I thought," she confessed to nopony in particular, "The magical resistance is incredible!"
She reached for the tome and flipped its pages until she found the medical chapters. Her brows furrowed as she realised that the task at hoof might have been more difficult than she first thought.
"Huh. I better start fixing you up then. This is going to be a long day."