//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Another begins 
// Story: Death, Sacrifice, and the man in blue 
// by MrTyrannousaurusX 
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As Levi’s vision returned to normal, he no longer saw the rainbow with the unicorn standing there. He saw a bright blue sky and he felt himself falling at an alarming speed. Levi screamed as he fell for a few seconds and…

THUD!

Levi whimpered and groaned in pain after his fall, his back and his head were throbbing and Levi felt like he was run over by a train. “Ala…Al…” He attempted to say, but was unable from his pain and him being dazed from the fall. 

After a few minutes lying there recovering and pushing through his pain, he finally found the strength to stand up. Shakily and with some effort, he managed to stand up fully. He wobbled and almost fell back onto the ground but kept his balance. His head was swimming and as he put his hat back onto his head he scanned his surroundings, trying to get an idea of where he was all the while memories of what happened just seconds ago felt almost impossible to remember.

Slowly but surely, all of the events of the day came back to him. The dream, Howard, the failed cook, and Levi’s talk with Alan at the restaurant. This made Levi’s eyelids shoot up in a panic “ALAN!” he bellowed. 

He cupped his hands over his mouth and looked up in the sky and screamed “ALAN! ALAN WHERE ARE YOU! AL!” there was no response. All he heard was the dead silence of the forest. 

“FUCK!” He yelled out of anger. “Dammit Alan why! Why did you have to cook that recipe huh!” He exclaimed. “Big Ray” Levi said, rubbing his face with his hands. He was worried sick about Alan, about where he could be. If Levi had no idea where he was he assumed Alan had no clue either. Levi decided that standing around moping and feeling sorry for himself wasn’t productive in the least bit, and that he might as well start walking if no one’s around. 

After about 10 minutes of walking, mostly limping due to Levi’s pain, Levi finally found civilization in the form of a small cottage. The large cottage had tan colored walls and red front door and small windows all along the walls, also along the walls were small birdhouses that were being held on a red stick attached to the cottage. The top of the cottage wasn’t a roof necessarily, but more like the top of a very large tree. There was a bridge running over a small stream that Levi used to cross over to the path that led up to the cottage's front door. Levi also noticed a lot of small animals jumping and running around in this person’s front yard, rabbits, squirrels, and birds were scattered all over the place.

As Levi walked over the bridge and onto the path, all of the small animals and critters suddenly took one look at Levi and began to run away in all different directions and hide. The squirrels dashed up the trees, the rabbits jumped inside of their burrows, and the birds hid inside some of the many birdhouses. 

Levi continued staggering up the path until he got to the front door, which he promptly knocked on. “Hello?” He called out to whoever was, hopefully, inside. 

“Coming!” He heard a soft voice exclaim from inside. A few seconds later, the owner of the soft voice, and all of the animals, opened the top half of her front door and Levi was shocked at what he saw.

It was a small yellow horse with big light blue eyes that matched the color of the sky, medium length pink wavy hair that laid along the left side of her head and neck and a tail of the same pink hair. He also noticed a small insignia on her back end, right above her right back leg, that was 3 small pink butterflies.

Almost immediately after laying eyes on him she let out a loud yet quiet “EEK!” and slammed the door in his face. Levi was incredibly annoyed at her reaction. Levi knocked on the door once again and called out desperately “Please Ma'am-horse-whatever you are open the door! I need help!”

“Wha-what are you? W-who are you?” The horse on the other side stuttered quietly, he could hear the tremble in her voice. He couldn’t believe these animals were that scared of him. “My name's Levi Cronell OK? Well, I’m a human.” Levi explained. 

“Please I promise I won’t hurt you, I need help! I don’t know where the hell I am and I think I have a concussion!” Levi exclaimed desperately through the door, praying the horse would have pity and let him inside. 

About 10 seconds later, the top half of the door opened slowly and ever so slightly so that the horse could see Levi. He saw her big eye through the crack in the door and she asked in a shaky and nervous voice “W-where did you c-come from?” “Tuscaloosa” He answered. “Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I’m not from here.”

“Listen I’ll answer everything you wanna know and more if you let me inside!” Levi bargained, still praying the horse would have pity on him and let him in. 

The horse looked down in thought for a few seconds and then the top half shut and afterwards the entire door slowly opened all the way.

He quickly staggered inside the warm cottage as the door was shut behind him by the generous horse. Inside the cottage was a green couch and chair sitting on top of a light blue carpet in the center of the room, that matched the color of her eyes, right behind the couch was a window that shone bright light into the room which lit up beautifully. To the left of the couch was a lamp that stood in the corner of the room and a bookshelf to the right of it. 

Levi hastily staggered to the couch and practically fell onto it, sighing out of relief. “Thank you.” He said.

“It’s n-no problem.” She responded in her soft quiet voice. “W-what do you need?” She asked him, letting her hair cover the left side of her face.

“Do you have any medicine? Painkillers or anything like that?” Levi asked.

“Uhm…I probably have something like that. I’ll go look for it.” She answered. As she walked upstairs, Levi dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone and pressed the power button and was delighted when his screen lit up and saw his lock screen. The time read 8:15 AM and he was surprised at how much time had passed, it was only an hour after that fateful cook. 

As Levi was staring off into space, he noticed a white object jump from down the stairs and onto the floor in front of Levi. Levi looked at the object and saw it was a small white bunny that was staring daggers into him. “Can you talk too?” He joked, a grin forming on his face.

The bunny furrowed his eyebrows and stood up on his legs and crossed his arms at Levi. “I’ll take that as a no.” Levi said. ‘This world is so damn weird.’ He thought to himself, eyeing the bunny.

A short time later, the yellow horse walked back down the stairs and said “I found something.” “Awesome” Levi responded.

She cautiously and slowly walked up to him, which Levi immediately noticed, and handed him a small flower and quickly backed up away from him. “What gives?” Levi asked, confused. 

“W-what?” She asked back.

“Why are you so scared of me, I’m not gonna hurt you.” Levi explained, attempting to gain the trust of the horse but Levi knew it wouldn’t be easy.

“W-well y-you're a human, I don’t even really know what you are.” She answered, lowering her head. Levi knew this was a conversation for a different time and decided to change the subject. 

“Anyways, what’s this?” He asked, holding up his hand with the flower in it to the horse. 

“Oh, that’s a Poppy plant. It’s good for relieving pain, probably the best thing I have for that.” She explained, causing a concerned look to grow on Levi’s face.

“Where I'm from these things can kill you if you eat too much.” Levi said.

“That’s if you eat <i> a lot though.” She emphasized. “One won’t hurt.”

“If you say so, you got anything to drink? I haven’t had anything in hours.” Levi asked, trying not to sound rude or needy considering he was an unwanted guest. 

“Oh of course, you have anything in mind?” She asked.

“Beer or water. Bud light.” He responded, expecting some form of surprise from the horse.

“Oh uhm, I don’t drink, I have tea though, if that’s any better.” She answered.

“That’s fine.” Levi responded, feeling refreshed just at the thought of tea.

“I’ll get right on it.” She said, as she was walking to her kitchen she added “Oh I forgot to mention, my name's Fluttershy.” 

“That’s a nice name.” Levi complimented, earning a blush from the horse. “I’m Levi Cronell, but you know that already.” She thanked him and walked into her kitchen. Levi took a glance at the small red flower in his hand and, not thinking about any side effects, popped the flower in his mouth and swallowed it without chewing. The flower uncomfortably went down and Levi shivered from the weird feeling. 

He took off his hat and tossed it next to him on the green couch and made himself comfortable on the couch as Fluttershy finished the tea. A few minutes later, Fluttershy emerged from the kitchen with a large teapot in one hoof and two small tea cups in the other. 

She sat down on the green chair to the right of the front of the couch, she placed the pot and handed Levi a cup. He painfully sat forward and took the cup from her hoof and leaned back like he was pulled back into position. He held the cup out and she poured tea into his and her cup as Levi leaned back into the couch. “Thank you, truly.” He said. “Oh it’s nothing.” She said, her cheeks turning a light shade of red. 

Levi took a sip of his tea and asked her “No offense but…what are you?”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”

“LIke are you a horse or...what?” Levi clarified.

“Oh..uhm…” She answered, surprised by the question. “Well, me and everybody here in Ponyville are ponies.” She answered.

“Well another question..” He said, Fluttershy took a sip of her tea and went “Hmm?”

“Where am I?” He asked.

“Well you’re in my cottage.” Fluttershy answered, like it was an obvious question.

“No I mean like..where am I?” He asked again, clarifying his question.

“Oh, well my cottage is right on the edge of Everfree forest, but Ponyville is a few minutes away from here.” Fluttershy answered.

Levi took a sip of his tea and asked “Have you heard anything about humans before? Any history books or anything like that?”

“Oh uhm, no.” Fluttershy answered, taking a sip as well. Levi was relieved for some reason, he didn’t really know why but he felt like he had a better chance of living here if they didn't know about the history of humans. 

“That’s good.” He responded, hoping Fluttershy wouldn’t ask any questions about what humans did. 

Suddenly, the bunny that Levi had seen earlier hopped into the room from the kitchen and stood up on his back legs and crossed his arms and thumped his foot quickly on the floor. “Oh do you need to be fed Angel?” Fluttershy asked the bunny, him nodding in response. ‘Angel, so that’s his name.’ Levi thought.

As she walked over to the kitchen to grab the bunny something to eat, Levi decided to see if the flower did anything to him and he slowly stood up. There was a sharp pain in his back and head at first but after a few seconds it went away, and was replaced with a duller pain. He stumbled to the entrance of the kitchen and leaned against the wall for support, as he still had a little trouble walking. “Where’s your bathroom at Fluttershy?” He called into the kitchen. 

She turned around and was startled to see Levi walked and jumped and responded with “O-oh! I see you're feeling better! It’s upstairs.” Levi turned around and looked at the stairs and he could already see the potential trouble that walking up the stairs with his condition could lead to. “I’ll just go outside.” He said, stumbling towards the door. “Oh, okay.” Fluttershy responded meekly, as Levi opened the door and walked outside. 

A cool breeze hit him as soon as he walked outside and he smiled, happy at the hospitality he’d been given by Fluttershy. He decided it would be rude to urinate on a tree in front of her cottage, not to mention there was a birdhouse on the tree and there was a window where she could easily see him. 

He walked a few feet behind the cottage where the border of the forest was and picked a random tree and stood close to it. He unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants and relieved himself, however as he was looking around everywhere as he was urinating he noticed something strange in the darkness of the forest.

It was not night dark, but it was dark due to the large and thick tree tops of the forest. There was a large object that was standing eerily still, it was a good distance away from him so he could not see it that well, but what he did see were two light green eyes peering at him from the darkness.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness beneath the trees, he noticed the creature didn’t have regular features. The animal was black and brown and had eyebrows that looked like leaves and ears that looked like small spruce trees. Levi zipped his pants and buckled his pants and looked intently at the creature, turning his body toward the creature. 

He heard a low growl and noticed the large creature was inching towards him, Levi reached into his back pocket and pulled out a large switchblade and flipped it open. He stared right into the eyes of the creature, he knitted his eyebrows as the creature got closer and closer. 

Then, all of the sudden, the creature leaped at him and roared. Levi barely had any time to react but he managed to leap to the side and dodge the animals attack, he landed on the ground with a sharp pain in his back. “Shit!” He exclaimed, half out of panic and half out of pain. The animal leaped on top of him before Levi could do anything and pinned his shoulders to the ground and the animal reached his mouth down to Levi’s neck and attempted to bite him.

Levi managed to free his shoulders from the creature's strong paws and pushed the creature's face away from his, it was then when he realized this animal was a wolf made completely out of wooden planks and trees and leaves. The wolf barked at him, peppering his face with his saliva. Levi held the wolf’s face away with his left hand and dropped the switchblade on the ground and decided to punch the wolf. He readied his hand and punched the wolf in the face as hard as he possibly could, the creature immediately jumped off of Levi allowing him to stand up and grab his switchblade. 

The wolf whimpered and backed away as Levi approached him, the wolf turned around and sprinted back into the forest, disappearing into the darkness of the forest. “Son of a bitch, fuck this place!” He exclaimed, flipping his switchblade back and sticking back in his back pocket. Levi fought through the pain and ran back to Fluttershy’s cottage.

Levi swung open the door and slammed it shut behind him, scaring Fluttershy. “EEK!” She exclaimed. “Sorry..” He said, stumbling over to the couch and sitting down. He didn’t realize until he sat down how worse his pain was now, due to him leaping onto the ground because of the wolf. 

“Fuck!” He whined, gritting his teeth.

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked, concerned.

“There was some fucking wooden wolf out there, it came at me and I leaped and fucked my back up more.” Levi explained, with pain evident in his voice.

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy responded, putting her hoof to her mouth. “There are timberwolves out in those woods, you need to be really careful.” 

Levi gave her an annoyed look and replied with “Maybe you should’ve told me that to begin with Fluttershy.” 

“I-I didn’t know. Sorry” Fluttershy apologized, lowering her head.

Levi saw this and felt bad for his rude comment and responded with “Oh it’s alright Fluttershy. I didn’t mean to sound rude.” 

“It’s ok.” She replied, raising her head and smiling. 

Levi smiled back but his smile quickly went away when he shifted on the couch and yelped in pain.

“There’s something wrong with my back, I need to see a doctor.” Levi said, going back to his original position and gritting his teeth. 

“Well if you go to Ponyville someone may be able to help you.” She said, “But they might not be so fond of you.” 

“Probably” He responded. 

Levi grabbed his hat and put it on his head and painstakingly and slowly stood up. “Ahh fuck!” He exclaimed in pain. “I’m gonna head down to Ponyville, see if anyone there can help me.” Levi said, walking slowly towards the door.

“Are you gonna come back?” Fluttershy asked, shyly. Levi turned his head towards her and gave her a confused look, “Why do you ask?”

“I..I like the company…” She answered, a blush forming on her cheeks. 

Levi noticed this and smiled at her and responded “I’ll be back later, I promise.” 

This brought a smile to Fluttershy’s face. He opened the door and looked at her and said “Later Flutters!” “Bye Levi!” She responded.

He staggered out of the cottage and slowly closed her door, and was met with the same cold breeze he felt when he walked outside, before the Timberwolf encounter. Levi began his slow walk to Ponyville, already missing the comfort of Fluttershy’s cottage as he crossed the bridge to the other side.