‘Ugh… Anyone get the license plate number on that truck?’
Consciousness slowly seeped back into Brandon’s mind. His head was throbbing. He tried to remember what he had done that had his head hurting so bad.
‘Let’s see… The last thing I remember was playing Call of Duty. Then there was that noise upstairs, and…’
His eyes shot open and he quickly sat up at the memory of what he had seen upon entering the guest bedroom. An action he immediately regretted as he squeezed his eyes shut and held his head with both hands, searing pain shooting through his head. He struggled to fight back a bout of nausea that accompanied the sudden, sharp pain.
“Goodness! You shouldn't be moving around like that in your condition!” Came a female voice that sounded like it was right next to the bed.
He froze. There shouldn't have been anyone in his house, female or otherwise. Had his mind concocted that memory and there actually were people who had broken into his house? His mind started creating all kinds of wild scenarios involving all manner of kidnapping and robbery.
As the pain started to die down, he noticed that his head was wrapped in some kind of cloth. Robbers wouldn't try and bandage him up, would they? Deciding to take his chances, he slowly opened his eyes and looked in the direction the voice had come from. What he saw made his brain perform a temporary shutdown. Out of all the possibilities that had gone through his head, this was certainly not among them.
Standing beside the bed, with a surprisingly human look of concern, was what looked like a small yellow horse. It definitely wasn't a horse though, seeing as it had giant teal colored eyes that took up the majority of its face. It’s muzzle was also too short for a horse, and it had long flowing pink hair. It looked more like something that you would find in a little girl’s story book.
Looking further across the room, he saw five more of them sitting in a group, now staring at him. They were all different colors, and- wait does that one have a horn?! He blinked his eyes a few times to clear up his vision, surely he had been seeing things. When he looked again, however, the purple and white ones indeed had horns sticking out of their heads. The blue one even had rainbow striped hair!
He stared at them for almost an entire minute with his jaw hanging loose. The blue one slowly leaned closer to the purple one.
“Twi, I think you broke it.”
Hearing it talk officially put Brandon into ‘freak out mode’.
“The hell!” He exclaimed while trying to crawl away from them, ending up falling off the other side of the bed. “Ahh! Son of a bitch!”
The yellow one ran around to the other side of the bed, staring at him as he lay their on the floor clutching his head. It opened its mouth as if to speak but he cut it off before it could begin.
“No! Stay the fuck away from me! You aren't real, horses don’t talk!”
It seemed to be hurt by his words, it looked like it was about to cry as it laid down where it was standing and tried to cover it’s face with its hair. Suddenly the blue one seemingly appeared out of thin air above him. He braced himself for the impact, but it never came.
“Hey don’t yell at Fluttershy like that! She was just making sure you were OK! Now apologize to her!”
Feeling a slight breeze, he glance up and saw that it was still in the same place above him, but was hovering in place on a pair of blue wings. His view was soon filled with a very angry face in very close proximity to his own, causing him to recoil slightly.
“Did you hear me! I said say you’re sorry!”
“I’m sorry!” He yelled back at her.
“Not to me, to her.” It pointed one of its legs at the yellow one. A faint sobbing sound could be heard.
Somehow, knowing that he had made the poor creature cry even thought it was just trying to help him, snapped him out of his episode. He sat up and slowly crawled his way the few feet to where the creature was laying. He gently touched the top of her head which caused her to pull away slightly.
“Hey… Um… I… Uh… I’m sorry for yelling at you like that. I kinda freaked out a bit there.” He said as he petted the top of her head lightly.
She turned her head to face him, eyes tinted red slightly from crying. He got a good look at her and his heart sank. Nothing this adorable should have to cry, especially not if it was his fault.
The purple one walked around the bed and he turned to face it. It looked almost… nervous?
“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. My friends and I are sorry for intruding in your home, it was purely by accident I assure you!” She looked down at the floor and kicked one of her legs a little bit. “I… Um… I also… hit you with the lamp.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and visibly cringed, as if expecting him to lash out at her. Try as he might, he just couldn't bring himself to be angry with her. She seemed honestly sorry about this whole thing. She opened one eye, peeking at him as if to see why he hadn't attacked her yet. He held out his hand towards her and she cringed again.
“Hey, it’s OK. I forgive you.”
She seemed to relax a little and peeked at him again.
“Y-You do?” He nodded and she relaxed the rest of the way. “But… I hurt you. You should be mad at me.”
“Eh, I've always been told I’m hard headed, guess it means literally now too. Besides, you seem sorry for doing it so I'm not going to hold it against you.” He let out a small chuckle before letting out a hiss of pain and bringing his hand to his head again. After the pain subsided, he extended his hand towards her again.
“I’m Brandon, Brandon Fisher.”
She looked at his hand for a couple of seconds before recognizing the gesture and extending one of her front legs. He grasped the end of it and gently shook her hoof.
The fur that covered her leg was unbelievably soft, almost like fresh down or a really soft brush. Her hoof was something akin to a hard rubber. It was firm but it wasn't hard like bone. He released her hoof and she turned and gestured for the rest of them to come over.
“These are the rest of my friends.” She started, pointing to each as she named them off.
“This is Applejack.” The orange one with blonde hair who was now sporting, of all things, a cowboy hat.
“Howdy.”
“Rarity.” The white one with deep purple hair.
“Charmed.”
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! Will you be my friend? Huh? Will you? Will You?” She prattled off at a seemingly impossible speed.
“Pinkie!” Twilight said, cutting her off.
“Oh, sorry.” She said with a sheepish smile. Twilight continued on.
“Rainbow Dash.”
“The one and only.” She said proudly holding a hoof to her chest.
“And Fluttershy you've already met.”
“Well its certainly nice to meet you all.” He said as he stood up. The five in front of him all backed up a step as he reached his full height. “But I need to go have this checked out.” He said, pointing to his injury.
“Will you all be OK here for a while?” They all nodded. “OK. This room and the room across the hall are both guest bedrooms and the bathroom is down the hall and to the left.”
He waited for a few moments to see if they had any questions before turning and heading downstairs. On his way past the living room, he saw that the T.V. and Xbox were still on. He went over and turned both of them off, also grabbing the controller and headset off the couch and returning them to their proper places.
Heading to the front door, he grabbed his keys, phone, and wallet from the little table that sat next to the door and slipped on his shoes. Shoving his phone and wallet into his pockets, he made sure to set the alarm system and headed out, making sure to lock the door.
He walked the few feet to his driveway, in which sat his dad’s old Firebird. His dad had given it to him on his eighteenth birthday. It was the old black and gold one with the emblem on the hood, and aside from the paint looking a little worse for wear, he had managed to keep everything under the hood running smoothly.
Climbing in and starting it up, he sat there for a moment, listening to the familiar sounds of the engine before backing out of the driveway and heading to the hospital.