introducing a freak
Seeing as I was wearing all black, it was pretty easy to hide in the shadows. Looking around I could see the hustle and bustle of the town, Ponies going about their joyful day to day lives. One couldn’t help but smile. “Twilight, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, anything, what is it?” she asked me, her face slowly contorting into a worried look.
“I want to introduce myself to the whole of ponyville… but I don’t want them scared” I grinned sheepishly, knowing she could possibly help.
“Tell you what, after we’ve been to see the nurse to get you patched up, we’ll go see the mayor” Twilight reassured me. Walking in, I simply perched down onto the seats while twilight convinced the nurse to give me a helping hoof. Having the arm x-rayed, I continued my little chat with Twilight, who exchanged looks of worry and confusion with the nurse pony.
The arm had been put into a cast. I thanked the nurse pony with a hug, leaving Twilight flabbergasted.
“I’ve never seen anyone react to getting fixed up like that before” she broke her silence. I looked down to the ground
“well, most days I’d look after myself, was always on my own ya see,” I sighed. Looking into the purple mare’s eyes,
“there’s still a lot I need to do, like get a weapon to protect the town” I continued.
It had been a few hours of waiting to see the mayor, but luckily with Twilight beside me, it wasn’t long before the situation was explained. “I see, so he is officially the protector of Ponyville,” the mayor scanned me up and down, noting my overt friendly exterior, “that’s very noble of you” she smiled, but then returned to the serious tone of the scene.
“I think I know the best way to get people to know you better” I looked at the mare, sitting behind the desk with a mischievous grin on her face. “A party? Seriously?” I blurted out in distress; I was never one for big gatherings.
Applejack burst though the door, shouting something about a cockatrice getting too near the edge of the forest.
“I’ll be back guys” I shouted as I jumped out of the window, heading towards the forest as fast as my legs could take me.
With each stride I took, I felt chills, the chills of impending death.
I saw three young fillies cowering behind a large boulder in hopes that their eyes won’t meet the stony gaze of certain death. I gritted my teeth as I jumped into the air, bringing my good fist down onto the cockatrice’s beak.
“Children, run” I shouted. The urge to fight had risen. I ripped a piece of fabric off my t-shirt, using it to cover the beast’s eyes. The beast flailed its legs around wildly catching me off guard, leaving three gashes on my chest.
I collapsed to the ground, feigning death. The cockatrice edged itself closer me. I grabbed its legs, and swung it into a tree. My broken arm flaring up, I decided it best to formulate the perfect death sentence. I jumped onto its back, and snapped its neck.
Finally getting back up on my feet, I walked into the mayor’s office, seeing the worry on the three mares faces. I smiled, blood running down from a cut on my cheek. “I won” I said weakly, not noticing the full extent of my wounds. I collapsed.
Waking up, I took a groggy look at the white room, stitches running across my body, bandages wrapped neatly and tightly around my leg. I could smell disinfectant in the air. The stench of it was almost enough to make me gag. That’s when I noticed the sleeping form of Twilight Sparkle. She looked peaceful, lying there with her head gently resting on an open book. The nurse walked in with a tray of food. I brought a finger to my lips, indicating that the purple unicorn was sleeping. The nurse smiled, and then quietly placed the tray on my lap. I took a good look at the book, but couldn’t recognize any of the characters used. It finally occurred to me that, even though they spoke perfect English, they didn’t have the same writing system. Earlier when I was asking about Discord, I had just assumed that the book itself was imported from another country. i took a look at the food, taking a whiff of the porridge that was currently steaming, picking up a spoon I took a mouthful. It was Just plain heavenly, although I never was that keen on porridge. I noticed the sleeping pony had stirred from her innocent slumber. I had only eaten half of the porridge, deciding to share the rest.
“Hey twilight,” I said with a smile “you look like your hungry, have the rest of this porridge.” I handed her the bowl, she gave me a now trademarked worried look.
“Dave, why? You need it more than me” she stated in a motherly tone.
I picked up the glass of orange juice, taking a sip. “You could have died!” she shouted, tears starting to roll down her cheek. I looked down, trying to come up with something to say, but then I realized “I swore an oath remember? That oath was to protect Ponyville and its inhabitants; I couldn’t just stand by while that beast was getting near to the town”
I looked into her eyes, her fur darkened by her tears. I picked up a tissue to dry her eyes. “and besides, I don’t plan on dying any time soon” I smiled. The nurse walked in to see Twilight munching happily on the porridge,
“its okay nurse…err…”
The nurse smiled. “Redheart” she gave me her name.
“Well, its okay Nurse Redheart, I ate half and gave the rest to her, it’s the least I could do” I continued with a grin.
“The poor dear’s been by your bedside for three days” Nurse Redheart informed me, I could only blink for a moment to let the information seep in.
“three days?” I asked with hints of worry. She simply nodded “it was a miracle you survived,” she said with a sheepish grin “you’re very lucky”
I chuckled, even if it hurt to high hell “the cockatrice wasn’t” as I said this, the nurse’s eyes widened, as did twilight’s.
Twilight started asking me lots of questions, like how I stopped the Cockatrice.
“Simple,” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, “the Cockatrice has the ability to turn living flesh into stone right? Well acting on this principle,” twilight looked at me, watching me open my eyes. “I used my now ruined t-shirt to blind the creature, I then…” I trailed off; Twilight could tell I was worried about telling her the events. “I snapped its neck, thus killing it” I could see her jaw drop. “I had to, other wise those three fillies would run into the damn thing again”
“Three fillies?” Twilight racked her brain, finally coming to a conclusion.
“Girls, you can come in now” she called out. Three young ponies walked through the door, one I had previously met, “Hello Applebloom,” I smiled, I could see her eyes were bloodshot. “Hey, chin up little one, I’m okay, it’ll take a lot more to take me down than a stupid cockatrice” I boasted, a feeble attempt to make them feel better.
“Just try to be more careful in future” I patted her on the head, the other two took a glance over my damaged body. The white furred, dual-tone maned pony spoke with elegance “I must apologize for getting you into this situation” I shook my head at this, “no need young-un, what’s your name?” I asked with a smile
“Sweetie Belle” she sniffed, I placed my hand on her head. “Trust me, I was,” I stopped mid sentence to search for the right word “I was simply doing my duty as the new defender of Ponyville”, the little orange one looked up at me for a moment. Then with a big grin she started to frantically speak “dude, that was so awesome, the way you fought that thing, and you were all like BAM, and wham and stuff was so cool”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. “What’s your name” I asked
“Its Scootaloo dude” the orange filly replied with a grin as wide as china. Suddenly they all chimed in together “and we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” I looked at the three kids, who each had an equally large grin on their face
“so what were you doing in the forest?”
“We were trying to find our Cutie marks,” Appleboom started. I glanced over to Twilight, mouthing the words ‘what the fuck is a Cutie mark?’ she giggled. “We were gathering ingredients for Zecora” Sweetie Belle continued,
“But then we ran into the Cockatrice, so we hid” Scootaloo finished. Had I not met Applebloom earlier I would have sworn they were attached at the hip.
“Well, hey, least I could prove myself to the Ponies of ponyville,” I said with a smile
“So, no harm done,” I grinned. “Nurse? Can I get this cast off? If you’ve got other patients then just bring the equipment here, and I’ll do it myself” I smiled. She brought the equipment, and simply just cut along a line. The cast fell off.
I rubbed my newly repaired arm, feeling the tingle in air, the electricity of the moment. I pulled Twilight into a hug. “Thanks for sticking around, Twi” I whispered in her ear. “Did you happen to find a book with strange lettering and two humans on the front by any chance?” I asked, she nodded “yep, brought it with me, seeing as your stuck here for a while” she handed me the book, the only book from my world.
Battle Royale. I opened the book, she could only watch as my eyes scanned the pages.
“Damn it, I’ll have to start again” I chuckled, she looked at me for a moment, I could see the cogs going round in her head, I watched her thought process. She finally spoke. “Could you read it to me?” she asked, like a child would ask for a story at bedtime. I couldn’t help but smile “alright, but first of all, let me explain a little bit about this book, it’s a commentary about how War can effect lives” I noted her eyes were glistening with intent. “So its about war” she looked down,
“read it anyway” she continued.
After four days, most of my wounds had been healed, and the two of us had read through to the 60th chapter of the book. I could see the tears in her eyes as I read the last sentence. “Haruka and Chisato cried out with joy while Satomi got up from her sofa, but next to her Yuko turned pale…. Shall we save the rest for back at the library?” I asked the purple mare beside me. She nodded.
As we walked back to the library, I noticed the looks I was getting from the other ponies, but not looks of fear. I was surprised by a few who even asked me what I was. Some even thanked me for stopping the cockatrice.
Opening the library door, you could feel the atmosphere change.
“SURPRISE” the bouncing pink party pony shouted with glee.
I looked around to see quite a lot of ponies inside the library, ponies of every shape and size. I felt myself being pulled into it by a blue blur. “Dash, lemme go!" I protested, but in the end, I gave up.
This was certainly going to be an interesting night.
I watched as the familiar blip in the sky drew closer to me.
As it landed, my stomach sank. I was expecting the Mega-bitch, Celestia.
But who I got was someone smaller, and kinder to boot.
“HELLO, THOU HAST DONE ME A GREAT HONOUR PINKIE PIE, FOR INVITING ME TO THINE PARTY” the small alicorn boomed out in what some ponies have dubbed the ‘Royal Canterlot voice’.
“Princess Luna, the Royal Canterlot voice isn’t needed here” I said quickly kneeling.
“I must apologize for my current state, fresh out of the hospital today” I continued with my explanation. She simply beckoned me to rise. “You must be the Human Celestia warned me about”. She spoke quietly, not wanting to raise my alarms. “it’s okay, I’m actually quite safe, unless you plan on attacking Ponyville” I said with a chuckle.
She looked at me for a moment, and then she realized I was the defender of the town “Celestia can be a bit fearful of new things, especially after…” the little alicorn trailed off.
“You don’t need to worry, I know what its like to lose oneself to darkness” I said, my eyes meeting hers.
“I can’t really be bothered to tell you my story, so how about we enjoy the party” I chuckled, breaking the spell of silence as she looked me over.
As I had said…
It was to be an interesting night.