Chapter 3: A New Day
The Next Day...
(Author's Note: Pony Units of Measurement: hoof=6 inches, tail length=4 hooves.)
Ditzy woke up earlier then usual, remembering that today she would have to lead Twilight and Rainbow to Creature. Why didn't I fly away when I had the chance? she thought, as she rolled around in her bed, And now Twilight is going to say Creature is dangerous and take him far away. Ditzy adopted a look of sadness at the thought of never meeting Creature face to face as she jumped out of bed and slowly fluttered down to her floor. I already told Twilight that he was safe but noooo, "Ditzy, you don't know anything so I'll have to come and take care of it for you." Ditzy kicked her frustration wall, a large, sturdy wooden board set up in her hallway by her bedroom door, and added to the many hoof prints already there.
I could have just said that I thought this was the line for muffins and nopony would have doubted me. But I figured if the Mayor asked I should probably answer. Why couldn't my eyes have been born normal, then everypony wouldn't tease me all the time and they might actually trust me to do things by myself, like meet Creature without a foalsitter. I don't know why they don't trust me, I can see perfectly fin- Ditzy's left eye was looking straight down so she did not see the obstruction in her path and hit the side of her head on the door frame of her kitchen. -Mostly fine, she thought, rubbing her head with with her hoof. But still, just because I can't control my left eye doesn't mean I'm retarded, she thought, as she reached in to her muffin pantry and pulled out two muffins, one for breakfast and one for lunch.
She put on her mailbags and put her lunch muffin in them and flew out the door as she started to eat the first muffin. Two minutes later she returned for her blue postal workers hat, So, it's going to be one of those days, she thought, putting her hat on her head. Mailbags, hat, and lunch, thought Ditzy, checking her equipment before flying out the door for the second time that morning. I hope that the rest of the day will be better that this morning and definitely not as bad as last Saturday, Ditzy shuddered at the memory as she landed on the doorstep of the Postal Office. She walked into the building and went over to where her mail was waiting and, thankful that it was already sorted into proper order, placed it in her mailbags. There is no point in delaying it any longer, time to get started. She sighed and walked out of the Post Office, knowing who would be waiting for her.
When Ditzy walked out of the door her eyes met an unfortunate sight, a light green earth pony with a midnight blue mane. Now normally, for any other pony this would be no cause for concern, Unfortunately I don't fall under the "everypony that he doesn't hate" category.
"Good morning, Ditzy, how are you doing today?" said the stallion, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Ditzy responded warily, certain that he would start teasing her soon.
"Are you sure? You don't look so good, in fact it looks like you ran into a wall this morning," mocked Bane.
"Excuse me, but I have to get started on work." replied Ditzy taking to the skies, and thankful that he couldn't follow. His name isn't really Bane, but since he is the bane to my existence I think it's a perfect name, and I'm sure as hay not going to ask him what his real name is either.
"Don't forget your hat!" he called out.
She stopped in mid flight, hovering above the building and felt the top of her head for her hat, I could have sworn I didn't take it off in the Post Office...
Bane's harsh, mocking laughter rang out from below. "Catch you later, Ditzy!" he yelled, still laughing as he walked off.
Yup, just one of those days. she thought, flying over to the first mailbox on her route. Just one of those days...
At least the rest of my work day went better than this morning, thought Ditzy, as she put the last few letters into the last mailbox. As she started flying home she started thinking, I wonder how Creature is doing, I'm sure today is the day that instead of just a muffin waiting for it, I will be there holding the muffin and will introduce myself.
Wait a second, who is that on my doorstep? It looks like... Twilight and Rainbow? Right, I forgot had to take them with me... Ponyfeathers.
"Good afternoon, Twilight, and you too, Rainbow," said Ditzy, landing next to them.
"Good afternoon, Ditzy," responded Twilight, half way between normal talking and a whisper, "Dash somehow fell asleep in the six minutes we have been waiting here, "so once you are ready I'll wake her and we will leave."
"Sounds good, Twilight," said Ditzy quietly, as she walked past Twilight and into her house. She put her mailbags and hat into her living room, their usual place of residence. She retrieved her regular saddlebags from right next to where she put her postal uniform, and then walked over to her muffin pantry and filled it with muffins. Mission accomplished, she walked out of her house and almost crashed into the excited face of Twilight.
"Are you ready now?" Twilight asked enthusiastically. When Ditzy nodded she squealed with glee and shoved Dash yelling, "Wake up sleepy head! It's time to go!"
"Ouch, Twilight, you didn't have to be so rough," Dash groaned, as she got to her hooves after being shoved into the ground. Catching sight of Ditzy she asked, "Are we ready to go?"
"Of course, why do you think I woke you? Lead the way to discovery, Ditzy," Said Twilight.
"No," decided Ditzy.
"No...?" said Twilight, the smile of excitement frozen on her face as her eyes began to take on a crazed look.
"Not until you give me the ability to help decide what happens to Creature, because I know you will want to take it away for testing," said Ditzy putting her hoof down firmly both literally and figuratively.
"Yes, yes of course. As the discoverer of this new species you have quite a say in what happens to Creature. In fact, I filed the paperwork this morning. Now can we go?" Twilight was practically drooling at the prospect of seeing Creature.
"Yes, now we can go, Rainbow, grab Twilight and follow me," Ditzy responded.
"Finally!" shouted Rainbow, "Lets go monster hunting!"
"You mean Creature hunting," a one and a half eyed glare persuaded Rainbow to change her statement.
" I said Creature, of course I said Creature, why would I say monster?" said Rainbow, picking up Twilight in her hooves.
"That's what I thought you said," said Ditzy taking off and flying toward the cloud with Rainbow following close behind. Although, she was sure she heard Rainbow mutter "monster" under her breath when she thought she wouldn't be heard.
Upon arriving at the cloud Twilight cast her cloud-walking spell on herself before Rainbow set her down on the fluffy surface.
"Now what, Ditzy?" said Rainbow.
"Now we wait, and watch for black smoke."
"Like that smoke over there?" asked Twilight, looking through the binoculars she had thoughtfully decided to pack in her saddlebags.
"Yup, and now we just have to carefully, and slowly fly the cloud over on top of the smoke," replied Ditzy, as she started pushing the cloud in the direction of the smoke. Rainbow soon joined in as Twilight sat on top of the cloud mulling over her checklist while muttering to herself. When they pushed the cloud over the smoke and only a few feet above the treetops, Ditzy signaled for Rainbow to stop and flew on top of the cloud, Rainbow joining a second later.
"Now is usually when I fly down and put the muffin down there," said Ditzy, "But today I was going to give it to Creature by hoof.
"If you really think that's a good idea then Rainbow and I will fly down with you and keep out of sight but close enough to help if needed, does that sound okay Ditzy?" asked Twilight.
"Sounds good, just stay out of sight, I don't want to spook it," replied Ditzy, jumping off of the cloud and gliding down towards the smoke. Ditzy landed just out of sight of the smoke, she then slowly and nervously started walking towards it. She cautiously walked into a small clearing and found the source of the smoke, a small pile of burning sticks, the only other object in the clearing was a huge black boulder. That's funny, I've never seen a moving boulder before.
The boulder slowly turned its head around to face Ditzy followed by the rest what she now knew to be a body and fixed its piercing blue orbs on Ditzy's golden eyes. For once she managed to keep both her eyes locked on what she hoped were its eyes. Creature got to it hind legs slowly as Ditzy's eyes followed it up as it just kept getting taller and taller until it towered above her. When Creature had reached its full height of what Ditzy guessed was about four tail lengths tall she could finally get a good look at it for the first time.
Creature was covered head to, what appeared to be paws, in silky looking, glossy black fur, its legs were muscular but not overly so, however, the odd thing about its legs were its knees, they appeared to bend the wrong way. Creature is definitely a he, thought Ditzy, blushing slightly as her gaze traveled up past Creature's midsection, pointedly not stopping there to stare at the clearly defined muscle sitting slightly above... that. Creatures chest was at least a tail length and a half wide and just as muscular as the rest of him. His forelegs were shorter that his hind legs and they seemed to end in five long flexible claws, each about a hoof long. The weirdest thing about him was his head, it was just a featureless black oval that had no discernible features except for two sky blue orbs that appeared to shine with inner intelligence. I don't even know if those are eyes or not, but they have to be eyes, right?
Creature began to lumber forward, closing the distance between them rapidly with huge paw steps. As Creature closed in on her only one thought was on her mind, Biiiiiig... Creature is very... big... When Creature stopped in front of her, Ditzy pulled out a muffin from her saddlebag and held it up to him, glancing away as she uncomfortably noticed that Creatures "stallion equipment" was at her eye level not far away from her muzzle.
Creature knelt down on one knee and picked up the muffin Ditzy held in her hoof and held it up to its "eyes" inspecting it. Its knees seem quite good for that, Ditzy thought, apparently they are just different, not wrong.
Out of the corner of her eye Ditzy saw Dash flying toward Creature. "No! What are you doing?" she yelled.
Dash completely ignored Ditzy as she got right up in Creature's face and yelled, "What have you done with Angel!"
Creature did not take kindly to having the pegasus shoved in his face and responded with surprising speed for a giant. Creature grabbed Dash's head with his long claws and drove his head straight into Rainbow muzzle, he then threw her straight down and stood on her right wing, snapping the bone as he brought his leg down. Rainbow screamed in pain as her wing broke. Creature then looked at Ditzy warily while still standing on Dash's wing. Don't look at Creature, don't move toward Creature, don't even breathe toward Creature, Ditzy thought, slowly backing away.
Creature looked at her curiously, not noticing the tree branch floating behind him covered in a purple aura. The tree branch hardly made a sound when it hit the back of his head, but Creature certainly felt it and promptly fell forward onto the ground and didn't get up.
Ditzy cautiously advanced on the unconscious behemoth, while Twilight came out of hiding and went over to where Rainbow was lying. Twilight helped Rainbow to her hooves and they both walked over to where Ditzy was watching Creature.
"...I think we should put him in a cage for a little while, at least until we can trust him not to flip out like that," said Twilight after a few minutes.
Both mares were unable to formulate a verbal response, one was much too shocked by what had happened, and the other much too hurt, so they just nodded slowly.