//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Everything's a Little Smaller // Story: An Odd New Friend // by Eon333MS //------------------------------// Twilight stood paralyzed as realization struck her like lightning. Her accusing hoof could only shiver in air. Her tongue couldn’t keep up with her mind. How did he get here? Did he use Cadence’s portal? When did he get here? What’s his purpose here? What’s going on? Why is there a human in Equestria? Why is there a human right in front of me? “I-er-how-what-when-whyis-?" The human turned to Fluttershy, “Is she OK? “Umm… I think so…” After a mere second, the many trains of thought running through Twilight’s mind finally crashed and collapsed onto themselves, freeing her to speak her mind. Twilight retracted her hoof and yelled louder than she intended, “What in Celestia’s sun is a human doing in Equestria?!” She found herself breathing deeply; the short ordeal was mentally exhausting. His response was frustratingly simple, “I don’t know.” Twilight squinted her eyes at him, “What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?” “I don’t know, as in, I literally don’t know how I got here.” “I know that, its-it’s just that-uuggh! This is confusing!” Twilight collapse to the floor and held her head within her hooves. She was starting to get a headache. After a few seconds, she recollected herself and looked up at the human. He looked down at her, and raised one of those fur spots just above what might be his eyes. Twilight got the impression he was now confused by her actions. “Ok, ok, ok. Let’s try this again.” Twilight took a long, deep breath and brought a hoof to her chest. She swayed the hoof outward and slowly breathed out. Now calmed, she looked back at the human and asked, “Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?” The human made a small smirk at that. “Hey. I’m Eric Davidson, but most just call me Dave.” While still sitting on the bed, he stretched out one of his forelegs, and opened one of his sets of claws. The small smile grew on his face, “Nice to meetcha.” Twilight stared at the extended limb for a few seconds, wondering what Dave was doing with it. Was this some sort of human greeting? She’d been in the human world for only a few days, but didn’t really pick up on the culture. Could this be some kind of hoofshake? Dave stared at her while she stared at his claws. He noticed the confusion and quickly retracted his forearm. “Sorry,” he said, “Old habits.” Twilight wasn’t sure if that was a hoofshake, but she took a chance anyway, “No-no, its ok,” she extended her hoof towards him and made a weak smile. “We do hoofshakes here.” Twilight’s smile turned sincere when he took the hoof in his claws, wrapping them around and shaking it. His claws felt much different from Spike’s purple ones. They were rough, but definitely scaleless. After a few shakes, Dave turned to Fluttershy. “Nice to meet you too, miss…?” Fluttershy tilted her head and tried to hide in her pink mane. She seemed embarrassed just to have the human talk to her. “Its…I’m….um…Fluttershy…” “Well, I’m Dave.” He extended his claw towards the yellow mare. Fluttershy was a bit hesitant to make contact with the human, but Dave put on a calming smile and after a few moments, he managed to shake hooves with Fluttershy. Dave seemed to take Fluttershy’s timidness into consideration as he shook her hoof much more slowly than he did Twilight’s. “Say, aren’t you the one that patched me up?” “Um, Yeah, kinda…. you don’t mind do you?” Dave tried to shake his head while laughing at the same time, “HAhahaa, mind? Of course not! Hahaa” With his small fit over, Dave relaxed, but still smiled, “I don’t have any money, but I still owe you a big one, doc. Just give me a call, whatever you need.” “Oh…um, ok.” “Weeeell,” Twilight intervened; she needed some questions answered, and the sooner, the better, “Now that introductions are out of the way, back to my original question,” Both Fluttershy and Dave turned their attention to her. “What is a human like you doing here?” Dave shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders. “Again, I don’t know.” “So you have no idea how you got here?” “Nope” “Do you at least remember something?” “Well, I…” Dave shifted his gaze downward for a few seconds, lost in thought. Every expression on his face suddenly tensed. His eyes squinted slightly; he seemed to grow angry at the floor. “I don’t want to talk about it.” “Please, any informa-“ “NO.” His voice was full of authority and conviction. Dave’s gaze rapidly shifted forward, staring at and through Twilight, emitting anger and an atmosphere of threat. She was quick to withdraw the question; old instincts feared what he would do should he act on that anger. “I do not want to talk about it.” “Oh, um, it’s ok, hehee,” Twilight put on a fake smile, trying to elevate the tension. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine.” Dave’s face relaxed at that. Twilight wanted to stomp her hoof at the ground, curiosity bugged her to no end. Fluttershy spoke up, “Hey, um, Dave, “She pointed a hoof towards his torso, “Is all of that armor?” Dave looked down at himself, “My gear? Yeah, I guess it kinda is.” He looked back at Fluttershy, “Why do you ask.” Fluttershy lowered her hoof, “Umm, well, then I need to reapply the bandages, without he armor, if you don’t mind.” Dave looked down towards his wound, “Oh, Yeah. I was wondering why you guys didn’t remove the armor first.” Twilight tapped a hoof atop the chunk of armor Dave dropped next to her, “Well, we originally thought that was all some sort of exoskeleton.” “Oh yeah, your little research paper.” Fluttershy started to walk out of the room. “I’ll just go get more bandages.” Dave and Twilight both nodded simultaneously at Fluttershy as she left. As they looked back at each other, both of them suffered from the long moment of awkward silence. Neither of them knew what to say next. … ... ... Twilight was the one to break the tension. “So... Anything you want to talk about.” “About me?” Her excitement rose a little at that, “Actually, yes please.” Twilight levitated some fresh paper from a nearby table, and found her red quill on the floor; perhaps it was dropped when Dave took off his… helmet, was it? She floated the quill towards the table and dabbed it with wet ink. All the while Dave seemed to watch in awe at the simple act of magic. With her writing supplies in check, Twilight sat back down on the floor, ready to write. Dave kept his stare at the quill and paper. “How…the hell…do you do that?” Twilight looked at her quill and floated it closer to him and willed it to fly in random circles. Like a dog with a floating treat, Dave kept his eyes fixated on the feather, and twisted his head around and around to keep it directed to the quill. Twilight chuckled, but still felt a little guilty for having fun like this. Her smile turned into a smirk, “It’s magic.” Dave suddenly reach out with is forelimb, and caught the feather within two of his claws, stopping its flight, but at the same time he was gentle and deliberately tried to prevent any damage to it. He pulled on the feather, and Twilight pulled back with her magic. Dave constantly changed the amount of force he put into pulling the feather. He would pull it closer than let it move away and back again. He whispered to himself, “Wow.” With a small yank, Twilight pulled the feather from his grip. “You don’t have magic in the human world, do you?” “Heh, I wish.” Dave looked down at both his claws. His palms where pointed upward, and he made motion as to slowly but repeatedly grab something that wasn’t there, “Man, that’d be amazing; to just be able to float stuff around, or do all kinds of things with just a thought... Wow, I really wish I could do that stuff.” They both looked up when the door to the bedroom creaked as it opened up. Fluttershy trotted in balancing a first aid kit on her back. With a wing, she placed a kit on the bed beside Dave and opened it up. Inside was an assortment of basic medical supplies: bandages, disinfectants, gauss pads, medical tap, a scalpel, a set of surgical needles and thread, and a few pain killers amongst other things. She took out the medical scissors in her teeth and cut away at the old bandages while holding it tight with a hoof. When she was done, Fluttershy looked up to Dave, who was still sitting on the bed, “Umm, could you, take off the armor, if you don’t mind.” “Huh? Oh, sure thing doc.” Dave took the bandages on him between his claws. He pulled them off his body with little difficulty, holding them into the air before dropping them unto the bed beside him. He reached around and behind his neck. With a small pull, he had taken off the soft bit of armor around his neck that had originally masked most of his face. From what Twilight could see, it looked like it might be made of cloth. He dropped it to the floor. Dave then reached over his shoulder with the opposite claw and grabbed something just over the hard plate. He seemed to pull on something, causing a ripping sound that made Twilight think of sandpaper rubbing on brick. Then he grabbed the armor plate itself, freeing it from his shoulder and letting it drop to the floor with a 'clunk'. He then made the same procedure on his other shoulder. Twilight took notice this time what cause that ripping sound. It seemed that some of the straps holding the armor piece in place, stuck to each other in someway, and whenever they were forcibly separated, it caused that sound. Dave made no reaction to it, so she assumed it was normal. He then grabbed one wrist with his other claw, ripping a small strap and creating that sound again. He stuck one of his claws on his other forearm under the claw armor, and pulled on it, lifting it off and reveling five now uncovered claws. They did not have a sharp end to them life spike’s claws or griffin talons, but they were just as pale in color as Dave’s face. He did this again, and removed the armor from his other claws. He let both pieces drop to the floor, next to his shoulder armor. He did this two more times, ripping and removing a long plate of hard armor on his foreleg, adding them to his growing pile. Unlike the claws, more of his soft armor where under these plates. With all the harder armor removed from his torso, Dave took a few of his claws and seemed to dig them into his upper chest. With the claws seemingly still inside him, he pulled downward toward his abdomen and causing another ripping sound. When he pulled his claws away, Twilight saw that he was in fact ripping a long strip off the soft parts of his armor. Now opened up, she could clearly see a zipper hidden under that strip. A zipper? Twilight mentally face-hoofed. It shouldn’t have been that hard to find. She felt almost stupid for recently thinking this armor was part of some natural exoskeleton. Dave took the zipper between two claws and pulled it down, separating the metal pieces and splitting his armor down his middle. In a few odd motions, he pulled the armor off his back and arms, this time leaving it on the bed. I could now see what she assumed to be the skin on his arms. They both now had the same texture and pale color as his face or claws, but she could now see a very thin layer of fur on his lower forearms as well as several odd pitch-black markings on his shoulders. His chest and abdomen, however, were still covered by some gray covering; another layer to his armor Twilight assumed. He grabbed the piece and pulled it out over his head, finally reveling his entire upper body. Without any kind of coat, mostly without it at least, she could make out individual muscles on the surface of his body. On his chest, Twilight could see another thin patch of fur and what she was pretty sure was a pair of nipples. She found it kind of odd that these were placed between his forelegs, rather than the rearlegs. But then again, he’s an entirely different animal; one shouldn’t be expecting his anatomy to have many similarities with that of a pony. Dave's shoulders were heavy and broad. His toned body pronounced power, and a few faded scars showed experience. He also wore some kind of necklace. It was hidden under his last layer, and didn’t appear to be jewelry of some kind. It was simple, consisting of two metal plates strung together with a small, but long chain that roped around his short neck. Twilight could barely see the metal plates had some kind of writing on it, but any interest was dissolved when She finally had a good look at his would. The sight almost made Twilight empty her stomach. The left half of his abdomen had been ripped to shreds. Raw flesh and skin hung out at all the edges. She could even see the outline of some organ. A thin layer of breaking scab covered it most of it, but blood continued to seep in several small places. The wound was massive; in fact, he should’ve bled to death by now. That fact that he was able to not only stand, but fight a few hours ago while the wound was younger was both disturbing and amazing. Twilight looked at the wound in dark awe. Fluttershy mumbled, “Oh, my.” She gently began to rap the mediacal roll around Dave’s body, careful not to worsen the wound. In hindsight, it was kind of dumb for her to ask, but Twilight just had to, “Doesn’t that hurt?” All emotion was drained from Dave’s face, “Yeah…a lot.” Twilght's curiosity for the night was shut down. The air remained still and silent as Fluttershy continued to bandage the wound. Twilight yawned. It was getting late. Truthfully, she wanted to sleep right now. Twilight got up. “Well, it was nice meeting you Dave.” “Yeah, um, nice meeting you too, I guess.” *** The walk back home was a bit chilly. The nearby trees danced in the gentle breeze. The sun was setting, and the amber horizon was visible in the distance. Every shadow was now twice the height of its owner, and the glow gave everything both a warm and cool appearance. The town itself was slowing down. What few ponies were still on the streets hurried to finish their tasks hoping to return home before the cold night came. Street lamps began to glow, and Twilight made a bee line to the library. With her magic, she opened to door and casually walked into the giant, carved tree that served as both the local library and her home. Her number one assistant, Spike, sat atop a pile of books reading another between his claws. The sound of the door pulled his attention, and he looked up towards Twilight. As Twilight closed the door, he addressed her, “Hiya Twilight. What’ve you been up to?” Twilight used her magic to lift her saddle bags and laid them in their spot next to the door. She looked back at spike, “Oh, nothing, just met somepony new to town.” A smirk spread across Spike’s face, “Oooo, what’s the lucky stallion’s name?” Twilight lifted and eyebrow, “It’s not like that, Spike. And by the way, he’s not a stallion or a pony at all.” “Then what is he, a griffin?” “He’s actually a human.” “A human? What’s that?” “It’s a type of creature not native to Equestria or this world at all.” She took a moment to think of a way to explain this, “Remember that time we went to the Crystal Empire, and ended up following a pony though a portal for a few days to get my crown back?” “Uh-huh.” “Well, that portal we were through leads to the human world. Not many ponies even know it exists, and even princess Celestia knows very little about it.” “Wait, so he’s form a different world?” “Yes, he is.” “Does that mean… he’s an alien?” “Well…technically, I guess he is. But don’t worry Spike. It’s not like he’s here to control of everypony’s mind or exterminate us or something.” Spike let out a sigh, “Well that’s a relief.” “Spike, you really need to stop reading those comic books.” “Hey, how’d you know I was reading a comic book?” “I didn’t, but thanks for pointing it out for me.” “Wha-but I- uugh.” Spike crossed his arms; now frustrated and defeated. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Read it, just make sure all of those books get put way before you go to bed.” “All right.” “In the right spots.” “I know; I’ll get it.” “I mean it, Spike.” “I got it, shesh. Anything else you want, princess?” Twilight's brows angled, irritated at his sarcasm, “Just clean your mess.” “Fine.” Spike returned his attention towards his book, and Twilight trotted up the stairs. Before she covered herself in her blankets and let sleep take her off to peaceful dreamland, she couldn’t help but be bothered by the simple thought. What is a human doing in Equestria? Twilight walked back down the wooden stairs. “Actually, there is one more thing I need from you.” The young dragon looked up from his book, silently asking her what it is. “Spike, take a letter.”