"It's just not probable, Fluttershy!" Twilight said, flipping through her dictionary of Equestrian oddities "There's nothing in here that even comes close to the description of those creatures your bird friend saw"
"Maybe they're not from Equestria" Spike suggested, pulling two books from the upper shelves "What if they're from the Griffon Kingdom? Or that place Zecora's from"
"Zebrica, Spike" Twilight corrected, setting the book in her magic on the table "I hadn't thought of that...maybe we should send a request to the Canterlot Archives...you don't happen to know what these creatures are, do you Fluttershy?"
"No...I've never heard of anything like them..."
"...why don't you write to Princess Celestia? Maybe she knows what these things are"
"I think I'll save that as a last resort, Spike- I think we should at least try to talk to them before we jump to any conclusions, remember that whole incident with Zecora a few weeks ago?"
"Yeah..."
"We sure don't want a repeat of how we treated her- when, if, they arrive, the least we can do is to at least attempt to make friends"
"What if they want to eat us?"
Fluttershy began to tremble
"D-do they eat p-ponies?"
"They could-"
"Spike, what did I just say about jumping to conclusions?"
"Er, right..." Spike blushed
"Great, now let's pull all of the books we have on mythology"
X X X X X X X
"What do you mean you won't?" Lily sighed
"Grr"
"But if you look like one of them, maybe we can just sneak through"
The Blot shook his head
"Why not? If you can fit into my backpack, you can turn yourself into a pony"
He looked thoughtful for a moment before conceeding
His huge form shrank and shifted itself into that of a large pony, his eyes and mouth still remained a bright green, he shook his head and the hood was replaced with a short mane and ears.
"Wow, you're even taller than that big red pony we saw" I commented
"Grr..."
"It's not that bad, besides- you could scare them in your natural form"
He somehow managed to roll his eyes as they trotted through the dense underbrush of the
forest and closer to the sunlight.
X X X X X X X
"Ugh, we've gone through all of these, and still nothing!" Twilight groaned from a pile of books.
"Maybe we could go talk to Zecora?" Spike asked
"That'd take too long, Spike, based on these creatures' position, they should be approaching Ponyville soon- I can't afford to miss meeting them"
"It's possible these creatures aren't even sentient, Twilight"
"I know, Spike" she sighed "but we have to be prepared, just in case"
"Right, but how are we going to prepare for-"
Spike was interrupted by a blood-curdling shriek coming from the street.
"Do you suppose that's them?"
X X X X X X X
"That...was really loud..." Lily grumbled, watching three of the ponies run down the street, screaming bloody murder.
The Blot agreed as the previously full marketplace was quickly vacated, dozens of ponies scrambling for their homes.
"This could've gone better..." she deadpanned, watching the madness.
"Grr"
"I'm starting to think we could've done this more carefully""
"Grrr?"
"Yeah, they're already scared out of their wits, we might as well look around town"
He somehow managed to shrug in pony-form, and the two of them began their tour of the town.
X X X X X X X
The door to the library flung open, startling Twilight and Spike.
"Rarity? What's the matter?"
"Oh Twilight! It's horrible! Absolutely dreadful!" Rarity moaned
"What is it? What happened?"
"Monsters are invading Ponyville!"
"You must mean those two Fluttershy was talking about- has anypony tried talking to them?"
"Well no, but-"
"Do you even know what they look like?"
"Well, no..."
"Then why did you run?"
"I heard their description from Lily, Daisy, and Roseluck"
"I swear...those three..." Twilight muttered "Let's go meet them, it'll be better to get this out of the way before something bad happens"
"But Twilight-"
"Rarity, this is exactly how everypony reacted to Zecora, I think we learned our lesson after that Poison Joke incident"
"I- I- suppose you're right" Rarity admitted "Should we gather everypony else?"
"I think that would be best, then we can get all the introductions out of the way"
"I'll gather Fluttershy and Applejack"
"Good, I'll go get Pinkie and Rainbow Dash- come on, Spike"
The baby dragon nodded, and followed the two unicorns out of the library.
X X X X X X X
"Wow, there's something you don't see every day" Lily said, she and the Blot stopping in front of a large building shaped like a gingerbread house
"Grr?"
"It's supposed to be a gingerbread house- it's like a house built with thin slabs of it"
"Grr?"
"Yes, really"
"Gr"
"Yes, I know people are weird, so are these ponies"
The Blot looked up, and pointed to a blur of colors streaking through the sky.
"What the heck is th-"
Lily didn't finish her sentence as the pegasus rammed head-on into the Blot, passed right through him, and skidded to a halt as she fell to the pavement, covered in purplish-black sludge.
Said pegasus was splayed out on its belly in the middle of the road, groaning.