“And then the tree disappeared and then he was on the ground and we were safe and…”
Scootaloo continued to explain the events of only a couple minutes ago, not stopping to take a breath until the very end.
“And that was when you found us and when my mom saved him!”
“Okay…” Applejack’s mind, however, was not paying much attention to what Scootaloo had said. In fact, she was much more worried about the conversation that had taken place a little while back.
////
“He’s breathing again. Oh, thank goodness.”
Fluttershy placed a small damp cloth on the new pony’s forehead as she sighed in relief.
Everybody else, however, was completely astounded. Where there had once been a weird creature of mysterious power, in its place lay a pony as common as one could get. With rugged tan fur and a brown mane, this newly-appeared earth stallion lay peacefully on Fluttershy’s couch as she finished cleaning everything up.
“So, he was in a different form before you used the Elements of Harmony?”
“Yes, Princess Celestia. He was walking on two legs, and when he fell, he broke his leg and then he healed himself in an instant! I thought only alicorns could do that!” Twilight’s pensive expression grew as she rummaged through one of the only books she managed to bring from her library.
Applejack noticed a hint of worry in the princess’s next statements.
“Okay then, since he helped us save my sister and Ponyville, I doubt he is another villain. For now, Fluttershy, I leave him in your care. Make sure to contact me as soon as he feels better and we will go on from there.”
“O-okay, Princess.”
“Now, I am sorry but I must take my leave. There are a couple of things I would like to talk about with my sister.”
With that, Princess Celestia disappeared in a flash of magic, but Applejack was able to spot that small downward curve at the edge of her muzzle before she teleported away.
There’s something troubling about all this, and I don’t know what!
////
“Sis? HEY, BIG SIS!!!!”
“W-woah, what are you yelling for, Apple Bloom?”
“Sis, you’re too slow! Everypony else’ll be long gone if you don’t speed up! Come on!”
Apple Bloom quickly sped away, with Applejack galloping behind, many questions reverberating through her mind.
Why is another one of those creatures here?
What were those symbols that appear below him?
Why didn’t he turn into a pony like the other one?
But most importantly, that one thought troubled her:
Why was Princess Celestia so worried?
I have a bad feeling about this.
Small rays of light streamed through the window and illuminated the entire room. A small change in the sun’s position was all it took, and soon the light was shining directly onto the eyelids of this new pony. He stirred ever so slightly, tilting his head away from the window, but the blinding rays continued to upset his sleep.
“Ugh…”
It seemed that his groan was enough to scare the timid mare in the kitchen.
CRASH
The new pony shot straight up at the noise, and he landed on the floor right on his flank… hard. It was when he went to rub that sore spot that he first noticed something was wrong.
Why can’t I feel my… my fing—
And there he stayed, rump on the floor, eyes on that digitless appendage before him. Too bad Fluttershy was already in the living room when he opened his mouth.
…
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”
“EEEP!”
Fluttershy rapidly hid behind the couch and covered her eyes, scared out of her mind. The new pony could only stare blankly at his hooves before Rainbow Dash zoomed in through the window, smashing it to pieces.
“Fluttershy! Fluttershy, where are you? I heard a scream!”
Quickly spotting the petrified mare, Rainbow Dash picked her up and set her down on the couch.
“What happened, Flutters? Was it him? Did he do something to you?”
Instantly, Rainbow flipped around and grabbed the new pony by his scruffy neck.
“So, pal, did you do this? Huh? Do you have a death wish or something?”
Choking, the tan pony could not escape the pegasus’s hold, his body slowly growing limp, his vision getting cloudier with each passing second…
“Rainbow, what are you doing! Let him go at once!”
Twilight forced Rainbow’s forelimbs open and levitated the pony over to a chair nearby.
“He did something to Fluttershy!” responded Rainbow ragefully. “Look at her! She’s not even breathing well!”
It took ten full minutes for Fluttershy to recover, but it took ten more to calm Rainbow into not punching the living daylights out of the tan earth pony.
“He deserves to pay for what he did!”
“Now, I don’t think he meant to do it intentionally!” Twilight suddenly noticed that Fluttershy was opening her mouth.
“I-I-I’m s-sorry, I just heard a noise from h-here, and he screamed, and I got scared…”
“See, Rainbow? He didn’t mean to do it.” Twilight then turned to face the pony in the chair.
“So, I believe your name is… Kakeru?”
The earth pony slowly nodded in agreement.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. This is Rainbow Dash, and the mare you frightened is Fluttershy. We wanted to thank you for your help in def—”
“I’m sorry, but could I ask you a question?” Kakeru forced himself to hide his confusion as he addressed the mare.
“Sure, what is it?”
“Um… Do you know what happened to my hands? In fact…” Kakeru’s eyes grew wider as he continued to inspect every inch of his new body.
“This isn’t my body, is it? I know, it must be a dream or another illusion. Snap out of it!” A quick slap to the face confirmed to Kakeru that he was indeed not dreaming.
“If you want, I can help with that,” Rainbow responded, hoof poised to strike a blow on Kakeru’s muzzle.
“Rainbow, stop that! He’s the one who helped us defeat Nightmare Moon!”
“Grrr…” Reluctantly, Rainbow listened to Twilight and lowered her forelimb.
“Now… Kakeru? Yeah, I’m not exactly sure what happened to your other body. It could have been a change at the molecular level caused by the power of the Elements of Harmony. They could have restructured your body to better harmonize your life ener—”
“But you can fix it… right?”
“Well…”
GRUMBLE
“Oh, I forgot I hadn’t eaten in a while,” Kakeru sheepishly replied as he stood up… and fell flat on his face.
“This is going to be a fun day, I can see that.”
You are just a copy…
You will never be the original.
…
You are just junk!
Tom woke with a start, his forehead sweating profusely. But no, it wasn’t sweat…
“Shh… Stay still, or else you’ll just lose consciousness again.”
Faith took off the small damp cloth from his head and left it in the sink. Tom simply stared at his saviour in bewilderment as he tried to remember, everything before his arrival to this strange world and after the falling tree obscured in complete darkness. The doctor took out a small vial from her pack on the table nearby and spread a colorless cream on his forehead, and soon Tom began to feel some of his strength returning to him. In a couple seconds, he was able to sit up straight.
“Now, no abrupt movements for a couple days. After that, you should be okay, Tom. Your name is Tom, right?”
“Y-Yes. That’s the name Apple Bloom gave me. Scootaloo wanted to call me Super McAwesome or someth—
“Apple Bloom! Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle! How are they? A tree was about to fall down on them and I tr—”
He suddenly tried to stand up, but a blistering headache forced him to stop his movements and sit back down.
“I said not to move quickly! But those three are safe.”
“Oh, that’s good.” A sigh of relief escaped from his mouth as he calmed down.
“I have to thank you for saving them. From what it seemed, you created some sort of barrier to protect them. It would explain your magic exhaustion and the transparent thing that my filly told me she saw.”
“Your… your filly?”
“Yes, my filly Scootaloo. I’ll have to have a serious talk with her one of these days.”
“So wait, I saved them?” Tom racked his mind and was able to form a fuzzy picture of a clock— a white, translucent clock on the floor the second right before he blacked out…
He held out his hands and focused on them, focused with all his might… but nothing appeared.
“I don’t think it was me, though. I don’t remember too much.”
“Hmm… Amnesia is always hard to treat… I’m afraid the only thing we can do is just wait for your memory to come back.” Faith went into the kitchen to wash her hooves, and soon she returned with a set of empty plates.
“I think in a few minutes you should be able to stand up fully. For the next few days, I’ll be taking care of you here. Are there any family members I can contact? Can you remember where you live?”
“All I can remember is meeting those three small ponies up until the tree fell.”
“Well then, I guess I’ll have to ask around to see if anyone here knows about you. Maybe that way, I could find something that will jog your memory. For now, just rest a bit and I’ll get everything fixed up for you.”
“Well, thank y—”
“I’m home, Mom!” Scootaloo zoomed right into the living room, unintentionally bumping into Tom as she sat down at the table.
“Scootaloo, be more careful! Tom is still not well. He used a lot of magic to save you and your friends. You must be grateful to him! And don’t run so fast, or you’ll trip and fall!”
“I know, Mom, b—”
And as luck would have it, the ground began to shake violently.
“An earthquake? It’s an earthquake!” Scootaloo’s breath grew uneven, her mind empty of everything as she quickly galloped back and forth. Picture frames began to wobble and crash to the ground, and small crevices began to emerge in the walls as the structure creaked and groaned with no indication of stopping.
“Everyone get outside!” Faith took Scootaloo by the hoof and galloped out the door, leaving the filly a decent distance from the house. In an instant, Faith returned inside and grabbed Tom as best she could and began to guide him to the exit. However, as she was almost outside the building…
“Oh no, I have to get my chest!”
Scootaloo hurried back in and ran up the stairs, possibly matching even Rainbow Dash’s speed. Her mother, having her hooves full with Tom, could do nothing but watch as Scootaloo disappeared into the trembling edifice.
“No, Scoots! Tom, stay far away from the building!” With that, the mare chased after her filly, facing impending doom while Tom could only imagine what the outcome could be.
No. I can’t let this happen. I WON’T let this happen!
One foot in front of the other. Each step brought him closer and closer to success or failure, but he was still too slow: one wall was almost about to crumble, and the ceiling would not hold for too long.
I MUST go faster!
Pins of neverending pain drove through his feet as a dull headache began to build, success escaping from his grasp…
And then he saw them, both mare and filly charging down the stairs.
And then he saw the ceiling collapse.
And then everything clicked into place.
With an outstretched hand, he slammed the ground and called upon all his willpower to create the barrier. Time slowed to a crawl as slabs of ceiling inched their way towards the helpless ponies.
And then he saw the puzzle pieces, and instinctively, he saw the path he needed to create.
The ceiling stopped falling, and time itself began to turn back. The house was being rebuilt, cracks dissolving as pieces of wall glued together without a scratch. Faith and Scootaloo opened their eyes just in time to see the last phase of Tom’s plan. The earthquake was still raging, but the entire house was covered in a white translucent barrier, a clock of infinite hours marking the floor as pure energy poured out of his hand. For minutes, hours, days it seemed the ground would not stop shaking, but finally disaster was averted.
Silence.
All quiet except for two words.
“You’re safe.”
And Tom fell over backwards, not breathing.