//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Visitors // Story: Improbable Truth // by Charon the Chronicler //------------------------------// Henry 615 lived a pretty good life in his little home. Sure, it was small, but it was more than enough for him and his family. He was soon becoming the oldest, but he was surely among the largest. Henry had lots of kids from many mates, and they lived happily in the Dome, fed and cared for by the Guardian. They revered the Guardian. He had been there for a long time, longer even than their great-great-grandsires. He came every day, bringing food, water, and cleanliness. He was always silent, with a hint of sadness in his golden eyes. He sheltered them in His Dome, fed them, named them, and every other day, He would take the oldest or the biggest with Him. Where they went, the inhabitants of the Dome never knew, but it must be good. Why else would He care so fondly for them? They all ate as much as they could, so they would become the next to be Chosen. The door to the Realm outside of the Dome opened, and the populace stopped what they were doing. He was here. He strode into the Realm, dropped His bag by the door, and slowly walked over to the Dome. The excited chattering from nearly a hundred of the Dome’s inhabitants increased as He stopped in front of the Dome and opened the top by using His mighty brown wings to fly there, reaching the top in but a flap. They sat still as He looked down and Chose. After moments of indecision, which seemed like a lifetime for them, the Guardian leaned down and gently picked up Henry 615 in His claws. Henry squeaked in joy as the Guardian took him out of the Dome for the first time in his life. Finally, Henry would see the beauty of the outside Realm! The Guardian closed the hatch and took the Chosen away, heading towards the door, like all those Chosen before Henry. As the Guardian closed the door behind them with his hind paw, he began to softly caress Henry on his furry back. The stroking sent Henry into a deep sense of bliss, and he never felt the Guardian’s claw pierce his skull, killing him instantly. Hawk Eye, like many gryphons, found guinea pigs to be a perfect source of protein. They were the perfect mix of healthy, delicious, easy to breed, and barely sapient. Fish was good, morally and nutritionally, but they were difficult to catch and breed, and it was harder to get fresh fish deeper inland. So it wasn’t uncommon for gryphon households inland to have some sort of rodent farm to covert the food ponies eat into food gryphons eat. So Hawk Eye’s farm in his Canterlot Palace quarters was quite well-furnished, and he sometimes traded his pigs with the other, few, gryphons in the guard, to increase diversity. Hawk Eye had learned long ago that a completely secluded population of rodents without the introduction of ‘new’ rodents would rapidly begin to deteriorate in quality and quantity. He didn’t know why it happened like that, but Hawk was glad others found the taste of inbred mouse disgusting. As he began to boil some water and skin Henry 615, he made sure he still felt regret for killing the guinea pig. Those gryphons who became nonchalant in killing eventually escalated, and began to kill the more sapient creatures of the world with no remorse. Some even found joy in killing. But Hawk Eye’s father had taught him better. He was taught to always feel remorse for killing, even just for eating, so he wouldn’t become one more bloodthirsty gryphon all too common in history. Valor Redwing had called his own species victim of the ‘carnivore’s dilemma’. Eat something that could think for itself on a certain level, or die of malnourishment. This dilemma led to the more civilized gryphon tribes to settle on coasts to eat fish, which could be barely called sapient, sharing that distinction with most bugs. While Henry continued simmering, Hawk cut some carrots and cucumbers, sticking out his tongue in concentration as he leaned on the counter, using his claws to hold the vegetables while his sharpened talons cut through them. Shining Armor chose that moment to burst in, surprising Hawk, causing him to nick his cutting board. “Hawk Eye! Can you believe they relieved me of duty?” he practically shouted. “Can you believe how much this cutting board cost?” Hawk held up his damaged cutting board. “That’s not important right now,” Shining waved his hoof dismissively, “Celestia has put me on paid leave! Can you believe it? This is outrageous!” Hawk massaged his forehead as he put his cutting board down. “Yes, Shining, I can. For so many reasons.” “I can’t believe you’re siding with them! My own friend!” Shining grumbled. “Shining, you’ve never been on leave. Ever. You need a break.” “Equestria needs me!” “Yes,” Hawk Eye sighed, “Equestria does need you. And it needs you at your best. You’ve been running yourself ragged ever since you’ve become Captain. Not to mention,” Hawk plowed on before Shining could try to interrupt, “That you’re important, so you can’t be sent to the front lines. I know you’re worried about that…event, but it was outside of Equestrian jurisdiction.” Shining drooped. “You saw what it did to you. Imagine if we were closer. Equestria needs you here, well-rested and in a good state of mind. So calm down, and let me finish the salad.” Hawk grabbed a few more carrots and a head of lettuce from the fridge, while using his wing to fling a few spices in the boiling pot. Shining trotted over to the scratched cutting board, preparing a spell to fix it. With a small flash, the cutting board was as pristine as the day it had been made. “I always forget that fixing simpler things falls under your defensive specialty.” Hawk commented innocently. “Yeah, but remember, the entire thing became slightly weaker, so if I do it repeatedly, it loses its strength.” Shining scrutinized the cutting board. “And yet you keep getting me to fix this one because you’re too cheap to buy a new one.” “Money better spent on guitar strings and varnish.” Hawk rang. “And you give me that freaky magic explanation every time, but it doesn’t seem to degrade any faster.” “That’s because it only changed it a really small amount.” Shining rolled his eyes. “And if you want a ‘freaky magic explanation’, you should meet my sister. She’s the magical prodigy.” “You sure talk about your sister a lot” Hawk noted as he sniffed the pot. “And I bet she gushes about her brother to her friends all of the time.” The unicorn stated as he looked at the boiling pot. Against his better judgment, he decided to ask about its contents. “So, what’s cooking?” “Henry 615” the gryphon answered. “What?” Shining scrunched up his muzzle “I thought you called them Ron.” “I change it every few years so it wouldn’t become synonymous with food.” Hawk began throwing the salad into the bowl and tossing it about. Knowing that his friend was uncomfortable with the subject, Hawk decided to change it to a different uncomfortable subject. A hilariously uncomfortable one. “And think about your break this way; now you have nowhere to run when you need to delay your proposal.” “Wha…?” Shining’s coat turned a pink tint. “I can’t do that now! It needs to be perfect!” Hawk Eye sighed. “How about this,” he proposed, “You take Cadence around for a bunch of things couples normally do, and after a month or so, you pop the question, preferably in a romantic setting.” Shining rubbed his chin with his hoof, deep in thought. “Yeah, that could help me ease into the situation,” The stallion admitted, “But, no matter what Cadence says, she still has some old-time ideas, such as winning favors in contests…maybe if I went to the chess tournament in a couple months?” “Good idea.” Hawk nodded. “But I think she’d say yes even without that. But if you want to, I’m not going to stop you.” <><><> “And that’s when I flew in, and gave the manticore a buck that sent him flying! That one didn’t need to wait a mega-long time to really fly!” “Oh, but Rainbow, you know he was very hungry. He was just desperate.” I was laying in my bed, listening Rainbow and Fluttershy tell me what happened to the manticore. I was genuinely surprised to see the entire group come see me when I woke up, but the doctor, who I had finally learned was named Steth Oscope, told them to make it short, and I would need my rest. The second evening I was in the hospital, Fluttershy and Rainbow dropped in to tell me what happened. “Well,” I said when they finished, “I’m just glad that nobody else got hurt. And I’m really touched you two would visit.” Fluttershy smiled and Rainbow flew a bit closer. “Say,” the athlete began, “Do you remember what happened after you and Lyra were sent flying? Lyra said you two found a skeleton of some smart creature you’ve never seen before, but all we found was a bunch of pieces of bone and a knocked out pegasus.” “Sorry, I don’t.” I lied. I found playing the amnesia card really worked out, and I didn’t even need to pretend my head hurt. Silver lining, but my head still feels like someone stuck their hand in there and murdered my brain through strangulation. “It gets fuzzy after we fell down the cliff.” That’s really odd.” Commented Fluttershy. “You were knocked out, and nothing else, and the unique skeleton just disappeared.” Rainbow perked up. “Hold on!” she exclaimed “Do you think there’s some sort of secret going on? Are there spies?” I shook my head. “I think it’s more likely we were both a bit out of it. I don’t think there’d be a conspiracy over a set of bones.” We heard someone clearing their throat, and turned to see Steth at the door. “Visiting hours are over, you two” He stated. “Come along, Windell needs his rest. Even with natural pegasus magic, it would still take him a week before he get can get back on his hooves.” That’s interesting. Maybe I can trick myself into thinking time has passed if I send the flow to my head? “Hey, Doc?” “Hmm?” He turned to me as the two mares left the room, Rainbow waving as she left. “I intend to get out of here. So can you bring me, say, five liters of milk?” Steth cocked an eyebrow, but nodded, and left the room. Time to practice redirecting the flow. Pulling the flow away from my limbs and directing them to my head required some effort, and left the familiar feeling of exhaustion throughout my body. I don’t feel any different. When I tried to move my limbs, they felt sluggish…more sluggish than they ought to be. What is up with that? Did I divert more flow? Wait…is that clock broken? I looked at the clock facing my bed, and noticed the seconds hand wasn’t moving. Figures my clock would break. Now it’ll feel like ̶ wait. It moved. Maybe… I counted in my head to see if my theory was correct. …Nine Mississippi, ten Mississippi ̶ There! It moved. I’m not sluggish, I’m just experiencing time ten times slower. Holy crap. I’ve got bullet-time…exactly the opposite of what I want right now. I’ll look into this later. Maybe if I want it to work, I have to be more precise. So direct the flow to the front of my head, where my injury is. As I directed the flow, I felt the throbbing I’d had to deal with for the past twenty-four hours finally subside, and time began to return to its normal pace. Bullet-time, huh. I guess that’ll be useful. What other benefits are there for directing the flow to my brain? <><><> Lyra leaned closer to me, golden eyes shimmering, as she levitated a yoyo by its string in front of my face, moving it like a pendulum. “Yoooooooouuuu wiiiiiiilllllllll reeeeeeeeeemeeeeeemmmmbeeeeeeeerrrr…” She enunciated slowly, as Bon-Bon rolled her eyes in the chair by my bed. “Not working, Mint.” I tried to scratch my head, but the combination of bandages and a hoof made the task futile. Lyra groaned in exasperation. “Bon-Bon, there’s got to be a way! I know I saw something new, and the doctors tell me there’s nothing wrong that’s not normal. So I saw it, and Windell decided to name the species as ‘human’. He even figured out it was male by looking at its bones!” “Lyra, you’re my best friend” Did…did Bon-Bon flinch slightly when she said 'friend'? “And I’ll believe you no matter what. But you know how…obsessive you can get sometimes. Remember when you took classes to walk and sit like a minotaur to properly tell their legends? Or when you tried to adopt their songs on the lyre? We know now that horns don’t really translate to the lyre. I care about you, Lyra, fondly, and I know that you should let this go.” “Awww…thanks Bonnie!” Lyra hugged Bon-Bon, but quickly let go, and I noticed a glimmer of disappointment pass through the cream mare’s eyes. “And I promise I won’t get obsessed by it. I’ll just take a short trip to Canterlot to scour all of the libraries for any hint of a human!” The green unicorn zoomed out of the room, leaving a disgruntled earth pony and a pegasus in a precariously perilous position next to said earth pony. “Why didn’t you just say you saw it!” she turned to me and hissed. I held my hooves up in deference. “I’m sorry, I just don’t remember! It can’t be that bad, right?” I smiled weakly. "Noooo...of course not." She rolled her eyes and jumped off the chair by the window. In my defense, I was never really good with sarcasm. "R-Really?" Hope glimmered in my eyes. She turned to face me once more, glaring. “OF COURSE IT GETS THAT BAD,” she practically screamed,"HAVE YOU EVEN MET HER!?" Bon-Bon turned away and took a few deep breaths before continuing in a more placid tone. “She can be very obsessive. Last time I hinted at her surprise birthday party, she rounded up everypony in Ponyville and interrogated every last one of them for every detail about the party. But she’s still so kind, so devoted…” She got a dreamy look in her eyes, and shook herself out of her stupor. Holy shit. Either my senses are trying to ship those two together, or I have to deal with a frustrated, closeted lesbian. This is how I die. She turned to me with a fire in her eyes. “And now you’ve filled her head with fantasies of weird creatures and myths!" Her voice rose steadily, "Don’t think you’ll get closer to her like that, teaching her things, making her laugh, and actually being there when she’s in trouble!” At this point, she was yelling, and I was trying very hard to burrow myself deeper under the sheets. But I still saw the tears in her eyes. “So what’s eating at you?” “Nothing.” She said in a curt tone. “Oh, so not Mint, huh?” I smirked. And when I realized what I said, the smile fell from my face. And that was an unintentional innuendo. Please let it fly over her head...Okay it seems like I'm safe. But she’s not going to be easy on me here, so I can’t skirt around the issue. …Screw it, I’m going to trust what I see on this one. “Sweets,” I began, praying I wouldn’t incur her wrath. “You love her as more than a friend, don’t you?” I hate having to deal with these emotions, but if I can get her through this, I’ll be in the clear, she’ll be happier, and Doc won’t have to clean up what’s left of me in the bedpan. “And you feel guilty you weren’t there when she needed you.” The turned head and the nervous shuffling was all the answer I needed. “But…it’s unnatural.” I heard her murmur. I threw my hooves in the air and almost gave myself another concussion. “Again with that crappy argument!” I exclaimed, causing the mare to jump. “What did I say about the forest? It’s different, not unnatural, not wrong, and not ‘impure’. And it may be rare, but it exists among mammals all over the world. Heck, ask Effie about it, if it doesn’t cause her to faint out of embarrassment.” “But…” “No buts! Love whoever you want, as long as they return that love. If not, be there for her! Who cares what others think! Now get out!” I threw my pillow at her. “Get her, be there, be sappy, just do it!” Baffled, Bon-Bon hurried out of my room before I finished reaching for my bedpan. I can’t believe that worked. That was less coaxing her out of the closet, and more setting fire to the house. But from what I’ve seen of Lyra, Bon-Bon’s going to have to get through that dense mind of hers, and Bon-Bon lacks the confidence to do the right things in public. But she’s got drive, I could tell from the fire in her eyes, and she’ll be at it for months, years even. I leaned back, regretting having thrown my pillow. I trusted my senses, and they paid off. I can only assume that my brain is ‘translating’ really close to what is real, which would be an odd coincidence, and the corpse I found was indeed and old corpse, not a victim of mine. I remember killing foes in my previous delusion, and the ‘most genuine’ one was actually real. I’ve made sure not to commit any dangerous actions since I’ve gotten here, and that follows along the guidelines of ‘altered memories’ rather than ones that have been erased. And since I’ve been tracking the days, I haven’t missed anything, so no extra conditions…with the exemption of that odd outburst in the Everfree. Hopefully, I won’t do that to a living person if it happens again. What was it about the skeleton that set me off? Seconds passed as I sat there, pondering. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours. And when the sun was high in the sky, I came upon my revelation. I’m missing information. There’s something I don’t know, mechanics of either my delusion, or even how the multiverse works. If I really am in Equestria, I don’t know if I follow the same rules as that other guy did, or came the same way. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, after all. I may know more if I get his clothes that I stuck in the tree, and I’ll have one more puzzle piece to this convoluted puzzle. Now if ̶ My thoughts were interrupted by a loud ‘THUMP’ at my window. I turned to look at the window to see a familiar pegasus splayed across the windowpane. With a slow squeaking sound, she slid down, out of sight, before she flew back up and opened the window. “Hey Windy!” “Hey Blondie!” I smiled at her bubbly attitude. Her happiness was quite contagious, but Ditzy was quick to change her attitude. She landed in front of my bed, one eye looking down while the other looked at the window, and began to kick at the ground like Fluttershy. “I’m sorry I sent you down the cliff. I should have been more careful.” “I don’t see why you’re apologizing” I cocked my head. “It was just a series of events that nobody could control that led to Mint and I tumbling down a cliff. You’re not at fault here, Blondie, no need to feel bad. And look at me!” I smiled and pointed my hooves at myself, “I’m being fed, I have a bed, I have a bathroom, and I don’t even pay rent!” Ditzy giggled, her sad demeanor vanishing. “Thanks, Windy.” She reached into her saddlebags and took out a muffin. “I made this to say sorry, but I guess you’d like it anyways, huh?” “Of course!” That made her smile wider, and she passed me the treat. The doctor walked in and shot Ditzy a look, which caused her to sulk towards the open window. “Okay, I guess I’ll go now.” “Blondie?” “Huh?” she turned back to look at me, her lazy eye rolling about. “No matter what the others say, I think you’re very kind, and being a little bit of a klutz doesn’t change that. You’re great, don’t let what anybody else says about you get to you.” Ditzy beamed, tripped when she jumped out the window, but managed to fly off into the distance. I turned to Steth, who was grinning at the sight. “Not what you think, Doc.” I interrupted his own shippy thoughts, “She just needed some positive comments in her life. If she goofs up, try not to scold her, positive reinforcement works better." Dr. Oscope gave me a sheepish smile before clearing his throat and pulling up my chart. “Well, Windell, according to our tests, you seem to have healed a lot faster than we have anticipated. And our Magical Resonance Imagery scan says you are in the clear, brain wise, although we couldn’t find the cause of your…disorder.” Of course they can’t. It took five scans and two months of searching before they even scratched the surface. “Considering how fast you healed, we’d like to take some precautions by leaving the bandages on.” “So I can leave?” “Of course. Just leave your bandages on for the rest of the week.” I threw my covers off and trotted out of the room. Time to get back home. I strode out of the hospital, glad to finally start getting out of Ponyville, where I had to make sure whatever I said wouldn’t either land me in the psychiatric ward or in a dark interrogation room. I would be safe at home. <><><> The direwolf had seen what had happened to his prey. He had considered jumping on it and eating it after it knocked itself out, but he wasn’t quite hungry enough to eat all of it yet. Considering it managed to knock itself out, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge at its full strength, so he could attack it at his leisure. The wolf saw the other ponies take it back with them, likely to tend to its wounds. But the predator was convinced now. If it could knock itself out, it would likely come back to its home, recovering from its wounds. And it would be weak. The silence of the forest followed him as he made his way to the shack, and he lay in the bush, hidden from all but the most astute. So he waited. Hours passed. He waited in the dark, he waited in the light. He lay there, memorizing the future site of his feast. The stone house with half a roof, the teepee, every tree, every rock, every root. Two days passed in his wait, wildlife long having returned, barely seeing the predator. Until, finally, the pegasus returned to its half-finished home. The wolf was ravenous. The prey looked about, and entered its incomplete hut. There is no escape for you in there, prey. The wolf curled up his lips in a snarl, and slowly moved towards the cabin, his body low to the ground. The other animals in the trees quieted, leaving the silence to act as a canvas for the sounds of the coming massacre. The wolf approached the door of his height, and slunk inside. He saw the pegasus investigating one of the beams, and despite his padded paws, the wooden floor creaked slightly when he entered. The pegasus whipped around in the air, only to see the wolf, twice his height and more than twice as long, fully fill any form of escape. The wolf crouched. “What the fuck.” The prey muttered, its pupils shrinking to pinpricks. It backed up to the beam, mouth agape. He pounced, jaws wide open, snarling. THUNK!