Rainbow Dash’s head felt like Applejack had bucked it, and her back hurt. This was not how a pony was supposed to feel when waking up from a nap. Wait … hadn’t she been in the Everfree? Looking for the … aliens! Rainbow jerked upright, before the agony in her head and the light, ‘Cruel, treacherous light!’ stabbing into her eyes caused her to stop with a pained hiss.
“Easy there, sugarcube,” a familiar voice drawled, while a steadying hoof gripped her shoulder. “How ya feelin’?”
“Like I got run over by a cart,” Rainbow groaned, her eyes squeezed shut, “Is, is the alien okay?”
“Well, she is definitely doing better-ish,” replied a second, equally familiar voice.
Rainbow finally peeled her eyes open and looked around. She was sitting on a couch in Applejack’s living room, the farmpony beside her, and Twilight Sparkle, Cloud Kicker and Fluttershy were clustered around the long dining room table that the alien was laying on. Her black skin, ‘No, her clothes, duh Rainbow,’ had been peeled down from her arms and barrel, except for a strip of grey cloth wrapped around a pair of mounds on her barrel. The alien’s left arm was splinted and had been put up in a sling, while the numerous burns and cuts on her body, other arm and legs had been dressed as well. More bandages were wrapped tightly around her barrel for about a hoof’s-length below those weird mounds, and somepony had tied another bandage over the ruins of her face.
Confronted with her second, clearer, look at an actual alien, Rainbow immediately asked the first thing that popped through her mind, “Umh … how do we know she’s a mare?”
Cloud just chuckled and pointed a hoof at the mounds on the alien’s barrel, “Those are breasts, Rainbow, like what a minotaur cow has.”
“Yes, well, anyway,” Twilight began, her and Fluttershy both a bit red-faced at Cloud Kicker’s casual explanation, “She seems to be stable, despite her rather extensive injuries, and hopefully she’ll wake up soon.”
“Judging by her body, she’s a tough one. She ought to be up and about pretty quick,” Cloud mused, before she registered the shocked expressions on Applejack, Rainbow and Twilight’s faces, and the reproachful frown she was getting from Fluttershy. “What? No!” she reared-up to frantically wave her hooves at the other mares in denial, “I didn’t mean it like that! I meant all the scars Fluttershy and I found when we were bandaging her up!” Cloud gave a relieved sigh and self-consciously rubbed the back of her neck as the other ponies relaxed and stopped giving her looks.
Rainbow perked-up in her seat, the pain in her head temporarily forgotten, as she considered Cloud’s explanation, “Scars? You mean like a prize fighter or an adventuring explorer?”
“Or it could jus’ be she’s a guardpony, or even a criminal,” Applejack countered, shaking her head at her friend’s flight of fancy.
“Naw, she’s cool, I know it, and criminals aren’t cool,” Rainbow retorted, crossing her forelegs over her barrel, “Well, except for pirates.”
The other four mares just exchanged looks and rolled their eyes in amusement.
________________________________________
As awareness returned, Revan kept her eyes closed and took stock of her situation, ‘Let’s see, I’m half naked, lying on what might be a table, and I feel like death warmed over. My arm is in a splint, my face feel likes a kath hound has been gnawing on it, and my ribs have been bound up tight. Far from the best condition I’ve ever woken up in, but not the worst, either.’
‘Someone patched me up, but this doesn’t feel like a medical table. I’m pretty sure I saw a domesticated herdbeast outside the ship just before the fuel cells blew, so it’s probably some local who came to investigate the commotion,’ Revan thought, ‘Well, I guess it’s time to meet my benefactor,’ she opened her eyes and … gaped in bewilderment.
Firstly, her right eye had been bound shut. Secondly, she was lying on a wooden table in a rather primitive-looking house. Thirdly, the only beings to be seen were five domesticated herdbeasts, like the one she saw early, ‘Wait that one over there on the couch is the same one from the crash …’ All of the creatures were vibrantly colored, with large eyes, three of them had feathery wings, the fourth a horn, and the fifth … was wearing a hat?
‘Okay, this may be one of the weirder dreams I’ve ever had. But it’s not supposed to hurt in a dream … one way to be sure,’ Revan reached over and grabbed her left arm under the sling, hard, “Mother pus-bucket getting ass-raped by a wookie!”
The five creatures jerked back, their oddly expressive faces showing a mixture of alarm and concern. Wiping the pain-sweat off her brow, Revan gave a sour laugh, “Well that settles that. I’m awake, your real, and to answer the obvious question, apparently I am that big of an idiot,” Revan’s brow furrowed as she saw the confusion on the locals’ faces, “And you don’t speak Basic, do you? Well, I have a few other options.”
<<Thanks for patching me up. Now what in chaos are you?>> she tried again in Bocchi, then repeated the exercise in Huttese, Mando’a, and finally, in desperation, even Rhyl. While it was clear that the quadrupeds were commenting to each other, they apparently didn’t speak any language Revan knew, “Well isn’t that just grand,” she groaned in irritation.
Currently at a loss for what to do, Revan looked around the room, with her gaze lingering on the exits. As she continued her survey of her new surroundings, Revan’s eye darkened when she saw her armor vest and weapons belt casually slung over the arm of another couch, ‘Easy now, Revan. They had to take off the armor to wrap my ribs, and removing the belt as well isn’t much of a stretch. I can see my blaster and lightsaber, and,’ she flexed her foot, ‘my vibrodagger is still in my boot, so I’m not unarmed. Let’s not go assuming the worst just yet.’ After a few measured breaths, the look in her eye lightened as Revan forced herself to relax, turning her attention back to the peculiar natives.
________________________________________
“An alien, a real, live, alien,” Twilight breathed, her eyes fixed on their odd visitor, her mind already cataloging and prioritizing the questions she wanted to ask. So many questions …
‘I know! Isn’t it awesome?” Rainbow crowed, as she and Applejack moved up to stand with the other ponies, “Maybe she’s a space princess, or a member of a sect of super warrior monks, or --” her excited rambling was cut off as Applejack put her hoof to Rainbow’s muzzle.
“Ah think ya been readin’ too many of them comic books. What we got here is somepony who’s been hurt, an’ needs some help. Let’s get that taken care of first, a’right?” Rainbow nodded sheepishly at her friend’s rebuke.
“She seems to be educated, or at least well-traveled, judging by the multiple languages she tried to talk to us with,” Twilight continued with her ruminations, ignoring her friends’ antics, “I need to research a translation spell, so we can communicate with one another properly.”
“Just don’t ask her what she said when she first woke up,” Cloud Kicker teased, “I don’t think your innocent ears could handle it,” at Twilight’s look, Cloud simply shrugged, “I grew up surrounded by guardponys, I know swearing when I hear it.”
Twilight blushed, shifting uncomfortably under Cloud Kicker’s amused gaze and the alien’s curious one, before the alien’s eye went back to roaming about the room. Her embarrassment was quickly forgotten as the alien raised her good arm to touch the bandage over her eye, only to have Fluttershy lunge forward and grab the alien’s arm in her hooves, despite the alien’s startled attempt to pull away. “No,” Fluttershy said, her quite voice firm, shaking her head at the alien for added emphasis.
‘Just like with one of her animal friends,’ Twilight thought in amusement, as the alien lowered her arm with an irritable sigh.
The alien was not done yet, however, as she forced herself into a seated position with a pained grunt. After a few slow breathes, the alien raised her head back to the watching ponies and pointed at the thick vest and pouch-festooned belt that Fluttershy and Cloud had removed so they could treat her injuries, “You want your things back?” Fluttershy asked. The alien merely cocked her head to one side, then pointed at her belongings again, before making a pulling gesture back towards herself.
Igniting her horn, Twilight wrapped the objects in question in her magenta aura, levitating them over to where the alien sat, her eye wide, talking to herself in her strange language. After quickly checking over her effects, the alien managed to strap on her belt, and get her vest mostly on, although not without some grudgingly allowed assistance from Fluttershy.
Having reclaimed her possessions, the alien stood up from the table with another grunt, looming over the gathered ponies. Starting for the exterior door, the alien quickly found her path blocked by Twilight and Fluttershy, “You’re hurt! You need to rest! If that’s alright with you…” protested the timid pegasus.
Twilight added her own pleas, “The Everfree isn’t safe at night, especially for an injured pony! Please, you need to stay,” the alien wouldn’t understand the words, but hopefully she would hear the tone …
The alien narrowed her eye and said something in her unintelligible tongue, before pointing at herself, then jabbing her finger emphatically at the door.
Applejack sighed, before gently pulling Fluttershy aside, “Ah don’t rightly like it maself, but if she’s set on leavin’, we don’t have any right ta naysay her.”
The alien seemed to understand the gist of what was going on, and walked past Twilight, who drooped her head unhappily, before turning at the door to look back at the group of mares. After silently regarding them for a few moments, the alien raised her hand to give an odd two-fingered wave, before spinning on her heel and disappearing through the door out into the night.
The five ponies stood in silence for a time, reflecting on their rather peculiar night, even by Ponyville standards. Eventually, Twilight broke the quiet, “Well, it’s late, and I need to send a letter to the Princesses about what happened,” she bit her lip, casting a troubled glance at the front door, “And worrying isn’t going to help anything, right now.”
Rainbow threw a foreleg over her friend’s shoulders, “Hey, cheer up, egghead, you’ll bookworm-up some way to talk to the alien, and me, AJ and Cloud will keep an eye on her until you do. Easy.”
Twilight looked over at the Cloud Kicker and Applejack, who both shrugged and nodded their agreement with Rainbow’s exasperatingly vague plan. Still, it was better than having no plan at all, and all the excitement was beginning to catch up with her, with all of them really. Shortly, Twilight and Cloud left for their own homes, while Rainbow and Fluttershy headed for Fluttershy’s house on the edge of the Everfree, Fluttershy having gently insisted that her impulsive friend stay with her for the night, on account of her head injury, while Applejack finally sought her own bed upstairs.