James trudged through the town, his boots slipping on the blood-stained ground. The canines had left a large trail of the crimson liquid as they'd escaped the town, leaving it splattered across the destroyed market stalls. The stuff was all around him, staining the bottoms of his trousers, turning the black fabric purple and seeping into his shoes. The stink of smoke, mixed with blood filled his nostrils. From what he could see, James assumed that the Canines had spared nothing in whatever rampage they'd caused. Smoke was trailing up into the sky, spewed from burning structures. Some of the inhabitants of the town lay in the blood-splattered road, groaning feebly, to injured to move. The ponies moving around him all stared, their eyes wide and frightened. Despite the amount of damage done to their town, the ponies still seemed more interested in him, standing quite still as he passed them, their eyes following him. The human could hear the collected whispers of the ponies following him as he made his way back towards his car. His battle with the canines had taken him further into the town than he had expected.
Something was wrong though. James could feel it. It was like the world around him had been...muffled. He was numb. There was no other way to describe it. He couldn't feel anything. He should've been feeling tired...out of breath at least. Despite his skill with a sword, he'd always had a weakness when fighting multiple opponents. His body always got run down easier. He should have felt out of breath especially after fighting such a large group of opponents. It was a natural part of a humans body. Instead, he felt as though he'd just woken up from a good-nights sleep. But that wasn't the end of it. Something wet was dripping down his arm. Turning his head, James could see a large gash across his left arm. One of the Canines must've caught him with one of their improvised swords. But there was no pain. It was like his nerves had been severed. On an impulse, James reached up with his injured arm, curling his fingers until the nails dug into his palms. There was no pain. The human raised his hand to his neck, jabbing his fingertips into the side of his neck. After any strenuous activity, a human's pulse would always go up in a response to the strenuous activity. There was nothing. He didn't have a pulse. There was no panic. No fear. No frenzied attempt to discover if he was dead and this was the afterlife.
"That's....disturbing." James thought to himself, just as his car came into view. A few of the ponies had gathered around the black Ford, giving the bodywork a few pokes. They shrank back as James approached however, looks of fright upon their snouts. The Human ignored them as he strode past the car, over to where the crack in the ground had spat him out. The crack was gone. The ground had closed up, leaving now trace that it had actually opened. With his sudden lack of emotions, this did not concern him but it did intrigue him slightly. Whatever had dragged him into this world had gone, just as suddenly as it had come. While it did mean less...James frowned. What had happened to him? From he could gather, some strange entity had suddenly decided to send him into this strange new place....James suddenly stiffened. That name. The name that had appeared on his phone. "Discord..." James mumbled. "He must've done this..." James's lips suddenly quirked as another thought occurred to him. He was far calmer now that he'd been...muffled. James frowned. There had to be a name for what had happened to him. Sighing to himself, James stood, making his way back to the car. The Ponies that had gathered around the black vehicle again all shrank back. "Please stay away from my car." James said calmly. "I would rather be left alone."
The ponies shrank back as he opened the driver side door and slumped into the seat, placing his feet on the steering wheel, letting the seat tilt back almost vertically. A useful function of his car was that the front seats could tilt back almost completely, forming a comfortable bed. Though he had admittedly more room now as the front windscreen was no longer there, enabling him to stick his feet out the empty window. Leaning his sword against the passenger-side seat, James settled, watching the various ponies wander around the town, trying desperately to repair their town, cleaning the blood from the roads with giant buckets of water and dousing the fires. It was like watching a parade of horses that had wandered into a paint factory. Each pony was a different hue, ranging from bright orange to dark blue. What he found most interesting was the Unicorns and Pegasuses, interspersed throughout the group. They wandered through the town, using what appeared to be glowing fields of energy to pick up and repair objects. The Pegasus jumped into the air, moving clouds about, kicking them to produce water to help douse the fires and floating up into the air, carrying heavy debris out of the way. Normally, James figured he would've been totally freaking out, staring around with amazed eyes at all these improbable events. Though, no doubt to his emotion loss, James continued to stare out of the car, as though everything outside was part of his everyday life.
James's eyes blinked open. At some point during his vigil on the ponies attempt to rebuild their town, he must've fallen asleep. The sun was still high in the sky, beating down upon him, warming his flesh. What had woken him? Something was gently knocking on the driver-side door. Judging from the metallic clopping noise, James assumed it was another Pony. The human considered going back to sleep but figured it was rude to ignore whoever was knocking. He leaned out of the window, frowning. It wasn't just one pony. It was several. Two were Unicorns, two were regular, with no wings or a horn and two were Pegasus. James frowned as the lead Pony, a purple Unicorn with what appeared to be a purple star on her flank, looked up at him. The moment James had stuck his head out of the window, the other five ponies had shrunk back, with mixed expressions of fear, curiosity and suspicion on their faces. Only one of the regular ponies, a pink one with a rather poofy mane stood where she was, a rather wide smile. James frowned.
"G-Good afternoon Sir." stammered the Purple Unicorn. James sighed, retreating back inside the car. He knew enough about manners to know this wasn't going to work with him sitting inside the vehicle. "H-Hello?" stammered the Purple Unicorns voice. James sighed again, opening the door, shifting round so he was sitting in front of the group of ponies. The whole group had taken a large step back. After a long while, the Purple Unicorn stepped forwards. The mare was shaking, looking practically terrified out of her wits. "M-My name is Twilight-Sparkle." the Unicorn stammered. "W-We...that is to say...me and my friends," the Unicorn gestured at the group behind her. "We want to thank you for driving out the Diamond-dogs. Without you, we surely would have perished." The Unicorn spoke with a highly refined yet very young accent. James nodded, silently. "Um..." Twilight-Sparkle stammered, clearly unsure how to handle this new creature. James meanwhile was eyeing the other ponies in Twilight-Sparkle's group.
They were an odd bunch. The other Unicorn had white fur and an expertly style mane colored a shade of lilac. A grouping of three diamonds was pictured on her flank. Alongside the regular pink pony was a mare with bright orange fur and a blondish mane. Perched upon this mares head was what appeared to be a patched, worn Stetson Hat. Beside this mare, was a Cyan-blue Pegasus, with a rainbow colored mane. This mare was glaring at him suspiciously with narrowed, violet-reddish eyes. Beside this mare stood a cream colored Pegasus. This Pegasus had a long, pinkish mane. Indeed, this mare seemed the shyest of the group, hiding most of her face behind the long mane. What James's attention was drawn to however, wasn't the glares of the Orange mare, nor the strange fascination that the white-Unicorn seemed to be staring at his clothes with. It was the bleeding cuts and scrapes the Cyan Pegasus seemed to be suffering from. One of her forelegs was slightly raised off the ground and she winced with every step she took, either backwards with the group, or forwards on her own.
"You're hurt." James said. The group of ponies jumped at his soft voice. The Pegasus James was looking at, frowned, moving forwards and sticking her face in close to his. Up close, James could feel her soft breathing, notice how the Pegasus's muscles tensed, as though she was preparing for a fight. "Is there a problem?" James asked, trying hard to be polite. He noticed that without his emotions, his speech sounded rather...flat as though he was bored with the whole conversation. The Pegasus in front of him snorted, looking more annoyed than before.
"Listen Buster." The Pegasus growled. She had a light, slightly cracked voice, rather as though the Pegasus was about to cry or shout at the same time. "I don't know what you're doing here, or why you hit those dogs, but I wanna know what you're doing here!" James frowned, noting what was about to happen. "Well c'mon!" the Pegasus snarled angrily. Perhaps sensing the same rising tension, Twilight-Sparkle stepped forward, a stern expression on her face.
"Now Rainbow-Dash." she said, tapping the Rainbow-maned Pegasus on the side. "That's not a very nice way to act. He did help us save Ponyville." Rainbow-Dash turned to look at the Unicorn but at the stern look Twilight-Sparkle gave her, the protest she clearly wanted to let loose died on her lips. "Now," The Purple unicorn said, turning back to James. "Let me do the introductions." The Unicorn pointed to Rainbow-Dash. "You already know Rainbow-Dash." She then pointed at the White Unicorn. "This is Rarity." Then the Orange Pony. "AppleJack." The cream Pegasus. "Fluttershy." and finally, the Pink Pony. "And to finish, we have Pinkie-Pie!" The pink Pony leapt as her name was called, landing in front of the human, an almost insane smile lighting her face.
"Hi-there-my-names-Pinkie-Pie-what's-your-name-I-hope-it's-a-fun-name-because-fun-names-are-always-so-funny-and..." Rainbow-dash stopped the Pink-Ponies rambling in a rather ingenious way. By stuffing a cyan hoof in the Pink Ponies mouth. James felt something akin to a smile quirk his lips. But then it was gone. He nodded at each of them, before returning to his seat in the car, leaning back and relaxing. He turned his head at the sound of a soft cough. The White Unicorn, Rarity had moved closer and was examining his suit. She reached out and..gave his arm a sharp prod.
"Darling...WHAT in Equestria are you wearing?" The Unicorn exclaimed. James frowned. "I mean...sure it looks stylish enough." Rarity continued, poking and prodding at the arms of James's suit. "What Stallion wouldn't want to look dashing in formal attire but...with all those tears and rips it totally ruins the effect." The Unicorn continued to poke and prod, oblivious to the other ponies trying to call her back. "Darling," the White Unicorn said dramatically. "You really should let me mend these. I could make this suit look absolutely DASHING!" James stared down at Rarity, trying to decide if the Unicorn was being serious. "R-Really Darling..." stammered the Unicorn, looking nervous. James sighed.
"You all look tired." James said calmly, closing his eyes again. "Go home. Get some Rest. I will be gone by the morning." He could hear the Ponies grumbling amongst themselves but he paid them no heed. After a short while, he heard the tell-tale clip-clop of hooves, signalling the ponies departure. Without opening his eyes, James reached across and shut the car door. He hadn't been lying. He'd intended to leave the strange town by morning. But James couldn't shake the thought that he wouldn't be following through with his promise.