Twilight Sparkle was studying like she does every day but today was different. Today she was reading the last book she had in the Ponyville library. It had been a while since she moved there and she had made sure to study every book. Every book from “Aaliyah’s Amazing Animals” to “A Zebras Guide to zoology”, she had read it all. Closing the Zebras guide to Zoology, Twilight wondered what to do now that she had read everything. Twilight yelled up the stairs to get her number one assistants opinion on the matter.
“SPIKE! Could you come down here for a minute? I need your thoughts on something.”
Spike appeared at the top stairs dragging his favorite blanket behind him. It was obvious that he had been napping only moments ago.
“Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you. But now that you are awake I need your help deciding what I should do now!”
Spike stared at her, angry that she had interrupted his nap for something so pointless. But thinking back to when she had gone temporarily insane when she didn’t have a letter to send to the Princess, Spike decided it was probably not the best idea to judge at what she thought was important.
“Well why don’t you go visit one of your friends. Like… Rarity! That’s an excellent idea let’s go!” Spike immediately dropped his blanket and ran down the stairs and skidded to a halt next the door staring at Twilight with an excited look on his face. Twilight giggled before trotting towards the door.
“Well I guess we could. But just this once okay? And only for a bit.”
Opening the door Twilight saw a small bunny hopping as fast as his little legs could take him. Twilight instantly recognized the bunny as Angel.
Angel hopped over to Twilight and started waving and jumping up and down.
“Okay Angel what is it? You want something to eat? No, that can’t be it. Oh! Is Timmy stuck in the well? Wait I don’t even know anypony named Timmy.”
Angel face palmed and started pointing in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage and started jumping up and down. Then Angel pointed in the direction of her other friend’s homes.
Spike looked over towards Twilight to see if she understood. But, Twilight’s face was blank and it was obvious that she had no clue.
“Really Twilight? You’re good enough to be Princess Celestia’s personal student but you can’t figure that out? I think he wants us to gather our friends and head over to Fluttershy’s place. She might be in trouble. Am I right Angel?”
Angel nodded rapidly before turning around and heading towards SugarCube Corner. Twilight was red in the face from embarrassment from not seeing what Angel was trying to say.
After a few seconds Twilight started scanning the sky hoping to see her rainbow maned friend. After scanning for a few seconds she saw a multi-coloured tail hanging over the edge of a cloud.
“Rainbow Dash! Wake up!” Twilight shouted hopefully loud enough to wake up the slumbering Pegasus. After a few seconds Rainbow Dash head poked her head over the side of the cloud.
“Oh… it’s you Twilight. What’s up?” Rainbow Dash then hoped over the side of the cloud and fell towards the ground opening her wings at the last second and landed gently in front of Twilight.
“Ok Rainbow I need you to go and get Applejack and Pinkie and get them to the library. I will go get Rarity. Tell them that something might have happened to Fluttershy,” Twilight instructed Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow could tell that it was urgent and nodded. “Sure thing boss.” And with that she toke off into the sky. Twilight then turned in the direction of Rarity’s Boutique and bent down so Spike could climb on her back. Taking off galloping, she ran to get Rarity.
When Twilight returned she saw Rainbow did what she was told and got Pinkie and Applejack. They were all standing around looking at each other worriedly. Twilight and Rarity quickly ran up and came to a halt. Applejack was the first to speak.
“Alright sugercube, what was with sendin’ RD to round us up for? All she was goin’ on about was that Fluttershy is in some kind of trouble. What happened?”
“Yeah Twilight, I was just getting ready for my biggest party EVER! And Rainbow flew over and told me to come here. What gives? IS Fluttershy really in trouble?” Pinkie said in her usual manner.
“Ok look,” Twilight said stepping into the middle of the group. “All I know is that Angel ran up to me and started pointing
towards Fluttershy’s cottage and started jumping up and down. I couldn’t tell what Angel meant right away but Spike suggested she could be in trouble. So let’s quit wasting time and go.” Twilight then turned and started running towards Fluttershy’s cottage, her friends close behind.
Quickly running up to Fluttershy’s door, Twilight and the others could hear a colt’s voice inside and thought the worst. Throwing the door open they all saw to their horror a human standing in front of Fluttershy and both of them staring at them.
They all stared at each other for a few seconds before Rainbow Dash flew over the group letting out a yell as she went. Her hoof smashed into the human’s crotch. Rainbow jumped back and prepared for the human to attack. But no attack came. Instead the human held his crotch and fell to his knees. He stared at all of them, his face contorted in pain. A single tear found its way out of his eye and down his cheek. The human then fell onto the ground sobbing quietly.
“Look I found its weak spot,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly turning towards her friends. Her friends however were still staring in shock at what happened.
Twilight shook her head and stared angrily at Rainbow. “What did you do that for? Rainbow you need to think things through before you do things. If it really is a human we need it in one piece so that it can be thoroughly examined. Now look at it…” Twilight pointed a hoof at the sobbing human who had now curled up into a fetal position. “You broke it!”
“I’m sorry I just thought that if the stories are true we need to stop it before it hurts anypony,” Rainbow dash said avoiding eye contact with Twilight. At this point Fluttershy had trotted over to her friends.
“But Rainbow, I don’t think he was all bad. I mean he can talk,” Fluttershy explained while taking her helmet off.
“Wait a minute… It talks!?!” Rainbow said looking confused at Fluttershy. At this point all of Fluttershy’s friends had gathered around.
“Ok sugercube what nonsense are you spoutin’? You read those stories. They don’t talk! They make weird sounds nopony understands.” Applejack questioned Fluttershy. Before Fluttershy could answer they all heard a voice behind them.
“I…I t-talk.” Alan managed to cough out before his head feel back against the floor with a loud thump.
“Well would yall look at that… It does talk. I’m sorry Fluttershy but I thought you were spoutin a lot of hooey, but you were right. And it speaks perfect Equestrian.”
“Fluttershy I hate to interrupt your… human explanation but there is something I must know. Why is it in your house?” Rarity said speaking for the first time since they arrived.
“Well first of all he is not an it… he’s a colt and his name is Alan.” Fluttershy said staring at the ground, nervous that all the attention was on her.
“You named it? Fluttershy this is the weirdest pet I’ve ever seen you have.” Rainbow Dash spoke looking at Alan expecting him to jump up any second.
“No I didn’t. He said that was his name. And he showed up on my doorstep and fainted so I tied him to my bed but… um he kind of escaped. ” Turning towards Alan, Fluttershy took a few shaky steps towards him. Still unsure about what Alan would do. But her instincts to help others told her to see if he was alright. Before she could get too close a purple hoof stopped her.
“Fluttershy, I know you feel the need to help him but we need to tell the Princess first. Maybe she will know a way to send him back from where he came. In fact I’ve already made the letter and Spike sent it.” Twilight turned to her assistant and he nodded at her. Suddenly Spike let out a burst of green flame and a letter popped out of the fire. “Look there is her reply now!” Twilight took the letter and quickly opened it. It only had four words on it. It was a warning. It read “STAY AWAY FROM IT!” Twilight was surprised by the abruptness of the letter but quickly started heading towards the other side of the room beckoning her friends as she went.
When she and her friends had all gathered on the other side of the room far from Alan she showed them the letter.
“I don’t know why she said stay away but we should listen to her… She is the Princess so she knows what to do.”
On the other side of the room Alan was starting to get to his feet. It was painful but eventually he managed to stand. Looking up and seeing no one, he stared to scan the room looking for the ponies he idolized. Turning all the way around he finally saw them. They stood on the opposite side of the room backed against the wall.
“W-what’s the matter? I-I’m not going to hurt you. You know what I’m just going to go outside for some air. Yeah that seems like a good idea I’m going to do that.” Alan turned around and started limping towards the door. The ponies on the other side of the room were too scared of his zombie like movements to do anything. Even the brave Rainbow Dash and always moving Pinkie didn’t move a muscle. None of them noticed the commotion outside.
When Alan reached the door he stood for a second to catch his breath. Turning his head back he looked at the ponies behind him. “Not coming? Ok I’ll be back in a minute.” Turning back to the door, Alan pulled it open only to be greeted by a dozen swords pointed at his throat.