//------------------------------//
// A little cottage by the wood 
// Story: A Tommie in Ponyville 
// by MetalBrony20 
//------------------------------//

The date, July 18 1944. Location, some woods in god knows where. Condition, weary with light scrapes.

Catching his breath in the middle of a dirt pathway, Bert panted and wiped the beads of sweat which had been accumulating on his warm forehead off. After a couple of minutes of this, he finally composed himself and took a better look of his surroundings. The first thing which caught him off guard was the night sky above. Mouth slightly handing open he gazed up at this strange new heaven. Oppose to being pitch black with some faint glints in it, it was more of a deep purple. The stars looked bright and gleaming in the darkened void above, with large dark swirling clouds dotted around. The thing which struck him the most was the moon itself. It looked to be around 3 times the size of the moon which he had frequently seen on many a night operation or guard out posting. Come to think of it, the entire skyline was different to where he was camping the night before. Large mountains rose high up into the sky, illuminated slightly by the light beaming from the white lunar disk in the sky. Bert could have sworn that there was some sort of settlement in the side of the rock face. On closer scrutiny, he saw that it was in face what appeared to be a castle; its immense towers and turrets stretched high above the walls below. He could just make out the large golden tops they had, which complimented the dark swirls on them. It gave off a faint glow, probably from the street lights below in the keep. 

After doing this, Bert decided to check his kit to make sure everything was in order. Removing his pack, he unfastened it and proceeded to rifled through to discover all his kit was still present, if not slightly jostled around from where he had put them. With a satisfied look on his face, he closed it up again and inspected his rifle. Opening the bolt with ease, a shell casing popped out, evidently he had forgotten to do so in his panic with the wolves. Reaching into one of his front pouches, he drew out 3 rounds, then slotted them in one by one, with as much ease as a gambler does on a fruit machine. With a sharp wrist and hand movement, he snapped the bolt shut with a satisfying click as he pushed it down. Swinging the rifle over his shoulder, something was evidently clear, he was not anywhere near where he had been a few hours ago. Realising he needed to get his bearings straightened, he proceeded down the path away from the forest. Moving further on, he noticed a sign to his right. Stopping to look at it, it read in large friendly letters- ‘Welcome to Ponyville, hope you enjoy your stay!’ 

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Bert almost cried out in frustration. What was a sign in English doing when he had quite clearly been in some random French village not 4 hours ago. The name of the village also struck him weird. Ponyville? Did this mean the land had and abundance of small horse and they had named it as such? Scratching his short brown hair under his helmet, he pressed on down the pathway, reaching a small rise, which up until this point had been obscuring what lay ahead of him out of the tangling tree line. Cresting the ridge, he looked around once more. Before him, lay the town referred to by the sign as 'Ponyville'. Although he was on the outskirts of the place, it was apparent that it was quite a traditional place. Fairly large cottage like houses with thatched roofs and stone walls lined the pathway up ahead, all looking uniform with each other apart from one or two exceptions. The first question that popped into his head was ‘why are all the building so, untouched?' They appeared to unscathed and very structural secure, despite their had been a war going on for the past 5 year, with huge numbers of French town’s and villages being occupied or destroyed by the conquering Wehrmacht forces. In the distance, he though he could make out the silhouette of towering monolithic building, but could barely make it out, though it looked like it had a somewhat jagged and crystalline look to it.

Glancing to his right, Bert spotted what looked like a small secluded cottage on the edge of the dreaded woods that he had just emerged from. "Might as well live out the night in there, lest to not be discovered by these towns folk." he muttered to himself has he set off at a brisk walk. As he approached the quaint looking house, he noticed that it looked rather un-orthodox in design. It looked like it had a tree growing out of the top, as indeed the roof looked like it was made out of tree branches or leaves. At random intervals and sections, various designs of bird boxes seemed to jut out of the tree like area, heck, even they were dotted around the rising sandstone chimney which jutted out of the right side. There appeared to be a small bridge, rising over a small pond area, which in turn was being fed by a thin, fast flowing stream. Following the pattern of the house, all the trees around it, no matter size or shape, seemed to be adorning more bird houses and small animal sized holes. Whoever lived here sure did like there animals a lot. Treading up to the door, he could see that it was like a stable door, with the red wood splitting into two different sections. Putting out a hand, he pushed the door gently to see if it was locked. Surprisingly, with a little more force, it opened with little resistance. Slinging his rifle off, his entered the cottage. 

Inside it was rather quaint looking, even in the darkness. It carried the same animal friendly vibe to it inside, with yet more bird houses that hung from the walls or ceiling. Bags of various animal feed were propped up against walls and furniture that lay about the room. Taking a step forward, he could hear a loud creak of the light green floor boards as he pressed further into the little abode. In the corner he observed what looked like a small green sofa, tucked slightly out of sight behind a small book shelf, which contained various books, all with colourful pictures on their covers. 

Clearing his throat with a small cough he glanced up the stairway. From how this house look and felt to him, he knew someone was living here. Animal obsessed or not, he still needed to locate to owner the place. "Beg my pardon, is someone here by any chance?" Bert called up the stairs, with his hands cupping around his mouth to amplify his voice without the need for shouting. Receiving no response in return, he decided to press on up the stairs. Before his head was hidden under the top of the ceiling, he quickly surveyed with once more, his Lee Enfield following his line of sight as he scanned the room methodically. Concluding no living being was downstairs, he ascended the steps upwards. Arriving on a landing (which very much reminded him of his house back home), he again surveyed the room. Having seen nothing much of interest, he looked at a small table. On it were some photos in wooden frames. The thing that looked odd was the fact none of them were humans. They appeared to be what looked like small, pastel coloured horses. In the closest one, he noticed four of these things. One was rather tall and lanky, with a green/blue coat and a blond mane. Below his face was a dark grey stubble, which was bizarre as horse’s don’t get stubble anywhere. Standing next to it was a much smaller looking one, with a yellow coat a bright pink hair. The pony in question appeared to have a somewhat shy look to her. What he completely missed from his first glance was that they all had wings. God this was confusing. Looking back to the photo, he noticed the other too, were both similar colours too the other too, however they had a much more aged look on their faces and both possessed different coloured manes, one having red, whilst the other white. 

In the silence, Bert glanced towards the door and noticed a faint breathing he hadn't heard from down stairs. Who ever it was, didn't sound of even give Bert of any indication of being intimidating, given the painting of some butterfly’s he had spied downstairs. 

Using the end of his bayonet, he gradually open the door, creaking as it did so. Placing the butt of his rifle in his shoulder he pressed on in. The sight that greeted him was shocking to say the least. Casually sleeping away under the covers, was the same yellow and pink horse he had seen in the photograph. Placing his left hand over his eyes as rubbing them, he could still see whatever that thing was. Just then, the creature appeared to be moving and shifting around. "Angel, whatever is the matter? You never come up to see me in the night? Is something wrong?" the horse...thing mumbled in a very quiet and gentle tone. With her eyes still closed, she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position. Slowly opening her eyes, she turned his way so she glanced in the direction of the door, then let out a high pitched scream. 

Leaping out of bed, she bolted into the corner of the room. With a shaking hoof she reached up and turned on the nearby lamp. Dull yellow light filled the small room, though it cast enough light onto Bert for the creature to get a good look at him. Seeing that he had some sort of sharp object, it covered its face with its forelegs, evidently shaken severely by the thing that had just entered the bedroom. In between high pitch squeaks and mumbles, eventually it managed to squeeze out some words in its almost pathetic voice. "Please, don’t, hurt me..." To which she began to cry, repeating the words over and over again, like a damaged record.

Staring at this bizarre creature, he concluded that it was no threat to him, watching it cowering in the corner of the room. Lowering his rifle, Bert knelt down on the floor. Placing his weapon to the right side of him, he took a deep breath. "Please don’t cry, I don’t want to hurt you." Bert spoke in a very calm and quiet voice. At hearing this, the horse removed one of its forelegs from its face. Looking up at him, Bert gave it a friendly smile. He had this very inviting and friendly look on his face, one which said that ‘I won’t harm you.’ The two of them continued to look at each other for a few minutes. Moving very carefully, he reached into his pack and drew out a half eaten packet of biscuits. God how he disliked these things, yet they still provided a good amount of energy despite this. Pulling out two, he placed one in his mouth and in the other hand he held out the crumbly oat biscuit. 

The winged creature took one look at the offer, then slowly edged forward towards his outstretched palm. Still whimpering quietly, she took the snack from his hands, then proceeded to take a dainty bite out of it. Again the two sat in almost silence, looking across at each other. Removing his Brodie helmet, he placed it on his chest, in a somewhat respectful manner. "Forgive me, I didn't realise someone was up here when I ascended the stairs. Please would you tell me your name?" Lowering its other fore leg, it looked back at him, though part of her face was still obscured by its long mane.

"I...I...I’m Fluttershy." she said in an incredibly softly spoken voice.

"Fluttershy hmm, that is certainly a very nice name." He responded in an equally soft tone, then under his breath added "certainly suits your personality." This response appeared to set the brightly coloured mare at ease. She shifted her body into a more upright position, no longer breathing heavily as she did before.   

"W...why thank y..you, s...s...sir." She said back in the same calm tone, although it was a little louder then before. ‘W...what’s your name?’

"Bert Atkins at your service, proud soldier of the British 3rd infantry division and now one of the most confused members in its ranks." He rolled off like he was making a speech, with a little hesitation at the end however.

"Confused? H...how so Bert?" She said back to him in a slightly confused manner.

"Well Mrs Fluttershy, I would be damned if anyone back home had seen any quite like you."

"W...what do you mean?"

"Well, to put it rather bluntly, you are a small, pink and yellow pony who can speak English and lives in a small house." Bert said rather matter-of-factly as he continued to sit opposite her.

Placing her hooves on her hips, she tried to looked rather annoyed at him, but instead looked rather cute as she pouted her lips slightly. "Well, I don’t think any of my friends would believe me when I said a clothed, hairless ape walked into my bedroom in the middle of the night and started to talk to me and offer me food."

Looking quite shocked at her little outburst, he quickly regained his composure. "Fair point you made Miss. I would also like to ask you another question. Where in the name of His Majesty the King am I? What country, where?" 

Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to be shocked. "Whatever do you mean? How could you not know where you are?" Looking at him almost directly in the eye, she could see a slightly sheepish look come to his mouth as smiled helplessly at her. "Well, you are in Ponyville, or rather the outskirts. The country you are in is Equestria."

Bert just stared at the floorboards, unable to say a word. His mind was doing flips, he had no idea what to say to this. Fluttershy, had began to stand up and trotted over to Bert. Despite her moving he didn’t say a word. Nor did he more or even make any sort of sound. He just sat there with his jaw hanging open, looking dumbfounded. His mouth was moving like he wanted to say something, yet no sound came from the gaping abyss of his gob. She was now standing side by side with him, a concerned look on her tear soaked face. Wiping the rest of it away, she placed a hoof on his shoulder in a motherly fashion. "Was it something I said?" she verbalised her concerns as she looked into his shell shocked face. 

"I just, I just, just don’t know." He breathed out, to which he promptly collapsed on the floor.

Fluttershy continued to look at him in her uneasy manner, mulling over what had just happened. She concluded he had just been through a lot of stress and decided to do the only thing that she could do. Trotting over to a large birch wood cupboard, she pulled out a large padded blanket, baby blue in colour. Returning to him, Fluttershy cast the sheet over his fainted body. She then proceeded to sit by him, and hoped for the best as she again placed a comforting hoof on his body, and settled down for a long night.