2 - The Collar
Chapter 2:
The Collar
After swimming in the slow dream-scape of forced sleep, for either minutes or hours, I woke up again, this time with a headache and a little freedom to move my arms and legs. I was out in the open on a hill, curled up in a ball, next to a fence. In the distance I could see a forest threshold, which stretched far to the left and led into what appeared to be a farmland on rolling hills. To the right, there was an even longer forest line that led into a body of water almost at the horizon. Further right was a large mountain range, mirrored by the snow-tipped peaks within the forest.
I was lying down in the sparse grass, so I couldn't see what was behind me. I tried to stand up, but something pulled at my neck hard and I fell over. I got worried that something bad might have happened while I was out when I felt a large collar around my neck, which was roped to the wooden fence post.
The fact that I was near a farm contributed to the conclusion that I must have pissed off a farmer and gotten chained to the fence; as were the ways of nasty farmers. Unfortunately, my good-enough explanation only lasted until I remembered what had actually happened, in the forest. I tried to pull the fence post out but, while it moved ever so slightly in each heave, it was simply too solid to remove.
I knew I was stuck, but I only had one thing on my mind; I couldn't talk. Talking, and whatever it was that happened when I talked, was the source of the problem I found myself in. Remaining silent wouldn't be so hard, I thought.
I noticed that a few people approaching me from behind were not having the same problem. There were between three and five voices that I could tell apart, and they were getting louder. I turned around and crouched with my arms crossed on my knees, waiting to see whoever was coming up the slope. I couldn't see them, but soon enough I tuned in to hear what they were talking about.
"...saying this monster just ran up to Fluttershy and-” A female voice I didn’t recognize was cut off mid-sentence.
"-Ah say, we still don’t know if it’s a monster.” Another voice interrupted. It had a southern drawl that I recognized from earlier, but I hoped that it wasn't the same creature.
"Right, fine. We don’t know what it is. You found it near Fluttershy, after it might have attacked her. Weren't you trying for that to happen?
The second familiar voice continued, “Well, yeah, but it wasn't a manticore. It was smaller. Made a lot o' noise, too...”
Five colourful horse heads rose from behind the hill and walked towards me, and the voices stopped. I looked around for the source of the voices, but, after seeing no people, I feared that I would soon make the obvious connection.
I looked, again, to the group that surrounded me. The one to the front of the group was not one of the two I met at a forest, though it had a similar build; it looked like the other two, basically a small horse, just under 4 feet tall like the others, but had light purple fur, indigo hair (were those… highlights?) and a very troubling addition: a single horn coming out of its forehead. I saw another like this, again with purple hair, but with pure white fur. I tried to kick myself for thinking ‘unicorns’ but then realized that was exactly what they were. And that kicking myself would knock me over.
Behind the all-purple one, I saw the orange and cyan horses, and the wings on the latter reminded me of, as painful as it was to admit, a pegasus. Three mythical creatures in one day was a major problem on its own, but I held out for the worst as I surveyed the rest.
To the right of Purple was the white unicorn. Next to that was a regular, small horse, coloured all pink. There were no people near by, but hushed voices continued from around them. I knew it was futile, but I didn't want to admit to myself that I was captured by goddamned talking animals.
“Yeah... Well, there it is.” The aqua and rainbow pegasus spoke first.
It, a pegasus, spoke first. I was not OK with that, but I had to somehow find a way to convince myself that it made sense - because it was happening right in front of me. For the second time.
The others, around it, started mumbling. That was very possibly the final push to insanity, and I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t real. It was all too real for my brain to handle, despite all my effort being poured into rational thought, despite coming back from the edge twice in the last few minutes (of waking time). I must have been dreaming, I thought, but that wasn't a valid answer.
I could always tell the difference between sleep and reality, and it once became a powerful source of insomnia when I found out how to wake up on demand. I had been performing the mental ritual since before I got here, in vain, to escape the confusing events I found myself involved with. It didn't work thus far, so I threw that option away.
I searched for a way to comprehend it all. I was going to have to accept that it was real eventually, so I just looked back on what happened before I woke up the second time. I just saw what was happening, and accepted it for what it was. There were unicorns and pegasi and some other more natural, but still weird, horse things standing around me, I thought.
And there were. I understood it, then.
I opened my eyes and blinked a few times to clear them. All five of my captors had approached to within a few feet, looking with different levels of interest, distaste, or enthusiasm. That wasn't right, I thought, there were more. I could only see five, but - yes, a sixth one hid behind Orange. It had a pink tail that wasn't completely obscured, and I recognized it as the one under the tree, and saw a glint of cyan. I asked myself, was that the one they called 'Fluttershy'?
My eyes, tiny in comparison to theirs, scanned the faces that surrounded me. With each take, their stares became less resolute, as if they could somehow read the emotions from my face, through the beads of sweat starting to form and trickle down. I didn't move from my crouching position and managed to hold their gazes.
The colourful pegasus was the first to turn away, and started speaking again. That time, I was more prepared, but I could only pretend that I didn't flinch.
"Well, I got nothing.”
I held back a disapproving grunt. I was human, and they couldn't see it, obviously. I didn't dwell on the thought, but I sighed heavily and they noticed. I didn't know what they were thinking about me, but they made it pretty clear after a few seconds of whispers.
One of them said I was a monster again, and another asked the general question of where I came from. I would have told them that I didn't come from anywhere near there, but I still had to consider how horribly trying to talk would turn out. I decided to just pantomime instead; I pulled sharply at the rope that connected to my collar, which moved the post a little.
Yellow darted from behind Orange to behind Rainbow, letting out a little shriek. Purple approached me, looking between me and the post.
"Hello, there. We aren't going to hurt you.” A female voice came from Purple. It seemed it was trying to comfort me, but that ship sailed a few kicks to the head ago. I was also trying to be weary for whatever it was that paralysed me earlier, so I raised my hands and backed away in order to assume a defensive stance.
Unfortunately, I backed away too much and hit the length of the rope again, almost knocking myself over. Purple looked like she (?) was sympathetic for a split second, and raised a hoof towards me, but stopped as I regained my footing and continued to look on with pure curiosity.
She raised a hoof to her chin in a Thinker's pose, eyeing me up and down, and mumbled some observations, "...It looks a little like a manticore, definitely in the family... but where are the wings? It's definitely missing some peices."
I found it strange that I could hear her so clearly. I didn't hold any weight to what she had to say, though, as she clearly didn't know what I was.
I began to think about that. If she didn't know what I was, I thought, she - and the other five - must be aliens. That didn't completely fill in all the mysteries, but it made sense for that situation. I wondered why they would bother to bring another animal with them if they were scared of it - what they called a 'manticore'. I was cut off by White speaking in another female voice, that time with some sort of English accent.
"Umm, Twilight..." She asked, "What is that thing wearing?" 'Twilight', the purple one that was examining me, shook her head - probably at the strange question - and turne to answer.
"Oh, I don't know... clothes?" Twilight suggested. It was astounding, at the time, to hear a phrase like that uttered without a hint of anger or sarcasm. It was only light condescension that she spoke with, and White started looking at me as well, in a mix between awe and disgust.
I noticed the pair of observers was closing in on me, and far too close for comfort, at that. I huffed, and slid my shoes on the dirt, but none of them payed any notice. Twilight continued to look up and down, and White was starting to walk to my right. I clenched my jaw.
“C-c-careful, girls… it’s d-dangerous!” Yellow, out from behind Rainbow, made an ‘Eep’ noise, again, before darting behind the next furthest pony, again; this time it was the all-pink horse that was eyeing me with a furrowed brow, or what passed for one on their cartoonish faces. It was also rubbing an upside-down hoof on it's chin, in another very animated Thinker's pose, and I wondered if the gesture meant the same thing for both of our races. If it did, the pink one was deep in thought.
I would have thought the event was cute if I wasn’t presently captured by super-intelligent farm animals that looked like they collided with narwhals, eagles and a crayola factory at high speed. I almost laughed at the imagery, but I forced myself to stop - vigilance was important.
“So, AJ...” Rainbow started to ask to one of them named 'AJ', which I couldn't decipher as quickly, “Any idea what this thing is? I really don't know, but either way, that’s the first time I’ve ever beaten up something that big!” Orange and I gave her a nasty look, both of us remembering what actually happened - mostly Orange. “Well, not that I haven’t come close before…”
"Come on, Rainbow” said Orange in dissapointment. It was pretty obvious that Rainbow, with the rainbow-coloured hair, was 'Rainbow', but I remembered hearing ‘Fluttershy’ and ‘AJ’ and I had to listen closer to their conversations to find out. I had more time to think, but if I thought too much about how easily I could separate voices I would probably just end up tuning them out.
"You've been askin' me about it since we brought it back." I was being called an 'it' by them. At least I managed to figure out what gender they were. Meanwhile, Orange and Rainbow were getting into a fight that I really wasn't listening to.
I heard hoof-steps behind me, and turned to meet the extremely close face of White, who was staring at the back of my shirt. She looked up at me slowly, took a single step back, then did some kind of elaborate dance onto a couch that... A couch came out of nowhere, and she fainted on it. I looked back at Twilight, who rolled her eyes at the events and continued mumbling about me. I sputtered, looking between White and the group.
I knew, right there and then, that I would not understand a lot of things to come. And, of course, they came.
"I've got it!" Pink clopped a hoof on the ground in some sort of realization. Twilight looked back quickly, visibly tensing up.
"Got what, Pinkie?" She asked apprehensively.
"I know what-hey, what happened to Rarity?" The group looked towards the downed unicorn, then back to 'Pinkie', rolling their eyes.
Twilight, turning around, began to explain to the group, "Well, girls, I can conclude that... I have no idea what this is." She shrank a bit at the statement, but straightened up and continued, "But I think it may be intelligent." I slapped my face and huffed, wishing I could yell at them. "It may take a while, but I'm sure I can get something out of-"
She was interrupted by Pinkie waving a hoof in the air wildly, like a kid in school. It was Twilight's turn to put her hoof on her face, and sighed heavily before pointing to her. "Yes, Pinkie Pie, you were going to say something. What did you get?"
"Well, I just now remembered that this guy here is a human and he might have been brought here for reasons that are not apparent right now but will probably be revealed later on in some hashed-up last-minute cover for a lack of a proper ending, and he may or may not know everything about us, and he probably has some sort of special powers that nopony knew about until now, and what I'm getting at is that we should probably be nicer to him in case he goes crazy later on OK?"
I blinked.
Twilight, and the others, seemed unfazed.
"So..." Twilight began, after a long silence, "You know he's... male?" She obviously didn't understand what Pinkie Pie said, although I wasn't able to make out much more than the correct use of pronouns, either.
"Yeah! We should totally throw a party for him!" Pinkie Pie stated, bouncing and smiling, apparently oblivious to what she was talking about earlier. I got the feeling that forgetting that part of the encounter was the best option, and Twilight turned back to me with an expression that seemed to mirror the conclusion.
"So, you're a he, are you?" She asked me. I resumed a crouch, not looking away from her, and gave a quick nod. "What kind of animal are you? Do you have a name? Can you talk?" I deadpanned, and fiddled around with my fingers, waiting for a question I could realistically answer without destroying anyone's eardrums. She didn't take the hint.
"I wonder... Fluttershy, do you know what 'he' is? Do you think it's safe to take the collar off?" Twilight turned and asked, eliciting a turn of heads to Orange, who stepped away to reveal the one she was talking about. It seemed that 'Fluttershy' had jumped back behind Orange after Pinkie's rant. I wondered why Twilight was ignoring Fluttershy's earlier warnings.
"I d-don’t really kn-know, I thought it-t was a m-m-manticore at f-first, but w-when it f-found me hiding it looked c-completely different.” She barely made it through the sentence after noticing me glance at her.
I didn't know what a manticore was, but I could only imagine it looking a bit like a monkey if I was to be mistook for one. Ideally, one would mistake me for another human, but the horse-things didn't know what humans were so I had to be realistic.
"And... I d-don't think y-you should take the collar off..." Fluttershy concluded. Twilight was about to ask why, but Rainbow jumped in front of Fluttershy, abandoning previous argument.
"Believe her, Twilight! You didn't see it... him, whatever, with the collar off! Didn't you hear it?" Rainbow was yelling in a breaking voice. It seemed like the obnoxiously coloured one was afraid of me as well. "It almost made me deaf!" She pointed at her raised ears, as if that would prove her point.
Twilight looked between me and Rainbow. "Well Rainbow Dash, I would love to believe you, but I haven't exactly gone deaf yet. The only thing you and Applejack did was put a collar on; what's stopping him from doing whatever it was, again?" I still wanted to yell at them, and I had to agree with Twilight that not much was stopping me.
Rainbow 'Dash' sat down and touched a hoof to her chin - it seemed like they would always do that while thinking - before looking up to Twilight and shrugging. "I dunno."
Twilight looked back to me. "You have a reason not to talk, I guess?" She seemed a little sad, and kept lowering her eyes to what I could guess was my neck. My collar itched. I gave a slight nod, and Twilight continued, "So you can't tell us anything about what happened earlier... How old are you?"
I didn't expect to be asked that. My age hadn't been requested for over ten years prior, so I opened my mouth slightly, before noticing what Twilight was then looking at. My fingers were tapping my knee. I looked between her and them for a few seconds, before getting it. It seemed she had the same idea I had, just later than I thought of it. I rose a hand with all the fingers spread out. Twilight examined it for a few seconds, then nodded.
"Five? You're five years old?" I slapped my face again, but at least I knew she could count. I put up both my hands, and flared them three times, then closed and opened them with the thumbs down, but before Twilight could decipher the kindergarten-level counting exercise she was pushed out of the way by Pinkie.
"Ooh ooh I know!" She shouted, bringing her face too close to mine, "We can throw him a birthday party! Quick, what day is it? What year is it? Hold on, let me get my abacus..." She finished, after only a few seconds, and hopped away, up and over the hill. I didn't know what was up with her and parties, but at least I knew they were more advanced aliens. They could count and had an abacus, and parties, apparently. I wondered how they would have gotten to Earth with an abacus, but that was a question for a different time.
Twiligt, now recovered and sitting the rope's length in front of me, looked at my collar and came to a decision. "I suppose that's proof that you're intelligent. We should probably get that collar off now." I could not express how thankful I was to hear that, and the cowering Fluttershy had a similar reaction, though probably with fear instead of thanks.
The purple unicorn spread her hooves and took a wide stance, then started to concentrate. I had to blink and rub my eyes when I saw motes of light dance around her glowing purple horn, and a glowing energy spontaneously wrapped around the rope near my neck and traveled towards my neck. The energy was enough to singe my skin from a distance - it really didn't feel good up close.
'AJ', who was the only conscious unnamed one thus far, so it was probably her name, ran up and spoke in a hushed, rushed tone. "You should probably ease up on that magicky stuff, Twi; It don't look like it's havin such a good time." I had closed my eyes in pain at that point and grimaced to the air, trying to pull my collar off by hand. It was obvious that whatever Twilight was doing was not a good thing, however she seemed to be focusing on something right in front of her instead of the creature twisting in pain a few feet away.
It was agonizing, whatever she was doing. The pain was not bound by any threshold when it started, and seemed to increase in a steady and unrelenting fashion. I felt my arms tremble and lose sensation so I couldn't try to get the damned collar off, and my legs collapsed under me when the muscles simply stopped responding. The purple glow wrapped around me, and I could barely hear what was going on around me; of course, I still made out what they were saying. Somehow.
"I don't know what's happening! My magic shouldn't act like this!"
"Stop doin that, Twi! It's dyin down there!"
"I can't look..."
"I'm trying, I'm trying!"
"Woah, what's everypony doing? Did you start the party without me?"
"Try harder! I'm not a fan of it more than the next pony but I can tell it's-"
The purple aura seeped into my skin and shut my muscles down, disabled my eyes, and I started to feel cold. The energy seeped into my brain and I lost all feeling of everything; all observations became null and disappeared from my memory and were gone. I must have died, I thought. How curious that I thought about death again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A flash took me to an infinite room with a pure white sky and a grey brick floor that stretched out over the horizon. I remembered it, somehow. There was a table and two chairs. I sat in one chair, moving without hesitation - or control. What looked like a human puffed out of smoke and sat in the ornate chair opposite mine. I couldn't see my own; my head wouldn't turn from the dark figure.
It started speaking in a voice that echoed throughout the seamless, white-grey abyss and cloaked my ears in a shroud that blocked any audible words from reaching me. It went on for hours, talking and talking - I knew it spoke english through some innate understanding, but somehow the meaning was lost on me.
After a long monologue, with me listening eagerly - for some reason - it finished talking and looked at me. I could see question in it's eyes, which appeared for only a split second, flashed, and disappeared, and it spoke with a final meaning.
"You understand what I mean, right?"
I found myself nodding. I watched it happen. I did not let myself nod, or feel it, or cause it - it just happened. Suddenly, I was put back in my body and continued nodding under my own will, then convinced that I understood what it meant. It was strange that I could change opinions so quickly - and I wondered if I had really changed at all - but I knew right then that I was controlling myself.
For some reason, I gave a salute and jumped backwards. I fell through the bricks and was suspended by a platform that caught me softly. I relaxed, and crossed my arms behind my head. There was a collar on my neck. I gripped it with both hands and pulled, straining from the effort. Grass grew under me and six figures popped up around me. There was a forest, a hill, a mountain, and plains behind me.
A glowing path formed between me and the forest. I hit my head on the dirt, and feeling returned to my legs and arms. I could move again. I woke up an instant later.
The pain was still there, but I was back in control of my own body. I could see again, and this time the purple glow was around just my neck and shooting out sparks of colour - thankfully fading quickly. Twilight's horn had stopped glowing, and all five of the others were crowded around her so I took the opportunity to get away from the crazy horses.
There was stiff dirt under me, like there had been a lot of animals there before, and I found purchase on the solid surface. I slid my legs under myself and bent them, pushed down with my shoulders and elbows, and curled forward sharply. I was standing up in a blur and, with a twist of my hand, the rope between my collar and the post was wrapped solidly around my arm. With a turn, a dash backwards, and a throwing motion using all the weight and strength in my body, the rope tore the post straight from the ground, dethreaded, and detached from where I was holding it. I grunted in the effort, sending a shockwave to disturb the grass and dirt, and deafen me again, but I didn't care anymore.
I was free, with a small length of rope dangling after my strides instead of a heavy post preventing me from moving. I ran towards the forest along the path laid out for me, still glowing in aftersight, and had covered half the distance in only a few seconds. There was a shout from behind me but I didn't turn to answer the voice or the faint whistling.
I figured out why there was whistling too late to do anything about it, and I was tackled by a rainbow-coloured streak of light that I ended up tumbling over in the ensuing fall. My hand went numb and became another source of fiery agony all at the same time when the pegasus Rainbow Dash landed on it, unconscious. I knew for sure that it wasn't enough pressure to hurt physically, but there it was.
I pulled my disabled arm out from under the colourful pile, wincing at the feeling. It wasn't natural for my body to just lose feeling after touching something. It happened back in the forest, and when Twilight was doing what they called 'magic'. Magic would have brought them to Earth without anything related to computers, I thought, but it wasn't the time to think about why they would have an abacus or what they were calling magic - or why they believed in it. I looked back at the charging pack of four horses, with one flying in the distance, and finally moved my legs while making sure my disabled arm didnt fly around in the run.
A few seconds later, I quickly passed over the tree line and, in the relative cover, began to imagine how much pain I would be in when I was really safe and ran out of adrenaline. Hopefully, the natural painkillers would last for that long, at least. I managed to limp a few dozen meters in, past several dense pockets of vegetation and around another patch of blue flowers. I didn’t know what they were, but the glowing blue mist around them was a mystery and I wasn’t much for experiments while being pursued by powerful aliens in an unfamiliar land.
Still running, I slowed down when I heard the footsteps (hoofsteps?) dissipate behind me, followed by queries about the condition of Rainbow Dash. I started to feel guilty about the injured pegasus, but I quickly justified it, seeing as it was the one that flew after me; I was not at fault for any injuries it may have received. Not to mention whatever Twilight was doing, I resolved any feelings for them that were brought on by benefit of the doubt... No, I thought, it was something else.
There was something that happened, near the beginning of the encounter, that changed my opinion about them. I saw Fluttershy, saw her eyes - they were deep cyan, I remembered - and then, poof. I suddenly didn't view them as an immediate threat. That was a big mystery, and a good question.
There was a fresh breeze coming from my right, and I paused to take in my surroundings. I had stopped to rest against a large oak tree, the trunk of which was shimmering in the angled light of the canopy. There was moss on it, pointing to where I was running from. Several trees around me bore the same signs, which I remembered from something long ago; moss points to civilization.
It was then that I had to make a decision. Would I risk going to get help, I wondered, or would I have to avoid the horses long enough for them to lose interest in me? It was a tough inner argument, but I looked at the facts. Most, if not all, of them could easily disable me through touch. One of them could do something worse from a range. It was them between me and some kind of human population. I couldn't let them fend for themselves against potent aliens, but I also couldn't just run in and die without a chance in hell. I needed to wait.
There were faint voices from where I had come from, but they died away with distance. The aliens were moving on, I thought. I would have to as well, for a time.
So, I stopped and listened. I thought about things. I questioned reality. I asked why.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After a while, I was sure I could think well enough to move up, but I found myself resting against a tree. I had made time to practice talking without the dangerous side effects, and the grass shook in the wake of my most accurate speech attempt yet. I was thankful for one moment of peace in the last, incredibly taxing half hour of waking time. If only my hand had regained feeling that I could have felt the blades bend to my will, the dew collect on rough skin that did nothing to hint at the damage beneath.
I didn’t need to worry; it changed back, eventually.
[A/N]
Sorry about Pinkie's third-wall-breaking speech.
Stats
Page generated in 0.039 seconds
Total duration
898 users online
597,009 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
All right then. Now that I'm done with my civilized version of my review, I will now share with you my initial reaction in 3...2...1...
fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/106/7/9/Super_Excited_by_Moosey74.png
PRAISE THE GODS!!!! IT HAS RETURNED!!!!
Good job! Hope to see another update soon.
892092 Well, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but... it should be noted that they aren't 'sound' powers. Not based on sound, anyway. I don't know if this is a deal-breaker but them's the facts. Also, Ethan has a character arc now. Yay.
PS: Thanks yous
PPS: Soonish good enough? And then acting dead for 2 more weeks?
Many likes have been given to this fic...
Also, can you please teach him the RCV? I r srs K? I want to see Woona's reaction...
What? It's true...
-Jorofrarie
Yay! It updated, praise Talos!!!
Very nice rewrite so far, keep it up.
892111
Consider my bubble unbursted (is that a word?
... Oh well, it is now). Really, finding out the powers aren't exactly sound based makes it that much more interesting. With that said, kudos. By the way... did he run through Poison Joke? I'm assuming that's what the mysterious blue flowers were. If so-
static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Dis_2b7a93_2814609.jpg
If not, still gon be good
.
895172 Thank you again.
As for the Poison Joke, 1 - it is indeed that flower, and 2 - he did not run through it.
You know how Poison Joke changes the character's most defining feature to make it act against them? Yeah, that would conflict with quite a few plot points and things so I don't think anyone will fall into any of it any time soon.
PS - if the mystery of his powers is enticing, consider this: he's thinking about this story in past tense, but it's from a certain point IN the story. Have fun figuring that out.
892186 What's an RCV? Who the hell is Woona?
*Ahem* RCV is...
THE ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE!!!11111 ARGGGHHHHH RAGE!
I think you can then get the leap to who 'Woona' is...
-Jorofrarie
897264 *Ahem* RCV is...
THE ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE!!!11111 ARGGGHHHHH RAGE!
I think you can then get the leap to who 'Woona' is...
-Jorofrarie
897337 Right, of course.
...wait, why the hell would he learn that?
Anywho, he does do some interesting stuff with Luna, and his voice, but the only time that occurs at the same time is near the end of the story. And you'll probably be unhappy as to how it turns out.