An Odd New Friend

by Eon333MS

Chapter 1: First Impressions Are Lasting Impressions

Dave sat down in the corner. Taking his first rest in hours, he panted heavily in pain. His left side had been blown open, spilling blood and staining his armor. With his left hand, he tried his best to hold the wound together and stop the blood flow. His right hand held his combat knife. After losing his gun, this was all he had left to defend himself.

After catching his breath, Dave took a moment to observe his surroundings. He seemed to be in a large wooden barn. This particular barn seemed to be a storage area. One side of the barn, against the wall, was filled with barrels. Every one of them was marked with a picture of a red apple, and many of them were filled with the same fruit. The opposite side, and just under him, stored various farming tools. The wall held various smaller tools such as rakes, shovels, and even a ladder within its many hooks. Beside them several carts, stacks of wooden tubs, and an old manual plow waited for someone to use them. All of these items were organized and pushed to the sides of the barn, creating a corridor pathway of sorts between its two large doors.

Dave however, sat high on one of the many crossing supporting beams in the barn. Beams of light fell through the roofing’s many tiny holes to slightly illuminate the barn and reveal the loads of dust that hung in the air. He held himself in the darkest corner of the barn, trying to stay out of sight of whoever might walk in. Dave was still in enemy territory after all, and someone would find his trail of blood sooner or later. If he could make the first strike, he might get out of here alive. If someone found him first, then that might be the end of him.

Dave sat there in silence for what felt like hours. The lighting suggested it was still the afternoon, so it couldn’t have been that long. His stomach however, told him it has been a while. At least his wound had enough time to thoroughly seal itself. For a moment, Dave contemplated the risk of getting one of those apples from the barrels. He didn’t think for long as his focus was stolen by the barn door as it suddenly creaked open.

What came through the door were strange and new to Dave. They were some kind of horse-like creature; several of them. Their bodies were far too small to be a horse and the coat and mane colors were entirely unnatural. One was bright pink with dark pink. Another was bright yellow and pink. And another had blue fur, but a multi-colored, almost rainbow-like hair. In fact, all six of these things had odd contrasts.

Dave whispered to himself, “Hallucinating…Yeah, the blood loss, I’m just seeing things.” The creatures all entered the barn and fanned out, looking for something. Dave assumed they were looking for him; he silenced his breathing and remained perfectly still. The knife was raised and ready to strike, just in case.

As if the colors weren’t odd enough, these creatures started talking. The blue one was first, “So, what do you think this thing is?”

The next to talk was an orange creature with a rancher’s hat, “I don’t know, but it better not be stealin’ my apples.” It walked over to the barrels, inspecting them.

A light purple one with a dark purple hair started to talk, “What ever it is, I don’t recognize these hoofprints.” A large book, surrounded by some light purple aura, floated in front of this one. It seemed to be looking though the book. Pages with the same aura flipped periodically.

A white one with curly, violet hair had her nose to the ground, inspecting the crimson trail. She lifted her head and spoke her mind, “The trail ends here, so whatever it is, it must be hiding in this barn,” It twisted her head, looking around like the rest of them, “Somewhere.” They all continued to search the barn. For several long minutes, Dave remained hidden, so far.

But any hope of a quiet escape was evaporated when the blue one got lucky. It randomly turned it head towards the corner Dave was hiding in. He kept perfectly still hoping the shadow was a thick enough veil. The creature squinted its eyes in focus. After several long, heart pounding seconds, it lifted one of its legs, pointing in Dave’s direction and addressing its companions, “Is that it over there?”

Shit! They spotted me!!

Dave acted entirely on training and instinct. As swift has he could, Dave jumped from his post and landed on the wooden cart just below him, hard. Pain shocked though his boots, and his wound reopened, spilling blood once again. But he didn’t care; he had to move.

He leapt to the side, off the cart, and towards the nearest of the creatures. This was the yellow one with the pink mane. Dave dived forward, arms stretched out to capture. He tackled the creature, knocking it off its legs and sending both of them slamming into the barrels. The other creatures gasped in surprise.

Dave was unfazed by the impact. He was quick to return to his feet. He snatched the creature by its long neck, and lifted it into the air. He gripped its jaw within his fingers and twisted the creature around, putting it between himself and the others. The blade was still in his right hand, and Dave brought it to the creature’s yellow neck.

The rest of the creatures turned from surprise to rage at they saw there captive friend. They all lowered there heads, and slightly spread their forelegs, taking a combat stance. The blue one dug its hooves at the ground and unfolded a pair of wings. The floating book dropped to the floor. A barrel was covered with that weird aura and floated to the air above the purple creature. The orange one began to spin a lasso with its tail. Dave gave no attention to these weird events; he didn’t care if it was a floating tank made of butter! It doesn’t matter what these things are or what they could do, he wasn’t going down without a fight!

Dave tightened his grip around his hostage and threatened the others, “Take another step and he’s dead!!”

The blue creature took a step in pure defiance to his threat. Its eyes narrowed in challenge.

Dave pressed his knife against skin, “I swear, I’ll kill this bastard!!”

The white one spoke again, “Get your filthy hooves off her you, you…thing!”

Dave started to shiver. The newly opened wound continued to bleed out. His sense of balance was fading. Breathing became labored and irregular.

This was going bad.

The pink one talked, “Don’t think your going to do anything to our friend while we still got something to say about it!”

Damnit! What can I do?!

Dave made one last bluff, “LAST CHANCE!”

The creatures continued to inch forward. Dave inched back, towards the barn door behind him. He was on the verge of cutting his losses and just running for it when-

“STOP IT!” To everyone, and everything’s surprise, the yellow captive started to talk. “Just leave him alone!”

What the hell? Is this thing defending me?

The purple one spoke, “Fluttershy, what are you saying, it’s attacking you.”

“No! He’s not! If he was going to attack, he would’ve already done it. Just look at him.” Despite her condition, the yellow one spoke with volume and authority. “He’s bleeding and shivering. He’s scared and horrible hurt. He’s only doing this because he thinks you’re attacking him!”

To Dave, yellow one started to sound distant. The world in front of him blurred and twisted. He was losing too much blood.

No, NO! Not like this!

Dave continued to will himself conscious and awake, but it was a losing battle.

“I’m not going to let your hurt him! If you can’t help yourselves, then just go away. I’ll help him on my own. I don’t need anypony trying…”

The yellow one kept talking, but Dave couldn’t understand anymore. The creatures ahead of him were mere blurs to him now. Beyond the muffled voice, Dave could hear the signature sound of metal hitting the ground. He couldn’t feel his arms as he dropped the blade. He couldn’t feel his legs as they gave away. Dave could barely hear the suppressed thump as his head slammed into the ground. His vision slowly darkened into black. The sounds around him faded away.

So this is how it ends, huh? A least I went down kicking and screaming. Well, something like that anyway.

***

Auuugh…

Dave grunted as he woke up. The first thing to meet him was a horrible headache. Dave tried to open his eyes, but it was bright wherever he was. He tried to move around and get a feel for where he was. He was on something cushioned, with a soft blanket covering him. It must be a bed.

Did I fall asleep? Was all that just some dream? Make sense. Fighting off a bunch of talking, colorful, horse…ish things? Yeah, it was definitely a dream.

With his eyes still closed, Dave pushed the blankets off of him, and moved to sit up, but he was quickly pushed back down.

Some feminine voice, a nurse maybe, spoke, “Oh, no you don’t. You stay right there.” Dave did as he was told. It’s not like he had the strength to defy. To his dismay, the lady yelled in the other direction, “Fluttershy! Your new friend is awake!”

Odd soft stomping could be heard down a hall, and a softer voice spoke in response, “Oh my! Is he alright? Did he move around? I hope the bandages held.”

Fluttershy? I know I heard that name somewhere before…

Braving the harsh light, Dave opened his eyes and turned his head. Standing next to him were some of the same weird creatures from before. The purple one looked at him with awe, a piece of paper and a red feather floated next to her. Dave now noticed she had a horn that glowed with the same aura as anything that floated next to her. Next to her was the yellow one, the same one Dave had tried to hold hostage. Both of them waited for Dave to say or do something.

What the hell are these things?

“So… I wasn’t hallucinating, was I?”

The purple one shook its head; a frown grew on her face. “I’m afraid not, that little stunt you pulled was all too real.”

The yellow one intervened, “Umm, Twilight, if you don’t mind, I need to check the bandages, please.”

“Oh, go ahead.”

The blanket over Dave glowed with a purple aura and was lifted in the air. The purple one moved aside and the yellow one took no delay in her inspection. Dave was surprised what he saw. The wound at his side was patched up all around his abdomen with gaus raps. The medical work was accually quite crude; they didn’t bother to remove his armor.

“Phew, the bandages held.” She looked at Dave, a small smile was on her face, “You’re going to be just fine.”

This was beyond odd for Dave. Didn’t he threaten to kill it? He needed answers and he needed them now!

He returned his head towards the purple one, “What are you?”

The purple one looked up from her paper, she seemed surprised, “You mean you don’t know?”

“No, that’s why I’m asking.”

“Well, I’m Twilight Sparkle. I’m a pony, an alicorn to be precise. My friend here is Fluttershy.”

The yellow one spoke at her name, “It’s, umm, nice to meet you.”

“She is also a pony, but a pegasus.”

This was a start, but it wasn’t enough to make sense of the situation.

“Where am I?”

“You’re in Fluttershy’s cottage.”

“Anywhere broader?”

“Well, you’re in the town of Ponyville.”

Dave took a moment to rack though his memories, nothing. “Never heard of it. What country is this?”

“Equestria.”

“Huh?” Dave never heard of this country. Then again, he never heard of ponies before. Well, he has, but those were much, much different from the ones in front of him.

“Equestria.”

“Yeah, I heard you, I just never heard of a place like that.”

“Well I never heard of a thing like you.” Several books started to rapidly float by Twilight as she glanced at several of them and there contents for a few seconds. “In fact, I’m starting to think you are something new. I’ve already started to take notes on your physic.”

Dave raised an eyebrow. “Really? Let me see it, I can tell your how much is right.”

“Umm, sure.” Twilight floated the note closer to Dave, who in turn, grabbed it in his hand. He sat up, this time without resistance, to get into a better reading position. The wound protested at the movement, but it was bearable. As his vision focused on the paper, it quickly became clear he wouldn’t be able to read it no matter how he sat. The entire paper was filled with symbols and characters entirely foreign to Dave.

He held the paper out to Twilight, “I should’ve guessed I wouldn’t be able to read it.”

The paper started to glow again and floated next to Twilight and the feather. She looked at him with confusion. “Huh, you can speak Equestrian but can’t read it?”

“I don’t speak Equestrian, I speak English.”

“Then what’s the language you’re speaking right now.”

“English.”

“No, that's Equestrian.”

“Huh?”

“The language you’re speaking is Equestrian.”

“I think I know the language I’ve been speaking my entire life, and it’s English!”

“You’re speaking Equestrian right now!”

Fluttershy broke up the imminent argument. “Um, Twilight, I think it might be the same thing.”

Twilight took a moment to process the thought, “Oh, I guess that might be true.”

Dave shook his head; this was getting stupid. “Why don’t you just read it to me out loud?”

Twilight’s face lit up at the request. She sat down, straitened her posture, lifted her head, and brought the paper closer towards her. “Ah-hem, Initial report on possibly new animal, designate: ‘Hard-shell’. Initial interactions with the creature shows it is a sentient, biped creature. Further analysis had reviled the following: One, his entire body seems to be covered in an exoskeleton made mostly up of two different materials. One material is an exceptionally dense and heavy, protecting only certain parts of the body. These parts include the chest, head, limbs, and the major joint on each limb. The second material is made softer than the other, but is more mobile. It covers all parts of the body that the first material dose not. I suspect this exoskeleton is used as natural armor. Two, Hard-shell is tailless. The reason for this is unknown. Three, Hard-shell has four limbs like most animals of similar size, but the rear-limbs and the forelimbs serve entirely different purposes. As a biped creature, the two rear limbs are the only ones used for moving the body from place to place. As such, they are larger in terms of muscle than the lesser used forelimbs. Unlike the rearlimbs, each forelimb ends in a set of five claws per limb. I suspect these sets of claws are used for gripping objects in a similar way a griffin’s talons would. The lack of tail and usage of only two limbs for mobility would also give reason that the upper limbs are used for balance when moving, much like how most birds use their wings to balance themselves when walking on their talons. Four, Hard-shell has the most unusual optic sensor (or at least that’s what I suspect it to be). On the front side of its head, a large reflective eye could be found. This eye’s length is approximately one third of the circumference of its head. What’s most unusual about its eye is the observation that it is completely dry and solid. It possesses no visible iris and is unreactive to any change in light. I suspect this is just an outer layer to the eye, and another part of this exoskeleton system.”

Twilight lowered her paper and turned to Dave with an egger smile on her face. “It's all I got so far, but what do you think?”

Dave just shook his head and gave a small laugh.

Twilight’s smile faded, “What’s so funny?”

“I’ll show you.” Dave put his hand on his knees, leaned forward, and got up on his legs. He wrapped his chest in his arms, reaching around for the strong velcro straps at either side. After ripping them with a tear, he pinched his fingers under his chin, causing a click to sound. He grabbed his vest by each shoulder strap and lifted it over his head. Taking the helmet in the same motion, and dropped the armor in front of Twilight. With one hand he removed his tainted, ballistic glasses; the other pulled his bandana down, exposing his pale, dirty face and everything that came with it. Dave looked at the now dumbfounded Twilight, “No exoskeleton, just armor.”

Twilight continued to just look up. Dave couldn’t tell if she was either in awe, or panicking in the inside. She pointed a shaking hoof at Dave, “Y-you’re… you’re a… a HUMAN?!”

Dave could sense, but didn’t understand the severity. He looked down that the unicorn with a raised eyebrow, “Yeah, so what?”

Author's Note:

Yeah, first story. Hope everpony likes it!!

Btw, Does anyone know if and how I can import from a word document? I can deal with copy and paste, but it'd make my life a little easier.

Comments

[theFlancy Mernin]

I like this.

[JBL]

Needs an editor but otherwise okay.

[dukesofhazzardftw]

heh a bug has an exoskeleton. il proof and edit for ya!

[Anybody]

Is rather nice.
Read it anytime.

[AnormalUnicornPony]

Yeah needs an editor. Otherwise it seems like an ok story.

[Jack Kellar]

Initial interactions with the creature shows it is a sentient, biped creature.

SAPIENT.

[Muet]

[KitsuneNoYomeiri]

You really need to have this chapter edited if you can't see the errors... in many places, you have "your" instead of "you", I remember an instance of "reviled" instead of "revealed"...

[BlackPowder]

Welp.... Other than the fact that my inner Grammar Nazi wants to start a Fourth Reich against this chapter, it's quite enjoyable in terms of story.

[Storm_Claw]

4176275THANK YOU! FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE WHO GETS THE DIFFERENCE!