Chapter 7
As Matt sat on his couch in the living room, he continued to rub at and play with the staples along the side of his head, and Applejack continued to nudge him when she'd catch him in the act. The rest of their friends sat around the room, nibbling at the snacks Pinkie brought as a pick-me-up and making small talk. Most of all, they were just relieved that Matt seemed to be doing okay after the horrific previous day.
Yet another swat landed on Matt's arm as he reached for his wounds. "Am I going to have to hogtie you to make you stop doing that?" Applejack scolded.
"Maybe. Sounds like a good time if you ask me." As much as she wanted to fire back a sharp comment for his snark, the obvious euphemism made her clam up. No reason for her to dig a deeper hole. He glanced across the room, his eyes landing on his now-empty rack below his newspaper clipping, and sighed loudly.
"What's up?" Rainbow asked, following his look.
Matt nodded at the bare area. "Just wish I knew what happened to those. Was kind of fond of them."
"They were just knives though."
"Eh, still. They had a history for me."
"I'll say," Twilight chimed in. "They saved your skin twice now."
He wasn't so sure. Once the girls had arrived to check on him like they had agreed – with Applejack arriving much earlier as she wasn't aware of their plans – he eventually learned of what had transpired after being nearly killed by the rampaging animal, particularly how it had suddenly appeared to phase in and out of reality. Matt hadn't said much since then, being far too focused on what the creature's story was.
He had remembered that Fluttershy revealed aside two things the day before: Large cats like that one weren't indigenous to any nearby area and that she was unable to talk to the beast. She only repeated such news for those who weren't in attendance to the attack. He never really understood how she could communicate with animals in the first place, but he had seen enough examples of such a talent in action not to question it too hard.
Something bothered him even more than the mountain lion however. The shy pegasus also mentioned that she noticed his SUV had similarly been affected by the same thing the animal was, whatever it could be. He knew the truck wasn't from around there. Did that mean...?
"Maybe," he mumbled.
"Why 'maybe'?" Rarity asked.
"Think about it." Matt turned to Fluttershy, making eye contact. "When was the last time you heard of an animal like that taking down its target and just letting it go? Or...o-or not sinking its teeth into its neck and turning it into a meal?"
The image of seeing Matt at the receiving end of what could have been a very real fate made the poor mare cringe, but she managed to respond anyway. "Well...never really. They only attack when they're hungry or scared. If it was simply lost, I can see why it would be nervous in unfamiliar surroundings. Plus, when you were trying to scare it away, it likely felt like it had been backed into a corner and was simply trying to defend itself."
"Mhm, and if I would have run, it would have either chased me down or gone after one of you instead."
"I know." Fluttershy briefly gazed away, still a bit upset over what needed to be done. But Matt was right. After everything was said and done, things could have been much, much worse. Despite her sad exterior, she smiled at the young man. "Thanks for looking out for us."
With a nod, he bit his lip. "My point still stands though," he murmured. "I shouldn't be alive."
The grim remark left an awkward silence in the room, broken only by a farm girl laying her head on his shoulder and whispering, "Well, you are. And you have no idea how grateful I am for that."
A bouncy pink pony hopped onto the arm of his couch and happily wrapped her forelimbs around his head. "We all are!"
He took Applejack in his arm and held her comfortingly, smirking as he stifled a laugh. "I really hope this doesn't become a regular thing again. Was getting so used to not being Equestria's punching bag."
"Hey, we know why everything was always coming after you before," Rainbow Dash spoke up, "but whatever's going on now, it's gotta get through us first. Don't you worry."
"Easier said than done." He peered over at the librarian. "I'm assuming you got in touch with Celestia at some point last night after you got home?"
"Yeah, I let her know what was going on like she requested. She sends you her best wishes, by the way; I told her what happened to you." He nodded thankfully. Maybe he'll send a 'thank you' letter once he's feeling a bit better. "She hasn't seen anything unusual in Canterlot herself since her visit here, and she's asked her guards to keep an eye out, so she'll know if something's amiss. I just wish I could have gotten a chance to examine the animal's body."
"You have the same feeling I do then?" Matt asked.
"What's that?"
"That it might have been from home."
"I don't know," she replied, shrugging. "Given what Fluttershy said, it's a possibility. Up until now, we hadn't had an opportunity to look over a living thing to see if there were any answers as to what's happening recently. But it's gone now, and I have no idea who took the body or where they took it."
"Plus, even if it could tell us what's going on... Well, maybe it would only been able to tell us while it was still breathing, y'know?" the human added. "At the end of the day, we're still in the dark about all this."
"Yeah," Twilight sighed, "but we'll get through it. We always do."
-----
The rest of the girl's visit had been relatively quiet. They had talked at length about what their unexpected visitor the day before meant and constantly checked on Matt's condition, almost ad nauseum at times. Though it was pretty nice when Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash decided to run out and come back with a few pizzas for dinner. It had been a while since Matt had gone to bed with such a full stomach.
Tuesday felt like a long way away despite being in less than twenty-four hours. It would have been nice if Applejack allowed Matt to kill most of the day helping out like he typically did, but she was adamant that he not risk getting his wounds infected by anything he usually assisted her with. All the sweat, dirt and grime that came with Sweet Apple Acres could do more harm than good, she argued. The mare even insisted that he try not to show off the injuries to Apple Bloom and her friends, lest they end up messing with the staples and making things worse. It was a bit odd for him, seeing how protective she was being, but what could he do? Applejack wasn't the type to budge when she made a decision.
Ah well. He did need to pick up some things from the market and he didn't have any jobs written down to begin with that day. Unfortunately, such an endeavor also had proven to be a bit more than he expected. Rainbow Dash wasn't the other weather pony around, and apparently, a couple other pegasi had spotted the strange house outside of town and, slowly but surely, the question of where it came from was on the town's lips. If the Mayor had requested for a residence to have been built, even in such an odd place, they would have seen some evidence of its construction over the course of a few months or more, yes?
Matt held back groaning when the residents he chatted with started grilling him about the subject, figuring it was only a matter of time before the house was found out anyway. Not that it made the inevitable any easier – he really hadn't put any thought into what he'd tell them. Why they hadn't originally asked what the story was with the Blazer made Matt scratch his head at first, but according to the stallions and mares he spoke to while he shopped, the general consensus seemed to be that they were more interested in the music at the time. Plus, he didn't really stick around to talk with them about it either. Others believed that he had constructed the thing himself and was keeping it secret somewhere until he was done. If only he was that skilled!
Very few outside his circle of friends knew exactly what brought him to Equestria in the first place, and he didn't want to blame Discord for recent events. There wasn't any reason to risk inciting panic nor did it appear true to begin with. Still, he needed to say something that sounded believable. The only excuse he could come up with on the fly seemed to do the trick and didn't surprise anyone, given what they knew about the mare: He explained that Twilight had been working for a while on a way to possibly send him home – especially now that there had been peace for a while – and her initial tests of the spell didn't seem to be functioning properly. Hopefully she wouldn't be mad if they asked her about it, though Matt was more worried that she wouldn't understand what the townsponies were talking about and inadvertently give him up. He'd have to have a word with her soon.
Luckily for him, 'soon' would turn out to be sooner than he expected. About twenty minutes after he returned home, a knock came from the door, and Matt ushered in his purple guest.
"Hey Twilight, come on in."
"Afternoon, Matt. How's the head?"
"S'okay. Tomorrow needs to get here faster so I can get these damn things out. What brings you here? Want a drink or something?" he asked as the mare took a seat.
"No, thank you." A scroll materialized beside the unicorn and floated over to her host. "This came from the Princesses earlier. Figured you may want to see it."
Taking it from her magical grip, Matt sat back on his couch and unrolled the letter. It wasn't terribly long but its contents made him purse his lips as he went. "A boat in the castle ballroom, that's different." He continued a few lines further. "Huh. I thought it was impossible for two things to occupy the same space at once."
"The tree sitting in the nearby shop that looks like it grew through the roof?"
"Yep."
"Yeah, I know," Twilight grumbled, "and neither of them could find anything."
With a smirk, he rolled up the parchment and tossed it back to its keeper. "Well, uh...I guess we know it's not limited to just here, for what it's worth."
"How does that improve the situation?"
He shrugged after a moment of contemplative silence.
"You realize, if anything, that's just going to make things worse," the mare argued. "We're used to seeing odd things in Ponyville. Other places in Equestria...not so much."
He sighed into his hands, rubbing the corners of his eyes. "You're right, you're right." He leaned back, groaning in exasperation. It was all getting old fast for his tastes. "Oh yeah," he suddenly remembered, "if anyone happens to ask you how your efforts to send me home are going, just humor them, okay?"
Twilight lifted a skeptical eyebrow at the odd request. "What are you talking about?"
Fidgeting, he bit his lip and darted his eyes around the room, making sure never to look straight at her for more than a second. "I, err...may have told some people who were wondering why there's a house that wasn't there before that you may have something to do with it."
The unicorn's glare was punctuated with the tiniest of sneers.
"You were, uh...having...difficulty with it," Matt added under his breath.
"Are you looking to get another head injury?"
"No."
"Okay then." Noticing Matt playing with the staples again, she lit up her horn and yanked his hand away, bopping him on the head with her scroll for good measure. "And stop messing with that!"
"Oh, come on, Twilight," he whined. "A.J. smacked me enough all day yesterday."
"Well, I can either drag you down to Sweet Apple Acres so she can smack you some more, or I can do it here now. Your choice."
"It's starting to itch!" Matt retorted with annoyance. "I haven't showered since before I went to the hospital. The doctor told me not to, remember?"
"You should be able to do that tonight or tomorrow morning before you get those removed," the mare answered back.
"Eh, I guess."
"Well, you be sure to." Twilight hopped off her chair and turned toward the door. She had some scheduling that needed to be sorted out before she got too far behind. "I have a feeling the girls will be stopping by tomorrow so we can accompany you to the hospital, so I'll see you then, okay?"
"Yeah, I figured. That's fine," he said, resuming his scratching. "And, err, sorry about that whole blaming you for what's happening stuff. It was the only thing I could think of."
With a roll of her eyes, Twilight said, "It's fine. I guess it's a good thing you told me now before I found out about all that the hard way."
"Heh, yeah. Curious, how do you think the Canterlot crowd is handling what's going on now that they're getting a taste of this?"
"Well, hopefully Celestia and Luna can think of a better explanation than me having trouble with a spell," she responded with an unamused curl of her lips. "But, I think they'll be alright as long as they don't think–"
A strange, melodic jingling suddenly sang from deeper in Matt's house – his bedroom specifically – cutting off the mare's train of thought. She listened intently to the musical chimes, having never heard such an odd sound before. It almost sounded like a xylophone, but not quite.
"What is that?" she asked as Matt obliviously ventured over to his nightstand.
"I got it." Picking up the now half-charged phone, he slid his finger across the screen and answered it. "Hell–"
Wait a minute.
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He he he.
4138003 Indeed.
Oi! You authors and your cliffhangers! It's like LOST all over again! I JUST WANT MORE AND I JUST WANT ANSWERS!!!
It's probably Pinkie Pie... :P
Reminds me of what my parents did recently.
They were on their cells, and mom says," Honey, I have to go. I can't find my cell phone." Then hung up, paused, looked at the contents of her hand, and said,"...oh."
A great story in an oversaturated market, if you ask me. But hey, I'm writing under the "adventure" tag. What do I know about originality or anything at all?
Not a lot to criticize here, as everything you're doing seems to have a purpose. In longer stories, I as the reader don't know what details are important and what aren't until the end. Then I can point out subtleties and inconsistencies in the plot, if they're present at all.
Anyways, keep it coming.
4148019 Danke, sir, glad you like so far! The real 'adventure' part hasn't QUITE shown up yet, but it is on the horizon. Just getting all the pieces lined up first, and so far, I too am pretty damn happy with how it's all gone.
4148610 Of course this is a guy who more or less killed an Ursa Major. With two kitchen knives. By diving down it's throat and carving his initials into it's heart.
Gonna be hard to top that!
4150445 Haha, I'm super happy that people seemed to enjoy that part of the story. Was worried it'd be too far fetched, but I suppose his motivation behind something so suicidal worked well for the readers, so
!
This one I've made sure to keep more down to...Equestria, as far as events and reactions go. Guess that kind of thing (hopefully) happens when you write for a little while here on the site. I will say once the adventure part does start up, there will be a bit of comedy sprinkled here and there before I start schooling Mr. Shyamalan in (what I think will be) believable/interesting twists.
On the other end of the line an omnious voice growls: "DOOOOOOOOMMMmmmm" and ends the call.
"Hell-"
"This is a robbery!"
*Dun dun dun dun!*
*Hangs up*
(That's the first thing that came to mind)
*Heavy breathing on the other side of the line*
"Hello???"
"Bad. Wolf."
*Click*
When the IPhone showed up, I was interested.
When the house showed up, I figured "it's like someone was testing a teleporter. First something small, then see how big of an item it can send. The next logical step would be something living"
Granted, I was picturing a human, but yeah, testing the "teleport a living thing" on a human seems a bit of a jump.
Then the phone call... they're like "well, we can transfer large objects, and living things..... Oh, I know! Let's see if we can stick a satellite in orbit now!"
"Uh, sir? Its got a connection."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that it's connected to something...... a phone, IPhone..... it's our first transfer test object, and records show its been used"
"......... dial it up, let's see if this is a first contact scenario"