A Broken World

by Moonlight Melodies

An Unexpected Visitor

The smell of blood and decay infiltrated his nose and caused his head to reel in disgust. He could hear them behind him, tracking him by the drops of blood that dripped out from his punctured armor. His breaths came in more and more ragged gulps as he wore himself out running from his relentless pursuers. He glanced into the darkness behind him expecting to see a sharp row of teeth coming at him but every time he did this, the result was the same. There was no sign that they were there other than the distant howls and screeches of Drakkon hunters.

He wiped his exposed muzzle with a bloodied hoof, which only served to make it worse. He paused his gallop to rest and sat on the husk of a destroyed troop transport.

He quickly ran through his options. Spells and curses were out of the question, seeing that in his weakened state a single spell could cause him to pass out which would leave the claws and teeth of his hunters to do their dirty work unopposed. His ammunition was limited and judging by the howls he could hear there were many more than he could fight. He could turn back and try his luck at hoof to claw fighting but his enemy beat him in both numbers and size.

As he mulled through possibilities in his head, the thought struck him. Long-Distance teleportation was extremely tiring but he could open a wormhole and jump through before he passed out. The portal would carry his body and deposit it in a random location, hopefully planet side.

As he made up his mind and prepared to leave he heard a scratching sound. He listened and a scary thought struck him, the howling had stopped. He leapt to his hooves and turned on his helmet floodlights.

The pony that said that you should never run from a predator obviously didn't have 17 large, bloodthirsty, gore covered Drakkon hunters poised to strike staring him in the face. The warrior gulped audibly and began to slowly back away. The creatures followed him at a slow steady pace and split into two groups. One headed to his right the other to his left.

He rapidly swung his head back and forth, flooding one group then the other in bright lights. They began to split farther and farther apart until they were on his sides flanking him. He swung his light to the group on his left to see that they had stopped. He flung his head to the right just in time to see a row of teeth reaching for his neck.

His prey instincts took over as he jumped back from his attacker. He whipped around and took off running, adrenaline overriding his injuries as self-preservation took precedence over common sense.

He could hear them growling right behind him, snapping at his tail. After a few seconds of this his mind took back the reins as he continued to flee the hunters. His hope dwindled as the adrenaline began to wear off and exhaustion set in. If he was going to cast the wormhole spell he needed to do it now.

He brought up the spell and casted it several hundred feet in front of him. He increased his pace and charged at breakneck speed toward the portal. He was fifty yards from it when a claw jabbed into his back leg. He cried out but continued to charge toward his goal.

He was twenty feet from the portal when another claw reached out and punctured into his flank. He gave a huge battle cry and dove through the portal sealing it as he went through. Bright colors and lights bombarded his vision as he felt himself being transported at unimaginable speeds toward an unknown destination.

As the tunnel vision began to fade and he felt himself slowing down, he prepared himself for whatever dangers awaited him on the other side of the portal. A bright white light flooded his vision as the wormhole deposited him into an unknown world.

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Applejack had never been a morning type of pony. Sure, she lived on a farm and waking up at the crack of dawn was how she started most days, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Today was no exception to the norm. She woke up, fed the animals before feeding herself, woke up her sister for school, kicked Big Mac out of bed, and prepared to go into town. Even though she never wore makeup or any hair products, she still had to look presentable. As she began to tie up her mane and tail to their usual fashion she went over her mental checklist for the day.

She needed to go into town to work the store until lunchtime when Big Mac would take over. After lunch she had six dozen trees that needed to be bucked and their apples collected. Then at four she had to walk Applebloom home from school.

"So much to do today" she muttered to herself as she finished cleaning up "I best be going so ah ain't late to work". She grabbed a fresh load of apples from the barn, loaded them into the cart, and headed towards town with the cart in tow.

She hummed a jaunty tune as she trotted through the orchard. The smell of spring and the warm breeze blowing through her fur made her smile. She exited the orchard and made her way through the hills on the dirt path.

As she neared the bridge into town a pink blur raced up and have her a flying tackle/hug, almost tipping the farm pony over. As she recovered from the sudden attack, Pinkie leapt off of her and gave one of her large smiles that seemed physically impossible.

"Hey AJ!" She said excitedly " how're ya doin'?".

"Ah'm doing fine" the orange mare chuckled "how 'bout yerself Pinkie?". She continued into town with the pink pony bouncing next to her.

"I'm doing great," Pinkie responded with an extra large bounce "today feels like a pink day which is a good thing because it means that it will be sunny all day long unless Dashie thinks it would be funny to douse someone with a storm cloud but then it would be more of a light purple type of day but maybe it would be kinda bluish if that happened or something like that or it could also be..." She paused her rambling as if to listen to something.

Applejack looked at her and raised an eyebrow, "somethin' bugging ya Pinkie?" she asked. Pinkie began to shake her head when suddenly her back left hoof began to tap the ground. She gasped and looked at Applejack, "I gotta go!" she said and shot away down the road.

AJ shook her head and walked the rest of the way to her store unhindered. She set the fresh apples in their designated location and flipped her open sign over to show that she was ready for business.

As usual the business was pretty slow to begin with but as more ponies began to wake up and go about their daily chores she sold more and more apples. She looked at a nearby clock to check the time it read nine o'clock. A sigh escaped her lips as she went over her mental checklist again. So much to do and in so little time.

At about nine thirty her stock of apples had decreased from fifty to less than twenty. She made a mental note to bring more apples tomorrow.

The clock struck ten and she got up from her chair to stretch her legs. A quick glance at the town square told her that the morning rush had ended and she could relax a little bit. Her business neighbor Rose was preening her flowers when AJ walked over.

"Heya Rose" she said in her southern drawl "how's business been treatin' ya?"

Rose looked up from her flowers and smiled "pretty good Applejack" she set her clippers down and stepped around the counter to talk with the farm pony. "I just got in some new seeds from the crystal empire that I planted yesterday" she smiled happily "I can't wait until they bloom, they are such pretty flowers and I'll be the only one in Ponyville who sells them!" She rubbed her hooves together and her grin turned maniacal "ponies will come crawling to me just to get a glimpse of one!"

AJ smiled at her friends zealous behavior, Rose always had some sort of odd or rare plant that she was sure would 'make her millions', of course it never did but she always tried again and again. She was entertaining the thought of helping her find new plants to try when a loud crackling noise came from behind her.

She turned to see a bright orb of light crackling about four feet off the ground. It was crackling and arcing to the ground as if it were a storm cloud spitting lightning. She was about to make a comment to Rose when it suddenly expanded and shot a metallic object out of it.

The object went skidding across the square making sparks along the stones until it came to a rest near Applejack's stand. She approached it and it sprang up to its hooves yelling something she couldn't understand. "Ák'un ke ana!"

She looked at it and saw that it was a pony that seemed to be wearing full body armor. The only exposed things were his muzzle, his horn, and his tail. Her eyes widened as she saw blood oozing from a wound in his flank. She looked over his whole body and found many more wounds like it.

He stopped shouting as he saw her looking at him and he began to limp toward her. She backed away and he stopped. "Kam le xon" he said softly “akk be us kyfer". He looked at her expecting an answer then frowned when none came. He opened his mouth to speak again but closed it immediately. He groaned and looked back at his battered body.

He returned his gaze to Applejack and began to slowly sway back and forth. He put a hoof forward, gasped, then fell to the ground still as a stone.

When Applejack regained her senses she found a bleeding pony on the verge of death in front of her. She galloped over to where he laid and looked at his wounds. They were each about two inches wide and went deep into the flesh. Not knowing what to do she made the only call she could.

"Somepony run and get Twilight!"

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Twilight dashed onto the scene as fast as ponily possible. She had been reading like usual when Rose dashed into the library babbling something about a dying pony. Twilight immediately jumped to her hooves and galloped out the door almost bowling Rose over.

She stood over the injured pony and looked over his wounds. She cringed at the stench of it but steeled herself and began to slowly heal each one. It was a slow and grueling process but she eventually closed each wound small enough so that they could be healed naturally. She slumped to her haunches after an hour and a half of this and sat there panting.

She began to look over the rest of his body and noticed several things about him. He seemed smaller than the average stallion, perhaps he was younger or maybe that is how all the ponies on his planet were. She prodded his exposed muzzle and noticed a slight bump in his upper jaw. When she opened his mouth she saw two fangs just behind his front teeth, much like a changeling.

Across his muzzle were many stains that looked like blood and she shuddered. Perhaps this creature was a carnivore, despite its pony-like figure. His fur was jet black in color and his tail matched its color. His armor was also covered in blood but most of that was probably his own.

She finished her inspection and got up to go talk with her friends. Applejack and Rarity were encircling the area to keep ponies from getting too close to the alien. She motioned them over and told them to have a seat.

“I’ve sealed his wounds as best I can,” she said with a sigh “unfortunately there will be scars left behind but he will live”. She paused a moment to let her words sink in “even though I’ve stopped the bleeding and healed him up his body will still need to recover”. She looked up at her friends and frowned “we will have to make sure he is accommodated but we can’t allow him to leave our sight until we know he is safe”. She told them about the blood on his muzzle and his fangs.

“Where d’ya think we can put him Twi?” Applejack said, “We can’t just leave him somewhere in case he is dangerous”.

Rarity nodded in agreement “If that thing can hurt ponies we don’t want it being out where it can get to them”. She frowned in thought “where can we put it where it will be contained?” she looked to Twilight for answers.

Twilight thought about it then came to a conclusion “I can keep him in my downstairs lab and observe him from the safe room” her friends looked up in surprise at this revelation.

“What if he tries to hurt you?” Rarity asked with concern and Applejack nodded in agreement.

Twilight smiled grimly “if worse comes to worse I can always put him in a temporary coma” she shook her head “I hope it doesn’t though.”

The three friends went back to the alien and Twilight lifted him with her magic. Her friends escorted her back to her library and helped prepare the lab to accommodate the creature. They moved all of the equipment that they could out of the room, put a cot in its center, and set him on it.

They walked out of the lab and locked its door from the outside, trapping him in the room. They headed into the room next to it and looked through the one-way mirror into the room. The alien seemed to be comfortable and they let him be. Twilight cast a spell that would inform her when he woke up and they went upstairs.

After saying goodbye and telling her to simply holler if she needed help, her friends left the library to go home for the day. Twilight looked at the clock on the wall and sighed it was only eight o’clock. She headed to her shelves, pulled some books off the shelves and waited for her unexpected guest to wake.

Author's Note:

CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcome

other than that please enjoy

Comments

[KaraC]

Okay, you've managed to peak my curiousity. Please, do continue.

[Glitter101]

I won't say anything until more chapters but it looks promising.

[Dawn Fury]

Looms promising! Can't wait till next chapter!