Fictionationality - Equestria

by Spirit Guide

Friends in low places

The meteor crashed right outside the Everfree forest. The sound was spectacular and woke up a lot of the sleeping Ponyvillians. Friends and neighbors opened their doors and windows, asking each other what was going on.

Twilight and Spike left the library and ran over to the crashed space rock where they were soon joined by other ponies, each one curious to find out what made the noise that woke them up. Twilight and Spike reached the crater and looked around. The meteor must have been nearly 10 feet in diamter and left a hole that was at least twice that, as well as being 15 feet deep. The space rock had melted and was hidden behind a veil of steam that hissed off the sides of the crater.

Spike picked up some dirt from the crater edge and sniffed it. “This stuff is burnt,” he called over to Twilight.

“That would make sense, considering the trip the meteor just made.” Twilight poked the blackened soil with her hoof. It was hot and steaming. She was just about to clear the smoke from the crater with a spell when a pink earth pony bounced up beside her.

“Wowie, look at this hole!” the earth pony shouted. “That rock must have been something special!”

Twilight sighed and turned to her friend. “Yes, Pinkie Pie. That rock was a meteorite from space, and by the look of the crater it's mostly intact. It might even be the first meteorite to land near Ponyville.”

“Ooh, really?” Pinkie asked, her eyes shining. “This calls for a party: a ‘First-Meteorite-near-Ponyville’ party!” She hopped away to find the necessary party items despite most of the shops being closed at this hour.

Twilight shook her head at her overexcited friend. “Spike, what are you looking so worried about?”

Spike was peering over the edge of the crater, looking like something might jump out any moment. “There might be aliens inside that hole,” he said, his whole form shaking. “They may have traveled here from another world to take over Equestria!”

“Oh, Spike, that’s just silly," Twilight said, shaking her head in response to Spike's ridiculous fear. "There's nothing alive in here."

And that's when something reached out of the crater and grabbed Twilight's left front hoof.

"AAAAAAAAH!!!" she screamed, stumbling backwards and landing on Spike. The small dragon screamed with equal volume, causing Twilight to jump off him, and the two of them began shouting and running around in circle around the crater until they crashed into each other, ending the brief fear episode.

Spike immediately began asking questions. "What was it? Did you see it? I told you there was something—" Twilight shoved a hoof into his mouth again.

"Stop it, Spike. We don't even know what 'it' is," she whispered hurriedly before taking her hoof back.

"Can I please have some help down here?" a voice floated up from the crater.

Twilight immediately went into curiosity mode. "Hold on, I'm coming!" she called before clambering into the steep hole. She carefully scaled the sides and found herself surrounded by steam at the bottom of the crater. She cast a spell and the wisps of steam around her dispersed.

"Oh, that's much better," the voice said in response to the atmospheric change. "Can you help me now?"

"I'd like to, but I can't see you," Twilight replied, searching left and right. "Could you tell me where you are?"

"Well," the voice began, surprisingly close. "I'm not sure about this, but you might be standing on my left arm."

"Oh, sorry," Twilight apologized as she scrambled a bit away from where she was standing and looked at the spot. Indeed, there appeared to be a light-brown limb wedged into the ground. She followed the wider end of the arm until she found herself staring into a pair of large green eyes.

"Looks like you found me," the voice came from beneath the eyes.

Twilight intensified her dispersing spell until she could see the creature's whole body. It was roughly similar to Spike's, with the exception of it having light-brown soft skin and a dark-brown mane that didn't rest flat on its head. Deciding the creature was a male of its species she continued to examine it. Instead of claws, the digits on his arms were rounded off and his ears were round too. The lower half of his body was stuck in the ground.

Twilight made an awkward face as she tried taking in everything she was seeing. "Wow, you really are funny-looking," she said at last, trying to keep a calm demeanor.

The creature smiled back. "Thanks," he replied. "Everyone often tells me I make too many weird and scary faces." His eyebrows suddenly sunk down over his eyes, his mane stuck up and his mouth changed from happy to unnaturally intimidating.

"Yikes!" Twilight shouted, pulling back a bit.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Spike called from above.

"I'm fine Spike!" she called up to him. "Come on down, you should probably see this."

The young dragon made his way down into the crater, using his claws and tail to scale the side carefully. He walked over to where Twilight was standing beside the male creature, who followed Spike's movement with large green eyes.

"Are you an alien?" Spike asked nervously.

The creature rolled his eyes. "To you, maybe," he said, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Well then, what are you?" Twilight asked curiously.

The being began checking off on his fingers. "Stuck, autistic, cool, intelligent, hungry and in pain," he finished, throwing his hands on the ground.

The two Ponyville residents stared at him with their mouths opened, until Twilight spoke up. "I'm sorry about all that—"

"Don't be," he interrupted. "Autism is my strong point."

"—but maybe I can start by getting you un-stuck."

"That would be very much appreciated." He replied with a smile. "But before we continues, formalities."

"Ooh," Twilight exclaimed, happy that someone shared in her love for good manners. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, unicorn student of Princess Celestia, and this is Spike, my dragon friend."

"What's up?" Spike said, getting used to the weirdo in front of him.

"Nice to meet you both," the creature replied. "My name is Avraham, autistic student and part time dimension-jumper. But my friends call my Avi." He stopped himself suddenly, "Like the friend I traveled with."

“There are more of you?” Twilight asked, excitement building up like a powerful spell.

“Yep, just me and my buddy,” Avi answered, searching the crater with his eyes. He pushed the ground with his front limbs, but his body didn’t move. He twisted one way, then the other, and once more tried pushing himself out of the ground. He strained, groaned and grunted but still could not free himself.

Finally he gave up, falling to the ground in a pile of tired, tan body parts. “Dang it. I can’t budge and my power cards are in my pocket.”

“Power cards?” Spike asked curiously. “What are those?”

“They’re a gift from my friend when we completed are first project together. He gave me the cards so that I could help him with any missions we had to do. The cards grant me various skills and abilities and I also use them for identifying different creatures, although I know most of the ones we run into. Whenever we completed a mission, more cards would materialize in the deck, increasing the amount of powers I’d have.”

“Wow, that sound like a pretty special magical weapon,” Twilight commented.

“It’s more of an arsenal that I carry around with me all the time,” explained Avi. “Even if it was taken from me, the deck just reappears in my pocket.” He tried to pull himself out again, but stopped when he realized that it wasn’t going to work.

“Could I have some help getting out of here?” he asked the two in front of him. “I’d do it myself but I can’t get my cards out.”

“How do we know you won’t try to steal our brains when you get out?” Spike questioned warily.

“Spike!” Twilight groaned at the dragon’s comical way of thinking, but Avi nodded. “Good point. I guess that would be the first thing a creature from space would do.”

“So you’re not going to steal our brains?”

“Nope,” the boy replied. “Now could you help me?”

“I’m not sure what I should do,” admitted Twilight. “I don’t know how much of you is stuck beneath the ground.”

Avi looked down at his torso and thought before answering, "Right now, about half of me is above ground level." He glanced up at the lip of the crater fifteen feet above them. "Well, above current ground level anyway."

"Okay, that should do it." Twilight took a step back and prepared her spell. "Spike, step back. There might be some recoil." Spike scooted a few feet in reverse. Twilight then turned her attention to the newcomer. "Alright Avi, this spell should get you unstuck, but it might hurt quite a bit."

The human rolled his eyes. "Don't worry Twilight. I've taken immense amounts of pain before and besides, I can just heal myself with my power cards."

"Okay, here goes." Twilight charged her magic power up another notch and released the spell. A spectral rope shot out of her horn and wrapped itself around Avi's waist several time. It then began dragging itself upwards, its tail end attached to Twilight's glowing horn. The conjured cable continued to pull the earthbound human up and out, while Spike watched the spectacle unfold. The rope hauled on Avi's body for a whole minute, the boy at the wrapped-up end groaning in time with the stretching line of magic. All at once, the rope wrenched Avi out of the ground, dematerializing as the teenager flew through the air and fell down hard on the crater floor.

"OOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!" he screamed as he made contact with the slightly charred Equestrian soil. The sound of things cracking and shattering filled the deep crater and some of the ponies nearby decided that it was time to go back to sleep or, better yet, to go hide in the safety of their homes.

"Oh, Avi. I'm so sorry," Twilight cried out, rushing to his side. "I didn't think it would be so painful!"

"It's okay, Twilight," he said smiling, which was not so reassuring because he had dirt and some dark-red stuff on his teeth. "I'll be fine." He rolled over onto his back, reached into his pocket and pulled out his deck of power cards. He was just about to pull out the appropriate card out when he noticed something. Something really bad.

"Uh-oh," said Avi. "They're blank."

"Blank?" Spike repeated in disbelief. "Is it really that bad?"

"It's worse than bad Spike. Without my cards I can't do anything beyond my physical bodily functions which, as useful as they can be, are of no use at present with half of my body in need of serious attention." Avi tried to get up but this merely resulted in him rolling flat on the ground, his face buried in the dirt.

"Spike, help me get him up!" instructed Twilight, rushing over to Avi's side and levitated him so that he was floating a few inches of the ground. Spike hurried over and carefully rolled the hovering human so that he was facing the sky and Twilight nudged him over so that he was resting upright against the crater side.

Avi raised his head. "Thanks, guys. If you weren't here, I'd have been in serious trouble." He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

Twilight smiled but then remembered. "What about that other friend you were talking about? Where is he?

The boy's eyes shot open at the mentioning of his mate. "I'd imagine he's somewhere in the crater, but since we didn't see him on the surface, he's most likely underground."

"Can he breath underground?" asked Spike.

"He can do more than breath underground. He can breath underwater and even in a vacuum where there isn't even any oxygen." Avi glanced around the crater again. "I guess the only reason he's not here right now is because he's unconscious."

"Is there anything we could do to help him?" Twilight asked.

"You can use magic?"

Twilight nodded in reply.

"Then you should be able to find him with a homing spell of sorts. I don't know how unicorn magic works here, but my friend gives off a very powerful aura when he's not trying to mask it. Give the crater a scan and tell me if you find anything."

Twilight went to work immediately. Bending down towards the ground, she cast a seeker spell and began to examine the soil beneath her hooves. She went all the way around the almost-circular hole, then moved on to crossing the crater diagonally. After going around the pit several times, the purple unicorn mare found herself in the center, her horn glowing even brighter than before.

"Hey, Avi?" she called over her shoulder. "I think I found something."

Avi, who was being carefully watched over by Spike, whether for health or security purposes, pulled himself into a sitting position, his eyes focused on the spot that Twilight was standing in. Inhaling deeply, he answered "Only one creature in the universe gives of that kind of power. A mixture of divine energy and endless imagination, that's what it is. I'd know it anywhere. Now we just have to get him out."

"You can do it Twilight!" Spike encouraged. "Go for it. Pull him up."

Avi let his eyes wander towards the small dragon at his side before turning his attention back to Twilight. "You're the only one who can help him now, Twilight. My powers are out and even if they weren't, I'm in no condition to go digging. Please, save my friend."

Twilight nodded gently and turned her attention back to the patch of soil she was standing on. She took a step back and activated an excavation spell, channeling her energy into the earth. If Avi's friend was down there, the spell would find him and she'd be able to hoist him up out of the ground.

I hope it's not to late.

Author's Note:

I hate having to think. It gets in the way of being awesome.
On the other hoof, it's the key to creativity.