Welcome the Unknown

by Equestria Buck Yeah

Chapter 11

A couple hours ago, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony had pulled Matt, quite literally, from the jaws of death. Thanks to Nurse Redheart being in the right place at the right time, they were able to repay Matt for saving their town and lives by preventing his own from being stolen away. They were still keeping watch over him in the field beside the massive translucent body. They had grown more accustomed to the terrible stench Matt was covered in, but nevertheless it still lingered enough to bother them from time to time.

Matt was laying peacefully under the blankets they wrapped him in on Nurse Redheart's orders. He had stopped shaking some time ago and recovered quite a bit of his color. His skin's condition was mostly normal again. A couple hours from now, he'd likely look good as new again. He probably would be able to sleep for a week if he wanted though.

The six friends and the Crusaders were keeping watch over him. The little fillies woke from their nap and entertained themselves as quietly as they could at the behest of the mares. Pinkie and Fluttershy had trotted back to the library earlier to put some food and drinks together for them. They brought a little extra food for Matt just in case. Nurse Redheart said that he was probably going to be thirsty, and they hoped they adequately prepared for it, but if he needed some extra energy, some food would have done the trick.

As the sun had gotten lower in the sky and eventually disappeared over the horizon in preparation for Luna's nocturnal duties, several groups of Ponyville citizens periodically decided to brave their fears and investigate the motionless pile of purple fur sticking out over the rooftops. They all saw Twilight and the others staying beside Matt, and most of them cautiously walked up to get a closer look after determining that the Ursa wasn't a threat, albeit still pretty terrifying despite being dead. The new smell introduced to the onlookers was horridly overpowering to most of them, and they did their best to fight through it.

The girls briefly explained to each group of curious ponies that were willing to listen who Matt was and that he was their friend. Seemed the cat was out of the bag and his anonymity was officially gone at this point. However, for the most part, they weren't bothered by his presence, likely since he was sleeping in front of them instead of doing anything what any of them could consider threatening, which for the average Ponyville citizen, was a wide range of things. Seeing how happy his friends were for him even managed to make some of them smile, which made Pinkie Pie elated when she noticed.

-----

The moon was fresh in the darkening sky. The stars were just starting to twinkle and the last of the sun's beams were saying their goodnights beyond the western horizon from behind the treeline of the Everfree Forest.

Surprisingly to the girls, they had ended up gathering a bit of an audience over the course of time. Most of the ponies who showed up over the last few hours decided it was best to leave Matt be so he can get some rest and went home to fix up whatever damage they could. However, there were several that had decided to stay despite the odor and talk about their friend, which they were happy to do. It helped pass the time, and if Matt was going to be laying there all night, so were they. The Crusaders would have a pretty good excuse for missing class the next day if it came to it, and their sisters were perfectly fine with it this one time. One particular mint-colored unicorn couldn't stop asking about Matt with an almost disturbing level of devotion. It even creeped Pinkie out a little.

A short time later, a familiar, almost blinding light descending upon the group of gathered ponies. It stopped in front of Matt and took shape. The light faded away and Princesses Celestia and Luna appeared. The citizenry bowed diligently in their presence. A few seconds later, the normally regal alicorns crunched their snouts and nearly fell over in nausea.

"Oh my, that simply won't do," Celestia said and made her horn glow. A yellow hue formed around her and her sisters' snouts briefly and she deactivated her spell. "Whew, that's better," she said with a whispered chuckle.

"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" Twilight exclaimed with joy. "Uh...what did you just do? Not that I'm not happy to see you or anything."

The Sun Princess said to her prized student, "Good evening, Twilight Sparkle. To put it bluntly, I turned off our noses."

"I didn't know you could do that."

"There's still much I can teach you if you wanted," Celestia said with a wink. Twilight giggled and remembered how Matt could still see in the dark thanks to the spell he asked her to find earlier. She turned her attention to him and undid the spell, causing a soft lavender glow to emit from under his eyelids. It caught the Princesses' attention and they cocked their heads at her actions.

"He could see in the dark. He needed to in order to, uh..." Twilight looked over at the Ursa. Celestia and Luna swapped their disbelieving gazes between it and Matt.

"Your friend really was able to do this?" Luna asked. The girls nodded silently. "Shining Armor's lieutenant informed my sister of the situation when the Royal Guard returned. He confirmed the story when he arrived later himself. She passed the word onto me once I woke to rise the moon. We would have been here sooner, but we've been discussing the situation ever since."

The girls exchanged nervous looks. Royalty tended not to put so much discussion into a topic that didn't usually result in something bad happening. After all, they had been hiding Matt for around two and a half months now; they didn't even inform the Princesses about him. Twilight could almost sense that Celestia was concealing disappointment behind her warm eyes, even if the Princess wouldn't admit it.

"How's he doing, by the way?" Celestia asked.

The six mares and three fillies looked at him and smiled. "Much better. He should be back on his feet in a day or two, we hope," Twilight said happily before feeling her stomach drop. "We're sorry we didn't tell you about him before. It's just...we figured that he'd freak ponies out because he looks so unlike anything Equestria has ever seen."

"Please please please don't banish us to the moon or a dungeon or the Everfree Forest or a dungeon on the moon or– "

"Pinkie, darling, relax! What she's trying to say in her own...unique way is that we hope you'll go easy on us for not telling you the truth sooner," Rarity said. The group looked away dejectedly.

Celestia grinned, a bit amused by their paranoia. She figured they would have learned by now. "Girls, I'm not going to banish you anywhere. While I do wish you had told me about your friend," Twilight scrunched her head into her shoulders, expecting the worst, "I understand why you did what you did, and I must say, after seeing what he's capable of, in a way, it's a good thing you didn't say anything," she explained, glancing at the Ursa. "If I was aware at all that he had the ability to do something like this here, I may have been reluctant to allow him to stay."

"I...I'm not sure I understand."

"Like you said, Twilight, Equestria has never seen one of his kind before. Even I haven't seen anything that resembles him in any of my books. While you and your friends may have gotten to know and trust him, it's still very possible that he hasn't told you everything about himself. This is not his home, and he still may not be entirely certain of how things work here," the Princess explained. "Curious, how long has he been here with us?"

Rainbow Dash answered with a hoof on her chin, "Been a few months, I think, right?" The others nodded.

"Interesting," Celestia commented. "It was around a few months ago that I sensed some unusual magical activity. I suspect your friend may have something to do with it."

"I, as well, felt the disturbance, even though I was resting at the time. Most unusual."

"Any idea what it may have been?" Twilight asked.

Her teacher shook her head. "I'm afraid not. My sister and I did what research we could from our archives and found nothing about what I detected. What it felt like, how intense it was...I honestly wish I could answer your question. Just figuring out where to start searching for answers was extraordinarily difficult on its own."

Fluttershy raised a hoof, trying to be discreet. "Um, Princesses, I'm sorry to interrupt, but what did you decide about Matt? Oh, um, that's his name, you see."

She smiled at the girls and said, "Well, you obviously care about him very much, and I don't believe he would have done...whatever it is he did if he didn't care about you too, to put his life in such danger for my little ponies and their home. I trust your judgment on this matter. Besides, even if I wanted to send him home, I'm not sure how to go about doing so." She looked away with uncertainty, not terribly happy that she as one of the immortal rulers of Equestria was unable to accomplish a particular task, no matter how difficult it may be. "I assume you tried to find a spell for that very reason as I did?"

"Soon after he first arrived, yes. I couldn't find anything."

"Nor could I." Her regal face lit up. "So I guess that means he can stay with you!"

The girls couldn't contain their excitement and happiness. Twilight leapt to Celestia's hooves and rubbed her head against her teacher's long neck. The alicorn returned the sentiment. "Oh, thank you Princess!" The young unicorn pulled away and tightly hugged Luna as well.

"All we ask is that you please be careful and remain vigilant. We know he's your friend and he's important to you, but like I said, we don't know everything about him. The fact that he may be responsible for whatever it was that we felt before cannot be overlooked and must be approached with caution."

"Sister," Luna spoke, "I know this question is a bit off-topic, but what are we to do with the body?"

Celestia had forgotten to take it under consideration when Shining Armor had repeated what his lieutenant had told her earlier. She turned and blinked at the dead Ursa. She looked back at her sister and remained quiet for a few minutes, shifting her eyes around looking for an answer. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it back up, confusion draped upon face. After further thinking for something to say and failing, she just shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

"Perhaps we can discuss it when we return to Canterlot?" the Moon Goddess asked, a bit annoyed that the idea never crossed her normally wise sister's mind until this point.

"Yes, I suppose we should," Celestia said with a chuckle. She addressed her faithful student and her friends, "Just remember what I told you, Twilight Sparkle. Feel free to speak to either of us about any questions you may have regarding Matt that you feel we can answer. Any of you. Spike will be back tomorrow afternoon, so your correspondence should be delivered promptly again."

Twilight spoke up, "Princess, could you do me a favor? I told my brother that I'd let him know if Matt was doing okay. Could you pass it along that he's fine? I'd prefer letting him know immediately if I can help it."

"Of course! I'll tell him when I see him."

"Thank you."

"Please be sure to allow us to smell things again once we've returned as well, sister. You know how delicious our royal cuisine smells. I wouldn't want to miss out on that and I am getting rather hungry," Luna grinned slyly, teasing her sister.

"I will," Celestia giggled. "Farewell, my students." The alicorns spread their wings and left toward their royal home. The girls waved goodbye as they headed away.

-----

The moon was higher in the sky a couple hours later. The dark field was lit up by the flickering of a pair of unicorn horns as well as Luna's nightly gifts. The mood had picked up thanks to Celestia's blessing and Matt's recovery. He was still asleep under his blankets and the girls were all still keeping him company. His color was just about back to normal and if one wasn't aware what he had been through merely hours ago, one would assume he just decided to take a nap out in a field for no particular reason.

He stirred from his rest, rubbing and pinching his calves. Having them elevated for so long left them feeling of pins and needles. He unconsciously laid them onto the ground and stretched out. The sensations from his legs finally disturbed him enough from his sleep after a moment and he opened his eyes. He almost immediately started smacking his lips. He'd never been so thirsty in his life.

"Matt! You're awake!" a familiar voice from a pink pony shouted.

He slowly sat up and the blankets on his chest fell into a pile in his lap. Being under so many blankets for so long left him a little warm, now that his temperature had returned to normal. The cool night breeze felt good against his skin though he didn't stop to ask himself why he didn't have a shirt on. He looked around and saw the mares and fillies he had gotten to know and care about over the months surrounding him with relieved faces.

Several of the ponies that gave them an audience who were still with them crept up to get a closer look now that he was awake. The seemingly obsessed mint green pony was at the front of the pack. She darted her eyes across every contour of his frame that she could see, grinning from ear to ear and bouncing in glee.

Her antics didn't go unnoticed by Matt, who was watching her a little dumbfounded. "Friend of yours, Pinkie?"

"Everypony's a friend of mine here in Ponyville! You know that, silly! That's Lyra!"

"Uh, hi," he said to her and waved. She froze up and stared at his wiggling fingers. Somehow, an even bigger grin burst across her cheeks and she fell over in ecstasy. "Yeeeeah..." he said to himself, unsure what to think. He looked at the others in attendance, who were thankfully acting normal. "Hello."

The ponies said their greetings and waved at him. He made eye contact with most of them, nodding his salutations. He turned around and looked at the dead monstrosity behind them. A triumphant smirk crept onto his face. He took a deep breath, trying to shake himself out of his groggy state. Upon doing so, only one thing came to mind and he said his piece, "Oh God, I'm going to need about forty showers."

"Here Matt, we have some water for you. Nurse Redheart said you may need some when you wake up," Rarity said and floated the waiting glass up to his head. He reached to take it from the air, but she refused to let him, insisting on helping him conserve his strength. Even though it was lukewarm, it was the most delicious glass of water he ever had. "I'll head back to the library and get a few more glasses. You probably should still lay down for a bit until you're one hundred percent, dear," the fashionista said as she trotted off to Twilight's home.

Matt felt a little shove from his left. He looked to see Twilight tearing up and a little angry at him. "Don't ever make me do something like that again!" she scolded.

He shrugged and nonchalantly joked, "Well, y'know, as long as another one doesn't show up or anything." She poked him again. "Kidding!" She pounced on his head and hugged it tightly, tears of joy falling from her cheeks. He patted and reassuredly rubbed her leg.

"Ohmygosh!" Pinkie gasped.

"What?" Rainbow asked.

"You know what this calls for? A we're-happy-our-friend's-okay-and-that-he-saved-the-entire-town-from-a-rampaging-monster party! And since he saved the entire town, I have to invite the entire town! It'll be the biggest party ever! Eeeee!" She cartwheeled and bounced around like a lunatic. "We can throw it in Town Square so there's enough room for all the games and balloons and party cannons and fun and- "

"Uh, Pinkie, maybe ya should hold off on that there party for a few days until Matt's fully recovered?" Applejack suggested.

Her wacky antics came to an immediate halt. "Oh, heh...yeah, that's probably a good idea. It'll give me some time to plan! I've never ever ever ever ever thrown a party that big before!"

"Well, you do that while I get back to sleep," Matt said. Twilight released him and he laid down, stretching out and getting comfortable. The warm blankets felt very soft and relaxing in the cool air. He suddenly stopped, a thought occurring to him that he wasn't even aware of until now if not for an itchy sensation. He lifted up the blankets quizzically. "Uh...where are my pants?"

Comments

[Gilgamesh King of Heroes]

Epic ending line 'Where are my Pants?'

[Ivellios]

I think Lyra took them ...or was it Rarity.

[Rhulain]

999125

Rarity took them with intent to bur-purify them.

Lyra...well who knows where his pants are now. hint- She balled them up and stuffed up her No-No place.

[Angel Beats]

"Sister," Luna spoke, "I know this question is a bit off-topic, but what are we to do with the body?"

I started to think about the Ursa Major's body, and then Luna asks the question for me

[damnaion]

lol

[JBL]

The princesses came off a bit too casual here for me.

[Muet]

Lego Movie reference?

[WorldWalker128]

"Uh...where are my pants?"

[SolangeEggbert]

3941400 also, I've been researching spells to send him back too - from Celestia, when she's just learned he exists.

[Therisinghero]

5190156 my first reaction

[Mr Swanky Hat]

Get some dragons, I imagine a few wouldn't want to pass up feast like an ursa major

[camoblackhawk]

ok you have my attention.

[Coolguy362]

"Well, you do that while I get back to sleep," Matt said. Twilight released him and he laid down, stretching out and getting comfortable. The warm blankets felt very soft and relaxing in the cool air. He suddenly stopped, a thought occurring to him that he wasn't even aware of until now if not for an itchy sensation. He lifted up the blankets quizzically. "Uh...where are my pants?"

I've asked myself that to many times to count.

[Condescenion_]

"Well, you do that while I get back to sleep," Matt said. Twilight released him and he laid down, stretching out and getting comfortable. The warm blankets felt very soft and relaxing in the cool air. He suddenly stopped, a thought occurring to him that he wasn't even aware of until now if not for an itchy sensation. He lifted up the blankets quizzically. "Uh...where are my pants?"

That last part brought up some nostalgia and reminded me of The Lego Movie.