The Pony who fell to Equestria

by Gabriel Smith

Act 3: Neumann

After around five minutes of walking, Pinkie Pie finally arrived at the door of Lyra and Bon Bon’s house. The Pony had been examining Pinkie Pie curiously - she’d mostly been bouncing on the way there, heedless of the boxed item she was carrying. Furthermore, her form of locomotion wasn’t very efficient, even moreso being a quadruped. If he had tried it, he would have fallen over somewhere back there, but this was probably due to the fact that he wasn’t used to having legs. Indeed, simply walking had proven to be a substantial effort.

Eventually however, they arrived. Pinkie Pie bounced up and knocked on the door. A minty green Unicorn with a white and mint green mane answered the door. She took a look at Pinkie Pie and almost immediately knew why she was here.

“Hey Bon Bon! Cake’s here!” the Unicorn called back. There wasn’t an audible answer. Nevertheless, the Unicorn turned to face Pinkie. “Pinkie, why don’t you come inside for a few minutes?”

“Okey dokey lokey!” the pink pony replied, before bouncing in. The Pony followed in after Pinkie Pie - or would have, if the Unicorn hadn’t stopped him.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t invite you. Can you wait outside for a few minutes? Pinkie should be back out shortly.”

The Pony simply looked confused. The Unicorn replied by slamming the door in his face. The Pony simply stood there, and went back to ‘sleep’.

****

“Project Neumann is exceeding the test parameters, Director.” the Scientist told the Director. “Camera feeds and Scanners are working. If all goes well, Project Neumann should be complete within four months.”

“Keep at it Professor. If Project Neumann is going as well as you say it is, our people may have a future just yet.” The Director replied before leaving the office. The Scientist then turned to his assistant.

“I’m busy going over the data feeds from the last few experiments Professor.” the Assistant explained.

“Quite. I’m going for a short break. I hope you have something by the time I get back.” the Scientist replied before leaving the room. The Assistant simply huffed.

“Slave Driver. I’m not Neumann.” the Assistant mumbled to himself, before noticing something odd. Something very odd.

“Neumann...are you...feeling okay? Neumann? Neumaaaan...”

****

The Pony snapped out of his trance for a moment. Pinkie was tapping him on the head with a hoof. He simply looked at her, as if to say “knock it off!”. Pinkie merely smiled back.

“Come on, we have things to do!” Pinkie told her. The Pony looked back at her, cocking his head to one side. Pinkie simply bounced off. The Pony - seeing no other choice - followed her. It tried copying her bouncing motion...and simply watched his leg bend over awkwardly. Pinkie trotted back and examined him. She watched with great interest as the Pony flattened the old leg and reshaped it into a new one. Pinkie didn’t show one ounce of fear or surprise, like he’d expected.

“Wow, you're one weird Pony!” Pinkie replied, before bouncing on ahead. The Pony collected himself, and followed her along her route.

****

Twilight in the meantime had been going in circles around Ponyville - as ponies went around their day to day business, many people ended up dusting over the trail of fluid with dirt.

Even if I do find him, what do I say to him? Somehow I don’t think “Sorry I carved you open and committed a medical, war and scientific crime all at once!” is going to win anyone over...assuming he’s friendly. Twilight thought to herself absently. In her daze, she failed to see where she was going before -

“Umpf!”

Twilight was knocked to the ground, losing her Monocle. Looking directly ahead of her, she saw who she’d bumped into.

“AppleJack!” Twilight exclaimed, sounding relieved it wasn’t somepony else “Have you seen anything weird around here? Might be sparking and leaking?” she asked.

Could have phrased that better, Twilight.

AppleJack simply gave Twilight an odd look. “This is ta do with that Monster from last night, isn’t it? Don’t tell me ya’ woke it up!” she inquired. Twilight sighed.

“I thought it was a rock. It was a small blob last time I saw it - leaking this grey fluid. I think I’ve severely hurt whatever it is.” Twilight explained quickly.

“Well, ah least we know it can bleed.” AppleJack replied. “Ah haven’t seen it, but everypony else has been talkin’ ‘bout some strange Pony.”

“Strange Pony?” Twilight asked.

AppleJack nodded. “Black, with no mane or tail, with bright green stripes and eyes. Didn’t look natural.”

Twilight rubbed her muzzle, as if thinking in deep thought. “...So it’s not a blob anymore. It’s a shape shifter.”

AppleJack looked somewhere between shocked and puzzled. “So it’s like one of them Changeling things?”

“Could be a distant relative, but I don’t think this is the work of the Changelings. It’s alien, remember?” Twilight replied.

“Well...alright Twi. Ah’ll do mah best to keep an eye out for it. Just try to find it before it finds anypony else.” AppleJack replied.

“Right...we wouldn’t want a cross species incident now, would we?” Twilight responded, adding a nervous giggle at the end.

This day is going to be the death of me... Twilight thought to herself.

****

The Pony continued to follow Pinkie Pie along the route at his own pace, before he heard something he’d never heard before. An odd, melodic sound. Curious, it stopped following Pinkie and started following the direction the sound was coming from. Peeking over some bushes, he found a yellow Pony with a pink mane and a pair of wings, most unusually. It examined the yellow Pony and molded itself an identical set of wings, before walking out to meet her.


****

Fluttershy was having a pleasant day so far. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and Angel was behaving himself for once. Fluttershy herself was out washing a few items in the lake when an odd, black Pony with green, pupilless eyes and a pair of wings like hers walked towards her. She did the first thing she thought was sensible.

She screamed.

The noise cut through the black Pony as he appeared to recoil, but it didn’t appear to deter him. He walked over and...started to hum. Somehow, it had no mouth and yet was able to hum. To make matters even stranger, it was the exact same tune Fluttershy herself had been playing mere moments ago! While it didn’t alleviate her fear completely, she stayed out of curiosity.

“Um...hello?” Fluttershy asked. The Pony didn’t answer back, but it did stop humming.

“H-Hello?” Fluttershy repeated. The Pony cocked it’s head to one side.

“Can you understand me?” Fluttershy inquired. The Pony didn’t change posture, but tried humming again. Fluttershy blinked.

Maybe copying people is how he communicates? she thought to herself.

Fluttershy whistled an entirely different melody this time. The Pony stopped, listened and copied the whistle - exact note for exact note.

He does! Now how can I understand what he’s saying?

Fluttershy decided to hum an old lullaby she knew from sometime back. The Pony copied the melody exactly, before hacking up a glob of thick, grey liquid, which landed at his hooves. It’s eyes seemed to dim as it fell over on it’s side.

Fluttershy panicked. “Help! Someone! This Pony’s fallen over and he can’t get up!”