The Wild Man

by Luckless

Chapter 7

Brian

Much to my surprise, after Midnight's parents left, she asked for more meat. She'd already eaten a good amount of food, and any more I wondered if she would burst. But she knew her limits, so I brought out the last bits of meat from the bucket. Said pieces were much smaller than the pieces I normally cooked for her, but they made up for in quantity.

When asking her if it was enough, she grinned playfully, "Perfect." I shrugged and started cooking, but being in front of the fire for so long, and it being the middle and therefor hottest part of the day, I was beginning to cook like the meat. So I took off my shirt, and tossed it at the van.

"Huh."

Still watching over the meat, I prodded, "What's up?"

"Your skin, it's not as yellow and black last time I saw you. Are you ok?" She asked concerned.

I considered how to answer that, "Well, certainly better than I could have ended up as. I'm still healing up from being struck by lightning, aaand a broken nose."

"Lightning? What did lightning do to you?"

I looked back at her with a confused expression. What did she mean by that? "It nearly killed me. I'm lucky I just got this bruising."

She blinked, "Really? Your magic doesn't protect you from electricity?"

"Magic? That exists here? Uh, I guess my answer would be no, it doesn't. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I don't have any magic period, that I'm aware of."

Her face is engulfed in surprise, "Sweet Celestia. Do you know who hit you? They need to apologize."

I shrugged and refocused on the meat, "Don't know their name. I just know it hurt like bitch, and what they looked like."

"Tell me, maybe I know them."

Again, I shrugged, "Alright. Baby blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane, redish eyes, and a mark on their butt. Don't remember what it was though. Pretty lithe, about as... well, was about as skinny as you."

She laughed, "Are you calling me fat?"

I snorted, "Hardly, more like you're gaining back your health. I don't know much about ponies, but you looked starved when we first met."

She gave one last laugh, "Yeah, but in all seriousness, it sounds a lot like Rainbow Dash to me, one of the Element Bearers. You're sure about the mane color?"

"Yeah, kinda hard to forget. What's an 'Element Bearer'?" I asked using my fingers to quote. I turned the pieces of meat over.

She paused for a second before answering, "Right, alien and all. I forgot that not everypony is very well informed on the last few years. The Element Bearers are six mares that carry the Elements of Harmony. Each Element represents one of the aspects of friendship. Generosity, honesty, laughter, kindness, loyalty, and magic. The pony you described sounds almost exactly like Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. Why did she hit you with lightning?"

"I'm not entirely sure to be honest. I mean, I've been trying to figure it all out myself. The first day here, I knew I wasn't where I should be, so I went out looking for someone to tell me where I was. It was raining pretty bad, but I was getting a little spooked, and I really wanted to know what was up. So when I came up to a farm, I knocked on the door. When the door opened, this orange pony got scared or something, and tried to kick me. That's how my nose was broke. After I stumbled over the porch rail, and picked myself up, 'Rainbow' whatever yelled something about not worrying, and then I got hit with lightning. Passed out shortly after, and woke up in the basement of some sort of library. Fought my way out, and I went back home."

I could practically feel her emotions boiling off of her, chief among them, anger, "Looks like several ponies owe you an apology. They shouldn't have attacked you outright like that!"

Her anger startled me. I'd never seen this side of her before, only happy and loving, "Calm down, ok, just calm down. Did they overreact? Oh yeah. Did they almost kill me? No doubt. But I've learned from you that humans don't exist here. In fact, I'm not really surprised with how the orange one acted. I probably just surprised her, and Rainbow just jumped to conclusions. Huh, that actually makes sense. I think I just solved my own question."

She growled, "But that doesn't make it ok! They almost killed you! They need to apologize to you!"

I turned over the meat again, "Look, this is really in a grey area here. With what you've told me, Rainbow probably didn't know I can't take lightning, so it really just goes into that part of logic where nothing really makes sense and the choices available must be chosen carefully. Right now, I'm going to just forget it until I see her again or something. Then we'll see how it goes." I examined the meat some more, and seeing it done, I announced it.

When I turned around, Midnight's mood had performed a total 180. She was now licking her smiling lips in anticipating glee, "Yeah, this debate can wait. Food now!" She sounded so excited, and I gotta say, it lifted my mood considerably.

I smiled at her, and laid out the new meal on the table, taking a small piece for myself. While I chewed nonchalantly, she shoveled everything down with increasing speed. In fact, I still had half my piece left when she finished with a loud burp.

With half lidded eyes, her eyes rolled up, and she groaned with satisfaction, "You know, as much as you and mom tease me about it, I don't mind if I get fat on your cooking. It'll be worth it." My heart swelled with pride and gratitude. I wasn't too sure about ponies and their regards to obesity, but I took it as an incredible compliment nonetheless.

Midnight groaned in pleasure again as she slowly made her way over to the bean-bag-bed, and collapsed into it, facing away from me. As I watched her antics, I saw her blank hind legs, and I remembered a question I had earlier.

"Hey Midnight, I got a question for you."

Sounding very relaxed, "What's that?"

"How come your father and all the other ponies I've seen have marks, but you and your mother don't? Matter of fact, what are they anyways?"

It was small and almost unnoticeable, but she seemed to flinch, "Well, Cutie Marks, the marks you've been seeing, are the marks most ponies get when they discover their special talent. It usually gives them insight on what profession they should enter. As for me and my mom... well..." She sounded depressed and on the verge of her voice breaking, like she was remembering some bad memories.

I couldn't bear to see her feel bad, so I joined her on the bed, and started stroking her mane, "I'm sorry, I didn't know that would hurt you. You don't have to keep going if you don't want to."

Midnight struggled to a sitting position, her meal weighing her down, and leaned into me, "No, no, it's alright. Just some painful memories from school. You see, bat ponies, like my mom, don't get Cutie Marks. I inherited that trait, so I didn't get one either. I don't really look entirely like a bat pony or an earth pony either, so I got bullied a lot over that when I was a filly. To ponies, a Cutie Mark is pretty much everything. It defines us, and not having one after a certain age makes ponies feel worthless. The name calling certainly doesn't help."

I hugged her with an arm, "Again, I'm sorry. I know what it's like to be endlessly tortured by others, so I can relate." I made eye contact with her, "Just know this. I don't care what you look like, you're always going to be my friend." Calling someone my friend felt alien to my mouth, but I managed not to botch the job.

Midnight smiled, eyes beginning to mist. She wrapped her hooves around me in a tight hug, "Thank you Brian. You're a great friend."

I smiled and returned the hug warmly, "Hey, don't mention it."

We held each other for a good long while, enjoying each others' presence and warmth.

You know, this wasn't that bad of a day.

Several days later: Twilight

I wasn't entirely sure what I expected in my search for ponies who'd seen or interacted with the creature, much less their reactions to it being put on danger lists. The only sightings my friends could collect were the ones from when we dragged it to the library, and even then, there were only 5. When they learned how violent it was and it's weapons, they quickly became paranoid, and avoided the Everfree even more so than before. Rumors quickly spread about this strange new creature, often highlighting viciousness and some even claimed it ate ponies.

However, today my lack of information ended. A couple had recently been found to have had extended interaction with him, and I was going to be interviewing them in a few minutes. I had everything I needed prepared well in advance. Paper, quills, ink, tea, and several plush pillows to sit around a table. Even my number one assistant Spike had contributed to the interview by baking several of his lemon meringue cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. All I had to do now was wait for the clock to tick down to the time that they'd agreed to meet.

When the clock finally ticked down to the final minute, the door opened, and in came two ponies. One was an earth pony, but the other surprised me. She was a thestral pony, dressed in the Thestral Night Guard Armor. When she entered the library, she took off her helmet, which I remembered from one of my books to be one of the regulations of the guard to remove any headwear when they entered a building.

"Good afternoon! Thank you for coming in. Please! Have a seat and help yourselves to some tea and treats."

"Good afternoon, Miss Sparkle. Thank you." The Thestral answered polite and uniformly. They sat at the table, and immediately poured themselves some tea.

"Might I know your names? I'd like to write orderly reports on all interaction with the creature."

They nodded, the stallion answering first, "My name is Wood Cutter."

"And I am his wife, Corporal Ebony Moon of the Night Guard." I scratched down their names at the head of my first note page.

"Alright, and when did you see the creature?"

"The same day that the guards came back from their fight with it. We were on our way to meet with it when they came back into town, so we totally missed it until we got back." Wood sounded very angry about this for some reason, but that wasn't what got my attention. They had gone to meet with it.

"You met it?"

Ebony answered this time, "Yes, our daughter had gone out into the Everfree looking for food, and had stumbled on his camp. She stayed with him, ate some of his food with him, and stayed the night because she lost track of time, and night fell before either of them realized how much time had passed. She may be half Bat pony, but she didn't inherit my night vision. So she stayed the night, and came back in the morning." I processed this with a slack jaw. This creature had been very hostile towards ponies, and yet he welcomed a complete stranger that had invaded it's territory?

"Did he do anything?"

Ebony shook her head, "That's just it. He didn't really do anything. He cooked her some food, talked with her, and gave her a place to stay the night." I scribbled this all down, hoping that I would be able to make sense of this while reviewing the notes later.

"Ok, so, you went to meet it. What happened when you arrived?"

Wood answered a little tense, "He was cooking his... meal."

The emphasis on meal was odd, and I felt a little bit of foreboding at it, "What was it?"

Wood swallowed, "Well, he was eating meat. Moose meat. I know that my wife and Midnight, our daughter, needs to eat meat, but it still makes me feel a little sick."

Well, that would explain the teeth. "Ok, what happened next?"

"Well, he offered it to Midnight, because that's what she'd eaten the first time she visited. But I only let her after I got him to tell me what it was. He offered to cook more for us, but I declined. We asked him some questions while he went about cooking it."

They learned something about it? "What did you learn?"

"Well, he claims to be from a country called America, and, get this, that it's on a different planet altogether."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he seemed quite serious about it, and he also claimed that he had no idea how he got here. Turns out, he doesn't eat just meat, but it's his main source of food since it's easier for him to get in the forest. Then, I asked him whether or not he ever ate a pony."

I could feel the blood drain from my face, "A-and?"

Wood looked away, "He asked me to repeat what I'd asked, and when I repeated myself, he ran off to a bush and started throwing up. He said he finds the thought disgusting, and didn't want me to ask any more questions like that again, since he has apparently been getting beaten up a lot recently." I let out a sigh of relief. Good, he isn't as bad as the rumors make him out to be.

Ebony continued for Wood, "Then, Midnight and I ate the food, and we left. Midnight stayed though. She was feeling too good from her meal to want to move, so we left her there in his company. Whatever he is, he seemed trustworthy enough, and seemed to like her. So we haven't kept her from seeing him, and she goes pretty much every day. Nothing bad has happened so far, so we haven't objected. Too much." She glared over at Wood. Something tells me that Wood doesn't like this creature. But maybe I can still arrange a meeting with this creature through them! Then we can resolve this whole thing!

"Do you think that you could arrange a meeting with him? We've had some, misunderstandings with him, and my friends and I need to apologize to him."

They glanced over at each other, "We don't really know. Midnight's been talking about him, and apparently, he really likes his privacy, and doesn't really like ponies. We'd have to get Midnight to help us though. We've kinda forgotten where his camp was located."

I squeed, "OOoh! Thank you! Please, get her to come here as soon as possible! I really need her help with this."

They nodded, finished their tea and deserts, and asked if I needed anything else. I told them that I didn't and they left. I had the biggest grin on my face as I finished up my notes. A little bit more, and I could write to the Princess about this interesting development.

An hour later

A pony knocked on the door, "Come in!"

The door creaked open, and in came a very interesting pony. She had pony-esk colored fur, but her eyes were obviously that of a Thestral. Her fur was incredibly long by pony standards, and very healthy. She was also a little taller and heavier than most ponies. Not fat like Mrs. Cake, but not average either.

"Hi, I'm Midnight. You wanted to see me?" She asked sounding nervous.

"Yes, you're parents tell me that you've been meeting with the strange creature that we've been seeing recently. Could you please tell me about him?"

She nodded, and took a seat at the table, "What would you like to know?"

I smiled excitedly. She was the best source of information on this creature, just short of the creature itself, "Does he have a name?"

"Y-yes. His name is Brian." She didn't say any more, so I asked my next question.

"Do you know what he is?"

"Uhm, what do you mean by that?"

"What species is he?"

She nodded, "Well, he said he's a human. Why do you ask that?"

I finished scrawling down these new notes, "I want to know everything I can about him. Now, just to confirm, he's omnivorous?"

She nodded, but didn't say anything. This quietness was very odd. Most ponies would open up about whatever topic was brought up unless they were trying to be tight lipped, or the very few who were socially awkward or shy.

"Is something the matter? I would have thought you'd be talking more about him."

She frowned ever so slightly, "Brian is very... individualistic. That, and he's had some very bad experiences with ponies. He doesn't like ponies knowing about him, and he really likes his privacy."

I winced, knowing I was a part of his bad experiences, "Ok. Uh, next question. Your parents mentioned that he came from another world. Is it true?" She nodded. I hesitated with my next question. It regarded the original 'incident', "Do you remember him to be in any pain since you've known him?"

She scowled, and angrily spoke through clenched teeth, "Yes. He doesn't talk about it, but when I first saw him, he was pushing through pain to move. I asked him later about some colors on his body changing, and told me he got it when he was struck by lightning. They were bruises. The lightning had burst most of his smaller veins and arteries, and only days later did they start to fade. It nearly killed him. In fact, he said he was lucky that he wasn't dead. His nose was also broke, by the way."

I flinched at her words, slightly horrified that our worst fears were confirmed, and tried to choose my words carefully, "Do know his thoughts about this?"

She huffed, "Yeah. Frustratingly enough, he's surprisingly neutral about it. He certainly isn't happy about it, but he managed to calm me down when I first heard this."

Inwardly, I sighed in relief. If he was calm about it, we had a chance at organizing a meeting, and I asked, "Do you think he would meet with us?"

Her face didn't change, but she at least changed her tone, "I wouldn't know. I'll ask him next time I visit."

I thanked her profusely, "When can you visit him?"

"I'm not going to tell you. After what happened with the guards, I'm not going to risk giving them a clue to find and follow me to his camp."

I wilted even further at her words. I was feeling even more guilty by the sentence.

"Anything else?"

I shook my head, "No, thank you for coming. Please tell me his response when you can." She grunted, stood, and left.

Same day: Brian

I'd run out of food. With Midnight coming every day and feeding her voracious appetite, she'd quickly depleted my stores. Every bucket was empty, even the containers I'd stored the smaller bits of meat and bone marrow that I had brewed into soup. It was time to go hunting. The question was when and where I should go hunting. I didn't like the idea of hunting in the Everfree with all it's terrors, and I wasn't too sure what could manage to survive here with all the giant predators.

When was an easier question to answer. ASAP. Even though I knew it wasn't the main reason that Midnight was visiting me every day, but I still felt profound pride and happiness when I saw her enjoy what I cooked, especially when she brought spices to cook the meat with. Plus, I wanted to be able to eat too. She said that she was going to be coming early today, so I could take her hunting too. She did say that she was interested in seeing my guns in action.

I grabbed one of my stronger rifles, a Ruger Hawkeye rifle. It fired a .375 cartridge, and I had once used it to kill a bear in Minnesota. I loaded it with three of it's 5 shots, and waited for Midnight to arrive.

The nearly inaudible clopping of hooves was my signal that she was coming. When she rounded the bend, I saw her. She was looking much healthier now. Her fur had lengthened, now at the length that I'd seen German Shepherds have, and the glistening hairs displayed incredibly soft fur. She had grown as well, gaining two inches to the shoulder, and gained what I assumed was the weight she was missing, plus a little more. I didn't know if it was a natural thing, but her hips were wider, and her belly hanged. How it hanged, I couldn't really derive an accurate comparison. She didn't have the same form as the other mares I'd seen, even if the number was relatively low, but it wasn't like I'd seen horses back on Earth to where the belly would move outwards as well as down. Her face also seemed to have a more full look to it. When I remembered what her face had looked before, I would describe her as gauntly anorexic. Of course, I'd mentioned to her before how much more healthier she looked, and she blushed heavily through her fur. I couldn't help but think that I'd accidentally made it sound like a flirtatious compliment. However, I didn't say anything further besides a "You're welcome" when she'd sputtered out a thanks.

Now, she looked anxious, and that was new to me. I understood and could recognize anxiousness, but I didn't know what would make her anxious. I greeted her with my usual warmth, and she approached me.

"Hey Brian. Umm, I've got something to tell you about."

I raised an eyebrow, "What's that?"

She scratched at her hood, "Well, the Elements found out about you through my parents, and they want to meet with you." She didn't say anything further.

I was very surprised. These ponies obviously didn't like me, so wanting to meet me wasn't something that I'd figure they'd try to do. I was suspicious, of course.

"How many want to come?"

"Just the Elements I guess, but maybe a guard or two. What do you think?" She looked at me with unsure eyes.

I sighed, and thought about it for a second. If I did this, I could probably get them off my back and leave me alone. But the risk of me getting captured again wasn't something I liked about it. I still came up with an answer though.

"I'll do it. But I've got some conditions for them. Only one other pony besides the Elements can show up. If they're a unicorn or has a net, I won't show up. If I see a pony in the sky that's not one of the two pegasi in the Elements, I'm not coming. We meet at the border of the Everfree on the path, and it'll be at sunrise. None of the Elements can have weapons on them, but their one extra, may. None of them can be flying, and need to be lined up so I can see them all."

Midnight blanched, "Ok, I'll... try to remember that."

I decided that it was time to change subjects, "Well, you know how you wanted to see my guns in action? Well, now's the perfect opportunity. I'm out of meat, so it's time to go hunting. You know of anywhere's that would be good for hunting?"

A gleam entered her eyes, replacing her earlier anxiety, "Yeah! The Whitetail Woods. Can we go now?"

I nodded, and she squealed in excitement, "Come on! Let's go!" She practically sprinted back down the path, and I had to scramble to catch up. She led me to the main path, and we took a right. We never left the trees though, and we took a right into what looked like an animal path with how the plants hugged at us as we traveled. We walked a few miles, and came across a much more defined and traveled path.

Midnight gestured to the surrounding area, "This is the Whitetail Woods. Animals travel through here a lot, and you can usually see lots of creatures even if you're loud. They're not very afraid of most ponies or other animals."

Knowing that this was going to be easy, I smiled, "Then let's get going and find us some breakfast." Midnight smiled, showing off her white teeth.

Following habit, I stayed off the path, stood in a crouch, and stalked about with my rifle slightly raised. Midnight mimicked me, lowering herself almost to the ground. Like she said, we didn't have to wait long until we saw something. It was a fat little beaver. Beavers were really slow, so I wasn't going to waste a bullet on it. I got up right behind it, took out my knife, and buried the blade into the back of it's head. The nerves kicked in, and it started flailing for a little bit before it's weight affecting the kicks. I removed my knife, cleaned the blade on its' fur, and handed it to Midnight. She grabbed the tail with her teeth, much to my confusion, and we continued on.

Almost immediately, I saw another animal. More specifically, a buck whitetail deer. Like the beaver, it was fat for its' kind. I glanced over at Midnight, and gave her a grin. I raised my rifle up, aimed, and fired.
*BOOM*

The buck recoiled, having been shot right in the heart. It took three steps, and collapsed. I stood up straight, and looked back at Midnight again. She had dropped the beaver, and was holding her ears, while staring at the downed animal.

"You like?"

She nodded.

Author's Note:

5/17/18- Mild edits, I think. Can't remember if I posted first or not. If I did, well, there's some more at the end.

Comments

[Even Evil Has Standards]

Here's hoping he's not too forgiving

[No0one]

Please continue

[Shattered_Moon]

Please have him punch Rainbow Dash in the face. If only for the comedy.

[Luckless]

8926676
You'll just have to see 😁