The Foreign Factor

by Zombehhunter

Chapter 5: Awkward Second Encounter

Fluttershy collapsed, a loud thud dispersing the surreal silence of the room for a moment before sighing in relief, stretching out her tired limbs before again sighing in content, realising that this was the first time she had been able to really take a break for the past week.

Being Ponyville’s unofficial veterinarian, she had dealt with a lot of patients with a wide range of injuries, from a small mouse that had broken its leg to a bear with back problems.

But nothing like this - nothing with such extensive injuries or such strange, though interesting design. If she were asked what her most difficult case ever had been, she would have had to definitely say ‘that strange bipedal creature we almost killed when we went to that other universe.’ The damage was so extensive that she was unsure for the first time that her knowledge and healing ability was going to be enough to save him, and being away from all of her supplies didn’t help this. Though, (“by Celestia, he has a hospital in this cupboard!”) the kitchen revealed to them many wonders, mainly the fact that it seemed he had raided a hospital and stashed the loot in an unfortunate cupboard, which looked like it was going to need to stretch out to fit everything in it.

This discovery – along with Twilight’s newly founded medical spells – were the only things that gave him a remote chance at surviving. And he did…but to say he was walking a thin line was an understatement. He was walking on a firing line, lined with broken glass, blackened from the blood of past victims.

Things were initially a whirlwind of confusion and feverish activity. Everypony was doing something to help after being coaxed into it by the unusually commanding Fluttershy, ranging from finding those medical supplies to moving him to his room and generally being helpful by staying out of the way or moving supplies to the Twilight and Fluttershy who were casting spells and bandaging as though they were racing each other.

As she looked back at it, she realised that it was Twilight who had one of the most difficult things to do in all of surgery, especially for someone who had never practised medicine: she had to remove bone fragments from the lungs. She had to use a spell to isolate and ‘disintegrate’ them, but any slip up in this process could have been fatal. She didn’t tell her this until after the fact though, after all, she didn’t want to put her under more pressure…though she did nearly faint from the stress anyway.

However, after the initial drive to save him, an argument quickly broke out between the group members. On one side of the argument were Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie who were trying to persuade Twilight, Scootaloo and Fluttershy to leave. The argument got pretty heated, Dash saying that it was simply far too dangerous to stay there, taking the incident much more to heart than any of the other ponies.
“Besides, it’s all bandaged up, it’ll be fine. I was after they got bandages on me.” This argument proved ineffective to those who knew what they were talking about. Twilight responded by pointing out that if he did become a hazard yet again, he could easily be dealt with by her magic.
“Furthermore, does he look like he is in any fit shape to simply be dumped on his own? Whether we like it or not, we are currently responsible for his current condition and we must look after him. And don’t you look so down Applejack, we all would have done the same thing.” They tried to reason their points once more to Twilight, Pinkie going as far to sing about it, but all their objections were ceased in one fell, quiet cry from Fluttershy. He had stopped breathing. The others ultimately ended up waiting outside the room, occasionally fleeing down the stairs in order to get something for Twilight or Fluttershy. They ended up just bringing the box of supplies up stairs.

It was an exhausting hour for the two of them. After getting him breathing the first time, he had a heart attack and then decided to stop breathing again. This would be the first of the many exhausting hours that would come that week, but needless to say, the argument was won in their favor.

After that things fell into a routine, of sorts. Fluttershy would spend most of her time looking after him, with some help from Twilight whenever she was needed. Rarity would have her O.C.D kick in at times and would leave rooms spotless in under half an hour. Applejack, Pinkie and Scootaloo really just hung around, cooking for everypony when a meal came around and spent the rest of their time discussing anything that seemed relevant. Dash spent a lot of time in the air, more so than she did on the ground. The others weren’t sure what she was doing but every time that she came back she seemed to be hiding frustration – though somewhat poorly. Having said that, she wouldn’t talk about it and would quickly try to change her tone whenever she saw any of them, trying to be like her normal self. The others just shook it off as Dash being moody.

That day was only different for Fluttershy, who was enjoying the break. In fact, she was enjoying so much that she never even felt her eyes getting heavy, and sleep taking her. The sleep itself was surprisingly peaceful; a dream of being home and being greeted by a mass gathering of her animal friends greeted her with open arms. Despite this, she was never a heavy sleeper, and a sound roused her. It was slight, barely rearing its head before dissolving to silence again, but it was enough to break the silence that had blanketed the room, except for the slight snoring from Fluttershy. She raised her head as she looked over the room, trying to find the source of the noise.

There it was again, it was from behind her. It came from the creature. She was on her legs immediately, tensing slightly and ready to bolt out of the room at the slightest movement. But he didn’t move. Only his mouth, very slightly as he murmured something before resuming his motionless slumber. It seemed sort of robotic the way only his mouth would move.

Curiosity overwriting her normal timid nature, she kneeled up on the bed and put her ear next to his, her mane tumbling onto his face sloppily. It took a minute this time, but he eventually muttered something that confused her slightly. Most of it was illegible, but she was able to understand a few words:
“…Sorry…have told…helped…no excuse…” She stayed there for a moment more, hoping to catch something that would let her piece together what he said, but the only sound she got was a gasp. Presuming he was having a heart attack or was about to stop breathing, she pulled away, already calling Twilight and preparing to do CPR, when she froze, rigid as steel.

Their eyes connected, surprisingly similar in colour, if his only being a touch darker. The similarities ended there. Fluttershy had always been a reasonably good judge of character, and one that she knew you tell character, was through someone’s eyes. Her eyes were big, soft an innocent, the kind that you could trust. His eyes on the other hand were dark, they had not the light in them that could be associated with someone who had love and joy in him. They were glazed and hardened from tough years, and showed experience and wisdom that should not be in someone his age. It was chilling to see this in what she ultimately saw were a child’s eyes. Strangely however, instead of seeing anger and a desire to harm her, she instead saw curiosity, a bit of suspicion and uncertainty. They were both intimidated by their situation.

Summoning her courage a bit (a lot) she said the first words.
“Oh…eh, h-hello, my name is em, Fluttershy. What’s your name?”

He stared at her blankly for a moment before it hit him that a horse had just spoken to him. There was a very awkward silence in the room for about a minute before the room door burst open, Twilight trailing with an adrenaline needle levitating next to her.
“I’m here Fluttershy, what’s…” She stopped, seeing that she had turned to her, with the creature also doing so. “Oh. He’s awake.” They all looked between each other, the rather awkward looking creature trying to wedge himself into the wall.
“Aye…I um. Who’re you two, ‘n’ wit ‘re wantin’?” He sounded somewhat hostile, making Fluttershy ‘meep’ and jump off the bed, taking up a defensive position behind Twilight.
“What’s going on in here?” came the booming voice of Dash as she and Applejack came through the door. They too quickly caught onto the situation. “Oh” was the response.

After a minute all those who wanted to be in the room to hear what was to happen were present. Funnily enough, it happened to be those who were already present. Rarity had the feeling that things of a rather ugly nature were going to be talked about, so she didn’t want to hear any of it, so she took Scootaloo back down stairs, and Pinkie just said “Oh it’s fine, I wouldn’t want to scare him with all my over the top antics and personality.” Twilight closed the door at this point and turned back towards the creature, taking lead of the conversation.
“So, I hope you don’t mind, but we have some questions we would like to ask you.” The creature lay there for a moment, before turning on his side so he was facing them. He took a moment to breath before replying. Breathing hurt.
“I…also, have some questions… I’ll answer…your…questions if… You answer mine - Deal?”
“You’re not really in any position to be making any deals you know.” Applejack kicked Dash lightly before replying herself saying that that was fair. “Now…how’s about some…introduction…?!”
“Of course. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am Princess Celestia’s star pupil and have been sent to Ponyville to study the Magic of Friendship. This is Fluttershy; she tends to all of the animals of Ponyville, and is the one who took care of you while you were…uh, in a coma. She pretty much saved your life.”
“Really now?” He raised his eyebrows and looked at her, and she nodded modestly, muttering that Twilight helped a lot too. “Well, you most certainly have…gah! My-my thanks…” He went taught as pain from his chest flared up suddenly, destroying his track of mind in a fiery explosion. This lasted only seconds before it disappeared. He looked down lazily to see a different needle to the one that Twilight had floated into the room being used along with it.
“Ah, morphine my God, how I love-ith thee…” He used his hands to direct his face back to the ponies and take the needles out. He pointed lazily at Applejack. “And, you are…?”
“Ah… Are y’all alright? Should we maybe do this at a better time?” He shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, I’m good. I ain’t dead, therefore I’m fine. Continue.” The other two quickly introduced themselves, explaining their roles. Applejack – Apple farmer. Rainbow Dash- Weather Controller (?). The two who weren’t present were Rarity who was a dress maker and had a good eye for fashion and Pinkie Pie was pretty much the resident party pony and worked at the local bakery.

He had to summon a lot of mental control to keep himself losing his poker face and erupting into laughter. ‘For fucks sake, they are having me on? Right? Wow…right, okay. Try and find out as much as you can. Could be interesting after all.’
“You may have…the first question.”
“Thank you. Now, can you give us some, general information on you?”
“I don’t see why not,” he replied with a shrug. “I’m…hm. Re-phrase. Well, my species, we are called Human. My personal ID is River. Not my name, my ID. I’m only fifteen and am currently immobile. Now, my question to you. Why the fuck were you committing home invasion?”
“Because you foalnapped Scootaloo!” Dash growled, almost knocked her head against his as she spat her answer in his face.
“I kidnapped no one. If Scootaloo is that small filly, you will find that she landed on top of me. Now since ponies falling out of the sky is not a common happening, I decided to take to my home to offer her shelter and any help I could. Goes to show what happens to those who try to help, dun-it?” Needless to say his tone was dangerous. Even though he was bed ridden, she didn’t take her chances and backed up, gaining glances from her friends. She just huffed and faced him, Applejack deciding to give him a proper answer.
“We are ‘cos you had Scootaloo. See, she fell from the cloud we had been camping on and Dash wasn’t able to find her as she fell due to the snow storm that was brewing. She was able to find you however walking away from where she thought she may have landed, with your jackets off in a bundle. We assumed that you were foalnapping her so we followed you to your house. We…then broke in and tried to sneak about. We weren’t good enough at it evidently, as y’all know what happened next. Ah’m really sorry ‘bout what happened ‘n’ what Ah did, I feel right awful about it.” He frowned with a smile, seeing sincerity that he wasn’t used to seeing.
“Hey, chin up lass. It’s fine, honest. If I had-nay been so damn trigger happy this may not have happened the way it did, but the only reasons why people break into people’s houses…well, it ain’t for a chat, that’s for sure. And plus the past seven or eight times it’s happened, it hasn’t been underlined with a good reason, so I think I was somewhat justified. I’m getting off subject here, your question.” There was a silence as the group thought this statement over, their already pre-existing sympathy for this boy, River, growing, making their faces droop a little. Except for Dash, who was wearing a scowl that no one had noticed yet, as though it were invisible.
“Right em, back to the questions, where are we exactly?” The words left her mouth and simply caused River to laugh. A light chuckle at first, but it soon blossomed into a full blown hysteric fit. Calming himself down, he had moved to a sitting upright position.
“You really don’t know? Where the fuck ‘ave you lot been living for the past fifty odd fucking years!? Or are you lot laboratory creatures, would explain the odd colouration.”
“We’ll explain where we live and our ‘odd colouration’ to you, after you answer our question.” Dash said a bit too forcefully. River just smirked a little, moving a strand of greasy black hair from his face.
“Alright, but I’ll tell you this now, this little planet that I live on has had a bad run recently. So, if em-body here ain’t wanting to hear this, I suggest leaving now.” They all looked at each other, their eyes searching each other’s for the desire to leave.
“Fluttershy, you sure you want to hear this?”
“Oh, I’m fine Applejack. I like learning about different animals.”
‘So, you see me as an animal do you Fluttershy?’ he thought, not sure if he should be offended or not.
“Okay, we’re all staying. Continue.” He just smiled. If his hunch was right, these ponies were in for the worst horror story of their lives.

He detailed to them some basic history, telling of how a few things came to be, the world wars and the general violence that followed. Needless to say, they were shaken, even Dash’s seemingly unwavering scowl was drooped at the corner, her eyes widening at the ease that he could talk about such things. If she were to even think of all those bodies, she would be sick… she had to imagine them.

“Now, that was over one hundred years ago. We were recovering, prospering, life was getting better. We still had our wars, but nothing on the scale of those two. Things in the world as a whole seemed to be improving - Until around 2016. On October 12th, the state of Alabama was ravished by a large explosion near the states capital, Montgomery. The explosion originated from the largest nuclear explosion to date, decimating the state, destroying half of the land in an instant and rendering land as far as neighbouring states radioactive to this day. The area is so large; it looks like a glow stick burst open over the earth when viewed from space. This incident brought to the front of all media a message from companies, that people were simply too dumb to work effectively, or had no work ethic and done things as sloppily as possible. The governments of the world got together and decided to introduce something called the “IQ Card”. The card, as you may imagine, shows your tested level of intelligence, as well as your grades and what-not. It soon became so that you have to have a certain IQ or higher to do a certain job. However, the levels were set simply too high for too many years, an in 2022, global riots struck out. There wasn’t a place on earth where there weren’t riots, and like bacteria in a dish, the rioters multiplied, and the anger growing stronger as defence forces were overwhelmed, even with the use of lethal force.

“The government eventually relented, slacking the IQ restrictions a bit, and it was enough to quell the active riots, but no one is happy. No one. Only those fucking bastards up top where they had to rake in the fucking money with a bulldozer- or a fleet of them. But it wasn’t long ‘till all that unrest boiled over again. Gangs, they were the backbone of the initial unrest. People didn’t feel right simply walking out into the streets with no banner behind them. So, they turned to gangs. Mainly, “The Left Hand of God” and several others. By the end of the ‘civil unrest’, it was estimated around 46% of all people were involved in some gang or another. The gang culture continued to grow and flourish, unabated by the weed hackers that were supposed to be the world’s governments. This was a grave mistake by all. By 2025, the attention on gangs was immense. The sheer amount of advertisement from minor graffiti to managing to sneak on actual TV broadcasting stations and advertise their message, was getting a lot of attention, and by 2025, it was estimated that 61% of all world populace, were part of gang culture. The specifics varied in each country, but in the former USA, it was roughly 76%. Seeing that they had the numbers, “The Left Hand of God” struck in America, taking four states in couple of days. The armies were sent in, but the sheer numbers right across all of the states, was too much for them, and they called in their allies to help in the fight. They weren’t the only one. “The Left Hand of God” had made itself one or two allies of its own in countries that shared certain goals with them, so they pulled in their allies. In the end, World War 3 erupted, all fought on American soil. For a time.

The gangs were not only present in America. Like a parasite, they had managed to amass large amounts of members in key countries and allies including the United Kingdom, Europe and China. They struck, and to be able to contain their own problems, they had to remove all of their armies from the US, and this left them up shit creek without a paddle. Most of the States have fallen by this point. Only three remain, and they all have agreements with them…though they are breaking down. The desire for nukes is strong in the US. What else to say? Governments have been doing deals with the gangs for many years now, their power is only there because the gangs allow it, at least it is certainly the case for most members…”

“Death toll? Well, I am surprised you asked. Are you sure you want to know…? It is maybe only a number, but the way you lot acted… Alright, I never said you lot wimps. The amount injured throughout the entire World War 3, was 3.82billion - All suffering from wounds that ranged to broken bones to violent mutations. The total dead was 2.23billion. Almost all of the world’s population was either killed or injured. If there is one thing that we humans are good at, it is killing each other. We do it like no other; nothing can even hold a fucking stick to what we can do to each other.”

They all just stood there, gasping from the horror that was presented to them. Fluttershy couldn’t even brake down in the tears she wanted to spill at hearing of the extensive suffering, she was shocked into place. Twilight was the one to voice herself first.
“That…that is horrible! How could your own kind to that to each other? Wars against other species have happened in our world, yes but not for hundreds of years.”
“There are no other sentient species here on earth.”
“That doesn’t excuse the face that you are all killing each other. And I was not saying that we had other species to take anger out on. It just happened sometimes, and they were never on the scale of any of your ‘World Wars’. It’s…”
“It’s plain wrong!” Everypony jumped at Dash’s outburst, but she wasn’t done as she flew right up into River’s face, who just looked at her blankly. “What the heck is wrong with you things!? I have been seeing what you’s do to each other in the streets, and the stuff I’ve seen, it is horrific enough, but what you’ve told us here? Just shows that you are all a lost cause. Heck, you yourself are probably just a thieving murderous scum.” She noticeably spat the last words. Without any warning, River grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall, pulling a knife out of seemingly nowhere and placing small blade at her throat.
“Listen here.” His voice had dangerous whispers of malice in it for the first time. “I have tried for a long time, to make myself the best person that I could in a world that would sooner kill me than help me off the floor if I fell. I have tried for the longest time to help others where I can. I have tried to aid the same people who would mug me in different circumstances. I. Have tried, which is more that I can say most of the scum who now inhabit this world. I have tried to help, even if that means that I have had to kill, but I am the lesser of two evils. After spending most of what little I have had of my life, trying to better this place in any way I can, putting my life in more danger than you have ever,” he pushed his own face closer to hers, “been in. Who the hell… who the fuck do you think you are, that you can come along here – in my own fucking home! And call me something like that, with not even any justification. And I could see through-out that entire meeting there, that you do not like me. I can even see that you thought I wouldn’t be a problem to deal with. Don’t even ask, I have dealt with people who can conceal their thoughts and intentions better than you. All I have to say is this; if you, or any of you come at me with the intention of removing me – I will kill you. It will not be hard. Hell, you didn’t even check my mattress for weapons?” He just sighed and let his voice fall. He looked at Dash, her eyes were sunk into her face with fear. He removed the knife and stopped pinning her. She flew over to her friends, almost breaking the sound barrier in the process. “Just don’t fuck with me and everything will be fine.” He lay back down, staring at the ceiling.

There was a hot silence as the three friends looked between Dash and River, trying to clock exactly what happened and whose side they should take should they need to. They didn’t need to thankfully as River got to his feet – ignoring the pain as he did so – and took off downstairs after saying: “You can all stay here if you want. It’ll be a stretch to provide for you all, but I’ll manage to do it. I can also keep you all safe and away from people – the government will not find you in my house. However, if you decide to go, I recommend going north to the hills if you can. Resources will be more plentiful there and there is a slimmer chance of you being discovered, but be wary of military operations and gang smuggling activity, it is very abundant up there. Less people, you know.” They turned to Rainbow as groans and sharp creeks could be heard coming from the bottom stairs.
“Rainbow, what in tarnation did you think you were doin’? That was blatantly rude and dangerous.” Dash fidgeted a bit, still calming her racing heart.
“I really don’t know…it’s just all of the stuff that goes on out there. And then hearing of this, I… It just put me over the edge.”
“It’s okay Dash, we understand.” Dash smiled at Fluttershy before returning to her sour expression.
“Okay… I think we should stay here. I know, Twi, a complete U-turn, but…even if he is dangerous, I…I believe him. There was something in his eyes…his face. The way he wasn’t even trying to put any pressure on me or the knife… I don’t think he will hurt us: only if we push him. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like him still, but I have a feeling that he is much more capable than we- I think he is.” Twilight looked a little shocked at this, but just sighed what she wanted to say to this change away.
“All right, we have your vote, now we have to get the others up here for theirs. Girls! Can you come up here please!?”

Rarity and Pinkie thundered up the stairs like the like the flames of hell were after them, dragging a rather startled Scootaloo along for the ride. River being down the stairs had startled them, it seemed. Despite this, the votes were cast and the decision was unanimous, despite the slight fear in the air about, they were confident that all would be well. He came upstairs again with a cheese sandwich in hand, his second, chewing on it vigorously: he never realised how hungry he was.
“River,” Twilight announced, “We have come to the conclusion that it would be best to take up your offer, and stay here with you. If the offer is still there…?”
“Yeah it is. I forgot to ask: how long was I out for?
“Oh, me, me, I know. You were ‘out’ for a whole week!” Pinkie answered helpfully.
“Oh…sugar.” He finished off his sandwich somewhat swiftly – regretting not being able to savour it though - before going back down the stairs, hands wringing, muttering, “I had fucking homework to hand in…”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Auther note: I simply must apologise for how long this chapter took. The quality does not reflect the time taken, and for this I must also say sorry for. But, the next chapter should be out sooner than this one. Thank you all.

Author's Note:

Edit (28/8/13): ...my God...it's worse than I had ever realised...it...it's so bad! It...it's a monster!
Yeah, this needs re-done. I'm putting this on the list of things to write - I struggled a lot with this one and golly does it show. But I'll re-write this as a side project.

Comments

[~Poke~]

Ooooh, very interesting. They've landed in a future-stabby-horrible place which recently lost 1/4 of it's population.
Plot-wise, this is shaping up well and I think that makes up for the time taken.

Grammar wise, just one sentence you need to fix that I noticed.
"On one side of the argument were Applejack, Rainbow Rarity and Pinkie were on the other, trying to persuade Twilight, Scootaloo and Fluttershy to leave."

Looks like left-overs from a bit of re-arranging.

[claypokemonz]

Loving it! can't wait for the next chapter! Few grammer mistakes here and there, but nothing really to nit-pick about. And Pinkie Pie finaly got her first line! I love how you got the ponys, that wouldn't fit in to the serious situation, out of the there, 'sutile'. Can't wait for the next part!