The bird in the crow family

by InedibleBeef

Fire!

“A picnic?” Jay said skeptically “You’re making a salad for a picnic?”

“Yeah man we live in magical wonderland now, might as well get used to it” Will said looking up from his ‘culinary masterpiece’ he was making. “Oh yeah and that dragon puked a letter from Celestia saying that were going to be introduced to the public and we have to answer their questions. And also the jeep is getting towed to the train station so we can work on fixing it.”

Jay sighed, answering the public’s questions would be a pain in the ass if they had cameras and tape recorders. “Well, we gotta get this over with.” Jay really knew he would have to tell them the truth, and the truth would be ugly with them. Such a peaceful race introduced to a race that varies from people just as peaceful as these ponies and violent powerful people corrupted with greed.

While Jay thought of all this, Luna was tapping in to his mind, she knew she had to stop doing it, but she felt as if she needed to make sure that he never had any plans of escape. She felt sorry for him because he would soon know exactly how she felt.

“Hey Jay, would you like to come over to sweet apple acres and collect apples for the picnic?” Applejack asked him.

Jay had no idea what she was talking about by sweet apple acres, but he figured that it was that apple orchard to the southwest of the library. “Sure why not, but I might need an invisibility spell to get there though.”

“Oh that will be no problem,” Luna said as her horn began to glow and Jay’s body began to fade away. “I will accompany you along the way”

“Alright” but we need to get to the train station after the picnic”

“That will also be no problem,” Luna said.

“Where is everybody?” Will asked.

“There all gathering what they can for the picnic” Applejack answered.

“Damn, ponies really take picnics seriously” Will just said.

“Well lets get on our way, ah reckon those apples aint gonna buck themselves” Applejack said

With that Luna opened the door with her magical grip walked out, Applejack and Jay following.

~~

Twilight had been talking with Cadence, Shining Armor and Celestia for a while now, they all were doing anything but arranging the picnic, they had been doing the inevitable, discussing the human’s presence.

“To be honest, Jay in particular is no different than many ponies like us. One that would otherwise be peaceful had he not been forced into war” Cadence said.

“But what kind of people could they become? They could be more violent than they seem.” Celestia said, deep in thought for her subjects,

“I wouldn’t stick around to find out, Jay’s memories weren’t pretty from what you described” Shining armor said.

“You can’t judge him for what he’s seen or done in his self defense” Cadence defended him.

Twilight could feel an outburst coming, the lack of logic put in near enraged her. “Oh come on! We can’t talk about this now, they haven’t been here for much more than twenty four hours! What we need to focus on now is opening a portal to their world and set up long term alliance plans.”

Everypony fell silent at Twilights outburst. It was uncommon she would get that angry with this specific group of ponies. But she was right; they didn’t know either of the aliens well enough to think they would harm anypony.

“We need to get to know them before we make rash judgments” Twilight added.

“I’m afraid Twilight is right,” Celestia said. “We need to focus on getting them home as soon as possible”

All nodded in agreement, “It is decided then, we will get to know them, and introduce them to Equestia in Ponyville and Canterlot.

~~

Applejack watched as Jay climbed an apple tree and began picking off apples one by one and dropping them into the buckets below.

“Mighty impressive, I don’t know if anypony can climb a tree.” Applejack said. “But that may not be the fastest way to get the apples off the tree.”

“There’s a faster way?” Jay said hanging upside down from a branch.

Applejack trotted to the tree next to the one Jay was in and bucked it hard, and the apples fell in their respected buckets.

“Not bad” Jay said, falling out of the tree and landing on his feet.

Luna looked over to the front gate of the farm and saw her sister, niece, Twilight and Shining Armor.

“Looks like the first of the guests have arrived” She said trotting towards the group.

Jay looked in the direction of the four and noticed Shining armor, causing him to briefly frown.

“Well, better get the things out” Applejack said, trotting off into another direction.

~~

Celestia watched Jay relax under the shade of an apple tree, taking a bite out of one of its fruits. He just stared blankly at the sky while chewing his apple.

“So how are you two finding Equestria?” She asked for a friendly reassurance.

“I love it, really a heaven for me.” Jay responded.

Will nodded in agreement, “What he said”

Jay noticed something odd in the choice of food pinkie brought. There were plants in place of where the meat would be on earth. The first example Jay noticed was that flowers were in the sandwiches, then something dawned on him.

“Are ponies herbivores?” He asked randomly.

“Yes, we are.” Celestia answered him.

Jay cursed under his breath, this wasn't going to be easy.

Celestia was struck with worry, “you aren’t..

“Oh no, were omnivorous” Jay said, in a failure to keep calm.

The ponies backed away from them, fear in their eyes. Jay felt like complete shit, he had just made these friends and now they’re terrified of him.

“No no, we don’t eat ponies” that seemed to calm them a bit, but they were still shocked by the fact that he ate meat. “We won’t eat any meat as long as were on this planet” He said without thinking.

“Woah hold on” Will was about to complain before Jay silenced him.

“I said, we will not eat any meat as long as were on this planet” He retorted with more power this time.

Will huffed and silently complied. The ponies eased much to Jay’s relief, he really wanted to maintain a good bond between these species, mostly because he wanted to keep the peace for as long as he could.

Applejack saw a pony enter the gates of the farm and run in her direction.

“Ah’d hide if ah were you! someponys comin!”

Jay and Will scrambled up the trees on the side the incoming pony couldn’t see them and observed the group from above.

“Apple- ja- ck” The pony trying to regain her breath.

“Slow down now, what’s wrong?” Applejack asked

“There’s a fire- in town- we need Big Mac to help!”

With that, Jay dropped from his tree and started sprinting to town.

“Dammit Jay!” Will shouted before he dropped and took off after him.

All of the ponies took off in pursuit except for the one pony who came to warn them, who was extremely confused at what just happened.

~~

The smoke was only fifty yards from Jay now, the large crowd gathered at the front of the blazing home.

“Jay! Are you insane?” Will called out from behind him.

Jay ran forward, building to building as fast as he could.

“Help! My family is stuck in there!” A crazed pony was screaming for anyone to help him but no pony came forward. Jay ran past the crowd, sending a wave of gasps and screams among the ponies. Jay could’ve sworn that he hard Rarity shout “Father!” only increasing his drive.

“Jay!” He heard Luna call out. He just turned to her and nodded before kicking in the door to the inferno and storming in.

"Goddamn it’s hot in here."

“HEY! Is there someone here?” He shouted.

“Help us!” A faint response came from upstairs. Jay spotted the staircase, it was built against a wall with the upper floor unguarded by anything but a wooden rail. Perfect.

Jay ran up, placing his foot on the wall and thrusted himself onto the upper floor, using his hands to support his landing, the scorching floor burnt his hands making him groan in agony.

“Over here! Where are you?” The voice called out. Jay looked up and saw a mother and three children clinging to her in a corner still not fully ablaze. Jay ran for them and they, as he expected, screamed in terror.

“W- what are you?” An orange filly with a purple mane asked him, trembling.

“Doesn’t matter, I’m here to get you out. Now I know I’m a big scary alien, you need to trust me if you’re going to get out alive!”

The ceiling caved in where the staircase was, completely blocking it off. “Shit!” Jay shouted to himself. He quickly got another idea. He moved to the burning wall and started bashing it with his shoulder a hard a he could.

~~

Will thought frantically on what he could do, his best friend was in a burning building trying to save some ponies, he was probably hurt, the ponies are also probably hurt.

“They’re trapped upstairs!” He heard a voice shout. He looked up and saw a firefighter on a ladder hacking at the wall with his axe.

Will ran up to the ladder again a wave of gasps emitted from the crowd. “Hey! Give me your axe!” The firefighter looked down and his eyes went wider than pineapples and all muscle movement stopped in his body. “Dammit” Will breathed as he hopped up and pulled the firefighter down, snatching his axe. Getting to a higher position on the ladder, Will swung the axe as hard as he could at the wall, leaving a long gash on the wood. He swung again, this time, using the more burnt side to his advantage. Upon collision, the wall by the grace of god gave out, leaving a small hole in the house, smoke billowed out of the opening before a familiar shout was heard.

“Oh thank god!” Jay said as he scooped the three fillies up and motioned the mother to follow him. He poked his head out from the hole was met with Will’s, he nodded, handing down one filly at a time. Once they were taken care of he turned to the mother.

“How am I going to get out?” She asked him panicking. Jay just simply picked her up with ease and handed her down to Will the same as the fillies.

Another piece of the house collapsed and Jay snapped around, Will noticing the whole building was collapsing, grabbed Jay by his shirt and pushed himself off the wall moments before the entire structure gave out into a flattened heap. The ladder was teetering in mid air and both the occupants fell to the ground with a thud. The two each got the wind knocked out of them. For a moment, nothing was heard but the crackling of the flames. But then the ponies started cheering.

Jay looked up to an entire family, Rarity, the filly and the mother inside the house were all embracing with the pony that was pleading for help earlier. Applejack was holding the yellow earth pony with a large bowtie and Rainbow dash with the orange and purple pegasi. His hands began throbbing again and his vision began to blur, he groaned again and Fluttershy rushed to his side. Every sound was muffled and everything was growing darker.

The last thing he heard was “You’re going to be okay!” before everything went dark.

Knockout #3

~~

A jolt of electricity woke Jay with a start, Will was holding a pair of charged defibrillators and Fluttershy holding a medkit.

“Give me the shot” Will said holding out his hand. Fluttershy complied and gave him an adrenaline shot.

“Woah hold on,” Jay was interrupted by Will stabbing it into his chest and injecting him, making Fluttershy squeal. “HO SHIT”, Will quickly removed the needle before Jay nearly jumped out of the stretcher. Color filled his mind from both the adrenaline and the head rush. He hit his head on the ceiling of the pony sized room and everything immediately cleared up, leaving Will bursting out in laughter.

“Haha, that never gets old on you” He said in the middle of his hysterical fit.

Jay clutched the part of his head he hit, “That hurt” he said flatly. He looked in the corner of the room and saw Rarity, who was to make sure he was healthy, pass out from the treatment. “Guess Luna was right”

Will had finally settled down from his laughter and began to put back together his medical supplies. “Jay were going to present ourselves soon, you were out for a while. But get all your gear on, cause we might have to explain all of it.” Will motioned to Jay’s vest and weapons on the table, his backpack leaning against its legs. “But first, burning off that adrenaline. "Give me 50!"

~~

“We assure you all they are peaceful creatures, and they mean no harm to anypony” Celestia tried to calm her subjects, but they were completely against the idea of two rebels living in Equestria. “Please! They were both orphaned at a young age by evil forces!” She was almost out of options, they wouldn’t calm down.

“SILENCE!” Luna boomed in her royal Canterlot voice. “They did NOT intend to be here in the first place! They both love it here because of the peace, neither of them have ever seen real harmony in their entire lives! Can we please demonstrate how well we can all welcome guests? They saved three fillies and the mother of Rarity! The element of generosity!”

The ponies fell silent, Luna successfully suppressed them for her sister.

“Those aren’t the first lives they’ve saved, we have seen Jay’s memories, and he has saved many lives, we personally watched him carry a wounded soldier to safety, injuring himself twice” Celestia added.

Some of the ponies had admitted defeat in the argument that they were evil, but that they were fighting evil. “But why can’t they use magic to defeat the evil?” One pony from the crowd asked.

“There is no such thing as magic where they come from, they never had it to help them, only their own technology.” Luna answered.

Fluttershy rushed on stage, hiding behind her bangs whispered in Celestia ear, “They’re ready” and ran back out of sight.

“Everypony, I would like you to meet Jay and Will of Earth.” The two stepped out on the stage and faced the crowd of amazed ponies. The journalist’s camera flashes blinded them in almost three seconds. Not before long, they finished their photo spree and Will kicked off.

“So, uh, hi everyone!” He paused, he never really spoke that well in public. “I’m Will, this is Jay, so uh, I think Princess Celestia informed you all about us briefly so we’ll start with questions I guess.”

A multitude of hooves shot up in the front row, and in the back. This was going to take a while. Will gestured to a journalist near the front row.

“This question is for both of you, what is your world like outside of the war?”

“That’s a question for Jay” Will said.

All of the heads turned to Jay as if they wanted him to read them a storybook or something. “Well... I’ve been to some islands and different countries and made many friends, overall what I’ve learned is that the less wealthier the country, the less corrupt and greedy people you will find. But we have received lots of help from allies and we are grateful for what we have.” He paused to let the pony finish her notes and look back at him. “But outside of my country there is actually color and beautiful places”

The pony generated another question for him, “What do you mean there is actually color”

“Well everything in my country is mostly grey because of the nuclear fallouts.” He paused again. “If you don’t know what a nuclear fallout is it’s a giant explosion that literally vaporizes anything within its radius. On top of that it releases a toxin called radiation that eventually kills any forms of life.”

All the ponies were visibly shocked by his answer. Killing all life, yet he lives in it?

Will motioned to another hoof in the air.

“My friend was a nurse at the hospital and assisted the doctor that treated you Will, the doctor said that your are carnivorous, is this true?”

“No, were omnivorous,” He was cut off by gasps and murmurs in the audience. “But! We have agreed to not eat any meat as long as we are in Equestria” that seemed to calm them as Will hoped.

Jay pointed at a pony that had her hoof up.

“How come rebels like to fight with their government?”

Jay almost wanted to laugh and slap the shit out of that pony at the same time, they were so oblivious.

“I hate fighting, I hate war and I hate all suffering. But my government killed my family, as it has with many others.” Jay said, memories flashing through his mind again.

“Do either of you have loved ones?” Another pony already asked Will.

“Jay has a nephew that he took up as his own after the boy’s father died, and well, I only have my friends. I have no family whatsoever.” Will lowered his voice at those last words.

“In all, we have people like you, families, children, elders, they all just want a normal life. We just want them to have one.” Jay said. “Getting them out of the country is our drive.”

Will gave another nod to yet another pony.

“Random question, do you have last and middle names?”

“Yes we do, my last name is Kendrick, and I don’t have a middle name.”

“Yeah, my last name is Sparks and my middle name is Matthew” Jay finished.

Only one pony had his hoof up. Will nodded.

“Do you mean harm to anything here in Equestria? Nightmare moon, quite loudly, told us you didn’t, but we wan-”

“Let me stop you there,” Jay interrupted him. “Her name is Luna, and you should have the decency to call your leader that raises the beautiful moon every night for you so that you can sleep peacefully by her real name” The entire crowd was shocked at Jay defending the princess, Even Luna covered her mouth with her hoof in shock. “And no, we don’t mean any harm at all.”

Just as he finished speaking, a bell rung from above them and a tan, grey maned pony moved to the front of the stage.

“Well it’s midnight everypony! We should all get some rest, tomorrow is Monday!” She said, trying to end the awkward moment. The entire crowd stirred and began making their way to the door.

Luna flew over to where Jay stood, “Jay you didn’t have to do that, I don’t mind it.”

“No Luna, you can’t have them call you that forever, you do a lot for them. You don’t deserve that” He rejected. “They need you, and they don’t treat you right.”

Luna just stopped, he was right. If she wanted to have any respect, she should start by having her subjects call her Luna instead of Nightmare moon.

“…Thank you”

“No problem, now I think it’s time we get some sleep.” Jay said. “We had a long day.”

Comments

[Hi]

Good, good... You are doing this to a satisfactorily degree to your... let's say superiors and we would like to say good job spreading this to the people of your world.