Applejack and Fluttershy agree to help Twilight with an advanced teleportation spell. I think you know where this is going.
Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy arrive... somewhere after a teleportation spell goes awry. Stranded in an unknown land with nowhere to go they hope to find somepony that can help them find their way home. They find something else instead.
Edited by the wonderful Isaac3924! Go thank him for making my stories readable.
Fluttershy trotted along the path to Sweet Apple Acres. She smiled as she looked around at the brilliant shades of red, yellow, and orange adorning the trees. It was early Autumn and Fluttershy had always particularly enjoyed Fall more than the other seasons. Fluttershy loved to take walks in Autumn to enjoy the peace and quite of nature, but that was not why she was there. She was there because she had agreed to meet Twilight at Sweet Apple Acres in order to help her with a a spell she had been practicing.
Fluttershy saw the clearing where she was supposed to meet Twilight and spotted Applejack talking with Twilight. Applejack noticed Fluttershy's approach and gave a friendly wave. Fluttershy smiled and waved back at them, increasing her pace to a quick trot to reach them faster.
"Hey Fluttershy good to see you made it," said Twilight.
"It's nice to see you too Twilight, and you as well Applejack," said Fluttershy. "I'm sorry I'm a little late, Angel was being a teeny tiny bit difficult and I was delayed for a while."
"Oh it's no problem Fluttershy, I was just explaining to Applejack what we are planning on doing," said Twilight.
"About that, what exactly are we doing? You weren't very specific when you asked for my help," said Fluttershy.
"I'm glad you asked! I've been trying to develop a new form of teleportation for much greater distances on larger scales. The problem I've been having is that I can't store up enough magical energy inside a fixed leyline construct, so I developed a new delivery system for matter to magic conversion streams through space that operates outside of the normal limits of basic leyline point to point teleportation by using an amplification pattern to greatly increase the spells power. Now I should be able to travel much further without the consumption of extra magical energy! Isn't that exciting!" gasped an excited Twilight.
"Um yes? So what is it we're doing?" Fluttershy asked.
"Twilight made a teleportation spell with more juice so she can travel further and she wants us to help test it," said Applejack.
"Oh, okay that sounds simple enough," said Fluttershy "It's not dangerous is it Twilight?"
"No of course not, I've done several small scale tests and the results have all been very promising, I am almost one hundred percent positive that this test will work just as well," Twilight said.
"Alright well I guess I'm ready when you are," said Fluttershy.
"Great let's get started then, just stand where you are and try to stay as still as possible," said Twilight
"I guess I'll get out of your way then," said Applejack.
"Actually if you wouldn't mind I would like to try and teleport you as well Applejack, If it's all right with you of course," said Twilight.
"Sure Twi I don't mind at all," said Applejack.
"Excellent! Just walk over there and stand next to Fluttershy and remember to try and keep still," Twilight said.
Applejack walked over to Fluttershy and stood beside her. She looked at Fluttershy and saw that she was a little nervous, so she gave her a reassuring smile causing her to smile a little back in return.
"Now where should I teleport us to?" asked Twilight.
"How about Sugarcube Corner? I've been meanin' to talk to Pinkie about a new recipe for apple turnover cupcakes all week," said Applejack.
"I guess I could teleport us there, but it's not as far as I would like to go for this test," said Twilight.
"Umm, we could go to my cottage, I need to check on Angel anyway and you two could join me for an early dinner if you want to," Fluttershy said.
"That sounds like a great idea Fluttershy! Your cottage is rather far from here and I am getting a little hungry. What do you think Applejack?" asked Twilight.
"I think it sounds like agreat idea," Applejack said.
"It's settled then, we'll teleport over to Fluttershy's cottage and celebrate over an early dinner," said Twilight "Alright I'm going to start casting the spell, remember try not to move."
Fluttershy and Applejack nodded their heads in understanding.
Twilight's horn began to glow with a brilliant magenta light causing strange shadows to dance around the clearing. A large circle with twisting runes began to materialize around the three ponies. Sweat began to run down Twilight's forehead as a second burst of magical overglow enveloped her horn, increasing the brightness. Fluttershy looked around anxiously as the runes along the circle's circumference began to fluctuate faster and faster, even Applejack looked a little nervous. A high pitched whine began to sound as a third layer of overglow formed around Twilight's horn. Just as they were sure something was about to explode, Fluttershy and Applejack saw a brilliantly bright ball of white light form at the tip of Twilight's horn before floating in between the three ponies. The ball of light hovered in place for a few seconds before shrinking down to a small point in the middle of the air before rapidly expanding enveloping the circle and the three ponies within it.
Fluttershy felt a sensation of weightlessness as she was whisked through space, she could not see, smell, hear, taste, or touch anything but she could think, and for one terrifying moment Fluttershy felt as if she didn't exist. Then just as quickly as the moment had came it vanished. Fluttershy shook her head trying to clear away some grogginess as she stood up. She looked around and saw that Twilight and Applejack had both arrived safely. She also noticed that they were not in her cottage.
"W-where are we?" asked Fluttershy.
They were surrounded by trees on all sides, tall trees with green leaves. Rain slowly fell from the murky sky, which was odd since it wasn't scheduled to rain all week. The air smelled... wrong, it smelled like moss and trees and dirt and all the other things a forest would normally smell like, but it also smelled very faintly like something was burning.
"Twilight where are we?" Fluttershy repeated.
"Well I would guess that we are probably in the Everfree Forest," said Twilight "My destination might have been slightly altered and we ended up a little bit further away than I intended."
"We're in the Everfree Forest? It doesn't look like any part of the forest I've ever seen," said Applejack.
"I'm sure it's fine, but we better get out of here. The sun is setting and we don't want to be out here in the dark," said Twilight "We'll just walk towards the sun and it should take us out of the forest, then with any luck we will be close to Fluttershy's cottage."
"Sounds like a good idea to me, let's go!" said Applejack.
They all got up and began to walk towards the setting sun. Fluttershy shivered from the cold drizzle and partially because they were in an unknown part of the Everfree Forest.
"Sorry about this girls, I don't know what went wrong with the spell," said Twilight as they all trotted along.
"Don't worry Twilight it's okay, we all make mistakes," said Fluttershy.
"At least we're all safe. That's the important thing," said Applejack.
"Thanks girls, I'm glad I have such great friends like you sometimes I jus- woah," said Twilight coming to a stop.
"What is it Twilight?" asked Fluttershy as she and Applejack trotted up to her side.
In front of the three ponies was a road, but it was not like any road they were used to. The road was made of a hard black material with two bright yellow lines running along the middle. To the right it seemed to stretch much deeper into the forest and to the left it turned sharply and disappeared from sight.
"I think it's a road," said Twilight "It doesn't look like any road I've ever seen though. I have no idea what this material is," she said tapping it with her hoof.
"What's it doing here in the middle of the forest?" asked Applejack "Why would anypony build a road in the middle of the Everfree Forest?"
"I'm not sure, but somepony built it," said Twilight "Fluttershy, have you ever seen a road like this in or near the Everfree?"
"No, I've never seen anything like this before, It-it's kind of scary looking," she said.
"Maybe we should try to walk around it," said Twilight "just to be safe."
"I agree with ya Twi, ain't no reason to mess with something strange if we don't have to right Fluttershy?" asked Applejack.
Fluttershy wasn't listening to Applejack, she was staring at something in the middle of the road something that made her heart fill with sadness. Fluttershy raced to the middle of the road not heeding her friends startled shouts for her to stop. Fluttershy dropped onto four knees in front of the object of her fixation.
Fluttershy let out a heartbroken cry as she confirmed her fears. She cradled the broken, bloodied form of a small squirrel in her hooves. Her eyes filled with tears and she began to sob deeply as she saw that the squirrel was dead. Twilight and Applejack had quietly trotted up beside Fluttesrhy with heads hung low. Applejack placed a comforting hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder and whispered. "There there sugarcube, It'll be alright."
Fluttershy looked up at Applejack with tears still streaming down her face and embraced her in a hug, sobbing deeply into her shoulder. Applejack stood there and stroked her mane as she cried. Fluttershy pulled away from Applejack, still crying softly and stood up.
"I want to bury him," she whispered.
The three friends stood in the rain under the darkening sky, the sun having almost completely set now.
"Of course Fluttershy, we'll take him with us," said Twilight as she gently lifted the squirrel up with her magic.
They began to walk back across the road when all of a sudden they heard a deep growling noise. They looked to the left and saw a giant black beast with glowing white eyes tear around the corner at high speed.
"Run!" shouted Twilight as she and Applejack dove off the road, but Fluttershy could only stare at the glowing white eyes as they bore down on her.
Twilight and Applejack turned just in time to see it all happen. The huge beast slammed into Fluttershy flinging her backwards with tremendous force. She sailed through the air before hitting the wet ground and sliding several feet smearing blood along the road. The beast itself skidded to halt making a terrible screeching noise before going silent except for the continuous growl. Fluttershy came to a stop as her blood began to mix with the pouring rain.
The two ponies on the side of the road were horrified. The sight of Fluttershy lying in a pool of her own blood was shocking to say the least. Neither moved for a full second before Twilight snapped from her stupor.
"Fluttershy!" yelled Twilight rushing over to where her friend lay, with Applejack galloping alongside.
When they got closer they could see the extent of the damage. Fluttershy's body was covered in dozens of bloody scrapes all over her body, her left hoof was twisted at an unnatural angle, and there was deep gash just above her left shoulder with a stream of blood streaming out at an alarming rate. Her eyes were closed.
"Oh no no no no no no no! Fluttershy please be alright!" said Twilight "Fluttershy can you hear me? Please wake up!"
"Shy c'mon you gotta get up, we'll find you some help and you'll be fine, you have to be," said Applejack "Come on Fluttershy! Wake up! Please!"
To everyone's immense relief, Fluttershy's eyes fluttered open, focused on Twilight and Applejack, then promptly closed again.
"This is bad, she needs some serious medical attention or else sh-she might not make it," said Twilight.
"Well what are you waiting for let's get going!" said Applejack.
"Applejack it's night and we're lost in the Everfree Forest, running blindly about won't help Fluttershy," she said.
"Well what do you suggest we do then! We can't just stay here, it's dangerous and we need to find help!" Applejack shouted.
Before Twilight could respond she noticed that the beast behind them had gone quite. She stared in confusion and worry as a part of the creature's side swung outward. Applejack turned to see what had caught her friend's attention and stared with Twilight as a tall creature emerged from the inside of the beast.
* * *
Daniel Grey was having a very uninteresting day. It had been like most days. He had gotten up, showered, dressed, ate breakfast, kissed his wife goodbye, and then headed off to work. Work, for the most part, was pretty average and monotonous. Daniel didn't hate his job, but working with computers all day long eventually got rather boring.
Daniel turned off the interstate and got onto the little two way road that led to his home. He loved living further away from civilization, he had nothing against cities, but he felt that nature was pretty hard to beat in terms of beauty. The drizzle turned into a steady rain as Daniel got closer to his home. He saw a flash of light illuminate the sky and forest around him.
"Huh, guess the storm must be setting in," he said.
He wanted to get home and enjoy dinner with his wife before the storm arrived in earnest, so he accelerated hoping that he could be home before things got crazy. Dinner tonight was one of his favorites, lamb stew, he and his wife both enjoyed it very much. Stephanie was a beautiful woman with a natural talent for cooking and taking care of animals. Daniel had thought it was a little ironic that a veterinarian could enjoy eating meat, and had told his wife as such. She had just laughed and told him that just because she loved to take care of animals it didn't mean that she couldn't love to eat them as well. Daniel smiled and turned the corner that would lead to home.
After rounding the corner and traveling a few feet into the now pouring rain, Daniel was suddenly jerked forward by a sudden impact with something. Immediately Daniel slammed on the breaks causing the car to come to a screeching halt. Daniel's heart was beating a hundred miles per hour as he breathed deeply. He quickly felt over his body to see if anything was broken or bleeding. When he felt no injury he decided that he better go see what he had hit. He placed the car in park, turned it off, and opened the door and stepped out into the rain.
"What the?" muttered Daniel.
In front of Daniel were three animals of various unnatural colors. Two were standing around the third which was clearly pretty hurt considering that it wasn't moving and had a growing pool of blood around it. They had hooves and sort of looked like miniature horses if horses came in purple and orange.
'What the hell? Does that one have a horn? And what's up with the weird colorful brands?' thought Daniel.
The purple 'unicorn' , for lack of better term, must have heard him since it turned to stare at him.
'Jesus it's eyes are huge!' he thought.
The orange one who was wearing a hat and ribbons turned to stare at Daniel also. They watched him intently as he stood in the rain. He was unsure what to do, but he knew he had to check on the yellow one, his wife would kill him if he left it to die, especially after he hit it.
Daniel took small steps towards the three animals. The two standing animals watched his approach carefully as if he might attack at any moment. Daniel was sure that the other two would quickly scamper away once he got about half way there, but instead they stayed right where they were. This was strange behavior for animals, even if they were a 'pack' or 'herd' or whatever. Once he got within touching distance the orange horse-thing stepped in between Daniel and the hurt one. It stomped it's hoof and made an almost angry sounding whinnying noise. The purple horned one had a star of some kind on it's flank, the orange one had three apples, and the yellow one had three pink butterflies. He also suspected that they were female judging by their body shapes. Daniel also got a better look at the yellow one. She didn't look good, she had lots of scratches all over her body, one of her legs looked like it was possibly broken, and it had a deep gash on it's shoulder that was bleeding. Oh and it also had wings.
'Okay what are these things? Did they escape from a bizarre animal lab somewhere? Whatever, it's not important. I better take the yellow one home otherwise I don't think she will survive,' he thought.
Daniel bent down to scoop up the yellow one but was stopped by an orange hoof on his chest, and some more angry whinnies.
"Get off," he said "Get out of here, shoo!" Daniel made shooing motions hoping to scare the others away but to no avail.
Daniel pushed the orange horse away and gently scooped up the yellow one and began to walk back to his car. He heard some whining behind him and some hoofsteps. Daniel kept looking ahead trying to be as non-aggressive as possible. As he continued to walk he felt a strange tugging sensation on his body.
"What the hell is that?" he said.
The tugging sensation was all over his body but wasn't that strong, so Daniel continued to walk and the feeling began to gradually weaken before the sensation disappeared completely. He heard some startled sounding horse noises followed by more hoofsteps.
'Just ignore it and keep going' he thought.
Daniel unlocked his car and open the backseat door lowering the yellow animal onto the seat. The animal made an adorable whimpering noise and was then silent again. Blood was still flowing pretty regularly so Daniel took off his jacket and wrapped it as best he could around the wound. Then he felt a powerful hoof connect with the back of his leg.
"Aaaugh! God damnit!" He shouted falling to one knee in pain.
He turned and saw the face of the angry orange one. It made some more angry noises and glared at him.
"What the hell is your problem horse? Get out of here, I'm trying to help your friend!" He shouted rising to his feet pushing the orange horse away from him.
He shut the back door and began to limp to the driver side door, but was followed by more angry whinnies and the orange one.
"Shoo, go away!" he yelled once more before climbing into the drivers seat and slamming the door.
The very persistent orange horse placed it's hooves on Daniel's window as it glared at him. Daniel started the car and it immediatly jumped back. Daniel gave the horse a smug look, then returned his focus to the car.
Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't worry little yellow horse, we're going to go get you some help."
He put the car in drive and continued down the road to his home.
* * *
The creature that had climbed out of the beast was unlike any creature Twilight had ever seen before. It was bipedal and slightly resembled a Diamond Dog or a Minotaur. It's skin was a light almost peach color and was mostly devoid of hair except for the top of it's head. It had small eyes that were watching them both intently. It also seemed to be wearing clothes, so Twilight reasoned that it was most likely intelligent. The clothes themselves were a little odd and excessive. It wore shoes, pants, and a shirt with strange markings on it.
"What is it Twi?"
"I'm not sure, I've never seen anything like it in my books," Twilight replied.
"Do you think it somehow caused the other thing to attack Fluttershy?" she asked.
Before Twilight could reply the bipedal creature took a small step forward. Twilight and Applejack immediately refocused their attention on it. It didn't move for a few hesitant seconds before it began to take more steps toward them. Twilight watched it approach in apprehension and fear.
'This thing may be responsible for attacking Fluttershy and its walking towards us. Who knows what it might do? Maybe it's coming to finish the job,' Twilight shuddered
Just when the creature was within touching distance Applejack stepped in front of the creature and gave a stomp.
"That's close enough, just stay there and don't try anything funny ya hear?" Applejack said bravely.
The creature did not respond to Applejack's words, wether from incomprehension or simply because it was ignoring her Twilight couldn't say. It looked at Applejack, then at Twilight, before finally looking at Fluttershy. When it saw Fluttershy it just stared at her for a while before reaching down to grab Fluttershy. Applejack was not okay with this and placed her hoof right on it's chest and gave a gentle push.
"No, you leave her alone, she's our friend and we won't let you take her." Applejack said firmly.
The creature pushed Applejack's hoof away and made some strange motions with it's hands at them.
'Possibly a warning of some kind?' thought Twilight.
Then it spoke in a deep harsh voice in a language that neither of them could understand. It scooped Fluttershy up, turned around, and started to walk back to the other creature.
"Twilight stop it!" Applejack shouted.
"Okay I'll try," she said.
Twilight's horn cast it's familiar glow before the moving creature was wrapped in her telekinesis.
"Woah! It's heavy. Really heavy! It's heavier than an Ursa Minor," she said.
Twilight broke out in a sweat as she poured more energy into the spell.
"He's not slowing down Twi," said Applejack.
"Oh sweet Celestia how is this even possible! Applejack! I can't keep this up you're going to have to stop it yourself!" shouted Twilight before she collapsed onto the ground totally spent. "I'm sorry, I tried."
"Don't worry sugarcube I'll stop it from taking Fluttershy,"
Applejack galloped up to the creature. Upon closer inspection of the larger creature Applejack was even more unsure of what it could be. It certainly didn't look like anything she had seen before. She wasn't sure it was even alive. The smaller creature was placing Fluttershy inside of the thing. Applejack turned around, raised her hind hooves, and delivered a powerful buck to it's left leg. The creature howled in pain and fell onto it's knee before it turned to face Applejack, rage in it's eyes.
"Listen you, I don't know who or what you are but I will not let you hurt my friends!" she shouted.
The creature made more angry shouts in the strange language and pushed Applejack off of itself. It stood up and closed Fluttershy inside before limping away to the front of the strange object.
"Hey! Come back and let Fluttershy out you monster!" Applejack shouted.
Instead the creature opened the side of the object and climbed inside. Applejack jumped and placed her hooves on the object's side and looked in at the creature. It did something and suddenly the object roared to life. Applejack jumped back in surprise and the creature gave an almost smug smile before it took off, with Fluttershy, down the road.
"Come back here!" Applejack shouted, galloping after them.
"Com'n Twilight get up we gotta follow them!"
"How? How was it able to resist my magic so completely?" asked Twilight with tears in the corner of her eyes.
Applejack had to admit that it was more than a little troubling that some random creature from the Everfree forest was able to shrug off the magical force of one of the greatest mages in Equestria, but they didn't have the luxury of being scared Fluttershy was seriously hurt and had just been taken to Celestia knows where by a dangerous creature.
"We'll worry about that later Twi, but right now we really need to go or else we won't be able to find Fluttershy,"
"I understand, let's go," Twilight said
Applejack nodded and they both galloped down the road after the mysterious creature.
* * *
Daniel pulled into his driveway and put the car in park. He stepped out of his car, wincing from the pressure on his hurt leg. He opened the back door and saw that the little horse's makeshift bandages had soaked through with blood and that she was shivering.
"You poor thing, don't worry my wife can help you, she loves animals."
Daniel scooped her up and carried her to the front door. After opening the door with some difficulty, he was greeted with the pleasant aroma of lamb stew cooking which caused his stomach to growl reminding him he hadn't eaten yet. There would be time for food later, right now he had to save the poor little animal's life. He walked into the living room and saw Stephanie curled up on the sofa with Buldger, their fat English Bulldog, watching television.
"Hi Sweetie how was work today?" She turned to look at him and gasped "Daniel what happened!"
"Don't worry the blood's not mine, but I brought you a patient," he said with a forced smile.
Stephanie stood up causing Buldger to slump over onto the cushion. She walked over to Daniel and examined the animal in Daniel's arms.
"Oh! What is it?" she asked.
"I have no idea what it is, but she's lost a lot of blood and she needs help or she's going to die," he said.
"Do you have any idea what caused this?" Stephanie asked.
Daniel gave a sheepish smile and muttered "I might have accidentally hit her with my car."
She stared at him with a look that seemed to say 'are you kidding me?'
"We'll have a talk about that later, but right now I'm going to need you to go get my supplies from my car, I'll take her and bring her into the garage,"
Daniel nodded handing the yellow horse over to her before hobbling off to the car to retrieve the supplies. He grabbed the veterinarian supplies from his wife's car and carried them into the garage. Stephanie had laid out a makeshift bed for the yellow horse. She had already started to clean some of the wounds when he walked in with the supplies.
"What happened to your leg?" she asked.
"Well there were two others along with this one, and one of them didn't take too kindly to me taking it's friend away," he said.
"There were others like this one?"
"Sort of. They were all about the same size and shape, but they were all different colors and had different brands. Also one had a horn and the one who attacked me didn't have wings or a horn," Daniel explained.
"If I didn't have a living example in front of me I might have had to see if you had been hit by a car," she said "I have never seen any animals like this."
"I know what you mean, I have no explanation for what they are or where they came from," he said.
Stephanie finished cleaning the smaller cuts and the large gash above the horse's shoulder. She wiped her hands off with a wet rag and pulled out some surgical thread, vials filled with various medical chemicals, and needles.
"Alright I'm going to need to stitch this wound up if it's going to heal properly so I'm going to need you to be quiet so I can concentrate," she said.
Daniel nodded in understanding. She stuck the needle into one of the vials and then injected it into the yellow horse. the horse made a whimpering noise before falling silent once more. Stephanie hooked up the thread and began to sew the wound closed. Daniel watched as she began to slowly close the gash with her precision movements and intense concentration. The little horse began to whimper again so Stephanie made soft shushing noise in an effort to keep her calm. Once she had finished the stitches she inspected her left leg.
"Good news, her leg was not broken, it was just strained," she said "I'm still going to wrap it to help the healing."
She pulled out some gauze and began to wrap it tightly around the horse's leg. Buldger wondered into the garage after realizing that something was happening. He wandered lazily over to Daniel and sat next to him. Daniel reached out and absentmindedly pet Buldger's head, Once Stephanie had finished she pulled out another needle, filled it with one of the chemicals, and injected the little horse.
"There, she's stabilized for now and I gave her something to take the pain away, but she's lost a lot of blood and the best thing to do now is to just let her rest," she said "So how about we go inside and eat some dinner that your loving wife made and you can regal me with your adventures."
Daniel smiled and gave her a kiss "Sounds good to me."
They got up and walked back into the house. Then there was a loud crash from the kitchen. Buldger growled and they both looked at each other before opening the door to the kitchen.
* * *
They finally arrived at the creature's lair. It wasn't actually as sinister looking as Twilight had been imagining, it looked like a normal house except for a few oddities here and there. The house was rather large compared to a pony's home. It's roof was slanted with shingles and a metal gutter, the door was made of wood with simple designs carved into it, there were several windows with curtains drawn blocking a view of the inside. There was also a strange metal dish-shaped object on the roof. Twilight was also unable to determine how the lights were illuminated.
"Twilight, look," Applejack whispered pointing her hoof at the strange moving object that the creature had used to take Fluttershy.
They quietly snuck over to it and peered inside.
"It's empty! I swear if it did anything to hurt Shy.." Applejack growled in barely controlled anger.
"Applejack, it's most likely taken her into it's house, if we go in we're going to have to be safe and smart about it. Do you understand?" Twilight asked.
Applejack nodded "Sorry Twilight, I understand, I'll calm down. I'm just so worried about her."
"It's alright I understand, I'm worried about her too, but we have to remain calm if we're going to help her. Now, for whatever reason these creatures seem to be resistant to my magic, so we'll have to rely mostly on stealth," Twilight explained.
"Twi?"
"Yes, Applejack?"
"We're not in Equestria anymore are we?"
Twilight hesitated "I'm not sure, but the more I see the more I'm beginning to think that this may not be Equestria, yes."
Applejack looked dejected like she had been hoping Twilight would have told her otherwise.
"Well," Applejack said brightening "now's not the time to worry about that, we've got a friend to save."
"Alright, let's do this."
The two ponies snuck up to the door and dropped into crouching stances on each side of the door.
"Okay on the count of three. One...two...." On three Twilight pushed the door open with her telekinesis as gently as she could. The door made a loud creaking noise that made both of them wince. When nothing jumped from the shadows and tried to eat them, the walked into the house and looked around. The entry room was rather small, but nicely furnished. There was an overhead light (with a still undetermined power source) that illuminated the small room, on the walls hung several pictures of the creature smiling with another creature that looked quite different than the first one. It's skin color was very close in shade to the first one's, while the first creature's hair was short and brown this one's hair was long and black. They were both wearing clothes.
"C'mon Twi this way," whispered Applejack.
Twilight followed Applejack into the next room. In this room there was a large couch which faced a black rectangular window resting on a small table. Twilight stepped forward to examine the mysterious black window, but was stopped by Applejack's hoof. Applejack motioned her head towards the couch and Twilight saw what had startled Applejack. Sitting on the couch was a dog. The dog lifted it's head slowly and gazed at the two ponies with drooping eyes. They froze and watched as the dog got up and lazily sauntered over to them.
"Go on, get out of here, you'll blow our cover," hissed Applejack.
The dog just tilted it's head as if he was trying to decide if they were worth his investigation. Apparently they weren't since the dog turned and continued it's lazy march down the hall.
"Whew," Applejack sighed "that was a close one."
Twilight nodded in agreement. Seeing no other doors in the second room, they turned and walked towards the nearest door. They opened the door and were enveloped by the smell of cooking. This was the kitchen. Twilight sniffed the air, whatever was cooking smelled pleasant, but it was not anything that Twilight had normally smelled and it had a subtle feeling of wrongness that Twilight couldn't explain.
Applejack wandered around the kitchen looking at everything before coming to a large simmering pot on the stove that seemed to be the source of the smell of cooking. Applejack looked inside the pot and froze.
"No," Applejack whispered.
"Applejack? What is it?"
"No, no it it can't be! No! NO! It's meat! Twilight it's MEAT they're cooking... they're cooking.. NO! NO NO NO NO! This can't be happening!" Applejack knocked over a pan causing a loud crash to echo through the room.
"Applejack stop! You need to calm down or we'll be caught," Twilight pleaded.
"They killed her! They killed her Twi, and now they're cooking her up!" she yelled.
"We-we don't know that for sure," Twilight muttered feebly.
At the exact moment, as if to disprove Twilight's statement, the creature from earlier burst through the door wearing a shirt covered in drying blood.
"YOU! YOU KILLED HER! YOU MISERABLE DEMON! YOU KILLED HER!" Applejack screamed and lunged at the creature knocking it to the ground.
Applejack began to stomp on the creature's body using the full power of muscles strengthened from years of applebucking. The creature yelled something out in it's strange language and Applejack kept pounding it.
"Applejack stop! Please stop this Applejack!" Twilight cried out, tears streaming down her face.
Applejack ignored Twilight's pleas and continued to scream in primal rage as she beat the creature into submission.
*THWAP*
Applejack stopped and lifted a hoof to her neck before swaying back onher hooves and collapsing on the floor.
"A-applejack?" asked Twilight.
*THWAP*
Twilight felt a sudden stabbing sensation in her neck and instinctivly reached up her hoof, but immediatly began to feel numb and drowsy, she swayed in place, took a few steps forward and then collapsed on the floor next to Applejack.
The last thing Twilight saw was the other creature from the picture lean down and look into her eyes, then everything faded away into black.
Twilight awoke in a very groggy state. She hadn't opened her eyes but she could feel a soft pillow beneath her head and a blanket draped over her body. She tried to open her eyes but they remained tightly shut. She let out a groan and rolled onto her side. Her hoof nudged against somepony else and she forced her eye's partially open to see who it was. When she opened her eyes she saw Applejack sleeping soundly close to her. Twilight also realized that she did not know where they were. They certainly weren't in her library and it didn't look like any room she had seen at Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight was puzzled by all of this and tried to recall how she had ended up in this unknown place. Her eyes widened as it all came rushing back. The experiment, the road, the accident, the mysterious creature, and the horrible discovery shortly after.
"Oh Celestia.. that all really happened didn't it? Fluttershy is.."
Twilight felt a deep sadness come over her as well as some anger.
'How could this have happened? Especially to a pony like Fluttershy, she didn't deserve what happened to her. Nopony does,' she thought.
The tears threatened to come again, but Twilight held them back. The time for crying was over, she had to be strong and try to find a way out of wherever they were. There would be time to mourn once they were away from danger. She turned and was about to wake Applejack but saw something that made her stop. Time seemed to freeze as she spotted somepony that she thought she would never see again. Sleeping on a pile of blankets a few feet away was Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy? Fluttershy! Applejack wake up, wake up! Fluttershy is okay!" Twilight said while trying to rouse the farmpony from her slumber.
"Huh-wha?" Applejack said still half-asleep.
"Fluttershy is safe, she's right over there!"
"What!" Applejack sprang up from her bed and looked around for her. When she saw Fluttesrhy she let out a gasp and began to slowly walk over to her. Twilight followed close behind. Fluttershy was alive and in much better shape than they had last seen her. Her numerous cuts had been cleaned and wrapped, the large gash in her shoulder had been stitched shut, and her foreleg was wrapped tightly in cloth.
"Fluttershy? Is it you? How are you feeling?" asked Twilight.
Fluttershy did not wake from Twilight's questioning. Applejack prodded her with a hoof hoping to wake her from her sleep. Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes.
"Girls? What happened, where are we?" she asked.
"Fluttershy! You're okay!" Twilight was ecstatic. They all embraced in an awkward hug considering Fluttershy was still lying down.
"Is there some reason I should not be?" she asked.
Twilight gave Applejack an unsure look. "Fluttershy, what is the last thing you remember?"
Fluttershy looked confused before she began to speak "Well I remeber coming over to Sweet Apple Acres to help with your spell, then we we're in the Everfree Forest, we found some sort of road, then there was a-a oh no!" Fluttershy was on the verge of tears. "Did we save him?"
"I'm sorry Fluttershy, there was nothing we could have done," Twilight said "do you remember anything else?"
Fluttershy sniffled "No that's it, wait. I also vaguely remember a bright light then I woke up here. Do you know anything about the light, and where exactly is here?"
"You we're in a terrible accident sugarcube, some terrible creature ran into you and then took you away," Applejack said "We thought you were dead."
"Oh my, I'm terribly sorry for making you worry so much."
"Don't worry about Fluttershy, you don't need to be sorry for getting hurt, we're just glad you're alright."
"Thank you Twilight, but um you still didn't say were we are. Are we back in Ponyville? This doesn't look like the hospital."
"Well, no this isn't Ponyville General, I'm not sure exactly where we are now, but I am pretty sure we are somewhere inside the creature's lair," Twilight said.
"Th-the creatures that attacked me?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
Twilight nodded "We followed it here after it abducted you, we looked for you and we found a um well..."
"We found a pot full of some sorta meat soup," Applejack said matter of factly, "We thought that they had killed you and were cooking you up."
Fluttershy eep'd and threw the blanket over herself.
"Applejack! There's no reason to talk like that, especially not about something as serious as.. eating meat," Twilight said.
"Why not? These creatures are dangerous and the sooner we get out of here the better," Applejack said
"Well they may be dangerous, but they don't really seem very aggressive," Twilight said.
"What? How can you say that after everything that's happened?" Applejack asked.
"That's exactly it Applejack, what exactly have they done? They hurt Fluttershy but I think that may have been an accident and they've only fought back in self-defense. I'll admit that the meat thing is rather revolting and seems evil, but maybe it's just apart of their culture, it is not unheard of for some gryphons to eat meat." Twilight said.
Applejack just gaped at Twilight "But what about the kitchen."
"Well you were the one who actually started the fight and I'm not sure how we woke up here, but I think the fact that we woke up at all is a good sign." Twilight said, "and it even looks like they tended to Fluttershy's wounds."
"She's right Applejack, I still feel a little pain, but from what you said I'm lucky to be feeling this good."
"Fine, I still think we should get out of here though," Applejack said with a slightly annoyed look.
"Well, that might be rather difficult," Twilight said "we still don't know where we are are how to get back to Ponyville, plus this could still be another dimension completly seperate from Equestria." she said.
"What? We're lost in another dimension? Why didn't you tell me," Fluttershy began to shake.
Twilight blushed and tryed to soothe the frightened pegasus "No no no don't worry Fluttershy, we're safe here and it's unlikely that we traveled to another dimension, and even if we did I could still get us home."
"O-okay Twilight," she said "Thank you."
"No, problem Fluttershy, what are friends for?" Twilight smiled at her and she gave a small smile back.
"Alright so if we're not going to try to find are way home what are we going to do?" asked Applejack.
"The creatures that live here are obviously intelligent to some degree, so I think the best thing to do is to try to communicate with them," Twilight said.
"But Twilight we already tried that and it didn't work," Applejack said.
"No we didn't really try, we mostly just yelled at them a lot and attacked them," she said causing Applejack to blush and look away sheepishly.
"I'm certain that if we can establish contact with them they may be able to help us find out where we are and how to get home," Twilight said, "Plus think of all the things we could learn!"
Suddenly the door on the far wall opened. The three ponies turned to look at it as the creature from before stepped into the room with a large bowl. It watched them intently and placed it's hand on a holster of some kind attached to it's hip.
"Well Twilight, looks like you've got you're chance," said Applejack.
* * *
Daniel grumbled as he sat at the breakfast table, staring at his waffles. Stephanie sat across from watching him with a look of concern.
"You know you really should eat something," Stephanie said.
"I know, I just feel like crap and I just can't bring myself to eat," he said.
"I looked at your injuries and there were no broken bones, only minor bruising," she said.
"It's not just that, it's the whole situation involving our 'guests'," he said "It just feels odd."
"Well, you did discover, quite dramatically I might add, a new species that resmbles something from Greek mythology crossed with a Skittles commercial," she said "Which reminds me, I need to call Marcus and let him know about this, I know he would just love to examine them."
"I know, I know, but I can't shake the feeling that they are more intelligent then they seem," he said.
"Hmm they did seem pretty intelligent, but then again we know almost nothing about them, so they're is no telling what they are really like," she said "we really need to call Marcus and have him come take a look."
"Alright, we'll call him later today," he said.
"Cheer up, at least it's a Saturday," she said smiling at him.
He smiled back at her. "I guess you're right."
"Speaking of our 'guests' I put together a bowl of vegetables that will hopeful be to their liking, would you mind taking it to the garage?" She asked.
"Sure thing sweetie, but I'm taking the tranq gun with me," he said.
She smiled and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Daniel picked up the holster containing the tranquilizer gun and slipped it onto his belt loop before picking up the bowl of vegetables and carrying them to the garage. He opened the door and looked around inside. The creatures were all huddled around the yellow one. When they looked at him he placed his hand on the holster ready to draw out the tranquilizer at a moments notice. He approached them cautiously and once he was about to set the bowl down the purple one stepped forward and... bowed?
~"Greetings, my name is Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends Applejack and Fluttershy. We apologize if we frightened you in some way."~
Okay that was odd. That didn't sound like random animal noises, it almost sounded like a language, albeit not like any language he had ever heard before.
~"I don't think it can understand us Twi, what do we do now?"~
~"I don't know it's not responding, this would be so much easier if I had some quills and parchment."~
They continued to 'speak' and Daniel just stood there and listened. Daniel wondered if he was over analyzing their behaviour or if perhaps they were as smart as he had guessed, maybe even a lot smarter. He decided that it couldn't hurt to try something so he cleared his throat and said.
"Umm hello, my name is Daniel. I don't know if you can understand me at all, but I'm sorry for hitting your friend," they had all began to watch him so he continued "I brought you some vegetables to eat in case you were hungry, soooo yeah enjoy."
He placed the bowl down and the purple one walked up and examined the contents.
~"It's food. They look like normal Equestrian vegetables,"~ she 'said'
To Daniel's complete surprise the Purple one's horn began to glow magenta. One of the carrots in the bowl was covered in the same colored glow before it gently rose into the air.
Daniel took a few steps back and pulled out his tranquilizer gun and pointed it at the purple creature. It looked at him with fearful eyes before the glow disappeared and the carrot fell back into the bowl. Daniel stepped backwards slowly, keeping the gun trained on the purple one. He reached behind him and opened the door without looking and rushed inside.
* * *
"Well that could have gone better," said Applejack.
"I don't know what went wrong, it seemed to be scared of my magic, but surely it must have seen magic before? How else could it have built this house so perfectly or put us to sleep?" asked Twilight.
"Maybe it's magic is more inherent than unicorn magic, maybe it's more like a pegasus or earth pony's magic" said Fluttershy.
Twilight thought about this. It was true that she hadn't seen the creature use magic and it may be possible that it couldn't use magic like a unicorn could, but she could not imagine why it would be afraid of magic. Perhaps it had been attacked by magic before? It seemed more likely than the possibility that it had just never seen magic before now.
"Well," said Applejack interrupting her thoughts "whatever the reason for it's reaction maybe you should just go a little easy on the magic when it's around. After all, the last thing we want is for it to feel threatened by us. I don't want a repeat of last night."
Twilight nodded in understanding. "Alright, I won't use my magic when it's here, but we still need to find a way to communicate," Twilight said.
Before Twilight could continue, her stomach growled. "Hehe oh, maybe we should eat first," she said blushing slightly.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea Twilight," said Fluttershy.
"I'm hungry myself, so I figure there ain't nothing wrong with taking a little break to enjoy a meal," said Applejack.
With that the three friends began to eat the meal prepared for them by the strange and possibly dangerous creatures, each of them worrying in the back of their minds about what the day might hold in store for them.
Daniel's heart thudded in his chest. His brain was working overtime trying to process what he had just witnessed. Each consecutive theory seemed more ridiculous than the last. Maybe he was just delirious. Perhaps he hit his head at some point, causing him to see things. The creatures could be genetically engineered to have psychic powers. Or they could be hyper advanced extraterrestrials sent to scout out Earth as a possible colony. And he had hit one with his car! Or maybe he was just going crazy. Whatever the case he needed someone else's opinion, to tell him that it would all be okay and that he wasn't crazy.
"Stephanie! Stephanie, please come quick we might have a serious problem!" Daniel yelled.
Stephanie rushed out of their room with Buldger in tow.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"I'm not really sure, but it's weird, and I need you to tell me I'm not crazy,"
"You're not crazy,"
He smiled, his eye twitching a bit. "Thanks but maybe you should hear what I have to tell you before you say that."
"Alright, let's go sit down and you can tell me what happened. I'm assuming it has something to do with our guests?" she asked, getting a little concerned.
He nodded. "Okay let's go," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the living room and plopping down next to him on the couch. Buldger jumped up into Daniel's lap, probably crushing several of his organs in the process.
"Oof! Jeez Buldger, I swear it's like he thinks he's still a puppy or something," he said gently patting him on the head.
"Okay, so tell me what happened."
"Well, when I first entered the garage everything was pretty normal. The animals were awake and they started to watch me once they heard me come in. That's when things started to get strange."
"What happened?" she asked listening intently.
"The purple one walked up to me, got on one knee, and bowed its head,"
"That's a little strange, but not X-files worthy," Stephanie commented.
"Oh just wait, it gets better. Then it started to make a bunch of horse noises like whinnies and stuff, but it sounded more organized somehow. It was almost like it was speaking another language," he explained. "I didn't really know what to do, so I just started talking to them. I placed the bowl on the ground and the purple one came up and examined it. It seemed excited and made some more noises while looking at the other two before returning its attention to the vegetables. That's when it happened. The purple one's horn began to glow magenta, and so did one of the carrots before it levitated out of the bowl!"
"What? What do you mean it levitated?" she asked.
"Exactly that, the carrot started to hover in midair! It was just floating right in front of the purple one's face as she scrutinized it, still covered in that weird glow," Daniel continued.
"So what did you do?" Stephanie asked.
"To be honest, I sort of panicked. When I realized that the carrot was floating it spooked me. Looking back on it now it doesn't seem scary at all, but at the time I guess I just didn't expect it. Anyways, after I jumped back, both the creature's horn and the carrot stopped glowing, and the carrot just, sorta, fell back into the bowl. I didn't know what to do after that, so I got out of there and locked the door behind me for good measure," he concluded.
Stephanie just starred at Daniel with a look of severe puzzlement after he had finished speaking. She didn't say anything and it was starting to worry Daniel just a bit.
"Well, are you going to say something? Do you think I'm crazy?" he asked, a bit worried that his wife did in fact think so.
She looked him in his eyes, and smiled. "No, I believe you, I'm just trying to come up with a theory, any theory, that might explain what happened. I mean I've never read about any animals doing anything even remotely close to what you described, at least outside of mythology. Then again our guests are certainly not like anything I've ever seen either."
"I know what you mean," he grumbled.
"So what should we do now?" Stephanie asked.
"I don't know, what do you think we should do?"
"You said that they seemed intelligent, right?"
Daniel nodded in affirmation.
"Maybe there's some way we can test that," she said letting a smile creep onto her face.
"But how?" he asked.
"We could go back in there with some pens and paper and see if they can understand simple pictures or words. Oh! And some books! Books with lots of pictures," she said, the excitement in her voice clearly showing.
"I don't know if we should do that, especially after what just happened," he suggested a little hesitantly.
Her smile faltered a bit "But Daniel, if you're right, and if they are intelligent enough to develop a language, then it could be the first species ever discovered to have achieved sapience besides humans!"
"I still don't know about this. I'm just trying to remain cautious," he explained.
"Come on what's the harm in trying?" she asked.
"That's exactly the problem, we don't know what the harm would be! I mean these are living beings that are intelligent and can control things with some kind of psychic power. What if their intentions are hostile?" he asked.
"Part of me feels that way too, but don't you think that leaving them locked in our garage might hold the same risks as trying to establish communication?" she asked.
"I suppose you're right, but if we're going to do this, then we need to do it the right way."
"And what, exactly, is the right way?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We need to be calm and careful, and we should try to plan ahead in case something should happen," Daniel told her.
"Well, yes, I understand that, I mean did you think I would just run in there without any thought as to what I was doing?" she asked with a smirk.
"That's true, but I also know you have an adventurous side that often leaves you quite careless of your actions," he replied with a deadpan stare.
"Hmm, touché!" she grinned. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go prepare for first contact!" she chirped, springing up from the couch.
"You're such a dork."
"I love you too," she sung, kissing him on the nose before she ran ahead of him, into the bedroom, to plan.
* * *
Twilight paced around the room anxiously. Now that she had eaten something, she was able to think more clearly, and she wasn't liking their situation.
"I just don't know what to do! I tried to establish communication, and only managed to scare him off! Ugh! This would be so much easier if I had a checklist!" she shouted.
"Twilight, I'm sure everything will be fine," Fluttershy whispered.
"How will it be fine? I may have just single-hoofedley ruined our chances of finding our way home! Or establishing peaceful relations with a new species......" she pouted.
"Well, we could always just try to escape," Applejack suggested.
"That is beginning to sound like the most logical option.... Maybe we should just get out of here,” she thought aloud.
"We can't just leave! We're responsible for the damage we've caused, and I can't just walk away from that," Fluttershy responded, a little angrily. "And umm, I'm not even sure I could escape in my condition."
" Alright then, we should come up with a plan ta get home with them there critters' help or wait 'til Fluttershy is healthy enough for all of us to escape."
"We have to show them that we just want to try and communicate, and that we mean them no harm," said Twilight "Then we can work our way up from there... So that means that we must be as non-threatening and as cooperative as possible. Do you both understand that?" Fluttershy and Applejack nodded.
"Alright, now I think that we should work o-" Twilight began before being interrupted by the creaking of the door as it was slowly opened.
The ponies watched as not one, but both creatures emerged from the doorway carrying various things.
"Remember girls, be calm." Twilight whispered.
The two creatures approached the three ponies slowly and deliberately, keeping an especially close eye on Twilight. The unicorn felt quite intimidated by the presence of both creatures, but remained calm. The two creatures sat down across from the three and began to lay things in front of them. The first object was a pad of very white rectangular paper. The next set of objects was several cylindrical tubes that looked almost like plastic pencils, and finally, a book with a very carefully drawn tree, surrounded by various animals.
After the creatures had laid everything out they stopped moving and looked at them. They seemed to be waiting for something, perhaps some sort of acknowledgment. Not knowing what else to do, Twilight slowly nodded her head. The two creatures looked at each other and said something in their language before returning their focus to the ponies. They were apparently satisfied with Twilight's answer because they began to do something else. The more muscular of the two creatures picked up one of the cylindrical tubes and removed the top of the cylinder, revealing a pointed tip. Twilight briefly considered the possibility that it might be some kind of weapon, but immediately relaxed once it placed the tip on the paper.
'So I was right, it is some kind of writing instrument,' Twilight thought.
The creature drew a very simple and neat picture. It was a dot with a line underneath it. It looked up at Twilight for a response. When she did nothing it continued. The second drawing was of two dots with a curved mark with a line under it. It continued drawing very similar drawings to the previous ones. It wasn't until the sixth drawing that Twilight understood.
"They're numbers...."
"What Twilight?" asked Applejack.
"The markings underneath the dots, they must represent numbers. They're trying to teach us their numbers!" Twilight exclaimed excitedly.
"Are ya sure? They just look like squiggles to me." Applejack said, scrutinizing the shapes being written down upon the paper.
"And shouldn't there only be four?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh I'm almost certain that they're numbers. It's possible that they use a number system greater than base four! I'll admit it's strange, but it's totally possible," Twilight explained to the two.
They stopped when they noticed the creatures were watching them with amusement.
"What are ya'll lookin' at?" Applejack threatened, snorting a bit.
Immediately the creatures stopped smiling and returned to writing out the numbers.
"Applejack! That was rude. There's no reason to behave like that," scolded Fluttershy.
"Also, we're trying to be on our best behavior around them, remember?" Twilight reminded her.
"Sorry, ah just don't really trust them is all."
"Don't worry about it Applejack, nothing bad has happened yet. Just try to stay calm and remember it's not their fault they can't understand us," said Twilight.
Applejack nodded in understanding and Twilight returned to the paper. The creature took the paper and slid it across the floor, along with the writing cylinder, towards Twilight. Twilight looked up at it and watched as it motioned towards itself, then the paper and then began to motion towards Twilight and the paper.
"You want me to write out our numbers?" Twilight asked, making motions with her hooves to hopefully convey writing.
When the creature nodded Twilight began to reach out with her magic to grab the writing utensil, but stopped when she remembered the creature's previous reaction to magic.
"Applejack? Will you write out the numbers for me? I don't want to scare the creatures with my telekinesis and, well, my mouth writing is rather sloppy," Twilight asked, a little embarrassed of her poor, non-magical, writing skills.
"Sure, ah can do that. Just make sure that they don't try anythin' while ah'm writing."
"Don't worry AJ it'll be fine, we're right here for you," Fluttershy offered.
Applejack approached the creature before reaching down and grabbing the writing utensil. The creatures watched intently as Applejack wrote out the regular numbers underneath the creatures' numbers. After she was done the two began to converse amongst each other.
~"Oh my God! You were right! They are intelligent, they understood the numbers!"~
~"I know, it's amazing, they even wrote out what I assume are their own numbers."~
~"It looks like they use a base four system, that could get confusing."~
~"It'll be fine, we just have to move on to the next test."~
~"Oh this is so exciting! This could be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time, another species that is sapient!"~
~"I know, it's incredible!"~
The three ponies watched as the two creatures before them excitedly chattered away in their harsh language.
"What do ya think they're talkin' about?" asked Applejack
"Do you think we did something to offend them?" Fluttershy asked, worriedly.
"No, they don't sound angry... I think that they're excited that we understood what they were doing," said Twilight.
"Why? They're just numbers," said Applejack.
"No they're not just numbers, they're proof that we're intelligent and that we understand that they are as well. It's the first true communication we've had with our friends here. After all, math is the universal language," Twilight beamed.
"If ya say so,” Applejack grumbled, rolling her eyes, remembering a certain family member back home, who was always going on about his fancy mathematics.
By now the creatures had finished talking, and had started writing out something else. It was the symbols for what Twilight assumed was a two followed by a cross and then the symbol for three. After that was a pair of horizontal lines and their symbol for five.
After that was the exact same thing except there was no five symbol.
"Oh, they want to see if we can do arithmetic, that cross must be their symbol for addition, and the horizontal lines must mean equals," Twilight deduced.
"Well then what should ah do?" asked Applejack.
"Answer it of course," Twilight replied eagerly, hoping to get a better challenge afterwards.
Applejack returned to the paper and wrote a five in the blank. When the creatures saw this they were ecstatic and had big smiles on their faces. The larger one wrote out more problems, and the ponies answered them accordingly. They continued to answer the math problems until early evening. By that point they had learned the symbols for subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root, while the creatures, in turn, learned theirs. The math lesson ended when the two bipeds excused themselves, and left the room. They took the pages with the math problems with them, but left the three with some paper and the writing cylinders.
"I think that was very productive," Twilight said, a smile upon her face.
"It had a little too much math for my taste," Applejack grunted.
"Come on Applejack, wasn't it exciting learning math in a different language?" Twilight asked imploringly.
"Hmm, nope," said Applejack.
Twilight frowned and huffed at Applejack, while Applejack just giggled.
"I'm just glad that nopony got hurt," said Fluttershy.
"Ain't that the truth."
"You know this isn't that bad," Twilight considered aloud.
And for once, they all agreed with her.
* * *
"That was, wow!" Stephanie exclaimed.
"I know, I feel the same way. It's amazing." Daniel beamed.
"At first I was skeptical, but now I don't know what to think."
"It is a lot to take in," Daniel agreed.
"We need an expert, or at least someone more competent than us," Stephanie said.
"You ready to call Marcus and get him in on this?" he asked.
She nodded "Yes, I think it's time we gave Marcus a call. But not right now, I'm starving."
Daniel laughed, "Alright dinner first, then we inform someone official about the sapient multicolored ponies in our garage."
"It's a deal," she smiled as she once again ran ahead of her husband, into the kitchen, to start preparing a meal for themselves and their guests.
Marcus sat on his chair reading the newspaper. While reading newspapers was quite outdated, Marcus always found it cathartic to shuffle through the pages. As he continued to read about the constant troubles in the Middle East and the always climbing oil prices, his phone began to ring. He groaned, as he got up from his chair and walked over to the phone. Checking the caller id, he saw that it was Stephanie. He had met her during college and the two became fast friends due to their shared interest in animals. While she had pursued her dream of becoming a veterinarian, he had become a zoologist, but they both loved animals, so they tried to stay in touch with each other as much as they could. He would occasionally visit her as well as her husband, Daniel, who he had also grown quite close to. Finally reaching the phone, he picked it up and pressed it to his ear.
"Hello Stephanie, it's good to hear from you," he said happily.
"Same to you Marcus. I'm calling because I have an interesting proposition for you," she said.
"Oh?"
"What would you say if I told you I had three undiscovered species that show signs of sapience in my garage right now?"
Marcus just stared ahead, his face taking a look of disbelief. Stephanie was not known for one to pull pranks; still what she was saying was an outright impossibility.
"Stephanie, I know you are usually quite serious, but actual sapience, it's just not possible," he replied
She laughed "I had a feeling you wouldn't believe me, so I took the liberty of e-mailing you a few pictures, go ahead and check your computer,"
Now Marcus really didn't know what to think about Stephanie's claims, but he trusted her and knew her well enough to know better, so he walked over to his computer and pulled up his e-mail. Sure enough sitting in his inbox was an e-mail from Stephanie with over twenty attached images. He opened the first image and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. The creature before him looked... unique to say the least. He had never seen anything quite like them before. They looked equine almost, but strangely... alien. Marcus was no expert with computers, but he assumed that it would be difficult to forge these pictures, especially when he considered that they were from Stephanie and Daniel.
"Are these real?" he asked in shock.
"Oh believe me, they're real alright. The orange one beat Daniel up pretty good," she said.
"What!?"
"Don't worry, he's fine it's nothing serious."
"... If you say so, still, this is incredible Stephanie! I've never seen anything like this." Marcus continued to stare at the images on his computer, fascinated with the images, until Stephanie interrupted him.
"How would you like to be the first, besides myself and Daniel, to get to personally examine these creatures?" she asked.
Marcus was stunned. It was a lot to take in, but this could be the most important decision of his career. He started to feel giddy at the prospect of what he had just been offered.
"Marcus? What do you say?"
"Yes! Yes, thank you! I'll be on the next flight!" he shouted enthusiastically.
Stephanie laughed "Calm down Marcus, they're not going anywhere. Just bring whatever you need and we'll see you when you get here."
"Thank you Stephanie, you won't regret this," he said.
"I know Marcus, see you soon, bye."
"Goodbye," Marcus said, hanging up the phone.
Marcus stood there with a huge smile on his face. He immediately rushed to his room and began to throw clothes haphazardly into a suitcase and began planning to schedule his flight.
* * *
"Marcus should be in on the next flight, he sounded really excited about all of this." Stephanie said.
"That's great to hear, it'll be good to see Marcus again and to finally have someone help us with these creatures."
"Oh? What about your veterinarian wife? Is she not qualified enough to handle a few wild animals?" Stephanie asked, a little anger rising in her voice.
Daniel sputtered "Of course not! I only meant-"
She giggled, "Relax, I'm just teasing. I would definitely appreciate Marcus's help, because right now all I really know is the obvious. Hopefully Marcus will have a better time understanding these ponies."
"Ponies?"
"Well, they do resemble ponies, at least vaguely, and we can't just keep referring to them as 'creatures'."
Daniel chuckled "Alright, alright, but speaking of the 'ponies' we should probably go check on them. Maybe we'll learn something useful before Marcus arrives."
"Sounds good hun."
* * *
Twilight was awoken by the sound of the door creaking open. She didn't remember falling asleep, but she must have nodded off sometime after one of the most interesting math lessons she ever had. She saw that the two bipeds had returned, and once again they had brought paper and their wonderfully advanced writing utensils. Twilight nudged Applejack and Fluttershy, with her hoof, trying to wake them up. Applejack let out a yawn but stopped when she noticed the two sitting in front of them and sat up. Fluttershy barely even stirred, so Twilight decided leave her be, after all, she had been seriously injured on top of the stress of being in an unknown area with strange unidentified creatures.
~"What should we do?"~
~"Well we know they're smart enough to understand math, so maybe we can teach them some English."~
~"Okay, but where should we start?"~
~"Why don't we just start with names and work our way up from there?"~
~"Alright, I'll go first then"~
The first creature that Twilight assumed was male turned to face them before saying something else in its guttural language.
~"Daniel"~
"What's it doing Twilight? Is it tryin' to tell us something?"
"I think it's a he."
"Whatever," Applejack snorted.
"But I'm not sure what he's trying to do,"
~"Daniel"~ He repeated making pointing motions with its arms and hands seeming to be pointing to itself.
~"Daniel"~
"I-I think he might be trying to tell us his name."
"Ya sure?" asked Applejack.
"Not entirely... but I'm going to try and respond,"
"Da-nayal," Twilight tried mimic the creature's tone and pronunciation as best she could, but it came out strange and too high pitched to possibly be correct, but she must have been close enough because both of the creatures smiled excitedly as if they had just learned that their foal had successfully used magic for the first time.
~"Wow they understand! Let me try it now!"~
The other one who Twilight assumed was female scooted closer before saying her name as well.
~"Stephanie"~ She made the same motions that the male had.
Her name was longer and even harder to pronounce than the male's name had been.
"Stef-hony" Applejack mimicked almost perfectly.
Twilight stared at Applejack, her mouth hanging open in shock. It wasn't so much the fact that Applejack had talked to the creatures to say something besides a threat, but rather the fact that she pronounced the name much better than Twilight had. Apparently the other two were just as surprised at Applejack's success, but nonetheless thrilled.
"Applejack... how did you do that?"
Applejack shrugged "Don' know, ah suppose it's just easier for me to pronounce."
Twilight would have laughed at the irony of the situation, except for the fact that this now meant it would be that much easier to establish communication with their guests, so she settled for saying "Huh, well, great job Applejack."
Applejack beamed with pride, it wasn't that she was overly impressed with what she had done, but Twilight seemed to think it was something special, "Thanks Twi, it was no big deal."
While they had been talking the male had taken the liberty of writing out a string of characters across the paper. It looked like writing, that much was obvious, but none of the characters seemed to repeat so it probably wasn't a sentence. Twilight counted up all the characters. There were fifty two in all, or maybe just twenty six, Twilight wasn't sure if the pairs of characters represented one sound or word, or whether they meant something else entirely. She watched as he then proceeded to write out two more groups of symbols separate from the others. Twilight discovered that they were both composed of symbols from the above group.
"Okay, I think I understand. I'm pretty sure that this is their alphabet, and that these two are their names," Twilight said pointing to the symbols in question.
Now that Twilight had access to their alphabet translation could really start moving. She even had some spells that could help speed up the process if she could get their two guests to let her use her magic. She still didn't know what they had against it, they clearly must have used magic in order to create their house and their fascinating tools... Right?
However, those questions would have to wait. The male began making the same gestures it had used earlier to indicate its name excepts now it was gesturing towards them.
"Oh, of course, they want to know our names," Twilight cleared her throat before clearly pronouncing her name while trying her best to imitate their punting gesture, "Twi-light Spar-kle."
"Twi-light Spr-kl," they both tried their best to mimic her name but seemed to have a hard time pronouncing Sparkle. To be honest, Twilight found the way they said her name to be a little creepy sounding. Still, she was happy that they had gotten it mostly right. Twilight nodded her head in approval.
Next, Applejack stood up and did the same with her own name, "App-le-jack."
"Applejack," they both repeated almost perfectly. Twilight didn't know if it was Applejack's accent, but somehow it was easier for the two creatures to understand the down to earth farm pony.
The female creature made the gesture towards Fluttershy, wanting to know her name as well. Applejack seemed almost happy to oblige, "Fluttershy."
"Fluttersh-ie," they said getting the pronunciation almost right, but still probably better than if Twilight had tried to teach it to them.
After they did this. The male held out it's writing utensil to Twilight. She grabbed it in her telekinesis intent on writing out the Equestrian alphabet as well as their names. Once she grabbed it, both creatures flinched, but didn't do anything else. Twilight, noticing their reaction, kept the device in mid air not wanting to frighten them, or worse anger them.
~"Wow, I sees what you mean now, that is kind of spooky, but really awesome too!"~ The assumed female chattered excitedly to her male counterpart.
~"Yeah it is, but we better be on the safe side"~
~"I'm going to touch it."~
~"What? No! That's like the exact opposite of safe."~
~"If we never take risks we'll never learn anything, this is obviously something that these creatures are used to and probably do regularly, so it stands to reason that we should try and learn as much as we can about... this."~ The female waved in the general direction of the still floating writing utensil.
~"You make a good point, but is touching the strange glowing cloud of God knows what really the best course of action?"~
~"I guess we won't know unless we try"~
The male let out what Twilight assumed was a sigh ~"Alright, just be careful."~
~"I always am!"~
The mare scooted closer to Twilight walking on her hands and knees. Twilight didn't know what to make of the current events, but decided to let them play out. She reached her hand out and touched the writing tool hovering in Twilight's magical field.
She shivered ~"Ooh, this tingles. It feels like a electricity is running over my fingertips."~
~"It doesn't hurt does it?"~
~"No it feels fine, it just tingles is all."~
~"Alright, well I think that's enough for one day,"~ The male reached up and pulled the female's hand out of Twilight's magical grip.
~"Huh, my finger's a little numb."~
~"Let's wait until we know more about whatever it is that she does, before we try anything more serious than that."~
Now that they both seemed to be done 'examining' her telekinesis, Twilight set to work writing out the Equestrian alphabet, as well as their names. She wrote the alphabet underneath their alphabet. Twilight didn't know how to feel about the fact that they had more letters in their alphabet than the Equestrian one. The Equestrian alphabet only had thirty-six letters and their alphabet had fifty-two. After Twilight had finished writing they both examined what she had written.
The creature's musing was interrupted by the ringing of bells. Twilight and Applejack looked around trying to discern where the sound had come from, but had no such luck. The creatures got up and walked to the door leading out of the room uncaring of the mystery sound. The ringing had woken Fluttershy, she raised her head up looking around.
"Oh, what time is it? What's going on?" she asked timidly.
"We're not exactly sure sugar cube, but it's definitely something," Applejack replied, trying to sound reassuring but coming across as unnecessarily ominous.
Both creatures made what seemed like calming motions with their hands before opening the door and stepping back inside.
"Well, now what?" asked Applejack.
"I guess we just wait and see."
* * *
"Damn, is it already that late?" Daniel asked.
"Well you know what they say, time flies when you're teaching a group of ponies to speak English."
"I don't think anyone says that."
"I say that," Stephanie smirked.
As they entered the entryway, Buldger was already at the door barking incessantly.
"Alright Buldger, come on, back up. It's Marcus, you love Marcus," Stephanie said, pulling Buldger away from the entrance by the collar.
Daniel opened the door to see Marcus standing there, a large duffle bag at his side.
"Hello Marcus, it's great to see you again,"
"It's great to see you too Daniel, hello Stephanie, hello Buldger."
"Hey Marcus!" Stephanie said happily.
Buldger woofed.
"Now, where are these ponies I've heard so much about?"
