Prologue: Finding Oil
It seemed as if the sky was an endless ocean of blue light. Not a single cloud had blemished it, and it made her wonder why she had been called into work that day in the first place. “Rainbow Dash…” she muttered, “You wanted the sky cleared… then why did you do it yourself?” There was no way she could know for sure that Ponyville’s top weather pony had eliminated the clouds, but deep down she was sure that prismatic mare had a good hoof in the matter. “There’s not—”
The Pegasus was cut off when she suddenly spotted a ring of clouds just outside of the Everfree forest. For the most part, they simply resembled ordinary clouds: white, fluffy, and about a mare’s length thick. But there was something off about them, something that riled up the curiosity within the scarlet Pegasus. Perhaps it was the way they looped around onto themselves, or how they were intersected by a stream of grey smoke that caught her attention. Is this normal? She wondered. She did not have much experience with cloud formations in that area, and while she knew that nature did not work the way it was supposed to around the Everfree, there was a buoyancy of excitement in her stomach as she neared the phenomena. She strained her eyes to see through the clouds as she passed over the rings, and far below her upon the ground laid a large, looming creature, body twisted and wings mangled as if it had been torn from the sky by a force much greater than itself.
Terror struck into the pony’s heart, and she immediately descended. With wings tucked tightly against her body, she plummeted closer and closer towards the monster, and as she drew nearer it became more and more apparent that this ‘monster’ was not such a living thing. In no time, gravity had taken her to mere feet above the ground and she spread her wings hastily to avoid crashing. She landed with a heavy thud, and turned to stare up at the mangled beast.
Although at this level, she was sure that this was no beast at all. Its body was broken into at least three parts, and its insides were spilling out not blood but wires, chairs and oil. Steam was leaking from various cracks and fissures in its smooth metal casing, and its appendages (which the red mare had assumed to be ‘wings’) were twisted and bent in ways that she was certain a wing should never be bent. She cringed slightly at the sight of them and rustled her feathers as a shiver managed to wriggle its way down her spine. Gritting her teeth, she turned and began to further investigate the large object. She stepped into it, where the back end and the middle part had been severed, and part of the upturned metal structure creaked loudly beneath her weight. The hair on her back stood on end and she quickly recoiled from the thing, freezing as she stared it over with anxious eyes. After a few moments of silence and stillness, she once again proceeded inside the object. The creaking sound occurred again, but she persisted instead of turning back. It was dark, and looked much like a very small house, but instead of having beds and couches there were nothing but rows upon rows of chairs; some were tipped over while others remained upright and untouched, as if nothing at all had ever happen to them.
In some of the seats sat large, rickety yellowish figures, strapped in with some sort of belt-like harness, and with others the figures were laying on the floor, as if they were dead. The Pegasus cautiously walked over to one and nudged it with a hoof. She flinched when it rocked back and forth a bit, but she soon became aware that these were not alive, or at the very least were no longer alive. She looked around, surveying the other figures, which were all similarly lifeless. “Is this a joke?” she asked aloud to no one in particular. Again she kicked the figure and with a loud clang it rolled over and collided with the wall. She trotted over to one of the seats for a closer look, and noticed papers shoved into a pocket in the back. She gripped one, the thinnest, between her teeth and pulled it out, accidentally upsetting one of the figures beside her so that it slumped over out of the seat. She quickly bolted outside in fright and as soon as her hooves touched the soft grass she slowed to a halt. She spat out the paper she had been carrying, and looked down at the writing on it. There wasn’t much to read, as it mostly showed picture of the large object (now whole) in various situations in which it were crashing, and there were figures much like the yellow ones performing various acts: some were bent over, almost in half; others were placing strange masks on their faces; and others yet were pushing and shoving their peers, whether inside or out of the giant flight house. There was one thing that she noticed in particular. All of the figures pictured on this paper looked very different from one another, and they all seemed very animated. She lifted her head to survey her surroundings. The ground was littered with pieces of metal, wiring, chairs, and the yellow ones with disembodied limbs scattered about, but overall, there were no figures or creatures even that looked just quite like the ones featured on that pamphlet.
Except for one.
Her attention was snatched up by it: a figure, much like the many that were lying in the debris of the crash, but much more different. For one thing, it wasn’t yellow—or at least not the same kind of yellow—and instead of being bare naked like the others it wore a dirtied white shirt and tattered dark blue pants. It was only her upbringing in Canterlot that allowed her to be familiar with this, for the ponies there loved to don their bodies with clothes to show their class.
She approached it slowly, although she was sure it was the same as all the others. Perhaps it was only a coincidence that it were clothed, and that it look different from the others of its kind scattered about the wreckage. But she took no chances: she was already dangerously close to the mysterious Everfree forest and she did not wish to tempt death that day. As she drew nearer to it, she began to notice more differences: it had a long, stringy black mane upon its head; its muzzle was longer than that of the others’ surrounding it but much shorter than hers; it had all of its limbs, and where she could see breaks in its skin it leaked red blood like she would if she were wounded. She stopped when she came to stand about a yard from it, separated only by one of the disheveled yellow ones lying beside it.
She bit her bottom lip softly and held her breath. It had eyes, and they were open. The yellow ones did not have eyes, or at least not opened eyes. The limb lying across its torso was rising with its chest, and she suddenly became very aware that this creature was not like the yellow ones, that this creature was a live thing.
And suddenly, it snapped its head towards her, its green eyes wide, and from its mouth came a terrifying shout that sent her airborne in seconds. The dust beneath her kicked up into the creatures face and by the time it managed to clear its eyes she had already retreated behind a large cylindrical portion of the flying house’s wing.
“Be careful!”
Her ears pricked up at the sound of the rumbling voice. She craned her neck around the cylinder to peek at the creature, the only thing that seemed alive beside her in this field of debris. “Wh-what?” She called back nervously.
There was silence for a moment before she saw the creature open its mouth to speak. “Uhh… Be careful. That’s hot.”
Perplexed, the mare withdrew herself from her hiding place to catch a better look at her offender. It was now sitting upright, clutching one of the severed limbs of the yellow ones to its chest. Its eyes were no longer quite so wide, but there remained a hint of fear in them. Overall, though, it appeared that the creature was now experiencing an overwhelming sense of bewilderment, and when its dark green eyes were not glued to her they were drifting about the surrounding area. Eventually, its eyes returned to her, and it stared at her through the ragged curtain of its stringy mane.
She stood frozen in her place for quite a while, too nervous to move, but eventually she gained the courage to take a step. The creature opposing her grew tense again, but in its eyes there was no longer any trace of fear. She took another step, and another. The amount of time she was taking seemed to stretch on at a pain-staking slow pace, but with each step, she gained a little more courage, and the creature grew a little less tense. Finally, she was right in front of it, once again only a yard away, and was staring anxiously up into its eyes. At this point, the creature had deposited its weapon beside it, and now simply sat and stared at her in awe.
“You…You can talk,” she stated, trying to control the quivering tone in her voice. The creature’s eyes widened a little more. “You can talk?” he said in response. He seemed as surprised as she was, if not more.
“Y-yes, of course,” she said, standing a bit taller. “Wh…what are you?”
Its brow furrowed. “I’m… I’m a person. A human being.” It seemed confused by the question. “What else would I be?”
“Well, you could be anything, especially if you came out of there!” She pointed a hoof towards the forest behind him, which he turned to see. She quickly grabbed the limb in her mouth and dragged it away, just far enough to be out of reach for this ‘person’ thing. But the human showed little interest in the limb, and when he return to look at her he began to stare fervently.
She swallowed the knot growing in her throat. “Hi… My name is Red Kiln.” She tried to make motions in the air with a hoof to emphasis her speech, but it seemed to only further confuse the ‘person’. “Um, anyway… Do you have a name?”
It sat still and a thoughtful expression crossed its face for a moment before it finally nodded.
Red smiled nervously. “Well… What is it?”
“Oil.”
“Oil.”
The creature seemed as surprised as she felt to have said such a name. Oil sounded like it could be a regular old pony’s name. But this thing, this person, was clearly no pony. And yet, Red had no choice but to go with it, as this Oil person did not make any objections or in any way seem to correct itself.
Without warning, Oil reached out a limb and placed it on her head. Red was in no way prepared for this, and her muscles locked up as she flinched beneath its weight. But the appendage did not bring harm to her, and she peeked out at the creature through a squinted eye. His demeanor was not hostile from what she could tell, but instead hosted the same bewildered expression it had since it first became aware.
The appendage did not move. Red slowly raised her head to look at it. It slid through her green mane and eventually down her forehead and snout. It appeared to be some sort of claw, much like a dragon’s, but it did not foster talons and the digits were soft and fleshy. Upon closer inspection Red realized that Oil himself was much like a dragon; a thin, fleshy dragon. From the position in which it sat, the ‘person’ species did not seem capable to walk on four legs like her; rather, its upright spine seemed more fitting for bipedal movement. Its coat was made of thin dark hairs, which did not fully cover its body like hers did. Beneath these hairs was a large expanse of tan-colored skin. This was all Red could be sure of, as there was no other clues in the person’s physical appearance that betrayed any information about it. From there, she began to apply facts about her world to this creature. Its voice was deep, much deeper than any mare’s she had ever know, so she came to conclude that the gender of Oil (if such creatures called ‘persons’ even had genders) was male. He lacked a horn and a pair of wings, so she assumed that he had ordinary powers of an earth pony, if he even had those. But despite his lack of magic, his digits were flexible and precise in their movements, which seemed to make up for that fact.
“You’re actually there…aren’t you?”
Red almost gapped at him, but caught herself before her jaw hung open. Is he…is he mental? But Red Kiln was an overall nice pony, and because of this she kept her query to herself. “Should I… not be?”
But Oil did not answer. He was looking past her, staring at the wreckage of the winged house. Red turned and pointed to it.
“Did you come from that?”
“Huh?” Oil returned his attention to her.
“That flying house. Did you come from there?”
Oil’s perception of her question became very apparent from the expression on his face. With brows twisted in confusion and mouth gaping slightly, he alternated between looking at the metal object and the scarlet Pegasus. “That’s no house. It’s a plane.”
Red turned to look at the great metal object. She was not the most intelligent mare in Equestria, but she was by no means ignorant. What she saw was in no way a ‘plane’, not by any definition of the word. For one thing, it was clearly a three-dimensional surface, and she was sure that she would never find the Earth ponies plowing snow from it during the transition from winter to spring. “So you came from there?”
Oil ran his digits through his mane, but suddenly stopped and pulled away. A red liquid stained his flesh. He looked up and quickly scanned the area. “I… I guess I did…”
“You mean you don’t know?”
Oil bit his lower lip, chewing it very gingerly as he thought. “I don’t remember. Wh-where am I? I can’t even remember why I was on that plane in the first place…”
Red stared at him, her chest filling with a warm sense of sympathy. She spun around quickly, but saw no other signs of life besides Oil and herself. What do I do? She wondered. I can’t leave him here, he’s hurt. But I can’t really take him back to Ponyville either… I don’t even know if he’s dangerous…. The battle between her morals and common sense raged on in her mind as the person before her continued to examine his body and take inventory on his wounds. Finally Red came to a decision, and even though her whole body was revolting against it, she stayed firm. “You need help,” she said, and felt her muscles flinch just slightly as he turned to gaze at her with his large green eyes. “I can take you back to town with me, but it’ll be a long walk. Do you think you can manage it?”
Oil nodded, and as he pushed himself to his feet the joints in his legs popped and cracked. However, he showed no sign of pain and did not collapse, so Red decided that he was alright. But it was his sheer height that worried her the most. He loomed over her, casting his tall thin shadow over her. Her legs trembled slightly and it took her a moment to regain her composure. He was not actually a giant at all. In fact, he was probably no taller than Princess Celestia, and if he was it was not by much. It was his slender frame that made him seem taller, like the tallest tree in the Everfree. But in spite of her rationalization, Red’s wings clamped tightly to her body, and she realized that until she could calm down she was going to have to hoof it.
She looked around at the other persons lying about, the yellow ones. “Should we try to help your friends? I don’t know if any of them survived; the ones I’ve seen seemed pretty dead.”
Oil gave her a puzzled look at first but then shook his head. “I don’t think they were ever alive. They’re mannequins. Dummies.”
Red took one last survey of the crash site before shrugging and turning to go. Before she got far, she heard a scuffle from behind her and she turned to see Oil doubled over with his claws on his knees. She stopped and returned to him. “You ok?”
He nodded and slowly stood up again. She let him pass her and followed close behind.
As they walked, Red Kiln noticed some peculiarities of the person. Every so often he would stumble, tripping over either his own feet or some unflushed part of the ground on which they walked. He did not seem to have a problem with endurance, however, for he kept the pace even with her the entire time. He did jump occasionally, and once he even leapt up with all his might and landed on the ground with a heavy thud. From this Red had been so startled she nearly shed her feathers from launching herself into the air so quickly, where she remained for the remainder of the journey home.