Moonlight 03

>Day, Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle

>You just finished setting up Rainbow Dash's tornado booth when you hear a quiet-but-shrill cry.  Searching for the source of the sound, you notice a streak of yellow and pink swiftly approaching.  Fluttershy?  What could possibly-  Omph!

>Fluttershy impacts you squarely and you both to go tumbling.  

"Whoa... what?" you ask, in a daze.  "Fluttershy?"

>You shake your head to clear your vision and find the yellow pegasus already on her hooves.

"Oh, Twilight, it's dreadful!" she starts.  "You must come quickly, a poor creature's been hurt!"

>You shake your head again.  Creature?  What is she talking about.  You open your mouth to reply but get interrupted by the frantic pony.

"Oh dear, oh dear, please help!" Fluttershy pleads.

>Something serious must have happened for her to be so upset.  From the sounds of it, somepony must be really injured!  Why didn't she go to find a doctor?  Maybe the problem is magical in nature!  In that case, she came to the right unicorn!  Wasting no time, you jump up, spin around, and gallop towards the library, you know you have the perfect book for just these situations!  Fluttershy seems momentarily confused about your sudden withdrawal, but quickly takes off and flies after you.

 

>You burst through the door of your home.

"SPIKE!" you shout.  Where is that dragon?

>Not hearing an immediate reply, you start tearing up the bookcases, searching for that book.  Debilitating Curses and Counter-Curses?  No, too stuffy!  A Magical Treatment for Hay Fever?  Too specialized!  Magical Mystery Cure?  Too controversial!  Oh, where is Spike!

>Spike appears at the top of the stairs.  It looks like he just woke up from a nap.

"Wha-what's going on, Twilight?" Spike asks while rubbing his eyes.

"Hurry, Spike, there's no time to lose!" you fire back.  "Help me find 'The Healer's Guide to Mystical Ailments and Injuries'!"

>You return to the shelves while Spike starts digging on the other side of the room.  Fluttershy is still in the doorway, biting her bottom lip and hopping from side to side.  She's obviously worried, but you must have that book in order to help!  Bandaging for Battlemages?  Too bloody!  Fixing the Fantastically Injured?  No!

"Arg, WHERE IS THAT BOOK!?!"

>Spike raises the book in question above his head and, just before he calls for your attention, you snatch them both up and levitate them over to the door.

"Good work, Spike" you say as he hangs on tight.  "Come-on, Fluttershy, let's go help your friend!"

"Oh, it's not my-" Fluttershy starts, but you've already galloped out the door.

 

>On the way to her place, you ask Fluttershy to describe exactly what is going on.  You pay attention as closely as you can (reading, listening and galloping all at the same time can difficult), but some things still get garbled.  Hurt creature, check.  Blood, ooooo... alright.  Angel knocked it out?  What?  This doesn't sound like a magical injury at all.

"Fluttershy, exactly what is going on?" you ask.

"I told you!" she states.  "There's a hurt animal on the floor!  I've never seen one like it before and I don't know what to do!"

"Never seen it before?" you ask.

"I thought you knew about all the animals around here, Fluttershy?" Spike asks from your back.  You almost forgot about him in your rush.

>Spike did have a point.  What could possibly be living around Ponyville that Fluttershy hasn't seen before?  You ask her to describe the thing in detail.  Large, okay, four legs, alright, tufts of hair, okay, odd hooves, what, hmmm, talking and wearing strange clothes, What?  It sounds like a minotaur, but Fluttershy knows what a minotaur is...

>You stop cold in your tracks.  Spike's face meets the back of your head (only slightly painful), he reels but catches himself before falling off.  Fluttershy tries to stop but overshoots; she banks around and lands a little ways in front of you.

"Fluttershy, what you're describing doesn't make any sense."

"But it's the truth, Twilight, and it needs our help!" the pegasus pleads.

>You start towards Fluttershy's again and she follows closely after.  Within a minute you reach the bridge.  Up the path and through the door and-  Spike hits the back of your head again (slightly more painful).  There, lying on the floor at your hooves is an animal unlike any you have ever seen before.

 

>Fluttershy squeezes by you in a hurry, snapping you out of your momentary shock.  You rush over to the fallen thing and start diagnosing what is wrong.  There is a small pool of blood underneath it's head, a large, crusty line across it's face, and it's developing a nasty bruise.  You tell Fluttershy to bring you some water and get to work.  Heart-rate, 46bpm, alright for a pony, but who knows what the correct heart-rate is for this animal?  Temperature, you cast a simple thermometric spell, seems normal for a pony, but...  How are you going to be able to help this thing if you don't know what it is or how to help it?!?

>Fluttershy returns with the water and a sponge.  She's obviously trying not to look at the blood, but keeps glancing at the thing's face.  Perhaps cleaning up the gore would be a good first step.

"Here, Fluttershy, let me clean this up while you wait outside."

>She nods her head a little too vigorously, deposits the bucket on the floor and flees out the front door.  Meanwhile, Spike had decided to get up close with the thing's face.  You're about to shoo him away when you notice something about the creature's teeth.  It has large canines, obviously for eating meat.  Uh, should you really be this close to this carnivore of mysterious origins?  

"Twilight?  Equestria to Twilight," says Spike.  "Are you going to clean this up or what?"

>His question snaps you out of your worries.  It eats meat, so what?  Spike can eat meat but he never hurt anypony and Applejack's pet Winona is as friendly as can be.  Fluttershy even has a bear for a friend!  Surely you have nothing to worry about.  You go to work cleaning up the blood.

 

>You send Spike out to dump the bucket of bloody water.  As he leaves, Fluttershy (who had been watching through the window) shyly enters the room.  Now what do you do?  You can't just leave it lying there, but where do you put it?  And what is it?  It seems like it could be a minotaur, but it's too small and doesn't have any horns.  It's wearing some well-made though obviously well-worn clothing.  The forward (upper?) half of it's body was nearly covered with a badly torn jacket (though it didn't seem wounded anywhere other than on the face) and some light, cottony garment.  It's back (lower?) half was completely covered all the way down to it's brown, muddy hooves.  This second garment had several pockets sewn into it (how clever!) which bulged with items.

>While you were contemplating the creature's vesture, Fluttershy and Spike were debating the animal's identity.

"It's a male." announces Spike.

"Oh, how can you tell?" asks Fluttershy.

"Because it's growing a mustache!" Spike says, gesturing as if he were twirling a mustache of his own.

>Spike sits down on a large bag just beyond the animal's head.  Wait, where did that come from?  It doesn't look like something Fluttershy would own.  It's rather large, cylindrical, and has a metal frame lined with straps.  What kind of saddle-bag is that?  It looks like it would be most uncomfortable, what with the mass of the bag being positioned directly on your back.  Wait...

"Fluttershy, where did that bag come from?" you ask, pointing at the item in question.

"I don't know, I've never seen it before," she says. "I didn't even notice it until now."

>Spike leaps up and drags it over.  It's seems heavy, what could be in there?  You fiddle with what appears to be an opening for a moment, but you're incapable of gaining entry.  What kind of bag is this?  You try another pocket and find that it opens quite easily.  You hope you didn't ruin it because, when you lifted the flap you heard the fabric tearing. Heh heh, oops.

"Good job, Twilight," says Spike, "you've damaged his bag."

"It was completely accidental," you snap back, "and we still don't know the creature's gender."

"I know," Spike mumbles as he starts to fiddle with another pocket.

>Turning back to the torn pocket you lick your lips in anticipation.  What mysterious objects could this creature have stashed away within?  You levitate the pocket's contents out of the opening.

 

>You hear a moan from behind you and freeze; Spike and Fluttershy both do the same.  The creature shifts, raises a forelimb to it's head, groans once more, and sits up.  Then it freezes.

"What the hell is going on!"

>Quick, Twilight, think of something to say.  This is very important, you are making first contact with a never-before-seen intelligent species.  The next thing you say may appear in history books!

"Uh... "  you blew it.

>The creature starts to rise but stops suddenly when it notices its property levitating in the air.

"Ok, ok, really," it starts.  "Someone tell me what the fuck is going on, right now."

"Uh... " you start again, but Fluttershy cuts you off.

"Oh, I'm glad you're alright, how do you feel?

>All Fluttershy receives is a look of shock.  After a rather lengthy pause, the thing shakes its head, and takes a deep breath.

"I'm hungry, lost, my head aches, and I'm surrounded by miniature talking technicolor farm animals, one of which is somehow floating my gun IN THE AIR and pointing it at me." it responds and resumes staring at one of the items you're currently levitating.

>You give a sheepish grin and look up, the item in question doesn't look like much, but it's obviously causing the creature some distress.  You carefully place the items back into the ruined pocket of the bag and give the creature what you hope is a friendly smile.  At least, you thought it was friendly.  The poor thing hasn't relaxed an inch.

>Finally, Spike walks forward, his claw out to shake the creature's paw.

"Hi, my name is-"

"Stay back, lizard thing!" it shouts.  "I swear to God I will punt you through the window if you get any closer!"

"-but..."

>Spike doesn't get to finish his thought because, just then, Angel came through the door.

>All Tartarus breaks loose.

>Then it was over.

>The creature was gone.

 

>You stand there in shock.

"Ok... what just happened?" you ask nopony in particular.

>You run it through in your mind.  The moment the animal saw Angel, it completely freaked out.  Shouting, it stood up (on two legs!) and promptly smashed its head into the ceiling.  Fluttershy flew over to help, but it swung its limbs wildly and almost hit her.  You grabbed Fluttershy with your magic and pulled her away, just as Spike dove behind you.  You released Fluttershy but, before you could stop it, the angry animal grabbed its bag with a front paw and shot out the front door.

"Come ON, Twi!" Spike shouts from the doorway.

>His outburst startles you from your thoughts.  You shake your head and you gallop out the door.  Fluttershy is already in the air, looking around for the creature.

"Which way did it go?!" you shout, swiveling your head to survey your surroundings.

"I, I don't know," says an visibly worried Fluttershy.

You cast a tracking spell and hoof-prints all over the yard light up.  Surely one of these trails belongs to the creature!

"Twilight!" shouts Spike, pointing towards a set of glowing, green tracks.

>The tracks were very oddly spaced and shaped, they must be the right ones!  You gallop down the path and over the bridge, Fluttershy above you and Spike tailing behind.  The tracks turn to head down the road... right into Everfree Forest.

 

>Fluttershy immediately flits down the road, and you start to follow her when you hear Spike hollering to stop.

"Stop, Fluttershy, come back!" says the panting dragon.  "Don't go in there!"

"We can't just lose it, Spike!" you say.  "It's an unidentified species, think of what we can learn!"

>Fluttershy just hovers in place, still staring down the glowing trail.  You turn to follow when Spike says something very sensible.

"You should get the others," he says, catching up.  "It will make finding him much easier and safer."

"Wow, that's a great idea, Spike!" you reply.

>And it is a good idea.  Your tracking spell can reveal any tracks made in the last three days, so the creature won't be able to get away.  That, and you would feel much better about rushing off into the Everfree Forest with the rest of your friends at your flank.  Fluttershy must have come to the same conclusion because she nods her head.  It's decided!

"Alright then, Fluttershy, you go get Rainbow Dash and Applejack and Spike and I will go get Pinkie Pie and Rarity."

>Wordlessly, she nods and takes off towards Rainbow's place.  Spike jumps on your back and you gallop back to Ponyville.  You glance at the sky.  If you can get everypony together quickly enough, you should be able to find the creature before dark.  You hope.