Alright this is my 2nd FanFic! Woot! In my opinion this one is MUCH better than the last one. Heck, this was written a while back actually. I re read it a little while ago and when it stopped I got SOO mad. So before I update this, I decided to upload it.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC! The only characters I own in this story are Olivia and Sadie.
Applejack trotted happily through her orchards. The day was sunny and warm, and every pony was sure to be out enjoying the sun. As if on cue, Rainbow Dash flew overhead pushing the last bit of clouds out of the sky.
She smiled at the warm sun. She wondered what strange adventure life would hold on a day like today. Things like that seemed to happen pretty often in Ponyville. Little did she know, this adventure would be one of the biggest yet, and the one that would change her the most.
She made her way to Twilights house, where she was doing her normal studies and reading, while Spike was napping on the stairs. "Howdy there Twilight!" she bellowed happily, "What's goin on?"
"Oh, just the same as usual," she sighed closing another book, "I think I'm close to reading every book in this library."
Applejack laughed. "Well if you're really that busy, I guess you wouldn't be able to help me out. See me and Fluttershy were put in charge of clearing all the leaves off the ground for winter. We were hoping you could lend us a hoof?"
Twilight smiled "Well, I guess I could take a break to help you out." They both laughed and trotted out the door.
Fluttershy galloped along the trees with her rake. Only a couple more yards of leaves to go. Applejack and Twilight had already headed in for the day, but Fluttershy wanted to finish things up so she wouldn't have to do it the next day.
She was pushing her rake along, when suddenly her pet bunny angle ran up to her with a panicked look on her face.
"What's the matter angle?" Fluttershy asked curiously
Angle pointed to the edge of the everfree forest and tugged on Fluttershy's tail.
"Do you want to show me something? Have you found something?"
Fluttershy followed angle to the very edge of the forest, and in front of them was a large leaf pile.
"Oh Angle," Fluttershy laughed, "It's only a leaf pile. What could be wrong with a-," She paused.
There was something sticking out of the pile. It was about the size of a small cherry. It was a pinkish color, and it was bent at a strange angle. Fluttershy stared at it for a moment. There was something under there. Nervously, she started to remove the leaves. The more she removed, the more a shape formed. The little cherry sized thing was part of a foot! And not just any foot, a human foot!
Fluttershy staggered back. She had heard that humans could be very cruel, but she had read up on them, and this foot seemed too small to be from a human. She decided that the safest thing to do would be to ask Twilight and Applejack about it before revealing more of the creature.
"A human?" Twilight asked, half in shock.
"That's right," Fluttershy replied. She had just told Twilight and Applejack about what she had discovered.
"Here's my problem though," she continued, "I didn't uncover the whole thing yet, only the foot. And it seems smaller than what I've read about."
"Well tell ya what," Applejack chimed in, "I'll go uncover it, bring it back here, and we can figure out if it's a human or not. Okay?"
Fluttershy thought for a moment, and then agreed. If the creature was dangerous, Applejack could handle it.
Applejack looked at the leaf pile closely. She noticed the foot that Fluttershy had already uncovered, but the rest of the creature was still covered in leaves.
Carefully as possible, Applejack cleared the leaves from the pile. There in front of her now was a small creature. Now she wasn't sure if this was a human or not, since shed never seen one, but this creature sure didn't look very normal to her.
It only had hair on the top of its head, and it was a light brown color, and the length was down to its shoulders. It was wearing clothes, but not a dress or an outfit. Just a regular top and bottom. It had five long sticks sticking off of its front arms, and five short ones sticking off of its legs. A strange creature indeed.
Applejack studied it close for a minute, then started to lift it onto her back. She expected it to be heavier, but it was very light. Maybe only around 20 pounds? Applejack started to walk back to the library with ease. This was a lot easier than she had thought.
Just then, the creature made a kind of whining noise. Applejack stopped and looked up at it. It was sleeping peacefully, until a breeze came buy and it made the whining noise again. Applejack stared at it, wondering if she should do something. That's when one of the eyes opened.
It was the most bizarre thing Applejack had ever seen. The creatures eyes were a shade of light brown, but they were green toward the middle, and black in the center. Kind of like ponies eyes, only it had two colors instead of one. It made it look like it could tell what you were thinking.
The creature yawned and sat up. "I'm riding… a horse…" it moaned, half awake. It looked down to realize it really was riding a horse. "What…?" it whispered, sounding confused.
"I ain't no horse!" Applejack stated, "I'm a pony"
The human stared at her for a second. Like it was trying to put all of this together. Then it jumped off Applejack. Applejack narrowed her eyes. She remembered Fluttershy saying that humans could be very cruel creatures. She slowly walked toward it. It backed up away from her until her back hit a tree, and she was nose to nose with Applejack.
"Now listen here. I don't know who you are, how you got here, or even if you really are human. But the last thing I need from you is trouble. You get that? Now I reckon it would be best that you come with me," Applejack lectured
She raised a hoof to grab it. A look of panic came into the creatures eyes. As soon as Applejack moved her hoof forward, the creature flinched and then ran out of sight.
Applejack stood dumbfounded. It ran away. She wondered about the look she gave her right before. It didn't look angry or cruel, it looked… scared. Applejack shook her head. Why would a human be afraid of her? She decided to take off after it, she didn't need it causing trouble around town.
Fluttershy paced around worriedly. Applejack had been gone for half an hour. That was a lot longer than she needed just to pick up the creature and bring it here. Twilight sat on a nearby chair reading a book about humans.
"Hey Fluttershy, you said it was smaller than a normal human right?"
"Yes, although I only saw the foot."
"What size do you think it was out of these?"
Twilight pointed to a page on her book, telling about shoe sizes. Fluttershy stared at the page and picked the third smallest one. Twilight nodded.
"That's just what I thought," she said, "The human you saw was a normal human, it was just a baby."
"A baby?" Fluttershy said in shock
"Well close to it. Judging by the size you pointed to, its maybe around 7 or 8 years old. Just a little younger than Sweetie Bell"
They both started reading about human children. Fluttershy then remembered that Applejack wasn't back yet. What if the human woke up? Would it be dangerous? No, it's just a child. It would probably be scared to death. Maybe that's it. Maybe it got scared and…
Fluttershy noticed a shadow go by the window. She ran to the front door and looked out. "Applejack?" she called. There was no answer. She looked around. There was no pony in sight. Strange. Just then, she heard a thump come from beside the door. She looked over her shoulder. She saw the foot going to the back of the house. The human was out there.
Applejack ran back to the library. She decided she'd let the other ponies know what was going on. That the human had ran away from her. Just then she heard whimpering. It sounded similar to when the human woke up. Applejack had found it.
She crept around the side of the house, and spotted the human sitting with its face in its hands. She crept up behind it and put her hoof on its shoulder. It jumped and spun around. It tried to run away again, but Applejack grabbed it before it could.
"Now you just put me through a lot of trouble you know that? I thought I just told you not to do that. You think this is all a joke don't cha?"
The human started shaking. It shook its head, but still tried to free itself from Applejacks grip. It couldn't.
"Now let's try this again. All ya need to do is come into this here library with me. Then we won't have any problems. Ya hear me?"
The human finally freed itself from Applejack, but it didn't move. Then, the last thing Applejack would have expected happened. Its eyes changed from their strange two colors, to a very light blue. Applejacks own eyes widened. She reached out to pull the human closer, but it squealed. It flinched and turned its head sideways.
"Hold still ya varmint!" Applejack said annoyed.
"Stop!" She heard a voice.
She looked over to see Fluttershy standing there, with a look of almost anger on her face. The human jumped and staggered back. Applejack quickly grabbed it before it could run again. Fluttershy ran up to them and swept up the creature in her arms.
"Applejack! I thought you said you were just going to bring it here! Not scream at it!"
The human was shaking. Applejack was caught in shock. She'd only seen Fluttershy act like this toward animals before.
"Fluttershy, it kept on running away see. I had to come after it," she tried to explain.
Fluttershy calmed down and her voice went back to its quiet self.
"Well, you should've been more gentle Applejack. This is just a baby human."
Applejack froze. A baby? She remembered it sleeping soundly, then whining when the breeze came. She remembered the scared look it had when she was lecturing it. She remembered it sitting alone with its head in its hands, whimpering. Had it been crying? She suddenly felt terrible.
"The poor thing is probably scared to death," said Fluttershy rocking it.
Applejack stared at it for a second. "But, it can talk, and it can run. Babies can't do that."
"Well animal babies can," Fluttershy replied, "Besides. It's not an infant. It's a child. Around 7 years old?" The child nodded to confirm.
"It's alright sweetie," Fluttershy said calmly, "Were not going to hurt you. I'm sorry if we scared you."
The human stared at her for a long time, and then smiled. "I-it's okay," it said in a soft voice.
Applejack stared at them. The human had just smiled. She thought about how scared it looked when she had been talking to it.
"Listen sweetie," Fluttershy continued, "We don't know how you got here, and you look a little sick. If it's alright, we'd like to help you."
It looked over to Applejack nervously. Applejack smiled a little bit and nodded, agreeing with Fluttershy. "O-okay," it whispered. Fluttershy then began to fly into the library with the human in her arms. Applejack following closely behind them.
Once inside, Twilight introduced herself and the human was put in the spare bed upstairs. Twilight sat down beside the bed with her book in hoof. She looked down at the child, who definitely wasn't scared anymore, just shy. Her eyes sparkled in the dim light. Applejack entered, noticing that the child's eyes had gone back to their normal colors.
"Okay, first things first," Twilight announced, "What is your name?"
"Olivia," the child said. Its voice was high pitched but it was soft.
"So you're a girl?"
"Yes."
Twilight took a pencil and scribbled something down in the back of her book, then looked back at Olivia.
"Okay, so are you really a human?"
"Yes I am. Are you a real unicorn?"
Twilight paused. This was the first time she had ever spoken more than two words. Also, was she surprised at the fact that she was a unicorn? Were unicorns as rare to humans as humans were to ponies and unicorns?
"Yes I am," she replied slowly.
Applejack watched as the two exchanged questions with each other. Olivia sure didn't seem scared anymore. In fact, she was actually smiling now. But what Applejack wondered the most about, is why her eyes had changed color. She remembered the scared look on the little girls face, and the bright neon blue color that flashed before her.
She was going to ask Twilight to ask the child about it, but she looked over to see that Olivia had fallen fast asleep again. Twilight giggled.
"She was just in the middle of speaking, then next thing I know she's out like a light."
Applejack slowly approached the girl. She lay peacefully on her pillow, hugging part of the covers close to her cheek. Applejack smiled a little. Twilight walked up next to her.
"Isn't she cute?" she giggled
Applejack stared at the child. A breeze suddenly came through the window, Olivia whined in her sleep just as she did before. Applejack couldn't help but giggle as well.
"Yea, I have to say she is a cute one, for a human that is."
They both watched the child cuddle with the blankets. They had then decided that keeping her wouldn't be a problem. They could handle her for sure, and she didn't seem harmful in the slightest way. Olivia smiled in her sleep. Twilight and Applejack both smiled as well.
The clock struck 10. Applejack decided that she'd better get home. She had a feeling tomorrow would be a long day. But just as she started to exit the room, Olivia started whimpering. She squealed and rolled around on the bed. Twilight quickly ran up to her, followed by Applejack.
Twilight felt Olivia's head, it was warm.
"I'll go get some medicine, you wake her up and comfort her," Twilight instructed.
Applejack felt nervous. The last time she tried to talk to Olivia, she had just made her scared and upset. But before she could protest, Twilight was already out the door. She looked nervously at Olivia, who was shaking violently.
Applejack took a deep breath, and then swept Olivia up in her forelegs. "Come on now sugar cube, wake up. Everything's alright," she said calmingly.
Olivia shook. She felt the walls closing in on her, everything from her past began to haunt her. You little brat! She heard a voice in her head call out to her. She had to call for help, but she didn't have anyone to call for. There was only one person she ever knew that she trusted. "Mommy! Mommy!" she started to scream. Then she saw an image that was even more horrible than the last. A body stood in front of her, dripping with blood. Tears filled Olivia's eyes. She let out a scream.
Olivia opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry. She blinked a few times to see an orange pony, the one who had yelled at her, frantically looking down at her, and hugging her tightly.
"You must've had quite a dream there," the pony said, while sighing in relief.
Olivia stared at the pony, and Applejack smiled.
"We got off on the wrong foot little one," the pony exclaimed, "Let's start over. Mah name is Applejack. My friend already told me your names Olivia. Do ya think we could be friends?"
Olivia nodded, but her expression remained the same, tired, scared, confused, and sick. Applejack stared at her sympathetically.
"You wanna talk about that dream sugar cube?" she whispered, "What was it about?"
Olivia thought for a second. What was that dream about? She looked forward, thinking hard. Then suddenly, it all came back to her, the walls closing in, the voice, her cries for help, and the body.
Applejack stared down at the little girl, who seemed to be thinking. Suddenly Olivia's eyes widened, and then turned a greenish color. Applejack gasped. What she saw had been real, the child's eyes changed color again. Next they turned that same blue color Applejack had seen before, and Olivia began to cry.
Applejack held Olivia tighter. "It's alright, there's nothin to be afraid of, the dreams all over now."
Olivia was shaking again. She felt sick to her stomach. Applejack started comforting her, and she realized that it was just a dream. The body hadn't been real. She let out a deep breath.
Applejack smiled, Olivia had stopped crying. Her eyes changed back to their normal color.
"See? Everything's fine," Applejack said reassuringly.
Olivia smiled up at the pony. Applejack wasn't the same pony who had yelled at her earlier, she was much kinder now. Much to Applejacks surprise, Olivia wrapped both of her arms around her and hugged her very tightly.
"Thank you," Olivia whispered, "You're a really good friend."
Applejack sat frozen as the child hugged her. She had called Applejack a friend. At this, Applejack smiled. Her eyes were tearing up a little bit. She had been forgiven, and that was all she wanted. She hugged the child back.
Twilight came back in the room with medicine and other medical supplies, to see Olivia fast asleep in Applejacks fore-hooves. Twilight smiled.
"So she forgave you huh?"
"Yea, the poor thing woke up from a nightmare. She was scared half to death."
Twilight frowned and felt Olivia's head again, it was still warm. She put a cold towel on her head, and then put a thermometer in her mouth. Olivia wiggled uneasy. Applejack held her tight as she could without hurting her. Twilight pulled out the thermometer from her mouth.
"101.5," she sighed.
"She's really that sick?" Applejack replied surprised.
"Well, I guess I didn't expect any different. Since all those leaves piled up over her, who knows how long she was out there. Could have been days, weeks even."
Applejack shuddered at the thought. All of a sudden, she had grown a large attachment to this little girl, and the thought of her suffering sent a shiver up her spine.
Twilight put her medical supplies and magic to use while Applejack held Olivia still. Olivia would occasionally wake up and ask them what was going on, but she'd fall right back asleep again.
After they had finished, Applejack softly laid Olivia back down in the bed. She watched as Olivia snuggled with the blankets and smiled.
"Twilight," she said nervously, "After tonight, ya think she could stay at mah place?"
Twilight looked down at Olivia. She did seem to like Applejack now, and Applejack is already a good influence. However, Twilight kind of wanted Olivia to stay at the library with her too. She was sure she could teach Olivia to read and write.
"Tell you what Applejack. We shouldn't decide this for her. How about we let her stay with each of us for a night, and then she can choose."
Applejack nodded. It was a good idea. Plus it would give them the chance to introduce her to everyone.
"Alright, sounds like a plan," Applejack smiled.
"We should wait until her fever breaks though," Twilight sighed, "Although it should go down by morning."
The two talked about it for a while before Applejack headed off toward home. If the fever was broken by morning, it would be a long day.
Olivia woke up with a cold towel resting on her forehead. She looked around at the strange room that she was laying in. "Where am I…?" she whispered to herself. Then it all came back to her. Waking up on an orange ponies' back, the pony threatening her, running away, being found again but saved by another pony. Then being brought back here to a pony named Twilight Sparkle, who she liked quite a bit.
As if on cue, Twilight entered the room to see Olivia sitting up in bed, staring off into the distance.
"You're awake," she giggled, "How'd you sleep?"
Olivia was startled when she heard a voice. When she came to see that it was Twilight, she smiled.
"Okay," she replied softly, "I had a nightmare though…"
"I heard," Twilight said sympathetically, "Applejack told me about it."
Olivia stared at her confused, and then she remembered waking from the nightmare in Applejacks ar- er… hooves. She remembered making friends with the orange pony, even though she had yelled at her. Olivia loved Applejack after that night.
"Are you hungry?" Twilight asked to break the silence, "What do you usually eat?"
For some reason, Olivia seemed surprised at this question, and merely shrugged. "Well, not much really, whatever I can find I guess…"
Twilight frowned. Something wasn't right with this girl, and Twilight had been wondering about it ever since she discovered all the wounds on Olivia's back and neck. She guessed that they were from the wild, but she wasn't too sure.
"Well you have to eat something," she replied.
Olivia stared at the ground. She really didn't know what to tell her. She decided to answer the safest way she could. "Well, what do you have?"