I heard that song again.

I felt tired; bone-achingly tired. Fatigue wrapped around my body like a suffocating blanket, making doing anything feel nearly impossible. I was vaguely aware of pain, but it felt distant, almost separate from me- maybe I was just too exhausted to really register it.

I was dimly aware that I was in a seat in an old-time movie theater. Mine was the only seat in the house, in fact, set in the center of the floor, with a perfect view of the screen. And on that screen, in full color and perfect clarity, was everything that had happened to me from the moment that storm had hit... only portrayed as if it had been attacked by an editor with an attention-deficit disorder, cutting back and forth between “scenes” and making everything impossible to follow, even though I knew how it all happened.

And still, there was that haunting, alien lullaby coming from somewhere behind me. I couldn't even turn my head to look, my body resisting any impetus for movement beyond basic breathing, leaving me as immobile as if I were strapped into the chair.

After a few moments, the source of the singing moved to my side, and the lullaby trailed off. I sensed, rather than saw, that my visitor was watching the “movie”; after a moment, that voice spoke a single word- and as if by remote control, whatever projector was showing the images shut off, and the curtains closed upon the screen. The rear of my seat leaned backwards until it went flat, while a footrest seemed to come up underneath my legs, until I was laying on my back; a soft, comfortable pillow wedged itself beneath my head, and a rustle of fabric followed by warmth told me that I'd been covered with a blanket.

And then I saw her. The strange, dark-colored pegacorn that my mind had conjured up somehow, the exact opposite of the Sun Queen, stood over my chair-turned-bed. I gazed at that bizarre, ghostly mane as dark as a moonless night in the wild, stars twinkling in its depths... and into those unfathomably deep blue eyes, that looked at me with so many obvious emotions- concern, confusion, a slight edge of distrust. But her expression was soft, and the voice that spoke over me was gentle, as one silver-shod hoof carefully slid over my eyes, bringing them to close.

And though I couldn't understand the words she said, the overall meaning was entirely clear: Rest.

So I did.

(-)

“Heart rate?”

“Fifty-three beats per minute.”

Dr. Measure noted that on the clipboard. “Blood pressure?”

“Just a second, having trouble getting this cuff on....” There was a short wait while the nurse struggled with the device. “One-fifteen over eighty-two.”

“Noted.” He put down the chart. “Everypony, we have something of a unique situation here. We are dealing with an injured member of a previously-unencountered species, who appears to have an as-yet unexplained ability to nullify magic upon direct application or upon physical contact with an object held with magic. This means that diagnosis and treatment are both going to be somewhat difficult.” He glanced around at the various ponies in the room. “Thankfully, we have something of a celebrity with us today- Miss Fluttershy, Bearer of the Element of Kindness, as well as a mare with extensive experience in treating multiple species. Miss Fluttershy, what insights can you provide?”

He watched as the yellow pegasus- who'd seemed so shy and withdrawn in the preparation room- strode forward to take a close look at the tall creature. “Rainbow Dash told me that he took a nasty spill down a staircase... I'm seeing a somewhat severe laceration to the head, some damage to nasal cartilage, and numerous impact contusions....” She lowered the sheet to examine more of his torso. “Hmm, this is strange... do you see this bruising here along the sides?”

“Could be from previous injuries,” said another doctor. “But... it looks rather old.”

“Hmm, yes.” She frowned. “He must have spent so much time in the wild after he escaped....” She trailed off for a moment. “This is strange. There's pale blotching on his skin. It's not uniform, so what could have caused it? Anypony?”

“There's a number of potential causes for that,” answered Measure. “We'd need more symptoms to work with.”

Fluttershy nodded slowly, gently running a hoof down one side of the creature's torso and up the other. “There's... possibly cracked ribs; he'll need bandaging to bind them so that they can heal properly. The abdomen feels softer than it should, considering he has so little... body fat....” She paused again. “Oh goodness. Does anypony actually know what he was eating while he was on his own?”

A bunch of confused and uncertain looks was her reply. “We... really couldn't tell you, Miss,” one of the nurses spoke up.

“I was briefed by Princess Twilight,” Measure said, “but only in vague detail. I did learn that he was known to have lurked around both Broncston and Ponyville.”

“Broncston has a creek, but it flows pretty fast....” The pegasus seemed to be in deep thought. “And if he'd been fishing at the lake near Ponyville, one of my animal friends definitely would've spotted him, even at night....” She looked up at the assembled medical professionals. “I think he's suffering from malnutrition,” she said, leaning over to gently pull the creature's lower lip down to reveal a line of squared-off but sharp incisors. “He's an omnivore, which means he probably doesn't have a cecum like we ponies do. If he's been getting his food from what ponies throw away or leave out... there's no way he could have been getting nearly as much protein as he needs to stay healthy.”

“Protein deficiency?” Measure trotted up to the bed and gently ran his hoof through the short mane the creature bore. “There are signs of color change at the hair roots here,” he said. “Miss Fluttershy, you may be on to something. What do you suggest to remedy this?”

“Once he's conscious, and can tolerate food, he needs to be fed a high-protein diet. Peanuts, rice, legumes, eggs- Twilight mentioned that she's been talking to the former Griffin ambassador's daughter; I'll see if I can get recommendations from her. I also know that the pony who fed him in captivity is here as well, so I can ask her for advice.” The pegasus suddenly halted, then shrank in on herself. “...if that's okay with you, that is....” she half-whispered.

“I think that's an excellent idea, Miss Fluttershy. I for one am glad we have your expertise.”

“Oh! Um, well... thank you,” she murmured, before her expression became serious once again. “But right now we need to start treatment. Is he okay with our medications?”

“We're running blood tests now. Oddly enough, once his blood leaves his body, it's as pliant to magic as anything else.”

“We'd better let Twilight know about that. Okay, in the meantime, we should get fluids into his body and keep his wounds bandaged and clean....”

(-)

“It certainly doesn't look like much.”

Shining Armor carefully lowered the weapon onto the tray. To the best of their knowledge, it was now completely harmless, empty of ammunition- but the Captain was taking no chances, and Celestia was thankful enough for it. “It may not,” she said quietly, “but we've seen what it is capable of.” She gazed at the strange object for a moment- now that she knew what the creature looked like, the form of the weapon made complete sense; it would fit perfectly into one of his dexterous hands.

“We're also analyzing the ammunition it uses. The two intact shells we've found- the one in the weapon and the other left on Hostler Drive- seem to have malfunctioned.”

“Thank Faust for that.” She closed her eyes for a moment, frowning deeply to herself, opening them again to find the Captain gazing at her worriedly.

“Princess?” he asked quietly.

She let out a sigh. “This creature puzzles me,” she said quietly. “He seemed... ready to give himself to us in the castle, but then ran as though chased by demons after... my nephew's appearance.”

Shining cleared his throat. “Err, about that, Princess... we've collected statements from Prince Blueblood and a maid attending to him-” he looked down at a sheet of paper- “by the name of Ensemble. They're... exceptionally contradictory statements.”

“I would give the words of Ensemble much more credibility.” She fought the urge to rub her temples with her hooves; she was going to have to have a long, long talk with that distant relative of hers.

A soft sigh came from in front of her, and she looked back up to see Shining pushing some of the papers around the table with his hoof. “Princess....” he said quietly. “I've got a lot of facts here. I know where he went, what he did. But wrap me in a ribbon and dump me in Tartarus if I have the slightest idea as to why! He put a guard in the hospital before we brought him here, but after that... buck me sideways on a sawhorse, Blueblood ended up causing more casualties than him.” He blinked, then blushed brightly. “...pardon my language,” he amended quickly.

She'd barely noticed the profanity. “He was scared,” she said quietly.

“Scared? I've seen plenty of ponies who were afraid, and none of them did anything-”

“He is not a pony, Captain.” She raised her eyes to look into his. “We reacted as ponies do, but his actions didn't make sense to us, because they weren't pony actions. Perhaps we as a species forget too easily that there are other points of view.” She let her gaze drift through one of the windows, out towards the valley below the castle. “When he jumped from the castle, I followed, though not nearly as quickly as Rainbow Dash. By then all sight of him had been lost, until the... the mob of ponies encountered him near Hostler Drive.” She frowned deeply. “He'd made his way into Jennet Row when I came upon him. I'd wanted to give him another chance to stand down, to give up his flight and give himself over to us, without the actions of... interlopers to cause problems.” For a moment she went quiet, remembering what she'd seen. “His reaction... frightened me, Captain. At first he seemed to fear me, and then... desperation, so pure and complete....” She shook her head. “And then rage. Rage so powerful that, despite his earlier fear, he struck me with his weapon and ran. All that within the span of a few seconds, so quickly and so strongly that even I, for all my wisdom, found myself at a loss.”

“He struck you?” Shining blinked in shock. “Princess, have you had the castle medical staff have a look? It could-”

“I am more durable than I may seem, Captain.” She couldn't keep a little amusement out of her voice. “The blow did little harm- I was much more stunned by the action than the impact.”

He let out a sigh that he probably didn't think she heard, and nodded slowly. “I understand, Princess. I'm just glad he'd exhausted his ammunition before you found him.”

She allowed silence fall for just a moment before replying. “He hadn't.”

The stallion blinked at her uncomprehendingly for a moment before outright fury flashed across his expression. “How... how could he dare try to...!”

“He didn't.” She let the full weight of her gaze fall on him. “In the depths of his despair, Captain Armor... it was not me he turned his weapon upon.”

The anger she'd seen rising in him dissipated like morning fog, and his eyes went as wide as she'd ever seen them. “He... would've...?” he stammered. “Princess, what... that's just....”

The two of them went silent for a moment, Celestia's mind drifting back to the all-too-recent loss of another life, before the Princess of the Sun spoke a simple truth.

“We need to speak with him.”

Shining let out another sigh. “By all reports, he can't understand Equish, Princess.”

“But he can speak. Which means he can learn... which means it is up to us to teach him how to speak to us.” She gave him a ghost of a smile. “And I believe you know who should head up that task.”

“Twilight? She's... not feeling terribly self-confident about dealing with the creature lately,” he replied.

“When one makes mistakes, the best way to correct them is to right the wrongs committed. If that can't be done... then an act of contrition, of restoring something else to the harmed, might suffice.” Celestia's smile grew, just a little. “And at the very least, I think your sister would want to be able to apologize to our guest herself.”

Unexpectedly, the smile fell away from Shining's face, and he turned away to gaze out through a window himself. “Princess, after what's been done to him by some ponies,” he said quietly, “I'm not sure an apology will mean much.”

(-)

“...I'd hoped that scar would heal better.”

Next to Silver Wisk, Sveti snorted. “Don't like seeing a reminder of what you did to him?” the griffin muttered.

“No. I don't.” Wisk lightly pressed her hoof against the one-way glass window, watching as the still-unconscious creature's back was carefully washed by a pair of nurses; the pale scar of the wound Big Top's whip was plainly visible. The hairless skin makes cleaning a lot easier, she thought. Made it easier to treat his wounds, too....

“You know, I don't understand why you're even here.” She could see Sveti's glare in the faint reflection in the glass. “Then again, I also don't understand why you're not at the bottom of the deepest pit Canterlot has to offer. But I could tell that Princess Twilight was pretty desperate to stop all the craziness... she does sort of strike me as the type to pull together whatever resources she can to solve a problem, even more unsavory ones.”

“If you're only going to talk to me in order to insult me, save your breath.” Wisk watched her breath fog the glass for a moment before turning away. “You can't possibly make me feel worse than I already do.”

“Can't blame me for trying,” the hen snapped back.

Wisk turned towards the door for a moment, then looked back. “Sveti... I'd like you to at least know that I'm sorry about your fa-”

There was a rustle of feathers, and then a set of exceptionally sharp talons were pressed against her throat. The griffin's gold-rimmed eyes glared into hers. “Do. Not. Even,” she snarled, “finish that sentence. I do not want to hear one thing out of you that doesn't pertain to the creature and helping it heal, and if I do, I swear to all my ancestors that the castle staff will be finding pieces of you scattered around this castle for a week. Do I make myself clear?”

Locked in place by terror, able to feel the pinpricks of talons that could pierce the veins they were pressed against in an eyeblink, it was all Wisk could do to nod slightly.

The talons moved away, and the death glare softened, if only marginally. “Good. I'm glad we have an understanding,” Sveti said, her voice almost dripping false conviviality.

A soft knock at the door caught their attention, and a moment later it opened, revealing one of the doctors. “Miss Windwhisper? Miss Wisk?” he asked; when they nodded, he stepped back slightly. “Allow me to introduce Miss Fluttershy. She's helping to coordinate care for the creature and would like to speak to both of you about him.”

There was a long pause before the named mare poked her head into the doorway. “Oh... um, hello,” she half-whispered. “I, um... I was hoping to talk to the two of you about the creature's dietary needs, first off.” She stepped into the room, and the doctor closed the door behind her; her crystal-blue eyes gazed through the window at the creature for a moment. “Miss Wisk, you were responsible for feeding him while he was... in your care, weren't you?”

“Uh... yes, that's right.”

“What was it you fed him?”

“I... I fed him a barley-mash and oat gruel, the one we gave most of the exhibits, mixed with some vegetables. I also gave him fruits at first, but when I figured out that he was an omnivore, I began giving him cooked cuts of fish and meat.”

“...meat?” Fluttershy didn't turn. “From... from what?”

“...look, Miss Fluttershy, we had several animals that were obligate carnivores-”

“Yeah, I was one of them,” Sveti cut in sharply.

Wisk couldn't speak for a moment before she managed to get her vocal chords back under control. “...and we had to keep them fed,” she finished. “We... we trapped wild animals, mostly in the outskirts of the Everfree.”

“I see.” When she finally turned around, Fluttershy's expression was as neutral as could be. “What about other foods? Hay, grasses, flowers? Did he show a preference for them?”

Wisk shook her head. “I offered him some dandelions and fresh barley a couple of times, but he wasn't interested in either. He does eat bread, though.”

“Oh, I see. That's fortunate. It seems as though he'll be able to handle a fair amount of our food.” Fluttershy turned her attention to Sveti. “Miss Windwhisper, I understand diet and nutrition, but I think I could use your help on making food more appealing to him. What kind of dishes are you used to that you think he might enjoy?”

The griffin blinked in apparent shock. “Huh? Um... well, that's actually a good question....” She scratched her head with a claw. “If it's going to be cooked, cook it with seasoning. You can use something as simple as salt and pepper, oregano, thyme... one tercel I knew who worked for the embassy used mustard, even. Personally I love using that barbecue sauce they sell over in the Merchant Quarter- ponies use it for hay fries and tofu burgers, but that stuff is great on a nice cut of steak.”

“Wow. I... I didn't know cooking meat could be so involved.” To her credit, Fluttershy didn't look nearly as put-off by the subject as Wisk would've expected. “Miss Windwhisper-”

“Just Sveti, please.”

Fluttershy smiled. “-Sveti, the embassy staff was sent back to the Empire when the embassy was closed, and we might not have anypony here that would be comfortable with handling meat. If it's not too much to ask... would you be willing to take care of cooking for him?”

“Me?” The hen blinked before chuckling and shaking her head. “We want to feed him, not poison him. I'm the worst cook you'll ever meet.”

Wisk raised her head. “Then tell me how to do the cooking and I'll do it.”

Sveti's glare and Fluttershy's hopeful smile both focused on her. “Oh, would you, Miss Wisk?” the pegasus asked.

“Yeah. I've fed him before; I've figured out what he seems to like and not like, at least for the most part. It's just that everything I've made has been basic. Seasonings, presentation- they ain't really in that particular part of my skillset.”

“Then....” Fluttershy's gaze swept between earth pony and griffin. “I... I understand that there are bad feelings between the two of you. But... could I ask you to work together on this? He's been through so much; anything we can do to make him feel welcome and cared for is important.”

Sveti's nares flared open for a moment before she let out a sigh. “Because it's for him... fine.”

“Oh, thank you so much, Sveti. I know that we can do a lot to make things better for him.” Fluttershy smiled broadly, and the sight lifted some of the weight off of Wisk's heart.

Still, there was something she had to know. “Miss Fluttershy... how is he?” she asked quietly.

The smile fell, though not completely. “It's hard to say. The doctors are sort of guessing, really... but it doesn't look like any of his injuries are critical, and we're all sure that with care and good medicine, he'll be healthy again in no time.”

Wisk let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. “I'm glad to hear that.”

(-)

“I am going to throw those three fillies a parade. I'm serious! I will have them flown to Canterlot and there will be floats and confetti and everything. I'm a Princess; I can make that happen.”

Shining probably thought that he was hiding his smirk behind his hoof, but Twilight could see it as plain as day. She didn't really care, though- she'd literally just been hoofed another treasure trove of oddities, an entire bag full of them, practically confirmed to belong to the creature himself! And now with him actually here to ask....

That was the moment her mood crashed. Argh, the creature, she thought. Unconscious, injured, unable to speak Equish... and probably not feeling very charitable towards ponies right now....

Then she found a pad of paper inside. Paper of such amazing quality and smoothness that she wanted to tear all the sheets out and roll around on them. And on that paper were drawings done in black ink- sketches, really, but nice enough to where she could envision Rarity putting them up on her walls.

“Say... those are actually pretty nice,” Shining commented quietly.

“They are.” Twilight flipped through a few more pages, seeing herself, the other Bearers, and a number of other ponies who called Ponyville home. Then realization hit her, and she almost dropped the pad in shock. “Do you know what this means?!” she gasped.

“Err... I don't think I do, sis,” came the reply.

“We've been having almost zero luck translating the language in the books we retreived from the carriage. I was thinking that we'd have to go through a long, laborious process before we'd even get to communicate with him beyond absolute basics... but if he can conceptualize images and understand simple artistic representations, then we can exchange a variety of concepts practically right out of the gate! Teaching him to understand Equish will be so much easier if we can illustrate concepts on demand.”

“Uhh... Twilight?” She glanced back at him and saw, not the expression of excitement she'd expected, but one of trepidation. “You remember what I told you, right? About what happened when Princess Celestia found him?”

“I, uh....” She frowned. “Well, yeah, I do, but....”

“Twily, we don't understand him at all. We don't know a single thing about his species, aside from that they seem to make good gymnasts. He might not understand things that are critical to our culture, and vice versa. There's a chance he's deranged, or insane, or....” He didn't finish the sentence, but Twilight knew what word he meant- suicidal. “We can't just approach this from the viewpoint that it'll be some fun learning exercise for you.”

“I wasn't....” Her voice trailed off, because she could see that, in fact, she was fixated on the potential for new knowledge, and forgetting the circumstances surrounding all this. “...okay, I was,” she sighed. “I thought I got over this tendency towards monomania!”

“You wouldn't be Twilight Sparkle if you didn't just want to dive into something interesting and not come out until you'd learned everything you could from it.” Shining grinned for a moment before a serious look came over his face. “I'm just being cautious, that's all. We have a pony in the hospital and we don't even know what happened to cause the situation. You remember how Dad always said we knew just how to 'push his buttons'?”

“If I had a bit for every time he'd said that....” Twilight chuckled.

“Heh, yeah. But remember, Twily... this creature's buttons? We have no idea where they are or what they do. Something that seems innocent to us could set him off.”

She paused a moment, considering. “You don't still see him as a threat, do you?” she asked.

His own pause was even longer. “...I don't think I see him as a deliberate one. He had a lot of opportunities to hurt ponies last night- one of which I would've called legitimate self-defense if he'd gone through with it- and he didn't. But his behavior was so erratic that I don't think I can trust him to act rationally... or at least what we'd call 'rational'.”

“And we don't know how much of his erratic behavior is natural and how much was caused by his imprisonment.” Twilight shook her head in disgust. “Ugh, if I ever get my hooves on that Big Top....”

“Now that we have things back to relatively normal, we can get more of the Guard back on that particular problem.” She saw a look of disgust cross her brother's face; he'd been no less affected by that “sideshow” atrocity than she.

They were quiet for a moment as Twilight carefully catalogued everything that was in the bag. Once that was done, she placed all of the items back inside and closed the latch. “I was going to spend more time examining these,” she said, “but I think I'm going to delegate that to the Lambda science team instead. My priority, aside from communicating with the creature, should be studying and understanding his weird effect on magic.”

“Good call. You are the Princess of Magic, after all.” He gave her a slight grin. “But yeah, I hope you can figure that out. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen- it goes against everything I ever learned about magic theory.”

“Oh, you mean the bit where he somehow nullifies or destroys thaumatic energy despite that being explicitly impossible according to everything we know about magic? Yeah, that's a 'weird thing' alright.” She chuckled.

“You know, I had a theory on that... what if he's absorbing it instead? Storing it somehow?”

“Simply judging by the amount of energy he would have had to absorb from my spells in Ponyville when he was running, and then when we tried to transport him... most unicorns would've had a catastrophic thaumatic cascade from that, let alone a pegasus or earth pony. Even I would've had some serious problems in my old body trying to pull that off. And he's shown no signs of arcane bleedoff.” She shook her head. “I'm not saying it's impossible, but unless his body works in ways unlike anything we've ever seen, it should've exploded from trying to do that. Maybe even twice.”

Shining opened his mouth to speak- then froze for a moment as he stared at her. “...can you do that?” he asked quietly. “Can you explode twice?”

“Applejack says 'no', but I'm keeping an open mind.”

(-)

I hurt.

My first conscious thought, though, was to wonder why I didn't hurt more. Not that I wanted to, of course, but after that Internet-video-worthy tumble I'd taken down the stairs, I knew I should have enough cracked ribs and bruises to guarantee at least a few days' worth of being completely miserable. I could only surmise that the ponies had me on something to dull the pain.

Ponies.

And then last night came rushing back into my head like a tidal wave. I forced myself to remain calm- either they had me in a hospital or a cell in a dungeon, and neither was a good place to go panicking... and besides, I was on a bed too soft to be in a cell.

I took stock of my situation. I felt groggy, but not overly so, and decided that either they hadn't had me under anesthesia or it had worn off before I'd awoken. I was covered by a thin but warm blanket and had several soft pillows underneath my head and upper back. My hands and legs were bound, but it was by padded restraints rather than shackles.

The restraints brought to mind what had kicked this entire thing off, and I let out a soft groan as I replayed everything that had happened in my mind. What in the hell was I thinking?! I wondered, resisting the urge to try to facepalm. It was... it was like something short-circuted my common sense. Jesus... what the hell is wrong with me? I couldn't have been more stupid if I'd tried! Running through the city like I was some goddamn action hero, shooting out lamps and leaping over fifty-foot drops... and I jumped out of a fucking window! My God, I'm lucky I've only got restraints; I'd qualify for the full straitjacket-and-padded-room combo deal right now.

It took me a little while to work through my thoughts and self-recrimination, and eventually I decided I'd had enough and did my best to set my feelings aside; I had other things to worry about at the moment, like “where am I” and “what's around me”. Slowly, carefully, I opened my eyes to peer into my surroundings- and found myself in a small but comfortable-feeling room with beige walls, gently lit by what seemed to be late-morning sunlight streaming through the curtains of the window to my left. A door was directly opposite my bed, flanked by a couple of generic-looking but nice paintings, and the floor was tiled in a checkerboard design. Everything was silent, contemplatively rather than oppressively, and I could just catch the faint smell of cleanser of some sort. Definitely a hospital, I decided.

A few seconds later, the door clicked, then opened, and a chestnut-coated unicorn stallion sporting a chocolate-colored mane and a lab coat trotted in. Before I could even think to fake still being unconscious, he noticed my state and paused a moment, then smiled and said something in a quiet voice. A clipboard levitated off the end of my bed, and he made some kind of notation on it before replacing it, then made his way to the left side of the bed, where he magically lifted a pitcher and cup from a bedside table I hadn't noticed. He filled the cup with water and started to float it towards me, then seemed to think better of it, and took hold of it with his hoof- I'd seen all four types of ponies do that, and how they managed was beyond me- and brought it to my lips; realizing how dry my throat was, I gulped down the liquid as fast as he let it pour into my mouth.

Weird that whatever it is I do to magic doesn't cancel that hoof thing, I thought as he drew the cup away.

The doctor took on a thoughtful expression for a moment as he picked up something else I hadn't noticed- another clipboard, this one with several sheets of blank rough paper clipped to it. A quill and inkpot joined the situation- apparently ponies hadn't developed pens- and he carefully scrawled something onto the paper, then showed it to me.

It was a drawing. A rather rough drawing of a handful of objects- a rough caricature of his face next to what looked like a magnifying glass, then an arrow pointing to a sketch of my face. The meaning was clear enough- he wanted to examine me. Once again, I had to resist the tempation to facepalm. Communicating through drawings. Why the hell didn't I think of that?! And why didn't they try it before now?!

I gave him a slow nod of assent, and his expression brightened. He set the writing supplies aside, pulled a stethoscope off from around his neck, then began what seemed to be a pretty routine set of examinations, writing what I assumed were my vital statistics on the chart. It took him about fifteen or so minutes to run through everything he wanted, including taking my temperature and testing my reflexes- which made me realize that, aside from bandages wrapped around my chest, I was nude under the sheet, but I wasn't really going to worry too much about modesty at this juncture- before he put his tools away, motioned with a hoof in what seemed to be a request for me to wait a moment, then stepped out.

A couple more minutes went by before I heard hoofsteps outside the door and the end of what sounded like a hushed conversation- followed shortly by a gentle knock. Reflexively I called out “come in”.

When the door opened, I began to wonder if I should regret doing that.

(-)

“...and his skin seems softer and more vulnerable than pony hide, but it's also incredibly pliant and seems to heal somewhat quicker than our hide... though it appears more prone to scarring as well.”

Twilght frowned slightly at that. “I'd heard he still had a scar from his mistreatment at the 'sideshow'. Is it likely to be permanent?”

The doctor could only offer a shrug. “It's difficult to say... but if I had to guess, then yes, it does seem likely.”

“Another obstacle for him....” She let out a sigh. “I can only hope he's as adaptable as he seems. Thank you for the information, Doctor Measure; I'll call if there's any need.”

“Of course, Your Highness.” Full Measure trotted away, leaving Twilight alone at the room's door. By habit she knocked lightly- and heard a voice say something inside, most likely an analogue to “come in”.

She caught a worried expression on his strange face for a moment before it vanished, replaced by a look of cool neutrality. It was understandable; he was in a very vulnerable position here, and Twilight knew from her studies that many males- and not a few females- were adverse to showing weakness in that sort of situation. “Hello,” she said quietly, knowing he wouldn't understand the word but might at least grasp the intent. She moved a few feet away from the bed, seeing his small grey eyes follow her. They're... actually rather interesting to look at when one gets used to the size, she thought. The doctor was right- it seems that only the pupils change size. How odd.

With a simple bit of spellwork, a large easel- already set up with a pad and markers- translocated into the hospital room. The creature seemed taken aback for just a moment before resuming his former stoic demeanor. Okay, let's get started on talking to each other, she thought, uncapping the black marker and drawing a simple, stick-figure image of a pony, and then writing the word “pony” next to it. “Pony,” she said with as much clarity as she could manage, then pointed the marker at him.

He looked confused for a moment, then uttered something that sounded like a mangled attempt at the same word. He must have thought I wanted him to repeat the word, she thought, even as she tried to repress a grimace at his horrendous pronunciation. “No,” she said, shaking her head- then pointing the marker at him, then the picture. “Your word.”

He still didn't seem to get what she meant, so she also picked up and uncapped a purple marker. She was no artist, but she was able to manage a few crude sketches- a duplicate of the stick-figure pony, with a picture of her face on one side looking at the figure with her mouth open, and a line leading to the word “pony”, and a picture of his face on the other with only a line. She tapped the space next to that line a couple of times, then pointed to him.

She actually saw him comprehend; his eyebrows raised for a moment in conjuction with a quick inward breath. This time he said a completely different word, sounding like gibberish to her- but it also seemed much more natural to him. Her attempt to repeat it got a brief raised eyebrow from him. Yeah, I didn't do any better than he did, she thought. But we're making progress!

Next she drew another picture of her own face, then an arrow- he seemed to understand those well enough- and wrote the first half of her name after that; she wanted to keep this as simple as possible. “Twilight,” she said, tapping her chest with a hoof. He didn't do much better in repeating it, but he at least appeared to understand the difference between species name and personal name.

Now she drew up a different stick-figure, one that looked somewhat like him, and followed it with an arrow and a blank spot, which she tapped with the marker before pointing it at him. This time he caught on immediately, and spoke a bizarre-sounding word- “heu-muhn” was the best that she could mentally transcribe it. Next was a rough sketch of his own face- she caught herself almost drawing pony ears on it out of habit- and another arrow and blank space, which drew the response “pea-tahr”. Idly she wondered what that meant in his language, and decided that her first thought, Creature Who Scares Ponies, was maybe just a little inappropriate.

They'd gotten through a hoofful of important words such as “yes”, “no”, “stop” and the like when a deep rumbling sound caught Twilight's attention. At first she'd worried that she'd gotten him angry somehow- but then she realized that it was his stomach. Ohmigosh, that's right; he hasn't eaten at least since the chimera attack in Ponyville yesterday, she thought, immediately sketching a doodle of his face with his mouth open and an apple with a bite out of it. “Hungry?” she asked.

She got a slight nod from him, having already settled back into his neutral posture the moment his stomach had growled. Satisfied with the response, she motioned for him to wait a moment, then cantered out of the room to find Sveti.

(-)

“He's actually awake?” Sveti couldn't help but blink in surprise. “Ancestors, after what I saw last night I wasn't sure he'd ever wake up again.”

Twilight nodded. “Well, it took some testing, but we've discovered that many of our basic medicines work fairly well with him. Anything magical in composition unfortunately tends to de-nature on contact, but regular chemical compounds don't have that problem. We've been exceptionally fortunate to have a zebra shaman named Zecora who's skilled in potions and the like to help us out.”

“You've got a zebra shaman?” The hen couldn't help but whistle. “That's some good fortune right there. She'd be worth her weight in gold up in the Empire- skilled healers are few and far between, and zebranic tinctures and potions go for a premium.”

“Is that so? I would've thought you could hire some of them to do that for you. Relations have been stable between the Empire and Zebrica for a while.”

“True, but getting a bunch of savannah-dwelling equines to come live in the frozen reaches with flying predators? That's kind of a hard sell.”

“That's, uh... that's a fair point, I guess.” Twilight chuckled quietly, watching as Sveti set the last plate on the cart. “What's on the menu?”

“We decided on a variety for the first meal. Eggs for protein, some flour-based pancakes since he likely can't handle hay, hash browns-”

“Hash browns?” Twilight repeated.

“Donkeys love the stuff, I've heard. It wasn't my idea, but it's worth a shot. Also we've put in a couple of strawberries, a bagel and some maple syrup. Drinks are orange juice and water.”

The pair went silent for a moment as the alicorn pushed the cart forward with her magic. “How are you and Wisk getting along?” Twilight asked after a moment.

Sveti repressed an irritated sigh. “We have a working relationship, Princess,” she said shortly. “And that's it. I know ponies like to believe that everyone can be friends-”

“Not really. Sveti, I won't tell you that you have no right to hate her for what she did; I just want to be sure that you two can work together.” She gave the hen a pensive look. “There's been a lot of mistakes in this whole situation so far. I just want things to go right for once.”

Sveti let out a quiet sigh, mollified somewhat by Twilight's direct manner. “We can. I won't pretend I enjoy it, but so long as the creature can benefit....”

“Oh... we have his name now.” It could've been a smug little smile on the alicorn's face.

“Already?” A spring of desire to know what she could call her rescuer welled up inside her, though she did her best to hide it. “What is it?”

“Pea-tahr.” Twilight wrestled with the strange-sounding word.

Sveti tilted her head. “That almost sounds Griffinic, if maybe horribly pronounced. Odd. You don't mind if I ask him myself, do you?”

“Of course not!” Twilight actually giggled. “I didn't ask you to help just to have you be a glorified chef. If you can make any inroads that I can't, then by all means feel free. I just ask that you be careful.”

“I understand. Thanks, Princess.”

The alicorn's magic opened the door, and Sveti wheeled the cart inside. And there he was- still looking like he'd tussled with a Ursa Minor, but better than he'd been the last time she'd seen him. She noticed with some disdain the padded restraints on his arms and legs. “Are those things necessary?” she asked quietly, indicating them with a tilt of her head.

“I'm hoping they're not,” replied Twilight. “He'll need the upper ones off to eat, of course... if everything goes well, then I'll authorize their permanent removal.” She gave the hen a glance. “I just need to be sure he won't feel the need to do something rash.”

Sveti nodded slowly before turning her attention back to him- and realizing that he'd been watching her the entire time, his expression seemingly a bizarre combination of reserved and hopeful. “Pea-tahr?” she found herself saying.

He actually chuckled. “Peter,” he corrected her.

That brought her to a full stop. “That sounds almost like 'Pétr',” she told Twilight. “That's an Old Griffinic name.”

The alicorn raised an eyebrow. “Really? What's it mean?”

“Stone, or rock.”

Twilight chuckled at that. “Fitting. He's as tough as stone, it seems.”

The hen brought the cart to the side of the bed, then looked him in the eyes and brought one claw up to her chest. “Sveti,” she told him.

A slight smile crossed his strange lips, and he said something that included a noise that might've been her name. Then he shifted his eyes to the cart, and his stomach growled noisily; she couldn't help but laugh. “Let's get you fed,” she told him. “Princess, I'm going to go ahead and take these restraints off his upper limbs, if that's alright?”

“Certainly.”

Carefully she worked at the restraints with her talons, getting them off of him quickly, then set the tray in his lap. His attempt to look only mildly interested in the food crumbled quickly, and it wasn't long before he was practically shoveling it into his mouth. Part of Sveti wanted to laugh, but another part actually felt awed- he'd led a significant portion of Canterlot's population on a chase through half the castle and a good part of the city, from what she'd heard, despite considerable injury and a significant lack of food and proper sleep.

She actually felt a strange feeling of pride when he ended up eating nearly everything on the plate, aside from the strawberries; it took him a few moments to make it clear that he could eat them, but didn't find them palatable. One of the hospital staff retreived the dishes and cart, and Sveti found herself helping Twilight with the creature's- the hew-mahn's, she reminded herself- first language lesson; unfortunately, despite his name's eerie similarity to Old Griffinic, he couldn't understand her native language any better than her adopted one. But while she could tell it was going to be a long while before he was speaking with any sort of fluency, she could also see that he had a sharp mind, his strange grey eyes seeming to snatch up every last bit of information they could.

The lesson was eventually ended by one of the doctors, who insisted that her patient be allowed to rest and recover. After making sure Peter understood that the lessons would continue tomorrow, and allowing him to have his restraints removed completely, Twilight made the materials vanish with her magic, then showed herself and Sveti out; the hen stole one last glance back at him, and he gave her the barest trace of a smile before the door closed.

“Well, I think that went quite well!” the alicorn said. “I'm grateful for your help, Sveti. I could tell you really were a calming influence on him... maybe he'll believe that since you're here, there's no reason to feel threatened." She smiled. "So I'll see you early tomorrow for the next lesson, then?”

“Um... right! Of course, Princess. I'll see you then.”

“I'm looking forward to it! In the meantime I've got duties to attend to, but if you need anything, just send word.” With that, the Princess trotted off.

Sveti watched her leave for a moment, then headed back towards her own temporary quarters, perhaps with a bit more spring in her step than she'd had earlier that day. Experience had taught her not to get her hopes up too high... but after what was unquestionably the worst time of her entire life, it seemed that things were finally beginning to improve again for Sveti Windwhisper.

(-)

“It's in room twenty-three of the Recovery Ward, fourth floor.”

She knew what she was doing was technically illegal, not to mention entirely against orders. She tried not to think about it. “That's useful information,” came the reply from the pony across the table from her; he seemed to sense her unease despite her best attempts to hide it. “We may need more such information from you in the future. Are you willing to provide this?”

She swallowed, then nodded. “I am.”

“Excellent.” The pony across from her leaned back slightly, staring at the mug of cider on the table in front of him. “Sweet Celestia... you are our light in the darkness, our warmth in the cold, but what were you thinking when you elevated that... commoner so far beyond her station? Wholly unprepared, wholly unqualified- perhaps through this creature she's become so fixated on, we can incontrovertibly prove this to Princess Celestia... surely you agree, Sergeant?”

“I, uh... sure, of course.” It was a blatant lie, eagerly gobbled up by the stallion across from her. Air Sergeant Peppermint York knew nothing and cared less about politics, but she fully understood two things- that Twilight Sparkle had completely mishoofed the entire situation involving the Everfree Yeti, and that the selfsame creature had no business lying in a comfortable bed in a hospital, taking up room and resources that should have been dedicated to somepony deserving. If a crowd of overstuffed nobles wanted an easy route to cause political trouble for the Princess, that was fine and dandy... so long as it gave her a route to correct a grevious wrong.

Because the Equestria that Sergeant York pledged to defend didn't coddle monsters that tried to kill ponies. It got rid of them.