I was expected to eat it, I imagined as I looked down in the bowl of steaming... something. It was brown, but in a non-uniform fashion, lighter and darker areas pervaded the semi-solid substance. The smell was not unpleasant.

Red was watching me, Orange had said something to him before she left, though I hadn't heard it. If anything, I imagined it was something along the lines of 'keep an eye on her' though I couldn't be sure. Still, I wasn't particularly bothered by it; I wasn't too keen on being alone.

Red seemed bothered that I wasn't eating it. I wasn't averse to the food, I was just unsure as to how I was supposed to eat it. There was a handle sticking out of the bowl. Something deep in the back of my mind told me I was supposed to use it to eat with it.

"Do ya not like oatmeal?" Red asked me. He still had that troubled look.

So it was oatmeal. I'd remembered oats, they were dry and cold, not moist and warm. I shifted a little on the bed and the bowl tipped slightly, as if threatening to spill its contents onto the sheets. I grabbed it with my front hooves, the movement felt both foreign and natural at once. I pushed those thoughts out of my mind.

I dipped my head towards the bowl, I could feel Red's eyes boring into me. At least, I thought I could. I took a bite. It was delicious, to put it simply. The flavor of oats was easily recognizable but there was more, sweetness, and a hint of... spice.

I felt the corners of my mouth curl up. 'A smile', the thought entered my mind unbidden. Still, I was hungry, I felt like I hadn't eaten in ages, and so I took a second bite, and a third, and a fourth. The bowl was empty before I was completely satisfied but it couldn't be helped.

My ears swiveled around as the distance sound of hoofsteps on wood echoed into the room, I lifted my head from the bowl and turned to the door, Red was already looking. Orange was on her way down the hall, I recognized her voice, but there was also a second set of steps following behind.

"Twi, I don't know where she came from but... well you take a look at 'er," Orange said as she appeared in the doorway. I caught a flash of purple. Two stepped into the room. Lavender, not quite purple, I was wrong.

Lavender had a spike sticking out of her head, I wasn't sure why that was, but it made me a little nervous. She looked at me, we locked eyes. I saw... I thought I may have seen recognition. Her head-spike was enveloped in a purple glow; a pencil and a pad of paper floated out of...somewhere, and hovered in front of her.

'Nope.' I launched myself backwards off the bed, all four hooves in the air for a moment before I felt the hard wood floor under me, and I backpedaled right up against the wall, my eyes locked on the floating pad. Red, Orange, and Lavender stared at me in mute shock; I heard the pencil hit the floor.

"Miss... are you alright?" Lavender asked. I shook my head. Of course I wasn't alright, she'd just... done something with otherworldly powers. She was talking. A talking horse, but not quite a horse... just different enough to be... disturbing.

And I was the same. I sighed, I shouldn't have been worrying about that kind of thing, shouldn't have been able to worry about that kind of thing, but there I was, cowering in the corner like a foal because of a little... otherworldly magic. I wanted to answer her, wanted to tell her... something, but the words wouldn't come to mind, wouldn't have come out of my mouth even if they had.

Red and Orange split up and walked to opposite corners of the room on the side away from me, Lavender came up the middle. 'They mean to herd me.' The thought sprung up into my mind. Fight or Flight, now or never. My body was bunched up like a coiled spring.

The door was unguarded, Lavender's head-spike lit up with that soft purple glow. I kicked off the wall and launched myself over the bed in a single leap. Lavender followed my path with her eyes, I recognized shock on her face. I crossed the threshold, sunlight was pouring in at the end of the tunnel.

I lowered my head and charged, a burst of acceleration. I could hear the hoofclops on the wooden floor behind me, could hear Red, Orange, and Lavender shouting at me, I didn't care, the wind was in my mane, I was out the door, out of the house. I was in the sun, the dirt beneath my hooves.

I was out in the world again, the sky above me, ground below. I charged down the path with reckless abandon, let them try to catch me. I saw two more of the not-quite-horses in front of me, my mind assigned them as Mint and Cream. They looked at me in what I knew to be confusion as I sprinted past. I caught a flash of orange in the corner of my eye.

It was Orange, she had caught up, was running alongside me. I saw rope in her mouth. 'Not today.' She might have been fast, had to be to have caught up, but this was in my blood, I was born to run. I let out something resembling a laugh as I lowered my head and pushed harder, started pulling away from my pursuer.

The path changed abruptly, from dirt to rock. Bricks. I started to slip, the world spun around in a blur as my momentum carried me off of my hooves. I felt the ground slip from under me and felt my hide hit the road. I rolled, end over end, flashes of Red and Orange and green and blue and white and yellow.

I slid to a stop and shook the daze from my head, I was sore but... not out of the woods yet, shoved myself back onto my hooves. I was surrounded, the not-quite-horses were on all sides, all colors, some with wings, some with head-spikes, some like Red and Orange and Cream. Buildings surrounded me, carts with wheels covered in vegetables, fruits, grains...

Lavender appeared in front of me in a flash of light, I snorted and lowered my head. Running hadn't worked, I was fast but I was hurt. Still, If flight wouldn't work, that still left fight. I pawed at the brick with my front hoof, stared down Lavender, even as Red and Orange pushed through the herd to stand next to her.

And then I charged.