A/N: expect no overarching plot. I REALLY don't feel like making up one. This will be more of a 'Slice of life' piece than anything else…

But I might change my mind too. My muse is weird like that. It created THIS, after all.

...

The Codex Equestria: Pony's Fury

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Chapter 2: "First Contact" or "Where's Picard When You Need Him?"

Disclaimer: Hasbro owns MLP, Grand Supreme Overlord of All Coolness, Awesome, Epic and Zombie Dinosaurs Jim Butcher owns the Codex Alera. I'm just playing around in their play boxes. KNEEL BEFORE LAUREN FAUST!

...

I was flying ahead of my burn crew, moving to scout out the croach, when this flying pony comes out of nowhere and hits me! Though in retrospect, I think it said sorry…

— Knight Aeris Zephyrus Anemoius, from A History of Ponies in Carna, by Knight Ignus Equestrius Spicus of New Equestria

...

First Contact

Random ponies falling out of the sky wasn't anything new to Fluttershy. After all, she was friends with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, and had also occasionally tended to Pegasus fillies new to flying, though the Doctor did most of such work.

Fortunately, some element of Equestria was still strong in the place, because the falling thing fell into the soft boughs of a tree, slowing its fall, until it landed on the squishy croach, which broke its fall, the croach's surface breaking as it did so.

The wax spiders immediately swarmed, going for the interloper.

"STOP!"

Immediately, the wax spiders ground to a halt. While no Vord Queen, it was the first direct order they had been given that they found intelligible. Besides, that Stare…

They backed away from the fallen intruder as the-one-who-was-not-queen-but-would-do-for-now walked up to this strange things. They would normally either will it or bury it in croach, but queens could be weird like that. Of course, they shouldn't get too weird, but that was for other queens to decide.

Fluttershy approached this new creature carefully, already nervous from the wax spiders' sudden rush. Its hind legs were unnaturally straight, and the pony worried that they were broken. It's forelegs seemed to have been dislocated too. She winced at the thought of having them splayed that far apart. Cautiously, she nuzzled forward, feeling its limbs with her muzzle. They didn't feel broken, thankfully, though a touch of the shiny parts revealed they were some sort of metal armor. Oh dear. That might be problematic. Armor was always hard to remove, and it could get complicated if this poor thing had broken any ribs under it. A fall like that…

Fluttershy paused, then looked up. There were no balloons up above, no copters, no Pinkie Pie or anything Pinkie Pie related. Where had it come from? No catapult in town she knew of could throw anypony that far or that high, and if Pinkie had built one, she'd already be here to see what had happened.

Shaking her head free of such thoughts, she turned to her new spider friends. "Um, excuse me, but could you please help me get this poor thing inside? That was a nasty fall, and I want to make sure it's all right. Uh, that is, if it's not too much trouble?"

The wax spiders looked at each other and sorta shrugged. Then they picked up the fallen thing and dragged it inside the little house.

...

On The Matter of Twilight Sparkle

"Feeling better?" Spike asked as Twilight finished breathing into a paper bag.

Twilight nodded, the bag still in place.

"No insane desire to do anything crazy?" Spike pressed.

Twilight Sparkle shook her head.

"No urge to teleport everywhere instead of walking like a normal pony?"

Shake.

"No wanting to cause chaos to try justifying why you're late?"

Shake.

"No chores for me tonight?"

Sha— "Spike!"

The dragon shrugged. "Worth a shot," he told the readers. "What? I do this almost as much as Pinkie does, or haven't you noticed?"

Twilight shook the bag off her face. "Okay, let's think about this logically. There's gotta be a reason why I can't send the Princess my letters. Maybe the Princess is in another castle?"

"Yes, we know that psychicscubadiver guy already did that one," Spike whispered.

"Maybe…" Twilight gasped. "Spike! Maybe Canterlot has been overrun by an evil alchemical smooze that's eating everything in sight, devouring everypony in its way as it sets out to consume the world! It could be headed here even as we speak!"

They looked out the window. The sun was shining on a perfectly normal day, with absolutely no smooze or voices in anyone's head calling out anyone's name.

Spike shrugged. "Eh, too 80s anyway."

"Maybe we've been transported to another world by some kind of random wormhole phenomenon!" Pinkie Pie cried. "Maybe the whole town has been!"

Twilight jumped. "Pinkie! When did you get here?"

"I've been here the whole time, silly-filly," Pinkie said. "You just haven't noticed me because the narration hasn't mentioned me until now."

Twilight stared at her.

"I gave you my paper bag," Pinkie reminded her helpfully.

Twilight stared some more. "No, that can't be right…"

Pinkie just grinned and gave her a noogie. "Aw, stress is making her go nuts again," she said. "Stressed Twilight is stressed."

Rarity nodded in agreement. "Maybe you should come with us next time Fluttershy and I go to the spa, Twilight."

Twilight jumped. "RARITY!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Rarity looked offended. "I've been here the whole time," she huffed.

Twilight stared.

"I'm the one who suggested Pinkie give you her paper bag to hyperventilate into," Rarity added helpfully.

Twilight stared some more. Then, slowly, she called out, "Fluttershy? Apple Jack?"

Rarity, Spike and Pinkie Pie gave her an odd look. "Twilight, they're not here," Spike said. "You feeling all right?"

Twilight sighed in relief. "Yeah, just making sure I didn't miss anypony. So, it's just the four of us?"

Rainbow Dash gave her a dirty look. "Hey! I'm here too!"

Twilight nodded sagely. Obviously, stress had gotten to her, making her miss the blindingly obviously. She told herself that's what had happened, and that the universe hadn't just played a cruel gag on her for cheap laughs. "Sorry. Stress. What's up?"

"My house is gone!" Rainbow Dash cried dramatically in a way worthy of Rarity. "Twilight, my house is gone! My sweet, sweet, earthquake-proof, flood-proof, forest-fire proof penthouse apartment with the tantric-inlaid wainscoting, rainbow jacuzzi, my closet of designer ponyshoes, and my home-made Wonderbolts flight suit, it's all gone, all of it! Someone stole my house last night while I was over at Apple Jack's!"

"Why were you at Apple Jack's?" Twilight asked, wondering how exactly you inlaid wainscoting made of clouds.

"Well, it's not like she can sleep over at my place," Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight considered that and decided that train of thought was unacceptable so near the start of a narrative innocent little fillies and colts might accidentally read. "O-kay, never mind. Someone stole your house? Any clues to who did it?"

"No! Darn it, I should have sprung extra for the security system!"

Twilight neatly avoided asking how you put a security system on a cloud. No, she'd already had too much stress for today. "Then I'm not sure how I can help you, Rainbow Dash. I'm a magician, not a detective."

"If only we had some who was a magician AND a detective!" Pinkie said. "That'd be real convenient right about now. Unfortunately, this is the wrong kind of Jim Butcher crossover. Darn it!"

"My poor house! Of all the worst things that could happen, this is THE! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!" Dash cried.

"That's my line," Rarity huffed. "Stop wearing it out."

...

First Communication

Fluttershy was wondering if she should call someone to help her take of her patient's armor when they let out a groan.

"Oh, no, please stay still," she said, moving towards the head of the appropriately-sized bed she'd cobbled together for her patient, the reflector on her head wobbling slightly. "I'm not sure how serious everything is yet. You might hurt yourself."

Her patient groaned again, and Fluttershy frowned. 'Medico'? She vaguely got the sense of it, but it was hard to be sure. She could understand creatures that didn't speak Equestrian, to a degree (it was how she got animals to trust her), but it took a while to get the point across, and sometimes it still took guesswork.

"No, don't try to talk yet," Fluttershy said, keeping her voice reassuring and comforting. At this point, the tone would convey more than the words themselves. "Just lean back and rest. You took a nasty fall. If the tree hadn't broken your fall, you'd have been a goner."

The creature groaned, struggling to open its eyes, and Fluttershy readied a gentle smile to help put it at ease. It blinked a few times, then raised its head to look around, something like a frown its face. It turned to her, looking confused.

"Hello, big friend," she said. "I'm Fluttershy. Nice to meet you."

It blinked at her, then raised a foreleg to its face. The strange toes on the end of its paw pinched at its features as Fluttershy looked on in concern and confusion. It muttered to itself as it did this, before looking back at her.

She raised a hoof, and hesitantly tried to approximate the face-pinching gesture, tried to reproduce its mutters as well as she could. It had been going on about crows and drinking. Was it thirsty perhaps?

Her patient just looked more bewildered. At least, she thought it did. She wasn't sure she was reading its expressions right.

"Are you thirsty?" she said, trotting over to the pitcher and pouring some water onto a dipper and offering it to the creature. Still staring, it hesitantly took the dipper and took a sip.

Fluttershy smiled and nodded in approval. "I'm Fluttershy. Do you have a name?"

And thus were Aleran/Equestrian relations established.

The wax spiders scuttling in was almost a mood breaker.

...

"Oh, I hope the poor thing is going to be all right," Fluttershy said, watching the retreating form of the strange creature, somehow flying through the air despite not having wings. She frowned and looked at her roof. "I wish it hadn't gone through my ceiling, though."

"Fluttershy! I need your help!"

Fluttershy turned as Apple Jack trotted over the bridge in front of her house, whose stream, the pegasus noted, seemed to have gone dry. "What is it?"

"These big spider things have been doing stuff to my apple trees!" Apple Jack said, then jerked as she saw the wax spiders nearby. "Gah! They're here too?-!"

"Oh, they're my new friends," Fluttershy said. "That's Peter, and Miguel, and May, and Brock…"

"Well, can you do something about the ones at my farm?" Apple Jack said. "They're putting some kind of wax all over them…"

...

It took a few weeks for word of this strangeness to reach the First Lord. Fortunately for the poor Knight Aeris, he didn't have to take being ridiculed for seeing winged talking horses for long. It was easy to see a croach-free area the size of a town and an apple orchard, with a few other farms to boot. The fact the ponies were brightly-colored helped.

They still wondered why the little ponies weren't being eaten by Vord, though.

...

The arrival of the Equestrians was of great benefit to Carna, a benefit that might not have been realized even two years ago. The talents which they freely share— or at least, as freely as anyone ever shares services of great value— have been a great incentive to everyone to make peacetime stay peacetime, especially Ambassador Equestrius Trepidutimeda's ability to communicate with and, if not exactly control, at least tame the Vord.

And on a personal note, people no longer consider my plans insane. Countess Roseusia Crustuma Revela sees to that. She doesn't seem to mind people call her Insanar. In fact, she's actually asked me if I could make it an official Crown House. I'm tempted to go through with it.

Hmm… First Lord Insanar Tavarus Magnus…

Oh, why not. I'm the First Lord, after all. I can reward original thinking if I want!

Flying machines… who would have thought. Max is still asking me why I didn't think of it first.

— from the writings of Gaius Octavian, on the founding of the honor name Insanar, the Crown's House of the Inspired.

...

Somewhere, Harry Dresden peered around nervously. "Ponies," he muttered. "I know there are ponies nearby, why can't I see them…?-!"

...

- To be continued...

...

A/N: Equestria can be a bit cartoony in its physics, more so when Pinkie is around. Carna is not. Only Pinkie will really notice the shift, but it's there…

It was only a matter of time, Tavi…

The first in-show, non-intro use of the balloon was by Pinkie. Twilight is NOT the type to muck around with such things. She's a scholar, not an engineer. So logically, the balloon must be Pinkie's.

Everyone has a language here. Alerans speak a form of Latin that's based on the Latin the Romans used, Canim speak Canish, all the Marat clams have their own languages, Vord have whatever they use to communicate that isn't queen telepathy, etc. Ponies speak Equestrian, which coincidentally sounds like English.

The talking cows did not come with Ponyville. They were in a herd out of town, and the pigs don't talk. So only talking ponies abound.

Please review, C&C welcome.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.