“And now, we start the water and adjust the temperature.” Mike kept on explaining.

Mike then reached up to the end of the tub and turned on the cold water. After that, Mike opened up the hot water tap; just a crack. After 20 seconds or so, Mike put his hand in the water and held it there. The water was pretty cold but not so cold as to make his hand ache.

Mike guessed that the water was at about the right temperature; he hoped that he was right. It needed to be warm enough to break up the ice rapidly. But he was afraid that the running water would suck the heat out of this creature’s body even faster than the ice did. Warm water held its own dangers.

Maybe it's simply not possible to do this. I might end up killing this Twilight creature, Mike thought, despairingly.

“Right, here we go,” He said aloud, suppressing his doubts.

Mike grabbed the hand shower and switched the water flow over to it. Fine needle jets of cold water began spraying out of it. Mike quickly moved the nozzle over to Twilight's head and directed the water jets over its mane, between its ears, and over its face. He made sure to keep the water playing over a small area. Very quickly, the ice that was encrusting its mane and fur started breaking off.

Next, holding the shower spray away from Twilight's body and off to the side, Mike grabbed a face cloth and lightly rubbed down the deiced area, eliminating the last of the ice and removing excess water.

Mike was startled to see the colors that were revealed from under the ice. The creature’s fur was a rich lavender color. Its mane was colored a dark navy blue. Most surprising, were two coherent stripes of color which ran through the mane. One stripe was a deep purple color and the other a rather vivid pink.

Not allowing himself to be sidetracked by the creature's unusual color scheme, Mike proceeded down along its body. He was now deicing Twilight's neck. Deice, rub down and move on.

After its neck, Mike moved on to the creatures withers and shoulders, first the left side, then the right side. He was only taking a small section each time, to avoid overexposing Twilight to the chilling water. As he proceeded, Mike became aware that he was mentally applying equine terminology to the creature’s anatomy.

It does look rather like a horse, except for that strange horn and those freaky wings and, of course, its color scheme. So it’s probably best to use the most relevant terminology. Maybe I should think of it as a ‘miniature horse’? Ahah! That’s a ‘pony.’ It even sounds better than calling it a 'horse.'

When he reached the middle of the pony's barrel, where the wings were attached, the deicing got a little complicated. First Mike took a wet face cloth to wipe the melting ice off of the pony's wings. it came off easily due to it not adhering too well to the pony's feathers.

Next, Mike unwrapped the bath towel's ends, from where they lay over the top of the pony's ice covered back, folding the ends of the towel outwards, over the outside of its wings. Using his right hand, Mike pressed down firmly on the towel over Twilight's right wing, compressing the towel, like as gasket, between the wing and the pony's barrel. Mike then brought over the shower head, still being held in his left hand and soaked down the right side of Twilight's back.

As soon as he had deiced the right side of Twilight's back, Mike removed the towel from under its right wing, and rubbed down the wetted area of its back. The fur under the pony's wing, happily, had remained dry. Cheered by this small victory, Mike quickly switched the shower head to his right hand, and proceeded to deice the left side of Twilight’s back.

After getting past Twilight's complicated wings, it was a simple matter to finish off the rest of the pony's body with the simple motions that had been established earlier. In less than ten minutes, the whole ordeal was over. The last part was deicing Twilight's tail. Pulling it out behind the creature, Mike simply ran the shower head over it for a few seconds until all the ice had broken up. A fresh towel was used to pat the tail dry. Mike did note in passing, however, that the tail had the same color scheme as did the mane on Twilight's head and neck.

“Right, that's done, so let’s get you dry,” Mike spoke up again, as he shut off the water.

Twilight's ear gave a slight twitch. Noticing this, Mike smiled. He took it as a sign that his very important guest was, no longer unconscious, though possibly half-dreaming in some fugue state of consciousness.

“No arguments now. Getting you dry is very important. So please forgive me if some of this makes you uncomfortable.” Mike laid out another dry bath towel on the floor.

The ear gave another twitch. “Thank you,” Mike said, with a smile in his voice. “I believe we are having a most stimulating conversation. Don't you think?” The ear rose up slightly.

“Okay. I am now going to lift you out of the bathtub. Please try to remain calm. I won't hurt you.” The ear dipped momentarily but then gave another twitch. Mike took the movement as a sign of consent.

Mike reached down into the tub and cautiously slid his arms underneath the pony. Carefully he rose, bringing Twilight up over the rim of the tub to place it down gently onto the large towel lying on the floor.

Mike grabbed whatever dry towels remained and started to gently pat down Twilight's fur again. He could not, however, dry the pony too vigorously, since excessive rubbing would stimulate blood flow, cool down its core temperature and risk its life. Also, skin that had been excessively chilled could become delicate and was easily damaged.

Holding up Twilight's head with one hand cupped under it, he gently wiped its face dry, using a few light patting motions over its closed eyes. Mike used similar light pats of the towel to dry its ears.

Soon Mike had dried Twilight's entire body, even having rolled the pony onto its side in order to dry its belly. Mike took extra care to close his eyes and use a thick towel when approaching Twilight's nether regions, figuring that 'sexing' the pony could be extremely insulting and probably lead to false conclusions anyway. It was after all an alien. What if its species came in five different flavours?

Just as he was finishing up, Mike noticed that there were blood stains on some of his towels. His breath caught as he worried that he had done something stupid, and injured Twilight. Anxiously, he took a closer look at his guest. He quickly noticed that the pony had several nasty abrasions and cuts to the lower parts of its legs, which were sluggishly oozing blood.

Wow, your blood is red, just like mine, Mike thought in amazement.

Getting up to rummage through the bathroom's vanity, Mike found a large roll of gauze, a package of cotton balls a bottle of spray antiseptic and antibiotic cream.

“Okay,” he said. “I can see that you have some cuts on your legs.” Twilight's ear dropped just slightly.

“It’s nothing too serious, but I'm just gonna wrap them up with some bandages so they can heal cleanly.” An ear twitched.

Mike grabbed a leg, and sprayed it generously with the antiseptic. He then spread antibiotic cream onto the various cuts. Putting cotton balls over the deeper cuts, to absorb any blood, he then wrapped the appendage with gauze. Finally he tied off the gauze wrapping.

In similar fashion, Mike managed to treat all four legs of the pony.

“There. You’re all done now. Let’s get you warmed up.” Mike stated, with some satisfaction while looking to the pony’s ears. They amused him. He thought them quite expressive and rather charming.

Mike did not see any reaction from Twilight. Suddenly, he was seized with the realization that he had messed up big time. Performing the first aid for a minor issue had taken some time and had distracted Mike from the major life-threatening condition that was now threatening Twilight.

I'm so stupid! He thought bitterly. I got distracted by some minor bleeding, but I should have been focusing on getting Twilight warmed up again. I left Twilight lying there on my bathroom floor, with damp fur. Now its lost consciousness. And it's hardly shivering anymore.

Twilight needs to be warmed up, but it needs to be done gently. The only thing I can think of is to share my body heat.

Up until that moment, Mike had been studiously avoiding any thoughts along those lines, shying away from the idea of having that much contact with the alien. Reluctantly he was forced to embrace the notion. There is no other way. I don't have a second to lose.

Urgently, Mike scooped up Twilight. Cradling the pony in his arms, he carried it into his bedroom and placed it upon his bed. Throwing off his bathrobe, Mike climbed into bed with Twilight and pulled up the covers. Slowly, hesitatingly, Mike reached out and pulled the pony towards his body.

Ahh! That's cold! Mike gave a mental shout, as the chilled pony shocked his body.

Indeed, Twilight's fur was still damp and had cooled down significantly. Gritting his teeth, Mike drew Twilight firmly up against his body. Mike rolled over onto his back, drawing the pony’s body up fully on top of his own abdomen and torso. The full weight of the pony, almost 50 kilos, pressed itself firmly against his body, abdomen to abdomen, chest to chest, maximizing the thermal contact.

With a free arm, Mike rearranged the pillows, laying his head on just the very end of one and piling the second pillow upon the portion of the first pillow he was not occupying so that it overlapped his right shoulder. Next, he arranged for Twilight's head to come over his right shoulder to lay upon the second pillow. Finally, Mike reached up, under Twilight's wings and clasped his hand behind the pony's back. His arms could warm the pony's sides a little and his hands might do the same for its back.

Mike was starting to shiver now, Twilight's body having already sucked up a portion of his own warmth. On the plus side, the parts of their bodies in contact with each other had started to accommodate nicely, so that he no longer felt like he was holding an ice cube.

Some time passed as Mike lay there patiently, shivering constantly, if not too violently. At the moment he was resisting the stupid temptation to let his hands explore the sensory landscape offered by the pony's fur. As Mike thought about it, he realized that his hands were located over the pony's hindquarters, just a little up from its tail. Cautiously, he shifted his grip a little higher up its spine.

Next, Mike became aware that the unconscious pony's hind legs had dropped down on either side of his waistline. In effect, Twilight was straddling his hips in a very intimate manner. The use of Twilight's inner thighs in this arrangement was certainly optimal for maximizing the surface area of their body to body contact but it brought a certain embarrassment to Mike.

Great, I'm being mounted by an alien pony, he reflected wryly to himself.