//------------------------------// // Chapter 4. A Friend From The Past // Story: The Land Before Hooves // by Moon Flame //------------------------------// While Rainbow Dash, Apple Jack and Fluttershy were having their encounter with Cera, Twilight Sparkle and Littlefoot had conversation about their worlds. Twilight told the longneck about Equestria. Littlefoot was in complete ecstasy, his widened eyes sparkling with enthusiasm, his tail wavering happily left and right. Twilight was now telling him about the dragons. “...So, you se, that is what the dragons do when they choose their leader.” Twilight said in her lecture voice. Reading and learning new stuff was Twilights hobby and she was more than happy with being a teacher. “So they then have this test, and whoever finds the gauntlet becomes the next dragon lord?” Littlefoot asked enthusiastically. “Yes. And then, whoever holds the gauntlet gets to make decisions concerning other dragons” Twilight lectured. “But what happens if two dragons grabs the gauntlet at the same time?” Littlefoot asked “Well, then it’s up to the current dragon lord to decide witch one is the winner.” Twilight answered. “Oh...” Littlefoot paused. “But what if the gauntlets fire goes out before a dragon reaches it?” “Well, then they light a new fire.” Twilight lectured and smiled. “Oh... But what if...?” The minutes passed. Twilights happy teacher smile slowly transformed into a nervous smile of incredulous. The questions from this longneck just kept on coming and coming. Twilight never thought she would ever get tired of lecturing but, by Celestia, this longneck had actually succeeded. There suddenly were the sound of confetti popping. Littlefoots head was covered in colors. “Surprise!” Pinkie Pies ear piercing voice blasted in his face. Twilight thought she might hug Pinkie Pie. “Eh...Wha...” Littlefoot was quickly mouth blocked. Pinkie Pie said everything following in one breath. “I was getting ready to move out with the others when i realized that we hadn’t had a Welcome To Be Your Friend party so i thought i’d bring up my party cannon that i always have with me in case of friendship emergencies like this one...” Pinkie Pie was jumping happily up and down, constantly coming in and out of view from Littlefoots longneck perspective. Littlefoot desperately tried to clam in his words between Pinkie Pies cascade of syllables. “Party cannon...?... Cupcakes...? Ice cream...?” “...Aren’t you exited, cause I'm exited when you are exited and since we don’t have much time to be exited it makes me even more exited...” Littlefoot smiled nervously, but a smile was still a smile, and that was exactly what the smile expert Pinkie Pie had been waiting for. “Whoaaaaaaah” Pinkie Pie gave out a long gasp of excitement.” I have an idea! Why don’t we gather the rest of your friends from your past and we can have a this GIANT party all of us together!” Pinkie Pie jumped up on Littlefoots tail and onto his back. “My friends from the past?! But... how did you know?” Pinkie Pie stopped jumping. She grabbed Littlefoots head and pulled it toward her, looking into his eyes. “Oh please Littlefoot, you may not have smiled for moons, but i could see your laugh lines from a mile away. Only a happy friend would have those lines. In fact, judging from your laugh lines, you had a couple of them at least.” Pinkie Pie smiled confidently. Littlefoots face stared in disbelief. His face slowly lowered into sadness. He lowered his eyes. Pinkies party smile faded. “Whats wrong?” Littlefoot looked up at her again and spotted Pinkies sad expression. “Oh. Nothing.” He shook his head, then added in a personal tone. “Well... Yes, and no. Its a long story... I’m sorry, your name.” “Pinkie Pie.” “Yes, Pinkie Pie.” There was a short silence when Pinkie Pie watched Littlefoots eyes fade between telling and not telling. “Its fine, you don’t need to tell me, I'm just happy that we can all be friends.” Littlefoot went through a short crisis. He sighed. He pulled his head out of Pinkie Pies personal space, and told his story from the beginning. Pinkie Pie jumped down to Twilight. “I was born out here in the wild lands. My father left my mother before i hatched, didn’t meet him until much later in my life. Me and my mother traveled together with my grandparents those early days. We followed the other herds of leaf eaters toward where the big sky circle touches the ground, past the mountain that looks like a longneck, past the fiery mountains.” Littlefoot paused. “...The way to The Great Valley.” Littlefoots highly pitched but still close to the ground voice was well suited for storytelling. Twilight and Pinkie Pie listened passionately to his story. “It was then that there was a big Earthquake. Me and Cera, a threehorn that I meet earlier was attacked by a Sharptooth during the earthquake. We would have died if my mother hadn’t intervened. She managed to throw the Sharptooth down a ravine but was hurt in the process.” Littlefoot sighted. There was a long pause. “...She died in front of me.” Twilight was paralyzed, her eyes sparkled with sadness. Pinkie Pie had started crying. “H...h...h...Thats so saaaaad!” Pinkie sailed the word. Littlefoot didn’t flinch. he had gotten over his mothers death a long time ago, although that didn’t mean talking about it had gotten any easier. “...After my mother died i was alone for a while, and i probably would have died alone if it weren't for me and Cera finding each other again. She was always a bit of a leaf grubber granted.” Littlefoot smiled modestly. “...But she was all i had, and all i needed at the time. Eventually i met Ducky, a swimmer. Petri was a flyer that couldn’t fly, i remember him falling down on top of my nose when i meet him for the first time. Ducky found an orphan egg, the egg hatched Spike...” “Spike?! Where?” Twilight exclaimed while wailing her head around. Littlefoot looked at her in bewilderment. Pinkie Pie held her hoof over her mouth to contain her laughter. Twilight looked at them both and laughed blushing. “Hehehe, never mind.” Twilight rid her thoughts of her baby dragon back in Equestria. “...Now Spike was a spike tail, he didn’t talk much, and rarely would he talk for as long as i knew him, but what he lacked in words he made up for in friendliness. Eventually Petri learned how to fly too, about time he did so since he was right over the mouth of a sharptooth at the time. Together... Me, Cera, Ducky, Petri and Spike, we traveled to the mountain that looked like a longneck and past the fiery mountains, and eventually we found it, The Great Valley.” The silence was complete as Twilight and Pinkie Pie listened. “...Spike continued living with Duckys family as her adoptive brother, i remember her having several sisters and brothers. Cera found her father and lived with him and i found my grandparents and lived with them. Together we had many adventures me and my friends. Times were sometimes hard, granted, but together we always found a way. The end” There was a along silence. “What an amazing tale.” Pinkie Pie said in wonder. “But what happened?” Twilight asked. “Happened?” Littlefoot said. “Yes. What was it that caused you separate?” Littlefoot sighed. “It’s complicated.” The longneck paused. He seemed to think about his words before he said them. “It all started with the death of my grandparents. I mourned them for many nights but, eventually, it wasn’t a difficult thing to accept, they were both very old. After their deaths i waited for my father to come home and decide what would become of me. While i waited i slept over with my friends families. Eventually...“ “Wait...” Twilight interrupted. “You slept over with their families? Were there no other longnecks in the valley?” “No Twilight, there weren't. There were a few grown ones at first but they left pretty early since they didn't have any kids.” Littlefoot then added modestly. “There were a family of tiny ones, but they had enough trouble without some giant constantly growing longneck trying to squeeze himself inside their nests. Spike had an encounter with a herd of his own kind earlier. He almost left with them one winter but decided to stay with Ducky that time, but eventually his longing for a family of his own became to strong.” Littlefoot sighed. “...One summer they returned, it was then that he decided to leave with them.” “How did your friend Ducky take that?” Twilight asked. “Not well, not well at all, but eventually she realized that it was the right thing to do to let Spike live and socialize with his own kind for a while, especially since one of them was a another spiketail child he befriended, what was his name?" Littlefoot thought for a moment. "Tippy. That was his name.” “Oh, a new friend. So sweet.” Pinkie Pie put her hooves under her chin and bent her head in a adoring way. Littlefoot continued. “It went well for a while, living with my friends families, but it was then it came.” Littlefoot paused for a dramatic effect. “...The Big Drought.” Twilight and Pinkie Pies faces twisted in worry. “As i said, I'm not sure exactly what happened between us after that, but as the trees slowly died and the food became more and more scarce, me and my friends started fighting.” “Oh no.” Twilight said. As the princess of friendship, who had the responsibility of solving friendship crises, she had enough experience to know what heartache friends fighting each other could potentially cause. There were now a long silence from Littlefoot. He opened his mouth, like he was about to tell more, but it froze in place as his face sunk into denial. In the end he just said. “...And then i decided to leave.” “But...?” “...But what a nice surprise Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie Pie was interrupted by Littlefoot. “I have no idea how that cannon of yours work but i think i’ll save myself for a big party with you and your friends.” Pinkie Pie was about to press Littlefoot further but she realized that he didn’t want to talk about why he left his friends. She smiled at his kind words. “Thank you, Littlefoot.” Pinkie looked down at Littlefoots feet, which were anything but what his name suggested. She giggled at his name. “I like your name.” Littlefoot smiled modestly. His eyes trailed of. “Yea. My mom gave it to me.” Pinkie Pie decided to leave him alone from her questions. The camp of the others slowly came into view as Rainbow Dash, Apple Jack and Fluttershy went over the sand slope. With them they had their new found friend. Granted, she had been a bit mean and grumpy at the beginning. But there seemed to be something genuine about her, Rainbow Dash felt, who thought she deserved a second chance. She saw Rarity packing for departure. They saw Littlefoot, Twilight and Pinkie Pie talking further ahead. “So how many of you ponies are there?” Cera asked. “I mean, do you even know...” Ceras gasped. Her eyes widened in disbelief. A lonely tear formed in her right eye. Target acquired. Ready... Set... Go! Twilight and Pinkie Pie was talking to the longneck about their lives when there suddenly were the sound of sand being trampled. Littlefoot gasped. He went sailing several feet through the air, his cutie mark glistening in the sun. His huge body created a long crater when he landed. Littlefoot caught up with his breath. His eyes widened in disbelief. “Cera?” A huge smile formed on his face. His eyes glistened in pure joy. “Cera! Its really you!” “Hello... LEAVER!” Cera exclaimed angrily. “Cera. How glad i am to se you!” “Well...” Cera seemed to flinch for a moment. ”Well I'm not. Hm!” Cera turned her head away. “How do you know that Cera?” Littlefoot asked, still smiling widely. “Well...” Cera hesitated. “Because i just slammed into you and I'm standing over you.” Littlefoots smile relaxed into a friendly chill. “Well, i guess one of us is going the wrong way then, don't we?” Littlefoot started laughing. Cera looked at Littlefoot again. Her anger faded. A large smile formed on her usually grumpy face. Soon the air was filled with both Littlefoots and Ceras laughter. They both stood up and studied one another. Littlefoot thought Cera had grown substantially since the last time he saw her. Her nose horn was bigger. Two more horns protruded in front of her facial disc, which had also grown. Together with her yellow skin it made her almost look like the sun poking out from behind the horizon. Cera had to strain her eyes to look at Littlefoot once he stood up. His body was bigger and his tail was longer, but the real difference could be seen once he stretched his neck. It must be at least double the length from the last time she saw him. She remembered them having to climb a tree on their way to The Great Valley to find food, a long time ago. She could now imagine Littlefoot reaching those leaves all by himself. The ponies watched the happy reunion with smiles upon their faces. “But Littlefoot, who are these creatures?” Cera asked Littlefoot. “They are ponies, Cera.” “Ponies?” “We are from a place called Equestria.” Twilight broke in. “Littlefoot told us all about you, Leaf Grubber.” Pinkie Pie made a huge gasp. Twilights face twitched realizingly. “Woops... hehehe.” Twilight laughed nervously. “Sorry.” Ceras face froze. Slowly, her eyeballs turned sideways. Littlefoot was already halfway from there, trying to sneak away. He looked back at her. “Heheheh... Hi Cera.” Target acquired. Ready... Set... Go! Littlefoot ran around the cliff, his heart beating violently of joy and panic at the same time. He found a cave around the bend. He entered it. Looking back, he saw Cera pass outside. He turned around and followed the cave further in. He saw light coming from the cave wall ahead. The ponies saw Littlefoot poke his head out from the cave ahead. He laughed and stepped outside. Suddenly something grabbed onto his tail and managed to pull him around the corner. He managed to hold onto it to avoid being dragged inside. “Come on girls!” Twilight called her friends. The unicorns tried their best, using their limited magic, to try and pull Littlefoot out of the cave. The ground and pegasi ponies pulled his feet that held around the cave corner. Ceras crazy growling could be heard inside in a rabies manner. The moaning and grunting from the ponies echoed the through air. Pinkie Pies pink mouth opened wide and showed its teeth pearly white as she exclaimed. “SHOOT HER!” The other ponies started to tire. Littlefoots feets was pulled further and further inside the cave. “SHOOT HER!” “Shoot her!? With what?” Apple Jack shouted at Pinkie Pie. “I don’t know with what, bring my party cannon, but just go ahead and shoot her already!” There was a unison grunting when the ponies lost grip at the same time. Littlefoot disappeared inside the darkness of the cave. Lying on the ground, Littlefoot looked straight into the darkness. Ceras yellow face, twisting into an evil grin, illuminated from it. Littlefoot nervous smile reflected her green eyes. Ceras evil laughter echoed inside the cave. Oh yes... She had missed this.