Chapter 0:7 – Keepers of the Wild
Year 989 of the 4th Age
Eight ponies made their way carefully through the twisted flora of the Everfree Forest. Most ponies would be too terrified to enter the foreboding timber, considered by many to be cursed, and would have found themselves hopelessly lost had they tried, but these weren’t most ponies. They were druids of the Ponieville circle, garbed in rough brown cloth with amulets made from roots around their necks, and they knew the rhythms of nature better than anypony else. Even so, for them to venture into the Everfree Forest was rare, for a curse truly did cling to this place, a curse that had taken root in the Conjunction, when monsters and magic had poured through here in abundance, twisting the forest and leaving a stain on the landscape. It had been nearly expunged during the reign of Queens Celestia and Luna, when they’d taken back the forest and established their capital at its center as a symbol of their mastery of the arcane, but the curse had returned in force after Nightmare Moon’s Rebellion and Celestia’s abandonment of the Three Palaces of the Two Queens forever.
The druids were not afraid (though there was a reason they’d come during a cloudless day and not during a moonless night); they were here in number, and they were led by their hierophant. The wizened earth pony stroked his long white beard thoughtfully before every adjustment in their course, listening to the signs around them that only druids understood.
All living things around them had a voice, if one only had the means to listen. The creatures scampering through the treetops and crawling through burrows beneath the earth all told the druids something by their motions, their actions, the aura they projected subconsciously. Even the trees could speak, though their speech was far subtler and more difficult to discern the meaning of than that of creatures that flew, crawled, or tunneled instead of being rooted in one place.
Not everything in the Everfree Forest was bad, not everything wanted to kill ponies who entered, and the trick in navigating it was knowing where the good was. Rumors had been reaching the Ponieville druid circle for months now that there was a growing area of the Everfree Forest around here that was not as bad as the rest, and their forays into it had proved the rumors true. Ponies who’d done the same had reported seeing a foal at a distance, who some were calling a daughter of the forest. Nopony had ever gotten close enough to confirm her existence or learn her story, though, not even the druids.
The trees, though not as hostile as in other parts of the forest, seemed to direct them away whenever they were getting close, as if protecting this foal, and many times had the druids been repulsed and forced to return home empty-hooved.
“Please, we mean her no harm!” the hierophant called out aloud, speaking to the forest around him, “You know who we are, and you know our ways! We seek only to speak to this daughter of the forest, to discern if her intentions are noble, and to guide her on her path!”
The trees seemed to rustle slightly, though the wind was nowhere near strong enough to move the branches, and the animals in the undergrowth became still. The hierophant waited patiently to see if the forest would believe them and let them through; if not, then there was no point forcing the matter any longer today and wasting time that could be spent tending to creatures elsewhere or petitioning Mayor Mare to ban the cutting down of trees in her territory. Eventually, nature around them seemed to come to a consensus, and a way was presented for them. Though the woodland creatures scampering away were out of sight, the druids were easily able to follow them.
Their path took them deep into a part of the forest they’d never been able to reach before, and they came upon a small clearing. The hierophant raised a hoof to signal the others to halt within the trees and observe. On one side of the clearing was a makeshift shelter. At the base of a tree that was tipping dangerously away from the clearing, a hole had been dug out among the protruding roots, and a curtain of branches and chainmail hung across the entrance. The hovel’s inhabitant was nearby, tying a splint around a wolf’s broken foreleg while other animals, hunter and prey alike, watched. This daughter of the forest was a young pegasus with a buttery yellow coat, and a pink mane of moderate length that looked to only have begun growing out in the last year. She was garbed in the tattered remains of the undergarment Hunter trainees wore under their armor. But, she didn’t look like a Hunter, and the leather bits of her armor were nowhere to be seen. Good, she’s already on the right path, then, though I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a Hunter becoming a druid.
“There, now you need to find a safe place to heal up, and don’t put pressure on that leg except to exercise it until it’s fully healed,” she said in a quiet voice that barely carried to the listening druids, and the wolf growled something back, causing the small pegasus to giggle, “Yes, and be careful near the edges of cliffs.”
What? Impossible! How did she do that? Druids could communicate with the creatures of the forest, but it was a difficult and indirect method, yet this foal seemed to be able to understand them as if they were speaking directly to her in a language she could understand. The small beings who’d led the druids here had been patiently waiting for her to finish her work, and as the wolf walked off into the trees, they approached her and began chittering to her. The pegasus looked up in alarm at where the druids were watching, gave a small “eep,” and began to back away into the woods.
“Wait!” the hierophant called as he emerged into the clearing, not wanting this mysterious foal to disappear again, “We mean you no harm! If we had, the forest would never have let us approach you! We just want to talk!”
Uncertainly, the foal trotted back into the clearing, but stopped several paces short of the hierophant.
“How are you able to speak to them?” he asked, seeing she wasn’t comfortable enough to get any closer.
“I'm not sure. I just understand them, and they understand me,” the pegasus said nervously, “It’s a talent I’ve had for the past year since I discovered my destiny—to care for these creatures. Why have you come?”
“We have come to speak to you,” the hierophant answered, figuring that it was only fair to answer her questions when he had so many of his own to ask, “We are from the Ponieville druid circle; do you know what druids are, child?”
“Keepers of the forest,” the pegasus responded.
“Just so; we care for nature the same way that you do.”
“Ha-have you come to take me away?” she asked, looking at her home beneath the tree.
“If that is your wish,” the hierophant answered, “Nothing would please me more than to see you join our circle and be taught the ways of the druids. You would learn to read the rhythms of nature, though I dare say you might have a few things to teach us, as well. Is that something you would like?”
“Mm-hmm,” the pegasus admitted meekly after thinking it over for a moment.
“Excellent. What is your name, child?”
“I-I’m Fluttershy.”
“Welcome to our family, Fluttershy,” the hierophant said warmly, “You shall make a fine druidess, a fine druidess indeed.”