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// Chapter 1 A Friend Indeed 
// Story: The Ballade of the Good sir Bubbles 
// by nallokthecat 
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“Uhhm…hello?” Cadence said, bowing to the high class pony in front of her. “Thank you for coming to my party.” The high class pony smiled then went off to talk to Cadence’s parents.

‘Ugh, last guest, thank Celestia! I’m so bored.’ and she had every right to be. It was her 6th birthday party, and yet she wasn’t allowed to do anything until she greeted all the guests at the castle; and there were a ton. All of them showing up basically to get in good with the first family to breed an Alicorn in 6000 years, and there wasn’t anyone her age to play with.

‘Well let’s see, what can I do now? …I know! I’ll go exploring!’ She thought. It was the perfect idea as everyone was too busy talking to take notice of her as she set off. For at least 10 minutes she wandered, before coming to a strange door.

“Huh, where does this go?” She asked to no one in particular. As she went through, the first thing to greet her eyes were gems. Large lavender gems. She couldn’t believe her eyes. They were gigantic and they enticed her further in. Deeper, and deeper, and deeper, she delved into the strange cavern until she finally stopped and realized.

“…..I’m lost.” She said; her small panic filled voice echoing across the cavern walls. For 30 minutes she tried in vain to retrace her steps only to become even more lost.

“It’s no use.” She said with a sniffle. “I’ll never get out.” Then all of a sudden, she heard a noise from behind her that sounded a bit like hoof beats, but there were only 2 clops instead of 4. As she whirled around to see what the sound was, her eyes grew wide with fear. She knew what it was. She had heard too many stories not to know the thing that now stood before her. They had once ruled the world with machines and waged wars more grand and terrible than anypony could imagine; but for their selfish ways they were stripped of the intelligence that made them great, turning them into mindless creatures, some changing into other things completely. (This was the birth of Orcs and Trolls.)The great terror that haunted every foal’s dreams, it was a human. It was very tall with its legs and arms stretched out unnaturally. It’s hands where huge, with dirty fingernails; its hair was greasy and almost looked wet. It was very thin; it obviously hadn’t eaten well for quite some time.Cadence quickly backed up in terror until she was trapped between the wall and the human which looked at her with dull grey eyes as it stretched out its hand. Cadence quickly shut her eyes… and then felt a soft patting on her head. As she cautiously opened one eye, she saw the human gently petting her and smiling weakly. Confused, she smiled back trying not to upset the human. It soon got up and motioned her to follow him. Curious about what was happening, she complied and followed the strange being until they came to a large chasm and it motioned her to stop.It then rubbed its hands together drew a large breath opened its hands into an O shape and blew into them causing a large bubble to appear. Cadence was stunned it was the biggest bubble she had ever seen, but before she could admire it for too long the human picked her up and jumped onto the bubble. Instead of popping it actually bounced them to the other side. After the human set her down, her fear subsided. She smiled and giggled loudly.

“That was really fun!” she said. The human simply smiled back again and motioned her to follow once again. After about ten minutes, her eyes grew wide with surprise. There in front of her was the door she had come through. This human, this evil beast, of myth and legend had happily showed her the way out. She smiled wide and hugged the creature as tight as she could, utterly ecstatic.

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you.” she said, her happy voice ringing through the cavern. The human simply smiled and opened the door for her motioning her through. Happily she began to trot through the door, but just as she was about to go through, a thought ran through her head and she turned to the human.

“Wait right here okay?” she said, and the human gave confused look. “Uhh…you.” She pointed at him. “Stay.” She illustrated by sitting down and then getting back up. “Here.” She pointed at the ground with her hoof. He seemed to understand, and sat down happily she skipped out and ran back to the party. Just as her parents were about to scold here for running off, she found princess Celestia; who always attended her extended families social affairs bouncing and saying.

“Princess, princess, you have to come and meet my new friend.” the princess smiles warmly at her and asked.

“Where is this new friend of yours?” The little filly’s eyes lit up as she tugged on Celestia’s hoof, obviously wanting her to follow.

“He’s this way, oh you’ll like him a lot! He looks kinda scary, but he saved me so I know he’s nice.” the princess and her parents, who were following, seemed a bit surprised.

“Saved you? From what exactly?” the princess said with concern in her voice. Cadence then proceeded to tell them the whole story; specifically leaving out what the creature that saved her was. When questioned about it, she simply said she wanted it to be a surprise. When they got to the door, she said.

“Princess, I’d like you to meet my friend.” As the door opened everypony was shocked to see a human sitting a short distance away. Cadence happily bounced over and hugged the human.

“This is my friend.” Cadence said smiling “Can he please come out and play?”