A Hermit With A Heart
Chapter One: A Strange Meeting
It was another beautiful day in the small village known as Ponyville. Our story begins in the Ponyville Library, housed in a giant hollowed out tree, which also acts as a home for the librarian in charge. “Now spike, I’m trusting you to take care of things while I’m at Zecoras’ for a while OK?” Twilight is a unicorn with a light purple coat. Her mane and tail were dark purple, and had streaks of lighter shades through them. She also had a dark pink star on her flank surrounded by four small white stars.
“Don’t worry Twilight, you can count on me, no sweat. Besides, it’s not the first time you left me in charge of the library before, remember?” Spike is a small dragon with purple scales, a light green belly, and green spines running from the top of his head to the end of his tail. Spike is just a baby dragon and he likes to act more mature than he really is. They had been together all their lives since Twilight hatched Spike from an egg as part of a test to get into Princess Celestia’s School for gifted unicorns. Spike was like a little brother to Twilight, and they loved each other very much.
Twilight was on her way to visit a friend of hers, named Zecora, who was a zebra that lived in the nearby Everfree Forest. Every citizen in Ponyville knew the forest was dangerous because of all the monstrous creatures that lived there. Twilight wasn’t afraid “though” because she knew a safe path through the forest which leads to Zecora’s hut. But even then, it could still be dangerous, as any creature could wander onto the path. “I’ll be back after 12, OK Spike? See you later.” Twilight called to her number one assistant and adopted little brother.
”See ya later Twilight, and please be careful in the forest.” Spike said with worry in his voice. Spike knew Twilight was a very capable unicorn who was quite talented with magic but he just couldn’t help but worry about her.
So with goodbyes said, Twilight made her way to the forest to pay a friendly visit to her new zebra friend. When Zecora first came to Ponyville, she was not well met by the other citizens of Ponyville. They thought she was some evil enchantress who cast curses, but Twilight, being the level headed bookworm that she is, didn’t believe in curses and figured it was all rumors. After an incident with some plants and some misunderstandings, the ponies of Ponyville soon learned that Zecora was harmless, and soon accepted her as a new resident of their town.
Twilight soon reached the edge of the forest and made her way on the well traveled path to get to the zebra’s hut. On her way through the forest, she heard some grunting and struggling. Being the kind hearted pony she is, she decides to see what the sound was and to see if anypony needed help. She followed the sound for a bit and it led to a small clearing where she saw a strange sight. There was a pony wearing a blue cloak covering most of his body. Only his muzzle and the bottom of his legs and hooves were visible so she could see the pony had a blue coat that matched its cloak with a dark blue tail sticking out the back and black hooves. The pony appeared to be trying to use magic to pull a plant out of the ground. A black aura seemed to surround the pink flower with large petals as the pony tried to pull and strain to uproot the thing.
Twilight decided to see if she could offer her assistance to the pony so she spoke as nicely as she could so as not to scare him/her. She still couldn’t tell if the pony was a stallion or mare, but from the size of the pony she figured that the pony must be a stallion, as he seemed to stand a good foot taller than her.“Uhm, excuse me sir, do you need any help?”
This got the pony’s attention, as he looked over to see who had called him, when he saw there was another pony around, it seemed to scare him so badly he lost concentration on pulling the flower out of the ground, lost his balance, and fell backwards. He rolled almost two feet before coming to a stop on his belly. He felt a little dizzy from the spill he just took.
”Oh my, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” Twilight said with worry in her voice, concerned that he might be hurt.
“Ah, stay back, don’t come near me, I’m warning you!” Said the strange pony, clearly afraid of her.
Now Twilight definitely knew the pony was a stallion from the way his voice sounded. But she was confused as to why he was afraid of her, since he was clearly bigger than her. She decided to forget about that and to try to alleviate his fears and spoke as nicely as she could. “Please, don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you; I just heard struggling and thought somepony was in trouble so I thought I’d come and see if I could help. My name is Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?”
He looked at her carefully, trying to decide if she could be trusted. Seeing that she was genuinely worried about him, he decided to talk with her. “Well, I appreciate your concern, but I don’t need help. I was just trying to get that plant for a potion I was going to make. As for my name, I don’t give it out to strangers.“ He said, clearly not wanting anything to do with her.
Twilight was a little put off by this but didn’t let it show when she spoke next. “Why are you having so much trouble getting that flower out of the ground? Would you like some help?”
He was caught off guard by her offer to help him with the flower. He wasn’t one to trust others, but since he couldn’t get the flower out of the ground himself, he knew he needed help, so he decided to try and take a chance with her. “Well you see, this flower is a rare flower that’s hard to pick. The healthier it is, the stronger the roots are. The stronger the roots, the more difficult it is to pull out of the ground. Since I’m having a very hard time with this flower, that means it’s very healthy and will be all the more potent for the healing potion I want to make with it. So I guess you could help, but once it’s out, I would appreciate it if you would be on your way.”
Satisfied that she was able to make some progress with this pony, Twilight happily walked up and stood by him. They both concentrated their magic on the flower to pull it out of the ground. After a few seconds, the flower was finally uprooted, but once it came loose, both ponies fell backwards on their backs.
The new pony was the first to get up. He lifted the flower with his magic, turned to Twilight as she was getting up off her back to stand up, and placed the flower in a black saddle bag he was wearing.
Twilight spoke up in hopes of making a new friend. “Wait, don’t go, I have a friend who makes potions too, I’m sure you two would get along great.”
This pony had no interest in making friends, so he had to make sure she knew it. “Let me make this perfectly clear to you. I have no interest in making friends; I appreciate your help with the flower but I prefer my solitude. Now if you will excuse me, I have more plants I need to collect.” And with that, the mysterious stallion disappeared into the forest. Twilight felt a little dejected, but there was nothing she could do, so she continued on her way.
After some time with Zecora, Twilight decided it was time to head back home. Zecora was grateful for the visit and said a fond farewell to Twilight. As she made her way to the exit of the forest, Twilight failed to notice she was being followed by something big. She soon heard rustling in the bushes and got worried. Twilight quickened her pace, but the thing following her sped up too. She started galloping as fast as she could, knowing that whatever was following her could very well be one of the monstrous creatures of the forest. Then, out of one of the bushes she was about to pass, a massive beast jumped out, blocking her path. It was a manticore, one of the most fiercest and deadliest of beasts in the forest. It had the body of a lion, the wings of a bat, and the tail of a scorpion.
Twilight was terrified beyond all reason. She let out a loud terrified scream. She turned to try to run back the way she came to get away only to find two more manticores coming at her. She quickly ran to the side off of the path, hoping to lose the beasts. She was too scared to think straight that she didn’t even think to try to use her magic to get away; all she could think of at the time was to run as fast as her hooves could carry her.
The manticores, not wanting to give up their prey so easily, followed her. Not knowing where she was going, Twilight soon realized she was lost and came to a dead end; a large cliff was now blocking her path. The manticores, ready to pounce, closed in on Twilight. The lead manticore came forward and took a swipe at twilight, leaving three very deep gashes in her side and sending her flying backwards toward the rock wall, causing her to bump her head hard against the cliff. Twilight was badly hurt, she was bleeding and was slowly losing consciousness. Before passing out, the last thing she saw was a blue blur standing in between her and the manticores. Thinking this was it, Twilight passed out, sad she would never see Spike or her friends again.