A Hermit With A Heart
Chapter 3: Awkward Introductions Part 2
“OK, let me go over this with you to make sure I have it down.” Nightshade had heard Twilight give a description of each of her friends, but wanted to make sure he had it down so there would be no mistakes.” Fluttershy, who is a pegasus, has a light yellow coat with a soft pink mane and tail with three butterflies with pink wings and blue bodies for her cutie mark. Rainbow Dash, another pegasus, has a cyan colored coat with a rainbow mane and tail with a white cloud and a rainbow colored lightning bolt coming out of it. Rarity, a unicorn like you, has a white coat with a violet mane and tail, styled with curls, and three diamonds for her cutie mark. Applejack is an earth pony with an orange coat, a blonde mane and tail tied up at the ends with a red band, wears a stetson hat, and has three apples for her cutie mark. Pinkie Pie is another earth pony with a pink coat, a dark pink puffy mane and tail, with three balloons , one yellow, two blue, for her cutie mark. And finally, this dragon of yours named spike. He has a white belly, purple scales, and green spines running from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, right.”
“That’s right. You remembered everything perfectly. Also, Spike and I live in the Ponyville library on the east side of town. Once you inform him of what happened, he can tell you where the rest of my friends live.” Twilight exclaimed, happy that Nightshade was able to remember everything.
Nightshade turned to leave, then, remembered something else he should tell her. “You should be ok to move around the room, but don’t strain yourself or you’ll reopen your wounds. Also, you can read whatever book you find here so make yourself comfortable. Oh and one more thing, that room to the right is the bathroom should you need to go.” Nightshade made his way out to the living room of his house. He teleported out the same way he moved himself and Twilight here and disappeared.
Once Twilight was alone she decided to stretch her legs and get out of bed. She was very anxious now to see all the books in this large room she woke up in, so she began looking through the shelves to find something to read while she waited. Nightshade’s collection was massive, Twilight had never seen so many books in her life, except for the collection in Princess Celestia’s library back in Canterlot where Twilight was originally from. Being Celestia’s personal student allowed her access to the collection.
Meanwhile, Nightshade had reappeared in the Everfree forest and made his way toward the town Twilight called home. Upon reaching the edge he had to stop for a moment to seriously consider what he was about to do.
“Are you really going to back out now and disappoint her?” Nightshade’s double had reappeared to scold him for even thinking about avoiding the task he was given.
“Well, why shouldn’t I? I hate towns, and besides, I don’t owe her anything. I already paid her back for her help with that flower when I saved her.” He said back to his double.
“Are you really going to just lie to her and say you did what she asked you to? Think about those eyes she looked at you with when she asked. The desperation, the anxiety, the-“
But before the shadow could finish, he was cut off by Nightshade. “ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I GET IT ALREADY!!” Completely annoyed with the fact that this doppleganger was right, he lost his temper and yelled at his shadow. When he did think back to how Twilight looked at him when she asked him to tell her friend’s she was ok, for some reason he couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t refuse her, why he couldn’t disappoint her. When he finally decided to follow through with his promise, his shadow double disappeared, and Nightshade made his way to the town to find these friends of his houseguest, not looking forward to the encounter.
Meanwhile, at the Ponyville library, Spike paced back and forth with worry over Twilight being late with coming back. She was never late for anything, which got spike so worried, he decided to gather everypony together to discuss the matter and see what could be done. “I’m telling you something bad must have happened to her! She’s never late!” Spike cried to the five mares he and Twilight called friends.
“Now calm down Spike, I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason she’s late.” Applejack, with a country western accent, tried to console the distraught little dragon.
Pinkie Pie, wanting to help, decided to chime in with her usual upbeat and chipper attitude, not wanting one of her friends to be sad. “Yeah, maybe she’s getting a surprise for us. OH or better yet, she’s planning a surprise party for us and lost track of time.”
Everyone just gave her a confused look, knowing full well that wouldn’t be the case. Rarity was next to try and make her scaly friend feel better, as she spoke with the elegance and grace as any high class society lady speaks. “Now Spike, I’m sure we’ll figure this out, let’s just go to Zecora’s and see if she knows anything. I’m sure Twilight just lost track of time like Pinkie Pie said and is there right now.”
Spike always did have a crush on this mare and would do anything for her, so when she spoke to try and comfort him, it made his little dragon heart soar and he couldn’t help but smile. Before anyone else could say anything, there was a knock at the door. Spike, now feeling a little better from Rarity’s words of comfort, ran to the door to see who it was. “I’ll get it.”
Spike opened the door to see a tall stallion in a blue cloak covering his entire form except for his muzzle, legs, and tail. “Can I help you?” Spike asked.
The new pony looked down at the little dragon who answered the door, then noticed the five ponies behind him. He immediately recognized each of them as the ponies he was sent to find and was somewhat glad the task he came here for wouldn’t take as long as he thought, though he didn’t show it. Just to make sure though, he had to ask. “I’m looking for a dragon named spike, are you him?”
Spike could only answer slowly as he was somewhat nervous that this pony, who he had never seen before, knew his name. “…Yes.”
Nightshade took a few steps back from the door, as he did not know how these ponies and dragon would react upon hearing about their friends’ predicament. “I’m here on behalf of your friend Twilight Sparkle. She’s been-“
But before he could finish his sentence, he was tackled to the ground by a cyan and rainbow colored blur. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO TWILIGHT, IF YOU HURT HER, YOUR GONNA BE SORRY PAL!!” Rainbow dash was full of rage, thinking this pony might have something to do with her friend's disappearance.
Nightshade felt utter terror as this Pegasus barreled into him and had him pinned to the ground, ready to do who knows what to him. “AH, P-Please don’t hurt me, I swear I didn’t do anything to her, honest!”
Before Rainbow had a chance to question him more, she felt a tug on her tail as she was being pulled off from atop this cloaked pony. She looked behind her to see it was Applejack pulling her tail with her mouth. With a mouth full of rainbow, Applejack said to her, “Simmer down sally, *SPIT*, now let’s not go jumpin to any conclusions here. We don’t know for sure why this here fella knows Twilight. So I say we give him a chance to explain how and why he knows Twi.” Applejack was always the honest, hardworking type. She was also the kind to get to the truth before coming to any conclusions of her own.
After Rainbow Dash was pulled off of him, Nightshade rolled over on his belly and covered his head with his forelegs. Timberwolves he could handle, cockatrice, no sweat, manticores, easy, but ponies he was terrified of. He just couldn’t stand to be around them after what happened to him in the past.
Realizing that Applejack was right, Rainbow looked to the ground feeling a little guilty about her rash behavior. That’s just how she was though. She always tended to act before thinking. She was however very loyal to her friends which would explain her sudden attack on this new stranger. With her head lowered, Rainbow began to apologize. “Hey, sorry for attacking you like that, guess I’m more worried about Twilight than I thought.” Upon not hearing a response, Rainbow Dash lifted her head to see an odd sight. This full grown stallion was on the ground with his back turned, hooves covering his head, and shaking like a leaf. This sight confused every pony that saw this.
Fluttershy then decided to try her luck at pointing out the problem. So she spoke in her normal quiet timid voice. “Um, Rainbow Dash, I think you scared him pretty bad there. If..if you don’t mind me saying.” Fluttershy was always the quiet shy type, and was always afraid to speak her mind, even around her friends. But she did have a very kind heart.
Spike had enough. This pony knew Twilight, which meant he might know what happened to her, so he ran past the girls who looked on as spike approached the shaking cloaked pony and got in front of him in hopes of getting him to talk. He asked as nicely as he could. “Pleas sir, if you know what happened to Twilight, could you please tell us. We’re all very worried about her.”
The stallion removed one of his forelegs to look at the dragon who was kneeling before him in an attempt to get answers. He looked behind him at the five mares, all with solemn expressions on their faces, clearly equally worried about their unicorn friend. Nightshade took a moment to collect himself, stood up and turned around to address these ponies and dragon. He readied himself to give an explanation as to the events earlier today and saw that every pony and dragon was ready to hear him out. “My name is Nightshade, your friend, Twilight Sparkle, is fine.” They all gave a big sigh of relief upon hearing this good news.
“So where is she, if you don’t mind me asking.” This came from Fluttershy.
Nightshade ignored her and continued with his story. “She was attacked by three manticores earlier today in the Everfree forest, One of the manticores took a swipe at Twilight and left three very deep gashes in her side. She also sustained a minor head injury. I saw the incident and jumped in to save her from those beasts. She is currently recovering at my place and will take a few days for her wounds to heal. So in the meantime she will be staying with me.”
“Why can’t you bring her to the hospital here in Ponyville dear?” Rarity asked.
Nightshade simply stated, “Her injurys are too great to be moved too much. Besides, I took responsibility for her when I saved her, so it’s my job to heal her.”
Applejack decided to step forward to give her thanks to this stallion for saving her friends life. “Thank ya kindly Nightshade, for savin Twilight like ya did. I recon we owe ya big time fer that.”
With that said, Pinkie couldn’t help but call out. “OH, OH, I know how to thank him. Let’s throw him a PARTY!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs to show her excitement. Then she got another idea. “Hey, your new here too, aren’t you. We could make it a ‘THANKS FOR SAVING OUR FRIEND, WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY!” She said as fast as she could.
Nightshade shuddered at this. He has heard of party’s before and didn’t want anything to do with it, so he needed to put a stop to this quick before it was too late. “Sorry to burst your bubble but I’m not a fan of parties. So, no thank you. Besides, I don’t live anywhere near here.”
Hearing this, Pinkie was sad at the fact that she wouldn’t get to throw one of her famous Pinkie Pie partie’s, which she loved to do. How could some pony not want to go to one of her party’s? everypony loved her party’s! “Uhh, why not?” Pinkie asked, clearly upset.
Nightshade could tell she would be persistent. “Simple, I don’t trust ponies, and I don’t like being around them. Simple as that.”
Everypony was confused now. If he didn’t like, or trust other ponies, then why did he save their friend from the manticores? This time, Rainbow Dash decided to ask a question. “Well, if you don’t trust ponies, then why did you save twilight? And why are you here telling us all this? Not that we’re not grateful for it.”
Nightshade was starting to get annoyed with all these question’s but he wouldn’t let it show. He answered the question hoping it would be the last. “She helped me in the forest before, so I simply returned the favor.”
It was Spike’s turn to speak up now. “Well, regardless, thank you so much for saving her. Would it be too much trouble to ask if we could see her, please. I would really appreciate it.”
Nightshade was afraid of this. They we’re wanting to see Twilight to make sure for themselves that she was ok. But the last thing he wanted was more guests in his house. So he would have to tell them no. But looking at all their hopeful faces caused something in him to move. He was about to tell them no, but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He struggled inside to find the strength to say no but it just wasn’t there. Why, why couldn’t he say no? He searched and searched inside himself to find a reason to let them down while looking into all those hopeful eyes, but nothing came up. There was just something about these mares that made it impossible to say no to. He remembered feeling the same way when Twilight asked him to come here to town. So, giving up his internal struggle, he let out a dejected and annoyed sigh. “Alright, I’ll take you to see your friend.” Everypony cheered with excitement. But before he would take them, he had to lay down some rules. “Don’t get too excited. I have some rules that must be followed if you want to see her.”
The five mares and Spike heard this and sat down quietly to listen to what the rules were, desperate to see Twilight. “Rule number one. Don’t touch anything. You are welcome to look through the books in my house, but you must be very careful with them. Rule number two. Seeing how excited you are to see your friend tells me that once you do, you’ll want to give her a hug or something.” He said this next part in all seriousness to get his point across. ”Don’t hug too tightly. Any strain on her body could reopen her wounds. Understand!” Everyone nodded in unison to let him know they would do as they were told. “Good, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get this over with. Everypony gather around me. We’re going to teleport to my house.”
Everypony gathered around Nightshade, ready to see their friend, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure if he heard her apology for attacking him earlier, so she thought she would try again. “Hey, sorry for tackling you earlier. I was just worried about Twilight.”
This really surprised Nightshade, this pony was actually apologizing to him for attacking him. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, so he did the only thing he thought was appropriate. “Uhm, apology accepted?” He said as more of a question, since he had never been apologized to before. He then focused his teleport spell to take everyone there to his house. What the girls and Spike didn’t expect was how the teleport would work. Instead of being enveloped by a bright flash of light like what they had seen before when Twilight teleported herself, a dark hole opened up underneath them. Before anyone could say anything, they were quickly sucked into the hole with a yelp of some kind from each of them, and disappeared from Ponyville.