//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: The Find. 
// Story: Foal 
// by thelittlestpony 
//------------------------------//






In memorandum of all Ponies who have came and passed.
Loved ones cherished and here no more.
To those who have battled the darkness and given their lives to the forces of good.
Proof that no Pony shall be forgotten.

The Eternal resting place of Discord, the bringer of darkness. 
May the Princesses have mercy upon his soul.



Etching upon the plinth of the stone tomb of Discord in the gardens of Canterlot.





“Twilight?”
“Oh, hi Fluttershy, just in time! Watch this!... SPIKE!”

Fluttershy watched on with a sombre expression as her friend Twilight Sparkle spun around levitating a magical tome in her purple aura.

“SPIKE, WHERE ARE YOU!”
“Here Twi.... sup?”
“I just need my assistant to erm.. assist with a spell I have just recovered from this book!”
“umm, ok? What do I need to do?”
“Just stand there” 

Twilight motioned with a hoof to one of the few places in the library which was not littered with books and scrolls.

“I just need to make sure that I have everything I need, this shouldn't take long”

Twilight brought the book to her face and turned her head to Fluttershy who was still standing in the doorway. The beginnings of a smirk on full display.

“Ok, ready!”

With a flash from her horn the little dragon was hoisted off the ground. Moments later a brighter flash and he was gently placed back in place on the clearing on the floor.

“Is that all Twi? You wanted to practice telekinesis? You do that all the time!”

“Oh it mustn’t have worked, thanks Spike”

The newly pink and even more pink dragon turned back to the kitchen and shrugged his shoulders.

“pfffpfppffhhh”
“Twilight?”
“Yes FlutterhahahHAHAHAHHAHA”
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

Twilight froze at the sudden 'stare' that Fluttershy threw her way.

“Oh!, I'm sorry Twi!. I.. I just... I-I just need to talk..”
“Ohhhhkaay?....”
“Its.... Its just that my little friends have been restless the last couple of days... I think I need some help”

Twilight frowned and moved closer to the now quivering pegasus.

“What's wrong 'Shy, you can talk to me about anything” 
Twilight raised a hoof to her shoulder and tapped it gently.
“we are friends after all” 
“Well... If you insist...”
“I do!”

Fluttershy met Twilights eyes with her own and slumped to the ground.
“I think something is wrong in the Everfree”
“Define; wrong”

Fluttershy shrugged her shoulders and stood again.

“My little friends have been trying to tell me something I think... It seems important. I don’t know what it could be”
“In the Everfree?”
“You know I would not normally ask, but Rarity is just so busy with an order, AJ is bucking apples for the new season and I don’t even know where Rainbow Dash or Pinkemina are!”
“Ask what 'Shy?”
“eep”

Fluttershy stifled a squeak and looked over her shoulder nervously to the still open door behind her and inched backwards.

“Well... The last two days one of my little friends has been visiting. He normally only visits every once in a while but he seems to want to take me to something in the forest. HEISNICEANDHEWOULDN'THURTANYONEHEISKINDANDGENTLE!”
“'Shy?”
“Twi....”
Fluttershy did not want to ask the question which was coming and put her friend in danger, but she knew the squirrel would not put her in danger unnecessarily.
“Twilight, will you come with me into the Everfree?”
“Of course 'Shy! I thought you would never ask!. Let me get a quill and a parchment so I can make a list of everything we need!”
“Twilight?”
“Yes Fluttershy”

Twilight was busying herself shuffling around paper on a writing desk and levitating a quill, an odd smile on her face.

“Can we just, you know... go now?”
“Oh!, of course! Silly me! We should maybe head to Zecora first though?... SPIKE! PREPARE A SATCHEL, WE HAVE AN ADVENTURE TO GO ON!”





The little Foal awoke slowly. Exhaustion had crept up on him, lack of food and safe drinking water causing every movement to be a mammoth undertaking.
Celestia's sun was high in the sky now, it was noon, or shortly afterwards and the noises of love song from birds hung over and drifted around the shack.
The little foal did not move aside from the raising of his eyes to an axe hanging over the edge of a table.

The last two days had been not been kind to him, his foalish mind swam with the words his father had shot at him.

'This... thing is the reason she is not here' 

A hoof raised slowly to his horn and tapped three times.. An axe loomed overhead..

'This... thing is the reason she is not here' 

“MOMMY, DADDY!”
Silence...

The foal rose, slowly at first. But with a conviction not befitting his age. The door to the shack, long since opened by a squirrel who had vacated the doorway, was bringing an ethereal light to the room around him.
The little foal nudged the table leg once and looked above.
The axe shook on its perch, but did not budge.
The foal kicked both front legs ahead of him as hard as his tiny limbs could.
The axe shook...
...and dropped to the floor resting against the table leg.

The little foal looked at the blade of the axe standing proudly to the air, not knowing the consequences of what he was about to do, he dropped his head.

His horn touched the blade of the axe.... gently at first.

'This... thing is the reason she is not here' 





“Zecora's hut is just ahead 'Shy, we should see if she has any more information for us. If the animals have been acting strangely the surely she would have noticed?”
Fluttershy, Spike and Twilight had been walking in the forest for what seemed like hours now. The sun was beginning to set and along the forest path ever increasing shadows were being cast. There had been no sight of the squirrel Fluttershy had hoped to see. A glum look on her face matched the darkness ahead deeper in to the forest.
“I don’t know Twi, it seemed really important”
“Well lets keep going then! We should head somewhere safe before Celestia brings the sun down though... We both know how this forest can be..”

The trio continued on the path set before them, Fluttershy at the fore, uncharacteristically forcing the pace of the other two deeper in to the forest.

“Are you sure about this 'Shy?” 
“My animals never lie Spike”

The trio continued their path, stopping only to gauge the sounds they could hear echoing through the forest.
A bird?
A fox?
A twig breaking..
eeeEEEEEPPPP!
The three spun around.
“A taxing journey I do see,
do my little ponies come to visit me?”
A zebra, Zecora, stepped out from the forest..
“Oh Zecora, you scared us! We came to see if there was a disturbance in the forest”
A flustered Twilight Sparkle spat.
“Certainly the forest is not obtuse, 
an animal I see gives guide profuse”
Zecora gestured along the path to a squirrel, a squirrel Fluttershy recognised immediately. Despondent from her days fruitless travelling she bolted, not thinking about her friends or Zecora, but intent on assisting the poor squirrel who needed her help.
Fluttershy was not Rainbow Dash; there was never to be a Sonic Rainboom amid the Everfree, but her determination kept her running without thinking deeper in to the forest she so normally feared.

The sun was low in the sky now and the squirrel bolted with a quickening pace in to the depths of the forest, neither slowing or checking for his pony follower. 
Fluttershy did not relent in her pursuit.





Twilight turned to see a yellow and pink blur flash past her, a she turned and two blue eyes looked back at her..
“a journey this one alone should make
a toll yourself should not take”
Zecora flicked her head to the side, gesturing in the direction of her shack.
“come rest at my home my friend
and in the safety of my abode we can watch the day end”





The forest had descended into darkness now and Fluttershy had become acutely aware of her predicament. Driven by her inaction the previous days though she continued on. 
The squirrel had not stopped so far and she would not too, her resolve was unwavering in her pursuit to help her woodland friends. The only respite afforded was the clear night the pegasus weather teams had given. A clear moon shone through the forest covering.

Up ahead a squirrel stopped at the doorway to a broken shack. Fluttershy bounded through the woods to catch the furry critter.

“What is it my little friend?”
The squirrel turned to the shack and jumped to the window opposite the doorway. In a voice almost too soft, she continued;
“is there something here?”
Approaching the doorway the young mare entered the shack and took in her surroundings.
An open window,
a small table
an axe on the floor, 
some Hessian sacks in the corner....

“I.... I'm not sure what you need?”

The squirrel jumped from the windowsill and jumped to the Hessian sacks on the floor and began circling.
Fluttershy approached.
“is there something in here?”
A hoof raised and touched the sacks that were partially hidden in the darkness under the table.
“Oh my”
Fluttershy drew her hooves back with the sacks and buried within was a little pony. A tiny pony. Her eyes flashed wide at the sight of his forehead. 
“Oh... oh my!”
A tiny pony, barely alive slumped in her velveteen grip. Upon the tiny foals head was the jagged stump of a unicorns horn. Fluttershy's quivering limbs cradled the tiny foal as tears flowed freely down her cheeks:
“Hussssh now, quiet noww, 
It'ss time to lay your sssleepy head.”
Fluttershy's voice stammered at every word:
“Hussssh n-now, q-quiet now,
it'sss t-time t-to go t-to b-bed”
The tiny foal stirred, his front limbs quaking ever so slightly..
...”mmm.....mommy?”

“Oh, my.. “