//------------------------------//
// -A Friendly Monster. 
// Story: "Where Will I Go?" 
// by gordobraveheart 
//------------------------------//

	From the stump to the opposite side of the bush and the grassy path we were currently walking on, it had been nothing but silence and the soft crunching under my feet and their little hooves. Applebloom and Scootaloo kept a fair distance away from me, only walking a few feet in front of Sweetie Belle and I. I told them that they shouldn’t venture off away from me, God only knows what the hell is in this out of whack forest. 

I could see and hear Applebloom and Scootaloo whispering something to each other, occasionally turning their heads and looking at me, squinting their eyes. They were signaling me that they were keeping a close look on me, and I only smiled, though my friendly smile didn’t matter to them. A smile wouldn’t help the small amount of fear they had inside. 

I would look down at Sweetie Belle from time to time, catching her wipe her own cheeks with her hoof, making sure to dry up the wet fur so nobody...or should I say horse? Or, what are those little horses called...ponies? Yea, I believe that’s what they are, ponies.  Anyway, she wipes her cheeks because she doesn’t want anypony to see her tear stained fur. 

Eventually, Applebloom and Scootaloo turned down a path that seemed familiar to them, because where they were walking, I noticed how they were trying their best to walk away from some strange blue flower. I didn’t question it, because you can never really tell what’s in forests like these. 

“Shouldn’t we visit Zecora? I mean, she might know what this thing is.” I looked down at Scootaloo, who was too busy talking to Applebloom about this ‘Zecora’. Scootaloo looked at me, then turned back to Applebloom. “Besides, it’s getting really dark, the moon’s almost out, and we can barely see a darn thing!” 

“Ah know Scootaloo, but look, the path we’re walk’n on doesn’t have that many tree’s blocking our way. Plus,” She got closer to Scootaloo after turning her neck to look at me. “Ah don’t know if Zecora would take too kindly with a two legged, no fur having creatures like him in her home. Or her, I can’t tell what it is.” She looked over to me. “Excuse me Mons-er, I mean creature, are you a mare or a stallion?” 

Taking my best guess that a stallion is a male and a mare is a female, I used my best judgement. “Stallion.” 

She nodded. “Thank ya kindly.” Turning around, she continued to talk to Scootaloo. “Him. Besides, I can see Fluttershy’s cottage right over there. Problem solved.” 

“Okay, fine. But what will we do about him? We saw what happened when he ran by Fluttershy’s backyard, and all those animals went crazy! How do we know if they won’t go berserk again? We don’t know who he is, and it’s bad enough that he’s carrying Sweetie Belle! He could eat her for all we know!” I could tell that Scootaloo didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t blame her. If I saw some creature that I never once saw before in my life offered to carry my friend to the nearest home, and say he’s not going to do anything suspicious, I’ll, well, be suspicious. 
Apparently, Sweetie Belle, the pony in my arms, seemed to want speak and joined in the conversation. Only, she didn’t say what I thought she would say. 

“I don’t think he’s going to eat me!” I looked down at her, completely shocked at her choice of words. She was defending me, a person she just met. These ponies are friendlier than they first appeared. “I mean, he looks like a nice pony!” 

“Person. I’m a person.” I corrected her. Sweetie Belle, including Applebloom and Scootaloo looked up at me, as if I was speaking gibberish. I stopped walking, afraid that I said something that I wasn't suppose to say around children. “Was it something I said?”   

“Yea. What does, ‘person’ mean?” Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle said simultaneously. I smiled at their little fuss about who said the last sentence first. Though, I had no idea how to explain a ‘person’, but I used my guess to enlighten their minds. 

“Well...a ‘person’ is like me. You know, nose, ears, eyes, legs, arms, hands,” I stopped for a second, making sure they were paying attention. All three had that ‘learners look’, the face you see when somebody is really interested in what is being taught to them.

“Organs, bones, nerves, and all of that stuff. Well, actually, I just explained what a human was. I’m sorry, I got out of school a while back, so my information is a bit blurry, even if it’s a simple question to answer. But I guess a ‘person’ means just one human. You know, like, the only thing here or there?” 

“...Ah think I get it.” Applebloom said. Sweetie Belle hopped out of my arms and right between her friends. Wait, didn’t she have a splinter in her hoof? 

“You do?” Scootaloo and Applebloom both say as they lean on close to their big bowed friend, wanting to know. It’s actually pretty funny and a little cute, especially because this whole part of my brain looks cartoony, except me.  

“Yea. It sounds like how we single out a pony, like, the word somepony.” Somepony? Come to think of it, I heard this word before, over at the cottage I ran away from. ‘Somepony’ sounds like ‘somebody’, and if I’m right, a stallion means a male, and a mare means a female. Knowing this, there could be other similarities between their words and mine. This world...it’s a special one. 

“Well, that could explain things. Shouldn’t we get going-?” Just as I said that, Scootaloo rose her hoof, like she was in school or something. “Um, yes, Scootaloo?” 

“You said you used to go to school, right?” I nodded. “Woah, how old are you dude?” 

“I’m...I don’t know.” I stayed quiet for a little bit. How can I not remember my own age? 

I looked down at the three, and they appeared to be more concentrated than ever. “I think I forgot how old I am. I honestly don’t remember...sorry.” I felt a little sad, as if everything I knew was forgotten with ease. Well, I didn’t worry about it, and I needed to change the subject fast before these three start to ask anymore questions. “Hey, Sweetie Belle, I thought you had a splinter in your-” 

That’s when my head started to hurt really bad. So bad, I fell on both my knees, grasping my head, like it was just ready to blow up and I was trying to keep it from doing so. I could hear hooves rushing towards me, and my ears felt deaf when they tried to talk to me. I closed my eyes, feeling the cold grass touch my forehead and multiple pokes coming from what I suspected were these three. 

“Happy birthday!”

I found myself sitting at a table, surrounded with party decorations and a banner revealing a name. I could not see the name, because it was far away from my vision. I could see many shadowed faces around the table, and only the light of birthday candles showed a cake. Not a big cake, not a small cake, just an average, circular mass of what I guess was chocolate. I counted the candles. 

I counted up to ten candles before the rest were blown away by me, even though I had no control of myself.  

Then the next thing I know, the candle lights were blown away and I could feel myself falling backwards as bright white surrounded my vision. 

How...How old am I? 

I opened my eyes, noticing that my field of vision was mostly grass. I looked up from the ground, and found that all three of the little ponies had a very worried look on their faces. Their mouths were moving, and soon enough my hearing returned. I was no longer hearing a high pitch noise, but the sound of wind blowing and three voices rambling quite loudly. 

“Mister, are ya okay? Why did ya have ta freak him out, Scootaloo?” Applebloom was scolding her friend, but Scootaloo had a look of shock over her face, than a look of annoyance. 

“I didn’t freak him out, I just asked him how old he was, and he just fell down! Geez, it’s not my fault!” I turn my head towards Scootaloo, and she grew worried once more. “Are you okay, mister? I didn’t do anything. Right?” 

“No no, of course you didn’t.” I said, trying to calm the three down. I grunted at I got on one knee and pushed myself off of the ground. “I just had a weird headache. That’s all.” 

“Are you sure? Because that headache made you look like your head was going to pop!” Sweetie Belle said as she stood right next to me. Scootaloo nodded, taking the space right next to my other side. Applebloom chose to stand in front of me. 

“I assure you that I am going to be okay.” I gave them a warm smile, but they didn’t buy it. “Let me just get you three to the cottage, we have spent too much time in this forest.” 

To our luck, we were right at the entrance of The Everfree Forest, and I gave a grin of relief. I can get these three to that yellow ponies home, which I’m guessing her name was Fluttershy, and I can...go nowhere. 

It has come to my attention that I have nowhere, to sleep, and taking my chances with the forest was a bad idea. I couldn’t just leave these three alone to walk past nature carer’s backyard, they could probably get eaten or something equally bad. 

“Okay, the cottage is just over there. I could take you three around the back yard and right at the foot of 	Fluttershy’s door. Does that sit right with you three?” They all nodded, but Applebloom did not seem to like that idea.

“But mister, where are you going?” 

I knelt down and petted her mane. “Don’t worry about me. What kind of monster would attack another monster like me?” I chuckled, and they had a guilty face on all of them. “It’s fine, you three thought I was a monster, even though now you know I am not. Water under the bridge. Now come on, let’s get you all inside before something crazy happens.” 





The time it took me to get them around the backyard took no time at all. I was right about the animals being asleep, and even though there were nocturnal animals looking at me and the ponies, they did not intervene. I think they knew I was bringing them inside Fluttershy’s cottage, so seeing that must have made them trust me. For the time being. By the looks of an owl’s eyes coming out of the darkness and looking at me, I would have to say that it was making sure I wasn’t going to do anything that will harm the children. 

We made it to the front of the cottage, and I knelt down to say goodbye. “Well, this is as far as I can go. Tell Ms.Fluttershy that you got lost and needed a place to stay.” As I turned around to leave, I felt three hooves grab my left leg. I regret ever looking down, because Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo were giving me puppy dog eyes, and these seemed to work. Mostly because their eyes were huge, and they glistened in the moonlight. They all opened their mouths to speak. 

“Don’t go.” 

Well...that hit me harder than I wanted it to. Unfortunately, I had to tell them straight up. “I’m sorry girls, but the last time I came in here, the animals freaked out and forced me into the forest. The owner didn’t even notice me, even though I was right in front of her face.” 

“We can ask Fluttershy if you can stay, she’ll say yes, we swear!” Scootaloo tried her best to convince me, and I acknowledge her for her persistence to get me to stay along with the other two, but I didn’t want to cause anymore trouble than I already did. But dammit all, I will not return to that forest. Not even if it was daytime again. 

“Okay, if she says yes, I’ll stay. Otherwise I’ll have to go.” As soon as I said that, the three gave me a hug. 

And I felt warm. 

This actually surprised me. Since I first came here, I felt nothing but coldness, even though the suns rays were shining down on me. 

With that being said, the three knocked on the door, calling for Fluttershy’s name. The door opened, and this time, I was hoping Fluttershy would open the door, happy to help these three and hopefully able to let me in. 

I was very wrong.

The last time I checked, Fluttershy did not have long white ears, whiskers, big feet and black eyes. The bunny looked at the three ponies in front of me, and he had no problem with them. In fact, he was really glad that they were there for some reason. Then the bunny looked at me.

And he was not happy.