//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: To Tread Amongst the Living 
// by RobertPooner 
//------------------------------//

Twilight awoke in a flash, her mind flashing back to her fateful encounter with the cockatrice. She quickly checked herself over. "But how?" she thought. "I should be a frozen in stone." Sitting up, she begins to examine her surroundings. She finds herself in a small cabin consisting of a single room in which she now resided. A small fireplace directly across from her crackled with the life giving warmth of a recently tended fire. Above it, a small cooking pot hung from a cooking rack with a delicious smell emanating from its confines. The bed on which she laid upon was plain at best but not completely uncomfortable. A cloth mattress stuffed with what felt like hay, and a blanket made of what appeared to be linen laid over her. As she examines further, she sees that she is currently alone in this unfamiliar place.
Lying back down, she did her best to recount the previous events. "What happened?" she thought. Just then the door to the cabin slowly opened and in walked the object of her quest. She quickly closed her eyes in an attempt to feign sleep. She laid there for a couple of awkward seconds before she mustered the courage to crack one eyes open a sliver.
The strange stallion walked over to the hearth and began to tend to the fire. With a small burst of magic emanating from the dark confines of his hood, he willed the fire to grow, enough to ever so slightly lick the bottom of the cooking pot. Simultaneously, he pulled a spoon from the side of the small fire and began to stir the food within.
"You must be quite hungry Miss Sparkle, come have a seat" the stallion said without even a glance over his shoulder.
In a single movement, Twilights eyes shot open as she bounded up from the bed and began charging a spell through her horn.
"I know who you are necromancer, tell me where we are and why you've brought me here!" demands Twilight in a tone as confident as she could muster.
Still without a single glance, the stallion again speaks, "I asked you if you would like to come and share my dinner Miss Sparkle. It has been a while since I’ve entertained company. Calm down and have a seat, I insist.”
“I’ll not have you perform any foul magics on me necromancer. I know what you are and I will not allow you to bring harm to Equestria!” Without a second thought Twilight released the spell she had prepared. A bright purple beam fires from the tip of her horn directly at the seated stallion. The effects however, were not as predicted. The energy Twilight released impacted a bright green shield around the hooded pony, seemingly drawn into the shield and eventually fade into nothing.
A look of terror came immediately to Twilights face as the stallion stood up and turned to face the shocked unicorn. His bright green, emerald eyes shattering her previous resolve. “I poured every bit of myself into that spell, and he had defeated it without as much as a wave of his hoof.” 
"The least one can do when they are a guest in one’s home is to, in the very least, be personable Miss Sparkle."
In a split second, Twilight found herself enveloped in an aura of familiar green light. She tried her best to summon up enough magic to break the stallions hold on her, but try as she might; every ounce of magic she managed to call forth was immediately sapped away. Defeated and helpless, Twilight closed her eyes and awaited her inevitable fate, a fate that never came. 
When she managed the courage to open her eyes, she found herself seat by the fire with a bowl of stew. Across from her, the hooded stallion sat calmly and too ate from a similar bowl. “Who is this pony, and how did he manage to take away my magic like that?” Her mind roiled with countless questions with not an answer to be found no matter how long she pondered them.
Twilight’s stomach rumbled loudly. She was hungry and had no idea how long she's been in the forest. Staring into the bowl in front of her, she had to admit, the stew looked as good as it smelled.
"You will have plenty of time to interrogate me after you've eaten. Cockatrice petrification has a tendency to wear one out," the stallion answering her subconscious thoughts as he takes another spoonful of the stew.
Tentatively, Twilight took a spoonful.  Inspecting her meal, she saw  freshly chopped turnips, potatoes, and daisies along with a hay broth. Slowly she braved the first spoonful, her eyes lighting up after tasting the delicious concoction. She then began to eagerly devour the remainder bowls contents.
"I am actually quite surprised that you were able to muster up that amount of magic in your weakened condition Miss Sparkle, but then again, one would expect as much from the Element of Magic and Celestias prized pupil. The stallion continued, a sharp smile evident on his face evident even through the darkness of his cowl.
With a look of shock, Twilight looked up from her empty bowl to regard her much lamented dinner partner.
"Wh...who or what are you.  Hh..how do you know about me?” Twilight asked, her voice barely above a shaky whisper.
“I have much knowledge of this world and most is not veiled beyond my knowing Miss Sparkle, you and the rest of the Elements of Harmony amongst it. As I told you in our first meeting, my name is Albus Noctis, or Nox if you prefer, and from what I gather, you already know what I am." The stallion responds, his gaze never leaving his soup. "And I suppose you wish to know how you came to be in my humble dwellings?” 
After giving a slight nod to the stranger across form her, he continues to speak.
“Well, that was my doing as well."

*Several hours earlier....

Nox was walking alone, as usual, through the perpetual darkness that is the Everfree forest. His nightly ritual to forage for food was more bountiful this evening than most, filling up not one but two saddle bags, with all manner of vegetables and plants.
The normal sounds of life were quiet tonight, although not unusual for him on most nights. Most if not all of the denizens of the forest gave the pony a wide berth. This night however, things were different. Pulling power into his hooves, he stretched his magical senses throughout the forest floor and canopy. Normally, the forest would be full of activity, the creatures’ life forces emanating visible auras that he could see and interact with. Tonight though, save for a few insects and arachnids, there were no animals to be seen, nor any magical creatures.
As he trudged on farther, his senses picked up a familiar, strong purple aura moving along the path away from Ponyville. "Hmm, I wonder what the Element of Magic is doing wandering these parts at night?" he thought to himself. With a chuckle, "No doubt on one of Celestia’s little missions or some such."
Keeping hidden from the purple unicorn was easy enough, the glow from her purple magelight making her stand out for miles. Continuing on his own mission he spies something that gives him pause. On the same path that the purple unicorn was resolutely trudging on, a pulsing grey glow of a magical creature emanated from a nearby bush. Moving as fast as he could toward the path, he managed to make out the outline of the creature, a cockatrice.
Barely fifty feet away from them, Nox watched as the unicorns aura tumbled and rolled along the path, as well as the shifting glow of the cockatrice rising from the bush. A rapid discharge of magical energy told him all he needed to know. Bounding onto the path just as the cockatrice was about to finish its work, Nox charged and released a spell. From beneath the cockatrice, a bony five clawed talon rose and grabbed the creature impaling it with each of its razor shard claws.
As it grasped it, a flash of emerald green surrounded the cockatrice and flooded into him like smoke being drawn into a stove pipe. The blood from the impaled creature flowed with abandon out of the gaping wounds made by the claws, being drawn down the talons and too into the emerald smoke. With a final shriek, the cockatrice dissipated into a pile of ash.
With the treat dealt with, Nox braced himself as a familiar feeling poured over him. The very life force of the creature began flooding into him; bolstering him, strengthening him. This feeling to him is as natural as breathing, yet when a magical beast is absorbed, it always comes with an indeterminable amount of additional energy with it. As he feels the creature fade into him, the added magical energy makes itself known. All throughout the forest, every creature that was held petrified by the cockatrices magic was released, along with the nearby purple unicorn, as the recently released magics rushed into him.
With the torrent of magical and life energies subsiding, Nox peered down at the purple form lying motionless beside a tree. She was quite dead, the once vibrant purple color of her fur quickly fading to a whitewashed version of her previous hue.
Beginning a ritual practiced more times than he would care to remember, he moved his muzzle close to hers and breathed out a slight wisp of blood red smoke. Coiling and coalescing in front of her face, it was almost instantly pulled into her nose and mouth. Slowly her breathing slowly returned and the distinctive purple of her coat gradually began to fade back. He then reached out with his magical energies and gently lifted her body and placed her on his back.
"Guess I'll be having a guest for dinner tonight," he chuckled as he slowly makes his way back to his solitary cabin.

*back in the present

"...and that's the whole story Miss Sparkle." Nox says, finishing his tale.
Twilight sat there quiet. "This strange pony risked his life to save you, and to thank him, you attack him without thinking." she thought to herself sullenly.
"I...I'm so sorry Mr. Nox..." said Twilight, barely holding back tears. “I reacted on impulse without thinking things through."
"Just Nox... Please," he responds. "And all is forgiven Miss Sparkle."
"You can just call me Twilight." she says, a smile slowly forming on her face.
Responding with a slight smile of his own, "ok Twilight, would you care for a second helping of stew?"
"Yes please."