Fluttershy and Dylan walked back inside, the sun silhouetting their figures along the ground. As they re-entered the house, Dylan slid the table behind the door.
Fluttershy gasped! What was he going to do? Kill her? Something worse? She started to panic.
"Relax, I'm not goin' ta hurt ya. Sometimes at night we get...unwanted visitors."
"Oh." She sat down on the bed, dangling her legs off the edge, an inch from the floor. "Like...what?"
"All kinds of nasty things. Zombies, giant floating eyeballs-" At this Fluttershy yelped and dove under the bed.
"Zombies!? I thought they were just a story to scare little colts and fillies."
"Oh, they're very real. Why do you think I carry this around?" He held up the dagger, the blade glinting in the torchlight.
"You- you fight them?" She was starting to like this Dylan guy.
"When they get in. Which is to say, not very often. But me dad, 'e used to hunt them for sport. He was a real warrior, me dad. He protected our homestead to his last breath, literally."
"Your dad is...dead?"
"And me mum. We used to have a nice li'l town on this plot of land, but after the Corruption started to spread, and the goblins started raiding our town for supplies to fight it off, the villagers fled. I 've been trying to rebuild and get people to come back, but it is a difficult job alone. I need to find certain things, you know? Go out and...adventure. But I was always the scholarly type, not one for fighting. But my dad, he told me that I would help save us, nonetheless. To this day I've been trying to figure out what he meant. But enough about me. What's your story?"
"Well-" In the next few hours, she told Dylan all about her life with her friends, leaving out the bits she didn't care to talk about(the fall in flight school, Twilight's new title and her subsequent envy, and such).
As she finished her tale, the first rays of dawn shone through the window, and stood up, stretching her aching muscles. Dylan stood and began to slide the table back to it's original position.
"Well, you certainly sound like her."
"Who?"
"Before me dad went out to fight the Goblin Army, he left me that sword-" He pointed to the dagger- "And some wise words. He said, 'Dylan, I will not be coming home. But one day, another hero will come take my place, and with your help, she'll finish what I could not.' And now, five years later, I find you laying in the woods in the middle of the day. Maybe your the hero me dad was talkin' about!"
"Me? Oh no, you must be mistaken. I've never been on an adventure before. It was always one of my friends, or-"
She was cut off by Dylan.
"But, what about the stories ya tol' me? About Discord and Nightmare Moon. You beat them, right? So what makes you think you're not qualified to beat them goblins, or- or the Corruption?"
"Well- that was always my friends. I was never important." She kicked the dirt with one fuzzy-ass boot.
"But you are important. They could never have done it without you!"
"Well, I suppose-"
"S'pose nuttin!" She was shocked by Dylan's sudden outburst. "You are the Hero of Terraria, you've got to be! Why else would fate bring you here?" Seeing her fright, he immediately tried to relax. "I'm sorry. I just... I've been wanting so bad for a hero, y'know? And now one shows up on me doorstep, and-" He burst into tears.
"I'm sorry, but I just can't. I need to find a way home."
But she wanted to help, she really did. She didn't see how she could help- she was just a shy girl with a penchant for care. What could she do? She didn't know how to swing a sword or shoot a bow. And she'd never killed anything before, let alone a sentient creature. He stood up.
"I'll be back around noon. If you've changed your mind since then, great! If not, well, it's your choice, isn't it? Leaving an entire world in the hands of the most destructive evil Terraria has seen in a thousand years?"
And with that, Dylan slammed the door, stormed off into the woods, and left a very distraught Fluttershy to think.