Creaaaaak
The old wooden floor creaked as I stepped into the old library. Of course, this place had long stopped being a library, it was just a relic from a forgotten age now. A time when ponies used to read books for fun…not to use them as kindling for their fires. But I wasn’t here to read books, I wasn’t much of a reader anyways. No, I was here for something else. Some pony has been wandering around town, leaving tracks all over the place, this is where the trail led me to. As I scan my surroundings, I notice something out of place amongst the dirty, rundown library inside a hollowed out tree; A canteen, discarded by the stairs leading up to the higher floor. Cautiously, I examine the canteen…
“Hm…” I shake it a few times and hear the sloshing of water inside. Odd. Why would somepony abandon a half-full canteen of water?
Upon closer inspection, I realize that the cap hadn’t been properly sealed up. Which could mean that somepony had closed it up in a hurry, looks like I'm not as stealthy as I thought. Or maybe this was discarded ages ago, could be irrelevant to my investigation. I unscrewed the cap and saw the shimmering liquid around the canteen’s neck, a faint stream glistened along the canteen’s side. Had somepony been drinking out of this recently? I touched it with my hoof and noticed it was still wet. And just like that, the pieces of the puzzle clicked in my head.
“Someone’s still here.” But where are they? Not on the ground floor of course, there’s nowhere the hide. My eyes lock onto the 2nd floor and I notice something small quickly dash out of sight.
The ancient stairs creak dangerously as I make my way to the next floor, I pray to Luna that the stairs don’t give out and I end up falling through…the tree. Like the first floor, the second floor had seen better days. I see nothing out of the ordinary; a shattered window, more book shelves, an incredibly large telescope (which collected dust), a brightly colored tail, a bed of tattered sheets, some more books and-
….
My eyes lock onto the brightly colored tail sticking out beneath the bed sheets. I take one step towards it.
Crack
“Crack?” Something broke under my hoof. I look down to see that I carelessly stepped onto a framed picture. Returning my attention to the tail under the bed, I notice that it quickly retreats inside the dirty sheets. “Wait!” I call out to the owner of the tail. “Don‘t go. You‘re the one who‘s been scavenging around town right?”
The stack of sheets don’t move an inch, but I know somepony's under those sheets.
“I’m not mad at you. I…I have some food. You must be hungry, right?” I reach into my saddlebag and pull out an apple with my teeth. Holding it by the stem I stare at the sheets and see no movement. “I‘n goin tuh come closer. Kay?” One hoof at a time, I very cautiously walk about halfway to the pile of sheets. Partly because I don’t want to seem aggressive and partly because I’m not sure how dangerous they are. This world taught me to never let your guard down, or you'll lose your wings.
“Never judge book by its cover, Nox.”
With the apple in place, I step back and wait patiently by the stairs for the pony to come out of the sheets.
. . . . . . . .
Several minutes passed and they’ve yet to come out. Part of me wonders if they’re still in there, maybe they found a way to escape and I’m just staring at an immobile pile of sheets like an idiot. My patience was wearing thin, so I contemplated just pulling the sheets off until I hear a cute little sneeze, confirming that they were still inside. This was getting me nowhere, I needed a new plan.
I look down at the photo I had cracked earlier. I gazed at a worn and faded picture of a purple coated mare reading to a couple younger foals. Even from a photo, I could tell the foals were hanging onto her every word and-
An idea hit me like a sack of bricks.
“Do you like stories?” I asked the pony in the sheets.
I see the sheets shift ever so subtly, good I have their attention.
“I know a really good one you might like. It‘s a story of friendship, and about how I came to be…here. Would you like to hear it?”
Through the gaps in sheets, I see a sapphire colored eye staring back at me.
“But, if you wanna hear it…you should probably come out of there. You‘ll be able to hear better and we can share food.”
The eye looks hesitant, understandable. This world made it hard to trust another pony, let alone a big pony like me. I really hoped I wasn’t going to regret this next action: I unhook my own saddle bag and let it fall carefully to the side.
“I promise, it’s completely safe. Please, come out of there?”
The eye sinks back into the sheets.
I sigh, thinking that I failed until I see a small hoof step out of the pile of sheets, followed by a silver coated filly wrapped in a black cloak. Even with her hood, I can see the horn on her head. Someone this young had been traveling…alone?
She very slowly made her way closer to me, staring down at the ground, stealing glances at me and then quickly returning to staring at the floor. I took a step forward to close the distance and she immediately fell to her knees, trying to make herself as small as possible.
“…” what kind of scars did you carry, little pony? I picked up the apple and dropped it in front of her.
She looks at it, then at me, then back at the apple before sniffing it. Stealing more glances at me, she takes a very small bite of the apple.
….
And then another bite. Looked at me again. Then took another bite...wow she was really hungry.
I sit next to her while she got to work consuming the apple. “Hello. Now…about that story…I think it‘s one you‘ll really like…”