It was almost three in the morning when Discord closed the journal, satisfied with his work and finally feeling the grip of sleep upon him.
He yawned wide into his hoof and used some magic to wrap himself tightly in a blanket. "Maybe it's not so bad being a mortal pony after all." He smiled to himself as he let his eyes drift closed slowly, finally falling under the smooth lids and drifting off to dreamland.
A low rumble filled the room, jerking Hearth Stone awake from the bed. "Halt! Who goes there?!" He jumped out of bed, instantly awake and in his element, in the dark of the night, ears perked and eyes scanning for an intruder. "I could have sworn I heard something, it sounded like a monster of some sort..."
The room filled with the sound again, this time actually shaking the bed enough to wake up the others sleeping in it. "Oh for the love of Celestia what is that?!" Wordsmith was clearly in a state of confusion, but showed it more than the alert guard as Screwball and Random thought moaned and popped their backs.
Screwball rolled over and looked at a clock before rolling out and groaning. "It's Discord. He snores."
"Anyone here a good muffling spell?" Wordsmith nodded slightly at Random before casting one over the still sleeping unicorn, effectively making the sound nearly silent.
Everypony looked at each other for a few moments, unsure of what to do next. As they mumbled among themselves, a light came on downstairs, alerting them that Fluttershy was woken up by the noise too. "Well now what do we do?"
"Well I can't sleep any more," Screwball commented as she headed for the stairs. "I'm going to let Fluttershy know what's going on and get a cuppa tea." She stopped on the top step before turning around and looking back at the three stallions. "Would I be right in assuming that you're up for the night, Private Hearth Stone?"
The guard nodded slightly as he gathered up his armor and weapons from a corner of the room with all the luggage. "Sleeping through the night feels strange to me anyhow. Some tea, maybe coffee if there is any and I'll be back to normal. Care to join us gentlecolts?"
Wordsmith and Random Thought shrugged at the guards invitation before heading down stairs. When they got there, they saw that their host was busy trying to calm the restless animals, awoken by a snore that probably could be measured on a Richter Scale. "Now now little ones, there's nothing to be afraid of. Come on everyone, back to your beds. I'll see you all in the morning."
As the last of the animals went back to their small beds to sleep, Fluttershy gave a week smile to the four guests coming down the stairs. "Oh, did he wake you up too?"
"Understatement of the century," Wordsmith whispered. "We saw the lights come on and decided to come down and try to get to know our host better. That is, if you are going to be up awhile."
Fluttershy simply smiled as she lead the way into her kitchen. "We can talk more openly in here, there aren't any animals sleeping in the kitchen." She quickly pulled a kettle out and set it to boil on her stove and pulled out her tea set as the door shut behind the guard. "I hope you all like tea."
The four ponies nodded and mumbled thanks, and that tea was fine. As they did, Fluttershy opened her fridge to search for some scones to serve with the tea. "I know that you Canterlot ponies are more sophisticated than me, and that you probably have had better. But, I'll do my best to make you comfortable at my table."
"Actually, I come from Ponyville too, remember?" Screwball commented as she pulled up a chair. "I never was much for the Canterlot elitist ways of thinking. It's actually nice to be around a home that feels, homey."
"And I came from a village deep in the unicorn mountain range," Hearth Stone replied. "Honestly, there are more comforts here than I have ever seen in a normal ponies house."
Random Thought smiled as he raised his hoof with a grin. "Trottingham's my home town. What about you Wordsmith? Any memories from your foalhood still in that brain of yours?"
Wordsmith leaned back in his seat and blew bubbles out of a pipe. "My foalhood? Bits and pieces of it I can still remember. I lived in my earliest of years in Los Pegasus. I looked after my little brother while my father worked where he could, and my mother tried to find work. Eventually, my grandmother lost the house, and we all left to find a new place to live. We moved from place to place for a few years. Eventually, I spent the rest of my foalhood in Hollow Shades. As soon as I was old enough I left for Canterlot, and I haven't talked to my family since."
The others looked at him with various expressions on their faces. Finally, it was Screwball that broke the silence. "We asked where you grew up, not for your biography."
A few of the other ponies nodded to the statement, but Fluttershy had a look of concern on her face. "Why don't you talk to your family? Did they disown you?"
Wordsmith snorted slightly as he put the toy pipe away. "Hardly. I grew up with a family of constant bickering and fighting among ourselves. Family feuds, mind games and back stabbing. Always, someone was trying to look good to the matriarch, to be better than the rest of the family. I left because I didn't want to get wrapped up in that. I never wrote or spoke to them because I don't want them to find me. I may not remember the name of our house, but I do know I never spoke of it because I'm ashamed of them all."
A silence filled the room for a few unsettling moments as the tea kettle started to whistle, prompting Fluttershy to take it off the heat. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"Yeah, their loss, I'm awesome," Wordsmith said with a grin.
"I don't think that's what she meant," Random Thought interjected. "I think that she's sorry for you."
"For me? Why should anyone feel sorry for me? If anything it's a victory in my book for being able to rise above my family's petty ways."
"You ran away from your problems," Hearth Stone said with a frown as Fluttershy began passing out the drinks and scones. "Instead of staying with your family, you left them behind. Family doesn't do that, and ponies shouldn't run away from problems, but instead solve them."
Wordsmith stood up and walked away. "I don't need to take this from anypony. You don't know me, and you don't know them. I just wanted a new life, a fresh start. Pretend I never even told you about them." He then began to leave the kitchen. "I'm going outside."
"Running away from another problem? Maybe I should congratulate your family for their loss. They might even be happier without you being so cold to them."
Wordsmith froze and looked back at the guard. Anger flashed in his eyes before he shook his head and exited the kitchen.
"I think you may have gone too far Hearth Stone." Random Thought said with a frown.
"So what? He's a coward for doing that, and cowardice is one thing I can't stand. Besides, what's he going to do to me?" As if in answer to his question, a faint blue glow of magic appeared around his teacup. Before he could react, the cup shot up and smashed against his face, covering him in bits of porcelain, and boiling hot tea.
Wordsmith sat outside of the cottage with a deep frown as he looked up to the sky. There, he sat in quiet contemplation of the constellations on Luna's sky, and let his mind run wild. "How dare he say such things. He doesn't know me. He wouldn't know what they put me through."
Wordsmith suddenly started to tap his hooves against the dirt. Finally he got up and started to pace as he let his thoughts run wild. As he lost himself in his thoughts, the front door opened, and out stepped Hearth Stone. "Wordsmith? Do you want to talk?"
As he paced, Wordsmith idly kicked a stray pebble in his path to Fluttershy's fence. "There's nothing to talk about."
"I think there is," Hearth Stone interjected with a frown. "For somepony that want's nothing to do with his family, you sure are on the defense about them.
Wordsmith opened his mouth to say something before he paused, closed his eyes and leaned on the fence, looking up once more to the sky. "I don't quite know how to put it," he started with a frown. "Some ponies are a cancer. Well, that's not right either. What I mean is, they aren't bad, but they do all they can to drag you down."
He looked back at Hearth Stone and waited for him to say something, only for the night guard to rotate his hoof in a gesture for him to continue.
"When I was in Hollow Shades, I was living with my mother, father, and younger brother. We had very little, and the other foals would make sure that I knew it. My parents would argue often, and my brother required special attention. The final straw for me, was the lonely feeling that I had around them."
"What do you mean, lonely feeling?" Wordsmith gave a sad smile as he turned to look him in the face. For the first time since they have met, Hearth Stone noticed something in the unicorn's eyes. A darkness, as if somepony had snuffed the light out of them, and he was dead inside.
Before he could linger on the thought, Wordsmith turned away, and continued to look up into the sky as a few tears came down his cheeks. "It's hard, growing up without friends, especially when you want them. To have a family reputation so badly, that nopony wants to be around you, because they think you will do them wrong the moment their back is turned. It effects everything, your grades in school, your mood, your attitude, even what you wind up becoming as an adult."
Hearth Stone frowned as he came up next to him and leaned against the fence. He looked up at the stars as well before giving a small sigh. "It must have been hard growing up like that."
Wordsmith nodded silently while he weighed his thoughts out for a few more moments, choosing his next words carefully. "The final straw for me, was when I couldn't find work. Nopony wanted to hire me, because of who my family was. They all judged me on my family, and what they did instead of what I could do. That's why I left them, almost six years ago, and I never looked back. I don't even know how to feel. I know they would never forgive me for leaving."
He turned away from the sky as he looked over at the looming Everfree Forest for a few moments. Finally, he looked down at his own hooves before mumbling the last of his thoughts. "I thought that if I erased them from my past, I would be happier. I thought that if I came back a success, everyone would be proud of me. Now I don't even remember my own name, let alone theirs. The circle is done. Now I'll never find them again."
The pair of Stallions sat outside for a few more moments under the moonlight, neither sure of what to do next. After several moments, Hearth Stone finally spoke up. "I'm sorry. I don't know if it would make you feel better, but I can never go home either."
Wordsmith turned to look at the guard, his curiosity peeked. "Why? Why can't you go home?"
"Disowned," he mumbled under his breath. "The village where I grew up, was an isolated community. Nopony ever leaves the village there. Sure, merchants come and go, but that life never interested me. I never wanted to live out my whole life being a mushroom farmer like my dad. When I learned I had a talent for protection, I did not know what to do with it. The village elders wanted me to become a guard for the town, and I did. Then Princess Luna came back."
He paused as a small smile crossed his features, and he couldn't help but hold a hoof to the eye on the chest of his armor. "When I heard that she had returned, the news spread like wild fire. We pegasi with bat wings, have a long tradition of guarding Princess Luna's night. I, and a few others wanted to go, but the elders forbade it. They wanted to keep our presence a secret from most of the world. We decided to leave anyway, not knowing we could never return. They caught us at the exit, and banished us on the spot. We could never contact our family again, we could never come back, and we could never tell others where to find the village."
"Except you just told me it's deep in the unicorn mountain range."
Hearth Stone glared at Wordsmith for a few moments before asking, "Do you really want to search every cave in the mountain range for a village of bat ponies?"
"I suppose not," Wordsmith replied before shuffling his hooves.
"The point is, I would give almost anything to be able to see my family again. I left, because I felt that it was my duty to my princess to go. Not because I was running away from trouble." Wordsmith's ears dropped as his head sagged to the ground with guilt. "But, now that you spoke, I can understand why you left. There's nothing you can do about it now, but if I'm as good at reading ponies as I think I am, you'll find a way to let them know you're alright. I know you care about them, and want to know that they are fine too."
Wordsmith looked up at the guard, and Hearth noticed that the unicorn's eyes were beginning to water. The next thing he knew, he was under the assault of an emotional hug. "You're a good stallion Hearth Stone! Thank's for having this talk."
"It's, fine... just, let go..."
"Awwww! How cute! I told you boys have feelings too!"
The pair of stallions turned to see that Screwball was smiling like the cat that swallowed a canary as she lead Fluttershy and Random Thought out into the front garden. Just in time to see the two still embraced in a hug.
Wordsmith and Hearth Stone looked at each other for a few moments before shoving each other away and coughing into their hooves. "So, uh, what brings you three out here?"
"Oh," Fluttershy started as she looked anywhere other than directly in somepony's eyes. "We thought that since it's a warm night out, we could sit outside with our tea."
"The girls were worried you were gonna slug him Hearth Stone."
An awkward silence settled upon the ponies as they all looked at each other. Finally, Screwball clapped her hooves together to cut the tension. "So, shall we go sit down at the table?"
The rest of the ponies all mumbled something along the lines of agreement as they converged upon the small table and drank the hot tea in near silence.
"So," Screwball said with a smile. "What do you think this creature looks like?"
"It's probably a hydra," Random Thought commented with a bit of a frown. "I hear that they are pretty commonly found around the nearby bog."
"But a hydra doesn't match the description of the creature," Fluttershy commented. "It might be something entirely new. What if it's all alone?! Oh, the poor thing..."
"If it is alone, we will still have to find out what it is, and remove it from here. If we can learn where it came from, all the-" Hearth Stone froze as he looked past Screwball. Behind her, on the edge of the forest, an orange streak flashed between two trees. "Nopony move..."
Everypony instantly froze as looks of concern crossed their faces. "What's wrong Hearth Stone?"
"I think that the creature we're after, is right there in the forest," he whispered while pointing to the trees. "Everypony, keep an eye on that area, and stay silent."
A new tension filled the air as they all watched the dark space in the woods. Waiting for something to happen. That's when they heard it. "Hu-hu-he-hu-ha-ha!" It was a laugh of some sort, with the strange musical quality of a song, yet the sinister nature of a clown gone wrong.
Fluttershy was frozen with fear, but she wasn't the only one. Wordsmith, and to an extent Random Thought was as well. Screwball quickly assessed the situation, and knew how to handle it. "Fluttershy, go inside and lock your doors and windows. Wordsmith you and I are with her, make sure all windows and doors are shut while I go get Discord. When you are sure that the cottage is secure, join me in gathering our supplies. Hearth Stone, Random Thought, keep an eye open for the creature and let us know of it's movements. Ready? On three, one, two, three, break!" With that, all five split off to do their part of the plan.