Chapter 3 - Haven’s First Encounter
The Land outside of the governed cities and villages were largely mysterious to pony kind. The vast lands were mostly inhabited by brave travelers, and ponies that were banished by their homeland.
The land Haven was in now, just north of The City, was commonly know as “The Path” to virtually all ponies. The Path’s name came from large green fields surrounding The City’s lands, and the paths forged into the earth by decades worth of travelers carrying their merchandise toward The City’s gates.
The sun began to set just as Haven got to the edge of The Path. The only thing ahead of him now was the Northern Woods; the most peaceful of woods in the unclaimed lands. Haven cautiously made his way through the entrance of the woods, and got about a mile in before beginning to set up a small camp. The Northern Woods wasn’t known for its wild animal attacks, but nonetheless, he decided to play it safe and build a small fire, so he left his camp to go find some wood.
The forest was a very grim, dark place at night. Haven listened to all of the strange sounds that were coming from the distance. The sound of crickets, the humm of the gentle breeze, and the occasional owl hooting all echoed in the distance. He was enjoying his walk, when a shadowy figure fell toward his head and knocked him unconscious.
“Hello?” Haven heard the voice of a mare call out, just as he began to regain consciousness
“Uhhh,” Haven moaned. He started to get up when he noticed the grey pegasus pony with darkish-blue hair, and a cutie mark depicting a flaming lightning bolt, standing in front of him.
“Oh, crap,” she exclaimed. “I am so sorry! I was taking a night fly when my left wing cramped up. I tried to stop myself when I saw I was headed toward your face, but I guess that didn’t work too well, huh?” she joked with a nervous grin. “Are you okay?”
Haven regained quickly regained his position. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he muttered.
“Honestly, it was a complete accident! Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”
“No. I’m fine. I was just getting some firewood, and--”
“Firewood?” she interrupted. “Well, heck! I can help you with that!” She dashed off immediately.
Haven waited around for a few minutes and, when she didn’t come back, continued his search for some good firewood. He walked for about a hundred more yards before finding a mid-sized fallen tree branch. He tied the back end of the branch onto his saddle, and began walking it back to his camp.
As he approached the camp, he started to smell some burning oak coming from the distance. He approached with caution and peeked through some bushes toward his camp.
“There you are!” called a voice from the distance. “I got some firewood. Took you so long to get back that I had time to go ahead and build it. Had time to go to my camp and get my tea set too!” She held up her glass of tea. “Want some?”
“Why not?” he replied.
She poured him a glass and handed it to him.
“Who are you? And where are you from?” he asked.
“My name is Shimmering Raindrop, but everyone calls me Shimmer. I’m from Skyfield; a small working village just south of Cloudsdale. Well, at least that’s where I was from.” She looked down for a second.
“What happened? You do something wrong?”
“Well, kind of... You see, living in the working villages isn't like living in Cloudsdale. You’re destined from the start to be a weather pony in at least some way. I was with one of my friends when I accidentally screwed up some plans for a new kind of weather machine. Spilled ink all over them. Come to find out, my friend wasn’t the kind of friend I thought she was. She squealed on me the first chance she got. She got a promotion, I got kicked out. Been camping down here for the last few days.” She paused and took a sip of her tea. “So, what’s your story?”
“My name is Haven Sapphire. I grew up in Greysback; a small village in Unicorn land. I got fed up with people treating me like I was still a colt. "I mean," Haven began to slighty raise his voice in anger. "Just because I don’t know what my purpose is, doesn't mean I don’t have one." Haven took a deep breath and began to calm down. "I left the city yesterday. I’m heading to the mountains to try and find some all-powerful stone that might not even exist.”
“Well that’s weird... In a good way,” she said in an obviously sarcastic manner.
“Thanks for the fire and the tea, but it’s getting late. If I plan to get any travel done tomorrow, I need to get some sleep.” Haven stood up and placed his empty teacup next to Shimmer’s teapot.
“Um, okay... I think I’m going to stick around a for a few more minutes and finish this tea. Nice meeting you!”
“Same here,” he replied. Haven approached a small, curved rock formation and tucked himself underneath it with a small blanket that he had packed.
The next morning, Haven awoke to a surprise. Shimmer was stretched out next to the fire, drooling on the ground.
“Enjoy your tea?” Haven asked rather loudly.
Shimmer gasped and jumped up nervously. “Oh... Uh... I guess I fell asleep...” She laughed nervously.
“Sure... Anyway, I’m about to eat some breakfast, if you want some.” Haven used his magic to hold up his bags of nuts and dried fruit.
“Well, now that you mention it, I guess maybe I could go for a little grub... Gets a little hard to come by good food around here... Alone... In the woods... Without anypony else around...”
“Help yourself. You've intruded on my business enough so far, wouldn't hurt to do it a little more , eh?” he joked.
Haven and shimmer ate a few hoof-fulls of food, and haven put it away.
“I guess I’d better get going,” he said as he packed his stuff up. :
“Oh, okay... Guess I’d better be going too...” Shimmer said rather disappointingly.
“You know, I could probably use some extra hooves to help out when I get to the mountains. You’re welcome to come along, if you want.”
“Really?!” Shimmer blurted out. “I’d love to! You, me, on a quest for something greater! This is the chance I’ve been waiting for!” Shimmer flew up into the air and did a few flips. “Um.” Shimmer calmed down and returned to the ground. “What I meant to say was, ‘Sure, sounds fun...’ I guess it just came out wrong.”
Haven laughed. “Okay, then; I guess you should go ahead and get your things. I want to be out of these woods by nightfall.”
Shimmer dashed into the sky and returned only about a minute later with a small bag around her back. She quickly flew down and packed her teapot into the bag. “Ready!” She shouted enthusiastically.
“Okay, then,” replied Haven. “I guess we should get going.”
As Haven and Shimmer walked side by side through the forest, Haven couldn't help but smile; this was the first friend he had ever had.
Next Chapter: Haven’s Adventure Begins