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// The Witch Doctor 
// Story: Knight of the Heart 
// by Neroson40 
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The Witch Doctor
I was halfway into the woods when I thought it was too dangerous to go any further. I didn’t care that I was in the most dangerous region in Equestria (That being the Everfree Forest), or that I just bailed on my only chance at having actual friends. I just need a place where no one would see me crying. 
You’d think I’d be over my family’s death even a little by now, right? Well I would if my last memory of them was happy. But the last memory I have of them before the Kaiju war, I was yelling at them, saying things I swear I will never stop regretting. Then they were all murdered by the Kaiju, and moments before it could get me… it died. My home, gone. My family, lost.  Where was I to go? I just went on with my miserable life, fifteen years from town to town, until I reached Ponyville.
It was Twilight who showed me just how warmhearted a pony could be. And the students at the School who showed me how heartless they really are. It was around the time for the sun to set when I realized somepony was watching me. I looked up to see the last thing I ever thought I would see in Equestria, a Zebra.
“Hello there my young colt,” She said. “Why do you sit there and mope?”
“Why do you care?” I said, suddenly feeling very bitter. I wiped the tears from my eyes trying to retain my dignity.
“As a living being, it is my job to be concerned,” The Zebra said. “What would I be otherwise but a huge jerk?”
“Everypony I have experience with,” I said. This warranted a look of concern, the third I ever got since my family died. She started to walk away, but turned around when she realized I wasn’t following.
“You are coming, are you not?” she asked. “I would not stay here with the monster juggernaut.” With that piece of advice I followed her to a tree that had been hollowed out and turned into a house. The sign read “Zecora’s Natural Remedies.” The Zebra, Zecora if this was her place, turned to me. “Welcome to my shop,” She said. “Why not come in for a quick stop?”
“Thank you,” I said. “But why are you helping?” She ushered me inside then answered the question.
“You are Champion, are you not? Ponyville is looking for you by the lot.”
“Yeah, Champ,” A voice said. I turned to the voice to find three young mares about five years older than me, one a yellow earth pony with red mane and tail wearing a pink bow, and a cutiemark of a paintbrush and wallpaper. Another, a short, magenta maned orange Pegasus, with a scooter cutiemark. The last a white, light purple maned unicorn with a heart made up of an upside down treble clef and a bass clef for a cutiemark. “Why’d you run away from your own party?” the earth pony said.
“Because I can’t smile…” everyone looked at me with confusion.
“Zecora, do you have something for that?” the unicorn asked.
“No Sweetie Belle,” Zecora said. “I have nothing to make a subconscious ailment well.”
“Subconscious ailment?” The Pegasus said.
“It means I can smile, but I don’t want to,” I said. “And it’s not subconscious, it’s totally conscious.” I told them what happened fifteen years ago, word for word what I expressed here.
“Sweet Celestia…” Sweetie Belle said. “I’m so sorry.”
“That is, put simply, rather unfortunate,” Zecora said. “But there are some things that shouldn’t change you, whether or not you forget.”
I was silent, not even the tears at the corner of my eyes fell off my face.
“Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom,” each nodding as their name was called. “Make sure that Princess Twilight sees Champion to his room.” She put a bottle in the Pegasus, Scootaloo’s saddlebag. “Make sure he takes this every day, I don’t want to hear him from that mile away.”