After saving the two ponies from the timberwolf, the three of us had ran for dear life. At first I had led them through the forest, darting and dashing through the tree trunks. After a while my chest began to pain me terribly and the two other ponies over took me, still running as if a pack of timberwolves were hot on our hooves. I had nowhere else to go, so I followed them all the way out of the Everfree Forest.
Once we had left the forest the two ponies had collapsed, panting. The pain in my chest was horrible, but I was too busy taking in the world outside of the forest to even really notice it. Everything had seemed so much brighter without a canopy of leaves hanging overhead. Colors were more vibrant and for some reason I could tell that no predators hunted in this area. Wherever these two ponies had taken me, it was certainly a safe place.
"Where . . . Where are we?" I asked them breathlessly.
The female pony glanced up at me with a confused look. "We're in Equestria, hon. Where else would we have ran to? This is our home after all, and yours too I would imagine."
I shook my head at this and the girl only seemed to be even more confused. She continued on with various questions that I could not answer, and after a while I lost the ability to even understand her. The world seemed like it was fading away before me and I dropped to my knees as it became harder to stand. Then everything around me went black.
~
When I woke up, I was in a sunny little room curled up in a firm yet somewhat cozy bed. The young pony girl I had met in the forest was at my bedside and she gasped in excitement.
"Oh good, you're finally awake." Her eyes danced with excitement. "I'll go get Granny Smith."
Before I could say anything the young filly was up and trotting out of the room. I could not help but smile at her eagerness, but my good mood quickly faded as I looked about the room. It seemed comfortable and homey enough, but it was such a big difference from the forest I was use to. I glanced up and was a little sad to see a solid roof over my head instead of a leafy canopy. How was one suppose to watch the stars as they fell asleep?
In a few minutes the young pony was back along with the male I had met in the forest. A wrinkled old pony clopped into the room slowly behind them. They all seemed friendly enough. After all, if they had wanted to hurt me I was certain they would have done so before then. But I was still very uncomfortable being around so many ponies at once.
My anxiousness must have showed, because the old pony chuckled. "Calm yourself, child. You've been through quite an ordeal but you are safe here." She glanced over at the two ponies from the forest. "I hear that you saved my Applejack and Big Mac from a timberwolf in Everfree Forest. If it were not for your bravery, they might not have come back to me."
"It . . . I wasn't brave," I had mumbled underneath my breath.
Applejack shook her head fiercely so that her mane flew all about. "That's not true! You ran out and killed that nasty old timberwolf! You hit it so hard it burst into dust. Even though it hurt you, you stillmanaged to run all the way back here to Equestria with us." She scraped at the floorboards with one timid hoof. "You're a hero."
I shook my head at this, but did not protest. There were other things I wanted to know first. "So . . . What is Equestria, exactly?"
The question had earned me a round of strange looks from all three of the ponies, and led to a bunch of their own questions about me. That was how I ended up telling them about my life in the Everfree Forest, how I was born there and grew up there without any pony to look out after me. I could see that the information shocked them, but at the time I did not understand their surprise. After all, what was so wrong about living in the forest?
"Well then," Granny Apple drawled slowly, "since you don't have any pony to look out after you, why don't you stay with us for a while?"
And that was how I came to live with the Apple family for the next three years. I had to stay in that bed for a few weeks while my chest healed, but after I was all better old Granny put me right to work. I would be out in the orchards with Applejack and Big Mac harvesting apples, along with helping with various repairs around the farm.
Life was good for me there, and I ended up learning a lot about the world of Equestria. Still, I could not help as though something was missing from my life. I had a good home and the Apple clan treated me like I was a part of their family, but I just could not imagine spending the rest of my days there. A part of me missed the adventure of living in the hazardous forest, having to put my life on the line and testing my skills every day. The easy life was great, but I quickly learned that it was not for me.
I did my best to put up with the safe but dull life with the Apple family. But there came a day when I was no longer able to ignore the side of me that craved adventure.