//------------------------------// // The ruler and the explanation. // Story: Hunters of the forest. // by Sylif Daring Doo //------------------------------// ____*Golden Oaks library five minutes later*____ Twilight sighed as she sipped her tea, after the incident at Sugarcube corner, Rainbow and Twilight brought Scootaloo to the library, along with Shanda as Scootaloo called her, Twilight looked at the unconscious Shanda and a flood of questions entered her mind at once. "What are you?" Twilight wondered silently as she sipped her tea. A set of footsteps coming down the stairs told Twilight that Spike was awake, she looked over at the stairs as Spike walked down. "Hey Twilight." The baby dragon said sleepily. Twilight chuckled and set her tea down, she stood up and walked towards one of her desks. Spike looked around the library and to his relief it was completely clean, mysterious creature and all! "Wait a minute..." Spike rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things but to his shock, the creature was still there on the couch. "Um....T-Twilight, there is a.....thing on the couch." He said nervously, pointing at Shanda. Twilight looked at what Spike was pointing at and rolled her eyes. "It's ok Spike, she's asleep." She said calmly. Spike gulped but didn't say anything, instead he headed for the kitchen to make something to eat. "You want anything Twilight?" He asked. Twilight shook her head and took out a paper and quill, she began writing a letter to the princesses about the discovery of Shanda and the other creature in the forest. After the letter was complete, a knock came at the door, Twilight opened the door with her magic to reveal Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "Hey girls." Twilight said simply as she rolled the letter up and sealed it. Rainbow and Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing as they came inside. Almost immediately after entering the library, Fluttershy spotted Shanda and her eyes widened. Also at that exact moment, Scootaloo exited the kitchen and walked into the main room.....needless to say the room got quiet fast. The silence was quickly broken however as Scootaloo found herself caught in a fierce hug from Fluttershy who had moved from one end of the library to the other in a single second. "Ga....mo....mom, can't......breathe!" Scootaloo strained. Fluttershy gasped and loosened the hug enough for Scootaloo to breathe. "Thank Celestia that your ok Scootaloo.....are you feeling alright?" She said rapidly but kindly. Scootaloo nodded and looked over at Shanda. "Yea.....they took care of me." She said while pointing at Shanda. Fluttershy looked over at Shanda and walked over, she soon recognized her as the creature from that hut that she had found with the others, which begged the question, why did she attack if she knew where Scootaloo was? And so Fluttershy looked at Scootaloo with a sincere look. "Where were you exactly Scootaloo?" She asked quietly. Scootaloo shrugged. "A hut out in the Everfree, it wasn't anything special." She replied honestly. Fluttershy nodded at her daughter and looked back at the creature in front of her. "Do you know.....err, his or her name?" She asked. "Her name is Shanda." Scootaloo replied simply. Rainbow then walked up to the night elf with a weird expression on her face. "Yea uh.....I may have done this......oops." She said nervously. Fluttershy sighed at this and looked at Rainbow. "You owe her an apology when she wakes up Rainbow Dash." She said firmly. Rainbow nodded and walked over to Scootaloo and began a small conversation with the filly. Twilight meanwhile had walked into the kitchen and let Spike know that he had a letter to send to princess Celestia, he simply nodded and sent the letter by igniting it. ____*two minutes later, Shanda's POV*____ Shanda groaned and rubbed her eyes as she heard some voices nearby, she ignored them as she opened her eyes and stood up. The world around Shanda was blurry as she walked around blurry figures for that seemed to speak, she had heard one agitated voice, one familiar voice, one quiet voice, and one confidant voice....but she ignored that as she made her way towards what seemed to be a kitchen, she walked up to what looked like a storage box and pulled a red bottle out of it. Hearing panicked voices Shanda blinked as she opened the bottle and drank its contents. Two things came from drinking this unknown concoction, the first being that it woke Shanda up instantly......the second being that she burned her mouth. "HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!" She screamed as she searched for water. The world became clear and soon Shanda found a sink, she turned the water on and proceeded to drink from it. ____*thirty seconds later*____ Shanda took deep breaths as the worst part of the burn faded, she rubbed her eyes to remove the tears from her now red eyes, she looked around only to see a bunch of panicked ponies.....Scootaloo included. "Uh.....are you ok?" Asked the one with the rainbow colored hair. Shanda cleared her throat and nodded as she leaned against a nearby wall. "What the hell did I drink?" She asked. Twilight walked up to the red bottle and read the label as she picked it up in her magic. "Ah, Dragon sauce." She said as she set the now empty bottle on the table. Shanda's eye twitched but she said nothing as she rubbed her eyes. "Why didn't you say anything?" She complained. Twilight sighed and looked at Shanda. "We tried, but you mustn't have heard us." She replied. Shanda nodded and walked forward a little bit and looked at the purple mare. "Ok then.....I guess we should introduce ourselves." She said. Twilight took a quick breath. "Alright, I'll start, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy." She said motioning at them respectively. "You already know Scootaloo, and the little guy hiding behind Rainbow is Spike." She said before bringing Spike out. Shanda chuckled at Spike as he tried to hide again. "I'm Shanda....but i figure you know that already." She replied. Scootaloo walked up to Shanda and looked up at her. "Are you ok?" She asked. Shanda gave a small smile and ruffled Scootaloo's hair. "Other than getting knocked out and my mouth burned.....I'm fine." She replied. Scootaloo smiled and ran back to Fluttershy, who was giving Shanda a cautious stare. "Well....I guess I have some explaining to do huh?" Shanda said somewhat nervously. Twilight went to say something when a familiar burp came from Spike. Shanda watched as a letter materialized in Spike's fire. "Wish my dragon could do that..." She said to herself. Twilight ignored the night elf as Spike hastily opened the letter. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student, the news of strange creatures in the Everfree concerns me greatly, I'll be arriving in Ponyville soon, Princess Celestia." Spike read off from the letter. Shanda raised an eyebrow at the letter. "Ok.....I knew a guy called Xylem.....and even he didn't sound that weird." She commented. While Twilight was confused about who this Xylem was she was more concerned about the princesses visit. "Oh boy.....this is bad this is bad......we need to make this library spotless!" She shouted in a panic as she ran out of the room, horn ablaze. Shanda was more confused then concerned at the moment, so she looked at the three ponies. "Does she always act like this?" She asked. "Only when the Princess comes over." Rainbow replied. Shanda shrugged and walked out of the kitchen, she looked into the main room and raised an eyebrow as brooms, dustpans and feather dusters flew around the room frantically. "I don't suppose there's a way to calm her down?" She asked, looking at the three. Fluttershy, Rainbow and Scootaloo all shook their heads and ducked as a trash can flew out of the room. Shanda decided to wait it with the others and sat down on one of the chairs. "Wish I had a Warchief's board right about now." She grumbled. ____*fifteen minutes later.*____ Shanda and the three Pegasi had decided to entertain themselves with conversation and magic tricks, provided by Shanda. At one point, Spike had even entered the kitchen and sat down. "What are you doing?" He asked Shanda as she made a glass of water glow blue. "Magic." Shanda said simply. From then on out, Shanda and the others sat around the table, waiting for Celestia to show up. Shanda sighed and looked at Spike. "Is it necessary for me to be here? I doubt I'm needed." She argued. Spike shook his head. "Believe me, it'll be a lot easier on us if we just wait." He said. Shanda chuckled. "Fine, but if dad comes to town and starts trouble, I ain't dealing with it." She warned. Soon after that, the door opened and voices could be heard. "Princess!" Came Twilight's voice. At that everyone except Shanda, stood up and started walking. "Come on Shanda, I don't want to get another lecture from Twilight about this." Spike said. Shanda shook her head and got up from her seat, she walked to the entrance of the kitchen and leaned against a nearby wall that revealed the main room. Inside the room was a large pony with both wings and horn, she had a white coat and a multi color mane that flowed to a non existent wind, she also had a sun for a butt tattoo. 'Must be the princess that Twilight got all worked up about.' She observed. The large pony then looked over and noticed Shanda. "Ah, you must be the one that Twilight told me about, am I correct?" She asked. Shanda grinned. "Hi......and no it's the OTHER night elf in a library." She joked. Twilight seemed to have a look of shock at Shanda's behavior but said nothing. The large pony chuckled. "I believe I forgot to introduce myself." She straightened herself as if maintaining a formality. "I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria....and what is your name?" She asked politely. Shanda sighed and walked away from the wall. "I'm Shanda of the Darkspear tribe." She replied simply. Celestia nodded and relaxed herself before putting on a questioning expression. "From what Twilight has told me, you live in the Everfree, is this true?" She asked. Shanda prepared herself for a series of questions. "Yea....it's true." She replied. "And she also tells me that you threatened her and her friends....is this also true?" She asked more seriously. Shanda sighed and rubbed her eyes as she walked past Celestia and into the main room. "Ok....the thing that you need to understand about that is this.....I was protecting the kid." She replied. Apparently everyone in the room except Scootaloo was shocked at this news, Celestia gave her a curious glare that told Shanda that she was listening. "Go on." She said. Shanda crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Alright....around a week ago there was a meteor shower, I was out hunting when I heard some laughter, it sounded like kids so I went to investigate." She paused to catch her breath. "And while I was heading towards the source, a large burning rock zoomed past me and towards the laughter, I chased after it and soon I heard screaming, when I finally arrived at the crash site, there was a small filly amongst the broken up meteor, I hurried and picked the filly up and raced home in a panic." She took another pause. "And then I heard more voices, like that of children, and since I didn't have time to deal with distractions, I simply sped up towards my hut, I then set the filly down in the hut and stabilized her with what little time there was." She explained. Twilight then realized something. "And what about after?" She asked. Shanda looked at Twilight and sighed. "That's the part I mainly regretted.....because if it was up to me I would've handed Scootaloo over, but our luck wasn't that good that day." Shanda replied. Now it was Rainbow's turn. "Can you explain?" She asked Shanda nodded. "A short time after a stabilized Scootaloo, she woke up.....after I gave her a healing potion, i gave her a root to help with the pain as I cleared out damages organs and remaining rock from the crash, after that i started to close the wound." She paused at the faces of the mares in the room. "You operated...." Twilight started. "On a kid who was awake....." Rainbow continued. "That is wrong on so many levels." Celestia finished. Shanda shrugged. "That's the downside of the potion I used, if you fall asleep it won't work." She replied. Twilight looked at Shanda. "You might as well finish it, better sooner than later." She said. Shanda nodded. "Ok, after the operation, Scootaloo had somehow fallen asleep, and a short time later she woke up, after that we introduced ourselves and then I went outside to hunt......that's when I saw Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie and two others, I overheard them talking about finding Scootaloo from the branches above......after that I quickly headed home and warned Scootaloo of what I had to do, she made me swear not to hurt them and I understood, so I went outside to keep them away." She continued. Rainbow huffed. "By shooting us." She mumbled. Shanda ignored the Pegasus mare as she continued her tale. "After my first few warnings, my dad showed up, apparently, him showing up was enough to drive them off." She finished. Twilight thought on the tale for a moment until she realized something. "Wait a minute.....you never said why you threatened us." She accused. Shanda sighed and waved her hand dismissively. "Because I never said it.....what you didn't know was that if you moved Scootaloo....." She trailed off. Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the pause. "Go on, what is it?" She asked impatiently. Shanda opened her eyes and looked at the rainbow mare. ".....She would die."