• Published 24th Sep 2012
  • 3,030 Views, 248 Comments

The Recluse - Live Light



Lone Light, a pegasus hermit, is about to be brought back into the world of socializing.

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Chapter 1: The Lonely Life of Lone Light

It was a bright, sunny day in the town known as Ponyville. Everypony was happy that Princess Celestia was there to bring the sun around, and for her sister, Princess Luna, to bring the moon when it was night-time. Despite that time when Luna got jealous because everypony always slept in the night, leaving her night extremely lonely, causing her to turn into Nightmare Moon, then getting banished to the Moon. Everything was much better nowadays.

From the perspective of a regular pony, one would see all the ponies trotting around, minding their own business, giving
neigh-borly greetings to others, and walking to the markets. One sees Rainbow Dash, the self-proclaimed (Perhaps true) best athlete of them all, either resting on a cloud, which was somewhat frequent, or practicing one of the many tricks she always thought up. You can even catch the sight of a pink blur/cause for concern/party pony named Pinkie Pie bouncing around merrily. Most new ponies may find themselves admiring the architecture, and all its bright, cheerful colours... at least until the previously mentioned Pinkie Pie appears in front of them singing her welcome song, and later throwing a party for them.

But that doesn't suggest all the buildings there are colourful. In fact, there is a house that has seen better days indeed. It belongs to only one pony. A pegasus, to be precise. Nopony talks about him much. His name is Lone Light, and he is a hermit. Well, really, his name is Live Light, but he changed his name to Lone Light, whether for some unfathomable sudden dislike to his name, or as a joke at himself regarding his current situation. He used to be rather full of life. But he's become bitter, reclusive, and finds no joy in anything social. His reluctance to leave his home has caused rumours to be spread about him, mostly from foals. They said he was a sort of black mage who did all sorts of creepy magic that could mean no good. That is, until it was confirmed he had no unicorn's horn, and so wouldn't have an interest in that sort of thing. Other foals thought of him as a foal-snatcher, biding his time for when the parent's defenses are off and focused elsewhere. Eventually, the more mature sorts just assumed he was a lonely stallion who had experienced a tragedy in his life, and that wasn't really far off from the truth.

The only times he'd ever leave his home were to buy food and supplies from the market. He never seemed to have a problem when it came to bits. Nopony saw him out begging for money at all. But even then, they found it hard to get a good glimpse at his true appearance. He always wore a black cloak with a hood. The only things they could see under that hood were his eyes. Blue, desolate eyes. Currently, he is still in his house, watching outside the upstairs windows, seeing all the ponies outside. Citizens can usually see a sort of shadow figure by the windows of his dying home. He pays them no mind. He's lost any friends and family worth mourning for. And nopony would probably mourn for him.



As he watched them, for the first time in 5 months, he contemplated whether he should try to go outdoors.


Certainly not, he thought. It's not worth the trouble at all. They'll probably throw stuff at me anyway...

When have they ever thrown things at me when I had to find myself supplies?

Well, it's not like we can just go out and say, "Look at me, everypony! I'm that creepy hermit who lives in the equally creepy house, and I'm seizing the day!" That ought to get weird looks from them.

He let out a sigh. Oh, how things had changed. He used to love the outdoors... but, considering everything that happened, he's felt no need to leave his home for anything important. Hell, there'd been no point to even act like he was satisfied with his life, but that's the way it is. He's even surprised he hasn't tried self harming yet, or even suicide. Well, he's not sunk that low.

*Thud*


Light's eyes looked up from the windows. Seems something got in the house again. Probably some animal. He got the idea in his head that if an animal lived with him, they'd eventually commit suicide over how dull his life is. In his experience, animals were smarter than they looked. He was simply going to have to evict the animal. He closed the curtains for the windows, and went downstairs into the hall. True enough, an animal did get in. A grey rabbit.

Ugh. How many woodland creatures are going to get in here... that's the third one this week...


He went over to pick it up by the neck, when he heard his door creak. Hooves that made the littlest of sounds walked in. He heard a small gasp, but didn't bother to turn around. Then he heard a voice...

"Oh my... I-i'm sorry, sir, Mr. Whiskers, um, d-doesn't mean to... intrude... he l-likes to explore much of the p-place... I... I told him not to enter people's homes... but... please, don't be mad at him..."


His eyes widened. Is that really her voice? It... it sounds almost... heavenly. Not very confident, but meh. He turned around. The source of the voice was a butter-yellow pegasus mare with a long, pink mane that she seemed to be hiding behind. The sight of it was cute and adorable. Although, the sight of him was definitly not as good as her.

Lone Light was a slightly tall and thin pegasus who was coloured dark blue with a brown mane and tail, which could do with a brushing. He had a watch on his left front arm, and his hooves were coloured white. He wore a black shirt attached to a small, ragged cloak which covered his flanks, which was the main reason why no one has seen his cutie mark. He was frail, pale, and looked like he doesn't sleep as contently as he should. Light noticed the other mare's cutie mark was three butterflies, suggesting she was a sort of veterinarian, or at least someone good with animals. Makes sense if she has this bunny here.


After half a minute consisting of the two examining each other's appearance, Light finally spoke up.

"...Not a problem, miss..." His voice was less gravelly than ponies would imagine it would sound like, it seemed rather soft and quiet. "I was going to assume you were one of those ponies who like to invade my home and see if they can find anything of value from 'that hermit dude.'" The mare widened her eyes in surprise.

"Oh... well... I wasn't a-aware of the house's inhabitants... I wouldn't do such a thing..."

"You haven't heard of me then... that's new... nearly everypony in Ponyville is aware of my existance." Then he realized something. "...Don't pegasi usually live in the sky? And don't retaliate saying I should be as well, I get that too often."


She nodded her head, and suddenly became rather interested in the dusty ground. "W-well... I live in a cottage n-near the Everfree Forest..."

"And... why is that?"

"Well, it's the perfect place for my animal friends." Light notices she said that without faltering. Guess she likes her animals a lot.

"I see..." Not meaning to be rude, he tries offering his name. "I'm Lone Light." At this point, she starts speaking a lot quieter. What did I do?

"Hello, Light... m-my name is... Fluttershy..."

"I'm sorry?"

"M...m-my name is... Fluttershy..."

"...Huh?" His patience was faltering, so he walked a bit closer so he could hear a bit better.

"...I-i'm... Fluttershy."

"Oh. Nice to meet you, Fluttershy."

"L-likewise..."


They both looked around for a while. Awkward silences... these never get old. Eventually, Fluttershy spoke.


"So... um... you l-live by yourself?"

"Yep."

"H-how is it?"

"It's... fine..." He's rather obviously getting mad just by the fact they're having a conversation. Fluttershy takes notice, and almost instantly looks away and mutters to herself. The only words Light could make out were 'Fluttershy' and 'Chatterbox.'

"...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad, Fluttershy... I just... get on better on my own..."

"O-oh... that's fine..."

"Anyway... I'll let you collect your bunny." Fluttershy nods.

"O-okay, come along now, Mr. Whiskers." Immediately after she was finished speaking, the bunny followed her out the door. Wow, she really is good with animals. He was on his way to his bed upstairs, when the door creaks once more. He calmly looked back. For a second, nopony was there. Then, Fluttershy timidly walked in, looked around, then up at the stairs.

"U-um... are you... satisfied with... um... s-solitude?"

Light blinked. "Yes."

"A-are you sure? ...I-it's just... this seems... a little... oh... I'm sorry... I-i'm going now..."

D'AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.


"... Tell you what, if I change my mind, I'll come over to this cottage of yours and ask for advice?"

She then seems less ashamed of her question, and smiles at him.

"Okay then... W-well... I'll see you soon."

"Yeah." And with that, she finally walked off. Light then managed to trot up to his bedroom. He went under the covers of his warm enough bed and thought about what happened. He was happy he was being left alone. Although, she is kinda nice... maybe I should take up her offer for sure. Well, technically, it was my offer, but meh. Maybe I can have the courage to do outdoor stuff again.

...

...

...

"...*sigh* Forget it..." He then closed his eyes, and dozed off to sleep. That lasted for 5 minutes.


*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* "Cutie Mark Crusader House Decorators!"

..............REALLY!? He'd heard of the Cutie Mark Crusaders before. Three young fillies actively searching for their cutie mark. They've obviously decided to try seeing if their talent is house decorating... Don't they have things they're good at instead of trying to learn things? Even if they don't like them. And also, why are they all trying to get the SAME cutie marks? It has to be different, not bucking- ...Calm down... He got out of bed, and trotted back downstairs. He opened the door to see those three fillies there. One was a cream coloured earth pony with red hair, with a southern accent. Another was a white coloured unicorn with multicoloured hair. The last one, an orange pegasus with purple hair. The cream coloured one spoke,


"Hi, mister. We were just wonderin' if you wanted yer house decorated, since it looks a tad bit run-down."

"Well then..." He was about to tell them all to leave him alone. Then he thought a bit further. ...The house does suck a lot right now...

"...Fine. Make it quick." It was the chicke- *AHEM* pegasus filly's turn to speak.

"Alright, girls, let's get to work! Inside first!" Light stood outside, letting them work on the inside, since he didn't want a makeover himself.


*5 minutes later*

Fluttershy was humming in her cottage, feeding all her cute woodland creatures the food they needed, nursing any of them who'd suffered injuries, and, as always, tending to the special needs of her
pet rabbit Angel Bunny, the stubborn bunny with a heart of gold. Her mind started getting drawn to the conversation with Light. He seems like a nice pony, although, I hope he accepts my offer.
Well, really, it was his offer but...

*Knock, knock*


"EEP!" She turned to the door. She looked at the windows around her. Nopony in sight. It's just one visitor... it won't be so bad. She trots over to the door, and opens it. She was surprised to see Lone Light, the pony hermit she met around 10 minutes ago, give or take.

"Hi, Fluttershy, great to see you, listen, can I stay at your house for a while, three demonspawns have destroyed my home trying to make it look good, and I trust nopony else, I've certainly spoken to you longer than anypony else in my hermitage, so.... can I stay?"

Author's Note

Well, hello there, readers. I'm gonna take the time to tell you, this was indeed my first fan-fic. Wasn't too sure what to do when I had this idea, I'm not even sure if The Recluse was a good name for it. Anyway, more chapters are gonna follow. The question is... did you enjoy it? If you did, then that's good. If you felt it could be a bit improved, I'll try and see what I can do for the next episode. See ya'll.