Pony with the Harp
Ryan had a lot to think about as he walked, mostly on what had happened that day. What his attention was most focused on was Rainbow Dash, who had practically kicked the crap out of him. She had laughed at his attempts to fight back and only saw him as a source of entertainment. Yet she had been worried when she thought that she had killed him. Why was that? And had she told her friends about him? If she had, the forest would definitely become livelier.
Ryan had reached around the center of the forest when he heard something interesting. It sounded like a crying wolf. What was that all about? Ryan scaled a tree and proceeded to jump from branch to branch, seeking out the source. He landed in a branch near a fairly sized hole in the ground. Standing on the edge of the hole was a timberwolf, pacing back and forth with a (what he assumed was) a worried look on its face. Ryan heard another cry and this time he realized that the cry had come from the hole. He slipped around to a closer tree to get a better look, slightly surprised at what was inside.
A young timberwolf was sitting in the center of the hole, crying out at the other timberwolf. Ryan put two and two together and figured that the pacing wolf was the young ones mother, worried sick over her child. Ryan scanned the surrounding bushes, a bit surprised to see no other Timberwolves. Normally they traveled in huge packs; at least they did whenever he ran into them. Had they simply grown tired of waiting for the mother and her pup and abandoned them? Or had this mother left the pack to try and find the pup? Both were reasonable assumptions, but didn't matter much. The situation was a pup was stuck and the mother apparently couldn't get it out.
As the mother continued to pace, he turned to leave, remembering what the wolves had done and had tried to do to him. He owed them nothing, especially after they had tried to eat him and maul him. Then the pup let out another sad cry and Ryan's conscience once again kicked him in the gut, forcing him to act. He dropped out of the tree and instantly caught the attention of mama wolf, which turned towards him and snarled. Ryan held up both his hands and slowly walked forward, trying not give off any signs of being afraid.
"Look, I know you don't like me, but I can help you get your kid out of there," he slowly said, gesturing to the hole where the pup was trapped. The mother looked from him to the crying wolf, obviously weighing her options. After what felt like forever, she stepped aside and let him pass. Ryan walked past her (always aware of her eyes on his back) and walked to the edge of the hole. He looked inside and finally saw the young timberwolf up close. It was actually pretty cute, with big green eyes and little twigs over its body. It looked up at him with interest in its eyes. Not fears, just interest.
A small stump next to the hole gave Ryan an idea on how to get down there. He pulled the rope out of his bag and spent a moment tying it around the stump. He tossed the remainder of the rope down the hole and started his climb down into the hole. As he slid down the rope, the bandages helping to avoid rope burn, the wolf pup ran up to meet him with a pup smile on its face and its tongue hanging out. He let go of the rope and landed in front of the puppy, who jumped onto his legs and tried to climb up them. He shook his head and picked the young wolf, flinching as it bit his hand. He growled and placed it into his back pack, where it stuck its head out of the top and started to look around. He gripped the rope and started to climb back out. He almost let go of the rope when he reached the top and came face to face with the mother. It eyes him carefully before looking at the pup in his bag.
Ryan finished climbing out and took the wolf out of his bag, placing it on the forest floor. The creature’s paws had barely hit the ground before it took off to its mother, tackling her. He smiled as he saw the mother reunited with her cub as he pulled himself out, but the smile quickly turned to a frown as the mother looked at him and snarled. She took a protective stance in front of her pup, snarling at him.
"Look, I don't want any trouble, I just wanted to get your pup out of the hole," he said carefully, slowly pulling up his rope while keeping an eye on the wolf. She looked from him to her pup with a snort, giving him one last growl before turning around and heading off into the forest. Ryan sighed in relief and finished pulling up his rope, wrapping it around his arm and placing it in the bag. After placing his bag back on his back, he turned to head back to Zecora's and came to a dead stop. Standing in front of him was a pony in a silver hood and cape, the hood covering her face so that he could barely see her eyes. Her whole body glowed silver and she radiated power, something that he didn't like. She turned her head to the left and nodded before looking back to him. Ryan slowly reached up to grab his baton when she vanished, no flash or puff, just vanished. He blinked once before looking around the forest to see where she had gone, but she had simply vanished.
"That was weird," he muttered to himself as he let go of his baton, looking to where she had nodded. It was obvious that she wanted him to go that way, but was it a trap or something that would help him? While he did need to get back to Zecora, he figured that a small detour wouldn't hurt. So he started the trek through the forest, sticking to the shadows just in case it was a trap. When he had been walking for around ten minutes, he heard the sound of something struggling. Peeking through the trees, he saw a pony with a harp on her flank stuck in a spider's web upside down and desperately trying to get out. He wasn't sure why she was here, but the size of the web unsettled him. If the webbing was big enough to ensnare a full grown pony, he didn't want to see the spider that made it. He turned to leave, accidently stepping on a twig and sending a crack through the trees.
"H-hello? Is some pony there?" the pony called out, the desperation apparent in her voice. "Please, help me!" Ryan sighed to himself, figuring that the pony didn't stand a chance if he left. So he took in a deep breath as he flicked up his hood and stepped through the trees, preparing for the worst. He watched with a thin smile as the pony's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, stopping all of her struggling as she saw him walk towards her. He felt her eyes still on him as he walked up to the web, looking at it carefully before planning his next move.
"Oh my gosh," the pony whispered once he had gotten closer to him. "You're...you're..."
"If you want to get out alive, you'll stay quiet until I have you out," he growled before she could continue. She immediately shut her mouth, but kept her awe filled eyes on him the entire time. He had told her to be quiet so that he could listen if she tried anything. After Rainbow attacked him, he was even more on guard from any pony and especially unicorns with their magic. He bent down to pick a stick off the ground and poked the web with it, feeling only a bit of resistance as he pulled back. Hopefully that meant that the web wasn't too strong and he might be able to pull her off. "Alright, I'm going to try and pull you off. Do you think your magic can help us?"
"W-what? Oh right, my magic," she said as he placed his hands on two of her legs.
"Alright on three. THREE!" Ryan pulled back as the pony used her magic on herself to pull against the web, slowly pulling her from its grasp. A few seconds later, the webbing holding her snapped and she went tumbling across the forest floor. She groaned and rubbed her head as she looked up at Ryan, who looked down at her from under his hood. She said nothing as he looked over her for any signs of injuries and could only watch as he turned and headed back towards the forest.
"Do me a favor and don't tell any of the ponies where you found me," he said as he walked away into the trees. Realizing what she was letting happen, she got back up and ran into the forest after him, only to realize that he was gone.
"No wait! Come back...HUMAN!" she screamed into the forest as she looked around for him.
"How do you know what I am?" She gasped as the electricity from his baton crackled under her throat, his face next to hers so that she could see his eyes. "How do you know?" She ducked under the baton and backed herself into a tree, her eyes glued to his crackling weapon as he pointed it at her while slowly walking towards her.
"H-humans are my specialty!" she stammered out in fear, noticing that he had stopped advancing towards her. "I know all about them. Well, more than any pony around. Y-you're the first real human that I've seen in a while! Please don't hurt me!" Ryan narrowed his eyes at her, not sure whether he should believe her or not. But her eyes showed him that she was at least scared for her life and probably wouldn't be lying to him. So he slowly sheathed his baton and turned back into the forest, heading towards Zecora's. Much to his annoyance, the pony decided to follow him instead of running back to the village.
"I'm Lyra by the way. Lyra Heartstrings," she said with a smile. Ryan ignored her and kept walking, looking to the plants to try and figure where to go next. "Um, when a pony introduces themselves, it's custom to return the courtesy," she said with a weaker smile. Ryan spotted a familiar tree that told him he was heading the right way and took a left, making the ignored Lyra a little angry. "Hey, I'm trying to be nice here, but even I have my limits." She growled in frustration as he continued to ignore her, but the frustration faded away when she noticed that he was heading towards Zecora's hut.
"Wait, is Zecora your friend?" she asked him.
"No, not my friend. Just a business partner," he replied quickly before. Lyra frowned at his rudeness but at least he had bothered to answer this time. Ryan grabbed the handle on the door and threw it open, storming inside and walking over to the zebra that was standing in front of a large cauldron.
"I see that you have not fallen to your doom," Zecora said with a smile as he walked over to her. "Did you make it back with the mushrooms?"
"Yeah, I got your mushrooms," Ryan said with a scowl as he reached inside his bag and throwing the mushrooms on her table. "And maybe next time you can inform me of whether or not I need to climb down a cliff to grab them." Zecora chuckled as she scooped up the mushrooms and walked over to one of her many shelves.
"Climbing that cliff was to help you train. And I trust what you found inside was richer than any oil vein?" she asked with a knowing smile, looking at the bracelet on his arm.
"Yeah it was. So are we even for the medicine now or is there another quest to my death I need to go on?" he asked her with a growl, but to his surprise she grabbed a staff off the wall and motioned for him to follow her. He followed her out of the hut and to the back, where a training circle had been set up. Zecora stood in the center and motioned for him to join, which he did so warily.
"As a thanks I believe it's time I trained you myself, though I warn you now it may not be good for your health," she said with him with a coy smile, waiting to see what his answer would be.
"When is anything you've done or sent me to do been good for my health?" he asked her as he pulled out the baton, flicking it on as he prepared to fight her. "If I end this day with only a few broken bones I'll consider it an improvement." Lyra said down outside of the circle, happy as could be that she was going to get to see a human fight.
"Whenever you are ready, we can begin," she said to him as she waited for him. "But please fight me as if you're trying to win."
"Zecora, I get to attack you at full strength knowing that you asked for it. I'm out for blood," he said with a roar as he came at her, leaping into the air to deliver a kick. She smirked at his attack and struck him three times quickly in the gut, causing him to freeze in midair for a moment before he collapsed to the ground and struggled to get up. "The...hell...was that?" he asked weakly.
"You left yourself open to my pressure point attack, which was able to keep you back," she said with a smile as she offered a hoof to help him up. Remembering what the monkeys had taught him, he instead threw his coat at her and followed it up with a baton strike from below. Zecora caught the jacket on the end of her staff, blocked the strike with the other end and then swung the staff around to strike Ryan in the face with his own jacket. He flew back a bit and collapsed to the ground, where he remained for a good minute.
"Zecora!" Lyra yelled as she rushed to Ryan's side, trying to wake him up to see if he was alright. "You can't be that brutal with him, he's the only human alive today! What if you killed him?!"
"Trust me, he has been through far worse than that. in fact, he's getting up for another attack," she replied, Lyra looking down at Ryan to see that he was indeed getting back up, although he looked a lot more groggy than before.
"Come on you stupid zebra, is that all you got?" he asked her as he reached for his baton, only to realize that it was a good ten feet from him. He turned to walk towards it, only to have his feet swept out from under him and to land on his back, looking up to see Zecora standing over him with her staff placed on his throat.
"We'll have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks. In the meantime get used to constant defeats," she said to him as she offered him another hoof to get up, yet again he ignored it, knowing all too well what she might try. Lyra went back to the sidelines as the two continued to train, watching Ryan get beaten down again and again only to keep getting up, even though the time between him getting knocked down and getting up got longer with every strike. It was only after he started talking like Zecora did she finally call off the training for that day.
"Yes, there is certainly much room to improve, but do not worry as I believe in you," she said to him as she tapped ice to his head, Ryan not really sure where he was.
"Yer the best, you know that?" he asked before falling head first onto the ground. Zecora shook her head at him before gathering up his things and placing them into his backpack, before placing him onto her pack.
"I will take him to where he rests, but I would like you to listen to my request," she said to Lyra as she got up as well. "Do not tell the others of meeting him today, as for meeting other ponies I do not believe his is ready."
"That wasn't a rhyme," Ryan mumbled.
"I guess I can keep it a secret, but I still want to meet with him from time to time," Lyra said as she tried to examine him more, only to pout when Zecora moved him away from her. "But don't worry, I won't tell a soul that I got to meet an actual human." Zecora nodded to her and went on her way, heading towards where the abandoned castle was, knowing that was where he rested.
'You can take a beating, that is for sure,' she thought when he fell off of her back and rolled down a hill. 'But I wonder what you are really here, good sir?' She leapt down the hill after him and bent over to pick him up, but her attention was grabbed by a small mound of dirt that had a single stone marking it. Zecora shook her head with a sigh as she hoisted Ryan onto her back again. 'I am sure you think I treat you like a cur, but I do all of this so you do not end up like her.'
Stats
Page generated in 0.068 seconds
Total duration
971 users online
359,842 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
.... Zecora's final line makes me think she once knew another Human that came to equestria, who sadly perished for some reason, if that's why she's so hard on Ryan.
and I immediately knew Lyra was coming from the title.
Had to be the human obsessed Mare. and Yeah, I don't want to meet the spider that makes a web big enough to catch a full grown mare
So the silver mare does make an appearance here. Things are leaning towards Freeze, but Ryan seems to have a chance. Which one will it be?
He also like it.
4914454 Not sure if she was necessarily a human, but definitely a significant other in some way or another.
4915137 Agreed
Uh oh... another human was there and died.. I guess I didn't see that coming.
The spelling mistakes in this chapter got worse and worse as the chapter progresed. Might wanna take a look at it again.
There's the first trope! Bloody Lyra and her stupid fascination with humans, she sits weirdly in one episode and everyone assumes she knows about humans, what the actual fuck? Whatever, bronies tend to blow things out of preportions. Also, some spelling mistakes here and there.
The major question on my mind is how long can Lyra hold back the news she saw a human and isn't crazy???
You know she's going to slip up at some point.
Perfect, shes seen him, though she must be even MORE curious than ever
4916489 Says the person to misspell something.
Lyra knowsssss
the last human died
: manny BECUSE end up like her evil or DEAD above quote states last human died in the last 5-10 years maby zecora knowsssss. And last human she also trained
>>Zalos. It's funny. Sort of an extra bit of weirdness for Ponyville. And it isn't just one episode.
And yes, there are many spelling mistakes. Just because sorrel check says it's right, doesn't mean it is.
4916489 You mean like Lyra and Bon Bon shipping?
Let me use some good ol logic
A strange pony with radiating light
Zecora not wanting ryan to be like 'her'
Deduction being that the pony we saw was the one Zecora referred to.
but then again its just me using some logic
Why does he even bother with turning around? We all already know that he is a big softie and will help her anyway!
4916489 *Proportion.
ungrateful fuck
4914454
My issue is that a lot of his surviving the 'tests' she sent him on was because of shear blind luck. A simple misstep, or lack of a falling piano, and he would be dead as a door-hinge.