The Wolf and the Unicorn

Where eerie figures caper

to some midnight music

that only they can hear.

-The Book of Counted Sorrows

The flight to my new home in Ponyville was thankfully short.  Twilight did not say anything more than a few terse words and pointed me to  a small door set in the side of her tree home.  Apparently, I was going to stay in town for what remained of the night and go from there.  With the fury of a thousand war drums pounding in my head, I wordlessly went into the dark basement and did my best to sleep away the pain.

Morning came too early, especially when you are woken by a small dragon poking you in the eye by accident.  The soft thump of the basement door starting to stir me awake.  When I heard small footsteps nearing my head, I snapped awake and sat up.  Painfully enough, driving my face onto the finger a little purple lizard was readying to poke me with.

"Son of a bitch!"

The little purple and green dragon jumped back a few feet, startled when I attacked his hand with my face and started swearing.

"Are you okay?  I didn't mean to poke you in the face!  Twilight sent me down to wake you up for breakfast.  I really didn't mean to do that."

"Fuck that hurt, but I think I am okay.  I can still see decently, and I didn't wake up in the castle dungeon, so lets call it good.  Breakfast sounds delicious.  By the way, I'm Hex.  We haven't been introduced, but I'm guessing that you must be Spike.  I imagine there aren't many purple dragons around.  Less that put up with Twilight."

He just stared at me as I slowly got to my feet, creaking and popping the whole way.  Its amazing how stiff you can feel after sleeping on the ground for a night.  His eyes followed me as I began to tower over the small dragonling, and he tried to stutter out a comment.

"I..I'm Spike.  They didn't say you were so big.  Lyra said something about how humans aren't much taller then ponies and you are huge."

I just had to cut him off there as I could smell the sickly scent of nervous in the room.  Not as bad as fear, but he certainly wasn't comfortable around me.

"Relax, I'm not a danger to anyone, especially after Celestia put a spell in my head.  I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to ask me anything you want later.  You did say something about breakfast after all."

I'm fairly certain he mumbled something about "how the Princess wouldn't put a spell on anyone," as he turned around and headed toward the steps behind us.  I was looking forward to getting out of the dark hole they called a basement.  As Spike opened the door into the library, I was blinded by the light flooding in.  I actually had to cover my eyes with an arm to be able to see.  Any other day, I would have marveled at the design of the library as the light cascaded into its rooms to allow the perfect amount for reading.  Today, it was the perfect amount to blind the crap out of me.

"Good Morning, Hex," a somewhat chipper sounding Twilight sounded from around the corner, "Spike made breakfast and then we need to have a good, long talk about what happened over the last few days and where we go from here."

All I did was grunt a response as I turned the corner into the kitchen.  Let me tell you what, it is a strange sight to see a horse...erm... pony eating eggs, bacon, and toast.  Even weirder was watching the eggs flop in the air as she levitated a forkful toward her mouth.  Definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore.

Thankfully breakfast was a quick affair as I was starving, and not counting his size, Spike was one hell of a cook.  I half expected those hay fry things that the cook in the castle tried to force on me once.  Guess having a dragon in town had its bonuses.  The contents on my plate were gone fairly quickly.  Just as fast was Spike grabbing them and starting to wash up as Twilight seemed anxious to get into her speech.

"There are lots of things to say and do today, Hex.  Everypony said things in anger yesterday, and I had letters from both Princesses delivered through the night with thoughts and apologies." She gestured toward a small pile of scrolls on the table to her left.  "The thing is, you came very close to freeing Discord and shattering the magic that guards the garden.  Both Princesses had no idea your magic was getting so advanced, and if you had come to them about your test, they would have found someplace for you to do it where everypony would be safe."

"Twilight, if it didn't feel like I was a prisoner in the castle, I would have talked to Celestia or Luna about what I wanted to try.  I honestly assumed that Luna knew where this was going, considering she was there through most of my trials.  That said, I doubt I'll be doing that again as it backfired so bad."

The lavender pony just looked at me, deep in thought, then reached to her side and pulled out a scroll and started reading it.  A small gold colored sun seal rested on the table, obviously from Celestia.

"The Princesses talked about that last night, and came up with a plan.  If you promise to give up your magic for good, you can return to the castle.  Otherwise, your house near the forest should be done today and we can get you moved in.  The spell to keep you from hurting anypony will stay on until Princess Celestia thinks you aren't a danger.  You can still do your magic, and I'll be around to help you if you have questions, but you can't do anything that would hurt anything."

"So my choices are pretty well a rock and a hard place then.  I either have to give up on what I spent nearly six months learning, or live out in the woods?  Honestly, I'll choose the woods.  I like it out there anyhow, and I think I'll fit in just fine."

Here eyes just seemed to bug out with that statement, growing wider as I spoke.

"My understanding is you are the Element of Magic.  I'm not really sure what it means, but think about this.  How would you like it if you started learning about yourself and then was told you had to stop or go live in the woods.  Which would you choose?"

"But Hex!  There are monsters in the forest.  Manticores and Hydras are the big ones, but there are tons of others!"

"I'll be fine.  Other then the wolf thing, I've scared off or killed plenty of animals in my time Twilight."

If a pony could turn pale, that would be the best thing I could use to describe the color she turned.  Then a little green.

"You've KILLED?"

"Twilight, EVERYTHING kills.  Where do you think the bacon we had for breakfast comes from.  There is ALWAYS something higher on the food chain then you.  Humans were only on top because we learned to be smarter then the rest.  We eat meat and plants.  Same as you guys I guess.  In some areas we are isolated from it, but where I was from, going from the woods to your plate was a common thing.  There was no pleasure in it, but it was a necessity.  Joy in the hunt, yes, but in the killing, there was none."

She just sat there and stared where her plate used to sit.  My first day in a new place and I think I broke the person who was supposed to be watching me.  I really couldn't wrap my mind around the fact she had no idea where her food came from.  Especially in farm country like this, everyone would have known and participated back home.

Thankfully, her trance was interrupted by a knock on the door as a balloon wielding pink pony burst into the library.

"HI!  I'm Pinkie Pie!  I heard there was a new pony in town and I wanted to...come... say...hi."

Her voice slowing as she started to stare at me and her eyes got big.  Then she blinked, a smile snapping back onto her face.

"I wanted to come say hi to the new pony in town, but I guess you aren't a pony then.  What are you?  You have big teeth like a timberwolf, but you aren't one of them either.  You are really big though.  And furry.  I had planned on bringing you cupcakes as a welcome to Ponyville present.  Do you like cupcakes?  They have sugar, lots and lots of sugar.  Ooh!  What are those shiny things stuck in your hooves?  Why do your hooves look funny?  Are they hands like Spikes? ... "

I just had to start tuning her out as she sounded like a squirrel you gave coffee to.  This was going to be a long day...