The Mane Six Chronicles Book 1: A Hero in the Woods

Fluttershy landed gently on the ground in front of Faith's house, a small bag slung over her back containing all the things she brought with her on a long stay at a friends house. When she got her bearings, she couldn't help but laugh at what she saw. Faith was sitting on his hind quarters with a thoroughly annoyed look on his face as nearly all of Fluttershy's animal friends climbed over him, ran around him, or tugged on his mane and tail in play. No fewer than twelve birds were nesting on his head and a small kitten was curling around his legs, purring madly.

Fluttershy had to suppress a fit of the giggles as she watched the scene, Faith sitting there quietly as if at any moment these woodland animals could turn savage. Fluttershy took a few deep breaths and walked over to the group and said, "Okay I think that's enough, let the nice pony breathe."

The animals immediately diverted their attentions to Fluttershy and charged towards her chittering madly. She laughed as they bowled into her, rolling around on the grass with the animals running and jumping around her in play.
Faith stood back up and cleared his throat, which drew the groups attention back to him.
"Fluttershy, are there any more of your woodland friends I should be acquainted with before they maul me?"

The sound of irritation in his voice was not lost on her and she frowned in worry, "I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd mind them..."
Faith took a deep breath and shook his head before responding,
"Fluttershy, I don't mind them, not in the slightest, but when I'm trying to get the equipment and materials for the repairs ready and a wall of fur and feathers comes flying from the woods to thank me for saving you. It makes doing what needs to be done harder."
Fluttershy nodded and spoke to her friends, "Okay now, Faith and I have some work to do now, please run along back home."

The animals nodded in unison, then scurried back into the woods, disappearing from sight.
Fluttershy turned back to her host and opened her mouth to apologize again when he cut her off, "Its okay Fluttershy, I really don't mind them, just a little forewarning would be appreciated next time."

She nodded, smiling slightly at his understanding and followed after him as he moved towards the house stopping in front of the door before motioning toward it saying, "You can go put you things in there, I'll let you have the bedroom during your stay, I'll sleep in the living room."
Fluttershy tried to protest this but he silenced her with a look before saying, "It is only proper that the lovely lady and my guest get the best comforts."

Fluttershy blushed at his compliment and wordlessly went inside to the bedroom while he went into a shed on the side of the house that she hadn't noticed earlier. She made her way over to the bedroom and pushed it open, immediately noticing the difference in the room.

The windows had been opened to allow a soft breeze to blow in, a lovely white vase sat in the windowsill with a bunch of wild flowers inside, adding their perfume to the room and further enhancing its comfortable feeling. The bed had been neatly made, a corner of the quilted blanket was pulled back, revealing the soft, clean white sheets beneath it. Fluttershy dropped her bag on the floor beside the bed and pushed it under the bed smiling at the room before leaving it and heading back outside.

Faith stood there, inspecting a large plough with a rope harness, tugging on various ropes and buckles to ensure they were in good shape.
She cleared her throat and he looked up at her with a quizzical look, "Finished already? I figured you were going to take a few minutes to put your things away."

Fluttershy shrugged and said, "I didn't have much to put away, are we working on the garden first?" Faith nodded and checked a few more of the ropes before motioning to it with a smile and said, "Wanna help me with this?"
Fluttershy looked at the plough and then back at Faith with a puzzled look causing Faith to sigh as he positioned himself in front of the harness and said, "Its not easy getting this thing on by myself, do you mind helping me?"

Fluttershy flushed slightly as she stood on her hind legs and pulled the harness open, Faith backing into it carefully until he was firmly in place. After he was in position, she pulled the ropes over his shoulders, feeling strangely embarrassed to be so close to this large, powerful pony. After tightening the harness into place she pulled her hooves away as if touching either him or the rope was like handling fire. Faith flexed experimentally and smiled, nodding at her in thanks. She smiled faintly in response before looking around the garden in curiosity. After a moment or so of searching for her assignment she asked, "Um...what am I supposed to do?"

Faith nodded in the direction behind her and she turned to see the ruined well, a large wheelbarrow positioned next to it, relaying to her his instructions;
"I would like for you to take the well apart, down to the ground, put the broken fragments into the wheelbarrow so no one gets hurt on them."

Fluttershy gulped as she stared at the shattered stone fragments, scattered over the ground, a veritable minefield of hazards. Even though the razor sharp rocks made her nervous, she didn't want to lose her nerve in front of her host so she trotted off over to the well and the long day's work began. Fluttershy first started by picking up the rock fragments off the ground, careful to pick up the larger, sharper ones first, and sweeping the smaller ones up second.

Due to her careful movements around the fragments, she had plenty of opportunity to watch Faith's work. The amount of strength the pony possessed was incredible, the large steel plough that he pulled barely seemed to register with him, the dirt moving out of the way like water to a boat.

Once or twice, a loud crack would prevail the clearing when his plough would shatter a hidden rock with little effort, each time causing Fluttershy to jump in alarm. Eventually, Fluttershy finished picking up the ground around the well, noticing as she did so that the sun was starting to dip down behind the trees, casting the area in an early twilight.

She tried to pay no mind to it until her stomach let out a loud growl. She frowned at the realization of how hungry she was, Faith had asked if she'd like to break for lunch, but she had turned down the offer, a little bit of Rainbow Dash showing in her, determined to prove she could go as long as he could. She removed another of the stones from the well, grunting as she hefted it with her front hooves into the wheelbarrow.

As it crashed into the other blocks, a hoof rested on her shoulder followed by the warm voice of her host,
"Alright Fluttershy, I think its time we stopped, we've both worked hard and we both have earned rest."
Fluttershy couldn't quite disguise her relief of finally being able to stop, feeling proud of what she accomplished today. Faith removed himself from the harness, with some help from Fluttershy, and then took the wheelbarrow to the edge of the clearing, where he dumped out the stone that Fluttershy had gathered up.

After finally returning both the plough and wheelbarrow to the shed, he stretched wearily and motioned for his guest to follow him inside. She did so, hoping very much that she would be having dinner very soon, but also hoping to be able to take a bath. As sweat covered as she was, she didn't care if the bath water was cold.

After entering the house, Faith closed the door behind her and cantered over to the kitchen and began to prepare the evening meal. As much as she was supposed to be there helping him out around the house, she couldn't help but feel that he was treating her more like his guest than his help, giving her his room, making her food, asking no more of her than what than what she was asked to do in regards to the repairs. She was very unsure if she should protest the matter or let it alone. Finally deciding on the latter, she turned and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her with a soft click.

She looked at the wooden bathtub and noticed that there was no soap or shampoo available for cleaning oneself, and yet surely there must be some. She looked around the bathroom, opening the few cabinets in the room to find extra towels and other such linens. She let out a sigh, not relishing the inability to actually clean herself, turning back to the bathtub with a towel in her mouth.

She set the towel down on the floor and examined the tap; it consisted of one handle for the water, and with no obvious way for the water to be heated, the only logical thing was that it fed from a spring. Sighing resignedly, she pushed the handle with her hoof and was amazed when clear, steaming hot water poured out into the tub. She realized where it must have come when the faint smell of sulphur hit her nostrils, a volcanic hot spring.

Relieved that she would not need to take a cold bath, she put one hoof in the water and felt that its was pleasantly hot. After the tub was full she turned the tap off and placed her front hooves into the tub freezing when a large black foreleg reached out past her. With a scream she spun around and confronted the intruder, kicking him on instinct while spinning out of the tub onto the floor. Faith Stood there with a slightly winded expression, his left foreleg still outstretched towards the wall, but otherwise unphased by her actions. She felt her long dormant fury rise in her as she demanded, "What in the world were you doing?!"

Faith sighed and set his hoof against the wall, pushing on it slightly. To her surprise, a section of the wall rotated inward, revealing the soap and shampoo she'd been looking for earlier. Faith dropped to all fours again and bowed to her muttering, "I am very sorry that I did not announce myself. I had no other intentions than to show you this."
Without waiting for her reply, he turned and left the room, leaving her only slightly less angry.

He had only wanted to help her, but the manner in which he had done so was wrong. At least she thought it was until she remembered that he had been far removed from society for many years, and must surely not know such nuances as privacy. With a sigh, she locked the door that Faith had closed behind him and climbed into the tub, allowing her cares and aches to melt away in the hot water.

Perhaps this was what she was supposed to do, to help this reclusive pony open up more to the world and rejoin society, it could be that he'd never lived around other ponies and therefore didn't know how to act around them. Despite assuring herself that this must surely be the case, she couldn't help but feel also that this assumption was entirely wrong.

As she lay stretched out in the tub, the hot water covering all but her mouth and nose, with her heartbeat the only audible sound to her, she couldn't help but think about her mysterious host, how much about him could she learn in such a short period of time, and how much might she learn about him if she insisted on staying, even after the work was done.
She didn't know, but one thing was for certain, she wanted to find out. With a smile, she reached up and grabbed the soap, washing herself as she formed a plan for how to get him to open up.