Awakened Hearts

Part 1

Mark and Shade spent another day at their camp site. They continue to eat their forest food that was good enough for a 4 star meal. Mark was struggling to cook however, for he didn’t receive the proper treatment for his wounds.

“You sure you’re alright? You can barely move.” Shade emphasized.

“I’m good… hey… what do you think? About that pegasus?” Mark replied with a question.

“What about her?”

“Do you think… she’ll tell others? Or even come looking for us? Or both?”

“Probably…”

“I guess we should expect to see her again, huh?”

“What? Are you gonna prepare a meal for them or something?”

“Oh, ha, ha! Of course not! I’m just saying don’t be surprised!”

Somewhere outside of the forest, Fluttershy, and the lavender unicorn Twilight Sparkle enters the woods with saddlebags packed with medical supplies.

“You saw a “human”?” Twilight asked to be sure.

“Yes.” Fluttershy answered.

“And they saved you from timber wolves?”

“That’s right.”

“But one is seriously hurt?”

“Right.”

“Which is why we are taking these to help him get better?”

“Correct!” Fluttershy said proudly.

“Well, I’m not saying I don’t believe you…” Twilight said unsurely. “But why didn’t they come to Ponyville when one of them was hurt?”

Fluttershy looked up to think a bit and replied, “I don’t know, I didn’t get a chance to ask them.”

As they went deeper into the forest, they saw drops of blood upon the floor.

“You said one of them was hurt?” Twilight asked.

“Y-yes.” Fluttershy replied fearfully from the sight of blood.

“Then if we follow this… trail, we might find them.”

They walked along the bloody trail, and soon enough find themselves at the boy’s camp site. Mark was asleep at the moment and Shade wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Twilight couldn’t believe what she saw. A creature she had never read about nor seen at all.

“Twilight, that’s the one! He’s the one that’s hurt!” Fluttershy informed.

Twilight looked at Mark and inspected the treatment he used on himself. Large leaves were over his scars, and he stopped bleeding through his mouth.

“It doesn’t look good… I read a bit on medical training… I’m just not sure how to do it on… this.” Twilight looked at the human before her. “We should take him back to my house so we can treat him properly.”

“What about the other one? He’s not around here.” Fluttershy replied.

“We should worry about this one right now.”

They left the forest and brang Mark over to Ponyville. Along the way, the town looked at the strange creature carried by Twilight as she went to her house. From above, a rainbow mane blue pegasus also looks over the scene of the strange creature.

“What’s that?” Rainbow questioned herself.

Twilight and Fluttershy brought in Mark to the massive library. They put Mark down on the couch, tired from carrying him so far.

“Alright… Let’s start treating him… where should we start?” Twilight wondered.

“I’d probably start with that gaping wound bandaged by those leaves.” Said a shady character.

Twilight and Fluttershy looked to see along the archway to the kitchen was Shade.

Twilight stared at Shade and said “You! How’d you-”

Shade interrupted her to answer.

“I followed you after I thought you were kidnapping my friend or something. Good to know that I was wrong.”

Shade walked over to Mark lying on the couch checking his condition.

“Um… I’m going to try to fix him up, so… you need to step back.” Twilight warned nicely to Shade.

“Right, right. Just make sure he’s good enough to move around again.” Shade replied.

Inside the library, Twilight was the doctor at the moment treating Mark and his wounds while Fluttershy was like a nurse handing Twilight the equipment to her. Meanwhile outside the library, Rainbow Dash was spying through the window to see what was going on inside. An hour later, they had finished treating Mark and all they had to do was let him rest. The two talked to Shade to finally get to know each other.

“So…” Twilight said. “What’s your name?”

“Shade” He answered. “The one you just treated is Mark.”

“Alright then… My name is Twilight Sparkle, and the one you saved yesterday who is right next to me right now is Fluttershy.”

“Hi.” She greeted with a wave.

“Alright, so… while you were treating my friend there, I saw your horn glow from time to time.” Shade stated. “Do you have powers or something?”

Twilight smiled and answered, “Yes. I’m surprised you haven’t heard about magic.”

Shade couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ha! Magic! Hahaha! Are you serious!?”

“Yes. Why? What’s so funny?”

“Nothing except, well, where I came from, people who use ‘magic’ are usually fakes and scammers.”

Twilight was angered and said, “It’s not fake! It’s real!”

“Hey, hey! I believe you! Honest!” Shade stated. “Like said, where I came from, magic doesn’t exist. Here, I’m willing to believe.”

“Where did you come from?” Fluttershy asked.

“hmm…” Shade thought about what answer he’s going to give. “Ah! I think… another world! Yep. Another world.”

The two ponies dropped their jaws, now they were the ones in disbelief.

“You’re kidding, right?” Twilight asked.

“If I was kidding, I would have said, ‘I came from a land of sunshine and smiles!’, but I don’t.” Shade stated.

“Well… what kind of world is it there?” Fluttershy asks.

Shade held his chin as he thought. “Um, let’s see… My world has machines that create moving pictures; something called electricity that we use instead of that magic stuff, and… things on wheels that move on their own without the need of someone else to pull it.”

“That sounds amazing!” Twilight complimented. “I bet the humans there are nice too!”

Shade laughed again, getting the girls a confused moment.

“Oh, god you’re so wrong.” Shade announced. “People in my world are mostly greedy, manipulative, um… what else… ah! Deceptive, and mean… well, most of them anyways.”

Outside, Rainbow Dash had heard enough about humans and flew off.

Inside, Twilight was quite in disbelief and stepped back from Shade.

“You… are you like them?”

“Yeah, probably.” Shade answered.

Fluttershy somehow didn’t accept it. She then asked, “Then why did you save me from those timber wolves!?”

“Because Mark would have been eaten.”

“Then why did he save me!?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

Twilight calmed down after hearing that last part.

“So, even though you’re all of those things, you still do the right thing as well?”

“Yeah, it’s the humane way, if not, then I’d be nothing but a monster, would I?” Shade explained.

Twilight smiled at Shade, she was glad that he wasn’t evil.

“What about Mark? Is he like all those bad things?” Fluttershy asked.

“Kinda… he’s less than half of the usual.” Shade answered.

Mark finally awoke, and looked around to see he was in the building with books, two horses, and Shade.

“Ugh… Shade?” Mark calls out weakly.

“Hey! Looks who’s awake!” Shade announced.

They all went over to Mark as he got up slowly.

“So… looks like you let them take care of me.” Mark pointed out.

“Sorry dude, it was inevitable to come here with all those bites on you.” Shade replied.

“Why did you try to avoid coming here?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because, look at us!” Shade explained. “We’re from a world where there’s more hatred there then… what is this place?”

“Equestria.”

“Yes, there is no way this world would accept us!”

“Don’t be silly!” Twilight assured Shade. “We ponies are very capable of accepting anypony, regardless of species.”

Suddenly a knock on the door, Twilight opened it to see an angry mob outside.

“Where are the humans!?” they yelled out.

“How kind of them…” Shade said sarcastically.

Part 2

Twilight was in front of the angry mob of ponies awaiting justice by ridding the humans from their town. Among the angry mob, Rainbow Dash was in front; behind her were an orange pony, Applejack and a white unicorn, Rarity.

“What are you doing here?!” Twilight asked.

“I heard everything they said Twi!” Rainbow announced. “We’re here to help you get rid of them!”

“What’s going on?” Mark asked as he walked next to Twilight.

The ponies gasped and readied themselves against Mark. Twilight shoved Mark behind her for protection.

“Stop! They’re not bad!” Twilight stated. “And this one is injured!”

“Why are you protecting them Twi?” Applejack questioned.

“Rainbow told us they were greedy, manipulative, deceptive, and rude!” Rarity informed. “She wasn’t lying, was she?”

“Of course not! I heard them say it!” Rainbow responded.

Twilight glared at Rainbow and said, “You spied on us!?”

Rainbow crossed her forelegs (like crossing your arms) and replied, “Yeah, but it’s a good thing I did! We came to get rid of them!”

“But they’re not evil! True, they’re strange, but it doesn’t make them evil!” Twilight defended the boys.

“Oh really?” Rainbow flew to Mark, “I’m going to ask you a question, and we’ll just see if you are the deceiver you talked about!”

“Okay” Mark calmly replied.

“You’re friend over there said that humans are liars, is that true?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“You see that! He’s trying to hide the fact tha- wait, what?”

“Yes, most humans lie.”

Rainbow looked at Mark a bit surprised of his straightforward answer.

“Um, is it true that you’re greedy?”

“Hmm… Yeah, probably.”

“Manipulative?”

“Well, I’m not really good at that, but Shade might be.”

“Guilty!” Shade gleefully says with a smile.

Rainbow looked at Mark again and asked, “Are you evil?”

“Not really.” Mark answered.

The angry mob was now the curious crowd, wondering why the humans were not hiding anything and only answered so straightforward.

“Um… How does it make you not evil if you do all those things?” Applejack asked.

“Well, do we really never lie? No, we lie from time to time. Why are we manipulative? To get what we want. Why do we want so much? Because without wanting, what is life without anything? True we come from people who are ambitious, but I can at least say that Shade and I have no bad intentions.” Mark explained.

The crowd was somewhat pleased to hear all that and calmed down. Rainbow was however not going to let the boys off that easily.

“Well, we can’t have you just living here! We still don’t know you!”

“Rainbow! Stop!” Twilight warned her.

“Why don’t you just leave!?” Rainbow announced.

A moment of silence took the place over the crowd.

“Alright.” Mark replied. “Come on Shade! We’re leaving!”

“Got it!” Shade responded.

Twilight looked at the two, already leaving town even though the ponies already started to open up to them. They went to the edge of town and were about to leave. Suddenly Twilight caught up with them.

“Wait! You’re just gonna go?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Shade replied.

“But Mark! You’re still hurt! You need to rest!”

“Don’t worry Twilight.” Mark said. “I’ll be fine.”

“You say that, but I saw how much... you were bleeding.” Twilight replied sorrowfully.

“Listen, we actually have to leave anyway.” Shade explains. “We think one of our friends is still out there.”

“Another one!?”

“That’s right.” Shade continued. “Her name is Eris. We think she was brought here like us, and we still haven’t found her.”

Twilight was unsure if they were lying to reassure her or not. Nonetheless, she nodded her head, “I understand.”

“Good… Oh, and one more thing.” Mark continued. “That was your friend right? The one with the rainbow mane.”

“Yes, her name is Rainbow Dash.” Twilight answered. “Sorry about her.”

“Don’t be.” Mark continued. “She’s looking after her friends, like a certain someone I know.” Mark looks over to Shade as he only blushed in embarrassment.

“I was wrong! I get it!” Shade replied.

“Aw, it was cute how you were like, ‘That kid is suspicious!’”

“He had a weapon!”

“A flute is not a weapon!”

Twilight giggled at the two bickering. Eventually the two finally set off to who knows what. She waved to them goodbye.