It all started when he was born, Planter is his, his full name is, Planter Hope. his parents gave him this name because they were told by a doctor that they could never have foals. He was born in the Everfree Forest on their way to the doctor, the reason they decided on his first name to be Planter is because he was a brown Pegasus with a green mane, like the colors of the trees.
On his first day of school he got into a fight, but it was no ordinary fight, it started off with the typical name calling, but Planter didn’t participate then the other colt tackled him. Planter yelled for help, that is when it happened, the plants grew around them picking up his attacker and holding him. Then with no hesitation Planter ran thinking the plants would come after him.
By the time he got home he realized that he was the cause of the plants picking up the other colt. Inside he saw his parents,”What happened Planter, why are you home early?” They asked simultaneously.
“I got into a fight.” He said looking down at his hooves.
“Oh my Celestia!” His mom yelled “Are you okay?!” Planter nodded and looked up at his father who had a look of disappointment. Knowing he was in trouble he walked to his room and layed on his bed crying as he fell asleep.
About three hours later he woke up to voices from the living room, knowing school had just gotten out he figured it was his teacher. He quietly moved out of his room and peaked around the corner, he could just barely see the long flowing rainbow mane, he leaned further trying to see, but leaned too far and fell. All three were now looking at him, he first saw his parents, but then the third stood up and started walking towards him, he focused his eyes on her and gasped as he saw who it was.
“Hello there young one, I am Princess Celestia.” She said as she put her hoof out to help him up.
He grabbed her hoof shakily,”H-hello Princess.” He said and bowed.
"You don't have to be so shaky little one."She said with a smile. He lifted up his head and tried to stand confidently but his legs still quivered. His parents now walked over and stood at both sides of Celestia, they both had happy faces but he could tell they were sad.
"What's wrong?" He asked looked back and forth at each of them.
His father took a deep breath,"Princess Celestia is here to take you to a place where your unique... gift... Will be valuable."
"We always knew you were special, ever since you were born, but we never knew you where this special." His mother said as tears built up in her eyes.
"Wh-what do you mean?" He questioned.
"You little colt are very special," Celestial said,"you are able to speak to nature, and your talent will be needed to help save Equestria from a terrible danger."
"How am I suppose to help if I don't even have my cutie mark yet?
"Really? Then what is that?" She said pointing at his flank.
He looked at his flank to see a tree, a smile spread across his face, then a frown when he realised that this meant there was no way he could stay. He looked up at the Princess and asked,"does this mean I have to go?"
“If Equestria is to survive the danger we will need your help young colt.” She replied.
“Okay, I will go.” Planter said and lowered his head.
“We will miss you son!” His father yelled as him and the princess went out the door. They climbed onto her royal chariot and started to ride.
“We are going to study your gift for a few moons so that we can understand it and you can control it.” Celestia said about halfway to Canterlot.
“Okay.” He said still sad that he had to leave Ponyville.
She looked down at him noticing that he was sad, “don’t be sad, you are showing great courage coming on this journey.” He smiled at the thought of him being a hero, “there you go.” She said with a smile.
Right as they landed, two mysterious cloaked ponies, attacked the guards and beat them easily, then two more came and tied Planter and Celiestia up to the chariot flying them away. But he slipped out and started to fall unable to fly he closed his eyes, “okay, think, Planter, think.” he whispered to himself, then opened his eyes and saw the trees below and smiled, "nature, I need your help!" He yelled then watch the trees grow huge extending their branches catching him and then cutting the rope.
Quickly his wings shot open and he flew towards the chariot faster than he has ever flown before, then smiled a bit as branches and fines followed him through the air and he flew right in front of the foalnappers and opened his wings, without seeing the plants they laughed,"now!" Planter yelled and all the plants grew around the four ponies and grabbed the chariot cutting the princess free and taking them back to Canterlot.
“You did it! You can control it!” Celestia said with excitement while guards took the thiefs away.
“No, I don’t control nature.” He said.
“But you just made the vines capture the,.” She said calmly.
“No, I asked for natures help, they did it themselves.”
“But how?”
“I don’t know, all my life I felt connected to nature but never knew it had free will.”
“Oh?” She said questioningly,”Can you have nature help in the fight?"
“I don’t know, but I will try.” He said.
“Well we better go then.” They climbed back into the chariot,”Take us to the battlegrounds” She said to the guards now pulling it. They flew for about three hours without talking. When they landed Planter walked off the Chariot with his head down in thought.
He lifted up his head, looked around, and asked,“Princess Celestia, where are the enemies?”
“They come out at night.” She replied,”you should get some sleep if you are gonna be helping fight them.”
“Okay, Where do I sleep?”
She looked around and saw one of the guards,”Hello.”
“Princess!” He said almost surprised to see her and bowed,”What brings you here?”
“This is the one I wrote about in the letter, can you show him to his tent?”
“Of course, come with me.” he motioned for them to follow.
“I must go back to Canterlot, make sure he is safe, he is a very special pony.” She said.
“You're not gonna stay?” Planter said with a sad look on his face.
“I cant I have important business to do.” She said, “Here.” She handed him some armor,”to protect you, this is royal guards armor and is charmed to be very tough.”
He held the armor staring at it and said,”Thank you, Princess.”
“I must go now.” She said and looked at the guard,”keep him safe.”
“Will do Princess.” He said as she got on the chariot,”so what’s your name?”
“I’m Planter Hope.” He said, ”but everyone calls me planter.”
“Well, Planter, follow me and we will get you settled in.” They walked down a long dirt road lined with tents, they stopped at the end where a large tent not much smaller then his home stood,”Here we are, this is where you will be staying.”
“It is so big!” Planter said in amazement.
“That is because we needed a place for all the plants.” The guard said.
“Plants?”
The guard looked around at the very large dirt plain and said,”Yeah, only place with plants, as you can see there isn’t a piece of grass to be seen within three miles.”
“Oh, what happened to them?”
“The ponies we are at war with were clearing out the area without authorization and when we came to tell them to stop they attacked, we were able to drive them away three weeks ago but they have attacked almost every night since.”
“I guess I should sleep now, if I wanna be able to stay awake tonight.”
“I will wake you up when the moon starts to rise.” He said,”sleep well.”
“I’ll try, thanks.” He said as he walked into his tent, before he laid down he looked at the many plants taking up most of the tent. He laid down and fell asleep but woke up to the laud noises of battle. He stood up and peaked outside to see many fighting. Then all of a sudden one popped up in front of him, he gasped frightened and stumbled backwards.
“Ah so your the special weapon.” A mare’s voice said,”Thought you would be older.” She walked into the tent, and smiled menacingly at him. She was a short blue mare with a short read mane and a long red tail, he couldn’t see her cutie mark under her amor. She ran at him and he was shocked and backed up into a shelf causing plants to fall all around him, he now knew what to do, he stood looked at her and smiled.
“Nature I need your help.” He said.
She stood there and waited for a moment expecting something to happen then laughed and charged at him. She skidded to a stop when plants engulfed him and made a protective armor. He walked slowly toward her getting used to the armor, she started to back up but before she could run vines shot out like ropes from his new armor and tied her up. He waited a second then went outside to see the other attackers gone. Everypony else stared at him.then as quickly as his new armor formed around him it fell off and grew up around the camp to make a small barrier.
The guard that had spoken to him earlier ran up to him, “WOW! That was incredible, how did you control those plants like that?”
“I don’t control them, they help me with their own free will.” Planter replied as he remembered about the mare,”one of them is tied up in my tent, what should I do?”
“We can take care of them.” He said and motioned for the others to enter the tent.
“Um, Sir, how are these ponies such a threat? they don’t seem that dangerous.”
“Well, them alone aren’t a big threat but they were clearing this land for the changelings and once the word gets to them Equestria will be in serious danger.”
The next few nights where peaceful, almost as if the enemies where planning something. But even with the camp seeming safe, he always felt on edge, like there was something wrong, and everytime he looked at the others they would always seem to turn their heads quickly, like they where watching him, but then a cloaked pony came up to him, he was covered up in all black and Planter couldn't even see the whites of his eyes, but he felt as the clocked pony slid a paper under his wing then kept walking only to vanish into a tent. Planter whispered to himself, "I wounded who that was.." He held the paper tight under his wing thinking that whoever it was probably didn't want the others to see it.
When it was time to eat Planter brought his food into his tent and made sure no pony could see inside then slipped the note from under his wing a nd read it carefully:
You can't trust the others, they are not who you think they are, keep your eyes open and never lose your gaurd.
"I wonder what that's suppose to mean." He whispered to himself, he read the note over and over but couldn't figure it out, so he folded it up and slid it into his pillow case then ate and brought his tray out to wash it. After he was done he went into the tent that the pony had entered only to find it was empty, after an hour of searching he went back to his tent and laid down then saw a glimpse of gold and realized it was the armor that Princess Celestia gave him. Slowly lifting onto his hooves he walden over and looked at it, he never gave a good look at it, the colors where different from normal royal gaurd armor, it was changed the body was made brown like his coat, and the hair on the top of the helmet was green. The armor had a gold outline and built in saddle bags with his cutie mark sewn into them.
"The different colors on this must mean that it was special ordered, maybe even by the princess herself." He said to himself as he put it on, it fit perfectly, he looked at himself feeling more protected and laid down in the armor, and slowly fell asleep.
Author's Note
Been neglecting this one for a while, so I decided to finally start working on it.
