Prologue -- The Stranger Arrives (Fixed)
The Stranger Arrives
It was a quiet morning, and Fluttershy was feeding her chickens when she looked up to see a lone figure limping out of the Everfree Forest. It was a unicorn, dressed in a tattered and stained cloak.
The pony glanced up at her, and Fluttershy caught a brief glimpse of an orange-brown face and piercing golden eyes before she squeaked and hid behind the chicken coop. After a moment, the healer’s thoughts were drawn to the bloodstains and the slow, careful steps.
She took a deep breath and peeked around the chicken coop, but there was no one in sight but her chickens and Scootaloo.
It was late morning and Applejack was bucking her way through the southwest field -the one near the road to ponyville- when she turned around from an apple tree to find somepony standing just a few feet from her.
“Hi,” she started, “sorry, ah didn’t see you there. Is there somethin’ ah can do for y’all?”
The pony was wearing a well-traveled and rather stained cloak that obscured her/his face too much for Applejack to tell much about her/him. All she could tell was that the pony’s coat was an orangish brown, though the bulge at the top of the hood suggested a unicorn.
There was an awkward pause before the unicorn spoke, and when he (she?) did, the voice was quiet and cracked several times, as though its owner hadn’t spoken for days.
“I need to rest and resupply... is there a village or town nearby?”
Applejack could see why the stranger wanted to ‘rest and resupply’. Are those stains red? Somehow ah get the feeling those ain't jelly stains.
Applejack pointed to the road and answered, “just follow that road east. Five minutes and you’ll be in Ponyville. ”
It was unsettling how the Stranger had managed to sneak up on her, but she was Apple family, and Apples were always willing to extend the hand of hospitality. “Hey, ya look pretty beat up. Mah family’s about to have dinner, if y’all want something tah eat...”
“Thank you, but I really must be going,” the unicorn said rather solemnly before burping. “Excuse me.”
“Already ate eh?”
“Indeed.” The pony shifted from foot to foot, looking uncomfortable. He probably didn’t realize there was an apple poking out of a badly mended hole in the side of his left saddlebag.
“I don’t suppose you’d tell me what y’all ate,” she asked.
The mysterious stranger said “I have plenty of food in my saddlebags” and patted his saddlebag. The apple, following established narrative rules, fell out of the bag, bounced several times, and rolled to a stop directly between the two ponies. Then the poorly mended bag ripped down the seam, unleashing a flood of apples, various bags, apples, a large tent, and apples from the tiny saddlebag. When the last apple rolled from the bag and bounced down the pile to take its place on the orchard soil, the pile was about twice the size of the stranger and twelve times the size of the bag it had come from.
Neither pony moved. Long seconds passed by as Applejack tried to think of something to say or do. She settled on cracking up, rolling around on the ground as tears streamed from her eyes. When she caught her breath and managed to stand up, the unicorn was adjusting his hood.
Then the unicorn’s eyes widened, and he pointed over Applejack's shoulder. “Look! A shameless distraction!”
Applejack turned to look, and as she did a flash of light momentarily blinded her. When she turned back toward the mysterious pony, she noticed a rather distinct lack of mysterious pony. Not only that, but everything that had poured out of the magic saddlebag was gone, leaving nothing but an imprint in the grass. After a couple moments she realized what else was wrong: Every single apple in the surrounding trees was gone, replaced with small burlap bags tied to the branches with crude twine.
Curious, she smashed a hoof into the nearest tree and caught one of the bags as it fell. She opened it, and golden coins glinted in the afternoon sun.
Twilight was heading back from an herb gathering trip to the Everfree Forest, mulling over the recipe Zecora had given her. She was determined to learn how to actually make potions, rather than have to go to Zecora for anything she wanted. In typical scholarly/scientific fashion, she had not been the least bit discouraged by the bright pink ceiling, the explosion, or the talking potato. She was however, never eating another potato as long as she lived. In fact, maybe she would just stay away from tubers in general.
Twilight was shaken from her thoughts by a voice that came from next to her. She turned her head to the side to say, “huh? what?” to the pony that had interrupted her thoughts.
He was walking beside her, perfectly matching her pace. A stallion, he was wearing a cloak that seemed more tear and stain than cloth, and the hood had been thrown back to show his face. His coat was a shade of brown, accented orange in such a way as to make the normally dull color interesting. His ragged mane was two colors of flaming orange that fell down to partially obscure one of his golden eyes.
He was also smiling, smirking even. He seemed quite amused for someone just walking along. Curious, Twilight said, “hi, I don’t think I’ve seen you around. Are you new here?”
The pony shook his head, still smiling. “You know, It took you nearly a minute to realize I had said something. I was beginning to think I had turned invisible without meaning to.”
“A minute?” Twilight’s face flushed red. “Sorry, sometimes I zone when I'm thinking.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it.” The pony gestured at the dirt path they were traveling on “This is the road to Ponyville, right?”
“Yeah, it is,” said Twilight. “You are new around here, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am.” the stallion admitted. There were a couple moments of awkward silence as Twilight searched for something to say. Thankfully, the stallion started up the conversation again.
“That basket you’re carrying... Wolfsbane, Purple Glove, and Peter’s Root. Mix them together properly and they explode. Mix them together wrong and they make an excellent cough medicine. Does someone have a cold? Or did someone get on your nerves?”
Twilight giggled a bit. “My dragon has a cold. Though if you were around earlier you’d have seen some pretty spectacular explosions... why are you giving me that look?”
The stallion was looking at her like she was crazy. “What?” she asked.
His face deadpan, he told her “I have run away from dragons. I have fought dragons. I have even stolen from dragons and gotten away with it. But I have never, ever even heard of anyone ‘owning’ a dragon.”
“Oh, I don’t own him, he’s like a little brother to me.”
“A little brother?”
“Yeah, and he helps me around the library.”
“A library? You have a pet dragon that helps you run a library?”
“Yep. So you can see why a cough could be rather bad.”
“...”
“You know, because every time he coughs he makes a fire ball.”
“...”
“And a library has a lot of books...”
“...”
“...”
“I’ve heard some crazy things on my travels, but that... that’s just nuts.”
Twilight was starting to find this stallion rather annoying. “If you don’t believe me, why don’t you come see for yourself?”
It was at this point the two ponies reached Ponyville. The lavender pony turned to her companion and switched topics “Well, this is Ponyville. I’m gonna head back to the library to try out the potion again. You’re welcome to come if you want.”
The stallion bowed to her. “Thank you for the offer, but I need to resupply. Perhaps later I will stop by the library, but for now I think I shall go spend some of that dragon’s hoard I borrowed.”
“Alright then, have a good day.” Twilight said, and headed off to her beloved library. After a few steps though, she turned back to ask “Wait, did you say dragon’s hoard?”.
When she turned around however, the pony had disappeared. She scanned the crowd, but she couldn't spot him, despite the fact that his ragged cloak should have made him stick out like a sore hoof. He was just gone.
Cairn walked forward, melding not with the shadows, but with the crowds. This was his special talent. It didn’t matter that he was wearing a tattered, blood stained cloak. It didn’t matter that he was a complete stranger in a town so small everypony knew everypony. He could disappear anywhere.
He could become just another tree in the forest, just another patch of shadow, or just another face in the crowd. It wasn’t magical, and so no amount of magic could detect him. He was simply invisi--
“Hi there! You must not be from around here ‘cause I don’t recognize you and I know everypony and I mean everypony in Ponyville and I don’t know you so that means you must be new and need a friend my name’s Pinkie Pie what’s yours?”
