A Pariah By Name, Another By Natureby Blitz Habanera TuscaniaChaptersShiveringStonedWhen life gives you apples...Start A Fire.A Show for AllShiveringTrixie sighed as she twisted and turned in her blanket trying to go to sleep. She had changed her ways yes, but ever since Ponyville she had a hard time attracting an audience of any kind, she still blamed Twilight a little. Although she acknowledged the fact that it was mainly her fault for trying to go up against Princess Celestia's student, even if she didn't know she was at first. The main fact was she was running low on bits and she just ate what she had left, a simple hay sandwich. She could sell what she owned in her caravan but it wasn't all that much. A vanity mirror tucked away by the door on a simple desk, barstool easily able to slide under said table and let her open the door. A floor-to-ceiling dresser on the other side of the door containing four of her capes, one hat and a few spare blankets for when it really got cold in the winter. That took up half the caravan she called home and in the other half were her cooler, for food, her bed which she currently was in now, and a chest that usually contained her valuables. But with her current bit situation all that was inside of it was maybe twenty bits and that was from somepony that had thought her to be a beggar and zoomed off before she could protest. Giving up on trying to sleep she instead stared at her brown ceiling and lazily traced a circle on it with her magic, a light magenta. The closest city she hadn't exactly been welcome, they didn't run her out of town but they did refuse to acknowledge her existence. There were more questionable ways of earning bits but she didn't want to do anything like that, she liked to think she had more self-respect than that. Kicking the covers off herself she hopped onto the floor and walked over to her vanity, her hooves clicking on the ground beneath her. She pulled the stool out and sat on it and stared at herself. A dull azure coat from not having a shower in two or three days, matted in spots where she had tried to sleep and a pale, blue for her mane hairs sticking up in random spots. She wasn't sleeping anytime soon so might as well do her best to keep up her appearance. Opening one of the drawers she pulled out a brush and started to straighten out her mane, opting to do it with her hooves instead of her magic. Five stifled yawns later she moved onto her coat, switching to her magic to reach her more problematic areas and folded her hoofs under her chin, enjoying the pull of the brush as much as she could. Ten yawns later her coat was more or less cleaned, as much as one could clean without actually taking a shower. Then with a scream she fell out of her stool as her entire caravan tilted. Her head smashed into floor and her back fell into the dresser as she listed every known curse she could, before yanking a frying pan out of one of the dresser's drawers. Yes she kept a frying pan in her dresser for emergencies like this. Standing back up she yanked the door open and peered out into the cold night air, seeing nothing but the trees and bushes she had parked herself next to. Cautiously she crawled down her steps and onto the dirt road below, and pulled herself up onto her hind legs, doing her best to be one with her caravan's wall. Choosing the left side from where her caravan was being tilted she slowly peeked around the corner to see a ball trying to be a fifth wheel. From what she could see from its balled up form it was wearing a white shirt and blue pants, the clothes covering everything but its blonde mane on top of its head. The weirdest thing about it was the fact it was smaller than her in its balled up form, but yet just by trying to warm itself by the wall of her caravan it was literally tilting the whole thing. Her pan lowered as she noticed it shivering and heard the distinct clacking of teeth against teeth, the thing was freezing despite it just being below comfortable for her. "U-uh hello there?" Its head snapped up giving her a clear view of its hairless face. Young pale-white skin made up its entire face, two round ears were on either side of its head, while its mouth was pinched tightly and quivered. The nose was completely separate from its mouth instead located on a different outcropping of skin right above its mouth. The most striking feature were the eyes. Slightly above and separated by the nose were two purple eyes, little flecks of red floating around in them, not even half the size of its mouth but yet open wide as is stared at her in... fear? One second it was staring at her in its balled up seating position, the next, with an explosion of dust it was hiding on the other side of her caravan and was staring at her. She jumped at the dust but frowned when it hid behind her caravan. "Come on now, you don't need to be afraid." In response to her words it just slid further behind her caravan, barely keeping its eyes within view. It was just a scared child wasn't it? Shaking her head she looked back inside her home and opened the dresser, pulling out one of her spare capes, put back her frying pan and floated the spare cape to her mouth, it was scared of her as it was, no telling how this thing would react. Not everypony knew what magic was and some were scared easily by it as evidenced by the Diamond Dogs that came to her last show. They nearly killed her before they relaxed and watched the show. So with her cape in mouth she walked halfway to where it hid and dropped her cape on the ground, before retreating back to her side and watched the strange creature. Its eyes darted from the cape to her then back to the cape, then it slowly came out of its corner and crawled low to the ground, its eyes never leaving her as it approached the cape. When it reached the cape it snatched it and immediately started to wrap itself in the cape, the fear in its eyes disappearing. Instead of retreating back to its earlier position it sat there and stared at her, its shivering dying down slightly but still there. Giving it a smile she grabbed another blanket and dropped it on the ground next to her, kicking it forward slightly with her hoof. The small creature looked at the blanket and crawled forward slightly, its hand, the same pale white as its face, hovering hesitantly before the blanket. She pushed the blanket forward again and it snatched the blanket just like it did with her cape and covered itself with the blanket, now double the size of its previous size. Yet it was still shaking. "Are you still cold?" It cocked its head at her sideways from its cocoon of blankets, not saying anything. She sighed and grabbed yet another blanket, now completely out of spares. "Youff better hofe zis warms you uf." She muttered through the blanket as she dangled it back and forth in front of herself trying to entice the creature. This time it approached her with only slight hesitation and grabbed the blanket out of her mouth giving her a slight smile before returning to its position against her cart, this time not tilting it. Well at least she fixed that problem and helped a child... or whatever it was. She shook her head and returned to her cart, musing to herself silently about what it was. Trotting over to her bed and pulling the covers over her head she tried again to sleep... at least until she heard her door open. Her head snapped up as the thing shut the door and curled up against the door and immediately closed its eyes and started to sleep. She narrowed her eyes and opened the dresser again, pulling the frying pan out and placed it next to her pillow, in easy reach. She had a creature she'd never seen before sleeping in her wagon. Just great. StonedTrixie rolled around in her bed, doing her best to ignore the chirping of the birds outside telling her it was the time to wake up and pulled the blankets up over her head. As she yanked the blankets towards herself, something fell off the bed hitting her floor with a metal clang. What did she have in her bed that was metal? Oh right it was her pan, she thought as she curled the blankets into a ball around herself. She brought it into her bed last night since that small creature followed her inside… and she fell asleep while it was inside… With a start she kicked the covers off herself, and the frying pan was encased in her magic as it flew up beside her head, her eyes immediately looking to the door where it had fallen asleep last night. Exactly where it had fallen asleep last night, more or less, a slight snore coming off of the small creature as it had moved slightly to avoid blocking the door. She relaxed slightly and put the pan down, reassuring herself that it didn’t try to eat her last night, evidenced by all her body parts being there. She hopped off her bed and the bundle of blankets and capes immediately went from lying on its side to sitting upright, looking at her. Or she thought guessing by the head shaped lump near the top. She stared at it while it stared back through the cape currently covering its head, and after a few moments of staring she slowly went to her cabinet and pulled out the one cape she had left in it. After inspecting it and making sure it was perfectly fine she put it back inside, walking over to the bundle of her belongings in the corner currently looking at her. “Okay it’s time to give up Trixie’s things you… thingy.” She said before yanking the blanket off the little creature. And then paused as she realized that was the front of its head facing her, while the back of its torso was facing her too. It’s head was on completely backwards, she realized. Just as it stood up and turned, letting its head snap back to the way it was, a slight crack sounding as it did. Now that it was directly next to her and she was staring, mainly because it just snapped its neck and seemed perfectly fine, she noticed how small the thing was. Not even shoulder height to her, but yet it still freaked her the buck out. There was a genuine small smile on its face as it looked up to her and shrugged off the blankets and capes, making a show of stretching and yawning. Then it proceeded to the door just to its left and walked outside, not sparing another glance at her. Trixie meanwhile just stared from the pile of capes and blankets at her hooves to the door where that thing had just left. After breaking its own neck. “Okay… that didn’t just happen and Trixie is just tired.” With that said she folded her blankets and capes that had been used by that thing and put them back in the dresser, away from the clean ones she had in there still. She’d wash them come next town, if she backtracked to the previous one she’d have to spend what little bits she had left on food seeing as how she just ate her last pieces of food the night before. Worse came to worse there was always that farm, she shivered at that thought, she had hated that place so much. Lifeless and grey. Shutting the dresser she went to the door and walked outside, letting the harsh morning sun glare into her eyes as her morning ritual to wake up. Normally she would have stood there for a few minutes to let the drowsiness completely drain out of her, but the scare with the little kid more or less woke her the buck up. So she stretched and raised her rump into the air, head going near the grass as she cracked her back and let out a happy sigh, before straightening back up. Smacking her lips she walked around to the front of her cart and grabbed ahold of the yoke in her magic and slipped it on past her head and down onto her shoulders. It would be a fun two days without eating and dragging her home behind her to the next town, maybe she’d get lucky and get something to snack on from the forests between here and there. Lend a helping hoof to some family in exchange for something to eat even. She grinded her teeth and started to pull forward and noticed her carriage seemed to be a bit heavier than usual. Half-turning she noticed the creature sitting on top of her carriage looking at her, curiosity gleaming in its eyes while it kicked its legs back and forth. She narrowed her eyes at it while it did the same, the two locked in a silent staring contest as she waited for it to hop off her carriage. “Get off Trixie’s house you little thingy.” She said. It mouthed her words back at her, not actually saying them…. it was mocking her wasn’t it? She wasn’t in the mood for this. Her horn lit up with her magic as her aura surrounded the creature, its eyes widening in surprise at the glowing field around its body. Her eyes on the other hoof widened for another reason, it was heavy as Tartarus for being smaller than her but yet twice as heavy! Grunting with effort she lifted the minuscule boulder off of her cart and let him go as soon as he cleared her cart, the process practically making her pant with effort. He meanwhile landed on his feet and started poking various parts of his body as if to see where the magic came from. She took the opportunity to catch her breath, making a mental note to not let the thing back inside her carriage. At least she knew how he tipped her carriage last night, freaky little bugger. Speaking of which he started to walk towards her and stopped next to her, his baby-fat filled face peering at her, eyes looking at her horn. She briefly looked up to it then back down to the creature who was now staring intently at it, almost as if he wanted it. She watched him as he leaned in slightly, before shrugging and rocking back on his heels and backed up slightly, his eyes now roaming over their surroundings instead. A breath she didn’t she had been holding in escaped from her lips and she resumed her pulling on her carriage. Humming to herself she trotted forward, her carriage following suit behind her, cracking sounds coming from the rocks underneath her home’s wheels. Another crisp crunch sound came from her side, off the road and so she turned again to see the little creature following behind her slowly, not even paying attention to her, but yet following her. Shrugging she just ignored it as she thought of how it would probably leave her after a while, seeing as how all she was doing was walking her home to another town. So a few silent minutes passed with nothing said or done by either of the two as she walked to a new town and it followed her for… no apparent reason. Trixie forgot about the creature following her after ten minutes passed and had begun focusing on what new tricks to unveil for the new town. Then she was reminded of the creature as the yoke for the cart suddenly stopped pulling as hard as it did on her shoulders, instead being very light all of a sudden. Continuing to walk forward she saw something that made no sense. It had one hand on the yoke and was busy staring off into the forest to their right, no muscles or strain evident in its arm, but very obviously helping her to pull the cart forward. So not only was it way heavier than her and had no right to be, it was also a lot stronger than it had a right to be. Even some of those that were stronger would show some type of strain in pulling the cart, but this thing was brushing it off like it was lifting a feather. With nothing to say she looked back forward and kept looking forward as it apparently repaid her favor last night with its own favor. She briefly considered saying thank you after another ten minutes but decided against it as it hadn’t shown any type of understanding of Equish last night, or earlier. So the duo kept walking towing her home where she was going, kicking over individual rocks as they went. The creature eventually leaned down a few times, as she could see out of the corner of her eye, and picked up a few rocks tossing them into the air idly and catching them, practically juggling with only one hand. Again she said nothing, starting to grow wary of the creature that was following her around. Juggling five stones in the air with one hand because it was bored, tugging on her cart making it so she was basically a rudder and it was the pull, and was immensely heavier than her. Not everything that meets the eye apparently. Giving a little sigh she kept her eyes forward and kept trotting, now going a lot faster and easier with the little thing helping her. What would have taken thirty minutes took only three and she still had her breath, a lively hop in her steps. “BAKAWK!” Screeched something to her right from the forest, both her and the creature’s heads snapping towards it, the one behind her ceasing its juggling of rocks as it instead rolling one rock in between its fingers The two kept looking towards the forest where the weird sounding chicken-like sound came from, peering so intently neither noticed the green scaly creature coming up behind them. Up until the point it hissed at Trixie from right behind her and she jumped as much as the yoke allowed her too. She immediately turned towards it and regretted it as soon as she turned around, eyes locked on the red eyes of hate, the green serpentine tail swishing in the air behind it, green wings tucked against its sides and the menacing chicken head completing one of the deadliest things she ever heard of. A cockatrice who was staring at her. She immediately made to move her legs, but they didn’t move. It was stoning her! She whimpered as she felt her chest deaden slightly and the cockatrice kept staring at her. Until it lost its head and in the distance the ground exploded as something smashed into it. She also noticed how an odd whistling sound sounded off right before the cocaktrice’s head exploded, from where the little biped creature was. She turned yet again towards it and saw it posed in a throwing position, the arm that had been holding the rock stretched outwards, standing on one leg its other leg slightly kicked up for balance, and a slight frown on its face. It slowly resumed its normal walking position and looked at her, down at her legs that were slowly returning to normal and waited until she felt all her body again. Then it tugged forward on the cart and resumed its juggling of stones. She paid it no mind and went back to staring forward, hoping to actually wake up soon. Author's Note Remember my golden rule. I'm a vain person and comments are my fuel to write, so please do leave your thoughts down in the comment section! When life gives you apples...“You don’t talk much do you, can you at least make some sort of noise?” Trixie asked her little companion, trotting beside him as he continued dragging her carriage and looked at her with a questioning look on its face. But it remained silent and after she said nothing more after a few moments it looked back forward, no longer able to occupy itself with juggling rocks as it had thrown the rest of them into the trees earlier. Sighing she looked back ahead, she was used to traveling by her lonesome but when there was somepony or rather something else with her she’d like to think it’d talk. Or make noise. The only noise it made so far was the sound of it dragging her cart across the rocky ground. It was sort of unnerving but was offset by the way it looked, non-menacing in every way. Minus the whole super strength thing it had going on. But as long as it used its strength to help her out that was fine with her, she had in one day managed to cover four days worth of travel. Looking up though she could see the sun starting to go down which meant they’d have to stop soon, because while the path was well marked she wasn’t willing to try it at night. Not to mention her aching stomach which had yet to growl at her somehow despite not eating in a while. She magically poked her companion to get his attention and then started to pull off her yoke, which took him a few moments to realize what she wanted and eventually let go of the yoke. Rolling her shoulders, to stretch her muscles, she smiled at him and gave a nod, knowing he wouldn’t understand otherwise. Turning to her carriage she went to the door and opened it up so she could magic out two bricks she often used to make sure her carriage didn’t go rolling anywhere. Meanwhile he just watched from around the corner and went slightly wide-eyed as the bricks came out enveloped in her magic. She placed the two bricks under the front wheels and kicked them to make sure it was secure. It was a bit early to go to sleep though so she didn’t go inside her carriage yet, opting to sit on her steps instead. He watched her for a few moments before walking over to her and sitting at the bottom of the steps head leaning back against the bottom of the step, despite there being a spot next to her. She idly watched the trees off the trail move with the wind, a peaceful rustling coming from them. It was different. But nice, compared to her usual routine of walking till the point of collapse, this time just until it got darkish. A growling stomach interrupted her and set her companion on edge, his reaction being to immediately stand up and whip his head around in circles. She giggled a little bit at his reaction making him look at her instead, a snarl that was there for an instant, just as quickly gone and replaced by his more curious face. Somehow he realized the sound had come from her stomach despite being startled by it. He looked at her stomach then back up at her and back down again. His head moved back and forth several times as if it was thinking, reminding her of a bobblehead before it shrugged and turned around, to look down the trail. A slight crack noise and an explosion of rocks later and he was gone, leaving her to wonder how he just did that, before leaning back on her seat of steps. He was probably able to take care of himself if he was able to do that and drag her cart like he did, plus it was something she’d seen him do already so it wasn’t too surprising. So she looked back at the trees and ignored the pang of hunger in her stomach, not wanting to degrade herself to eating grass. Time passed as she sat there just enjoying the movement of the trees, the sun slowly going down behind them, and the moon coming up behind her, probably anyways as she couldn’t see it thanks to her carriage. After about five or ten minutes when she was getting ready to turn in for the night until she heard a slight whistling noise. She looked around trying to place where the sound was coming from, ears flicking to help her place the sound. She didn’t have to look for long though as the ground exploded once again, sending her screaming and scrambling back up her steps, slamming against the door. With her heart pounding in her chest and blood rushing through her ears she became part of the door as much as was possible the dust slowly moving in the night wind. The wind was barely there but it worked ever so slowly to move the dust that was kicked up, just to reveal the thing that had scared her was none other than her companion with a bunch of apples tucked in his arms. His head once again cocked to the side at her in confusion, resuming its normal orientation after he shook it and grabbed one of the apples he had in his arms and handed it over. A small smile played upon his lips, just there for a moment, before dissipating back into its usual placid expression. All the while the apple he was holding just stayed in front of her waiting for her to take it, as if it was the most normal thing for him to come flying out of the nowhere like that. She would have kept thinking like before but she was tired and hungry so without questioning she just levitated the apple out of his hands and to her mouth, happily taking a chunk out of it. He sat back down at the bottom of the steps, seemingly content. Her lip twisted slightly at that, it just didn’t feel right. He helped her pull her cart, killed a cockatrice that was threatening her and got apples for her… though where he got them would probably be questionable. Her leg moved to poke him in the back to get his attention. He turned to her with an irritated face and she just patted the space on the step next to her, another smile appearing. She smiled too as he scampered up the steps to sit next to her and laid his head against her fur, his hairless and warm skin feeling weird against hers. Sitting together she realized something. She started calling it a he without even thinking about it. Author's Note I am not dead. I just don't play games when I have schoolwork and when I don't have schoolwork I do nothing but play games. So since school is starting back up I'm going back to writing. Hooray procrastination! Start A Fire.She sat there for a while content to just eat apples while the little guy sat beside her using her as a pillow. The sunset painted the sky a wonderful hue of blues and oranges, the night and day fighting over the sky above, clouded undersides in the distance glowing as golden as the sun itself while the clouds closer to them seemed to radiate purple, slowly moving forward and overtaking the day. He just snuggled his head into her fur, seeming to be absorbed by that more than the clouds above, loving the feel of her soft fur. She was just glad he was nuzzling her foreleg and not her stomach or legs, because that’d either be inappropriate or ticklish and she was just happy about the moment she was in now. This was the reason she lived in a little caravan and didn’t care for cities at all, said cities only being important to help her make some bits. Nature was beautiful and lovely, great for thinking or not thinking, silence except for the songs of nature. And the little one that was nuzzling her arm, which she didn’t mind all that much. Minutes passed and two more apple cores gathered on the ground, the little one finally looking up at the sky to make an ‘oooo’ sound as if it was the first time he’d seen it. She looked at him and he sat there with half his face tucked into her arm and the other half staring up at the sky in wonder. She laughed at him and he didn’t respond to her, instead removing his face from her arm and standing up to his full height, shoulder-height to her really. His wonder stopped, along with her peace of mind as a harsh cold wind snapped at them, both shivering. Her only slightly and him a significant amount so as to make the steps to her door vibrate. He immediately went back to hugging her arm, but instead of her cuddliness it was because of her being warm. She looked up to see the clouds moving on, and once they moved it would be a perfect cloudless night, the best time to be out. She wasn’t about to let some random cold breeze ruin her night. Stepping up in a huff she walked forward, little one instead opting to go inside. Presumably to wrap himself up in her capes again and make a cocoon. That was fine she’d done this before so it wouldn’t be much of a problem to do it herself, especially now that she’d eaten. Trotting towards the trees she looked first on the ground, trying to see any fallen branches in the fading sunlight. Barely seeing anything she used her own horn as a flashlight, having to stick her head right next to the ground to see the branches blending in with the dirt and grass. Seeing only a few small branches after a good few minutes of searching she instead moved to the trees and snapped a few lively branches off of them for her fire. Sure they were harder to burn but one always needed fuel for any fire. Humming to herself she spent another few minutes searching for good branches to snap off, then bringing those branches back to a pile she had stared beside her carriage. When she finally had what she felt was a decent amount of branches she arranged them in a small pile, her years of living like this having taught her the proper way to start a fire. Having arranged the smaller twigs as a starter for the fire she started a small spell to ignite it, slowly nursing it into a brighter and hotter fire. It would take a small while to become a proper fire but she could already feel the flames heating up her coat. So she sat beside it to nurse it. As it became more of a blaze she heard a creak from her caravan’s door and she turned to see him standing in the doorway, one of her robes curled around him, warily watching the flame dancing. Smiling at him she said, “Come on it’s alright, just fire. See?” She lifted up a hoof and brought it near the fire to illustrate what she meant, before motioning him over. “It’s warm too.” He looked at her then to the fire beside her, watching how it flickered a bright orange and red in the dark night, before slowly shuffling over next to her, staring at the fire intently and cocking his head. Then he plopped down beside her and used her as a pillow once more, resting his head against her neck a hand reaching out from under the robe to warm itself against the fire. He seemed to be smiling as he watched the flames dance around and grow. “You like the fire huh?” He turned to look at her for a moment before looking once more at the fire. Smiling she settled her own head down against her hoofs and watched the fire herself, levitating another apple to her mouth and munching on it idly. Then she paused to levitate another one next to her and in front of him, making him look at her funny. “Come on you need to eat something.” He just kept staring at her questioningly and she rolled her eyes and gestured to her mouth before taking a bite of her own apple. “Eat. You need to eat.” He looked to the apple again before slowly grabbing it and looking at her once more before moving his eyes back to the fire, apple disappearing into the robe. Sighing she just took another bite of her apple and watched the fire for a bit longer. “Fire.” She heard her voice say. From beside her. From the little one. She craned her head to look at him wide-eyed and surprised. “Did you say something?” She asked looking at him. He cocked his head and slowly pointed at the fire again and said again in her voice, “Fire.” She stared at him for a few moments before nodding. “Fire.” He smiled and lowered his arm, apparently having learned a word. And a voice. After a while she chose to ignore that development because there was a lot crazier stuff she’d been through, like the Ursa Major, than this. So she settled back down to watch the fire and look up at the stars above, little one reclining against her once more. They rested like that for a while before she let out a yawn and slowly stretched her limbs. “Well time to sleep then.” He just watched her as she stood up and started to scatter the fire before using a small ice spell to get rid of the flames and any lingering sparks. As she did he looked her over questioningly before shivering once more and heading back to her cart. It tilted a bit at the first step but nothing much else for the carriage thankfully, while she finished getting rid of the fire. Done with that she went inside her caravan and shut the door behind her with another yawn, glad to have made some good progress today. Looking over the inside of her home though she was puzzled for a moment as she didn’t see him anywhere. Then she noticed the lump under her blanket near the foot of her bed. Of course he was in her bed. Rolling her eyes at that she stepped over to her bed and ripped the blankets off of him to see him already looking up at her questioningly. To which she jutted a hoof out and said, “Get out of my bed mister.” He gave her a pitiful sad frown as she said that, obviously liking her bed. Watching him for a moment she sighed before grabbing her blanket again and getting into the bed on the opposite side of him and draping it across both of them to which he smiled and snuggled further into her bed. Closing her eyes she readied herself for a good night’s sleep, Interrupted by a gentle humming from the side. Something that sounded like a quiet song from the young guest in her bed. Glancing over to him she watched him slightly bob his head in tune with his song. He seemed to look sad albeit peaceful at the same time as he hummed it, maybe something his mother hummed to him? Feeling a bit bad for him she reached over and pulled him closer into a hug, making him slow slightly in his humming as if caught by surprise. But he nuzzled closer into her and buried his face iner once more and slowly resume his humming, dragging her into a nice and deep sleep. Author's Note Because I didn't. A Show for AllMorning came eventually though and Trixie stretched, the morning sun rudely awakening her from her comfortable sleep. One limb however seemed to be stuck and looking down she found her guest wrapped around her frame and one of her legs, face buried into her chest. Rolling her eyes she tapped his head once with her hoof and he immediately seemed to wake up, looking up into her face questioningly again with a cocking of his head. To answer his unasked question she budged her trapped foreleg against him and he rolled away but curled back up in her blankets. Grinning slightly at his shenanigans she just got up and out of the bed to get ready for the day, a brush for her hair and another for her teeth. It took only a few minutes before she finished up and put her supplies away. Stopping for a moment to poke him back awake, because she knew she couldn’t pull the carriage with him inside of it, she went out front to pull it again, with him helping to pull again. One hand of his on the carriage’s yoke and her shoulders pulling what little weight was left they continued on their walk to the next town. After a bit she realized that he was humming that song from last night again and after listening to it for a few minutes joined in on his humming, garnering a smile from him. It took a few hours but she could finally see the tops of a few houses in a distance and she smiled, pulling the carriage a bit faster in anticipation of putting on another show. He kept pace with her and started pulling faster as well. As they headed to the center of the town so she could set up, she noticed the odd looks that the local ponies were giving her little companion. And the odd looks her companion was giving back to everything, but staying by her side all the way through, looking around as wide-eyed as he could at all the things around them. To her it was just another town, with a few wooden cottages lining either side of the street they were on. The street was just some gravel, leading to what she thought was town hall ahead, judging by the fact it was made out of some stone and was a bit more modern than other buildings around. Maybe not the best spot to set up in front of but somewhere close to it. So a few more metres ahead then. She was close enough to the town center and had already gathered a small crowd. Even if they were just foals and fillies following her little carriage. Although they couldn’t know about her show and were rather following around because of her friend. Taking off her harness she gave them all a small smile, while they seemed to mostly ignore her, watching Pariah as he watched them back. One foal however took notice of her again and asked, “What’s that thing Miss?” She half-shrugged to the foal. “I am not sure. I found him deep in the forest, and he has the strength of an Ox despite his size.” At that he let out an ‘oooooh’ and she rolled her eyes, turning to head back inside her carriage, finding her path blocked by some of her crowd. That immediately bombarded her with questions when they heard her answer the foal’s question. What he was, how strong he was,how long she had been with him, if he liked apples, why he was gangly, where his fur was, if he could fly, if one of them could keep him and why his eyes were so beady. All the while they were poking and within inches of Pariah looking him over, he returning the favor but seemingly overwhelmed by the dozen plus of them and wide variety of them. Pink, green, blue, earth-pony, unicorn and pegasus all something new to him it seemed, judging by the look he was giving them in return. Wide-eyed as he could be, eyes seeming to sparkle slightly, constantly turning over and over as they poked him. Smiling she did her best to answer their questions, phrasing it just right to make their eyes sparkle with excitement and wonder, maybe exaggerating a little bit to make it sound a better story. After she finished the first few questions though she had to excuse herself to her carriage to prepare it for the show later. After all she couldn’t have her bed and closet show up on stage otherwise it might ruin her performance. Or trip her up at least. So giving her friend one last look and seeing that he seemed happy to be poked and happy to poke some of the foals and fillies, she decided that he was fine by himself. “Be careful with him.” She said walking on into her carriage. Inside she started the slow process of packing away her belongings, stuffing them into hidden compartments, folding it into the walls and what not. She was about halfway through it when she heard a high-pitched and pained yelp from right outside. Dropping what she was doing she ran to the door and swung it open, looking around for whatever made that noise. And she looked towards a foal sitting on his haunches, holding his hoofs to his ear and rubbing it with a frown. His eyes were a bit teary but he seemed to be okay. Her friend just looked a bit curious and surprised at that, his hand withdrawn slightly from the foal on the ground while the crowd around just watched on with somewhat of the same expressions. “What’s going on?” They all looked towards her and the foal answered. “He pinched my ear really hard. But I’m okay.” He revealed his ear to show the pressed down fur, thankfully free off any other marks. Though this showed to her that she couldn’t really leave him alone with others because he didn’t seem aware of his own strength. Leaning down she inspected his ear for a better look. “Well I did say he was strong, but I think I should take him back into my carriage until it’s time for the show.” A collective ‘aww’ from the small audience she had but they did wave bye as she took him into her carriage, him awkwardly returning their waves. But she did take him back inside and he looked over her room to see that a good portion of it was gone. He seemed to be confused, wandering around her carriage and waving his hand through the spaces where stuff had been previously. Then as she started packing up things he whipped his head towards her and watched quietly as she did so. She was almost finished when she heard a knock on her door and decided to look again, slightly afraid that it was a parent come to complain or yell at her. Opening up the door she came somewhat face to face with what seemed to be a drunk mare. One she didn’t recognize. Looking over the green unicorn mare and the bottle suspended next to her, she raised a brow. “Can I help you?” The mare started at her for a moment, not seeming to see her. Then life appeared in the mare’s eyes as she snarled. “You.” A hiccup. “...Me?” She slowly asked, not knowing what was going on. The mare wobbled slightly, the bottle seeming to drop almost to the ground before being caught again. “Get outta my town.” Slow blink from her. “Don’t… need a jerk like you around here.” Trixie merely frowned at the mare. “Have we met before?” Judging by the mare’s attitude towards her and recent events in her life she had a suspicion this pony might have been from Ponyville. The mare nodded and took another drink from her bottle before continuing. “You were a jerk the whole time,” She jabbed a hoof at Trixie. “And I don’t need some creep like you around…” The mare trailed off for a moment before hiccuping again, life coming back to her eyes again. “My kids. So just screw off creep.” She said actually jabbing her hoof into Trixie’s chest, catching her off guard and stepped back. Just for her space to become occupied by her little friend, his hand slamming into the mare’s throat, her eyes bulging out almost immediately. The mare swung wildly at first, bottle crashing to the ground, caught off-guard more than Trixie was at the fact he was strangling somepony one-handed with an almost underwhelming frown on his face. It took her a second to react, because of the fact it was so unexpected. But when she realized she need to react she screamed at that, “What are you doing?!?” Only to make him turn towards her and look curiously at her. The mare kept swiping pitifully at the hand wrapped around her throat and Trixie realized she needed to pry him off and as such she grabbed his hand and ripped it off, it yielding easily to her pull. The moment he let go of the mare she dropped to the ground and started coughing roughly, weakly grasping at her throat with her free hoofs. While Trixie glared at her guest, who just stepped back and kept watching the mare impassively. Shaking her head she jumped down to the ground beside the mare to try and check on her, just to get nearly hit by the mare’s hoof. The mare kept choking but Trixie could tell that she was trying to say something. “You need help or anything? Whatever you need?” The mare only responded by shakily standing up and continuing her whooping cough, wobbily starting to walk away. Trixie paused in following after the mare to help her, noticing a few ponies around all frowning or looking as if they were scared. It would be best if they left now, before any police ponies came by or a mob formed. So she ran around to the front of her carriage to pick up her yoke and put it on, pulling as hard on it as she could as fast as she could to get out speedily. It helped when the one responsible for her problem grabbed the yoke like he always did and matched her speed as she raced out of town.
ShiveringTrixie sighed as she twisted and turned in her blanket trying to go to sleep. She had changed her ways yes, but ever since Ponyville she had a hard time attracting an audience of any kind, she still blamed Twilight a little. Although she acknowledged the fact that it was mainly her fault for trying to go up against Princess Celestia's student, even if she didn't know she was at first. The main fact was she was running low on bits and she just ate what she had left, a simple hay sandwich. She could sell what she owned in her caravan but it wasn't all that much. A vanity mirror tucked away by the door on a simple desk, barstool easily able to slide under said table and let her open the door. A floor-to-ceiling dresser on the other side of the door containing four of her capes, one hat and a few spare blankets for when it really got cold in the winter. That took up half the caravan she called home and in the other half were her cooler, for food, her bed which she currently was in now, and a chest that usually contained her valuables. But with her current bit situation all that was inside of it was maybe twenty bits and that was from somepony that had thought her to be a beggar and zoomed off before she could protest. Giving up on trying to sleep she instead stared at her brown ceiling and lazily traced a circle on it with her magic, a light magenta. The closest city she hadn't exactly been welcome, they didn't run her out of town but they did refuse to acknowledge her existence. There were more questionable ways of earning bits but she didn't want to do anything like that, she liked to think she had more self-respect than that. Kicking the covers off herself she hopped onto the floor and walked over to her vanity, her hooves clicking on the ground beneath her. She pulled the stool out and sat on it and stared at herself. A dull azure coat from not having a shower in two or three days, matted in spots where she had tried to sleep and a pale, blue for her mane hairs sticking up in random spots. She wasn't sleeping anytime soon so might as well do her best to keep up her appearance. Opening one of the drawers she pulled out a brush and started to straighten out her mane, opting to do it with her hooves instead of her magic. Five stifled yawns later she moved onto her coat, switching to her magic to reach her more problematic areas and folded her hoofs under her chin, enjoying the pull of the brush as much as she could. Ten yawns later her coat was more or less cleaned, as much as one could clean without actually taking a shower. Then with a scream she fell out of her stool as her entire caravan tilted. Her head smashed into floor and her back fell into the dresser as she listed every known curse she could, before yanking a frying pan out of one of the dresser's drawers. Yes she kept a frying pan in her dresser for emergencies like this. Standing back up she yanked the door open and peered out into the cold night air, seeing nothing but the trees and bushes she had parked herself next to. Cautiously she crawled down her steps and onto the dirt road below, and pulled herself up onto her hind legs, doing her best to be one with her caravan's wall. Choosing the left side from where her caravan was being tilted she slowly peeked around the corner to see a ball trying to be a fifth wheel. From what she could see from its balled up form it was wearing a white shirt and blue pants, the clothes covering everything but its blonde mane on top of its head. The weirdest thing about it was the fact it was smaller than her in its balled up form, but yet just by trying to warm itself by the wall of her caravan it was literally tilting the whole thing. Her pan lowered as she noticed it shivering and heard the distinct clacking of teeth against teeth, the thing was freezing despite it just being below comfortable for her. "U-uh hello there?" Its head snapped up giving her a clear view of its hairless face. Young pale-white skin made up its entire face, two round ears were on either side of its head, while its mouth was pinched tightly and quivered. The nose was completely separate from its mouth instead located on a different outcropping of skin right above its mouth. The most striking feature were the eyes. Slightly above and separated by the nose were two purple eyes, little flecks of red floating around in them, not even half the size of its mouth but yet open wide as is stared at her in... fear? One second it was staring at her in its balled up seating position, the next, with an explosion of dust it was hiding on the other side of her caravan and was staring at her. She jumped at the dust but frowned when it hid behind her caravan. "Come on now, you don't need to be afraid." In response to her words it just slid further behind her caravan, barely keeping its eyes within view. It was just a scared child wasn't it? Shaking her head she looked back inside her home and opened the dresser, pulling out one of her spare capes, put back her frying pan and floated the spare cape to her mouth, it was scared of her as it was, no telling how this thing would react. Not everypony knew what magic was and some were scared easily by it as evidenced by the Diamond Dogs that came to her last show. They nearly killed her before they relaxed and watched the show. So with her cape in mouth she walked halfway to where it hid and dropped her cape on the ground, before retreating back to her side and watched the strange creature. Its eyes darted from the cape to her then back to the cape, then it slowly came out of its corner and crawled low to the ground, its eyes never leaving her as it approached the cape. When it reached the cape it snatched it and immediately started to wrap itself in the cape, the fear in its eyes disappearing. Instead of retreating back to its earlier position it sat there and stared at her, its shivering dying down slightly but still there. Giving it a smile she grabbed another blanket and dropped it on the ground next to her, kicking it forward slightly with her hoof. The small creature looked at the blanket and crawled forward slightly, its hand, the same pale white as its face, hovering hesitantly before the blanket. She pushed the blanket forward again and it snatched the blanket just like it did with her cape and covered itself with the blanket, now double the size of its previous size. Yet it was still shaking. "Are you still cold?" It cocked its head at her sideways from its cocoon of blankets, not saying anything. She sighed and grabbed yet another blanket, now completely out of spares. "Youff better hofe zis warms you uf." She muttered through the blanket as she dangled it back and forth in front of herself trying to entice the creature. This time it approached her with only slight hesitation and grabbed the blanket out of her mouth giving her a slight smile before returning to its position against her cart, this time not tilting it. Well at least she fixed that problem and helped a child... or whatever it was. She shook her head and returned to her cart, musing to herself silently about what it was. Trotting over to her bed and pulling the covers over her head she tried again to sleep... at least until she heard her door open. Her head snapped up as the thing shut the door and curled up against the door and immediately closed its eyes and started to sleep. She narrowed her eyes and opened the dresser again, pulling the frying pan out and placed it next to her pillow, in easy reach. She had a creature she'd never seen before sleeping in her wagon. Just great.
StonedTrixie rolled around in her bed, doing her best to ignore the chirping of the birds outside telling her it was the time to wake up and pulled the blankets up over her head. As she yanked the blankets towards herself, something fell off the bed hitting her floor with a metal clang. What did she have in her bed that was metal? Oh right it was her pan, she thought as she curled the blankets into a ball around herself. She brought it into her bed last night since that small creature followed her inside… and she fell asleep while it was inside… With a start she kicked the covers off herself, and the frying pan was encased in her magic as it flew up beside her head, her eyes immediately looking to the door where it had fallen asleep last night. Exactly where it had fallen asleep last night, more or less, a slight snore coming off of the small creature as it had moved slightly to avoid blocking the door. She relaxed slightly and put the pan down, reassuring herself that it didn’t try to eat her last night, evidenced by all her body parts being there. She hopped off her bed and the bundle of blankets and capes immediately went from lying on its side to sitting upright, looking at her. Or she thought guessing by the head shaped lump near the top. She stared at it while it stared back through the cape currently covering its head, and after a few moments of staring she slowly went to her cabinet and pulled out the one cape she had left in it. After inspecting it and making sure it was perfectly fine she put it back inside, walking over to the bundle of her belongings in the corner currently looking at her. “Okay it’s time to give up Trixie’s things you… thingy.” She said before yanking the blanket off the little creature. And then paused as she realized that was the front of its head facing her, while the back of its torso was facing her too. It’s head was on completely backwards, she realized. Just as it stood up and turned, letting its head snap back to the way it was, a slight crack sounding as it did. Now that it was directly next to her and she was staring, mainly because it just snapped its neck and seemed perfectly fine, she noticed how small the thing was. Not even shoulder height to her, but yet it still freaked her the buck out. There was a genuine small smile on its face as it looked up to her and shrugged off the blankets and capes, making a show of stretching and yawning. Then it proceeded to the door just to its left and walked outside, not sparing another glance at her. Trixie meanwhile just stared from the pile of capes and blankets at her hooves to the door where that thing had just left. After breaking its own neck. “Okay… that didn’t just happen and Trixie is just tired.” With that said she folded her blankets and capes that had been used by that thing and put them back in the dresser, away from the clean ones she had in there still. She’d wash them come next town, if she backtracked to the previous one she’d have to spend what little bits she had left on food seeing as how she just ate her last pieces of food the night before. Worse came to worse there was always that farm, she shivered at that thought, she had hated that place so much. Lifeless and grey. Shutting the dresser she went to the door and walked outside, letting the harsh morning sun glare into her eyes as her morning ritual to wake up. Normally she would have stood there for a few minutes to let the drowsiness completely drain out of her, but the scare with the little kid more or less woke her the buck up. So she stretched and raised her rump into the air, head going near the grass as she cracked her back and let out a happy sigh, before straightening back up. Smacking her lips she walked around to the front of her cart and grabbed ahold of the yoke in her magic and slipped it on past her head and down onto her shoulders. It would be a fun two days without eating and dragging her home behind her to the next town, maybe she’d get lucky and get something to snack on from the forests between here and there. Lend a helping hoof to some family in exchange for something to eat even. She grinded her teeth and started to pull forward and noticed her carriage seemed to be a bit heavier than usual. Half-turning she noticed the creature sitting on top of her carriage looking at her, curiosity gleaming in its eyes while it kicked its legs back and forth. She narrowed her eyes at it while it did the same, the two locked in a silent staring contest as she waited for it to hop off her carriage. “Get off Trixie’s house you little thingy.” She said. It mouthed her words back at her, not actually saying them…. it was mocking her wasn’t it? She wasn’t in the mood for this. Her horn lit up with her magic as her aura surrounded the creature, its eyes widening in surprise at the glowing field around its body. Her eyes on the other hoof widened for another reason, it was heavy as Tartarus for being smaller than her but yet twice as heavy! Grunting with effort she lifted the minuscule boulder off of her cart and let him go as soon as he cleared her cart, the process practically making her pant with effort. He meanwhile landed on his feet and started poking various parts of his body as if to see where the magic came from. She took the opportunity to catch her breath, making a mental note to not let the thing back inside her carriage. At least she knew how he tipped her carriage last night, freaky little bugger. Speaking of which he started to walk towards her and stopped next to her, his baby-fat filled face peering at her, eyes looking at her horn. She briefly looked up to it then back down to the creature who was now staring intently at it, almost as if he wanted it. She watched him as he leaned in slightly, before shrugging and rocking back on his heels and backed up slightly, his eyes now roaming over their surroundings instead. A breath she didn’t she had been holding in escaped from her lips and she resumed her pulling on her carriage. Humming to herself she trotted forward, her carriage following suit behind her, cracking sounds coming from the rocks underneath her home’s wheels. Another crisp crunch sound came from her side, off the road and so she turned again to see the little creature following behind her slowly, not even paying attention to her, but yet following her. Shrugging she just ignored it as she thought of how it would probably leave her after a while, seeing as how all she was doing was walking her home to another town. So a few silent minutes passed with nothing said or done by either of the two as she walked to a new town and it followed her for… no apparent reason. Trixie forgot about the creature following her after ten minutes passed and had begun focusing on what new tricks to unveil for the new town. Then she was reminded of the creature as the yoke for the cart suddenly stopped pulling as hard as it did on her shoulders, instead being very light all of a sudden. Continuing to walk forward she saw something that made no sense. It had one hand on the yoke and was busy staring off into the forest to their right, no muscles or strain evident in its arm, but very obviously helping her to pull the cart forward. So not only was it way heavier than her and had no right to be, it was also a lot stronger than it had a right to be. Even some of those that were stronger would show some type of strain in pulling the cart, but this thing was brushing it off like it was lifting a feather. With nothing to say she looked back forward and kept looking forward as it apparently repaid her favor last night with its own favor. She briefly considered saying thank you after another ten minutes but decided against it as it hadn’t shown any type of understanding of Equish last night, or earlier. So the duo kept walking towing her home where she was going, kicking over individual rocks as they went. The creature eventually leaned down a few times, as she could see out of the corner of her eye, and picked up a few rocks tossing them into the air idly and catching them, practically juggling with only one hand. Again she said nothing, starting to grow wary of the creature that was following her around. Juggling five stones in the air with one hand because it was bored, tugging on her cart making it so she was basically a rudder and it was the pull, and was immensely heavier than her. Not everything that meets the eye apparently. Giving a little sigh she kept her eyes forward and kept trotting, now going a lot faster and easier with the little thing helping her. What would have taken thirty minutes took only three and she still had her breath, a lively hop in her steps. “BAKAWK!” Screeched something to her right from the forest, both her and the creature’s heads snapping towards it, the one behind her ceasing its juggling of rocks as it instead rolling one rock in between its fingers The two kept looking towards the forest where the weird sounding chicken-like sound came from, peering so intently neither noticed the green scaly creature coming up behind them. Up until the point it hissed at Trixie from right behind her and she jumped as much as the yoke allowed her too. She immediately turned towards it and regretted it as soon as she turned around, eyes locked on the red eyes of hate, the green serpentine tail swishing in the air behind it, green wings tucked against its sides and the menacing chicken head completing one of the deadliest things she ever heard of. A cockatrice who was staring at her. She immediately made to move her legs, but they didn’t move. It was stoning her! She whimpered as she felt her chest deaden slightly and the cockatrice kept staring at her. Until it lost its head and in the distance the ground exploded as something smashed into it. She also noticed how an odd whistling sound sounded off right before the cocaktrice’s head exploded, from where the little biped creature was. She turned yet again towards it and saw it posed in a throwing position, the arm that had been holding the rock stretched outwards, standing on one leg its other leg slightly kicked up for balance, and a slight frown on its face. It slowly resumed its normal walking position and looked at her, down at her legs that were slowly returning to normal and waited until she felt all her body again. Then it tugged forward on the cart and resumed its juggling of stones. She paid it no mind and went back to staring forward, hoping to actually wake up soon. Author's Note Remember my golden rule. I'm a vain person and comments are my fuel to write, so please do leave your thoughts down in the comment section!
When life gives you apples...“You don’t talk much do you, can you at least make some sort of noise?” Trixie asked her little companion, trotting beside him as he continued dragging her carriage and looked at her with a questioning look on its face. But it remained silent and after she said nothing more after a few moments it looked back forward, no longer able to occupy itself with juggling rocks as it had thrown the rest of them into the trees earlier. Sighing she looked back ahead, she was used to traveling by her lonesome but when there was somepony or rather something else with her she’d like to think it’d talk. Or make noise. The only noise it made so far was the sound of it dragging her cart across the rocky ground. It was sort of unnerving but was offset by the way it looked, non-menacing in every way. Minus the whole super strength thing it had going on. But as long as it used its strength to help her out that was fine with her, she had in one day managed to cover four days worth of travel. Looking up though she could see the sun starting to go down which meant they’d have to stop soon, because while the path was well marked she wasn’t willing to try it at night. Not to mention her aching stomach which had yet to growl at her somehow despite not eating in a while. She magically poked her companion to get his attention and then started to pull off her yoke, which took him a few moments to realize what she wanted and eventually let go of the yoke. Rolling her shoulders, to stretch her muscles, she smiled at him and gave a nod, knowing he wouldn’t understand otherwise. Turning to her carriage she went to the door and opened it up so she could magic out two bricks she often used to make sure her carriage didn’t go rolling anywhere. Meanwhile he just watched from around the corner and went slightly wide-eyed as the bricks came out enveloped in her magic. She placed the two bricks under the front wheels and kicked them to make sure it was secure. It was a bit early to go to sleep though so she didn’t go inside her carriage yet, opting to sit on her steps instead. He watched her for a few moments before walking over to her and sitting at the bottom of the steps head leaning back against the bottom of the step, despite there being a spot next to her. She idly watched the trees off the trail move with the wind, a peaceful rustling coming from them. It was different. But nice, compared to her usual routine of walking till the point of collapse, this time just until it got darkish. A growling stomach interrupted her and set her companion on edge, his reaction being to immediately stand up and whip his head around in circles. She giggled a little bit at his reaction making him look at her instead, a snarl that was there for an instant, just as quickly gone and replaced by his more curious face. Somehow he realized the sound had come from her stomach despite being startled by it. He looked at her stomach then back up at her and back down again. His head moved back and forth several times as if it was thinking, reminding her of a bobblehead before it shrugged and turned around, to look down the trail. A slight crack noise and an explosion of rocks later and he was gone, leaving her to wonder how he just did that, before leaning back on her seat of steps. He was probably able to take care of himself if he was able to do that and drag her cart like he did, plus it was something she’d seen him do already so it wasn’t too surprising. So she looked back at the trees and ignored the pang of hunger in her stomach, not wanting to degrade herself to eating grass. Time passed as she sat there just enjoying the movement of the trees, the sun slowly going down behind them, and the moon coming up behind her, probably anyways as she couldn’t see it thanks to her carriage. After about five or ten minutes when she was getting ready to turn in for the night until she heard a slight whistling noise. She looked around trying to place where the sound was coming from, ears flicking to help her place the sound. She didn’t have to look for long though as the ground exploded once again, sending her screaming and scrambling back up her steps, slamming against the door. With her heart pounding in her chest and blood rushing through her ears she became part of the door as much as was possible the dust slowly moving in the night wind. The wind was barely there but it worked ever so slowly to move the dust that was kicked up, just to reveal the thing that had scared her was none other than her companion with a bunch of apples tucked in his arms. His head once again cocked to the side at her in confusion, resuming its normal orientation after he shook it and grabbed one of the apples he had in his arms and handed it over. A small smile played upon his lips, just there for a moment, before dissipating back into its usual placid expression. All the while the apple he was holding just stayed in front of her waiting for her to take it, as if it was the most normal thing for him to come flying out of the nowhere like that. She would have kept thinking like before but she was tired and hungry so without questioning she just levitated the apple out of his hands and to her mouth, happily taking a chunk out of it. He sat back down at the bottom of the steps, seemingly content. Her lip twisted slightly at that, it just didn’t feel right. He helped her pull her cart, killed a cockatrice that was threatening her and got apples for her… though where he got them would probably be questionable. Her leg moved to poke him in the back to get his attention. He turned to her with an irritated face and she just patted the space on the step next to her, another smile appearing. She smiled too as he scampered up the steps to sit next to her and laid his head against her fur, his hairless and warm skin feeling weird against hers. Sitting together she realized something. She started calling it a he without even thinking about it. Author's Note I am not dead. I just don't play games when I have schoolwork and when I don't have schoolwork I do nothing but play games. So since school is starting back up I'm going back to writing. Hooray procrastination!
Start A Fire.She sat there for a while content to just eat apples while the little guy sat beside her using her as a pillow. The sunset painted the sky a wonderful hue of blues and oranges, the night and day fighting over the sky above, clouded undersides in the distance glowing as golden as the sun itself while the clouds closer to them seemed to radiate purple, slowly moving forward and overtaking the day. He just snuggled his head into her fur, seeming to be absorbed by that more than the clouds above, loving the feel of her soft fur. She was just glad he was nuzzling her foreleg and not her stomach or legs, because that’d either be inappropriate or ticklish and she was just happy about the moment she was in now. This was the reason she lived in a little caravan and didn’t care for cities at all, said cities only being important to help her make some bits. Nature was beautiful and lovely, great for thinking or not thinking, silence except for the songs of nature. And the little one that was nuzzling her arm, which she didn’t mind all that much. Minutes passed and two more apple cores gathered on the ground, the little one finally looking up at the sky to make an ‘oooo’ sound as if it was the first time he’d seen it. She looked at him and he sat there with half his face tucked into her arm and the other half staring up at the sky in wonder. She laughed at him and he didn’t respond to her, instead removing his face from her arm and standing up to his full height, shoulder-height to her really. His wonder stopped, along with her peace of mind as a harsh cold wind snapped at them, both shivering. Her only slightly and him a significant amount so as to make the steps to her door vibrate. He immediately went back to hugging her arm, but instead of her cuddliness it was because of her being warm. She looked up to see the clouds moving on, and once they moved it would be a perfect cloudless night, the best time to be out. She wasn’t about to let some random cold breeze ruin her night. Stepping up in a huff she walked forward, little one instead opting to go inside. Presumably to wrap himself up in her capes again and make a cocoon. That was fine she’d done this before so it wouldn’t be much of a problem to do it herself, especially now that she’d eaten. Trotting towards the trees she looked first on the ground, trying to see any fallen branches in the fading sunlight. Barely seeing anything she used her own horn as a flashlight, having to stick her head right next to the ground to see the branches blending in with the dirt and grass. Seeing only a few small branches after a good few minutes of searching she instead moved to the trees and snapped a few lively branches off of them for her fire. Sure they were harder to burn but one always needed fuel for any fire. Humming to herself she spent another few minutes searching for good branches to snap off, then bringing those branches back to a pile she had stared beside her carriage. When she finally had what she felt was a decent amount of branches she arranged them in a small pile, her years of living like this having taught her the proper way to start a fire. Having arranged the smaller twigs as a starter for the fire she started a small spell to ignite it, slowly nursing it into a brighter and hotter fire. It would take a small while to become a proper fire but she could already feel the flames heating up her coat. So she sat beside it to nurse it. As it became more of a blaze she heard a creak from her caravan’s door and she turned to see him standing in the doorway, one of her robes curled around him, warily watching the flame dancing. Smiling at him she said, “Come on it’s alright, just fire. See?” She lifted up a hoof and brought it near the fire to illustrate what she meant, before motioning him over. “It’s warm too.” He looked at her then to the fire beside her, watching how it flickered a bright orange and red in the dark night, before slowly shuffling over next to her, staring at the fire intently and cocking his head. Then he plopped down beside her and used her as a pillow once more, resting his head against her neck a hand reaching out from under the robe to warm itself against the fire. He seemed to be smiling as he watched the flames dance around and grow. “You like the fire huh?” He turned to look at her for a moment before looking once more at the fire. Smiling she settled her own head down against her hoofs and watched the fire herself, levitating another apple to her mouth and munching on it idly. Then she paused to levitate another one next to her and in front of him, making him look at her funny. “Come on you need to eat something.” He just kept staring at her questioningly and she rolled her eyes and gestured to her mouth before taking a bite of her own apple. “Eat. You need to eat.” He looked to the apple again before slowly grabbing it and looking at her once more before moving his eyes back to the fire, apple disappearing into the robe. Sighing she just took another bite of her apple and watched the fire for a bit longer. “Fire.” She heard her voice say. From beside her. From the little one. She craned her head to look at him wide-eyed and surprised. “Did you say something?” She asked looking at him. He cocked his head and slowly pointed at the fire again and said again in her voice, “Fire.” She stared at him for a few moments before nodding. “Fire.” He smiled and lowered his arm, apparently having learned a word. And a voice. After a while she chose to ignore that development because there was a lot crazier stuff she’d been through, like the Ursa Major, than this. So she settled back down to watch the fire and look up at the stars above, little one reclining against her once more. They rested like that for a while before she let out a yawn and slowly stretched her limbs. “Well time to sleep then.” He just watched her as she stood up and started to scatter the fire before using a small ice spell to get rid of the flames and any lingering sparks. As she did he looked her over questioningly before shivering once more and heading back to her cart. It tilted a bit at the first step but nothing much else for the carriage thankfully, while she finished getting rid of the fire. Done with that she went inside her caravan and shut the door behind her with another yawn, glad to have made some good progress today. Looking over the inside of her home though she was puzzled for a moment as she didn’t see him anywhere. Then she noticed the lump under her blanket near the foot of her bed. Of course he was in her bed. Rolling her eyes at that she stepped over to her bed and ripped the blankets off of him to see him already looking up at her questioningly. To which she jutted a hoof out and said, “Get out of my bed mister.” He gave her a pitiful sad frown as she said that, obviously liking her bed. Watching him for a moment she sighed before grabbing her blanket again and getting into the bed on the opposite side of him and draping it across both of them to which he smiled and snuggled further into her bed. Closing her eyes she readied herself for a good night’s sleep, Interrupted by a gentle humming from the side. Something that sounded like a quiet song from the young guest in her bed. Glancing over to him she watched him slightly bob his head in tune with his song. He seemed to look sad albeit peaceful at the same time as he hummed it, maybe something his mother hummed to him? Feeling a bit bad for him she reached over and pulled him closer into a hug, making him slow slightly in his humming as if caught by surprise. But he nuzzled closer into her and buried his face iner once more and slowly resume his humming, dragging her into a nice and deep sleep. Author's Note Because I didn't.
A Show for AllMorning came eventually though and Trixie stretched, the morning sun rudely awakening her from her comfortable sleep. One limb however seemed to be stuck and looking down she found her guest wrapped around her frame and one of her legs, face buried into her chest. Rolling her eyes she tapped his head once with her hoof and he immediately seemed to wake up, looking up into her face questioningly again with a cocking of his head. To answer his unasked question she budged her trapped foreleg against him and he rolled away but curled back up in her blankets. Grinning slightly at his shenanigans she just got up and out of the bed to get ready for the day, a brush for her hair and another for her teeth. It took only a few minutes before she finished up and put her supplies away. Stopping for a moment to poke him back awake, because she knew she couldn’t pull the carriage with him inside of it, she went out front to pull it again, with him helping to pull again. One hand of his on the carriage’s yoke and her shoulders pulling what little weight was left they continued on their walk to the next town. After a bit she realized that he was humming that song from last night again and after listening to it for a few minutes joined in on his humming, garnering a smile from him. It took a few hours but she could finally see the tops of a few houses in a distance and she smiled, pulling the carriage a bit faster in anticipation of putting on another show. He kept pace with her and started pulling faster as well. As they headed to the center of the town so she could set up, she noticed the odd looks that the local ponies were giving her little companion. And the odd looks her companion was giving back to everything, but staying by her side all the way through, looking around as wide-eyed as he could at all the things around them. To her it was just another town, with a few wooden cottages lining either side of the street they were on. The street was just some gravel, leading to what she thought was town hall ahead, judging by the fact it was made out of some stone and was a bit more modern than other buildings around. Maybe not the best spot to set up in front of but somewhere close to it. So a few more metres ahead then. She was close enough to the town center and had already gathered a small crowd. Even if they were just foals and fillies following her little carriage. Although they couldn’t know about her show and were rather following around because of her friend. Taking off her harness she gave them all a small smile, while they seemed to mostly ignore her, watching Pariah as he watched them back. One foal however took notice of her again and asked, “What’s that thing Miss?” She half-shrugged to the foal. “I am not sure. I found him deep in the forest, and he has the strength of an Ox despite his size.” At that he let out an ‘oooooh’ and she rolled her eyes, turning to head back inside her carriage, finding her path blocked by some of her crowd. That immediately bombarded her with questions when they heard her answer the foal’s question. What he was, how strong he was,how long she had been with him, if he liked apples, why he was gangly, where his fur was, if he could fly, if one of them could keep him and why his eyes were so beady. All the while they were poking and within inches of Pariah looking him over, he returning the favor but seemingly overwhelmed by the dozen plus of them and wide variety of them. Pink, green, blue, earth-pony, unicorn and pegasus all something new to him it seemed, judging by the look he was giving them in return. Wide-eyed as he could be, eyes seeming to sparkle slightly, constantly turning over and over as they poked him. Smiling she did her best to answer their questions, phrasing it just right to make their eyes sparkle with excitement and wonder, maybe exaggerating a little bit to make it sound a better story. After she finished the first few questions though she had to excuse herself to her carriage to prepare it for the show later. After all she couldn’t have her bed and closet show up on stage otherwise it might ruin her performance. Or trip her up at least. So giving her friend one last look and seeing that he seemed happy to be poked and happy to poke some of the foals and fillies, she decided that he was fine by himself. “Be careful with him.” She said walking on into her carriage. Inside she started the slow process of packing away her belongings, stuffing them into hidden compartments, folding it into the walls and what not. She was about halfway through it when she heard a high-pitched and pained yelp from right outside. Dropping what she was doing she ran to the door and swung it open, looking around for whatever made that noise. And she looked towards a foal sitting on his haunches, holding his hoofs to his ear and rubbing it with a frown. His eyes were a bit teary but he seemed to be okay. Her friend just looked a bit curious and surprised at that, his hand withdrawn slightly from the foal on the ground while the crowd around just watched on with somewhat of the same expressions. “What’s going on?” They all looked towards her and the foal answered. “He pinched my ear really hard. But I’m okay.” He revealed his ear to show the pressed down fur, thankfully free off any other marks. Though this showed to her that she couldn’t really leave him alone with others because he didn’t seem aware of his own strength. Leaning down she inspected his ear for a better look. “Well I did say he was strong, but I think I should take him back into my carriage until it’s time for the show.” A collective ‘aww’ from the small audience she had but they did wave bye as she took him into her carriage, him awkwardly returning their waves. But she did take him back inside and he looked over her room to see that a good portion of it was gone. He seemed to be confused, wandering around her carriage and waving his hand through the spaces where stuff had been previously. Then as she started packing up things he whipped his head towards her and watched quietly as she did so. She was almost finished when she heard a knock on her door and decided to look again, slightly afraid that it was a parent come to complain or yell at her. Opening up the door she came somewhat face to face with what seemed to be a drunk mare. One she didn’t recognize. Looking over the green unicorn mare and the bottle suspended next to her, she raised a brow. “Can I help you?” The mare started at her for a moment, not seeming to see her. Then life appeared in the mare’s eyes as she snarled. “You.” A hiccup. “...Me?” She slowly asked, not knowing what was going on. The mare wobbled slightly, the bottle seeming to drop almost to the ground before being caught again. “Get outta my town.” Slow blink from her. “Don’t… need a jerk like you around here.” Trixie merely frowned at the mare. “Have we met before?” Judging by the mare’s attitude towards her and recent events in her life she had a suspicion this pony might have been from Ponyville. The mare nodded and took another drink from her bottle before continuing. “You were a jerk the whole time,” She jabbed a hoof at Trixie. “And I don’t need some creep like you around…” The mare trailed off for a moment before hiccuping again, life coming back to her eyes again. “My kids. So just screw off creep.” She said actually jabbing her hoof into Trixie’s chest, catching her off guard and stepped back. Just for her space to become occupied by her little friend, his hand slamming into the mare’s throat, her eyes bulging out almost immediately. The mare swung wildly at first, bottle crashing to the ground, caught off-guard more than Trixie was at the fact he was strangling somepony one-handed with an almost underwhelming frown on his face. It took her a second to react, because of the fact it was so unexpected. But when she realized she need to react she screamed at that, “What are you doing?!?” Only to make him turn towards her and look curiously at her. The mare kept swiping pitifully at the hand wrapped around her throat and Trixie realized she needed to pry him off and as such she grabbed his hand and ripped it off, it yielding easily to her pull. The moment he let go of the mare she dropped to the ground and started coughing roughly, weakly grasping at her throat with her free hoofs. While Trixie glared at her guest, who just stepped back and kept watching the mare impassively. Shaking her head she jumped down to the ground beside the mare to try and check on her, just to get nearly hit by the mare’s hoof. The mare kept choking but Trixie could tell that she was trying to say something. “You need help or anything? Whatever you need?” The mare only responded by shakily standing up and continuing her whooping cough, wobbily starting to walk away. Trixie paused in following after the mare to help her, noticing a few ponies around all frowning or looking as if they were scared. It would be best if they left now, before any police ponies came by or a mob formed. So she ran around to the front of her carriage to pick up her yoke and put it on, pulling as hard on it as she could as fast as she could to get out speedily. It helped when the one responsible for her problem grabbed the yoke like he always did and matched her speed as she raced out of town.
