"Well that was an interesting event," a lone human male says in an isolated meadow, "Where am I? Is this the land after death? Not as much blood as I expected." He examines his environment, wondering if this really was the after life.
"Last time I checked, I was going against some brigand and he stabbed me, it was not that fun, painful really," he mutters to himself, "I really don't like ouchies, and my death could have been much more brutal, yet much less painful." The man raises; standing, he begins to brush any excess dirt off his robes.
"I guess I now gotta go explore this new terrain, maybe I'll find some crows or ravens to talk to." The man began to walk towards the north, continuing his exploration to find some sentient creature. He was getting lonely in this empty field, yet it seemed to keep going on. The man, however, knew that this wasn't the afterlife. He knew that it would be filled with more of the damned, and not some empty field filled with multicolored flowers. The man walked for hours; the scenery continued to change yet there was still no civilization. The man yawned, realizing that he has been walking through the night instead of resting. He didn't care that much for sleep, but today was different. He felt drowsy, which is not usual for himself. The man walked over to a large tree in the center of a small forest and slumped against it, drifting off into a deep sleep.
The sun rose hours ago, yet the man still slept under the tall tree. His slumber was never bothered, until three voices could be heard.
"You guys, you know we're not supposed to be out in the Everfree without an adult," a high, yet sweet voice says. A sound of worry in her voice.
"Don't panic Sweetie Belle, we'll be fine!" says another deeper voice, an adventurous tone lingers with each word.
"Yeah Sweetie, maybe we'll all earn our cutie marks doin' something out here!" followed another voice, with a southern accent to it, "Wait a sec, what the hay is that over there?"
"I don't know, should we go near it?"
"No! We should go get Twilight or somepony else, it may be dangerous!"
"Come on Sweetie don't be so scared, its just some random creature we found in the Everfree!"
"Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle's got a point, we have no idea what that thing is capable of doin', I think we should go get Twilight."
"It will be find guys, I'll just poke it with a stick, maybe its dead!" The young pony known as Scootaloo ran over to a fallen branch and grabbed it with her mouth. She then ran over to the unconscious man and began to poke his body. The man jolted up right after the third poke and began to look around frantically. The one pony known as Sweetie Belle began to shriek in terror, and the other two began to panic as well.
"Well, that was a delightful nap... where am I again?" the man said to himself, "Oh yeah I was trying to find a town." He looked around the area once more and saw the three young fillies, each having a look of fear resting on their faces.
"Well hi there... ponies..." the man said, looking at them with confusion.
"Howdy there... mister." the one southern pony said.
"Well that's new, I never knew ponies or horses could talk!" the man exclaimed with his voice filled with joy.
"Um, y'all might be new to here then mister, ponies have always been able to talk."
"Really? That's very odd... my allies would ride horses and pegasi into battle, but they never talked." The three fillies starred at the man after he stated that.
"Wait, your people ride ponies into battle?" Sweetie Belle asked him.
"No, horses and pegasi, ponies are much too young for battle."
"What are ya sayin' mister? Ponies can live up to more than a hundred years," the southern pony said.
"Preposterous!" the mage exclaims, "Unless I truly am in a new world where the ponies are the true overlords..."
"I wouldn't say overlords, but we've never seen any creature like yourself before," says Scootaloo, "By the way, instead of calling you creature, do you have a name?"
"The name's Henry! Nice to meet you!" the man says, once more with a joyful voice. The three fillies continued to stare at Henry.
"Well then... Henry... my name's Apple Bloom, these are my two friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo." the southern pony, aka Apple Bloom tells him.
"Well then Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, where are we exactly?" Henry asks the three.
"Uh we're in the Everfree Forest, its not the safest place out here," Sweetie Belle replies, "Its would be better if we could... um... talk somewhere else." Henry just nodded and began to follow the three.
"Where are we heading?" Henry question the three friends.
"Where gonna go see Twilight," Scootaloo tells him, "I still think you should see Rainbow Dash first, but the other two think Twilight would be the best choice."
"Ya always want to see Rainbow Dash Scoots," Apple Bloom replies, "We can see her later, right now we should focus on gettin' Henry here to Twilight, she'll probably know what to do."
"This Twilight person sounds interesting, let's go see her!" Henry replies.
"See Scoots, Henry wants to go see 'er, so were gonna take him to 'er."
"Alright Apple Bloom I get it, Twilight will have the scientific answers we need to solve our problems..." With this the three friends lead Henry to his next destination, Princess Twilight's humble abode.
Author's Note
Welp, I just had to make it. Henry is my personal favorite character in Fire Emblem: Awakening, and I have been playing so much of that recently I just needed to write some story involving him, so I hope you enjoyed! Sorry it wasn't the most detailed chapter, it was just to help start off the plot.
I Have a Thing for Killing
The three fillies and the man continued their travels through the Everfree forest. Every noise they made echoed through the chilling forest. They walked for an hour, but alas; they were still stuck in the forest.
"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo yells, "I thought you said you knew your way back to Ponyville?"
"I usually do, but for some reason, I just can't remember where we all are," replies Apple Bloom, "Sweetie, do ya reckon that ya might remember our way back?
"NO!" she shouts, a worried tone rests in her voice, "I knew we shouldn't have gone into the forest, I knew we would find some sort of trouble!"
"Thank you Captain Hindsight..." mumbles Scootaloo, a mixture of a smug and angered look is gestured towards Sweetie Belle.
"Your welcome..." Sweetie retorts. Both Sweetie and Scootaloo continued to bicker while Applebloom listened in disappointment. Henry himself was thinking about ravens, crows, and some corny jokes he could whip up whenever given the opportunity.
"Maybe we should just head north? I think north sounds like a good idea..." Henry suggests, still pondering a way to make some pun out of his sentences.
"Now that I think about it... north might not be that bad of an idea..." mumbles Apple Bloom, "Alright y'all heard the strange... Henry... north!" The other two fillies turn and begin a march north. The Everfree continued to make strange noises, startling the young fillies, except for Scootaloo, who continued to claim that "she was not scared" Henry, himself, however was just whistling as he continued to walk. As they walked Henry managed to trip on something.
"Ow... that wasn't fun," Henry says, while he begins to rise again.
"Is that a book?" Sweetie Belle asks.
"What in the hay is a book doin' out here?" asks Apple Bloom.
"Oh yay!" the mage shouts, "That's one of my old spell tomes, seems to be Fire; not the most powerful of spells, but it should help if something were to attack us."
"I guess that could be helpful, I mean, we are in the Everfree..." said Scootaloo, "I'd beat it would be awesome to watch somepony kick a Timberwolf's flank!!!"
"Somepony? That sounds funny!"
"How is it funny?" Apple Bloom asks, "What in the hay do ya call yer folks back in yer world?"
"Well there is everyone, everybody, somebody, someone, etc..." Henry continued to ramble on with the many different ways to name a being.
"Its pretty much the same 'ere, just instead of "body" its pony, like everypony and somepony."
"Interesting... wait does 'anypony' hear that?" Henry said whilst chuckling to himself.
The sound of a branch snapping echoed through the forest. One after another sounds of twigs snapping and leaves rustling filled their ears. Henry readied his newly found spell tome; his skills back when he served as a Plegian dark mage and a Ylissean Shepard went into effect.
"Little ones, get behind me, something dangerous is lurking in the shadows..." Henry signaled the fillies to hide behind him. Just as Henry predicted, a group of Timberwolves jumped from the bushes.
"AH! TIMBERWOLVES!" one of the fillies yelped. Henry readied his spell and waited for the Timberwolves to attack. As they prepared their pounce, a fireball engulfed the wolves. They howled in pain as the wood turned to ash. The three fillies just stared at the pile of ash, shocked at what they have just witnessed.
"What? That's it? Logs... your most feared enemy was a bunch of living logs?" Henry questioned, "That's kind of pathetic if you ask me they didn't even make their deaths enjoyable..."
"Ya, y'all just killed them without tryin'," Apple Bloom managed to say.
"It wasn't hard, they were just logs that walked. I mean, its not like they were axe wielding giants with bulky armor."
"If anything I think it was for the best that they weren't murderous axe wielding giants," said Sweetie Belle, her eyes still focused on the ashes of the once Timberwolves.
"Maybe for safety reasons its better we got the Woodenpups or whatever you call them; I would have preferred the barbarians, they would have been more fun to kill!" Henry's cheery voice echoed through the trees. The forest became empty once more. Nothing was following the group. After standing around the ash pile for a little to regroup, they once again began their walk to exit the forest.
A couple of hours have passed since the group moved out. The fillies began to slow down, their bodies tired from the many events that have occurred. Henry, however, continued a jolly jog through the dark woods. He was determined to find his way out, the outside of this area sounded much more exciting than the Everfree.
"Henry... would ya mind slowin' down a bit, we're havin' trouble keepin' up with ya."
"Sure! As exciting as the outside of this forest sounds, I can't leave my few pals alone to rot!" His wording was unique to the girls, that's for sure. After slowing down for a few minutes the sky began to seem brighter. This seemed to be an amazing sign for the group.
"I think we're almost out!" exclaimed Sweetie, who has been wanting out of this quest ever since they got lost. The four began to make haste towards the light, which resulted in them ending in a field. They could spot a small hut out in the distance, a small hut that seemed to house many different animals.
Author's Note
Thanks for taking your time to read this chapter! I would also like to thanks everyone who previously favorited this story, it means a lot to me.
