Twilight Sparkle seized the book in her magic and pulled it down from the shelf, "Perfect, 'The Know-it-all's Guide to Magic', the Castle of the Two Sisters truly is a treasure trove of knowledge! Of course not everyone considers this knowledge, but it's still worth preserving." She carefully placed the book into her saddlebags with all the others she had found. Looking at the sky through a window, she saw the sun low in the sky, not wanting to travel the Everfree Forest at night, She decided it would probably be best to get going.
She carefully navigated the twisting corridors out of the castle, and began her trek through the Everfree Forest. Eventually she came to a cliff, "I don't remember this being here before." She thought, though Everfree Forest did sometimes seem to shift around.
Twilight began to descend the cliff, suddenly a stone gave way beneath her hoof. As she tumbled down the cliff, her saddlebags slipped off her back, Twilight dug her hooves into the cliff to slow her descent. Her saddlebags however, had no hooves to slow their descent and kept tumbling down the cliff.
While quickly descending the cliff, Twilight hoped none of the rare, utterly irreplaceable, books in her bags had been damaged. At the bottom of the cliff was a large clearing, in the center of which was a large pool of bubbling mud. "Hi there!", Twilight jumped at the sound of another pony's voice, she turned to see a dark green earth pony mare walking towards her from the other side of the clearing.
She had a horribly unkept mane and tail, and there were twisting gray lines around her legs. When she got closer, Twilight saw that her eyes were colored like the sky at sunset. However the most shocking thing, was her lack of a cutie mark
"Who are you?" Twilight asked, still surprised by the pony's sudden appearance.
"I actually don't remember my name, I think it was something 'Vineyard', I guess just call me that 'Something Vineyard' it doesn't really matter. What about you, What's your name?" Replied the strange pony.
"Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship." Twilight responded wondering how anypony forget their name. "I don't suppose you've seen my saddlebags around here? I lost them when I fell down here."
"I did see something fall into the mud pit over there. Probably your stuff."
"WHAT?" Twilight dashed over to the edge of the mud pit. She couldn't see into the pit to target her saddle bags with her magic. "Those where some of the rarest books in Equestria!"
"Sometimes the Everfree just likes to mess you up, it places a shaky cliff in your path, at the bottom of which is mud pit that your stuff falls into. You just have to learn to deal with it." Vineyard—Twilight was not going to call her 'something'—walked over to the edge of the mud pit next to Twilight. "Sometimes however, there are workarounds."
Vineyard closed her eyes, the lines on her legs began to shine a bright green. Two lines of the same light, originating from the base of her front hooves, laced across the ground and into the mud pit. A few seconds later a sky blue flower bud shot up from the mud, it then bloomed, revealing Twilight's saddlebags sitting on top of it. Vineyard's legs stopped glowing and she opened her eyes.
"How did you do that?" Twilight exclaimed in awe, as picked up her saddlebags in her magic.
Vineyard thought for a moment, "Well, I don't really control it, I mean, I control when it activates but not really what it does. it's usually helpful though." She seemed sad. "I'm guessing by your reaction you've never heard of anyone like me?"
"This is the first time I've heard of an earth pony able to do magic like that." Twilight said
"So I really am alone then." Vineyard said despondently.
"If you don't mind me asking, I'd really love to know how you came to live in the Everfree Forest."Twilight asked politley.
Vineyard perked up a bit, "Sure! I'd love to! My story starts all the way back during the reign of Discord."
"Wait a minute, Discord ruled Equestria a thousand years ago! How could you possibly be that old?" Twilight exclaimed.
"Honestly, I am not entirely sure myself, maybe once I tell my story you'll figure it out, I never could though." Vineyard said. "Alright, during the rein of Discord, the magic that inhabits the Everfree Forest thrived. Back then there were many smaller forests, they were dubbed 'Everfree Glades', though smaller than the Everfree Forest they were still dangerous, far more dangerous than the Everfree Forest is now. There were many of them, one very close to where I lived, and they remained after Discord's reign was over.
"I remember that day very well, everpony was celebrating and they hailed the princesses as their new leaders, I was young then, and had nopony to care for me. However, eventually I was found by a pony called Lily Gladstone. She adopted me, and I think that's the last time I could have called myself truly happy. We were by no means in a good place, Lily had just about no money and society was still reforming after total chaos, but we got by. Unfortunately six months after she took me in, Lily got sick, and unable to afford medical aid, died." Twilight saw tears in Vineyard's eyes. "And so I was sent to live with Lily's sister, Magnolia." Vineyard's sadness was quickly replaced by anger.
"Magnolia was not a nice pony. She was very success oriented, if you didn't succeed at anything–or she didn't thing you were doing anything useful–you might as well not exist to her. I'm not sure you noticed, but I don't have a cutie mark. And that meant I didn't excell at anything. And so I was not treated great, I think the only reason Magnolia even fed me was because her sister had loved me.
"Five Months later, Nightmare Moon happened, and Celestia became the sole ruler of Equestria. More importantly, for the brief time the moon covered the sun, the Everfree Glades seemed to grow restless, and that was also when these markings appeared on my legs." She said, gesturing at the lines all over her legs. "It was just on my hooves at first, but they slowly grew, and of course everypony noticed, with Discord only recently having been defeated, ponies were nervous about anything strange, especially when it seemed to be associated with the Everfree Glades. Back then, I didn't exert any control over my magic, it flared up randomly, causing unpredictable and often dangerous things to happen. My lack of a cutie mark didn't help either.
"Magnolia, having never liked me, saw a chance to get rid of me and took it, with everypony afraid of me, who would blame her if she didn't want to be associated with me? So I was disowned. From then on, I was on my own. I lived in the Everfree Glade just outside of town, for some reason it appealed to me. Neither it nor the creatures in it ever gave me trouble, and life wasn't horrible. There was food and water in the forest and it always seemed to show up when I was looking for it.
"The Everfree Glades, were a hazard to most ponies, and Celestia wanted to ensure her subjects safety. So she set about removing the Everfree Glades. And when the glade I lived in was destroyed, I had nowhere to go. I wandered Equestria for a year, until I found what you now call the Everfree Forest. Celestia had never quite been able to destroy it, she weakened it for sure, it hardly lived up to it's frightening reputation. However, it was the heart of Everfree magic and held strong. And that's how I got here, I've remained here ever since."
After Vineyard finished her story she sat down on the ground. "Sometimes I feel like I'm missing something, I just don't know what. I think it's something I had once, and I've not felt complete without it." She said silently.
"Friendship. You're missing friendship." Twilight said. "You should come back to Equestria, it's changed a lot and ponies will be willing to accept you now."
"Go back to Equestria, I suppose I could. I suppose I never thought it would be any different, I guess I just went by my experiences and thought everything was as unchanging as the Everfree and me" Vineyard mused. "I'll think about it. But I think you have some rare books you should take to a safe place before you drop them in another mud pool."
"If you ever want to talk to me, I live in Ponyville it's right next to the Everfree Forest. I live in a big sparkly castle. it's hard to miss. And if you aren't comfortable leaving the Everfree Forest, Zecora lives here too. Twilight spread out her wings to take off.
"I think Iv'e seen Zecora around, maybe I will finally end my isolation." Vineyard said.
"You already ended your isolation, you approached me and said hello." Twilight took to the skies, flying high above the forest and headed for Ponyville.
Vineyard watched from below, "Well, I finally talked to somepony again, I never realized how much I missed talking to ponies other than myself." She walked off deeper into the Everfree Forest. "I think I'll find this Zecora pony. She's probably seen me, it would be rude not to say hello."
