Ponyville. A quaint little town located in scenic central Equestria, located just south of the country's capital, a day or two by train ride at the least. Over the past couple of years this small, less then noteworthy town has become the center of many major events in recent history. This was due to the arrival of one Twilight Sparkle, now Princess Twilight Sparkle, who's arrival in the town had forever changed its destiny for the better.

But you all know that story. How she came to the town, made some of the best friends anypony could ever hope to ask for, and after a series of adventures eventually earned the right to become one of the few Alicorn Princesses of the land. Her dominion, friendship. It was only appropriate, given all she had been through over the past few years in this town. But thankfully, not every day was a world ending cataclysmic event that could only be stopped through the magic of friendship, most days were rather peaceful, with some various amounts of mischief here and there.

Today was one of those calm peaceful days, thankfully. Not a cloud in the perfect blue sky, the spring sun producing a calming warmth, and a gentle breeze flinging the scent of flowers all through out the town. One could easily call a day like this perfect. But for our dear Twilight Sparkle, today was far from perfect. Why, you ask? Well, today was Twilight's least favorite day of the month: grocery day.

If you asked her why she hated grocery day, she wouldn't be able to tell you why exactly. On some days, it was because she had just gotten into a good book, and wanted to get back into it but couldn't because of the obligation to her nutrition. Other days it was because she wanted to spend time with any number of her friends within the town, but again the need for food outweighed the need for social interaction. And in today's case, it was a lack of sleep due to being very invested in a new book. Now, she could always just push back grocery day if she really wanted to, but after the last time she did that she swore to never do that again. She could always get her assistant Spike, or her graduated student Starlight Glimmer to do it by themselves, but she was too nice to let them do that all on their own and continued to venture into the marketplace every month with her two roommates. At the end of the day it was a part of life that was necessary for survival.

Today's grocery trip was no different then any other, just the three friends going from stall to stall and stocking up on whatever they needed. Fruit, vegetables, bread, dairy products, the works. Occasionally they'd run into one of their friends and engage in a short conversation just to catch up and say hi. Usually with a member of the Apple family, as they run the only apple stand in the entire town.

And so the day went on, gathering groceries and engaging in small talk every now and then. Eventually the three return to the large crystal castle that they called home to restock their pantry with all the tasty delicacies they had recovered in their quest. Doing so was probably Twilight's favorite part of grocery day, as it meant the ordeal was almost over.

"Hey, it isn't even noon yet!" Spike shouts with glee, taking a quick glance out the window and at the sky to spot the sun's current position. Based on his estimate, it was somewhere between 9 and 11 O' clock. "Usually that takes WAY longer!"

"Well, we have been doing this for awhile now. We've got a pretty good route figured out," The unicorn known as Starlight responded, a touch of pride in her voice. "It makes sense that we'd get it done faster the more we do it."

"MmmHmm," Twilight responded groggily, eyes half lidded as she slowly stumbles past her friends, making her way to the stairwell leading to the upper levels of the castle.

"You really need to stop pulling all-nighters like that, Twi," the young dragon says with a chuckle as he follows his lifelong friend upwards. "Especially when you know you need to get up early the next day!"

"Couldn't help it. Had to finish that book," The Princess of Friendship responds with a yawn, "I got to the good part and I just couldn't put it down. I lost track of the time."

"...Didn't you start that book yesterday? You couldn't have gotten THAT far."

"It was the second book of the trilogy, the whole thing was the good part," Twilight responds with a half chuckle half yawn, making her way into her bedroom for a well needed nap. Leaping onto her bed with unprecedented agility considering her tired state, she quickly makes a blanket burrito out of herself and is out like a light the instant her head touches down on the white fluffy pillow.

The purple dragon couldn't help but let out a quite laugh as he slowly closes the bedroom door as to not disturb his friend. "Sweet dreams," he whispers just as the door shuts fully.

And sweet dreams were had indeed. While a quick nap is no replacement for a good night's sleep, it is good for re-energizing yourself so you aren't a zombie all day. Returning to the waking world with a loud yawn, wriggling one of her front-hooves out of her cocoon of comfort to rub her eyes and scratch her head, the newly revitalized Princess rose from her bed and make her way to the window overlooking the town. Taking a moment to adjust to the light, Twilight's gaze locked onto the sun dial in the center of town.

In any other circumstance, trying to use a sun dial from this distance would be about as useful as a hole in the bottom of a bucket. But thankfully for the young princess, she had ways of circumventing this limitation. Particularly, she had recently discovered an old spell made for this very purpose. Stepping away from the window, and turning her back to it, she prepared the spell. With a small amount of concentration, the horn atop her head began to glow with a familiar hue. Within seconds, the pinkish aura begins to also emanate from her eyes. At this point, all Twilight would have to do was think about the location or object she wished to view, as long as it was in the spell's radius, and not underground or inside of a building. But luckily for her, the Ponyville Sundial was subject to none of these conditions.

'Ponyville Sundial' she thinks, closing her eyes for several seconds. Quickly opening them, an outside observer would see that Twilight's eyes had gone from the pinkish hue of her magical aura to a pure, blinding white glow. From Twilight's perspective, she was now looking at the town's sundial as if she were standing right next to it, even if it did have a wavy purple filter slightly obscuring her vision. She looked down at her semi transparent body standing in the middle of town, nopony in the immediate area noticing the ghost like visage of the local Princess. Now, was using an astral projection of herself just to check the time of day a bit excessive? Probably. Especially considering she had a clock in her room. But she had found the projection spell and had yet to find a practical use for it, so she made one.

After examining the shadow's position carefully, the Princess of Friendship cancels out the spell as her eyes, and vision, return to their natural state of being. "I love that spell~" she almost sang as she turned and exited her bedroom. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon, so she had slept for a little under three hours or so. A bit excessive, but it sure helped her recover. Now she had the whole rest of the day for whatever she wanted. And she knew exactly what she wanted.

Making her way back through the cool colored hallways of her home, the Princess notices her two roommates in one of the rooms, with a deck of cards between the two. Hearing the distinctive sound of hooves on crystal, the two look up from their card game and see the reawakened Princess of Friendship.

"AH! The dead has risen! It's the end of days!" Spike shouts in a clearly fake fearful tone, prompting a giggle from the Unicorn sitting across from him.

"Ha ha, very funny," the lavender Alicorn retorts with a sarcastic tone and a roll of her eyes. "So what've you two been up to?"

"We decided to follow your lead and take a lazy day," Starlight answers, looking back to the set of cards floating before her in a mystical blue veil. "Nothing's really going on in town today, aside from the usual. So Spike and I have been playing a few card games."

Twilight couldn't help but smile at that response, another day of peace and quiet was always something she looked forward too. "Well, I'm off to the book store to see if they've got a copy of 'The Broken Stone, Number 3' in stock yet. I need to know how the story ends. I'll be back later." She explains while trotting off, leaving the dragon vs. unicorn card game resume.

"Got any sevens?" Spike's voice could be heard asking as Twilight continued on her way, followed by the sounds of a very grumpy baby dragon groaning.

Making her way through town at a brisk pace, Twilight was as excited as she could possibly be on such an average day. If the bookstore finally got a copy of the third book in the Broken Stone series, she'd finally be able to figure out who--

And just like that, her train of thought is interrupted by somepony carelessly running into her, knocking the both of them to the ground. Dazed from the impact, Twilight is surprised to see her dear friend Fluttershy was the Pony in such a hurry.

"Oh Twilight! Thank goodness I found you!" The clearly flustered yellow Pegasus says with a sigh of relief as she helps her prone friend onto her hooves. "I-I-I was out in the Everfree Forest helping out a family of birdies, when I heard a strange sound."

The Alicorn couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Fluttershy, it's the Everfree Forrest, weird sounds are a norm in there. Why're you so panicked?"

"Because it sounded like a hurt Pony."

The half joking expression on Twilight's face instantly takes on the form of worry.

"B-but when I went to check see if they were OK, I...didn't find a pony," Fluttershy continued, clearly still a bit on edge from the whole ordeal, her words becoming faster and faster with each passing moment. " It was...well, I don't know what it was. And I didn't know how to help the poor thing since it was to heavy for me to move on my own, so I panicked without thinking and came rushing back to town as quick as I could so I could find you, because I thought that maybe you of all ponies would know what this creature was, and--"

Fluttershy's paranoid rant was cut short by Twilight placing a hoof over her mouth. "You can explain later, can you tell me where this hurt...thing is?"

"Oh, why yes! It should still be near the edge of the Forest, just behind my--" Not being able to finish her statement, Fluttershy's eyes are filled with a bright flash of light as she finds herself and Twilight standing at the edge of Everfree, just behind her cortege like she was about to say. "--...house." She finished, a bewildered look on her face.

"Come on, Fluttershy," Twilight shouted as she galloped towards the forest, her yellow coated friend quickly catching up and taking the lead. The Princess's current emotional state was a rather conflicted one. On one hoof, there was the possibility that somepony, or something, was seriously injured and needed help. On the other, this was a creature that Fluttershy, the expert on all things animal, was unable to identify. This sparked the academically curious side of her that hadn't had a good exercise in awhile. And a totally unidentified creature? While it might be dangerous it could also be a great learning experience. Making their way through the woods, the duo eventually arrives at a slight clearing where a large bundle of leaves leaning against a tree, slightly moving as if it were breathing.

"I had to hide it, so nothing would find it before we got back," Flutershy explains, beginning to use her wings to gently sweep away the pile of leaves she had dumped onto the creature.

In a bit of a panic herself now, Twilight was quick to light her horn up with magic once more. To fluttershy's surprise, the pile of leaves she was trying to gently move had just popped out of existence with a simple flash, exposing the figure who had been lying within. And when Twilight laid eyes on the creature, an audible gasp was heard escaping the Alicorn's lips.

Just as Fluttershy had described, propped up against the tree was a creature unlike anything the two had ever seen. It was very clearly a bipedal creature with a build not unlike that of a Minotaur, but he was far too thin and far to short to be counted as one of the bull men. If Twilight had to guess, she'd likely be on eye level with its chest if the creature were to stand up, more or less anyway. The creature was also almost entirely bald: the only exception on it being a dark grey, almost back, mess of hair sitting atop his head. The unknown entity was covered in various bite marks, open cuts and bruises, mostly on his upper body. twilight instantly recognized these types of injuries as the tell tell signs of a Timberwolf encounter. But of all the creature's traits, the one that caught Twilight's interest the most wasn't the lack of fur, or the wounds, it was the creature's clothes. These weren't simple leaf coverings, these were tailor made for a creature of this body type. Meaning that whatever it was, it had to be intelligent enough to make and understand the purpose of clothing. As it laid on the ground, it could be heard lightly groaning in pain. It was still alive, at the very least.

"So...do you know what it is?" Fluttershy looks back towards her still shocked friend, still unsure of what to make of the whole situation.

Twilight merely looked at the creature with shock and awe. In all of her years of academic study and adventuring around to various locations in Equestria, Twilight had never seen anything quite like this creature. Based on the shape of the appendages at the ends of its arms, and its facial features, the best she could come up with was that this had to be a primate of some kind. But she had never heard of any primate who could craft clothing.

"I...have no idea what this thing is."

Author's Note

And that's the introduction to this little story. A bit of an average day, suddenly turned upside down by a weird monkey thing Fluttershy found in the forest! Truly this can only end in good ways!

Also, why did I specifically mention the creature's height, using Twilight as a point of reference? Basically just to give you, the audience, a feel for how everything scales in this story. I've read a few of these stories that made it a bit unclear just how tall/short the human was compared to the ponies. And I just wanted to establish that.