Chapter 1 A Friend Indeed
“Uhhm…hello?” Cadence said, bowing to the high class pony in front of her. “Thank you for coming to my party.” The high class pony smiled then went off to talk to Cadence’s parents.
‘Ugh, last guest, thank Celestia! I’m so bored.’ and she had every right to be. It was her 6th birthday party, and yet she wasn’t allowed to do anything until she greeted all the guests at the castle; and there were a ton. All of them showing up basically to get in good with the first family to breed an Alicorn in 6000 years, and there wasn’t anyone her age to play with.
‘Well let’s see, what can I do now? …I know! I’ll go exploring!’ She thought. It was the perfect idea as everyone was too busy talking to take notice of her as she set off. For at least 10 minutes she wandered, before coming to a strange door.
“Huh, where does this go?” She asked to no one in particular. As she went through, the first thing to greet her eyes were gems. Large lavender gems. She couldn’t believe her eyes. They were gigantic and they enticed her further in. Deeper, and deeper, and deeper, she delved into the strange cavern until she finally stopped and realized.
“…..I’m lost.” She said; her small panic filled voice echoing across the cavern walls. For 30 minutes she tried in vain to retrace her steps only to become even more lost.
“It’s no use.” She said with a sniffle. “I’ll never get out.” Then all of a sudden, she heard a noise from behind her that sounded a bit like hoof beats, but there were only 2 clops instead of 4. As she whirled around to see what the sound was, her eyes grew wide with fear. She knew what it was. She had heard too many stories not to know the thing that now stood before her. They had once ruled the world with machines and waged wars more grand and terrible than anypony could imagine; but for their selfish ways they were stripped of the intelligence that made them great, turning them into mindless creatures, some changing into other things completely. (This was the birth of Orcs and Trolls.)The great terror that haunted every foal’s dreams, it was a human. It was very tall with its legs and arms stretched out unnaturally. It’s hands where huge, with dirty fingernails; its hair was greasy and almost looked wet. It was very thin; it obviously hadn’t eaten well for quite some time.Cadence quickly backed up in terror until she was trapped between the wall and the human which looked at her with dull grey eyes as it stretched out its hand. Cadence quickly shut her eyes… and then felt a soft patting on her head. As she cautiously opened one eye, she saw the human gently petting her and smiling weakly. Confused, she smiled back trying not to upset the human. It soon got up and motioned her to follow him. Curious about what was happening, she complied and followed the strange being until they came to a large chasm and it motioned her to stop.It then rubbed its hands together drew a large breath opened its hands into an O shape and blew into them causing a large bubble to appear. Cadence was stunned it was the biggest bubble she had ever seen, but before she could admire it for too long the human picked her up and jumped onto the bubble. Instead of popping it actually bounced them to the other side. After the human set her down, her fear subsided. She smiled and giggled loudly.
“That was really fun!” she said. The human simply smiled back again and motioned her to follow once again. After about ten minutes, her eyes grew wide with surprise. There in front of her was the door she had come through. This human, this evil beast, of myth and legend had happily showed her the way out. She smiled wide and hugged the creature as tight as she could, utterly ecstatic.
“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you.” she said, her happy voice ringing through the cavern. The human simply smiled and opened the door for her motioning her through. Happily she began to trot through the door, but just as she was about to go through, a thought ran through her head and she turned to the human.
“Wait right here okay?” she said, and the human gave confused look. “Uhh…you.” She pointed at him. “Stay.” She illustrated by sitting down and then getting back up. “Here.” She pointed at the ground with her hoof. He seemed to understand, and sat down happily she skipped out and ran back to the party. Just as her parents were about to scold here for running off, she found princess Celestia; who always attended her extended families social affairs bouncing and saying.
“Princess, princess, you have to come and meet my new friend.” the princess smiles warmly at her and asked.
“Where is this new friend of yours?” The little filly’s eyes lit up as she tugged on Celestia’s hoof, obviously wanting her to follow.
“He’s this way, oh you’ll like him a lot! He looks kinda scary, but he saved me so I know he’s nice.” the princess and her parents, who were following, seemed a bit surprised.
“Saved you? From what exactly?” the princess said with concern in her voice. Cadence then proceeded to tell them the whole story; specifically leaving out what the creature that saved her was. When questioned about it, she simply said she wanted it to be a surprise. When they got to the door, she said.
“Princess, I’d like you to meet my friend.” As the door opened everypony was shocked to see a human sitting a short distance away. Cadence happily bounced over and hugged the human.
“This is my friend.” Cadence said smiling “Can he please come out and play?”
Nallok: (sniff sniff)
Luna: come now it’s alright look your readers are here see?
Nallok (nods and clears throat) H-hello everyone sorry I’ve been away for awhile but I’ve been having a hard time first I fail my class... then I lose my job.. Now my grandma’s hands... are... Broken WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH (starts crying)
Luna: oh dear ummm please listen dear readers the good writer is not feeling well at the moment...
Nallok: WAAAAAAAAAHHHH
Luna: So we will use the auto narrator while we try and comfort him please relax and enjoy
"I...I don’t..." Cadence's mother stuttered as she stared at the lanky thing that now playfully tussled her daughters hair, too stunned to do much of anything else.
“Cadence back away from it... slowly," her father said in a shaky fear filled voice
"Huh? But, why dad? I told you he's nice see?" Trying to illustrate her point Cadence nuzzled her head into the human being careful not to poke him with her horn. In response the human hugged her gently a warm and weak smile on his face.
"I SAID OVER HERE NOW!" her father said yelling out of both fear for his daughter and rage at the thing that held her. Cadence stopped cold, a sad and scared look adorning her face not completely sure of why her father was so angry. The human noticed this immediately and began emitting a sort of growl low and warning and putting a hand up as if to guard Cadence from a threat.
"YOU LET HER GO YOU-" before he could finish princess Celestia held her wing up in front of him.
"That will be quite enough."
"B -but your highness-"
“Do you not see what is happening? That human doesn’t know you’re her father. All it knows is that you’re scaring her, and that your actions feel threatening. If you continue it will likely try to fight you to protect her. We must make it understand that we mean no ill will." Cadence’s father bowed his head in defeat and backed up a few steps. Folding her wings back and emitting a gentle smile Celestia began a calm, slow, approach the human which eyeed her wearily while gauging Cadence’s reaction – which, with the explanation she'd just heard - had her calm. Stopping just a few feet away Celestia sat down in front of the human simply smiling at him, and after a few minutes the human decided that Celestia bore him no ill will and dropped his guard.
Then, in a move Celestia had not foreseen, the human picked Cadence up and walked the rest of the way over to her, setting Cadence down beside her and looking the sun goddess in the eyes. It was quite a long stare. For ten whole minutes it lasted, the human looking a bit confused. A few times it looked at its hands then back to her with an odd expression as if it couldn't quite grasp something. Then, after the long stare, it slowly reached out its hand and touched the princess along the side of her face, briefly flinching at the initial contact.
Its eyes opened wide and it quickly hugged the princess tight smiling a happly as it did. At first no one understood, but after a few seconds of contact she felt it through her fur.
"He... he feels... so cold." the princess said.
"Yeah he does feel pretty cold," Cadence chimed "but he's kinda warm in a weird way." she smiled. The princess returned the smile.
"True, but still he is much too cold to be well, my little pony." Suddenly, remebering Cadence, the human reluctantly broke the hug to turn his attention back to her once again smiling at her with what little strength he could muster.
"It seems to have taken quite a liking to you Cadence, shall we invite your new friend inside?" her parent's jaws hit the floor as they stared in disbelief at their ruler.
"Y-y-your highness?" her mother squeaked out. The princess flashing her a smile saying "Don't worry I don't intend to let anypony get hurt. All the same though, I am ruler of Equestria and protector of all who live in my kingdom and that includes this human.”
~~~
A few hours later after having cleared the castle of guests, the human was brought into the throne room having been led by Cadence as he would not follow any others there. Noting his sharp canine teeth when he smiled, the princess had fresh fish brought to the throne room for him to eat while – she, Cadence, and her parents discussed the matter at hand.
"W-what are we going to do your highness?" Cadence's mother pled "That...human will not leave our daughter be!"
"Yes, you must do something." Her father chimed in next. "Make it leave her alone, or send it away."
"But I don't want him to leave!" Cadence said as her parents looked at her like he was crazy.
"Cadence, it's a monster! It will hurt you!" her mother said, fear evident in her voice.
"No...No it will not." Princess Celestia said and a shocked look once again found its
way onto the faces of Cadence’s parents.
"With all due respect your highness," her father began a hint of anger in his voice “how can you be so sure? Do you see the way he gobbles those fish?" he said pointing a hoof at the human, who was ripping the flesh from the fish with his teeth, and shoving the ripped pieces down his throat like he'd never eaten before, and nearly choking on a few of the larger pieces.
"Who’s to say he won't do that to our daughter or any other pony?"
Celestia then said, "I know he won’t because of that." Cadence’s father looked at her in confusion. "Look at him eat...do you see how its ribs show through its skin? Do you see how hungry he is? Do you see how much he was starved? And yet with all that hunger tearing at him, never once has he lashed out at us. Never once did he lick his lips as he cradled your daughter in his arms. It had a golden opportunity in the caverns when your daughter was scared, all alone, and is far too young to be able to defend herself. Right then and there it could have eaten her, and giving itself a meal to give himself strength and warm his freezing bones, but instead, it held its hunger and showed her the way out. It tried to protect her when it thought you would hurt her. No creature, no monster and certainly no evil beast would do that.”
“No only something truly kind would do all that." Cadence’s parents stood stunned as they realized she was right. This human, this…Beast had been protecting their daughter, while they had been wining and dining nobles, and they had gall to call it a monster? No, they were monsters. They thought they had payed so little attention to their daughter, that she had nearly been lost to them forever they let their sham show heavy on their faces.
Just then, the human finishing up his last fish, looked over to see the sad looks of Cadence’s parents. After a moment, he got up and walked over to them, and began to hug them, as if trying to relieve them of their sadness, of which they happily accepted. Feeling slightly better, her parents gave the human a warm smile, which he returned before going over to Cadence to play with her, which he seemed to enjoy greatly.
"You see he is not so evil." the princess said.
"No I suppose he isn't." Cadence’s mother said another slight smile on her face.
"I’m glad you feel that way, because now I must ask of you something of great importance." the princess began "This human is the first actual one of its kind ever discovered and while it is clearly intelligent it seems to know very little. As such it needs to be cared for until it learns enough about Equestria to function on its own. I would care for it myself, however there are two things barring me from doing so. The first being my duties to the kingdom and the second being the absolute devotion he seems to show your daughter to the point where he won’t trust anyone else. So, with that in mind I would like to invite you to live here at the castle to care for him and teach him. Would you accept?"
Cadence’s parents looked at each other for a brief moment, before nodding their consent.
"YAY" Cadence squealed with delight. “Now he can play with me all the time!" She smiled, a huge grin.
"Excellent, I’m glad to hear it." Celestia said "Now there is just one thing left to take care of…he needs a name, and Cadence since he likes you so much I think it only fitting that you decide what it is." Cadence stopped a moment and thought. What could she call him? What could she call her new friend who saved her? She thought and thought, and then finally she said, "Okay, from here on out my new friends name is Shiny Bubbles!"
Luna: there now are you better? (Luna pats him on shoulder)
Nallok: (sniff) y-yah a little
Luna: tell you what we will let you help us design the star patterns tonight would you like that?
Nallok (nods and sniffs) yah that sounds nice (walks off with Luna).
