*Back in the present*

Ash sat before the gathered ponies and breathed deeply, lightly shaking beneath his wooden guise after he had given a more summarized version of his story up until the orchard. He had left out some of the more personal details and thoughts, but in the end the girls could likely guess that whatever this creature was that it was damaged. The young filly Diamond Tiara had fallen back asleep from exhaustion almost as soon as he had begun his tale so she and her father had left before learning much of anything. The six other ponies, Pinkie having reappeared with a bucket of popcorn shortly after the tale began, and single dragon all gazed at the wooden stranger with various emotions upon their faces.

"Sorry about the interruption everyone, I... I think I just need a moment to calm myself." Ash swallowed heavily and looked down. He knew recounting many of these event's wouldn't be pleasant, but he hadn't known that they would cause this strong of a reaction. "I'd hate to be a bother but would it be okay for me to get some water before... What? Why are all of you just staring at me, I told you that if you had questions to feel free to ask them... Girls?" Ash was taken aback when instead of answering him the gathered ponies started to approach him in a semicircle causing him to back away slowly as the one that he had observed as being the shyest, the demure pegasus Fluttershy, moved the closest before slowly wrapping his cloaked form in a light hug. Ash flinched at the contact at first, but soon relaxed into the embrace with a hidden smile. For even though he could barely feel the pony through his disguise, he could indeed feel the warmth of her kindness from the action itself.

"I'm so terribly sorry that we made you feel like some kind of monster mister Ash and especially about making you feel like you had to hide yourself away from our town and live in the woods." She gives a light sniffle that would have melted even the coldest of hearts.

"An while I'm certain no apples of ours's could have caused whatever vision you were talkin about I am mighty sorry they ended up hurting you. I'm also downright ashamed that I made you feel like that without givin you a chance to defend yourself." The one with the familiar twang was holding her hat in front of her now as she looked down.

"H-hey now none of that you two, you were both worried about your friends and neighbors right? I mean I've lived around the things that go bump in night of those woods for a few months now so I understand why you'd be afraid of something strange coming from there of all places. It just hit me somewhere I'm not so great at dealing with..." Now it was Ash's turn to look down at the floor in a bit of shame. All of a sudden the one he recalled as Twilight stepped up.

"We know you feel bad about the wrongs you've done in the past and that it is a bit of a.. delicate subject for you. That's not what matters right now though, what matters now is that you obviously don't want to go back to being anywhere near the person you were and you are willing to put yourself at risk in order to help save a young filly who belonged to a community that you believed would see you as a monster. That doesn't sound like a bad pony to me, it sounds like-"

"Swamp Dude!" Twilight scrunches up her face as she's interrupted by Spike shouting and holding up one of the comics that he had me sign earlier. "He's a really nice creature made of wood and other things from this magical swamp that goes around helping people even though most of em are afraid of him. No matter how badly the ponies treat him, he still acts like a hero and saves the day!" Spike looks up at Ash excitedly like he's hoping he'll strike a pose.

"Look Spike I know you're hoping I'll put on a cape and fly around doing heroics, but that isn't who I am." Ash says as he sees him deflate just a little. "I'm no hero, but if I just let someone get hurt in my neck of the woods then I really would be a monster." All of a sudden the small reptile sprints from the room after his eyes went wide and sounds of rummaging could be heard before he almost trips on his way back in due to his hurry.

"See you really are like Swamp Dude! That was almost word for word what he said in edition fifteen!" Spike is now spreading the pile of comics upon the table as he looks for the previously mentioned edition. As he rummages around Ash notices that a few have fallen open and so decides to sneak a peak at the so called 'Swamp Dude.' The first thing that Ash notices about the comic is the fact that Swamp Dude is a bipedal entity with only a wooden mask of a pony for a face, the second being that aside from being literally made of debris and detritus, Swamp Dude is about Ash's height and the main action depicted in the edition that he had grabbed seemed awfully familiar.

"Oh that's a good one!" Spike says as he see's what Ash is currently viewing. "In that one Swamp Dude is having to round up a pack of Timberwolves so he leads them to a clearing and ties them all up vines. Everything goes well until-"

"Until one of the wolves that he didn't see lunges onto him from behind..." Ash mumbles as he stares at the comic, refusing to turn away from the page before said action sequence should take place.

"Y-yeah that's right... Anyway here it is!" Spike opens up another comic and shows everyone in the room the dialogue that both Swamp Dude and Ash had spoken. "Both of these editions were made by the better co-author in my opinion." Spike broke Ash's stare on the printed text as he turned his head to the small dragon.

"What do you mean co-author? Aren't things like this usually created by one author or both at the same time?" Ash shakes his head in confusion as Spike begins to explain.

"Well normally yeah, but in this series D is the main author of the key story bits or at the very least the most exciting. See the other author normally just does filler editions and they normally feel kind of lacking or unauthentic compared to D." Spike eyes his collection and Ash notices that the editions by this D character are kept in better condition in addition to all of these preferred editions having plastic sleeves to go in when not being read.

"So what happens to Swamp Dude... has the comic ended yet?" Ash gazes intently at Spike from under his mask as he fidgets with his claws before answering.

"Well kind of, I mean not completely... Maybe? It's hard to say for sure because they stopped saying which author towards the current edition and Swamp Dude..." Spike stalls as Ash creeps ever so slowly towards the young drake whose fear starts to rise the closer Ash gets. "Swamp Dude might be dead."

Ash freezes in place at the boy's words, his throat suddenly dry and a feeling of dread rising within. "How does he die exactly?"

"Well it's only a possibility, but in the last edition he gets turned to a charred pile in order to save somepony. It's been months since that issue came out and no one can find either author or find anymore information than that." Spike waves his claws nonchalantly afterwards and say, "Besides I'm sure Swamp Dude is fine, he's a tough guy. Oh and let me go and get you that water!"

As he moves off to the kitchen to prepare some refreshments for the group, Ash sit's down at the table quietly. The girls for their part are concerned by how quiet he had become but are unable to read his face or emotions because of the disguise. Eventually Twilight levitates the comics off of the table and sits down as well on the opposite side followed by all but Fluttershy who gently pats his back before joining her friends. By the time Spike had returned to the table with the water an awkward silence had descended upon the group as none of the girls knew quite what to say at the time and Ash was too deep in thought.

"What's with the long faces?" Spike asked the assembled ponies and pony disguised persons as he set the waters down and took a seat in between Twilight and Rarity. Turning back to Ash he soon asked, "So are you up to tell us the rest of the story now Mr. Ash?"

Brought out of the disturbing thoughts that the comic had popped into his head Ash looked around the table then gave a light shake of his head. "I think it's best I head back to my camp for now, I need to clear my head and it's getting a tad late anyways." Ash stands up and makes to move for the door until one of the ponies speaks up from behind.

"Wait, I'm sure one of us can help you find somewhere to stay here in town so you don't have to stay in the Everfree anymore." Ash turns around to see Twilight looking around to the others for support.

"No I think it's best I keep to myself for now, at least until I think you all are ready to see what I really look like under all of this." Ash motions to his getup and Rainbow Dash speaks up.

"I think we can handle it! We've faced down plenty of scarier things from all over Equestria!" She crosses her arms and looks back to her friends for support until Twilight speaks up again.

"I don't think that would actually be for the best Rainbow, just think about how rest of the town already views him now. What if he really does look startling enough to cause an issue and none of us are there to help settle things down? Can we at least help you get back to your camp? I'm sure there is plenty that we could-"

Ash interrupts Twilight by holding up his wooden hoof and shaking his head. "I appreciate everything that you all are willing to do for me but please understand that I greatly value my privacy and if I didn't know one of you were coming I'd likely not be wearing my disguise. Like I said before I'd really prefer to only show you what I look like once I feel that you are ready. In the meantime would you like me to return tomorrow so that I can continue my story?" Ash looked around the gathered ponies and gauged their reactions, the strongest of which was the pink party pony.

"Wha-! But we still need to give you a 'Welcome to Ponyville/Thanks for saving Diamond Tiara' party!" Pinkie starts bouncing around Ash and repeating the word 'please' with each bound until Ash stood to near his full height and pressed his wooden hoof to her head, stopping her in place as he slowly got her to stop bouncing.

"We can't have a welcome party yet cause I'm not actually living in Ponyville at the moment yeah?" Ash offered up to the energetic pony in the hopes that she'd let him leave. This disguise could really do with some adjustments for comfort and he could only do that once he was back at camp. "Besides it'd be a lot more enjoyable for me if I was able to attend said party without my disguise and that's a ways away I'm afraid."

"But why can't we just see what you look like and have the party now?" Pinkie complained as her mane deflated ever so slightly.

Ash was soon feeling bad for the poor pony as the prospect of not getting to throw this party seemed to matter more to her than he'd initially thought and so he thought up a way to give a bit of ground and still carry on with his current plan. "Okay how about this, I'll let you see a bit of me now and you can get to planning the party for down the road okay?" At this her mane inflated to more than twice what it was before until it seemed to *pop* and return to normal as she nodded while sporting a huge grin.

"Are you really certain that you're okay with letting us see now and letting her plan a party for you darling?" Rarity spoke up in concern, fully knowing how boisterous a Pinkie Pie party could be.

"Yeah! Best be sure cause I don't want any chickening out of letting us see those 'claws' I heard about!" Rainbow Dash spoke up and was quickly bumped in the ribs by Applejack for her remark.

Letting out a sigh at their antics Ash held up his covered hand for them before he started to slowly remove the false hoof. "Yes I'm sure I can handle it, I pinkie promise." Ash rolled his eyes at himself for using such a childish phrase until Pinkie Pie bounced forward again interrupting him.

"You know how to do a Pinkie Promise?" She vibrated with excitement while awaiting his response.

Pausing a moment before continuing with his reveal Ash finally took off the hoof and was met with a few gasps before nodding to her. "I even remember the saying. 'Cross my heart and hope to die. Bound to my word for if I lie, then I shall put a needle in my eye.'" Ash finished to see the paling faces of the gathered ponies as they backed away slightly at the morbid rhyme.

Applejack was the first to recover and mentioned with a shake of her head. "W-well aside from the creepy version of a Pinkie Promise I don't see much that'd make any of y'all too scared by his paw." She started to walk towards the door and opened it for Ash. "Least we can do is walk ya too the edge of our orchard, maybe give you a few apples for the trip if you're up for em now." She mentioned the apples tentatively and breathed a sigh of relief when Ash nodded to the offer.

"I think I'll be okay to try them again and thank you for offering to keep me company until then, I hope the rest of you have a pleasant evening and better tomorrow. I'll try to arrive back here a little after midday if that is alright with everyone." With everyone gathered nodding in agreement Ash set out to the Apple's orchard accompanied by the honest apple farmer.

Author's Note

Bim bam shazam, its time for another edition of Swamp Dude!tm Will Swamp Dude punch a tree? If he does and no else is around to hear it, is it still a stupid thing to do?

I do hope you enjoyed this chapter of 'I don't really know what I'm doing anymore!' and if you have any thoughts or questions feel free to comment below!