The Princess and the Outcast

Twilight Sparkle was going on with her usual day, reading books, writing letters to Princess Celestia, and trying new spells. But even ponies like Twilight can get bored doing the same thing over and over again, and after a few weeks, she is left alone bored in her room with nothing else to do.

"That's it!" Twilight thought to herself. "I'm tired of sitting here and reading books every day! It's time for me to have some real fun of my own!". Twilight gets herself ready and leaves her library. She begins walking around Ponyville trying to find something else for her to do. It turns out that she's been doing the same thing for so long that she doesn't actually know what else she could do.

However, her search was cut short when she spots a tired looking pony in the distance. He was carrying a carriage full of books and with stuck in the middle of a giant crowd. He was wearing a dirty and ripped up scarf over his neck, which made him stand out from the cleaner looking ponies. Despite asking them all to move aside for him, the crowd just continued walking and pushing him around, ignoring his wishes to get past.

"Excuse me, sir, I need to get past." The pony asked people multiple times.
One pony bumps into him, causing his to drop all of his books.
"Um, excuse me. You bumped into me, so could you help me pick these up?" He asked sheepishly.
The pony looked at him with a scowl, causing him to recoil. "Nevermind. I got it." He says with a hint of cowardice.
After the rude pony passed him by, he begins picking up his books somberly.

Twilight is watching this happen with pity on her face. As the Princess of Friendship, it hurts her to see a fellow pony under her rule treated as if he was just an obstacle in people's way. "Hey. That isn't right. They have no right to treat him that way. Shame on them!" Twilight said in her thoughts. After deciding that she's seen enough, she runs over to help the pony.

Twilight walks up to him and politely says "Excuse me, sir. Do you need any help?"
The pony looks at who was in front of him, and upon seeing who it is, his eyes widen and he drops his books in surprise, looking at her with a wide-eyed stare of shock.
Twilight asked him "Uh... Are you okay?"
"I know you." The pony said quietly. "The Princess of Friendship. Twilight Sparkle, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"It's you! What are you doing talking to someone like me?" He asked.

Twilight reminded him "I saw that you dropped your books. I thought you needed help."
"Yeah. Some help would be nice." The pony nodded.
Twilight smiles and proceeds to help him pick up his books, which he wholeheartedly appreciated.
"Thank you, Princess." The pony said bowing.
Twilight immediately picks his head up. "No need to get so formal." She said to him. "No need to call me Princess. Just call me Twilight."
"Oh, okay. Thanks, Twilight."

The pony smiles at Twilight, and she can't help but to just smile back at him. Suddenly, the pony's look of happiness, turned into a look of panic and he franticly starts moving.

"Oh no!" The pony said franticly. "I'm late!"
Twilight watches in complete confusion as he dashes ahead of her, not even looking behind himself.
"Goodbye, I guess..." Twilight said confused.

He was there, and then gone in a flash. Though their interaction time was short-lived, a warm feeling washed over Twilight. She ultimately didn't find whatever she was looking for, but she did make another pony happier, which she felt good about. She assumes that it was just the magic of friendship that flows through her body. She decides that is was time for her to leave.

Meanwhile, with the pony Twilight helped earlier, he's making his way to his job. It turns out that it was his jobs to deliver books to a library. It doesn't make him much money, but it's an honest living. As he's rushing to the library, he's thinking about how he actually met Twilight earlier. It made him feel good about himself.

Once he finally arrives at the library, he's met with a very angry librarian giving a terrifying scowl. "You're late, Starblaze."
The pony, whose name is revealed to be Starblaze defends himself. "I know I'm late, but listen to this." He tries to explain himself. Only for the librarian to dismiss his claims.
"I don't care about your excuses." She said angrily. "Just try not to be late next time. As you know, you won't be receiving full pay."
Stargaze looks at the ground somberly.

After his shift at work, Starblaze walks himself home, the same way he does every night. He lives in a makeshift shack on the outskirts of town, as he never had enough money to buy an actual house in town, so he made this one with what he had. He didn't have any furniture except for a shoddy table, and no bed, with Starblaze mostly slept on the floor. Despite this he doesn't seem to complain about these circumstances.

However, when Starblaze returns home, he realizes that his shoddy cabin was knocked down. He looks in distress as he checks on his vandalized house. "Oh no! Not again!" He though to himself. As it is a shoddy cabin made out of a few logs, it falls down frequently. Right now, however, Starblaze doesn't have the patience or energy to rebuild it. "I guess I have to find a new place to sleep for the night..." Starblaze sighs to himself.

He goes into town and walks around for someplace to sleep. It was getting late and not many ponies were out at this time. After a few hours, he settled for sleeping in the middle of the town. He sits and sighs to himself and lays down to sleep, with only his tattered scarf as any kind of warmth.

Meanwhile, at the Castle of Friendship, Twilight has returned and decided that it was a good time to go to bed. As she enters her room, she approaches the window in order to close the curtains so she could sleep. However, as she goes to close the curtains, she notices someone outside. She was able to recognize him from the ripped up scarf, and she realizes that it was the pony she helped earlier. "It's him!" she said with a gasp. "What's he doing there? Does he even have a house?". Just like her interaction with him earlier, Twilight couldn't sleep seeing someone without a house suffer outside.

As Starblaze shivers in the night due to coldness, he hears someone calling for him in the distance. "Hey!"
He looks around for who is addressing him, and sees Twilight running towards him.
"Hey. I saw you from outside my window." Twilight said to him.
Starblaze looks at her shocked. "It's you again."
Twilight nods. "Yeah, it's me. Do you need any help?"
"A place to sleep for the night would be nice."
Twilight takes a quick glance at the castle. "How about you spend a night at my castle?"

Starblaze looks shocked. "You're serious?"
Twilight smiles at him and nods. "I am serious. You seem to be freezing."
"Thanks, Twilight." Starblaze says.
Twilight smiles and him and leads him into her castle.

When the both get in, Twilight shows Starblaze her room. "You could sleep in here."
"You'll let me sleep in your room?" Starblaze asked her.
Twilight nods. "Sure. It's just for the night."
"Thanks." He smiled at her.
However when Twilight got in her bed in order to sleep, Starblaze made himself comfortable on the floor of her room confusing her greatly.
Twilight asked him, "You're just going to sleep on the floor?"
"Oh, yeah." Starblaze answered. "I don't have a bed in my house, so I'm used to sleeping on the floor."

"That explains a lot..." Twilight thought to herself.
After Twilight turns off the light to sleep, she hears Starblaze speak to her. "Goodnight Twilight." He said.
"Goodnight." She said back to him, still not knowing his name. They both dozed off to sleep.

Tomorrow morning, Twilight wakes up. She yawns and stretches and tries to greet he friend. "Good mor..." She was trying to say before being cut off but seeing that he wasn't there. "What? Where did he go?" She thought. Upon looking around the room for him, she notices a note on her table.

The note was from Starblaze who was thanking Twilight for letting him spend time in her house. He signed his name at the bottom and that's when Twilight finally learns her new friend's name. "So his name is Starblaze." She thought to herself. He had to hurry to leave due to his job delivering books. Although he was gone without a trace, Twilight has a feeling that they would meet again in the near future.