Through the driftless hills and chartreuse boscage of the Everfree's edge lives the stallion Carbon Creek who has returned to the village in hiding. Twilight Sparkle, curious of the vagrant, makes a study of him. He has forsaken a destiny to wander through crime and kindness, tragedy and friendship, and the richness of penury, for which he may find salvation in these yet.

I would like to give an extreme special thanks to the artist Ponny, who through his infinite graciousness drew the cover-art for this story free of charge, only in exchange for this endorsement, and for whom I implore you to take a look at his other work on Derpi and X/Twitter: https://x.com/ponny_pintero, as his dedication to his art is beyond a passion which I have seen no equal.

I would also like to thank the three Infinitely kind users who commented on my previous attempt in pony fiction, whose laudatory provided me with the motivation and spirit to try again, and that if only those three users enjoyed this current story I would be satisfied. I would like to say to those three that the previous story is not abandoned, and I will eventually continue writing it, and I promise I won't abandon this one for months either.