It has been a full month since Innocentius started his training. And as he gazed at himself in his bedroom mirror, he noticed that not only had he gotten a bit more meatier, but he had grown a couple of inches as well. Perhaps working his body, magic, and mind all at once is helping with his growth spurt? He is at that age where boys tend to spring up in height over the summer. But he wasn’t going to stop now when he was just at the halfway point. He still had a whole entire month of free gym time to use up after all.

Not only has his physical form improved, but the duration of his abilities and the capacity and use of his magic as well. It has gotten to the point where he never runs out of magic. At least not that he knows of. While healing trees is a rather easy feat for him now, who is to say that it is the same as recreating another being’s limb from a stomp? After all, wood is simply that, wood. But flesh, bone, sinew, veins, nerves. It is all an intricate system of the body.

Even his giant form has become easier to manage as well. The longest he has been able to stay in that form is about five to seven hours, depending upon how big he goes. He has been seen by various other woodland creatures who have stumbled upon his lumbering form when they are out foraging, they have only hung around him enough to sniff and poke at his legs when he is focusing on maintaining his size, but other than that they have left him alone. Even his control of his laser eyes has gotten to a fine point where he can increase or decrease the temperature and intensity of the beam. But just as he is doing with his gym time, he isn’t slowing down until school picks back up again.

Even his flight time and speed have improved significantly. However, there is always this blurry blur that zooms past him every day and seems to just leave him in the clouds. And he has made it personal to be able to outfly them at least once. They don’t even stop to say hello before making him almost barrel roll out of control. He will beat her one day. It may not be soon, but it will happen. But, now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. Today was going to be a good day as it was one of his off days. And he was going to spend it in his spot at the park, under his favorite tree.

As he sat there with one of his books, he couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. He lowered his book slightly before resuming his reading, but ever still alert of the prying eyes. He lowers his book after a few more minutes to see a VERY pink filly staring at him from across the park with wide aqua blue eyes. He lifts his book back up, then back down. Seems she has gotten just a little bit closer… Each time he did this, she’d scoot just a little closer each time “Is she a damn cat or what…?” he whispered to himself.

Soon enough, he lowered his book once more to find the filly crouching in front of him with her hands on her knees and her face directly in his, those eyes still staring widely at him. “No, I don’t have any games on my phone…” he said with a deadpan expression on his face. “What’s a….phone?” she asked with a tilt of her head, her mane bouncy and curly. The filly smelled of cotton candy and cake, and given how she had a slightly chubbier form than most fillies at her age, she must have really loved sweets.

Innocentius shook his head with a chuckle “Oh nothing, just a little inside joke that I can only enjoy. Something you need from me?” he asked as he put down his book in his lap She smiled at him before nodding “I just moved here in town! I am going to be staying at Sugar Cube Corner and helping out the Cakes with the shop. I came from a rock farm just outside of town. And I figured that wasn’t where I was meant to be so now I am here! So I was wondering if you’d like to be my very first friend here?” she asked with a hopeful tone in her voice.

Given that Innocentius was also a child who was moved around many times in his past life, he could understand completely about meeting new people and making new friends all the time. It wasn’t an easy life. So how could he say no to such a request? And she seemed nice enough. “Sure thing. My name is Innocentius. Nice to meet you.” he said as he offered out a hand to her. She refused it however and took him into a bear hug. She was surprisingly strong for such a soft girl “My name is Pinkie Pie! It's so nice to meet you, Inno!”. He was about to protest her using that nickname, as only his friends could call him that…but she is technically his friend now. So he couldn’t exactly say no.

“N-Nice to meet you, Pinkie Pie…” he said as he felt his back pop a bit from the tight hug. She seemed to really enjoy hugging others as she was NOT letting go, even nuzzling against him for a moment before finally letting go of him, the colt taking in lungs full of air as he could breathe again “By the sun, you are much stronger than you look…” he said as he rubbed at his side a bit to dull the pain a bit. The filly smiled and sat on her haunches in front of him “Well, the tighter the hug, the more the message gets across if you ask me~.” she said as she idly bounced a bit where she sat.

Innocentius could tell this filly was a naturally energetic girl. And her love for all things sweet didn’t help with calming her down either. He couldn’t also shake the feeling that there was..something else. Maybe a different personality is hidden away perhaps? No one was this happy and friendly without hiding something, no matter how old they were. Innocentius offered her a smile before holding his book back up “Well, it was nice to meet you, but I’d like to get back to my book if that is alright with you. You caught me during my relaxing time and I would like to get back to that.” he said rather bluntly but in a kind tone of voice, hoping she’d get the hint.

“Oh, yeah for sure!” she said before giving him one more hug before standing up and running off with a big and wild wave “See you around, Inno!” she shouted with a smile on her muzzle. The colt waved back in return before returning his full attention to his reading material. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have any more interruptions for at least the next couple of hours as he really wanted to get ahead on getting closer to finishing the book. With the way it was going now, he was about to get to a very good part.

Innocentius places his bookmark into the book before closing it up and sighing with a smile “I hope they make it out of the castle in time before it disappears completely…” he said hopefully as he thinks about the group of adventurers in his book and their situation. As he placed his book back in his bag, he remembered he still had to go and return the last one he finished. So he gets up and dusts his pants off before heading to the library. Hopefully, he would find something good to read to finish out his summer with.

While he was browsing the selves of the library, he was dragging his index finger over the spines of the books until he came across a rather strange yet intriguing book. It was a black leather bound tome that had a light green glowing lizard across its spine. He blinked a few times before reaching up and attempting to grab it. But, a ghostly pale gray hand reached around it from the other side of the shelf and slowly pulled it into the darkness “Pardon me young man…that wasn’t supposed to be here…” the voice said in a rather heavy cajun accent. Innocentius blinked a few times before peeking in through the hole where the book was placed, seeing a rather pale gray HUMAN face with glowing green eyes and a wide toothy smile. He was about to scream out but the hand of the being placed his finger up to his lips before vanishing from existence. “W-What the fuck..?” he whispered to himself before he decided that maybe he should just leave and come back another day…

As he walked rather briskly from the library, he was suddenly stopped by Applejack who called out to him while running over “Hey, Inno! It has been a long time since Ah have seen ya around! How have…ya..been…?” she asked as she noticed just how much taller than her he was at this point. And that he had definitely been working out as well “Darn boys sproutin’ up like weeds every summer, I swear…” she said, a little annoyed that he now stood over her. But she shook her head and smiled at her best friend as he returned the greeting back.

“Hey there, AJ. It has been quite some time. How are Granny and the others?” he asked as they started walking once more. “Oh, they are doin’ alright. Ya haven’t been by the farm in quite some time, ya know? We were startin’ to get worried.” she said as she walked beside him with her hands behind her back. Innocentius offered her a sheepish smile before nodding “Well, a lot has happened over the past month. Needless to say I have been quite busy ever since one incident happened. So I have been working on getting stronger and in better shape.”. He said as he looked down at one of his hands as it glowed platinum for a moment.

Applejack nodded as she had heard rather unsettling rumors of his demise. But she didn’t want to bring it up because she was sure that it would dredge up unpleasant memories and she didn’t want to do that to him. “Well, yer lookin’ good, Inno. A big improvement over the little guy I am used to protectin’. Ah guess it was only a matter of time till ya didn’t need me lookin’ after ya anymore.” she said with a somewhat somber tone. Innocentius chuckles softly and reaches up and places a hand atop her head, gently rolling it around in his grip “Your jon as my best friend is far from over, AJ. I may be a bit bigger and stronger than you now. But, that doesn’t mean I won’t need your help to keep me out of trouble.” he said before removing his hand from her head “You chose to stick by my side, now you are stuck with me.” he said with a toothy grin.

Applejack closed an eye as she looked up at him with a returning smile. She was pleased to hear that coming from him. She didn’t know why, but she cared greatly for the colt, even if it had only been a little over a year that they had known each other, she felt like she had known him for over five or seven. And she would do anything to remain at his side. “You wanna come over and keep me company while I buck some trees? Ya don’t have to help. Mac hurt his shoulder a couple of days ago and has been out of commission.”. Innocentius arched a brow before nodding a couple of times “You know I don’t mind helping you out, AJ. Let’s swing by my place and I will go put on some work clothes.” he said before he started heading into the direction of his home with Applejack following behind.

Once he had gotten dressed properly for doing a little bit of labor, he and Applejack headed to the Apple Farm and began doing some apple picking. Well, he was doing the picking, she was doing the kicking. They were quite the team, however. Sure, she was moving faster because she was bucking the apples off their branches, but she was grateful to have Innocentius picking trees clean that she wasn’t working on. How he was doing it was a mystery to her. How in the world was he flying like that without wings?! She wasn’t going to question help though.

Soon enough, they were walking further into the orchard before they came across one of the dying apple trees. Applejack hoisted the axe she had brought with them onto her shoulder and sighed sadly “This here was one of our first ever apple trees, but it looks like she ain’t got much longer to live. Time to cut ya down, old girl.” she said as she reared back and got ready to start cutting. However, Innocentius grabbed at one of her wrists and smiled “Hold on there AJ, I wanna show you something I have been practicing..” he said as he walked over to the tree.

Applejack watched in curiosity as he walked over to the tree and placed his forehead on it, the colt bringing his hands to lean into the tree for a moment before he closed his eyes and breathed slowly before his horn, eyes, and hands glowed platinum. At this point, she knew what he was doing, or rather what it involved from him anyway. It took a moment, but the tree’s lifeless grey bark began to brighten into a more warm and brown color that a tree should heave, and the leaves and apple flowers bloomed on its branches as the tree looked as it did about twenty years ago. Applejack’s jaw fell as the axe did at her hooves “Well, I’ll be…would ya look at that?” she said as she placed her hands on her hips.

Innocentius pulled away from the tree and backed away as he looked up at it. He smiled at his handy as he hadn’t even broken a sweat after restoring such things to the tree. It would seem that his healing magic had truly gotten better with all of his practice, and he was pretty proud of himself for it. “Wel, looks like you won’t have to cut this one down for a little longer huh?” he asked as he placed his hands on his sides in triumph. Applejack picked up the axe and chuckled “Well, if you are in such a helpful mood, perhaps you can do the same thing to a couple of other trees I was supposed to cut down today?”.

And he did just that. He had saved her a lot of physical and emotional aching from cutting down those trees. Soon enough, they had finished the chores for the day and were now sitting on the porch with two large mugs of ice cold cider. Something he never got to finish enjoying all those months ago. And it was so incredibly good. After Applejack took a sip of her beverage, she looked over at Innocentius with a large smile of gratitude on her face “Thank ya kindly again, Inno. Ah couldn’t have gotten this done as quick as ah did without ya.” she said as she gently punched his shoulder as a sign of affection.

Innocentius smiled and gave a nod “Anything for you and your family, AJ. You have all been so sweet to me, so it is only fair I respond in kind. I will do what I can to help any of you out.” he said before turning back to look out over the farm just as Applejack did, both of them idly rocking in their rocking chairs as they relaxed the rest of the day away.

Author's Note

For those of you who are current readers of my other works, I hope you enjoyed the little easter egg/cameo I threw in. :3 Given the kind of character they are and what they can do, I couldn't pass up the thought.

May the darkness grant you peace.