//The hoofwriting reminds of the one ether a noble or well educated pony would have.//
Greetings to whoever might have found this book.
When you read these lines I'm probably dead already.
I'm writing this journal to hold up my sanity in my isolation here in Everfree. The only ponies I talk to regularely are my friend Fluffy and the Zebra Zecora, who has taken care of me at the age of a foal.
You can only have this book from my house. Perhaps Fluffy gave it to you or you found his body next to it....
You might want to know who I am.
I'm Zombie Stitch but you might know me under the name of Lively Springs.
// There's a warrant of apprehension stuck between the pages, its for Lively Springs.
The accusation says she killed 10 elite guards of Canterlot, who just fought off a fierce dragon, without any reason, it also shows a picture of her:
A young unicorn filly with green coat and orange mane.
The price for her, dear or alive, is enormous.//
Yes that on the picture was me at the age of seven. This was the reason I fled here and didn't leave in years.
I was born in Hollow Shades and lived there until the age of 5.
My parents were Rose Vine, a unicorn mare of a green coat and red mane with the cutiemark representing a rose surrounded by thorny tendrils, and Healing Hoofs, a dark blue unicorn stallion with a black mane and with a golden cross for a cutiemark.
I had an adoped elder brother, his name was Brazen Sword. He was the only earthpony I can recall having in my family. His coat was rusty brown and his mane like old iron. His cutiemark showed a sword and shield and there was something in his eyes that made my bones chill.
My mother was a florist. She owned a greenhouse, which was rather famous even down to Filly Delphia and Manehatten for its “Undying Roses”. She truly had a hoof for any kind of plant.
My father was the head physician of “Hollow Shades Hospital and Mental Asylum”. It was him to thank, that I survived my childhood.
My brother, at least I believed him to be that, well he allways dreamed of becoming a royal guard and I am sure he managed it.
Me? I assume myself... a healer. I have no proper medical education, nether did I ever assist my father but as you read the lines of my life, you will understand why I assert myself this title.
I am 12 years old now.
When I was little my parents explained me, that I was born with a misshaped lung. I didn't understand what they ment then, I only knew I would have to take these pills every morning and evening for the rest of my life. That was at the age of 3.
I never was physically strong, tall or rather cubby. You saw the picture of me there and let me tell you: hidden underneeth the light blue students robe of the “Royal Academy for gifted Unicorns” was the body of a dreadfull thin filly.
I must say, I don't remember much of my childhood in Hollow Shades, only picking blossoms with my mother in the greenhouse by levitation. We moved to Canterlot when I was 5 years old. Father told it was for the clean air, the better medical support and the gift I was born with. I didn't understand what he ment, until I stood infront of the application committee and approved my strong magical skills by making the egg of a phoenix hatch. I called her Philomena and until today I wonder what became of her. I worry for the poor little fledgling and wish that nopony connects her to me. They woulden't treat her well....
As a 5 year old filly I was one of the youngest students of the R.A. since the very beginning. I emedietly asked for a cheep or even free little chamber within the academy itself. Students who lived on the campus got free meals and....
Well I claimed, I wanted to live on the campus to be closer to the enormous library and the halls of the school itself but to be honest with you: It was for the sake of my family.
I noticed we moved from a big house in Hollow Shades to a tiny appartment in Canterlot and that mother wasen't working anymore, yet there was still my medication to pay. So I lived in an allmost ruined, little chamber under the roof of the libraries transmutation section. A decayed old staircase behind an overcrowded bookshelf led up there.
//The following lines look like they were written with a shakeing hoof and the paper is wrinkled like a single tear dropped onto it and dryed up again// At the age of 6 I made the first friend I actually remember. And I will never forget her. Her name was Twilight Sparkle, she was 4 years old. //Then the hoofwriting becomes more clearly again// I had to interrupt my work on the journal for a while to calm myself. The memory of my old friend was just overwhelming. We became friends over a book we shared. Till the very last day we called ourselfs B.B.B.F.E (best book buddies for ever). The picture shows us together by the way. Its a copy. I'll take the original to the grave with me. //Theres a picture of filly Twilight Sparkle and Lively Springs attached to the page.// It takes all my concentration not to cry upon loosing her. She was like a little sister to me. A little, very smart sister. Yet I also remember her elder brother. A hunk of a stallion. Gosh I had such a crush on him, you can't imagine.
It was in those days when I first noticed an appariation of houreglasses or little lights, like the flames of candles, above the heads of ponies I strongly concentrated on. In later days this should turn out to be my greatest blessing. Also during my entire attendence at the R.A. everypony kept recognizeing me as an inhabitant of Hollow Shades and claimed to recognize my particular accent. Even tho I didn't have much money or many friends it was the most wonderfull time of my young life. I can't believe it mearly is 6 years past now.
I spent my last year at the R.A. pretty happy. I could breathe with ease, my marks were good, I had a wonderfull friend and even the situation of my family got better! Mother found work in the castle gardens and after a collegue of my father sent an attestation he was promoted to the second head physician of “Canterlot Central Hospital”. I could never have imagined, that anything could have gone bad. I was 7 when the world has proven me terribly wrong.
During the dragon migration one of the elder dragons must have become insane. It attacked Canterlot city directly!
The Royal Guard evacuated the academy in the middle of a lesson. We all were being pushed and led twards the throne room, the safest place in the entire city. They told us Celestias elite guards would be taking care of the situation and I actually saw them racing through the halls of the castle. What I saw gave me the shock of my life: Their flames looked like they were about to burn out and suddenly I knew what that ment. I used the confusion of the moment to follow them. I had no idea, what I should do or if there even was anything I could do.
//From here on the words don't align properly, as if they werent written fluently, but with a break between ever ony of them.//
It is hart for me to write about, what happened next. I followed the guards to the west garden. It was a big terrace. Unicorns, Pegasi and Earthponies. They fought this big black beast. I stood at the entrance to the castle and was frozen in fear. They had no chance. They were being torn to pieces. I had... I don't know what to call what I had in that moment. I felt powerfull and like I knew exactly what to do. Then I lost the feeling of ground under my hoofs and everything became so bright. I didn't know what I was doing in that moment, I just knew it was the right thing to do. The fallen, they just stood up again. Wounds closed the moment they were cut open. It was like the guards never got injured at all!
It took minutes but the dragon was fought off and the elite guard came back loughing and cheering and completly unharmed, being greeted by a group of recruits when //A rough line is drawn over the page, as if the writer dropped the quill.// my magic wore off with a lightflash. I just couldent move on anymore. It was too much for me. And, please excouse the messy writing, my hoof is shaking, the next moment, all the wounds came back. All of them. All at the same time. The screams were horrible. It was like //It seems like she never finished the sentence and moved on to the next line.//
I still hear them every night when I close my eyes.
After a moment of silence somepony called out: “It was her! She killed them!” And the recruits, that cheered for the elites, raced at me. A spear hit my face. A clean vertical strike. From my lipps, over my face, up to my horn. The stallion who wielded the spear was my best friends big brother. If you know him, or Shining Armor if it is you, who is reading this and you actually believe me: Please know that I don't blame you. You just did, what your training told you to.
//It seems, that the writer must have taken a break. The hoofwriting looks proper and clean again.//
I woke up on a glade. I didn't know where I was, I didn't really know what happened, I didn't know what I just did and my face felt like it was going to be torn apart.
I stumbled all over the place, crying as loud as I could. I reached a lake and saw my reflection in the water. My lips were cut apart, there was a deep gash on my face and the base of my horn was cracked. Till today I don't understand, why I did the following but I took the needle and twine from my little saddlebag and started stitching the gash. It sounds gruesome but it didn't hurt. I don't think I felt anything in that moment.
So there I was:
A little filly, lost all alone in an unknown forest. Without food, without orientation, wounded and shaking in fear.
I can't tell how much time passed. It was a blessing in disguise that there was this enormous pumpkin. Today it is my home and the place where you found this book. The first time I hid between the leaves of the pumpkin plant, not knowing where I could possibly go. I grew hungrier and hungrier every day. There were no edible plants anywhere on the glade and I was to scared to head into the forest. I got so panicked in my hunger that I started hitting the pumpkin and yelling at it for help. I thought it was sentiend.
Then the peel broke and this sweet juice sprayed on my face. I completely forgot everything and ate my way into the big thing like a worm into an apple. I thanked mister pumpkin for every single bite. I didn't care for how dirty I got and fell asleep in the hole I ate into it.
I was woken up by a heavy cough attack. Till today I suffer from those, when the effects of my medication wear off. My coughing attracted something. I correct myself: somepony. A shadow fell into the hole I ate into the pumpkin and a female voice greeted me with a rhyme. I can't actually recall it.
I crawled to the exit cramping and coughing, these attacks grow more painfull the longer they last, and finally managed to take a pill from the bottle once I reached it. A moment of silence later I coughed out a ball of goo. I know no better word for it. I must have been a disgusting sight: A dirty little filly, covered in sticky wet pumpkin fiber with a freshly stitched gash all over her face, coughing up this black clump of goo.
Yet the mare who found me didn't move back or turn away from me. She actually sounded caring, even if I didn't understand what she said, and picked me up. She kept switching between a pretty broken and rhyming equestrian and these strange sounds, later turning out to be her language. All I managed to say was: “Please don't hurt me!”
But I wasn't in danger at all. The mare with the black and white stripes took me home with her on her back. I must have passed out a few times, since the way through the forest to her shack felt like it only took minutes. Maybe her constant singing let me fall asleep again.
Gosh I was shaking in fear again once I saw the inside of her home: everywhere these potion bottles, strange ingredients that I've never even red of before and the masks! Dragon faces! I cowerd in the farest corner I could find. From all the things she said I only understood: “not wish to do a harm”, “You are safe.” and “What happened to you?”
Something about this last question made me snap and I told everything that happened. I must have repeated myself over and over, yet she only understood half the things I said. What she did then surprised me the most: She hugged me! She must have known by instinct, that was just what I needed. I startet crying and didn't stop until I had no more tears left. Our conversation went on till it was late at night and I just fell asleep. She was so friendly to me.
The next day we introduced to eachother: The student of magic Lively Springs and the zebra healer Zecora. She shared her food and tea with me and, as much as I understooof of her broken equestrian, even her home. She was so careing that I just started calling her “Nana Zecora” and I guess over the time that became true. We agreed, that we should let some time pass before I left the forest, that later turned out to be Everfree.
Well thats how I arrived in Everfree. I lived with Nana Zecora until the wound on my face completely healed and we were ready to pull the strings out. Strangely it didn't hurt at all or left more of a scar than the actual cut. Then came the da, when we wanted to return me to Equestria. That wasn't a good idea at all....
Just a while after my 8th birthday we both put on hooded coats not to get dirty on our way to the next settlement, Ponyville was the name of the place. When we arrived all the townsponies slammed their doors and shut their windows. I asked “Nana Zecora, why is everypony hideing?” She coulden't tell me ether. She said the ponies there allways avoided her. I guess if I woulden't have called her by the name nopony woulnd't actually know it till today.
I don't expect you to believe this but I tell you I am not lying.
The only ponies we actually found on the streets were royal guards. They accused Nana Zecora to be a witch and that she would want to eat me until they recognized me from the warrants.
They didn't even gave me a chance to explain! They started chasing and attacking us, called us witches and murderers. We ran from them deep into the Everfree Forest. I must have cryed for houres, when we finally shook them off and curled up in a cave to hide out for the night. That was when I decided not to return again.
So I lived with Nana Zecora. I had my own bed, a part of the closet and a small bed in the herbal garden. I started collecting seeds of herbs in the deep forest, to have some rare plants on my side of the garden. On one of my trips I stumbled over something: The leg of a pony! Turns out manticors are terribly messy eaters. I wasn't shocked or so, just supprized. I took the leg with me, but I feared Nana Zecoras reaction. So I stored it at the big pumpkin. I explained my tripps to it by bringing a bit of pumpkin. Day by day I hollowed the entire Pumpkin that way, only leaving the seeds inside. Well the seeds and the leg and.... other parts of ponies I found. I have no idea why I actually started collecting them, it just felt right.
Then I startet building... just with skinn and bones, wood and wild cotton for stuffing.
You may call me insane but I built myself a friend. You propably found him. About two heads taller than a tall stallion and also twice as muscular. Well technically he doesn't have any muscles at all, it's all wild cotton that fills up the empty space between his skinn and bones. I made his eyes out of glass marbles I found on the junkjard. I wonder, what they were originally used for. His hoofs are basalt stone, carved by magic.
I'm not sure if you found him still alive or if he.... just stopped. There is no better word for it, Hes not technically alive, more of an intelligent animated object... And he definetly is intelligent I tell you. When he woke up, he was entirely sentient. And no I won't discribe the spells I used here, they are too dangerous.
I feared to tell Nana Zecora. Fluffy, thats what I called the big boy, is very sensitive to the reactions of others to him. I mean his feelings are easiely hurt, when others show, that they are scared of him, even tho he is such a gentle creature.
Well what should I say? Nana Zecora found out rather fast. She followed me on my every trip to the deep forest. She allways knew everything I did. So she also knew about Fluffy. She wasn't scared of him at all. Till today she's the most openminded pony I ever met.
We all agreed, with a guardien like Fluffy, a smart little 9 year old like me could live alone. I already had a complete house. Well the outer walls at least. If I remember it correct it took me about half a year to make Fluffy and another year until the house was built. Nana Zecora helped me whenever she had the time to. It was the time when I decided to change my name. I wasn't Lively Springs anymore. No. Lively Springs.... She died when the dragon attacked Canterlot. These days I decided to be Zombie Stitch.
All my furniture came from Ponyvilles junkjard. Fluffy might not have a cutiemark but he surely has a hoof for crafting. An old piece of furniture, some timber from the woods and the old tools Nana Zecora gave us and viola: new furniture!
Then again none of us had the slightest idea how hard living in Everfree could become..
The next years there were several doughts.
If it wasn't for Nana Zecoras secret storages and the fact that Fluffy doesn't eat or drink at all we would have starved.... no idea how many times.
//A small note is attatched to the page, obviously much younger than the page itself: “Did I loose these 3 years here?”//
I lived only with Fluffy for a long time extending our house bit by bit by bit. We kept sneaking to Ponyville junkyard, always taking everything with us, that looked the slightest bit usefull. Soon we had a respectable house built. I'll spare you with the details but this is about what we built up on our own: doors, windows (ponies throw away a lot of pretty good glass!), a chimney and fireplace, a kitchen, basement and the first floor. Well since all our furniture came from trash it smelled pretty awefull, when we found it, but a few days outside and a little tlc allways took care of that.
From the age of 10 on I put on my ragged old coat and snook into Ponyville every now and then. I spread rumors about a witch in the forest. Told horrible stories, set up slingtraps on the path to our house and danger signs. All this to keep the villagers away. I'm still terribly afraid of what they might do to us, if they find us here: a filly and her best friend. Or how they will see us: a murderer and a monster.
//The following entry is written in print letters//
I just HAVE to stop the retrospect here and write down something current:
Tonight Tunderhoofs (I'll write about him later) brought this pegasus stallion to me. He's about my age, maybe a little older. He's wearing a blue catsuit with yellow flashes on it. He's yellow with a brigt orange mane and: His right wing has been torn off! Also his right front hoof is missing and he limps a little on his right hindleg, when he's walking.
The craziest thing about him is yet, that he can still fly! No I have not lost my mind entirely! This pegasus, he calls himself Half Wing, can hover, even fly with just his left wing! He says, he was born crippled, only with a tiny bit of a right wing but learned to fly anyway... Oh, and his right frontleg allways was a stump! Same thing about the limp on the right hindleg.
I understand pegasi less and less the more I watch him. He says he was a wonderbolt recruit until something happened, that he doesn't want to talk about. He asked if he could stay with Fluffy and me and I agreed. Note: have to get him a bed!
Anyway! Basicly Thunderhoofs brought him to me, because he saw the bleeding wound, where his right wing should be. Thunder said, if I could create a “thing” like Fluffy, I could fix Half Wings wound as well, and I could! I just stitched his wound like a sewer stitches a cut on cheap cloth and it healed!!! I have no idea how I did that! I just did it! I can't believe it! I finally have my cutiemark! It's a patch with needle and twine. It was just so... right to help this wounded pony, felt so good when I saw, he was better. I still can't comprehend it! My hoofs are shaking so bad I write by levitating my quill. Always hated that idea. I CAN'T FOCUS!!!
I'm so happy! Half Wing wasn't afraid of Fluffy! We found somepony else we can talk to! Fluffy was terribly hurt, when Thunderhoofs called him a thing. I'll see if I can find a propper right wing for Half Wing. Maybe I can just stitch it onto him, like the way I made fluffy. I just wish to thank him, for being here, so bad! Is it very bad I wish to find a cut or bitten off wing in the forest? It would mean another pegasus died... Then again, I would never cause or wish for anything this terrible! … I just.... well... It would be a terrible waste if there was a wing in a good condition out there, that could help Half Wing, wouldn't it?
//The style switches back to sophisticated hoofwriting//
Ok, its been a week since my last entry. //The dot was turned into a question mark with a different ink.// Since Half Wing arrived here (yay). But I started to write down the story of my life and I am willing to finish it!
Somewhen in these days was it, when I used up all my medication. I allways used to carry a huge supplie with me for emergencies. Half a pill in the morning, half a pill in the evening. When I arrived in Everfree I had 4 bottles with several hundret pills in each of them. These pills were really tiny! But so expensive. I couldn't have asked Nana Zecora to get them for me. How could she have that kind of money? Besides, nopony would even talk to her!
I ran to her in panic anyway and told her I used up my last pill! She stayd as calm as she always did, when I came to her with problems. She took the bottle and after a while she said:
“Don't be afraid my little child,
For this treatment is growing wild!”
She was right, well allmost. As it turns out, these pills are made from a certain plant, that grows wild. Just that the chemist add something to get rid of the sideffects. The plants they are made of are called “Loughing Hans”.
Half Wing said, these were used as drug. Nana Zecora showed me the yellow flowers. Their smell already made me smile. And she warned me, only to chew on them and spit them out again. Now I know why. Half Wing allso said: “Ponies get totally wasted on them!”
I guess that means, they break or something like that. Every time I chew on my new “medication” I get a cramping cough attack, spit out a slimey green and red clump and start loughing out of nothing. It scared me and still does. But at least I can breath freely from it. Still... the green of my coat grows paler and paler. I miss the fresh green I had.
When I start loughing, I feel good from the inside but it never lasts very long.
Please don't think I'm addicted to these plants. Its just, that I would choke to death coaking from spasms in my chest and my lungs filling up with fluids. I apologize for the needlessly graphic explenation.
It was the winter of that year, when I found out, that there are more ponies in the forest, than just the three of us. Fluffy and I did one of our usual trips through the forest, to see if we could find anything useful, when we suddenly heared wolfs howl.
It couldn't have been timberwolfs, they just don't seem to exist during the winter. I was scared to the bone but Fluffy put his hoof around me and said: “Don't worry little Stitch, I'll take on every fight if it is to save you.” His slow, deep voice always calms me down.
As we walked on twards our home, when the howling came closer. We couldn't speed up due to the way I built Fluffies hindlegs. His knees are stiff. I wasn't too experienced, when I made him.
Yet if Fluffy is enraged, he becomes like a wild bull, trying to stampeed over a matador.
The howling came closer and closer then, barely a few hundret yards away from the glade we call home, a growling went through the bushes. It felt like red glowing eyes were watching us. Silly imagination of mine!
Then the first jumped at us. Fluffy hurled the creature around and threw it against a second. He yelled: “Leave us in peace!” Oh dear, when he gets loud, his voice becomes like the rolling of thunder! Then I heared a different voice. Growling and rough but definetly sentient. It said: “So hungry. Starving!” I know that feeling too well. I came out of from underneeth Fluffy slowly and asked: “You are sentient? Can I help you?” Gosh my voice was shaking with fear but I felt such pity, such sympathy for these poor creatures.
When the to thrown over ones got up, I recognized what exactly they were: The body of a pony, yet the shoulder region was bulkier, more muscular, the front hoofs turned into paws with sharp claws, the ears and jaws changed shape, their teeth were sharp and the entire bodies covered in a thick, rough furr. Those were wereponies!
As the two thrown over stood up, the rest of the pack came out the bushes slowly. Adult stallions and mares, as well as fillies and colts. All together 15 wereponies. They kept a respectfull distance to Fluffy, who was grwoling from his deepest inside.
One of the taller stallions walked right infront of us, which caused Fluffy to pull me underneeth him. I just walked back out, when I saw how weak the werepony actually looked. There was a desperation in his eyes, that I felt myself before.
He cowerd down to look into my eyes and asked: “You would, help us?” I nodded strong enough to make the hood of my winter coat bounce and my mane fly around.
Then one after another, beginning with the speaker, they transformed! They basicly shrunk a few inches, their body structure became much more like the one of a pony, jaws and ears as well and the furr changed to the coat of a pony, even if it tends to be a lot rougher. Their paws, well they transformed into hoofes, yet they look like they were roughly broken apart vertically to 5 segments.
The transformation really looked unpleasent to them. Then the speaker introduced himself to me: “I am Elder Led Eyes, leader of the Ore Pack.”, he bowed deeply down, “And we desperatly need food for our foals.”
For a moment I feared, that he might have ment flesh but then again: Why would they have given up their predator shape, making it harder to fight down Fluffy and me to eat us? So I agreed to help them. The dry years and Nana Zecora tought me allways to have as much food stored as I can possibly gather and spare.
It took all my skills and even the big puppy eyes to convince Fluffy, to take them with us. But he was never good at refusing my wishes. Come to think of it, he is like an actually caring elder brother to me. So we took the werepony pack home with us. It was nice to see a little life in the big house. I shared my winter storage with them, even the emergency ration, I keep in a hidden stash. Its supprizingly easy to find at least enough to survive during winter in the forest.
I got cought up in a conversation with a cute colt, or maybe I should say pup? His name was Thunderhoofs. He told me, what actually happened to them. The Ore Pack didn't originally came from Everfree. They used to live in a village in the Foal Mountains as a sort of family clan. They kept to themselves as good as they could, so nopony would catch a suspicion of what they actually were. They only fed on critters, when it was absolutly necessary and never on sentient creatures.
Yet on a full moon night, when they are forced to transform, somepony saw one of the foals. Panic broke loose and the townsponies chased them away.
Do Equestrians ever think before they act?
Well rumors spread so fast, the Ore Pack couldn't find a place to settle down in peace again, as long as other ponies were around. So they fled and fled and fled. Until they arrived here in Everfree.
Thunderhoofs told me, they got lost in the forest work weeks and the only food they had was the little, they managed to take with them. Oh dear, they had no idea, how lucky they were, that they found me to help them. None of them knew how to survive in the wilderness of Everfree.
Fluffy, Nana Zecora and I spent the winter showing the wereponies how to find shelter and food and tought them the dangers of Everfree such as timberwolfs, magical beasts and spirits and to keep away from the old castle ruins.
Today they are true inhabitants of the Everfree forest, dear friends of mine and, if I ever see them, welcome guests. Their hunting ground, as they call it, is an area further west of our home. Its a shame. I like to spend time with Thunderhoofs. He's like a big puppy!
One time I couldn't resist and started scratching him behind his ear. The face he made was just too adorable. Minutes went on, he just enjoyed and I kompletly forgot he actually was a pony for a second. So it ended out that I gave him a belly rubb. Oh dear, the looks his pack gave us were akward.
If you ever have the pleasure to meet the Ore Pack, please be kind to them and they will repay it with kindness.
Well we I allmost cought up to the current date. To be honest: I don't actually know the current date. I have no calendar of any kind and Nana Zecora only reads the signs of nature. But I am sure it's now the second year, that I know Thunderhoofs now.
Theres one more important entry about the past to be made yet.
Last year, about the middle of summer, it was an awefully hot, yet moist one, Fluffy woke me up very early. His expression told me, he was awefully worried. Not everypony might be capable of reading his facial expressions but I made the big boy.
He couldn't say a word. He just motioned me to look out the window. There were colorful waggons at the lake! I had no idea where they came from. Yet I got all excited. I thought a circus would have come to visit. Silly isen't it? Fluffy was so scared of the possible threat. He wanted to block all the windows, so everypony would think our house was abondened. He knew my story from the very day he became sentient, so Fluffy was always worried for my safety. I really love him. He's the best friend a filly could wish for.
Well but from what I experienced, the ponies that come to live in Everfree have one thing in common: They are not welcome in Equestria and are in desperate need for some friendly company. So I put on my cloak, which was pretty ragged by then, to cover up my dreadfully thin body, put the hood up to hide the scar, not to scare the new visitors and went outside closely followed by Fluffy.
They were a pretty lively groop. Stallions building up a little camp, mares in traditional dresses preparing a meal and foals playing around between them. Gypsie ponies, almost like in the picture books for foals.
Oh dear... They were more scared of Fluffy, than he was scared of them. First a mare saw us approaching the camp and started screaming when she saw Fluffy: “Help, a monster!”
Everypony looked quickly and the mares and foals gathered behind the fearful looking stallions. They didn't dare to make a single step twards Fluffy...
Instead of raging at them, like at timberwolfs, when they try to attack me, Fluffy stoof there like frozen and then turned around and ran away, making a noise I never heared from him before. A deep dry sobbing. That was the first time I heared Fluffy cry.
I couldn't help but to yell at the gypsie ponies from the bottom of my misshaped lungs: “Look what you did there, you've hurt his feelings!” Emedietly followed by a heavy cough attack. The gypsie ponies rushed over to aid me but I pushed them away with magic. “I don't want the help of anypony, who hurts my best friend so bad!” I could barely speak between the coughs.
For the future I need to find out a spell to enhance my voice insetad of actually yell.
I ran back to the house and found Fluffy all curled up and crying in the basement. Oh dear... He is a strong creature and so intelligent, yet I have never met a pony as sensitive as him. I cuddled up with him in the darkness for houres. Even if his wheeping sounds stopped rather soon, I still felt the need to be with him, to solace him.
I fell asleep hugging his neck and woke back up in the late evening from the sound of the knocker. I went upstairs alone. I didn't want to put Fluffy through another shock. And indeed, as I assumed, the gypsie ponies were at my door. Yet not because they found the courage to “fight the monster” but to apologize. They made a wreath of wild flowers for him.
Oh dear, they really didn't know, they actually hurt a sentiend being... They neither expected me to have a huge scar on my face... Scared the hell out of them, when I took the hoof off...
Well, in the end Fluffy accepted their apologies, even if he still was very hurt.
We came to talk a little and one of the mares explained their situation to me. Her name was Sybill. Since gypsie ponies aren't allowed to own land by their tradition, they travel the land in their waggons and carriages. Since this is assumed to be weird, nopony actually trusts them. So it happens, that they are not allowed to camp out close to “regular ponies” settlements.
They are modern nomads, who survive by accepting every kind of work they can find (if anypony trusts them enough to give them a little work) or gathering all free food they can scavenge. All two years they come to Everfree on their tour through Equestria and each time they camp out at a different beach of the lake.
They are not too different from flying merchants! What makes these bloody numbsculls in Equestria treat them so bad?
We actually traded a little. Since most of them can't read at all, books are pretty much worthless to them, yet pefectly cut timber for a fire, medical herbs, even the petals of the poison joke are like a fortune to them!
This is actually how I got this blank book to write my yournal and a lot of the books and scrolls you might have found within my little library.
I made a contract with Sybill: Every time they come to Everfree, they camp out near my house, I will have a bag of medication and other usefull things prepared for them and they keep every book I might find interesting and bring it to me. One of them, who's actually capable of reading will have to make a list of titles, to ensure they don't gather books I already have over and over.
//A nota is attached to the pages: “Stopp editing and taking notes in the old yournals! Never change them again!”//
And now I sit here and levitate my quill. A 12 year old mare treated like dirt by fortune, living with two stallions in a pumpkin in the middle of the most dangerous forest of the known world. Only visited by her nana and now and then by a young predator pony. Yes I am talking about Thunderhoofs. He's a nice colt.
If you read these lines and tended to complain about your life in Equestria, try to remind this: I'd give a hoof for the easy life you have! But I rather gave my heart away than to leave my friends alone.
So from here on I'll make entries whenever something apart from our daily routine happens or when that routine actually changes.
I'll start by telling you, what my average days look like.
I get up early in the morning and take my “medication”. That means to take a little twig of loughing hans, chew on it, spit it out, cough up a ball of goo, fall to a lough attack and turn back to normal.
I put on my ragged coat, so I won't freeze and cover my thin body in case I might see new visitors. I woulden't want to scare anypony with my dreadfully thin body and the huge scar on my face.
Then I have a little breakfest together with Half Wing. He always wants me to eat more than I actually do. He likes to say: “You need a little meat on your bones girl.”
I spend my mornings working in the little garden we built up, while Fluffy chops wood for the fireplace or does repairs on the house and Half Wing trains his flying skills. You wouldn't believe how fast he flys between the trees! Slalom training he calls that. Our garden consists of a few tiny beds filled with medicational herbs, a little wild cotton and some wild lettuce and oats, that grow naturally in Everfree.
We have our lunch all together. Even if Fluffy doesn't eat at all but he likes the conversation and presence of his friends. Half Wing tends to tease him a little and emedietly catches a little slap on the back of his head from my magic. My parents used to do that with me, when I misbehaved.
I spend the afternoon ether reading, preparing the harvested goods, bathing in the lake (its supprizingly warm), just spending time with my friends or making trips through the forest with ether Half Wing or Fluffy. Sometimes we meet members of the Ore Pack. When Thunderhoofs meets me, he sends my “guardian” home and spends his time with me. I really like him.
OH! He told me, they met other wereponies in the forest. And he guids me home in the evenings as well.
Then we have dinner together. Thunderhoofs joins us, when he comes to guide me home. Sometimes he even sleeps with us, if he gets the chance to tell his pack, where he is.
The last thing I do before I fall asleep in my bed of hay and patchy blankets, all cuddled up with my big boy Fluffy and turn the last lights out is to make a new entry in my yournal. So as today.
Good night dear reader.
Author's Note
a) I'm actually German so please excuse my mistakes.
b) Critics please only about the style and such. Giving bad critics because you don't like the story is unfair, you can just choose not to read it, yet I appreciate when people try to help me improve my English.
c) I mark the look of pages, or things between the pages and details like that in this way:
//The paper seems like it was soaked in tears and dried again.//
//There was a herb dryed between the pages.//
Thanks for the attention, have fun!
p.s. please don't rush me for updates. I'm only writing in my freetime and that is a little rare since I spend 9.5 houres at the office during the week.
Half Wing is here for a few weeks now. About two or three months I guess.
This may seem triviall to you but I found something astonishing in the forest: a wild jasmine plant! Everfree flattens me every day again. We carefully dug the bush out and planted it at our house again. My two companions had no idea why I did such a crazy thing. “So it smells good hu? Thats all? Doesn't keep my inside full ya' know?” This pegasus truly speaks strange. But he will understand as soon as he drinks his first jasmine tea. He will love it and Fluffy will surely enjoy the smell. Just give them time.//a tiny dried blossom is attached to this entry, seems like it used to be white//
A week has passed since the last entry. The summer is almost over.
Half Wing found out why the lake is rather warm around here. If you go down to the shore and turn left you find a cave at the foot of the cliffs. In that cave you find strange round “pools”, arranged almost like stairs. Hot water seems to spring up inside them. The deeper you go into the cave the heigher is the level of the pool and the hotter is the water. It smells a little like sulphur but apart from that Half Wing found a pretty nice hot spring. He found the cave on his daily training and carried me there to show it to me. The cave is not completely flooded. When you enter you find a basalt structure, which stronly reminds of round black stairs. At the deepest spot of the cave, there is no actual water pool, but its like a sauna in there. It is almost like we had our own private spa here! We need to build a boardwalk to the cave, wide enough for at least 3 or 4 ponies to pass it at the same time. A few bags of dried herbs in there should also make the smell bearable. Maybe we could put them in the water when we bath there. That would be like taking a bath in tea. A nice idea.
Speaking of tea.
I keep picking fresh blossoms from the jasmine bush whenever its possible without damaging it. I dry them in a basket above the fireplace, like all the other herbs and collect them in an old wooden barrel Fluffy and I found on the junkyard. Seems like it was thrown away only a while before we found it, because it was almost perfectly fine, except for a little crack in the wood, and it didn't smell or anything. Just perfect for the tea.
OH! And I also have to remember to get blankets for the jasmine bush to cover it up in winter. I don't want it to die of frost.
It's a dry day.
We actually started building a boardwalk. Fluffy tore an old oak out of the ground. No I am not fooling you, he is that strong! I was cutting it with my magic. The levitation spell is capable of quite more than you might think. We rammed the poles into the lake soil together. After a while a second oak had to go. Actually all together it took us 5 big old oaks to have enough poles for the entire way. Thick branches connect each a pair of them and the left wood made pretty good planks. The rusty nails will hold a few years at leat. It would have been a waste to use the good nails. They would rust anyway, since they are just 2' above the surface. Now, in the early evening, we all sit together at home.We built an entire boradwalk all by ourselves. Who could imagine that? Actually if it wasn't for this book about sailing, the gypsie ponies gave us, we would have had no idea what a boardwalk would have to look like!
We all are completely exhausted and oh its no use. None of us will get up again now so we'll just sleep all together on the couch. Fluffy will need to repair it.
//The next entry coveres an entire page and is written like a graffiti.//
HALF WING WAS HERE!!!!
DEAL WITH IT!
//The next entry is written in the typical sophisticated hoofwriting again.//
I accedently gave Half wing a black eye.
//A yellow pegasus feather sticks between the next two pages.//
//Theres a detailed drawing of a huge pumpkin with windows, a door and a chimney all over them.//
I'm sorry Stitch.
//Then the regular entries go on.//
Oh dear, poor Half Wing.
I totally lost it when I saw, what he wrote all over the other page. I slapped the book in his face. I should have told him, how much it means to me from the very beginning. The past two weeks he's been so remorseful... I apologized to him and explained, why I keep making these entries. Today I found one of his feathers as bookmark between the pages.
First I thought, he played another prank on me but then I saw this sweet little drawing. He even got the crack in the left window's glass! Oh gosh does our house really look like in the ponytale books for little foals?
A good artist was lost to this pegasus. I just have to repay this to him somehow.
We had our first bath in the hot springs today.
Oh dear I havn't felt this good sinc I arrived here in Everfree. Half Wing and Fluffy seemed to enjoy it as well. At first I thought Fluffy would refuse to take a bath, since he is aware that his insides mainly consist of wild cotton, bones and wood.
Actually I was afraid he would soak with hot water, due to his patchy surface.
No he just sat in the hot water with us and to my surprise nothing happened to him. We all could just enjoy our bath. Finally we got rid of the smell of old sweat. To be honest with you, I didn't even notice it anymore but being fresh and clean feels a lot better.
Later I checked on Fluffy, to see if any water soaked through his surface. The cotton would rott from the moisture. It turned out, there was no chance for any moisture to enter Fluffies body. Even tho you see the seams on his colorful body, his surface grew to a solid skin. I have to write my spells down for later generations. When I see Fluffy and Half Wing, I can't help but to notice, that they are miracles.
Fluffy.
Now that I think of it, we have a rather curious relationship to eachother. To me he is like a best friend, an elder brother, a guardian, a big plushy but also … a son. I know how strange this might sound to you but yes. I created him. Used the magic I never learned but always felt deep inside to give him a life and sentience.
But... What right do I have to create a sentient being?
Especially one, that will propably never be accepted within the only society around. Not to long ago I started collecting limbs and skin in the forest again. I remove the flesh and only conserve the skin and bone. I learned my lesson about the scent of rotten flesh when I made Fluffy.
But I won't make another of his kind. As sad as it makes me to know, that he'll be alone one day, but I just don't have the right to create sentient creatures like this. I see that now.
I'm sorry my big boy. I love you.
//The next entry is written in a very clean font. But it must have been added much later. Its squeezed between two entries with a different ink.//
I would never blame you. I love you to little Stitchy.
As the days move on, I dare to move deeper and deeper into the forest.
Meanwhile I know how far I can enter the forest with ether Half Wing or Fluffy and make it back home in time before the manticors awake. It turned out this glade is just behind their territory. I hope you didn't have the pleasure to meet one of these creatures in persone.
We all enjoy the trips into the forest. They are a chance to see new things and to meet with the Ore Pack. Even if Half Wing mistrusts them a little, it seems they slowly become friends. Fluffy gets along very well with Elder Led Eyes. It seems two hearts beat together, when they discuss philosophy. I feel watched all the time, when I meed with Thunderhoofs. His mother seems to disapprove to me. I wonder what is so wrong to it? Thunderhoofs and I are just enjoying eachothers company. We're friends or aren't we?
//The next entry is entirely written in the graffiti like font. Some mistakes have been crossed out multiple times.//
Yo, Half Wing here.
Case your wondrin: Stitch's knockt out. Buckin werethings got her. BUCK. Not these Ore guys. They aint dat bad. She came up with this crazy idea. Doin an all day tripp to de deep forest. Goin as far as we culd she said. Damn. Wish ah wouldnt listn to her dat oftn. The place we been to, her, big boy Fluffy n me, dat was, like night at day! No ahm not crazy! Holy horesappls! Dat forests a monster I tellya! I say dat n I live with guys like Fluffy and these wereguys in the middl of manticore-Canterlot! In dat place there. Holy horesappls. Thinkn o it makes my heart go boom boom boom in my ears! Yea so there was this growln. Basicly from everywhere. Buck buck buck. They attackt without a warnin. Fluffy roard like hell. Buck dat would scare a dragn off I tellya! Smasht two or the of them to bloody clump. Cant tell, mousses mousse y'no? He did it cuz, dats the point. Dis big red thing with the scar on the left eye. Dat monsta. It attack Stitch. Buck and it got her for good! Smackt her gainst a tree. So yea we fought. And buck we gavem hell! But eh, barely managed to get out. Baiscly cuz Fluffy didnt wanna go until deir all dead. Buck he just stept on doze things and WAM flesh smoothy. He looks like franknpony with all da blood on him. Lucky us Stitch didnt get a cut but. Yea. You get it. A hit on da head. Ahm writn for her tday. Doin it cuz ah know what it means to her. She'd be hell pisst if she died n dere was no final entry! Buck shed swear even more dan usual! “Bloody hell!” “Bloody numbsculls!” “Rotten guts of a dragons corps in hell!” Hehe love dat bout her. If she ever stopps talkn like dat shes ether knocked out, dead or about to explode lika volkaino. Nevr makeer pisst nuff to stopp swearn! Youll regret it! Lucky again, they didn just teach us flyn n fightn at wonderbolt camp. I did mah best first aid n Fluffy got dat zebra here. Shes watchn Stitch now. Ahm writn for her here. Hope shell makeit.
One more thing. Ifya find dat red guy, de one with de scar on de eye, and I didnt rippem to shreds, or I died tryn: WASTEM! Smashm, slicem, puttem to da grinder n make werepony cuppcakes outa him! Buck do I care but takem out! Cant let dat buckbag nearly kill Stitch n get away withit. Buck dey tryd to eat us!
//The next entry is written in a very rough font. As if the writer wasn't used to write equestrian.//
If the upper line have put you through hell,
Zecora assures you Zombie Sitch is doing well.
Even if she was hit on the head,
She is far from being dead.
For her eyes race of fear so pure,
I fear sleep is her only cure.
The prevent her to join the headless horese,
We have to feed her by force.
When the power of the herbs wear off,
She still convulses by cough.
There is no need to search a grave by the lake,
For soon the little witch will awake.
//The next entry is written in the clear font again, yet with the same ink as the rest of this volume.//
Stitchy, don't leave us alone here. I wouldn't know what to do. Thunderhoofs wouldn't know what to do. Zecora... she'd miss you surely even if I don't always understand her. Even Half Wing wouldn't know what to do!
If you wake up when I am away and read this: he took the big knife from the kitchen. Every evening since he made his entry he goes out to hunt for the wereponies, that attacked us.
He said: “Don't worry big boy. I'll bring you a slice of that cake. Takes more then just one monster to take me out!”
And he returns every morning, pale as the death himself, covered in scratches. I'm afraid he won't stop until he's ether dead, got his revenge or you told him to stop.
Please wake up soon!
//The next entry must have been written with a shaking hoof.//
Oh dear I have such caring friends!
They all were with me, when I woke up. Such worried faces. My head still hurts and I can't focus. Half Wing said, he would hunt this monster down with his bare hoof if he had to. I stopped him. I can't let him get hurt. Fluffy must have been at my side all day and night. Two weeks. Nana Zecora fed me in my sleep, even my medication.
I remember I dreamed all the time. I don't want to remember this dream. I'm still shaking from it.
//The following entries definetly come from the original author again.//
It took me two days until I could sleep again.
Ever since my last day in Canterlot, I haven't slept well due to nightmares. Two weeks. Always the same scenes. The same faces. The same screams. Tears run down my face whenever I'm alone now. I tell my friends the red eyes come from the long sleep.
I feel haunted by the spirits of the guards, as if they would accuse me to have killed them like the rest of Equestria does. I'll never forget them. Never. Not in this life and not in the next.
Fluffy and Half Wing bring me my meals and books.
Nana Zecora told me not to move for at least a week. In couldn't refuse, since I immediately faint, when I try to get up. Whenever Half Wing brings me a warm meal or tea, it tastes burned. This stallion surely can't cook but his heart is in the right place, so I'll be a good filly and eat it all up. I think I'll actually be able to gain a little weight this way.
Ah! Today I finally managed to stand up without fainting.
It feels great to stand on my hoofs again! Even tho my legs are so weak that Fluffy has to assist me all the time. Bloody hell.
You propably red Half Wings entry. I finally managed to decryp his horrible font and language. A pain to my eyes but oh well.
It is true that I do swear like that. But not that often, I hope. Basicly when I get hurt or someponie's acting like they only had air in their sculls. Sighs. Sometimes I believe Half Wing provokes me to use this language. Yet it does feel good to blow off some steam every once in a while.
Another week has passed and the summer is coming to its end.
Here in Everfree there are no pegasi to tell the land, when to switch seasons. As it seems the nature fo the Everfree forest regulates itself. The critters around here don't need anypony to feed them, plants grow on their own and the weather slowly changes from hot to cold.
Today Thunderhoofs payed us a visit. He said, that he got worried, since he hasn't seen me in such a long time. I think that is is way to say, he missed me.
Without thinking for even a second Half Wing immediately told Thunderhoofs about my unconsciousness. Oh dear. Thunder started growling. I never heared him do that in his pony shape. He must have almost lost it. It took me several hours to calm him down again. He was like an enraged foal. An enraged foal, who could crush your bones between its jaws.
When he finally regained his sentience, he began to tell us about the other pack he met: “I had a bad feeling about them from the first smell, the smell of blood. They don't hunt to stay alive. They hunt for fun. Their leader, Roughneck, told us it would be our nature. We'd be 'freakn' predators' and would mollycoddle if we kept eating plants.” His description of the leader felt unpleasantly familiar and judging by Fluffies and Half Wings reactions, my guess was correct. It was the werepony, who strook me unconscious.
I didn't let Thunderhoofs leave until he promised me, he wouldn't hunt for the other pack. In exchange I had to promise, not to go this deep into the forest without him or an other member of the Ore Pack again.
This was the reason he spent the last night together with Half Wing in the other room.
The leaves began to change colour.
Thunderhoofs got injured. He convinced his father to hunt down the other pack. They must have tracked them down to south, cornered them in and I don't actually know what happened. Nopony told me. Thunderhoofs' brother brought him here. And not only him. Oh dear. The entire hunters of the pack. 8 adult mares and stallions. They... I had to stitch them back together. Th house still smells of blood. Thunderhoofs looked the worst. He was barely in one piece. For a moment I thought he was dead for a few moments. In panic I pumped soo much magic into him...
Oh dear but he openes his eyes again. I felt so relieved. You have an idea how many wereponies of the other pack they cornered in?
A SINGLE ONE!
When I asked them, which it was, none of them was able to give me a name or even just a discription. They only covered their left eye.
And I believe I finally know, who they tracked down. Tonight, the whole pack stays here for their own safety and by tomorrow I will forbid them to hunt this Roughneck beast down. If they try it again... I'm not sure if any of them would return.
