The Grumpy Stallion
In the depths of the Everfree Forest, on a bright day, one could hear the "thunk" of an ax against wood. Following would be a tree falling to the dirt floor of the forest. At the trunk, would be an old hippogriff (NOT MLP THE MOVIE!) who proceeds to chop the wood into smaller pieces of firewood. He has brown fur and feathers, which are graying at the tips, with the image of a falling apple as his cutie-mark.
At his little shack of a home, he starts up a fire, and sees a couple of rabbits nearby. He sighs as he heads inside his shack and comes out with a knife strapped to his side. Next, we see him cooking small pieces of meat over the fire, the meat on sticks held up over the fire being rotated slowly. After browning them, he proceeds to feast.
He then goes inside his shack, and with the light falling through the cracks of the roof and walls, we see he has a bed to the side, with a little furnace in front to keep him warm through the nights and winters, winters that come naturally as the Everfree decides every year without pony influence. Next to his bed is a small table, on it is a lantern, his ax, a small whetstone, some flint, and a small vase next to a picture... but it's too dark to discern what is in the picture. He sharpens his ax, then he takes a small rest, then finishes his meal, then puts wood in the furnace to burn, and then turns in for the night. This is how his usual day goes, but one night has an unexpected presence at his door.
He wakes up one night due to hearing what sounds like bickering upon female voices.
"You sure you know where you're going?" grumbled a rasping sounding voice.
"Well, the book did say the castle was this way," explained an exasperated voice.
"Ah don't know Twi, the "Do not pass this point sign" seemed to be there fer a reason," mentioned a country accent.
"Ooh! Why don't we ask whoever lives in that shack!?" asked a hyper voice.
"What shack- oh..." whispered a meek voice.
"It doesn't look all appealing, if more horrendous, if I do say so..." said a refined voice.
"Who would live all the way out here?"
"Whoever it is couldn't be that bad." Then there was knocking, the old bird hoped they wouldn't knock. He slammed the door open to see six mares, rainbow, yellow, orange, white, pink, and purple, in front of his home. . .
". . ."
Awkward silence passed before the purple unicorn broke the silence. "Um... Hi. My name is Twilight Sparkle and-"
"Why are you all here?"
"Well, if you'd let me finish I-"
"Would have left if you knew what was good for you," the old bird interrupted in his deep raspy voice.
"Hey!" the rainbow pegasus shouted before going face to face with the old bird. "We're trying to help save the world from... What?"
"Eternal night," the unicorn answered.
"Right! And right now, we're trying to find the..."
"Elements of Harmony."
"Yeah," the rainbow pegasus finished with a serious expression. This caused the old bird to burst out laughing. "What's so funny?"
"You six, trying to play hero. And why did you even knock? No wait, I could care less," the old bird mocked. "Why don't you go back to your town before you get hurt?"
"'Cause we came too far to turn back now!" the orange country mare yelled. "And we knocked 'cause we thought there'd be somepony who wanted to help."
"With what?"
"Helpin' us find that castle."
"Okay, and if I wanted to help, why would I want to?"
"Because all of Equestria is at stake," the purple unicorn explained. This caused the old bird to raise a brow. "It will ruin all the lives of ponies everywhere!" He only gave another laugh before closing the door and going straight to bed. "Ugh! Just forget it!" That was before the old bird went back up and grabbed the lantern and opened the door.
"Wait... You're going the wrong way..." he relented. The purple uni- Twilight grinned before nodding. "If you wanna reach that castle, you're gonna have to follow me."
"Thank you..."
"Newt, Newt Bronze Feather, and you all are?"
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, there's Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity" Twilight introduced, pointing to each pony respectively. "Lead the way."
"Whoa, whoa. We're just trusting this guy now? What if he leads us to a trap!" Rainbow accused.
"Rainbow... he's all we have right now." Twilight reasoned.
"Uh, fine," Rainbow relented, crossing her hooves. With lantern in claw, Newt lead the mares through the dark forest, watching out for dangers along the way.
"Watch out for-" poison puffing flowers, "that and-" GIANT venus fly trap looking things, "those and especially-" he intentionally set off a rock monster of some kind that would have closed up from under the ponies, "these sons of guns," leaving the other mares wide eyed and surprised.
"How do live with all these, these, monsters?" Rarity asked.
"Being really careful."
"And why do you live out here?" Twilight asked.
"To stay away from migraine inducing ponies, like Pink headache over there," he said, the other's either not noticing his jab at Pinkie, or not showing their offence. As he was walking, Rainbow, or mostly all the mares, noticed his slight limp, especially Applejack.
"You okay partner?" she asked.
"For Luna's, I am just fine, thank you. Damn ponies.”
“Pardon? What was that?”
“None of your business.”
Finally they arrived at the castle. Small problem, was the fact that the bridge was down.
“Rainbow, Newt, can you two-”
“No can do,” Newt interrupted as Twilight was about to ask the two to help put the bridge back up.
“Why not?”
“My wings aren’t as good as they used to be. Simple as that,” he said with a blank look.
“Alright, Rainbow, can you try to put the other end of the bridge up?”
“No problem.” Rainbow answered with a salute, flying to the other end of the gap, yadda yadda, we know how it goes. They cross the bridge, but encounter another problem, a large door that won’t open. Applejack even tried bucking it, but to no avail.
“It won’t budge,” Applejack explained the obvious. Twilight started thinking, and noticed Newt thinking.
“You can go home if you want,” Twilight offered.
“Hold on,” Newt said. He placed down the lantern, and punched the doors hard.
“I already said, it ain’t gonna budge,” Applejack told him.
“Not by normal means. How hard is your buck?”
“Pretty hard. Why?”
“Buck my left arm as hard as you can,” Newt ordered.
“What? I ain’t gonna just-”
“For crying out just do it.”
“No!”
“Do you want to save Equestria?” Newt asked. Applejack sighed and stood next to Newt. He stretched out his left arm, and reared his right arm back with his hand curled in a fist. “Don’t hold back.”
Applejack felt like she would regret this, as she reared up her hind hooves and bucked as hard as she could into Newt’s left arm, and then his right arm flying forward into the large double doors, blowing them wide open. This leaving the six mares slack jawed and wide eyed. He then stood to the side, and gestured them to enter. With resolve, the six mares headed forward, not before Twilight put in a quick “Thank you” which Newt waved off.
He thought about leaving, but something kept him from leaving without helping to see this through. He followed close enough to watch them, but far enough they to where they had no idea he was still behind him. He then watched their finding of the dried up elements, encountering Nightmare Moon, he was not surprised, and watched Twilight’s fly away. He followed the five mare’s up the stair case, viewed the epiphany that the gifted unicorn had, and the awakening of the elements. He also watched the empowering of the elements and how when the rainbow beam went up, for some reason, it just went and became a ball of energy. The ponies looked in despair, without hope.
“B-but how! The-the spark- the magic of friendship-” Twilight sputtered as they landed on the floor.
“You fool! You really think-”
“That those six things are all it takes for friendship!?” Newt yelled from the entrance to the room, interrupting Nightmare Moon, and once again, surprising the Mane Six. He began trotting, before galloping. “There’s always the sometimes...” he said as he jumped at the rainbow ball of energy, “where you need to use a little FORCE!” he yelled rearing his fist back, punching at the ball of energy, and with a flash of light a rainbow giant f*#king fist emerged flying into a screaming Nightmare Moon. As she felt the magic of friendship being literally punched into her, she was finally defeated. Newt blacked out.
The next day, Newt woke back up, in a hospital. He was confused, disoriented, and everything was blurry. When he gained his bearings, he saw the figure of Celestia.
“Ah great, royalty. When will I catch a break? Judging by your expression, you seem to be disappointed and happy at the same time,” Newt told.
“Well, considering you were the one to help free my sister of her corruption, I am happy about that...” Celestia started with a light tone, before turning serious, “But you wouldn’t happen to know would you, considering how you knew what you would do would work.” She read Newt’s blank expression like a book, before sighing. “You had no idea, did you? You didn’t try to help them, did you? No, you didn’t know what was going to happen. You just did it, because you thought you would’ve gotten closer to her. You do realize how much sorrow and despair would go through my student, and her friends?”
“Please, I only knew them for a short time-”
“And, that short time was enough to plant that seed. I don’t know what went through your head, but now, you have ponies who care.”
“When I don’t? I don’t give a damn about what those ponies think!”
“Then why did you help?”
“You know the answer just as well as I do.”
“I see... Well, then, at least know I care. And while I’m gone, try to at least to take care of this town... friend.”
“We’ll see... friend.”
. . . Celestia left the hospital, and Newt to his rest . . . With now, one friend.