Cast aside the dock just attached to town he stepped off and tipped the griffon child on the board walk to his poverty just a gold coin. He walked with his oxidized mask and deep and flat laugh lines that canvased it, it was a cobalt blue metal. Identity not a concern and no one elses he walked into town standing 6 foot 5 inches from feet to head, shadowing, looking down at everyone, pony or species alike. Behold the Human, the last of his kind.
 
A small but old dragon painted with scars and yellow scales sat at a cart tending to his blue pony friend. "Oi driver, whats the southern most town from here?" said the human. The yellow and blue turned to him "I'd say that'd be pony ville just a couple clicks from here, you wantin a ride?"
 
"Absolutely" he agreed, he threw his bag on the trunk of the cart and hopped in with it.
 
"To ponyville then, I'll pay you a 4th pound gold if you get me there" the human offered, the dragon was excited, much more gold than he even had in mind. Pushing his luck the dragon asked if the human had a light for his damp cigar. He stared, then from under neath his leather and fur robe his hand appeared with a steel gauntlet with as many markings as his mask did. with his fingers exposed from the steel plate and fur glove he tipped his hand and thumb to the side like he was dumping a drink over and a little orange flame appeared from his nail, making the cigar choke with smoke and cinders.
 
"Oh, so you're-uh one of them magic figures I take it?" the dragon smugly asked
 
"You could say that..." he answered. Their conversations ceased and the blue earth pony rolled forward with the first hoof. The cart wheels rose from the dirt dents the card had made in the ground and they were off.
 
The sun fell from high noon and the cart stopped at a small lake front.
 
"Driver why've we stopped" the human asserted almost rhetorically.
 
"We've just topped for a break, my friend here is tired just to catch his breath" The blue pony was hardly exasperated. Something was up. The dragon jumped from the cart.
 
"aight, whateva you're step off and hand me ya values" Demanded the yellow dragon. his claws exposed and his stance widened "or we'll takem from ya"
 
The human removed his hands from his chin.
 
"you're really wanting to do this now? We've come about half way south" The human retorted sarcastically.
-
"Spike... Spike!" called twilight.
 
"Spike I need you to take a letter" she demanded with spike no where to be heard or seen. She trotted up her stairs of her house to find Spike napping hard into the afternoon in his bed
 
"SPIKE! Get up! We have things to do today and I can't possibly have you sleeping on a beautiful day like today!"
Spike rolled and groaned to the noise of twilight's insistent and perky attitude.
 
"but we already wrote a letter to Celestia yesterday, what did you forget to tell her?"
 
"Oh no no Spike! its not a letter to Princess Celestia its to everypony we know!" she corrected.
 
"ugh why now..." he rolled his head under the pillow.
 
"Because don't you remember what day it is tomorrow? its my birthday! and instead of having it in Canterlot like we did last year we're going to have it here!" She hopped with glee, shaking Spike from his pseudo-sleep. Twilight went to the window and rushed the drapes wide open, exposing the sun onto Spike's bed.
 
"Come on spike we don't have all... whats that?" Her attention curved to spot smoke from the horizon, just a thin veil of smoke
 
"W-whats what, Twilight?" he asked as he rubbed the dust from his eyes.
 
"That there! over the trees, looks like smoke from a fire, I hope its not another one of those dragons sleeping again"
-
"Damn shame, driver..." the human rustled his gauntlet and clothes back into a more comfortable shape "...Now you've made me walk the rest of the way, should've been more patient and you'd have your 4th pound of gold" He spoke to nothing, not even facing the yellow dragon and blue pony's dead caucuses. The fire still burned from the wood cart, broken into a puzzle and burned like a bonfire at a party. He breathed sternly and heavily until he choked his exhalation. the fire stopped immediately and swiped away then releasing the pressure of his lungs, smoke rose from the cart in a large puff, leaving only black char and dead grass. He rummaged his bag, pulling a scroll from his rucksack and he unwound it before him.
 
"Ah, ok there's this little lake where I'm at and there's that Pony-ville town... At least he took me towards where I want to go" he smoke under his breath to himself.
 
"well its not getting any closer..." and he was off, walking steadily, the sun hid to his left just falling behind some mountains and tall trees above him.
-
"Hey Everypony! Listen up!" announced Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Applejack stood in the market, caught by Twilight's call
 
"Theres another stream of smoke just north of here, I think its another dragon, Pinkie Pie, Applejack go find fluttershy and tell her to get Rainbow, I'll get rarity and we need to set off fast to stop this impending danger" she spoke, Spike's eyes squinted at the bright light with the letter not even started for twilight's birthday.
 
Twilight burst into Rarity's boutique as she was sewing a strip of cloth onto her manikin. Rarity outraged by the disturbance only to be interrupted by Twilight's rigmarole about a potential dragon again. Rarity forgot her previous rage and gathered her things to go out again. They walked outside to meet the other four, all packed with saddle bags for the road north into the forest.
 
"Its important we do this right, Rainbow scout ahead and find the source so we can plan where to go" Twilight lead, Rainbow gave the Ok and flew high above, rainbow tail streaking across the land. After a while she found the source of the smoke in the forest. She immediately turned right around and headed back to the gang
 
"Twilight!" she rang "Theres a big cloud of smoke in the forest like a few miles from here, I didn't see what it was coming from, too many trees" she reported.
 
"Thats ok Rainbow, at least we don't need to climb another mountain..."
 
"but twilight... what if it-it-it ISN'T another dragon, what are we going to do?"
 
"We'll deal with it like we a;ways do! as a team!" twilight rallied, Applejack nodded blissfully while pinkie pie jumped up and down with the party cannon saddle she's always used.
 
The 6 ponies raced out of town at break-neck speeds in a single line formation with Rainbow and Fluttershy behind Rainbow above at the lead followed by twilight and the others. The confidence bloomed and their march roared into the forest, disturbing its dirt and leaves. Over every hill and around every bend the trail just kept going. Nobody from Ponyville ever took the roads north this far simple because there was no interest to, Twilight didn't even have a proper map of the area, just a few mountains and a road between them.
 
The human counted his steps in boredom, looking straight down at his leather boots and garb. His posture shows how its not new for him, he wears the mask even when theres no one around to see him. The loneliness is welcomed, the forest was at peace and the sounds of nature in their flow is working unhindered by him. But wait there was a disturbance. He first noticed the vibrations in his shoes, he looked up but didn't see anything beyond the hill in front of him. It was getting louder and closer. He walked off the trail a good ways and held tight in the bush under the trees, the grass he walked through replaced itself and stood upright again. Six Equine characters of all different colors rocketed by completely unaware of the scenery they disturbed. the sound of galloping dissipated, the earthquake of hooves calmed and the forest was once again in harmony.
 
He walked further off trail for a bit, cautious before safely returning to the road. The sun hid behind more and more mountains as it fell below most of everything. Night was falling but he wasn't concerned, he was practically a nobleman, traveling from place to place. the routine of sleeping in the wilderness was nothing foreign. Utter darkness took over quickly and the human walked as if nothing had ever changed. New sounds and fixtures took over the darkness, a plethora of lewd sounds unheard of in the day. The woodland creatures that cast a shade from the sun were taken over by their shadows by nocturnal beings that were just has harmless the human was to them. over the last turn he caught sight of lights and populus...
 
"Finally" he exhaled. He'd actually be able to sleep in a bed that night, resting his tired and dirty feet
 
He searched the town lit like the sun with with street lights. Nobody in town paid attention to what was outside their windows, a completely foreign figure, it did not walk on fours and didn't even have a tail. He sat on the town's center where there laid a well for water. He reached down and grabbed the bucket, filled it with water and put it on his lap. He moved his mask upward to sip from the bucket. An innocent filly looked outside the window and saw what ever it was
 
"Mommy! Mommy look! Theres something at the watering well" The mare lazily stared outside the window and saw nothing but blackness and street torches, not even looking into what the little filly saw. "Thats nice dear now go get ready for bed, its way past your bed time"
 
Where would the human sleep? There didn't seem to be any look of anything that resembled a place to stay. Every building was residential minus a few shops that had no lights what so ever. He was in a town full of people and he would spend the night like he did in the wilderness, on the ground and in the cold.
-
The mane 6 found the cart and its holdings just after sundown. Everyone gasped at the terrifying sight, it was unrecognizable, just burnt wood and flesh. It had no odor as it was charred all over. What did have an odor was the wood cart and the dead grass around it. It must've been at least 20 meters wide.
 
"Who could have done such a thing?" Fluttershy sulked, hiding behind Applejack, daring not to look again.
 
"I dunno Fluttershy" Applejack replied hazily "Maybe it was just an accident, maybe they was carrying some not so fire friendly things"
 
That was it, everyone agreed instantly, it matched everything on the pony's previous premises.
 
"Yea thats probably what happened, Fluttershy" Said Rainbow Dash, both defending fluttershy's innocence but also quite disturbed herself.
 
Twilight was speechless, a mindless and stupid accident took someone's life. She didn't even know what to do, should she tell Celestia? Should she tell the ponies in Ponyville? Or should she just leave it and never come back out here. This wilderness was uncharted this far out, she became slightly paranoid, this forest might be just as dangerous as Everfree Forest.
 
"Umm, ok everyone, I think we should start heading back to town..." "but twilight! Pinkie Pie replied quickly "We can't just 'head back to town'... It took us ALL afternoon to get up here" "She's raight" agreed Applejack "We've simply come too far to just turn around, we should just set up camp back down the road and wait till mornin" she suggested.
 
The Six walked down the road obviously distorted from the event. The night would be a very long one, none of them had ever slept outside in the wilderness before. Before long the night became an unfounded unwariness to a terrifying one. It made all the six act like they were all fillies again, scared of the dark. The sounds spooked and woke them at every hour.
 
Morning came and not too early, the six made quick use of "the early bird gets the worm" and started heading south from there, none of them would speak of it, no formalities or anything. Each of them had their own excuses to report on what they saw.
 
The morning came quick for the human as well. He took leave from his hiding spot on the outskirts of town and headed in again. His hunger growing at every waking ounce of his consciousness. At first no one in town noticed him, then as everyone had gone out that day, they conspired like they all did with zecora. He approached the table where some pony was selling breads of all shapes and sizes. he picked up one loaf and analyzed it. The pony at the counter was vexed, this tall thing just walked up, stuck out its "hoof?" and picked up her bread
 
"How much for this one?" he asked holding it in the air in front of her.
 
"uh-umm-uh..." she stuttered, he was still standing still. "th-three bits...?" She said questioning without actually questioning him.
 
"Whats a bit? How about a few pieces of gold" he abruptly mentioned, making quick to present her with a mixture of flat gold pieces that sort of looked like bits but were much flatter and wider.
 
"Th-thank you?" she said. She hardly moved until he turned with his bread and walked away. She just store at the coin the brushed it into her little moneybox.
 
The towns folk soon became "used" to his presence, interacting with each other normally but not with him at all. He didn't mind, everyone minds their own business in his mind.
 
Just half past noon the six finally made it back and acted as normal as they could while the event wore off almost completely.
 
"Oh I almost forgot" Fluttershy recalled "happy birthday twilight" Every other pony made the same recollection and wished her as well.
 
"sorry everyone maybe we can gather up tonight and celebrate" Twilight apologized "lets all meet at my house tonight"
 
"and I'll bring the cake!" pinkiepie happily mentioned, they all laughed and spit among their daily routines
 
The first of the six to meet the human was twilight. She took a step back then remembered her events with Zecora. She hesitantly applied her learnings and approached the creature.
 
"h-Hello." Twilight said. He looked up and closed his book with some sort of script on it's cover with some shape with 5 prongs or ligaments.
 
"Hi..." he replied motionless waiting for her next move.
 
"Whats your name and what brings you to ponyville?" she asked
 
"Its more polite to introduce yourself before asking the person you're talking to" he corrected.
 
"Oh, I'm so sorry. My name is twilight sparkle" she announced to him with a hoof on her chest.
 
"Nice to meet you Twilot Sparkel" he replied.
 
"...Its Twilight... Sparkle" She spelled to him.
 
"Nice to meet you Twilight Sparkel" adjusting himself slightly. He resumed to his book. The awkwardness built, Twilight assumed her posture to be more appealing.
 
"So... What-cha reading?" she was intrigued by his book.
 
"I don't know myself, its called 'Elements to the Incantations of the World'" The book had the 5 prongs that matched his ligaments almost exactly. Twilight was interested by that relationship but failed to mention it.
 
"So.... what are you doing here of all places?"
 
"Just passing through, gathering things and resting up"
 
"Do you need a place to stay? I have room in my house" She offered. He immediately became interested in what she was saying. He closed his book, threw it into his rucksack and stood as high as the sun
 
"Yes I do need a place to stay, please take me there, do you have sustenance and drink aswell?" he asked.
 
"I sure do, why don't you follow me home, today's my birthday and all of us are going to my house for the party and cake"
 
The two filtered through the town like a pebble in falling water. The ponies in town weren't disgusted but more along the lines of put off by this thing that stood almost twice as tall as they did which was a generous exaggeration. They walked across the square where he had first took water from, passed Sugar Cube Corner and beyond the cascading buildings that was Ponyville.
 
"Why do they call this place, The Ponyville?" he asked, taking in every color of every scene in the buildings, trees, and objects had to offer.
 
"Its called Ponyville because we're all ponies here" she made rather explicit, quite obvious.
 
"What are you?" she asked informally
 
"hmm?"
 
"What are you? if we're ponies, and we all live in a town and that makes us ponyville, then what are you?"
 
"umm... ugh..?" he looked to the sky that even he had a hard time looking up to. "I am uhh..."
 
Twilight raised a brow at him expecting a rather easy question.
 
"I... I am the last of my kind..." he created the phrase depressingly.
 
"The what?" she asked, hearing that of all things was unheard of, she was vexed at the statement, which was implicit that there would be a proper explanation for this.
 
"I.. Am... As far as I know... The very last one... of my kind" he repeated, the pauses were in tune to his breaths, his posture and language was making it obvious that he didn't want to talk about it
 
"Oh..." she signed. She stopped asking and moved onto other related topics. "So where are you from?"
 
"...From a place that shouldn't be visited by any living thing anymore" This wasn't just depressing and off culture, it was pure ambiguity. Twilight didn't want to disrespect but she was annoyed that he couldn't come up with a name or proper mention.
 
Twilight forgot about all that nonsense when she finally spotted her tree house. She galloped over to the door and nudged it open. She waited for him and they both went in side one by one. She trotted to the center where she presented her messy drawrs and shelves full of things from where Spike had left off. She climbed her stares and pointed at her telescope.
 
"And thats my telescope, and thats the library, and the beds are up here, and theres Spike's bed and theres the kitchen" She excitingly displayed all of her furnishings and features to him.
 
"Oh, I see you're the star gazing type" he noticed after she pointed at her telescope. "You know, I like the stars and things too, in fact..." he waved a finger at twilight, she briskly walked to his side. he whispered "My people have been to the stars"
 
"what? no way!"
 
"Yes way, we finally did it about 40 years before I was born" he explained
 
"How? I mean how could anyone visit all those stars, they're all so far away"
 
"Well... eh we've visited the moon" he corrected
 
"Oh... well the moon" she signed, "we have a pony friend of ours who visits the moon too" completely unimpressed by his story
 
"Aye, you know the fireworks, you know how they work yes? we have really really big fireworks except they don't go POP at the end and we used to put people in them and they'd go into space towards the moon, only once though" He extorted. Twilight still wasn't impressed but hid it around false amazement to suppress him that his "no longer existing people" from "a place no one should visit anymore" went to the moon.
 
"Why do you have a mask?" she asked shortly after
 
"You ask a lot of questions for someone who seems to have all the answers in these books" he proposed at twilight.
 
She shied at the comment, turning away from the question. She turned and showed him the rest of her tree house.
 
"And this is the balcony!" she had a finale on her balcony that oversaw most of ponyville
 
"Wow its really big from up here, you can see everything" he awed. "and whats that?"
he pointed at the land across the town where multiple trees stood in parade.
 
"Oh thats Sweet Apple Acres, its an Apple farm run by Applejack and her brother Big Macintosh" she exclaimed
 
"Oh..." he sighed "lets go get some apples and stuff, I like apples" he rather uppity and excited.
 
The two walked across town again, meeting more and more ponies that strayed away from him like a disease, ignoring twilight at his side.
 
"Applejack!" twilight yelled "Hey applejack, got any applepie or fritters?" she asked. Applejack poked out the window with applebloom behind
 
"Sure do! come on eein!" she approved. Twilight and her new friend climbed up the dirt hill at the farm. Applejack greeted them at the door and then finally noticed it.
 
"woh doggy, uhh" she froze "uh twilight you you what you doin? ya know theres this massive 2 legged thing sittin at mah doar" she whispered
 
"Its ok applejack its not anyone dangerous, we just came for some pie and things" reassuring applejack. She invited them in and applejack pulled out an applepie that had a slice missing from it. She placed plates down on the table in front of them and served them each a slice.
 
"well dig in" twilight said, who took a bite from her slice.
 
"no fork?" he asked rhetorically "Fork? whats that? ya just eat pie like anyone else" poked applejack. He looked awkwardly at it, picked up the plate and slid the pointy end and bit down. Applejack wasn't convinced.
 
"uhh twilight" applejack whispered again "no hooves?" twilight swallowed then looked over, to the fact that he had no hooves on his upper two nor the bottom two
 
"You know" He pointed at Applejack "You look a little familiar" Applejack was a bit put off by the statement
 
"ehh, don't mind me, I'll remember later, thank you for the apple pie though" he pulled a few of those flat coins out again and dropped them on the table. He lifted moved away from the table and headed straight for the door again.
 
"Hey wait" twilight demanded.
 
"Lets do something else, what do you 'ponies' do for fun around here" he retorted quickly then adjusted his furr hood to cover the metallic blue mask
 
"oh uh ok, umm theres always fun going down at sugarcube corner" she stated
 
"sure sure fine lets get there"
 
They hurried down the dirt hill to the town again, after some more walking they saw the cake shoppe known as Sugar Cube Corner.
 
"A cake shop? I don't need to eat more" he denied
 
"No no no! Sugar Cube corner is a place where many ponies go to socialize, having cakes is only part of the fun"
 
He ducked through the door to see a pink pony standing at the corner making batter
 
"Oh hey Twilight! Ooooo! whose your friend?" she asked with her curly hair and jumpy attitude
 
"Oh this is uhh... uhh, what was your name again?"
 
"I had a feeling of Deja Vu when I walked in here" he recalled.
 
"you what?" twilight misheard him.
 
"Hey pink pony, you like chocolate?" he asked pointing his arm at her
 
"Chocolate? Chocolate!? I LOVE Chocolate!" now she was excited, she went through every chocolate creation she had in the cabinet
 
"How about that one there" he stared at a chocolate cupcake. She pulled it from the tray and handed it to him on a white napkin.
 
Strangely enough, he unfolded the napkin at the counter and then folded the napkin back over the cupcake into a little neat package. He placed his rucksack onto the counter then placed the cupcake into a square tin he had inside.
 
"Aren't you going to eat it?" Pinkie Pie asked awkwardly
 
"Not yet" he said "I'm going to keep it for a little while, chocolate is a very important luxury I used to enjoy very much" The mood was so strange that pinkie pie let alone twilight could comprehend what sort of culture behind it.
 
"aaannnyyyy way Twilight, your cake is almost done, the batter is right here I guess it'll be ready in just an hour" "Thanks pinkie, be sure to gather the others on your way here"
 
The two left the cake shoppe with almost nothing accomplished, the day was almost done, the sun was setting as it always did over the mountains, bringing a massive shadow to the land. Street torches were lit as they went along, bringing guides to the streets in all directions. Twilight toured him around town some more, looking at all the fascinating monuments monuments and statues, even to point out discord's statue. It had been another hour or more before they finally decided to make their way toward the treehouse. Twilight's house was dark and lifeless. Twilight nudged open the door when abruptly all the other five ponies burst out from behind their random places.
 
"SURPRISE!!!" with a loud BANG! from pinkie pie's party cannon. Twilight was startled, they gathered around a cake with unlit candles, lathered in whipped cream and icing with cherries on 6 equidistant places forming a hexagonal pattern all coinciding with a candle of different colors. The center of the cake read "Happy Birthday" in bright cyan icing which shadowed an even brighter red.
 
Everyone crowded twilight with the cake at her table. Twilight's new friend how ever stood slightly away from the group.
 
"Oh jeez twilight I forgot! I forgot matches to light the candles!" she scrambled to find something to light them.
 
"Well thats alright pinkie, we don't need candles to enjoy a birthday cake anyway" said twilight trying to calm pinkie's hype.
 
"No Twilight" he said "No birthday is complete without the candles it" He stepped over to the cake, creaking every floor board with his weight, twilight naturally made room and watched him. He pulled his hand from under his fur robe and faced his palm at the cake, then exhaled an entire breath smoothly. As he exhaled a bright orange flame appeared before his hand, it grew brighter and brighter. He took in another breath quickly but then sighed the entire breath with his bottomless lungs. The flame grew bigger and brighter, dwarfing all the other lights in the house. He then pushed this bright ball of fire towards the candles, they started to melt at it's power and brilliance. The candle strings immediately ignited and then he held his breath hard. The flaming sphere ceased to burn almost instantly, candles replacing the once living fireball as the brightest thing in the room
 
"Thats beautiful!" twilight awed. It stunned everyone for a brief moment.
 
She gasped "I didn't know you knew magic!"
 
"you could say I know a little magic I guess" sufficiently answering twilight's statement. The cake boasted its brilliance before the 6 ponies, Twilight levitated a knife over and swiftly cut the cake into not 7 but 8 pieces, one for everyone, Spike and him. He declined his slice and it stayed on the center plate before pinkie pie gobbled its entirety for her second serving
 
The party ensued, Spike burped a letter from Princess Celestia regarding her letter just a few days before. Celestia also included 6 silver tickets for admission to Canterlot's Magically Talented Ponies Event, the festival to which is dedicated to all magically gifted ponies to show their talents. Twilight wrote a letter back to Celestia reading:
 
"Dear Princess Celestia
 
Today I may not have learned much but I did have an amazing birthday. I met a new friend, showing to all that no matter our race, creed, or nationality, we can all be friends in harmony
 
Love,
 
Twilight Sparkle"
 
The party carried into the late night, playing loud music and silly games. Gifts were exchanged and everyone was riving with laughter. All but the human, who sat aside noiseless and still. The party ended when all the stored energy was depleted and there simply wasn't any party left in anyone, not even Pinkie Pie. The lights slowly dimmed as Twilight and Spike already, got ready for bed to rest for the next morning. Twilight straightened her house out, placed books and games away. She finally noticed him, sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. His head laid against his knuckles, braced elbow on the chair and legs laid out onto the carpet. She didn't want to leave him there, she kicked his shoe with no response, then she poked his arm before his elbow gave way. His head fell and tapped the book shelf beside him with a loud ping from the metal of his mask. He woke instantly.
 
"Oh, did I miss the party?" he laughed, dazed in his own mind.
 
"Not... really..." she condoled, lying sarcastically under her breath
 
He adjusted his mask to fit more properly and rose from the chair, cracking not only from the floor boards but from his bones in such a lewd position.
 
"You know you never did tell me your name" she asked in a rhetoric as she swept the confetti into the trash
 
"I didn't?" he replied unwilling, stretching his arms, exposing the entire steel arm plates around his forearms and triceps "No you didn't at all" she replied more sternly.
 
"So. What is your name" she inquired, politely but clearly more annoyed