Critter-call lay in the field, the trim of his mane almost blending with the grass. His pale autumn eyes store at the night his orange mane and tail swished in the whispering wind of the darkness the individual hairs stood on end ready for action at a moment's notice, each was a slightly different shade of autumn orange but it was hard to notice unless it was right in your face really, then the edging of his mane and tail was as green as grass. His coat was a peacock green except for his cutie mark obviously which depicted a pig face encased in speech marks surrounded by red exclamation marks and all this was surrounded by a circle of autumn leaves, the pig face always made him giggle slightly he was immature like that, what did this mean as a cutie mark always depicts a ponies special talent? He could talk to animals, he had to want to it wasn't at all a permanent thing but he could do it and he was proud, he was happy being strong at nature magic he had always loved being a unicorn, he loved nature even as a young colt he used to wander off to play in the bushes and jump out at passers by pretending he was some kind of vicious animal the thoughts of his child hood made him smile, but then as the peacock green stallion store at the stars he had flashes of a distant memory his mother screaming, slowly burning to death as he tries to pull her out and then the stallion winced, the memory was gone and then he noticed a noble yet beautiful somepony in front of him.
"Princess Luna wha- what are you doing here?" he stuttered and arose to his hooves before quickly bowing to her respectfully, Luna giggled and said
"arise" and the stallion quickly did so "I am here on behalf of Celestia to tell you that you must go to Ponyville and eliminate a threat a unicorn by the name of Trixie has taken control of Ponyville and is oppressing the local ponies with her magic abilities" the stallion puzzled and then questioned
"why are you and Celestia not taking care of it? What about the elements of harmony can they not help?" Luna replied with a sorrowful tone
"Celestia and all of the six elements of harmony are in Cantalot fighting against Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army and I am too busy ruling the kingdom while Celestia is a way to do anything about it I'm afraid, it really is up to you"
"b- but why me?" Critter-call protested
Luna calmly replied "I'm sorry but I have no time to explain, you must leave immediately"
Critter-call pouted, she gave him a disapproving stare and then with a puff of black smoke she was gone like the wind of the night.
For the first time in his piggy sleep hammy oinked and rolled over. Critter-call couldn't even remember how he had first met hammy it was so long ago, but he remembered it was just before his parents died. Images flashed in his mind again, his mother screaming at him to save himself and him galloping off in the night giving a quick tearful glance behind him as his mother stopped screaming, The stallion closed his eyes and shook his head violently but this time the devilish sight would not leave his mind, he kept galloping further and further into the woods he accidently bumped into a large bear he shuffled back into a tree and told the bear to "stop!" to his surprise it did as it was told and snorted then returned to his rest. The young colt puzzled over what happened but just galloped on he was in too much shock to think about it at the time, he kept going and going until he hit another object he closed his eyes and when he opened them again he was in a field he looked around him and puzzled all he saw was a friendly shadow the same shadow that had saved him from becoming trapped in the maze of the woods then the shadow was gone with a puff off black smoke. Just then he saw Hammy next to him sleeping happily. Whoever had saved him from the woods had saved Hammy from being turned into bacon back at the barn, the small piglet oinked merrily in his sleep clutching his ham joint in his teeth as he usually did, it was his fathers hind leg in reality he had refused to let them cook it and he had snatched it off the sideboard and run off to hide with it, it took Critter-call hours to find him again and he'd never let go of the leg since, he was quite a funny little pig, the small piglet oinked again in his sleep oblivious to all that had happened, then the vision faded.
The stallion knew he must follow Princess Luna's commands but he also knew he would be no help to the ponies of Ponyville if he was in his current state. A sleep deprived zombie was not going to help; if he was to really help he would need his rest, besides he didn't want to wake Hammy so Critter-call decided to wait till tomorrow to go help Ponyville. The stallion just lay there for a while, but then he wondered why him? Why did the Princess choose him to help Ponyville sure there were many other worthy stallions and mares that could help out of the thousands of others why him? He had never done anything particularly heroic or infamous; in fact he spent most of his days dossing around in fields not really doing anything at all. Yet again the stallion found himself staring at the night sky, he had a question for Luna about that night in the forest he wondered if it had been her he couldn't help noticing her disappearing act was very similar to the friendly shadows and he had always felt as if the moon was looking out for him. He thought for some time but he thought it best not to interrupt her she had said she was busy ruling the kingdom after all.
The stallion tried to sleep but he was having some trouble he had so many questions unanswered but no one to ask them, he suddenly felt very alone, the wind stopped and became dead the trees did not rustle Hammy did not snore there was a silence in the field and an eerie one at that, a shiver went down the stallion's spine but he quickly shrugged it off he had no time for childish fears, he really must get to sleep soon he thought, but then he thought of his mother and the screaming and the flames and it all returned to him once again, clouds began to roll in and then there was a flash of lighting and a roll of thunder then the rain started pelting down on the stallion soaking his coat , he had forgotten there was a storm scheduled he quickly grabbed Hammy with a spell and galloped into the forest, the visions still haunting him as he sped through the bushes and trees into the centre of the forest were it was thickest, he slumped to the ground setting Hammy down on a small pile of fallen leaves. Naturally the pig had slept through it all, nothing could wake that little pig. The stallion smiled at his sleeping companion and as he looked all the screaming and the fire left his mind and nothing was left but a friendly shadow and a sleeping pig, then as if the pig knew he was being thought of he oinked happily in his sleep. With Hammy everything was always relaxed and calm, or sometimes just plain funny he gave Critter-call a funny warm feeling that he hadn't felt since he was a young colt, well I guess that's the magic of friendship it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, it makes you feel loved I guess and that's how the stallion felt towards his beloved pig. The stallion hadn't really had another friend he was too busy studying nature and trying to make new spells, his main achievements included turning twigs into explosives, causing mud to burst into flames and healing plants which meant he could tear the bark off trees and use the bark as a shield and shape it into a hard object of any shape or size and still be sure that he would not damage the tree in anyway.
The rain had stopped falling, it had stopped for a while but he had only just noticed he had been so absorbed in thought that he hadn't even noticed. The stallion stood and shook himself dry, he could of groomed his fur back straight but he really couldn't be bothered his coat was always messy and his mane and tail were likewise, as free as the autumn breeze upon a hill top, his mane was long and uncontrolled, which only added to his ruggedly handsome appearance, but no so long that it became feminine in appearance, his fringe was at a length were it did not agitate him but it could still keep a shadow over his eyes on a sunny summer's day. The stallion was in no way unclean in fact he was very well bathed as he could cause it to rain as he pleased but he would only centre the rain on himself as not to annoy anypony else, though sometimes people gave him a funny look when he walked through town with a raining cloud over his head, not that he was really bothered by this at all, many ponies looked at him in a strange way as he tended to murmur to himself, not purposely of course it just kind of happened sometimes he'd grown so used to being on his own that he had developed certain traits that were seen as odd in developed societies and as for Hammy well he just found the sound of the stallion's voice soothing so didn't really kick up a fuss when Critter-call spoke to himself, the pig just tended to look at him for a while and then fall asleep or roll on his back or something, he was a very funny little pig, he looked rather silly when he was upside-down mainly because he had a large ham joint sticking out the side of his mouth and it made him look like he was going to topple to his side at any moment, Critter-call often found this quite funny and would smile at the pig, at other times when he was very deep in thought he wouldn't even notice the pig and the pig would just keep looking at him in awe as the stallion murmured to himself about magic spells and many complex things that the pig didn't understand but he found it very interesting to listen to anyway.
The stallion noticed it was getting a little chilly so he decided to make a fire he clawed up a bit of dirt with his hoof and then he lay for a second just looking at it, then he sighed and concentrated, his horn began to glow a warm orange colour and then fwoof the dirt caught alight, the stallion smirked to himself though he was unsure why he had done this many times before, maybe it was because he knew it was his spell, or maybe he just was happy to be warm, either way he was too tired to care he lay next to the fire and cuddled Hammy rather like a small Philly would cuddle her teddy-bear and as he watched the flames flicker his eyes began to wilt and crumple begging for sleep eventually his body conceded to the need for sleep and he was asleep before he knew it.