Chapter 2: Opening up
"Kill that fucker!"
"We're trying to Sir!"
What are these voices talking about? And where are the ponies speaking? Why is everything so dark?
Scar woke up in the guestroom in the library. His sides ached and the spot where his right eye used to be hurt worst of all. But despite the pain, he kept a straight face as he got out of bed. He walked over to the door and was just about to open it when he heard voices on the other side. He pressed his ear to the door in order to listen in on the conversation happening in the main room.
"Are you sure this is such a good idea Twilight? He doesn't seem like the kind of pony you want to get mad at you." Scar furrowed his eyebrows at the sound of the dragon but quickly recoiled from the pain that came with doing that. Before he could get back to eavesdropping, the door opened to reveal Twilight standing in the doorway facing away from him.
"Calm down Spike, I'm sure that he won't mind if we wake him up for some lunch." As soon as she said that she looked in front of herself and came face to face with Scar. The shock from seeing him so close made her freeze in place. She noticed that his crimson eye was sending her an icy glare. But she also noticed that behind the icy glare, there seemed to be a great amount of sadness. "Um… good morning Scar… lunch is ready… if you want any." Twilight managed to stumble out because even if she saw the sadness behind his eye, the glare that was fixed on her was still intimidating enough to make her tremble.
Scar kept his glare fixed on Twilight before he walked past her into the kitchen, passing a shaking Spike on the way. As he got into the kitchen, he noticed that there were two sandwiches at the table. He picked one up and started to eat before realizing he had lowered his guard and, according to himself, shown weakness in front of another creature, even if it's a baby dragon and another pony. Putting the half eaten sandwich down, he looked over at the alicorn before speaking.
"So what are you and your friends going to do to convince me to be your friend?" the amount of venom that slipped out at the mention of her friends made Twilight recoil. "You're all obviously a bunch of friendship lovers so don't try to act ignorant to what I'm saying. So, what's your pathetic attempt going to be?"
"Well…" Twilight started, trying to look like the glare she was receiving wasn't scaring her. "We are all going to Sugarcube Corner, you can come along if you want to but we all understand if you rather stay here." She finished with a smile.
Scar looked at her for a minute in disbelief as nopony had ever asked him what he wanted. He studied the mare for a minute before he realized something. He didn't want to hurt her and her smiling made him feel warm inside. Giving an almost invisible smile, he made up his mind.
"Well… you are letting me stay here so I might as well see if there is any chance in hell that I won't try to kill any of you ponies." Scar saw that his words might had the desired effect as he saw Spike go wide-eyed before starting to shake. But even then, Twilight kept her smile.
"Great! Let's go then, Sugarcube Corner isn't far from here!" And with that, she turned around and left the library with Scar and Spike following her.
At Sugarcube Corner
Applecore was helping Rarity set up the decorations for Scars welcome party. Everypony had agreed that it was a bad idea to invite too many ponies to attend after how Scar reacted to other ponies yesterday. Applecore even managed to make Pinkie Pie, who was in the kitchen baking a cake, not to make it a surprise party as he didn't want Scar to hurt anypony in a self-defense reaction.
"Well darling," Applecore turned his head to look at Rarity for calling him darling. "I must say you are full of surprises. First you manage to convince Pinkie not to make it a surprise party for that poor Pegasus. Then you manage to make this place look simply divine." Applecore blushed at how a beautiful mare was giving him a compliment as that never happened back in Manehattan.
"Yeah it's going to be nice meeting this pony as all we got to see was him on the ground last time!" Rarity's sister, Sweetie Belle, exclaimed while jumping around with a spark coming out of her horn.
Applecore softened his expression and looked at Sweetie Belle with his grey eyes. "Well he didn't seem like the kind of pony who you should startle. And when you consider that he has been living in the Everfree Forest for at least some part of his live, he probably knows how to fight pretty well."
Applecore looked around until he noticed Rainbow seemingly lost in thought. He decided to talk a little with her as from what he heard from his cousin, it's a pretty rare occurrence. And so he walked over to her.
"Rainbow Dash is something wrong?" His question startled the cyan Pegasus.
"Huh? Yeah Applecore, everything's fine. It's just, I feel like I've seen that Pegasus before but I can't remember where." Rainbow looked down to the floor and tried to figure out how she could possibly know Scar.
Applecore gave her an understanding look before speaking. "I know what you mean Rainbow, I feel like I should know him to. But don't feel bad about not recognizing him; he is covered in scars so it would be difficult. Just give it some time."
As Applecore finished, Pinkie came bouncing up to the two ponies. Her wide smile faded a little when she saw the two ponies were looking down.
"Come on guys! We still need to prepare a lot of things for the party! Applecore, will you help me?" the pink pony said excitedly.
Applecore chuckled at Pinkies hyper nature and when into the kitchen to finish up the treats and talked for a bit.
It didn't take Scar, Spike and Twilight long to reach the bakery. As soon as Scar walked in he saw all the ponies from yesterday alongside the CMC. There was a cake, cupcakes, cookies, games and a big banner saying 'Welcome to Ponyville Scar'. When Scar saw the big party these ponies were throwing him, he felt a strange kind of warmth in his chest.
The party went smoothly; Scar got to learn more about Twilights friends. But even so, he still kept his guard up as his past had taught him that nopony does something nice for no reason. At one point during the party, Apple bloom asked Scar about his numerous scars, with earned her an icy glare from him. But that was quickly resolved when Applejack scolded Apple Bloom about not asking personal questions to a pony she didn't even know.
The party lasted until late at night. Scar had gotten comfortable enough around the girls and Applecore to relax a little. After the party ended everypony said goodnight, except Scar, and started to head home. Spike had fallen asleep at some point and so Twilight had to carry him on her back.
When they arrived back at the library, Scar went straight towards the door to the guest bedroom.
"Goodnight Scar." Twilight didn't expect an answer so she was shocked at what she heard next.
"Goodnight… Twilight." Before she could turn around, the door to Scars room closed. After standing there for a while, she smiled and went off to bed.
