Best Advice: Travel Alone
There were moments when my dreams began to startle me at night; visions of fearful things that only my mind could conjure. Shadows of a life I had once had but abandoned. Echoes of voices I used to beckon just to hear them speak their sweet words. My dreams became nightmares, and I had decided it was time for change. Time to leave home, leave all who I knew and loved dear, in hopes of finding a new place; a place that would not haunt me.
I had grown up in a suburb not too far from Canterlot, but it was big enough to be considered a town. Hoofson was a place that was always moving and going places, but every street I trotted down seemed to make me more and more uncomfortable. I even hit rock bottom, feeling as though my life was not going much of anywhere.
So, with my saddlebags packed, my farewells and promises to write made, I sadly took my bare flank and left. I didn't get far out of the limits of town before I heard somepony cry out my name and rush towards me.
“Leaving without me, are ya?” Dashing Delivery had been my best friend since as long as I could remember. While I knew all of my other friends would stay for one reason or another, I knew he'd try to follow me, no matter where my hooves took me.
I sighed at the dull darkened blue pegasus, his brown eyes looking at me through his black mane. Persistent, as always, but that made him exceptionally good at him job. It may not have been his true calling, like his bare flank showed, but it was something he was particularly good at.
“Dashing...” I started, but he held a hoof up to stop me.
“You need me to come with you, Flit. I can't begin to imagine what would happen to you without me.” He was right. I relied on him heavily for a very long while, which took a toll on him. Dashing Delivery had a way of living up to his name and be quite..Well, dashing. He had swept countless mares, and even stallions(which was not exactly his fault), off their hooves, but I always laugh at his flirtations. Needless to say, it causes him a great deal of confusion, considering I was the only one left un-swooned.
“I know that...Which is why I have to go on my own..” I protested, beginning to walk away before he started walking beside me. “Dashing..”
“I know, I know. That's why I'm going with you.” I came to the quick conclusion that there was no talking him out of it. It would nice to have some company, and he can be sent home once I'm settled....Wherever I was going.
“Fine. You win. But once I find a new home, you have to head home. Promise me.” I said to him as sternly as I could, but he smiled mischievously.
“I can make no such promises.” I shook it off, allowing him to do as he pleased.
We had traveled to many places in the course of the next month, but nowhere that seemed interesting or safe, in my opinion, to call home. We took small jobs along the way to help other ponies out and to help replenish our bits as we continued on.
-----~-----
As comfortable as the original idea was to be with Dashing, the more time I spent with him, the more uncomfortable I felt. Those small moments away from him were nicer than I realized. He spent most of his time with me, but it wasn't the same as it was in Hoofson. He spent certain days with me at Hoofson, the days he was free and he could spare. I enjoyed those days, and I soon learned that while my best friend, Dashing also wanted more.
More that I wasn't willing or wanting to give or receive. There were many nights I asked to sleep on a separate bed and, while offended, he understood and slept apart from me.
The more along we went, the more tired I felt, but I enjoyed seeing so many different places. I felt the balance of it all. I kept him there and I was safe...but at what cost?
I had heard that every pony had a breaking point, and I hoped I had never found Dashing's. I hoped I would never push it to it.
-----~-----
Seasons changed, and soon winter was upon us. Until that time, I had felt that Dashing was content, wandering from place to place with me. I finally saw him reach that breaking point I had hoped not to when he had fallen into a hole in the snow. I laughed out loud, knowing he was too sturdy to let something like that get to him.
“Dashing's in the snow~” I sang happily, bouncing about, “It's covering his head~”
He lifted his head out of the hole and glared at me. “Now I've got to go~, Or I will be dead~!”
I laughed as he shot out of the hole and made chase, though there was no competition in speed. He knocked me down and over, pinning me to the ground as I continued to laugh, looking up at his face before he planted his lips on my own. I stared at him in shock. His lips felt forced against mine though he was probably wanting it to be natural...To be mutual.
But it wasn't. I loved him. I really did. But the way I loved him was not in the same way he loved me.
I pushed him off and got up, he looked at him in shock then anger.
“I love you! Don't you see that? Are you truly blind?!” His muzzle scrunched up with anger and I backed away in fear. I did. I did know it....But I was too scared to answer. I backed away from him slowly as he stomped a hoof into the snow. “I have always loved you, Flittering Spirit...Can't you see that?!”
I continued to back up and I thought for a moment he was going to bolt towards me. If he had, I wouldn't have slipped down the side of the slopped hill behind me as I backed up. My mind tumbled as my body did. I heard Dashing cry out my name, but he couldn't save me, so as I hit the bottom, my body staining the snow red, I looked up and saw it. It was the most beautiful place I could imagine, but I wondered how they would accept me. If they would scare me like I felt scared at that moment. The pain hit me harshly and as I began to cry out, I felt the cold snow act like compressing against the wounds it touched. I felt my mind slip out of focus, before everything faded to black.
-----~-----
