Crossing Anthology Two

Rainbow Dash was impatient, she watched with amazement as Jonah and Pinkie Pie had finally reached the town. Jonah wasn’t too worried about losing contact with his friends; before, they would always find a way to reunite when they became separated. If anything he was more afraid of how everyone would stick together during this new mission; Cole and Mina never saw eye to eye, and Jonah felt too distant from Halie. He never wanted it to be this way, so he pledged to himself quietly that he would try his best to maintain a cool atmosphere amongst his friends. Rainbow flew in front of Jonah and said with a slight crack;

“Just what the hay toke you slow pokes so long?! Come on, I’ll show ya the ropes around here!”

Rainbow flew ahead, Jonah and Pinkie followed.

Meanwhile:

Cole and Applejack arrived in the opposite side of town from where Jonah was. Cole observed the small village, many stores and business appeared to be closed or vacant, and the streets were lightly populated. Any ponies trotting by only observed Cole with questioning eyes, Cole had about half a mind to ask “just what the hell are you looking at?” to some of the wandering souls. Applejack told Cole;

“Don’t mind ‘em, they just ain’t use to seein’ a big fella like you. Pardon me for a second I gotta use the little fillies’ room.”

Applejack walked away to the closest open store, Cole sat at the same store’s front steps and looked around briefly. Cole thought of just how he would ask out Halie, he was not sure how to approach her on the subject. He then thought, what would be the point? It’s not like he knew any nice places to take her on a date to in this town, or even the planet. Cole shook his head lightly and figured, “what the hell, I’ll wing it.” A familiar voice caught Cole’s ear;

“Hey, Blondie!”

Cole turned his head only to be disappointed by what he saw, it was Mina. She was leaned against a support beam outside a nearby grocery store, eating an orange. Mina walked over to Cole; her arm was pressed tightly against her long, dark trench coat, as if she were hiding something. She kneeled down before him and whispered;

“Check out what I snagged outta that shop.”

Mina opened her trench coat revealing a large assortment of fruits: apples, oranges, grapes, bananas and more. She offered to Cole;

“Go ahead, take something before someone sees!”

Cole hesitantly took an apple from Mina’s coat. Mina took a big bite out of the thick hide of her orange, not caring which direction any orange juice squirted. As she talked and chewed at the same time, her voice was muffled but still understandable to Cole;

“Have you found Jonah or Halie, or that Princess pony from the station?”

“No, I did however befriend this country pony named Applejack. Get a load of her voice; it sounds just like Jonah’s.”

Mina took another messy bite out her juicy orange, and said with liquid spraying on to Cole’s sleeve;

“Oh God, this ought to be good.”

Cole became furious as the juice from Mina’s orange, in combination with her saliva sprayed on his chin and collar. He sat up with velocity as swift as his rage and said;

“What the hell!? Is it possible that you can talk without a bunch of shit in your mouth, Mina!? Please have some damn manners, don’t talk and eat at the same time!”

Mina’s face quickly turned to a dark and irritated scowl;

“Why don’t you eat THIS-?”

“Simmer down, Sally…”

Applejack interrupted as she returned from the restroom. Applejack chuckled at the sight of Mina with a firm hold on her crouch, and a nasty expression towards Cole. Cole was demoralized, and afraid. Applejack asked Cole;

“Ain’tcha gonna introduce me to your friend ‘ere, Cole?”

Cole snapped out of the trance Mina set him on, he said with a stutter;

“Uh, yeah-yeah. Applejack, this is Mina. And she is by far not my friend, but I’m forced to team up with her, again…”

Mina looked over to Applejack and said quickly;

“Yeah hey there.”

Mina tossed the rest of her mostly devoured orange at Cole, Cole caught it. Mina told him;

“You eat the rest, I’m full. Come on; let’s look around for Jonah and Halie.”

Cole looked at the bites Mina left in the orange with disgust, he threw discarded the remains in a trash can roughly a few meters from him. He and Applejack followed Mina into a deeper part of the town.

Meanwhile:

Branches, leaves and twigs surrounded her as she finally awoke, Halie looked around and saw she was nestled in a large tree, around the tree was a quaint little town. Halie tried to maneuver herself to the tree’s wide center to climb down safely, it looked wide enough to live in. Her feet made the wrong move; she came tumbling down breaking several branches and destroying a small bird house set up on one of the limbs. She impacted the rough ground with a yelp. With a groan and, eyes tightly shut from the discomfort, she sat up slowly. She opened her eyes to a light suddenly cascading through a window installed in the tree; she quickly came to terms that the tree was in fact someone’s home. A door behind her opened and a female voice asked;

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?”

It was a purple pony; she was a Unicorn judging by the horn on her forehead. She had a neatly cut mane with a single bright pink highlight coming down close to the middle of her bangs. Following the pony was a smaller character, of the same color but a completely different species it seemed; it appeared to be a reptile of sorts judging by the scales. Halie looked at them with weary eyes, trying to process what she was seeing. The small reptilian figure suggested to the purple pony;

“I think she’s unconscious, Twilight.”

Twilight was her name, her eyes widened as she examined Halie a little closer. A gasp escaped her lungs and she said;

“Wait! You’re one of them aren’t you? One of the ones who have come to help us! Did Princess Luna bring you here? Where is she? Is there anyone else here with you?”

“Twi-.”

“Oh my gosh I have so much to ask!”

“Twi-.”

“I mean we’ve been having this problem for so long.”

“Twi-.”

“Now everyone won’t be so scared anymore!”

“Twilight!”

Twilight’s attention was finally caught by her younger friend. She turned to him and asked;

“Yes, Spike?”

Spike had a blank expression, he said to her;

“She’s not responding; she’s knocked out…”

“Oh! Well, let’s bring her inside and put her in bed.”

Twilight’s horn started glowing a faint purple, and Halie began to float above the ground. Halie’s body levitated a foot above Twilight’s horn, as her telekinesis whisked Halie through the open door of the tree house and delivered her up a set of stairs. Twilight set Halie down in a soft bed where she slept peacefully.

Meanwhile:

The sun began to sink below the mountain tops, Jonah thought of where he could reside while searching for his friends. He looked at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash walking on both sides of him, Pinkie constantly jumping positions to point and telling him of the many businesses and “fun” places in the town. Pinkie jumped to Jonah’s left and pointed to another building;

“That’s the day spa where all us girls go to relax and get all dolled up, out of me, Rainbow, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy; the ones who come here most would be Rarity and Fluttershy. I would come here more, but I’m usually running the register at Sugar Cube Corner, hey we should go to Sugar Cube Corner and get some cupcakes and-“

Rainbow listened to Pinkie ramble on long enough; she flew between Jonah’s legs and had him sit on her back while saying;

“Ah, you don’t wanna see all that, you wanna see the cool side of Ponyville, don’t ya?”

Jonah was caught off guard by Rainbow’s stunt. He fixed himself comfortably enough to sit on her back. He worried he’d be too heavy for her, Rainbow nor any other pony he’d seen that day seemed to be anywhere near the size of the ones he remembered from planet Earth. Rainbow seemed content however, so Jonah said to her;

“I’m up for anything. But I really think I ought to find my friends soon. The sun is goin’ down.”

Rainbow slowly lowered her altitude and stop to let Jonah safely hop off her back. Jonah kept thinking of any way possible to signal any of his friends, and in a way of which they’d recognize it. He suddenly remembered a time in 2012 when he was separated from Cole, Jonah had fallen off a jet that he and Cole hitched a ride on. To get Cole’s attention, Jonah had raised his hand to the sky and fired his ice powers, sending out a massive blast of ice in to the sky, luckily Cole was able to recognize it and reunite with him later. After his memories gave him an idea, he turned to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie who had just caught up with them and said;

“Both of you stand back.”

Jonah activated his powers from within and his eyes glowed a bright blue, his feet left the ground and disconnected from his shadow, he flew roughly 6 meters high and raised his hand high in the fading sky and fired a massive amount of ice particles and cold air from his palm into the feathered clouds. Rainbow and Pinkie watched with amazement, Rainbow’s jaw had dropped at least 3 whole inches. They had never seen this amount of raw power from any entity that was not a Unicorn or Alicorn. Something popped into Pinkie’s mind at the sight of the ice power, she yelled;

“Snow cones!”

Rainbow sighed and placed a hoof to her forehead. Jonah concluded his display of power, and tightened his fist to contain any sort of discharge, his power deactivated and he floated down to the ground gently as his eyes went back to their normal blue pigment. Rainbow approached Jonah and said;

“That… was… AWESOME!”

“It wasn’t to show off Rainbow, I did that to signal my friends. It worked once for me, I’m sure Cole will get the message if he was around to see it. Let’s stick around here for a few minutes and wait.”

"Whatever, I'm just happy to have a new flying buddy!"

Jonah didn't anticipate that possibility as much as Rainbow Dash did.

About five minutes passed, and Rainbow was already growing impatient. Rainbow’s hooves were set under her chin, propping up her head as she blew at the hair that obstructed her vision. Rainbow Dash let out a groan and finally said;

“I can’t take this anymore!”

Jonah’s eyes rolled, he turned his head to Rainbow Dash and said;

“We haven’t even been waitin’ for five minutes Rainbow Dash, please have some more patience… Actually, hell, if you don’t wanna wait you can go someplace else in the meantime…”

Pinkie was sitting next to Jonah, giggling at the argument between the two. Rainbow tilted back and groaned loader as she kicked her back legs around, similar to a spoiled toddler. Jonah went back to his own business, and saw another pony approaching them. This one was a yellow Pegasus with a yellow mane hiding a portion of her face; she came closer and began to say with a subtle voice;

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, I’m glad I found you. I saw a-“

The yellow pony was frightened and silenced by Jonah’s appearance, she started speaking again;

“Oh… my… I’m sorry, it’s just I haven’t seen any creature like you before.”

She slowly flew her way into Jonah’s range to observe him; she greeted herself with a curious smile;

“My name is Fluttershy; I take care of all the small woodland creatures outside of Ponyville, what kind of creature are you? And where are you from?”

Jonah looked at Fluttershy with a confused face, he told her;

“I’m a human boy… from West Virginia…”

Rainbow Dash separated Fluttershy from Jonah’s range and said;

“Don’t mind Fluttershy, she’s always curious to meet some new animal.”

Jonah wasn’t offended at the title “animal”, it was understandable considering that he and his three friends were the only humans on the planet. Pinkie jumped in and said short laugh;

“Fluttershy has always got something new to say about her animals.”

Fluttershy lowered her head and grew a slight frown, and asked;

“Oh, was I getting too close, I’m sorry…”

Jonah was worried now, Fluttershy seemed to be unsettled. So he assured her;

“Nah, its fine. Back where I’m from people on the streets will look at ya, mouth breathing with just a blank stare. Plus I’m one of the only four humans on this planet right now, so feel free to ask away.”

Fluttershy regained her smile and said;

“Oh, um. Okay.”

Pinkie jumped between Jonah and Fluttershy and suggested;

“I think you may wanna try that ice thing-y again, I don’t think anyone else is coming.”

“You may be right, Pinkie.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened;

“Wait, that was… you who fired that ice in the sky? That’s exactly why I came over here; you kind of scared some of the animals back at my cottage…”

Jonah ignored Fluttershy and activated his powers again, ready to fire. The just before the first particle of ice formed from his palm, he heard a familiar voice;

“Ay!”

Jonah turned and saw it was just the person he was signaling, it was Cole. Mina was with him too, along with an unfamiliar orange pony. Cole called out to him;

“How’ve ya been, buddy?!”

Our heroes are nearly reunited, they only need to find one more and then they can begin their mission. The day of their arrival is a peaceful day, is one without any casualties, but it is only the first in an era of fearful nights.