Crossing Anthology Two

An hour passed; Jonah, Cole, and Mina continued to look for their lost friend Halie. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie went home, being as late in the day as it was. However, Applejack and Fluttershy stuck around. The five of them walked through the now dark town of Ponyville, the only light there was, were provided by the many homes and businesses surrounding them. During the search, Fluttershy asked Jonah a plethora of questions;

“So, what kind of food do you eat?”

“Uh, a lot of things actually. Some of us favor some foods over others, then again in America it’s pretty much a big obese free-for-all…”

Cole jumped in on the conversation;

“It’s true, I think heart attacks or strokes or something is one of the most life threatening issues in America right now.”

A few meters ahead of them, Mina pulled an apple out of her trench coat. Struggling to juggle the apple along with a couple other sets of fruit falling out of her grasp, she found it easier to hold the stem of the apple by her teeth. She finally managed to store the fruit back into her coat and contently eat her apple, Applejack saw Mina’s tactics to keeping everything on her and said with a laugh;

“Golly, you sure do have a grip on all that you’re carryin’.”

“Let me guess, you’re gonna harp on my bad manners aren’t you?”

“Nah, I never worry ‘bout gittin’ ‘er done neat, I just git ‘r done right.”

“Wow, finally SOMEone sees things my way, instead of whining like a total bitch…”

Cole heard what Mina had said and knew it was directed towards him, he grew annoyed and whispered to Jonah;

“What the hell do you see in that girl?”

Jonah answered quietly;

“Long story…”

“Well what does she see in you!?”

“Um… That’s an even longer story… I’m not even entirely sure.”

Applejack and Mina continued to converse, Applejack stated;

“That kinda reminds me of my other friend, Rarity. She is just so dang fussy, she’ll drive ya batty. Every time I walk into that boutique of her’s; she asks me to wash off my hooves, but she’s such a germ-a-phobe that she actually cleans her garden hose! Now how in the hay am I supposed to hold that thing without it slippin’ outta may grasp!? Uh, I’m glad she’s outta town on vacation, sometimes I just need a break…”

As the night continued many of the shops and homes providing light to their path were turned off, it was safe to assume that all the ponies in Ponyville were heading off to sleep. Jonah decided that so should they;

“Guys, I can’t see shit anymore. We should find a place to get some rest; we can look for Halie in the morning.”

Cole objected;

“Come on! Let’s keep looking! We can still sort of see without light or maybe Mina can use her atmosphere powers so make the sun rise again.”

Mina looked at Cole with a dumbfounded expression;

“The sun isn’t part of the sky, genius… I can’t raise it, no one can…”

Fluttershy objected to Mina’s statement;

“That’s not true, every day our Princess Celestia raises it and lowers it, and then Princess Luna raises and lowers the moon.”

Mina looked at Fluttershy with a face that said, “You’re a dumbass.” Mina argued with a raised voice;

“That’s gotta be the stupidest bullshit I’ve ever heard!”

Fluttershy lowered her head and whimpered in fear. Applejack supported Fluttershy, saying;

“She’s tellin’ the truth! We’ve been to the Summer Sun Celebration before.”

Between their argument, Jonah thought about what Fluttershy said. It was beginning to make sense to him. He spoke up;

“Actually Mina, it does sorta make sense. Princess ‘LUNA’ and Princess ‘CELESTIA’ they’re both derived from the Latin translations. Plus if I recall, Princess Luna IS the ‘princess of the night.’”

Something else sparked into Jonah’s thoughts;

“Wait! If the moon is raised, then that means Princess Luna is just takin’ her sweet ass time to find us!”

Cole’s eyes widened, he rhetorically asked;

“Oh what!? What the hell!?”

Soon it was Jonah, Cole and Mina all together in distress, complaining about how or why Princess Luna would simply drop them off like that. Applejack tried to calm the bickering trio down;

“Now com’on y’all. I’m sure the Princess has a good reason for not showin’ up here yet. Now on to other business, if ya need a place to stay, there’s an extra room at the barn for ya to hunker down in.”

Fluttershy offered with a sweet voice;

“You can come with me back to my cottage; I’d love to take care of you. You would all be more creatures for me to befriend.”

Mina had an open mind and agreed to both offers with;

“I’m cool with either place; I just want a comfy spot to crash.”

Cole suggested to Jonah;

“We should probably go to Applejack’s place, I've seen it and it looks large enough for all of us.”

“Alright, we’ll go to Applejack’s.”

Jonah turned to Applejack and said;

“Lead the way Applejack.”

Fluttershy asked with a stutter;

“Um, are you sure you all don’t want to come to the cottage, I have so much more to ask about your race!”

Jonah could see Fluttershy’s dismay from the way she hid her face deeper behind her mane. He told her;

“Maybe another night Fluttershy, maybe Halie can stay with ya when we find her.”

“Oh, okay. Well I’ll just head home then, nice meeting you all.”

Fluttershy and the rest of the four parted ways; Jonah, Cole, Mina and Applejack headed in the direction of the road back to the barn.

The walk to the barn took roughly ten minutes; the interior of Applejack’s home was similar to that of Jonah’s home when he was younger; country style furniture and cabinets filled with priceless family items passed down from numerous generations. Applejack lead the trio upstairs to an average sized room; it was approximately four meters wide and six and a half meters in length. There was one bed, a wardrobe, and a nice view of the apple orchard from the window. After a tour of the room Applejack left the three with a “goodnight” and shut the door behind her. Considering there was only one bed, an argument over it had to occur;

“I get the bed!”

“No! I get it!”

Jonah and Cole played tug-a-war with the covers and sheets, until one bold Mina jumped backwards from the foot of the bed. She landed softly on the bed, ending Jonah and Cole’s tug-a-war. She said with no hesitation;

“The bed is mine, goodnight...”

Mina drifted into a deep sleep. Jonah and Cole were annoyed, but they didn’t see a point in arguing, Mina would have only thrown them out of the room so generously provided by Applejack. So Jonah and Cole found their own spots on the floor. Cole slept near the right side of the bed close to the door, Jonah slept near the left near the window.

Hours after Jonah fell asleep; he saw something familiar in his dreams. It was a day from his early childhood, he was looking at his reflection in a dirty and weathered bathroom mirror, and he appeared to be much younger; he was about four years old. He saw the bathroom swing open violently behind him in the reflection. Jonah looked back and saw his older brother, Seth, holding the door open with a disgruntled face. At this point Seth would have to be nine years old, he looked a lot like Jonah, though his brunette hair was a lighter shade and his eyes were green as grass opposed to Jonah’s sky blue eyes, and he was about six inches taller than Jonah. Seth approached his younger brother with a depressing look about him, he breathed heavily, and sweat trickled down his forehead. Seth was shaking; Jonah could tell that he was as disturbed as the atmosphere of the very bathroom they stood across from each other in. Seth began to say something to Jonah, something that would place him in a most difficult position.

Suddenly, Jonah awoke from his dream. He sat up and looked out the window towards the apple orchard. He assumed that at least five hours must have passed since he fell into his slumber. The leaves of each apple tree reflected light as the sunlight in the distance beginning to peak itself above the mountains, he decided to just go back to sleep, and that waking Cole and Mina now would only annoy them. He thought more about his dream, he was able to remember the day of which it took place, and he wondered why he would be dreaming of something that happened thirteen years ago.

Jonah’s first in a series of many flashbacks has come, but that didn’t matter now. Today was the day that they would finally reunite with Halie, and hopefully Princess Luna as well. Without Princess Luna, how would these young heroes know where to begin helping the ponies fight off the vicious serial killer who slayed them one by one?