For Want of a Quill

When Smarts woke up and stumbled out of the tent, he saw Sally training with a drawn clone of herself. He watched in amazement how the clone mimicked the moves Sally used. After five minutes of bewildered staring, Smarts finally spoke up. "Hey. You're up early." Sally didn't respond. He didn't know if it was because she was so focused in her training, or if she was still sore over their argument the previous night.

She finally stopped and looked at Smarts with a dark glare over her eyes. "Hey yourself," she replied, voice full of venom.

"I'm sorry," Smarts said, "if what I said made you upset last night. You just didn't give me a chance to finish what I said."

"Oh? Is that so?" Sally replied sarcastically, "Then what were you going to say?"

"I was going to say..." stammered Smarts. In all of his years, nothing had prepared him for this kind of thing. He had to choose his words carefully, because it would be a big white lie, "I was going to say that 'I think I can't forgive myself if something happens to you.' I promised my mother that I wouldn't let you get yourself in danger, and look what we've gotten ourselves into. Squaring off with ice fiends, and giant worms, and Celestia knows what else is gonna be coming for us."

"Oh." Sally said sheepishly, "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. It's just you weren't there for me when I needed you back then, and-" She stopped abruptly when she noticed a scroll levitating behind Smarts' head. "Hey, open that scroll up! Read it!" Smarts broke the seal and read the letter aloud.

"Dear young heroes, Ponyville is standing, but it's an absolute battlefield. Everypony is already in the disaster shelter. The girls and I are doing the best we can to push back the enemies, but like a hydra, every time we kill one, it seems that there's just two more to take its place. Please hurry and stop this. Your faithful librarian, Twilight Sparkle."

"You heard her," Smarts said, "let's keep moving. We can get there fastest if we cut through Ghastly Gorge."

"Okay." Sally grumbled, upset that she was interrupted when she was putting her two cents in. "Let's move." Smarts quickly uncast the tent and everything inside of it and collected the ink that fell down into a bottle.

They travelled quickly and silently. They covered around four miles in the course of another hour. Sally decided to break the ice by asking with a smile, "So, what have you been doing these past five years?"

"Well, there's really not that much to talk about." Smarts admitted. "After we parted ways, I moved to Manehatten and graduated from their high school. Then I moved to Canterlot to further improve my studies. There's nothing else to it."

"You have a 'special somepony?'" Sally asked with a cheeky grin. Smarts gulped, he felt that this was her stinging revenge for last night.

"No," he replied. He could feel a bright red blush coming onto his face. "Manehatten High was a colt-exclusive school, and Canterlot University only has classes of five or fewer, and there aren't any other fillies in my classes."

"Heehee," Sally giggles, "you're just making this worse for yourself. Now someone could assume you to be gay."

"Say, lovely weather we're having." Smarts said hastily, trying to quickly change the subject. "How about those quarry eels?" He said as he quickly jumped out of the way of a massive purple eel the length of a cruise ship and with teeth longer than a cat. "Sure keeps you on your toes."

"Definitely." Sally said as she kicked the eel as it was slithering back into its den, effectively shattering its jaw. The eel then flailed back and forth in pain, with great intention of crushing those who have wounded it.

"Oh, my." Smarts sighed calmly, "It appears that we have made him irritated."

"Indeed. Shall we hastily leave this chasm?"

"We shall indeed, Sally." And with that, they ran as quickly as their hooves could carry them, with a dozen or so eels slithering at them wishing to separate their heads from their bodies. They ran far and fast; they hopped up a rock fall that occurred twelve years prior, and leapt out of the Gorge, knowing full well that the eels couldn't follow them out.