Rising Sun

Chapters

Chapter II: A Staircase...
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15: Applejack Day 1
Chapter 16: Applejack Day 2
Chapter 17: A Dream
Chapter 18: The Storm
Chapter 19: The Hospital
Chapter 20: An Afternoon Off
Chapter 21: Memories
The Real Chapter 22: Acceptance, and Greed
Chapter 23: Storm the Bull Fighter
Chapter 24: Words with the Watchers
Chapter 25: The Crusaders and a Visit from Pinkie
Chapter 26: Memories of Yesterday
Chapter 27: A Trip to the Farm
Chapter 28: Shouts and Tears
Chapter 29: Stargazing
Chapter 30: The Farm, and a Visitor
Chapter 31: Daring Do, and the Trouble that Follows
Chapter 32: An Explanation
Chapter 33: A Demon Inside us All
Chapter 34: The Second Wanderer
Chapter 35: Get Your Tongue Off Me...
Chapter I: The Watchers
Chapter 12
Chapter 22: Acceptance

Chapter II: A Staircase...

(Some changes to the plot round out this revision, along with some changes in grammar and description. Enjoy.)

The familiar, and suddenly pleasant, sensation of gravity is one of the first things that you notice as consciousness begins to leech its way back into your body. With agonizing slowness feelings of warmth, and softness, begin making their way into your brain, nearly overloading its barely functioning state. As your mind gets up to speed, and you can start keeping a train of thought, you crack open your eyes in an attempt to gather more information about where you are.

The first thing that you notice through your now open eyes are twin pools of soft lavender light staring back into your eyes. The pupils of these eyes quickly dilate as they realize that your eyes are open, and a soft gasp reaches your ears as the eyes quickly pull away from you. With a bit of distance now between you and the lavender eyes, you can see that they were in the head of a unicorn of nearly the same color. She had a concerned look on her face as she pulled back.

With the unicorn’s head out of the way you could see that behind her, and around you, were five other ponies. Each one was looking at you, and all of them had looks of concern plastered on their faces. The unicorn was the first to speak. “Oh my, you’re awake.” All but one of the other ponies simply nodded. The one that didn’t nod simply looked at the lavender unicorn with a look of mocking disbelief.

“Wow, Twi. You’re as observant as Sherhoof holmes.” The lavender unicorn, who you assume is the one that the cyan one was talking to, shot the cyan pony a quick look, and the cyan pony just shook her head before she looked back at you. During this brief exchange you took the time to look at the other ponies in the room, and you could see that there was a light yellow pony with long flowing locks of hair running down her face, and along her back as well. As your gaze passed over her she moved back a tiny amount, and her hair seemed to cover her face just a bit more than it had previously.

To the right of the yellow pony was a bright pink pony, who had a massive grin on her face. Her hair was incredibly poofy. However, it didn’t look like it was styled at all, simply staying poofy like that of its own accord. Next to the pink pony was a pure white unicorn, with an elaborately curled purple mane. You could just make out some makeup around her eyes. Your gaze quickly moved back to the lavender unicorn, and she turned to look at you just as you began looking at her.

Her concern was still present, but there was also a small measure of irritation present, likely caused by the cyan pony. You took the time to look at the cyan pony, and the first thing you noticed was the rainbow colored mane on her head. It was unkempt, but it still flowed down her back neatly, with a bit of it hanging in her face. The second, and most interesting, thing you noticed about the cyan pony was the wings on her back. They were neatly folded at her side, but they looked far too small to be of any real use.

The final pony you noted in the room was an orange pony, with a cowboy hat atop her head. Her blonde mane was tied back in a pony tail, and for some reason you found that to be oddly ironic. As you concluded your observations of the room you tried to move yourself into a more upright position, so that you could try and get a look at more of the room.

“We don’t need your snarky comments, Dash. I’m pretty sure that we all noticed that he’s awake, it was simply an immediate response. You’ve had your share of obvious observations too.” The orange pony said this as she looked at the cyan pegasus, and when she finished she turned her gaze back onto you. With all of them looking at you once again you felt just the tiniest bit awkward.

“Hi, everyone. Would one of you explain where I am, exactly? And, for that matter, who all of you are?” Your voice comes out a bit scratchy, and your throat hurts just a bit as you speak.

“Oh, right. Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my home. You’re in my bed, currently, inside the Ponyville library.” She motions a hoof towards the orange pony and then she continues. “This is Applejack, the most honest, and hardest working, pony you’ll ever meet.” The orange pony, who you now know is Applejack, gives you a warm smile as she tilts her hat towards you. “This is Rainbow Dash,” Twilight says as she motions towards the cyan pegasus, “the self-proclaimed fastest flier in all of Equestria.”

“Honestly, Twi, it’s not self-proclaimed. It’s true. Nopony else can pull off a rainboom.” The cyan pegasus’ voice makes it clear that she’s irritated at being described that way, but Twilight just continues the introductions.

“This is Rarity, the leading fashion designer of Ponyville.” The white unicorn gives a smile as she nods at you. “She’s the proprietor of the Carousel Boutique here in Ponyville.” The lavender unicorn then points to the pink pony who she then introduces. “This is Pinkie Pie, the most interesting pony in Ponyville. And the friendliest too.”

“Hi, my name’s Pinkie. I can’t wait to spend some time with you, I’m sure that we’ll be the bestest of friends ever!” You struggle to keep up with her rate of speaking, but even so, most of what she says simply flies over your head. You just smile back at her, and that seems to be enough to make the pink pony happy.

“This is Fluttershy,” Twilight says as she points a hoof to the light yellow pegasus. “She’s really good with animals, and she’s also a lot braver than you might think.” The yellow mare seems to shrink under your observation, and you soon lose sight of her face behind her pink mane. “Now, you’re in my bed because you fell off of a table, and knocked yourself out. We would’ve taken you to the local clinic, but without a name we didn’t think that it was a good idea. Too many potential questions.”

“I just want to say, before you think I routinely fall off of tables, it was an accident. I expected to appear on the floor, not on top of some piece of furniture.”

“Well, to be fair, we were told to expect you to appear in the main room of the library, not my personal study. Now, do you have a name, or was Celestia correct in saying that you didn’t know?”

You wrack your mind in an attempt to find any clues about your past, but the only thing you can find is a distant memory of the moon. You try for a few more moments before you shake your head. “I’ve got nothing. At least, nothing that could be a name.” You sink back into the bed, having developed a small headache as you searched your mind. You were about to let out a small groan when a deep rumble sounded from your belly, alerting you, and the other ponies present, that you were quite hungry. The audible clue brought your hunger to the forefront of your mind and you suddenly felt the intensity of your hunger. “Would it be possible to get something to eat? I’m a bit hungry, in case that wasn’t clear.”

“Sure, I’ll go get something started. Would anypony else like something?” She receives a quick nod from Applejack, and Fluttershy mumbles something too quietly for you to hear.

“I’m actually feeling a bit hungry as well, Twilight. Perhaps the three of us could come down and help you to prepare?” Twilight smiles and nods, and then the four of them exit the room, leaving behind the pink and cyan mares, both of whom were looking at you. The pink mare with a look of wonder on her face, and the cyan pegasus with a face that betrays nothing.

You attempt to sit up once again, the last traces of the headache slowly ebbing, letting your thoughts run free once again. Before you can say anything to that effect, though, the pink mare jumps in. “So you don’t remember your name? That’s really sad! I guess we’ll have to make one up for you! Maybe something silly, or something more serious? I know! We can have a part of your welcome to Ponyville party be a name suggestion party! A welcome-to-Ponyville-help-give-me-a-name party! It’ll be great! I’ll go start planning, and making out invitations!”

You stared at the mare, wide eyed, and dumbstruck, as she proceeded to bolt from the room. You looked away from where she had been standing, and you looked to the cyan pegasus. She struggled for a moment to contain her laughter, and then she couldn’t hold it in any longer, and she began laughing. You tried to sit up for a moment, before you groaned. “I don’t see what’s so funny Rainbow Dash. I only understood a few of words out of what she just said and I don’t see what they have to do with each other.”

“You should see your face!” She rolls about roaring with laughter and you feel your temper begin to rise. You manage to push through the wave of pain that erupts in your head as you sit up, but the effort leaves you unable to speak. The pegasus on the floor looks at you for a moment, and her laughter quickly dies. “Hey, are you okay? You don’t look that good. Hay, you look worse than I do after I mess up a trick.”

You stay upright, despite the discomfort, and soon enough it passes. “I don’t think I’m okay, but I think I’m improving.”

“And so you know, I wasn’t laughing at you, I was laughing at Pinkie. She must’ve thought you could follow how fast she talks. And before you ask, no she doesn’t live on sugar. That’s how she always acts.”

You just nod, and a silence falls upon the room, broken only by the faint sounds coming from downstairs. The sound of hoofbeats coming up the stairs sounds out, and you look towards the door as Twilight enters, a smile on her face.

“Pinkie was saying something about a party. I take it that has to do with you?”

You nod before you begin responding. “Yeah. Or, at least, I think it has to do with me.”

Rainbow steps in to illuminate Twilight on the situation. “Pinkie decided that our nameless stallion here needed to be welcomed to Ponyville. So, she’s throwing him a party. And she’s also going to try and find a name for him. Which may be a problem given how Pinkie’s mind works.”

You move towards the edge of the bed, and then you dangle your hooves over the edge. “Are you sure you should be up and about so soon?” Twilight’s voice breaks in on your concentration, and as you fall from the bed you find yourself unable to properly support your weight. Both mares approach, but you wave a hoof at them, unwilling to accept their help in something so simple. After a moment you manage to get to your hooves, and then another minute is spent as you seek a decent balance to your weight.

“Rainbow, once he’s ready, help him downstairs. We’re almost ready preparing some food.” The cyan pegasus nods at the unicorn, and then Twilight departs. You take a small, hesitant, step forward, and, to your immense satisfaction, you manage to start making progress. It turns out that the body your in already knows how to walk, and you just need to let it take control until you get the hang of it. Rainbow gave you a smile as you began making your way towards the door. Luckily Twilight had left it open, so you simply walked through, emerging onto a small balcony overlooking the main room of the library.

It was a fairly impressive room, offering up an incredibly large selection of books. However, you paled as you saw that there was a staircase leading from the balcony down to the main floor of the library. The cyan pegasus soon joined you on the balcony, and she casually trotted down the stairs, hardly even pausing to look at you. With a deep breath, you began your harrowing trip down the stairs, nearly falling on your face half a dozen times during your trip.

Thankfully the end of the stairs arrived, and you allowed a smile to grace your face. You spotted Rainbow Dash go through a doorway to a different room, so you made your way over there, hoping for the best that it was the kitchen. Luckily, it was the kitchen, and so you watched for a moment as the five mares all worked together to get everything ready.

Twilight began levitating a large assortment of utensils and dishes over to the table, where Applejack and Rarity both lay them in their appropriate locations. Fluttershy was putting some final touches on a salad, and Rainbow Dash was balancing a larger bowl of fruit atop her head.

After a moment, the pale yellow pegasus finished with the salads, and so she began carrying them to the table. Before she could make it all the way to the table, though, she found all the salads floating off of her head and wings, carried by the magic of Twilight and Rarity. You faintly made out a thank you coming from the pegasus, and soon afterwards all the mares had taken their seats, leaving a space for you between Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

You gladly took your seat, eager for something to fill the emptiness inside your body.

(Things will likely proceed in a slightly different fashion from here, but not too much.)

Chapter 3

The lunch passes, without any real incidents, although you did catch a few more glances than you thought you would. Just a minute after you sat down a purple lizard entered the room, and Twilight quickly explained that he was Spike, her number one assistant and a baby dragon.

After finishing your lunch you get up, and stretch some, still a bit stiff from your long stay in bed. The others quickly clean up the table, fast enough that you can’t even offer to help. Guess there is something to that magic after all, you think to yourself.

“So, would anypony like to give me a tour of the town?” You ask, and then continue, “I’m totally oblivious when it comes to Ponyville, considering how I got here.” As you finish asking you note they all get a sparkle in their eyes, but then they all glance at each other, clearly unsure of how to proceed. None of them seem to be taking the initiative about this. It feels like time has slowed to a crawl as they all look at each other, waiting for someone to make even the slightest move. Unbidden to you, an image of a small furry creature, like a rabbit or squirrel, surrounded by wolves appears in your mind. You shake your head for a moment, and decide to speak up.

“If none of you can decide, then I suppose I can just go explore on my own. I’ll be honest; it’s starting to get weird that none of you are talking.”

None of them seem to acknowledge that you said anything, so with a sigh and a shake of your head, you turn around, and head for the door. You notice Spike standing next to the door, and he motions for you to go through. After passing through the door Spike follows you, and shakes his head.

“They’re all crazy for you, you know that, right?” Spike asks with a small hint of amusement to his voice.

“I gathered as much. And Rainbow told me to my face that all of them are interested. It’s both flattering, and slightly bizarre. I’ve been here less than a day, and all of them are going gaga over me.”

“It is strange. But I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to share.” He looks at you hopefully, as if eager to share his secret with anypony that will listen.

“I promise I won’t tell. If it has anything to do with those ponies in there, I’m interested.”

He motions for you to come a bit closer, which you do. “I have a crush on Rarity.” He whispers in your ear. You take a step back, and look at him with a quizzical look on your face.

“I’ll be honest with you, Spike, I picked up on that almost immediately. I’m amazed that Rarity hasn’t noticed.” You are amazed that he considers this a secret, but you promised, so you won’t tell anyone. “Anyway, Spike, I’ll be sure to keep my distance from Rarity. I know that you, a mighty dragon, would easily be able to vanquish me, should I interfere with your love.”

As you finish Spike blushes deeply, and then shakes his head, and starts for the main door to the library. As you follow you look at all the books around you, on their various shelves. There are more books here than anypony could ever hope to read. You pick out a few titles, such as; One Thousand and One ways to: Style your Mane, The Hoofhikers Guide to the Universe, and Einstallions Guide to General Relativity: Theoretical Magic, and You!

Spike opens the front door, and you walk out quickly followed by Spike. He takes the lead, and gives you a grand tour of Ponyville. Your first stop is Sugarcube Corner, the leading store for sweet treats in Ponyville. He leads you inside, and you are amazed at the various cakes that you see.

You walk over to the display, and simply stare at all of the various cakes on display. You see Pinkie Pie in the corner of your eye, and so you turn to look at her. She has a huge smile on her face, and you are pretty sure that it’s genuine. Although, you remember what Rainbow had said, and so you are cautious.

“Hey Pinkie. Spike was just giving me a tour of Ponyville, and so we came by, and decided to come in.”

“Yeah. Oh, I know. Maybe you can give him a free sample, or two, just so he can have a taste!” Spike is quick to chime in.

“That’s a great idea! The best way to get a customer to come back is if they know how great your food is! But what to let him sample, oh, there’s so many to choose from it’s nearly impossible to decide! Maybe one of each? No, that’s too much for any one pony to eat. Maybe if he had a bunch of friends with him that could work…”

“Uh, maybe just a simple cupcake would do.” You make your suggestion before Pinkie gets too carried away, although you are fairly certain that it’s too late for that. Instead she simply nods, and hops over to one of the displays.

“Here, you can pick any one you want, free of charge! And you too, Spike! I’d never refuse a friend a good cupcake, especially considering how nice you’re being to our new friend.”

You and Spike each pick out a cupcake, and you take a bite out of yours. It’s probably one of the tastiest things you’ve ever eaten. Although you can only remember one other meal, this is the better of the two by far. You look at Spike, and see that he has a look of happiness on his face as he enjoys his cupcake. As you finish chewing, and swallowing, you look back to Pinkie, and see a huge smile on her face. Clearly she noticed your reaction to the cupcake.

“This cupcake, Pinkie, is easily the tastiest thing I have ever eaten. Should anything I try ever beat this for taste I will be sure to let you know, so you can improve your recipe.” As you finish you notice her smile get just a bit wider, and her hair a bit poofier.

She hops up and down a few times, after hearing you, before she launches herself forward, towards you, as she gives you a quick hug. As she pulls back you notice a small discoloration on her cheeks. Looks like Rainbow was being serious after all, you think to yourself. They all DO have a thing for me.

“Alright, Pinkie. I’m going to go continue my tour with Spike, but I’ll see you later. And once I start earning some money I’ll be sure to come by and get some more cupcakes.” You give her a quick wave as you and Spike leave the shop.

As you walk through the main plaza in town you see a small cart covered in apples, with a trio of fillies standing next to it. Spike tries to steer you away from them, but it’s too late. They rush over, and look at you with awe on their faces.

The three of them are an odd collection. One is an earth-pony, with a very pale yellow coat, and an off red mane. Tied up in her hair is a large pink bow. Next to her, on her right, is a unicorn with an almost white coat, and a mane with pink, and purple mixed together. On the earth-ponies other side is a pegasus with bright orange fur, and a pinkish-purple mane. All of them, you notice are looking at your back leg, and you look at it too, wondering what has gotten their attention.

“Where’s yer cutie mark?” Asks the earth-pony. Her voice is tinged, slightly, by a fear that you don’t understand.

“What’s a cutie mark?” You ask this, completely unprepared for the answer you receive.

“You don’t know what a cutie mark is?” This comes from all three of them at an almost ear piercing volume. You aren’t quite sure what’s going on, seeing as how this seems to have upset all three of them quite a bit.

Spike steps in, though, to dispel the confusion. “Girls, he’s new, and still learning the ropes. Just give him some time to acclimate before you jump all over him.” They seem placated by this answer, at least for now.

“Oh, well I guess we can do that. But maybe later we can all work together to try and find our cutie marks?” The unicorn says this, with a voice filled with hope.

You crouch down, to look at them at eye level. “And, before I go, would you mind telling me your names? I feel like I should know the names of three fillies as cute as you three.” All three blush at this, and you feel a smile come to your face at this small victory.

They each tell you their names in turn, Sweetie Belle the unicorn, Scootaloo the pegasus, and Apple Bloom the earth-pony. You stand up straight after hearing their names. “I’ll be sure to remember those. I’ll see you around girls. Don’t go earning your cutie marks without me.”

They scamper off when you finish speaking, and return to the apple cart they were standing at before. You look down to Spike, and he motions for you to continue on your way. Before long you find yourself in front of an unusually fancy building. Spike seems unusually enamored by it, but after a moment he explains that it is the Carousel Boutique, and that it is run by Rarity. He continues for a moment about how great Rarity is at making clothes, and just how great she is in general.

You allow him to continue on his little diatribe for a moment, before giving him a small nudge, and asking him to continue on the tour. He blushes for just a moment, before heading down a small path.

After a short while you come across the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. It’s a surprisingly large apple farm, run by the apple family. Spike takes a few minutes to elaborate about the farm, and the delicious apples they make. He also informs you about Applejack’s family, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, and Apple Bloom who you already met.

Spike takes you back to the plaza, and then down a different path, until eventually a large forest comes into view. He informs you that the forest is the Everfree forest, and that it is filled with all sorts of “mean, nasty monsters” and that he recommends NOT going in there alone, if at all. Just a short walk later you come across a quaint little cottage that Spike explains belongs to Fluttershy, and that she takes care of all sorts of animals here.

Before long you find yourself standing outside of Twilight’s house/library again. You wonder if things have cooled off between the others while you and Spike have been out and about. You glance over your shoulder at the clock tower, and see that it has been almost two hours since you left.

You place a hoof on the handle, and look down at Spike. He nods, and you give the handle a small push and the door opens.

Chapter 4

(For those confused about discontinuity between chapters 1, 2, and 3, please be aware that this is the ORIGINAL VERSION of the story. I decided against the rewrite, since my heart wasn't behind it. Once I get access to my laptop, which is dead, I will reupload the original versions of 1 and 2.)

“SURPRISE!” (Who didn’t see that coming?)

You stagger back a step, thoroughly shocked at the number of ponies inside of Twilights home. Over all of them, though, flies a large banner that says, WELCOME TO PONYVILLE, HOPE WE CAN GUESS YOUR NAME! You see Pinkie, and the other girls over at a table, all with huge smiles on their faces. You walk in, and everyone is acting really friendly. You don’t know anypony, and they don’t know you, but they still act nice, and try to get to know you.

The party lasts until well into the evening before anypony starts leaving. Throughout the party you got tons of different suggestions for names, but none of them seemed right to you. Some were weather related, like Clear Skies, and some were food related, which you didn’t understand. As the last few guests exit, you look around the room, and see Twilight, Rainbow, and the others by the table near the middle of the room.

You make your way over slowly, aware of the fact that this could get awkward real fast if you misspeak. You stand a bit back from the table, as there is no room for you to sit. They all turn to look at you, and Pinkie has a big smile on her face. As you expected, she is the first to break the silence that has descended on the room.

“So what didja think of the party? Wasn’t it all sorts of fun? I made sure that there were plenty of those cupcakes that you tried earlier, cuz I remembered that you really liked them! Did you try anything else? OH! Did you hear any good names? Huh? Didja?” She’s speaking a bit slower, or maybe you’re getting used to her.

“The party was great Pinkie. I really enjoyed it, and I think I may have even made a few new friends. And the cupcakes were just as good as before, if not better. And I heard quite a few names, although none of them seemed quite right for me.” With that last part your head sank just a bit. “Although I’m certain that I’ll figure something out before too long. But I’d like to talk with all of you for a moment.”

They all perk up a bit at this, and you even see a few looks of apprehension. This is probably going to be harder than you thought.

“I get the feeling that all of you are attracted to me to some degree, or another.” At this they all blush. You continue, though, “I am touched that you would all take to me so quickly, but I’d like to ask you to put aside romantic feelings for now. I’d like to get to know all of you before you start trying to, well, before you try to make a move.” At that there are a few chuckles.

As you finish you look at their faces, and notice that they all look a bit sad at this news, but before you can say anything Fluttershy, of all of them, speaks up.

“That sounds like a good idea, I mean, if it’s okay with all of you.” While she starts at an audible level she quickly lowers in volume until you are straining to hear her. It’s odd, really. Just this afternoon you could barely hear her at all, but now you can make out some of what she says.

Twilight speaks next, “I agree with both of you. I think that we should really get to know you a bit more, or at least more than we think we do. I read a book that said that it’s a-“

“Enough with yer books already,” Rainbow interrupts. “We get what you’re saying. We shouldn’t just rush into this. Although I’ve made up my mind, I guess I can give the rest of you a chance to catch up.” She has a smirk on her face as she finishes, and she gives you a look that sends a blush to your cheeks.

Twilight shoots a quick look at Rainbow, clearly irritated.

“Shucks, Ah suppose we were rushin’ just a bit,” Applejack starts. “We really should get ta know y’all before we start tryin’ ta, make a move, as y’all put it.”

You nod your head in agreement, before you start speaking. “I’m certainly looking forward to spending time with all of you, as I do consider you friends. But first, I’d like to get settled, figure out where I’m going to live, and what I’m going to do for money.”

“You can stay here, if you like. I’ve got an extra room,” Twilight informs you.

“Great. Then I guess I’ll stay here, at least until I find a place of my own to stay in.”

A momentary silence descends upon the room, as everyone seems to digest what’s just happened. Rainbow Dash breaks the silence, though.

“So when do ya wanna learn how to fly? We can start whenever, cuz I’m always up for some flyin.”

“I guess we can start tomorrow afternoon, if you like. I’d like to at least TRY to find a job.” As you speak you see her face brighten noticeably.

“Great! I’ll get you up there in no time flat!”

You nod in agreement, and then look over to Twilight. “Where is the extra bedroom you mentioned? I’m feeling pretty tired after the party, and my tour of Ponyville. I figure I can wake up early tomorrow, and get started on my search for a job.”

Twilight stands, and motions for you to follow. Before you head to the extra bedroom, though, you bid the others a good evening, and you thank Pinkie once again for the excellent party. You and Twilight head down a short hall, and then she opens the door to a spare bedroom. It’s small, but more than adequate for your needs. A couple of windows face in the direction of the sunrise, so you’ll wake up naturally.

As Twilight turns to leave you stop her. “I just wanted to say thanks, Twi. I don’t mean to intrude, or anything, but I’m in just a bit of an awkward situation. Hopefully I’ll be out of here before long, and I’ll have my own place.”

“Please, it’s no trouble at all. I don’t mind helping a friend in need.” She pauses for a moment, and you have a good idea of what’s following this pause. “I was just thinking about what you said earlier, and I agree. We can’t all just jump on you right away. It’s not fair to you, or your feelings. Things like this should evolve over time. The book said that if you go to fast you run the chance of ruining any friendship that might come of it.”

Before she has a chance to continue you hold up a hoof. “You don’t need a book to know that Twi. Just let things go on their own, and it’ll turn out fine. Now I’m going to get some sleep, so I’ll see you in the morning.”

She steps over to the door, and wishes you a good night, before heading out, and closing the door behind her. You hear some whispers from the other side of the door, and you shake your head as you prepare for bed.

You climb in, and think about some of the names that were suggested during the party, but none of them seem right. Some are close, but none quite fit what you feel it should be. As you drift off to sleep you slowly mumble some possible names.

Chapter 5

The next morning you are brought to wakefulness by a brilliant light shining through the window. The sun has only just barely peeked over the horizon, and you feel completely refreshed. The wonders of a good nights sleep. You roll out of bed, and take a look at yourself in the mirror in the room, and are amazed at how disheveled you look. You give your head a quick shake, hoping to settle your hair, but to no avail. You give a quick sigh, before deciding that a bath will be a necessity.

You head into the hallway, and across, to where Twilight indicated a bathroom last night. You fill the tub with some water, and wait for it to fill up, checking the temperature occasionally to keep it at a comfortable level. About twenty minutes later you emerge from the bathroom clean, and refreshed.

You pop back into your room, quickly, to make sure that your hair looks good, and that you had taken care of everything in the room. You find a bag sitting on the bed, along with an attached note. You sit down next to the bag, grab the note, and start reading.

My little pony,

I realized last night that you are probably a bit concerned about finding a job, and getting a house of your own, so I made a few quick arrangements with the mayor in regards to that. Once you learn how to fly I’ve gotten you on the weather team. This will hopefully be to your liking. As for a place to stay, I purchased for you a small house just a few minutes away from the library. Just stop by the mayor’s office, and let her know that I sent you. She’ll understand.

I wish you the best of luck in your adventures with my most faithful student and her friends. The attached bag contains some bits so that you aren’t totally without funds of your own. It should last you for a while, unless you spend it frivolously.

Signed,

Princess Celestia

P.S. I admire how you handled that situation last night. Very well done indeed.

You look inside the bag, and find it full of bits. By your estimation there are at lest a few hundred coins in there. You tuck the bag into the desk in the room, before you venture out into the main room of the library, where you find both Spike and Twilight already at work.

Spike looks over, and gives a quick wave, before he returns to the books he’s shelving. You approach Twilight, and she turns to face you.

“Good morning Twilight. I see you’re up early.”

“Oh no. We’re always up around this time. Lets us catch up on the reorganization that we don’t get to the day before. So, do you have any ideas as to where you’re going to go for a job?”

“Actually, I got a letter from the Princess in regards to that. Apparently she pulled some strings to get me a job on the weather team once I learn how to fly. And to make it even better she got me a house! I’m really excited about that part.” At that last part you notice Twilight looks down a bit, before continuing to smile. Clearly she’s happy for you, but upset that you’re already going to be moving out. You decide to nip this in the flank before it gets too far. “Don’t be sad Twi, I’ll still hang out with you, and the others. I just don’t want to feel like I’m imposing on you, or any of the others. If you like I can still swing by every morning, just to say hello.”

She gives a light chuckle at that last bit, before she speaks. “That’s not necessary. I’m happy that you already have all of that taken care of so soon. I don’t have that much to take care of, so maybe we could get your flying lessons in a bit earlier?”

“Sure, that’d be great. I can go talk to the mayor, and, if you don’t mind, you could swing by Rainbow Dash’s house, and let her know that I’ll be available sooner.”

She gives a quick nod, and a mock salute. “I’ll get right on it!” You both give a quick laugh at that. You trot over to the door, before holding it open for Twilight, who blushes a bit, and then heads through.

“Spike,” she calls out, “I’ll be spending some time with the others, so you’re in charge of the library. It’s a hefty responsibility, but I know that my number one assistant can take care of this.” Spike jumps up at this, and quickly responds.

“Of course, Twilight. You can count on me!”

You give Spike a quick wave, before heading through the door and closing it behind you.
Twilight gives you directions to the mayor’s office, before she heads off to go and get the others to start your flying lessons. You follow the directions Twilight gave you, until you find yourself at a round building with quite a few pillars, and windows around it. You head up to the front door, and let yourself in.

Chapter 6

After a measly two hours you finally exit the mayor’s office. The first hour and a half had been spent explaining who you were, and that you were in fact sent by Celestia. As you exited you find Twilight and Rainbow waiting for you.

“What in the hay took ya so long? We’ve been waiting for more than an hour!” Rainbow, based solely on her tone is quite upset about this turn of events. You share the sentiment, and inform her thusly.

“Well, Rainbow, I was having so much fun filling out the paperwork that I decided to do it for two hours! You should try it sometime.” As you finish she looks down for a moment. “I’m sorry for snapping, it’s just a bit frustrating. Anyway, I’m ready to get some lessons in, if you’re still offering.”

She immediately brightens up again, and quickly grabs you, and drags you along. You give Twilight a pleading look, but she just shakes her head and calls after you, “Try to have fun. We’re going to meet up for dinner later, so be back by six!”

The trip to where Rainbow wanted to practice was just a few minutes away, although we were going at a pretty fast pace. It’s a pretty large field, so you are fairly confident that colliding with anything, other than the ground, is unlikely. Rainbow finally lets go of you, and takes a few steps more, then turns to look at you. She is giving you a critical look, as if she is trying to figure something out about you. Just a few moments later she steps to your side, and continues her evaluation.
When she is standing in front of you again she has a smile on her face. “I’ve seen some pegasi that didn’t look at all built for flight, but your body is almost as good as mine. And that’s saying something.”

“Thanks, I guess. I’m eager to actually start flying, so where do we begin?”

After half an hour of form, and style, you finally are standing on a small rise. You spread your wings, and begin running down the hill, beating your wings. As you pick up speed you feel yourself getting lighter. You pump your wings harder, and your hooves begin pumping the air, rather than the ground. You keep up with your wings, and eyes closed as you keep pumping your wings.

You hear Rainbow cheer, and you open your eyes. You are at least a hundred feet up in the air, and you’ve never felt more alive. It’s a blissful feeling, and you never want it to end. Your mind begins racing with thoughts of air currents, and small adjustments to your wings and tail. They all seem natural, so you allow them to progress naturally.

You dip your left wing slightly, and enter a gently banked turn. It feels so right to be in the sky, and you see Rainbow looking up at you with a joyful look on her face. “Why don’t you come up, and join me?”

She doesn’t need to be asked twice, and she’s up with you in a heartbeat. She flies lazy circles around you, and you simply bask in the joy of flight. You spend around twenty minutes getting used to the sensations of flight, before you decide to push yourself some. You pour your strength into your wings, and you start picking up speed. Rainbow flies next to you with a strange look in her eyes.

“Already looking to see how fast you can go?”

“You got it. I want to see just how far I can push myself. While this may sound like a terrible idea I want to do it.”

“Alright, well, you push yourself, and I’ll pick up the pieces.”

You give a short chuckle at that, but are too focused on your flight to worry about her jokes. You continue to pick up speed until you find yourself at a mental block. You know you can go faster, but something is holding you back. You push against it, and try as hard as you can to push through, but it won’t budge.

“Already hitting the wall, eh? You just need the right motivation to get through. Say we make a little bet. I think that if I fly at half my max I can beat you in three laps around Ponyville. Winner gets to call their winnings. Deal?”

You look over at Rainbow, and see she’s got a cocky grin on her face. Half speed and she thinks to win? Is she mocking you? “You’re on,” you manage through gritted teeth. With that she puts on a burst of speed, and starts to pull ahead.
The knowledge that she is beating you so easily causes you to push harder. You pound a mental fist against the wall, as Rainbow called it, and it slowly starts to bow inwards against the fury of your mental onslaught.

With a small gasp you suddenly feel invigorated as the wall seems to shatter under your barrage. The world seems to slow as you push yourself past the point that just held you back. Suddenly Rainbow isn’t gaining distance, but is holding position. You notice that you just passed the field, so one lap is down. You push harder, and harder, yet the gap won’t get smaller.

You find yourself against another mental block. Again, you pound it down, and break through. The distance is closing, and you see the field again. Two down, and this is the last lap. Your outstretched hooves can almost touch Rainbows tail, and so you try harder still. A euphoria flows through you, not only as you break through another mental block, but as you are thrilled with the joy of flight.

You can barely make out the field closing fast, so you give a final burst of speed to close the gap, and take the lead. Sadly, it isn’t enough. Rainbow beats you to the field by less than a hair. You begin a glide to the ground next to a beaming Rainbow. She’s panting pretty hard, which puzzles you, as she was only flying at half her max.

You land, and your legs give out under you. You roll onto your back and just gaze up at the sky. It’s a shade of blue that sets your heart and mind at ease. Suddenly, though, it is obscured by a set of deep pink eyes.

“Looks like I won, as expected.” She boasts, but it’s not spiteful.

“Yeah,” you gasp out. “And you were only going half your max.”

“Actually, I was going flat out. I wanted to push you as hard as I could, and I did. You’re actually as fast as I am.” She says this with a mix of emotion in her voice. A cross between pride, envy, and something darker.

“No way. You said that you’d be going half your speed, not full.”

“Before we made the bet you were going about half my top speed. I wanted to see just how fast you can go.”

“Well, I wasn’t fast enough, so you won the bet.”

“Yeah I did. But I’ll hold onto this win for a bit. I’d like to learn some more about you, before I make my move. Now lets get back to town. You’d probably do good to get some chow down.”

You slowly get to your hooves, and start to stand. Rainbow is already trotting back towards town, and you are thinking about what she could possibly ask for with the bet. Although what’s puzzling you more is what speed you would reach if you had broken through that last barrier in your mind.

You break into a brief run to catch up to Rainbow, and start walking beside her. She’s got a twinkle in her eye when she looks at you, and you know why. Despite what you asked earlier they all still harbor strong feelings for you.

You head back into town with Rainbow at your side, and just for a moment, it feels right. You look over at her for a moment, and feel a connection with this pony. She pushed you at the risk of losing her self-appointed title of fastest pegasus, just to help you. Perhaps there is more to this pony than meets the eye.

Chapter 7

You arrive at Twilight's house just about half an hour before six, and head inside. You see the others sitting at the table, laughing and talking. They wave you over, and you take a seat at the table, noticing that there is enough room for everyone this time. They hurl a barrage of questions at you about your flight, and the job and house.

After about half an hour you go out for some dinner at a local restaurant. The food is good, and the company better. You do get more than a few looks from them all, but you shrug it off. The meal is fantastic, and before you know it you are done, and leaving the restaurant.

You wave to the others and say goodnight, before you realize that you never furnished your home. With a sigh you turn around to ask for a place to stay the night, only to find that everyone, except for Rainbow left. She’s standing there with a blush on her cheeks, and looking at you.

“Hey, Rainbow. While I do have a house, I have no furnishings, so, if it isn’t too much of a problem, could I spend the night with you?” As soon as you finish you realize exactly what you said, and you hastily correct yourself. “I mean in a separate room! Not that I wouldn’t want to spend time with you, but it’s still a bit early for that.”

Her blush deepens a bit, before she responds. “Sure, you can stay with me for the night. But don’t try any funny business.” She takes a few steps closer, close enough that you can smell her distinctly fruity scent clearly, before continuing. “If anyone is going to try any funny business, it’s going to be me.” She gives a wink before turning and taking flight.

You stand there, slack-jawed for a moment, before you take off. You are in no rush, and arrive at Rainbow’s house just a few minutes later. As you enter her house you notice that it is quite large. It’s also well decorated, with just the right amount of knick-knacks, and furniture. She’s sitting on the couch in the living room, and in her hooves she has the latest issue of Daring-Do.

Unsure of what exactly to do you decide to take a seat on the recliner. You lean back, and just take a moment to relax. You look around the room, and see some trophies on a small rack. There’s also a book case with only one shelf full, and all those books are from the Daring-Do series.

“Well, Rainbow, you certainly are well read. How many volumes of Daring-Do do you have?”

She doesn’t respond at first, and you wait. After a moment she turns the page of her book, and then puts it down while looking over at you.

“I have them all. Or at least all the ones that have come out. There are twelve so far, and I’m still reading the twelfth. Number thirteen comes out in about a month, and I can’t wait to get my hooves on it!”

You think back to the conversation at dinner, and recall one of the small mishaps Rainbow has had. Apparently she wound up in the hospital for a few days, and she took up reading while there. A silence descends upon the room, and you notice that Rainbow doesn’t pick up her book again. You mentally prepare yourself for the conversation that you know is coming up.

“So what do you think of the others?” She asks innocently. “I saw them looking at you, and I can tell that they all like you. I mean, who wouldn’t? But we all know that we like you, but none of us know who you like.”

While she doesn’t end with a question you can see the question hidden beneath it. She wants to know who you like, and the others likely want to know as well. Subtlety isn’t Rainbow’s strong suit, that’s for sure. With a sigh you sit up, and look at her.

“I’d give you an answer Rainbow, if I had one. I’ll admit I’ve taken a liking to you,” She blushed quite a bit at this, but you continued. “But I don’t want to rule out any of the others just yet. I know this is probably hard on all of you, but I don’t want to rush into anything. If possible I want to spend some time with all of you over the next week, and get to know all of you. I don’t know who I’ll start with, but I suppose that I should pick randomly, to avoid favoritism.”

Rainbow looks over to you, after having looked away during your short speech. “I already know that I like you a lot. But if you only like me as a friend I’ll be okay with that. I don’t want to force you to do anything that you might regret later.” Her voice lacks its characteristic tone, and instead makes you feel the sadness in her voice. “I’m gonna head to bed. Since you can fly now, I’ll wake you up in time for weather duty. G’night.”

She slowly made her way upstairs, and to her room. You put your head in your hooves, as you slowly shake your head. You have six beautiful mares after your heart, and one has just confessed those feelings, outright, and even said that she’s okay with it if you decide that she isn’t the one. Either she’s more cunning than you initially thought, or she’s being sincere.

You slowly make your way to the guest room and sit in front of the mirror in the room. You look at yourself, and wonder just what it is that makes them all like you so much. Your eyes look back at you, and you think you see a small sparkle. With a sigh you shake your head, and crawl into bed.

As you lie down your mind begins racing, once more, with fewer this time. One that aspect that stands out amongst all the names is the surname Runner. It occurs in most of the names that run through your head, but there are no recurring first names. You finally start to drift off to sleep, and once more you fall asleep with names rolling through your mind.

Your name search is suddenly interrupted by a loud rumbling. The world around you melts, and reshapes, until you find yourself falling into a metal room. You flail about for a moment, before finding yourself standing amongst a group of others…

“The jungle looks pretty thick down there. You sure a hot drop is a good idea?” James was always second guessing the sergeant. You glance over to him, and see, despite his apprehension, he still has his characteristic grin on his face.

“We got orders from the Brass. They give the orders; we follow ‘em. That’s how it goes. Jenkins! You’re first on the jump. Wait for the green, then haul ass.”

Sarge is being his usual cheerful self. Third in line, and green as grass. The light blinks yellow twice, then burns a brilliant green. The first two throw themselves from the plane, and you leap right after them, James right on your tail.

You land amongst the trees, and consider yourself lucky to have not gotten tangled in the trees. A few minutes later you find yourself clutching your rifle tightly to your chest. You slowly creep along the ground until you get to the small village. About a dozen small huts surround a single concrete building. You spot James moving in, and move to follow him.

A gunfight breaks out, and you lose track of space and time, simply floating in a daze. As you watch yourself fight in the battle, you hear voices.

“So, you come from a war? Combat bred into your very being. Ready to kill at a moment.” You recognize it as the voice from the blackness. It sends shivers down your spine to hear. “No. It’s better than that. An unwilling killer. You’ll certainly do for my plans.”

As the voice lowers into a low murmur you hear a second regal voice. “What are you doing in this pony’s dreams? Dreams are my domain.”

The first voice quickly responds, “This is no dream, but a memory. You have as much power as I do here. We simply observe. Observe, and learn.”

“Can he hear us? Is he aware of what’s taking place?”

“Oh shit… Not anymo-“

And the voices cut out. During that brief exchange you, and your team, made your way inside the building. You look around, and notice that the fighting is all done, and you’re rounding up survivors.

A few minutes later, and you are dismayed to see that of everyone who lived here, an estimated forty people, there are only three survivors. A man, his wife, and his child are the only ones still alive from the village.

“Sarge, these are the only ones who are still alive from the village. What should we do with em?” James jumps right in, looking for direction.

“Hold on a sec.” He rummages through his pocket before pulling out an envelope. He opens up the envelope, and his face goes rigid. His previous scowl is replaced by mechanical indifference. “They need to be killed. There is a strict no survivor policy.” He points to you, James, and Jenkins. “Take care of them. God save us all…” He slowly turned and walked out of the room, leaving the six of you in the room.

“Guys.” You start. “Are we really going to do this? We’re people, not machines! We don’t have to do this!”

They just look at you for a moment, before pulling out their pistols.

Jenkins was always the quiet one, so you listened carefully as he spoke. “It sucks, I know. But if its us, or them, then I’ve made my choice.” You swear you see some tears in his eyes, but he just turns, and shoots the child first. Then he turns, and you know you saw him crying. He slowly walks out.

James is also crying. He doesn’t even look the woman in the eyes as he shoots. Then, he follows Jenkins' path, and leaves the room.

It’s just you, and the man now. You turn to look at him, and see a despair so deep in his eyes that you start crying. You grab your pistol, and start crying in earnest.

The man looks at you, and speaks in broken English. “You are monster. Kill wife and child. Now me. What you gain? What purpose served?”

You sit across from the man, and look him in the eye. His eyes widen when he sees your tears. It only lasts a moment before the despair returns.

With shaking hands you raise the pistol, and aim down the sights. Your finger tightens on the trigger, slowly.

“I’m so sorry."

Bang...

(Yep. That's how this one's gonna end. Enjoy that brief glimpse into your old life.)

Chapter 8

With a sudden thump you find yourself deposited on the floor of Rainbow’s guest room. You rub your head, as it is pounding with a headache. You struggle to remember the dream you were having, but all you can remember is a forest. A forest, and a sense of despair. You shake your head, and notice that the sun is starting its slow trip across the sky, and so you decide to start your day now.

You take a quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up, before you head downstairs. You make your way into the kitchen, and decide to whip up some food for breakfast. Half an hour later you have a passable imitation of some omelet’s, and even a small salad. Rainbow comes down with a groggy look on her face, which is quickly replaced with surprise.

“You made breakfast?”

“Wow, Rainbow, nothing gets past you. And I thought I got up early enough to fool you.” She gives you a quick smirk, before starting her breakfast. She gobbles it up surprisingly quickly.

“This is so good! How did you manage to make eggs taste so good?”

“I dunno. I just kinda went with my gut on this one. And from the looks of it, your gut agrees with mine.”

She gives a quick laugh at that, before she gets up from the table. “I’m going to go get ready, and then we can start weather detail. Today should be easy though. A few scattered clouds is the weather for today.” With that she trots out of the room, and to the bathroom.

You turn to look at the mess you made making breakfast, and you get to it. By the time you finish Rainbow comes down the stairs looking like her usual self. You toss the dish rag on the counter, and follow her out the door.

Just a couple hours later, and you are done. You quickly explain to Rainbow that you want to furnish your home, and so you are going to swing by Rarity’s place for some help.

“If you’re going to Rarity’s place then you should know that you won’t be coming out without a few different suits, and outfits. Hope you like sewing needles!” With that she flies off towards Twilight's house.

You glide over to Rarity’s and gracefully land in front of the shop. You are greeted by several giggling blurs, rather than Rarity. They leap onto your back with shouts, as you try to keep track of them.

“Well, if it isn’t the Crusaders. How goes the search?” You lower your head down to their eye level, and they stop their racing around and look at you.

“Not too good,” says Apple Bloom. “We still haven’t found our special talents. What about you?”

“Pfft! Of course he hasn’t found his talent! Just look at his flank! It’s just as bare as ours!” This comes from the orange pegasus.

“Ah was just bein’ polite!”

You step in before they can start arguing. “Girls, please. There’s no need to fight over something like this. How about you try doing something that involves art? Maybe one of you is an artist at heart?”

Sweetie Belle steps forward, and nods her head. “Yeah, girls, maybe we’re artists!”

With that they jump up, and with voices louder than should be possible, shout out, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ARTISTS!”

You hesitate for a moment, unsure of what you’ve just released on the unsuspecting town of Ponyville. As you turn around you come face to face with Rarity.

“Oh, um, hi Rarity. I was just coming by to see you…”

“And now I see that you’re encouraging those three in their endeavors. Well, better they run around outside than stay here and keep me from my work.” She leads you inside, before putting you up on a small pedestal. A tape measure floats over, and begins taking various measurements.

“I’m actually not here for clothes. I was hoping to get your help with furnishing my home.” You see that Rarity is busy working with some cloth sections, so you aren’t too sure if she heard you. You repeat yourself, this time a bit louder.

As you finish she turns to look at you again. “Surely I can make you one suit? Just as a gift, from me to you.” Her eyes take on a look that you just can’t say no to, so you acquiesce. She continues her measurements, and before too long, just a few hours, you are wearing a brand new suit.

“Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I was wondering if you could help me with my original request.” She continues sorting the fabrics, before turning to look at you again.

“Oh, of course! I’d love to help you pick out some furniture for your new home. I’ll just need to see the interior first, and then we can go shopping.” She trots over to the door, before grabbing some measuring tapes, and her saddle bags. While she’s grabbing her stuff you hold open the door for her to exit.

A couple minutes later and you’re standing inside the home that Princess Celestia bought you. It’s not too big and not too small either. The second floor is an open bedroom, which has a view into the living room. It’s quite cozy, and even has a fireplace. Rarity quickly starts taking measurements, and muttering to herself about carpeting, and the colors.

You go upstairs, to inspect the bedroom area. It has quite a few large windows, but the feature that gets your attention more than any other is the small ladder against one wall. You go over, and climb up. When you get to the top you find yourself in a small dome. It has a breathtaking 360 degree view, and leaves you speechless. A couple minutes later Rarity climbs up after you.

“Did you hear a word I was saying, I-” She is just as speechless as you at the view. You just enjoy it for a moment, before you hear a sigh. Rarity is looking at you with a look in her eyes that, just for a moment, makes you forget your earlier decision to remain uninvolved.

“Rarity, please. Don’t put me in that situation. I want to get to know you before we get to that point.” You climb down the ladder, but continue speaking to her. “If it’s meant to be, then it will be, but don’t force it.”

Rarity climbs down a moment later, and smiles at you. “I understand. I won’t put you in that situation again. It was wrong of me.”

“Don’t worry about it Rarity. Now, what have ideas do you have as far as furniture is concerned?” A loaded question, that’s for sure. A few hours later and you have spent almost all of the money sent to you by the Princess. However your home has been made into quite the place to stay.

It has an incredibly comfortable feel to it, and it feels friendly. You thank Rarity for her assistance, and ask her if she’d like to come by later, with the others, for a small party, to celebrate your new home. As soon as you mention party, though, Pinkie shows up.

“You wanna have a party to celebrate you moving into your new house! Oh boy, this’ll be great! I’ll invite everypony, and we’ll have games, and food, and-”

You interrupt before she can go too far. “Actually, Pinkie, I was just hoping for you, Rarity, and the others to come by, rather than the whole town. It’ll be more personal.”

“I guess that’ll work.” She looks a bit less bubbly than normal, before she suddenly perks up again. “Hey, since it’ll be just us we can be a bit more creative with the games we play!” You don’t like the sound of that, but before you can object she bolts out the door, and is gone.

“Do you know what she means,” you ask Rarity, only to find her blushing, just a bit. You don’t think you’ll like the answer.

“Oh, you’ll see. Last time we did this I ended up having to kiss Rainbow’s pet turtle, if that gives you a hint.” She heads over to the door, before she turns back to look at you. “Don’t worry about it too much, I’m sure this time it won’t be nearly as bad.”

She walks out the door, and you’re left on your own in your new house. The situation sinks in, and you realize that this is the first time you’ve been really alone since you got here. You find yourself at peace, and calmness descends over you. You go upstairs to your new desk, and grab a quill, and a piece of paper. You start scribbling down names, and, unfortunately, keep crossing them out as well.

You try and think up some theme to work off of, and eventually decide on weather terms. After an hour you have a fairly sizable pile of tossed aside, and crumpled up, pieces of paper. You are down to your last one, and only have enough room for one more name. You put your head in your hooves, and think long and hard about this one.

You put the surname down first. Runner. In a moment of clarity you look down at your coat, and see that the grey seems to have a shimmer to it. In a moment of clarity it comes to you.

Storm Runner.

Chapter 9

You look around your house for a moment, before deciding to light up the fire place. It’s not too cold out, but it will add to the atmosphere of the party. You glance over to the large grandfather clock that you just purchased. It was one of the few things that you were willing to splurge on, but you aren’t entirely sure why. It’s pretty, but other than that you don’t know why you wanted it. There’s about half an hour until the party is supposed to start, so you go to the kitchen, and grab some snacks, put them in bowls, and set them out on the coffee table in the living room.

At just ten minutes to six, the time the party was set to start, there came a knock at the door. You open it, and standing there is Twilight, and Spike. You welcome them in, and tell them to get comfortable. They both take a few minutes looking around, and congratulating you on your new home. Before long the others show up as well. When they do, you tell them all your name, and they congratulate you on having discovered it.

You are all seated in the living room, swapping stories, and having a good time. You hear some stories of their various adventures. One story that holds your interest is the time Twilight stopped an Ursa Minor. You all spend about two hours just talking about the other exploits they have had together. Then an hour is spent eating some dinner.

Around nine Pinkie finally jumps out of her seat. “It’s time for us to play some games. I’ve already got a good one picked out!” She pulls out a glass bottle, and places it on the table. “Truth or Dare!”

The others get looks on their faces that clearly show their displeasure at the choice of game. Twilight speaks up, “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Pinkie? Last time we did this things got a bit out of hand. I ended up with a floppy horn, again, and Rarity kissed Rainbow’s turtle.”

They all share a few laughs at that, but they are nervous laughs. You look confused, and they all notice. “Storm,” AJ starts, “Don’t worry yer head none. Ah’m sure that Pinkie won’t take it too far this time. Ain’t that right, Pinkie?”

She raises a hoof, “I promise that I won’t do anything TOO outrageous this time.” Somehow that seems like a strange thing for Pinkie to say, given who she is.

You clear a few things off of the table, before you get started. The others gather around the table, sitting on the floor. You return a moment later, and sit in the open space between Rarity and Twilight. Pinkie reaches out, and gives the bottle a sharp spin. It goes round, and round, before finally pointing at Spike.

“Alright, Spike, truth or dare?”

Spike thinks for a moment, before he settles on Truth. “What is your most prized possession?”

Spike blushes for a moment at the question. “My most prized possession? It’s, um.” Clearly he’s trying to avoid saying what his actual prized possession is, but he finally manages an answer. “My picture of all of us from after you guys beat Nightmare Moon. It has all sorts of good memories attached to it.”

Twilight shakes her head a bit, but doesn’t say anything. Spike gives the bottle a spin, and it lands on you.

He looks at you, before posing to you the namesake question. You think for a moment, before settling on Dare. He gets a glint in his eyes before giving you your challenge. “Storm, I dare you to take each of the girls here on a date before the end of next week. Before you object, I remember you saying that you want to meet up with each of them, so I’m making it an official dare.”

The others seem accepting of this, so you shrug. “I guess that will work. I didn’t want it to be forced, but I suppose that this will do.”

The game continues for a few more rounds before Pinkie gets to spin again. It ends up pointing to Rainbow, and she gets the question.

“Dare. I’m willing to take the risk.” Rainbow’s boastful nature is going to put her in an awkward spot someday, you think to yourself.

“Okay, Rainbow, I dare you to give Storm a kiss on the cheek.” Rainbow just gives Pinkie a glare, to which Pinkie shrugs. “You chose dare, so now you gotta do it.” Well then. You think to yourself, continuing from a moment ago. I can't say i didn't see this coming.

“Yeah, I know.” Rainbow gets up, and heads over to you. She stops a step away from you. “Just wish that it wasn’t in a situation like this.”

You speak up, “I’m surprised that you’re so hesitant, Rainbow. The way you were talking earlier I thought you’d be-” You would’ve continued, but Rainbow planted her lips firmly on top of yours. The kiss is soft, but passionate. It lasts only a moment, but in your mind it lasted an eternity. You feel a burning rush in your cheeks, and notice one on Rainbow’s face as well.

Rainbow turns to look back at Pinkie. “There, I gave him a kiss. Not on the cheek, but a kiss nonetheless.” Pinkie, and the others all burst into laughter at that, and your blush only deepens. Rainbow sits back down, still blushing, before she gives the bottle a spin. There’s nothing as provocative as that for a while. Eventually Pinkie gives it a spin, and it points to you.

Pinkie asks, and you answer, “Truth.”

She thinks for a moment, before she gives a quick giggle. “Alright, Storm. If you had to pick one of us to take on a date, right now, who would you choose?” She has a wide smile on her face, and you feel a blush rush to your cheeks.

“Oh, geez. Really, Pinkie?” She just nods, and you take a moment to think. All the girls, and even Spike, are staring at you with inquisitive looks on their faces. You even see some blushes. You like all of them, that’s a fact, but you don’t know any of them well enough to just pick one. And, with that minor revelation, you make up your mind.

“I know who I would choose. And it will likely disappoint most of you.” They all look at you expectantly. “I wouldn’t choose any of you. Not because I don’t like you, but because I wouldn’t want to rush into anything. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t want to start a relationship, on that level, with any of you until it feels right.”

You didn’t notice, but you stood up during your brief speech, and you sheepishly sit back down.

“It’s okay Storm, we don’t want you to rush in,” Fluttershy says. “You should only make that decision when you’re ready to. Um, if that’s okay with you.”

You glance over at the clock, and with a start, realize that it is almost midnight. “I don’t know if any of you have plans for tomorrow, but I know that both Rainbow and I have weather duties tomorrow, so I’m afraid that this little shindig is at an end.” They all groan at this announcement, and begin grumbling about their own engagements for tomorrow. A short while later, and it’s just you and Rainbow in the room.

“So, about that kiss,” you start. “You didn’t have to do it on the lips.”

She blushes furiously at that, and looks down at the ground, before looking back up at you. “I know, but it felt right. I know you don’t want to get involved, so I’m sorry for putting you in that situation.”

You walk over, and lift her head up, so she’s looking at you. “Trust me, Rainbow, there’s nothing to apologize for.” You feel your own blush start, and before you let things get out of hand, you bring her to the door. “Heh, never thought I’d be asking a mare as pretty as you to step out of my house.”

She giggles a bit at that, before giving you a quick peck on the cheek, a wave, and then she takes off for her house.

As you shut the door you just sit down on the floor. “Well, so much for being uninvolved,” you say to no one. You just sit for a moment, thinking about what just happened.

You eventually make your way to bed, and you lie down. After a long day like today, sleep comes quickly.

Again you find yourself falling, before you notice that you are in a home, of some sort. There’s a fireplace against one wall, and you’re sitting on the large couch that dominates the room. You hear a couple voices coming from the other room, but you recognize them as your mom, and grandmother.

You remember that grandma had a piano, so you look over to it, but then a more pronounced voice sounds out.

“Well, what do we have here? An earlier memory?” The chilling voice speaks again.

“You really are bad at masking our presence here.”

“Oh, damn! I’ll fix this right-” And the voice cuts out.

You get up off the couch, and head over to the piano. It’s a grand instrument, and despite your only basic knowledge of music, you sit down in front of it, and place your hands upon the keyboard.

You strike a few notes, before diving into a quick jaunty tune. It's littered with mistakes, but it still sounds good. As you finish up you turn to see your mother, and grandmother sitting on the couch. They are both smiling. Your grandmother gets up, and sits on the bench next to you.

“Oh, dearie, that was wonderful. Do you know anything else?”

“I just made that up on the fly. I didn’t even think about it, it just flowed out of me.” Your grandmother smiles at that, and grabs a small folder that you didn’t notice before. She hands it to you, and you open it. Inside is sheet music that you don’t recognize.

“This is the song that I’d like for you to play for me at my funeral.” You look up as soon as she says this. “Don’t worry, dear, I have no intention of dying any time soon, but when that time comes I’d like this to be played.”

“I promise. I’ll learn this by heart. I swear.” She gives you a quick hug, before she gets up, and heads over to her daughter. They head back to the kitchen, and you look over the music and start practicing.

As you start playing the scenery around you changes, and you find tears in your eyes. It’s just a few months later, and your grandmother is dead. You finish the last few notes of the song, and silence, broken only by brief sobs, permeates the room. You get up, and head to the seat you had from earlier. The scene blurs again, and you find yourself in an office, and a man is sitting behind a desk in front of you.

“This is all she left for you. Two envelopes marked “one” and “two.” I was told to instruct you to open one, and then follow the instructions.”

You quickly left the office, and found a spare room in the building. You take a seat, and hold the envelope in shaky hands. You slowly pull it out, and look at it.

Dear [NAME],
I’m sorry that my time came so soon, but I want you to know that I love you. I know that you are probably upset with me, as I let you nothing but this letter, and the second one. Know, though, that they are the best gift I could ever hope to give you. The second letter is your twenty-first birthday present, so don’t open it until then. The contents of that letter will probably be hard to accept, but know that it is ultimately for the best. It will bring you happiness, and perhaps we’ll even see each other again. Keep up the piano practice, and always remember to forgive, rather than hold a grudge.
All of my love,
Grandma

As you finish the letter you find yourself in the forest again. You just cleared a village, and it’s ten minutes till midnight. You are going to desert the military today; as you can’t stand the executions that you are forced to do. This “War” has turned into a massacre. The enemy, if you can call it that, has yet to fire a single round in retaliation.

You check your watch one last time, and see that it is in fact midnight.

“Happy birthday to me,” you mumble under your breath. You pull out grandma’s letter, and look at it with a mild indifference. You pull out your knife, and cut the letter open.

You slowly pull out the letter…

Chapter 10

(A quick note. The songs I've linked to are not necessary for the story, but they help. Just enjoy them, if you like.)

A sharp thump signals you falling out of your bed, and your dream. A few bits of info swirl around your semi-conscious mind, and you cling to them. A piano, a song, and a letter. They pulse in your mind like brilliant beacons, guiding you toward something great, and terrible at the same time. You take a moment to center yourself, and get a grasp on the memories that you now have.

The letter, despite your attempts, remains a vague blur. The song, and the piano gain some clarity, but not enough to do anything. You resolve to purchase a piano for yourself, as you want to see if that helps with your memories. You head to the bathroom, and freshen up. As you finish up you take a look at yourself in the mirror. The same face as yesterday stares back at you, but the eyes seem different. The sparkle that you noticed before seems a bit more pronounced.

After feeding your inner narcissist you head down to the living room, and glance at the clock. You’re right on time, and decide to grab an apple before heading to Rainbow’s house for the weather detail. You take a few bites before heading out the door, and to Rainbow’s house. You arrive to find a note on the door.

Storm,
Sorry for bailing on you, but Twilight and the others needed my help, so I did what was right and went with them. The weather is supposed to be clear today, so I trust you can take care of the few clouds that blow in today. Hopefully we’ll be back before dinner, so we can meet up.
R.D.

You read it over again, a few hours later. After taking care of the weather you were sitting on a bench in the park, reading it over again. It seems odd to you that this would just happen to come up after yesterday. You figure that its just a coincidence, and then head off to the library. Surely Twilight, of all people, wouldn’t let the library be closed.

The door opens when you get there, and Spike is standing on a stool sorting some books. He notices you enter, and he gives you a wave. He puts the last few books on the shelf before walking over.

“Hey, Storm. What’s going on? Didn’t the girls take you with them?”

“No. I didn’t even know they were going anywhere. Why, do you know anything?” You look at him, and he gives a quick shrug.

“All I know is that Zecora came by, and said something about some monster in the forest going on a rampage. Hopefully they’ll have it all sorted out soon. Now, why did you come by? Looking for a book, or perhaps somepony else?” He gets a big grin on his face at that, and you promptly ignore it.

“No, actually. I’m not here looking for somepony. I was hoping to find some books about music. I’ve decided to take up the piano. I was hoping that there were some books with some music, or a practice guide, or something.”

Spike sinks deep into thought, before he jumps up, and heads down a shelf. You follow, and a minute later you find yourself in front of a large shelf. Spike climbs up the shelves.

“Er… don’t tell Twilight that I’m doing this. She prefers it if I use the ladder.”

“Don’t worry Spike, I won’t tell. And if you fall I’m certain I can catch you.” He continues climbing, until he gives a cry of triumph. He climbs down, with a large book in one hand. He hands it to you, and you look at the cover. On it is a pony, clearly wearing a wig, sitting in front of a piano. You glance up at the title, and read it. Piano Classics: From Ludwig Van Hooftoven to Mustang Amadeaus Mozart. You open it up, and find pages worth of music, and even some simpler pieces to help with practicing.

“Thanks Spike. I appreciate it. Now I just need to find a piano, and I’ll be all set.”

Spike gives a shrug, but suddenly jumps up again. “I think I may have a solution. When we first moved into the library it was partially being used as a storage place. You should've seen Twilight's reaction to THAT. Anyway, the town kept some stuff in the secondary rooms. I think there may have been a piano amongst all of it. Let’s go check the basement.” He heads down the hallway to the guest bedroom, before arriving at a door.

With a loud creak the door slowly opens. Spike grabs a lantern before heading down. You follow, careful to stay in the light, not wanting to plunge headfirst down the stairs. You see plenty of cobwebs, and empty bookshelves, but no piano. A few minutes of searching later, and you find it. It’s a grand piano, and other than some scratches to the paint, looks to be in perfect condition.

“Spike, do me a favor, and bring the light over.” He does so, and you take a seat in front of the keyboard. You look at it for a moment, and think back to that one song you remembered, and a few others follow. None of them are full songs, though, just some snippets. Finally one comes along that you recall in its entirety. You promptly limber up your hooves, and you wings too.

With a quick flourish along the keys you hop right into a jaunty little tune by the name of the Entertainer. (Scott Joplin, The Entertainer: Listen here) As you finish up you see Spike standing there with a dumbstruck look on his face. You give a quick chuckle at his expression.

“Did you just make that up on the fly? That was incredible, and I’ve never heard anything quite like it before! You’ve got a real knack for that!” He continues for a moment, heaping praise on you with no end in sight.

“Spike,” you interrupt, “I’m not that good. Just wait until I remember some other songs. Then we’ll see how good I am. Now, I’d like to see about getting this brought to my house. I hope the mayor will let me have it, rather than leaving it down here to gather dust and cobwebs.”

You get up from the bench, and scoop up the still speechless dragon with your wing, and deposit him on your back. You put him down on the counter where he was before, and head off to the mayors office to ask for the piano.

As you expected it takes almost an hour to fill out three different forms to get the piano. It takes another hour for a group of earth-ponies to move it into your house. It was worth it, though. You can now practice, and maybe even stoke some new memories. You plant yourself on the bench, and wait for inspiration, but nothing comes. Not even the song you played earlier comes back to you.

You grab the book that Spike gave you earlier, and you open it up to a random page, and just play the music on there. It’s nothing special, so you stop after just a few minutes.

You start to get frustrated with these memories you have now found yourself with. What good are they, if you can’t even remember them properly? You stretch out your hooves for a moment, and rest them on the keys. You close your eyes, and simply allow your mind to wander. You improvise a bit, and just start playing.

You lose yourself in the music, and just play whatever comes to mind. There are parts where you find yourself joyful, and moments of sadness that you can’t explain. As you start to slow down a tune begins to pull itself to the forefront of your mind. Without missing a beat you start up this new tune. (Beethoven Fur Elise: Listen here)

As you finish you let your hooves fall by your sides. You hear a sniff come from behind, and you whirl around, and see all six mares standing there. You give a nervous chuckle, before breaking the silence.

“So how long have you all been standing there?”

After a moment Pinkie steps forward. “About ten minutes. It was really beautiful, and none of us wanted to stop you.”

You remain sitting, and then turn back to the keyboard. While just a moment ago you were lost in the music, and it just flowed through you, you now find yourself unable to think of anything even remotely creative. You feel a hoof on your shoulder, and Rarity takes a seat next to you.

“You don’t need to play anymore, if you don’t want to. Those were likely the best spent ten minutes of my life. If you ever wish to have an audience, please do not hesitate to ask me.” She gives you a big smile, before she gets up, and walks back to the others.

You decide that you’re done for now, and so you ask whether they would like to go for some dinner, and maybe just hang out together. They quickly agree, and before long you are enjoying yourselves at a restaurant.

Two hours later, and you find yourself in your house again. Rainbow follows you in, and you let her stay. You head up to the bedroom, where the piano is, and take a seat on the bench. Rainbow follows you, and lies down on the bed. You’re about to say something, when she speaks up.

“I was never really a big fan of classical music. It always sounded so boring, and repetitive. I know that it’s good music, but to me it was never special. But earlier, when I heard you play it changed. I watched you move with the music. It was as much a creation of yours as it was a part of you.” She sits up on the bed, and looks at you. “Could you play something for me?” The look on her face is one of uncertainty. Maybe she thinks you'll judge her. Or maybe she's confused by her feelings. There are thousands of possibilities, but they don't matter now. She asked for a song, and by Celestia you intend to deliver.

You give a quick nod, and she lies back down on the bed. You think hard, and slowly the one song that eluded you returns. To you, it becomes the most important song you’ve ever played. You strike a few keys, and then begin playing. (Beethoven Moonlight Sonata: Listen here)

As you finish, you get up, and head over to your bed. Rainbow is sleeping, but there are a few streaks running across her face from her tears. Whether they are from happiness, or sadness you can't tell. You tuck her into your bed, and head down to the couch in the living room. You grab a few spare pillows and a blanket before lying down. You feel good about what’s happened to you so far. Sadly, you find yourself unable to get comfortable on the couch, so you give up.

You climb back upstairs, and look at Rainbow lying in your bed. There’s just something about her that makes you happy, and nervous at the same time. You give a quick sigh before you climb in from the other side. You figure that you can explain in the morning what happened, if she doesn’t remember.

As sleep overtakes you, you feel a hoof brush your shoulder, and then an embrace.

(Before anyone asks, no. His talent is not music, although it crossed my mind. And yes, I do in fact, enjoy classical music.)
(And as a second note, as of this posting I have 23 people tracking this. Thank you, all of you. Feel free to comment. And I mean more than just you, skyscraper123.(Only joking, feel free to say more if you want.))

Chapter 11

(Bam, new chapter.)

You emerge once more into the land of wakefulness, and are greeted by a warm embrace. Your mind seems unusually sluggish, and you struggle to put everything together. You remember a piano, and playing a song. As your mind is assembling what it knows, it hits the brakes.

You are being hugged!

You roll over, and come face to face with Rainbow Dash. She’s lying there, with a contented look on her face while she gently sleeps. The initial panic you had at being in bed with somepony quickly fades, and is replaced by a profound sense of relief, tinged with something deeper. You try to find the words for it, but none come.

You notice her eyes flutter briefly, and then they open. Only now, as she wakes up, do you realize the absurdity of the situation you are in. Here you are, in bed with Rainbow, and your faces are mere inches apart. Her face rapidly gains a deep crimson color, but she remains where she is. You just keep staring, determined not to be the one to make the first move. It is your bed, after all.

You look into her eyes, and find yourself getting lost in their depths. With a mental shake you stop yourself. You declared impartiality towards them all, and now you find yourself attracted to one in particular? What kind of neutrality is this? Suddenly, though, your train of thought is interrupted, as you feel Rainbow’s lips pressed firmly against yours.

This kiss is so different from the one before. That one had a mild desperation to it, mingled with the passion. This one, however, is pure passion. You resist for a moment, before giving in and reciprocating. It lasts for a few minutes, before you finally break the kiss.

Rainbow’s eyes are shimmering, and you can’t seem to look away. Somepony has to say something, so you decide to do it.

“Rainbow, I…” Wow. That was the most graceful thing you could think to say? You start mentally berating yourself for being such an ass, before she gives you a hug, and starts speaking to you.

“I know you wanted to remain impartial, but I can’t help it. There’s just something about you that makes me crazy. When I look at you, I just feel so happy, and I don’t want to risk losing it all.” She starts to cry a bit, before she continues. “When you played that song last night, I realized that it was the first time anyone has ever done something like that for me.”

You are surprised to hear this, especially from somepony like Rainbow. “Surely you’ve had coltfriends before me. Right?”

“Yeah, but they all left once they got to know me better. When they finally got through my outer layers, and into my heart they realized that I’m not always as confident as I look. Even now, I’m more scared then I can describe.” She starts crying a bit more. “I just want you to know how special you are to me. I’ve known you for less than a week, and yet here I am, gushing my heart out to you.”

Before she can continue, you stop her with a hoof placed gently on her mouth. “Rainbow, I will never judge you for being who you are. I do think that I am falling for you, but I still don’t want to rush. If this love is true, then it will stay strong no matter what happens. If you want to stay here with me, then I’m okay with that.” You realize what you’re saying, and just how much you mean it. It scares you a bit to think that you feel so strongly about her. “I’ll always be there for you Rainbow.” You lean in, and give her a quick kiss, as you move away your hoof.

Her blush deepens even more, before she pulls back some. “Thank you.” That’s all she says before she climbs out of bed, and heads to the stairs. She looks back over her shoulder before she descends. “Weather today is partly cloudy. See you in an hour.” She gives a quick wink before heading down the stairs. A moment later you hear a door close.

You just look at the ceiling for a moment, and collect yourself. You wonder just how you’re going to break this news to the others. That could go very badly…

You slide out of bed, and head to the bathroom. A short while later, and you're in the kitchen whipping up a quick meal for yourself. Before you know it, though, it is time to leave, and so you head out the door, and meet up with Rainbow to take care of the weather. After finishing up you decide to head over to Sugarcube Corner.

As you arrive there are some customers milling about inside the store, and Pinkie and Mr. Cake are running the counter. Pinkie waves to you as you look around, and before too long the other customers are taken care of, and Pinkie heads over to you.

“So, what didja do with Rainbow last night? Anything interesting?”

“No, Pinkie. We didn’t do anything interesting. I played some music for her, and then we went to bed.”

“You played music for her?” You turn around to see Rarity coming in. “I’d love it if you could play something for me! Something sweet, and romantic, perhaps?”

“No,” Pinkie starts, “play something for me! Something fun, and happy!”

“I’d love to girls, but what I played last night for Dash was special. It just kind of happened. I didn’t plan it or anything.”

The expression that passes across both of their faces shows that they clearly see what is going on, and neither of them persist in the matter, for which you are quite grateful. They head over to the counter, and quickly descend into hushed whispers, and quick glances. You don’t pay any attention to it, and instead speak with Mr. Cake.

“Hi, Mr. Cake. How are you today?”

“I’m feeling quite well, thank you. What can I do for you today? Looking to place a special order?”

“Actually yes. I’d like a cake, big enough for two. No larger, though. In the shape of a heart.” Mr. Cake raises an eyebrow as you say that.

“Is this for a certain special somepony?”

“Yeah, although I’m not entirely sure how this will turn out when I give it to her.”

Noticing your mild dismay, he gives you a sympathetic smile. “Just remember, Storm, that nopony will ever judge you for your feelings. Be true to yourself, and your love, and nothing can go wrong. My father told me that before I met Mrs. Cake, and it’s what spurred me on to asking her out that first time.”

He trails off, clearly reminiscing. You wait a moment, before he snaps back to reality. “Anyway, just do what feels right, and things will turn out for the best.”

“Thanks, Mr. Cake. I appreciate it. If you could just make that cake for me, I’d appreciate it. I’ll be by to pick it up in a few days, if that’s okay.”

He nods, and writes up a ticket for you. You grab it, and head over to the girls. “Ladies, I am assuming that you have likely guessed what is going on, and so I’d ask you not to tell Rainbow. I know what I said earlier, but things have changed.”

They both nod, and agree with you, and before long you are back outside, and deciding what to do next. Before you can make a decision, though, everything starts to turn grey, and slow down. Even your own movements are slowing. Your mind keeps going as normal, but everything else is stopped. A figure slowly approaches, the only color amidst the grey.

As he gets closer you notice that he’s a mixture of all sorts of creatures. Nothing about him, or the way he looks, makes any sense at all.

“So, the brave 'wanderer' is in love? But what about the killer hidden inside of you, hmm?”

You find yourself able to move your mouth, so you respond. “I don’t know you, or anything you’re talking about.”

“Oh? But those dreams tell a different story. You killed a man in cold blood, simply because you were told to do so. Was it because of his authority, or did you just fear the repercussions of disobeying?”

“What the buck are you talking about? I was never a part of any army!” You hesitate for a moment, before you realize that you don’t know anything about your past. “I wasn’t part of any army, was I?”

“Oh, you were. I just need a bit more information from your past. Find out just what it takes to push you over the edge, and we can get started. Can’t have you telling anyone, though, so I’ll just wipe this from your mind, and you can go about your business.”

He gives a quick wave of his claw, and everything flashes white.

“Now, where to next?” You rub a hoof on your head. You can't help but feel a sense of Deja vu. You decide that you’ll head home, and just relax some.

(Yep. Discord rears his ugly face once more, to wreak havoc on the innocents of Equestria.)

Chapter 13

(Just as a warning, there may be some more graphic stuff in this chapter, although not much. Just a warning.)

You slowly regain consciousness, and find yourself in a large underground cavern. You feel no bindings about your hooves, and so you manage to pull yourself up. You are alone, but you can hear the sounds of fighting. You figure that the others have come to save you, so you hobble towards the sound.

Before too long you enter another, even larger, chamber. In the middle of the room you see the three dogs from before, and another, even larger dog. In the largest one’s hand you see Rainbow Dash hanging limply.

Your don’t understand what you’re looking at, at first. Your mind seems to shut down, and you just stare. Eventually one of the dogs looks over, and sees you standing there. With a bark his companions all look over to you. The large one just drops Rainbow, and they begin advancing.

Your mind snaps, as you look on the limp body of Rainbow. With a bestial cry you hurl yourself at the dogs, and a red haze descends upon your vision. Everything is a blur, until after some time, your vision clears. You only now notice that you are bleeding quite heavily from several different wounds, and there is blood splattered on you that is not your own.

You limp over to Rainbow, and notice with a sigh of relief that she is still breathing. You nudge her gently, and her eyes open a crack.

“I came to try to rescue you.” She coughs as she says that. “The others came too, but they didn’t make it. There were too many of them.” She begins crying as she speaks. “But, even now, you save me. You did it with your music, and now you do it with your body.” She gives a small smile, before it is replaced with a grimace.

“Rainbow, don’t worry, I’ll get help!” You are frantic, and somehow you know that help won’t get here in time. Before you can move, though, she grabs your leg.

“Don’t go. I want you here.” She has a pleading look in her eyes. You look at her, and find yourself drawn to her eyes again, and again. Something is different about them. As you look, you notice a yellow tinge to them. No, you think, this isn’t right. This isn’t happening.

“You aren’t Rainbow.” You take a step back, breaking her grip on your leg. “Rainbow’s eyes aren’t yellow. Whoever you are, you aren’t Rainbow.” As you finish the not-Rainbow stands up, and looks at you.

“Damn. Just a bit more and I would’ve broken you.” The voice is eerily familiar, but you can’t place it. “Ah well, I suppose we can always try again. You will be here for a while, considering that your friends have abandoned you. That’s right, you’re all alone down here. It’s just you and me inside your little mortal brain.”

Before you can say anything the world goes black, and you feel your mind slowing as you lose consciousness once more.

ABOVE GROUND

Twilight, AJ, and the others were gathered at the small quarry where Rarity was harvesting gems the last time the Diamond Dogs attacked. They were looking for a hole that didn’t get filled in when the dogs fled.

After searching for almost an hour they finally found a hole, and they were preparing to descend. There was no friendly banter this time, as the situation was far too serious. AJ kicks a final bolt into the rock face nearby, and strings a rope through the hoop, and ties off the end to a bolt higher up on the rock face.

“We’ve got about three hundred feet worth a rope, so if we need to go farther down that that we’ve got ta improvise.” The others nod, and Rainbow steps up to the lip of the hole. The others gather around her, and offer up some emotional support for her. After the moment passes Rainbow jumps down the hole while using her wings to slow her descent. Fluttershy follows a moment later, and then the rest.

The trip into the tunnel system takes several hours, and before long they are deep within the mountain, and no closer to finding Storm, or the Diamond Dog lair. They continue on, though, determined to find Storm, and get him out.

Your Mind

You look around, trying to find a way to prove to yourself that this is another one of Discord’s illusions. He’s getting better at this, you think to yourself. The past few tricks you only solved by forcing a pony to do something they would never do. This illusion has you back in Ponyville, at a party thrown by Pinkie to celebrate your rescue.

You’ve been in this state for almost a day now, and it’s beginning to wear on you. Everything seems so real, but you can’t allow yourself a moment of rest. Despite your trying situation the party is quite enjoyable. You mingle with the others, looking for a mistake, but you can’t seem to find one.

After a few more hours of partying you and Rainbow head off to your home, looking forward to an evening together. You get home, and head upstairs to the piano in the bedroom. Rainbow heads over to the bed, and lies down the same way she did the last time you played for her. Your mind wanders, as you contemplate what to play. You can’t do anything you’ve done before, as Discord likely knows all the notes, and would be able to replicate the sounds. You wrack your brain, trying to find something you haven’t done before, and then you find it.

You flex your hooves a moment, and your wings, before you dive right into the Maple Leaf Rag. (Listen here) As you play the song it sounds flawless. Until you reach the very end, where some of the notes come out wrong, despite you playing the right keys.

“Ha! You thought that you could get me, Discord. But no! I know this song perfectly, and the piano is wrong. You’ll never break me! The others are coming, just you wait. They’ll find me, and get me out of here.” You look around, and see nothing but the blackness that has overtaken you once more. “Wherever here is…”

MANE 6

Applejack finally managed to move the boulder blocking the tunnel, revealing a large chamber filled with gems of all sizes and colors.

“I think we’ve found at least part of their lair,” Twilight says. “We should be on guard, in case they attack.” Almost as if on queue a pair of dogs leaps on them, and attacks. They are outmatched, though, and quickly beaten into unconsciousness. They venture into the room, and before long find themselves in another even larger room.

Rainbow is the first to notice Storm shackled to the wall, though, and she lets out a gasp. The others notice too, and they all start running across the room, to get him down, and free him. Before they can make it across, though, a massive Diamond Dog jumps down from a balcony, ad stands between them and Storm. AJ gives a quick snort, but Rainbow puts into words what they are all thinking.

“We’re gonna buck yer ass from here ta kingdom come!”

Your Mind

You sit at your desk, writing yours, and Rainbow’s acceptance letters to the Wonderbolts, when suddenly you hear Rainbow shout something about a kingdom.

“No, Rainbow, we aren’t taking a vacation just yet. Maybe next month.” It’s been almost a year since the others managed to save you from the Diamond Dogs. Just a month after she rescued you, you proposed to her. Now you’ve been married for almost five months, and you are the happiest pony in the world.

Rainbow finally got her wish, and now she’s going to be a member of the Wonderbolts. You were shocked when the letter said that they wanted you as well, but you weren’t going to turn them down. You put the finishing touches on the letter, and roll it up. You place it into your saddlebag, and head downstairs to the most beautiful sight you’ll ever see. Rainbow is curled up on the couch, reading the latest Daring-Do novel.

You leap over the couch and cuddle up next to her. She puts the book down, and nuzzles your neck. You share a fond moment together. Soon, though you get up, and Rainbow follows. You head off for the library so that Spike can send the letter off with his magic. Before long you arrive, and Spike sends the letter off to Cloudsdale.

After thanking Spike you and Rainbow head off to the lake. You arrive, and find a bench to sit on. Rainbow curls up next to you, and you just enjoy the moment.

Rainbow gently nuzzles your neck, and she speaks to you. “Please, wake up.”

You look at her strangely. “What? I am awake. What are you talking about?”

“Please, just wake up.” She repeats it, this time with more stress.

“What are you talking about? Oh, I get it. We’re playing this game again. No, it’s not a dream, this is our life. We’ll be together and grow old together. I’ll never leave you, so please, just stop this game.”

She starts to cry, and you move away slightly. “Wake up!”

You are starting to worry some. She hasn’t been this emotional since your wedding day. And then again when you got the letter from the Wonderbolts.

“Twilight, please! Help me!”

You are about to point out that Twilight isn’t here, when suddenly she appears.

“You really should warn a pony before you just teleport in! You gave me quite a shock!” She just looks at you, and the world around you. Her face is a mask of confusion. Suddenly she has a look of inspiration.

“Storm, please. Listen to me for a minute.” You nod, and she continues. “You are currently in a dream state, likely brought on by your injuries, although I am detecting large amounts of magic. Anyway, I need you to believe that this is a dream, or else you won’t wake up.”

You laugh at this. “Really, Twi? You’re in on this joke too?” This is just too absurd, you think to yourself. You are about to speak again, when suddenly Twilight jumps towards you, and gives you a kiss.

You push her off, and sputter for a moment. “What the hay are you doing? I’m married!” As you say it, something deep inside your tortured mind clicks. “You know I’m married, and you always supported it. You were the one who encouraged me to propose!” You look at the world around you, and start to really focus on things, and you see the small flaws that are present.

You look over at Twilight, and you are horrified. “What’s going on? I’ve been living what I thought was my life for the past year, and now I learn it was all a trick? Please, help me, Twilight! This dream has become a nightmare, and I want to wake up.”

She looks at you with a happy look. “Good, now that you realize this is a dream we can start working on waking you up. You’ll need to concentrate all your energy in your mind, and then I will use my magic to force your mind into a more active state. Hopefully it will force your mind into a more active state, and wake you up.”

You nod, and start meditating. Your head begins to pound with energy, and you feel a tingle across your face, and then it worms its way into your mind. Before long your head is pounding with the worst headache you’ve ever had, and its still growing in intensity. Suddenly it is all released in a sudden burst, and you black out. Again…

As you return to the world of the conscious you hear a chuckle come from Discord. “I’m not done with you yet. But for now, I need to think. We’ll meet again Storm.”

You slowly open your eyes, and are greeted by a set of deep pink, but bloodshot eyes.

“Rainbow-” you get no farther, before she gives you a huge kiss. You kiss her back, and feel happier than you have in, what feels like, a year. You break the kiss, and look her in the eyes, and you start crying. “I really want to go home now.”

(Well, that's the end of this chapter. Be sure to leave some comments to let me know what you think.)

Chapter 14

You wake up a scant few hours later, with a pounding headache, and a ray of sunlight across your face. You rub the sleep from your eyes, and slowly push yourself into an upright position. As you become more aware of the room around you, you notice six pony shaped lumps strewn across the floor. It would appear that they brought you here before falling asleep in the room.

You slowly crawl out of bed, before making your way to the bathroom. When you get there, you quickly fill up the sink with some water, and then splash it on your face. Your eyes are bloodshot, and one eye is puffy, likely from a bruise acquired while unconscious. You spend a few more minutes examining your appearance before you step away, and head to the kitchen.

You check your supplies, and then begin whipping up some breakfast for everypony. You get lost in the process, and don’t hear as a pony approaches from behind, and embraces you. You turn to see who it is, and are surprised to see Applejack. She gives you another hug, and then she steps back.

“Well, you’re up early, AJ.” She just gives a smile, before responding.

“It ain’t nothin’ Ah’m not used to. Ah usually wake up early on the farm.” You nod in understanding. You turn back to your cooking, and continue scrambling the eggs that you put in the pan. A silence descends on the room, broken only by the sounds of cooking. Finally, AJ speaks up.

“So, when are y’all gonna do something about that dare Spike made?” You almost drop the spatula you’re holding as you turn around.

“What?” You reply, elegant as always.

“Well, y’all did get dared to take us all out, so you’ll have ta do it.” She gives you a smile as she finishes. You turn back to the cooking with your mind racing. You had, quite understandably, forgotten about that dare. You finish up the first batch of eggs, and look over at Applejack. She’s sitting at the small table you have in the kitchen, and she’s just watching you.

“I, honestly, forgot all about that. Given what’s happened I think that’s understandable.” She nods at that. “But I guess that I will have to see through with it. But just one date with each of you won’t be enough, in my opinion, to get to know each of you. Instead, I offer a counter-proposal. I will spend a week getting to know each of you. That way I will be able to actually get to know you before I get too involved with anypony, Rainbow included.”

“That’s probably one of the smartest and dumbest things Ah’ve ever heard a pony say.” You open your mouth to question that, but she continues. “I understand where y’all are comin’ from, yer eggs are burnin’,” you quickly look back to your eggs, and take care of them before they burn up. Applejack continues as you tend to the food., “Ah can see what’s goin’ on between you and Dash, and Ah don’t want y’all to mess it up just fer us. If y'all think that you'd be happiest with Rainbow we'd all understand.”

“AJ, as of yet there is nothing officially going on between Dash and I. I know what it looks like, but we haven’t actually done anything, so I don’t have a problem going out with, or getting to know, any of you. And what the hay, I figure that there’s no time like the present to get started.” AJ gives you a puzzled look for a moment, before realization dawns on her face.

“Are you askin’ me out?”

“Yeah, I am. I know it’s soon, but I want to do it before the rational part of my mind kicks in.” She blushes deeply as you speak, but then she gets up, and walks over to you, and looks you right in the eyes.

“I’d love to go out with you.” She gives a quick you a quick nuzzle on the neck before she steps back blushing. “Ah’ll go wake the others fer breakfast.” With that she trots out of the room, and heads upstairs. You figure that she’s going to do more than wake the others, so you take a moment to get the table prepared. As you finish setting the table, the others start coming down the stairs with grins on their faces. Rainbow has one too, which is somewhat surprising.

You begin setting out the food as they all get seated. You balance the few bowls on your wings, and head, and place them on the table. The only seat unoccupied is next to AJ and Twilight. You smile to yourself quickly before taking your seat.

The meal is pleasant, and the others ask you if you are feeling okay after what happened. You were expecting much more after what happened, but you guess that they expect you to talk about it when you are ready. You admit that while you are shaken up by what occurred you are ready to continue your life. They agree wholeheartedly with that, and the rest of the meal goes by in relative silence.

As everyone finishes they begin departing, as they have things to take care of. Finally, after everypony has left it is just you and AJ in your house, still seated at the table. Despite your earlier confidence you are now not so sure about what you are doing. It must show on your face, because AJ has a concerned look on her face as well.

“Somethin’ wrong sugarcube?”

You shake your head before responding, “No, I’ve just realized what I’m doing. Here I am, a pony without a past, and I’ve got six of the most beautiful mares I can think of attracted to me. I’ll be honest with you Applejack, I’m really nervous.”

She gets up, and pulls you over to the couches in the living room. She pushes you onto it, and then takes a seat next to you, and leans into you. “Y’all just need to do what comes naturally. Past or no, this is something that should just happen.”

At first you feel slightly tense, but you slowly relax, and just enjoy her presence. After a while her breathing slows, and becomes very regular. You crane your neck, and see that she has fallen asleep against you.

As you think about it the magnitude of what has happened strikes you. She is so comfortable around you that she has no problems whatsoever just falling asleep, not only with you, but with you as her pillow/mattress. You are touched by the sentiment for a moment.

You lie back, and just enjoy AJ’s presence, and you feel yourself falling asleep.

******

You wake a few hours later, and AJ is still lying against you. You shift position slightly, to make yourself more comfortable, and she moves off of you, before looking at you.

“Guess we both dozed off fer a bit there. Ah Never thought Ah’d fall asleep in another pony’s arms.” She blushes deeply at that last part, and you give her a smile.

You get up off the couch, and stretch your legs a bit, before looking back to AJ. “I don’t see why you would think that. You’re a beautiful mare, and I’m certain that there are tons of colts who would love to be with you.” Her blush deepens even more as you say that.

“Ah know that, Big Mac tells me all the time how many colts there are after mah heart, but Ah want to find the one that’s right fer me.” You give her a smile, and she smiles back.

“I’m certain that one day you’ll find that certain special somepony. But for now, I guess I’ll have to do.” You both chuckle at that. “So, is there anything you’d like to do? For at least a week I’m all yours.”

She sits down, and thinks for a while. “How about we just go on a nice walk through town, and enjoy the peace and quiet? What with the excitement of the past few days this should be a nice change of pace.”

“That sounds good to me. Maybe afterwards we can get some dinner somewhere, or maybe just come back here and have some dinner?”

She agrees, and heads over to the door. You run to the kitchen quickly to make sure that everything is taken care of, before you head to the front door, and open it for AJ. She walks through, and you follow right behind her.

Your walk through town is pleasant, and peaceful. AJ seems to enjoy herself, and so you feel good too. Eventually you end up in the park, sitting on a bench beneath a large tree.

You stay there for a while, just watching the sun make its trip across the sky, and slowly set. As the sun finally sets you stand up next to AJ, and ask if she’d like to have some dinner at your house.

“Ah’d love to have some dinner. Although Ah think Ah’ll take care of dessert.”

She gives you a grin that sends a blush to your cheeks, and so you grab her hoof, and head back to your house. This dinner will likely be much more than you bargained for, but oddly enough, you seem okay with the idea.

(Well, here ya go. Enjoy, and be sure to comment if you feel the urge. Also, take a look at my blog posts, I have some pertinent info up there.)

Chapter 15: Applejack Day 1

You enter your house, and head to the kitchen. AJ follows you into the kitchen, but you stop her from helping.

“I’m going to make you dinner, so you just relax in the living room. I’ll let you know when it’s done.” She only reluctantly leaves the kitchen, and heads to the living room. You open up the fridge, and take stock of what you have. You quickly pull out some flowers, of various sorts, and before long you’re cooking up a storm.

Everything is coming together perfectly, and you are impressed with what you’ve made. A quick glance at the clock shows that it is almost eight, so you’ve been at it for almost an hour. Hopefully it’s as good as you think it is. You quickly add the final spices to the salad, and the garnish to the daisy soufflé. Despite the soufflé’s frequent use as a dessert you’re hoping that the combination comes out well for a dinner.

You light a few candles, and head to the living room to get Applejack. She’s curled up on the couch and just watching the fireplace. Her back is to you, so you walk up behind her, and give her a nuzzle on the neck.

“Dinner is ready.” She scoots away from you a bit, likely surprised by what you did. She gives you a quick look, and then she gets up, and follows you to the dining room. She gasps when she sees the way you set everything up. Although small, the crystals on the chandelier expertly catch, and scatter, the light from the three candles on the table. There’s also a bottle of cider in a metal bucket filled with ice, to keep it cool.

She approaches the table slowly, clearly impressed with what you’ve done. You pull out her chair for her, and she sits down. You sit opposite her, and quickly tell her what you’ve prepared for her.

“The salad is pretty ordinary, save for some special spices I threw in it. The soufflé is a daisy soufflé with a special raspberry sauce to give it just the right amount of sweetness to counter the lemon juice in it.” You gesture at the food. “Bon Appétit.”

Applejack giggles a bit, before she starts eating. Her eyes go wide as she tastes the soufflé, and she starts eating it quite rapidly. She has a similar reaction to the salad. Despite her reaction, you only find the food to be of average quality. You feel like you could’ve done better, but she likes it, and that’s what matters.

After a moment she finishes up, and you aren’t far behind. Judging by how far down the candles have burned you figure it’s only been forty-five minutes, at most. You slowly stand, and start taking the dishes to the sink, so you can clean them later. Applejack gets up too, and starts picking up some dishes to help. You stop her with a quick stare, and she puts the dishes back on the table with an insincere frown.

“AJ, you’re my guest. I’ll take care of this. You did say you would take care of dessert, so I’ll take care of this. I’ll join you in the living room in a short while.” She nods, and walks to the living room, leaving you to your thoughts.

You wonder just what they all think of you. There has to be more to it than just being you. There must be some specific part of you that they like. You immediately jump to Applejack, for obvious reasons. What is it that she could find attractive about you? Element of honesty, so perhaps she likes your up-front nature? You’ve never really thought about the way you speak to the ponies around, so that might not be what it is.

You continue your ruminations until you finish with the dishes. You walk into the living room, and Applejack is in a position similar to the one she was in before. With a quick pump of your wings you jump over the couch, and sit next to her. As you relax she leans into you. You wrap one hoof around her, and she gives a small sigh. You don’t say anything, and just enjoy her presence.

A short while later, and she pulls away from you, and turns to look at you. Her eyes have a small sparkle to them, and you find her more attractive than ever. She leans in, and your lips lock. It’s a passionate kiss, but not over-done. Your heart speeds up, and you feel a heat come to your cheeks. As Applejack pulls away you notice that she’s also sporting a hefty blush on her cheeks.

“So, is that my dessert?” You try to sound suave, but it doesn’t come out right, and Applejack gets a big grin on her face. You try to hold it back, but the corniness of what you said gets the better of you, and you both start laughing.

Her laughter is a beautiful sound, and you could just sit here and listen to it for hours. As she calms down you she looks you in the eyes, and moves in for another kiss. This one is brief, but no less passionate.

“No, that wasn’t dessert. Just a small taste.” Your eyes widen a bit at what she said. You raise an eyebrow, and she tackles you off the couch. She’s sitting on top of you, looking you right in the eye. She has a beautiful smile on her face, and a sparkle in her eyes. She leans down, and this time the kiss isn’t full of deep passion, but a longing. The kiss lasts several minutes and you only break it once you need air. She doesn’t get off of you; instead she just lies down on your chest, her head just under your chin.

She slowly nuzzles you, and you hold her tightly. You don’t know how long you were lying there, but eventually she sat up again, and slowly got off of you. You pushed yourself up, and she just watched you.

“So, would you like to head to bed now?”

“Yes. Ah would. But I’d like for you to play me a song, to lull me to sleep. Just like you did with Dash.” You understand her request, and it doesn’t really surprise you. You walk up with her, side by side, and she crawls into your bed. You, however, sit down at the piano, and think about what you’re going to play for her. You could play the same thing, but you’d much rather do something new.

As you think, another song comes to your mind. You place your hooves on the keyboard, and you stretch out your wings as well. With a quick scale you prepare yourself to play. And play you do. (Canon by Pachelbel. Listen here)

As the last note wavers in the air, you lower your hooves and wings. With a glance to the bed you see that Applejack has fallen asleep. You don’t feel tired enough to head to bed, though, so you head up to the small dome atop your home.

As you climb up the view amazes you as it did before. As you lay down, and look at the sky you feel a stirring within your mind. A sudden sense of vertigo passes, and you find yourself lying in a field.

You sit up, and see your classmates next to you. The astronomy field trip wasn’t really a field trip at all. They just asked you to come to the school around midnight to watch the stars. Not that you were complaining. Suddenly you see a streak shoot across the sky. Several “ooh’s” are audible. Suddenly dozens more appear. Soon the sky is full of shooting stars, and you are awestruck.

You feel a hand grab your own, and you look to your right, and see Rachel. She’s been your not-girlfriend since middle school. She was always happy, even though she had a weird disease. She never told you about it, but it never changed anything about the way you acted towards her. Now, though, she’s holding your hand. You look her in the face, and see a big smile. You smile back, and blush more than you ever have in your life.

Without warning, though, the scene around you changes, and you’re now standing at your locker, rummaging through it looking for your books. Rachel is next to you, already finished at her locker.

“Rachel, we’ve known each other for how long now?”

“It’s been five years now. We met in seventh grade, and now we’re high school seniors. Why?”

“Well, I’ve always liked you…”

She interrupts you before you can continue. “Jeez, man. Do you ever give up? We’ve been through this before.”

“Just call me persistent, I guess.” You offer her a shrug, and she just rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I was just going to ask if you’d like to go with me to the dance next month. Not as boyfriend and girlfriend, but just as friends.” She offers you a smile, and she shakes her head.

“You’re not going to drop this, are you?”

“Not until you say yes.”

“Then yes.” You do a double take at that. She’s got a smile on her face, and you suddenly blush.

“Oh! That’s great!” She gives you a peck on the cheek, nothing more than what she’s done in the past, before she turns and skips down the hall.

The scene changes again, and you are in your tuxedo, except you’re lying on the floor in your living room. Rachel is sitting atop you, and giving you a look that sends a blush to your face.

She leans down and kisses you, and you swear that your heart stopped when your lips met. When she pulls back you look her in the eyes, and see tears. You wipe them away, and she holds your hand against her cheek. She lies down on top of you, and you just hold her gently.

With a quick gasp you wake up, and feel a weight pressing down on your chest. You look down and see Applejack lying on top of you. There’s a blanket on top of you as well. It’s still night time, and the stars are all still visible. As you look at Applejack you find some tears spring to your eyes. You wipe them away, and lie your head down again. As you feel sleep overtake you, you see a shooting star make its way across the night sky.

One word makes its way past your lips, unbidden.

“Rachel…”

(Yep, it's time for me to work more on this story. And more about your past! Updates for the next week or so will probably be for this story, unless I'm struck by inspiration. As on my other story, check out my last blog post, here, for info, and stuff.)

Chapter 16: Applejack Day 2

(Be sure to rate, and comment. I try to respond to all comments I get. And thanks for reading this far and/or tracking. I appreciate it.)

Consciousness slowly returns to you, and you feel a warm weight pressing down on your chest. You look down, and see the blonde mane of Applejack. You remember playing the piano for her, and then coming up here to gaze at the stars for a while. Then you woke up to find her on top of you. Then you fell asleep again, and now you’re awake. Again.

You aren’t uncomfortable where you are, so you just lay back, and close your eyes, waiting for Applejack to wake up. About ten minutes later Applejack begins to stir. She lifts herself up some, and you open your eyes to look at her. She has a big smile on her face, and she looks at you, and blushes. You pull her in for a hug, and she reciprocates it. After a moment you release her, and she slowly stands up, and gets off of you.

“Am I a good mattress?” She blushes even harder as you finish.

“You’re pretty good, yeah.” You laugh at that. You motion down the ladder, and Applejack makes her way down. You grab the blanket in your mouth, and make your way down the ladder as well. You casually toss the blanket on the bed, resolving to make it later. You stretch your wings out some, and Applejack starts heading downstairs.

“Ah’ll whip up some breakfast. You made dinner, so I’ll make some breakfast.”

“You also made dessert, don’t forget!” You both have a laugh at that. You head to the bathroom to freshen up while Applejack makes some breakfast. As you step out of the shower you take a look at yourself in the mirror. The face you’ve come to know so well looks back at you. It looks the same as it did yesterday, but at the same time it also seems different. You can’t quite put your hoof on it, but there’s something changed from the way it was before. With a shrug you step out of the bathroom, and head to the dining room.

The smell of apples greets your nose, and you see Applejack at the stove. She turns as you enter, and you see that she’s making apple pancakes. “Is there anything I can do to help, or are you going to take care of this yourself?”

“Ah suppose you could make up some place settings at the table. Ah’m a bit preoccupied with the pancakes.” You give a quick nod, and set about setting the table for breakfast. As you finish Applejack comes over with a stack of pancakes. She sets it down, and gives you a peck on the cheek before she sits down. The pancakes are phenomenal, and you can’t get enough of them.

“Sweet Celestia, AJ! These pancakes are great!” She blushes a bit at the compliment, and you can’t help but smile at the reaction. As you finish up you stand up, and take your plate to the kitchen. Applejack follows, and gives you a quick nuzzle on the neck. You respond in kind, and then turn to face her.

“I’d love to spend the whole day with you, but, unfortunately, I do have a job. Once I’m done, though, I’ll come by Sweet Apple Acres, and we can do things together, if you want to.”

“Sure. Ah need to get some applebuckin’ in anyway. Can’t fall too far behind, even for you.” You feign being hurt by the comment, but Applejack just gives you a look, and you both give a laugh. After you clean the dishes you head to the door, and give Applejack a quick kiss before taking flight.

Before long you spot a rainbow colored tail dangling off of a cloud. You fly above the cloud and see Rainbow Dash sound asleep on the cloud. You give her a nudge, and she opens one eye. As soon as she sees you, though, her eyes snap open, and she stands up.

“Oh, hey Storm. I was just resting up before we take care of the weather, ya know?”

You chuckle weakly before responding. “Sure, Dash. Whatever you say. Anyway, what’s the plan for today?”

“Today the weather is mostly clear, so we’ve just got to thin out the clouds a bit. Shouldn’t take too long.” You nod, and set about clearing the skies up. The monotony of the work wears you down, and you find your mind wandering.

If Applejack has this kind of reaction to me after just one day, I wonder how she’ll be acting at the end of the week. And what about the others? Are they really going to be willing to wait for you to make up your mind? These thoughts race around your head while you take care of the clouds.

Just an hour later and the skies are mostly clear, with just a few puffy white clouds making their slow trips across the sky. You admire your work, even if it is mind-numbingly simple. You drift across the sky, with no real direction in mind. Rainbow comes up next to you, and you point to a nearby cloud, and you both fly over to it. You land on it, and Rainbow Dash lands next to you.

She gives you a kiss on the cheek, and then she sits down. You sit as well, and she looks at you expectantly. You give her a questioning look, and she sighs explosively.

“So, what did you do with AJ?” Right to the point, you suppose.

“Well, we just walked through town, slept in the park, went to my house, and had some dinner and dessert. Then we ended the night with some stargazing in the small observation dome. A good time was had by all.” It was true, at least mostly. She didn’t need to know all the juicy details of exactly what happened.

She nods as you finish. You stand up, and stretch. “Anyway, I told AJ that I’d go over to Sweet Apple Acres once I finished with the weather. So I guess I’ll see you later, Dash.” You walk across the cloud, and give Rainbow Dash a quick peck on the cheek before you leap off of the cloud. You pick up speed from your fall, and you snap your wings open moments later, and speed off for Sweet Apple Acres.

You arrive a few minutes later, and you just fly a few lazy circles over the farm, looking for Applejack. Once you spot her you enter a slow dive. You land lightly, and you also spot Big Mac helping out Applejack. You give a wave to Big Mac, and he returns it. Applejack notices your arrival, and she trots over to you and gives you a hug.

“So, is there anything I can do to help out? I finished up with the weather, and I’d like to feel at least somewhat useful.” She thinks for a moment, before her eyes light up.

“Well, you could fly up around the tops of the trees and collect the apples that don’t fall off when we buck ‘em.” You give a quick nod, and with that you take off, and fly amongst the treetops. This is about as labor intensive as moving around the clouds, so your mind once again has the chance to wander.

With ponderous slowness the day progresses, and after a few hours the last of the trees in this section of the farm are picked clean of apples. You deftly land next to Applejack as she heads towards the cart piled high with apples. She gives you a smile, and you watch as she seemingly effortlessly pulls the massive load of apples to the barn. Another hour is spent storing all of the apples, and when you finally finish the sun is only barely above the horizon.

“Well, that was a long day.” You give Applejack a quick smile. “But I can think of a few good ways to end it.”

“Oh? And what would that involve?” She smiles back at you.

“Just wait here, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” You take off and head to your house. You rummage through the fridge for a moment, and pull out some supplies. A couple drinks, some bread, and daisies. You put it all in a basket, and lastly grab your spare blanket. Considering what time it is, you also grab a couple of candles. Nothing is quite like a candle lit dinner under the stars.

You grab the basket in your mouth, and head back to the barn. You land a short distance away from Applejack, and you motion for her to follow. She does so, with a blush on her face. You climb a small hill and the view from the top is great. You can see for miles. And there is an unobstructed view of the horizon and a great view of the sky. You lay out the blanket, and Applejack sits down on it. You sit next to her, and she leans into you gently.

Only a short while later, and you and Applejack watch the sunset together. A pang of regret shoots through you, but before you can fully understand it, it disappears. As the sun finally sinks below the horizon you turn your gaze to the sky, and you watch as it slowly fills with more stars than anypony could ever hope to count. You lower your gaze to Applejack, and she’s just looking up at the sky.

You raise a hoof, and gently take her hat off. She looks at you, but doesn’t stop you. You also remove the hair band from her mane, and her hair flows freely once you remove the band. You lean in and kiss her, and she practically melts in you hooves.

You savor the kiss for a minute, before you pull back. She’s smiling, and blushing a deep crimson. You reach into the basket, and pull out the supplies, and the drinks.

“Thank you, Storm.” She just says that, and then she gives you another kiss, as you turn to look at her as she spoke. This kiss has more passion than the last, and you just enjoy it. This kiss doesn’t last as long, but it made up for it with the degree of passion.

“What for AJ?” You were curious. All you had done was take her out for a picnic. It didn’t really seem that special to you, just a nice idea.

She blushes even more before she speaks. “Well, you make me feel special. Ah know Ah’m the element of honesty, and for most ponies that’d be enough. But you don’t act like some of the other stallions who’ve tried to win my heart. They’d take me out to dinner at fancy restaurants, and give me all sorts a’ fancy gifts. But you? You take me on a picnic, and just serve some daisy sandwiches. You act like yourself, and that’s the difference. You aren’t pretending to be somepony your not, and that’s why Ah thanked you.”

“Well, I figured that I should just be who I am, rather than try to be somepony I’m not. I mean, honestly, I barely know who I am, so I’d probably be pretty bad at trying to be somepony else.” She gives a quick laugh at your bad joke. After that, though, the dinner goes smoothly, albeit simply.

As you finish you both lie back and watch the sky. Applejack cuddles with you, though, and you wrap a hoof around her. A short while later, and Applejack’s breathing has become slower, and more regular. You realize that she’s fallen asleep, and so you very carefully extricate yourself from her grasp. You pack up the picnic basket, and then you gently lift Applejack onto your back. With your precious cargo secured you grab the basket in your mouth, and you head back to the farmhouse.

You enter the house, and see Big Mac in the living room, reading a book. He looks up when you enter, and he gives you a nod. You head upstairs and gently put Applejack in her bed. You tuck her in, and give her a quick peck on the cheek before you head back downstairs. As you are about to leave you hear a noise come from Big Mac. You turn to look, and see that he’s motioning you over.

You take a seat and you look at Big Mac expectantly. He makes a show of putting the book down, and then he just looks at you. Initially you feel uncomfortable under his gaze, but your confidence quickly returns, and you look back at him, matching his stare.

You see a deep intelligence in his eyes. The stare only lasts a minute, but you feel like more passed between the two of you in that minute than an hour long conversation could have accomplished.

“Eeyup.” That’s all he says before he gets up, and heads to the door, opening it for you. You walk over to the door, and give Big Mac another stare. He matches yours, this time.

“I won’t hurt her, Big Mac. I don’t think I could, if I wanted to.”

“That’s what I thought. Good night, Storm.” He may be a stallion of few words, but he doesn’t need them when he can learn all he want to know just by watching how you act.

You take flight, and a few minutes later you are back at your home. You put the basket in the fridge, resolving to take care of it tomorrow morning. You head upstairs, and crawl into your bed. Sleep comes quickly, and you soon roam the lands of your dreams.

You feel a strangely familiar tug in your belly, and you see a world forming around you…

(Hooray for Applejack, and Big Mac. MOAR DREAMS! Whoo!)
(Read me!)

Chapter 17: A Dream

You are arm in arm with Rachel as you walk towards the club where the dance is being held. She has on a shimmering cyan dress that draws the eye to all of her curves. You still can’t believe that she said yes, but you’re enjoying yourself too much to think about it right now. As you enter the club you hear the dance music already playing. You walk over to a table with a few other people you know, and you take a seat next to Rachel. She has a big smile on her face, and she catches your eye, and gives a quick wink.

You blush when she does, but you pass it off with a laugh. A short while later, and you are dancing up a storm. Rachel is smiling more than you’ve ever seen before, and it makes you happy to see her happy. The night wears on, and a few hours later you are sitting at your table, with Rachel next to you. You’re panting, having been dancing for the past hour and a half nonstop.

“I’m glad I said yes.” You look up when Rachel speaks, as she’s unusually quiet, especially given the situation.

“Is something wrong? You’re really quiet.” She gives you a weak smile, and then she grabs your hand. You follow her, and soon you’re on the upstairs balcony. The night sky is just as clear as the night you went stargazing. She walks over to a table, and motions for you to sit. She sits next to you, and angles herself to look at you.

“You know about my disease, right?” You nod, but she explains anyway. “Well, you know how my mom’s been having heart problems her whole life, and my dad did too, when he was younger. Well, they’re both genetic, and I got the worst of both.”

You had heard this before, but it has been almost two years since she spoke about it with you. She’s mentioned it, but never in any real detail.

“Anyway, the doctors say that my heart has an usually thin left ventricular wall. And so, they fear that if it isn’t treated, as in replaced, then I’ll run the risk of it rupturing. I’ve known since I was old enough to talk, but it was never a huge problem until recently. My heart, when I was younger, couldn’t pump hard enough to be a real risk, but now it’s a risk.”

You nod in understanding. “So, what are they going to do? Are you getting a replacement, or are they going to try to treat it?”

“Well, they don’t really have any way to treat it, and they’re having trouble finding a donor. In a couple of weeks I’m going into the hospital for some treatments. I was wondering if you’d be there for me, when I wake up after the surgery.”

Your jaw drops. “Of course I’ll be there for you! We’ve been friends for so long now, I-”

She puts her fingers on your lips, and you stop speaking. “I don’t want you there as a friend. I want you there as my boyfriend.”

She lowers her hand, and you are speechless. You open and close your mouth a few times, but no words seem to form. She giggles at your fish impression, and that jars your mind. You smile at her, and lean in for a kiss, and she lets you.

Your mind races at your first kiss. Her lips are soft, and kissable. It lasts mere moments, but to you it lasted an eternity. When you pull back she has tears in her eyes. “I’ll be there, Rachel. I’ll be there for you, and I won’t leave your side till you’re better.”

A few more tears fall, and then she lunges at you and kisses you with much more passion. You find yourself lost in her pink eyes. A genetic mutation, she says. Beautiful, you always responded.

The balcony melts away, and you find yourself in the hospital. Rachel is lying on a hospital bed, and her eyes are half closed. She is holding your hand, and occasionally squeezing. You return the squeezes, gently, but you do it.

“How long since they put me on the sedative?” She manages to groggily ask.

“It’s been an hour and twenty minutes,” you say after checking your watch. “The doctors said that it should’ve put you out in twenty. Are you always this stubborn?”

She laughs a bit at that. “Always. It’s getting harder, though. Promise me you’ll be there when I wake up?”

“I promise.” As you respond, though, her eyes close. A few minutes later, and a group of doctors enter. They usher you out, and a minute later they wheel her bed out of the room. You follow them to the operating room, and wait at the point where you can go no further.

You must have fallen asleep, because you suddenly wake with a start. Rachel’s parents are in the hall, across from you. They are both crying, clearly upset about the situation they’re in. As you stand up, a doctor comes out through the doors. All eyes turn to him, and he looks at all of you.

He pulls off his mask, and there is a frown there. He shakes his head slowly, and just stands there.

“No…” You can’t accept it. Your mind goes blank, and you turn to look at the doctor. “No, that can’t be! I promised her I’d be there!” He just shakes his head again.

“I’m sorry, son. We did all we could, but there was a small section of the ventricle that was weaker than expected. Once we were examining her heart it ruptured. She hemorrhaged faster than we could stop. I’m sorry, but she’s gone.”

You push your way past the doctor, and after running for a moment, you find an observation room. You barge in, and see Rachel lying on the operating table. You pound your fist on the window, tears streaming down your face. “I promised you! I said I’d be there, and you still left! We just started going out, after I had been asking for years, and now that you’ve said yes you DIE?” Your pounding grows weaker, and soon you are just lying on the floor, in the fetal position, crying. You feel someone lift you up, but you don’t care. The one girl that you fell in love with is gone. She’s gone and you never told her how you really felt.

She’s gone, and you’re alone again.

The world melts around you once more, and you’re sitting in a forest.

“Happy birthday to me,” you mumble under your breath. You pull out grandma’s letter, and look at it with a mild indifference. You pull out your knife, and cut the letter open.

You slowly pull out the letter, and read what it says.

Dear (YOUR NAME),

I know that you are probably wishing that I was still there with you, and that I hadn’t died. Well, you and me both. This letter is not just an ordinary letter. This letter will explain what is happening to you, and what will happen to you. I’m sorry to say, that just by reading this you have accepted what it says.

The first thing that will happen is a wipe of your memory. This is necessary to effect a smoother transition to the new world. The watchers will be unable to send you back if you have no connection to this world, so the memory wipe will be a cruel necessity. Once you’ve created a solid link to the new world your memories will start returning to you. There may be occasional recollection in dreams, but nothing will be remembered by your conscious mind, sadly.

The new world you’ll be traveling to is a much happier world than ours. There is still conflict, no world can exist without it, but it is much less. I hope that you will enjoy it, and make new friends. And maybe, just maybe, meet some old ones too.

The new world you’ll be traveling to is called Equestria. It is a land of ponies, and mythological beasts. I went there when I died, a story for when we meet again, and now I wish for you to come here before you need to die, and live a sad life on Earth. I realize that I’m forcing this on you, but believe me, it’s for the best. Now, the effects will start kicking in soon, so I want you to finish this as quickly as you can, and then fold it up, and keep it with you no matter what.

I’ll explain more when we meet on Equestria. If we don’t then just remember that I love you.

Now, all you have to do is run. Run, and don’t look back. The few mythical forces on Earth are unwilling to just let you leave. Run, and keep running. The moon will guide you, as it did for me.

Love you always,

Grandma

With a gasp you sit up in bed. It’s nearly morning, and you feel a cold sweat running down your back. You eyes also feel puffy, as if you were crying for a while. You lay back down, and just look at the ceiling. Swimming through your mind are a set of pink eyes. They’re filled with tears, but before you can focus on them they fade from focus, and you can’t seem to bring them back into focus. You roll out of bed, and start getting ready.

Your mind is racing, and you can’t shake the feeling that soon something big is going to happen.

(Yep. A dream chapter. There may be a few more of these, as I fill in the gaps. And that ending? Foreshadowing so much! Good stuff is going to be coming up soon.)

Chapter 18: The Storm

(Woo, longest chapter to date. Two hours of writing, and just a bit of editing. I present to you, The Storm. Enjoy.)

A quick trip to the bathroom, and you’re looking as good as always. Which, sadly, isn’t saying much. But, hey, it’s enough to earn you the hearts of six lovely mares.

You head outside, and see that it’s just past dawn, so you have an hour or two before weather duties. You take to the skies, and lazily fly about. You watch the town beneath you slowly come to life, as the markets slowly fill with merchants, ready to peddle their wares. You even see some ponies heading off to school. You spot Apple Bloom heading to school, so you glide down and land next to her.

“Oh hey Storm. What are you doing up so early?” She looks at you with wide eyes.

“Not much. Woke up and didn’t feel like trying to get back to sleep, so I decided I’d just go for a brief flight.” She gives a quick nod, and she gives a less than subtle glance at your flank. You chuckle, and reply to the unasked question. “No, I still don’t have my cutie mark. And once I get mine I’ll still try to help you, and the other crusaders.” She seems relieved by your answer, and you continue walking in silence for a few minutes.

As you near the end of the short road that leads to the farm you see Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Why they’d be here is a mystery to you. It’s not really on their way to school, so they must meet up to go to school together.

“Hey Storm,” Sweetie Belle greets you. “Are you here to walk us to school?”

“No, I’m just waiting for Rainbow Dash to wake up so we can take care of the weather. But I suppose I can walk with you three to get you to school.” The walk to school doesn’t take too long, and the girls are talking about their plans the whole way there. You hear some potentially good ideas, including one about mountain climbing, but you doubt that any of them will come through for them. You wish them a good day at school, and with that you take to the skies once more.

You circle the town once, and as you come to Rainbow’s house you see her heading out the door, rubbing her eyes. As she spots you, you give a quick wave, and she quickly takes flight and joins you amongst the clouds.

“So, what’s the weather for today? Anything interesting, or just more scattered clouds?”

“Actually, today is clear skies till about noon, followed by some rain, and ending the evening with a big thunderstorm. It’s not as bad as it sounds, though. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours.”

You give a quick nod, and set to work. Clearing the skies is easy work, but setting up for the rain and thunderstorm is a bit harder than you anticipated. After you finish with the rain clouds you stare in amazement at them. Who would’ve guessed that clouds were programmable?

Thunder and lightning were also difficult to prepare, since you had to build up a charge in the clouds, so that they could release the lightning. It’s tough work, but Rainbow Dash was right about how long it would take. As you finish up the last of the clouds you both stand back and admire your handy work. It’s around eleven, so the skies are beginning to cloud up, in preparation for the coming rain storm.

“Well, Dash, with this done, I’m heading over to Sweet Apple Acres. I’ve got plans for our friendly farm pony, and I’d rather get to them soon.” You give Rainbow a quick peck on the cheek, and then dive from the clouds and race off towards the farm. Only when you’re almost to the farm do you think about what you did. You pass it off as being related to the fact that she likes you back, but it feels like it was more than that.

As you arrive at the farm you see Applejack pulling a cart full of apples into the barn, and so you swoop down, land, and start pushing the cart. It only takes a moment to get the cart in the rest of the way, and Applejack quickly turns to see who was there. She smiles when she sees that it was you, and you return the smile.

“Ah was wonderin’ why the cart got easier to pull. Glad to see you’re the reason.” You give a small bow, and a charming smile.

“Always glad to help.” You start unloading the baskets of apples, following Applejack’s lead. A few minutes later and Big Mac enters with a cart of his own. His has almost twice as many apples, and you’re amazed at the ease with which he pulls the load. It takes quite a while to sort all the apples, but it was filled with some laughs and shared stories amongst the three of you as you worked.

Apparently Big Mac can be a bit more talkative than you thought, but even when he’s being a “chatterbox”, as Applejack phrased it, he’s still quite reserved. With the last basket of apples taken care of the three of you head back to the farm for some food, after the day of work. You look up and see that the rain will be starting any minute now.

Big Mac heads to the kitchen to get some food, so you and Applejack head to the dining room, and eagerly await Big Mac’s entry. When he comes in you see a plethora of apple related foods, and the three of you dig in.

As you all finish up you look outside and see that the rain has started in earnest. You feel sorry for anypony caught up in this storm, since it looks pretty bad out there. As you clear the dishes from the table you wonder what you’ll do with Applejack today, considering that you can’t really go out and do anything.

She seems to answer your question, though, since you find yourself being pulled along by Applejack.

“Make sure you keep the door open.” Big Mac is quick to interject when he sees that you have left. Applejack gives you a quick smile, and her face turns a shade of crimson. Soon you find yourself sitting in her room, while she’s lying on her bed, facing you.

Strangely enough, you find that you have no idea what to say to her. She doesn’t seem to mind, though, and she just watches you. A few minutes pass in silence, but then Applejack breaks the silence.

“Ah’ve been wonderin’ somthin’. Where did you learn to play piano like that? That was mighty fine playin’, and I was just wonderin’.” You give a quick smile, and think hard about how exactly you know.

“Well, to be honest, I don’t really know. The first time I can remember playing was when I found the piano in Twilight’s basement. Each song that I played came to me on the spot. Not reliable, I know, but it does make it interesting.”

“Well, ya must’ve learned at some point. Was it a family member, or did you have a teacher?”

“I think I taught myself.” You ponder for a moment, searching for any scraps hidden in your mind. A few splotches of memory come through, but not enough for a definitive answer. “I am fairly certain that at least some songs I taught myself, but the rest I learned from someone.” She raises an eyebrow as you finish. “Sorry, somepony. The word just came out.”

She smiles, and the room descends into silence once more. You notice her slowly edging back on the bed, clearly making room for you. You decide you’re going to make her ask, though. Don’t want to make it too easy for her. You look around her room some, and see dozens of blue ribbons on the walls, as well as some trophies. You see a familiar picture of Applejack and her friends. As you continue to look around you suddenly hear a sigh. You look back to Applejack, and see that she’s changed position as well as moved back. She’s up at the head of the bed in a position that demands to be cuddled with.

“Is there something you need AJ? I’m not quite sure what you’re asking me for.” You give her a smile that shows that you know exactly what she wants. She blushes even harder than earlier, and you just continue smiling.

“Your really gonna make me say it?” Her smile is almost as big as yours, but her blush says more than her words.

“Please, AJ. What is it that you want me to do?”

“How about you get your flank over here before I have to come over there.” As tempting as that sounds you get up and walk over to the bed, and stand next to it. Applejack’s eyes followed you the whole time, and you are now just a couple feet away from her. You climb onto the bed, and she immediately wraps a hoof around you. You give a smile, and she just snuggles into your chest.

As you get comfortable you start to fade. Sleep overtakes you, but soon releases you, mere hours later. You wake up in the same position as you fell asleep in, and you gently prod Applejack. She sits up, and before doing anything else gives you a kiss.

You break the kiss after a moment, and just look at her for a moment. Without warning your stomach gives a loud rumble. You give a weak chuckle, and you see Applejack is barely holding back her giggles.

“Maybe we could get something to eat?” She finally starts laughing, and you join in. She may not be Pinkie Pie, but her laugh is magical in its own way. Dinner consists of more apple-themed foods, and you notice that Apple Bloom isn’t present.

“Has anypony seen Apple Bloom? I saw her this morning, but not since then.”

“She and her friends went crusadin’ after school.” Big Mac interjects. “Reckon their up to something.”

“Well,” you start, “I hope they get home before the thunder starts.” As you finish up Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Applejack are all staring at you. “Is it something I said?”

Applejack is the first to respond. “Apple Bloom is afraid of Thunderstorms, although she’d never admit it. Hopefully they aren’t doing anything too outrageous.” After her brief explanation they continue eating.

You chuckle at that, trying to imagine what they are up to. As you are moving a fork to your mouth, there is a sharp crack of thunder. You pause for a moment, and suddenly you drop your fork. “I know where they are. And I don’t think you’ll like it.”

All three of them look at you, concern on their faces. “I am pretty sure that they went mountain climbing. Trying to get their cutie marks.” Their eyes go wide at this revelation, and you realize just what it means too. You slowly push your chair back from the table, already knowing that what you’re about to do will set a new record for stupidity. “I’ll get them back as soon as I can.”

With that said you bolt from the room, and outside. The winds are fierce, and the rain is falling hard enough to have you soaked in seconds. With a hearty leap you pump your wings to start gaining speed against the wind. A convenient flash of lightning shows you the mountain that is closest to Ponyville. The thunder follows mere moments later, and is deafening.

You pump your wings as fast as you can, and soon you’re making good progress despite the best efforts of the storm. You feel the mental blocks in your mind once more, letting you know just how fast you are really going. You plow through them with ease, and soon you’re close enough to the mountain to make out some details. You fly up the mountain in a zigzag pattern, looking for the Crusaders.

You make out a flat area, and a small cave with a light coming from it. You battle the winds, and manage to land on the ledge. Inside the cave you see the crusaders curled up, shivering in both fright and from the cold of the storm. When they see it’s you, they run up and hug you.

“Come on, girls. I know this is scary, but I need to get you back home. It’s going to be raining for hours, and you need to get warmed up soon.” They don’t seem to understand, so you take a deep breath to calm yourself down.

“Girls, listen to me.” You speak firmly, and slowly, and they seem to respond. “Sweetie Belle, do you know any magic that could make a heat source of any kind?” She shakes her head. The urge to swear is great, but you beat it back. “Okay, that’s fine.” It’s not really fine, they all are showing signs of hypothermia, but you’ll need to worry about that once you’ve gotten them down from the mountain. “Offensive question time! How much does each of you weigh?”

They each respond, and you realize with a start that they are much lighter than you thought. You won’t be able to fly with them, but you’ll be able to glide down. “Alright, Crusaders. This won’t be easy, or comfortable, but I’m going to fly us down to the ground. Then we’ll either make a camp and a fire, or we’ll head to town.” You hope for the latter, but expect the former. You turn around, and look back into the storm. It’s just as fierce as before, if not more so. You see something in the storm, though.

A sinuous creature is flying in the storm, and it seems to be only flying in your area. You walk out of the small cave, into the storm, and you see what looks to be a wingless dragon gliding on the wind currents. As soon as it sees you, though, it makes an ear piercing cry. It sounds like a strong gust of wind, but more shrill and piercing. You wince at the noise, but stand your ground. It circles around, and it dives towards you.

At the last moment you sidestep the dive, and it effortlessly swoops past, and resumes it’s circling. This thing is fast, and a great flier. This will certainly be tricky. And if it weren’t for the dire situation perhaps enjoyable.

You go back into the cave, and you pick the fillies up, one by one, and place them on your back. “Girls, you’ll need to hold on as tight as you can. Don’t worry about hurting me; just make sure you don’t fall off. And no matter what, don’t let go till I tell you to. Do you understand?”

They all nod, and you turn to face the opening, and you brace yourself for a moment.

You mutter to yourself under your breath. “Celestia damn it all. This is easily the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

You leap out of the cave, and then another leap sends you over the edge, and out into the air.

The wind whips you back and forth, but you keep your course stable, more or less, using your wings. The monster makes another pass at you, but you close your wings quickly, dropping below its angle of attack. The flight down is surprisingly quick, and soon you’re on the ground.

“Girls, get off now. This thing isn’t going to just let us leave, so I’m going to take care of it.” After the girls climb off you look at them all. “Sweetie Belle, I need you to do whatever you can to learn how to make fire. It’s more important than anything else. Scootaloo find some wood we can use. The drier the better.” You give Apple Bloom a quick hug. She’s shivering hard. “I just need you to stay strong Apple Bloom.”

You release her, and take off once more. The monster circles you, and you do your best to maintain your position. The beast makes a few attack attempts, but you dodge them with ease. On it’s next attack, though, it comes in differently than the last few times. As it draws near it lets out a piercing cry, and it jostles your concentration long enough for it to grab you in its clawed hand.

It gains altitude fast, and you feel your ear pop several times due to the pressure change. Soon, though, it levels out, and you can feel it gliding through the air with such grace and ease, you can’t help but be a bit jealous. You look up at the sky, and with a sickening pulse the cloud above you pulses yellow. Before you can utter the curse that was forming on your lips the bolt of lightning arcs down into the monster holding you, and subsequently, through you.

A pain like no other rips through you, and you suddenly feel yourself falling. You struggle to open your wings, but you find they are unresponsive. You grind your teeth together, and push as hard as you can against the cramped muscles. With a jolt of pain they both snap open, and you grit your teeth against the pain.

You manage to land, sloppily, but in one piece. “Any landing you walk away from is a good landing,” you cough out, not finding it funny at all.

You practically crawl to where you left the girls, and you find them huddled around a small fire. “Oh, thank Celestia for small favors.” They all look over to you as you walk over to them. You sit between Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, and then you raise your wings, despite the complaining muscle.

“I’ll keep you dry, but you will need to keep me warm.” You feel the chill seeping into your bones, but you can’t let them down now. They all huddle against you, and you feel only a moderate warmth come from them.

You feel your grasp on reality slide in and out, but you remain conscious till the storm finally stops.

With the cloud cover thinning, you see that it is almost dawn. You’ve been sitting here, covering the girls for at least eight hours, probably more. You look at them, and see that they are all still holding you, but they are all asleep. You lower a hoof to each of them, and find that they are a bit warm, likely from a fever. Apple Bloom still feels cold, though, so you gently nudge her. She wakes up, and she squeezes you tighter, tears in her eyes.

You give her a weak smile, and she just holds you tighter. You hear a voice calling out, but you can’t make out what its saying. You look to the east, and see the beginnings of the day. The shouting voice becomes more clear, but you still can’t make it out. It repeats a moment later, in a different voice. Multiple ponies, is your conclusion, but you don’t rule that it may be your delusional mind playing tricks on you.

You look east once more, towards Ponyville and the new day. Then, several mares come into sight, framed against the rising sun. (Fuck yeah. Finally using the title.)

Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy are all running in your direction. As they get closer they stop shouting, and start running faster.

You finally relax your wings, and they drop to your sides. You look at them as they get close, and you feel your body relax all over. You start a slow fall backwards, as the adrenaline pumping through your body finally dropped to a rate that could be considered normal. A comforting blackness envelops you, and the last thing you see are Rainbow’s tear filled eyes. That shade of pink…

(Any mistakes in spelling, or grammar, let me know. It's 2AM for me at the time of posting(Had some inspiration, and I didn't want to let it go to waste, don't judge me!). Editing skills are not at their best, so if you find any mistakes let me know. Thanks.)

Chapter 19: The Hospital

(Not to much action this time.)

With a groan you slowly open your eyes. It’s dark. That much you can tell right away. You hear a rhythmic beeping, and with each beep you feel a pulse of pain in your head. As your awareness expands you notice a slightly glowing object near your bed. At least, you hope it’s a bed. You try to focus on the light, but you can’t seem to make out any details. You try to sit up to get a better grasp on your surroundings, but as soon as you try to sit up a sharp pain radiates from all over your body.

“Oh my, you’re awake.” The voice is familiar, but you can’t put a face to it. The glow increases slightly, and soon you can see that it is a horn, attached to the forehead of a white pony. You realize, as the glow increases, that it’s actually Princess Celestia.

“Princess? If I’d known you were coming I would’ve made sure to look better for the part.” Your attempt at humor is met with a small grin.

“I’ll let it go this time, but in the future this will be unacceptable.” You return the smile, glad to see that she understood what you were driving at. You relax on the bed, knowing that, at least for now, nothing bad will happen. Not with the princess around, at least.

“Now, would you mind telling me what happened? The Crusaders could only tell me so much, given that they were scared witless for most of your adventure.” You grimace as a spike of pain shoots along your side, but you pull yourself into a position that will give you a better view of the princess.

“Well, I was at Sweet Apple Acres…

… And then I saw the girls come over the hill, and when they finally got to me I fell backwards and passed out. Not much else to say.”

Through your small tale Celestia’s face went through a wide gamut of emotions, from fear to happiness, to fear. With your tale complete she gives you a warm smile.

“Well, Storm, I’ve got someponies who would like to see you. Are you well enough to entertain guests?” You decide to be a bit bold.

“Well, I’m enduring you, aren’t I?” To your surprise she actually laughs at your joke.

“True enough. I wish more ponies would have your bravery. It’s so dull to have everypony always tell me what they think I want to hear.” She opens up the door as she finishes, and three fillies burst into the room. The jump onto the bed next to you, and you find yourself being hugged by all three.

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle are all clinging to you, tears in their eyes. They all hold you tight, and you raise a hoof and return the hug.

“Thank you for coming to save us!” This comes from Sweetie Belle, who released you only enough to look you in the eyes. After speaking she resumes the hugging.

“Girls, please.” You wince slightly as they continue the hugging. “It was nothing, really. Now could you please let go, it’s starting to hurt.” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both let go, but Apple Bloom continues holding you, less tightly, but she doesn’t let go. You decide to let her stay there, and you look up and see Twilight and her friends all crowded into the room. All of them look like they’ve been crying, which doesn’t surprise you.

“Oh, hi girls. Nice of you to come by.” Applejack is the first to make a move, and she walks up to you, and you can see in her eyes that she’s dealing with an internal conflict. Likely it has to do with the fact that she loves you, and you did something stupid, and she doesn’t like that. But, at the same time you saved her sister, and her friends.

“Ah should buck you fer what you did. Ah also owe you a debt that Ah can never repay for what you did. So what do you say we call it even?” She has a massive blush on her cheeks, and you realize that there never was a conflict; she just didn’t know how to say what she wanted to say.

“I understand AJ. I think I can-” Before you can continue Applejack lands a kiss on your lips, cutting you off abruptly. She breaks the kiss after a moment, and then she moves back amongst the others.

“So, what exactly did I fight?” You break the silence that had descended upon the room, and Twilight jumps in, eager to share her knowledge.

“It was a Zephite. They are normally docile creatures that fly amongst the clouds, and go where the winds take them. But when a strong enough storm forms the more violent ones are likely to appear. They are bloodthirsty creatures, and often kill and consume anything they may find during the storm. Nopony has ever fought one alone and won. At least, not until recently.” She gives you a smile as she finishes.

“Riveting tale, Twi. Now, I’d like to know how long it’s been since I fell unconscious. I feel like it was just minutes ago, but I doubt that it’s only been that short.”

Rainbow answers this time. “It’s been almost a full day. We found you at sunrise yesterday, and it’s just a few hours from sunrise now.”

You let yourself fall back, and you just relax. “Well, I’m feeling pretty tired, despite being ‘asleep’ for the past day. So, if none of you mind, I’d like to get some rest.”

“Certainly, Storm. I’ll come by later, and we can go into more detail about what happened with the Zephite.” She ushers the girls out of the room, and Apple Bloom gives you a quick final hug before she exits.

You look up at the ceiling for a moment, and then you hear the door open. A moment later, and you hear two chairs being pulled up next to you. You look down, and see both Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. You give them both a weak smile, and you feel a hoof lay on top of yours.

“You get some rest, sugarcube. One of us will be here when you wake up.” As she finishes you give a big yawn, and you feel yourself falling asleep.

As you slowly wake you feel different. Some memories seem new, and yet old at the same time. You see Rainbow Dash resting her head on the bed next to you, and you nudge her gently. She wakes up quickly, and looks at you.

Those pink eyes. They’re so familiar, and yet you can’t place them. “Dashie, there’s something about your eyes.” Her face brightens when you speak, but when you go no further with it her face droops. If it weren’t for the fact that you were so close you might’ve missed it.

“Is something wrong? Is it what I said?”

“No.” You sigh with relief as she responds. You almost miss it, but you hear her finish her thought. “It’s what you didn’t say.” You don’t reply to her, and instead just enjoy her company. A doctor comes in just a few minutes later, and informs you that, if you want, you can be released now. Other than the pain of healing your body is ready to face the world once more.

You thank him, and he promises to return soon with the paperwork that you’ll need to fill out. True to his word he returns with a stack of papers that you’ll have to fill out.

It takes almost an hour to fill the whole stack out, and once you finish you’re free to go. You slide out of bed, and despite the pain wracking your body, you manage to leave the hospital. Rainbow stays by your side the whole time, and a short while later you get back to your house. When you enter you see Applejack, Twilight, and the others all waiting in your living room. The conversation stops when they see you enter, and they quickly make room for you on the couch.

You take a seat, and then you notice that the Crusaders are there as well. Twilight gets off the couch, and moves next to the Crusaders.

“Storm, the girls here have something they want to tell you.”

They all speak at the same time. “We’re sorry for what we did.”

Sweetie Belle continues, though. “Really, Storm. We didn’t mean for all of that to happen. We just want to find our cutie marks so bad that we sometimes don’t think about what we’re doing.”

“I didn’t think that you did it intentionally. I just want you to promise me that you won’t do anything like that again. Not only was it dangerous, and irresponsible, it put more than just you at risk. I went out into the storm to help you, not because I had nothing better to do, because trust me, I did, but because it was the right thing to do.” You look to Applejack and Rarity. “Have you punished them at all?”

“No, Storm. Not yet.” Rarity responds first, with Applejack giving the same answer.

“Well, I’d like it if you didn’t.” The Crusader’s jaws drop at this, and both Applejack and Rarity look at you as if you’ve grown a second head. “This may sound weird, but I think that what they’ve been through is punishment enough. The first thing they did when they came into my hospital room was giving me a hug, and thanking me. They were genuinely worried about me, and I think they understand what they did was wrong. To punish them now is pointless, since the lesson has been learned.”

The Crusaders throw themselves at you again, crushing you beneath an onslaught of hugs. Rarity and Applejack both consent that the lesson has been learned, but they won’t be allowed to go crusading for the rest of the week. You give a shrug, and then whisper into their ears, “I tried girls.” They give quick giggles, and then they climb off you.

After sitting and talking for a short while everyone but Applejack has left. They have to take care of their jobs and responsibilities too, so you understand. Applejack moves next to you and just cuddles with you.

You look over to the clock, and see that it’s only noon. You nuzzle Applejack’s neck, and she looks up at you expectantly.

“It’s only noon, AJ. How about we go do something. Not strenuous, of course. But I can’t just stay here all day, I’ll go crazy.”

“If you’re sure, sugarcube.” She gets up, and you follow suit. She walks over to the door, and you follow. You grab some of your bits before leaving. As you walk out the door you take a quick look around the living room, and your eyes linger on the grandfather clock. You shake off the weird feeling you’re getting, and you close the door, and follow Applejack into the town.

(Not the longest chapter, I know. But I needed to get you out of the hospital somehow. Can't spend several chapters just lying around healing, what fun is that to read? Anyway, I intend to make the next chapter, or several chapters, more interesting, to make up for this one. (Same as last time, any major mistakes you may find, let me know.))

Chapter 20: An Afternoon Off

The trip into town isn’t very long, distance wise, but in your condition it takes quite a while. You walk amongst the shop stalls in the market, and everyone gives you friendly waves and smiles. Word spreads fast here, and you often hear people speaking about what you did. You enjoy yourself as you take in the sights, and after a short while you walk into Sugarcube Corner. It’s fairly busy, and so you and Applejack wait patiently for Pinkie to finish up with the customers.

“Right then, come back soon!” She waves to the last customer as they exit, and then she looks back at you. “Oh, hi Storm! I’m surprised to see you, since you were hurt and all. Are you sure it’s okay for you to be walking around?”

“I’m feeling better Pinkie. I couldn’t bare to stay inside all day, so I’m going to do a bit of food shopping.”

“Well, sugarcube, I’ve actually got to head to the farm to take care of the applebuckin’. Can’t take two days off in a row. You’ll be okay, right?” She has a concerned look on her face, but you nod.

“I think I’ll be fine AJ. I don’t intend to do anything too strenuous today. Or for the next few days.” She gives you a quick kiss and then she leaves, heading for Sweet Apple Acres. You turn around and see Pinkie has a big smile on her face.

“I can’t wait for my turn! We’ll have so much fun together!” She seems so excited that you can’t help but look forward to it as well. You head over to the displays, covered with cakes and all manner of sweets.

“What do you recommend, Pinkie? I’m looking for something to show somepony how I feel.” She gives a quick gasp as you say that, and then she leaps over the counter, and comes back a moment later with a beautiful looking cupcake. It’s really breathtaking, and you can’t help but want it. “How much would that cost me?” You inquire, hoping it’s not too much.

“Well, it is really hard to make, buuuuut I think I can sell it to you for thirty bits.” You quickly pull out your coin pouch, and pay her the thirty bits. She puts the cupcake in a small box, and then hands it to you.

“So, who’s the special somepony that you’re going to give it to? AJ? Dashie? Twi?”

You hold the box towards her, and she looks at you with a puzzled look on her face. “It’s for you Pinkie. As a token of my appreciation for your friendship and compassion.” She just looks at it, tears forming in her eyes. You hope that you didn’t upset her, but before you can even think of feeling bad, she gives you a big hug.

“Nopony has ever given me a cake before! In fact, you’re the first pony to give me a present when it wasn’t my birthday!” She pulls back for a moment, and then gives you a quick kiss.

“Now, Pinkie. This is just a small present until it’s your turn. I’d like to spend a bit more time with AJ before I move on.” Her head droops a bit, but you gently lift her chin and look her in the eyes. “But I think I know who I’ll be dating next.”

Her eyes brighten and she gives you another kiss. “I think I can wait, in that case.” She leaps back over the counter, and places the box under the counter. “I’ll just hold on to that for later.”

A few minutes later and you walk out of Sugarcube Corner, about fifty bits poorer, but laden with a few packages of cookies. As you walk down the street many ponies approach and thank you for what you did saving the Crusaders.

After a short while you get to the park, and you take a seat on a bench, wanting to get off your feet for a while. As you relax you suddenly hear some music being played. You can almost make out some words, but they don’t sound like normal words. Almost as if they are being made with magic and the music. You get off the bench, and search for the source of the music. Just a minute later and you find a mint green unicorn floating a lyre above her.

You take a seat and just listen. As you listen you start to hear a voice. It’s actually coming out of the music, and you find it strangely enchanting. The song lasts for a few more minutes and when it finally ends you give a slow clap. She jumps up when you start clapping, and you stop when she stares at you.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just listening to you play, and I thought it was exceptional.” She blushes a bit as you finish, and she starts scribbling on a notepad. She faces it towards you, and you read what it says.

Thank you for your praise. I am always striving to improve my music.

“Think nothing of it. You’ve got a real talent for music, I could almost make out some words in the song.” As you say this her eyes brighten, and she scribble furiously on her notepad before showing it to you.

You could hear words?

“Some. Nothing terribly clear, but what I did hear was beautiful.” A memory leaps to the forefront of your mind, and you decide to ask the question. “Are you mute? Is that why you have the notepad?”

She writes on the notepad again, slower this time, and then she shows you what it says.

Yes, I am. Someponies can hear words in my music, and I want everyone to be able to hear, so I practice all the time.

“Well, it was beautiful. I’ve only just met you and I can hear the beauty in the music you play.” Her eyes tear up a bit as you speak. “I play the piano, so I do have an ear for music, and you are among the best I have ever heard.” She blushes as you finish, and you slowly stand up, getting ready to take your leave.

She holds the notepad up to you again as you stand.

What’s your name? I’m Lyra.

"I’m Storm.”

Her eyes widen as you say your name, and then she writes on the pad again.

You’re the pony who saved the Crusaders! What you did is a great thing. You shake your head, and smile.

“I did what was right. I didn’t do it for recognition, or anything. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I hadn’t done something. Now, I’ll be heading off now, but if you ever want to play some music with somepony just come by my house. I’m always willing to play. Especially for a friend.” She gets a wide smile on her face as you finish, and then you turn to go.

As you start walking away you hear, faintly, a few notes on the lyre.

"See you soon.”
(Check this story out. It's really good, and where I got my inspiration for this particular section of the chapter.)

As you continue your walk you wind up outside the school. It just so happens that as you pass by class is let out. You watch as everypony runs out of the building, eager to spend the rest of the day goofing off, or perhaps, doing homework. Mixed into the group you make out the Crusaders, and they spot you and run over. Again they give you hugs, and thank you for what you did.

“Girls, we’ve been through this. You don’t need to keep thanking me. It was nothing.” You appreciate the praise, and thanks, but you don’t want it to get to your head. They start playing nearby, and you just enjoy the nice weather.

However, it is spoiled by a shrill voice cutting through the air. “Hey blank flanks!” You look to the source of the sound, and you see two fillies approaching the Crusaders with evil grins on their faces. “I hear you all got lost climbing the mountain. What’s the matter, can’t figure out the difference between up and down?” Her friend starts laughing when she makes her joke, and you grind your teeth, but don’t do anything.

“We didn’t get lost, there was a big storm!” Scootaloo jumps in, quick to defend herself. “And I bet that neither of you would’ve gotten half as far as we did!”

You shift positions uncomfortably. This could get bad.

“Pfft! Why would we want to? Unlike you, we both have our cutie marks! We know what we’re good for, unlike you blank flanks.” She has such a condescending tone to her voice it makes you want to do something, but this is their fight, and you shouldn’t get involved unless you have to. Her tirade continued through your internal monologue, and the next thing you hear really gets to you. “I bet that the pony that saved you did it by accident! Nopony would ever go out of their way to help a couple of blank flanks like you!”

If this mocking behavior keeps up much longer you’re going to have to step in.

“He saved us ‘cause he cares for us!” Sweetie Belle steps in this time. “He’s brave and strong too! He fought a Zephite to save us!”

“Probably a baby. Anyway, where is this mysterious stallion I’ve been hearing about? If he’s so great then where is he? Or is everyone just trying to make you feel better about the mess you made?” Well, now you’ve got to step in. She’s acting like a total fool, and you’re going to have to set things straight.

“I’m the mysterious stallion that everyone is going on about.” You take a few steps closer to them all. “And I did fight a fully grown Zephite to save them. I went out into the storm, just to save them. And about being a blank flank,” you show them yours, “is there a problem with it? Does it make me less of a pony because I don’t have one? I can name at least a dozen ponies, right now, who would do what I did for the crusaders to save me. Can either of you name half that many?”

They look visibly upset at what you’re saying, but you need to make your point. “I may be a blank flank, but I’m more confident in who I am than you two will ever be. Your cutie mark doesn’t make you who you are, nor does it really make you special. The thing that makes you special is what you do, and how you do it. These three,” you gesture at the Crusaders, “are far better than you two will ever hope to be. They have heart and spirit. Potentially too much of both, but they are good ponies. Now go ahead and run home to your parents, crying about the big bully that picked on you. I don’t fear any retribution, because I’m doing what’s right.” You finish and look them both in the eye, one at a time. There are tears forming, and after a moment they both run away, tears flowing freely.

You sit back down with a sigh, and the Crusaders stand in front of you, awe on their faces. “No one’s ever stuck up for us like that,” Apple Bloom says.

You just sit for a moment longer, then you stand up. “Let’s get you three home, now. I’d like to avoid any more fighting.” They all groan, but follow you. About forty minutes later and it’s just you and Apple Bloom, walking to Sweet Apple Acres.

You only stay for a moment, not wanting to linger. The trip back to your house is uneventful, but you don’t mind at all. Just as you are about to enter your house you hear the sounds of a pegasus landing. You turn around and see a gray pegasus with a blond mane standing there. She pulls a letter out of her saddlebag and hands it to you. You thank her, and she gives you a warm smile before she takes off again.

You enter your house and casually toss the letter onto the table in the living room. You take a few minutes to put away the cookies that you got, and then you sit down in the living room. You grab the letter, and slowly open it.

You pull it out, and your jaw drops as you read.

Dear Storm,

First off, I wanted to say that I’m glad you did what I asked in my first letter. I know that, most likely, you can’t remember it, but trust me, I’ve written to you before. This may sound crazy, but I know who you are, and I want to help you. Once you have your cutie mark you should start getting your memories back more quickly. As it is you will only have small dreams that you can’t remember. Not very helpful, I know, but trust me, it’s for the best.

I will write you again when I hear that you have gotten your cutie mark. For now, just try and enjoy yourself.

Signed,

Forgotten Family

You read it several times over, and eventually you fold it back up, and take it upstairs to your desk. You place it with the letter you got from Celestia, and slowly close the drawer.

You only think about the letter for a moment, before you hear the clock chime six times. You head back downstairs, and decide to head over to Twilight’s house, and see if she’d like to go get some dinner. As you are about to leave your thoughts stray back to the letter once more. If this mysterious person does know your past, perhaps it would be worth investigating. You close the door as you head out, and that’s the last time you think of the letter for quite some time.

(First time I'm getting a chapter up at a reasonable hour in quite some time. Right, well. Enjoy, and be sure to rate and comment.)

Chapter 21: Memories

You make it to Twilight’s house shortly after leaving your own. You knock on the door, and a moment later it is answered by Spike. You enter, after exchanging some brief greetings, and Twilight enters the room a moments later.

“Oh, hi Storm. What brings you by?”

“Well, I was thinking about going out for some dinner, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me. I’d rather not eat alone.” She blushes slightly, but quickly recovers.

“That sounds wonderful. I’ll be ready in just a minute.” She rushes back upstairs, and true to her word, she comes back down a minute later. “Shall we?”

You walk over to the door and open it, allowing for her to go through first. You wave to Spike, and close the door. You take Twilight to a small restaurant you noticed on your walk through town, and so you decided to give it a shot.

It’s a quaint little place, and you and Twilight both enjoy yourselves. You talk about magic, and the history of Ponyville. Eventually, though, the topic comes to you.

“So, Storm, tell me some more about you. You’ve been here a while now, and surely there must be something interesting about you.” You look up from your food, and think for a moment.

“I don’t really know what to say. I have a few snatches of my old memories, but nothing really solid.” You don’t bring up the letter, since not even you understand it yet. As you sink into thought you start sifting through your memories. Everything you’ve done in Ponyville is clear, but before that everything is shrouded in a fog.

As you think a waiter accidentally drops a plate, and the crash jars you from your search…

You sit across from the man, and look him in the eye. His eyes widen when he sees your tears. It only lasts a moment before the despair returns.

With shaking hands you raise the pistol, and aim down the sights. Your finger tightens on the trigger, slowly.

“I’m so sorry.”

You gasp sharply as the memory ends, but Twilight is looking at you with concern on her face. “I killed someone.” It’s a whisper, but Twilight’s eyes go wide.

“You what?” You know she heard, but she still asked in disbelief.

“I killed a man. He was defenseless, and I killed him.” You push back from the table, pull out several handfuls of bits, and place them on the table. You quickly get up, and leave as fast as your maimed body can take you. Where you’re going, you don’t know, but you can’t be around anypony right now.

Your lungs start burning from the exertion, but you push forward. Soon you find yourself outside of Ponyville, in the midst of a large clearing. You lie down, and cry. Your believed innocence has been stolen from you by a past you can’t remember. Your tears finally dry, and you sit up. That was the old you. The new you has only helped, and no one needs to know what happened in your old life.

“Storm, my friend, it’s certainly been a while, hasn’t it?” The voice sends shivers down your spine, and you whirl around to see Discord floating a few feet off the ground.

“Discord. What do you want from me?” You do your best to sound angry, but the pain lacing your voice makes it difficult.

“Well, I’m just here to help out a good friend. You see, I know your past. That year you spent trapped in your mind allowed me to sift through your subconscious with incredible ease.” He comes a bit closer, and you pull back. “I know who you are better than you know yourself. And to be fair, even I am appalled at what you’ve done.”

“I’m not that person anymore! I don’t remember any of it!”

“If a pony gets drunk, and can’t remember anything they did, are they not responsible for what they did? Is amnesia really your only defense?” His words wound you, only because you see the truth behind them. Your head droops, and Discord floats gently before your eyes. “I can return those memories to you. And, because I’m so nice, I’ll do just that!” He pokes a claw at your head, and you are blinded by a sudden flash of light.

You watch in horror, fully aware of who you are, and where you’ve gone.

You’re in first grade, just two weeks into the new school year. You watch as your teacher gets a note from the principal, and she glances at you. A few minutes later, and your teacher escorts you to the principal’s office. You are confused, but you know that it can’t be good. They sit you down, and a minute later your mother enters, tears in her eyes. She immediately embraces you, and you don’t know what to do.

“Daddy’s dead.” Two words. You didn’t grasp the meaning entirely, but this small declaration, made at eleven thirty in the morning, changed everything.

It’s a few years later and you’re in fourth grade now. The dismissal bell rings, and you jump up with the rest of the students, eager to leave for the day. You run outside, and see Grandpa and Grandma waiting for you. They embrace you, and you hug them back.

“Hey, Champ. How was school today?” Grandpa picks you up, effortlessly, and gives you a piggy-back ride.

“It was okay. I wish I had more friends, though.” Grandma looks at you, compassion written on her face.

“One day I’m sure you’ll have plenty of friends. Maybe you’ll even find a nice girl someday?” You make a gagging motion as she speaks, but she continues. “You’ll find that there is a real magic to true friendship. A true friendship has several qualities that can’t be replaced.” A smile comes over her face, but you pay it no heed.

You’re in seventh grade now. You have no real friends, and so you spend most of your time alone. After lunch there is a brief period where the students have free time, to either play, or do some homework. You see a girl, and a boy, about to play a game, so you build up your courage, and ask to join them. They let you join, and in a matter of minutes you’ve made some friends. Their names were George, and Rachel.

It doesn’t last, though, as just a few months later George’s family moved away, and you never saw him again.

Your first year in high school, and you and Rachel were taking all the same classes. You were inseparable, but it wasn’t all so happy. Right after midterms Grandpa had a heart attack, and was hospitalized. Two weeks later he had another, and died as a result. The funeral was a crushing blow to you.

Rachel came with you, though. The two of you spent enough time together that she was like another member of your family.

Your high school years were largely uneventful, until your senior year that is. The first week of school Grandma died. The funeral was the first time you ever played Moonlight Sonata for a crowd. You missed almost a week of school after the funeral. Rachel came by everyday to hang out, and give you the work you were missing.

She never made you talk about it, unless you wanted to, and it was then that you realized your feelings for her. Two weeks after Grandpa died you approached Rachel with your feelings for the first time.

“Rachel, can we talk?” She turned to look at you, a smile on her face.

“Sure, what’s up?”

You suddenly found yourself unable to speak, but somehow you managed to tell her what you wanted to say. “I like you.” Graceful as ever.

“Well, duh! We’ve only been friends for five years!”

It never went any further than that. At least, not until that star gazing event.

Then the prom came, and you had the time of your life with Rachel. For the first time in a long time you were happy, but it all came crashing down. You never did tell her you loved her.

Her funeral service was probably the saddest one you ever attended. Even now, viewing your memories, it’s a blur of tears.

Then you were drafted. The US had been in financial trouble for years, and after the Canadian Annex you thought it would be over, but the global market crashed with the downfall of the EU. The US struggled to stay afloat, and so it launched a blitz against South America, hoping to take them over, and add to the dwindling US.

It wasn’t a war, though. It was a slaughter. You’re forced to witness your first execution. A week later came your second execution. The third village was the first to fight back, and you were shot.

The field medics swarmed over you, and tried to console you, but it meant nothing to you. Regrets filled your head, and you passed out. Two years you spent fighting in South America.

Finally, you were twenty-one. You read the letter once more, and watch your flight from the military compound.

Your awareness returns to the field you’re in once more. Discord is looking at you with a gleeful smile on his face. “Such chaos is good for the soul! I swear, I’ve gone through your history more times than I can count, and it still makes me smile to see that level of chaos!”

You can’t speak, though. You are flooded with anger, towards Discord for showing you this, and sadness for what you’ve gone through. Discord stops smiling, and he looks towards you. “I do so enjoy this storm of emotions inside you. In fact…” His clawed hand turns transparent, and then plunges into your chest. You gasp in pain as you feel his clawed hand move inside you. A moment later he pulls his hand out, and in it is a pulsing black sphere. “I may just have a use for this. Well, enjoy your life!” He vanishes in a puff of smoke, and you just stare at where he was.

You sit there for almost two hours, unmoving. A hoof gently rests on your shoulder, but you don’t turn to look. Another hoof comes down on you other shoulder, but still you don’t turn. Rainbow, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Applejack all come into view in front of you, but you don’t actually look at any of them. They all sit down, and wait.

“I’m a monster.” It’s all you manage to say. They look amongst themselves for a moment, and then back to you.

“What do you mean?” Applejack is the first to speak.

“I’ve killed people. I killed them while I looked them in the eyes. I could have refused, but I was too weak.” The executions weigh down on you heavily. None of them know how to respond, and it shows on their faces. You wait a moment, and then you look at Rainbow Dash. Those eyes…

“Girls, I’m going to need some time to reconcile who I am with who I was. I’ll talk to all of you tomorrow, but now I need to talk with Rainbow Dash alone.” They all nod, and stand. You get a quick hug from Pinkie and Applejack as they leave, but then it’s just you and Rainbow Dash.

She moves into a position where she is sitting directly across from you. You look into her eyes, and what you thought is true. They are the same shade of pink. There is the same sparkle that you just saw in her eyes through your memories.

“Rainbow, who are you?” You lower your head as you speak. This will be difficult, and you know it.

“I’m just me. Fastest flier in Equestria.” There’s no enthusiasm this time, and the small hesitance showed clearly that she wanted to say more.

“No. You’re more than that. I’ve seen those eyes before, and I think that there is more to you than you’re letting on.” You take a deep breath, and look her right in the eyes. “Rachel. Is that you?”

Silence descends upon the two of you for what feels like an eternity. Finally she speaks. “Yes.”

A single word. No elaboration was really needed, but you needed to know more. “Why didn’t you say anything? I am forced into this world, and I find myself being showered with affection from six different ponies, and you know it’s me? You, the girl who I knew for close to six years, decided that you wouldn’t say anything?”

“Kurt (Quick note: I finally decided on YOUR name, and it’s Kurt.) I never meant to hurt you, but I was told not to tell anyone! When I was brought here when I died I was put in a situation like yours. I lived the beginning of my life like any other pegasus. It wasn’t until I got my cutie mark that all my memories came back to me. I wasn’t allowed to say anything until you got yours.”

“But now I know. What did you expect would happen when I suddenly found out I KILLED people? I killed more people than I could count on both hands, and yet I am here! I’m in this bountiful paradise, surrounded by ponies, PONIES, who love me. What did Celestia expect would happen when I found out?”

“When I got my cutie mark, my memories came back to me slowly, and I had time to reconcile who I was with who I am.”

“Well that’s good for you, but I had no such luxury! I had to deal with Discord forcing all my memories on me in a tide of the worst points in my life! I don’t even remember any of my birthdays, save for the last one.” You start crying, but you don’t stop speaking. “And I remember when you left me. I was there for you. I promised that I’d be there, but I broke that promise. I wanted nothing more than to be there when you woke up. I’d finally have told you that I loved you! But now? Now I don’t even know who I am anymore. I know more about myself than I ever have, but I’ve never been more of a stranger.”

Rachel/Rainbow is crying, but that doesn’t deter you. “How do I continue? What is right for me? I still have feelings for you, but I don’t know whether it’s because of Rachel or Rainbow! And I have feelings for the others too, but is that because they were all part of my old life too?”

“No. They are all naturally born ponies. None of them have any connection to your old life.”

You are running out of anger, and you realize just how confused you are. Not only emotionally, but mentally too. “I need some time, Dashie. Or Rachel. I don’t know anymore. I need to sort through all of this mental baggage and figure out who I really am. And I do intend to go through with what I promised the others. They’ll each get a chance to win my heart. Even you will get your chance, but I don’t want to promise my heart to you, when I don’t even know you anymore.” You get up, and turn around, ready to head home.

You hear a gasp from behind, and you look back to Rainbow. She’s pointing at your flank, and you look at it. There’s a shield, of some sort, with a bolt of lightning running across it. You have no idea what it signifies, but you don’t bother yourself with it now. “Good night Rainbow.”

You head back to your house, leaving Rainbow in the field. You look up to the night sky on your trip home, and you see the moon appears almost directly over your house.

“The moon will guide you, as it did for me.” A single tear runs down your cheek. “Grandma.”

The Real Chapter 22: Acceptance, and Greed

(Ahh. That was fun. We sure had some good laughs, didn't we. Now then, for the real chapter!)

You get back to your house, and head right to bed. So much has happened in so little time, and you just need to rest, and let it all sink in. You climb under the covers, and sleep quickly swoops in and claims you.

You wake with the sunrise, and you slowly climb out of bed. Your injuries pain you, but it is only a dull throb now. You remember your old body, and you are amazed at the healing abilities of this pony body. You groggily head to the bathroom, and you grimace at the pony looking back at you. The last time you looked in the mirror you were happy with the face looking back at you. But now? Now you didn’t know what to think.

With a groan you finish in the bathroom, and head to the living room. After just a few minutes relaxing in the living room you get up, and head outside. Doing nothing just doesn’t sit right with you, so you’ll go and find something to do. Hopefully something to take your mind off of what happened yesterday.

Most of the town is quiet, as it is still early in the morning, but you don’t mind at all. It gives you a chance to wander aimlessly without worrying about running into anypony.

(Inner monologue will be italicized, now, and from now on.)

So now I’ve got my cutie mark, even though I have no idea what it means. And I also need to find Grandma, and see if she can shed any light on what’s going on. You enter the market place, but you just pass through. Perhaps the Princess knows where I can find her. Or maybe she knows who she is. But what will I do when I talk to her? What am I even going to say? How will I be able to talk to her after what I’ve done?

Your inner monologue is abruptly cut off by a voice shouting out your name. You stop walking, and glance around, looking for the source of the shouting. After a moment you see Applejack approaching, so you figure it was her, and so you start walking over to her.

“Hey there Storm. What are you up to so early? Shouldn’t you be getting some rest, considering the shape you’re in?”

“Yeah, I probably should be resting. But with all that happened, I can’t just sit around.” You trail off weakly, unsure of what else to say. You look at Applejack and see a small smile on her face. “Do you see me differently, know that you know what I did?”

Her brow furrows for a moment, and then she gives you a peck on the cheek. “Yeah, sugarcube. I do see you different. But it isn’t a bad thing. You may have done things you regret in your old life, but now you’re here. You don’t need to rely on who you were to make your life better.” You know she’s right, but it doesn’t make things easier.

“I know that my old life shouldn’t matter anymore, but I can’t help but think about all these things that I’ve done.” You look Applejack in the eyes, and you feel a single tear run down your cheek. “Just like I’m doing now, I looked a man in the eye before I killed him. I apologized before I did it, but I still pulled the trigger.”

She just walks beside you for a while, until eventually you are on the edge of town. You stop walking as you look towards the mountain where you saved Apple Bloom, and the other Crusaders.

They needed help, and I gave it to them. Would a merciless killer do the same? Could a merciless killer do what I did? “AJ, I think that I am a good pony. I’m a terrible human, but I’m a good pony. I can’t change who I was, but I can still influence who I am.” You look to the summit of the mountain, and you feel mentally refreshed. Something about seeing your greatest act of selflessness in that mountain refreshed your view of things.

I saved the Crusaders at the mountain, without a thought for my own safety. I did it without being asked, and I never asked for anything in return. To hell with my old life! I’m a new pony, and I won’t let my past rule my life!

You look back to Applejack, away from the mountain, and she turns to look at you. You lean in and give her a passionate, if only brief, kiss. She smiles, and gets a huge blush on her cheeks.

“What was that for?”

You give her a smile, and an answer from the heart. “For being there. For saying what I needed to hear, rather than what I wanted to hear.” You lean into her, reversing the role for once. “I’m glad that I ended up here. I’m also happy that I met you, and the others as well.”

You just enjoy each others company for a time, until finally you stand up, ready to continue your new life. Applejack also rises next to you, and you turn and head back into town. Despite your injuries your newfound mindset really helps you to deal with the occasional sharp pain.

As you stand up you spot Ditzy Doo making her way towards you, flying in a way that defies all logic. Like the Pinkie Pie of flight. Physics just doesn’t seem to apply to her.

She lands in front of you, and rummages around in her bags for a moment, before she pulls out a package, and a letter. “These are for you, Storm. Special delivery, courtesy of the Princess.” You take them from her, and she has a big smile on her face.

“Thanks, Ditzy. I appreciate it.” You look carefully at the package, and letter. Although Ditzy said they were from the Princess, you somehow aren’t sure they are from her. You slowly open the letter, and begin reading it.

Dear Storm Runner,

I heard that you got your cutie mark from the Princess, so I decided that I would send you the money that I’ve been saving for you. Consider them birthday presents for the birthdays I missed. I know that it can’t make up for the lack of my presence in your life, but I hope that it helps you. In addition to this letter you will find a key. Keep it safe, since it is a very special key.

I’ll be coming by Ponyville soon, so you don’t need to come find me. I’m not quite sure just how long it will be till I get there, so don’t wait for me.

Love,

Grandma a.k.a. D.D.

Who's D.D.? Bah, a mystery for a later date.

True to the words of the letter you find a small key inside the envelope. It is an unassuming looking key, but you figure that it must be at least somewhat important, given what the letter said. You then look at the package. It’s surprisingly heavy, given its size.

You slowly unwrap it, and see that it is a small lockbox. You assume that it is full of bits, but somehow you doubt that it would be this heavy, given its size, and the maximum number of bits you could fit inside.

There is no keyhole, but as you try to open it you clearly hear a locking mechanism open. To your shock it is full to the brim with bits. You can’t even try to count them all, and you just let your mouth hang open. Applejack looks at it as well, and her reaction is quite similar to yours.

“Just how many bits do you think that is?” You give a quick shrug, but then you notice a small slip of parchment attached to the lid. On it, in bold lettering reads; “4000”

“I think it’s four thousand bits.” You point to the parchment on the lid, and Applejack gives a nod. You grab a few bits, and you notice the numbers on the parchment change as you remove the bits. You put them back, a puzzled look on your face, and the number goes back to four thousand. “Well, that’s convenient. It tells me how many bits I have in there.”

“Must’ve been pretty valuable too. From what I remember from Twilight making magic permanent like that takes hours of practice, and tons of magic too.” You look at the box with newfound appreciation. Grandma must be loaded if she sent me this. Although I’m not really hurting for money, so I guess I’ll keep this as an emergency fund.

“Well, rather than stand here and gawk at this sizable sum of money, let’s head over to the farm, and get some breakfast. Or lunch, I really don’t know what time it is.” You give a quick laugh at that, and Applejack joins in.

“We were actually sitting there for a couple of hours. I wanted to give you the time you needed to collect yourself.” You nuzzle her neck, and then you both head off for Sweet Apple Acres. It’s only a short walk, but it gives you some time to reflect on your new views on life. However, your thoughts are cut off by some shouting coming from the farm. You look at Applejack with a concerned look on your face, and then you and Applejack both break into a gallop.

A few moments later and you see the source of the commotion. There’s a blue pegasus speaking with Granny Smith, and you can see they are both quite animated. You can’t make out everything, but you do catch something about a loan that has come due. When you finally get close enough to hear everything you are shocked by what you hear. Granny Smith is the first to get a full sentence in after your approach.

“I’m telling you, your father said that the loan was paid off! We set up a deal with him.”

“And I’m telling YOU that I have no record of such an agreement. You borrowed close to ten thousand bits from my father, and you’re trying to tell me that he just forgave half of it? That’s ludicrous.” The blue pegasus has a stuck up attitude, and he simply oozes arrogance.

“Granny,” Applejack interjects, “what’s going on? Who is this, and why are you both shouting?” Granny Smith shakes her head sadly before answering.

“Well back when we first started the farm things went well, as I’ve told you, but not as well as it could’ve gone. So, we had to take a loan, to keep the farm in business. We got a ten thousand bit loan from Blue Bits, Banknote’s father.” She gestures at the blue pegasus as she says Banknote, so you can only assume that’s his name. “After we made the arrangements for the loan we made all of our payments on time. But then, just a few years ago, we, or more accurately, your grandfather, saved Blue Bits from an accident. In thanks for the selflessness he forgave us half the loan.”

“But I have no record of this transaction, so I can’t honor it. Anyway, verbal contracts are non-binding. So, unless you can pay the five thousand bits that are now overdue I’m going to have to seize assets.” He has a smug smile on his face, and it makes you want to buck him in the face, but you fight down the urge to do so. “And since I’m such a nice pony, I’ll forgive any accumulated interest.”

You can’t take this pony’s attitude, so you speak up. “Let me get this straight. You come here, demanding five thousand bits from the family that saved your father, after he forgave the loan, because you have no proof of the exchange? I’m certain that he must’ve told you about this! What kind of father doesn’t tell his son that somepony saved his life?”

He hesitates a moment, but then he recovers. “He did tell me about the incident, but he didn’t say anything about forgiving the loan.” You can hear Applejack grinding her teeth. She must be able to tell he’s lying, but none of you can provide proof of the matter.

You turn to look at Granny Smith. “Granny Smith, go and get all the bits you have on the farm. We can’t win this argument, and he does have a legal right to collect, since there is no proof of the exchange. Hopefully you have enough stashed away to make up the missing bits.” You turn to look at Banknote, and the smirk on his face drives you mad.

Granny Smith makes her way to the house, helped by Applejack, leaving you and Banknote alone outside. You glare at him, and he returns your look with poorly concealed contempt.

“What are you looking at, yokel? Never seen a high class pony before? I suppose you wouldn’t have, given where you live.”

“Don’t push me, buddy. I’ve done more, and seen more, than you could ever imagine.”

“Oh? I suppose that the inside of a little padded cell is something I haven’t seen before.” He laughs at his own poorly constructed joke, but you shrug it off. This guy’s arrogance is almost painfully oppressive, but you don’t let it get to you. You can’t let it get to you, or you may do something that you’ll regret.

You both wait another few minutes, and then you see Applejack and Granny Smith come out of the house, several bags of bits between them. They approach slowly, and you know that there is no way they have more than a thousand bits between them.

“This is all we’ve got on hand. Just a hair over one thousand bits.” Granny looks at Banknote, and a frown is clearly visible on her face. “I know it’s not enough, but could this act as the first payment?”

Banknote shakes his head, and a grin appears on his face. “No, I need all of the money now, since it is already overdue as it is. Unless you can get another four thousand bits, I’m afraid that I’ll have to start seizing assets.”

Well shit. Emergency fund to the rescue! “I’ve got the bits here.” You grab your box o’bits off your back, and quickly add your bits to the bits of the apple family. Both Granny Smith and Applejack look at you with surprise on their faces.

“Storm, we can’t let you do this!” Applejack is quick to jump in. “You just got that from your grandmother, we can’t let you spend it all on us!”

“Sure you can. You’re confusing ‘can’t’, with ‘don’t want.’ You don’t want me to do this. But you, at the same time, can’t stop me.” You turn to Banknote, and you note with disgust the look of greed written on his face. “There’s your money. Now get out of here, and don’t come back. We don’t want, or need scum like you around here.”

He doesn’t even hesitate, and quickly scoops up the money, and then he takes flight. You watch him go, and you resist the urge to flip him the finger. It’s only after a moment that you remember you have no fingers. Ah well, I’d probably have to explain it anyway.

You return your gaze to the Apple family, and you see tears in both of their eyes. Applejack lunges forward, and gives you a big hug. “Thank you, Storm. That’s the nicest thing anypony has ever done for us.”

You wait for her to break the hug, and then you look to Granny Smith. “I have one request to make, for the money I paid.” Her eyes narrow as you say this, and even Applejack takes a step backwards. “I’d appreciate it if you kept doing what you’re doing, and don’t change a thing. Sweet Apple Acres is perfect the way it is, and I’d hate to see it change.” A smile breaks out on both of their faces, and you all start laughing.

Just about an hour later and you were walking out of the farm house after a hefty lunch. Applejack had to stay to help out on the farm, so you had the rest of the day to do whatever you liked. First, though, you fly home and drop off your, now empty, lockbox.

Hopefully the rest of the day isn’t quite as eventful as the first half. I’d hate to end up in the hospital, again. Maybe a simple trip to Sugarcube Corner? Yeah, that sounds like a plan. You take the small key from the envelope, and you find a small cord. You quickly loop the cord through the keyhole, and you turn it into a necklace, of sorts. You keep it just tight enough to not sway too much, but loose enough to not choke you. You pull some bits from your small stash, and head out for Sugarcube Corner.

(You've jinxed yourself with that last thought. I hope you realize what you've done...)
(Before I forget. Credit goes to skyscraper123 for the idea for Banknote. And credit for Banknote goes here.)

Chapter 23: Storm the Bull Fighter

Ponyville’s usual hum of activity is in full force as you make your way to Sugarcube Corner. You get many friendly waves, as ponies see you, and it fills your heart with happiness. All of these ponies see you for a savior, as, to them, all you’ve done of note is saving the Crusaders. You were also foalnapped by the Diamond Dogs, but that’s not really something that you want brought up all the time.

Just a short while later and you find yourself outside of Sugarcube corner. You open the door, and the sounds of ponies chatting greets your ears. You see Pinkie energetically helping a few customers, and so you just look at all of the various cakes on display. A few minutes later, and the last of the customers head outside, and Pinkie approaches you.

“Hiya Storm! What brings you by?” Her boundless energy always brings a smile to your face, and this time is no different.

“Not much, Pinkie. AJ had to help out on the farm today, and so I’m just relaxing today. Some might argue that I don’t have much to relax from, given how long it’s been since I last worked, but saving fillies is no easy task.” You give a smile, and Pinkie nods her head in understanding.

“Well, duh! If saving fillies was easy everypony would be doing it! Although, I suppose that there may not be enough fillies in trouble to save.” You have a short laugh at that, and then you shift your gaze back to the cakes.

“So, what’s new with you? Any interesting customers?”

“No. Oh wait, yes! There was this blue pegasus with a tie on. He wasn’t very nice, though.” Her smile wavers for a moment, but then returns in full force. “But he’s gone now, so it’s okay!”

“Huh. Maybe it’s the same pegasus that I met at the farm. Was he about this tall,” you gesture with your hoof, “and wearing a red tie?”

“Yup, that was him. Why was he at Sweet Apple Acres?”

You dive right in, and explain what happened at the farm. By the time you finish Pinkie has lost her smile. When you mention your request, though, her smile returns.

“That’s real nice of you. Not only did you save the Crusaders, but now you’ve also saved the farm.” She gets a strange look on her face for a moment, and then her smile gets even wider. “We should throw a party to celebrate what you did! It’ll be great! We can have-” You quickly put your hoof on her mouth, and she mumbles a few more words past your hoof before falling silent.

“Thanks, Pinkie, but I’d rather not celebrate this. It’s not that I don’t like your parties,” you quickly add, “it’s just that I don’t know if this is really something worth celebrating.” She slowly nods her head.

She opens her mouth to speak, but before she can say anything a pony crashes through the window of Sugarcube Corner. You look at the crumpled blue heap of fur, and then look outside. Standing there is the largest earth pony you have ever seen. Wow. This guy makes Big Mac look small. No way I’m going to let him get away with this, though.

You leap through the broken window, making sure to avoid the sharp glass. You gracefully land before the massive earth pony. He looks at you, and a look of confusion is plainly written across his face. After a moment, though, the look turns to one of anger.

“You want to fight me?” His voice is thick, and you can tell that he’s struggling to put the words together. You give a quick nod, and the earth pony gets a creepy grin on his face. At least he understand fighting.

With a bestial growl the earth pony lunges at you, and you deftly dodge the attack. With an enraged snort the massive beast turns and looks at you once more. “Fight me. No dodging!”

He charges again, and this time you dive at the last possible moment, and give a sharp kick to the earth pony’s back legs. You grunt in pain, though, as his legs are as hard as rock. The direct approach won’t work here. And he seems to have only a single tactic, so I suppose I can just lead him out of town. You stand up, and wait for the next charge. You take a moment to look at the earth pony, and you note that it has a coat of gray fur very similar to yours. In fact, it’s almost the exact same shade of gray.

As the gray pony gives chase, you turn and lead him through town. He can’t maneuver as well as you, so a few times he crashes into buildings. After several hectic minutes you finally lead the gray pony out of town. This has gone on long enough. I need to end this.

“Oy! Hay for brains! Catch me if you can!” You fly towards Everfree forest, and the gray chases you.

“Stop running! Let me crush you!” Really? Does he actually think you’ll stop? You lose some speed, in order to navigate through the forest, and you also want to keep the gray interested. Soon your destination is in sight. The river that runs through Everfree, and has a sea-serpent. Your approach is simple, yet brilliant for it. Get him into the river, and let the sea-serpent deal with him.

The gray breaks through the brush you flew over, and he’s barely even panting from the exertion. Rather than attack, as you thought he'd do, he stops and speaks to you. “And now we’re alone, Storm. I suppose that I should’ve expected that you’d run to get me out of town.” That voice…

“Discord.” You practically spit out the name. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I wanted to see how my creation would do. Now I see that there’s more to it than just brute strength. The pony mind is so complex, and your mind even more so. No matter. This was just a test, and now that I’m done with it I have no use for this form.” With that said, the pony starts trembling all over.

“Show yourself, Discord! We’re not done here!” You look around frantically, but either he’s not here, or he won’t show himself. You look back to the pony, and you see a look of abject terror on its face. A fear so pure that it makes you afraid as well.

“Help me.” Before you can do anything, the pony turns to ash, consumed by a fire that started in its core.

“Oh, of course he bursts into flames. That makes perfect sense.” It’s unfortunate that there is no one around to enjoy your sarcasm. You are hesitant to leave, though, since you have no way of knowing if Discord is actually around. Several minutes pass, and you finally decide to get moving. You give the small pile of ash a wide berth, and you make your way back to Ponyville.

Just a bit later, and you get back to Sugarcube Corner, and you see a large crowd has gathered. They are all looking at the damage done to the bakery, and you look too. It doesn’t look too bad, but it’ll probably be somewhat expensive to repair that window. You look inside the shop, though, and you see Banknote covered in dozens of gashes, and one of his legs is at an incredibly bizarre angle, clearly broken.

He meets your gaze, and he suddenly looks humble. “Ah, um. Thank you for saving me. I don’t know why that brute attacked me. I was just walking along, when he attacked me.” You don’t know why Discord would just randomly attack some random pony. Maybe Discord just told it to attack a pegasus. There are any number of possibilities, and none of them bode well for Ponyville.

You make your way into the shop, and you spot Pinkie Pie standing over by the counter, a look of surprise on her face. “That was amazing, Storm! You should’ve seen yourself! You were so awesome!” She continues for a moment, but you only barely hear it. You’re too busy trying to piece together what happened. Her last words strike you, though. “So, what happened to that pony that was chasing you?”

You don’t know how to respond, so instead you just walk over to her, and put a hoof around her shoulder. “I’m going to explain later. Could you get the others, and head to my house. I’ll be there soon.” Pinkie gives you a strange look, but then she nods quickly, and dashes out of the shop.

A short while later and the Cakes both enter the shop, shocked looks on their faces. Mr. Cake is the first to speak, though.

“What happened here? Storm, were you here for this? And where’s Pinkie?”

“This pegasus,” you motion to Banknote, “was attacked by another pony. He was thrown into the store, through the window, and I managed to chase him off. I sent Pinkie to go get her friends, and head to my house.”

Mr. Cake looks like he’s about to say something, but he just shakes his head instead. “Alright, Storm. Just make sure that she’s safe.”

“I promise that I won’t let her, or any of the girls, get hurt if I can help it.” You turn, and make for your home. So much for just going out and enjoying myself for a short while. And Discord’s back sooner than I had thought. Ah, well. I’ve got the elements on my side.

You get to your house just a few minutes later, and you enter to find all six mares in your living room. They all look at you as soon as you enter, and you make sure to close the door behind you.

“So, I hear that you saved Sugarcube Corner.” Twilight speaks up first. “But, clearly, it must be more than that, if you asked us all to meet up here.”

“That’s correct. While on the surface it seemed like just a random act of aggression I shared a few words with our assailant.” You pause for a moment. “This wasn’t just a random act. It was directed at somepony, but something went wrong, and he wound up attacking the wrong pony.”

“That’s awful! Did you find out who the target was?” Rarity sounds appalled at this. “Why would anypony come to Ponyville to attack someone?”

“Well, I found out who the target was, and even who wanted the attack.”

“Are you gonna tell us, or just leave us guessing?” Rainbow Dash jumps on the pause you took.

“I was the target of the attack. Why Banknote got attacked instead of me, I don’t know. And the pony who arranged the attack is no pony at all. It was Discord.”

All six of them gasp at this, and you just watch their reactions. Ten bits says that Twilight suggests we tell the princess.

“We need to send a letter to Princess Celestia right away! This is really important!” Victory “If Discord is arranging for attacks against you we need to do something!”

“I suppose that we can do that. I’m going to need all of you to be careful, though. He may try to go after one of you, in order to get at me. And I refuse to let any of you get hurt because of me.”

They all lunge at you, and give you a big hug. “Really, is this necessary?” They all hug tighter for a moment, and so you just relax and go with it.

The hug stops a moment later, and Twilight makes for the door. “I’m going to get that letter started right away. When I hear back from her I’ll be sure to let all of you know what she says.” You all wave to Twilight, and she heads out. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all follow moments later, leaving you, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.

“Well, Ah’ve got to head back to the farm. Keep me up to date on anything that goes on.” Applejack nuzzles your neck as she leaves, and you feel a blush come to your cheeks. Now it’s just you, and Pinkie.

“So, how are things going between you, and AJ?”

“I think you just saw how things are going. Although, I am eager to start going out with you, Pinkie. Maybe in a couple days?” Her eyes go wide, wider than you thought possible, and then she embraces you again.

“I can’t wait Storm! It’ll be so much fun!” You return the embrace, and a minute later the hug ends. “But, you never did say what happened to that pony that attacked…”

“Oh. Right.” The happy atmosphere that was present just a moment ago disappears. “Well, I think that he was made, or possessed by Discord. After he chased me he spoke to me with Discord’s voice. He said that my mind is more complex than he thought. After that he left, and the pony burned up. There was just ash left behind.”

“That’s horrible! Why would Discord do that? He’s the god of chaos, not murder!”

“I don’t know, Pinkie. I just don’t know. But I do know that this isn’t over yet. Something big is going to happen. But, given what Discord said, hopefully we won’t have to deal with it for a while.”

You stand there, suddenly feeling awkward. Pinkie must have noticed, because her smile returns, and you feel yourself smiling despite yourself.

“Well, we should do our best to enjoy ourselves before that! No sense worrying about things that haven’t happened yet! Twilight learned that lesson the hard way!”

“Oh did she? Why don’t you tell me about it.”

You and Pinkie head outside, with her gesturing wildly, and telling you all about Twilight’s encounter with her future self.

Chapter 24: Words with the Watchers

The rest of the day passed with little of consequence. When you get home, though, after having some dinner at a small diner in Ponyville, you find yourself unusually tired. You head right upstairs to your bed, and you quickly lie down, and wait for sleep to claim you once more. It comes quickly, and you find yourself in a restless sleep.

Your dreams of flight are cut short by a blanket of blackness that swoops in, and claims the beautiful vista below you. You wait for a moment, unsure of who will be speaking to you this time. You suddenly feel a tug in your belly, and then your hooves land on the floor. You don’t see anything, but with solid ground beneath your feet you slowly turn around, and come face to face with the watchers.

The looked the same as first time you saw them. None of them spoke, but they all seemed to be looking at you. Once more their collective voice rings out without a sound to be heard.

“We have watched you. Your conflict with Discord was foreseen, and we have planned around it.”

“Um, okay?” You don’t understand the meaning of this conversation, but with a mental shrug you dismiss your worries. If they brought you here, there must be a reason.

“More than you think hangs in the balance, and all of it rests on your shoulders. You hold the fate of both your realm, and ours, in your hooves. You will not be alone in this task, though. Keep your allies by your side, and remember that true strength comes from within, not without.” You watch in awe as one of the watchers approaches you. He stops when it is just an arms length away. It raises a hoof to your head, and you recoil slightly, expecting a shock of some sort, but none comes.

“This is your greatest weapon against Discord. He has taken much from you, but he has only a copy. When the time comes, remember that you are always capable of more than you think.”

It lowers its hoof, and then moves back to the others. “Thanks, but I don’t understand. What do you mean, I’m capable of more than I think?” As you shift your gaze from one to the next you feel a lightheaded for a moment. “Seriously? I want some damn answers! Don’t just give me some lines of prophetic bull, and then send me away!” Before you can get into the really juicy insults, though, the watchers disappear.

You try to continue your tirade, without an audience, but you are unable to speak. Of course. They summon me, tell me some tripe about being more capable, and then they just leave. And they don’t even put me back in my dream! Seriously, what the hell. You continue to float in the blackness for a few more minutes, when suddenly you feel your eyes open.

The ceiling of your room looks like it always has, and for once you feel really glad to see it. Hello, ceiling. For once, I am glad to see you.

You roll out of bed, and head to the bathroom to freshen up for the day. As you usually do, you look at yourself in the mirror. With yesterday’s mental refreshment you look at yourself in a new light. You look identical to yesterday, but at the same time it is all so different. You are happy with who you’re turning into, and that causes you to have a smile on your face. You look deep into your eyes, and you see the twinkling that was missing yesterday. Before you turn to leave, you think that you see many eyes behind your own, but when you look closer there is nothing. With a shrug, you turn, and head out of the bathroom, and down to the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later, and you exit the house, fortified after a quick breakfast, you stretch out your wings. They are stiff, but you need to get flying again, so you give a few beats of your wings, and you take off. There is some pain in your wings, but it quickly goes away as you stretch out the muscles. You circle the town a few times, and after a few quick maneuvers you spot Rainbow Dash closing in on you. You slow down quite a bit, and Rainbow quickly catches up to you.

“Hey, Storm. Weather’s easy for today. Mostly clear skies all day, so we just need to take care of the clouds around town. I’ll take the eastern half, and you can get the western side, okay?” You give a quick nod, and Rainbow heads to the east as you head west. It takes less than an hour to clear the skies, but your mind is occupied with thoughts about Rainbow, and the others as well.

I figure that I can end my short relationship with Applejack, and move on to Pinkie. I did promise her she was next. Hopefully AJ will understand, and it doesn’t go badly. I did say that I’d go out with all of them, so she knew what was going to happen. You let that stew at the forefront of your thoughts for a bit, and it doesn’t get any easier to accept. Sadly, even though she and I both knew this was coming, it doesn’t make it easier.

Now then, what will I do about Rainbow/Rachel? I still love Rachel, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. But do I love Rainbow Dash? There are so many parallels to them, which makes sense, but Rainbow is also so different from Rachel. I suppose that upbringing is a big factor here. You let out a small chuckle, as you come to a realization. If only I was back in Bio class. I could make one hell of an argument for nature versus nurture.

As you buck the last cloud out of existence you proudly survey your work. Out of the, perhaps, hundred clouds you started with, there are now just a dozen slowly sinking to the ground below. (True story, clouds do actually fall to the ground, but REALLY SLOWLY.)

You start a gentle glide to the ground below, and you watch as Rainbow zips about the sky, heading down to meet you at the ground. You are in no rush, so you make it down eventually, leaving an impatient Rainbow glaring at you.

“You could’ve hurried it up a bit.” She makes a face at you, and you know that she’s not really upset, so you play along.

“Yeah, and I could also decide to just drop like a rock, but that wouldn’t help. I take my time, Dash. I’m not going to let the whole Discord problem change the way I act. When the time comes I’m confident that I...” You pause for a moment, then reconsider. I’m confident that we will be able to beat Discord, no matter what he throws at us.” Rainbow gives a smile as you speak, and you recognize the smile. It’s been almost four years since you saw that smile, and yet it seems like much longer. The last time you saw this smile was when you asked her to the dance, and she said yes.

“It’s been a while since I last saw you smile like that, Rachel.” Her gaze was wandering slightly, while you spoke, but at the mention of her old name, her gaze locks on to you. “I know. You’re Rainbow Dash now, fastest flier in Equestria, and all of that. But there’s still a part of me that wants to go back to Kurt and Rachel.” You let out a massive sigh, and you shake your head. “Have you ever wondered what life could’ve been like if you hadn’t died?”

You hear a small sniff, and you notice a tear trailing down her cheek. Smooth, Storm, you made her cry.

“I did wonder, for a bit. When I got my memories back I cried for a while. I cried for what I had lost, and what had been denied me. But then I realized I had been given a great gift. This new world offered up so much more than I could have ever gotten on Earth. I am sorry for what happened to you, but I’m not sorry that I died.”

Her words leave a hole in your heart. You understand what she’s saying, but that doesn’t make it easier to hear. “I’m willing to wait for you, Storm. Even with the changes to who we are, I’m willing to wait for you.” You had turned away while she spoke, and you feel a gentle nuzzle on your neck.

“I understand, Rainbow. Until we have all the time in the world to discuss what happened, and what will happen, I’ll have to deal with what is.” You take a few steps away, and Rainbow does not pursue you. You were about to head off to the farm, but a voice in your head, a voice not entirely your own, told you to stop. Before you could stop yourself, you heard your voice, your old voice, speak through your mouth. “I love you, Rachel.”

Before you can wait for a reply, you take flight, unwilling to hear the response that you knew was coming. A tear makes its way down your cheek, but you rub it away. Not now. I can’t let any of them close, or Discord will use them against me. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to keep them out of my heart…

*/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/*

You land outside of the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, and you strain your ears for the sounds of manual labor, and you do hear it faintly. You set off at a brisk pace towards the sounds. After a couple minutes you crest a small rise, and you see Applejack and Big Macintosh bucking the apple trees. You trot over, and they both greet you with hearty grins. With your help the three of you make quick work of the remaining trees.

Lunch comes quickly, and the three of you head off for the barn, to drop off the collected apples, and have some food. Big Mac pulls the cart with ease, but you and Applejack both lend a hoof pushing. The trip to the barn is short, but still tiring. You all decide to have some lunch before taking care of the cart load of apples. You head to the house, and you glance down the path that leads off the farm, and you happen to notice a certain blue pegasus heading down the path. You stop dead in your tracks, and both Applejack and Big Mac stop as well.

The pegasus approaches nervously, as he should, given what he did here. You approach him, and he stops a couple yards away from you. You eye him coldly, and you wait for him to speak first. Almost a full minute passes, and you finally tire of waiting.

“Right, what do you want? We’ve paid our debt to you.” Odd, I refer to myself as a member of the family. You give a mental shrug, and wait for Banknote’s response.

“Ah, well. After what happened yesterday I felt bad about what happened. I wasn’t conscious to see what happened, but everypony told me. I am honored that you would come to my aid so readily. For that, I wanted to thank you. I had to ask around a bit, to find you, though. So, here I am.”

You just stare at him, and you can see him squirm beneath your gaze. There’s more to it than just apologizing, and you can tell. “And?”

Your question causes him to jump slightly, and so he begins nervously pawing the ground. “And, I wanted to return some of the money that I collected yesterday, in thanks.” He pulls out a bag of bits, and he hands it to you. You open it up, and you judge, based on its weight, that it is likely a thousand bits. “The Apple family did owe money, so I couldn’t return it all. Take it as a token of my gratitude.”

You’re about to speak, when Big Mac steps up next to you. “We don’t need your apology money. If you weren’t willing to give it without any outside influence, than just keep it. We aren’t hurting for money bad enough to take it from you.” He grabs the bag from you, and tosses it at Banknote’s hooves. He quickly turns around, and heads back to the farmhouse, finished with the conversation.

You shake your head at Banknote, and you also turn away. You hear the sounds of hooves departing, and you risk a quick glance over your shoulder to see Banknote walking away. The Apple family just turned down a thousand bits to preserve their pride and honor. I’m impressed.

Lunch is, unsurprisingly, comprised of all apple based food. After you eat, you head outside, followed by Applejack, and Big Mac. Big Mac heads to the barn and you tell him that you’ll catch up in a minute. You motion for Applejack to follow, and she does so.

You walk only a short distance, and then you take a seat. Applejack sits next to you, and you just look at the nearly cloudless sky for a moment.

“AJ, you remember the game of truth or dare we played, right?”

“Yeah, and Ah think Ah know where you’re going with this. Don’t worry, Ah’m alright with it. Ah know that you want to spend time with all of us, and this is just your way of doing it. Ah won’t lie, mostly because Ah can’t, but I’d much rather you stayed with me.” You meet her gaze, and she gives you a heartfelt smile. “Ah know that Ah’ll always hold a spot in your heart. Ah can tell that, and that’s good enough for me.” She gives you a quick kiss, and then she stands up. “Now, why don’t you head on over to Sugarcube Corner. Ah can think of a certain pink pony who’s waiting for you.”

“Thanks, AJ, for everything. And you’re right. I think that you, and all the others, will always have a spot in my heart. Now it’s just a matter of finding out how big each of those spots will be.” You stand up next to Applejack, and you give her a peck on the cheek, and you take flight, heading for Sugarcube Corner, and the next big part of your life.

Chapter 25: The Crusaders and a Visit from Pinkie

(Another 2K words of story down. Take that, writers block. Anyway, here it is.)

You landed in front of Sugarcube Corner, and you were surprised to see that the window had already been repaired. You give a small shrug, and enter the building. Inside is the usual assortment of sweets of all persuasions. Nopony is behind the counter, but you can hear the sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen. You know that Pinkie’s probably whipping up another batch of cupcakes, or cookies, so you just browse what’s already out. The assortment sets your mouth to watering, and you find it hard to pick out just one cake to purchase.

Wonder if Pinkie ever had that cake I bought for her? It’s been so hectic in the past few days that I haven’t had much time to do anything. You let your mind wander as you browse. Just as you reach the end of the display cases you hear Pinkie come out of the kitchen.

“Hey, Storm.” She’s just as energetic as always, and her happiness rubs off on you. “What are you doing by today?”

“Well, I finished up with Applejack, so now it is your turn.” Her eyes widen, and her jaw drops a bit. Before you can say anything she leaps over the counter, and gives you a big hug.

“Oh boy, we’re gonna have so much fun!” She releases you from the hug, but she’s still bouncing in place, eager to do something. “We could have a party to celebrate that we’re going out with each other!”

Rather than let her continue on this topic you stop it. “Actually, Pinkie, I was thinking that we could just go out for a nice dinner. Or I could cook you a meal at my house, and then we could just enjoy each others company.” You offer a small shrug, and continue. “It’s not that I don’t like your parties, it’s just that I want to keep this on a more personal level. I feel that if we were to have a massive party some of what makes this relationship special would be lost.”

“I understand. And I’d love to have some dinner at your house. Nopony has ever cooked for me before. Are you a good cook? Do you know what you’re going to make?”

“No, Pinkie. I don’t know what I’m going to make, but that’s half the fun.” You smile at her, and her smile grows. “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to work now. Come by my house when you are all done here, and I’ll meet you there.” You turn to go to the door, but Pinkie stops you. “Is something wrong, Pinkie?”

Her previous smile seems to shrink, and you mirror her expression. “I’m just nervous.”

“What? You’ve faced off against Nightmare Moon, Diamond Dogs, and Discord! What could you be nervous about?” She doesn’t look you in the eyes, and you know that something is wrong. “Pinkie, please. Tell me what’s wrong.” She pushes you away a bit, and you let her. She’s not strong enough to actually move you, but the significance of the gesture is not lost on you. “Tonight?”

Pinkie only nods, and you are willing to accept that. You put a hoof beneath her chin, and raise her face to look at yours. “No matter what’s happened, Pinkie, I want you to know that I won’t think less of you.” You plant a small kiss on her lips, and you get to the door before you turn around. “It’ll only be a few more hours, Pinkie. If I’m not home, then go in anyway. I should be there, though.”

You walk out the door, and just as you exit you see a small smile grow on Pinkie’s lips. Hopefully she’s going to be okay. Somehow the thought of a sad Pinkie Pie is incredibly depressing. You go through town to the marketplace, and you begin to browse for something to have for dinner. You burn through close to a hundred bits gathering supplies for dinner. You swing by your home to drop it all off, and then you go back to wandering the town.

You’ve become quite well known, and many ponies stop to wave, or greet you. You gladly return their waves, happy to be well known. As you are walking through town you hear a familiar voice. You can’t quite place it, but you know it well enough. You head for the source of the voice and you are soon rewarded with the sight of three fillies arguing over something.

“We’ve already tried that! And why would we want our cutie marks to be something related to garbage?” Scootaloo sounded quite irate, and the other two sounded no happier.

“Well the last time we tried to do something exciting we got trapped on a mountain.” Sweetie Belle was trying to explain the situation, but it was quite clear that none of them were willing, or able, to hear reason. “I don’t want to put my life on the line for my cutie mark!”

“Well, Ah think that we need to do something risky to find it. We’ve already tried nearly everything safe.” As Apple Bloom finishes all three fillies notice you approaching. “Hey Storm! Are you here to try and help us find out cutie marks?”

“Well, actually, I was coming to find the source of all the shouting. I’m not really that surprised to see that it’s you three.” They all blush, and drop their gazes to the ground. “It’s not any reason to be embarrassed.”

“How did you find your cutie mark?” Scootaloo looks at you, with a look that borders on accusing you. “All you did was save our lives, and now you’ve got your cutie mark! We’ve been looking for ages, and then you just find yours? How is that fair?”

You sit down across from the three of them, and they all look at you. Scootaloo suddenly looks a bit ashamed of what she said, but you shrug it off.

“I’m sorry to be the pony to tell you this, but life isn’t always fair. Very few things in life will go the way you want them to go. The best laid plans can always fail, and no amount of preparation will ever be enough.” You look at all three of them in turn. “Girls, I want you to tell me what you are each good at.” They each look at you as if you have grown a second head. “I don’t mean what you want to be good at, but what you are actually good at.”

As you finish they each look at the ground in front of them. You don’t want to show them what their talents are, but you may have to help them along some. Sweetie Belle is the first to respond to your question. “I’m good at singing. But I can’t stand the thought of singing in front of an audience. It scares me to think of other ponies watching me.” You nod in understanding.

“Well, Sweetie Belle, I can understand that. Only a few ponies in the town know that I play the piano. From what they say I am really good at it. Eventually I intend to play for the town, but before I can do that I need to know that I can do it. You need to sing for yourself first. Practice it, and learn your strengths, and weaknesses. Maintain your strengths, and practice what you are weak at. Confidence will come with practice.” Sweetie Belle has a small smile on her face, and you look at the other two.

Scootaloo looks up a few times, but she shakes her head each time. Apple Bloom seems lost in thought, so you just wait patiently for them to think. “I’m good at doing tricks on my scooter.” Scootaloo looks at you with confidence. “I am fast, and I can do really hard tricks.”

“Can you?” Your simple question seems to set something off in her.

“Yeah, I can. Nopony is better than me at doing tricks on a scooter.”

“Then why don’t you try making that your special talent? If you are really good at it, than I recommend you practice it until you can do any trick you want to. Much like with Sweetie Belle, you need to just keep at it until you are completely confident in it.” You finally turn your gaze to Apple Bloom. “And you, Apple Bloom? What are you good at?”

“I can fix and build things. When Applejack showed us our tree fort I fixed it up in no time.”

“And there you have it. You each know what you’re good at. It’s just a matter of realizing that what you’re good at and seizing the opportunity presented. But even now, with an idea of what your special talent is, you will need to work hard to realize your full potential. And my cutie mark is something I don’t understand. I never came to any realization, and I still don’t know what it is that I’m good at.

“And for that reason I am in a position even worse than yours. You still have an opportunity to realize who you are. I have my destiny laid out before me, and I have no idea where it will take me. I walk a long and lonely road, girls. I may have my cutie mark, but for me it holds no sacred position in my life.” You look them each in the eye. “Value your time, girls. I fear that in the coming weeks things will be changing.”

You slowly stand, and you turn away from them. “Good luck with your search, Crusaders. I don’t know if I’ll be joining you in any of your quests, but feel free to come find me if you ever need help.” You give them a small wave, and you make your way back home. Suddenly you feel weak. Not in the sense of having finished a race, and you’re tired. But in the sense that so much depends on you, and now it all comes crushing down.

You enter your house a short time later, and you make to sit down on the couch, but the grandfather clock catches your attention first. You approach it, and the rhythmic swing of the pendulum holds your attention. “What do you mean in my life? I purchased you, but I don’t know why. You hold my attention, and you yield no answers. Or, perhaps you yield no answers, because I don’t know the question.” A few swings later, and you finally manage to draw your attention from the clock.

A sharp knock at the door draws you away from your thoughts, and you go and answer the door. You open it, and Pinkie is standing there. Her smile isn’t as large as normal, but even a small smile on her face is enough. “Come in, Pinkie. Make yourself comfortable, and I’ll get dinner started.” You make for the kitchen, and Pinkie makes herself comfortable on the couch.

It surprised you to see her so calm. Maybe there is more to Pinkie than the hyperactive pony we’ve all seen.

Dinner only takes a short while to prepare, and soon you and Pinkie are eating. The meal passes in near silence, and you don’t want to be the one to break it. If she wants to say something she will. But after dinner I’m going to say something to her. This isn’t Pinkie Pie. This is somepony else.

You clear off the table, and then you clean the dishes. A tiny smile pulls at your lips, as you recall your intense hatred of cleaning the dishes back when you were a human. Now you’re doing it by choice. How’s that for irony.

With everything taken care of in the kitchen, you head to the living room. Pinkie is right where she was before dinner, and you sit next to her. You give her some room, but she quickly leans against you.

“Storm.” She just utters one word, and it manages to convey more emotional feeling than you thought possible.

“If you want to tell me something Pinkie, go ahead. I promise I won’t judge you.”

(Be sure to rate, comment, and favorite if you haven't already. And be sure to check out my other stories. I have a group, too! Feel free to come by, and check it out.)

Chapter 26: Memories of Yesterday

(Here's the next chapter of Rising Sun, here for your reading pleasure.)

Pinkie just leans into you, and you wrap a hoof around her. You decide that you’ll let her take her time. She doesn’t seem to be used to emotional output of this variety. She begins to cry and you let her. She needs to have some time to get out of her system whatever it is that she’s been bottling up. It’s not healthy for her, or anyone, to hold in their emotions.

“How do you do it?” Pinkie finally speaks, and you look down at her. Her blue eyes are filled with tears, and she holds your gaze. “How do you keep going with all that you’ve done? You are always so happy, and carefree, and yet you’ve seen so much in your life. You’ve done so much, good and bad, and now you just sit here, and listen to me cry my heart out to you. How do you manage to not be overwhelmed by emotions?” Her tears are flowing freely, and you notice her hair lose its poofiness.

You move a hoof to her cheek, and you wipe away a tear. She holds your hoof against her cheek, though, and you let her. “Please, Storm. I need to know. I have so much anger and sadness inside me, and I don’t know how to let it out.” Her voice is slowly changing to reflect her appearance. “I just don’t know how I can be who everypony expects me to be when I have all this inside.”

“Pinkie, what is it that you have bottled up?” You pull your hoof from her cheek. “What happened that has you so upset?”

“I got a letter from home. I haven’t seen my parents in years, and just a couple of days ago I got a letter from them.” You wait for her to continue, but she isn’t forthcoming.

“Pinkie, start from the beginning.” She sniffles a bit, and then she looks away from you. Her hair finally falls straight down, and her coat somehow seems to lose its luster. Her voice has changed as well. The normal happy voice is replaced by one consumed by sadness.

“It all started on the rock farm. Everyday was the same. The same gray stones. The same gray everything. It was a day like any other…

Twelve Years Ago
Pinkie’s Perspective

Pinkie had just finished moving the days harvest to the barn for storage. She couldn’t stand the rock farm, but it was her home, so she stayed there. Every fiber of her being screamed for her to leave, but she couldn’t bear the thought of running away from home. As she exited the barn, to pick up the last few stones of the harvest a massive explosion was heard. Pinkie looked up to the sky to see the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

There were several expanding rainbows shooting across the sky. The colors were amazing, and Pinkie had never before seen such beauty. It was at that moment that Pinkie had her first revelation. She needed to add color to her world. There was so much gray in her life, and she just needed to add some color to it. A plan quickly formulated in her mind, and she began her preparations as soon as she could.

She decorated the entire barn with all the most beautiful decorations she could find. Streamers, balloons, confetti, everything she could think of she had added to the barn. As she expected, her parents and sister soon came to the barn, as they always did, to check on the harvest. The surprise on their faces brought a joy to Pinkie that she had never known before. Her heart leapt at the happiness she saw on their faces.

It was the first party Pinkie had ever thrown, and in her opinion, it was probably the best she had ever done. It wasn’t the best decoration, or the best occasion, but it was the best reason. She had finally discovered who she was. Her cutie mark had appeared, and for the first time in her life she was truly happy.

All good things come to an end, though, and the party did just that. It was a reluctant end, but an end nonetheless. That night Pinkie had sweet dreams for the first time in her life. Dreams of parties, and dreams of hope.

Sadly, the dreary atmosphere of the farm drained all the happiness from her parents. The next morning they explicitly forbade Pinkie from throwing another party, claiming that it was wasteful, and frivolous. Pinkie’s heart broke. She knew who she was, and yet her parents were going to deny her that, on the grounds that it was wasteful

She couldn’t accept it, so she began to plan a new party. One that would show them just how great a party could be. She spent weeks planning it, and even longer gathering the supplies. Her excitement grew daily as she planned the party. It was for naught, though.

Just a day before Pinkie intended to throw the party her father found the party supplies. The argument that followed scarred Pinkie. She said things to her parents that hurt them deeply. By the end of the argument, Pinkie had finally had enough. With tears streaming down her face she ran away. She ran for hours, not once looking back. Not even when she finally collapsed from exhaustion did she spare a thought for what she was leaving. The only thing that was in her mind was a crushing despair.

Her parents wouldn’t accept who she was, and that was something that she could never run away from. No matter how far she ran, no matter how happy she made others, there would always be that commanding voice telling her that she wasn’t spending her life the right way. She was being wasteful. She wasn’t being a productive member of society. She was wasting her life.

She spent weeks of her life running from home. One day, though, she found Ponyville. Everypony in Ponyville was happy, and it made Pinkie happier to be amongst them all. Even though she was new to town they ponies of Ponyville made her feel welcome. Without anyplace to stay, though, Pinkie was forced to live on the streets. She was forced to do things nopony would ever think to do.

For almost two weeks Pinkie lived like that. Until one day she was found by Mr. and Mrs. Cake. They took her into their home, and gave her a warm bed, and a roof over her head.

Pinkie was nervous at first. She didn’t know anypony around town, so she decided to start introducing herself to everypony she met. Before long she had made tons of friends. After just a couple months everypony in Ponyville knew Pinkie.

Then, four months after Pinkie arrived in Ponyville another newcomer came to town. Pinkie greeted him warmly, and gave him a tour of the town. In order to welcome him fully to the town she decided to throw him a small party. That was the first Welcome-to-Ponyville party Pinkie ever threw. It wasn’t the last, but it was probably the smallest.

Present

“… But with every party I throw there is a gnawing doubt in my chest. I still hear my father telling me that I’m wasting my life.”

Pinkie’s story was hard to listen to, but you knew that you had to do it. Not only for her, but so that you could understand this mare better. You wrapped both hooves around her, and you gave her a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Pinkie.” She didn’t resist the hug, and she didn’t reciprocate either. She just sat there, unmoving. “Pinkie, listen to me.” You released her, and turned her face to look at you. “That part of your life is over. You need to move beyond what your father said, and look to the future.”

“How?”

“Pinkie, I’ve had to live with so much sadness in my life. I had to accept that my father died when I was less than ten years old. My grandmother died when I was still in high school. My girlfriend died less than a month before I graduated high school. I don’t just deny that these things happened. I mourn for a while, or I do something to ease the pain. But, Pinkie, you can’t just run from your problems.”

“But how? You are so normal, so happy. Applejack told me about how you act around her. You are so calm, and you don’t seem to have any issues with anything. How do you do it?”

You turn her entire body to face you, and you hold her face so that she’s looking right at you. She tries to squirm from your grasp, but you hold her steady. “Pinkie, I need you to listen to me.” She stops squirming, and you lower your hooves. “Pinkie, I don’t always come to terms with what I do. Back when I was a human I did some things that I can’t accept. I know I did them, and I know that when my time comes I’m going to have to live with those choices. I killed a person, Pinkie. I looked him in the eyes, and I killed him.”

Pinkie’s eyes go wide with this news. “That’s something that I live with everyday. But I don’t let it define my life. I think about it from time to time, but I don’t let it rule my life. You need to accept what happened to you in the past, and move on. Pinkie, he’s your father, and he only wants what’s best for you. He may have said hurtful things, but it was because he wanted to protect you.”

“I know.”

“Then forgive him, Pinkie. Living a life with regrets, and grudges, is a life lost. You need to go home, your real home, and talk with him.”

“Would you come with me?”

“Yes, Pinkie. I’ll go with you. We can go anytime you want to go.” Pinkie starts to relax some, and she leans into you again.

“I’m feeling tired, now. Could you play me a song to help me get to sleep?” Her voice is regaining some of its previous tone, but it is a long way off. You maneuver Pinkie onto your back, and you bring her upstairs. With the utmost care you place Pinkie onto your bed. She pulls the covers over herself, and she looks at you as you stand next to her.

“Something soft. Soft, and sad. I want you to express yourself through the music you play.” You nod, and head to the piano. You run a hoof along it, appreciating it for the instrument it is. With it you have played for the six mares who have made had the biggest impact in your life. And now you are about to play a personal song for the third one.

You stretch your hooves, and with grace, elegance, and panache you play a song that touches you.

As you finish you just look at the keyboard. A tear runs down your cheek, and you slowly back away from the piano. With an agonizing slowness you make your way to your bed. You feel so much older than you did just minutes ago. You crawl under the covers, and you get comfortable. A hoof wraps around you, and Pinkie pulls herself closer to you.

You turn out the lights, and the room plunges into darkness. As you feel sleep coming you hear one last sentence come from the pink mare beside you.

“Thank you.” You let out a sigh, and you know that it was worth it. The song, the story, and the memories.

(Be sure to rate, comment, and favorite (If you like it enough). There are fifty something people who have this story favorited, and yet only 32 thumbs up? Come on, people. It takes one mouse click. It's not hard!)

Chapter 27: A Trip to the Farm

(Another chapter? Yup. Enjoy.)

Morning comes, and you slowly wake. A yawn escapes your lips, and you take a moment to simply enjoy the comfort of your bed. You feel a warmth pressing against your chest, and you realize that it is Pinkie. She’s curled up against your chest, and her head is just beneath your chin. One of her hooves is wrapped around you, and you are reluctant to move, for fear of waking her. With the utmost care you extricate yourself from her grasp, and you climb out of bed.

You look at her, curled up on your bed, and you feel better about yourself. The small smile on her lips is so adorable that you feel it is a crime for her to ever be sad. You know that it is ridiculous to propose that she be happy all the time, but you feel sad knowing that she was upset. You head downstairs to the kitchen, and you start preparing some breakfast for you and Pinkie.

In just a few minutes you have a couple of omelets prepared, and some juice to go with it. You balance the food on your back, and you head upstairs to enjoy some breakfast in bed. As you mount the stairs you see that Pinkie is sitting up in the bed. Her hair isn’t quite as poofy as normal, but it is also not straight down her back, which is a good sign. You place the food on the bed, and Pinkie’s smile widens just a bit.

“Thank you.”

“Please, Pinkie. It’s nothing. Just enjoy, and we can talk after breakfast.” She hesitantly, at first, starts her omelet, but soon enough she is wolfing it down. She quickly finishes her omelet, and she then looks up from her now empty plate.

“Storm, that was delicious. How did you make it so good?” You offer a small shrug in response.

“I don’t really know. I just tossed a few eggs in a pan, and added some peppers, and mushrooms. Nothing too special.” She gives you a small hug, and then she climbs out of bed.

“I’m going to freshen up some, and then we can start the day.” You nod, and then Pinkie heads to the bathroom to get ready for the day. You already know what you’re going to be doing today, you just hope that Pinkie will be ready for it. You had no idea just how deep Pinkie’s problem went, but the only way to deal with it is to just tackle the problem.

Skirting around it would only make it worse, and denying it would only lead to a bigger outburst later on. You aren’t sure, however, just how you are going to take care of the issue, since it seems to be a major part of her life. It’s going to require quite a bit of emotional stress, and there are definitely going to be tears shed before the end of the day.

Your mind wanders, and you fail to notice the pony coming up behind you. A pair of hooves wrap themselves around you, and you lean back onto the pony behind you. A faint smell of cotton candy greets you, and you look up into Pinkie’s sparkling blue eyes. The happiness in those eyes is so pure that it pains you to know that you will force her to deal with the issues that have almost defined her.

You can’t put her through the rigors of dealing with that emotional pain right now, so you decide to wait until the evening. Of course, fate has a way of screwing with good plans.

“So, Storm, did you have anything planned for today?”

“Well, not really anything too special. I was just going to spend it with you, that much I…” You trail off as you realize Pinkie used the past tense. “What do you mean ‘did I have planned?’”

“Well…” She starts, but then she just looks off to the side, without finishing. You wait for her to continue, not wanting to interrupt her. “The letter that I got from my parents, it was serious news. My father is really sick, and they want me to come by, in case he…” Pinkie stops, but you know well enough what she was going to say. You are about to say something, when Pinkie places a hoof gently over your mouth. “The letter said that he wanted to apologize for what he did. I’m just scared of what will happen if I go. Suppose that he doesn’t like who I’ve become? Or that he still disapproves of what I want from life?”

Before Pinkie can continue her self-destructive spiral you stop her with a hug. “Pinkie, stop.” She does stop, and you slowly release her, before looking her in the eye. “You can’t let his opinion rule your life. I know just how hard it is to come to terms with what has happened, but you can’t let it rule you.”

Pinkie nods, and then she takes a deep breath. “I know. But you’re right, it is hard. I’ve been with the Cakes for so long, but somehow my father’s approval still matters to me. It matters more than I think it should.” She pulls you back into the hug, and you let her. “Will you come with me when I go?”

“Of course, Pinkie. Name a time, and I’ll be there.”

“Today.”

“I’ll grab my things.”

*/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/*

And you did grab your things. You didn’t really have that much to get, but you grabbed your saddlebags, a bag of bits, and lastly you pulled your key around your neck. You were now at the edge of Ponyville, and Pinkie was looking back towards the town.

“Come on, Pinkie. Don’t look past my shoulder, and soon we’ll be at the farm, and then we can come home.” Pinkie trots up next to you, and you begin the trip to the farm.

“Could you tell me about some of the things you did in your old life?” Pinkie looks at you, and were it not for the sadness in her eyes you could almost call her normal. Or, at least, normal for Pinkie Pie.

“Sure. Something happy, to lighten the mood?”

“I’d like that.”

You think for a moment, and then you settle on the event of choice. “It was a day like any other. Seventh grade was just as dull as any other grade, but after a brief chain of events I made my first real friend. She and I were close. Really close…”

Seventh Grade

“Alright, class. You can go for lunch, but do try and get to your next class on time.” Mrs. Trad was always telling her students to be punctual, but she was often later than some students. It was a running joke, and it elicited a few chuckles from the class. You stood up, and gathered your things, ready for some food. You grabbed your bagged lunch from your locker, and you headed to the cafeteria.

When you got there you saw that most of the other classes had already been let out, sot the cafeteria was mostly full. It was a nice day, though, so you went to the small outdoor section. Most of the students stayed inside, so there were plenty of tables to choose from. You spotted one table that had only one person sitting at it, so you decided to take a chance. It was really out of character for you, but something possessed you that day.

You sat across from her, and she looked up at you for only a moment before she returned to her food. You started to eat your own lunch, suddenly unsure of yourself.

“My name’s Rachel.” She spoke clearly, and she had a voice that caused you to feel warm all over. Your hormones weren’t acting up enough just yet, so you were thoroughly confused by these new feelings. You looked up from your food, and she was staring at you. She looked nice, but the thing about her that caught your attention, more than anything, were her eyes. They were a shockingly pink color, and they were beautiful.

“Your eyes…” You didn’t know what to say, so you just started a sentence. She blushed deeply at this, and she immediately dropped her gaze. You realize what you said, and you feel bad about it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. I just thought that they looked really cool, is all.”

She looks back up, and there’s a small smile on her lips. “Really? You think they’re cool?”

“Well, yeah. No one has pink eyes like yours. They’re unique, and it makes you stand out. If I had eyes like that I wouldn’t hide them.” Her smile grows as you speak, and it makes you happy to see her smiling.

“Thanks.”

“Oh, yeah. My name’s Kurt. I’ve never seen you here before, so you must be new, right?”

“Yeah, I only moved here over the summer. My parents came here because the hospital is good in town.” That was odd. Most people moved here for the school, but she moved here for the hospital?

“Why did you come here for the hospital?”

“Oh, well I have a disease in my heart, so I need to go to the hospital every now and then to have my heart examined.”

“Well, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of us hanging out, I’m okay with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re friends now, and friends hang out with each other.”

Present

“And that was it. That was how Rachel and I became friends. All it took was talking to her, and we became friends. Looking back I wish that I had done that with more people. But that’s the past, and I can’t change it. All I can do is deal with what is, and hope that I make the right choices in the future.” Pinkie’s smile had grown through your small story, and the sadness in her eyes had receded some.

“And now Rachel is inside of Rainbow?” You paused for a moment, and you just stared at Pinkie.

“You knew?”

“Yeah, she told all of us a while ago. Why, is something wrong?”

“No. Nothing.” You continue walking along, lost in thought. So she could tell her friends about her past, but she couldn’t tell me? She was free to tell anypony she wanted that she used to be a human, but she wouldn’t tell me?

Your thoughts are interrupted by Pinkie’s voice.

“Are you mad at me?”

“What? No. I’m just… Confused is probably the best word for it. I’m upset that Rainbow told all of you about who she used to be, but she didn’t tell me.” You continue walking, and as you mount a small hill the rock farm comes into view. Pinkie tenses up when it comes into sight, and you lay a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Pinkie. I’m here for you.”

She relaxes some, when you put your hoof on her shoulder. “Thank you.”

The last bit is the hardest to walk, and soon you’re crossing the border onto the farm. As you look around everything seems to turn gray. Even your coat seems to be less impressive to look at, and it was already gray. Pinkie, on the other hand, looks to be at her worst. Her coat has lost most of its color, reverting to a dull pink, and her mane has fallen completely flat.

Her eyes, though, still hold their color. Whether this was due to the sadness in her heart, or something more, you don’t know. Pinkie approaches the door, and she slowly raises a hoof to the door, but she stops just short of knocking. She looks at you, and you make out the fear just beneath the sadness. You nod slowly, and Pinkie turns back to the door.

With agonizing slowness Pinkie knocks three times on the door. She takes a small step backwards after doing so. A minute passes, and finally the sound of a few locks being opened is heard.

The door opens, slowly, and standing there is a mare that looks almost exactly like Pinkie, except quite a bit older. There is a hardness to her face that Pinkie could never have. Her gaze immediately locks onto Pinkie, and she doesn’t even seem to notice that you are there. Based only on her body language you couldn’t even hope to guess her feelings towards her daughters sudden arrival.

The older mare opens her mouth to speak, and you know that the words she’s about to utter will determine so much in Pinkie’s life.

I promised I’d be here for her. I just hope that I can take her home happy, rather than in pieces.

(And now I reach a point where it could go either way. Will things go well for Pinkie, or are the next chapters going to be depressing? Stay tuned to find out!)
(And if anyone spots any major mistakes don't hesitate to leave hate filled comments relating to my ineptitude.)

Chapter 28: Shouts and Tears

(Here is Chapter 28. Enjoy, and be sure to rate and comment. I may come back to this at a later date and edit it, but I want to see how it does first.)

“Your father will be glad you came, Pinkamena. He’s been wanting to speak with you for months, now.” Pinkie’s smile grows just a bit, but then the mare in the door looks at you. “And you are?”

Before you can reply Pinkie jumps in. “He’s one of my best friends, and I asked him to come with me. And I won’t let you send him away.” The mare looks at you, and she sighs.

“I wasn’t going to send him away. He’s welcome to stay if he’s a friend of yours.” Pinkie visibly relaxes with that declaration. The mare steps aside, and you follow Pinkie into the house. The inside is so bland, and gray, that you can actually feel how oppressive it is. Everything is in shades of gray, and you fid it hard to maintain good depth perception because of it. You follow Pinkie, and her mother, and soon you stop outside of a door.

“Your father would like to see you, Pinkamena.” Pinkie’s mother opens the door, and Pinkie goes in. Before you can follow Pinkie’s mother closes the door behind her. “I don’t want you going in there unless one of them asks for you.” You nod, understanding that this meeting really should be between father and daughter only.

“I understand, Mrs. Pie. Although I am surprised that you allowed me in here so readily.”

“Well, when I saw my daughter approaching with a strange stallion I was concerned at first. But when Pinkamena jumped in so quickly I knew that she’d only come in if I allowed you to come in as well. Now that you’re in, I want to know who you are.”

Just as you are about to reply you hear a shout come from the bedroom, and Mrs. Pie throws open the door just as a crying Pinkie bolts from the room. Less than five minutes? I’m depressingly impressed.

Mrs. Pie enters the room, and you follow her in. Mr. Pie is reclining on the bed, and he has a grimace on his face. “What is it now, Clyde?” Mr. Pie, who you now know is called Clyde, is breathing heavily, and he has a heavy flush to his cheeks.

“That useless daughter of mine still insists on throwing parties, rather than making something of herself. I won’t stand her being in this house while she disrespects me.” Then his gaze falls on you, and his eyes narrow. “And who the buck are you?” Mrs. Pie gasps at this, but you don’t mind that.

“I’m Storm Runner. I came here with Pinkie, since she asked me to.”

“Oh? And why would you do that? Are you sleeping with her? Or is she just some floozy who you picked up for a few days?” Your jaw drops. Is he really talking about his own daughter like that?

“I… Mr. Pie, I don’t know how to respond to that. Where I come from that is not the way you greet somepony, even if you suspect it. I am appalled that you would speak to your daughter that way, given how long it has been since you last saw her.”

“Oh, and who are you to lecture me on how to speak to my daughter? I had high hopes for her, and she cast them aside so that she could throw parties? How would you act if everything you wanted from your child was cast aside so blatantly?”

“Well, Mr. Pie, if it was what my child wanted, then I’d support them every step of the way. Your children aren’t around for you to live vicariously through them; they’re living ponies, with minds of their own.” You stop for a moment, and you collect yourself. “If this is how you treat all your daughters then I’m not surprised that they all left. I’ve never once questioned the parenting strategies I’ve seen, but yours is on a whole new level.”

As you finish you turn around, and leave the room. Unsure of the layout of the house you stumble around some, until you find the living room. You sit down on the couch, and you put your head in your hooves. “Sweet Celestia, what do I do now?”

You are beyond confused, and you have no idea what to do. Short of a miracle there is no chance for Pinkie to leave on good terms with her father. That stallion is the most pig-headed pony I have ever met. Hell, I thought I could be stubborn, but this guy beats me hands down. You stare up at the ceiling for a moment, and then you hear the sound of hooves approaching.

“Please forgive my husband. He only wants… wanted what he thought was best for our daughters. Don’t think too badly of him.”

“Mrs. Pie, it’s too late for that. I just don’t understand how he could talk about Pinkie that way. And then he insults me? He’s lucky I have excellent self-control.”

You hear a sniffle, and you look at Mrs. Pie. She’s crying, and despite yourself you feel some sympathy for the poor mare. “I’m certain things will work out in the end, Mrs. Pie.”

“I doubt it. Clyde only has a couple of days left, if that. The disease is eating away at his nervous system, and he likely won’t survive much longer. I was hoping for more time, but it seems that there won’t be any closure for Pinkamena.”

“What do you mean, he won’t last much longer? He has to make up with Pinkie before he dies! I lost my father when I was younger, and I won’t let it happen to Pinkie. At least, not without closure.” You stand up, and look to Mrs. Pie. “I will make your daughter happy, Mrs. Pie. I promise you that I won’t let your husband die until he makes up with Pinkie.” She gives a solemn nod, and you turn and head back to Clyde’s room.

You throw open the door, and Mr. Pie meets your gaze immediately. “You again? I’ve had enough of you.”

“Tough shit. I’m here to talk to you, and you’re gonna listen.” You grab a chair from the small desk in the room, and you bring it next to the bed. “What is your issue with Pinkie doing what she wants to in life? What is so important to you that you are willing to shout at your daughter like that? Especially now, when you’re dying.”

Clyde looks away from you, and you know you struck a nerve. “I didn’t want her to leave so early in her life. I lost my temper all those years ago, and I was too damn stubborn to see that. Even now, on my deathbed, I can’t admit I was wrong. Something inside me doesn’t want to admit I was wrong.”

“Mr. Pie, you need to realize that Pinkie’s happiness should have always been your goal-”

“And it was! I just wanted better for her than I had for myself. When I met Roxy I was the happiest Stallion I could be. Then, just a few years later Pinkamena was born, and once again I felt happier than I thought possible. Then Octavia and Symphony were born. Storm, I was the happiest stallion around, and I wanted the same for my daughters. I had been sad for so long, and I wanted more for them. But the rock farm never took off, so I was forced to make sacrifices for them. It wasn’t enough, though, and so they all had to suffer for it.

“I had so many plans for my daughters, and all it needed was some money, but it never came. Then, when Pinkie threw that first party I was overjoyed for her. She had found what she was good at, and I was happy for her. But then I realized where the money for the party had come from. I overreacted to what she did, but I thought what I was doing was for the best. Then she left home. She left, and with it she took so many of my dreams for her.” He begins to tear up some. “Then, just a few months later both Octavia and Symphony left. I was heartbroken by it, but I was still too stubborn to admit that I was wrong. I should’ve let them be their own mares.”

“Mr. Pie, it’s not too late to apologize to Pinkie. You just need to explain to her what you explained to me.”

“It’s not that easy! You’re a stranger to me. I’ve done you no wrong, and so you’re easy to talk to. But Pinkie? She’s my first born daughter. She means the world to me, and I’ve hurt her. I yelled at her for being who she wants to be.”

A silence falls on the room, and you stand up, and move closer to Clyde. “Clyde, I’m going to go find Pinkie, and bring her here. You need to choose your words wisely when she comes back. I made a promise to make sure that she didn’t get hurt, and I intend to protect her from emotional harm just as much as physical harm. And I also promised your wife that I’d make sure that you made up with Pinkie before you died. Don’t make me a liar, Clyde.” You walked from the room, and Roxy was there waiting for you.

You give her a quick nod, and you walk past her, and head outside. You look around the farm, and you can’t see anything that would indicate where Pinkie is. You roam the farm for a few minutes, until you pass by the barn, and you hear some soft sobbing. You push the door open, and you spot Pinkie sitting on top of a small pile of rocks.

“Pinkie?”

Her head snaps around when you speak, and there are tears streaming down her face. “Pinkie’s not here!” You take an involuntary step back at her outburst. You muster your courage, and you cautiously approach the prone pony. She is still sobbing, and you make no moves to stop her. You get up next to her, and you take a seat.

“Go away. I want to be alone. Just like before. Just like every other time Pinkie lets me come out.” You look down at her, and you resist the urge to back away. “I’m always there, watching the world through her eyes. I am a passenger in my own body, and only when Pinkie hits emotional low points do I come out.”

“Pinkamena?”

“Yes. After Pinkie left home I began forming in her subconscious. It wasn’t until Discord’s interference that I was given true life, though. Now she actively suppresses me.”

“Why?”

“She thinks that I’m evil. I just want to be normal, like her. But every time she lets me out her mind is in such turmoil that I can’t do anything with her body.”

“I don’t think you’re evil. You just need to come to terms with Pinkie, rather than be a suppressed part of her.”

“But she won’t let me. I have come to represent her sadness, and she is always happy!”

“Well than you need to change who you are. You an Pinkie need to come to an arrangement of some sort, so that neither party is controlling the other.” You put a hoof on her shoulder, and she looks up at you, tears on her face. “Pinkamena, I don’t want you to suffer any more, but I need Pinkie right now.”

Pinkamena looks down for a moment, and then she sits up, and looks at you. “Alright. But I want to be able to talk to you again.”

“I promise that we can talk more.”

You watch Pinkie/Pinkamena intently for a moment, and then you see it. Her eyes change just the tiniest bit. If you hadn’t been staring you would’ve easily missed it.

“Nopony has ever been able to talk Pinkamena down like that.” Pinkie lunges at you, and gives you a massive hug. “Thank you, Storm.”

“Don’t thank me yet, Pinkie. You need to go and talk with your father again. I’ve spoken with him already, and now I need you to speak with him.” Pinkie nods, and you lead her back to the farmhouse. You walk to Mr. Pie’s door, and you slowly open it. Inside you see Clyde in the same position as when you left, and you look him in the eye before Pinkie enters the room.

You close the door behind her, and you sit down in the hallway. The things I do for love…

You doze off for a while, and when you wake up you notice Mrs. Pie sitting down across from you. She isn’t staring at you, but you happen to wake up while she is looking at you.

“Oh, you’re awake.” She gives a small smile, and you return it. “They’ve been in there for almost an hour, now.” You nod, and she continues. “Since they’re talking, I figured I could get to know my daughter’s coltfriend.”

“Whoa, hey. I’m not her coltfriend.” Mrs. Pie frowns at that. “I mean, I am one of her best friends, but I don’t think of her as my marefriend.”

“Oh? Well then. Why don’t you tell me who you are, then?”

Before you can respond the door opens, and Pinkie is standing there, tears on her face, but a smile present. You quickly stand, and Pinkie shakes her head. She looks to Mrs. Pie, and she frowns. “Daddy’s gone.”

(Sad ending is sad. Fear not, though. More will be along before too long.)
(And, for those interested, I have a group.)

Chapter 29: Stargazing

“He’s gone?” Mrs. Pie looks to her firstborn daughter, tears already flowing down her face. Pinkie just nods once more, and embraces her mother. You enter the room, and look at Clyde’s body. You walk up next to it, and you feel a tear come to your eye.

“I want to hate you for what you did to Pinkie. I want to make you feel the pain she feels whenever she’s sad.” You hear Pinkie enter the room, followed by her mother. “I want to show you how wrong you were about her. But I can’t. Not because you’re dead, but because I can’t hurt you. You did so much wrong to this beautiful mare, but at the same time you made the world a better place by bringing her into it. For your sake, Clyde, I hope you made peace with your daughter.” You turn from Clyde, and you slowly exit the room. Neither mother, nor daughter, stops you.

You head outside, and you sit on the porch. Celestia above, I hope Clyde made peace with Pinkie. The sun is dipping beneath the horizon, and you just take the time to appreciate the beauty of the world. For just a moment you can forget that you’re on Equestria, and imagine you are instead on Earth. The sun burns a brilliant red, casting a pink light across the sky. Everything is peaceful, and you are able to relax.

With an agonizing slowness you watch the sun sink till it is half obscured by the horizon. You hear the sounds of hooves on wood, but you don’t turn to look. “It’s beautiful.” The pony next to you remains standing, but you don’t mind. “Sunset has always been special to me. The day is a time to appreciate the beauty of the land. The trees, the mountains, the land around us is all bathed in the glow of Celestia’s sun during the day. But at night? At night we are blessed with the beauty of the sky.” You stop for a moment, and just watch the sun’s inexorable crawl past the horizon.

With a certain finality you watch as the sun finally disappears past the horizon. You slowly raise your gaze to the sky above. “But this part is always the best. Luna’s moon, and stars. Always cast upon the canvas of the sky with such beauty.” The sky fades, gradually, from pink to red, and finally to a deep blue. The stars begin to appear, winking into existence in clusters, and bursts. You are captivated by the growing star field, and after just a few minutes the sky is filled with countless stars. Then you watch the moonrise. “It will never be as bright as the sun, but the moon holds a beauty that the sun can never hope to match.”

You just continue looking up at the night sky, appreciating its beauty. As you look to the sky you spot a shooting star making its way across the night sky. You hear a small gasp come from behind, but you pay it no mind. “Something like that is why the night sky is worth watching. Dimensionless depths and infinite variety.” Just a moment later, and you spot another couple of shooting stars. Mere seconds later and there are hundreds of shooting stars streaking across the night sky.

“It was a night like this that I finally came to realize just how strongly I felt for Rachel. That astronomy trip will always be special to me.” But, with those words you remember Rachel’s death as well. “But it wasn’t made to last.” A mirthless laugh escapes your lips. “Just when I finally earned her heart, she died. Not all at once, mind you, but soon enough for it to hurt the worst.” You figure that Pinkie is the pony who came out, but you don’t bother to check. No matter who it is they are being a wonderful listener. Besides, it feels good to get this off your chest.

“Rachel died, and left me alone. I promised her I’d be there, but I couldn’t keep that promise. Now, a few years later, and I find her again. Not in any way I could’ve predicted, but by the same token I never expected to see her again.” You lean your head in your hooves, and you heave a deep sigh. “I found her in Rainbow Dash. She has changed so much, but at the same time I can’t help but see so much of Rachel in her. But what she said to me hurt. She wasn’t sorry that she died. She left me, after I had finally confessed to her my feelings, she died.

“I suppose that I can’t blame her entirely. She was right, after all. This new life offers her so much more that she could have ever gotten on Earth.” You raise your head from your hooves, and you return your gaze to the sky. “And, to make things better, I have not one, not two, but six mares after my heart. How am I supposed to make all of them happy? Whoever I choose will be happy, that’s a certainty, but what about the other five?” Another sardonic laugh escapes you. “And to think, I used to want attention like this. To be able to just pick and choose the women I wanted to be with.”

You feel a hoof on your shoulder, and you are glad for the comfort. “I killed a man, because I was asked to. I stood aside, and watched my grandmother, and my best friend, die. I’m truly, a terrible human. But now? I had those very six mares come to rescue me from the prison of my mind. I fought against a Zephite to save the lives of three little fillies. And now I’ve promised to help Pinkie with her emotional problems.” You stand up, and take a few steps from the small wooden porch. “Life can’t be happy all the time, I just wish that the sad moments I live through didn’t have to be so hard.”

A voice that is neither Pinkie, nor Roxy, sounds out. “The challenges rise to the level of the pony facing them. Anything less, and you would never even know it was a hardship.” You turn around, and see Princess Luna standing there, with both Pinkie, and Roxy, behind her.

“Oh my.” You feel a blush rise to your face. Despite the fact that you had been speaking candidly the whole time, now being faced with who you were talking to makes it seem awkward. “So, I was talking to you the whole time?”

“Yes, Storm. From the sunset till now.” She gives a small smile, though. “I must go now, but it was a pleasure to listen to you.” With barely a whisper she teleports away, leaving you with Pinkie and Roxy. You walk back to the house, and the three of you head inside.

After a nearly silent dinner the three of you retire to the living room.

“Storm, we have a guest room that you can use. Pinkamena, you can stay in your old bedroom.” Both you and Pinkie nod, and soon after Pinkie stands up.

“I’m going to bed now. I feel much more tired than normal.” Both you and Roxy wish Pinkie a good night, and that leaves just you and Roxy in the room.

You don’t feel terribly tired, but you also don’t know what to say to Roxy. This mare’s husband just died, and then she heard me go on about my life problems. What the hell can I say to break the tension?

“Thank you.” You look to her, and she has tears running down her face. “I know that Clyde is pig-headed, and that he is incredibly hard to deal with, but I love him. For years I tried to get him to write to our daughters, but he never did. It wasn’t until that letter that Pinkamena received that Clyde finally wrote her. I didn’t expect you, though. Your arrival here changed what I expected would happen.”

“I just did what was right. I couldn’t, and still can’t, bear the thought of Pinkie being so unhappy. I don’t know why, but it seems wrong.”

“And so you did what you did. I expect that my husband was his usual gruff self with Pinkamena, even when he was apologizing. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that because of you I have my daughter back. And now, hopefully, Pinkamena will speak with her sisters, and they will all come to forgive Clyde for what he did to them.”

“Things like this always work out in the stories, why not real life too?”

“Things like this shouldn’t happen in real life. A father should not be able to cause so much pain in his children. A father should be there for his daughters to support them, not try to rule their lives.”

“What’s done is done, Mrs. Pie.” You slowly stand from the couch, and you head to the hallway. Just before you get there, Mrs. Pie stands and approaches you. She gives you a big hug, and you feel her tears get in your mane.

“Thank you so much, Storm. You’ve given me more than I could have hoped to get.” The hug lingers for a moment, and then she pushed you back. Tears in her eyes, but a smile on her lips, she finished what she had to say to you. “Now get to bed. You’ve got quite a bit ahead of you, and you’ll need your rest.” You turn, and head into the hallway. Just before she’s out of sight she speaks to you for the last time that evening. “Never take the safe route in your life. If you are afraid of anything happening, than nothing will ever happen.”

A thought crosses your mind, but you let it pass, and you head to the guest bedroom. It’s not spacious by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s comfortable enough. You sit on the bed, and just take some time to arrange your thoughts. After a few minutes you finally crawl under the sheets, ready to get some rest. You feel a peace come over you, and yet you can’t seem to fall asleep.

A knock comes from your door, and you sit up in bed. You fumble for the lamp next to the bed, and you turn it on. “Come in,” you say. The door opens, and Pinkie comes into the room. She looks at the bed, hesitantly, and you motion for her to come over. She does, and she quickly crawls under the bed sheets. “You sure this is a good idea, Pinkie? What if your mother comes in?”

“Then we’ll just have to explain, won’t we?” You can’t see her face, but you can hear the smile in her voice. You recline, and you wrap a hoof around Pinkie, and she pulls closer to you. “I didn’t want to be alone…”

“I won’t be going anywhere Pinkie. I don’t intend to leave you, or anypony, for a long time.”

Chapter 30: The Farm, and a Visitor

(Shorter chapter this time. Enjoy.)

You slowly return to the world of wakefulness, and you feel the comforting warmth of Pinkie’s embrace. With an almost painful slowness you open your eyes, and you look at Pinkie’s sleeping form. There is a small smile painted on her face, and you feel a smile come to your own. You carefully extricate yourself from her grasp, and you exit the bedroom. You walk down the short hallway until you find yourself in the kitchen. Roxy is there, and she doesn’t notice you at first. She’s busy cooking some breakfast, and you are hesitant to make her aware of your presence. Before you can make a move to leave, though, she turns and looks at you.

“I know what you did last night, Storm. While I don’t approve, I can’t stop you from doing it.” She takes a step closer to you, and you can see a glint in her eyes. “But if you ever hurt my daughter, I will find you. She’s been through too much to be hurt by someone so close to her.”

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Pie. I have no intention of hurting her in any way.” Her eyes soften considerably, and she actually gives you a smile.

“I believe you. After all, you promised that Pinkie and Clyde would make up before he died, and whatever you told him it worked.” She returns to her cooking, but she continues talking to you. “Why don’t you go wake Pinkamena, and we can all have some breakfast together?”

“Alright. I’ll go wake her now.” And so you turn and head back down the hall to the guest room. You pass by a different room first, though, and you can’t help but look in. It’s much more colorful than any other room in the house, so you can only assume it was Pinkie’s before she left. You take a step in, and you can immediately tell that this room is filled with sadness. Somehow the lack of use seems to exude from every part of the room. Were it not for the lack of dust you would think that nopony has been in the room since Pinkie left.

You spot a book sitting on the small desk, and you move over to it to investigate. You are shocked to see that it is Pinkie’s diary. A part of you wants to read it, but at the same time you know that it would be a massive invasion of her privacy. You pick up the diary, but you don’t open it. You put it back down on the desk and you look around the room once again, and you turn to leave. Standing in the doorway is Pinkie, with a smile on her face.

“Whatcha doin in my old room?”

“Oh, hey Pinkie. I was just looking around some. I noticed it while I was coming to wake you for breakfast, and I just wanted to see it.” She nods, and then hops over to your side.

“Well, if its time for breakfast we should get going, shouldn’t we?” You both walk out of the room, and you can’t help but take another glance into the room.

Breakfast is short, but you enjoy it nevertheless. After breakfast Roxy looks first at you, and then Pinkie. “Pinkamena, I’m going to sell the farm.” She waits for a reaction from Pinkie, but when she doesn’t respond Roxy continues. “With your father gone there is no need for me to keep it, since I can’t take care of it by myself. I’ve been looking at buying a small home in Ponyville, and I wanted to know what you’d think of that?”

“I’d like that. With you closer I’d have somepony else to talk to when I’m feeling sad, and you’d be another pony to celebrate the good times with as well.” She gets up from her chair, and moves next to her mother, before embracing her. “I’d really like it if you moved to Ponyville.”

“Then I’ll do that once I sell this farm. Now, I want you to head home, and continue living your life. I don’t want to see you sad anymore, and this place only makes you sad.” Pinkie breaks the hug, and nods. Pinkie closes the hug once more, and she says something to her mother that you can’t quite make out. You begin to feel awkward waiting for the hug to end, so you slowly, and quietly, exit the room. You take a seat in the living room, and wait for them to finish.

A few minutes later, and Roxy comes into the room. “Pinkamena is grabbing a few things from her room, so she’ll be ready to leave in just a few minutes. Now, I have some things I’d like to talk to you about.” You motion to one of the other couches, and Roxy takes a seat.

“I’ll tell you whatever I can, Mrs. Pie.”

“What is your interest in Pinkamena?” A big one right off the bat?

“I’m a close friend of hers. I only came to Ponyville a short while ago, but I managed to find a friend in Pinkie, and a couple of her other friends as well. All of them seem to like me, so I’m trying to get to know all of them better. I don’t think of any of them romantically, yet, but I know that at some point I will have to break some of their hearts. I just don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

“Well, you seem to have your hooves full.” She has a smirk on her face as she says this, and you feel a blush rise to your cheeks. “But you are being careful with all of them? You really care for each of them?”

“Yes. No matter what happens I don’t think that I’ll ever really be able to get over them. The act of choosing one of them, over the others, is probably going to be one of the hardest choices I’m going to make.”

“Follow your heart, and you will never go astray.” Her small smirk turns into a smile, and you return it.

“I wish my heart would make up its mind, then.”

“That aside, Pinkamena tells me that you acted the hero not long ago?”

“I wouldn’t say I was a hero, I just saved some fillies from a storm. It wasn’t really to big a deal. I hope that anypony would do what I did if they could.” She chuckles a bit.

“Modesty doesn’t work on you.”

“I’m ready to go, Storm.” Pinkie walks in, and you turn to look at her. She’s got some saddlebags, and you can tell that they are all full of her stuff.

“All right, you two. Get home safe, and be sure to write me until I get to my new home.” Pinkie and her mother embrace one last time, and then the two of you leave the farm. You walk in silence for most of the trip, simply enjoying each others company. You arrive in Ponyville without incident, and amazingly without a word passing between the two of you.

You pass by Sugarcube Corner as you walk through town, and Pinkie stops in front of the small sweets shop. “I’m going to go and take care of some stuff now. I’ll be by later, if that’s okay.” Her tone was happy, but there was a layer of sadness hidden beneath it all. You knew that what she was going to do was likely painful, emotionally. You gave her a quick nuzzle, and you stepped back.

“Pinkie, my doors are always open to you, and any friend of yours. If you need me don’t hesitate to come by.” Pinkie nuzzles you neck back, and you just stand there for a moment, enjoying the feelings. After a moment Pinkie pulls back, and she begins to turn to enter the shop. “Wait, I forgot one thing.”

Pinkie turns to look at you, a confused look on her face. You dash in for a quick kiss, and then you give a powerful beat of your wings, and you take flight. You don’t look back as you lazily fly to your home. You take the time to admire the beauty of the clear blue skies, and you feel at peace with the world. Deep down you know that it’s just a matter of time, but for now you don’t much care.

Your ears perk up just a tiny bit, and you hear the faint thumping of wings. You look around, and yet you can’t spot another pegasus anywhere. There’s nopony in the air, and yet I hear the sound of wings. Wait… I’m flying, not on the ground. Above and below are options… You cast a glance down, and are treated with a beautiful view of Ponyville from the sky. As you turn your gaze upwards, though, you are rewarded with the sight of Rainbow Dash hurtling towards you. I just wanted to relax…

With a snap of your wings you twist to the side just in time to dodge Rainbow. She hurtles past you, and quickly alters her trajectory. You shake a hoof towards her, and in you best imitation of a crotchety old man you shout at her, “You damn kids! Slow it down!”

Rainbow’s eyes widen at this, and she barely manages to contain her laughter as she struggles to maintain a level flight. You glide over to her, and you can start to make out her words. “Don’t… Don’t make me laugh like that… Not while I’m flying.”

“Don’t dive bomb me, and I won’t make you laugh. Deal?” You offer her a hoof, and you have a huge grin plastered on your face.

“Deal.” She slowly recovers from her laughing fit, and then she looks at you. “Now, the reason I was coming at you was because I have some awesome news to share. You know how I like Daring Doo, right?” You just nod. “Well, she came here. To Ponyville!”

“Wow, really? Was she doing a book signing, or something?” Rainbow just shakes her head.

“No, she came here to meet you! I don’t know how, but she came here wanting to speak with you. When I saw her at your house I was so excited that I never asked why, but I know that she’s at Twilight’s place now. So let’s go!”

As she finishes she angles into a steep dive, and she heads for Twilight’s home. Maybe she heard about the fact that I saved the Crusaders. Or… I don’t know. Well, no time like the present to find out. You began your own dive towards the library, your mind racing.

(There may be some mistakes. If so, let me know. Otherwise I'll see you next chapter!)

Chapter 31: Daring Do, and the Trouble that Follows

(Chapter 31 is brought to you by: Howitzer's Mind Studios: The next level in insanity!)

You land before the library, and Rainbow lands next to you. She is bouncing, much like Pinkie would, and you know that she is incredibly excited to talk to Daring. You push open the door, and Rainbow rushes in, cutting you off. You give a small shake of your head, and you follow her in. You first see Twilight sitting on a cushion on the floor, while Daring is sitting on a small couch. She’s quite old, easily into her seventies, and that surprised you. You had expected her to be younger.

You close the door behind you, and when you turn back around you see Rainbow sitting right in front of Daring, already peppering her with all sorts of questions. A small chuckle escapes your lips, and you walk over, and take a seat a bit further back from the two mares. You are content to let Rainbow get over her initial shock, and questions, before you get to the matter at hand.

Sadly, you didn’t realize just how many questions Rainbow actually had. Rainbow’s questions are as varied as they are many, and soon Daring starts to look a bit miffed at the unending barrage. “Thank you for your questions, dear, but I did come her for a reason. I’d like to speak to Storm, alone.” Rainbow falls silent, and then both she and Twilight head to the door.

“How long will you need,” Twilight asks.

“Oh, not too long, I think.”

“Well, alright. Come on, Rainbow, let’s give them some privacy.” With that they both exited, leaving you with Daring. You move a bit closer to her, and she just watches you. She doesn’t say a word, and you are content to leave the silence alone. Her eyes have a sparkle to them, and it’s eerily familiar. It’s been so long since you last saw those eyes, so you struggle to put a face to them.

“It’s certainly been a while, hasn’t it?” She gives you a warm smile, and you return it.

“Well, since I’ve never met you, I can’t say it’s been a while.”

“You don’t know who I am?” Her smile fades, and is replaced with a small frown. You wrack your mind, trying to put the pieces together. The letter…

“Grandma?” Her frown immediately vanishes, and is replaced with a massive smile. She spreads her hooves, and you lunge forward to hug her. You feel some tears roll down your face, but you don’t care. You have your grandmother back, and you had a life worth living. You just hold her, and she you. No words need to be shared, and yet the moment is more emotional than you can explain.

“Kurt, I’m so happy to see you again. I can’t describe how happy I am to see you happy. Before I died you never really seemed to be happy, but now? Now I see that you have friends, and even some enemies.” You pull back, at that, and there’s a smile on her face still. “I’m glad you have enemies. Nopony can be friends with everypony. Not even Pinkie can be everypony’s friend. And that just means that those ponies can’t accept you for who you are.”

“Well, I’ve got one hell of an enemy.” You offer her an ironic smile, considering the gravity of the situation. “Discord, it seems, doesn’t much like me.”

“God, or no, you’ll rise to the challenge, of that I am certain.” Her smile never fades, and for that you are grateful. “Now, what’s this I hear about you and a certain group of six mares?” You can hear the laughter in her voice.

“Oh. That. Well, yeah. It seems that all six elements of harmony like me. A lot.” You feel a blush rise to your cheeks, and you wish that it hadn’t. Somehow talking about this with your grandmother is far more embarrassing than you could have predicted.

“Oh, so my grandson is quite popular with the ladies, eh?” She really does start laughing at this, and you can’t help but join in. “Now, I do have some more serious news for you.” You look at her, and the serious expression on her face brings a frown to your face. “This fiasco with Discord, it really is quite serious, despite my lighthearted jape. When you were brought to Equestria I, technically, violated one of the ancient laws of the multiverse.”

“You what?”

“Yes, well it wasn’t really intentional. There is already a wanderer in Equestria, a white dragon by the name of Eidar. Anyway, Discord hopes to use your presence to ascend to the next level of godhood. You can not allow him to succeed at this. I don’t fear that you’ll fail, I only fear what it will cost you. With those six so close to your heart Discord will almost certainly use them against you. And, since he’s already corrupted them once he’ll be able to do it again. My advice to you? Learn them all. Get to know all of their fears, and know that Discord will use those to his advantage.”

“Why me?” You interrupt Daring, and she has a small smile for you.

“Because your grandfather, my husband, was the last wanderer of Earth. When a wanderer dies, which he did, then the title is passed down to the last born heir. Since you were the last born direct blood relative to him you inherited the title. This is a great honor, but also a massive responsibility. I couldn’t stand to watch you suffer on Earth, though, so I used my one wish, granted by the watchers, to bring you here.”

“One wish?”

“It’s just like when you were starting school, so full of questions, and eager to learn all you could. Yes, your grandfather stopped a great threat to Earth, and for that he was granted a wish. Since he was happy with his life, he gave the wish to me. I used it to bring you happiness, or, at least, I hope it brought you happiness.” She had a hopeful look on her face, and you gave her a hug.

“Yes, grandma, I do think that I’m happy here.” You pull back from the hug, and you sit back down. “So, how long have you been a pony? And why Daring Do?”

A chuckle escapes her lips. “I was born here, again. Much like Rachel. And I always wanted to be an explorer, Indiana Jones was always a big favorite of mine, so I made my choice. I didn’t choose the name, but it certainly works, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, it does. Where do you live now?”

“In Canterlot. I am a big shot there, but I do keep it low key for the most part. I tend to stay in fairly small groups of collectors, rather than spread out and become more well known. And the books? I write them, and everything that happens in them actually happened to me. They’re an extended autobiography, of sorts. And I see that you have that lockbox I sent you. What did you think of it?”

“Well, I’ve spent it all already.” Her mouth drops open at this. “I know, four thousand bits is a hefty sum of money. I used it to save the Apple family farm. Now I’m broke again, but it was worthwhile.”

“Good to see your heart is in the right place, at least. And the key, have you figured it out?”

“No.” Short, sweet, and to the point.

“Oh. Well, you give the key to somepony, and then have them open the lockbox. Once they do it will open for them always. It’s a unique spell, and it’s a sign of great trust. The box also holds something from your grandfather, but it will only appear when the time is right. And before you ask, I don’t know what that time is. He never told me.”

You look at the small key tied around your neck. “So I shouldn’t really carry it, should I?”

“The magic will only transfer if you do it willingly, so it is of no consequence. Now then, I am tired. Being old, again, does have its drawbacks.” She offers a small smile, and you return it.

“You can stay at my place, if you like.”

“No, that won’t be necessary. You have company coming over tonight, so I don’t want to intrude. Anyway, Twilight already offered me her room, and I don’t want to seem rude by turning her down.”

She stands up, and you dash over to help. “Really, Grandma, you need to stop being so stubborn all the time. It may have won you Grandpa, but now you’re flogging a dead horse.” You hear a gasp, and you look at the door to see that Twilight had returned. “Um… It’s a human phrase. I’m just going to stop talking now, I think I’m making an ass of myself.” Wait… Shit. “Another phrase…”

“What Storm is trying to say, is that humans have many animal related phrases in usage, and that some of them may come across as offensive here.” Twilight visibly relaxes, and even offers a smile.

“I think I understand. But what does the phrase mean?”

“To continue to do something even when it is not needed any more. For example, if you were to get a 99 on a test, and then complain to get a better grade. It’s a rather pointless exercise.”

“Oh. But a 99 can be improved…”

“Remember who you’re talking to, Grandma.” You all share a small laugh at this, and you help your grandmother upstairs to Twilight’s bed. You let Twilight help her into bed, and you make sure that she is sufficiently tucked in. “Get some rest, now. I’ll be around town for the foreseeable future, so if you ever need anything from me, don’t hesitate to let me know.” She nods, and you and Twilight both leave, to let her rest.

You chat with Twilight for a few more minutes, and then you head to your own home, looking forward to spending some time with Pinkie. The trip home is fairly boring, until you hear a shout of distress. Again? With a quick pump of your wings you take flight, and head in the direction of the shout.

As you soar over the buildings you spot Pinkie being approached by a stallion you’ve never seen before. You tuck your wings in, and you dive swiftly towards the stallion. You won’t allow him to hurt Pinkie, and you need to divert his attention. “Hey, asshole! Here’s STORM!” He turns to look at you, and you crash into him.

You manage to recover fairly quickly, and you take a good look at the stallion. His coat is almost black, and his eyes are blood red. He rises to his hooves, and he looks at you with murder in his eyes. “Pinkie, run. Get help.” You don’t turn to look to see if she did what you asked.

“You are a foolish stallion to get between me and my goal. Just like that stupid mare. I am only here to kill one mare, and I will see this done.”

“Not on my watch.” You begin circling, and you see the other stallions pull out a knife. Well that’s not fair. I don’t have a knife. You push that from your mind, and you continue circling him. He takes a step closer, and you take a step back, wanting to stay out of reach as long as possible. He makes a move to begin moving to one side, so you move in the same direction, but he quickly shifts his weight, and he lunges at you, death in his eyes. You barely avoid the stab, but he then swings downward, and you feel the burning touch of the blade as it bit into flesh. Who needs a scarless body anyway?

The blade was jerked from his grasp when you abruptly recoiled from the cut. You could feel the blood flowing from the wound, but you remained standing, your blood burning with adrenaline. The adrenaline spike made the world slow down, and the natural magic of a pegasus ran through you. In Rainbow Dash this let her push the boundaries of speed, allowing her to break the sound barrier. In you, it let you overclock your mind to ludicrous speeds. Seconds passed like minutes, and the world ground to a halt.

With a massive kick of your back legs you lunged into the chest of the black stallion, pushing him over. He kicked you off, though, and you somersaulted over him landing back on your hooves. You were braced for the attack you thought was coming, but instead he just turned and ran. You prepared to take flight to pursue, but the ragged wound on your back stopped you. The pain was finally getting to you, through the adrenaline. You pushed the pain from your mind, though, and you took flight anyway.

You spotted him heading for the library. With a few quick pumps of your wings you dove at him once more. This time, though, there was no battle cry. You were as silent as the wind, and you felt a sharp crack as you plowed into him from behind. The jarring impact made your world spin, and you could feel nothing through the burning of your blood. The other stallion was out of sight, but you felt confident that he was worse off than you. ‘Heh, I did what you said, mom. I made sure the other guy looks worse than I do.”

You felt lightheaded, and as the world began to fade you saw a pink blur appear before your eyes. You could see the mouth moving, and you could hear sounds, but none of it came through clear. The world slowly faded to black, and you knew no more…

(Getting stabbed? For shame. What will happen to our hero next? Tune in next time to find out!)

Chapter 32: An Explanation

You floated peacefully through the depths of your mind, content to flow where the will of the world took you. You spread your wings, and through vistas more beautiful than you could imagine, you flew. You soared effortlessly, knowing that all before you was your domain. Sadly, knowledge of being in a dream does nothing to aid you in waking. For a time you rebelled against the confines of your mind, demanding release.

It was for naught, though. You were trapped inside your mind, unable to reach anypony, and unable to be reached by anypony. After what felt like an eternity you had descended deeper into your mind, trying to make sense of who you were. What you found disturbed you. You found a tiny part of your mind that was blocked off, even to you. It manifested itself as a black sphere, simply floating against the serene background of your mind.

All of your attempts at accessing it were met with failure. You stood before it, and just stared. As you stared at it, you noticed a small crack running along its otherwise flawless surface. You slammed a hoof against it, and the small crack began to spread. A smile graced your lips, and you pulled back to pound against it once more. Before you can hit it, though, a purple aura surrounds you, and you hear an exclamation of success.

You opened your eyes, and you were blinded by a massive light above. Blinking rapidly, to clear your vision, you heard several voices coming from around you. You can’t make any of them out clearly, but they all sound excited. As your vision finally clears, you sit up, and wince in pain. Every head in the room looks your way, and you see Pinkie, her five closest friends, Daring Do, and even Luna.

“What happened?” Your throat feels exceedingly dry, but you manage to choke out your words.

Pinkie is the first to respond. “You saved me from that pony.” She is on the verge of tears, but she manages to hold it in. “When you told me to run, I did. I got help as fast as I could, but by the time we made it to where I saw you last you were gone. I didn’t know where to go next, but I ran through town till I found you outside of the Library. There was so much…” She can’t finish, but you can imagine what she saw.

Twilight speaks up next, elaborating on what happened. “I heard Pinkie shout out, and when I came out you were on the ground next to some black pony I had never seen before. At first I thought that it was the other pony’s blood, but when I looked closer I saw a huge cut on your back. I got you to the hospital as quickly as I could, using teleportation spells.”

“How long have I been out for? And could I get some water? My throat feels like sandpaper.”

Applejack hands you a small glass of water, and you quickly down it. Rarity answers your question, though. “Well, it’s been almost a full day. The only reason you’re awake now is because Luna was around.”

Luna takes a step forward, and she gives you a small smile. “After your visit to the farm I wanted to see how the other Elements were doing, and I happened to find them all here. When I discovered why they were here I knew that I needed to do something. I can’t just let you die, now can I?”

“Thank you, Princess.”

“Well, it wasn’t all my work. I merely closed the wound. Were it not for Miss Pie you would likely be unconscious still, or worse.” You raise an eyebrow, and she elaborates. “She donated blood to help you recover. Your body was dangerously close to being past the point of no return. You had lost almost forty percent of your blood. Were it not for Pinkie’s donation you may not have even made it.”

You just look at Pinkie, and she blushes. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you, is all I can think to say, but that doesn’t even seem enough.” You try to sit up straighter, but the pain in your back prevents it.

“Please don’t try to rise. The cut on your back did do quite a bit of damage, and I’ve only just recently finished mending the muscles. Given your stubborn nature, though, I’d say that you can be up and about in a few hours. Just wait for Celestia to arrive, and then you can go.” As Luna finishes, she turns to go. “Now, though, I must return to Canterlot. The nobility tends to grow restless when neither me, nor my sister, are present in the castle.” She gracefully makes her way out of the room, and the attention of all six mares shifts back to you.

“So, what happened, exactly? We heard what happened before you saved Pinkie, but what happened afterwards?” Rainbow speaks up, her voice lacking its usual confident edge.

“I heard a scream as I was heading back to my house, after my visit to Daring. Rushing to the scene, I saw Pinkie being attacked by that black stallion. I swept in, and stopped him from hurting Pinkie. When she ran, I readied myself to fight. He said something about coming here to kill somepony. He managed to get me, but at the time I didn’t realize just how serious it was.

“He managed to get away from me after a brief struggle, and then I took flight to catch him. I tackled him to the ground where you found us, and then I passed out. The last thing I can remember seeing is a pink blur.” You look at Pinkie, and you can see the tear on her face. You have no doubt that it was her, but you were amazed at just how fast she had found you. Or, perhaps, how long you had been lying on the ground before passing out.

“Who was that mysterious pony that I tackled, anyway?”

“Nopony knows. Your hit knocked him out, and he hasn’t managed to recover yet,” Twilight answers. “Although the doctors have told us that as soon as he wakes we’ll be informed.” As Twilight finishes a soft knock comes from the door. Every head shifts to look at the newcomer, and it is none other than Princess Celestia herself. All six mares bow, but you look on, unable to bow. Not that you would, but that’s besides the point.

“Rise, my little ponies. I came by to see how our hero fares after his valiant rescue of Pinkie.”

“Well, I have a new scar, and a throbbing pain in my back, but other than that I’m feeling peachy keen.” Your voice drips sarcasm, but Celestia shrugs it off.

“Good to see that your humor survived intact. Now, please explain to me what happened.” You go through the events once more, and Celestia listens patiently through your explanation. Just as you finish a doctor comes into the room.

“Our mysterious pony just woke up.” The princess is the first to respond.

“I’ll see to him. You six stay here.” She follows the doctor out of the room, and you lay back on the bed, still feeling tired. Quite some time passes, all of it in silence. You are just looking at the ceiling, when you hear the faint sounds of hoofsteps. You look to the door, and you see Celestia coming in. She looks at the others in the room, before she looks at you. Only then do you notice that all six mares have fallen asleep in the room. They’ve probably been up since I was hospitalized…

Celestia makes her way next to you, and she gives you a small smile. “He wasn’t here for any of you. He was sent by a stallion that your grandmother upset quite some time ago. Something about some artifact, or another. It’s nothing to be worried about.”

“But my grandmother is in danger, of course there’s something to be worried about.” You’re both keeping your voices low, but the urgency in your voice is unmistakable.

“I spoke with her, and she says that she’ll be fine. She may be old, but she’s still got quite a bit of fight left in her.”

“But what if…” You stop as Celestia shakes her head.

“She’s been dealing with this for the past sixty years. I’m confident she’ll be fine. You, on the other hand, really need to stop being hospitalized all the time. Your bills are adding up, and I’d much rather not have to pay for them all.”

“You’ve been paying for my trips here? I thought I just had a running tab, or something.” You chuckle a bit at the absurdity of your statement.

“No, I have been paying for your trips to the hospital, but I’d appreciate it if you could come here just a bit less often. I don’t much like having to spend so much on you.”

“I’ll do what I can to avoid coming here, but I’ll have you know that I never come here on purpose, and it is always for a good reason.”

“I can’t argue with that. Now, get some rest. I trust that you’ll be able to explain what I told you to the others?”

“Of course.” With that Celestia made her way out of the room, and you laid back, ready to get some rest. I was certain that Discord would be behind this. Ah, well. I’m not going to complain.

You quickly fall asleep once more, this time to calm dreams, and a lack of mysterious floating orbs.

Chapter 33: A Demon Inside us All

(Howitzer's Mind Studios is proud to present Chapter 33: A Demon Inside us All)

With an agonizing slowness you wake from your slumber once more. You feel a presence to your side, leaning against you slightly. You open your eyes, expecting to see Pinkie, or one of the others, but instead it is Lyra. You reach out a hoof, gently, and stroke her mane. Her eyes flutter open, when you touch her mane, and she sits upright quickly. You offer her a small smile, and she returns it.

She grabs her notepad, and after writing briefly she shows it to you. The others were all exhausted from staying here, so I offered to wait with you.

“Thank you, Lyra. Although I am a grown stallion, capable of taking care of myself.”

She raise one eyebrow, and writes on her small pad. Yeah, well you got yourself stabbed when you were on your own, so you’ll have to forgive our unwillingness to leave you alone.

“Fair enough.” You lay back down, and Lyra just starts to draw on her pad. An hour passes with only a few words shared between the two of you. Eventually a doctor enters the room, and you sit up when he enters.

“I’ve got good news for you, Storm. Last night, while you were still asleep, we took another blood sample. Short of any other grievous wounds your red blood cell count will rise at a normal pace, and you’ll be perfectly healthy within a few days. As for right now? Well, as far as I am concerned, you’re free to go. Just eat a healthy diet, and avoid strenuous activities.”

“Wow, already? I was expecting a significantly longer wait.”

“Well, with Pinkie’s blood donation, along with what we had in stock, you got almost half of what you lost back in your system. Now,” he hands you a stack of paperwork, “fill this out, and you’ll be free to go.” You quickly begin filling out all the paperwork, and after a grueling half hour, you sign the last form.

“Well, Lyra, shall we go.” She looks up from her pad, and then she flips to the next page, before she shows you what she wrote.

Sure, let’s go. So, with a groan, you heave yourself out of the bed, and onto your hooves. A few joints pop, but there is no pain to speak of. Lyra walks by your side, and soon you get to the nurse’s station at the end of the hall. The nurse looks up from her desk, and she takes your paperwork. She reads it all over, and then she gives you a warm smile.

“Well, Storm, you’re free to go. And don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d rather not see you here again.”

“Hell, you and me both. I’ve had my fill of the hospital for quite a while.” You give a small wave, and you and Lyra exit the hospital. You walk in silence for a short while, before your curiosity gets the better of you. “Lyra, what were you drawing while we were in the hospital?”

A blush spreads across Lyra’s face, and she gives you a smile. She holds out her notepad, and on the page you see a drawing of yourself. Rather than in bed, as you would think, given where you were when she was drawing, it was, instead, just you standing there. It’s quite well done, and it captures your appearance perfectly.

“Wow, Lyra. That’s really well done. I had no idea you could draw as well as play the lyre.” She blushes further, and takes the notepad back from you. She writes quickly, and you read it.

It’s not something that I really do that often. It’s kind of a spur of the moment kind of thing. Anyway, I need to get going. As you finish reading you look up, and Lyra gives a small smile before she dashes away.

You give a small shake of your head, and you let out a small sigh. You begin the walk to Sugarcube Corner, figuring that you’ll go pay Pinkie a visit first. Given your weakened condition you take your time to go there, and so it takes you almost half an hour. The trip is a peaceful one, and you just take the time to enjoy the scenery.

You open the door to Sugarcube Corner, and you see Mr. Cake behind the counter. You offer a small wave, and he returns it. You approach the counter, and you address Mr. Cake.

“Hi, Mr. Cake. Where’s Pinkie? I was hoping to see her.”

“Well, when she came back last night she seemed somewhat upset about something, so she went right to bed. This morning, though, there was a note from her on the counter, something about needing some time to think about her feelings. Oh, and there was also an attached note addressed to you. I guess she knew that you’d come by.” He hands you the note, and you open it. There’s just a few words, but they tell you all you need to know.

“Thanks, Mr. Cake. I’ll make sure that Pinkie is okay. I’ll come back later, and get some treats, but for now I have some important things to deal with.” Mr. Cake just gives you a knowing smile, and you head out the door.

*/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/*

You make your way through Ponyville, heading for your home, and soon you stand outside your door. You raise a hoof to the knob, and for a moment you are uncertain of just what you’re going to do with the likely depressed Pinkie inside. You steady yourself, and you open the door.

You don’t see anything at first, but after a moment you see Pinkie sitting on the floor in front of your grandfather clock. She’s motionless, save for her eyes, which follow the pendulum. You make your way over to her, and you take a seat next to her. A tiny sob escapes her, and you place a hoof around her shoulder.

Not another sound, save for your breathing, and hers, is heard for the next hour. Then, Pinkie finally speaks.

“I got you hurt.” Her voice is flat, lacking any of her usual emotion. You don’t say anything at first, simply pulling her a bit closer to you. She doesn’t resist, but she also doesn’t lean into you. You know that Pinkamena is who you are with, so you adjust your word choice to match.

“Pinkamena, you need to share with Pinkie now. I have to speak with both of you. We need to deal with this problem, before it gets worse.” You don’t look at Pinkie, but you continue. “This separation of your mind will only get worse over time, and you need to come to terms with both sides to who you are. I did it, and trust me, it was one of the hardest, but most liberating things I’ve done.

“To accept who you are, the good, the bad, and the neutral? It’s the embodiment of the phrase, ‘easier said than done.’” You heave a great sigh, and continue. “Inside all of us, Pinkie, is a monster. A demon that feeds on all of our misgivings. Every mistake we make feeds that demon, and makes it stronger. For me, it’s my past. Whenever I think of what I did, I shudder on the inside. I did terrible things to people, but I’ve come to accept that.

“I know it was wrong, and so I have learned from it. You need to do the same thing, Pinkie. Your father managed to look past his mistakes, and see you for the beautiful mare that you are. The only pony who hasn’t realized just how beautiful you are is you.” Finally, you turn to look at Pinkie. There are tears running down her face, and she has a smile on her face. “Pinkie, Pinkamena, there needs to be no separation between the two of you. You are one pony, and so your minds must be as one.

“You may have suffered in the past, and created Pinkamena from the depths of your depression, Pinkie, but she is a part of you. Accept her into who you are, and you will be a better mare for it. Anypony can run from their problems, but a real pony, a truly strong pony, would face their problems, and come to terms with them. Do what I did, Pinkie. Accept your faults, and know that you will be made stronger by accepting them.”

Pinkie gives a small nod, and you watch her. Over the course of a half hour Pinkie’s facial expression goes from happy, to sad, to angry, and to almost every emotion you can think of. Finally, she opens her eyes, and there are tears running down her face. She opens her mouth to speak, but she closes it before saying a word. This happens a few more times, before she just throws herself at you, and she hugs you.

You fall onto your back, but Pinkie doesn’t relent in her hug assault. You listen to her breathing, as she holds you, and finally you hear her speak. “Thank you.” You push her up, and she lets you. Her tears mar the beauty of her face, but the spark in her eyes draws you in. In that moment, you could see Pinkie had been healed. She would still need to take the time to fully realize it, but the horrible wound in her psyche had been healed.

You spent the next few hours simply enjoying each others company, not saying much, but communicating all the same. Lunch comes, and goes, and you find yourself lying on your couch, your head resting on Pinkie. A gentle knock comes from your door, and you sit up, upset that somepony came along, and ruined the moment.

You open it to find Twilight, and the other four Elements of Harmony. You welcome them in, and they gather in the living room.

“So, girls, what brings you by?”

Twilight takes the initiative, and answers your question. “Well, we came by to see how Pinkie was doing, and I got a letter from the Princess.” They all look to Pinkie first, though. “So, Pinkie, how are you doing? Did you resolve the issues with Storm?”

She just nods in response. That, and her smile widens just a bit. “Well, that’s good. Storm does seem to have a way with ponies. Anyway, I assume that both of you are curious about the letter from Celestia?”

Pinkie nods, once again, and you answer. “Yeah, although I am curious as to why she didn’t say anything when she came by earlier. Then again, she had other concerns at the time.”

“Yes, she was more concerned with the pony who wanted to kill your grandmother. Understandable, don’t you think? Anyway, the letter was an invitation.” Twilight seems really excited about it, but the significance is lost on you.

“An invitation to what, exactly?”

Rainbow answers this time, her voice dripping excitement. “To the Grand Galloping Gala! The Princess promised that this one would be even more exciting than the last one! And the Wonderbolts will be there again!”

“Hate to be the confused one, but what’s the Grand Galloping Gala?”

(Thanks for reading, and be sure to go here, and leave a comment. Thanks for reading, and taking the time to appreciate my words.)

Chapter 34: The Second Wanderer

Twilight gives an understanding smile before she explains. “The Grand Galloping Gala is a celebration done every year to celebrate the completion of Canterlot. It was originally hosted by the unicorns who built Canterlot, but now it is hosted by the princesses.” Twilight clears her throat, and a small blush grows on her face. “Last year, though, we kind of ruined the party.”

Pinkie’s face grows brighter, and she even smiles, despite the feelings experienced just minutes ago. “Yeah, but afterwards Princess Celestia told us that we only made it more fun for her! And now we have Storm to make it even better! I can’t wait to go with him!”

“What?” You heard her quite clearly, but what she said confused you. “What do you mean, go with you?”

“Silly, you’ll be taking me as your date, won’t you?”

Oh my…

“He’ll be taking me, you mean.” Applejack took a step closer to you, and you just looked at her, still unsure of how to tackle this situation.

“Girls, please. There’s no need for all this fighting.” You turned to look at Rarity, the latest to speak. “Clearly he’ll be taking me, as only I have the class and sophistication to truly enjoy the festivities.” She matches your gaze, and a smile spreads on her face. “Besides, he and I go together so well!”

Soon, all six mares are fighting over you. Or, to clarify, they’re all fighting, save for Fluttershy. You were standing, but now you just sit there, dumbfounded at what is happening before you. You raise a hoof, and all six look at you.

“Did any of you stop to think that maybe I have an opinion in the matter?” You look at each of them in turn, and they are all clearly waiting on what you have to say. “I’ll be honest with you all.” You pause, for dramatic effect. “I have no idea who I’m going to take. But I do know that I won’t choose yet. I still have some time, right Twilight?”

“Yeah, the gala isn’t for another month.”

“Well, than I have a week to get to know each of you, once I feel that I know Pinkie well enough. Only then will I be able to make my decision. So, until then, I’d appreciate it if each of you would avoid bringing it up too much. Or, at least, don’t bring it up around me. If the six of you can come to an agreement without me, than I’ll gladly hear it.”

All six nod in agreement, but a smirk appears on Rainbow’s face. “You know that I know you the best, so I’m pretty sure I’ve got this in the bag.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, Rainbow. From what I’ve seen of Pinkie, and Applejack, they’re both solid competition. There won’t be an easy win to be had here. But, I’m still not going to talk about this anymore.” You cross your hooves across your chest, firmly signaling that you’re done with the topic.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way, how about we go get some food! I’m famished.” Pinkie would be the one to break the silence, but you can’t help but agree. You’re feeling quite hungry as well. After a short discussion, it was agreed that you would go to the small diner in town.

The trip there was quite peaceful, although you did notice a few glances in your direction. The thought of picking one of them over the others sent tiny shivers down your spine. You arrived at the diner without incident, and soon the seven of you were seated at a table, and talking about whatever topic came about. You were only barely paying attention, though, as you were occupied with this new conundrum. I already know that I have to spend time with Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Dash, so I still have time to get to know them, before I have to decide. Still, why does this have to be so damn hard?

“What do you think, Storm?” You are torn from your thoughts by a question thrown your way. You could identify the voice as having come from Rarity, so you look at her, but you quickly notice that all six mares are looking at you.

“Um… What? I was distracted by my inner monologue, so could you repeat the question?”

Rarity offers a small smile, and she repeats herself. “I was saying that I would design all of our outfits, and that I would do yours last, so that I could match it to whoever you chose to go with. I just asked you what you thought of that plan.”

“Oh. Well, that sounds like a good idea. That way I match whoever I go with. Although I’d like it if there was a certain unity between all of us. A theme, if you will.”

Rarity’s eyes go wide at this, and she lets out a small squeal. “Oh that is a wonderful idea! We’ll all have a certain element in common that will only add to the beauty! But what element can I have as a constant between all of our dresses?” She trails off, clearly lost in thought as to what she’ll do with all the dresses.

The rest of the meal passes without any real incident, and with only some friendly banter passing between all of you. With the meal complete, the seven of you go your separate ways. As you all split apart, you find yourself with nothing to do. Somehow, you managed to please whatever god is responsible for free time, because you now have the rest of the day to do nothing.

With a powerful sweep of your wings, you take flight, just to enjoy the freedom of flight. You soar amongst the clouds, slowly climbing higher and higher. After quite some time, you feel yourself growing faint, due to the ever decreasing amount of oxygen in the air.

Your breathing slows, as you pace yourself to maintain your altitude. You simply enjoy the freedom of flying for quite some time, but an idea crosses your mind, and you decide to act on it. With a small adjustment to your wings you enter a dive. Over the next few seconds you angle yourself into an incredibly steep dive, and you feel yourself pass the mental barriers that once prevented you from going any faster with ease.

Finally, you hit the barrier that you had never been able to push through. The air itself screams past, almost as if it is angry that you would disturb it so. Pushing as hard as you can, you shatter the barrier that held you back. A shimmering cone of air appears before you, but you find yourself unable to make it through. The mental block in your mind is too solid, and so you can travel no faster.

The ground rushes towards you faster than you would have thought possible, and with less than a thousand feet below you, you pull out of the dive. The ground whizzes past in a blur of color, and soon you angle upwards, allowing gravity to help you slow down. The adrenaline pumping through you makes you feel so alive, so you level out before you lose too much speed.

You start a gently banked turn, and soon you are headed back towards Ponyville. On your way back, though, you spot a white mass in the Everfree Forest. You pull up, wanting to investigate whatever this thing was. The forest was fairly uniform in its density, and arrangement of foliage, so it was odd that there would be something that sticks out so much in the forest.

You circle a few times, still unsure as to what it is. In a display of arrogance, you assure yourself that you’ll be able to handle whatever it is that’s down there. As you get closer to the ground, you are shocked to see that it is a dragon. Still, you assure yourself that you’ll be able to escape, if it turns out to be a threat. You land a distance away from it, and it cracks open an eye to look at you. It has a nasty looking scar running along its left eye, and you can’t help but wonder what caused it.

“Ah, so the interloper shows himself at last.” His voice, as this is undeniably a male, is deep, and filled with experience. You suspect, though, that his size plays a larger role in the deepness of his voice, though. “I’ve been in Equestria for quite some time, now. And then you decide to interfere. Your actions have upset the balance, and I will be forced to pick up the pieces, should your actions cause any lasting harm.”

“Um… Who are you, and what, exactly, are you going on about?”

A massive rumble escapes the dragon, as he sits upright. Surprisingly he’s not as tall as you suspected. “I am Eidar, the Wanderer of Equestria. You are another wanderer, brought here by the wish of another being.” He pauses for a moment, as if suddenly speaking with somepony else. “Screw the rules, I’m a dragon. I’ve been told, by the watchers, that I can not speak any further with you on this topic. Something about pissing off God. That’s God with a capital ‘G’.”

“Wait, God? There’s a step up from the princesses?”

“No. Now go away. I’ve already said too much.” With that, the dragon simply turned, and began walking through the forest. You just watch for a few minutes, as the large white form slowly becomes obscured by the trees. Just as you are about to turn to go, you hear the faint voice of the dragon once more. “And don’t tell anypony that I’m here.”

Well, things just seem to be getting better and better! I’m apparently breaking some sort of cosmic rule, and nopony saw fit to tell me. Great… You spread your wings once more, and you begin the flight back to Ponyville. You arrive back at Ponyville, and you head to your home, your mind racing.

As you enter your home, you can’t help but look at the grandfather clock. You sit before it, watching the swinging of the pendulum. “Why do you draw my mind? I sit here, now, before you, awaiting the revealing mysteries that you seem to promise. What deep intricacies do you hide behind that clock face, I wonder? Is it a foretelling of death, or one of hope? Do you bring wise words, or perhaps a fanciful tale?

“Or are you naught more than a clock, telling the time? But what time, I wonder? Do you tell the time as it is, or as it will be? Do you count down, or up? With all the magic of this world, is there any real difference between the two? Or, am I just going mad, slowly? Well? Have you no answers?” You realize that you were shouting at the clock, with your last words, and so you take a deep breath, and steady yourself. “No. No, you’re a clock, nothing more, and nothing less.”

You stand, and turn away from the clock, no longer interested in it. A knocking comes from your door, and so you head over, and open it up. Standing there is Pinkie Pie, and a smile adorns her face. “Oh, hi Pinkie. What brings you by?”

Her smile fades a bit, and she gains a curious expression on her face. “Are you okay, Storm? You sound a bit upset.” You motion for her to come in, and she follows you upstairs.

“I’ve just been thinking, is all. I’ve been through so much in the past few weeks, and it only just hit me how short a time it has really been.” You take a seat at the piano, and Pinkie sits on the bench next to you. You move your hooves over the keys, but Pinkie stops them.

“You don’t need to play for me, you know.” Her smile is sincere, and it even brings a smile to your face.

“I know. I’m playing for myself this time.”

Chapter 35: Get Your Tongue Off Me...

(This chapter was really hard to write for me. I went through a whole gauntlet of emotions, and even now I'm still having feels. As per usual, let me know if there are any real errors to be found. Without further ado, I give you one of my personal favorite chapters: Chapter 35: Get Your Tongue Off Me...)

You play the song (Note from Howitzer: If you listen to the song, don't proceed, since the music isn't fitting with the rest of the chapter. Just so you know.), and as you finish you simply lay your hooves on the keyboard, suddenly tired. Pinkie gives you a small hug, and you reciprocate it.

“That was a really nice song, Storm.” She nuzzles your neck, and you let her finish before you stand up.

“So, Pinkie, what would you like to do? I have absolutely nothing to do, and I’m open to suggestions.” Pinkie puts a hoof on her chin, and she sinks into deep thought. You watch her as she thinks, but there is no visible sign of her mental progress. Several minutes pass in this fashion before she makes any movement whatsoever. And this is nothing more than switching hooves.

Finally, after almost half an hour she gets a great big smile on her face. “We could just go for a walk through town. There’s bound to be something we can do!” A small smile graces your own face, and you stand up.

“Sure. I remember going on walks sometimes during the summer. I’d always try to find a nice spot to watch the sunset. Maybe we can do the same?”

Her eyes go wide, and she gives you another hug. “How romantic! I’ll go pack a picnic basket, and we can have a picnic as we watch the sunset! It’ll be great…” She continues talking about this as you both head downstairs, and you watch as she rummages through your fridge, picking out a large variety of different food products. You swear that most of that stuff was never in your fridge, but you’re dealing with Pinkie, so you know to make some allowances for lunacy.

After a few minutes of packing Pinkie finally stops, and she puts the basket on your back. It’s surprisingly light, given how energetic she was in her packing. The two of you head out the door, and onto the streets of Ponyville. Your trip through town is a pleasant one, and Pinkie greets everypony she sees, getting a smile from every one. You feel a smile grow on your own face, as Pinkie’s infectious happiness bleeds into you. Before long you find yourself in a small park, and so you and Pinkie both find a nice spot to sit. It’s not going to be the spot for your picnic, but it’s a nice park.

You lean up against a tree, simply enjoying the warmth of Celestia’s sun, and the presence of Pinkie Pie. Before long you hear the sound of small hooves racing around, and you look down from the sky to see the Crusaders, except for Scootaloo, bunched up in front of you. They both have worried looks on their faces, and this gets you standing in a flash.

“Storm, we need your help! Scootaloo was trying a new trick, but she hurt herself!” Sweetie Belle’s voice is ragged, and you can tell that she was crying not long ago. She’s also panting, which isn’t helping her voice. Pinkie also stood up next to you, her smile gone.

“Lead the way, Sweetie.” You didn’t even think about what it may entail, you just knew that you had to help. It took several minutes to get where you needed to go, and soon the ground changed from lush grass, to barren stone. You had no idea where you were headed, but soon you came to a massive chasm. It was quite wide, and quite deep, but the four of you ran along the edge without fear.

Soon you spotted a large wooden ramp, and things became quite clear. Really? Is Scootaloo trying to emulate Evel Knievel? You let the thoughts die in your head, since they really weren’t going to help you now. When you got to the jump the Crusaders stopped, and looked over the edge, to the bottom of the chasm. You looked as well, and you were shocked to see Scootaloo lying at the bottom of the chasm.

She was motionless, and you feared the worst. You looked at the other two Crusaders, and you had to ask. “Whose idea was this?” You had to strain to keep your voice level, but the anger rushing through you was too intense. But the anger was only a veil to hide your fear. “No, don’t tell me. Just go to town, and find Rainbow Dash, Twilight, anyone. I don’t know if I’ll be able to help her on my own.” The two girls ran off again, leaving you and Pinkie. “I’m going to go down. I…”

“Just go, Storm. I’ll be here.” You don’t stop to look at her, but you can hear the fear in her voice. With a quick pump of your wings, you fly to the middle of the chasm before you begin to drop. After just a moment, though, a deep growl is heard from the chasm. A tingle runs down your spine, and without thinking you do a quick roll, and a massive monster emerges from one of the holes on the side of the chasm.

You only barely avoid the beast, and it quickly makes a second attempt on your life. Your heart is pumping harder than it ever has before, and somehow you get a twisted thrill from this. The exhilaration of testing yourself against these monsters is enough to get you going.

You feel the burning sensation of your adrenal system working overtime, and the world seems to slow around you. The second attack is just as swift as the first, but it still isn’t quite quick enough to grab you. You fold your wings, and you dive steeply to the bottom of the chasm, but less than a second after you start your dive two more eel-beasts emerge from the wall, and block your path.

You pull up at the last possible second, and you manage to deftly avoid their simultaneous attacks. “Come on, you damn eels! Just try and catch me!” Your taunting has no effect, unsurprisingly, and so you continue to roll, dive, and dodge the attacks, all while slowly losing altitude. As you finally get out of range of the topmost eel several more emerge from lower on the cliff face.

A faint rumble nearly slips your attention, and you turn in place, to see the gaping jaws of another eel mere feet away from you. The jaws snap shut around you, but you manage to get yourself in an upright position at the last possible moment, holding the jaws open. The force is slowly crushing you, but you hold on. The tongue of the beast begins trying to worm its way around you, but you recoil from it.

“Get your tongue off me you damn dirty eel!” As the tongue continues to wrap itself around you, an idea pops into your head. You hold the jaw open a moment longer, and then you allow it to snap shut. However, rather than stay closed, it opens up again, as you had twisted as the jaw shut, trapping a part of the tongue between the creature's teeth. Freed from your saliva filled prison, you powered your way down the chasm, getting to the bottom just as a few more eels emerged from the walls of the chasm, effectively blocking off your most effective escape route.

You crouched next to Scootaloo, your escape plans forgotten, for the moment. You put an ear to her chest, and you could feel her chest rise and fall with her breathing, but her heart was slow. You checked her body for any wounds, and you winced as you brushed a sharp protrusion coming from her leg. You rolled her over just enough to see the bone sticking out of the skin. “Shit, shit, shit! I can’t do anything to help her!” Your frustration mounts, as you realize just how bad things are.

Only now do you realize that the stone you're on is actually quite porous, and so most of the blood she has lost has simply seeped into the stone. You spot her helmet lying a few feet away, and you grab it. You rip the strap off, and you measure out a length, hooves shaking. You lift Scootaloo’s leg gingerly, and you tie the makeshift tourniquet around her leg. The bleeding slows, but doesn’t stop. Her eyes flutter briefly, and she looks at you.

“Please, help. It hurts so bad.” Her voice is weak, and you can barely hear it over the screeching of the eels around you. There are tears running down her face, but the pain in her eyes is worse than you can imagine. You’d only seen pain like that once before, and it sent a shudder along your spine. Before your mind could call up the memories, you squashed the thought.

“Scootaloo, save your strength. Help should be here soon. And if not, well, I’ll have to carry you out.” Your voice is quavering, and you take a deep breath to settle your self, but it doesn’t help. “I promise I’ll get you out of here, Scootaloo. I promise.” A tiny smile appears on her face, and you lay a hoof on her cheek. The smile is short lived, as a tremor runs through her body. Her eyes close, and you feel a tear running along your face. “Keep your eyes open. Keep them open, and just keep looking at me.” Your desperation is clear in your voice, and she obliges.

“It’s too hard.” Her voice is even weaker than before, and you doubt that she’ll last much longer. You give a groan, and you know what you have to do. You move next to Scootaloo, and you give her a gentle kiss on the forehead.

“This is probably going to hurt a lot, but I need you to just keep talking to me, okay? I don’t care what you say, just keep talking. Do you understand?” She nods weakly, and you gently life her onto your back, careful to keep her broken leg up. “Just wrap your hooves around my neck, and talk to me.”

“I’m sorry for all of this… I… Storm, make the pain go away…” Her voice trails off, and you wipe a tear from your face.

“Talk about things that are positive, okay? Just… Keep positive thoughts in your head, okay?” You feel her hold your neck a bit tighter, and her mumbling takes on a more positive note. You look up at the mass of eels above, and both up, and down the chasm. You crouch, and spread both wings, ready for what will probably be the hardest flight of your life. This is fucking fantastic! I have to fly UP while carrying a filly. That’d certainly be a challenge, given that I have to fly smoothly given her condition. But NO! No, there also have to be carnivorous eels that want to eat me. Because, hey, there’s no such thing as a problem that can’t be made worse, right?

A rumbling is faintly audible, and you pause for a moment, waiting to see what is causing the rumbling. You faintly hear Pinkie’s voice shouting about a doozy, or something to that effect. You banish it from your mind, though, as you have bigger problems than some doozy that Pinkie is predicting. A sharp snap of your wings gets you airborne, and Scootaloo holds you even tighter. You feel a warm trickling running along your leg, and you know that it’s Scootaloo’s blood.

You are soon in reach of the lowest level of eels, and already you are bobbing and weaving to avoid their jaws. One grazes your wing, but you manage to pull your wing out before it can try again, but it costs you altitude to do so. Soon you’re in the thick of the eels, and your mind is going at warp speed, filled only with the thoughts regarding flight, and a tiny portion listening to the slowly fading voice of the orange pegasus on your back.

With a sickening jerk your flight is stopped as you feel a tug on your tail. “No…” You feel the jerk again, and you give a powerful beat of your wings with the tug, adding more momentum to the powerful kick you gave the eel holding your tail. It lets go of your tail, and you are free. You begin climbing once more, still avoiding the monstrous eels so intent on eating you.

You feel Scootaloo’s grip beginning to weaken, and that spurs you on to fly even faster. Soon you can see Pinkie clearly, and the look of fear on her face was as plain as day. Only one eel stood between you and your goal, and you pumped your wings harder than ever, whizzing past the beast with a final surge of energy. However, a sharp tug, and an even sharper pain indicated that you didn’t make it past unscathed.

You alighted upon the edge of the chasm, and Pinkie rushed over to look at Scootaloo. Before she could get close, though, you turned to look at her. “No. I need to get her to the hospital now. Find the others, and have them meet me there.” That said, you spread your wings once more, and you began making your way towards the hospital. As you flew you mumbled to yourself softly just a few words. “I don’t know if I’ll make it…”

Scootaloo kept talking, but by now you could tell that she was talking more by the movement of her jaw, rather than the sounds she was making. Her whole body was shivering, and you knew that it may be too late already. Compared to your ascent from the chasm this flight was easy, but with the pace you were keeping it was still quite strenuous.

Finally, Ponyville came into view, and with it the hospital. You dove for the entrance, and you landed as softly as you could at the speed you were traveling. You kept your momentum, and you galloped into the hospital. The nurse at the counter snapped her head up at the sound of your entry, and immediately she stood, seeing the condition of the filly on your back.

“Follow me.” She was right to the point, and soon you were placing Scootaloo on an operating table, and you watched as they began putting IV’s in, and putting a mask over her face. You heard her last words before she went under, and they rang in your ears as the doctors forced you out of the room.

Soon you found yourself in another room, and a nurse was examining your back legs. Several minutes passed, and you were finally coming down from your adrenal high, and the pain in your back legs began to worm into your consciousness. With a grimace you looked over your shoulder to see a large fang sticking out of your back right leg. They removed the fang, and immediately covered the wound with plenty of bandages, and ointments.

As the doctor finished, you grabbed her before she could leave. “How is the filly? I need to know.” Your voice betrayed none of the emotions running wild inside your body, but she offered a sad smile.

“We’re doing all we can. Right now it could go either way. I’m sorry, but there’s a good chance she won’t make it.” You let her go, and your hoof dropped back to the ground. “You’re in pretty good shape, all things considered, so you can stay in the waiting room. Will anypony else be coming to see you, or the filly?”

You just nod, and she leads you to a waiting room. You sit in one of the chairs, and time seems to both fly, and crawl. Every time you look at the clock it seems like less time has passed than the last time. After what feels like a few hours, but was only a few minutes, a group of ponies enters the room. You feel yourself being hugged, but you are too dulled to be able to reciprocate.

You soon find yourself holding two shivering fillies in your arms, and you look down to see both Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom curled up against you. You simply hold them, and you finally take the time to look at the ponies around you. Twilight was there, sitting across from you, patting Rainbow Dash on the back. On Rainbow’s other side was Fluttershy who was speaking to Rainbow Dash in hushed tones.

You also spotted Applejack, slowly pacing around the room, with Big Macintosh nearby, keeping an eye on both of his sisters. Rarity was seated next to you, on the side where Sweetie Belle was curled up with you. Pinkie was the last one you spotted, as she was sitting on a chair away from the other ponies in the room. Without thinking about it too much, you gently gave Sweetie Belle to Rarity, and you placed Apple Bloom in the chair you were just occupying.

You could feel the eyes of several ponies on you as you stood, but none of them said anything. Without thinking, you made your way out of the waiting room, and into the hallway. You could hear the hoofsteps of somepony following you, but you didn’t care. After several minutes, you found a stairwell, and you went to the top floor. You opened up the small hatch that allowed access to the roof, and you climbed up.

It was early evening, and the sky was a magnificent mix of reds, blues, and oranges. You walked to the edge of the building, and you just sat down, suddenly feeling the fatigue of what you had been doing. The pain of your leg was a dull throbbing, but it was enough to remind you that it was there. The hoofsteps of the pony that was following you came a moment later, and soon there was a pony seated next to you.

You didn’t look to see who it was, since it didn’t really matter at this point. As the sun finally touched the horizon you felt the pony lean into you, and you wrapped a hoof around them. You watched the entire sunset, from beginning to end, and you had never enjoyed it less. Scootaloo’s words were still running through your head, and it made you crazy to think that you might not be able to make her wish come true.

You finally looked at the pony next to you, and you were only slightly surprised to see Rainbow. She just kept staring at the horizon, silent as you had been. You were the first one to break the silence.

“They aren’t sure if she’ll make it.”

“I know. While you were just sitting there a doctor came in, and told us how things were. You were unresponsive, but nopony wanted to bother you.”

“I don’t want her to die, Rainbow. She’s so young… She’s so young, and I encouraged her to do more on her scooter.”

You feel Rainbow move away from you, and then her hooves grab your face, and force you to look at her. “Don’t you ever think to blame this on yourself. She’s always been eager to go above and beyond what she’s capable of. Now she’s finally bitten off too much.”

“She talked about you while we were coming here. I told her to just keep talking to me while we flew, and she talked about you. I only barely noticed what she was saying, but your name kept coming up.” Rainbow doesn’t say anything, clearly waiting for you to continue. “She kept saying how she viewed you as a role model, and a perfect example of a pegasus. Fast, agile, daring, and loyal.”

“I know. She started a fan club in my honor quite some time ago. I go to watch them occasionally.”

A mirthless chuckle escapes your lips. “An ego boost like no other.” You stop for a moment, and then you look at Rainbow Dash once more. “If she doesn’t make it… If she doesn’t wake up, I heard her final words. They shocked the hell out of me, but I will relay them when the time comes.” Rainbow nuzzles your neck, and the two of you sit in silence for a few more minutes. “Let’s go back down. It’ll be getting cold out soon.”

The two of you head back to the waiting room, and you take the same seat you vacated not too long ago. Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom retake their positions in your arms, and you slowly drift to sleep, your exhaustion finally catching up to you.

(There you go. For those who felt feels, I'm glad to have touched you(NOT THAT KIND OF TOUCHING! JESUS, I'M NOT THAT TYPE OF PERSON!). For those who felt nothing? Quit lying, and admit to the feels. And I will share nothing about the final words, or Scootaloo's fate till the next chapter.)

Chapter I: The Watchers

(Right, so this is a rewrite of my first ever story. I'm not going to change the plot very much, this is more about updating the style, and level of detail. I know the plot is a bit cliche, so don't badger me about that.)

Your breath comes in ragged bursts as you pump your arms. Half remembered thoughts flit through your mind as you push your way through the thick underbrush. You try to remember where you are, but all you seem to recall is rushing through the trees that now fly past you on either side. A large log lies across your path, and with a grunt you vault over it before pushing your back against it. The ground is soft beneath you, and it feels cool to the touch.

The burning pain in your lungs begins to recede as you catch your breath, but a voice within you demands that you continue running, no matter the cost. You try to fight the urge for a moment, but it overpowers you, and you quickly stand. You don’t begin running right away, though, as you take a moment to look around at your surroundings. No path presents itself, and yet you feel compelled to go in a certain direction. Just before you begin running you look to the heavens above, and there, suspended hundreds of thousands of miles away, is the moon.

For a brief moment your urge to run dissipates, and then you begin running towards the moon, as if hoping to reach it. The burning in your lungs returns swiftly, and soon your breathing is forced and labored, and yet still you run. A branch seems to whip out of the night, and it slashes across your face, leaving a cut along the underside of your right eye. A hand numbly reaches up to the cut to wipe away the blood. You spot another log before you, and as you vault over it you realize your mistake.

Behind the log is a large pit. Your momentum carries you into the pit, and immediately you begin reaching out your arms, hoping to find purchase on something, anything, to arrest your descent. After a few moments of falling you realize that you have yet to feel anything, and in that moment you feel a solid impact as you collide with the far side of the pit. It’s enough to knock the wind out of you, and you curl up in response, no longer able to flail your arms.

The throbbing pain in your chest slowly moves from your chest to your head, and shortly after it lodges itself in your head you feel the last vestiges of consciousness fade. It’s a slow fade, and you feel yourself growing lighter and lighter with each passing moment, until finally a flash of white blinds you, and the world abruptly shifts to black as your body finally shuts down.

******\/\/******

A slow throbbing greets your return to consciousness, and for just a moment you wish that unconsciousness would reclaim you, if only to stop the throbbing. You attempt to open your eyes, but a fine residue has formed around them, preventing you from opening them even the smallest amount. You raise a hand to your eyes, and after several moments of vigorous rubbing you manage to get your eyes open. However, as you open them, you question whether it was worth the effort, since there is, literally, nothing to see.

An intense darkness surrounds you. Try as you might to pierce the darkness, it seems to somehow cling to you, preventing you from seeing anything. Unlike normal darkness, though, this inky blackness seems to foil your every attempt at ascertaining directions. You rotate your body in every direction you can, and yet no position feels any different from any other, leading you to question whether you’re rotating at all. You feel your breathing increase in speed as panic begins to set in, and it’s at that moment that you realize that your breathing is the only audible thing.

You suck in a deep breath as you attempt to cry out, but when you try to speak nothing seems to emerge from your lips. All you succeed in doing is exhaling forcefully. Your breathing quickly accelerates, and soon you feel lightheaded as you begin to hyperventilate. You try to calm yourself by holding your breath, but it’s a failed attempt, since your body seems to be slipping out of your control. With a burst of will you bring a hand sharply across your face, bringing a stinging pain to your cheek, along with renewed self control.

As you regain control of your body you take a few deep breaths, and then you hold your breath. Its at that moment, where you hold your breath, that you realize just how deep the silence is, as your heartbeat seems like the loudest thing in the world. You resume your breathing, and as you begin breathing normally, your mind begins racing as you try to figure out what you can do. Your options are, admittedly, limited. A quick check of your person reveals that you have nothing on, and that’s enough to bring a measure of heat to your cheeks, despite your crushing aloneness.

However, as you come to the realization that you’re in the nude, a strange glowing whiteness appears in the corner of your eye, and you quickly rotate to look at it. Despite the fact that the light is so bright, it doesn’t actually hurt your eyes. As you face the glowing shape you manage to make out the contours of it, and it seems to be a rectangle of some size, but without any reference point its size is beyond your ability to guess.

From the intense whiteness emerges a strange quadruped being. Its shape stirs some memories within your empty mind, and soon enough it strikes you that the creature has the general shape of an equine. However, the blinding white of the rectangle stole any real features from the silhouette. It began moving closer to you, and as it did some features began to grow clearer. Namely, the fact that it had an immense mane that seemed to radiate a faint inner light. And the fact that said mane was waving in an invisible breeze. As the equine creature grew closer you could finally make out some distinct features on the face.

The most striking aspect of the creature was the size of the eyes, and immediately following that revelation was the shape of its face. As far as you could tell its face was far removed from what you generally recalled the faces of equines looking like. You continued to observe the creature as it approached, and with a closer inspection you could see that it seemed to have a faint smile on its face.

However, as the creature approached, the smile seemed to flicker for a moment, and then a sharp laugh seemed to come from everywhere, and nowhere. When you heard the laugh, the smile vanished from the face of the approaching horse, and you opened your mouth to say something when suddenly the entire horse vanished, along with the blackness that had surrounded you.

The blackness was replaced with a starry night sky, and as you looked at the stars they seemed so close, and yet so far away at the same time. You reached out a hand to touch them, and then you felt the familiar pull of gravity as you began to plummet towards the planet far below. You feel panic well up inside you once again, but with a somewhat familiar environment you are able to calm yourself enough to remain in control. With some degree of difficulty you manage to roll yourself over, and then you spread your arms and legs into a wider position, in the hopes of slowing your descent.

The ground is miles below you, and you grimace as you realize that there is little hope of coming out of this plummet alive. In fact, there’s no chance of you coming out of this alive, since humans falling at terminal velocity and hard surfaces aren’t the best of friends. Hell, you’d even go so far as to call them enemies.

Your attempt at humor was in vain, though, as even the best of jokes can’t hope to stop a falling person. However, magic, on the other hand, is quite adept at arresting the fall of a person, and this is just what happened, as you suddenly found yourself within the oppressive blackness once again. The horse from moments ago was there as well, except that this time there was a look of intense concentration upon her face, and there was a glow surrounding the horn atop her head. You have to do a double take as you see the horn, and you find yourself staring.

You open your mouth to try to shout out to garner its attention, but your efforts are in vain, as the creature seems preoccupied with the glow coming from its horn. As you realize your efforts are in vain, you slow them, until finally you stop, and your once waving arms drop to your sides. You feel a strange force run up your body, starting at your legs, and then working its way up. As it reaches your head you hear an audible pop, and then you feel a hard surface beneath your feet, and you pitch forward onto your hands and knees.

Your breathing comes in ragged gasps as you feel like you just ran a mile in six minutes. The wave of exhaustion robs you of your ability to communicate, and so you simply try to regain your composure. As you feel your heart begin to slow, you look up to be greeted by four horses standing a small distance apart, their features hidden by the darkness. The only things you can really make out about the creatures is that they are black, with piercing, glowing, green eyes, and flowing manes of green hair.

Your eyes flit from one to the next, and then you find your gaze settling on the one standing in the middle left. With nothing surrounding you, save for these four horses, you decide that you’d be best served by throwing caution to the wind, and approaching them. As you do so you feel a strange energy run though you, and soon all four horses are looking at you, their glowing green eyes somehow judging you in their emotionless depths.

With nothing to go on, you decide to say something, to see if the horses react, or if they’ll simply stare at you until you wither and die.

“What are you?” Your query, while inelegant, certainly does leave an open answer available. Hopefully, you aren’t wasting your time with these beasts, and they’ll be able to answer.

An answer does come, but not from any of the horses. In fact, it sounds as if they are speaking directly into your mind. “We are The Watchers. We stand guard over this realm, and all the places within it.” You nearly fall down in shock as the words seem to echo through your mind. Before you can retort the voice continues. “We observed you tumbling through the infinite space between worlds, and so we attempted to force you back into your own plane of existence. Our efforts were rewarded with failure, and so we pulled you into our own dimension.”

You nod, almost as if you understood what they were saying. “Alright, but why, may I ask, are you-”

“It’s the most familiar form to us. Also, we can not show you our true form, as it would be incomprehensible to your mind. We also assumed this form in the hopes that it would alleviate some of your stress, since you would likely react better to a familiar form.”

“Right, because talking horse things is comforting.” With a quick shake of your head you look back to the horses, your gaze flitting from one horse to the next. “Anyway, where am I? What was that horse thing that I saw earlier? And, more importantly, who am I?”

Silence prevailed as none of the horse creatures moved. Just as you were about to speak again to break the silence the voice returned to your mind. “You are currently in the limbo for this dimension. Until your fate is decided you shall remain here. However, we already have your fate decided, it is simply a matter of playing out this charade until the Princess manages to locate you.” There is a pause, and then they continue. “As for whom you are, it is a mystery to us. You have no recollection of who you are, and so it is a mystery.”

“Well, thanks, I suppose. Better than nothing.”

“The Princess has located you, and soon she will use her magic to call you back. Heed her council, for she is far wiser, and far more powerful, than you would think.” As the voice continues you pick up just the tiniest hint of amusement behind the voice. “And do try and keep out of trouble.”

******\/\/******

As you slowly become aware of your surroundings once again you crack open your eyes to see the same white horse as before standing in front of you. Her eyes are soft, and full of concern, yet at the same time there is a commanding power behind them. You struggle to your feet as there is, thankfully, a sense of direction here. However, as you rise to your feet you realize that they’re not your feet anymore. They’re hooves, and they’re colored a grayish color.

You look up from your hooves at the now towering figure that you now know is Princess Celestia. She gave you a warm smile as you stood up. “Greetings, my newest little pony. I’ve been informed of your… unique situation. And, in turn, I informed my star pupil, along with her friends. I do hope that you are able to enjoy yourself, as they will do their best to help you.”

The Princess’ horn begins to glow, and as it does you feel a strange pressure run along your body, and then the blackness that has become a familiar friend overtakes you once again.

However, this time the blackness seems different, somehow. More oppressive, and somehow darker. A deep voice laughs softly at first, but with growing volume as the it progresses. It stops abruptly, though, and then you feel as if you’re being watched.

“Oh yes, you’ll certainly be one to watch. Of that I have no doubt.”

******\/\/******

As the blackness receded you found yourself experiencing a feeling akin to falling, but not quite falling. Rather, it is more like a feeling you would experience when being lowered. With a direction to orient yourself, you looked ‘down’ and saw that you were approaching a lit up rectangle, much like the one that had brought the Princess to you. As it grows closer it grows larger, but you are unable to make out any details beyond the plane of pure white light.

As your paced plummet continues you are able to, eventually, hear some sounds coming from the pane of light, but it is too muffled for you to be able to make any of it out. Finally, with a sense of vertigo that threatened to turn your stomach inside out, you passed through the pane of light, and you found yourself in a small study. The books were covered in more books than you could ever hope to read. However, one thing that catches your eye is the fact that these shelves don’t seem to be made of wood. Instead they seem to be grown out of the wood of the wall.

Unsure of what exactly you are going to do you take a step forward. Sadly, although you took the time to look around the room, you didn’t look down at your hooves. You now, as you start falling forward, realize you were standing on a table. As the floor rushes up to meet you, you wonder if you’ll ever get anything done, or whether you are just going to be spending all of your time either unconscious, or floating in mysterious blackness.

(I aim to get this up to date pretty quick, so I'll do my best to get things done in a timely manner.)

Chapter 12

You enter your house, and take a brief nap on the couch, but you quickly become restless, and decide to head back outside. You walk through town, just enjoying the tranquility. You eventually arrive at the park, and you see the Crusaders hanging out together by a tree.

You give a wave, and they all jump up, and run over. You lower your head down to their level before speaking. “So, Crusaders, what’s the plan for today?”

“We have no idea.” Scootaloo says, being quite blunt about it.

You give a brief shake of your head. “Well, maybe you should just do something to have fun. Rather than spend all your time looking for what you’re good at you should just enjoy yourselves for a day. Just go and have fun.”

“We have been trying really hard these past few days.” This comes from Sweetie Belle. “Maybe we could just take a couple days off from our search.”

“That’s the spirit. Maybe you’ll just stumble across your talents by accident while you’re having some fun.” As you finish they run off. You hope that they don’t do anything too outrageous, knowing that it’ll just turn into another attempt to find their talents. You walk for a few minutes later, before finding a bench. You sit down, and just enjoy the nice weather.

A short while later you feel the bench sag a bit from another pony taking a seat. You open your eyes, and are surprised to see AJ sitting next to you. She gives you a smile, and just relaxes for a moment before speaking.

“So Storm. You’re interested in Rainbow, from what Ah hear.”

“Yeah. I guess I am. Why? Is there something wrong with that?”

“No, not at all. Ah’m just worried is all. Rainbow’s had more coltfriends than the others and mahself combined.” She looks at you with a serious look on her face. “Ah don’t want her to get hurt again, if y’all get what Ah’m sayin.”

You look at her, and it becomes clear just how serious she is about this. “I’d never do anything to hurt her, AJ. She’s special to me. I know I can’t stop her from being who she wants to be, but I can help her to be who she really is.”

AJ nods, and then looks away, seemingly satisfied by this answer. After a short while, she gets up, and starts heading back to her farm. As she goes you give her a wave.

Not too much later you get up, and head for home as well. On your way, though, you hear a shout for help. You jump up, and take flight towards the sound. When you get to the source of the commotion, you spot a large dog-thing, attacking a pony.

Without thinking, you dive onto the dog-thing, and pull it off the pony. She sprints away as soon as she is free. The dog gives a quick snarl as it looks at you. You both start circling, waiting for the other to make the first move. Your mind is racing, and is running through all possible ways that this fight can happen. You realize that this fight, like all others, is nothing but a game of chess. Arms and legs are the pieces, with torque and momentum being the moves.

Without warning the dog lunges at you, and you gracefully evade the attack, before turning, and giving it a hearty kick in its open side. With a whine it rolls with your kick, and is back on its feet. As you begin circling again, you stumble, and lose your footing. Looking down you see that you are right next to the big hole in the ground that it must have come out of. Too late, you see that it was just positioning you to get you next to the hole.

You use your other legs to push off, but you don’t have a stable enough position to get airborne, so you only barely clear the hole. The dog snarls again, clearly angry that its plan didn’t work.

You begin circling again, keeping an eye on the hole, and making sure to avoid it. This time, you make the first move, feinting to the right, before rolling to the left, and launching yourself towards the dog. It dives to the side, but you still manage a glancing blow. As you recover yourself from the attack, you notice that it is acting sluggish. Perhaps your hits are having an effect after all.

Not wanting to be baited, though, you hold off for a moment to get a better look at the situation. Without warning, you are tackled from the side. Shit, you think, a second one!

This one manages to get you pinned, but something in your head screams at you, and you kick the dog off. You roll to your hooves, and see the two of them. They spread out some, to get you off guard. You slowly back up, not wanting to get sandwiched between them. You hear some shouting, and can make out the voices of some ponies. Hopefully they make it here before things get out of control.

The dogs hear it too, as they become angrier, if their expressions are accurate. They both lunge at you, one high, and one low. The one that went high managed to snag your back right leg as you dove away. With surprising strength he holds your leg firmly, and runs toward the hole in the ground. With a sharp cry you twist your leg free, but feel a sharp pain as you do so.

With your leg free you struggle to take flight, and you almost make it, before a third blur leaps from the hole, and grabs you. The dog dives right into the hole with you in tow, and the world goes dark. The throbbing in your leg is driving you crazy, and the darkness is making you feel claustrophobic. You see a light in the distance, and it quickly resolves itself into a large cavern. You are dizzy from the pain, and can’t make out any details.

You hear several snarls, growls and barks, and then a sharp pain on the back of your head ends your current foray in the world of consciousness.

ABOVE GROUND

Rainbow and the others saw the third Diamond Dog leap from the ground and grab Storm. Before anypony can do anything to stop the other two, they follow the other back into the ground, and the hole closes up behind them. Rainbow lands on the spot where the hole was, and starts pounding at the ground.

“Celestia, no! I wasn’t fast enough! I could’ve gotten here sooner, if only I was faster!” The others watch in horror as Rainbow’s frantic pleas slowly lose strength until she is just standing there sobbing.

AJ approaches slowly. “Hold on there, sugarcube. You did what you could. You were flyin as fast as y’all could. Nopony here blames you, and I reckon that Storm wouldn’t blame you either.” The others approach as well, and Rainbow slowly stops crying.

She slowly lies down on the ground, and she doesn’t even seem to realize that the others are there. They back away a bit, to give her some space. Pinkie is the first to say something, and the others notice her hair has lost almost all of its normal poofiness.

“We need to get Storm back. I’ve never seen Rainbow so sad. I don’t think that even one of my best parties could cheer her up.” The others nod their assent.

“I think I have an idea,” Twilight says. “Perhaps we could head back to where we first met the Diamond Dogs, and head down there again. I’m certain that they have all of their tunnels connected, so it’ll just be a matter of looking hard enough.”

Rarity has a shocked look on her face. “You want me to go down there AGAIN? I couldn’t possibly go down there, it’s dirty!” The others just glare at her, and she gives a weak chuckle, “Although I suppose I could manage for Rainbow’s sake. And Storm too.”

Twilight goes over to Rainbow, before she sits down next to her. She brushes some of the tears off of Rainbow’s face, and Rainbow looks up at her as she does so.

“Twi, I… I wasn’t fast enough, and now he’s gone. He was special, and now I just let him get away.”

Twilight gives Rainbow a hug, “You didn’t let him get away Dash. They took him, and now we will take him back.”

Rainbow reciprocates the hug, and mumbles out her thanks. After holding the hug for a few minutes they break the hug, and then they head to Twilight’s house to get ready.

(Oh noes! You have been captured by the Diamond Dogs! What will happen to you next? Find out next chapter!)

Chapter 22: Acceptance

Originally published on April 1, 2012

Your rest is troubled, though. A few minutes later you sit bolt upright, and look around. You're in the medical tent?

You hear the sounds of combat, and a second later a shirtless man barges into the tent, wielding an AK-47. You look at him, unable to comprehend exactly what is going on. He hands you the gun, and helps you to your feet. As you stand up, and see him in better light you are shocked to see that it is Chuck Norris.

"Hey, Kurt. Figured I'd come by, and help win the war. I'll need your help, though. You're twice the badass I am."

You smile, and run out of the tent. Never again did you think about your adventures in Equestria, since, honestly, you were hanging out with Chuck Norris.

You were killed a few years later by a nuclear attack. Apparently they didn't really like you, and so the American Government decided to eliminate you. Took fourteen bombs before you stopped moving. Another twelve to actually kill you.

Yeah, I'm not serious. The real chapter will be up later. Fear my ability to copy the current trend! FEAR IT!