Bronies, Unite!

That same dream again… I don’t even know why it keeps haunting me; it’s like someone is forcing me to watch a program over and over until I have fully memorized it and I can’t get it out of my head. I’m just lying in Fluttershy's bed, keeping my eyes closed and relaxing in pure bliss. I hear something enter the room. I assume it’s Fluttershy so I stay still, pretending to be asleep. God, I hope she’s made some of that awesome soup again. That stuff was delicious.

“So, is this him?” I hear a new voice ask.

“Y-Yes” I hear Fluttershy say. I can only assume that they are having a conversation.

I try my best to relax and not move, pretending to still be asleep.

“All right, do you mind if I do some tests?” The strange voice asks.

“Go right ahead, I hope he’s okay…”

“He should be fine, don’t worry.” She reassures Fluttershy, but not so much me on the other hoof.

After a few seconds of nothing, I suddenly feel my body wash with some sort of energy, like I was just put through a scanner. This mysterious energy goes all the way through my body- from the tips of my ears, all the way down to the ends of my hooves. It’s frightening and feels scary.

“It seems that his flames are receding. I am flabbergasted as to why they are not burning anything, even when I touch them, see?” I feel the strange pony put her hoof close to my head, but what is this talk about ‘flames’?

After a couple more seconds of this ‘scanner’, I open my eyes only to reveal a purple maned mare staring intently at me. Her horn is glowing too. Immediately I jump back, slinging the cover over me to hide and making the energy stop.

“Wow there uhm, Speedster is it?” The purple mare says, “I’m only running some tests to make sure you’re okay.”

I shiver under the covers as she bites a corner and pulls them off of me. I lay there with my front hooves covering my face, while only slightly peaking past one to see what they are doing. I spy the door slightly open. Out of nowhere I make a bolt for the door, jumping off the bed landing on the floor. Luckily I don’t wobble around as I start to gallop through, only to be stopped by that same energy which lifts me up and puts me back on the bed.

“Wow there tiger, calm down. I only want to do some tests on you; after all, it’s for your benefit.”

I franticly look around for anything to throw at her, and I spy a cushion by my side. I pick it up and throw it at her with all my might, which seems to break her spell as it sends her tumbling to the floor. I quickly make another dash for the door, this time actually getting through. I hear a voice behind me shouting for somepony to grab me. I ignore it and turn my head back around to face the door, only to trip over something and roll flat on my face.

I cover my cheek, wincing in pain as an orange hoof comes towards me; I spring to my feet, only to fall back down again, so I shuffle across the room, getting closer and closer to the door.

I stagger up and try to go for the door again, but a rainbow maned pony grabs my and brings me up into the air. I try to kick and wiggle around but it doesn’t seem to do anything.

“Calm down, damnit!” I hear her yell, getting agitated.

“No!” I scream out, frantically wiggling my front hooves around so she would let go of them, but it’s to no avail.

I look around to see if I can kick anything, but unfortunately nothing is around me. The rainbow maned Pegasus flies me into the center of the room, still holding onto my front hooves. Another purple maned unicorn trots close to me, except she has a white coat and looks like a marshmallow, causing me to give a slight giggle.

“Oh whatever is wrong with you dearie, hmm?”

I give my hooves one last wiggle, forcing them out of hers which thankfully made me drop onto my haunches and not my face this time. For the third time and hopefully the last, I set off for the door. This time, however, I open it and quickly shut it behind me, galloping off towards what I only assume is Ponyville.

*****

After a couple minutes of galloping, I arrive in Ponyville center. Around me, ponies are slowly trotting around. Some are minding their own business, while others seem to be looking at me with a worried look which causes me to lower my head and slowly trot away.

Not watching where I am going, I smell the sweet smell of apples in the air. I look up, only to crash into somepony who was putting them into his saddle bag. We both fall onto the floor, but luckily he keeps hold of all the apples.

We both look up at each other, making awkward eye contact. His horn seems to have an apple on it somehow; even though I never saw any of them move. I let out a small laugh, pointing at his horn. He looks at me a second and then up at his horn, which he can blatantly see a stuck apple. He too lets out a laugh, causing us both to laugh in the process.

We both stand up and I pull the apple off of his horn. Suddenly my stomach rumbles. In any other situation it would stay quiet but no; it wants to make me look desperate now, of all times.

“Dude, your hair is on fire!”

“What?” I ask in bewilderment.

“Dude your hair!” He points a hoof to my hair, which I follow.

I look up, finally noticing the flames on my head which send shocks through my body. They turn a bright yellow. I gallop around frantically while slapping the top of my head trying to put the fire out, but it doesn’t work at all. The stallion I bumped into runs over and throw a bucket of water on me; where he got it, I don’t know, but it seemed to work- for about 5 seconds, that is.

“Why isn’t it working?!” I start to get slightly angry. The colour of my ‘hair’ slowly turns to a deep red.

“Wait; do you feel it actually burning you?”

“What? No why- Oh…” I pause, calming down and focusing on the flames as they just burn away at nothing. “How is that even possible?!”

“I don’t know, but it’s really freaking me out.”

“Sorry…” I start to take in his appearances. He is a dark green, fading into a dark red coated stallion. His eyes are a bright, deep green, too. His mane seems to have taken on the same kind of style as his coat; it being a half mild, fading into a darker brown, while both his mane and tail are short and spikey. His cutie mark seems to be a cluster of trees with some clouds overhead. It looks very strange if you ask me, but also cool at the same time.

“Uhm, I hope I’m not being too personal but, do you mind telling me your name?”

“Sure, it’s Dark Woods.” He beams a grin at me as he says it, looking proud of it. It appears it might have something to do with his cutie mark, too.

“Awesome!”

“…And yours?”

“Oh, mine’s Speedster. Pleased to meet you.” I extend a hoof towards him, which he happily shakes.

“Hey dude, you want this apple? I don’t think I’ll need it anymore.” He gives a sheepish grin and my stomach grumbles again, begging for me to say yes.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Dude, here.” He takes the apple off of his horn as puts it in my hoof. I smile at him for hen generosity, but I hate taking things from other ponies. It feels wrong.

“Seriously, I’m fine.”

“Too bad.” He lets go of the apple, leaving it in my hand. I grunt and accept his kind offering, even though I hate myself inside for doing so.

“Fine… thanks.” I take a big bite out of the apple with a hole in it. It tastes quite peculiar; maybe it could be because of his horn or something, but it has a very sweet taste to it. The taste is very exquisite. We set off in a slow trot going in no particular direction.

“So uhm, *crunch* what do you do around here, Dark Woods?”

“Well, usually I wait until night time and I go hang around the Everfree forest. I think it looks most beautiful at night.” His eyes widen and his facial expression turns from one of blankness to one of happiness. “Hey, you should totally come with me tonight!”

“Well uh, I’m not exactly doing anything, so sure. I’ll be there.”

“Alright, cool.”

“One problem, though. *crunch*”

“What’s that?”

“Well, I’ve never been to the Everfree forest…”

“Wow, really?”

“Well, I kind of only just got to Ponyville.”

“Oh, you must be one of the new ponies then, eh?”

“What do you mean, ‘new ponies’?”

“Well, a couple of new ponies came into Ponyville not too long ago. Are you not with them?”

“No. I can’t even remember how I got here.”

“Seriously?”

“Well, yeah. *crunch* I just remember falling flat on my face, and having to learn how to trot again. It was like I was a colt for the very first time.” I finish the apple, throwing the remainder of it into a bin close to me.

“Hmm, that’s interesting.”

“How so?”

“Well, when you hit your head, you might have suffered some memory loss.”

“Well, I don’t see any other logical explanation, so I guess you might be right-“ I stop talking, cocking my gaze to a pink blur like pony which is bouncing along the dirt roads. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Uhm, I’ll catch up with you later, okay? I have to go like, now.”

“How come?”

I clamp on his muzzle, “Keep your voice down! She’ll hear me!”

The pink mare stops in mid bounce, hovering in the air somehow. She turns her gaze towards me, followed by her body. A huge grin forms on her face. “Speedster! Oh my gosh! I’ve been looking for you everywhere, where did you go? Oh, oh! I bet I know! Did you run away because Twilight was examining you and you were afraid she would do something to you and it might hurt you? *deep inhale* Am I right? Huh? Huh?!”

I let go of his muzzle, and start galloping away from the pink mare. I hear Dark Woods behind me yell “I see your point! We will be on the cliff edge tonight! Don’t be late!”

*****

Dark Woods starts thinking to himself while turning his gaze away from Speedster and Pinkie Pie. ‘Wow, that Speedster sure is weird.’ He rubs his chin for a few seconds, pondering. ‘Maybe I should go after him and help… Nah, I think I’ll go hang out with my friends, instead.

Dark Woods sets off in a slow trot, taking in the scenery. He is near Sugarcube corner, so he opens his saddle bag and takes a quick peek inside. ‘Hmm, forty bits. I guess I can buy some sweets and have enough left over for rent.’ He pushes the door of Sugarcube corner open and trots inside, closing it behind himself as he enters.

“Hello, I would like to buy some sweets.”

Mrs. Cake looks up at him, wide eyed. “Oh, well you must try some of our brand new cupcakes, they are absolutely splendid!”

“Hmm, well I-” He is immediately interrupted by Mr. Cake trotting inside, holding a batch of what appears to be carrot cakes.

“Now my boy, you must buy some lovely carrot cakes, they are so much nicer than cupcakes, by far!”

Mrs. Cake seems to glare at him for a second, before brightening her grin to look at Dark Woods; “Oh no, no, no my dear, these cupcakes are absolutely to die for!”

Dark Woods sighs as he face-hoofs; while Mr. and Mrs. Cake keep going at each other’s throats. ‘This is going to be a long, long time before I even get to eat sweets, isn’t it?’ he thinks to himself. He looks up at Mr. and Mrs. Cake who are now muzzle to muzzle yelling at each other, causing him to sign again. “What have I gotten myself into…?”