I knew the master was sad but it wasn't until he let me come along with him to coffee fillies house that I understood why. Coffee was great! She always let me drink the stuff and then I would bounce around the house and she would laugh and I would get petted, what more could a mutt puppy like me ask for?
I bounded in through the door when it opened and immediately looked around for coffee, she even smelled like it so she was always easy to find. No matter where I looked though I couldn't find her and the pony folk were just having a sad conversation with lots of tears. I didn't understand, why would anyone be sad when they could have two great ponies like my master and coffee around?
After failing to find her I padded back over to the living room and sat down at my master hooves so I could whimper. I didn't understand pony words all that well yet and I'm pretty sure most ponies never understand dog so whimpering really was my only way to communicate how sad I felt that Coffee wasn't here, but the ponies got even sadder when I did this. I didn't understand, why wasn't coffee here?
I turned around when I heard the door bang open and a pony in golden armor walked in, following him was a guard dog who was my daddy! I bounded over and nuzzled him, I could tell because he smelled like he was my dad even though I don't think I'd ever met him more than a couple times. There's a lot of stuff to keep track of in your head when you're six months old and have all these memories you didn't have when you were younger.
"Oh geez its one of you kids..." My dad growled, giving me an awkward pat on the head with a paw. "Look, just sit. Sit. SIT. SIT!! The ponies need to have a quiet talk."
I sat down obediently and watched as the guard pony talked with Coffees parents. They made pony noises and I listened as hard as I could but it didn't make the noises any more sensible like barks were, either ponies needed to learn to speak dog all the time or I needed to learn to understand pony!
I turned to my dad who was watching and listening intently with a sad expression. "Dad. Whats going on?" I yelped.
He rolled his eyes at me. "First, don't call me that. I was drunk, she was ea... Look, just." He rubbed his face with a paw and sighed. "Just lay off the annoying pup routine for a while alright? These poor ponies have a missing filly."
"Coffee is missing?!" I barked loudly, getting smooshed to the floor by my dads paw in reply.
"Yes. I believe that's her scent, now quiet! Yes she's missing. Some 'friends' of hers dared her to go into the Ever Free forest and she.."
"The everwhat? is that a pony word?"
"The nightmaremanticorecockatricegiantstarbeardeathspiderdarkplacewithscarytrees. The pony word is a lot less cumbersome than the dog description. Anyway she's been missing ever since and that was two days ago." He stated sadly, taking his paw off me and suddenly turning his ears to listen to something my master was saying angrily and emphatically, the other ponies sounded like they were trying to talk him out of it.
I listened for a bit longer, really wishing my dad would translate for me. But then again maybe I didn't want that, maybe I was just going to lie on the floor and cry pitifully. Coffee was gone and I had no idea what to do about that, I just wanted her back so we could run and play and... and...
***
It was later that night when I yelped as the master accidentally stepped on me while getting out of bed. That's alright though, I forgave him. I could tell he was apologizing by his tone of voice and the way he petted me. I happily followed master around as he gathered some stuff for what seemed like a trip. I perked up and felt my tail wagging as I realized this meant I was going to get to stay with Coffee for a few days while master was gone!
Then I sagged onto the floor as I remembered the events of earlier today. Coffee was gone and the guards couldn't find her and master was upset and I was upset and...
But Master was grabbing his top hat off his hat rack and putting it on. That was his lucky hat that he told me never EVER to chew on. Why would Master be going away on business at a time like this? Coffees parents probably needed someone to comfort them, heck I could use a petting every now and then too. Master wouldn't just abandon us at a time like this would he?
Master pushed me back when I tried to follow him out of the door, he said something in pony that... I think was "wait here. Back in morning."? He closed and locked the door behind him and I tried to follow by scratching at the wooden surface of the door ineffectually. Stupid elder race and their stupid arcane technology! How do they work these things?!
I sat on my haunches and whimpered at the door. Why would master abandon me? Was it because I was bad? Was it my fault that Coffee was gone? I became desperately afraid of being left to myself for the rest of my life by that point, I'd go mad If I was alone for a few months or however long it takes to get old!
I scrambled around the house in a mad rush, there had to be some way out! I searched behind every couch and in every room that didn't have a blasted door blocking it for an escape. In a stroke of genius I started searching upstairs and there on the third floor I found it, an open window!
Oww... In hindsight I probably should have looked out of the window before jumping out of it. Without the master to watch out for me I really had to learn to watch out for myself from now on.
That thought made me whimper, I was outside now but would the master even want me back? What if I caught up with the master and he told me I was a bad boy for having left the house? I almost wanted to sulk and just go back into the house but... wait. I scratched at the wooden surface of the kitchen door from the outside. This doesn't make any sense, why doesn't it open from this side? Doors only exist to keep puppies from going outside, why would they block a puppy from going inside?!
I howled my frustration at the stupid thing and just sat there wondering what to do. I could pick up the masters fresh scent quite easily from this door and I couldn't get back inside so I guess there really was no reason I couldn't follow the master after all.
I followed the scent all the way out of town and only took my nose off the ground when I heard a crackle of thunder. I didn't like the thunder! It was scary and loud and this one time some mean winged colts with clouds chased me with lightning and and...
I realized when I looked up that by following the masters scent I was now standing outside of the nightmaremanticorecockatrice
giantstarbeardeathspiderdarkplacewithscarytrees. Or... what did dad call it? The ever tree forest? Wait, wasn't this where Coffee was supposed to be missing?
After a minute of puzzling together this new information I came to a conclusion that sent my heart racing with joy and cast all the shadows of despair completely out of my mind. Master was going to go rescue Coffee!
I pelted down the path and into the forest as fast as my paws could carry me. I wasn't a bad boy! And not only that but I was going to help the Master and together we were going to save Coffee!
I ducked under trees and cut across streams. I raced as swiftly as a puppy could while somehow still managing to keep track of my Masters scent. It was the easiest tracking I had ever done, like now that there was something on the line my mind was focused as sharp as a thorn bush and it became easier to not get distracted.
Maybe it was more than that, Master had a butt picture just like all the other older ponies. I'd learned what that meant because I had been there with Coffee when she got her butt picture, they were markings that showed what a pony was good at. Masters was a magnifying glass, it meant he was really good at finding things. It was even his job, finding things that other ponies had lost! Maybe master had picked me specifically out of the litter because he felt I could be good at that job too?
I was still pondering that when the rain began to fall and I found masters top hat. The one he told me never ever, EVER to chew on.
Someone had chewed on it. And there was a coppery smell and some red stuff. It hadn't been me that had chewed on it! I whimpered as I looked around the forest for any other signs of Master. There wasn't any sign of him besides his hat. His scent carried on in a different direction than he had been traveling and it was joined by some other scent I'd never smelled before in my life.
I knew I was going to follow that trail but I couldn't just leave his hat behind. That was his lucky hat! But... how could I carry it? Master said never to chew on it and I didn't have any way to carry stuff without my teeth. Wait, maybe I could carry it on my head the way a pony does?
Wriggling my nose underneath the brim of the hat I managed to get it perched on top of my head. I had to kind of balance it with my ears as it was too big for a pup like me but by being careful as I bounded along I was able to keep it on top of my head. Neat! This thing keeps the rain out of my eyes! I guess the ponies are right, clothes CAN be useful for stuff besides chewing.
I picked up more and more speed as the rain intensified, a bad feeling growing in my stomach as I started to recognize a potential danger. It wasn't until I crossed a new scent trail that my fears were realized in the worst possible way.
I stopped to sniff at this new scent trail that my masters scent had crossed over. I recognized it almost immediately as coming from my life long friend Coffee! Master had walked right over the scent and not stopped!
Stupid ponies, why do they have such long noses if they cant smell as good as us dogs can with them?!
The rain had become my enemy. I was beginning to suspect something was wrong with my master and that he needed my help. But... here was Coffee, I could rescue her! I could follow her scent trail as easily as I could follow the masters and this other weird creatures scent. But I didn't have time to do both! Even now the rain was washing away both trails!
I sat at that cross roads in my life and whimpered plaintively to whoever might be listening to my plight. Staring in one direction and then the other, why did I have to choose? I love Coffee and the Master, why cant I have both?
Yet I had too. The rain was merciless to puppies and their desires. And in the end I was pretty sure Master could look after himself while Coffee might not be able too.
Pretty sure.
I followed Coffees trail as fast as I could lest the rain erase it right in front of me.
Mostly sure.
He's a big pony, he looks after fillies and puppies not the other way around.
I really hoped I'd made the right choice...
***
It was almost morning before me and Coffee emerged from the forest wet and bedraggled. Coffee was shivering a lot worse than I was though, covered in mud and scared half to death she hadn't budged so much as an inch when I'd first found her huddled under that fallen tree as though she was trying to hide.
She hadn't said much either, mostly just cried and held onto me tightly. That was alright though, at the time I had been plenty scared too. I knew it was too late to pick up masters scent trail again and I was really worried for him.
But I knew it was going to be alright. I guided Coffee out of the forest and back to her home where her parents just grabbed onto her like they were never going to let go again and they all cried, but it was happier tears than the ones they'd been crying last night.
I knew I'd done very very well without even having to be told by my master. Coffee was safe and my master would be so proud of me when he came home again. So that's immediately where I went.
I went home and after not being able to get in the door again I sat on the doormat and waited. I hoped the master wouldn't mind me wearing his hat but I didn't want to just set it on the muddy ground either, I was a good boy who looked after his masters things. I didn't chew it up, that had been... I didn't want to think about what had...
I was just going to sit here and wait.
Just another couple hours.
I heard ponies coming by the front door but they didn't sound like the master and I knew the master would come home through the back door like he always did. He always came home.
Maybe until noon.
Maybe... Maybe I could pick up the masters scent again in spite of the rain? Now that the sun was setting for the night and had dried everything out all day long maybe I could pick up whatever fresh scent the master left behind!
I stood up and stared down the street towards the forest outside of town. I had waited like a good boy, the time for waiting was over.
Being just a young pup I was used to being scolded for doing wrong things without fully understanding what I had done wrong. But now there was no one but me to tell me if I did a wrong thing. And I knew deep in my heart that sitting here on the door mat and whimpering while my master was out there and needed my help would be a very bad thing to do. And I wasn't the kind of puppy who knowingly did bad things.
I was going to find the master and return his hat to him as good as I had found it, no matter how long it took.
***
The howling mountain winds tried to wrench my hat away from me and toss it to the skies, this meant I had to trudge through the snow on just three paws without ever taking my fourth away from pinning my hat to my head. Whenever I wanted to complain though I just reminded myself I at least didn't have it as bad as the poor elderly pony walking behind me.
I stopped to glance over my shoulder and see how well he was keeping up, he wasn't winded or shivering yet which was a good sign as we still had a long ways to go. I looked past him and further up to where the blimp he had been riding had crashed into the side of a mountain.
I had been looking for Master for what felt like half my life by now. A whole six months!
Navigating through swamps, following railroads, begging in towns and running from manticores had become a way of life for me. Then just yesterday I'm watching a pony airship as it crosses the sky when suddenly it careens into a mountain top. I might just be a dog but I had been pretty sure that wasn't normal airship behavior and had decided to make the long trek up the cold mountain to investigate.
Smelling around the blimp I had gotten the feeling he had been flying the thing all alone. How? I really had no idea, he seemed to have really poor eyesight to me and I couldn't get too far away without him losing sight of me in the blowing snow.
How did a blind pony expect to be able to fly without being able to see? Did it have something to do with those metal and glass ornaments he had been crying over when I'd found him? Now that I thought about it I'd also seen other ponies with poor eyesight wearing those things on their noses. More weird elder race ultra tech likely.
The elderly pegasus came to a halt next to me and turned around in the snow to look back at his blimp. He let out a disheartened moan when he saw how it was smashed to pieces and promptly collapsed on his belly in the snow. I nuzzled him with my nose to try and get him moving again but he just sat and stared back the way we'd came.
I decided to sit down beside him for a while, it was true we needed to keep moving to not die from the cold but right now it was something hurting this ponies heart that was slowing him down, not his body.
"Well I guess that's it. My flying days are done." The elderly Pegasus sniveled. I was surprised at myself for understanding it so well, I'd really struggled while learning the language the last few months but listening to him talk right now I felt like I could finally match his words to the heartbreak in the tone of his voice.
Of course I still couldn't talk to him aside from barks and nods...
"Was my own blasted fault really, I knew my vision was bad even with the glasses but I'm still stuck in that got to fly everywhere mindset." He snorted and pawed at the snow in front of him with a hoof. "Its funny what we can talk ourselves into when we used to be someone. Used to go on adventures to far away places, dare mighty feats and see amazing sights." He lamented.
I tilted my head and contemplated that but came up with nothing. Argh! And I'd been doing so well at understanding pony words just a second ago!
I tapped my muzzle and thought. Okay, I'd gotten what he was saying up until the fly everywhere bit, after that I think he started metaphorizing or whateverchamacalit. So this guy was used to flying lots, seemed to still be in pretty decent shape for his age but had to stop because he couldn't see anymore. Yeah I could see why he was feeling heartbroken now, I've never flown before but I imagine if I lost the use of my legs I'd feel kinda sad about it.
Still holding onto my hat I glanced down the mountain and stared longingly at the green valleys so very far below.
I was beginning to have doubts about walking out of here, not just for the elderly pony but for me as well. I was sore and tired from all the effort it had taken to ascend this mountain as fast as I could.
I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt something fold against my sides. Looking back I saw the Pegasus had draped one of his wings across me, it was actually really nice and warm being against his side like that! I glanced up at his sad but smiling face and wagged my tail appreciatively.
"So you came all the way up here to rescue me did yah pup?" I understood that well enough and barked a reply, nodding my head proudly. "Heh! Well... I like your spunk at least. Makes me wish I'd had a dog like you when I was younger." He seemed to deflate when he said that his head lowering and his eyes staring at a far away place without really focusing on where they were looking.
I pondered his words for a good while, it felt strange to hear and understand them. My master was an Earth pony and I knew he was still out there waiting for me to rescue him. Yet... My heart wrenched painfully as I thought back to that scent I'd found in the forest when I'd found his hat. It was a scent I had now had enough experience with to know it meant 'danger'. The kind of danger that came with big fangs and lots of claws and was much larger than the master and definitely larger than any puppy.
I was all whimpered out by this point. I wasn't going to give up on the master, I just wasn't...
But I was obviously a bad puppy, because I found myself starting to fantasize about what it would be like to have a new master. A pegasus this time instead of an earth pony. Wouldn't that be weird? All the pegasi I had ever seen had flying pets like falcons or butterflies. How was I going to keep up with my master if he was flying?
Actually that wouldn't be as much of a problem here. This new masters wings looked like they were still fine but his eyesight obviously wasn't. He would need those metal and glass thingies to fly again, either that or some pony to guide him around like how sometimes puppies were guided on leashes.
...
I backtracked across my mental path and found the scent of that thought again. Either that or some pony to guide him? What about some dog?
I pondered carefully everything I knew about how pegasi flew. Most of which I knew from just watching them dart across the sky while I was stuck on the ground. They maneuvered mainly by going left and right or up and down. There wasn't really anything to crash into in the sky so their biggest problem was not crashing into the ground.
Scurrying out from under the elderly ponies wing I rose to my paws and then hopped up onto his back, right between his wings. I bit onto his mane as gently as I could and tugged.
"Aaiiee! Bad boy! What are you..." He rose to his hooves and was about to shake me off when his voice trailed off as I tugged his mane to the left and he felt the urge to turn to the left. Then another tug to the right followed by him pivoting to the right. Finally I tugged up and then pushed on the back of his neck to tilt his head down and I could hear comprehension dawning in his voice. "Are you... are you suggesting what I think you are?" He asked incredulously.
I barked happilly in reply and tapped a paw to the side of my head to indicate my eyes when he looked back at me. After a few tense moments where he just stared he finally matched my own smile with one of his own and extended both wings to their impressive full span. "Alright then! This might just work, I can at the very least manage to get us off this mountain if nothing else."
He set off at a trot and I clung tightly to his sides! Too tightly, I forgot not to use all four paws and my hat was finally torn off my head by the wind and sent flying off into the air. I yelped and let go of the mane, turning my head back and watching that hat get carried further away on the wind by the second...
"You still hanging on back there?!" The elderly pegasus yelled back at me, his pace slowing as he hesitated.
I knew I would never find that hat again if I didn't go chasing after it right this instant. Just as I'd never picked up that trail again. After a time that felt much longer than it probably was I turned away and clamped my teeth back on my masters mane. His pace picked back up again and he was practically running now.
"Hang on pup! Were out of here!" He shouted triumphantly, launching his body into the air and pumping his wings with all the power he had. I had to pull back on his mane a few times as I saw us getting closer to the snow covered mountain again but it wasn't long until suddenly the ground was far below us.
I let go of the masters mane and craned my head in every which direction, looking around at what felt like all of Equestria spread out beneath me! Master laughed and spread his wings straight out to either side, no longer pumping against the wind he instead glided with it, he had his eyes closed and the expression on his face was one of the most serene I'd ever seen grace the face of a pony.
"Let me know when you see a Town and try to guide me down towards it. Should look like boxes, yellow boxes from up here. Alright?" I nodded vigorously and returned my gaze to the ground below. Yellow boxes. If I could spot those I could guide my master back home!
Wherever home was I had a feeling it was going to be a nice place.
