Getting Started

(5yrs 10months ago)

The next morning Mira packs the bags while I douse the remaining few embers. Amethyst does some stretching making sure everything is back up to snuff. Once everyone has finished and eaten breakfast the girls walk up to either side of me.

Sighing I look at both of them in turn concern flashing across my face. “Just please don’t drop me. I don’t feel like going splat on the ground.”

“Don’t worry Walker even if we do drop you it’s not like we won’t be able to catch you again.” Amethyst grins at me making my concern run wild.

“Look just don’t drop me in the first place and we won’t even need to test that.”

“Oh come on Walker live a little. I guarantee that if you fall I will catch you.” Amy says holding out her hand a comforting smile on her face. That smile totally disarmed me.

“Alright Amethyst, I’ll trust you.” She hasn’t done anything to prove that she isn’t worth the trust.

“Alright I got everything packed up. How are you feeling Amethyst? Are you ready to go flying?” Mira hands me one of the packs. She purposefully left it lighter to make my fat ass easier to carry between the two of them.

The plan for flight is to loop my arms over their shoulders and for them do the same. That way we are sort of ‘locked’ together. It should provide the both of them the chance to carry me without either being over burdened.

~~~~~~

Since the flight to the coast isn’t supposed to be rough we decide to walk for a while first. Mostly to shake the cobwebs loose so to speak. Like most of the time where there is really nothing to do I started to ask questions.

“So either of you seen any good movies lately?” I ask not really thinking, I just want some background noise.

Amethyst and Mira turn towards me with a raised eyebrow.

“What in the name of Love is a moo-vee?” Mira asks totally bewildered by my question.

“Yeah I’ve never heard anything like that before. Is it something from your old world?” Amethyst has been interested in a bunch of stuff from my world, seeing as everything was made using science instead of magic.

“Yeah, it’s a moving picture with sounds. They were really awesome from what little I remember of them. There was action, romance, science-fiction and tons of others genres that came about. There was pretty much whatever you wanted really. Not that I remember any specifically. It was just another form of entertainment meant to distract the masses from all the bullshit going on and how corrupt the government had gotten.” I explain in an off-hand manner.

“How do you know that’s what it was meant for when you don’t even know how old you are?” Ask Amethyst in a confused tone.

“I uhh … I really don’t know. Huh?” I scratch my chin and think for a moment. “It might be that is just something I believed before coming here and it just sort of stuck I guess.”

“I guess that makes some sense. Not everything can really be forgotten. I mean your individual beliefs seem to still be there from the varying conversations that we have had.” Amethyst supplies.

Though come to think of it if my personal beliefs are still with me then that would mean the darker impulses I’ve been having are actually mine and not some construct borne of this world’s magical influence. This definitely is concerning but some part of me strongly disagrees with this theory. Also every time one comes up it just doesn’t ‘feel’ like it’s my own. Eh whatever. If I think about this to…

THWACK!!

“Oww what the fuck? Damn it Mira why do you always have to abuse me?” I ask tears building in my eyes. That one actually fucking hurt.

“That was me.” Amethyst pipes up from my right. “I was trying to ask you about those moving picture things again but you just had this glazed over look in your eyes.”

Sighing and rubbing the back of my head I glare at Amethyst. “Fuck you cunt. That shit hurt like hell. Why should I tell you anything?”

“Oh quit being such a baby it’s not like I broke anything.”

“Whatever.”

I slow down to be by myself. Seriously that shit hurt but more importantly I could feel those darker impulses again. They are really beginning to concern me. It seems tied to my anger at the moment, hopefully I can learn to keep a lid on that shit otherwise I am going to be in serious trouble at some point.

After about fifteen minutes Amethyst slows down to stand next to me, for a few minutes we just walk side by side quietly.

“I’m not really all that good at this kind of thing so… I’m… I’m sorry I hit you so hard. I had seen Mira doing it and didn’t really think. I just thought that’s how things worked with you. I know it’s pretty stupid to assume something like that, but I just wanted to be the kind of friend Mira is to you. You both seem really close, yet you have only known each other for about a month or so now. I guess I am kind of jealous that you two can be so friendly after so short a time. I’m sorry I’m rambling.” Amethyst sighs as her shoulders slump.

Sighing I look up to the blue sky they have here. Damn it’s beautiful. “Mira and I have become friends out of necessity. She needs a stable food source so she doesn’t get caught stealing love and I need someone to watch over me so that I don’t fuck up so badly that I get captured or worse…killed. To say we’re friends is the same as saying you could swim in the sky because there is water in the air. True there is moisture in the atmosphere but there is hardly enough to go swimming in. As for your apology I both accept and decline. Mostly because I like being complicated but also I shouldn’t have flipped out that much. Heh, now look who’s rambling.” I chuckle at the end realizing how silly we are both being.

“Thanks Walker. You know for being as weird and ‘complicated’ as you are you’re really nice.” She says with a smile.

“I am stuck in a world full of dragons, magic and, monsters straight out of myth. I’m even traveling with a dragon and a monster. I have seen Mira use her magic to toss rocks around at speeds high enough to crack my skull. I saw you breath flames hot enough to turn flesh into ash in seconds. If I’m not nice either of you could kill me before I had a chance to even think. I couldn’t do anything to stop you or her if you decided you wanted the reward money. So being nice is my only option at the moment. Now that’s not to say that if we were on an even playing field I would suddenly become an asshole to you girls far from it, what I am saying is that I have no choice in what happens unless I feel like running off into the woods. People tend to assume that because someone is nice they are a good person. This is a lie. No one is really a good person. Not even those ponies who promote nothing but love and tolerance. I mean if I walked into a pony controlled town right now I would be arrested purely for being ‘human’. I would be thrown in a cell and used as a means to promote more anti-human propaganda. I would be labeled as a terrorist sent to disrupt the town and incite riots. Now whether this is actually true or not is really unknown since I don’t want to test the theory. Back to my original point though I am not nice I just don’t see the value in being ‘evil’. If I was evil I would end up with nothing to show for it as the world turns against me. Being ‘good or nice’ has many advantages over being ‘evil or mean’.” I turn to look over at Amethyst to see that she is just absolutely lost which causes me to lose it. “HAHAHAHH! The look on your face!”

Watching her try to understand what I just said is hilarious. Her mouth just keeps opening and closing like a fish out of water.

“That right there is why I stopped having deep conversations with him. He could give the hive a headache from all the philosophical thoughts running through his mind. I swear Walker you could spin genocide into a good thing if you put yourself to it.” Mira pipes up from in front of us. She slows down till she is walking on my left. “Honestly Amethyst you should just let it go and take it at face value, which is that he accepts your apology and is sorry for what he did. Otherwise you’ll just hurt your brain.”

“B-but i-is he a good guy or a bad guy? I’m so confused!” Amethyst grabs her head as pain borne confusion settles in.

Mira and I laugh, knowing that she really just needs to let it go.

Mira walks over to Amethyst “Like I said just take it as he accepts your apology and move on. Also it’s about time we started flying.”

Amethyst sighs “You and your weird thought-process is going to kill me.” Giving both her cheeks a quick slap than stretching, she launches herself into the air to give her wings a test and make sure everything is working right.

After a few minutes of flight she lands next to us. “You bitches ready?” Amethyst asks with a grin.
“As I’ll ever be.” Is my reply, I know for a fact she is going to do something.

~~~~~~

“I HATE THE BOTH OF YOU!!” I shout during my free fall.

Seems they planned to do this at some point. How do I know this you ask? Well because about half way through the flight to the coast I see Amethyst give Mira a nod and next thing I know I’m falling towards the ground at high speed.

“WALKER CALM DOWN! JUST TRY TO RELAX AND SPREAD YOUR BODY WEIGHT EVENLY!” Amethyst tries to get me to calm down but my free fall has my mind on lock down.

Sighing Mira flies over and kisses my cheek startling me with the suddenness. “RELAX AND HAVE FUN!”
Shaking my head I spread my body out and start slowing down. Thank whatever Deity rules here that they flew up high enough.

As I begin to calm down and slow down I get the chance to actually take in the fact that I am sky-diving. *Holy shit this is…* “AWESOME!!!” Laughing like the madman that I am, I start spinning and twirling all over the place.

After about another minute they catch me and haul me back up to height they started at.

“Have fun?” Asks Amethyst with a grin.

“Hell yeah!! Do it again! I can’t fucking believe it. TODAY IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!” I laugh my ass of as they carry me. Unfortunately I don’t get to go free falling again to close to the coast and also hauling me back up to height put more strain on their wings than they expected.

Nearing the end of our flight Amethyst spots a port town where we should be able to charter a small boat to out to Volcannus. We decide to land about half an hour out so that way no one spots Mira or I.

~~~~~~

Upon landing we take a short break, well Amethyst and Mira do since they did all the work.

“Damn that was a lot of fun. Sorry I yelled at the both of you.” I rub the back of my head feeling bad for having flipped out like that. Not much I can do now except apologize and hope they forgive me.

“Don’t worry about it. We knew that you wouldn’t have been too happy with it at first. I actually expected you to flip out more than you did.” Amy waves off my apology and smiles just glad that I got a chance to enjoy the experience.

Mira pulls out a cloak and tosses it to me. “You should put it on now and get use to how it moves and feels. Also try to keep it closed as much as possible.” A quick flash of green and she is back in her unicorn form.

With a dramatic flair I put the cloak on. *Damn that is just so fucking cool*

“Settle down hero. It’s just a cloak.” Amethyst pipes up.

“Hey some of the coolest heroes wore cloaks. Not that I can remember any specifically, but that’s not the point. This is cloak right here signifies my ascension in to a true hero.” I finish with the iconic flourish of the cloaks edge.

Both girls just roll their eyes. I think they have finally come to understand I just enjoy being a ham and cheese sandwich. I mean seriously I’m in this world full of crazy story-book shit, I am going to take full advantage of what it has to offer. I may not be able to become an actual hero or anything like that, but I can at least act some old school hero who’s all noble and ‘heroic’. I mean come on this is literally every guys dream right here.

Tell me I’m wrong and I will jump out this story and punch you straight in the duodenum. Go ahead look it up I’ll wait…. Yeah right fucking there.

~~~~~~

Heading into town was nerve wrecking as shit. The guards at the gate eyeballed the shit out of me. I nearly broke and ran at one point but thankfully Mira was there and pressed into my side to comfort me. The guards stopped us and said that if we cause any trouble at all they would haul us in than send us directly to Canterlot to rot in the dungeons there.

Assholes.

Anyway the three of us walked till we got to the town center.

“Okay Mira, you take Walker and find us somewhere cheap to spend the night. Walker…? Where the Smaugs breathe did he disappear to?” Amethyst and Mira begin looking all around the immediate area for me.

~~~~~~

“Where the fuck am I now?”