Megaspells: Far Away

Is our future already determined? Chances are, if we replay what happened in this universe in a simulation, history would always be as we have recorded. What is to say that our future isn’t governed by the same concept?

“That was quite the coincidence then,” Jack sighed, staring out of the window.

“Quite,” Daring replied. One day after Jack had woken up in the hospital room, she was still there, watching over him. One day too many, her conscience told her. There was one specific reason she desperately wanted to come to Ormont, and sitting in a hospital room watching over some stranger was not high on her mile-long list of to do’s.

“So, why were you walking through the plains? There is a train line that leads directly to Ormont,” Daring asked, trying to change the topic.

“Well, a client asked me to draw a new map of the area because apparently, he wanted to redesign the railway to Ormont or something. He saw it as a way of gaining a higher status in the Canterlot society or some crap like that. He came to the cartographer’s office, and I was the unlucky pony to be assigned this task,” Jack replied with a snort, “I probably should have moved out of Canterlot sooner, in hindsight. I didn’t fit into the society there anyways.”

“I never understood the Canterlot society either,” Daring admitted, although she had lived there for most of her life. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was almost dusk again of another day. Ambrosia told her that he hoped to discharge Jack from the hospital that day, and there was no sign of him yet.

An hour later, the door opened and a familiar pony strode into the room, carrying a stack of paperwork. “Good evening Jackson. Good evening Daring,” he greeted. “These are the papers you need to sign,” he pulled out four papers out of the stack and floated a pen towards Jack, “Just sign in the blank space on the bottom of those pages and you’ll be free to go this evening.”

Jack bit the pen with his mouth and signed the papers given to him, then passed the papers back to Ambrosia.

“Perfect,” he said, “You are free to go now. Just don’t get yourself back here anytime soon.”

“Don’t worry Ambrosia. I’ll make sure of that,” Daring farewelled as she walked out of the ward with Jack following closely.

“I’m sure you will,” Ambrosia said as he waved the two goodbye.

After exiting the hospital, Jack realised that he did not have his wallet, or his saddlebags for that matter. “I just realised that I’m screwed,” he stated plainly to Daring, “I do not know where my wallet is, hell, I don’t know what happened to my saddlebags.”

“Don’t worry, I had them sent back to my motel,” Daring replied, causing a wave of calm to wash over Jack as he sighed.

“Important things were in them,” he explained subtly.

The walk back to the motel was uneventful. The sun was shining down relentlessly on them, especially in the places where the heat was concentrated due to some of the parabolic glass buildings that surrounded them. As usual, it was hell trying to walk through the striped crowds of zebras. The stripes were disorienting. Evolution sure did a good job on making the zebras hard to prey on; almost too good a job.

After arriving back at the motel Daring originally rent a room at, she gave Jack the saddlebags and all the other little trinkets that fell out of them during transport. He looked through them thoroughly to check that nothing was missing. Ten minutes of rummaging through his saddlebags later, he looked up at Daring, “It looks like nothing of importance is missing. Thank you for saving my life. I wouldn’t be here without you.”

“Took you long enough to figure that one out,” Daring chuckled, “Now I’ve got a few errands to run. I’ll see you around if you want, but you are free to go now.”

“Thank you Daring. Goodbye,” Jack farewelled as he trotted out of the room quite contently. Daring couldn’t help but to think that he be popping up around the place again as she exited the room also. It seemed likely at the time.

Daring walked through the city roads again, which were now considerably quieter than when she back to the motel. The sun was high in the sky and beating down ferociously on her. Quickly following her senses, she made her way to a familiar nook in the outer reaches of the big city, into a small shop with glass cabinets lined with prized firearms and a large wooden counter in the middle of the room, where a small pad of paper and a safe sat.

“Ferrum!” Daring called from the counter, “It’s Daring.”

A wrinkled old stallion with a messy grey bustled out from the back room, “Daring! It’s been too long since I’ve last seen you. You’ve grown so much.”

“Yes, I’ve been meaning to visit you some time, and I just so happened to get an assignment that led me to Ormont,” Daring said.

“Well that’s lucky, isn’t it? Now, what can I do for you?” Ferrum asked.

“It just so happens that I need a new rifle. My old one split down the stock and the receiver is busted. It was a damned nice one too,” Daring said bitterly. She had grown quite attached to her old rifle as it was her trusty companion for over a decade.

Ferrum quickly ducked back into the back room and came out in the blink of an eye, carrying two beautifully crafted rifles. “Which one do you want? This one,” he pointed to the rifle on the left, “is chambered in .302 and has a magazine of six shells. That one is chambered in .50 and is bolt action. Comes with quite a nice scope too. It’s a times four magnification.”

“How expensive are the low velocity rounds for the .50?” Daring asked.

“Twenty bits per dozen.”

“I’ll take the .302 then,” Daring decided, “It’ll be cheaper in the long run and I won’t have to fiddle with the bolt.”

As she finished her sentence, the bell at the door chimed and a familiar pony was walking into the store. “Fancy seeing you here, Jack,” she remarked, “You didn’t seem like a pony who was interested in guns to me.”

“I was going to get old Ferrum here to help repair my revolver. It looks the like the grip has cracked a little,” he said. “By the way, I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“My old rifle went haywire. Receiver broke somehow. I’m going out on an expedition very soon into the jungle. I wouldn’t mind some company,” Daring offered. It seemed like a companion was going to be needed in this expedition due to the treacherous terrain. Two ponies are better than one, right?

“Yeah, sure. It’s not like I have anything else to do. I’ll get the details off you later. I’ll come to your motel room,” Jack answered. It surprised Daring that he accepted her offer, as most ponies didn’t like to live a dangerous life, all of them made soft by Celestia’s rule, but that can be talked about at another time.

After walking through the city again, returning to her motel room, Daring found Jack waiting for her in front of the door. Taking out the keys clumsily, she unlocked it and let Jack into the room. Daring threw the case which contained the gun onto the bed and took out a large map of the county from her saddlebags, unfurling it on the table in the corner of the room. She gestured for Jack to take a seat opposite from her, and took out a pen from under her wings.

“This isn’t going to be an easy walk in the woods,” Daring started, “From what I know, there will be wolves and other creatures in the jungles surrounding Ormont, so we must be alert at all times.”

“Yeah, I get it. That’s the normal stuff. What are we actually looking for here?” Jack asked impatiently, despising how everypony underestimates his capabilities. ‘Wolves?’ he thought, ‘Barely worth the bullet.’

“There’s a magical amulet inside some old ruins in the jungle. I want to get it before some other creature lays their dirty hooves on it,” Daring said as she took out a compass and started making small markings on the map. “It should be located in some ancient ruins south-east of our current location. The best thing you can do now is to stock up on supplies, then meet me beside the jungle on the hill over there in a few days,” Daring pointed at the map.

“Ah, yes. About that,” Jack said apologetically, “I don’t seem to have enough bits to rent a room. I wasn’t expecting to stay in Ormont for long when I packed.”

Daring sighed. “You’ll have to bunk with me then. I don’t have enough bits for you to borrow to get a lodging either.”

The rest of the day passed quickly, the two friends chatting about whatever comes to mind and watching the sun set over the horizon out of the motel window. “We might as well leave tomorrow,” Jack suggested late in the afternoon, “We’re both ready to an extent. I just need to get my revolver back from Ferrum on the way.”

“We should now get some sleep if we are leaving tomorrow. Keeping watch at night, even with two ponies, is tiresome and I don’t want either of us falling asleep when we do it,” Daring said, walking to her saddlebags then rummaging through them to check that everything that was supposed to be present, was indeed present. Jack shrugged and strolled into the bathroom and turned on the shower while Daring grabbed her book and jumped onto the bed and prepared for a good night’s sleep... well, that was the plan anyways.

Morning came quickly. Dawn broke peacefully and as the sun’s first rays shone over the horizon and through the curtains, Daring cracked an eye open and looked around. The room was dimly lit but pleasant as a cool draught blew from the cracks that were in the window frame. She stretched and began her morning routines by turning on the shower for a brisk wash. Ten minutes later, she dressed in her usual clothing, then walked out of the bathroom in her less dishevelled form.

Looking at the bed, she realised the Jack was still sleeping soundly on his undisturbed side of the bed. Thinking quickly, she brought a glass from the small kitchen to the sink and filled it with icy water from the tap. It wasn’t her that needed to clean the sheets anyways so without a second thought, se roughly chucked the water onto Jack, who reacted immediately by sitting straight up and shooting Daring a death glare. If looks could kill…

“Morning sleepyhead. Had a nice nap?” Daring asked casually as she walked back over to the kitchen and found the stash of instant coffee.

“It was nice until you threw the damned water on me,” he sighed, almost sounding disappointed. “I was having a great dream too.”

“Well, welcome back to our glorious world of reality. We need to get going before the day is too far gone,” Daring said, dragging him out of bed and pushing him gently towards his saddlebags. “Quickly pack. We’ll grab some rations in town, then we’re going to head into the wilderness.”

Jack packed swiftly, as requested, and was out the door along with Daring in less than ten minutes, heading towards the large city. By the time they left the more urbanised parts of town and around them were tall trees covering the sky with their deep green canopies, night was approaching again. The light that did shine through the canopy was of a deep orange hue.

“I’ll take first watch tonight,” Daring said as she trudged through the dense undergrowth, “We’ll take half the night each.”

“Sure,” Jack replied, “Let’s find a place to set our stuff down and start a fire, shall we?”

“Yes, we shall.” Daring soon stopped next to a hollow tree. Striking a match, she explored the interior which seemed to be mostly empty, save a pile of dry leaves on the ground, and the perfect shelter for a temporary camp. “Let’s settle here for the night,” Daring said as she laid her saddlebags on the dry leaves and took out a few oatmeal biscuits, “It’ll shield us from the wind”.

Jack scavenged for a few dry branches around the surrounding area and set them in a neat pile in front of the hollow. He then struck his little flint and steel to procure a nice warm flame, which cackled happily upon the dry wood, then joined Daring inside the tree. He followed suit and took some of his own oatmeal biscuits and feasted upon them while watching the dancing flames, flickering in the brisk gusts.

The noises in the jungle were alien to Jack who spent most of his days roaming the vast plains and the sprawling metropolises. The occasional howl of a wolf woke him up in a startled sweat, and the hoot of an owl sent shivers up his spine. It was completely dark under the canopy with no sight of the silvery moon, or the blanket of stars that Jack was accustomed to seeing every night. Save the illumination of the embers of the fire, everything else was pitch dark like an empty void. He turned uneasily in his sleep, with wild dreams of exotic monsters hunting him down in the jungle, which sent him unconscious into the morning.