The stallion struggled up the last few meters, his breath coming in ragged, short gasps, but it was worth it for him. Finally, after months of taunting, and agonizingly slow planning, he had made it to the top. He was the first in over a century to have made it to this point.

(Continued)

Dragon Southwestern Coastline

The world was freezing over. That was the first thought to come to my mind. Wind crackled all around me, feeling as if it were clawing at me, crawling all along my body into its deepest recesses. I felt stiff, constrained, like I would soon turn so cold, I would be able to find cracks forming within me.

A dull, monotonous thudding was what had woken me. It came every few seconds, causing my entire body to shift slightly as I moved up and down. As I became more aware of my surroundings, I realized that I was moving, and the sound I both heard and felt was that of a wheel, gliding over a mostly smooth path, save for the occasional rock, or pothole.

I knew it couldn’t be entirely smooth; the constant vibration I soon became aware of proved otherwise. No, this was something different, something like a paved path, one that used stones. Although flat, they did provide a constant lateral movement, however slight it was.

There was something covering me. It was thin, coarse, not unlike a woven blanket that had been left in the sun for far too long. It provided very little warmth, but what it did give I was glad for. No matter how cold it was under it, I knew it would be far worse outside of the confines it provided.

I forced myself to move, to escape from the confines of the blanket. Whatever covered me, I had to remove, but to what purpose, I don’t know. It was a reaction more than anything, an idea. I pushed at it, the woven strands brushing against me. I couldn’t quite get much of a grip on it, but still I struggled, until finally, the blanket was off of my face, freely exposing me to the frigid air. I forced my eyes open.

Nothing. Only an ink filled darkness met my gaze. I knew, I remembered that I was supposed to be seeing, but… what was I supposed to be seeing? I tried to think, but all my thoughts did were become more muddled. The best I could remember was what I had seen in that cave, just before the shaking, before the rocks began to fall. But nothing, no colors, no forms, naught save for the star filled caverns I had been in, and the dark outlines of the rocks raining down.

I didn’t understand. There should have been something there, something for me to see, I was sure of it- but what was it? Nothing could fill my thoughts, nothing except for that cavern, and its stars. My memories couldn’t help me, they were effectively nil. So then the mystery of my sightlessness would begin.

I felt my ear twitch, twisting oddly. Someone had spoken just then. I didn’t know who, and I didn’t know why. I did know, however, that they were close. It may have just been barely more than a whisper, but I knew that it was speech.

Again. They spoke again. Straining, I listened harder. There was someone here, someone speaking. It was just out of range of my hearing, but I knew they were there.

Once more, they spoke. It was a somewhat high pitched voice, and although it was a bit deeper than my own, the voice was nowhere near as guttural as the ones used earlier by Gwen and Glenn. Closer to mumbling, more than actual speech, the words came out quietly, and lacking in projection. “Alright… so hopefully when we get there... mom and dad’ll have gone back to sleep… or maybe… maybe they’ll be traveling again… or… or something…”

Focusing in on the words, I realized that whoever it was, they were worried about their parents for some reason. Why was that? Were they doing something that they shouldn’t be doing? Was I a part of whatever they were doing?

Almost as if my thoughts were being read, they continued speaking. “Maybe… maybe I should take a few extra days getting back. This is the first time they’ve sent me out to retrieve a pony on my own. I could just… I could just tell them that I got lost, or that there was a snowstorm, and I needed to wait it out.”

So they were worried about not taking long enough to get home. Or was it they were worried about taking too long to get home? This was… confusing, to say the least. At least I knew that what they were doing, retrieving a pony, whatever that meant, couldn’t have been a bad thing. The voice said their parents had sent them out to do it, so of course it had to be something they approved of, or at the least, wanted done.

I decided to speak up then, if only to gain a few more answers to my questions that had yet to be answered. “Why are you taking me to see your parents?”

I flinched at my voice. It rasped out painfully in the cold, and came out a garbled, hoarse mess. Nonetheless, it was still understandable speech, and it sounded loud enough for whoever else was near me to hear.

The initial speaker seemed to pause slightly in their walking, almost indiscernibly so, before responding to me. “Oh. I didn’t know you had woken up.”

My lips curled at the tips involuntarily into a slight smile, and I replied, “Yeah, I, uh, I heard you talking a bit.” I rolled myself over after saying that, rising into what felt like a comfortable position. It felt kind of like I was laying down, but on my stomach, with my legs underneath me. I moved around a bit then, putting my head closer towards where I had heard the voice coming from, and wrapping the blanket tighter around myself.

We walked in silence for a few seconds after that, surrounded by nothing but the sound of wooden wheels turning over smooth rocks, before I was given an answer to my question. “My parents… my parents decided that I was older now, old enough to learn some more about what it means to be a dragon. So they sent me out to meet with the griffons at the trading port, where they ordered something for me to pick up.”

I waited for the words to continue, but hearing no more, broke the silence and asked, “Why am I here, then?”

The silence rang loudly in my ears. I decided to ask a different question instead. “Okay, well, what did you pick up?”

I’m not too sure what I expected. I should have figured it out then, but I guess the pieces just hadn’t all fit together yet for me. “You.” The words came quietly, and although they were louder than when they were being mumbled earlier, I still strained to hear them.

I wasn’t quite sure what to respond. As far as I knew, I had just been told that I had just been bought. Deciding I needed some clarification, I replied, “What do you mean?”

A sigh. “Look, I didn’t want my parents to buy more ponies. I’m fine with just gems and other stuff, it’s just… they’re the ones who made me do it, alright? And, plus, you’re just a colt. I don’t even go near adult ponies, let alone foals.”

I tried to understand what I was being told. Of course, I had next to no understanding of what was being explained to me. “Yeah, uh, I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

Another sigh. “Are you thick in the head or something? I know they told me you had gotten roughed up, but those traders never said you were that bad.” Frustration was evident here, laid thickly on every word.

Not sure on how to respond, or how to continue, really, I just stayed quiet. I wasn’t sure what I could say that wouldn’t increase the frustration, since just about everything so far had done so. Maybe silence would be the best option.

So we were alone together. Nothing but the sharpness of the frigid wind whipping around us, threatening to slice us into two.

“My name is Dale. In case you were wondering.” The silence shattered.

“Hi, Dale.” I didn’t know what else to say. So the silence solidified once more.

Suddenly, shattered silence again. “What’s your name?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but hesitated. My name. It was on the tip of my tongue, I knew that I knew it, I just… didn’t. “I don’t know,” I said truthfully.

“What do you mean? How do you not know your own name?” Surprise filled Dale’s voice, threatening to tip, and spill out on the both of us.

Consternation slowly seeped into my own words, and I replied, “I mean… I think I know it. I can almost remember it, I just… can’t. I don’t know why.”

Dale didn’t respond after that. I almost spoke again, but I bit my tongue, refraining from doing so, just in case I accidentally caused more frustration. I’m glad I did so, because then Dale said, “Well, I guess I’ll just call you Sage for now, then. I mean, your coat looks the same color as it, so it’ll work until you can remember your real name.”

I rolled the word around in my head a bit. Sage. It gave me a slight tingle in the back of my head, and I could have sworn I almost remembered something just then, something to do with Sage. But when I concentrated on it, it just… vanished, gone into thin air.

So we moved back into silence. The wheels continued to turn lightly over the ground, the entire cart vibrating ever so slightly, providing the only reprieve from the whistle of the wind. I don’t know how long I laid there for, alone with only my thoughts. I want to say I might have fallen asleep at one point, but I can’t say for sure.

I do know, however, that at one point, I did muster up the will to ask something that had been nagging at the back of my mind. “Hey, uh, Dale? Are you a boy? Or are you a girl?” I don’t know why that particular question needled at my mind, but I knew that it was something that I just didn’t know on my own. Hopefully I would get an answer, and not more frustration.

Confused, Dale responded, “Uh, I mean, I get that you’re a pony, and I’m a dragon and all, but can’t you tell from looking at me that I’m not girl?”

“I didn’t even know that you were a dragon.” A pin could have dropped just then, and it would have only been drown out by the wind.

His voice giving away his befuddlement, he said, “Uh… are you… wait… what do you mean by that?”

“Like, how was I supposed to know you’re a dragon? And, why does it feel weird that you say you’re a dragon?”

He paused then, taking a few moments to think carefully on his words. “I mean, I didn’t know that you wouldn’t know what a dragon looks like. I thought that at least in some history books we would get mentioned, or maybe from your parents, or… or something.”

I cocked my head to the side. “How am I supposed to know what you look like? It’s not like I can see you.”

Puzzled, Dale responded, “What are you talking about? I’m only a few feet ahead of you.”

“Well, I mean, I can tell that you’re not that far from me. But I can’t see you.” He thought I could see? I thought I had been able to, at least, I think I use to be able to, but I guess if I never told him, he probably wouldn’t know.

Trepidation crept its way into his words, and with care, he said, “Um, Sage, are you… are you blind?”

My mind filled with an image just then, an image of… black. Not exactly very far off from what it had been filled with normally, but at the same time, this was different. I didn’t know why, but it just seemed like this was what I thought of when I heard the word blind. Almost, but not exactly, what I saw. “I… think so? I don’t know, I just… can’t see anything.”

I’m not sure if my answer was what he wanted or expected to hear, but it was the truth, as best I could give. If I thought blindness equated to seeing black, and I didn’t really see anything, then I guess… I guess I was blind.

He chuckled nervously then, and replied, “My bad, I, uh, I nodded there. Sorry. But, uh, so is that why your eyes are that shade of blue? They look a bit like some of the older dragons do, mostly the ones who are also, well, blind.”

My lips formed into a smile, small as it was, and I felt myself instinctively shrug, my shoulders slightly moving upwards. “I don’t know. I didn’t even know my eyes were blue.”

“So… how long have you been blind, then?”

“I don’t know. Pretty much as long as I can remember, I guess, except for when I was in that cave. Before that, I wouldn't know.”

“You were in a cave? And you could see? How long ago was that?”

I shrugged again, this time of my own accord. It probably came out a bit jerkier this time, though. “I don’t know, right before Gwen and Glenn had me, I think.”

He seemed to think then, a pause in conversation that felt to last a little too long, before quietly asking, “Did they make you blind?”

I felt myself frown at his question. “What do you mean? How could they make me blind? They couldn’t make all those rocks start falling, there weren’t even there. Plus, there was a lot of them, and I don’t think they could move all of those at once.”

Speaking a bit louder again, he continued, “Oh, okay. That’s good, I was hoping they hadn’t.”

So we went back to traveling. It was mostly in silence, save for the minute snippets of conversation we would have. I’m not entirely sure how long we traveled for, or how far. As far as I knew, we only made one stop, when we had passed by what I thought was probably a cave, although there were probably more. I think that I periodically fell asleep over an over. I just always felt… tired. I don’t know how to explain it. It wasn’t something that I could just sleep once, and be rested, and ready to go. I just… kept falling back asleep, I think.

Since I couldn’t really keep track of time, I was surprised when I heard Dale say, “Alright, we’ve been traveling for a while. I think we should probably stop at the town coming up ahead.”

I think I had just been coming out of another sleep, because I groggily asked, “How far away is it?”

“About another hour or so. It doesn’t look more than a few miles away. It’s a small port settlement set up by some ponies, so they shouldn’t bother us too much.”

I finally picked up on the word that I had heard both him, and Gwen and Glenn using, pony. I don’t know why, but until then, I hadn’t really thought too much of it. I decided to ask. “Why do you keep on using that word, ponies? What does it mean?”

“Uh, you know, a pony? The thing you are?” Confusion was evident in his voice.

“What are you talking about? I’m not a pony.” What was he talking about? I might not remember too much, but as far as I knew, I wasn’t a pony, whatever that was.

“Okay...? Well, if you’re not a pony, what are you, then?”

My mouth opened up to respond, but my voice caught in my throat. I wasn’t a pony… right? At least, I didn’t think so. I knew I was something else, something that was just on the tip of my tongue, right where I could almost say it. I shook my head in denial. “I… don’t know. I guess I’m just… just me.”

“So… you’re a pony, then?”

I bit my tongue, then sighed deeply. “I guess. I don’t know, I just can’t remember.”

He chuckled lightly at that. “Alright, whatever you say.”

Being around Dale was… different. He wasn’t like Glenn and Gwen. I couldn’t really remember them too well. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t with them for too long, or because I slept too much, I don’t know. My memories of them were hazy at best. But being with Dale gave me a sort of feeling, something I couldn’t quite explain. It was like he gave me something I didn’t have before, something that Glenn and Gwen either couldn’t, or wouldn’t.

It was like… he represented something to me. What it was, I didn’t know. It felt important, though, like I had to have it. Whatever it was, I was glad I had it with me, through Dale. Hopefully I would be able to keep it.

I shifted under the rough blanket, huddling within its meager warmth. It was going to be a while longer before we got to the port. Hunkering down to wait seemed as good an option as any. Maybe I would fall asleep, and when I woke up, we'll have gotten to the port with all those other ponies that were like me, or whoever else was there.

Author's Note

Hello once more! Glad to see some of you have chosen to stick with the story! Well, be sure to continue on to the next chapter, then. Don't worry, the other ponies will be here shortly~

Oh, and also, be sure to leave a review in the comments section, and mention any errors you find. I tried my best to find them all, but you know how some of those pesky errors can always slip through.