Apogee Plays With Fireby Liam Miller ProductionsChaptersChapter 1: The Black and Red ColtChapter 2: Past ExperiencesChapter 3: HospitalityChapter 4: TomorrowChapter 1: The Black and Red ColtAuthor's Note It took me a bit to write this chapter but I finally finished it! I hope everyone enjoys it and let me know if you want me to change it later. Chapter 1: The Black and Red Colt The story begins with an enthusiastic young filly and her father. The young filly has yellow body fur, a chest fluff, a cyan-striped mane and tail, pink eyes, freckles on her face, and a smile that might be contagious; this young filly’s name is Apogee. Her father has a thinner mane as it is also striped, but the colors of red and yellow. He also has brown eyes and a collar with a black tie; his name is Jet Stream. They are out in the woods, working on a tree-house for Apogee so she can hang out there with her friends; however, she had been hopping around in excitement rather than helping her father build it. Her father did not mind it, however, he loves his daughter too much to kill her spirit; he would just smile and keep building. On this particular day, they are building together and Apogee is humming a sweet tone to herself as they do not know that something is lurking deeper within that forest. Deeper within the forest, there is a little colt resting with everything but peace. His back is in pain and he has scratches and bruises all over his black-fur body. He has a mane that is as red as his eyes and tail. His mane and tail, however, were messed up and his black body fur was even more dirty than a farmer. He groaned a bit subconsciously, but he is used to it at this point as he had always slept on tree branches for most of his life. He’s resting on his tree branch with his eyelids closed as little sparkles of fire came out of his mouth while he snores softly. A banging noise echoes throughout the forest and the colt’s right ear twitches to the sound of it; this noise kept him from sleeping. Apogee swung around a screwdriver, singing to herself, even though her father warned her not to. She had drowned him out through her cheerful singing, only for it to stop after it flies out of her hoof and into the forest. Jet Stream was about to facehoof as a loud, terrifying screech was heard that terrified both him and Apogee; at this point, he no longer cared about the wrench as his first instinct was to grab Apogee and take her inside. He then grabbed a revolver from his living room drawer and went out into the forest to hunt the source of the screech; however, he never found the source of the screech nor did he find the screwdriver that Apogee had thrown into the forest. He gave up and went back to check on his daughter, and she was a bit shaken as he came back. Jet Stream put his hoof on Apogee’s head and looked into her eyes. “You okay?” he asked with a worried tone. Apogee nodded and looked back into his eyes. “Y-Yes daddy,” she responded, “I’m okay.” She then lowered her head and looked to the ground. “I’m sorry,” she said with a sad tone. Jet Stream shook his head and hugged her tightly. “I don’t care so long as you are okay,” he said as he stroked her hair. Apogee still felt guilty, but she hugged him back anyways. She had a plan in her mind to go look for it as her father fell asleep, meaning she would be in the forest by herself at night. That night, her father had fell asleep as Apogee sneaked out, as planned, and trotted cautiously by her incomplete tree-house and past the trees into the forest. She trotted nervously as she had never been by herself in the forest as dark as it was; she did not plan to be so afraid of what may be lurking in the forest, but she had to be brave to get her father’s wrench back. She noticed a mud print of a wrench as she was trotting, but the wrench was not there; she knew at that moment that whatever it hit had the capabilities of a pony as there was no muzzle print around the wrench for it to be picked up by the mouth. Her eye for detail came from school as she had began to get into forensic science, even though she did not enjoy the class nearly as much as she enjoyed the topic of space. Apogee made a mental note of the print before trotting further into the forest, not aware that eyes within the forest had their sights on her. It was not until later that she had a feeling that she was being watched. She turned her head but saw nothing before turning around and continuing to trot along. Apogee then arrived in front of an open field within the forest; it was a peaceful field and quite beautiful as it shined in the moonlight. Apogee smiled and laid on the grass of the field, staring up to the moon and felt some peace. The peace was soon interrupted as she then heard a howl that made her heart begin to race. She jolted up and looked around her, and she could see yellow lights surrounding her. The lights got closer as Apogee’s heart began to race more as she could see what they were; they were timberwolves. The timberwolves were all around Apogee, circling her and she was more petrified as ever. Her heart pounded out of her chest; she felt as though she would die from a heart attack before she could be mauled down by the timberwolves. The timberwolves came closer and closer, Apogee tried to fly away but a timberwolf instantly pinned her down to the ground. Apogee looked up at the timberwolf, terrified as the timberwolf drools onto her face. “P-Please don’t hurt me.” Apogee stuttered very nervously as she looked up into the timberwolf’s primal eyes. The timberwolf was not gonna let her go and she knew it. She closed her eyes tightly in fear before she could feel the timberwolf lifted off of her, along with the sound of a squeal. When she opened her eyes, there was a black and red colt standing over her in a defensive position. Apogee widened her eyes in surprise that not only did he save her, but that the timberwolves also seemed to be terrified of him. Despite their fear, a couple of them had decided to charge at the black and red colt; the colt had dodged one of them and grabbed the right leg of the other, swinging it around and knocking it into the other timberwolf. The timberwolves then formed back together but didn’t bother to charge back at the colt, but they instead ran off and so did the others. This left Apogee with the mysterious black and red colt. Apogee looked up to him, eyes sparkling in awe as he then looked to her with his red eyes. “Let’s get you home,” the figure spoke as he then began to trot into the forest. Apogee wasted no time in following him, now both in amazement and curiousness. “Who are you?” she asked the figure. The figure then stopped and turned around, looking at her as he then replied: “My name is Thomas Suite.” Chapter 2: Past ExperiencesThe curious filly, Apogee, followed the colt who had saved her from impending death; very curious about who he was as they trotted along the path she took from her house. After being saved, she was not too sure what to say; part of her wanted to thank him, but part of her wanted to go home quickly and be in the safety of her own house. She then decided in her mind to say something, but what could she say? A simple thanks wouldn’t be enough, he just saved her life and she can’t just repay him with a simple one-letter word. She tried to think of many things to say before she finally just spoke without thinking. “What is home like for you?” she asked before widening her eyes and instantly feeling ridiculous. Thomas did not answer and kept trotting, leaving Apogee wondering whether or not he heard her but didn’t bother to ask again. They would get to halfway on their path before she would hear him reply. “It is not a happy story, but do you insist on hearing it?” he asked with a rather noticeable sad tone. Apogee’s ears lowered as she was definitely nervous to answer now; she did not want to upset someone who had just saved her. She didn’t respond and left a face of uncertainty for a minute before she heard him respond. “What about you?” Thomas responded, still facing away from her. Apogee looked up at him, eyes wide and ears low. She was not comfortable telling her story and she kept on trotting behind him. “Why do you want to know?” she finally asked after 10 minutes of trotting back home. “You don’t have to answer if you do not want to,” he responded and kept on trotting. Apogee’s question was left unanswered, leaving her ears lowered as she trotted behind him before she started to let the words loose from her mouth. “When I was born, my parents seemed very happy,” Apogee explained with her head down to the ground a bit. “They were always smiling whenever I was around and hugged and kissed. Both of them had dreams of reaching the stars, which I think may have been the reason that they split away from each other.” Thomas had stopped and turned around to her, now very intrigued with her story. Apogee had instinctively stopped along with him as she continued her story. “When I was five years old,” she continued, “I began hearing my mom and dad argue back and forth constantly and I think that’s when my mom began drinking. As I got older, I found out that my dad intentionally got my mom pregnant so he can stay with her. Instead of going to the stars, she is stuck building machines and drinking. As for my dad, he is busy with his intern at work but they still take care of me. I would also end up going back and forth between my parents so I can spend time with each of them, either that or they can just get away from me for a bit.” Thomas’ ears lowered before he asked: “Well, do they do fun stuff with you?” Apogee’s eyes looked back up to his face and her ears raise a bit. “Yeah, we do all sorts of fun stuff!” she exclaimed with her innocent and optimistic smile. Thomas smiled back at her, but his ears were still lowered; he was wearing a smile that contained sadness and relief. “That’s good to hear,” he responded, “at least you have fun times with your parents.” “What about you?” Apogee asked sweetly. “What is it like with your parents? Did you sneak out too?” Thomas’ smile quickly faded and he took a second before responding: “I don’t have any.” Apogee’s ears quickly folded downwards and her wings folded inwards. Her eyes widened with a sudden feeling of regret and sorrow. She began to feel bad for asking, but that’s when Thomas continued. “My parents did not intend for me to be born, it was just a one-night stand after meeting at a local bar. When my mother found out she was pregnant, they considered aborting me. My mother decided to keep me, but my father hated the thought of having to deal with me. You wanna know something funny?” Apogee did not answer, she was frozen stiff as she did not like where this story was going. “Fun little fact for you: if you put headphones on your belly while you’re pregnant and you play a song, the song will keep the filly calm during its early years and calm the filly. I heard nothing but arguing while I was in the womb, and nothing but arguing after I was born. Since I heard arguing while I was still in the womb, I remained calm as they argued loudly. It was like that for the first seven years of my life, but then it happened.” Apogee shook in her hooves, she wanted it to stop but didn’t want to speak up about it. She was afraid that he could break down at any moment and she did not want to see that happen, but she also did not want to be rude to him since he saved her and is helping her back to her home; therefore, she simply let Thomas carry on with the story of his past. “Right on my fifth birthday,” he continued, “my father had enough of the arguing. He came in and punched my mother to the ground. He then got on top and began beating her down with his bare hooves. She screamed for help and reached out for me, but I couldn’t do anything… I was too weak and too scared. She died right in front of me, then he turned to me and began to kick me around. I was like a soccer ball as I got kicked around and slammed against a wall, once again I was too weak to do anything and I was even weaker as he kicked me around. For some reason, he did not kill me by beating me in; instead, he lit a fire in the house and left me there to die. Miraculously, I survived thanks to the local fire department and my father was arrested for murder, attempted murder, and arson. I was placed into a foster care but it was a hellhole like my home. With nopony adopting me, I left and hid in the forest since then.” Apogee was shaken up from the story; a word could hardly escape her as she stared with tears in her eyes that began to fall down her eyes and down her cheek before falling onto the ground. She struggled to even find a word that she could form; however, a minute would pass before she finally spoke once more. “Did you have any good memories?” she asked in hopes that he could cheer up the mood. Thomas let out a smile before responding: “Yeah, I did. I met a dragon who had ancient fire magic and he trained me and passed his magic down to me.” Apogee tilted her head and looked at him in confusion. “Magic?” she repeated with an eyebrow raised. “You’re not a unicorn though.” Thomas chuckled to himself before the area began to grow hot, and an aura of flames arose from his body; soon, his body was surrounded in flames and he was unharmed by it. Apogee stared at him with wide eyes and her ears pointed upwards; she was fascinated by the scene as she had never seen anypony do anything quite like it before, especially since it was an earth pony. Thomas then reverted back to his normal state, unsure whether she liked it or not until she smiled brightly. “That’s AWESOME!” she exclaimed with a cheer. “You’re like an anime character!” Thomas tilted his head and raised his right eyebrow; now he was confused. “What is an anime character?” he asked with a confused expression. Apogee giggled and trotted with Thomas back to the house, telling him about all sorts of things before they eventually reached the house. It was almost morning, and Thomas was at the front door with her. “I guess this is it huh?” he asked with slight disappointment. “Yeah, I guess it is.” she answered with a bit more disappointment. “Maybe we will see each other again.” Thomas smiled a slight bit, doubtful of it ever happening and left her on that note. He disappeared into the trees before she trotted inside the house. The next morning, she woke up and went over to her father who was making coffee and preparing for work. She wanted to tell him all about what had happened as they kept replaying in her mind, but she was not sure and thought about it. Eventually, she went up and poked her dad on his right side, causing him to turn to her. “What’s up Apogee?” he asked whilst in a grumpy mood. “Dad,” Apogee spoke with a serious and determined tone, “I want you to meet someone who helped save my life.” Chapter 3: HospitalityThe next day, Apogee and her father had spent their lunch break trotting into the forest. Apogee had explained everything about that one night she met Thomas to Jet Stream, and he was set on meeting this colt if they could find him. They trotted through the forest for what seemed like a couple of hours, when in reality it was only forty-five minutes; their legs were starting to get tired and worn out and Jet Stream’s patience began to wear thin. “Are you sure you didn’t just have a wild dream?” he asked with a slight annoyed tone. As she trotted, she looked to him as she then grew a bit offended by the question. “Yes,” she replied sternly, “I know he was there. There was no way I could dream him up. Who do I know that that has black body fur or a red mane?” “There are also ponies you have seen or met with those colors though,” her father explained. “There’s that one black colt you hung out with once, and then there’s that filly with the red mane that you are friends with. The mind can take things from what we see and mix them into something that’s not real.” Apogee huffed and began to get annoyed by her own father’s disbelief. “He is real!” she exclaimed before pointing her left hoof at him. “We’ll find him and you’ll see!” She then planted her hoof back on the ground and began to trot, Jet Stream letting out a sigh as he then continued to follow her. They then approached an open field, Apogee’s eyes widening and sparkling brightly; she immediately recognized that this place when she first met Thomas. “This is it!” she exclaimed excitedly. “This is the place!” Jet Stream looked around, seeing signs of struggle from the dirt tracks and his eyes widened a bit. He was not sure what to make of it, and this made him concerned. “Apogee,” he said softly, “we should go home.” “No way!” she responded with glitter in her eyes. “He has to be around here somewhere!” She looked around for anything that might indicate where he went, but didn’t see anything that could help her. Her father was no longer annoyed by being there, he was now concerned and confused about being there. His nerves kept making him want to just grab his daughter and run out. This then led to another thought: how were they going to get out? They had ventured out into the forest for a long while and he was too concerned to think of a way back. At this point, he knew that if they found this mysterious colt then he would either help them home or do unspeakable things to them; either way, he had no choice but to take a chance and trust his daughter. They kept on trotting as the sky began to darken; Jet raised his head to look up to the sky as he then saw storm clouds. He groaned as he knew it would begin to storm soon. The rain droplets began to drizzle down on them, making them both slightly miserable as they trotted on; even Apogee began to have thoughts about just going home at that point. She then saw something up ahead, a light coming out from a cave ahead of them. Her ears perked up and her eyes beamed with excitement, smiling brightly. “Come on Dad!” she shouted to him. “It’s him! He’s in there!” She then began to trot even faster, rushing into the cave, Jet following behind as he wanted to seek shelter from the rain. They ran in and the first thing they see a black and red colt by a fireplace, smoke rising from the fireplace and onto the ceiling of the cavern. Apogee froze still and kept smiling, slowly getting more and more joyful as her father stood frozen in utter doubt and confusion; he was not sure what to think or say, or what the colt would try to do with them there. The black and red colt then turned to them, his eyes widening in surprise as he saw the two of them. “Y-You again…” Thomas stuttered out in visible shock. “Hi again!” Apogee replied cheerily as she then waved her right hoof at him. “I wanted to introduce you to my dad since you saved me!” Apogee then looked to Jet, who was still frozen and not saying a word or giving any expression. She then nudged him and snapped him out of it as he began to stutter out. “H-H-Hello… Thomas, was it?” he asked in a very uncertain tone. Thomas nodded and replied, “Yeah, it is; what’s yours?” “O-Oh!” Jet stuttered. “Um… my name is Jet Stream.” Thomas just nodded again before speaking again: “Well, there’s a huge storm coming so you may as well sit down. I have some food I can cook here.” Thomas got up and Jet raised his left eyebrow; his confusion soon turned into curiosity. “How do you know if a storm is-” He spoke before being interrupted by the loud crackling of thunder that made both him and Apogee nearly jump out of their body fur. Jet didn’t say any more as he just sat down on one of the rocks by the fire, along with Apogee. They watched as Thomas grabbed some meat from a bag in the corner, along with a pan, as he then came back to the fire. He put the meat on the pan and sat as he let it sizzle over the fire. The meat was none other than pig meat, but neither Apogee nor Jet could tell. Both of them watched Thomas cooking; Apogee tried to scoot a bit closer to Thomas, but Jet grabbed Apogee and made her stay with him and she sulked slightly. An hour seemed to pass by before Thomas was finished cooking; he went around to them and handed them some of the cooked pork. Their hunger quickly made themselves known as they munched down on the food, eating quickly and finishing and becoming satisfied. The storm had then cleared up outside not too long after they had finished feasting. Apogee smiled brightly and stood up as she looked to Thomas. “That was awesome!” she exclaimed as she was satisfied. She trotted over to hug Thomas, but he pushed her away; this surprised her as she then trotted back. Jet Stream looked down to Thomas, thinking to himself before trotting up to him. “Hey,” he said to Thomas. Thomas looked up to him as he continued: “You saved my daughter and showed us hospitality that you didn’t have to give to trespassing strangers; you don’t have a home, right?” Thomas nodded sadly, not saying a word. “In that case,” Jet continued, “I want to pay you back; how about you come live with us?” Thomas’ eyes widened in shock at the statement, as well as Apogee’s. Unlike Thomas, her eyes began to beam as she rushed over and got up to his face. “Yes!” she exclaimed in excitement. “Come on! You can get a home and we can have so much fun together!” Thomas just sat there in shock and awe, he never expected an offer like this before. He wanted to agree badly, but doubt and painful memories entered his mind and forced him to just sit there. His thoughts were interrupted as he then felt a pair of hooves wrap around his neck, making him snap to the person who was wrapping their hooves around his neck; this pony was none other than Apogee who had been standing next to him. She looked up to him with excited eyes, wanting him to join them badly. Thomas looked into her eyes, and suddenly a new feeling had entered him that he never felt before. He then looked up to Jet Stream, biting his lip. “Yes, please.” he replied. Chapter 4: TomorrowSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter 1: The Black and Red ColtAuthor's Note It took me a bit to write this chapter but I finally finished it! I hope everyone enjoys it and let me know if you want me to change it later. Chapter 1: The Black and Red Colt The story begins with an enthusiastic young filly and her father. The young filly has yellow body fur, a chest fluff, a cyan-striped mane and tail, pink eyes, freckles on her face, and a smile that might be contagious; this young filly’s name is Apogee. Her father has a thinner mane as it is also striped, but the colors of red and yellow. He also has brown eyes and a collar with a black tie; his name is Jet Stream. They are out in the woods, working on a tree-house for Apogee so she can hang out there with her friends; however, she had been hopping around in excitement rather than helping her father build it. Her father did not mind it, however, he loves his daughter too much to kill her spirit; he would just smile and keep building. On this particular day, they are building together and Apogee is humming a sweet tone to herself as they do not know that something is lurking deeper within that forest. Deeper within the forest, there is a little colt resting with everything but peace. His back is in pain and he has scratches and bruises all over his black-fur body. He has a mane that is as red as his eyes and tail. His mane and tail, however, were messed up and his black body fur was even more dirty than a farmer. He groaned a bit subconsciously, but he is used to it at this point as he had always slept on tree branches for most of his life. He’s resting on his tree branch with his eyelids closed as little sparkles of fire came out of his mouth while he snores softly. A banging noise echoes throughout the forest and the colt’s right ear twitches to the sound of it; this noise kept him from sleeping. Apogee swung around a screwdriver, singing to herself, even though her father warned her not to. She had drowned him out through her cheerful singing, only for it to stop after it flies out of her hoof and into the forest. Jet Stream was about to facehoof as a loud, terrifying screech was heard that terrified both him and Apogee; at this point, he no longer cared about the wrench as his first instinct was to grab Apogee and take her inside. He then grabbed a revolver from his living room drawer and went out into the forest to hunt the source of the screech; however, he never found the source of the screech nor did he find the screwdriver that Apogee had thrown into the forest. He gave up and went back to check on his daughter, and she was a bit shaken as he came back. Jet Stream put his hoof on Apogee’s head and looked into her eyes. “You okay?” he asked with a worried tone. Apogee nodded and looked back into his eyes. “Y-Yes daddy,” she responded, “I’m okay.” She then lowered her head and looked to the ground. “I’m sorry,” she said with a sad tone. Jet Stream shook his head and hugged her tightly. “I don’t care so long as you are okay,” he said as he stroked her hair. Apogee still felt guilty, but she hugged him back anyways. She had a plan in her mind to go look for it as her father fell asleep, meaning she would be in the forest by herself at night. That night, her father had fell asleep as Apogee sneaked out, as planned, and trotted cautiously by her incomplete tree-house and past the trees into the forest. She trotted nervously as she had never been by herself in the forest as dark as it was; she did not plan to be so afraid of what may be lurking in the forest, but she had to be brave to get her father’s wrench back. She noticed a mud print of a wrench as she was trotting, but the wrench was not there; she knew at that moment that whatever it hit had the capabilities of a pony as there was no muzzle print around the wrench for it to be picked up by the mouth. Her eye for detail came from school as she had began to get into forensic science, even though she did not enjoy the class nearly as much as she enjoyed the topic of space. Apogee made a mental note of the print before trotting further into the forest, not aware that eyes within the forest had their sights on her. It was not until later that she had a feeling that she was being watched. She turned her head but saw nothing before turning around and continuing to trot along. Apogee then arrived in front of an open field within the forest; it was a peaceful field and quite beautiful as it shined in the moonlight. Apogee smiled and laid on the grass of the field, staring up to the moon and felt some peace. The peace was soon interrupted as she then heard a howl that made her heart begin to race. She jolted up and looked around her, and she could see yellow lights surrounding her. The lights got closer as Apogee’s heart began to race more as she could see what they were; they were timberwolves. The timberwolves were all around Apogee, circling her and she was more petrified as ever. Her heart pounded out of her chest; she felt as though she would die from a heart attack before she could be mauled down by the timberwolves. The timberwolves came closer and closer, Apogee tried to fly away but a timberwolf instantly pinned her down to the ground. Apogee looked up at the timberwolf, terrified as the timberwolf drools onto her face. “P-Please don’t hurt me.” Apogee stuttered very nervously as she looked up into the timberwolf’s primal eyes. The timberwolf was not gonna let her go and she knew it. She closed her eyes tightly in fear before she could feel the timberwolf lifted off of her, along with the sound of a squeal. When she opened her eyes, there was a black and red colt standing over her in a defensive position. Apogee widened her eyes in surprise that not only did he save her, but that the timberwolves also seemed to be terrified of him. Despite their fear, a couple of them had decided to charge at the black and red colt; the colt had dodged one of them and grabbed the right leg of the other, swinging it around and knocking it into the other timberwolf. The timberwolves then formed back together but didn’t bother to charge back at the colt, but they instead ran off and so did the others. This left Apogee with the mysterious black and red colt. Apogee looked up to him, eyes sparkling in awe as he then looked to her with his red eyes. “Let’s get you home,” the figure spoke as he then began to trot into the forest. Apogee wasted no time in following him, now both in amazement and curiousness. “Who are you?” she asked the figure. The figure then stopped and turned around, looking at her as he then replied: “My name is Thomas Suite.”
Chapter 2: Past ExperiencesThe curious filly, Apogee, followed the colt who had saved her from impending death; very curious about who he was as they trotted along the path she took from her house. After being saved, she was not too sure what to say; part of her wanted to thank him, but part of her wanted to go home quickly and be in the safety of her own house. She then decided in her mind to say something, but what could she say? A simple thanks wouldn’t be enough, he just saved her life and she can’t just repay him with a simple one-letter word. She tried to think of many things to say before she finally just spoke without thinking. “What is home like for you?” she asked before widening her eyes and instantly feeling ridiculous. Thomas did not answer and kept trotting, leaving Apogee wondering whether or not he heard her but didn’t bother to ask again. They would get to halfway on their path before she would hear him reply. “It is not a happy story, but do you insist on hearing it?” he asked with a rather noticeable sad tone. Apogee’s ears lowered as she was definitely nervous to answer now; she did not want to upset someone who had just saved her. She didn’t respond and left a face of uncertainty for a minute before she heard him respond. “What about you?” Thomas responded, still facing away from her. Apogee looked up at him, eyes wide and ears low. She was not comfortable telling her story and she kept on trotting behind him. “Why do you want to know?” she finally asked after 10 minutes of trotting back home. “You don’t have to answer if you do not want to,” he responded and kept on trotting. Apogee’s question was left unanswered, leaving her ears lowered as she trotted behind him before she started to let the words loose from her mouth. “When I was born, my parents seemed very happy,” Apogee explained with her head down to the ground a bit. “They were always smiling whenever I was around and hugged and kissed. Both of them had dreams of reaching the stars, which I think may have been the reason that they split away from each other.” Thomas had stopped and turned around to her, now very intrigued with her story. Apogee had instinctively stopped along with him as she continued her story. “When I was five years old,” she continued, “I began hearing my mom and dad argue back and forth constantly and I think that’s when my mom began drinking. As I got older, I found out that my dad intentionally got my mom pregnant so he can stay with her. Instead of going to the stars, she is stuck building machines and drinking. As for my dad, he is busy with his intern at work but they still take care of me. I would also end up going back and forth between my parents so I can spend time with each of them, either that or they can just get away from me for a bit.” Thomas’ ears lowered before he asked: “Well, do they do fun stuff with you?” Apogee’s eyes looked back up to his face and her ears raise a bit. “Yeah, we do all sorts of fun stuff!” she exclaimed with her innocent and optimistic smile. Thomas smiled back at her, but his ears were still lowered; he was wearing a smile that contained sadness and relief. “That’s good to hear,” he responded, “at least you have fun times with your parents.” “What about you?” Apogee asked sweetly. “What is it like with your parents? Did you sneak out too?” Thomas’ smile quickly faded and he took a second before responding: “I don’t have any.” Apogee’s ears quickly folded downwards and her wings folded inwards. Her eyes widened with a sudden feeling of regret and sorrow. She began to feel bad for asking, but that’s when Thomas continued. “My parents did not intend for me to be born, it was just a one-night stand after meeting at a local bar. When my mother found out she was pregnant, they considered aborting me. My mother decided to keep me, but my father hated the thought of having to deal with me. You wanna know something funny?” Apogee did not answer, she was frozen stiff as she did not like where this story was going. “Fun little fact for you: if you put headphones on your belly while you’re pregnant and you play a song, the song will keep the filly calm during its early years and calm the filly. I heard nothing but arguing while I was in the womb, and nothing but arguing after I was born. Since I heard arguing while I was still in the womb, I remained calm as they argued loudly. It was like that for the first seven years of my life, but then it happened.” Apogee shook in her hooves, she wanted it to stop but didn’t want to speak up about it. She was afraid that he could break down at any moment and she did not want to see that happen, but she also did not want to be rude to him since he saved her and is helping her back to her home; therefore, she simply let Thomas carry on with the story of his past. “Right on my fifth birthday,” he continued, “my father had enough of the arguing. He came in and punched my mother to the ground. He then got on top and began beating her down with his bare hooves. She screamed for help and reached out for me, but I couldn’t do anything… I was too weak and too scared. She died right in front of me, then he turned to me and began to kick me around. I was like a soccer ball as I got kicked around and slammed against a wall, once again I was too weak to do anything and I was even weaker as he kicked me around. For some reason, he did not kill me by beating me in; instead, he lit a fire in the house and left me there to die. Miraculously, I survived thanks to the local fire department and my father was arrested for murder, attempted murder, and arson. I was placed into a foster care but it was a hellhole like my home. With nopony adopting me, I left and hid in the forest since then.” Apogee was shaken up from the story; a word could hardly escape her as she stared with tears in her eyes that began to fall down her eyes and down her cheek before falling onto the ground. She struggled to even find a word that she could form; however, a minute would pass before she finally spoke once more. “Did you have any good memories?” she asked in hopes that he could cheer up the mood. Thomas let out a smile before responding: “Yeah, I did. I met a dragon who had ancient fire magic and he trained me and passed his magic down to me.” Apogee tilted her head and looked at him in confusion. “Magic?” she repeated with an eyebrow raised. “You’re not a unicorn though.” Thomas chuckled to himself before the area began to grow hot, and an aura of flames arose from his body; soon, his body was surrounded in flames and he was unharmed by it. Apogee stared at him with wide eyes and her ears pointed upwards; she was fascinated by the scene as she had never seen anypony do anything quite like it before, especially since it was an earth pony. Thomas then reverted back to his normal state, unsure whether she liked it or not until she smiled brightly. “That’s AWESOME!” she exclaimed with a cheer. “You’re like an anime character!” Thomas tilted his head and raised his right eyebrow; now he was confused. “What is an anime character?” he asked with a confused expression. Apogee giggled and trotted with Thomas back to the house, telling him about all sorts of things before they eventually reached the house. It was almost morning, and Thomas was at the front door with her. “I guess this is it huh?” he asked with slight disappointment. “Yeah, I guess it is.” she answered with a bit more disappointment. “Maybe we will see each other again.” Thomas smiled a slight bit, doubtful of it ever happening and left her on that note. He disappeared into the trees before she trotted inside the house. The next morning, she woke up and went over to her father who was making coffee and preparing for work. She wanted to tell him all about what had happened as they kept replaying in her mind, but she was not sure and thought about it. Eventually, she went up and poked her dad on his right side, causing him to turn to her. “What’s up Apogee?” he asked whilst in a grumpy mood. “Dad,” Apogee spoke with a serious and determined tone, “I want you to meet someone who helped save my life.”
Chapter 3: HospitalityThe next day, Apogee and her father had spent their lunch break trotting into the forest. Apogee had explained everything about that one night she met Thomas to Jet Stream, and he was set on meeting this colt if they could find him. They trotted through the forest for what seemed like a couple of hours, when in reality it was only forty-five minutes; their legs were starting to get tired and worn out and Jet Stream’s patience began to wear thin. “Are you sure you didn’t just have a wild dream?” he asked with a slight annoyed tone. As she trotted, she looked to him as she then grew a bit offended by the question. “Yes,” she replied sternly, “I know he was there. There was no way I could dream him up. Who do I know that that has black body fur or a red mane?” “There are also ponies you have seen or met with those colors though,” her father explained. “There’s that one black colt you hung out with once, and then there’s that filly with the red mane that you are friends with. The mind can take things from what we see and mix them into something that’s not real.” Apogee huffed and began to get annoyed by her own father’s disbelief. “He is real!” she exclaimed before pointing her left hoof at him. “We’ll find him and you’ll see!” She then planted her hoof back on the ground and began to trot, Jet Stream letting out a sigh as he then continued to follow her. They then approached an open field, Apogee’s eyes widening and sparkling brightly; she immediately recognized that this place when she first met Thomas. “This is it!” she exclaimed excitedly. “This is the place!” Jet Stream looked around, seeing signs of struggle from the dirt tracks and his eyes widened a bit. He was not sure what to make of it, and this made him concerned. “Apogee,” he said softly, “we should go home.” “No way!” she responded with glitter in her eyes. “He has to be around here somewhere!” She looked around for anything that might indicate where he went, but didn’t see anything that could help her. Her father was no longer annoyed by being there, he was now concerned and confused about being there. His nerves kept making him want to just grab his daughter and run out. This then led to another thought: how were they going to get out? They had ventured out into the forest for a long while and he was too concerned to think of a way back. At this point, he knew that if they found this mysterious colt then he would either help them home or do unspeakable things to them; either way, he had no choice but to take a chance and trust his daughter. They kept on trotting as the sky began to darken; Jet raised his head to look up to the sky as he then saw storm clouds. He groaned as he knew it would begin to storm soon. The rain droplets began to drizzle down on them, making them both slightly miserable as they trotted on; even Apogee began to have thoughts about just going home at that point. She then saw something up ahead, a light coming out from a cave ahead of them. Her ears perked up and her eyes beamed with excitement, smiling brightly. “Come on Dad!” she shouted to him. “It’s him! He’s in there!” She then began to trot even faster, rushing into the cave, Jet following behind as he wanted to seek shelter from the rain. They ran in and the first thing they see a black and red colt by a fireplace, smoke rising from the fireplace and onto the ceiling of the cavern. Apogee froze still and kept smiling, slowly getting more and more joyful as her father stood frozen in utter doubt and confusion; he was not sure what to think or say, or what the colt would try to do with them there. The black and red colt then turned to them, his eyes widening in surprise as he saw the two of them. “Y-You again…” Thomas stuttered out in visible shock. “Hi again!” Apogee replied cheerily as she then waved her right hoof at him. “I wanted to introduce you to my dad since you saved me!” Apogee then looked to Jet, who was still frozen and not saying a word or giving any expression. She then nudged him and snapped him out of it as he began to stutter out. “H-H-Hello… Thomas, was it?” he asked in a very uncertain tone. Thomas nodded and replied, “Yeah, it is; what’s yours?” “O-Oh!” Jet stuttered. “Um… my name is Jet Stream.” Thomas just nodded again before speaking again: “Well, there’s a huge storm coming so you may as well sit down. I have some food I can cook here.” Thomas got up and Jet raised his left eyebrow; his confusion soon turned into curiosity. “How do you know if a storm is-” He spoke before being interrupted by the loud crackling of thunder that made both him and Apogee nearly jump out of their body fur. Jet didn’t say any more as he just sat down on one of the rocks by the fire, along with Apogee. They watched as Thomas grabbed some meat from a bag in the corner, along with a pan, as he then came back to the fire. He put the meat on the pan and sat as he let it sizzle over the fire. The meat was none other than pig meat, but neither Apogee nor Jet could tell. Both of them watched Thomas cooking; Apogee tried to scoot a bit closer to Thomas, but Jet grabbed Apogee and made her stay with him and she sulked slightly. An hour seemed to pass by before Thomas was finished cooking; he went around to them and handed them some of the cooked pork. Their hunger quickly made themselves known as they munched down on the food, eating quickly and finishing and becoming satisfied. The storm had then cleared up outside not too long after they had finished feasting. Apogee smiled brightly and stood up as she looked to Thomas. “That was awesome!” she exclaimed as she was satisfied. She trotted over to hug Thomas, but he pushed her away; this surprised her as she then trotted back. Jet Stream looked down to Thomas, thinking to himself before trotting up to him. “Hey,” he said to Thomas. Thomas looked up to him as he continued: “You saved my daughter and showed us hospitality that you didn’t have to give to trespassing strangers; you don’t have a home, right?” Thomas nodded sadly, not saying a word. “In that case,” Jet continued, “I want to pay you back; how about you come live with us?” Thomas’ eyes widened in shock at the statement, as well as Apogee’s. Unlike Thomas, her eyes began to beam as she rushed over and got up to his face. “Yes!” she exclaimed in excitement. “Come on! You can get a home and we can have so much fun together!” Thomas just sat there in shock and awe, he never expected an offer like this before. He wanted to agree badly, but doubt and painful memories entered his mind and forced him to just sit there. His thoughts were interrupted as he then felt a pair of hooves wrap around his neck, making him snap to the person who was wrapping their hooves around his neck; this pony was none other than Apogee who had been standing next to him. She looked up to him with excited eyes, wanting him to join them badly. Thomas looked into her eyes, and suddenly a new feeling had entered him that he never felt before. He then looked up to Jet Stream, biting his lip. “Yes, please.” he replied.
