Apogee Plays With Fire

The 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.