the Other Side of the Coin

by Hydradagon

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Other, Adventure
Length: 6671

destiny should be thought of as a coin, while ones destiny is always true, what about the other?

After a coin is flipped, One destiny is brought to life, one has glory, one is filled with power. the other? never realizes it's true potential until something (say... discord) flips that coin again and the destiny of those who never realized theirs was brought to life, what if they were brought together, what if they became friends, what if there were two sets of elements of harmony?

This is my fist fic, i don't know how it is, written for me and my friends
leave comments and give constructive critisism.

Published 2012-08-28 08:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-03 10:31:41 UTC

The coin is flipped

A coin has two sides forever linked and destined to intertwine at some point. But when a coin is flipped only one side is visible, only one side receives the light of recognition, only one side becomes known while the other remains shadowed and mysterious; unable to form. But what happens when some powerful force flips that coin and for a brief moment both sides become visible, will the other side form into the light of recognition as its predecessor did and if the other side of the coin becomes known; what will happen to the first side.

9:00 A.M.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep click

“Guess that means it’s time to wake up” a silver pony said as he slowly began to drag himself out of bed in order to perform my morning routine. Walking towards the bathroom the stallion takes a look at himself in the mirror, and sees the same thing he’s seen all his life, a rather large Pegasus with blue hair with a white base and red eyes “yep; still me” he begrudgingly said after seeing the black marks on my face, hooves, and flank just above his cutie mark; Which was a plain mirror with a golden Ouroboros around it. Having nothing to do with any of his actual interests in life his cutie mark made it difficult to get a job most places. And that’s why I’m here at Hoofton, he thought. Hoofton- a small village about ninety miles off of ponyville who’s only redeeming quality is a university that specializes in classes of education that most ponies don’t usually dabble in.

Leaving his room in the back of the hallway on his way going down stairs the silver pony recognized a familiar pale lavender blur fly into a room just ahead of him “hey pastel, what’s the rush”

“Did it look like I was rushing” she answered back quickly before brushing her overly long chestnut mane out of her face as just before she started to put it into a braid.

“I just have to finish unpacking before the new pony arrives” pastel added in. but before he could respond she began pulling down boxes and started emptying out their contents over the already cluttered room’s floor

“You moved here almost two years ago, why the sudden interest in finishing your unpacking?” the stallion said as he walked into her room.

“Because if I finish unpacking; then I’m officially moved in and then I won’t be the new pony anymore”

“And why do you have to unpack right now”

“You don’t know, I found out this morning that there’s supposed to be a new pony coming to the dorm, and if there’s a new pony and if I’m still the new pony; then it will look like I’m trying to hoard their new title. Can’t you see I have problems here; Pastel problems. Now help me unpack, quickly markers go there, brushes go here, sketches on the ceiling, quick draws under the rug, paint here not there. THERE IS A RUSH NOW.”

“Ooookay” he says as he does a double take around the messy room he sees that she actually has accomplished a good amount with her drawing in her two years here at gem university as he notices countless drawings strewn across the room in a completely random order covering the original wallpaper in its entirety and even finishing off a second layer of sketches and assignments covering the first; Replacing the mediocrity with perfection.

“Hey Chrome?” Pastel said, suddenly calm

Slightly annoyed, “chrome” said “haven’t I been telling you not to call me that”

Tilting her head slightly pastel said “then what am I supposed to call you”

“I don’t know, use my real name or Chro maestum like I said you could”

“but that’s Booooooooooooooooooooooooooring” she said, throwing her hooves forward in an exaggerated motion “besides, a name like Chrome would match your coat color” she said as she pulled a mirror out of a nearby box to show me.

“I know that, fine; call me what you want, just make sure that it actually has something to do with my name” he says knowing that this probably won’t be the last he hears about that subject

“hey pastel, wasn’t this book due back at the library several weeks ago” picking up a book called Soul Painting: ponykind’s greatest ability, or worst curse?

“wa, wai, waitwaitwaitwait, that book shouldn’t be there it should be sitting on a library shelf” she said frantically as she tried to pull the book from my hooves

“Whoa, whoa, slow down a bit pastel. No need to overreact”

“but I’m not overreacting this book is a very important book that I was only barely able to check out on account of the librarian trusting me, but this book is really late

andthenthelibrarianwon’ttrustmeanymoreandshewon’tletmecheckoutanybooksandtheni’llfailallmytestsandbekickedoutofthedorm AND THEN I”LL STARVE” pastel cried hysterically after mumbling near nonsense

“Hold it pastel you’re not going to starve, you’ll be just fine… and where are you going?” Chrome said in exasperation as she began frantically flying down the long hallway.

“To the library in order to return this book so I won’t have to feed off of the scraps of homeless ponies” she said as she reached the large spiral staircase that marked the end of the dorms and the beginning of the common-room.

As he began flying after pastel he shouted “pastel, wait, what about unpacking your room!?”

“That is irrelevant now” she said not slowing down or looking back to speak to him.

Shortly after pastel had disappeared down the staircase a tall pony carrying an impossibly large stack of what appeared to be video-games. Being that Chrome was already flying in a cramped space he was unable to stray away from the earth-pony’s tower of games and collided. As the games scattered across the hallway and back down the stairs the silver stallion was only able to shout “sorry about that, I’ll help you when I get back”. Leaving the Earth pony with a face of borderline depression and rage, before Chrome had to continue on his way to catch up with pastel who as he left the building Chrome realized that she was a surprisingly good distance away from him damn Chrome thought I guess she really has been working on raising her wing-power.

“But your still not fast enough” Chrome silently dictated to himself as he prepared his large wings for a bit faster of flight. Quickly speeding up he feels the amazing experience of traveling at Wonderbolt tier speeds, the blatantly cool air slicing through your mane, the strain of your wings as you try to break past yourself, but most importantly seeing and feeling other ponies being appearing to be almost thrown at you as you disperse through them; it was exhilarating, inevitably all things must end as the small dot that was originally known as Pastel quickly began to enlarge and chrome was now flying backwards in front of her.

Seemingly not to notice Chrome overtake her in the first place Pastel shouted “ahhh I can’t see, what happened, my vision’s turned chrome” and being that he was flying very close to pastel was grabbed by her and taken down as they began an extended barrel roll across town

“ow, ow, owie owie owie” Pastel said while simultaneously rubbing her flank and head “owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, what was that for chrome, you made me think that I was blind because all I could see was silver” she said, now taking on a quizzical look

“wha, but technically you were the one who panicked and grabbed onto me” he said in exasperation as he pointed his forehoof “hold on, did you say you thought you were blind” Chrome said, giving pastel his forehoof to help her up.

Gladly accepting his offer Pastel grabbed his hoof and got to her feet whimpering “mmhmm”

“you know that when your blind you see blackness not silver right” Chrome said, poking one of many holes in pastel’s earlier statement

Suddenly full of energy Pastel said “how do you know, have you ever been blind before, for all we know there could be no such thing as blindness and all the people who are blind throughout Equestria are really just a part of a secret organization of not-really blind people who pretend to have a disability just so they can have perfectly good ponies feel sorry for them, and eventually they will enact their evil plot to gather all of Equestrian’s pity muffins. Until eventually they have enough muffins to power their muffin laser which they will use to BLOW UP THE MOON, which will cause princess Luna to die.” Pastel said, waving her hooves in random directions.

“wha, uh, hu, u, yes , your right pastel, blind people are all just trying to blow up the moon” Chrome said, rubbing the bridge of his snout with his eyes closed. Completely and utterly unable to comprehend how she came to that conclusion.

“We have to stop them Chrome!” Pastel said, now frantically gripping his shoulders.

“Stop who?” he said, hoping she wasn’t talking about what he thought she was.

“THE EVIL PEOPLE WHO WAN’T PRINCESS LUNA TO DIE” Pastel said now throwing her hooves in the air.

Trying to calm her down “don’t worry pastel, it’ll take them centuries to gather enough muffins to do that”

“But the blind pony organization has been around since the dawn of time” pastel said, sounding on the verge of tears

“Did I say centuries, I meant a much longer span of time than Luna would ever be able to live naturally” Chrome backtracked, trying to keep Pastel from crying

“Are you sure she’ll be alright” pastel said, sniffling

“Absolutely, the blind pony organization has no real purpose” Chrome assured, now remembering why they had left the dorms in the first place “so you said that you had an overdue book”

“oh my gosh, I completely forgot, I need to hurry, I can feel the hobo ponies already welcoming me to their blanket” Pastel franticly said as she dashed off, only to have her tail grabbed by Chrome before she could get more than a few feet.

“no you don’t; the book’s already several month’s late, I don’t think anypony would mind if it were a few more minutes late” he said while pastel tugged on her tail.

“butbutbutbutbutbutbutbutubtubtubutbutbutubtubtubtubtubtubtubtubMmmmmmmmmmmmhhmnphh” Pastel said before Chrome pulled her back and stuck his hoof in her mouth “No buts… or tubs!” Chrome said “now, do you understand?” pastel was then released after slowly nodding her head twice

“do you have any idea where your hooves might have been, I could’ve just swallowed bee guts” pastel said, moving her arms back and forth

“Nowhere much, considering I fly most places” glancing at his hooves he notices a dead bee, putting on a nonchalant glance, Chrome decides to keep that to himself. “Now then shall we get going?”

“YES, FINALLY, let’s go” Pastel said, Before receiving several stares from the other ponies in town.

Walking the remaining distance towards the library stayed uneventful upon entering the library however, we were greeted by a unicorn near the entrance who was struggling with its magic, performing what appeared to be a fairly simple spell, “I WILL RIDE A BICYCLE Of NIGHTMARES INTO YOUR FACE!!” came a voice from behind us, but before we had the time to turn around to see who it was. The stallion charged at us, knocking us into the unicorn that we were standing in front of us

“ ah! NO! I ALMOST HAD IT” the unicorn cried out in pain and frustration as its horn began glowing

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM” a large wave of energy originating from the unicorns horn had caused the library to combust instantly, the many books making perfect kindling, until soon, the entire library was in flames.

a new outlook

10:45 A.M., several days ago

It was a cool morning under the shade of Manehattan’s extraordinarily tall buildings as a towering brown stallion walked through the bustling crowds, all among the city were eager to get to their destinations. This stallion was no exception as he searched the city through yellowed eyes to get to one specific building.

Several more minutes of navigating through the maze of smaller ponies that were too arrogant to watch were they were going; he finally came across the building he was looking for. A rather unassuming hill of a structure among mountains, only four stories tall this one building was adorned with blue outlines in an attempt to force recognition. But this building did not truly need recognition as it was the one kind of place in which all ponies of Equestria who needed an efficient way to communicate; this building, was a post office.

Whistling, the stallion lumbered to the same desk he had been coming to for the past several weeks. “has it come yet” the brown stallion irritably demanded as he draped his hooves over the desk, strands of normally combed back black hair falling into his eyes

As he brushed his hair back still leaning over the cotton colored mare; she gulped, saying “y-yes yes it is”

“haha, finally, the object of great importance has arrived” the stallion shouted waving his hooves in the air before he accepted a small rectangular package labeled “pac-mare”

“oh, and a letter too” the mare said as she handed him the slip of paper.

Grunting slightly, the stallion grabbed the letter and left, now rushing for an entirely different purpose who could that possibly be, I haven’t gotten a letter in years. The stallion thought as he entered his small one bedroom apartment “a full five years and not any headway in my career” the stallion griped as he set down his newly acquired belongings. That better not be “them” looking for another “visit” the stallion hoped as he opened the letter a smile slowly growing on his face; the letter read:

Hey Button Masher
Sorry if my hoofwriting is a bit sloppy, you know me and school. Well anyway, I caught drift of how you were doing after you moved to Manehattan; not good huh? Well anyway remember some of that old junk you used to give me is you had made a spare? Well I sent it to college. That one university in Hoofton that deals with stuff that nobody really cares about? Well they thought you would be good for the school and they said they would let you in, the entry stuff is on the back page free board and everything, crazy right? Now I know I didn’t ask you but I figured you’d say no if I had asked you in a more strait forward way, this way you can’t say no as easily, hey who knows you may even run into me there.

Stay awesome, Carrier D

Turning over the paper Masher saw that there were indeed admission papers to the infamous Gem University. Masher’s smile finally imploding he shouted while still managing to lower the pitch of his voice “The Awesomeness has been completed” thanks D he thought as he began to pack his things.

Three days later Masher was well on his way to getting to Hoofton as he marched through weather that he had never seen before with buckets of brown and surprisingly sweet tasting liquid drenching everything that wasn’t covered by a good tarp chocolate rain? Is that supposed to happen? Masher wondered as he came across a sheltered overhang with a fire. “Mind if I come in and dry myself, Masher Inquired; hoping to find out if there really was anypony there

“Huh, oh, yeah, come on in” said a voice coming from behind a large rock. Upon further investigation Masher discovered that there was a pony resting on a cot with some belongings “so stuck out here too-oouoahh” the smaller pony said at seeing the sheer size of the other “h-h-how is that possible”

“what, me being so tall” Masher said, slightly annoyed that the colt reacted so volatilely to his height.

“y-yeah should it be possible to get that tall” the unnamed colt said as he appeared to somewhat relax

“it’s a bit uncommon to get this tall, but it’s definitely possible; especially among earth ponies” Masher said, sitting on his haunches now that it didn’t look like the red haired unicorn was about to run away in fear “so do you have a name, or do I have to keep calling you nameless and colt?”

“My names Buckfire” the colt said as he sat down with Masher, resting his head on the cot.

“Well then Buckfire, nice to meet you kid, named Masher, Button Masher” Masher said, giving a warm smile to Buckfire.

“Gamer huh? Never could get a handle for things like that” Buckfire said, gazing deeply into the charred wood that was still lightly burning.

“THAT’S GENIUS, HOW COULD YOU FIGURE THAT OUT FROM JUST A GLANCE” Masher said, visibly surprised

“Whoa, relax; I just looked at your cutie mark, no need to go insane” Buckfire said, putting his tan brown hooves in front of him and tilting his head

“oh yeah” Masher said now sporting a sheepish smile across his face “I usually forget about that thing, I try not to decide who a pony is based on their cutie mark, after all, they aren’t all knowing, what if a pony gets one that doesn’t suit them” Masher said with a large yawn afterwards “well kid, I suppose we should hit the hay, I don’t know about you but I need to travel in the morning and I’m hoping that this Irrelevant storm is over after I wake up” Masher said, crawling on top of a pile of hay

“Oh yeah, that reminds me, where are you heading, I mean, if you don’t mind that is” Buckfire said as his eyelids began to flutter open and closed.

“I never mind, I’m heading off to Hoofton, a friend set me up with a new life there” Masher said, sleep forcing his voice to become unnaturally soft.

“I see that’s actually where I’m traveling to as well” Buckfire said as sleep also caught him. Oblivious to the fact that his last statement had fallen on deaf ears as Masher had already fallen asleep.

Rising with the sun had always been ingrained into Masher’s psyche; as such he woke up much earlier than the younger stallion. “seems as if the rain’s finally stopped” Masher said before taking a second glance at the brown liquid, “If you can call it that, could that possibly be, chocolate milk?” looking up into the sky, Masher saw a few remnants of pink cloud lingering in the sky, still moist with the sweet liquid. “By god, this better go well with mac and cheese” Masher said before grabbing his belongings and placing them back into the cart that he was using.

Upon entering Hoofton Masher was astonished to see how few ponies that there actually were at the town, he wasn’t expecting very many considering the fact that despite the university the area was still fairly rural. “I’ve seen lesser” Masher said to himself as he continued down the dirt road “I suppose after living in Manehattan for a half a decade will have that effect on a pony” now then, all I have to do is go to an area called Commodore Dormitories. After the discovery that he was required to find his board rooms first; Masher began looking for a map of some sort of map to direct him until he formulated a foolproof way to reach the dorms if I remember right based on the known laws of our universe, if I run as fast as I can in a random direction I have a fifty-fifty chance of either getting to the Dorms, or breaking several limbs doing a silent nod Masher had decided “It’s a chance worth taking” Taking a ready stance Masher decided a direction and prepared to run “CHAAAAAAAAAARGE” Masher shouted as he took off in full sprint.

About a mile ahead in the direction that Masher was charging in a red griffin inside a large blue tiled building was forming the preparations he was required to complete every morning to maintain the building and at that point was busily making breakfast for the inhabitants of said building until he heard the distant rumble of hooves that were quickly making their way closer to the building with each passing second until the silver-ware itself had begun to shake more and more violently until “BONZAI” shouted a stallion that was unknown to the griffon

“hmmph, I wonder if this is the place I should be at, I didn’t break any limbs, so it should be” Masher stated as he examined himself

“YOU, YOU JUST WRECKED MY KITCHEN AND DESTROYED MY PANCAKES” the seemingly livid griffin shouted as he bared his claws and took a battle-ready stance “I AM GOING TO MAKE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP OUT OF YOUR ENTRAILS” the griffon stated as he launched himself directly at Masher

Unable to dodge, Masher was caught underneath the griffon; unable to kick him off for chance of really becoming soup. Remaining calm Masher asked “Soooo, would this happen to be Commodore Dormitories”

Still seeing red to match his feathers the griffon yelled about to strike him “YEAH, WHAT’S IT TO YA”.

“You see griffon man, I am actually the new boarder here” Masher said with a nervous look on his face.

After hearing this, the Griffon calmed down immediately and appeared as if he had never been angry in the beginning. “Oh my, I am terribly sorry to have done this, it’s my entire fault, here your room is the first one upstairs on the left, and I’ll stay and clean up” As Masher left the kitchen he heard the griffon mutter “damn’t Lance, your such a klutz”

“Wow, that was a fast change” Masher noted as he gathered his games and found a large spiral staircase. “Well, he did say upstairs” but as Masher began to take the first step, a pale lavender Pegasus flew down the stairs; nearly causing him to drop his games “HEY, could you watch where your going”

“sorrygottogoby” the Pegasus shouted back as she left the dorm.

“That was a close call, I almost dropped my games” Masher said as he wiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead and finished making his way up the stairs, only to come across a Pegasus stallion that was even larger that he was. The hallway being too small for the both of them the silver stallion had crashed into Masher only to shout something unintelligible and fly away. Time seemed to slow down as Masher watched one of the few known copies of Pac-Mare fall to the ground and shatter into several hundred pieces. “Wha-what, that didn’t just happen, did it?” Masher said as a single tear was shed looking at the sharded game.

“Lance, who were those to ponies that just left the dorm” Masher demanded

“Oh my, that was Pastel and Maestum, why, they didn’t do anything did they?” Lance asked hoping they weren’t in too big of trouble

“Yes they have, and I will bring them to justice, I swear by the sticks of Tartauros” Masher dictated getting ready to force two criminals to see justice “do you know where they went?”

“I believe they were going to the library, its left of here, just go straight, and try not to crash into it please” Lance chimed in a voice that was much too pleasant for Mashers taste.

Running in the general direction that Lance had told him to masher eventually came across a fairly large stacked log building with a sign that announced “LIBRARY, so Lance was right, now then let’s see if they’re thei- they are there” Masher began gritting his teeth as he snuck up behind them and shouted “I WILL RIDE A BICYCLE OF NIGHTMARES INTO YOUR FACE” Masher shouted as he shoved himself into the silver stallion, unaware of the unicorn behind him.

Hearing shouting Masher looked up just in time to see the same brown unicorn he had seen the day before, and saw a large burst of magic come from it which quickly consumed the wooden library with the books being used as mere kindling, no match for the powerful spell.

The third fragment

2:30 P.M., Two weeks earlier

And stay out! Came the voice of a maroon earth-pony stallion just as a small, light-brown unicorn was forcibly thrown from the town via a large catapult near the entrance of the town.

The unicorn landed with a thud onto the season-hardened ground just before the rest of his belongings followed suit.

Getting up from his surrounding area of freshly barren tree’s the small stallion groaned as he pulled on a beanie over his cracked horn back onto his head. “Well that was rather rude, note to self; ponies from Hoofington do not take kindly when somepony mentions magic” the unicorn stated to himself as he reached into his tattered, bulging, saddlebags to pull out a map of Equestria labeled “Buckfire’s map”. Opening up the map revealed a scape of red x’s marking area’s that were useless to him and his cause.

Marking an X much larger than many of the other’s on the map Buckfire began to search for an area on the map that he was still willing to travel to “now then, aha!” the small stallion said as he found a small town a few weeks travel from his current position. “Hoofton? Didn’t I just come from there?” the unicorn said, puzzled he glanced back at his current position on the map and saw that it was marked “Hoofington”

“Why would anyone give two towns names that are so similar?” Buckfire continued to rant to himself before picking up his possessions and sighing as he saw the almost completely unused path before him.

Several days of travel had been uneventful until the sky had darkened, blocking out the sun “Hmm, the pegasi weren’t really acting like it was going to rain this morning, I wonder what made the change their minds” Buckfire said looking up expecting to see pegasi putting the finishing touches on their dark masterpiece of moisture but instead seeing the sky void of pegasi and completely filled with a sickeningly dark shade of pink.

“well then, that’s certainly new” Buckfire said just before a brown liquid began to drip off of the clouds in a fashion that seemed very reminiscent to sweat. Almost as if it were a faucet the moment the first drop of the liquid fell to the ground, every last droplet poured out of the clouds on command, completely soaking Buckfire and everything around him in the sweet smelling substance.

“CHOCOLATE MILK, WHY CHOCOLATE MILK, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?” The red-headed unicorn ranted as he searched for a place to take shelter in. As he kept searching his efforts became more and more withdrawn and forced as now he drenched to the core versus when there was still hope of drying off.

Almost as if a godsend Buckfire came across a fairly large overhang that steadily transformed into a cave underneath a cliff where he would be able to find shelter from the chocolate rain. Buckfire immediately ran under the overhand and began peeling his saddlebags from his saturated fur. Hoping to at least rid him of the feeling of unbearable cold Buckfire gathered nearby logs from just outside of the overhang, getting several splinters in his teeth in the process. After he deemed that he had gathered enough firewood Buckfire closed his eyes and attempted to gather his focus for a spell; sparks coming out of the crack in his horn all the while.

Then, in a single strong pulse, magic flowed freely out of his horn in a beam onto the firewood; causing it to light ablaze almost instantly.

“well It’s good to know I at least still have the energy in me” Buckfire said, sighing. After upwards to a half hour the rain began to switch to a more tolerable drizzle, still uncomfortable; but was now bearable. Resting his head on a large rock facing away from the outside Buckfire waited for the rain to cease completely. Just as he began to fall asleep, Buckfire heard loud, clunky footsteps approach and in a voice that was unnaturally deep he heard “Mind if I come in and, Dry myself?” Still sleepy Buckfire was fairly eager to see a face during one of his travels.

“huh, oh yeah, come on in” Buckfire replied as he heard the loud footsteps coming closer “So stuck out her too-oouoahh!” Buckfire screamed as he saw a behemoth that was exactly twice his size, gulping in fear Buckfire retreated to a corner, now realizing that the giant was a pony “h-h-how is that possible?” Buckfire stuttered as he questioned the large pony.

“what, me being so tall” the Dark brown stranger replied

“y-yeah, should it be possible to get that tall” Buckfire wondered, truly curious as he had never seen anypony of that size before with the exception of Princess Celestia.

“it’s a bit uncommon to get this tall, but it’s definitely possible; especially among Earth ponies” the stranger explained, “so do you have a name or do I have to keep calling you nameless and colt?”

“my names Buckfire” Buckfire replied now curious to know what kind of name such a giant could have

“Well then Buckfire, nice to meet you kid, names Masher, Button Masher” Masher said, giving a warm smile to Buckfire

“Gamer huh? Never could get a handle for things like that” Buckfire said, hoping to make conversation while staring intently on the hot coals in the fire.

“THAT’S GENIUS, HOW COULD YOU FIGURE THAT OUT FROM JUST A GLANCE” Masher said, Visibly surprised.

“oh yeah” Masher said now sporting a sheepish smile across his face “I usually forget about that thing, I try not to decide who a pony is based on their cutie mark, after all, they aren’t all knowing, what if a pony gets one that doesn’t suit them” Masher said with a large yawn afterwards “well kid, I suppose we should hit the hay, I don’t know about you but I need to travel in the morning and I’m hoping that this Irrelevant storm is over after I wake up” Masher said, crawling on top of a pile of hay

“Oh yeah, that reminds me, where are you heading, I mean, if you don’t mind that is” Buckfire said as his eyelids began to flutter open and closed.

“I never mind, I’m heading off to Hoofton, a friend set me up with a new life there” Masher said, sleep forcing his voice to change into something that was almost soft.

“I see that’s actually where I’m traveling to as well” Buckfire said as sleep also caught him. Oblivious to the fact that his last statement had fallen on deaf ears as Masher had already fallen asleep.

Waking up just after sunrise, Buckfire had come to realize that his newly found acquaintance was nowhere near the camp and had seemingly taken all of his belongings with him. “I suppose he ditched me as soon as the rain had stopped, oh well; we’re heading to the same place anyways” Buckfire said just before he began to feel an unnaturally warm breeze from directly behind him “Masher, I really hope that’s you” Buckfire said in a mock hopeful voice.

Turning around revealed a beast much larger than Masher ever was, the gruesome creature was lion-like in shape adorned with blood-stained fur but with Chimera wings and a menacing scorpion’s tail on the other end, already dripping poison in anticipation of feeding off of its new prey. Buckfire was had become the target of one of the fiercest common predator in Equestria; the Manticore

“oh buck me sideways” Buckfire said in a cuss that was common for him during his travels whenever he came across trouble in the wilds. Abandoning his belongings Buckfire took off in full Gallop away from overhang cave hoping in an effort that he knew all too well would be fruitless that he would outrun the Manticore “A Manticore nest, of course it just had to be a Manticore nest, Why not a regular chimera’s nest, or a Giant scorpion hive, or even a lion’s den; I could’ve handled one of those. But of course life had to give me all bucking three” Buckfire yelled in pure anger as he ran away with the Manticore following suit.

Buckfire knew that he would be able to continue running for an extended period of time, he a great deal of endurance from his travels, unfortunately the same could not be said for speed and Buckfire was sure that if he wasn’t able to formulate a plan as to how he was going to escape that he would indefinitely become Manticore chow.

“come on, okay, I’m not in a valley there are rocks everywhere” Buckfire stated to himself as he strung together a plan that he hoped would save him

“okay, this just might work” Buckfire yelled hopefully as he ran under an arc that was just barely big enough for himself.

After Buckfire went through the arc the Manticore made no effort to change its course and go around; the Manticore tried to go the same route Buckfire had traveled on.

“hehe, heh that actually worked” Buckfire said as he no longer heard the sounds of paws against gravel but now heard the Manticore thrashing wildly against its stone prison. “what was that you silly Manticore, you want out, well you don’t get out, you’re going to be trapped in there forever; that’s what you get for trying to make a meal out of me” Buckfire taunted as he walked around the Manticore’s face all the while the Manticore began thrashing all the more wildly.

Then suddenly, The stone that was holding the Manticore prisoner broke and released the furious beast. The Manticore instantly lunged at Buckfire at which point his horn glowed with a brightness the like of which Buckfire had never experienced before, and even in mid-day the light it produced outshone the sun from a short distance away. And then after an intense beam of Magical plasma where a two ton Manticore once stood, milliseconds away from ending Buckfire’s life was nothing more than an extended pile of ashes with Buckfire standing overtop them, dazed and confused “d-d-did that just happen” Buckfire questioned as he saw the pure grey ashes already being blown away by the wind. “Okay then, that definitely needs some improvement.

Buckfire quickly found his way back to his camp, his excursion with the Manticore still leaving him shocked as he never expected he would have been able to take such a powerful life. Buckfire made sure to collect some of the ashes of the now deceased Manticore so that he would never forget that he needed to learn how to control his magic.

Finally at his destination in Hoofton Buckfire couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever see Masher again, He had only received a few hours head start, but in a virtually infinite landscape, even if his destination was a fixed point there was no guarantee that he would see masher again anytime soon.

Within the boundaries of Hoofton Buckfire found the area fairly easy to navigate, the whole town was layered around a large central building and the buildings around it seemed to span out based on their importance and relevance to the central building. Unfortunately this still left him confused as to where his own destination could be.

Just like many of the other cities and towns Buckfire had been traveling to, he was in search of a library with a very specific book, unfortunately most of the towns Buckfire had been too either didn’t have that specific book, or in the case of Hoofington; Did not allow any kind of Magic in general.

Deciding to simply ask one of the townsfolk Buckfire approached a black earth pony with white hair “excuse me, do you know where I could find the library Mrs….?”

“Spectra” the mare replied “and the library is in the second district of town on the westernmost end”

“okay thank you very much” Buckfire replied after he got the information that he needed

“oh, I haven’t seen you around before; are you new here” spectra asked with a smile

“depends on what I find in the library, I’m looking for something specific and so far all of the other libraries that I’ve been to haven’t had it” Buckfire stated now eager and impatient to look for his book

“oh okay then” Spectra said with a hint of disappointment in her eyes as Buckfire left “I really hope she stays, she seems nice enough and I would love to have more friends” spectra said before turning around to go her own way.

Reaching the library showed a large twisted spiral-like building made of stacked logs that pierced the sky almost ten stories in height. “wow, this library is anything if not impressive” Buckfire said as he walked into the library to see it crammed completely with books with the exception of a few dozen long-tables on each floor and a crammed central area near the entrance where one would check out their books.

“hello, I was wondering if you had a book” Buckfire addressed to an elderly completely grey Pegasus stallion with a name marker that read “Tome”

“We have many books her Ma’am” the stallion

Somewhat irritated Buckfire explained “I am a stallion”

“Terribly sorry” the stallion continued in a voice that was perfectly monotone and sounded utterly bored.

“anyways, I’m looking for a specific book, it’s titled horns: advanced physiology and repair” Buckfire said, not expecting any promising results despite the sheer size and Grandeur of the Library

“we have the exact book that you’re looking for” the grey stallion replied and was already flying slowly up to retrieve it from one of the higher shelves. “here you go, have it back in three weeks, no exceptions. Thank you”

The moment Buckfire touched the book he was already eager to read it and never bothered to move out of the small central area “okay, it’s say’s that depending on the damage done to the horn and based on the amount of sophisticated magic that can already be performed decides the level of spell that must be re-learned in order for the horn to heal properly, see chart on page 863” Buckfire promptly opened to that page and came to realize that as he couldn’t perform any type of sophisticated magic he would have to begin his training by re-learning Mage-light.

No sooner had Buckfire begun to attempt Mage-light than an enormous silver Pegasus walked into the library followed quickly by an averaged sized purple Pegasus, Buckfire wanted to see the pony who was obviously even larger than Masher but unfortunately Buckfire couldn’t afford to lose his concentration right now as the book specifically instructed that a pony cannot stop the process of relearning a spell once it’s started or else the horn becomes permanently stuck on that phase of healing.

Now with renewed determination Buckfire continued the spell until he heard a familiar unholy deep voice boom out something very peculiar “I WILL RIDE A BICYCLE OF NIGHTMARES INTO YOUR FACE” was all he heard before same titan-like silver stallion was abruptly shoved into Buckfire causing the spell to be disrupted and instead pour out raw energy, Buckfire was able to say “ah! NO! I ALMOST HAD IT” before the pain of his horn’s healing coming to an abrupt stop caused him to slip into unconsciousness.