Home Is Where The Mouth Is

by FoxxehSquirrel

Chapters

Uno
Dos
Tres

Uno

Home is where the Mouth is

A Fanfic by FoxxehSquirrel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter 1

Disclaimer stuff, and all that.

It was a lazy day in Ponyville, just like any other. Colorful ponies walked calmly and with purpose, going about their usual business .The sun was shining, birds were chirping, it all felt very peaceful. Then suddenly, through the doors of Sugarcube Corner, a loud female voice yelled.

"Stop, thief!" A light green pegasus pony with a shorter green mane of the same color flew through the doors. A pony with a puffy pink mane ran out right behind him. The look on her face was a mix between anger and sorrow.

"Nnope," he replied. The sun reflected off of the grey streaks in his mane. It felt so warm and pleasant. He carried a small bag that had a picture of a brown cupcake with swirled pink frosting drawn on either side. The pegasus spotted a clearing at the edge of the Everfree Forest to rest and lay low for a bit. He pulled a thin sheet of paper off of where his cutie mark is, revealing a pair of green mint leaves.

"Ah, that's better. Now, about my treat," the pony bent down and unwrapped the bag. Inside was a freshly baked blueberry muffin that was still steaming. His mouth was watering just thinking about it. He could only imagine what it would taste like. "Come to papa."

Just as he raised the muffin to his mouth, he was rapidly surrounded by a blinding white light that spiraled around his body, completely enveloping him. Something was happening. Something magical. He tried to grab the muffin and take a bite for fear that he wouldn't ever be able to taste it, but he couldn't move his hooves. In fact, his whole body was paralyzed. He felt a warm tingle spread throughout his body to the tips of his wings. He imagined that's the feeling the muffin would have caused.

After a moment more of being surrounded by the light, he appeared in a cloud of dust and sparkles inside a grand hallway lined with stained-glass windows. There was an open door at the end of the hallway.

"Wha- Where am I?" he began. He noticed the door. "What's this?" Curiosity got the best of him, and he began walking towards it. It seemed to move away from him as he walked. He tried looking at the floor while he walked, but nothing changed. Then suddenly, another flash appeared in front of him. The site before him made him shiver.

It was Celestia.

"Princess Celestia? What are you doing here?" he began. "I mean, you live here and all, but what's going on?" the pegasus was very confused.

"In due time, Minty Rush." It didn't come as a surprise to Minty that she knew his name. She was the omnipresent goddess pony who ruled over all of Equestria, after all. Minty hid the bag behind him, as Celestia turned away and walked towards the door. "Follow me."

They walked towards the door together, except this time it didn't move away. Minty was glad.

"You've heard of Discord, the lord of chaos and disharmony?" Minty nodded. "Well, turns out he's got another vessel." Minty was so very confused. He wondered why she was telling him all of this.

"You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all of this."

Woah.

"Do you recall what happened earlier today at Sugarcube Corner?" Celestia asked, as she grabbed the bag with her magic. "Your bad behavior in stealing this muffin has caused Discord to be set free, but in a different form."

Minty Rush blinked, not believing what she was saying. There is no way that he could have freed an evil deity by just innocently taking a muffin because he was hungry. Was there?

"You must be thinking, how could this single small theft cause him to be set free," she continued.

Damn.

"Any negative act, no matter how well intended, could be enough of a spark to release his evil. Turns you yours was just enough," They had passed through the door, but Minty wasn't paying attention. "That is why I brought you here. I want you to fix this mess you've made."

"Me? Why me? Why don't you just get your 'Helements of Armory', or whatever they're called? I'm sure they could do it easily." Minty didn't know what to think. He was so overwhelmed that THE Princess Celestia wanted HIM to save EQUESTRIA.

"I will explain that in a bit. For now, follow me to the throne room. There is somepony waiting for us," Celestia smiled. "I think you two will have a lot in common." As they reached the throne room, they didn't see anypony waiting for them. Instead, they saw a very shiny and white floor. Minty looked down and saw his reflection. Just then, they heard a strange noise. It sounded almost like brushing.

He cautiously advanced to where the noise was coming from, the throne itself, then saw what appeared to be a light-blue unicorn mare. She had a blue and grey streaked mane, not much unlike Minty's, except it was longer than his. She looked rather cute how she just sits and brushes the floor.

"Uhm, hello," Minty began. The mare didn't show any signs of noticing him. "My name is Minty Rush. I take it you cleaned this place?" Still nothing. Minty stood there awkwardly for a minute until she finally looked up.

"Hi. I'm Minuette, but everypony calls me Colgate for some reason. They say it's my mane." She extended a hoof. Her bright blue eyes sparkled from the light coming through the windows. Minty reached out, then that's when it happened.

She smiled. Those perfectly maintained teeth, the way they shined, mesmerized Minty. He speechlessly stood there staring, hoof still raised.

"Is something wrong?" she said. The movement of her mouth caused a ray of light to shine in Minty's eye. He could have sworn he was blind. His reaction worried her. "Oh, sorry, this doesn't usually happen."

After blinking a bit and regaining his balance, Minty smiled and replied back. "Nah, it's alright. I'm used to seeing brimph-" He was cut off, when she suddenly shoved a hoof in his mouth.

"Wow, I've never seen such an amazing mouth! Well, besides mine of course," she said as she began to giggle. Minty thought he heard a little snort. "You must really take care of it."

He spit the clean hoof out of his mouth. "Yeah, I suppose. I brush them, floss, all the normal stuff. Nothing special, really."

"Nothing special? Puh-leeze! Almost all of the ponies that I check don't even brush twice a day! It's all really scary to think about it." At that moment, Celestia walked up to them.

"I see you two are getting well acquainted," she began. "Now, if you'll both follow me to the Fountain of Visions, I can explain why I called you here." Celestia led them over to a solid gold bowl sitting on a pedestal on the opposite side of the room. It was filled about three-quarters of the way with what appeared to be water, but upon closer inspection, was a bit more silvery and reflective. Like a liquid mirror.

Celestia used her magic to take a small vial off of a nearby shelf, then dropped a single drop into the fountain. It rippled until a picture appeared. It was Ponyville, except there was something off about it. Not a single pony was trotting around. The streets were completely empty.

"Minty, your releasing Discord caused something terrible to happen. He came back as another creature entirely. In his natural state, he is a draconiquus. But in his current state, he has traveled to Cavitopolis and become a plaquoniquus." Celestia had a grim look on her face. "There, he will be able to gain enough power to possibly enslave the entire world."

"I still don't understand why you need me- I mean us, though." He gestured towards Colgate, who was rubbing one of her teeth with a hoof.

"Take a look at this. Everypony has gotten terrible toothaches and cavities, and can't possibly hope to defeat Discord in their current state." she replied.

"But what makes us so special that there's nothing wrong with us?" Minty thought about multiple possible answers.

"You two are the most careful with your dental hygiene, so you aren't as prone to them," she began. “And besides, Minty, I want you to right the wrong you’ve done.”

Duh.

"I suppose that is a good enough reason," Minty said, now looking over towards Colgate who was now brushing her teeth for some reason. "What do you think?"

"I think it's a GREAT idea! We get to explore the world, and take out a bad guy too!" She smiled again, revealing the whiteness. "Ooh, this is going to be so exciting!" She was hopping up and down, smiling even bigger than she was a second ago.

"Very well, my little ponies. We will prepare you for the long journey, then you will leave first thing in the morning." Minty looked distressed at this.

"First thing? Aw, but I was going to sleep in tomorrow," he complained. "This is the first time in weeks that I don't have any morning weather shifts." He had a very disappointed face. His lower lip came up into a pouty face. He imagined how sleeping in his small, but very cozy cloud house felt like. His bed would mold to the shape of his body and hold him softly, almost as if being cuddled.

“This problem is way more important than a puffy bed. You need to resolve it as soon as possible.”

How the hell was she doing that?

“Aw, whatever,” Minty accepted. “I’m not all that tired anyways.”

Minty and Colgate were surrounded by that familiar but strange white light again, except he didn’t have the muffin this time. As the light faded from around them, Minty noticed that he was alone on the front step of his cloud house. He figured he should pack some things for this upcoming ‘adventure’ he was about to embark on.

When he reached his bedroom, he immediately walked over to the small dresser in the corner which was enchanted with cloud-walking magic. There was a picture of himself as a young colt, and an older Pegasus mare with the same colored green mane as him, except it had more strips of grey that showed age.

“If this is really as dangerous as the Princess says, I just want you to know that I love you, mom. I always will.” He lifted the frame with a hoof, then nuzzled the picture.

As a colt, Minty’s mother was caught in a terrible lightning storm and went missing. Nopony had ever heard from her again. Minty was then taken in by the local orphanage. He would always be teased about his flying. One of his wings didn’t grow correctly due to a flying accident, and some feathers hadn’t grown. Nevertheless, he was still a strong flier, and often outshone pegasi who were bigger than him.

After a few moments of gathering stuff in small flight-friendly saddlebags, Minty decided he would get a few hours of shuteye. He plopped down on the cloud that was his bed, then quickly dozed off into a pleasant sleep. He began to dream.

He was flying. There were clouds zooming past him. He could feel the moisture in the air beat against his body. He noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It looked like a lopsided mass of . . . something. He wasn’t sure.

Minty flew a bit closer. At least, he tried. It didn’t seem to want to come closer, much like the door from earlier. He tried and tried, but nothing happened. He then took a deep breath, then thought about what it would be like to have that thing in his hooves. How heavy it would be, but probably not very much, considering it was floating.

Right as the object started to float towards him, a whoosh of grey and yellow flew past him. He followed the new thing with his eyes, wondering what just happened. He then started following it, catching up quickly. He was only a few yards behind when he suddenly started slowing down. He tried flapping his wings, but it turned out there was nothing to flap.

He eventually stopped in midair, then began falling. Quickly racing towards the ground. He began screaming, realizing that he couldn’t get out of this one. He passed through a grey cloud. Then another.

Falling.

He suddenly slowed to a stop now surrounded by a thin orb of energy. There were black storm clouds everywhere he looked. He noticed somepony flying around. It was a mare with a green mane. She was looking for a way to escape, but there was none. As soon as she approached a cloud, a bolt of lightning lashed out at her. She couldn’t fly up or down, because there were extremely heavy winds that would just blow her right back in. She then turned towards him.

It was his mother.

Minty tried screaming for her, but she didn’t appear to notice. There is no way she could have heard him over the loud blasts of thunder that grew in frequency. He began crying as he pounded his hooves on the force field that surrounded him. All he wanted was for her to see him, to acknowledge him in some way. But that wasn’t going to happen. It never would. He began falling again, except this time it felt slower and more controlled.

As soon as he fell into the black cloud beneath him, there was a bright flash, then a shriek of pain and agony.

Blackness.

Minty woke up with a scream. He had fallen off of his cloud bed, and was rolling around on the floor. It was a good thing that cloud walking came naturally to pegasi. He began crying.
After a few minutes of tears, he decided to grab his bag of things and he flew off towards Ponyville. He somehow knew to go to a newly developed part of town. He stopped in front of a fountain. There was a statue of a pegasus mare rearing back on her hind hooves. Water was squirting out of her mouth. An etching of a heart with an arrow through it showed on her flank.

Just then, a blue head emerged from the water. It was Colgate. “Good morning Minty.” she said, as she continued swimming around. She dove underwater for a few seconds then emerged with a few bits in her mouth. She placed them on the edge of the fountain, then produced a brush from a nearby saddlebag that Minty hadn’t noticed. She levitated the brush and coins with her magic, then began cleaning them.

“What are you doing?” Minty had a strange look on his face. She didn’t reply until she was finished.

“Cleaning them, obviously. Did you SEE how dirty they were?” She dropped them back into the fountain. “We can’t just have dirty coins in fountains.” She climbed out of the fountain and shook the water off. She then produced a hair brush out of the bag, then began brushing her mane.

“How long have you been out here?” Colgate looked drenched to the bone. She also appeared to be shivering. “It’s cold out.” Minty looked up to where the sun was rising. It had just fully appeared over the horizon, and was slowly climbing up higher.

Colgate’s mane was dripping wet even as she continued to brush it. “About an hour. You wouldn’t BELIEVE how many bits were in that fountain.” With that, she gave a little shake of her head, and her mane poofed back up. It looked very cute. So much so that it caused Minty to blush a little, but only for a short second. She started shivering.

Minty, feeling like he had to step in and do something, reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a blanket which he draped over Colgate to keep her warm. She had a surprised look on her face, then she smiled revealing those teeth of hers.

“Wow, thanks!” she walked up next to him and nuzzled his neck a little. “This is one of the nicest things anypony has ever done for me.” Minty thought of how sad it was that she apparently hadn’t been getting much help from other ponies. Sure, everypony knows her, but nopony really notices when she has something to say.

At that moment, Celestia appeared before them in a flash of light.

“My prediction was correct. You two seem to be getting along well,” she observed. A sly smile came to her face when Minty jumped away from the mare that was nuzzling him.

“It’s not what it looks like,” he began. “She was shivering, and I was concerned for her safety.”

Celestia transitioned into a more natural smile. “Good, you’re starting to warm up to her. I was afraid you would try to act all ‘tough guy, too cool to care’.”

“Have you ever been wrong?” Minty asked. He was very curious.

“I thought so once, but it turns out I was wrong.” Minty blinked. “At any rate, you should get started. You will want to head south out of Ponyville. The native flora and fauna will begin to get more . . . exotic the farther south you get. You will eventually reach Cavitopolis and Discord’s fortress.”

The smile on her face gave way to a more serious look.

“I’ve also prepared a few items you may find useful on your journey.” Celestia magically produced four objects which then floated in front of Minty. He looked over them. There was a small toothbrush which Colgate quickly scooped out of the air, a pair of old aviator goggles, a short metal rod made out of what seemed to be pure gold, and a simple crystalline orb.

“What are these for?” Minty inquired. There was a very apparent look of confusion on his face. “What good will a shiny stick and a ball do us if we’re going up against the lord of chaos?” Colgate stepped in front of him and grabbed hold of the two items with her own magic.

“My horn can sense a magical aura around them.” She carefully put them in her saddlebag. As she did this, Minty noticed that she had strapped the toothbrush to her bags.

“Very good, Colgate. You will know when the time is right to use these things. Only then will their true power be revealed.”

“But how do we know what they are going to do?” Minty asked, even more confused now than he was before the explanation.

“You won’t. All you need to know is that they are capable of great power, and you mustn’t let them fall into the wrong hooves.”

After a while of getting situated, Celestia teleported them to the south edge of town. Minty still wasn’t used to the tingly feeling that accompanied the magic.

“Good luck, and stay safe, My Little Ponies,” Celestia said as Colgate and Minty began walking off together towards the Everfree forest.

Celestia spoke one more line under her breath. “You’ll need it . . .”

This is what I've been working on since I cancelled my other fic due to its being sucky. If there was a word for how sucky and inexperienced it is, I wouldn't be able to think of it. Because I suck.

Dos

Home is where the Mouth is

A Fanfic by FoxxehSquirrel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter 2

Legalities, yada yada yada

Previously, on Home is where the Mouth is . . .

Muffin, Hallway, Goddess, Blue, Magic, Clouds, Dream, Clouds, More Clouds, Darkness, Flying, Swimming, Cleaning, Covering, Being correct, More magic, Walking.

Walking through the Everfree Forest wasn’t anything too bad, at least that’s what Celestia had told them. There weren’t any plants or animals that they weren’t used to seeing outside of the forest, so they didn’t expect too much trouble. There was also a pretty well cut path all the way through the forest.

Minty pulled a map of Equestria out of one of her saddlebags. Celestia had marked the way they were supposed to go.

“What does it say?” Minty inquired. He had no idea what was yet to come. “Where is the first place we have to go?” Colgate stuck her tongue out and squinted her eyes a little. She looked cute when she was thinking.

“I think we just have to follow this clearing through the forest. We’d also have to pass by these creepy looking ruins.” She tilted the map towards Minty. He observed the path that was marked by a red line.

“It seems to be going all the way along this river to Horseshoe Bay. That’s a really long way to walk.” He looked away from the map, then walked a little faster. Colgate struggled to keep up.

“Hey, slow down! Why are you going so fast?” Colgate was now in a very light trot. Her small frame made it tough to keep up with Minty’s longer strides.

“I don’t want to waste any time. Every second we could be spending going fast is just another second that Discord has to regain his power. That’s a chance I’m not willing to take.” He began moving even faster.

“I’m sure we’ve got plenty of time. Besides, how far away is this ‘Cavitopolis’ place? I’ve never even heard of it before.” She worked even harder to keep up with him. She was beginning to pant.

“It’s definitely not on that map. It will take days to get out of Equestria alone.” He spread his wings.

“Heey, that’s not fair!” Colgate said, as she finally stopped from exaustion. “I don’t have wings to fly with.” Minty doubled back and landed next to her. “And besides, we haven’t even eaten yet.”

Minty looked up to where the sun was. It seemed to be close to 11:00 (the Equestrian equivalent, at least). He had lost track of time walking through the forest, and he even felt his stomach growl a little. Nothing audible, though. He looked back to Colgate.

“Eh, I suppose we could stop for a little bit. No more than 20 minutes though. Got it?” Colgate nodded in agreement. She smiled as she pulled out some fresh hay and an apple from her saddlebag. Minty was content with just munching on the grass. It seemed edible enough. As they ate, Minty couldn’t help but look up to Colgate as she took bite after bite of her meal. She would clean off the front of her teeth with her tongue after each bite.

He was lost in her eyes. Those blue eyes that reminded him so much of the sky he loved so much. Every time they would close when she chewed, he would panic, trying to find them again. She opened them, and their eyes met in a single moment of emotion. Minty had no idea what he was feeling. There were conflicting pulls of love and fascination, curiosity and obsession. He felt like he knew her, but needed to know more. She blinked and ended the trance.

“That was weird . . .” Minty whispered to himself, chomping on more grass trying to distract himself from what had just happened.

The last of the 20 minutes they’d allowed had passed (Minty is naturally good with time), so they packed up their things and started off again. They were walking peacefully for a while, just staring at the scenery. They saw many varieties of animals that only lived this deep into the forest. There was a strange breed of a monkey with four arms and eyes, and a rainbow-colored snake would slither in front of them every once in a while. This serenity lasted until they reached a fork in the road.

“Well, great. What do we do now?” Minty asked himself. He looked down both paths and they appeared to be exactly the same. Even the trees and bushes were grown in the same. He looked over to Colgate for advice.

“That’s funny, the line disappeared from the map.”

“The line what?” Minty had a confused look on his face. He walked over to Colgate holding the map and observed that she had been correct. In fact, that entire portion of the map was erased.

As they pondered why such a thing had happened, there was a noise behind them. It sounded like something running into a bush. Normally, this would have been no big deal. But Minty had noticed that they haven’t run into any wild creatures lately. He turned to the source of the noise. Colgate’s head was still buried in the piece of paper.

The noise came again, except this time from the way Minty was initially facing.

“Do you hear that?” He kept spinning around reacting to the various noises.

“It’s probably just the wind. You know how weather gets in here.”

Minty didn’t buy it. He was too busy trying to find what was causing the disturbance to notice a rather pungent smell floating through the air. Colgate noticed it first. Her magic stopped and her pupils became the size of marbles. She started walking down the right path.

“Colgate, where are you going?” Minty didn’t seem to notice the smell at all. He ran in front of her in an attempt to stop her from walking. She plowed right over him. After getting up, he just decided to follow her. After he grabbed the map she dropped, of course.

A whole 10 minutes passed as Minty just followed Colgate. Her pace was increasing the closer she got to the source of the smell. Minty was having a tough time keeping up this time. The forest became more and more dense the deeper and deeper they went. They jumped over rocks and ducked under hanging branches.

This went on until they reached a clearing filled with beautiful flowers with a strikingly red color. The redness faded into white as they grew towards the edge of the clearing. To Colgate, the odor was so strong she could practically see the trail it made.

“What in Equestria is this?” Minty asked himself. He panned his vision over the whole field. It wasn’t huge by any means, but it seemed to be able to hold a sizeable amount of ponies. “It looks like some sort of sea of blood.” He would have had to look very closely to notice it. Unfortunately, he didn’t look close at all. Instead, he just followed Colgate deeper into the field.

What he saw was utterly surprising and revolting. There was a giant red bulb with pitch-white petals. It looked to be the size of about twenty ponies, and seemed to weigh a ton. There were green vines protruding from the base of the bulb that grew up and were attached to the corpses of ponies. He caught a glimpse of a loose vine. It had spikes towards the end that had small red tips on each of them. He felt like he’s seen this “plant” before.

Upon further inspection, he noticed that all of the corpses were those of unicorn mares. He also noticed bones piled on the ground in every direction around it.

Then suddenly it hit him like a bag of hammers. This plant was called Blood Lust. It would lure in unsuspecting ponies and feed off of the blood of their corpses. His face cycled through expressions of horror and sadness as he tried to make Colgate stop. It wouldn’t work.

He tried pushing her away. That didn’t work. He tried dirtying something to distract her. That didn’t work either. At that moment, he felt like all hope was lost until something began glowing in her saddlebags.

It was the rod.

It levitated out of her bag and caught the sunrays. The rod’s magical power magnified them tenfold. They bounced off of it in all directions. A few beams seared the large bulb. The outside of it cut open and spilled a huge amount of blood and bones. The rod became less lustrous and its color faded a bit. It floated back into Colgate’s bag. The alluring odor that had entranced Colgate now turned into an extremely repulsive smell. Even Minty could smell it this time. She came out of the trance with a gag, then turned to see where she was. She noticed the large dying plant and the tidal wave of blood surging towards her. She turned to see Minty with his wings spread and the goggles over his eyes.

“Hold on to your haunches. This is going to be a bumpy ride.” Minty started flapping his wings until he was just above Colgate. He reached down and grabbed her under her arms, though fear caused her to flip and wrap her arms and legs around his torso. It was an interesting feeling.

Minty flapped as hard as he could with the new load. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to quite make it over the wave.

“Looks like we’ll just have to improvise,” Minty began. “I would close my eyes if I were you.” He blasted forward towards where they had entered. The wave was only a few feet behind them when they finally reached.

“Oh boy . . .” Minty began to weave back and forth, up and down through the branches. He was cutting it very close as he wasn’t used to carrying something more than a bag. He had a fully grown unicorn mare hugging his belly, which proved to be a completely different experience. He had reached a part in the path where the branches were too low for him to fly. He began running. Colgate was situated on his back now, as she was feeling particularly weak at the moment. The run to the plant and the plant itself had sucked a lot of energy out of her.

They stopped moving.

Minty tried to continue running but there was nothing for his hooves to push off of. Instead, he looked down and saw a pitch dark hole. He wondered how far down it went.

Then they fell.

Colgate’s eyes were still closed while she recognized the darkness and casted a low power illumination spell. They could only see a few feet in any direction.

“What the hey is going on?!” Minty yelled. Colgate was acting entirely different. The energy seemed to have came back to her.

“WOO HOOOOOOOO!” she was screaming while they fell, a smile draped across her face. Minty couldn’t help but smile either.

A little farther down, Colgate got bored and they both just sat there falling, bored expressions on their faces.

“How long do you think we’ve been falling?” Minty asked. He was the one that was usually good with time.

“I don’t know. My magic doesn’t tell time,” Colgate pointed a hoof at her horn. The light then went out. “Whoopsie. Looks like it’s out of juice.”

There was that familiar darkness that had haunted Minty’s dreams the other night. It gave off a feeling of inescapable fear and hatred. He felt like his head was going to explode. Until he noticed a faint light below them. As they reached the light, he noticed that the chute they were falling down gradually began to decline. It was covered with soft hay that would just roll down with them. It didn’t hurt one bit.

As they slid, Colgate got back into her old mood.

“YEAAAAAAH! WOOOOO!” She had her hooves held high above her head while she slid down on her back. Minty was on his stomach right in front of her. They had both been yelling, one out of glee and the other out of fear (take a guess). This yelling continued until they shot off of the slide and into a thick pile of hay and grass. Minty went head first while Colgate smacked into his backside and only went in up to her stomach. She slid out and down on her back until she eventually hit the floor with a thud.

She got up rubbing her head in the process. She looked around for Minty, but there was no sign of him. She began digging into the pile of hay.

“MINTY! ARE YOU IN THERE?!” she yelled. “IS THIS A GAME?! ARE WE PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK?! I LOVE THAT GAME!” She stuck her head into the pile and kept speaking. Her voice was muffled. She then dove in.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pile,

“Ugh, my head . . .” He put a hoof up to his head. “Colgate, are you there?” No answer came. He saw a dimly lit tunnel in front of him. “She must have gone this way.” He began walking down the tunnel. There were a few torches attached to the left wall.

Eventually he came upon a larger room that had a lowered center surrounded by ledges, about 8, that were flanked by more doors. There was a large fire burning in the center. It was surrounded by what appeared to be other ponies. They were walking- no, dancing around it in circles. He could hear a monotone chanting over the crackle of the fire.

“What they hay is this?” Minty went prone on his ledge and just watched. He noticed another pony, this one a bit older, walk up to the fire. It threw some dust into it and the fire began to change color. First from red to yellow, then to green, then blue, then purple, then back to red. Like a rainbow. A strange plume of smoke began to rise from it. The smoke depicted a sphere at first. It began to change shapes. It morphed into a large unicorn with wings. It looked vaguely like Celestia. Then it morphed into what looked like the Blood Lust plant from earlier. Then into a rod much like the one he had possessed. At that moment, they all looked up to him, eyes glowing green.

“Seize him!” the eldest pony commanded. He had a strong accent and a deep voice. Many of the ‘minions’ began to jump up towards Minty via small ledges that stuck out from the wall. He began to run back, away from his pursuers. He risked a look behind him and saw they were hot on his trail. He sped up a bit. There was a narrow corridor off of the one he was in and he turned into it then into another hallway which was smaller yet.

There was a small hole in the rocks of a collapsed tunnel that he was just barely able to fit in. “This ought to do,” he whispered to himself as he jumped in. He heard hoof steps thunder past him. Just when he assumed it was safe, he let out a breath of air that he was holding in. Big mistake.

Meanwhile, back at the pile,

Colgate crawled out the other side of the pile, no sign of Minty anywhere. “I wonder where he could have gone,” she sat down on her rear. “I’ll just wait for him to get back.” That’s when she began hearing footsteps. They were getting gradually louder. “Minty, is that you?” she asked cautiously, unsure of what was coming her way. She noticed that it was more than one pony. Three of them, in fact. They had stepped into the small opening she was in.

They weren’t exactly ponies. They were white with black stripes (or black with white stripes, depending on how you look at it), and seemed to be wearing tribal gear. They were zebras just like Zecora. “Who is this that trespasses in our home?” the one in the middle asked. A hostile look appeared on her face.

“My name is Colgate,” she said as she extended out a hoof. They just looked at her with disgust. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Get that thing away from us!” the one to the left shouted. She jumped back a couple feet, nearly hitting the wall. “You disgrace us with your presence!”

“Well that’s not nice at all,” she began, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. “That’s actually kinda mean.”

The zebras continued to look angry. The male zebra on the right had a very loud voice. “You are not a friend and therefore not welcome here. Leave before we make you.” Colgate remembered something.

“Oh, speaking of friend, have you seen mine around here? He’s a green pegasus, kind of skinny.” She wiped the tears with a hoof.

“If you refuse to leave, then we will just have to take you as a prisoner,” the center zebra said. “Follow us, and there will be no trouble.” She stepped to her right opening passage between her and the male.

“Okay, if you say so.” Colgate followed them back down the hall. The two female zebras walked in front, while the male flanked her to prevent escape. They walked until they reached a narrow passage that shot off to the side. There they saw a green mess being held down by multiple zebras, mostly male.

“Let- Me- GO!” Minty commanded as he attempted bucking his captors off of him. It didn’t work. After several minutes of struggling, he finally quit due to exhaustion, and then looked up to the other zebras he hadn’t noticed. “Colgate? Where were you?”

“MINTY!” she yelled as she galloped over and glomped him back to the ground. They slid a good distance on the ground. “I looked everywhere in the pile for you!” She started nuzzling him. At least, she tried as he pushed her off of him. Minty heard one of the male zebras that held him down whisper.

“She sure is affectionate.” He pretended to not hear that, but he couldn’t help but think about it. The center female zebra from Colgate’s capture stepped towards them. “Our command still does not change. You must come with us.”

Minty had no idea what she was talking about. “What? Why not just let us go?”

“Your blue marefriend here refused to leave without you, so she agreed to be our prisoner. Now you are as well.” Minty blushed at that statement.

“My- She is NOT my marefriend! We’re only just friends.” He looked over to Colgate who was distracted by a small dust ball rolling around on the ground. She didn’t seem to notice. A male zebra spoke up.

“Heh, I’m sure. Next thing you know, you’re telling us you’re on some sort of extremely important journey to save all of Equestria.” Minty blinked.

“Enough, both of you. Follow now or risk getting hurt.” Minty looked around to the very well built zebra males.

“Alright,” he said without hesitation. He gladly complied with her ‘request’. After a few minutes of walking, they ended up on the ledge Minty was on earlier. The fire had been put out, and there were many torches planted around the room for light. The zebras led them across the room to a large door that appeared to be made of wood. After a bit of talking, two male zebras on either side of the door pulled a large rope that hung down. The door slowly swung open.

“Who is this that disturbs me?” an elderly voice asked. It seemed very tough and demanding of respect.

“We have captured the intruders, Elder. They have accepted our terms and have agreed to work for us.”

“Work? I wish not for them to work,” the Elder said. The female zebra looked surprised.

“But Elder, I-” she was interrupted.

“You nothing. They are our guests and will be treated as such.” The Elder turned around. He was an old wrinkly zebra with tribal gear and a peculiar pattern of blood red ‘paint’ on his face. “Might I ask what you call yourselves?” Minty and Colgate looked at each other, then back to the Elder.

“I’m Minty,” he started, holding a hoof up against his chest. “And this is Colgate.” he finished as he pointed that same hoof towards the blue pony.

“Minty and Colgate . . .” the Elder said. He sat back and appeared to be thinking. “What is it that brought you to our home?”

“Elder, I don’t think-” the female zebra interrupted. She was cut off again.

“No, you don’t. Go visit Scribe Sara to have your attitude checked.” She growled at this.

“Very well, Elder.” she grudgingly trotted off, flicking her tail at Minty as she walked past him. The large doors slammed behind her.

“Now, where were we,” The Elder walked over to a wooden desk in the center of the room and sat behind it.

“You asked why we are here,” Minty began. Just as he was going to add on to that, a chiming sound could be heard through the door.

“Ah, the evening meal,” the Elder observed. He got up from his chair. “I must ask that you stay until morning. The creatures of the forest are most dangerous at this hour.” Minty wondered how he could tell it was night. “You will join us for food, and then you shall be escorted to private chambers. There shall be a council meeting in the morning when you awake to determine what we do with you, seeing as how you are currently our ‘prisoners’”. Minty heard him exaggerate that word a bit, as if he didn’t mean it.

“Oh, it’s quite alright. We can just go to our rooms and-” he was cut off by Colgate who had been surprisingly quiet this whole time.

“Oh, food? I LOVE food! When do we eat?” she was very excited again. Minty rolled his eyes.

“We shall leave now, since you have no other business to attend to.” The two ponies walked with the Elder who was accompanied by two strong-looking male zebra bodyguards. If Minty had to guess, he would say there was some sort of intense political battle going on in this civilization, and every precaution is necessary.

They walked in silence for minutes until they came upon a round room larger than the fire pit room. There were many tables set up in rows. They were filled with zebras. Many of them were children.

“Come, you shall sit with me,” the Elder said. “I would like to hear about you two.” They slowly made their way up to a long table. Many of the seats were unoccupied. The Elder took a central position next to the table. Colgate and Minty both sat to his left. When Minty looked past Colgate to the Elder, he noticed a somewhat young female zebra with a gold necklace on the other side silently chomping away at some hay. She paid no attention to him.

Half an hour passed and nothing much had changed. The Elder and Colgate were going at what seemed to be a rather engaging conversation, and zebras appeared to be idly chatting about news and such. If only it were so simple. Minty adjusted his hearing a little, and he could hear the suspicious whispering of many a zebra. They were also cautiously looking their way with curious and repulsive looks. He didn’t feel very welcome.

Dinner finally ended and every zebra emptied out of the room. Minty and Colgate followed one of the Elder’s bodyguards from earlier to a room conveniently placed near the Elder’s room.

It was pretty average (at least Minty thought so). There was your standard hay bed, a stone table carved right out of the ground, some torches hanging around. It was all very cozy. Maybe just a bit too cozy.

Minty looked at the bed. “Only one?” he began. “There are usually two beds in hotels I go to.” He turned to ask the bodyguard for another bed, but he found that there was nobody else in the room but him and Colgate, and the door was closed. Probably locked too.

Colgate was walking around admiring the ‘rusticity’ of the whole thing. She then began dusting off the table. “I think this is really nice.” She plopped down on the hay. “Don’t you?” She expectantly stared at Minty who kept just looking at the bed. There was only one option.

“I guess we’re going to have to share the bed,” he began with a sigh. He sat on it as well, more carefully than Colgate had managed. “Not very comfortable, either.” He tried bouncing, but there was practically no spring at all.

“Oh, come on. It will be fun!” she said. “Kinda like a sleep over.” she turned her head to him with a big smile on her face. That face. He just couldn’t say no to it.

“Eh, I suppose,” he began. “Though I’ve never actually been to a sleepover. Or been offered to go to one.” Colgate looked appalled.

“Oh, we can’t have that! Everypony deserves to have at least one sleepover in their life. It just isn’t right to not have one.” Minty rested his head back onto the ‘pillow’ at the head of the makeshift mattress..

An hour passed, and Minty still felt no signs of sleep. Colgate, however, had dozed off a while ago. Her very light snoring and the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed made Minty’s heart soar.

(Which is ironic, because he is a pegasus.)

He couldn’t help but stare at her until he finally began to feel sleepy. His eyelids slowly closed as he grew a small smile on his face.

He was asleep and dreaming.

It was Hearts & Hooves Day in Ponyville, the one a few days before his mother had gone missing. Minty (who hadn’t been named yet, as was tradition where he was from) had just gotten home from school, and was excited to see her right at the doorway with open hooves. He rushed to her and they embraced in a hug. Sure, they had done this every day when he got home, but today was especially special. It was the first Hearts & Hooves Day that he had gotten his mom exclusively to himself. She had always had stallions lined up for her every year. But since some new mares had moved into town, they had been stealing the attention of everypony that was eligible.

Not that she minded. She had, as far as she was concerned, the greatest colt to ever grace her with his presence, Minty Rush. That H&H Day (Hearts & Hooves shortened for convenience), they had all to themselves. They sat in the living area on a couch made of cloud telling each other stories about what they had done that day. Minty would always have exciting stories to tell about what he learned from his teacher, Ms. (now Mrs.) Cheerilee. His mother would be so excited and happy for him. After storytelling, they would settle down in front of a cozy fire with cocoa and just cuddle. It was the happiest Minty had ever been.

There was a knocking at the door. It was the delivery pegasus. The one with the weird eye.

“Letter for a Ms. Windy Springs,” she began. She held out a single white envelope. Windy took it.

“Thank you, Derpy. Have a nice day now.” she waved goodbye to the carrier and closed the door behind her. She looked at the envelope. Nothing but her name on it. No address, stamp, nothing.

She opened it and walked back into the living area to find Minty sleeping on the couch. A little smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. She then began reading the letter.

‘Dear Ms. Windy Springs,’ it began.

‘We regret to inform you that there has been an accident with one of your family members. A pegasus by the name of Minty Fresh was struck by a cloud bus and fell to the ground below. He did not survive the fall.’ She had gasped at this.

As she continued to read on, tears began to well up in her eyes. She started sniffling, and Minty woke up to see her crying. She was holding a piece of paper.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?” He had a look of concern about his face. It looked a lot like . . .

That is when she lost it. The stream turned into a river, and quiet whimpers and sniffles gave way to full out bawling. She had left the room and locked herself into her bedroom. She didn’t want her colt to see her like this. He followed and sat in front of the cloud door to her room.

“Mommy, why are you crying?” Minty was entirely confused and concerned about what was happening.

No response.

He continued to sit there, until he got tired and curled his little pony body in front of the door. He was asleep.

Hours later, the door opened, Windy staring at the little foal sleeping on the floor in front of her. She picked him up with her mouth and placed him on her back. Thank Celestia he could sleep through anything. She didn’t think she could take any questions he had for her. In fact, just looking at him made her heart break. He reminded her too much of Minty Fresh, the stallion who had impregnated her and given her such an amazing colt. Unfortunately, he ran away hours before his birth because of the stress of being a father. You either got it or you don’t.

She gently set him down on his bed and pulled a blanket over him. She planted a kiss on his forehead.

“Good night, my little Minty Rush.” she said. She decided to stay in the room with him and fell asleep next to the bed, her head resting right next to his.

End of chapter 2

This one took a while due to school and other personal hobbies (Borderlands 2, beyatch.).

The story will pick up a little more, and a new character will be introduced next chapter. I will also try to make the chapters a bit longer. It could take anybody 15 to 20 minutes to read this if they really tried.

Also, if anypony that reads this could spread the word, it would be greatly appreciated. I want people to see and experience my work. :o

Tres

Home is where the Mouth is

A Fanfic by FoxxehSquirrel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chapter 3

You know the drill.

Previously, on Home is where the Mouth is . . .

Walking, Smell, More Walking, Flowers, Plant, EVIL Plant, Rod, Flying, Running, Falling, Sliding, Searching, Spying, Running, Hiding, Complying, MORE Walking, Talking, MOAR WALKING, Eating, Bedrooming, Dreaming.

Minty had slowly and lazily woken up from the dream he just had. He was sad to have it end so soon. He wished he could be with his mother some more, but he knew that it would never happen. That could quite possibly be the saddest feeling of all. Wanting the thing you love most, but knowing that you will never be able to have it. It left a sense of extreme emptiness in his heart.

He opened his eyes only to have a wave of blue and gray flood his face. He moved around a bit and got the strange object away from him. He found he couldn’t move much. It took a while to realize what had been happening. Colgate had her fore hooves wrapped around Minty’s torso, and was nuzzling his neck.

He struggled but couldn’t get away from the iron grip. It was as if she was trying to squeeze the life out of him. But it also felt very comfortable and soothing. There was a rather attractive (at least Minty thought so) unicorn mare cuddling with him. He blushed. His mind tried to find an explanation for what he was feeling, but came up with none. Just then, he felt a strange sensation on his neck. Almost like wind. He turned his head to see Colgate, wide eyed and awake, still cuddling with him. She had a smile on her face.

“Good morning,” she whispered. Minty noticed that her breath had pleasantly smelled of mint and toothpaste. He wanted to just stay there with her, but the awkwardness of the situation alone was enough to make him want to get out.

“Ehrm, good . . . um . . . morning, Colgate,” he said uncomfortably as he adjusted his tail out from under his leg. They laid there in silence for a few minutes. After a while, Colgate raised her hooves past her head to stretch. Minty took the chance to get away. He jumped out of the bed causing some hay to blow onto Colgate. Just then, a zebra male, probably one from the other night, had trotted into the room.

“Prepare yourselves. The Elder has requested your presence in the main hall.” Minty learned not to question zebras. Especially not the males. He had moved over to another room and began pulling equipment out of his bag. A small box with string, a tube with pleasantly smelling cream, and a stick with small orderly placed hairs on the end. It was his mouth-cleaning kit. He had always had it with him wherever he went. As he began brushing his immaculate teeth, he noticed Colgate getting up through the reflection of a small rectangle mirror on the wall. She shook the hay off which caused it to go flying in all directions. She then joined him in the room.

Sitting next to him, she also pulled out a mouth-cleaning kit of her own. A yellow brush was dispensed, floating by means of magic. She squirted some toothpaste on the brush and got to work. As she was doing this, Minty couldn’t help but look. She had her mouth open revealing her perfect teeth. Her mane was all ruffled from sleep, and it had hung partially over one of her eyes. Minty spit out the remainder of the water-toothpaste mix from his mouth as he began to think to himself.

She sure is cute for a unicorn. I’ve never really been into ponies other than pegasi, but this one . . . She seems perfect for me. She is kind, honest, loyal, happy, generous, and seemed to be able to handle her magic pretty well. And also, none of the Pegasus mares back in Ponyville would go out with me.

Minty had always been a sort of a ladies man. He had tried hitting on that Rainbow Dash chick, but she shut him down saying he wasn’t cool enough for her.

I can be cool, he thought. Sometimes.

He had also tried going for Fluttershy, but she didn’t seem to want to talk to him much.

I’m a likeable guy, right? I like me, Colgate seems to like me.

As he had focused back on the mirror, he noticed Colgate spitting and saw her lick her lips out of the corner of her eye. This made his wings flare open, which then proceeded to bump Colgate on the side of her flank right about where her cutie mark was. She turned her head to him, then mischievously smiled.

“So you want to do that now?” she began as she rotated her whole body. She leaned her front down and dragged a hoof through the dirt floor. She snorted a little. Minty just looked at her.

“Colgate, what are you doing?” She narrowed her eyes then began to charge. Minty noticed this and bolted away. He began yelling, trying to avoid the horn on her head. He remembered his wings and flew up to the ceiling. Colgate just sat underneath him, waiting for a moment to strike. “Why are you attacking me all of a sudden?”

“You bumped me with your wing. I thought you wanted to play.” Colgate sighed at this and came down. Colgate didn’t let up one bit. She jumped at him and tackled him to the ground. They rolled to the other wall and stopped with Colgate pinning Minty down.

“Ouch,” Minty said. He pushed Colgate off of him. “What was that for?” he stood up and brushed himself off with a hoof. Colgate got up as well, but didn’t do anything.

“I was playing,” she began as she walked towards the door to leave the room. “And besides, you’re just so easy to get some times.” Minty blinked at this and followed after her. They walked for a couple minutes before a guard instructed them into a large room surrounded by what appeared to be stairs, only bigger. There was a very large stone table at one end that had many older and some young Zebras. They looked very official. The Elder was seated in the very center. As the two ponies reached the middle of the room, zebras spilled out into what Minty now realized were seats (picture an ancient roman theatre). There was white and black everywhere.

Black.

He looked back to the Zebra officials as one of them began to speak.

“This is the trial of these two ponies who have so rudely trespassed into our home,” a female began. “We shall determine what will become of them.” The crowd began stomping their hooves in a thunderous applause. They suddenly became quiet as The Elder stood.

“First we shall ask the reason they are here, as we are creatures of peace and fairness and not the brutes your kind makes us out to be,” he said loudly. His voice echoed through the room. “Speak now, if you will.”

“We are on a mission given to us by Princess Celestia. We are to save Equestria from impending doom.” Minty heard murmurs and mocking laughter. They didn’t believe him at all. The Elder’s face didn’t change.

“Explain yourself,” a female zebra demanded. It was the one that spoke first. “Why would Princess Celestia send you on a journey to save Equestria? How do-” she was cut off by the Elder.

“Have you proof of what you say?” he asked, the authority in his voice still entirely present. “Surely you don’t expect us to believe in such vague and foolish words.” Many of the zebras around them lightly stomped their hooves in agreement.

“I don’t know if this is really proof, but it might help,” he turned to Colgate and opened her saddlebags. The orb and rod floated out with her magic in an attempt to persuade the zebras to release them. There was a slight gasp from the crowd as Colgate made the objects float a little higher. The Elder even seemed shocked.

“How did you acquire those? Those are sacred artifacts filled with unimaginable amounts of magic!” a second female zebra exclaimed. Everyzebra was completely silent.

“It’s just like I said. Celestia sent us.” Minty noticed them float back down a little. The first female zebra cleared her throat and spoke once more.

“Such evidence still does not support why you have decided to come to our home.” Her voice cracked a little out of shock that there were two of the most powerful magical artifacts right in front of her.

“Well, it’s a long story, act-” he was cut off by Colgate who began detailing the story with pure enthusiasm.

“First, we walked into the forest, which is weird, because why would anypony walk into the Everfree Forest? Then we walked some more until I smelled something amazing. So amazing that Minty says he couldn’t stop me from going towards it.” She was talking a million miles per hour. “Turns out it was this gigantic evil plant thingy that fed on other ponies, and Minty saved me, I think. Then we ran out and fell down a slide thingy with hay at the bottom.”

The zebras listened in silence. They looked to each other, exchanged a few whispers, then turned back to Colgate and Minty just standing there.

“We shall release you on grounds of unintentional trespassing, as we see no harm was done,” the second female zebra said. Minty felt glad that they were being so ‘generous’ as to let them leave a place they never even wanted to be in. “However, you shall be escorted out of the Everfree Forest so you do not intrude other creatures business.”

The elder started to say something. “You shall be escorted by Pela, my daughter.” This elicited a few gasps from the crowd. The zebra in question spoke up next to him. It was the zebra that was eating with them the other night. She seemed to be around his and Colgate’s age.

“But father, I-” she began as she was interrupted.

“You nothing, Pela. You shall guide them to the edge of the forest, and you shall join them on their journey.” Even more gasps this time. Minty also looked surprised. Here was the Elder, telling his child to go on a very dangerous conquest to save Equestria from certain doom, and he seemed pretty sure about it. “Besides, you always complain about being stuck down here and not exploring the surface. To be honest, it gets a bit annoying at times.”

The zebra named Pela sat back down with a huff and glared at Minty. She was obviously irritated with her father’s decision. The Elder moved his attention back to Minty and Colgate. “Now, our guards will show you out after you gather your things.”

Minty and Colgate went back to their rooms and put everything they had in their saddlebags. They hadn’t taken anything out except for their cleaning utensils, so they were out in short order. Pela, however, took a bit longer. They were waiting at a steep set of spiraled stone stairs when they heard hoofsteps approaching. Pela and two guards emerged from a dark corridor.

“If we are ready, then we shall go. I wish to be rid of this place as soon as possible,” Pela said. There was a bit of reluctance in her voice. “I can handle myself from here, guards. Off you go.” The guards nodded and trotted back to where they came from. Pela walked up to Minty.

“I will show you the way out, but in return I require protection from the creatures of the surface.” Minty had no reason to argue with that so he just nodded his head and agreed.

“Ok, I guess.” They began to ascend. It took minutes to reach the top of the stairs and to reach a short hallway. At the end was a few more steps and a door with light spilling through. When the door opened, they were greeted with a flood of sunlight and headaches. They had spent enough time in the caves to get used to the light level and hadn’t gotten to see any natural sunlight. It was especially bad for Pela, considering she had been underground her entire life.

After spending a moment to reorient themselves, they climbed out of the hole and into a very small clearing, meant only for a zebra or two. Colgate got a look on her face then spoke up. “If you were underground this whole time, how will you know where to go?” Pela glared at her.

“No questions. You will follow me.” Colgate had a confused look on her face, not knowing what she did wrong. Pela began to walk off in a seemingly random direction, while Minty and Colgate followed close behind. It took mere minutes before they reached a small but obvious path. The sun appeared to be setting, so Minty figured it was mid to early afternoon, so he thought they could travel a bit more before resting.

“There is a clearing nearby that is large enough to situate us for the night. We shall travel to it, then stay until morning,” Pela said from the front. She didn’t seem to show any interest in the looks Minty and Colgate were exchanging with each other. Colgate then began to stare at her. At this, Pela turned her head enough to see. She then snapped her head back and began walking differently, like you would if you knew you were being watched and judged.

They continued until they reached the clearing Pela was talking about. There was absolutely no resistance on the path, and there didn’t seem to be any after they set up their “camp”. It consisted of three blankets sprawled across the grass, a tiny fire, and a few sharpened sticks stuck in the ground to ward off any curious creatures passing by. The day went by quickly, and the three companions huddled around the fire. Though it wasn’t really huddling for Pela. Colgate sat rather close to Minty, while Pela was on the opposite side of the fire and not very close to it. There was a very light breeze that played with the flames.

“So, Pela was it?” Minty began. His curiosity finally got the best of him. They had been walking and working in silence since they left the caves. “Tell us about yourself.” He had a fairly expectant look on his face. The zebra flashed shock on her face, then glared at him.

“I have nothing to say to you, pony,” she replied. The emphasis on ‘pony’ made it clear she wasn’t happy with her situation. “If I wanted to talk about anything, I would. But I don’t, so you are out of luck.” She turned back towards the fire and readjusted the way she was sitting. It was pretty obvious to Minty that she was uncomfortable.

“Okay, sorry I asked.” They sat in silence a moment longer until Minty finally got up. “Well, I’m tired. I’ll be asleep if either of you need me.” He walked over to where their beds were, and plopped down on one. A heavy sigh could be heard from him. After mere minutes, light snoring could be heard.

Silence.

It was the only thing for a long time. Colgate rested in front of the fire, and Pela sat awkwardly, trying to avoid the curious stare of the pony. It had to happen at some point.

And it just did.

She was just staring. With her blue eyes. There was no sign of Colgate losing the mind grip she was holding on Pela. They were like the sea- no, the ocean, with a stretch as vast and as blue as the eye (hah) could see. In most spots, the water was relatively calm. In others, Pela could see raging waves thrashing about. In the very center, there was a large black hole that seemed to be sucking in the water. But it would never end. The hole kept stretching out, and the blue was pushed up against a white sky. It keptgrowing. A glimmer could be seen in the center. It was a reflection of something.

Life then took a ‘zoom-out’, and revealed Colgate with absurdly large pupils, and a decreasing amount of blue in her eyes. She was looking at Pela’s necklace, though the zebra had no idea. It took her a while to escape the black hole that was Colgate’s eyes and realize her most valuable possession was being admired.

“W- What are you looking at?” Pela hesitantly asked. She already knew the answer, but all she wanted was for Colgate to stop. Maybe distracting her with words would work.

“Where’d you get it?” the blue pony asked. She was mesmerized by the piece of golden jewelry. There was an oval-shaped gem in the center. Pela seemed to recoil from this question. She didn’t think anypony, or anybody for that matter, would take an interest in her. She was clearly mistaken.

“It was a gift. From my mother.” Colgate’s expression didn’t change, although her eyes reverted a little back to what they were. They were about 20% smaller than they were a second ago.

“She must be a very nice zebra to have given you something so beautiful.” At this, Pela let out a small whimper.

“My mother is no longer in the realm of the living,” she began. “She passed away when I was but a foal.” Colgate’s pupils reverted to their original size.

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.” Pela looked back up to Colgate.

“Don’t apologize. You had nothing to do with her death.” Colgate had no idea what to say to this. She just sat there, waiting for something to happen. Pela finally spoke up. “She had a disease. One that would allow her to live for only a few more weeks. Even to this day, our medics don’t know what had caused it, and what had made it die in her. She gave this to me on her death bed, and it is the only thing for me to remember her by.” Pela heard a sniffle.

“That’s so touching,” Colgate began. She was starting to cry. “I never really knew my parents. As a filly, I was adopted by a dentist because I reminded him of his own daughter that had unexpectedly left him.” The two creatures sat in silence in respect of the dead. More and more minutes passed by, and no words were spoken between them. They sat there until the fire died down to a single small flame.

“It’s time for sleep,” Pela began. “We will need energy for tomorrow.” Colgate silently agreed, and they both trotted over to where Minty was laying. His snores were a bit louder than they had been before, and he was sprawled out over two of the makeshift beds. Pela and Colgate rested on either side of him.

As the seconds passed by, Colgate could feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Her eyes finally closed as she was released into the dream world.

There was nothing. Only a blank white slate. It was so white, that if you could imagine the whitest possible thing, this was about 20% whiter. Well, unless you thought of Colgate’s teeth. Then they are pretty much the same.

Anyways, Colgate was floating in mid-air, not moving, remaining immobile as far as she could tell. She couldn’t even turn her eyes. They just sat there, gazing forward. Into the white.

So much white.

Then, almost suddenly, a small black circle faded into view. It began to grow. It kept on growing until it was about the size of a soccer ball from her point of view. An irritating buzzing could be heard from every direction. It wouldn’t stop.

The buzzing.

It eventually got louder, and the circle began to pulse.

The pulses grew stronger and stronger until Colgate could feel her eyes shaking, the only thing ‘moving’ about her body.

Vibrations.

It began to slowly bounce back and forth by the nothing that was surrounding it. After it reached a mind-numbingly fast speed and appeared to be just a pure black line, it slowed down and eventually came to a stop. Except this time, there wasn’t just one. There were two, the new one the same size as the original.

Twins.

The colors suddenly inverted. Everything was black now, with the exception of the two circles which were now white.

So much darkness.

Colgate felt a presence behind her. Her body somehow turned, only to face a very large red circle that was pulsing. It looked as if it was angry. It imposed some sort of sense of uselessness in her.

The two circles from before then moved to either side of the red circle. They floated above it, then merged.

Normally, you would expect the colors to join to make another color, usually gray. But this was different.

Light and Darkness don’t always mix.

Purity and corruptness.

Truth and fear.

That buzzing from earlier came back, except this time it was higher pitched and joined by an extremely low rumble, presumably coming from the red circle. It was pulsing harder now.

Earthquake.

The red began to seep out from the circle and slide down like raindrops on the windshield of a car. The red stopped, and in the next moment it completely disappeared from sight. All that remained was the two smaller circles, about halfway into each other, resisting the push and embracing the pull of the other. In the center where the two circles met, there was a small figure.

It began to grow.

It was the sphere that she had been carrying around with her. It appeared to come closer.

The sphere started vibrating, and a soft whistling sound could be heard resonating from it.

The waves were becoming stronger and stronger. They eventually became so strong, that Colgate awoke with a start.

She literally jumped off of the ground. The sun was nearly at its peak in the sky, and Minty and Pela had already packed everything up. Colgate had rolled off of the blanket, and was now standing in front of a patch of long grass.

“Well, look who’s finally awake,” a male voice said as Colgate slowly walked over to them. “We’ve been trying to wake you up for a couple hours now.” Colgate blushed at this. She was never one to sleep in this late. She just blamed it on how late she was awake, and then left it alone.

“I need to fix myself,” she said. Minty thought about how strange it sounded, but then ignored the little pony in his head. Colgate reached into her saddlebags with magic and pulled out a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. She trotted over to a small pool of clear water and began brushing her teeth. Seeing them brought up memories of the dream.

White.

She tried to ignore it until she finished with her duties. When she was done brushing, she stepped a front hoof into the puddle to break the reflection. As she was putting her things back into her bags, she checked to see if the orb was still there. It was.

After a few minutes, the group finally set off.

They had been walking for a couple hours when they finally came upon the large path that Minty and Colgate had started on. They could see the fork in the road from where they were standing. Gladly, though, it was behind them both figuratively and literally.

“We must continue this way,” Pela began. She seemed to know what she was doing, so the two ponies trusted her. “We shall come upon ancient ruins, but be wary, for it can cast a spell on you.” Minty wondered how she knew all of this.

“How do you know all of this?” Colgate spoke up in a cheery voice.

Why do ponies keep doing that?

“My scholars know well enough. I would always be learning of what the surface was like.” Pela began walking once more, and Minty and Colgate followed.

Minty used the time of silence during their walking to think about a few things.

‘Pela seems to be opening up. Is it because she is just getting to like me more? Or does it have something to do with Colgate? When did they even go to sleep last night? Why wasn’t Colgate waking up this morning?’

Sadly, he wouldn’t be able to have the answer to any of these questions for a while because they began to approach something.

It was the ruins of what appeared to be an old castle. There was a very worn out bridge that ran over a fog-filled ravine. Fortunately for him, he had wings so he could just fly out if he fell. But Colgate and Pela weren’t as fortunate. Just about when Minty was going to say something, Pela spoke.

“We must be careful. The Pegasus can fly us over one at a time.”

Was his mind really that easy to read?

It was too late, however. Colgate was already about a quarter of the way across the bridge. There was an ominous swoop sound behind them, then the crackle of branches and leaves. It was obvious they were being followed.

“I think it would be safer if we-” Minty started as he was once more interrupted.

“No time for the flying. We must all stay together. Onto the bridge, quick.” That was nothing like what Minty was going to suggest.

That’s a first.

Minty and Pela galloped over to the bridge, and Pela practically jumped on it. It creaked a little.

“Uh, Pela, are you sure this is safe?” Minty asked as he stepped onto the bridge with a hoof. It started to swing uncontrollably as another swoosh passed above their heads.

“You are a pegasus. You do not need to walk.” At this, she jumped away to another board of the bridge.

Duh.

As Minty extended his wings to take flight, a curtain of fog and smoke surrounded him. Out of the smoke came three pegasus-shaped figures dressed in dark blue flight suits. “Minty Rush, we must speak to you.”

“What’s going on? Who are you?” Minty was perfectly clueless.

“Do not trust her, Minty. She will turn her back on you.” The pegasi just stood there, staring at him.

“Are you talking about Colgate? Because she’d never do anything to hurt her friends.” Minty sounded pretty sure of himself, but as with anything, there was always a sense of doubt, even though it might be negligible.

“Heed out warning, Minty. Tread carefully.” Just like that, those ponies disappeared into the smoke. It cleared, and they were nowhere to be seen.

He could see Pela and Colgate waiting on the other side of the ravine. They weren’t looking in his direction. He flew over and silently landed next to them.

“We should keep moving,” Minty said. “We have a lot of ground to make up.” Pela and Colgate looked at each other, then back to Minty. He was clearly disappointed about something, though neither of the two mares wanted to say anything for fear he would snap at them.

They had nearly walked past the ruined castle, when Minty noticed the three ponies standing on a large branch of a tree. He looked away, only to see Colgate staring at him. He took a step away, then faced forward again. Colgate was so confused. Minty doesn’t normally act like this. She trotted over next to him.

“What’s wrong Minty? You’ve acting weird the entire time we’ve been walking.” Her face only held concern and confusion.

“Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you right now.” He then trotted a bit faster as to get away from her. This made her very sad. The blue in her eyes turned to a deep grey, and her lip was quivering.

It took hours to finally get out of the Everfree Forest. They had camped at the exit, near the path to Dodge City. Minty and Pela slept, as Colgate moped in her own sadness. She didn’t get an ounce of sleep that night.

The next morning was the same routine. Minty had said nothing to her, and she was still extremely sad. The fact that she had no idea why made it even worse.

They had kept on walking for a couple days, and soon reached a wide river. The Hayseed Swamps were to their right, and they didn’t feel too fond of going in there. They say that anypony that has ever gone in there has never come out.

“If we follow this river, we should end up in the Horseshoe Bay next to Baltimare. At least that’s what this map says.” Minty rolled it back up and stuffed it in his saddlebags. “Let’s go.”

The abrasiveness in his voice hurt Colgate even more. She was moving much slower now, and she had been neglecting her personal duties the past couple days. Her teeth were beginning to show the faintest tint of yellow and had heavy bags under her eyes. She felt horrible in every way, but Ponyville still needed her, so she pressed on. She was having mixed feelings about Minty though.

After a day of traveling, they had picked a place to rest where they were a good distance from the river. Minty approached Colgate as if he wanted to talk. “Hey, Colgate,” he began. Colgate perked up a little at the sincerity and kindness in his voice. “If you want to go back to Ponyville, you can. I’ve been noticing how sad you’ve been lately, and it is making me sad to see you like that.”

Not exactly the apology she was looking for, although it made her feel a tiny bit better that he was actually paying attention.

“No, I want to stay with you. I’ll be fine.”

At this, Minty took his place next to Pela, and Colgate actually got some sleep this time.

She was still sad, but had been starting to take care of herself a bit better. A dull whitness came back to her teeth in place of the yellow, and her mane was no longer wild as she had washed it. Whatever effect she had on Minty while she was wet had completely disappeared, but that wasn’t as big of a deal.

They were about halfway along the river to the bay when a heavy storm appeared. Wind was whipping their manes all over the place, and rain was practically coming in sideways. It also didn’t help that the forests of the Hayseed Swamps wouldn’t provide any protection from rain.

A sudden gust of wind made Colgate lose her footing and she stumbled into the raging river. Minty didn’t notice until he heard her scream.

“COLGATE! Hold on! We’ll get you!” Minty was starting to panic as he went through ideas of how he was going to save her. He couldn’t fly and lift her out of the water because the wind would throw him all over the place. He couldn’t jump in himself otherwise he would be in the same predicament as her. As he was thinking, he saw Pela jump across the river on some high rocks. She had something in her mouth that looked like a rope. She tossed one end to Minty and shouted over the storm.
“Use this to catch her!” Minty grabbed the rope in his mouth, then nodded. They ran downstream with the wind to their backs which gave them a super speed boost, and they eventually surpassed Colgate. The pulled it tight, and Colgate luckily caught it with a hoof sticking out of the water while the rest of her body had capsized.

That’s how it should have worked.

Just before Colgate would have grabbed it, a wave threw her just out of the water towards the rope. She flew into it, and the force yanked Pela and Minty into the river with her. All they could do now is wait and hope they didn’t drown. They had somehow joined together in a group hug as they were screaming and yelling for their lives.

It was minutes before the water calmed down a bit and they were dumped out of the river and into a shallow pool filled with rocks. They were all unconscious.

~ An undefined amount of minutes later, ~

Minty felt himself being dragged along the rocks - his back hooves, anyways. He was only able to open his eyelids a little, but he could see figures of ponies, and a very large wooden boat. They had taken him into a small room that smelled of sweat and alcohol. He wanted to gag, but his body wouldn’t let him. He was thrown into the corner on a not-so-soft sack of something, and then he was out.

~ During that same time, ~

Colgate was the first to wake up. She was half floating, half lying in a shallow pool of water. There were very calm waves from where a tiny waterfall was emerging from the river they were just floating down. It was a wonder she hadn’t gotten any scrapes or bruises from sliding all this way. She immediately got up and looked for her companions.

She found Pela, but there was no sign of Minty.

“Pela, wake up,” she said as she used a hoof to nudge Pela. She awoke very slowly and got up, raising a hoof to her head.

“Ugh, what happened?” She had clearly hit her head on something, more than likely a rock.

“Are you okay?” Colgate asked, concerned for her friend’s safety.

“I’ll be fine. Where’s Minty?”

“I haven’t seen him. Maybe he got up and-” a masculine voice interrupted her.

“Well well well, look what we’ve got here, boys.” The two mares looked over to where the voice was coming from. They saw five or six tough looking pirate ponies dressed in rags and bandanas. One of them even had a peg leg and an eye patch. “A couple of toys for us to play with.” The pirates advanced on them, backing them up against a wall of stone.

Pela tried bucking out in self defense, but one of the larger ponies tackled her to the ground. After seeing the rough treatment the zebra was receiving, Colgate hesitantly gave in to their ‘request’.

“Ergh, unhand me, you, ah! You beasts!” Pela was struggling as hard as she could.

“You want to see a beast? I’ll SHOW you a beast,” one of the pirates snorted out. It was clearly a sex joke with very ill taste. An audible thump came from the same pony.

“You idiot, the Captain gets first pick of any prisoners. You know that.” The perverted pony stayed silent.

It took them only a few minutes to reach their vessel. It was a very large wooden boat with a white skull and crossbones painted on either side. There was a tall mast with sales with the same skull decal.

Pony Pirates. Bet you’ve never heard that one before. (/sarcasm)

A small platform supported only by ropes in the corners was lowered, and they were ordered to stand on it. They were slowly hoisted up onto the ship. What they saw was perhaps the worst thing either of them had seen.

There were dozens upon dozens of what appeared to be slave ponies working their flanks off cleaning the ship. Some were mending tears in the sails, some who were smashing rocks with axes, and one that particularly horrified Colgate, some that were scrubbing the deck with toothbrushes. She would have to make sure to hide hers very carefully so it wouldn’t befall the same fate.

“You two, take these wenches to the Captain’s quarters. I’m sure they need to be spoken to.” Just like that, Pela and Colgate were pushed forward by a pair of heavy ponies. Pela was positive that her ‘push’ was just a violent slap on the flank.

They approached a large single door which opened upon their arrival. Inside was a very elegantly decorated room. There was a long table in the center with a maroon cloth covered in golden floral decorations. There were plenty of plates with deliciously smelly food strewn about the table. On the walls were paintings of what Colgate presumed to be former captains of this ship. There was a large chair turned away from them, and a doorway that supposedly led to a bedroom. Moans and whimpers could be heard coming from that room.

“What business do you have to interrupt my business?” a voice coming from the chair said.

“We have a couple . . . Prisoners, that you might like to look at.” At that, the chair spun around to reveal a young unicorn mare adorned in a fancy hat. She jumped out of the char and walked over to Colgate and Pela. She was a very shapely pony, and the guard ponies that escorted them to the cabin suddenly started standing funny. They left with grunts and throat clearing.

“Well, well, prisoners is right. You two do look like you could be useful.” The pony walked around Colgate first. “Hm . . . Not bad, not bad. But you could still use a little less meat on you.” This offended Colgate, but not enough to make her want to get beaten for not staying quiet. The pony walked around her back.

“Actually, this might be really good. The Captain has been lacking women that can hold him up. Nice strong legs will do the trick.” With this, Colgate blushed and the pony moved on to Pela. “A zebra, how . . . exotic.” She walked around Pela, inspecting just about every detail about her body. “The Captain can decide what to do with you. In the meantime, I’ll just-” yelling came from the back room.

“Now go on, get before I make you!” A small crying mare ran out of the room, her mane all ruffled and blotchy. A very well maintained earth pony stallion followed. He trotted over to his chair and sat. He pretended not to notice them for a minute.

“Ah, what do we have here? A couple more ponies to assist me with a very important job?” He got up off of the chair and trotted over to Colgate. “Hm . . . Not too bad, nice color, strong limbs, perfectly capable of doing this work.” With this, he switched over to Pela. She recoiled from the smell of salt and alcohol in his breath. “It’s been years since I’ve had a zebra work for me. It has proven to be a most . . . interesting experience.” He sat back down into his chair.

“Sooooo . . . Do you want them?” the mare asked.

“Take them to the cellar, Thrash. I will decide what to do with them later. For now, I have another ‘employee’ to attend to.” He retreated into the back room, and a scream could be heard followed by a thud. Colgate and Pela looked at each other with disgusted faces.

“Aw, don’t be like that. Captain Oliver’s not all bad. In fact, if he likes you enough, he might just let ya’ do more than one job for him.” The hint was obvious. “Now, just follow me and we won’t have any trouble. Is that understood?” The pony and zebra nodded.

“Good. I don’t want to hear about two mares causing any trouble. If I do, there will be consequences.” They followed Thrash out of the cabin and onto the deck, where she received a bunch of salutes.

“First Mate Thrash on deck!” Nearly every single pony on the deck stood on three hooves and saluted with the fourth.

“Back to work, you worthless pieces of bear crap.” The hustle and bustle from earlier returned, though there wasn’t any whistling going on.

They arrived at the cellar. All there was was a stained and creaky door that had a crooked sign that had ‘Sellur’ painted on it. It looked suspiciously like blood.

“Now, you two just stay here.” At that, Thresh pushed them into the room and left. Pela had once again received more than just a push. They sat there in the darkness.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Colgate asked. She used her horn to illuminate a small circle around herself and Pela. Just by seeing the door to the place, she knew she didn’t want to see the condition of the food.

“I do not know. Perhaps we can escape.” They then heard something in the room with them. It wounded like grain running out onto the floor, then a groan. A figure just outside of Colgate’s light’s area of effect could barely be seen standing up and holding a hoof to its forehead.

Colgate instantly recognized it as Minty. She tackled him with a hug.

Sorry I’ve been so late with this one. I have been extremely busy with school and other projects, and sort of had a tiny case of writer’s block somewhere in here.

It’s been just over two weeks, and I was able to provide you with about 7,000 words. I had to cut the end a little shorter than I would have liked only because I felt like I was starving you guys of a story. Not that there aren’t a ton that are better, just saying. I like to think I have thousands of adoring fans enraged that I haven’t uploaded in a while.

A man can dream, can’t he?

I am also working on another crossover fic at the same time, so I apologize if it goes a little slow.

Thanks for understanding. But if you don’t, then I don’t have anything else to say to you.