when worlds collide

Izzy and Hitch walked through the field. Izzy was carefully inspecting the ground this time making sure nothing could trip Hitch.

"You know this feels kind of familiar." Izzy said lifting her eyes from the ground to Hitch.

"Consider it a do-over." Hitch said, his eyes meeting Izzy's. "Listen Izzy. I know you've been going through a lot and I know that you and I have had some tension recently but I hope you know that I will always be here for you."

During that entire sentence, Hitch thought to himself Please take the hint Izzy.

Meanwhile, Izzy was thinking, was that a hint? Does he love me too?

Izzy nodded her head quietly and returned her eyes to the ground.

"What are you looking for?" Hitch asked.

"Anything that could trip you. I sure don't want that to happen again."

"Don't worry Izzy. We went a lot farther today than we did last time. There's no way the same thing is out here again."

"Well you never know"

"Fair enough." Hitch decided now was the best time to ask her. She was in a good mood. Who wouldn't be on a beautiful night like this. "H-Hey Izzy?"

"Yeah?"

"I was just thinking do you maybe-"

"I KNEW IT!"

Hitch was interrupted by a yell from behind him. He turned around to see Zipp, standing on three hooves while limping with her fourth. She wore a look on her face unlike one Hitch had ever seen before. She was genuinely mad at them.

"Knew what?" Izzy asked. A look of concern now spreading across her face.

"I don't know what the tartarus you two have with this field, but I caught you this time." Zipp's look was growing more and more angry every second.

"Caught us doing what?" Hitch asked. He could tell Zipp was angry but he couldn't tell quite why.

"Stop acting dumb!" Zipp was yelling. She pointed a forehoof towards Hitch angrily. "You were going to sleep with Izzy again!"

Hitch put a hoof up to slow her temper. "We were not going to do that. We didn't even mean to last time."

Zipp's glare turned down but was still very angry. "Really? Why are you two out here then?"

Neither Hitch or Izzy looked amused. Izzy spoke first. "He is trying to help me feel better about everything. Last time, he tripped over some weird black orb thing and I thought it was my fault. I started having a panic attack and Hitch helped me calm down by hugging me. I kind of fell asleep while he was doing that and I guess he did too. You caught us at a bad time."

Zipp looked down towards the ground. "I am so sorry. I thought you two were doing something behind our backs. I didn't mean to start any trouble." Zipp laid down, softly whimpering because of her broken hoof. Her ears perked up after a short moment. "Wait a second. Did you say weird black orb thing?"

Izzy shrugged. "Yeah that's what I said word for word."

Zipp nodded and looked back towards the ground.

Hitch spoke up, "Zipp I can't quite speak for Izzy but I forgive you. I understand what you thought but I can assure you that me and Izzy have never done anything like that."

Izzy nodded her head in agreement and Zipp smiled weakly. They began walking back towards the campsite with Zipp leaning on Hitch's shoulder for support. Izzy couldn't help but feel a small twinge of jealousy. She thought that part of her did want to sleep with Hitch again tonight. She remembered how comforting it was sleeping in his hooves. She dismissed that thought quickly. She was still convinced that he had eyes for Sunny. Why wouldn't he? They were childhood friends and of course Sunny was a very attractive mare. This made her softly shake with jealousy.

When they reached the campsite, Zipp had Hitch walk her back over towards her sleeping bag. She looked up and said, "Hitch, can you go into Izzy's cart and grab my bag and bring it here."

Hitch began walking towards the cart which was parked about thirty feet off from the campsite. Zipp looked over to Izzy who had laid down on her seeping bag with a lightly angry expression on her face. Zipp decided that she would try to talk to her. "What's wrong Izzy? You look pretty angry."

Izzy looked down at the ground, her expression softening. "It's nothing Zipp. Why do you even care? I thought you were still mad at me."

Zipp shook her head. "No Izzy. We may disagree sometimes but I could never stay mad at one of my best friends for long. That's what the magic of friendship is all about isn't it?"

Izzy looked up and slightly nodded. They returned to silence for a few seconds when Hitch returned. "Here's your bag Zipp. I really don't know why you need it this late. We really should all be getting back to sleep."

Zipp shook her head. "No. You both need to see this. When I woke you up yesterday morning, I saw some weird black orb thing laying there on the ground. I thought sonepony had just littered and I picked it up. I was going to throw it away when we got to Bridlewood but I noticed upon further inspection that it looked like a more high-tech device." She reached into her bag and pulled out the orb. "As you can probably imagine, being stuck in that cart with nopony to talk to gets pretty boring after like five minutes, so I started playing with this thing."

Hitch was nodding his head but he still looked confused. "What does this thing have to do with anything important Zipp?"

Zipp held up a hoof to silence him. "You didn't let me finish Hitch. I decided to try to press the button here and it started making things disappear. But then whenever I tapped the button again, the item would reappear wherever I pointed this laser thing."

Izzy looked up. "How much stuff did you move around? I had everything in that cart organized."

Zipp held up her hoof again reassuringly. "Don't worry Izzy. I put everything back the way I found it. The point is, I remember reading almost every book in the Zephyr Heights royal library and I specifically remember reading a book called "Rare Magical Artifacts and How To Make Them. Of course, the book was meant for unicorns but they didn't have the magic to make any of the artifacts either. Anyways, I remember an artifact called dead matter."

Hitch's look of confusion grew greatly. "What is dead matter? I feel as though I remember the name from a book that I read in Maretime Bay but I'm not quite sure."

"It's almost like extra holding space," Zipp began explaining. "You can hit someone or something with the laser and then if you hit it again, it will put the held item somewhere else."

Izzy's eyes grew wide. "This thing is amazing! I could move my entire crafting cart without needing to pay for gas for the motor cart!"

Izzy began to rush forward to grab the ball but Zipp held up a hoof to stop her.

"Hold on Izzy. We don't know a whole lot about this stuff. And I heard somewhere that this thing could be extremely dangerous. I propose that nopony touches it until I have it figured out completely." Zipp looked towards Hitch and Hitch nodded his head in agreement. He looked towards Izzy.

"I'm sorry Izzy," he said. "I just want to make sure that nothing happens to you or anypony else."

Izzy's thoughts began to race. Why did he specify me? Was it just because I was the one trying to grab it? Or does he really care about me? Was that another hint? Why am I so bad at picking up on these.

Izzy and Hitch walked back to their sleeping bags and laid down. It was already three in the morning but the excitment of finding such a rare artifact was incredible. Hitch was actually pretty tired, so he fell asleep almost immediately. When Zipp was sure that Hitch was asleep, she whispered over to Izzy.

"Izzy?"

Izzy's head perked up. "Yeah Zipp?"

"I think I know why you looked so angry earlier."

Izzy looked backwards a little bit as she began to look nervous. "Oh really?" She asked nervously. "Why?"

Zipp raised an eyebrow. "You know you're horrible at hiding things right? I knew that something was wrong I just couldn't tell what. Then I figured it out." She sighed for a second and then said softly, "You wanted to sleep with Hitch again tonight didn't you?"

Izzy's mind was doing cartwheels. How did she know? Am I really that predictable? Izzy sighed. "Yeah. I guess part of me really wanted to sleep with him again. It was comforting and I really liked it."

Zipp chuckled slightly. "Sounds like more than just a part of you wanted to sleep with him. You love him don't you?"

Izzy looked shocked. She sighed in defeat as she said, "Yeah. But you are never allowed to tell anypony or I will hunt you down and kill you in your sleep."

Zipp laughed. "Okay. Okay. Word of advice though, Keeping your feelings inside won't help anything. They might just cause pain and regret."

"How do you know?" Izzy asked.

Zipp sighed again. "I used to have feelings for somepony. But that changed. Remember those two guards you met the day you and Sunny came to Zephyr Heights?" Izzy nodded her head as Zipp continued. "Those were our bodyguards. They were on break when they found you. My guard was named Thunder Flap. He was the one who forgot to read the manual remember? Well I had feelings for him. But I waited too long to talk to him about it. When I finally got the courage to ask him to be my colt-friend, I found out he had been dating Pipp's guard Zoom Zephyrwing. I haven't had feelings for anypony since."

Izzy looked down towards the ground sadly. "I'm sorry Zipp."

Zipp sighed. "Don't be. It was a long time ago. All I'm saying is don't wait to long to ask Hitch out. Because a stallion like him will be gone in a wingbeat." With that, Zipp turned around and fell asleep. Izzy lay awake for the rest of the night, thoughts zooming through her head as fast as they could go. Most of all though, she thought about the upcoming day. Tomorrow she would be home again and she would have to face the best healers in town.

After almost an entire moon, Izzy moonbow would have to face her parents.