New Horizon

After playing with Blaze, and Pinkie and Rainbow, I figured we should stop on the side of the road and have a bite to eat. Midnight hopped out of the Element’s wagon, and my Kitsune’s eyes locked onto her. Her eyes slowly followed the foal as she walked up to our little campfire. Sitting beside me was Rainbow and Pinkie, who had somehow gotten ahold of a napkin and a fork and spoon. Pinkie had managed to get a hold of a whole oven and was baking cupcakes. After playing a game of tag with these two, I was alright with sharing a pot full of canned chili. They were simply good people, and Rainbow saw past what I did at the Friendship Festival pretty quickly; she knew I had saved lives by doing what I had done, even if that wasn’t my intention. I hummed while looking down at the can… Now when did anyone manage to make this stuff in a can?

I sure as hell didn’t make it for anyone other than Luna, and that was a thousand years ago.

“Why are you staring at the can?” Rainbow asked, while I idly stirred the pot.

“I’m just surprised. According to Luna, back when we were dating, she'd never even heard of this stuff before I made it for us on a date. Now this stuff’s in a can, so just about anyone can make it.” I started reading over the ingredients. “Even has the same stuff I put in that same pot I made for Luna, but chili really isn’t a complicated dish.”

Twilight sat down next to us along with Midnight. Blaze’s eyes never left the alicorn or filly. It was kinda unnerving. “Somepony found a cookbook in the Castle of the Two Pony Sisters shortly after Luna made her return. It had odd sounding recipes such as mashing potatoes down, fries made out of potatoes, and then chili. Along with several other things,” Twilight said in a teacher voice. “Of all the recipes, chili stuck out the most, and somepony thought it would be good to sell in cans.” I hummed before chuckling.

“Of all the things that I left a mark on, comfort foods…” I shook my head. “Took an arrow to the arse, literally took on an army, and that gets erased from history… yet a cookbook I was making, so I wouldn’t forget the recipes later, that had a few preservation charms…” I leaned back a little. “It’s kinda bizarre, what your mark on the world would be. Some want to leave some grandiose mark, such as being the lead architect of Canterlot Castle. Or sometimes, you save a whole city, and you get forgotten about.” I shrugged, before lifting the pot off the fire. Chrysalis walked over and put a shield over the fire until it dissipated.

I poured a bowl for Rainbow and Pinkie, and then pulled some chicken out of an icebox on the wagon. After I quickly cut it up, I put it in a third bowl and gave it to Blaze. The ponies present looked at me with slightly wide eyes. I took my chili plain. “What?”

“Why do you have an icebox full of meat? Wouldn’t only Blaze want to eat that?”

“Sometimes I eat it too in small amounts. Meat’s good, and feels good in the mouth, especially chicken,” I sat down and leaned back into my Kitsune’s back. Her tails wagged a little more than they already were at the prospect of having a meal. “How’s the food, Blaze?”

“I wish we had a proper kitchen so you could spoil me rotten, but this is pretty close to what you’ve made me in the past,” she diverted her attention from her food just to lick my cheek, before returning to devour it. We both knew she really didn’t need the food, though she did like eating it, and rarely did she actually eat food. Even though she initially claimed she does need to eat, just not as often as something made of actual flesh and blood. “It tastes very processed compared to what you’ve made, though.”

“Yeah, but this shit expires in sixty years from now, that’s a long time for food to go bad. So all that processing at least went into something,” I had quickly finished my bowl. Apple Jack walked over to the rest of us, having made simple lettuce and tomato sandwiches for the rest of her group, to give Twilight one as well. “So, Blaze, why did it feel like the air around me was becoming more and more humid while you were on the Element’s wagon? It felt like I was underwater when that was happening.”

“Oh, some ponies were getting ideas that were pretty stupid,” she glared at Midnight. “And the Elements… may have an extra travel buddy,” Chrysalis laid down next to us, resting her head on the kitsune’s back.

“I felt Starlight Glimmer’s presence while we were traveling,” she added. “And weirdly, Midnight’s presence disappeared when that happened,” she eyed the filly. “I am holding my tongue, just in case Starlight is just teleporting to and from the Element’s wagon to keep Twilight posted about her stupid, little school, but I cannot explain why Midnight would disappear.”

“You didn’t feel how much magic Blaze was releasing? Magic like that could override other magical presences, especially the weaker ones from a filly,” Twilight said.

“That is bullshit,” Chrysalis tilted her head. “What was it? Yes, Blaze’s presence was strong, but I am old, Twilight Sparkle. I know how to pick out the weaker presences when a stronger one is nearby. I will drop this topic for now, but just know, if you are planning something ill-willed to myself or my mate…” Her smile never faltered. “Well, Equestria will be short of a super weapon.”

“Chryssy,” I interrupted. “You making threats,” I said casually while chewing on a cupcake Pinkie had given me, another reason to actually like the mare. “Kinda hot.” Chrysalis immediately started blushing while gliggling behind a hoof. “Though, leave Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, despite my earlier reservations, they’re cool.” I waved a hoof, before glaring at Twilight. “If I find out you’re pulling shit though, I’ll turn our little caravan around, I will drop your asses off in the Everfree Forest, and go. Or even better, I won’t even tell you I found out, and just leave you guys in Kumiho territory. I’m sure they'd love to see what pony livers taste like.” I slowly turned to Midnight. “Don’t be fucking with me.”

Blaze nudged me. “That’s Starlight Glimmer, by the way. Don’t say a word, I say we drop her off at an orphanage when we reach Manehatten, or dump her in a trashcan while she’s sleeping, and leave for Eur Mono,” Blaze said to me, and me alone. She also whispered her plan to Chrysalis because her ears perked up. “Trust me, this will be far healthier than just murdering Starlight.” The three of us nodded in our silent pack. “So, Midnight,” Blaze opened her telepathy back to everyone else. “Would you like to spend the night with Twilight Sparkle and her friends?”

“Yeah!” Oh, Starlight’s damned good at acting.

Over the course of the next few days, we would travel, sometimes Blaze would get one of us to play with her, mostly Pinkie since she was always willing. Blaze actually started to like that pink ball of energy because of that. Even though I was always down, Pinkie stepped up often before I could. Seriously, that mare is really nice, even if she is a bit much at times. She’s well intentioned, even if she lacks self control, but I can respect that she truly just wants the world to smile. And the world needs more people like her, that can get the world to smile; we’d all be less sad and depressed. So far, out of the elements, she was the best. Well, Fluttershy was a lot more reserved and distant, but I could respect her for just wanting some peace and quiet.

And her desires to stay distant from a monster like me.

Midnight, or as Blaze told me, Starlight Glimmer, spent a lot of time with me. Getting me to wrestle with her, or some other shit. On the way, we were halfway up to Manehattan, I think, before we came across an interesting village… full of Ponies. Ponies was the wrong word, I think. They were like goats with dragon scales. They had large, fluffy manes with a lion tail instead of the usual ponytail. There was one in Extra Large, that was probably the leader, and all of them were silent. Now, why were we here? Because Apple Jack and Fluttershy’s asses had red dots on them or something, so we had to stop by or some shit. I tried to take cover, thinking there was a sniper, but no. There's a friendship problem!

That has to be the gayest thing I’ve ever said in my life.

Well, no, I did say I wanted meat in my mouth, that’s pretty gay.

So, I was sitting in a village, watching a kirin, as they were apparently called, doing charades. They were sitting right in front of me, pointing at my fox, Chrysalis, and pointing at a well. “I don’t know how you expect us to do charades when you don’t have hands, but sure, I’ll bite.” I got up and walked over to the well. Low and behold… a baby kirin had fallen into the well, staring up at me, looking like it was about to cry but couldn’t. I stared down at it for a good three seconds. I hopped on down, caught my legs in the sides of the walls, and shimmied down. I grabbed the baby kirin, I think it’s called a cub, by the scruff of the neck, before shimmying back up. I dropped the baby on its butt and it ran up to the kirin that was doing charades.

Twilight sat down beside me while I was resting my hooves, letting Fluttershy and Apple Jack do the work. The farm pony had gone off with another Kirin at some point, one that could and was willing to talk. “Why are you smiling at me?”

“You actually helped somepony with a problem!” And without violence, I could hear that undertone.

“It was a kid stuck in a well, this time it was an actual kid since it’s basically a baby goat. There may be a lot of things that are fucked up about me, but I’m not going to turn a blind eye if a kid needs some help.” I pulled my notebook out from under my wing. “Why is that so shocking? I’ll happily help a kid out with whatever. I’m not that morally bankrupt.” I put away my notebook. Blaze came trotting up, and Twilight slowly backed away. “Hey girl!” Blaze yelped when I wrapped my arms around her neck, before happily flopping over and leaning into my embrace. I simply laid there, watching as Apple Jack had come back to yell at Fluttershy at least a few hours later about what was the best solution for the silent village around them. “You know, if it weren’t for Kirin being able to set themselves on fire,” I said as the Kirin from earlier ran in while on fire. “I would say they’re pussies who can’t handle a little argument.”

Twilight decided now was a good time to give her two cents. “How would you feel if somebody called you an idiot?”

“I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I also wouldn’t care. I’ve learnt a while ago to not care about what people think. And then that whole load of bullshit with Luna and Celestia made me really just not care. I’ve got two people I care about; Blaze and Chrysalis, if they continue to love me, that’s all that matters to me.” I readjusted my position while laying on my live bed. “Hey, Twilight,” I pointed over to the Kirin that was now carrying Apple Jack and Fluttershy. The rest of the Elements were preoccupied with something. Rarity was worrying about her mane or something stupid, Rainbow Dash was reading a Daring Do book, and Pinkie was… screaming down a well. “The Kirin are about to drown AJ and Fluttershy,” Twilight jumped to her hooves and looked where I was pointing.

“What?!” Her horn lit up to… a crowd of Kirin carrying Fluttershy and Apple Jack towards a window, both looked a bit(very) concerned. By the time anyone could do anything, the Kirin that dragged Apple Jack off, while on fire, ran in and saved the day! Wow, so fun!

“C’mon, Blaze, let’s get to Manehattan already; we have a world to see, not some stupid friendship lesson that I learnt while watching motherfucking Barney.” Blaze yipped. She got up and nipped me in an effort to get me to chase her, since she was running towards the wagon, I happily ran after her. Chrysalis stuck her head out of the wagon, laying in a little bundle of blankets was Midnight, who looked a bit cute, until I remembered it was some bitch pretending to be a filly. She was knocked the fuck out, snoozing and snoring away the day. “You know,” I sat down beside Chrysalis as we watched the Elements scramble to say goodbyes to the Kirin Village and get on their wagon to catch up to us. “We really should stop by an orphanage and see if there are any organic foals in there.”

Blaze and Chrysalis nodded. Chryssy was the first to speak. “You know, I do enjoy taking care of children, pony, changeling, anything. I know Blaze definitely enjoys taking care of foals, and I believe Midnight… could use a few friends. And your food supplies haven’t particularly dropped since traveling with our filly, so we could handle one more foal.” We all chuckled. Ah, Starlight, I would really love to murder you right now, but leaving you in an orphanage sounds really fun right now. “I hit Starlight with a sedation spell; she’ll be out until we’re already out at sea.”

“Smart, and devious… fucking christ, Chrysalis, there’s a child in the wagon!”

“Contain your hormones, Ostri, we have free entertainment behind us,” Blaze stuck her nose out the back of the wagon. Low and behold, the Elements were yelling at each other while packing their shit. They were falling behind because they took too long to say goodbye to one particular Kirin.

A couple of weeks later, we were in Manehattan. For some reason, Rarity was ecstatic about being in this place, while I was… at a loss for words. This place looked like it was straight from Planet Earth. Granted, this place was only the size of Manhattan, and had a third of the population to match what was Earth’s equivalent. I sat there for a moment, and got a nudge from Chrysalis, who was currently in a white, unicorn disguise. The disguise had a very similar build to Chrysalis, being rather thin, long, sleek legs, and a blue mane. She was supermodel levels of attractive for ponies, and any stallions, and a couple of stallions would try and steal a glance at her from the corner of my eye. “Are you alright? You hopped out of the wagon four minutes ago and just stared at Manehattan. Does something like this not exist in your old home?” She asked, concern washed over her entire body, she had slumped over slightly, and her ears were drooping.

She was beautiful, but I would’ve liked to see natural, undisguised Chryssy. That is the best Chryssy.

“No, it’s just…” I looked around. “This place is so eerily similar to New York City, a city back on earth. It’s like this place was ripped straight from home, but… that sign over there with the population on it? That’s nowhere near my world’s equivalent…” I sighed. “It’s just a bit surreal.” I took a couple of deep breaths. “Okay, I am normal, I am a normal horse with a pair of wings,” I nudged Chrysalis. “Say, before we drop Midnight off, can we see if there’s an actual orphan we can take care of? I’d like to raise a kid, not some mare pretending to be one.” Chrysalis nodded.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to taking care of another child, though when we get to the orphanage, I will have to drop my disguise; I don’t want to deceive any children we pick up-” some stallion came barreling out of an alleyway we were walking by. Blaze yelped and hopped out of the wagon, mostly because that stallion decided to take a knife out and hold it up to Chrysalis’s throat after taking her hostage.

“Give me your money, colt, or your marefriend gets it!” He shouted. The elements came out of their wagon, two of the six forgot that they had horns. Three of the six also forgot they had wings. They were just shocked to see me and Chrysalis getting robbed.

“Let go of my marefriend,” I unsheathed my own knife.

With the Elements.

Twilight and her friends sat and stared at Ostri as he and the stallion holding Chrysalis hostage circled each other. For some reason, Blaze hadn’t done anything, and Chrysalis didn’t just drop her disguise and kick the stallion. “We should probably help them, don’t you think?” Fluttershy whispered to the group.

“But that stallion’s got Queen Chrysalis, why should we care about her?” Rainbow hissed.

“Because she’s probably the only thing keeping Ostri from killing everypony!” Twilight hissed back.

“Buddy,” Ostri’s voice rang throughout the streets. There was a cadence that none of the Elements of Harmony had heard from the stallion. “Go rob somebody else, you’ll live another day in a dungeon, but you’ll live. That mare that you’re holding, is one of the few things in this world that I still care about.” He paused. His smile never faltered, as his voice got smoother and smoother. “Trust me, it’ll be best for everyone involved if you run in the other direction.” The mugger didn’t relent, and in a blink of an eye, with Rainbow Dash being the only one to comprehend what had happened, Ostri flew right into the stallion, angling himself perfectly to avoid hurting Chrysalis.

The mugger got punched in the face and was sent reeling back. He stumbled a bit, shaking his head in pain. Now the six could get a closer look at the stallion, an earth pony, a rather tall and muscly one. Standing across from him was probably one of the thinnest pegasi that Rainbow had ever seen, yet Ostri wasn’t backing down. He just stood there, having put his knife away. Chrysalis, still disguised, laid on the ground behind him, her tail wagging slowly as she watched her coltfriend slowly make his way to the mugger.

I punched the mugger in the throat, making him crumple to the floor while he choked and coughed, his forehooves were caressing his injured windpipe. “So buddy,” I whispered into his ear while he was still violently coughing. “I’ll leave you off with a warning! Next time, you’ll be leaving my presence as a mare! So next time, you better cooperate!” I whispered cheerfully before turning around and quickly rushing to Chrysalis. I got down on my knees and I skidded to a stop before her. “Are you alright?” I asked, wrapping my arms around her neck.

“Of course; if I knew you couldn’t have saved me, I would’ve kicked his head off or blasted him with a spell.” Blaze quickly darted to the stallion. She grabbed his tail and spun him around, until she let go. The mugger flew into a nearby trash can, landing perfectly in it. “Though, I also only didn’t fight back because I wanted to see you get angry again,” she got nice and close to my ear. “For such a performance, I may have to book a hotel for the night so I can reward you.” Oh. I felt my cheeks warming up. Chrysalis giggled and clapped her hooves. “Well, let’s go; we will introduce our filly to some more children.”

The two of us were joined by Blaze as we walked back up to the Elements and our wagon. The kitsune grabbed the sleeping ‘foal’ from the cart with her magic, and laid her on Chrysalis’s back. “You guys can book a hotel or whatever; we’re not in a huge rush so we’ll be Manehattan for a day. My family’s going to go… explore the city.” The six mares gave odd looks to each other, before nodding. We walked on down the street, with a map that Chrysalis had acquired, towards the nearest orphanage.

We could get a cardboard box and leave Starlight in it,” I suggested.

“But then she’ll just teleport home. If we leave her in an orphanage, she’ll have to act the part until she can run away,” Chrysalis glared at the filly on her back. “I am trying my damn best to help piece you back together. And mares like this, Celestia and Luna make my job rather difficult; she deserves to suffer at least a little bit. Just ignore what she’s done to me, what she’s doing to you is enough of a reason for me to kick her head off. But…”

“I’m trying to curb both of your desires to kill people. It’s great and dandy at times, but I doubt you two want to be in a dungeon for killing some random idiot…” She nudged the filly on Chrysalis’s back, who had just been hit with another sedation spell. “Or killing somepony; especially one ponies will notice have gone missing. At least this solution of dropping her off in a foster home is legal, so we can’t be held accountable.” That is a good point. Blaze chuckled. “Of course it is, I’m the smart one of our family.”

“So am I,” Chrysalis said with a grin.

“Hey! I’m not an idiot!”

“You are not, but us females are simply smarter; we know what’s best for you,” Chrysalis said with an even larger, shit eating grin.

“C’mon, let’s just drop this bitch off at an orphanage and go to another one and adopt a kid.” We turned into an orphanage that was literally around the corner to do just that.