The Legend of Delta

*3 Hours later…*

By now I was starting to slip in and out of consciousness, all I saw was the rushing water as the chunk of debris carried me along the river. All I caught small glimpses of were the blurred and moving river banks and the dense evening forest sunset that drew a faint silhouette of the forest canopy. I soon heard my ‘raft’ drift onto one of the banks. I saw a few more glimpses of the forest from there but not much other than the fading sunset and the trees covering what would be a perfect starry sky. But it was soon later I saw from the corner of my eye that something moved, I tried to look up but only got my head up so far before I was struggling to even keep awake, but I was able to stay awake long enough to make out what looked like a pony, but it was striped and the moon’s light reflecting off what looked like a thicker part of it’s neck, before I passed out again I heard a feminine voice sounding riddle: “Dear heavens I must say, are you ok?” That was when everything had gone black again.

When I started to come to again, I had expected to see the mere forest floor and a dark, cold night. But what I was met with was quite the opposite. My eyes opened to see a starry sky from behind what looked like a glass window, a shield from the cold air that provided the forest night’s chilling atmosphere, a safe guard to admire the beauty of the night sky. But quite frankly I thought I wasn’t in the situation to be star gazing, I looked to my left to see what looked like a basic home’s but had been made over by a chemist, there was jarred chemicals, bugs, and herbs, complete with a work bench with a dim candle lit to provide light for what I think was cataloging the productions here or a journal for the owner, maybe even mixing the various possibilities of chemical combos. By now I thought that I had enough observation and tried to sit up, however the immense pain in my lower muscles had caused me to think otherwise, I gave a grunt of pain as I stayed there half sat up, but I felt a pair of hooves hold my shoulders, I would have jumped but I heard what I recognized to be the same voice I heard at the river, still riddles though.

“Easy there young’in, you’re not in shape to be runnin’. Please, lay down and rest, it is for your best.” The feminine voice spoke, considering that his was the friendliest thing I’ve heard compared to death taunts and gunfire, decided that I may as well play nice and do as told. I laid back down just as soon as I felt a headache creep into my head; I clutched my face with a hoof rubbed my eyes to clear it’s blurry imperfection that clouded my vision.

“Where am I?” I merely asked as I regained my thoughts over what had happened in the day’s previous events.

“Evertree forest, I found you by the steam by my house yes? Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Zecora, what is yers?” I opened my eyes to see a Zebra beside the couch I was on, she had golden neck, hoof and ear rings, plus from her accent I could tell she came from Africa.

“Delta, I’m Delta.” I looked over to where my pain was being felt, I saw that my lower half was wrapped up under a blanket.

“Delta, I don’t know what caused your internal bleeding, but here drink this, it will cure it and your paining.” She held out a bowl of a green substance, probably a medicine to cure he bleeding and hopefully kill the pain, I took it carefully and drank the contents, as soon as I had down with it all, I ended up starting to gag, that medicine did NOT taste good. This feeling soon passed, but I knew next time to be careful. Luckily the medicine did not take long to take effect and soon I felt the pain in my insides fade and the wounds seal up it must have neutralized the remaining water in my lungs as well since breathing became easier. With a ‘thank you’ I passed the bowl back to Zecora and with a simple nod, she left to go and clean it. Why was this Zebra being so nice to me? I mean, I’m someone she could have easily left alone. Yet she took me in and provided help. But before I knew it I felt my eyelids start to droop and soon I was back in the realm of dreams.

*Inside Delta's Dream*

“Hiya honey.” I said as I walked over to her as she walked to me and before we walked into each other, we stood on or back hooves and held on to each other with our front hooves, I held her hips and she wrapped hooves around my neck.

“Howdy handsome.” She said as she looked into my eyes with her alluring green ones, we stayed like this for some time not separating our stare of love, but we soon started to lean in to each other our eyes closing slowly, but just before our lips meet each other’s she whispered 3 words that I never get tired of hearing from her: “I love you.” I returned the words; “I love you too.” and soon our lips met-

I awoke with a jolt. “Wow, what a weird dream” I thought to myself as I groaned, got off of the couch and picked up my sidearm only; since I couldn’t find my knife and secured it onto my weapon belt.  I walked out the main door soon after I double checked that I was ready to go, but as I was about to take off into an uncertain future, I heard Zecora call me back inside; “Delta? Leaving already? You just got here; Wounded and unsteady. Well here take this; it will help you get to where you wish.” She gave me a bag of different fruits and energy foods, even a map. I realized she even polished my knife when I saw my reflection in it from the bottom of the bag.

“Miss Zecora, I can’t thank you enough for what you have done for me.”  She simply smiled and nodded.

“Oh and one more tip? I will help you in your trip.”

“Shoot, what is it?”

“Dreams can be visions unless they are blank; you don’t know until you discover the mare behind the black.”

I gave a light chuckle at her tip but none the less thanked her for it, strapped the supplies bag and took one final look of Zecoras home. “One day, I will return here,” I thought as I turned and took off into the air. I pulled out my map and headed for a group of clouds marked on my map as “Cloudsdale”.