Chapters "Sister, allow me to do this, you have done enough..." Luna spoke calmly to her sister, clearly stressed and heartbroken.
"No!" Celestia roared. "I WONT LET ANYONE FEEL THE PAIN I'M FORCED TO FEEL!" She grit her teeth in anger, glaring at her sister as a punishment for her insistence. This was her duty, her punishment, her love...
It was, once again, another average day in Ponyville. There hadn’t been any special events going on for a while and there still wouldn’t be for a couple weeks. The ponies were all hard at work doing their daily chores. Up in the sky, everyone’s favorite light blue pony was clearing the sky of the massive amount of clouds, allowing Celestia's warm sun free reign over the citizens of Ponyville.
Back on the ground, at the exit to the Everfree forest, a strange pegasus emerged from the darkness of the trees, followed by an assortment of fluffy, wild animals. He turned to face the creatures with a bright, toothless, smile on his face.
“So, this is the town?” He received a series of high pitched noises and squeaks as a response to his question and in turn replied with a happy squeak as he thanked his little friends and ran off down the path. This place was his goal and he'd traveled days to get here. He didn't have words to describe his happiness as he trotted towards Ponyville. Soon enough, something just off the path caught his attention, well two somethings, both of them purple.
Of course, Twilight was practicing her magic with her assistant right by here side, trying to give her encouraging words as she attempted to turn wood into stone. She couldn't help but notice the new pony traveling towards Ponyville. He was larger than most ponies, maybe even bigger than Big Mac. His light grey coat still managed to shine in the bright sun. He had a rainbow colored mane which is shorter than Rainbow Dash's, but just about as mismanaged. His eyes, a light cyan color. He also carried a saddlebag that seemed pretty full of an assortment of things. Twilight was practically starring at him, analyzing all of his important features before she realized that he was right in front of her.
“Uhmmm... hi.” Skye attempted to start the conversation, but Twilight was still focused. He had a surprisingly calming, mid-range pitched voice, considering his size she expected a much deeper one.
“Uhhhh, Twilight.” Her little dragon assistant poked at her.
Twilight managed to break her concentration. “Oh, hi. Sorry about that, can I help you with something?” He seemed to try to avoid eye contact with her, something that Fluttershy would do from time to time when she felt embarrassed about something.
“Uhmmm... yeah.” He managed to look at her. “Is this Ponyville?”
“Sure is!” Skye looked back toward the ground with no reply. She couldn't tell if he didn't hear her or if he was just a little shy. She attempted to put on her happiest face and in her most cheerful tone, “My name's Twilight Sparkle and this little guy here is Spike.”
He started to realize that he was making the situation kinda awkward. “Oh, my name's Skye High. I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a little nervous, I've just never seen an earth pony with a horn before, well, not in real life.”
“You've never seen a unicorn before? I thought unicorns were like, everywhere.” The little dragon managed to say, before Twilight could respond. Twilight though for a few seconds, there weren't many places where unicorns weren't seen. The only place she could think of was a sky town, a place where only pegasus can live comfortably.
“Well you see Spike, there aren't any unicorns or earth ponies in any of the sky towns. Only pegasus can stand on clouds, so it makes sense that he's never seen a unicorn.” She looked up at Sky to verify that she was right when she saw his extremely bright smile. A little blush showed up on her face, she's never quite had anyone smile at her the way he just did, not Cadence, not Shining, not even Princess Celestia.
“Yep, you guessed it. Are all unicorns as smart as you?” This caused Twilight's little blush to blossom. She couldn't even bare looking at him.
Now, to any random onlooker, Skye would seem like a suck up, but that's just how he was. It's always been his goal to make people feel as good about themselves as possible. Spike couldn't help but feel a little jealous at how easily Skye was able to turn Twilight's cheeks red.
“So, what are you doing out here Twilight?”
“Oh, just practicing some magic, I'm trying to turn wood into stone but this spell's a toughy, I haven't gotten it yet.” She didn't like to admit it. Normally Twilight would attempt a spell and there would at least be some outcome but this time nothing changed, it was getting frustrating.
“Wow really? Do you mind if I watch?” Skye was pretty intrigued by this whole magic thing. He's never seen anything like it.
“Sure, just give me a moment to concentrate.” To Twilight this was her chance to show herself. Skye was already impressed by her and all she needed was another chance to prove herself.
Twilight glared at the block of wood put in front of here by Spike, as he ran to duck in cover behind a log. Skye stood defiantly where he was, having no fear about this new magic he just learned about. Twilight's horn grew extremely bright as her entire body strained to contain the magical power building up inside of her. She began to sweat as she desperately tried to concentrate on the wood, thinking about how she wanted it to look, what it would be made of, and what it would become. Finally she pointed her forehead towards the block as a purple ray of light spewed from her horn, shifting and morphing the wood into what appeared to be a hard, brown substance. As the light dissipated Twilight feel backwards onto the ground as she started panting and coughing, a sign of her exhaustion from all of her hard day's work. She was only on the ground for a few moments before Skye's face was directly over hers.
“Are you ok?! Twilight!” He practically cried, sincerely hoping his new found friend was alright.
gasp “I...” inhale “...yeah...” Spike ran over to her with a glass full of water and slowly put it up to her lips as she drank and almost immediately recovered.
“Ya know Twi, I told you that you shouldn't strain yourself that much, maybe we shou...”
Twilight practically jumped off the ground and squealed as she pointed her forehoof at where the block of wood was., in it's place was a pile of dirt. “Progress!” Twilight yelled as she went back to the ground, this time Spike putting herself under her catching her fall.
“Wow, good job Twilight, now let's get you home so you can get some rest...” Spike's sentence got more and more dreary as he realized he'd have to help her walk back home. “Alright Twilight, up you go!” He tried to lift Twilight but let's face it, he isn't the strongest dragon. He managed to get Twilight on her hooves but there was no way Spike could really help her from this point. As soon as she was about to fall over again Skye was right next to her, wrapping his wing around Twilight's back to her underbelly. Of course, doing this enticed a little 'eep' from Twilight, she's never really felt a pegasus's wing wrap around her like Skye had just done.
“I hope you don't mind if I help walk her home Spike.”
“Sure, I guess so... as long as you don't hurt her.”
“Of course Spike, I'd never hurt my fr... er, Twilight.”
He was too afraid to call Twilight his friend. After all, what if she didn't want to be his friend or what if calling Twilight his friend would make Spike think he was weird. Really he didn't want anything to feel awkward or upset. That's just how he is, Skye really hates when ponies are upset. When ponies are upset all they tend to do is make other ponies sad or angry and Skye hates sad and angry ponies.
The walk didn't seem long. Sure Twilight's house was near the center of the town but the sights seemed to attract Skye's attention for most of the time, Twilight was too tired to care, and Spike just wanted to get home so he could rest too. But the sights Skye saw were amazing, at least to him. He was very used to tall apartment buildings that all looked the same and generic, but the first thing he passed by was a small cottage on his way into town. He then saw an amazing, round, multicolored building that looked almost castle like. Then while he was in town he passed by what he could only describe as and enlarged gingerbread house covered in tons of decorations and even had a few candles on top of it. He even noticed a pink pony starring at him with a wide smile on her face, as the pony scrambled away from window in a hurry. He didn't pay that much attention to it until he walked a good ways down the street. Suddenly the town boomed with a large shriek.
“WHERE'S MY WELCOME WAGON!?!!?!!?”
“Good grief, let's get you to the library before you become exhausted too.” Spike said in some kind of spite, which Skye didn't particularly enjoy, but Twilight let out a little chuckle so maybe that's just one way ponies, or dragons as it may, joke around here.
Soon after, Skye made it to a very large tree near the center of town. He just stood amazed for a moment. He knew that little animals lived in trees and some where even kind enough to invite him into their homes. But the little creatures only had homes in the base of the trunk, this tree had windows and doors over all parts of the tree.
“Spike, Is this really where you live!?”
“Yeah, why? Is it weird?”
“No, no... well, It's just that I've never seen a house made out of a tree. It's really cool.”
“Hmpf, I guess it's pretty cool.” He started to walk towards his house and stops at the door. “Ok Skye, I think I can take it from here.” Skye lets go of his hold on Twilight as she manages to stand all on her own.
“Thanks a lot for helping me home Skye, if there's anything I can do for you while I'm here I'll be glad to help.” Skye looked at her with a strange face, wondering if it would be ok to ask his question.
“Well actually I do have a question for you. Do you know where Rainbow Dash is? She's the reason I'm here.”
“Rainbow Dash? She lives a little outside of the town, in a cloud house. You can't miss it.” Twilight pointed her hoof off in the direction of Rainbow's house, which caused her other legs to wobble, only for her to be supported by Skye. “Thanks, are you and Rainbow related or something?” Skye quickly looked at the ground before he let go of Twilight and looked back up, with a slightly less convincing smile.
“Uhm no, we're not related. I've actually never seen her before. Anyway thanks for the info, I'll see you around some time. Cya Spike.”
“Cya...” As the tired little purple dragon walked inside.
“See you around some time Skye, thanks again...” As she stumbled into her tree house, closing the door behind her.
“Any time Twilight.”
From there Skye leapt into the air towards his destination. Not long after he was soaring towards the supposed location of Rainbow Dash's house. He was flying extremely fast, why? Well it was in part because he always pushed himself to be as fast as possible. It was also partially because he really wanted to see Rainbow Dash. Ironically enough, he didn't actually know what Rainbow Dash looked like. All he knew was that she was light blue and that she had a rainbow colored mane. Nevertheless, it didn't take him long to get to the only cloud house outside of town. He had his own reasons for wanting to see Rainbow Dash so when he arrived at the door he couldn't help but knock extremely hard. He recoiled his hoof backward as he just stood in front of the door. He waited for about a minute before he knocked again. Yet again, no response. Skye started to get a little worried, so he took off once again to fly around the house, checking through some of the windows to make sure she was there.
He couldn't help but notice how strange this house really was. It was a tall, circular three-story house that seemed extremely small. What really made the house to Skye was the assortment of liquid rainbow rivers that ran throughout the cloud. He always wondered exactly what rainbows tasted like and even tried eating parts of his mane, which he found tasted very disappointing. Then he tried tasting someone else's mane, which he found equally disappointing and so did the other person. But he tried not to be too distracted and attempted to look through some of the windows, but to no avail. It appears that Rainbow likes to keep her curtains closed, probably so she can take a nap whenever she was home.
Skye stayed around Rainbow's house for a little over an hour, constantly knocking on her door or flying around her house. It was starting to get dark and he was worried that Rainbow Dash wasn't home or wasn't going to show up at all. He was also extremely mesmerized by the rivers of color that flowed throughout her 'yard'. He finally decided to give into his temptation and flew over to one of the rainbow rivers. After inspection, Skye noticed that the liquid was much more soupy that he thought it would be and didn't appear to have any smell to it. He lowered his snout down to the river, half anxious and half excited when he heard an annoyed voice behind him.
“Uhmm, what do you think you're doing?”
Skye backed away from the river with his head still pointed toward the ground. “Oh, I'm sorry I just...” He looked up to see another tired pony, this one a pegasus that was sky blue with a rainbow mane. Wait, sky blue with a rainbow mane? He rushed up to her face with a happy smile. “Are you Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow really wasn't in the mood for this right now. She'd been moving clouds all day long, well since when she woke up, which was pretty late in the afternoon, but she'd worked for well over 5 hours straight. She had no idea why there had been so many clouds the last few days but they seemed to have been multiplying, when ever she got rid of one another would show up in it's place. And now some ridiculous grey pony was standing in front of her, questioning who she was, right before he was about to drink from one of her rainbow rivers. Yeah, she was a little annoyed and wasn't afraid to show it in her tone.
“Ughhh, yeah, what do you want?”
“Oh, well... I don't know. I just kinda wanted to talk to you. I hope you don't mind.”
Dash just wanted to tell him to go away, but there was something about him that convinced her not to. It must have been his smile, it seemed different, almost magical. She didn't want to be too rude to him but she also really wanted to go get some rest without dealing with a barrage of questions from some ridiculously large stranger. But she put on a faint smile.
“Well look, I've been working really hard today and kinda just want to get some shut eye. How about tomorrow, meet me here tomorrow at noon, k?”
“Sure! I'll be here!” With that, Dash walked past him towards her house and took her smile off as she practically slammed the door closed, leaving the strange pegasus outside of her home alone.
Skye could sense that she was annoyed and quickly flew off towards the forest. He didn't want to bother Twilight for a place to sleep and really didn't want to go around to houses randomly asking for a place to sleep, he knew how that would turn out, he's tried before. He was used to sleeping outside, except here he could actually sleep on a soft normal cloud, which was much more comfortable than what he was normally accustomed to. He chose a cloud well into the forest and lay down.
Fluttershy had an awful time sleeping that night. All she heard that night was terrible wailing and crying from somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Most of her little animal friends were back home as she was alone in her cottage with Angel, who was sleeping soundly. Whenever she tried to sleep she would picture some kinda of pony wraith sneaking into her house and possessing her. The wailing continued all night long but eventually her body put her to sleep.
Rainbow Dash woke up bright and early, too early. She drifted in and out of sleep for a couple of hours, not wanting to get up and move clouds all day. She just lay in bed, wide awake when she heard a loud thumping at her door as she remembered her arrangement with the mysterious pony. She slowly got out of bed and walked past her mirror, mental remarking on how she looked and how much she really didn't care. No second knock gave Dash the opportunity to walk to her kitchen and grab something to eat. The first thing she saw, she grabbed, which just happened to be an apple from Sweet Apple Acres. She was content with her breakfast, but wasn't exactly sure about today. She didn't exactly expect much from this strange pegasus, sure he seemed nice but he also seemed pretty stupid, I mean really he was about to taste rainbow, how dumb can you get? As Dash was approaching the door she heard a large amount of moaning and groaning as she opened the door to see the grey pony on his stomach with his to tongue out of mouth coated in rainbow. He made an attempt to speak with small tears streaming down his eyes.
“Thaaat waaasn't good aaat aaall.”
Dash couldn't help but laugh at him, rainbow causes all of the tastes buds on the tongue to activate, strangely enough all of the bad ones seem to override the good ones, rainbow really does taste terrible.
“Well what did you expect it to taste like, cotton candy?” Skye didn't answer for a few second before he admittedly replied.
“I thooought it wooould taaaste better thaaan haaair...”
“Try taking a bite out of a cloud, that normally helps get it off your tongue.” Skye looked around before he finally just took a bite out of the cloud beneath him as he spit it out, producing a smaller, rainbow colored cloud that began to float away. But Rainbow wanted to get down to business as soon as possible. “So, who are you and what do you want to talk to me about?”
At Skye's first attempt to speak all Rainbow Dash heard was mumbled jargon. Clearly, Skye was nervous about meeting Rainbow Dash after all, he thinks that Rainbow was the reason that Skye got his cutie mark and couldn't think of the words to even answer her questions. Finally Skye gained the courage needed to speak. “My name is Skye High and... well uhmmm.... did you really do a 'sonic rainboom' 12 years ago? And then another a few months ago.”
Needless to say, Rainbow was very surprised at these questions. Was this pony questioning her awesomeness or has he really never heard of the great Rainbow Dash, the amazing Element of Loyalty. Was it really possible that there was some place in Equestria that hasn't heard of Dash's amazing feats? She decided to humor him, if he was indeed joking. “Yeah, has it taken you 12 years to learn about my awesomeness?”
“Well, it only took 11 years, but it took me a while to get here.” He took a short pause, pondering how he should start. “It turns out that the first sonic rainboom you did helped me get my cutie mark. To make a long story short, I used to live in a city that was inside of a thundercloud so there was no way for me, the little stallion I was, to see outside of the city. The only way out of the city was through the really fancy district, but I was never allowed in. Anyway one day I was on the outskirts of the city, alone, and suddenly a little hole opens up near the top of the cloud and a rainbow came through and shown right on me. When I flew up to the hole I saw the sky, which I've never seen before, and the sun felt so warm and the clouds were white and it was so cool. Then I felt a sensation on my... well my hindquarters and I had this *nods towards his cutie mark* . That was probably my favorite day of my whole life. So I just wanted to come here to thank you and maybe, ya know hang out?”
Rainbow Dash was surprised at the openness of the strange pony. He seemed pretty shy and stupid when she first met him, but with that 'short' story he seemed to come out of his shell and started talking to her like he's known her for years or like he was the big brother that she never knew. She didn't exactly know how to respond to everything he said.
“Ya, I do have that kind of effect of ponies. Let's just say you're not the first pony who got their cutie mark with my help.” Dash stood victorious in front of Skye, as he stood in awe in front of her. They both just stood in front of Dash's house, neither of them talking as Rainbow finally snapped out of her victorious stance. “So, have you met any of the other ponies?”
“Yeah, I met Twilight Sparkle and Spike, and I saw tons of ponies in town. There was also some weird pink pony in a gingerbread house that was staring at me through a window... and well, that's about it.”
“That's it? Well how about a tour of the town then? You can meet all of my friends.”
“Sounds good.”
Rainbow Dash and Skye High were soaring through the air towards wherever Rainbow Dash was taking them. Dash was surprised that Skye was able to keep up with her. It's not like she was racing with him, but she was going at a decent speed, but he was right behind her the whole way, no complaints. She had even tried speeding up just a tad to make sure he was the real deal, as it turns out he was.
Eventually the duo landed outside of a small cottage close to the Everfree forest, the same cottage Skye passed by helping Twilight and Spike. The cottage and the grounds around it were covered with an assortment bird houses and nests, not to mention the assortment of little furry creatures that Skye seemed extremely fond of. Skye was running back and forth, still following Rainbow, as he admired the birds, rabbits, squirrels, beavers and well, everything else. If Rainbow heard correctly, she even heard little chirps and peeps from Skye, contemplating his sanity in her own head, as a joke of course.
The two climbed up the small hill towards the entrance of the cottage, the top half of the dutch door was open, allowing Skye a good glance inside. All he payed attention to were the little animals scurrying throughout the house and a slightly darkish yellow pony, or maybe she was a grayish gold, with a light pink mane. She was slowly running around to a plethora of little creatures, trying to feed them all as fast as possible.
Anypony could tell that Fluttershy was extremely tired, she was constantly stumbling, spilling and dropping food all over. When she finally turned to greet her guests the fact that she was exhausted was reinforced. Her eyes were drooping and she could barely hold her head up.
“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash.” As she stumbled to the door, opening up the bottom half.
“Uhhh, Fluttershy, are you ok? You look tired.”
“Oh it's nothing, I was just up late last night. There was some awful wailing coming from the forest and I guess I was a little scared, I just couldn't sleep.” At the word sleep Fluttershy starting falling forward onto Rainbow Dash, followed by the rest of her body as Dash lowered her own self to catch her.
Skye couldn't help but look away, down toward the ground. It was his fault that this pony was so tired and he felt extremely responsible. Suddenly a jolt of energy shot through him as he looked up. He started past Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. “You should take her somewhere to rest, I'll handle these little guys. I'm actually pretty good with animals.” He made his way towards the little creatures, grabbing and biting the large pot that Fluttershy had put down on her way to greet her friend. He quickly walked between each little creature's bowl, pouring the exact perfect amount of food before moving onto the next. Very soon he had accomplished his goal of feeding all of the little animals.
During all of that Rainbow Dash had taken Fluttershy upstairs to her room and lay her down on her bed. She hovered over the bed, worried about her friend, before she took the journey downstairs, only to see all of the animals content with their meal. She saw Skye laying down, talking to a little baby squirrel.
“Don't worry little guy, she'll be back down soon, she's just a bit tired.” He showed his smile and the squirrel cheered up, before going back to its food. He saw Rainbow and immediately ran towards her. “Is she going to be alright?” Almost all of the animals turned to look towards Dash, awaiting her response.
“Yeah, she just needs to get some sleep. Fluttershy always gets like this when she doesn't get enough sleep but she'll be fine in a few hours." Well that was exciting, guess there's not much more to do here for a while. "So how about we continue your tour, huh? We'll come back in a few hours.”
“Sure sounds good.” He turns to face the little creatures. “Make sure she gets some rest guys, she's counting on you to stay out of trouble.” He received a series of eeps and yipps from the group, aside from one little white rabbit, who hopped past him going upstairs. He didn't pay much attention to it as he left the cottage with Rainbow Dash.
They left the cottage, entering the village of Ponyville. Skye couldn't help but appreciate the architecture of the town, it's a type that he's never seen before and it still amazed him. He liked how the buildings were so simple, compared to the tall, dark buildings from where he came from. It wasn't long before he passed by the extremely fancy castle-house. Rainbow let him know that it was owned by a unicorn by the name of Rarity and that it was a boutique.
“So.... what's a boutique?”
“Hmmm... it's like a really fancy clothing store, it's also where my friend Rarity makes her clothes. She makes some pretty sweet stuff.” Emphasizing the 'pretty sweet'.
A fancy clothing store... those are normally owned by fancy clothing people and Skye wasn't that big a fan of fancy clothing people. You see, fancy people tend to be fancy jerks, that don't generally like people who aren't up to their standards, which are normally incredibly high. At least that's how it was in the city Skye came from. He followed Dash in anxiously, hoping that this Rarity wasn't the jerk he pictured her to be. As soon as he entered all he saw was a giant stack of cloth and clothing stumbling around the room.
“Hey Rarity. What's up?” Rainbow Dash tried to make a joke, elbowing Skye as she talked. But it turns out she broke Rarity's concentration, knocking her off balance.
“Good afternoon Rainbow Da-aaa-aaa-ashhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” Rarity yelled as she almost comically jumped into the air, throwing her assortment of clothing all over her room. The two pegasus jumped into action, Dash very quickly flew to Rarity and heroically caught her with her front legs. Skye flew around the room, collecting the massive amounts of clothing flittering through the air.
There was a special way he flew around the room, and Rarity couldn't help but notice it as she looked up to see a grey blur and a faint rainbow trail. Finally, the clothing started coming together into a neat column, perfectly folded. The clothing even arranged itself in the same order from which it had originally fallen. The blur disappeared as there was no longer any clothing left falling freely. From behind the stack of clothing came a shining, light grey pegasus. Rarity couldn't help but compare him to her imaginary prince in shining armor. Not only was this pony extremely fast and dexterous, he had an extremely keen eye for detail. He began to walk towards her and she couldn't think of anything to say. Suddenly she was gently put down by Rainbow Dash, breaking her concentration on the mysterious pegasus.
“Ahh, thank you Rainbow Dash.”
“Hey no problem, what else would an awesome pony like me do?”
“And thank you Mr. …” Half-expecting the gentlecolt to introduce himself first.
Skye stopped moving towards the unicorn and started backing towards the door, afraid that the fancy pony would be upset with the way he went about catching the clothing or stacking it.“Uhmmm, yeah no problem. I hope I stacked and folded it the way you like it, but if not I could just go... sorry if I bothered you.”
Rarity and Dash could feel how apprehensive Skye was and Dash was the first to react. “What? Are you kidding, did you see how fast you were, and you have such good control. I didn't know you were that good at flying.”
Skye stopped his retreat at the compliment. “Oh, well, I mean, I'm not that good. I just got lucky I guess.”
Rarity finally found the words to say, yet was disappointed that he never addressed himself. Still she tried to reassure him and even tried to joke around “As much as I adore my work, next time would you please be a proper gentlecolt and break a lady's fall? Now, may I ask you for you name kind colt?”
Skye couldn't see past Rarity's little joke and immediately turned around with his head and ears pointed downward. He started for the door. “I'm sorry, my name's Skye High and I'm sorry that I disappointed you. I'll be leaving now, please don't be too angry at me, it would be better if you just pretend I was never here.”
Rainbow Dash couldn't be more confused at what was going on. Was Skye for real? I mean it was pretty obvious by Rarity's tone that she was just joking. Rarity was even more confused and even worse she felt bad. “Wait, Skye, don't leave. I apologize, that was very rude of me. Thank you so much for doing that ...” A she points her forehoof towards the pillar of clothing. “... for me, why it would've taken me at least an hour to tidy up that mess.”
Skye quickly turned around with a gentle smile on his face. Was a fancy pony really apologizing to him? Normally they would just yell at him and command him to leave their sight. But this one was different, she was very polite and kind and she hasn't yelled at him once. “I'm sorry, I guess I just took you too serious. You see where I come from, fanc... uhm, refined ponies such as yourself, are normally terribly, terribly mean. I guess I just kinda expected you to be the same, but I was wrong. I'm sorry for judging you way too early. Can you forgive, Miss Rarity?”
“But of course Skye, as a matter of fact I can tell that we're going to make great friends. Hold on a moment, I have something I wish to give you.” Rarity walked towards one of her many dresser drawers and started rummaging around for a few moments. “Ah, there you are.” Her horn grew a bright purple and she turned around only to see a ridiculous bright smile on Skye's face. It was creeping her out just a little, she just had to question it. “Are you alright darling, you seem a bit... ill.”
Skye finally realized just how strange he was looking. “Oh I'm sorry.” He turned his head towards the ground, scraping his hoof across the floor. “It's just been a really long time since anyone has called me a friend... a really long time.” Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity felt something in his words. It's like he was sad and happy at the same time yet they both felt kinda bad for him. Rarity was the first to speak up.
“Well, I'm glad I can be your friend dear.” From behind her came a floating silver chain link necklace with a dark-blue sapphire embedded in its core. Its core gem was surrounded with a golden lining. To most people It just seemed like a regular necklace that was decently crafted. The necklace flew through the air and surrounded Skye's head as it dropped down onto his neck. “Please accept this Skye, as a token of our friendship.”
“Of course Rarity, I'll never take it off, I promise.”
Rainbow Dash just stood there half confused, half betrayed. Skye had come to Ponyville for her right? So why was he spending so much time paying attention to Rarity? Maybe she was just getting a little jealous but for some reason she just wanted Skye all to herself. “Hey Skye don't you think we should go, I mean, you don't want to spend all day with Little Miss Royalty here, right?” Rarity gave her an annoyed look as Skye nodded his head towards Rainbow.
“Uhmm, sure, see you around Rarity.”
“Indeed.” As she walked past them towards her column of clothes.
“Yeah, later Rarity.” But Rarity ignored her, still walking towards her column. Rainbow felt a little bad, but nothing so extreme that it would cause her to apologize.
The duo left towards the main road. They started walking towards the center of town. It wasn't long before Skye felt a strange feeling, not just the feeling on being watched, but the feeling of being stalked. He started looking around as he noticed a mysterious shadow disappear into the nearest alleyway. He didn't want to worry Dash and continued to follow behind her. Suddenly he heard a galloping sound from behind him as he turned around and was tackled with a force that cause both him and his attacker to somersault across the ground for a few yards. When he finally stopped rolling he was on his back with a strange pink pony pinning him down. “I FOUND YOU!!!” Skye was a little scared, but his fear was replaced with happiness at the next question he heard. “Will you be my friend strange guy?”
“Sure.” He replied with his patented smile that seemed to impress all the ponies. The pink pony jumped off of him and continued bounding around happily taking a deep breath. Finally she exerted her energy as she stopped right in front of Skye's face.
“That's good because when I first saw you I wanted to give you the welcome that I give every new pony but I couldn't find my Welcome Wagon; So then I tried to find you and Cheerilee told me that she saw you and Twilight head towards her house; so I followed you there but when I got there you took off in the sky and I couldn't follow because you fly so darn fast; so I went back to looking for my welcome wagon and guess where it was, I'll give you hint, it was is the last place I would have ever ever looked!”
Surprisingly, Skye followed all of that, which was more than most ponies could say. “Uhmmm... was it behind...” Skye pointed one of his hooves at a tree. “... that tree?”
“No silly, that was the 253rd place I looked, actually it was in my closet. Don't you hate it when what you're looking for is in the last place you would have looked?”
Rainbow couldn't help but butt in. “Pinkie, why is your closet the last place you'd look?”
“Becaaaaause, don't you know about the monster in the closet? Why would I give him the Welcome Wagon? He's not new around town.”
“Pinkie, we all no there's no such things as monsters in a closet, they're just bed time stories to scare little fillies to sleep.”
At those words a very large, furry, two legged creature walked out of the gingerbread house with a bag full of pastries. He walked past the trio of ponies. He spoke incredibly slowly and had a very deep voice. “Heeeeeyyy Piiiiinkiiiiieeee.”
“Hey Monstroo, we still up for Monopony tonight?”
“Yeeeeeeep.”
“Cool, see you then!” Pinkie gave a little smirk towards Rainbow Dash as Dash couldn't help but put her hoof up to her face. Skye was laughing the entire time, he found the entire situation hilarious. But he eventually got over his laughing attack.
“You're really funny Pinkie, my name's Skye High by the way.”
“Good to meet'cha Skye, I can just tell we're gonna be the best of best of best of friends!”
Once again Rainbow Dash was feeling a little betrayed. She just wanted to hang out around him, not have him pay absolutely no attention to her. She started thinking again, why did she feel this way? Was it something about Skye that made her feel this way? Maybe she was just tired and didn't realize it but now she just wanted to get away from Pinkie Pie. “Hey, sorry Pinkie, but we've got a pretty busy schedule ahead of us and you're kinda slowin' us down.”
“Oops, sorry I'll just get out way. But hey, you both should come to Sugar Cube Corner tonight at 7, it'll be fun.”
“Ok Pinkie, we'll be there, but we really gotta go, later.
“Seeya Pinkie, nice meeting you!”
“Byebye!!!”
Dash walked a ways down the road before Skye practically burst with excitement. He was bouncing around, much like Pinkie Pie does. “So who are we going to meet next Rainbow? I can't wait!”
That strange annoyed feeling overcame Dash again but this time she quickly got over it. She still had no clue why she was feeling this way about Skye, it was kinda weird. It's like he had some kind of magic barrier around him that attracted her to him. Instead Dash started thinking about where to go next. Skye already met Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie. Applejack was out of town until later tonight. Maybe they could go back to Fluttershy's cottage, it'll be about two hours if they walk back since they left the first time. She determined that doing that would be the best course of action. “We could go back to see Fluttershy, maybe she's better now.” Rainbow Dash started to beat her wings as if she was about to take off. “C'mon, I’ll show you some of the sights on the way.”
Dash took off, with Skye right behind her. She led Skye all the way around town, telling him about all of the buildings as they flew over them. Rainbow only spent her time telling him about the important buildings, like the Town Hall and the Town square, the Schoolhouse, the clock tower, and she finally lead them over Sweet Apple Acres.
“That's Sweet Apple Acres, it's where my friend Applejack lives. She's out of town right now but she should be coming back later today.” Skye had never seen a farm like this before. He looked upon many acres of apple trees, a tall red barn, and a quaint little farmhouse.
“Cool, can't wait to meet her.”
“Yeah, I bet...” Rainbow practically whispered to herself.
“What? Sorry, I didn't hear that.” Skye gave her a little smile when she turned around with a confused look on her face.
“What?! I mean, nothing, just talking to myself.”
“Oh, ok.”
Are you kidding me? How could he have possibly heard that? Not only was she whispering but they're soaring through the air, no regular pony can hear anything other than a yell. There was definitely something weird about Skye and she was trying to put her hoof on it. The rest of the short flight towards Fluttershy's cottage was silent, aside from the air streaming past both of the pegasus. "Strange," Rainbow thought," there weren't any clouds in the sky today."
The two rainbow maned pegasus landed at the entrance of the cottage as Rainbow Dash let herself in. She raised her voice, but didn't yell, “Fluttershy, you awake?” There was a long bit of silence before Skye heard the clopping of horseshoes upstairs, they were extremely sporadic. As he eventually saw Fluttershy quickly trot down the stairs. A little bunny rabbit right behind her.
“Oh, why hello Rainbow Dash. Do you need something?” She then saw the smiling grey pegasus behind Dash. Like all of the ponies, Fluttershy was amazed by his smile. Yet unlike the other ponies, Fluttershy was able to put her hoof on what it reminded her of. To her it was like the smile of a little brother that she always wanted. And then suddenly she realized that he was staring right at her, his head slightly cocked to the side. She quickly tried to avoid eye contact with Skye, and lowered her head down to the left. “So uhm, who's your friend Rainbow?”
Rainbow Dash was once again, extremely confused by the situation she found herself in. Not only was Fluttershy acting weird, but so was Skye. In fact, she's pretty sure that she suddenly became a mirror, because both of the shy ponies were doing the exact same thing at the exact same time and neither knew that the other was doing it. They both looked up at the same time but when they met eyes they both let out a soft 'eep' before going back to ignoring each other. Finally Dash was tired of awkwardly standing in between the two ponies and walked behind Fluttershy and proceeded to push her rump so she moved towards Skye, forcing them to... well do something.
Skye was the first to speak up, as quiet as it was. “Ummmm, hi, my name is Skye High. It's good to meet you.”
Now it was Fluttershy's turn to respond, but she seemed to catch 'Rarity syndrome', she couldn't think of anything to say. Instead she just let out a series of mumbling, of any word that would come to her head. Rainbow Dash was starting to get annoyed. It's like they were the same pony and as much as she liked Fluttershy, she couldn't deal with two of her. She finally spoke up. “Can you two just hurry this up already?”
Fluttershy did as her friend commanded, yet still incredibly softly. “Nice to meet you Skye, I'm Fluttershy.” She finally looked up to see Skye looking right at her and she couldn't help but look right into his light cyan eyes with a little smile on her face.
For the 3rd time today, Skye came out of his shell, trying to spark up some kind of conversation. “So... I see you like animals! I really like animals too. You see, I walked most of the way to Ponyville and I was in the forest through most of it. One time I got lost in the forest, I had no clue where I was when suddenly a little rabbit came out of a tree trunk and helped me on my way. Then another time I got lost at night and a whole ton of little creatures let me sleep in this giant tree trunk, it was really cool. So what do you do with all of these animals, do you take care of them all?”
“Um, yeah, I take care of a lot of animals until they're ready to go back to their homes. I also take care of ponies pets while they're gone.”
“That's really cool Fluttershy, you have an awesome job.”
From there, the three ponies just kinda stood around for a few seconds, neither of them could think of anything to say but it seemed Dash's jealousy got the best of her, she was actually starting to get annoyed that Skye wasn't paying that much attention to her. Not only that, but it was almost like he was drawing everypony's attention away from her. “Well then, I think it's about time that we head out Skye, we don't want to get in Fluttershy's way or anything.”
“Oh, really? You're no bother, you can come by and visit any time Skye. If you don't mind me asking, what are you two going to be doing today?”
Skye had no clue and looked upon Rainbow Dash for the answer. Dash just stood there thinking, the tour of the town was already over and she didn't have anything planned. Then she came up with a great idea. “Skye and I are going to race, I wanna see just how fast he is!” It was brilliant, not only was it a great way to pass the time but there was no way anypony in Equestria could beat her, this was gonna be a piece of cake.
“Really? You want to race me? Cool, I've actually always wanted to race the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria.”
“Do you mind if my little friends and I watch, it's been a little slow around here recently.” Fluttershy spoke softly.
“Not at all Fluttershy, I hope you all enjoy watching a stomp.” Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof on the ground and had her look of confidence on her face, which was rivaled by Skye's confident look.
“We'll see about that.” His grin becoming even wider. He definitely wouldn't allow himself to get beaten, not even by Rainbow Dash.
The race wasn't supposed to be a big deal. It was just supposed to be a quick little thing that would pass a bit of time, 30 minutes at most. Suddenly it was like every pony in Ponyville knew about it. The fields were full of spectators, eager to see a good race between Rainbow Dash and some new pegasus named Skye. And how did every pony know about the race? Well one could say a little birdie told them, but that would be way too far from the truth. The truth is that it was roughly 40 little birdies, 13 squirrels, and a bear. Needless to say, the crowd was ready and so were the competitors.
Rainbow Dash was warming up as she normally does. She was stretching every part of her body that she would use to fly and even some she wouldn't, probably just showing off. She even did a few quick dashes into the sky to test her take off speed, still trying to impress the crowd. Skye took a much less methodical route to warming up. Instead of wing drills and stretching, he seemed to just fly around the field lazily, stretching out his wings.
Eventually a well dressed unicorn stepped up onto a podium, summoned a microphone, and began to speak with a very boisterous voice. His voice seemed to radiate from everywhere, as if by magic. “Fillies and Gentlecolts, welcome to the first annual Ponyville Open! Featuring, everypony's favorite weather pegasus and the only one to achieve sonic speeds, Rainbow Dash!” The entire crowd was bursting with cheers at the call of her name and even Rainbow herself was showing off, trying to get as many cheers as possible. There were even small, bright triangular rainbow flags waving throughout the air from her faithful fans. “And featuring her opponent, a strange pegasus from far out of town. Please give a warm welcome to...” The announcer looked around for anypony that would give him this mysterious pony's name. It wasn't long before Pinkie started jumping around, screaming her head off.
“IT'S SKYE HIGH, HIS NAME IS SKYE! GO SKYE!” Not many ponies were surprised by her actions.
The announcer cleared his throat before he began speaking again. “Thank you. Please give a warm welcome to, Skye High!” The response was was far less grand for Skye, only eliciting a few cheers and some applause. The only flag flying for Skye was Pinkie, holding a faint rainbow flag in one hoof and a bright one in the other, clearly trying to cheer for both parties. The other few cheers for Skye came from Twilight and Rarity, both positioned on either side of Pinkie. Needless to say, Rainbow Dash was the fan favorite.
The announcer stepped off his podium as he flew his microphone magically across the field to a pony wearing a black and white striped jersey. The pony had a very stern demeanor as he looked at both of the pegasus as they stepped toward the starting line. “Listen up!” He said on the microphone, yet he was talking directly to the racers. “From here you'll both fly to the town hall and then to the clocktower, then the schoolhouse, and finally back here, where you will have to pass around me before you do it again. Do you understand?” The two pegasus both nodded toward the referee. “Good, now. On your mark...” Rainbow Dash, was getting ready at the makeshift start line and Skye followed her example, he'd never flew in an 'official' race before. “...get set...” Rainbow got into her 'set' position, which was her leaning slightly forward with her head down and wings out. Skye attempted to mimic her and copied the position almost perfectly. Finally the referee yelled the word, “GO!!!”, and both pegasus launched off the starting line at amazing speed.
A huge gust of wind hit the crowd as their cheers began to slowly die down. The racers were already out of sight and most likely wouldn't be back for another minute or two. It was completely quiet in the stands as Derpy finally stood up. “So, what now?” She had the feeling that every spectator had while watching some kind of race. No pony responded to her, leading to her walking off towards the town. “Welp, goodbye everybody, that sure was fun!”
Rarity couldn't help but put her hoof towards her face. “I say, sometimes that pony can be so... be so...” She just couldn't find the right word to describe the pegasus and Twilight decided to help her out.
“Derpy?”
“Ah yes, I guess that one could use that word.”
Skye was soaring through the air behind Rainbow Dash, directly behind her, drafting off of her. While he'd never been in an actual race before, he learned from watching birds that you can draft behind other ponies to block the wind. In the long run, it would save a good amount of energy.
Rainbow Dash couldn't help but be a little creeped out by Skye's tactic, I mean she could practically feel his breath on her tail, he was way too close for comfort. She had tried flying as fast as possible, but just as Rainbow Dash thought, Skye was the real deal. He was right behind her no matter what speed she was flying.
The two pegasus zoomed past the outskirts of town and were already nearing their first checkpoint. As Dash made the turn around the town hall she was given the opportunity to look back, for just a second. She immediately figured out what he was doing pretty quickly and tried to think of the most logical response, she knew he was fast and wanted to race just as smart as he did. Sadly the most logical response when someone is drafting off of you is to slow down and as much as she hated not going all out, she wanted to win even more.
Now it was Skye's turn to respond and his memories of birds would help him again. He remembers, when the lead bird would get tired another bird would speed up and replace it, and that's exactly what he did. Before Rainbow Dash knew what happened Skye was right in front of her and he was losing her fast. Rainbow grit her teeth and sped up, trying to get as close behind him as possible. If he would draft off of her, then she would draft off of him.
She was behind him as they circled around the clocktower and the race was pretty uneventful until they both finally passed around the schoolhouse. Rainbow Dash hated playing from behind, no matter what she was doing. Worst of all she, the fastest pony in all of Equestria, was about to pass the crowd behind another pony. Yeah, she wasn't gonna let that happen. She flew as fast as she could around him, practically appearing right in front of him. He couldn't help but be surprised, she was wasting so much energy for no reason, did she forget that there was another lap?
The crowd sat patiently, waiting for the racers to return. Finally Rarity's keen eye caught sight of the two pegasus flying towards the referee. Most of the spectating ponies were surprised at how close Skye was to Rainbow. As far as they were concerned, Rainbow Dash was the fastest pegasus in Equestria, there was no pony out there that could be faster than her. All of the spectators began cheering, with huge smiles on their faces, something that Skye couldn't help but notice. He knew he was doing good, trying to give the best show possible, he knew that he had to beat Rainbow Dash.
Just as soon as the competitors appeared, they were gone but that didn't stop one particular grey pony from flying back to the stands. She clearly didn't see the racers and started yelling towards the crowd. “Guys! Guys! Those ponies are back, see.” She pointed out where they already came from, sat down next to Rarity, and waited for them to return.
Rarity couldn't help but look at her with a concerned, confused face. “You know sweetie, sometimes you can be very... be very...” The word slipped through her mind again. Twilight couldn't help but jump in again.
“Derpy.”
“Yeah? What's up Twilight?” Responded the derpy pony, as if she didn't understand what was happening. “Don't worry, they're coming back. I saw them, i swear.” She turned her head away from Twilight and looked intently towards the direction of the schoolhouse.
“Uh, yeah, I'm sure they'll be here soon.”
Rainbow Dash was starting get tired, she knew that at this point there was only one way to win and it was by doing something that only she could do. She started slowly gaining altitude, keeping track of where the checkpoints were so she wouldn't overshoot any of them or cut any corners. Skye wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but he also had a plan. He was going to do something that would be sure to impress the crowd and maybe even impress Rainbow Dash. He followed her all the way, making sure to turn as they passed by the town hall, many meters above it.
Rainbow Dash was pretty sure that she had this race in the bag. She was a little worried that he wouldn't follow directly behind her, but now that he was going the distance to rise in the air with her, she was defiantly gonna win. All she had to do was keep rising in the air all the way to the clocktower and the schoolhouse then she could 'Sonic Rainboom' the straight away. This was going to be a piece of cake. The energy flowed through her as she rose high into the sky, with Skye right behind her.
They both made the turn around the clock tower and headed toward the schoolhouse. They could both see everything from the altitude they were at and Skye really just wanted to stop and admire the view. He hadn't really flew in the air on the way to Ponyville and never noticed the beautiful landscape to its fullest. But he had a race to win and he knew how he was gonna do it. Finally the two ponies rounded the turn to the finish line.
Skye sped up right next to Rainbow Dash as they both started to descend, rapidly gaining speed. Rainbow Dash was smiling as she started to warp the air around her, causing her eyes to open wide. She was descending at almost a 90 degree angle, along with Skye. Suddenly she hit the breaking point as a rainbow explosion hit Equestria, causing the sound of a huge explosion. But it all felt weird to Rainbow Dash. Did she hear the sound barrier break... twice? No. There was no way. THERE WAS NO WAY. She looked over her shoulder to see Skye High, passing her on the straight away, very slowly, with a huge grin on his face.
Both of the racers had pushed themselves so hard. They were neck and neck all the way as they zoomed through the finish line, not even noticing the flash of light to their left. They both zoomed up into the air and then started slowing down as they descended down toward the field. Skye had a bright smile on his face, he heard the crowd cheering and shouting and even better he enjoyed the race. He was breathing pretty heavily, but not nearly as heavy as Dash. Dash descended, with a very annoyed look on her face. How could some other pony, any other pony do the Sonic Rainboom? That was like, her thing. Not cool.
The crowd was amazed, all they saw were two rainbow trails and then the two ponies descending from the sky. Finally the rainbow explosions hit the finish line and the spectators, blowing around all of the ponies in the 'stands'. Almost as soon as the rainbow dissipated, four referees were seen in the middle of the field just a few feet away from the racers. Rainbow Dash couldn't wait, didn't wait, she was pretty sure that she won. “So, c'mon who won? Would you slow pokes hurry up?”
The four referees looked at her very annoyed, but those old ponies were always disgruntled. Finally, a microphone was raised into the air and one of the referees walked over to it. “The winner, by photo finish, is... the strange, new pegasus, SKYE!” The entire crowd gasped and then proceeded to cheer, some ponies even changed their flags. Skye looked so happy, he was really glad that he could impress the whole of Ponyville and he really hoped that he impressed Rainbow Dash. He looked towards her and his smile disappeared, Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight. He stood in place, looking around for her, but to no avail.
The announcer was back on the microphone. “Skye, would you please step on the winner's podium, we'd like to know your thoughts about the race.” The crowd's cheers were renewed at the sound of his name as he very quickly ran up to the podium. “So Skye, how does it feel to win the first annual Ponyville Open?”
He spoke very softly into the microphone, he really wanted to go find Rainbow Dash. “Uhm... it was fun. We really should do this again sometime.” He started to fly away, quickly in order to avoid any more questions. He left the field hearing cheers and applause as he started flying towards Rainbow Dash's house.
Rainbow Dash was feeling a mix of emotions as she flew away from the finish line. She didn't even really care to know where she was going, she was just angry, sad, and disappointed. To make things even worse, a bunch of clouds started rolling in. None of them were storm clouds, but it just meant more work for Rainbow Dash. Tomorrow anyway, she definitely wasn't doing anything this evening. She decided to fly to one of the clouds, just to try to hide from everyone.
She tried to not think about that race, but it kept creeping into her mind. She's supposed to be the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria and the only one to be able to fly at sonic speeds.
“What's wrong with me...” She said softly to herself, tears coming to eyes. She tried hard to shake those tears out, but to no avail. How could she help it though? She thought she wasn't special anymore, she thought that she was just some stupid weather pony, she thought there was no way that she could become a Wonderbolt. She had so many thoughts racing through her head and what's worse, she thought they were all true.
And then suddenly, none of it was her fault. No way, Skye must have cheated. He probably cut a corner somewhere or did something that just gave him the advantage. And he drafted off of her the entire time, what a cheap trick! Or maybe it was something with the strange feeling she got around him, like he had some kind of magic aura around him that made her slower or weaker, or... something.
“No...” She knew he wasn't a cheater, but then what? How could he beat her? How could she lose?
She just lay there on a cloud, depressed and angry, pondering why and how she lost. She knew one thing for certain, if she even heard Skye's name right now she'd either breakdown and cry or explode from anger. She had no clue which would happen... but hoped for the explosion. She'd never emotionally broken down before and she wasn't sure exactly how to deal with it. And suddenly, matters were made so much worse for her.
Skye seemed to simply appear on a cloud next to Rainbow with a very concerned look on his face. He couldn't help but notice the small tears in Dash's eyes which turned his smile into a frown before she even noticed him. “What's wrong Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow didn't want to talk to anyone right now, especially Skye. She didn't know what to do or what to say. She just wanted to yell at him, to tell him to leave her alone. But she also wanted to keep her cool, she didn't want to completely freak out on someone that didn't really deserve it. But in all honesty, she was a time bomb. “N-Nothing.” A very obvious lie was said that day. She didn't even look at him when she said that, she just kept her head down. But that wouldn't stop Skye from being so innocent minded.
“Oh! That's good, I thought you were mad at me! It's good to see you aren't.” He put his smile back on his face, he was happy. But then he looked upon Rainbow Dash for a second time. She still seemed extremely depressed and Skye had no clue why. Maybe she wasn't telling the truth cause she was afraid that Skye would start feeling bad for her. That was the only thing that come to his mind, something that he tends to do a lot. Skye tried to cheer her up. “Ya know Rainbow, you flew a really good race back there, you shouldn't be sad, if...”
Rainbow cut him off, practically screaming at him. “But I lost!” Now she was staring at him, just waiting for him to say something wrong.
“Well... yeah, but it was really close the entire time. Besides, there's no way that they can prove that I won right? I'm sure the referees just called it wrong, they weren't even pegasus.” Skye couldn't think of anything else to say and this just made Rainbow Dash even more angry. The announcer definitely said that it was a photo finish and she saw the camera before she left the field. Was Skye stupid or something? Whatever, there was something that she just needed to know.
“Skye...” She stood up, still staring right at him. “...how can you do the Sonic Rainboom?”
“Well, you know the story I told you about how I saw the sky? Well, that hole in the storm cloud never closed and everyday after school I would leave and practice flying. I was kinda good at flying and one day a light blue pony in a flight suit flew by me and asked me what I was doing. I told him the story about how I got my cutie mark and he told me that you were the pony that did the Sonic Rainboom. I was really excited and he told me that if I could do the Sonic Rainboom too that I could join the Wonderbolts and meet you. He said he would come visit me in a year to check up on me. Well over that year I trained non-stop and well... I guess I just learned how to do it. It was kinda funny, he came back and he never expected me to be able to fly that fast, he was pretty surprised.”
Hold on a minute... so Skye's a... Wonderbolt? Are you kidding me? Rainbow Dash just had to confirm. “So, you're a Wonderbolt!?”
“Well not exactlly... you see Soarin, that's the name of the pegasus, flew with me all the way to Cloudsdale. It was really nice of him and I felt really bad when I had to deny his invitation to join the Wonderbolts. Of course, he wouldn't really allow me to just decline so I had to sneak out of Cloudsdale... it was pretty fun!”
Now... now Dash was mad. Skye could have been so cool. He could have been a Wonderbolt. He could have been her hero. But no, he ran away from them, how stupid could he be? How stupid? How stupid? How stupid... “How stupid are you?”
Skye's smile disappeared yet again. “Wh-What?”
“How stupid are you?” Rainbow Dash was ready to attack and Skye knew it. She was gonna release all of her built up anger. “You... you could have been so cool. You could have been a famous pony. But no, you're just some... some stupid, useless pegasus. I mean, how did I even lose to you? You don't even deserve to fly...” Both of them knew that she was about to unleash her rage. She was building up ever since she started her little speech, she was practically yelling at this point. “ YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE WINGS! Just... Just go back to your stupid storm cloud! No one wants you here... NO ONE PROBABLY EVER WANTED YOU! And, And no one ever will ! So just... just go home! I-I-I... I HATE YOU!” Rainbow was breathing hard, still staring right into Skye's eyes, which were starting to water.
Skye's voice started breaking and his breathing between words became heavy. “I'm... I'm really sorry Rainbow. I didn't mean to make you angry. I just... you are my hero Rainbow and I really, really wanted to meet you.” Skye turned away from Rainbow Dash and started dropping towards the ground. “I'm sorry for disappointing you. I'll just go h-h-ho...” He dropped out of Dash's vision. He never really could call that storm cloud home. Really, growing up was terrible for him. He honestly hated it.
Rainbow Dash just went back to laying on the cloud but only for a very short time. Another pony appeared in her vision, this time with a light gold coat. She looked up to see none other than Fluttershy who looked very, very disappointed in her. She spoke extremely softly, yet in a very stern voice. “What is wrong with you?” Rainbow Dash just didn't want to look at her, she was done talking. Yet, Fluttershy wasn't and wouldn't be until Rainbow Dash heard what she wanted to say. Fluttershy tried to clam down her voice. “He looked up to you Rainbow. You were his hero. I mean, how would you feel if Soarin said all of that stuff to you? That was... that was terrible Rainbow Dash. And...” Fluttershy turned away, she had a very hard time saying her next sentence. "...and you should feel terrible..." Tears started to roll down her face from what she had to say to her friend and the tears were returned from Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy turned and tried to follow Skye as she disappeared from Dash's vision.
Dash just lay there, no longer angry. Now she was just sad. She knew that what she said was pretty bad but hey, she was really, really angry and she just couldn't help it. She knew that eventually she was going to have to apologize to him but right now she just didn't want to. Still she started feeling bad, really bad and her feeling bad only made her more depressed. She just started looking at her hooves and started fiddling with them. “What's wrong with me...”
'She must be right...' Skye thought to himself as he somberly walked towards the Everfree Forest. Nopony ever wanted him, not his sisters, not his classmates, and definitely not Rainbow Dash. He looked down at his necklace and felt absolutely disgusted. All he would be to the townsponies of Ponyville would be another bad joke to be forgotten in a day. He looked up into the sky and saw the clouds, it was going to rain soon, and it was going to downpour.
He looked back towards the ground. Oh well, he's walked through downpours before, even thunderstorms. He was never really afraid of storms considering he grew up in a giant thundercloud and being wet never really bothered him. The only thing that ever really bothered him were ponies that were feeling bad. He could tell just by looking at them if they were sad, angry, annoyed or any of those other bad feelings. And right now all he could think about was how angry Dash was at him. He's been yelled at before but no pony has ever been so mad at him and he felt terrible. What had he done? Should he have lost the race on purpose? Maybe he didn't pay enough attention to her. He doesn't really know what he did wrong but Dash wanted him gone and he wanted to oblige.
Skye was nearing the entrance to the Everfree Forest when he heard a voice with a strange accent in font of him. She sounded a little annoyed.
“Excuse me!”
He looked up to see a strong, orange pony pulling what looked like a full cart. He couldn't tell exactly what was in the cart due to a large tarp, but whatever it was it loaded the cart full.
Meeting someone who could potentially be his friend cheered him up a little and he clearly saw that she was tired from, what must have been, a long trip. “Sorry. Would you like some help?” He put on his smile hoping that she would be the "first" pony to accept him as a friend. He looked down just enough to notice the necklace that was still around his neck and tried to push it out of his mind as fast as possible.
“Well, I am mighty tired, I reckon ya could pull the wagon a for a few miles, if'en ya don't mind.”
“I wouldn't mind at all. My name's Skye by the way.”
Applejack took off the harness and reached her hoof out toward Skye. “Good ta meecha Skye, name's Applejack. I live and work at Sweet Apple Acres, if ya ever heard of that.”
He remembered how Rainbow flew over the farm as a matter a fact she told him that Applejack was coming back today. “I have, It's nice to meet you Applejack.” He shook Applejack's hoof and quickly donned on the harness. “So, are you going back to your farm?”
“Yes sir, just took a trip to Baltimare to deliver a shipment of our cider, quite a long walk. The fellas there gave me quite the bit of complementary sweets and spices.” Skye gave her a polite little smile to acknowledge that he heard her and tried to walk forward but was stopped by the weight of the cart. He turned around confused as Applejack answered the question he asked to himself. “Alot of spices.” He looked at her and she began to laugh. He must have done something funny, he chuckled with her.
Eventually the duo's laugh attack ended and they both started moving towards Sweet Apple Acres. Luckily the farm was on the opposite side of Ponyville from Dash's house, something that Skye kept in mind when he asked applejack if she wanted help.
After a few minutes of awkward travel Applejack finally started the conversation. “So Skye, you been in Ponyville long?”
“Huh?” He looked at her as if she had just asked a very complicated, confusing question. “Oh, no. I was just leaving actually.” At this point the smile left his face, he had finally remembered all of his bad feelings and Applejack could feel something was wrong.
“Why? Nothin' bad happened right?”
Skye was always pretty bad at lying. “Uhh, no. Of course nothing bad happened. I was just... just... passing through. Yeah, that's what I was doing.” He looked towards her with another bright smile before he turned away and looked towards the ground, ears down.
Applejack walked in silence for a short time, concerned and upset. She knew he was lying to her, but she didn't know why. Could something have happened to her friends? Maybe something just happened to Skye? Or maybe Skye did something to her friends... either way she didn't know but didn't want to ask directly. “So where were you headed off to?” She wanted to narrow down the possibilities of what happened. Skye kept his head and ears low. He didn't really have any place to go back to. The only place he could think of was a dark, dirty alleyway he called home in a city where everyone patronized him and looked down on him. A place where the powerful and healthy were rewarded. A place that Skye never wanted to think about again. He stopped moving forward and just stood still, staring at the ground, he didn't want Applejack to feel sorry for him. Applejack started to open her mouth to talk but was interrupted when Skye quietly spoke.
“Home...”
A tear fell from his eye that Applejack couldn't help but notice. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him but wasn't quite sure what to say to make him feel better. She just looked upon him as tears trickled down his face. He finally looked up to see Applejack's concerned face and began to shake his head with furor, trying to get the tears out of his eyes.
“Sorry, let's get this cart back to your house.” He began to slowly move forward but was stopped by Applejack who was now standing in front of him. Now she really wanted to know what happened.
“Whats wrong Skye? Ya seem awful down.”
“Nothing's wrong! Why would something be wrong?”
“Well, why is a big fella like yourself cryin'?”
“I'm uhmm.... I'm uhmm... I'm allergic to rabbits, they make me tear up.” Another pretty obvious lie, he even looked around for things to to help him. Applejack didn't particularly enjoy people jerking her around like Skye was.
“Look, I know you're lyin' to me. So what happened Skye?”
Skye didn't want to tell her what Dash said, he couldn't tell her what Dash said. He didn't want to ruin Dash's friendship with Applejack. He just wanted to run away right now and leave everyone in Ponyville alone. He was even getting a little angry and started to raise his voice. “Nothing! Nothing happened!”
Applejack raised her voice right back at him. “Stop lyin' to me Skye!” But Applejack was smarter than that. She could tell he was upset and that he was lying for a good reason, she just wanted to know what that reason was. She calmed down and spoke in a much softer voice very quickly. “Look big guy, I know ya only met me for a short while, but ya can tell me what's upsettin' ya. I'd be happy to listen to yer problems.” She gave him a little reassuring smile.
Skye wasn't sure what to do. Surely he couldn't tell her all of the things Rainbow Dash had said but he didn't want to leave her so concerned. “Well it's just that... Rainbow Dash doesn't like me very much, I think I've overstayed my welcome.” Applejack took a step toward the side, allowing him to walk with the cart, slowly moving towards Sweet Apple Acres again.
“Ya know, I'm sure that Rainbow Dash doesn't hate ya. She's kinda hard to get along with, but she's a nice gal. What'd ya do to get her to 'not like you'? Or was she just being, well, Rainbow Dash?”
“I, umm, beat her in a flying race.”
“What?! You beat Rainbow Dash in a race? Now I might be able to beat her when she's more down to earth, so to speak, but I've never seen a pony that can take her in the air. You must be mighty fast Skye.” For the first time in a long while Skye's ears were inverted into the air, listening to the compliments Applejack was giving to him.
“Well... I guess I got kinda lucky. It was really fun but, well, Dash didn't think so.”
Applejack gave a soft chuckle. “Yeah, that sure sounds like Rainbow Dash whenever she loses. I'm sure she doesn't hate ya Skye, she's just a little upset, that's all.”
“I certainly hope so...”
“Ahhhh, don't worry bout' it too much. I'm sure she'll be back to normal tomorrow.”
Sky didn't respond to what she had said. He knew that he wouldn't be here tomorrow anyway. They walked the rest of the way to Sweet Apple Acres talking about Applejack's adventure to Baltimare. Most of it was pretty boring, just a conversation to pass time. Nevertheless Skye ended the conversation, probably one of the last he'd have with a pony from Ponyville.
The two arrived at the farm and Skye unharnessed, leaving the cart right next to the barn. Applejack thanked him from his help when suddenly they saw and heard a pink figure bound toward the farm from the town. Skye didn't really want to stay and get ridiculed or annoy anyone. Besides there was no doubt that Pinkie was here to tell Applejack about the stupid new pegasus in town. He decided to sneak away from Applejack while she was distracted by Pinkie Pie. He ran towards the forest but made a wide turn towards Ponyville. He had a plan and hoped that Twilight hadn't hated him enough to make him suffer.
Meanwhile back at Sweet Apple Acres Pinkie Pie had just met up with Applejack. Pinkie Pie was on her knees with a pretty obvious fake cry. “APPLEJACK!!! Where have you been?! You've been missing for months! All of us have been worried sick!”
“What? I've only been gone for a few weeks. Besides, I told you where I was going and how long I've been gone.”
“Tee hee. I know, I just like being dramatic. How was your trip? And wasn't Skye just next to you?”
“It was good, but I'm glad to be back home.” She turned to see that Skye was no where to be seen. “Wow, he sure got away fast and quiet. I didn't even notice he was gone.”
“Weird, I haven't seen either him or Rainbow Dash since their big race. You missed it by the way! It was so cool, they were both moving so fast no pony could tell what was going on. We were all pretty sure that Dash was going to win so none of us could believe it when Skye beat her.”
“Yeah he said a little bout' that. Apparently Dash wasn't too happy bout' it.”
“Hmmmmmm... Well she never showed up after the race finished and then Skye went off to look for her. I think Fluttershy went off to make sure they were all right. Oh! By the way, there's going to be a party tonight at Sugar Cube Corner, you're gonna come right? You're not too tired right?” Pinkie gave Applejack a little baby face, practically forcing her to say yes.
“A course I'd come Pinkie Pie. I haven't missed one of your welcome parties yet.”
“YAYYYYYYYYYY. Imma go set up, see you tonight.”
“See ya.”
Skye was sneaking toward the Library, he didn't want any of the former spectators seeing him. He'd always been pretty good at sneaking around and didn't have much trouble getting to the library. As soon as no pony was in sight he quickly ran to the door and started knocking, hoping she would answer the door quickly. The door was opened pretty quickly and Skye looked down to see the purple dragon. Before Spike could say anything Skye was already talking.
“Hi Spike, is Twilight home? I really, really need to talk to her.”
“Yeah, come on in, I'll go get her.” The words that Skye really wanted to hear right now. He quickly walked into the library and closed the door behind him. He heard Spike as he walked upstairs. “Twilight! Skye is here to see you!” It didn't take long until Twilight ran downstairs to see him.
“Hi Skye, do you need something?”
Skye tried very hard not to look Twilight in the eyes. “Yeah, Umm, is there any way that you can... I don't know... teleport me back home?”
Twilight couldn't help but feel confused and a little bit hurt. “But... but why Skye? Don't you like it here?”
“Yeah, I do... but no one wants me to be here! You don't have to pretend like you like me anymore! Just send me home please.” Every time Skye said the word home he felt more and more like it was the only place he belonged. Yet, Twilight wasn't so convinced.
“What? What gave you the idea that we don't want you here?”
“Ra-Rainbow Dash.” Skye was getting tired of never telling anyone about what happened after the race. Before he even allowed Twilight to speak he started telling her the story of what happened after he left the field. He told her everything that happened to the letter, he didn't try to victimize himself or vilify Rainbow Dash. Still Twilight couldn't help but be angry at Rainbow Dash, but her concern for Skye was more important.
“I can't believe she said that... but don't listen to her Skye, you're an awesome pegasus and a good friend. I think I know exactly what will cheer you up, follow me.”
“Where are we going?”
“To a party! Let's go Spike.”
Easily defeated, Skye agreed to follow Twilight out of the library and through the town. If what she said was true, than the only pony that didn't like him would be Rainbow Dash and that didn't make him feel any better. He walked with his head hung low, only raising his head to give polite smiles to the ponies cheering and congratulating him in the streets. There were even little pegasus that ran up to him, asking for his autograph but Twilight shooed them away.
When they arrive at the door of Sugar Cube Corner they hear angry voices they didn't quite expect. Rarity's was by far the loudest and most angry. “Why, I cannot 'believe' she said that. That's it! I'm going to go find her and give her a piece of my mind!” The door opened to the pastry shop to a very angry Rarity who stormed past whoever was in front of her towards Rainbow Dash's house. It took a few seconds for Rarity to realize just who she walked past before she sprinted towards Skye, giving him a a great big hug. “Oh sweetie, don't listen to one thing that that rude Rainbow Dash says, we all want you here, not one of us doesn't like you.”
Skye was happy, Rarity was the first pony that actually called Skye a friend and even gave him a present the first day she met him. He wasn't sure what to do so gave Rarity a smile. “Thanks.”
Pinkie Pie finally busted into the conversation. “HEY! The party started 10 minutes ago, get in here !” All of the ponies outside were happy to oblige. The party was pretty standard compared to all of the other Pinkie Parties, but was amazing for Skye. He'd never been to a real party before, other than the small ones he went to at school. There were so many sweets and candies and tons of games that Skye had never seen before. They partied until 9 before Skye wanted to go outside for some fresh air. He didn't really enjoy being cooped up in a building for too long, it wasn't something he was used to. The other ponies went outside with him, trying to keep him company.
All Skye did was look up at the night sky and quite a surprise came out of his mouth, something that none of his friends expected. “Have any of you even wondered how the moon moves or how the sky works?”
“What!?” The ponies responded at practically the same time.
Skye, trying to justify himself. “Well, I mean... what moves the moon? Wouldn't it be cool if it was a dragon or a unicorn?”
Twilight was the first to speak up. “You really don't know?”
“Know what?”
“Well Skye... how do you not know about Princess Luna?”
“Oh, I'm sorry, I-I didn't learn about her in school. That's where I learned mostly everything I know.”
“Princess Luna is one of the ru-”
Suddenly Rarity erupted from where she was sitting, which just happened to be a red sofa. She was clearly trying to be as dramatic as possible. “Rainbow Dash! I have a few choice words for you! How could you say su- excuse me! Don't walk right by me when I'm trying to yell at you!”
Rainbow Dash just walked right past Rarity, she honestly didn't care to hear what she had to say. She just walked right towards Skye who clearly looked scared at what she had to say. But she had finally gotten over her depression and anger and started feeling terrible about what she said. She's actually pretty glad that Fluttershy was there because she really helped Dash snap out of her little fit. Then again, she guessed that Fluttershy told everyone what happened. Still, she knew Skye deserved an apology.
Surprisingly, Skye spoke first. “I'm sorry Rainbow, I'll be leaving now. Please don't be too angry at me.”
“Skye...” Rainbow actually had to really try to hold back her tears. “...I’m really sorry. I'm sorry that I said that you don't deserve wings and I'm sorry that I said no one wants you...” None of her friends have ever seen her apologize like she was doing right then. “... it's just that I hate losing and you were paying so much attention to everyone else. I guess I was a little jealous.”
Skye didn't say anything and just ran into Sugar Cube Corner. Rainbow felt defeated as her friends just looked at her in disapproval before Skye came ran back out. He ran up to Rainbow Dash and placed a party hat on her head. “Don't worry about it Rainbow Dash, we're friends! Right?”
To Skye there were no dreams, only nightmares. Nightmares of a reality that he was, at one point in his life, forced to live in. Whenever he slept he was forced to relive his childhood, something that would be considered a living hell for those forced to experience it. Nevertheless he enjoyed his nightmares, they were something that made him love ponies and be kind. No pony should ever feel as bad as he felt... back then.
After Pinkie's amazing welcome party the ponies proceeded to return to their respective homes. Before they all left, there was one problem announced, Skye had no place to stay while he was in Ponyville and truly didn't want to bother any of his friends while he was there. Yet every pony insisted on letting him stay at their home. Eventually the ponies came up with an agreement, every week Skye would stay with a different pony. Starting today, Skye would crash with Rainbow for a week, something neither pegasus had a terrible problem with.
There was yet another problem with Skye's nightmares. Whenever he had his nightmares he would cry in his sleep. He never really knew why he cried, considering he enjoyed his dreams, yet it became a problem for the ponies around him and was one of the reasons he traveled to Ponyville alone. As he got further through his dream cycle his cries got louder and louder until a loud moan could be heard throughout the surrounding area.
“Well, this is my pad, make yourself at home.”
Skye was amazed at how large Dash's house was on the inside. The first floor opened up into decently large living room, complete with a couch and a few bookshelves. That was surprising, Skye never really took Dash for a reader. It also opened up into decently large kitchen. It seemed like the house defied space, he could only imagine what the other two floors would be like. Heck, there might even be a basement. Pondering her house, he didn't really understand what Dash was saying. "You hungry?"
“Uhmmmmmmmm...” Suddenly his stomach rumbled, answering Dash's question.
She gave a little chuckle. “Go ahead and chill on the couch if you want, I'll get us some grub.” Dash walked into her kitchen as Skye honored her request and started toward the couch in the sitting room. He lay on one half of the couch, thinking 'Weird, I’ve never eaten grubs before.' Much to his disappointment Dash brought out a large bowl of what looked like roasted oats. He never really understood how ponies roasted oats, but guessed now that it must have been by magic.
Dash lay down on the opposite half of the couch and placed the bowl between them. Neither of the pegasus spoke for the next few seconds as Rainbow Dash cleared her throat, forcing Skye to look at her. She slowly started leaning towards him and opened her mouth so it was slightly agape. As she got closer to Skye he closed his eyes, expecting the weirdest. But nothing came and instead he heard a loud crunching coming from in front of him. He opened his eyes to Rainbow gulping down a mouthful of oats. “What's wrong? Don't want any?”
“Huh? Uhmmm, sure I'll have some, thanks!” He waited, to make sure that Dash wasn't going to go for the oats before he leaned over and grabbed a few oats in his mouth before he brought his head back up to look Dash right in her eyes. The strange thing was that Rainbow Dash didn't even realize what she was doing. For some reason she was suddenly captivated with Skye and subconsciously refused to look away. Her vision grew blurry and she started seeing little white blotches. Suddenly the world started spinning and she started losing her balance as Skye saw her head start to spin as she started to fall off the couch. Luckily Skye had fast reflexes and was able to catch her with his wings and body before she was even off the couch. He managed to push her onto a safer position on the couch.
“Are you ok Rainbow?” No answer. He was starting to get worried, but wasn't exactly sure what to do. His stress was relieved when he heard a deep inhale come from Rainbow, the same kind that he heard from ponies when they sleep. She must have been completely exhausted, she had flown a big race today added on with all of the stress of the drama that happened after it, not to mention Pinkie's party.
But that all left Skye's head almost instantly, he wanted to get her up to her bed so she'd be comfortable. Making sure she was safe and sound, Skye quickly ran up to the third floor, where he knew her bedroom must be. He looked at her unmade bed and adjusted it quickly so that he could fit Rainbow comfortably. He also opened all the doors fully, to make easier to carry Dash without worry about him bumping her head, hooves, or wings. After he finished he ran back downstairs to the sleeping pegasus.
He'd actually carried other ponies before, he had helped injured ponies before and even given little fillies and colts “pony-back” rides. He had slowly nudged Rainbow to the edge of the couch and prepared to catch her as she slowly slid onto his back. His furthest wing caught her from rolling off him and his closest wing wrapped around her, almost creating a blanket on the bed known as Skye. But Skye had felt something that he never quite felt before, or at least remembered. He felt the sensation of another pony's fur rubbing against his, but it wasn't as if the other pony was injured, more like they were trying to get comfortable. He even heard a cute, tired little sigh escape Dash's mouth. Rainbow Dash put all of her unconscious energy into snuggling into her new bed, she even wrapped her fore hooves around it, hugging it.
Skye very slowly and carefully carried Dash up her stairs. He didn't really mind, he enjoyed helping ponies and enjoyed the warmth of Dash's body. He had always liked anything warm, whether it be sunlight or warm water. Rainbow Dash was another 'warm' he enjoyed and almost didn't want to let her go or at this point, get her off of him. After what seemed like a short walk he arrived at her bed and unraveled one of his wings, which would normally result in whatever was on his back to roll off smoothly, but Dash was stuck on tight. He didn't really wanted to brute force Dash off of him and decided to try to wake her.
“Dash... let go...” Skye spoke softly, shaking his lower body slightly, trying to both wriggle her off and wake her at the same time. Surprisingly, she almost immediately took the hint and left go as she rolled right into small, blanket less area Skye set up for her. It wasn't blanket less for long, as Skye reached over Dash with his moth and grabbed the folded-over corner of Dash's blanket and gently pulled the blanket over her, covering her body. “Goodnight Rainbow Dash.” At the sound of his voice Dash reached forward and grabbed the lower end of her pillow. She dragged it toward her and started cuddling with the pillow, giving off more cute, quiet sounds.
Skye returned to the sitting room to see a knocked over bowl of oats on the floor. Strange, he must of knocked them off the couch when he dashed for Rainbow Dash. Well, he better not leave scattered everywhere. He might as well take the time to clean up the mess he made before slowly drifting to sleep on the couch. It was pretty comfortable, he had no complaints. It was much better than what he was used to.
Off the western coast of Equestria over the deep sea flew a giant storm cloud. The city inside of it, however, was unknown to all of the citizens of Equestria. Until very recently that was, roughly the same time that Skye was admitted to the Blitzpherd Orphanage, a hole opened up in the center of the city. The Equestria's were very surprised at what they found inside the cloud. They looked upon the dark, dirty city to find tall stone buildings and even a few “earth ponies” living on the cloud, only their hooves adapted to living on a cloud.
To the citizens of Blitzpherd the sunlight was a bright, warm place, only for the upper class. They even had fee associated with entering this new “Light District” of the city, to prevent to dirty and poor from entering. Here, the upper class and entrepreneurs worked together with the Equestrians, by direct orders from Princess Celestia, to open a trading hub with this new strange city, where they trade knowledge of the city for bits, food, or raw materials. This also ceased the dangerous journey of leaving through the “Old Hole” at the southern end of the storm cloud to venture through the lightning and rain to catch fish. Leaving the vicinity of the cloud was always considered a dangerous journey, every pony that left either didn't fly very far away or never came back.
Skye delved deep into his mind, recalling his memories of his life in Blitzpherd. It was almost like magic that Skye appeared in front of the orphanage. No pony had ever seen anyone put him there and he wasn't even in a basket. The only thing the foal had on him was a golden locket with a picture of 3 ponies inside of it, one was the foal but the other two were unrecognizable by every pony in the poor district.
The little foal was extremely intelligent, as far as foals go anyway. He was able to memorize faces and simple words with relative ease. The most surprising characteristic about Skye was his size, he was considerably larger than the other foals and was comparable to fillies around Applebloom's size.
From what Skye remembered his life at the orphanage was pretty good. The old mare that watched over him and the other orphans was kind. Nicknamed, “The Old Mare”, she was a generous mare that took good care over the ponies in her care, many times at the cost of her own health. One day the Old Mare didn't wake up and all of the orphans ran outside, yelling and crying. It wasn't until a few ponies in white outfits came into the orphanage, they journeyed into her room for a few hours. They managed to wake her up, but at a cost. They told her that she had to settle down and rest, that she was getting too old to take care of a bunch of ponies. The Old Mare searched frantically for a volunteer to devote their life to taking care of foals and fillies. Sadly there were no ponies in the “Dark District” that were up to the challenge. The Old Mare was forced to do something that she would regret until she died, she had to close down the orphanage. And this was were Skye's memories always began.
The orphanage was packed full of hopeful parents, just waiting to find their little angel. Skye was never the first pony chosen, a lot of the potential parents were afraid of feeding a colt the size of Skye. Not to mention he was related to some strange creatures with horns, as depicted by the picture in his locket. At one point in the day a filthy rich, snobby couple walked in and considered adopted all of the ponies available, but were politely persuaded to leave by the Old Mare, who knew those ponies wouldn't make proper parents and was sure that there were better ponies for her foster foals.
By the end of the day Skye had said goodbye to all of his friends, most of which couldn't talk. It was truly a bittersweet moment for Skye, all of his friends were leaving him and might not ever see him again, yet they were going to a good home. Sadly no one was willing to adopt Skye and he lay alone in his bed for one last time. The next day the Old Mare woke up Skye early in the morning. She walked up to him as he slept and nudged him with her nose.
“Skye, sweetie, it's time to wake up.”
He slowly turned toward her and gave her his little smile before he raised his hooves towards his face to wipe his eyes. “O.K.” He brought his hooves away from his eyes and brought them towards his mama and wrapped them around her neck.
“Oh little one, I wish I could still take care of you.” Little tears came her eyes, knowing that Skye would be alone on the streets and she would never see him again.
“It's ok mama, I'll be fine! I promise.” He backed off and gave her a little smile of reassurance, hoping it would make her feel better. Of course, she knew what made Skye tick and returned a copy of his smile, making him think she wasn't worried about him.
“I know you will Skye. Make sure you don't lose that locket.”
Skye grew a little whiny. “MaaaMaaa, I'm not a little foal anymore. I can take care of myself.”
The Old Mare practically burst into tears at his statement and the way he said it. She knew that he wasn't ready for the real world, especially not the Dark District, yet there was nothing she could do about it. Suddenly there was a loud knock, forcing the ponies towards the door. The door opened to two greyish pegasus with sunglasses.
“Are you prepared to go Mrs. Foster?”
“Yes, but would you allow an old mare a few moments with her favorite child?”
The two pegasus looked at each other then back to the Old Mare quickly. “Make it quick ma'am.”
The Old Mare looked toward Skye, eager to get outside. “Now Skye...”
“Maaaaaa.” Whining yet again.
“Hush Skye, you need to listen to me right now.” She immediately attracted Skye's full attention. “Do not ever leave the cloud alone, especially from the bottom.”
“Ok mama. I wont, I promise... but why not?”
“It doesn't matter, just don't ever do it!” She gave him what was possibly the scariest glare she'd ever given any pony and it was working.
“Ok ok ok, I won't mama, honest!”
The Old Mare was quite convinced, even though Skye was literally bouncing up and down, ready to live on his own, not prepared for how difficult it was going to be. Before she was able to talk one of the pegasus outside spoke first. “Ma'am, we really need you to get going, follow us please.” The two pegasus started to walk down the street, expecting the Old Mare to follow. She stayed for only a few seconds.
“Goodbye Skye, I love you.”
“I love you too Mama! Byebye!” He stood with a smile in the dark street as his mama was quickly engulfed by the busy street. Suddenly the realization came over, he had no clue what to do. He had never been without the safety of his mama and he was scared. He frantically looked around the street, searching for a safe place to hide until his mama got back. It was as if he forgot that the city took his mama away, to a place he would never see her again. He quickly saw a darkened area between two buildings and dashed for it ignoring all of the soundless silhouettes.
The enjoyed the safety of the darkness, he looked upon the silhouettes with a smile, they never even knew he was there. But what was there to do now? He paced around the alleyway for what must have been hours before his stomach rumbled. He figured that he would have to leave the safety of the darkness to venture out to find food. The best way to go about it, at least from what he thought, was to try to blend in with the crowd. He practically jumped into the moving crowd of ponies who were, conveniently, on their lunch break going to the bazaar.
After only a few minutes of walking, Skye was abruptly ejected from the sea of ponies as they split off towards different stands. Skye looked around the dark bazaar and gazed upon loads and loads of objects and food. There was everything from fancy clothing to food that Skye had never seen before. But he decided to go back to his roots and just get some bread. He easily found a stand with the basic food and he flittered his wings until he was flying in front of the stall-pony.
“Hi mister, can I have some bread?”
He spoke in a low, raspy voice. “Sure kid, at'll be three bits.”
“Bits?” Skye responded obviously having no knowledge of the new currency.
“Yeah kid, bits. It's money that them new ponies brought over. There's a stand over there to get some, just come back here and get some bread when yer done.” He spoke greedily as he pointed down the street to a stall with a long line to it.
“Ok, thanks mister!”
“Yeah, yeah... whatever.”
Following the stall-pony's advice Skye walked down the street toward the “bit stall”. As he walked past the line of pegasus waiting for their chance of bits he noticed that almost all of them had large bags with them. He didn't really pay much attention to it as he waited in line for a few hours, humming to himself. Finally he was at the front of the line gazing upon an earth pony, a rarity in the city.
“Oh hi there little guy...” Before she could continue Skye abruptly cut her off and started talking.
“Hi lady! Can I have some bits please?”
Confused, the earth pony started to speak again. “Uhmm, I'm sorry but I don't think you...” Once again Skye cut her off.
“Oh I'm sorry, may I have some bits, please?”
Now, just plain annoyed the earth pony spoke, clearly and loudly. “Look little guy, you need to trade something to get bits, do you have anything to trade? If you don't, please leave!”
“Uhmm... I don't think I have anything, but may I have some bits anyway?” He said calmly with a huge, happy smile.
“I'm afraid not,” She looked down toward the golden locket around Skye's neck. “but I'm pretty sure that necklace would fetch quite the few bits... what do ya say?”
“No!” Skye almost immediately shouted at the earth pony, causing her to raise her voice back to him.
“Well then I can't help you today! Come back when you have something to trade!” She looked over Skye to the next customer, queuing Skye to leave.
He walked back down the street to the bread stall, hoping that the stall-pony would take pity on him and give him some bread anyway. He flew back up to the stall-pony's face.
“Ah, er' you are. You got any bits for me?”
“No.” Skye said with a frown. “I don't have anything to trade with here, so she wouldn't give me any.”
“Aw, well that's too bad...” Skye's frown slowly turned into a smile from the stall-pony's response. “...I guess you won't be getting any of this food then, will you!” His smile instantly disappeared.
“But... but...”
“Nope! No buts here kid, now get away from my stall, before I make you.” He said with a menacing tone.
“But...” At the sound of the word the stall-pony grabbed Skye by the back of his neck with his teeth, causing Skye to wince in pain. “Ow ow ow ow ow ow.” But the pain didn't stop there, suddenly he was thrown up in the air, spinning rapidly, not being able to correct himself properly. As Skye almost hit the ground he felt the collision of two hooves bucking him hard, forcing him to cry out in pain as he practically flew through the air. “An' don't come back, ya' hear?” Skye's pain train didn't stop there as once again he was spinning through the air at high velocities before he journey in the air abruptly ended by a tall brick building. He was pretty sure he heard bones cracking as he plummeted down a good 50 feet to the ground where his back slammed hard into the ground. But his punishment didn't end there, the silhouettes wanted their revenge as he was kicked around the street before he was finally forced towards his alleyway, where he quickly retreated.
Skye lay down in the alleyway, crying in pain and sorrow. He had no food, no money, and no family. He started crying louder and louder, closing his eyes talking to himself. *sniff* “I wanna go home...” * sniff* “I want my mama...”, repeating the same two things over and over again. Suddenly he heard a loud thump from in front of him as he looked up to see a small, white filly with a golden tail run out of the alley. He saw her run out into the crowd of silhouettes as she looked up to a larger pony and started talking to him, before they both slowly disappeared into the crowd of shadows. Skye looked toward the ground the see a loaf of bread, a little hard and stale, but food for the day nonetheless.
“Thank you!” He screamed as he closed his eyes and bit into the loaf of bread. He was a little surprised, he never remembered bread being this hard. He opened his eyes to a green turtle in his mouth, it's head looking at him, seemingly worried. He let go of the turtle as he realized he was back in Dash's house. He let go of the turtle and apologized only to hear Rainbow Dash behind him.
“Hey... are you ok?”
“I'm fine, really! Don't worry about it.” He said smiling as he gently set the confused turtle on the floor.
Rainbow Dash had been bothered by Skye's incessant sobbing even since that morning. Practically every night for a week she woke up, somehow hearing Skye's whimpering from two floors down and every night she would venture down to the first floor to try to comfort him. Most of the time she would just wake him up and eat a midnight snack as they talked about his dreams. The last day of the week was the most surprising. Instead of waking up Skye, Dash tried something different, something even she didn't really expect to do. Dash crept onto the couch and quietly snuggled between Skye's hooves. Ever so slowly Skye's cries lowered to whimpers which lowered to periodic sad groans. Soon he was sound asleep, as was Rainbow Dash. It was surprising just how Dash acted when she was alone with Skye, it's almost as if she was a totally different pony. Needless to say, Skye was pleasantly surprised when he woke up in the morning.
It was a sad day for Rainbow Dash when Skye left her house and went to stay with Applejack, the next pony on the list. Dash personally escorted Skye to Sweet Apple Acres as the Apple family graciously welcomed Skye. They showed him around the farm and the guest room which he'd be staying in while he was visiting. They also gave him a list of chores to do everyday while he was there, something that he actually expected from pretty much everypony. They started him off right away.
The chores weren't extremely challenging or complicated, most the time he was just following Big Mac or Applejack as they showed him what to do. Of course after all the chores Skye was free to go where he pleased. It was around midday and it just so happens that he decided to roam around Ponyville for a while, trying to meet and help as many ponies as possible. Unfortunately he ran into Pinkie Pie, sneaking around town trying not to be seen, as she finally stopped behind a tree for a minute. She didn't exactly know he was there as he sneaked up behind her.
“Uhm, Hi Pinkie.”
Pinkie immediately jumped up into the tree from the surprise with a loud 'eeep'. Almost immediately after, she was instantaneous next to Skye, putting her hoof over his mouth. “Shhhhhhhhhhhh.”, she said as she removed her hoof from his mouth.
“So... what are you doing Pinkie? You're acting kinda weird.”
She whispers, “I'm looking for a pegasus, a reliable, fast, sneaky pegasus.” She paused for a moment before she looked at Skye. “Wait!” She practically screamed. “You're a reliable, fast, sneaky pegasus! Right?” She had finally realized just how loud she was getting as she covered her own mouth. “Oops.”
“Well, I'd like to think so, what do a ya need?
“Nothing! I don't need anything!” She said as she very blatantly dropped a piece of paper on the ground, pointing her hoof at it repeatedly. She then jumped into the tree again, this time disappearing from sight. Skye bent down to pick up the paper, reading it to himself.
Dear Reliable, Fast, Sneaky Pegasus,
Meet me at the big hill behind Sweet Apple Acres at RIGHT NOW. It's super, duper, flooper, kachuuper important!
P.S. DON'T TELL ANYONE
-Pinkie Pie
'Hmmmmm, I wonder what kachuuper and flooper mean... maybe I should go ask Twilight Spearkle.' Skye thought to himself as he started walking toward the library. Suddenly a little light came on in his head. 'She said to meet her right now! That means... I'm late! Oh no... she's gonna hate me.' He started running toward Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that Pinkie wouldn't be too disappointed in him. Unfortunately he passed by Cheerilee, who appeared to be struggling with a few boxes, well, tons of boxes. Skye decided it would be a good idea to stop for a few moments to see if she needed help, after all he was already late.
“Hello, Miss Cheerilee. Do you need some help?”
“Oh my, well, I would hate to burden you Skye, you seem like you really need to be somewhere.”
Skye chuckled. “You're no burden to me Miss Cheerilee, where do you need all these boxes to be?”
“Well... if you really don't mind, these are all of the new school supplies, they came a little late so I don't have anypony to help me.” She frowned, looking towards the stack of boxes on the side of the road.
“Well don't worry Miss Cheerilee, I'll get all of these boxes to the schoolhouse within an hour! I promise.” He ran over to one of the cardboard boxes and grabbed the string on the packaging with his teeth. “See you there!” He zoomed towards the schoolhouse quickly and dropped of the box before he flew back to the stack of boxes to grab another. Each time he passed Cheerilee, walking with a box to the schoolhouse. He repeated this process many times before he grabbed the last box and met Cheerilee, who had finally arrived at the schoolhouse.
“Oh my, thank you so much Skye, it would have taken me forever to move all of those.”
“It was my pleasure Miss Cheerilee, is there anything else you need me to do?”
“I think I can handle most things right now, thanks again. Also Skye, weren’t you rushing somewhere when you first stopped?”
“Huh?” He questioned before he finally remembered that he was going to help Pinkie Pie and now he was even more late than ever! “Oh, yeah. I should probably get going! See you some other time!” He said as he started running back toward town, why he never flew was a mystery. He was a few hours late now and had to hurry.
Unfortunately he couldn't help but run by a white unicorn with two-toned blue hair, who sported a pair of purple glasses, carrying a large, heavy speaker. Now, Skye had never seen this pony before and couldn't help but stop by her to see if she needed help. He walked up next to her and tried to lend her a wing to help support the speaker.
“Do you need some help?”
“HUH?! YEAH MAN, THAT'D BE COOL” She screamed at him, practically causing a mini-wind storm in his\ face. She let Skye take the speaker onto his back, which didn't seem to encumber him at all. The unicorn chuckled a little, noticing how she screamed at this strange pegasus. “Hey, sorry man. I guess I'm still used to noise at the parties, you all good?”
“Ummm... I guess...” Skye wasn't exactly sure how he should talk to this new, strange unicorn. He'd never seen anypony quite as peculiar as this unicorn, but he wanted to be as polite as possible. “My name's Skye by the way, it's good to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too. You new around here? I've never seen you before.”
“Yep, I just came here about a week ago. I really like it around here, so I decided to stay. Actually, I'm looking for somepony... but I don't think they're anywhere around here.”
“Aww, that's a real shame man, I hope you find them, or they find you. Name's Vinyl by the way. I DJ a lot, was just at Canterlot to see my friend Octavia perform. It was pretty wicked, ya know, for a Cello player. Then I went to the Manehatten for my own concert. Now, I'd don't wanna brag or anything but what I did was so much more fun, ya'know? Like, it's cool sitting down listening to music, but it's even better dancing to it, ya'know?”
“Uhmm... I think? I'm sorry, I haven't really ever listened to music that much.”
“Wow, that's lame. How bout' you stop around my place some time. I'm sure I'll find some music you'll like.”
“Sounds good, but uhm... where do you live?”
“Right here...” She stopped in front of a small little house near the center of town. It was pretty quaint, aside from the large treble and Bass clef above the door. She unlocked the door and welcomed Skye inside, the door barely fitting the speaker.
“Sweet man, you can just put it somewhere against that wall.” She said, pointing toward a side of the house layered with electronic equipment. “So I've got a few more pieces of a equipment near the entrance of town, care to help?”
“Sure! I'd be happy to.”
“Cool, I really like you Skye. I think we're going to be some cool friends.”
“Cool!” Skye said, not understanding exactly how temperature was a way of saying how happy someone was. The two ponies traveled to and fro from Vinyl's house and one of the entrances of Ponyville for a few hours. It was actually starting to get dark by the time Skye unloaded the last piece of equipment.
“Sweet man, so who are you looking for? Is it a pretty mare? I bet she's waiting for you to find her.” Vinyl joked with her new friend.
Sky laughed, “Maybe... but why would a mare... ever... wait for...” He didn't even finish his sentence before he was out the door, running toward Sweet Apple Acres. He was hoping, praying that Pinkie Pie wasn't still there or that she had found some other pegasus to help her. But sadly Pinkie was still there, lying by a few trees. She looked a little different than normal. Her hair was completely straight and she looked extremely depressed. Skye ran up to her as she continued to look off in the distance.
“Pinkie! Pinkie, I'm so sorry. I just got so distracted and started helping other ponies then I forgot that I promised to help you and...” Pinkie cut him off as she pointed up a tall tree to a large balloon.
“Just fly up and bring that to me.”
He quickly followed Pinkie's orders and flew up to grab the balloon. He couldn't help but notice a giant 'Happy Birthday' printed on the side of the balloon. As he flew back down to Pinkie he tried to think of something that would cheer her up, but couldn't think of anything. He gave the balloon to Pinkie, who took it forcefully and started to walk away. He followed next to her.
“Pinkie... why didn't you get another pony to help you?”
“Because you're supposed to be reliable... and a friend.”
This hurt Skye extremely and it was made worse because he knew he made a mistake. He neglected something that he should have valued the most. To him, he broke an important promise to a friend and it was something so simple. He wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to do.
“So... whose birthday is it?”
Pinkie spoke in a very depressing tone.“No one's... by the time I get there.”
“What?! Well, I can get you wherever you need to go, fast! I promise this time, please trust me.”
She looked at him for a good solid minute before she whispered, “Okay...”
He lowered his wing and sat down to get Pinkie Pie on him as fast as possible. She stepped on his wing and practically jumped on him, trying to make it as uncomfortable for Skye as possible.
“So. Where are we going Pinkie?”
She pointed away from Ponyville as Skye rocketed toward the direction she pointed out. Not too long after Skye stopped at a field full of rocks as he lowered to the ground and let Pinkie down.
“So Pinkie? Whose birthday is it anyway?”
Finally bursting out Skye she turned around and started yelling at him, “Fine! You really wanna know? HUH!? It's my father's birthday. Okay?”
“Oh... I'm really sorry Pinkie... I hope he enjoys his birthday...”
Getting louder and more angry, Pinkie spoke. “No! You don't understand! He's... MY FATHER DIED A MONTH AGO!” Now Pinkie started tearing up, sobbing and breathing heavily. “I... I wanted to surprise me family... so... so I made this balloon... so that they would cheer up... and now, now they're probably sleeping and...and ITS ALL YOUR FAULT. I HATE YOU SKYE, I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN.”
Pinkie turned around and started walking toward the old house, which now had light streaming through an upper story window.
“I'm... I'm really sorry Pinkie.” Skye whimpered, his words falling on deaf ears. As he heard the sounds of a party come from inside the house as he slowly, solemnly flew away from the rock field.
Depressed, Skye flew back to Sweet Apple Acres. He very quietly walked into the farm house and up to his assigned room. He lay in bed for a few minutes, thinking about what Pinkie said to him. What she said reminded him of what Dash said to him the day after they met. He lay there, hoping that Pinkie would somehow magically forgive him the way Dash had, but he knew it wouldn't be the case. Finally he closed his eyes to rest and began to sob, not because of Pinkie, but because of his regular dreams.
Directly through the wall next to Skye was lay Applejack. She was a very light sleeper and was always known for waking up at the quietest of noises. It just so happens that she was able to hear Skye's quiet sobbing through the wall and decided to go investigate.
The sobbing became more apparent and defined as soon as the door to Skye's room opened. Applejack walked over toward Skye and tapped his side with her hoof. “Skye... wake up partner.”
Skye mumbled in his sleep before he opened his eyes before he looked over to Applejack. “Huh?”
“You were cryin' in your sleep partner, somethin' the matter?”
“Uhm... no not really...”
“C'mon big guy, you can tell me. I'm your friend right?”
“Well... yeah I guess...”
“Go ahead, start from the beginning.”
Skye took a deep breath, he was getting ready to not take a breath for a while. “Well it all started after I went to Ponyville this morning and I saw Pinkie Pie and...” Skye proceeded to tell Applejack about his day. He told her about the note Pinkie Pie gave him, Cheerilee, Vinyl, and what happened to Pinkie's dad, something that she herself wasn't aware of. After hearing his story, Applejack was in awe. She had no idea that Pinkie's father had passed away and she couldn't believe that Skye's attention span was really that short. She really couldn't think of anything to say. “...and so I flew back here. But all of that wasn't the reason I was crying.”
“Well uh...” Thankfully Skye could think of something.
“Applejack... am I a bad friend?”
At first Applejack wasn't quite sure how to answer that question and just stared off into space, trying her best not to think of an answer. However, words were forced out of her mouth when she looked at Skye, who seemed extremely depressed when Applejack didn't answer him.
“Look here Skye, you're not a bad friend...” Skye looked up toward Applejack with a slight smile on his face. “...you just made a mistake and I'm sure that Pinkie'll forgive ya... eventually.” Applejack added on, not ensuring Skye's confidence as he looked back down toward the ground. “Hey, cheer up Skye! How about tomorrow we head out to Ponyville, I reckon I can even talk to Pinkie for you if you'd like. Would that make you feel better?”
Skye smiled and looked her her. “Yeah... it would, thanks.” It really wouldn't make him feel any better but he could tell that Applejack, no matter how honest, wasn't very good at handling these types of situations.
“Not a problem Skye, now get some rest. Ya really don't wanna be tired for tomorrow's chores. Good night Skye.”
“Good night Applejack.”
The next morning proceeded the same way the previous one had. Skye had followed around Applejack and Big Mic, helping them with chores before they were finally complete. True to her word, Applejack had set off with Skye toward Ponyville. The walk was perfectly silent, aside from Applejack's walking. Now Skye was walking on the ground as well, but his steps were perfectly silent. It wasn't long before the duo saw Pinkie Pie down the road, she seemed happy. As promised Applejack walked up to her to asked her what her problem was with Skye, he response was less than normal or even logical.
“What? I don't hate Skye! I just never want to seem him again.” She said in her normal, bubbly tone before she walked away to spread smiles. Ironically enough, Applejack and Skye were the only ones not smiling. When Applejack made her way back to Skye and told him what Pinkie said. He didn't seem to be any more depressed than he already was, but he wanted to be alone. He had to think of a way to make Pinkie like him again and he had to think of one quickly. Something came to mind, the balloon... there was something special about it and he had to figure out what.
Meanwhile Applejack was roaming around town, looking for something to do. It just so happens that she walked by Rainbow Dash and had a question for her about Skye.
“Howdy Rainbow Dash, got a second?”
“Yeah, what's up Applejack?”
“Well I've just got a question bout' Skye. Did he cry when he was staying with you?”
Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack for a few seconds, pondering whether it would be a good idea to tell her Skye's secrets. She led Applejack into a secluded alleyway before she told Applejack about Skye's dreams, all of them. It took a few hours of storytelling before Dash was finally done talking.
“Wow...” Applejack finally said. “So is there any way to stop him from crying? You know me, I can barely sleep if it's raining.”
“Well...” Rainbow Dash hesitated, “...there is one way.” Applejack looked at Dash, waiting for Dash to tell her. Dash sighed before she finally admitted, “If you don't want him to cry you'll have to... well... lay with him.”
Applejack looked at Dashed for a few seconds then started to laugh and Rainbow Dash knew exactly why. “So, how do you know this Rainbow? I thought you weren't into all of that romantic stuff!”
Dash's face turned red as she practically yelled at Applejack. “Hey! It was a one time thing and it just happened to work! Ok?”
“Sure Rainbow, cool your jets. I'm just horsin' around.”
“Yeah yeah, well... whatever, I've got clouds to move. See ya later.”
“Goodbye Sugar Cube!”
Skye had managed to sneak over to Sugar Cube Corner, out of sight of Pinkie. Skye had known Pinkie enough to know that she always stores away her important belongings and party gear. Skye quietly made his way upstairs into Pinkie's room. Thankfully Mrs. Cake didn't know about what happened yesterday or she probably wouldn't have let him upstairs. Skye looked around carefully for Pinkie Pie before he rushed over toward Pinkie's closest. It didn't take him long to find the giant balloon as he took it out into the room.
He examined the balloon thoroughly before he noticed a small button on the weight holding down the balloon. He felt a little apprehensive as he lowered his head down to examine the button when he heard a voice from behind him that startled him, making him push the button with his snout. The balloon exploded, throwing streamers and party hats throughout the room and that was just the first half. Suddenly cupcakes and noisemakers were flying in the air before finally a cake was launched out hitting the pony behind Skye. He turned around to gaze upon angry eyes as he recognized Pinkie's depressing voice.
“Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out!” Skye heard as he ran down the stairs, tripping and hitting his snout hard against the floor before he ran out of Sugar Cube Corner off towards the schoolhouse, at least now he had a plan.
Pinkie had never been more angry in her life. She had come home from a busy morning of making people smile to see Skye in her bedroom, playing with her dad's balloon, and now she was covered in cake... well she was before she licked it all off in one big slurp. Before she even knew it she was giving chase to Skye, she wasn't going to let him get away with that...
Dash had just finished talking to Applejack and started flying toward the clouds when she saw Skye running from something. There had been a build up of clouds recently, ever since last night, and Rainbow Dash had no idea where they were coming from. Still she was intrigued and, to be honest, a little worried at what might be scaring Skye so badly. Soon she saw a pink streak chase down Skye and it wasn't the same pink puff ball she saw this morning. She knew it was Pinkamena and she knew Skye was in trouble. She followed behind...
Skye hadn't noticed Pinkie Pie trailing behind him by the time he arrived at the schoolhouse. He had hoped that Miss Cheerlie wouldn't mind if he used some of her new school supplies. He ran down into the basement of the schoolhouse at almost the same time Pinkie and Dash arrived.
“Pinkie!” Skye heard from inside the schoolhouse. “What are you doing?”
“I'm chasing Skye, what does it look like?!”
“What the hay is your problem Pinkie? What has he ever...”
“What is my problem? What is his problem? Huh? Who just breaks into another pony's room and steals another pony's things? He almost broke it too! He's so stupid! I hate him!”
“Hey! He's not stupid Pinkie! You're just acting like a total idiot. Stop freaking out for no reason.”
“For no reason? You don't know anything Rainbow! How about you and your coltfriend just leave me alone? Ok? I don't want to see either of you, you're both so stupid!” Pinkie started to run back home, Skye couldn't possibly see the tears coming from her eyes, but could hear how angry she was. He did however, hear Dash.
“Hmpf... fine *sniff*, I don't wanna be your friend anyway.” Skye heard, along with the trotting of Rainbow's hooves before he eventually couldn't hear anything. He thought to himself, 'Maybe I should write a letter too...' as he went to work on his project.
Skye had been missing for hours and almost every pony was getting worried about him, all but one. Twilight and Rarity were walking around town with Pinkie, trying to cheer her up and it was working, she was back to her old self again. It was almost dark and the ponies were returning to Sugar Cube Corner.
“...Well, you know darling, perhaps he's just too kind for his own good.”
“Well he's nice. Sometimes he just doesn't make the best decisions.”
“Yeah, I guess so, but still he broke into my room... and he almost broke my balloon...”
“Pinkie Pie, it's just a balloon.” Pinkie looked at Twilight with a very unhappy frown, but willed herself to not say anything.
The trio walked into Sugar Cube Corner to see a large balloon floating in the middle of the main room. Over the balloon layered 'Sorry' in a thick, blue marker. Just like Pinkie Pie's balloon, there was a small button on the weight of the balloon. Pinkie couldn't help but run toward the balloon.
“Oh hello girls, Skye brought that in a few minutes ago, wasn't that nice of him?”
Before any pony could respond, Pinkie had slowly tapped the button. A speaker was thrown out of the balloon followed by tons of confetti made out of craft paper. Really there wasn't as much to this balloon as there was to Pinkie's. She noticed a full piece of paper fly from the explosion as she ran over to read it. Pinkie was happy, she couldn't think of any pony kind enough to give her such a gift. The answer seemed obvious.
Dear Pinkie Pie,
I'm really sorry that I made you miss your father's birthday party. And I'm really sorry that I broke your balloon. And I'm really sorry that I made you hate Rainbow Dash. And I'm really sorry that I'm not a good friend. And by the time you read this I'll be on my way to Cloudsdale.
-Skye
Pinkie just sat on the ground, depressed, reading the note over and over again. By the time the music stopped playing and the confetti stopped flying Pinkie Pie was already down the street, sprinting toward the entrance of town.
“Well...” Mrs. Cake started, “...wasn't that exciting?”
“Quite.” Rarity said as Pinkie disappeared.
Skye took one last glance of Ponyville before he turned around and started walking. He was going to miss Rainbow Dash and all of the other ponies. The time he spent in Ponyville had probably been the best week of his life, but he had to leave. It was bad enough that he made Pinkie Pie hate him, but because of him Pinkie started hating Rainbow Dash and he wouldn't accept that. He wouldn't be the reason that friends broke apart.
He walked with his head down in the dark for a few minutes, the light of the moon blocked by the clouds. Suddenly Skye heard the loud clopping of hooves from behind him. It wasn't until the pink pony was a few feet away from Skye that he saw her. She jumped at him like how a tiger would pounce on it's prey. “Skyyyyyye!!!” Before Skye could react Pinkie was on him, rubbing her sweat on his mane, probably trying to bite his ears off or something. Then Skye heard her sniffle and mumble as he realized she was wiping her eyes on him, she was crying.
“Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie Pie was still mumbling through all of her tears and snot. “I'm so sowwy Skye!” Before she returned to crying into his chest fur. Skye responded by rubbing his snout through her mane, trying his best to comfort her.
“It's ok Pinkie Pie, just calm down please. Ok?”
After a few seconds of sobbing Pinkie looked up to Skye, who had a nice little smile on his face. “Ok.”
“So why did you follow me Pinkie? I thought you didn't want to see me again.”
“No! I want to see you again! I mean, I was just being a big meanie, do you know what I mean? I'm sorry Skye, I overreacted and I shouldn't have.” Pinkie started sobbing again as Skye returned to her mane.
“No you didn't Pinkie. I should have honored the promise I made to you and I'm sorry.”
“But... you never made a promise to me...”
Skye thought for a second before he realized that he never actually promised Pinkie anything. But he felt like he did and that's all that matters to him. “That's ok Pinkie, I wanted to help you! But why didn't you find some other pony to help you?”
Pinkie Pie stared at Skye, mesmerized by his presence suddenly. His smile just made her feel happy and confident, it was as if Skye was radiating light. “Well, I didn't want you to feel bad and I didn't want you to wait for me... I didn't want you to feel like a bad friend.”
Skye looked into Pinkie's eyes before he admitted, “You didn't make me feel like a bad friend.” Normally Skye was a terrible liar, worse than Applejack, but there was something that made her so convinced that he was telling the truth. It could have been because she wanted to believe him or maybe it was is apparent divine aura. Regardless the two ponies reconciled and journeyed back to Ponyville together. It was easy for both ponies to forgive each other as they walked into Sugar Cube Corner together, laughing. Skye bid Pinkie a good night and flew back to Sweet Apple Acres, the conflict finally over.
Skye returned to his room at Sweet Apple Acres to a guest. Applejack was laying on his bed, almost intentionally taking up as much of the bed as she could. Not wanting to be too pushy Skye lay down on the floor, there must have been a reason Applejack did that. It was only a few minutes later that Applejack woke up Skye, due to his incessant sobbing.
“Wake up Skye, you're sleeping with me tonight.” She said, her facing glowing beet red.
“Ok.” Skye calmly spoke as he climbed into bed. He wasn't embarrassed or confused as to why Applejack wanted to sleep with him, he knew his crying must be annoying. The two ponies fell asleep on opposite sides of the bed, Applejack was a little wierded out that she was sharing a bed with a colt. Needless to say she woke up directly next to Skye, cuddling with him and it was her that moved while she slept.
The next few days in Ponyville were realitivly calm, there were no quarrels between the ponies and the weather was fine. Unfortunately for Skye, Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith had to rush to Canterlot for business, trusting him with Applebloom.
The little filly wasn't any problem for Skye. She was capable of doing most things for herself and only called for Skye when there was either something too big to move or too tall to reach. He even resorted to making a few meals for her and her friends whenever they asked. The real problem for Skye was his nightmares, something that he forgot about over the week...
Skye was limping around the city, wincing in pain every other step. There was something wrong with his front right hoof ever since it was slammed into a building. On top of that his back had been aching for a few days. Things like this never happened to anypony at the orphanage and Skye had no clue what to do. On top of all that, It wasn't too uncommon for the silhouettes to accidentally kick him off the street, only furthering his pain.
Every night Skye would return to his alleyway and finish off any of the scraps he found that day. Then he would lay on the cold, hard bricks and fall asleep, hoping his pain would heal overnight. However one night was particularly promising. Skye was laying in his alleyway, finishing off an already finished fish when he looked upon a white leg. He looked up to see the white filly staring at his leg with some kind of box in her mouth.
“H-Hi!” Skye weakly exclaimed toward his potential new friend.
“You're hurt...” The pony said, practically ignoring Skye.
“Yeah, it's nothing, don't worry about it. I'll be fine.” Skye said very unconvincingly.
The white filly put the box down next to Skye and opened it. “Don't move, ok?” Skye nodded, not quite sure what she was doing. She pulled out some kind of roll of cloth and unraveled just a bit of it. She walked over toward Skye's injured leg and started to wrap the cloth around his leg, putting what seemed like a ton of pressure on Skye's broken leg. Skye screamed out in pain as the pony wrapped the cloth around his fractured leg. After a few minutes of listening Skye's whining the white pony had finished applying her version of a tourniquet. “Ok, all set!”
“*sniff* Thanks...” Skye said with tears in his eyes.
“Your welcome! So now that I helped you, will you help me?”
Skye looked at her confused, he wasn't sure how hurting him helped him. He looked down at his leg, all she did was wrap the cloth around his leg in some weird kind of way.
“Sure.” He was going to help anyway, that's just the way he was.
“Yay! Follow me please.” She said as she trotted toward the main street, Skye limping slowly right behind her. Whatever she did helped, at least a little bit. Skye couldn't bend his leg, which wasn't a bad thing, it stopped him from moving around the bone as much as possible.
Skye followed the mare through the streets, where the silhouettes were even more dark but thankfully, in fewer numbers. The two ponies walked for about a quarter of an hour in complete silence until the white pony turned around to look at him. “My name's Lenis by the way.” She said as she turned around and continued walking. Eventually the duo were at the entrance of the Light District, a place Skye had been shooed away from before. Two guards stood before the gilded line that separated the two districts.
“Good evening Miss Lenis...” The guard started, starring at the dirty pony behind her. “...who is your friend?”
“He's a friend I helped in the dark district, he's going to help daddy!”
“Oh, well wasn't the nice of you!” The guard said to Lenis before returning his attention to Skye. “Hey!” The guard yelled at Skye, stopping in his tracks. “Don't cause any trouble kid, got it?” Skye nodded as he very quickly hobbled past the guard.
After only a few minutes of walking Lenis walked toward the biggest building Skye had ever seen. It was at least ten times the width of his orphanage and three times as high. It had huge pillars at the entrance and was made out of a material he'd never even seen before. Luckily for him she started walking into the building. “Daddy I'm home!” She shouted waiting for her father to appear from one of the various entrances of the foyer. Suddenly from up some stairs trotted a tall stallion.
“Ahhh, welcome back Lenis. I'm glad to see you're fine.” He looked upon the dirty, injured pony behind her with a smile. “Ahhh, is this the friend you promised me?”
“Yep!” She jumped out of the way, showing her daddy all of Skye. The stallion walked down the stairs toward Skye, scaring him for a just a little bit. To Skye he didn't seem like a silhouette, he felt like something much worse, something much more worthy of fear.
“And what's your name little colt?” He asked directly to Skye.
“Sk-Skye, sir.”
“Awwwwww.” Lenis piped up. “That's a pretty name!”
Almost ignoring Lenis, yet still smiling toward her when she talked, the stallion spoke, redirecting his attention toward Skye. “Good to meet you Skye! My name's Avaritia, have you ever heard of me?” Skye shook his head no, he hadn't heard of any of the higher class ponies. “Well I'll have you know I'm a very important stallion Skye and I need your help. You see, it wasn't until recently that I have acquired this mansion. Sadly the mansion did not come with help and it is much too large for Lenis and I to take care of ourselves. Do you understand?” Skye nodded his head yes. “Excellent! I would like you to come to this mansion everyday and help me clean. I would also like you to answer any doors and serve food for any guests. Do you think you can do that Skye?” Once again Skye nodded his head, not 100% sure that he could do everything asked of him. Yet, he promised, or at least felt like he promised, his new friend that he would help her father. “Amazing! I'll even give you a bit everyday! So don't forget to come everyday! Ok?”
“Yes sir!” Skye piped up as soon as he heard the word 'bits'. He had been around, or in Skye's case not been around, money long enough to know that he needs it for everything. What Skye didn't realize was that Avaritia was a greedy, greedy pony. Avaritia was the first pony that every ambassador would talk to. He would provide information about the city, the trade, and most important, Avaritia would hook up the ambassador with a meeting with the Mayor, at their request.
Yet Avaritia did not gain his position by any respectable means. He had cheated and extorted his way from the bottom to the top. He had neglected his ill wife for months before she finally passed away, the same day he was elected to his position. He felt very little remorse and had a smile on his face the entire day. The only thing he loved just as much as his money was his daughter. He loved her so much, that she was rarely allowed to leave the residence. The only time she was able to leave was when she was secretly under supervision of some payed off guards. He cared deeply for his little daughter and started feeling bad that she was coped up in her safe home when, one day, he walked by a little colt in a dark alleyway. The colt seemed like a perfect playmate for his daughter and about as quickly as he could, snatched up the colt. And that was how Skye was offered a job.
Skye left the mansion with a smile on his face, he had already had a plan. He was going to spend 6 bits every week on food and save 1, hidden somewhere in his alleyway. Not only that but he was allowed in the Light District whenever he wanted. He wouldn't care how grueling the work would be, he was happy.
Skye had been working for Avaritia for weeks on end. The work wasn't challenging but there was always tons of it. Skye never complained though, whether he was climbing endless flights of stairs on his broken leg or was carrying heavy boxes with his injured back. What Skye enjoyed the most was spending time with Lenis. She would follow Skye around everywhere, sometimes she wouldn't even talk, she simply enjoyed his company. There was however, one particular conversation between Skye and Lenis that sparked Skye's attention.
Skye and Lenis were walking down one of the many hallways. She had been following Skye around all day and rarely talked, she seemed down and Skye noticed. Every time she held her head low Skye would walk up to her and nuzzle her neck, something he learned she liked very much. She would always look up at him and smile before he went back to his work. She once again looked down and Skye once again nuzzled her making her smile.
“Thank you.” She said, in a low, sad tone.
“You're welcome, but what's wrong?”
“Oh, well... it's just, I haven't been doing that well in my schooling and, well, when you nuzzle me you remind me of mother. She used to always nuzzle me whenever I was feeling sad.” She looked at the ground again, causing Skye to nuzzle her again.
“I'm sorry to hear that but where is your mother? I haven't seen her around anywhere. Is she on a long business trip?”
A tear formed in Lenis's eye. “She... mommy...” Her voice broke at the word 'mommy'. She ran away from Skye as fast as she could. Skye tried to follow, but his first step cause him to yelp in pain. He walked as quickly he could the same direction Lenis ran off toward. It wasn't long before Skye ran into Avaritia, who stopped Skye's pursuit.
“Skye. A word if you may. It's about my beloved wife.” He waited until he had Skye's full attention. “Roughly a year ago my wife was diagnosed with a fatal disease. While I wouldn't like to go into detail about the disease, you should know that she only had about nine months to live. She spent those entire nine months with Lenis and both of them enjoyed every minute of it. Nine months later or around three months ago my wife had finally passed. Lenis was completely distraught and wouldn't leave the house. Ever since then she never really liked to talk and she always enjoyed being alone. I was hoping that you would be able to change that. Can you do that for me Skye?”
Skye nodded as Avaritia allowed him to pass. He roamed the halls looking for Lenis and eventually he walked toward a door at the end of a hall. He couldn't help but hear Lenis's sobbing as he quietly opened the door. Inside was what looked like the master bedroom. It was roughly the same size and the only visible difference was the color of the room. The bed was covered in rainbow streaked blankets, the walls were practically a portrait of a field, blending in with the blue sky. The ceiling was depicted as the night sky with shooting stars with rainbow trails. Lenis was lying on her bed, crying.
Skye walked up to her bed and climbed right onto it and right next to Lenis, who didn't even seem to notice him there. “Lenis?” Skye said as she looked up toward him, tears in her eyes. “I'm sorry Lenis, I didn't know what happened to mother. I didn't know there wasn't anything you could do.” She went back to sobbing, practically ignoring Skye's apology. “Ya know Lenis, I have two sisters somewhere in the world, I don't know where they are or what they look like now, I don't even know if they're still alive.” Lenis stopped sobbing and looked up at Skye, wondering where he was going with all of this. “So I was wondering Lenis, if you'd like to be my little sister? Don't you think that'd be cool?”
Lenis took a long hard look at Skye before she jumped up to nuzzle him with tears of joy in her eyes. Tears that haven't been shed by her for well over a year. It meant so much to Lenis that she had a big brother. She felt protected now, the same protection that her mother gave her. Avaritia looked into the room from the door smiling, he no longer had to worry about his daughter. He walked away happy, now he can spend all of his time on his job.
The two ponies sat in Lenis's room for hours sharing secrets and tell each other information about themselves. Skye learned a lot about his newly acquired little sister.
Two weeks later Avaritia was starting to get annoyed. Skye was fully healed and was finishing all of his chores at a stupidly quick rate. He would spend half of his time in the mansion playing with Lenis, which normally ended up being very loud. Not only that but Lenis's performance with her tutors were severely lacking. Not to mention whenever an ambassador would visit the mansion the two little ponies would constantly disrupt his business. He had to get these little ponies out of his house.
He had to enroll them into a public school.
But there was another problem with his plan. All of the schools in the Light District would not enroll any pony from the Dark District. He knew that Lenis would once again fall into a state of depression if she couldn't see her 'Big Brother' again. He only had one option, enroll his perfect daughter into a school in the Dark District.
He decided on the schoolhouse located near 'The Hole' or what is now called 'The Old Hole'. It was considered the most safe and cultured of the schoolhouses in the Dark District and promised amazing results. Hesitantly he signed the papers for his daughter. He also signed the papers for Skye.
He didn't want to do that.
Skye woke up to a small snout nudging him in the face. Opening his eyes he quickly realized that it was Applebloom with a half-concerned, half-scared look in her face. Skye spoke first.
"Hi Applebloom, something wrong?"
"I had a bad dream... did you have one too?"
"Well, I wouldn't say I did." He looked at Applebloom, who didn't appear to have any intention of leaving. "Would you like to sleep with me Applebloom?" Her eyes lit up as she scrambled to get under the blankets next to Skye. Skye slid over, giving Applebloom as much room as he thought she would need. "Good night Applebloom."
"Good night Skye."
The Apple family returned to their farm the day after Skye's latest nightmare. They walked into their house around noon to see Skye, reading an old book. Skye was never very into to reading, mostly because he could never afford books, yet he didn't want to leave the farm, fearing that Applebloom would call on him. He had read through a few short books since the start of his stay. The first labeled 'Flight of the Red', a short story about the journey of a pegasus through a desert wasteland. The second book was labeled 'The Curse of Bright Light Falls', where a detective pony attempts to solve the mystery behind strange lights behind a waterfall, it doesn't turn out well for him. The latest book Skye was reading and the one the Apple family walked in on him with was titled 'The Spiders and the Golden Apple.” He hadn't gotten past the introduction so he wasn't sure what the book was about. Suddenly Applejack ran at him, snatched the book away from him, and quickly returned the book back to it's respective shelf.
“Don't read that book!” Applejack shuddered frantically before she ran back to her, now scared, family. The frantically looked at all of the walls and ceilings, searching for something or possibly some things. Skye piped up after a few seconds of watching the family, which now included the scared little Applebloom, who came running in to see her family.
“So... why can't I read that book? It seemed alright.”
Suddenly Granny Smith practically appeared in front of Skye, giving him the strangest look he'd ever saw. “Becauuuuuuuse Skyyyyye, you don't know the horrors that lurk in that there book!”
Skye glanced over toward the bookshelf before looking back toward Granny Smith. “Like what?”
Granny Smith took one last quick glance around the room before she got extremely close to Skye's face. “Spiderrrrrs ” she whispered.
Skye almost broke into laughter, “What's so scary about spiders?”
“What's so scary about spiders? Well hows about I tell you real story behind the Golden Apple! Take a seat there, all of ya.” All of the ponies took a seat, either on the furniture or the floor. Applejack and Big Mac were shaking in their seats while Skye and Applebloom were sitting comfortably, awaiting the story that was about to be told. “A looooong time ago, during the first zap apple harvest, a mysterious apple dropped down from the trees. The apple was made of solid gold and must have been worth a fortune! The Apple family decided it was a good idea to keep the apple hidden away and save it for a rainy day. Unfortunately word got out about the apple and dozens of thieves and hooligans came to swipe it away. For a while we managed to fend off the bandits, but one day a stallion managed to sneak past us and snatched up the apple from under our noses. Ol' Ginger Gold managed to spot the thief running off and you best believe we gave chase to him lickity split. We followed him all the way to the base of Smokey Mountain until he ran into a cave covered in nasty looking spider webs. We stood outside for a few minutes when suddenly all we could hear was screamin' comin' from inside the cave. We were all scared to follow the thief in, but we knew we needed to get our apple back. Uncle Cameo and Aunt Sundance volunteered to follow the thief in. After a few minutes we heard Cameo and Sundance screamin' like crazy. Suddenly Cameo went silent and we saw Sundance sprintin' outta the cave. She was being chased by a monstrous cave spider. The spider turned around and shot it's web at Sundance, dragging her back into the cave. We all ran as fast as we could away from that cave an' none of us ever returned. Since that day, everypony in the Apple family has been afraid of spiders...”
No pony could say anything, the story was full of emotion and Skye could tell that Granny Smith was traumatized by the experience. “S-Sorry about your aunt and uncle, Granny Smith. Do you want me to get the golden apple for you?”
“Awww don't worry about that Skye there's nothing you could hav...” She paused, realizing what Skye had said, “...WHATTTTTTT?!?! No no no no no no no, you can't go into that cave ever!”
Skye looked at her with a smile on his face. “Ok.” He said, obviously lying, something Applejack caught onto but couldn't speak out of fear. Skye then looked down at Applebloom, who was cowering in fear from listening to the story. “Hey, don't worry little Applebloom, those spiders aren't anywhere near you and I wouldn't let them hurt you even if they were, ok?” Applebloom nodded, although she wasn't extremely convinced. Skye then started toward the door, “I'll be back tonight, I promise.” He said, leaving the cowering Apple family to themselves.
Skye walked down toward the library to talk to Twilight, she probably knew where the Smokey Mountain was. He knocked on the door to the library and waited a few seconds for Spike to answer. To his surprise it was Twilight who opened the door. “Good afternoon Skye.”
“Good afternoon Twilight, may I ask you a question?”
“Of course Skye.”
“Thanks! Where's Smokey Mountain?”
Twilight stood there, pondering why Skye wanted to know where Smokey Mountain was. She couldn't think of anything off the top of her head ad instead responded to his question. “It's right behind you, turn around.”
Skye turned around to see what looked like a normal mountain. Yet unlike all other mountains it was extremely tall and there didn't appear to be any other mountains near it. “Oh... why is it called Smokey mountain?”
“Well, I'm guessing it was given that name due to the dragon lair at the top of the mountain. Not to long ago we had to relocate a dragon that took up residence there, thankfully Fluttershy is really good with animals and dragons, or else we'd all be in a dragon's stomach right now!” She chuckled, which caused Skye to chuckle in response.
“One more question Twilight!”
“Go for it.”
“Do you know anything about spiders at Smokey Mountain?”
“Spiders? Hmm... the only thing I read about spiders that was interesting was that when they are still eggs and are introduced to heat or smoke caused by dragons they grow to substantial sizes. Not only that, but they acquire the same greed an adult dragon has. They're pretty dangerous, especially if they have a viscous venom. Thankfully there aren't any of those around here!” She chuckled again, once again cause Skye to chuckle in return.
“Well, thanks for the information Twilight! I really appreciate it.”
“No problem Skye, see ya around.”
“Good bye!”
Skye started for the closest exit of Ponyville, he wanted to get to the mountain as fast as possible. Little did he know, Applejack was trailing far behind him, she knew where he was heading... and she didn't like it.
Skye managed his way toward the base of the mountain and looked up to see just how massive the mountain really was. Actually, he couldn't see the top as a think layer of cloud blocked his vision. Yet when he looked at the base of the mountain, he didn't see a cavern. He continued around the base of the mountain until he was on the completely opposite side, it was then when he found the entrance to the cave. Much like the story the entrance was covered in giant spider webs, that now looked like cobwebs.
He was just about to enter the cavern when a voice from behind stopped him.
“Wait right there Skye, don't ya dare go into that cave, ya hear?!” She yelled, too afraid to get any closer than the tree line.
Skye turned around to face her, letting her know that he was afraid of anything right now, neither her nor her spiders. “Don't worry Applejack, I'll be fine, I promise. Nothing bad will happen to me while I'm in there.” He turned around and started into the dark cavern.
“Skye don't!” Applejack said, taking a step forward so that her front hoof was barely in the small clearing between the forest and the mountain. But it was too late as Skye was already on his way in.”Skye!!! SKYE!!!”
Skye began to trot further into the cavern, stepping through old cobwebs and rummaging through slightly newer spider webs. He heard the quietest of pitter-patter from spiders, but not from any huge spiders but rather from small, normal sized ones. He traversed even further into the mountain, losing his only source of light from the entrance. He walked in the dark for a few minutes before the cavern opened up into a huge room with a light shining from the ceiling roughly 200 feet high. The light was projected onto a pedestal, holding what appeared to be the golden apple. It was now that Skye started to worry, this seemed almost too easy. He slowly walked toward the pedestal, expecting the worst to come from anywhere. All of his muscles were ready to flee in case anything went awry. Before long Skye was standing right in front of the golden apple. It was strange, the apple was the only thing in the room that wasn't covered in spider webs. Yet, he took only a few glanced around before snatching up the apple in his teeth.
Suddenly Skye heard a terrible screeching coming from all around him. He looked up to see dozen humongous spiders descending on him. The light in the room was blocked by the spiders and Skye made his quickest reaction to turn around and run. Although Skye couldn't see a thing he manged to run through the cavern based on memory, only a few times would he run into walls or trip on the ground. He heard a pitter-patter and screeching behind him and it was close. Whatever it was it stayed on his tail practically the entire run. The last time Skye tripped up he felt a sharp pain in his back leg, followed by a warm sensation that eventually started to burn. He very quickly stood back up and continued running, he could finally see the outside light and Applejack who had inched her way halfway through the clearing. Seeing his friend only gave him a stronger drive to run.
Skye appeared outside the cave with dozens of spider behind him. Applejack was paralyzed in fear, she couldn't move as Skye ran right past her. Skye, noticing her paralysis, quickly turned around and swooped her onto his back, turning around yet again as he began to fly away, dodging numerous webs shot out by the giant spiders. Skye had managed to gain distance between the spiders when suddenly his body seized up as he quickly started to descend downward into the forest. He crash landed through the trees, knocking Applejack off his back, away from the spiders.
Applejack turned around, something bad had happened to Skye, he couldn't move. She took a few steps toward Skye before she saw a few spiders racing toward her. Suddenly she was frozen in fear as she felt a hard object hit her legs. She looked down to see nothing other than the golden apple, no doubt the result of Skye's last bit of energy. Was she really about to let her friend die because she was afraid? Was she really about to trade her friend of some stupid apple? No, she was going to take both of them. She picked up the apple as she ran toward Skye, laughing. The spiders were actually a good distance away from Skye and Applejack had more than enough time to pick us Skye and run away, crying and laughing at the same time. Why was she laughing? That's what Pinkie Pie always told her friends to do when they were scared. She dashed all the way back to Ponyville, not stopping for anything. Once in town, Applejack immediately ran toward the hospital, she hoped Skye would be alright.
Skye had been admitted to the hospital for a few hours before the rest of the mane six all congregated together. Skye had been paralyzed by the spider venom and the ponies at the hospital for trying to find the antidote that would cure him. The real problem was that the venom administered to Skye would kill any normal pony, so either Skye is extremely lucky or he isn't a pony. Nevertheless the ponies were extremely sad about what happened to Skye aside from Rainbow Dash, who was furious.
“So what the HAY happened Applejack? HUH?”
“Granny Smith told us a story about a golden apple... I-I told him not to go in, but he wouldn't listen to me.”
“Go in where?! You better tell me, because I am NOT a happy pony right now.”
“Darling, perhaps you should ease up on poor Applejack, surely she did everything she could.” Rarity tried to bring her friends together, but Applejack only looked down after hearing that statement and Rainbow Dash only seemed more flustered.
“Fine, whatever. Just leave me alone.” Rainbow Dash walked off towards Skye's hospital room.
Over the next few days Rainbow Dash and Applejack only left the hospital to do their jobs, then they immediate came back. The ate, slept, and practically lived in the hospital just waiting for Skye to get better. Eventually Rainbow Dash forgave Applejack and they had conversations to pass the time. The conversations were always so solemn and depressing, aside from one.
Applejack started first. “I hate him...”
“What?”
“Just... why does he have to act like a darn idiot so much?”
“That's just who he is.”
“So...”
“So what?”
“Do ya like him Dash?”
“Everyone likes him.”
“You know darn right what I mean Dash, do you like him?”
Dash sat in quiet, ignoring Applejack's comment before walking off towards Skye's room. "That's none of your business."
Eventually the antidote was administered and Skye was able to leave the hospital on his own free will. He walked out to be greeted by his six best friends. They were all so happy he was ok, especially Rainbow Dash and Applejack. After the cheers Applejack was the first to talk.
“I'm mighty sorry Skye, can ya ever forgive me?”
“Forgive you for what? It was my fault I didn't listen to you in the first place. I'm sorry for making all of you worry about me for so long, can you ever forgive me?” All of the ponies agreed and walked toward Skye to give him a friendly nuzzle before they all left for their respective homes. This week, Skye was following Twilight home.
This chapter is Dark and contains scenes with heavy and bloody violence. I will clearly mark the specific scene in the chapter, read at your own risk. The scene is need for the story.
The next few days at Twilight's were some of the most peaceful days of Skye's life. Most of the time he sat around, reading countless numbers of books. When he wasn't reading he was outside, flying with Rainbow Dash or walking around, playing with other ponies. Every so often Dash would join him on the Library floor. Normally, Skye would read anything that Twilight recommended but every so often he would read a few Daring Do books, recommended by no pony other than Dash.
Whenever Skye was busy reading his books, Twilight was busy working on her new spell. Twilight was given a task to create another dimension. The dimension had to fit the constraints of a fiction book. She had to imagine how every single character would act and respond to specific scenarios. She must have full control over all of her characters and because of this she, herself was not allowed to travel to her made up dimension. It was recommended to her that she not put any pony in her dimension if there is any possibility of danger.
Twilight wanted to keep her spell a secret from her friends. Why? Because she wanted to surprise Dash and Skye with a chance to live in the same world as Daring Do! Momentarily of course. Twilight couldn't wait to see the look on Dash's face when she her hero, Daring Do, standing in front of her. The spell was almost ready, she knew she could create the dimension and she was pretty sure that she could make the characters properly. The only problem Twilight thought she had was monitoring her new world. She thought she had a solution for her little problem. Twilight was going to put her dimension into the book itself. Her goal was to see her friends adventure through the Daring Do universe but if that failed the book should edit itself to what her friends are doing, it was genius.
Twilight squealed in excitement as soon as soon as she was sure the spell was ready, which attracted the attention of Skye and Dash, who rushed up to Twilight's study room. Dash was the first to walk in.
“Yo, Twilight, what's up?”
Twilight made her best attempt to keep in her excitement. She didn't do a very good job as she faced Dash and slowly tilted her body. “Nooooooooothing .” She said with a huge smile on her face.
Skye was the next to speak, “Are you sure? You seem really happy.”
“What do you mean? I'm always happy! Aren't you always happy?”
“...yeah...” Skye said quietly.
“Good, now Dash, you should come over tomorrow, ok?”
Dash could tell Twilight wasn't telling her something, she decided to toy with her a little bit. “I don't know Twilight, I'm realllllly busy tomorrow.”
“Oh, ok. Well, how about the day after tomorrow?”
“Ow, sorry Twilight, I'm gonna be busy that day too.”
“We-well... how about the day after the day after tomorrow?”
“Sure, sounds perfect!” Twilight was finally relieved that she found a day Dash was open. “Wait! Actually I've got something I've got to do that day too! Real sorry Twilight.” Dash said with the biggest grin on her face. Twilight gave a sad groan as she started begging, she knew Dash was messing with her at this point.
“Please Rainbow?”
“I don't know Twilight...”
Twilight gave Dash her saddest face, “Please please please please please please please. ”
Suddenly Dash burst out into tears laughing, she thought making her friend beg was one of the funniest things she's ever saw. She looked over at Skye, who had a very confused look on his face. “I'll be over tomorrow Twilight, don't worry.”
“Yay! You won't regret it!” Twilight said, jumping for joy. She turned to Skye, “Skye, do you mind staying at Dash's for the night?”
“Hey!” Dash exclaimed, “Don't I have a say in whether or not Skye gets to stay with me?”
“Hmmm... yes. Wait! No.” Twilight joked, trying to copy her friend's bad jokes, she ended up being the only pony to laugh.
“Hmpf, fine. Let's go Skye. Cya tomorrow Twilight.”
“Goodbye Twilight, see you tomorrow.” Skye managed to butt in before he followed Rainbow Dash out of the room.
“Cya later you two! I can't wait for tomorrow!”
Spiked entered the room from where Dash and Skye just left. He had overheard the entire conversation and couldn't help but feel worried. He knew what Twilight had planned to do due to her talking to herself frequently. “Twilight.”
“Yes Spike, what is it?”
“Uhm, well it's just, isn't the land of Daring Do dangerous?”
“It's not that dangerous really, besides they'll have Daring Do by their side. I'm pretty confident that those three will be able to handle themselves.”
“But what about Ahuitzotl and all of those deadly traps?”
“Oh I dumbed down Ahuitzotl, but kept all the traps the same. Honestly none of those traps should be a problem for a pegasus. It's just that most of the time in the books, there is something wrong with Daring's wings.”
“I guess so...”
“Don't worry about it Spike, just remember I have everything under control! Even if there is a problem, we'll just send a message to Celestia.”
Skye spent the rest of the day roaming around town with Dash. Every once in a while they would talk about how strange Twilight was acting and why she wanted Dash so badly. Yet normally their thoughts would be cut short due to some interruption, whether it be little pegasus running up to the duo asking for flying lessons or seeing one of their friends on the streets.
After their encounters for the day were over Dash and Skye retreated back to Dash's house on the outside of town. They walked in to a magical flying turtle slowly bonking into Dash's face. The turtle continued to try to move forward ever so slowly pushing Dash backwards into Skye. Rainbow Dash started giggling, “Haha, I missed you too Tank!” Dash reached her hooves up and wrapped them around her pet turtle, which resulted in Dash and Tank to slowly lower down toward the ground. She let go of her pet so that it could fly freely as she began to retire to her room, when she reached the stairs she realized that Skye was no longer following her. She turned around to see Skye, walking toward the couch in the living room. “Skye...” She said in a quiet, shy tone, something Skye rarely ever heard from her. Skye turned around to see Dash by the stairs, a red tint on her face. She quickly turned and walked up the stairs. Very curious as to why she was blushing, Skye followed.
Skye trailed Rainbow Dash all the way up to her room, where he saw her quickly jump into her bed. Skye looked at Dash for a few moments as she periodically glanced at him. Skye turned to leave down the stairs when Rainbow shouted, “Wait!” Skye turned back around, looking Dash in the eyes this time. Her eyes almost seemed scared or worried as she quietly spoke, “Aren't you going to sleep with me? I mean, in the same bed. No like sleep with me or anything.”
“I don't know, you seem really uncomfortable with that idea.”
“No!” Dash shouted, jumping up from her prone position, she lowered back down slightly. “I'm really not.”
Skye started walking toward her with a slightly concerned look on his face, “Are you sure Rainbow?” She responded with a little nod as Skye climbed on the opposite side of the bed that Dash was on. “Good night Rainbow Dash.”
Skye went to sleep almost as soon as he hit the bed, it was just something he was used to doing. As soon as Dash thought Skye was asleep she slowly crawled over towards him. To her, Skye was so warm and fuzzy, she wasn't quite sure why, but she snuggled up right next to him. She fell asleep moments later.
Skye was the first to wake up the next morning, at 6:30, the same time he always did. The first thing he noticed was Rainbow Dash's snout in his face, strangely enough. He thought she looked kinda cute when she was sleeping and her quiet snoring helped greatly. He didn't want to move at all or wake her up so he just decided to lay there for a few hours, waiting until she woke up.
Rainbow Dash woke up with Skye staring into her eyes, it felt warm, she enjoyed it. Well, she enjoyed it for a few moments before her face turned red and she pushed Skye off the bed. “Wha-What are you doing so close!”
“Ow...” Rubbing his head, “You're the one who came so close to me...”
Rainbow Dash got up from the other side of the bed, stuttering. “Wha-whatever, let g-go see Twilight.” Dash quickly walked out of her room down the stairs, with Skye following right behind her. They both grabbed a quick bite to eat and left to Twilight's.
There were only a few ponies awake at this time in the morning, all of them surprised that Dash was awake and moving. The two ponies flew silently towards the library. Dash knocked on the door and waited for the ever responsive dragon assistant. Strangely there was no answer, so Dash tried again. Once again, no answer. The two ponies looked at each other before Dash shrugged and opened the door herself. Skye followed Dash in as she called for Twilight. “Twilight? Spike?” The two ponies searched around the library before they ventured up towards Twilight's study. “Twilight?! Spike?!” They called for them again, once again with no answer. Suddenly Skye saw an open book on one of twilight's pedestals. He couldn't tell which book it was, but it looked familiar, and walked toward it. Rainbow Dash followed right behind Skye, thinking he had a hunch on where their friends were.
As soon as Skye and Rainbow looked at the writing in the book their vision started distorting as the world around them began to curve and bend. The windows and books in front of them began to disappear as they morphed into trees and bushes. Small scaly creatures scurried around the ponies hooves as their heads stopped spinning or at least their bodies did. Both Skye and Dash felt like throwing up, but Skye was the one who managed to keep it all in. Rainbow spewed her breakfast up all over the tall grass and tried many times to spit out the bad taste in her mouth. Skye was right beside her with his hoof on her back, trying his best to comfort her. He looked around this strange new world. The first thing he noticed was the incredibly tall trees and the deep undergrowth. He looked forward and thought he saw some kind of brown building off in the distance. Upon further concentration on the building it appeared to be some kind of ancient ruins. Suddenly his mind began working and he remembered a description of this scene from somewhere.
The jungle can be a very mysterious and dangerous place, but not dangerous enough for Daring Do! Join her as she traverses through the jungle's undergrowth to old ancient ruins. Can she obtain the crystal horseshoe before Ahuitzotl can? Or will Ahuitzotl get his grubby little hands on it and end the world. Learn about it in the final book in the series, * Daring Do and the Herd of the Crystal Horseshoe.***
That description was at the end of the last Daring Do book Skye read and he was pretty sure he knew where he and Dash were. He heard the sounds of the undergrowth breaking, but ignored it as he focused his attention on Rainbow. “Rainbow, I think I know whe-”
Dash cut him off as she looked forward and began hyperventilating. Standing before her was none other than the amazing Daring Do. Dash had no idea what to think as she just started to speak.
“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!! You're like, like Oh! My! Gosh! You are, you are... Eeeeeeeeiiiiiii!!!” Dash ran over to Daring before she had time to reacted and picked her up hugging her, crushing her actually. Daring managed to escape the grapple after a few moments and yelled out in a slightly more British accent that Dash and Skye imagined, “It's Daring Do... and who do you happen to be?”
“I-I-I-I...”
Skye spoke up over Dash's rambling. “My name is Skye and this excited one is Rainbow Dash. She's kinda of-”
“A BIG FAN. You are just THE. MOST. AWESOME. MARE. EVER!” She ran up to crush her hero with a hug again but this time Daring expected it and swiftly moved out of the way causing Dash to plummet into the ground. “So... Awesome!”
“Ughh, what are you two doing here? This is a remote location that practically nopony knows about. How did you get here.”
Dash continued on rambling, forcing Skye to be the one to talk. “Well our friend brought us here... maybe she thinks you need help.”
“Hmpf, me need help?! Preposterous! Your friend clearly doesn't know who I am or what I've done. What makes them think I need help?”
“Well... I can guarantee you that my friend knows all about you and I can guarantee you that you would benefit from our help.” For once in Skye's life, Skye was able to lie fluently. He really had no idea why he and Dash were here or what they could do to help.
“Hmpf, ok I'll give you both a shot but I'll tell you when you're done, got it!?”
“Yes Ma'am!” Dash shouted out, getting a chance to help our her hero.
“Yes Ma'am.” Skye said, with a serious tone in his voice. He knew that he was most likely in one of the Daring Do stories but that was about it. He wanted to follow Daring around so that he could learn why he was there.
Suddenly Dash and Skye heard a voice coming from inside of their own head, it was Twilight. “Hey guys, enjoying your time?”
Rainbow Dash burst out, “Oh my gosh Twilight! You are the best pony ever!”
“Twilight?” Daring Do asked Skye.
“Yes. She's the friend I was talking about.”
Daring Do looked at him confused but figured by the name that Twilight was some sort of magical princess that sent these two ponies on a quest. It was, of course, the only logical conclusion. Suddenly Skye heard something that he was pretty sure only he heard. Rainbow Dash was still trying to talk to Twilight, praising her for her good work. “Skye, there's a huge problem. I'm supposed to be able to control practically everything that happens but... I can't. I can't change how any pony acts and I can't change the setting of the story. I also can't hear you... but that's ok. Whenever you think or say anything the book I'm reading will edit itself so that I can read it. Try think 'ok' or something of that sort.”
Skye stood still with his eyes closed, thinking 'ok' over and over again.
“Alright alright, calm down Skye. I read all of that, it works. Don't worry about keeping in touch with me, I need to go find Spike, it shouldn't take longer than an hour... and Skye... stay safe.”
Skye promised Twilight he'd keep Dash and himself safe as he followed Daring Do toward the ruin. Apparently she had given Skye tons of information about the ruins they were about to go through and Skye payed attention to absolutely none of it. She wouldn't repeat what she had said at first when Skye wasn't paying attention. It was then when Skye realized why Twilight mentioned she couldn't change anything. He guessed that this 'Daring Do' was Twilight's best rendition of Daring Do, which explains why she wasn't as nice as he had hoped.
There was a small path of tall columns leading toward the ruins in the middle of the jungle. The columns had strange markings on them, something Skye couldn't read. They walked past the columns in complete silence until they reach the walls of the ruins. There was no visible entrance on the side they traversed, but thankfully for them they could all fly. They landed on the ramparts as they gazed upon the ruins. Surprisingly almost half of the ruins were a giant courtyard. The rest of the ruins were, what appeared to be a large pyramid. From where they were standing they could see the entrance and it was already open.
“Drat... that bloke Ahuitzotl and his lackeys are probably already inside. We need to be careful from here on out.” Dash gave Daring her militaristic salute and Skye gave her a quick nod. The pegasi traversed the ramparts until they reached the closest corner of the pyramid. The flew down the the ground, Daring taking point, before glancing inside the pyramid. The hallway they looked down seemed well lit and never ending. Daring took caution as she slowly took one step into the tunnel, recoiling back only once. “Stay behind me.” She began to venture further into the ruins.
It wasn't long until Daring stopped the party, they were probably only about 50 feet in. “Stop.” She looked closely at the ground before she pointed out what she saw. “Look, that panel has a strange marking on it. Looking at the walls there appears some sort of dart or arrow trap, don't touch that plate, got it?” Both ponies nodded at Daring as they cautiously proceeded past the trap.
The hallway eventually curved downward into a slope. Daring hadn't spotted any more traps or any of Ahuizotl's goons and Dash was starting to get a little hyper. The realization had just come over her that she was exploring an ancient ruin with Daring Do, she couldn't hold in her excitement anymore. “Psst, Skye.”
“Yeah, what's up Rainbow?” He whispered back.
“ISN'T THIS LIKE, THE BEST DAY EVER?!” Dash's shouts echoed throughout the ruins.
Daring Do stopped and turned around, she looked furious. “What are you doing you moron? Do you want everypony in here to hear you? Stop acting so stupid.”
“Sorry.” Dash faced the ground, this wasn't the hero she expected to meet. Daring Do turned again and continued forward. The first step she took caused her hoof to slowly sink into the ground. The three ponies heard mechanized contraptions running. They looked behind them as some sort of fluid started covering the floor. Before they had a chance to react the fluid was covering their hooves and they were sliding down the curving spiral.
All three ponies began to scream as they rapidly slid down the ancient slide. The end of the ride just happened to be a very large pit filled with spikes. The good news was that they were all pegasi, so they didn't have a problem with the hole in the floor. The bad news was that Daring was furious with Dash now, if Dash hadn't distracted her she would have easily seen the trap. They ponies flew to the opposite side of the pit and resumed their journey, this time in complete silence.
Before long, they entered a very large dome room. The top of the room must have been 200 feet high and from there a light shown down into the room. The walls were covered in paintings of the night sky, including accurate representations of constellations. There were four separate hallways that all went off in their own separate directions, one being the way they came from.
“Let's split up. Go whatever way you want, just don't follow me.” Daring was clearly still upset as she walked down the right most hallway. Shrugging, Skye and Dash separated, Skye going down the middle and Dash going down the left. After about half a minute Skye heard cries for help coming from the direction that Daring Do walked off toward. Skye turned round and ran back to the dome room, then down the right side hallway. After only one left turn Skye saw Daring Do, trapped in a fusillade of endless darts. It appears as if she found a sweet spot within the trap that she could stay in, but was stuck there.
“Hey you, Skye, turn this off!”
“...How?”
Daring pointed out a button on the other side of the dart trap. “Push that!”
Skye stood still, staring at the dart trap. “...How?”
Daring gave a frustrated groan. “The end of this hallway probably intercepts the one you went down. I can tell because I can see that this hallway takes a hard left up ahead. Now, Hurry!”
Skye turned around and ran back to the dome room. He knew he had to help Daring as fast as possible when he heard Dash's screaming coming from the left most hallway, it sounded like a scream of agony. “HELLLLLLLLP! SKYEEEE! DARING DOOOOOO!” Skye paused for a second, wondering who to help first before he ran down the middle hallway. He had to help Daring first, she knew what she was doing and he would help Dash right afterword. He took the first right he saw and ran for a while. Before long, he was at the dart trap Daring was stuck at.
“Good, now turn it off please.” She said as Skye walked toward the button. Before she had a chance to thank him he started talking.
“Rainbow is in trouble, I think she's hurt.”
“She's your problem.” Daring said walking past him.
“Hey, she's my friend! And she needs your help. Please Daring Do?”
She stopped and turned toward him. “I don't care! Ok? I've got a world to save and I can't waste time helping some stupid mare who shouldn't even be here. If you want her to be saved so badly, how about you go save her!” She turned back around and started walking away.
“She would help you, if you were in trouble.” Skye said solemnly but Daring just ignored him. Skye ran back to the dome room and ran into the hallway Dash went to. The hallways took a hard left and suddenly Skye saw something that confused him. There was a wall in his way. He knew that there were no other hallways he passed by and he definitely didn't pass by Rainbow Dash. He examined the wall very closely and didn't find anything strange about it. He put his ears up to the wall and heard whimpering and a low, dark voice. He knew who it was, it must have been Twilight's voice for Ahuizotl.
“So, you want to be untied huh? Well, we can do that, but it comes at a price.”
“No... not that. Stop. Let me go. LET ME GO, LET GO OF MY WING! NO, NO!!!!” Skye heard the sound of a bone cracking and the sound of Dash's wailing. He immediately started pounding on the wall, hoping and praying that he was suddenly strong enough to break through it.
“Stop! Let her go!” He screamed through the wall at Ahuizotl. He put is ear up to the wall again as he heard footsteps approaching him.
“Oh my, you aren't Daring Do. Oh well, that doesn't matter. I'm guessing that this is your mare and you'd do anything to make sure she's safe, that's how all of you heroes are. Get me the crystal horseshoe little colt and I’ll set your friend free. Fail me and she will die a miserable death... HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Skye turned and ran, he had to beat Daring to the Crystal horseshoe, he just had to. He made a mad dash down the middle hallway and set off a dart trap that ended up send a few darts into his sides. After not too long he caught up to Daring Do who was cautiously proceeding through the hallway.
“Why hello there Skye, save your marefriend?”
“No...” He said panting. “...Ahuizotl got her, she's in danger.” He slumped down in front of Daring Do, which was strange he was normally never this tired after running. Daring look down on him and noticed the darts sticking out of him.
“You idiot!” She quickly dropped down on her knees and pulled out the darts with her teeth. “Those darts have a deadly poison on them, I'm surprised you aren't dead yet.” She looked at him with a little bit of sorrow in her eyes.
Skye managed to stand up and looked her in the eyes. “I'll be fine... I need to save Rainbow Dash...” He started wobbling, he had the worst headache he'd ever had in his life.
“You really want to save her don't you... Fine! I'll help you, but we're done after I help you.”
“Ahuizotl said he would trade the crystal horseshoe for her.”
Daring just looked at him in disbelief. “Well let's go get it then.” She turned and proceeded through the hallway. Confused as to why she didn't object, Skye followed. The two ponies soon entered into a large treasure room, with gold coins and other jeweled accessories. “Be careful, this is most likely trapped, don't pick up anything.” At the end of the treasure room was what Daring Do and Skye were looking for, the crystal horseshoe. Skye stood back as Daring Do walked up to the podium holding the horseshoe. Instead of being extremely careful or trying to be delicate Daring Do walked up the the horseshoe, quickly snatched it up, and started running. She ran past Skye as the room started rumbling. Skye followed suit, and just in time too. Right behind both him and Daring Do came a large spherical boulder. It chased them all the way down the hallway back to the dome room. Both Skye and Daring jumped out of the way of the boulder before it rolled through the room, crashing into furthest wall of the room.
“That was too easy...” Daring said, looking cautiously around the room. Suddenly the dome room started rumbling as the light at the top turned off. Daring Do started hearing the rumbling of water. “Quickly, down the hallway Dash went!” The two ponies made a mad dash for the left most hallway. They made it to the wall but Daring had no clue what to do, she started to panic. Skye banged hard on the wall, water was starting to build up.
“Ahuizotl! I have the horseshoe!”
The wall slowly opened from the bottom up as water rushed past the two adventurers, pushing them towards the middle of the new room they were in. The door closed right behind them, leaving only a few inches of water on the ground. The new room they found themselves in looked extremely similar to the dome room. Instead of the paintings of the stars, the stars were magically projected onto the walls and moved ever so slowly. Not only that but solid stone slabs floated horizontally around the outside of the dome. From the top of the dome shone down actual sunlight. Standing before Skye was Ahuizotl, holding a broken Rainbow Dash in his tail hand.
Here.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? Did you lie to me little colt? Do you not have the crystal horseshoe?” Skye looked over at Daring Do who glanced at all of the floating slabs and the top of the dome before she looked back to Skye. Skye gave her a quick nod before he charged Ahuizotl at crazy speeds. His charged knocked back Ahuizotl, forcing him to drop Dash on the floor, causing her to cry out in pain. Skye now ignored Ahuizotl, running toward Rainbow.
“Rainbow Dash...”
She looked up to Skye with tears streaming down her face. “It hurts Skye... It hurts.”
“I know Rainbow, but I won't let him hurt you anymore. I promise.” Skye ran his snout through her wet mane, trying to give her any comfort he could. Just by looking at her he could tell that Ahuizotl snapped both of her wings and threw her around a bit. He knew it would all heal but he wasn't just going to let anypony do that kind of stuff to his friends while he knew about it. Dash on the other hand was looking past Skye. Even with her blurred vision, she still managed to notice Daring Do, escaping through the hole in the ceiling, running away from her battles.
Skye turned and faced Ahuizotl, who was now ready to fight. Skye charged Ahuizotl again, with just about the same amount of speed. This time Ahuizotl saw it coming and quickly dodged out of the way forcing Skye into a wall, but Skye jumped right off the wall back into Ahuizotl at almost the same speeds, knocking him off his feet yet again. Ahuizotl stood yet again, this time angry. Skye charged yet again but this time not only did Ahuizotl see it coming but he knew just what he needed to do to stop him. When Skye was in range Ahuizotl grabbed him with his tail and threw him to the ground. He picked him back up and took a bite into Skye's side before letting him go, dropping Skye to the ground. Ahuizotl had razor sharp teeth and Skye could feel each of them rip through his skin. He stood up, enduring his pain, his blood mixing with the water at his hooves. Not knowing many fighting techniques, he tried once again to charge Ahuizotl, hoping the same thing wouldn't happen again. Unfortunately for Skye the same thing did not happen again. Ahuizotl grabbed Skye in mid air and very swiftly bit into his neck. It was the second most painful thing Skye had felt in his life and had been lucky enough that Ahuizotl hadn’t ripped through his throat. Ahuizotl dropped Skye after he was sure he had finished the job, yet Skye stood up. Instead of charging Ahuizotl he instead walked over to where Dash was laying down, who was no standing with even more tears rolling down her face. He dropped down right in front of her looking her in the eyes.
“I'm... sorry...” He said weakly, not taking his eyes of off hers. Dash knelled down next to Skye, “Shhh, don't talk. It's alright. It's alright !” She rubbed her snout softly up against his as she heard the splashing of water behind her. She managed to lift her head, but was too afraid to turn around. She knew exactly who was behind her but had no clue what was about to happen. She heard the splashing stop right behind her and felt breathing right behind her ear.
“He. Failed. You.”
The breath moved from her ear to her neck as she started to whimper. She looked down at Skye who was still looking up at her but now with sad eyes. Suddenly the back of her neck felt warm as she felt Ahuizotl's razor-like teeth sink into her flesh. She couldn't scream, she couldn't talk, she couldn't think as the teeth slowly dug deeper and deeper into her neck. She couldn't feel pain, she couldn't breathe, she looked down at Skye, hoping that he would help her or tell her what to do. Instead all she saw was the side of Skye face, he had turned away and closed his eyes. Her blood and tears dripped onto Skye's body as her vision grew blurry. She was dropped on top of Skye, hearing Ahuizotl's laughter as she slowly started to grow deaf. Her blurry vision and bad hearing started to distort, twisting and turning, she was pretty sure she was dying.
Suddenly her hearing turned back to normal and she no longer felt any pain. He opened her eyes to a happy Skye nuzzling her.
“Wow! Sorry it took me so long,” Dash heard a voice from behind her, she immediately stood up on all four legs and stood defensively looking at this purple stranger. “You wouldn't believe where Spike was. Anyways, how was the story? I can't wait to read it.” The purple stranger took a step forward. Dash immediately took a step backwards. “Huh? What's wrong Dash?” The stranger took another step forward, this time causing Dash to run for the window, crashing through it, as she took flight, away from her captor.
Twilight stood there confused, “Skye... what happened in there.” By the time she looked to the spot where Skye was laying, he was by her pedestal grabbing the adventure book in his teeth.
He looked at her with his same sad eyes. “Sorry Twilight, some books are just bad...”, he told her before he left with the book down the stairs and out the door.
Skye flew around the skies of Ponyville, searching every single cloud in the sky. He put the book in his saddlebag so he didn't have to carry it in his mouth. After about an hour of searching Skye saw a blue blob on the horizon. He very quickly flew over to check up on her, it was getting dark and he didn't want her outside alone. In Twilight's study she seemed scared enough as it was. Dash was laying down on the cloud, her back to Skye as he approached her. Skye was pretty sure he heard sobbing.
“Rainbow Dash, are yo...”
Dash almost immediately stood up and faced Skye, her wings in an upright position, ready to fly away if need be. As soon as she noticed that it was Skye she immediately calmed down and she ran over to him and began to nuzzle him. The two ponies stood there for a minute or so, before Skye broke their contact. He took a step back away from her now sad eyes as he gentlely started to talk.
“It's time to go home now Dash.”
Almost ignoring what he said she trotted up to him and started to nuzzle him again. Skye broke their contact again, forcing a soft, sad whine from Dash. She tried walking up to him again but this time she just looked into his eyes. Skye could tell just how lonely and sad she was, it definitely wasn't the same Dash that pushed him out of bed this morning. He raised his wings, making Dash jump back just a bit. He walked up to her with his wings extended and gave her a quick snout-to-snout touch before he backed away and took off into the air, hovering in front of her. She climbed in the air right in front of him to receive another Eskimo kiss from Skye, who then slowly flew off towards Dash's house, hoping she would follow. When he turned around he saw that she was indeed following him as he continued flying.
Skye landed on Dash's cloud and started walking toward the front door. He turned around after he opened it, to welcome the lady in first. When he turned he saw Dash hovering over the cloud, too afraid of the building in front of her. She hated being cooped up in a building and preferred the open air. She also enjoyed Skye' company, so she waited there hovering, trying to decide which to choose. Skye walked toward the edge of the cloud and looked up at Rainbow. He ruffled his snout, trying to entice Rainbow Dash to come down, it worked. Dash ventured down to the cloud for her third Eskimo kiss.
This time Dash followed Skye all the way to the door before she stopped moving. Skye made attempts to motion her inside, but the only thing he received in response was frustrated groans. It finally got to the point where Skye walked behind Dash and pushed her into her house, Dash crying and shaking her head the entire time. Her attitude changed as soon as she entered her house. It was like she recognized her house as a safe haven as she looked around.
Suddenly she was rammed in the snout by a much harder, greener snout. She yelped and ran back to Skye, she tried her hardest to hide behind him. Meanwhile the turtle slowly hovered his way over toward Skye with a slightly more stagnant look on his face than normal.
“Sorry Tank, she's a little jumpy today, she'll be better tomorrow.” He turned around to Dash, who was cowering behind him.
“Dash, this is your friend Tank, he's your pet tortoise.” Skye grabbed the turtle and nuzzled up against it awkwardly. “See, he's harmless.” He offered the pet to Dash who reluctantly walked up to it. Skye let go of the tortoise as it slowly moved forward, pressing into Dash's nose. Suddenly her brain turned back on as she started to giggle and grabbed the tortoise with her front hooves. Skye noticed something different with Dash's laugh, it wasn't that it was more childish, it was that it was almost foal like. Dash stayed on the floor, playing with her pet tortoise.
While Dash was busy playing, Skye made his way to the kitchen to grab some food for both him and Dash. Not wanting to search very hard or cook anything, Skye grabbed a bushel of hay and split it half. He quickly ate one of the halves and rushed to Rainbow, they hadn’t eaten anything since this morning and Dash must have been hungry.
When Skye walked into the living room Dash was rolling around on the floor, hugging her pet. She jumped up when she saw that Skye had food and ran over to where he was standing. Skye quickly lowered the plate of wheat so Dash could easily reach it. She ate the hay happily until eventually she held a few strands of hay in her mouth staring into Skye's eyes, mesmerized. She motioned him to lower the plate to the floor for some reason. Once he did she started shaking her head violently, confusing Skye even further. Then, she started to shake the hay sticking out of her mouth. That was when Skye realized that she was trying to feed him. He accepted the hay happily as Rainbow Dash gave a high pitched squeal. She nuzzled up to him while he was chewing, then returned to eating the rest of hay.
The tortoise poked and prodded at Dash while she was eating, but she didn't pay much attention to it. She only turned around when she heard the loud rumbling of Tank's stomach. She looked down at her pet with fright, she thought her friend was broken. She started panicking as she started frantically racing around her friend. She continued running until she ran into Skye, recoiling her to the ground. She looked up at Skye, who had another plate in his mouth, and began whining. Skye put the plate down in front of Tank, letting him snack on the multiple pieces of lettuce on it. Even after seeing her tortoise eating Dash was still panicking and whining. Skye tried to hold her steady, but her panic attack didn't allow her to stand still.
“Dash! Dash! Dash! Dash!” She started to calm down but was still whimpering. “It's ok Dash, he was just hungry, like you were.” He pointed at the tortoise slowly eating it's meal. This calmed down Dash even more and what's better was that Dash seemed to understand everything Skye said. He nuzzled into him yet again, thinking that he just fixed her broken pet. She looked up at him and gave an involuntary yawn, telling Skye that she was tired. Skye led Dash up to her room as he started thinking. Dash hadn't spoken one word since they met up, she couldn't remember her own house or her pet, and she acted and laughed like a foal. Could she have been so scared that she's repressed all of her memories?
Skye led Dash over to her bed and quickly climbed up, enticing Rainbow Dash to follow in his lead. Luckily she did, allowing Skye to quickly cover her up with blankets. Feeling the warm embrace of the blanket Dash settled down on the bed, giving a quiet, cute yawn yet again. She quickly snuggled up to Skye and closed her eyes, going to sleep. As tired as Skye was he couldn't get to sleep. He stayed awake thinking about what he could do to help her. Should he bring her to the hospital or call on her friends? He wasn't sure as he too closed his eyes. He'd figure it out tomorrow, for now he had to get some rest.
Skye woke up in the middle of the night to Dash crying. She was flailing around on the bed, wailing incessantly. He jumped up and hovered over Dash trying his best to wake her up or calm her down. At first, he tried 'shhh'ing' her to sleep but when that didn't work he began to shake her. When that didn't work he tried shaking her even harder, shouting at her to wake up. Finally her eyes shot open as she jumped up. She saw Skye hovering above her and immediately clang to him, terrified and sweaty. She looked him in the eyes and started mumbled made up words and phonetics. He began to 'shhh' her again and nuzzled her neck every so often which resulted in her to slowly calm down. In appreciation for saving her from 'The Monster', Dash started licking Skye's snout, something Skye found both strange and cute. They both settled down as Dash once again cuddled up to him. From all of the sweat and activity of the day Dash started to smell, she needed a shower soon.
Skye woke up to Dash's happy face and her tongue licking his nose yet again. She gave a happy squeal when she saw that Skye had awakened and practically jumped out of bed. She started running around the bed from one side to the other, just waiting to see where her guardian would take her today. When Skye got up off the bed Dash started circling around him, shouting out little yips and happy squeals. Skye knew exactly how he was gonna start the day, with a good morning shower.
Skye led Dash to her master bathroom so he could start the day with a nice refreshing shower. Awkwardly he also had to give Dash a good cleaning. Back in Blitzpherd Skye had been payed a few bits to foalsit a little foal. The foal didn't become a problem until Skye tried to give him a bath, then all Tartarus broke loose. He hoped Dash wouldn't act the same. He turned on the water to let it warm up and then looked at Dash, she responded by looking at him cocking her head. He led her into the shower until she was standing awkwardly under the stream of warm water. Skye looked around for a brush and soap, which he found on the furthest wall in the shower itself. He squeezed past Dash to grab the brush and apply the soap and looked at Dash, who responded with the same head cocking. Skye started softly rubbing Dash's back, eliciting some giggling from Dash. He continued to scrub Dash all over, careful not to the the parts of her body that a sensible Rainbow Dash wouldn't allow. Before he knew it Dash turned and snatched the brush from his hooves with her mouth. She made a happy muffled noise before she started to roughly brush along his side. Skye took another good look at Dash and realized something, she looked a lot cuter with straight hair.
She didn't really know what she was doing so she just brushed in a straight line for about half a minute. She dropped the brush and propped her front hooves onto his back. She really liked the warm rain falling down on top of her and she really wanted to play. She tried her best to climb on top of him, even as a filly Dash had always been pretty aggressive.
“Hey, Dash... calm down... it's dangerous to play in the show-”
Her attempts to wrestle Skye to the ground payed off as his hoof slid on the brush Dash had dropped a few second earlier. Unfortunately for Skye his head slammed in the hard cloud beneath his feet, knocking him unconscious. Dash looked down at him triumphantly and gave him an aggressive whiny. It wasn't too long after that when Dash realized that Skye wasn't getting up. She poked and prodded at him with her snout. When he still wouldn't wake up she sat on her rump in the running water and started to cry. Almost immediately, Skye awoke with a massive migraine. He looked over to see and hear a sad Rainbow Dash before he slowly got to his feet. He nuzzled into Dash's neck then backed off, causing her to look up at him.
“It's ok Dashie, I'm not hurt.”
Dashie... it just seemed to fit in Skye's head at that moment in time. He reached to turn off the water but when interrupted when Dash grabbed his leg with her two front hooves as she nuzzled into his leg. He used that to pull her forward, hugging her. After a few moments he let her go and turned off the water. He stepped out of the shower with Dash and grabbed two towels from the cupboard. He turned around to a barrage of water droplets coming from Dash, who instinctively dried herself off by shaking off the water and by fluttering her wings. Skye quickly draped a towel over Dash as he then proceeded to dry himself off. Rainbow Dash, who didn't really know what to do with the towel, threw it off of her and ran out the door to her bedroom. Skye ran out after her hoping that she would slip and hurt herself. He ran out to see Dash jumping on her bed, her wings keeping in the air for longer than normal.
Suddenly from downstairs the two ponies heard a knock at the door. Dash immediately ran to hide behind Skye, she knew he would protect him. Skye ventured down the stairs with Dash right behind him until they heard another knock, forcing a whine out of Dash. When they got to the bottom of the stairs Skye told Dash to wait there, giving her a good view of the front door. Skye walked up to the front door and opened it to see Twilight. He wasn't too surprised to see a unicorn standing on a cloud so he didn't ask any questions about it.
“Hi Skye, is Dash feeling ok?”
Skye turned around to Dash cowering by the stairwell. He decided it would be best to be honest with her. “No she's not... come on in, I’ll explain it.”
Twilight walked in to see Rainbow Dash crouching by the stairs. She's never seen Rainbow Dash with straight hair before, but there was also water still dripping off of her, causing Twilight to come to the conclusion that she had just gotten out of the shower. “Rainbow Dash! It's so good to see you again.”
Dash gave out a terrified squeal as she ran up the stairs. Twilight and Skye heard a loud thud and then more hoofsteps as they finally disappeared. Twilight looked a Skye with a concerned look on her face.
“What happened to her Skye?”
“Well, I think she's lost all of her memories. Ya know, like stories of ponies with repressed memories when something tragic happened to them. I think she's repressed all, or at least most of her memories. They might be slowly coming back to her, but I'm not exactly sure.”
Twilight looked at Skye with an even more concerned face. She tried to think of anything she could do to help, but one question kept on coming into her mind. “Skye can I see the book?” Skye hoped that she wouldn't ask that question. The entire reason he took the book in the first place was so that Twilight wouldn't read it. Twilight could see Skye's apprehension. “Please Skye, I really want to help Rainbow Dash, I might know a spell that will help.” It didn't take much to convince Skye that she could help, he trusted her.
“Ok Twilight, I'll go get it.” He started for the stairwell when he realized that Twilight was following him. “Uhmm, Twilight. It might be better for you to wait down here.”
“Oh, yeah, of course.”
Skye ventured up to Dash's bedroom to reclaim his saddlebag. When he stepped into the room Dash ran up to him and started nuzzling him intensively. She looked up into his eyes and started to whine and coo softly. For an instant a thought came into his head, did he really want Dash to go back to normal? She was so cute how she was now and he liked how she always hid behind him and listened to him. His thought was cut short when he looked down at Rainbow Dash, who had a bruised and bloody snout.
“Aww, don't worry little Dashie, I'll be right back.” He gave her a quickly but soft kiss on her snout before he went to grab his saddlebag. Dash was behind him the entire time, whining and begging him to stay. He walked back to the door before he felt a tugging at his tail, Dash was trying to pull him away from the stairwell. Skye quickly got her to let go of her tail, he turned to talk to her. “Dashie, go lie down, I'll be right back.” Dash did as he said as he took the journey down the stairs. He opened up his saddlebag and handed the book over to Twilight.
“Thanks Skye, do you mind if I read it here?”
“Not at all, I'll come down in a few minutes to check up on you.” He walked back up the stairs to lie with Dash for a while. Twilight opened up the book and started reading, not ready for what she was about to read.
Skye walked back into the bedroom to Dash still obediently lying on the bed. He climbed up into the bed with her as she quickly cuddled up to him. Skye could tell that Dash was scared, just as scared as she was when he found her on the cloud. Her entire body was shaking in fear and she cuddled up to him without making a noise, Skye started brushing her mane with his snout, trying to calm her down. They simply lay together for a few minutes before Skye stood up and walked toward the door, Dash didn't even whine.
Skye heard sobbing as he walked down the stairs before he came upon a crying Twilight Sparkle on the bottom floor. As soon as she saw Skye she scrambled up to him, yelling and crying. “I'm so sorry Skye! I shouldn't have put you both in there without testing it first! I'm such a bad friend! I'm so, so sorry!”
Skye tried her best to comfort her. “It's ok Twilight. You didn't mean for us to get hurt, it's not your fault.”
Her sniffling decreased, but only slightly. “But... I know a spell that can give her her memories back, but I can only cast it on her when she's sleeping. Do you think you can get her to sleep soon?”
“Well we just woke up a few hours ago so I doubt it would be easy.”
“Ok well... I can cast a sleeping spell on her, but she has to be calmed down and I have to see her.”
“That can work, just follow me up to her room, I'll go in first to calm her down and make her face the other direction. Do you think that will work?”
“Wouldn't be a bad idea to try.”
The two ponies traveled up to Dash's room quietly. Skye walked in first, keeping the door to the stairwell slightly open. He walked over to the side of Rainbow Dash that was facing the wall and lay down on the bed. Once again Dash cuddled up to Skye, this time giving a soft, cute coo. She was no longer terrified but still a little scared. Skye continued to run his snout threw her mane, calming her down even more. When he felt that she was finally relaxed he motioned Twilight into the room. She carefully and quietly opened the door. As Twilight began to cast the spell Dash jumped up, scaring both Skye and Twilight. But instead, Dash was just giving Skye a cute kiss on his snout, the same thing he'd done to her a few minutes ago. “Big... brother...” She, slowly and quietly chirped out before her head fell to rest on the pillow.
Twilight walked up to the bed as Skye got off of it. “Good job Skye, but why did she call you big brother?” Skye almost complete ignored the question, staring off into space. “Skye?”
“Huh? Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's because we both have rainbow colored hair.” He said as he walked out of the bedroom down the stairs. There was only thing on Skye mind, Lenis.
Twilight couldn't help but be concerned with Skye but instead of following him she started casting the spell that would make Dash forget about all of the bad things. She wouldn't even remember waking up that fateful morning. What Twilight should have been concerned about was Skye, leaving the front door of Dash house open, he wanted to sleep by himself for once, he wanted to be with his little sister.
