Home is Where Your Heart Is

When the gray pony arrived at the bottom of the stairs he quickly looked around until he found the door. Currently the door was open and filling the frame was the yellow pony, Fluttershy, and the strange rainbow maned pony he had met before all this happened.

He heard the rainbow maned pony talking very quickly not giving Fluttershy any time to respond and he decided to simply listen for a moment.

"I lost him during the big storm and I've searched all over Ponyville and Cloudsdale but I haven't been able to find him anywhere!" The pony rambled on.

"Yes well.." Fluttershy started but she was quickly cut off as the other pony continued.

"I mean he helped us all out with that giant storm he made and then he fell! Just rolled right off the cloud and I have no idea where he is or even if he's ok!" She continued. With all her attention focused on Fluttershy, she didn't even notice that the pony she was looking for stood no more than five feet away from her. "Bit seriously that storm was awesome wasn't it!? Extreme weather made in the blink of an eye! It was awesome!"

"I'm sure it was but ..." Fluttershy started helplessly but was quickly cut off again.

"Anyways, if you see him please tell me! Remember he looks like this!" She continued pointing at a piece of paper lying on the ground in front of her.

Fluttershy looked down at it and couldn't help but smile at her friend's childish drawing. The only real features that she could see in the picture was the horn sticking out of his deformed looking forehead and the two chicken looking wings stuck in his sides, which looked strangely like someone had stuffed too much stuffing into a doll.

"Is that suppossed to be me?" Came a deep voice from behind Fluttershy and both female ponies turned to see the large gray pony standing behind Fluttershy. He seemed to be staring directly at the drawing and with such focus Fluttershy was sure it would catch fire. After a moment he looked up and asked Fluttershy, "Do I really look like that?"

This made Fluttershy giggle as Rainbowdash simply stood there with her mouth hanging open staring at the gray pony standing before her. Her eyes took in every injury, from the dozens of scrapes and bruises, the bandaged wing and the large lump that sat to the right of his horn half hidden under his dark gray mane.

"What...what are you doing here?" Rainbowdash asked the pony. Fluttershy stopped giggling and looked between the two of them.

"Well," he began, turning his attention to the rainbow pony. "Apparently I fell off a cloud and crashed through Fluttershy's roof." He said pointing at the gaping hole in the ceiling. "Apparently Fluttershy has been taking care of me while I was...out of commission."

Fluttershy looked embarrassed with a light pink blush settling on her cheeks and she poked at the floor with her hoof. "Well the doctor did more to help you than I did and Zecora gave me something to dull your pain... So I didn't really do much."

"Don't be modest! You saved my life." He said and smiled sweetly. Rainbowdash felt like she was intruding on something and wasn't quite sure whether to stay or to go. He made the decision for her as he looked at her. "Now I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Wanderlust." He said extending his hoof towards her.

"Rainbowdash." She said simply as she shook his hoof.

Fluttershy looked at him silently. 'Wanderlust... What a nice name.' She thought to herself and looked back to see his cutie mark. Sitting on his flank there was a simple gold compass that seemed so real. She almost wanted to touch it, just to make sure.

Wanderlust almost jumped as he felt something poke into his side and quickly turning his head he saw Fluttershy sitting there with her hoof placed over his cutie mark. So as to not make a big deal out of it, Wanderlust simply cleared his throat.

As if someone had slapped her back into reality Fluttershy looked at her hoof and quickly pulled it away as she relized what she was doing. Her face quickly turned bright red as she quickly squeaked out a sorry.

"Ummm... Fluttershy..." This was all he had time to say before she cut him off.

"Who's thirsty?" She asked with a shaky voice. Both other ponies opened their mouths to say no but she quickly turned and ran into the room that Wanderlust assumed was the kitchen. Behind Wanderlust came a loud snort quickly followed by laughter as Rainbowdash fell onto her back laughing.

Wanderlust simply watched the doorway to the kitchen as Rainbowdash laughed from the ground. After a few more moments Rainbowdash stopped laughing and walked inside waiting for her friend to come back. Shrugging, Wanderlust closed the door and walked around the living room picking things up and putting them back down.

After a few moments he heard Rainbowdash sigh and look at him. "So what are you doing in Ponyville anyways?" She asked him.

"Exploring." He said simply and picked up a small jar of yellow liquid with small green specks floating in it. On the label it said simply 'Painkiller.' Opening it, Wanderlust smelled the contents and his nose filled with the smell of sugar and mint. The smell brought back a blurry memory of something sweet being poured into his mouth while he was all woozy. 'Well that would explain the dream...' He thought as he replaced the lid and placed it back.

"Just exploring huh?" He heard the pony say. "Then why were you in the clouds?"

"I was trying to think of where to go next. Plus I kinda passed out from hunger..." He mumbled.

Rainbowdash sat up and looked at him carefully. 'Hunger?' She thought. 'He was floating right above Sweet Apple Acres. Why didn't he just buy some apples from Applejack?' Looking at him closely she noticed for the first time that his ribs poked out in a disturbing way that told her he was definitely underweight. She also noticed that his face looken a little shrunken and she could see the bones standing out in his face. "Why didn't you just buy sone food?" She asked.

"I don't have any money." He said matter-of-factly. "You don't make much money when you simply wander around Equestria."

She was about to ask him more questions when he suddenly turned and walked into Fluttershy's kitchen leaving Rainbowdash alone in the living room.

Wanderlust looked around the kitchen for a moment before finding Fluttershy simply staring at the fridge. "Fluttershy? Are you ok?" He asked, quietly coming up behind her.

He saw a slight shake of the head which he assumed to be a nod. They stood there for a few more moments but Fluttershy didn't move anymore.

After a moment he turned and walked back into the living room. A minute later Fluttershy emerged from the kitchen as well carrying a tray on her back on which stood three small bottles of apple juice. Looking around she saw only Wanderlust walking around examining her things.

Wanderlust looked away from a small wood carved bird that sat above her fireplace and looked over at Fluttershy. In a small voice Fluttershy asked, "Where did Rainbowdash go?"

"She said she had to go clear the skies over Ponyville." He said and walked over to Fluttershy carefully lifting the tray off her back and placing it on a table. Looking at Fluttershy, Wanderlust noticed that she was more at ease then she had been earlier but she still seemed to be avoiding looking him directly in the eyes.

Shrugging, Wanderlust turned and started drinking his apple juice. After a moment he thought of something and stopped drinking. He turned to Fluttershy. "Hey, when I crashed through your roof...Did you happen to find a satchel on me?" He asked.

She seemed surprised by the question. After a few moments she answered hesitantly. "Y-yes...You had a satchel when I found you on the floor..." She seemed very uncomfortable and Wanderlust felt a growing sense of dread.

"Well where is it?" He asked, slightly harsher than he meant to.

She didn't answer for a long time and when she did, it was no more than a squeak. "I lost it..." She was silent for a moment more. "In the Everfree forest...

It felt as if all the warmth had left Wanderlust as she said those words. His body felt strangely hollow and he felt chills run along his back. Without another word Wanderlust felt his legs give out and the floor rushed up to meet him.

Fluttershy rushed over to Wanderlust's side as he collapsed on the floor. Quickly looking him over Fluttershy noticed that Wanderlust hadn't fainted, he had simply collapsed. Fluttershy looked at him in worry as he simply stared straight ahead. He seemed calm and unharmed but Fluttershy still worried.

While Fluttershy watched him, Wanderlust simply stared straight ahead at nothing. He no longer wanted to move. Everything that Wanderlust had was in that satchel. Everything that he had discovered on his journey was in that leather bag along with all of his maps and his journals. Everything that Wanderlust was, was in that satchel. Without it, he felt hollow as if part of his soul had been lost right along with his satchel.

After a moment he looked up at Fluttershy and asked in an even tone, "Where exactly did you lose it?"

Fluttershy was taken aback by the look in his eyes. Earlier his eyes had been a light blue that was so like the clear skies over her town, but now his eyes seemed a dull blue that could best be compared to ice, both in color and warmth. Fluttershy shivered as if the eyes were actually sucking the warmth from her body. "I t-told y-you, in the E-Everfree forest.." She stuttered out.

"I asked where you lost it." He continued cooly. "I need to know exactly where you lost it and for that matter, why did you have it in the first place!?" His tone gradually rose until he was pratically shouting at her.

Fluttershy flinched at the volume of his voice and she could feel tears form in her eyes. Noticing this, Wanderlust felt his anger slowly dissipate. He sighed and looked at the ground. When he finally lifted his eyes back up to Fluttershy, all of the anger had vanished and his eyes were that soft sky blue color again.

"I'm sorry Fluttershy. I know you didn't intentionally lose it..." He started softly. "But I need to know what happened to my satchel. My whole life is in that bag and I just don't want it to simply be gone."

Fluttershy was silent for a few moments as she tried to keep the tears from flowing. After a moment more her eyes dried and she took a shaky breath and began. "After you crashed through my roof I spent an entire night trying to stop you from bleeding." She stopped and took another shaky breath and continued, somehow without a single stutter despite the nervousness that was easily identified in her body language. "I had a doctor come over after the rain stopped and he set your wing and he said that you would be fine but..." At this point she started shivering as if she were cold. "When I was taking care of you...you would start screaming and you would gnash your teeth like...like something was attacking you!"

Wanderlust was shocked! He didn't remember any of this. He remembered waking up a few times but even those memories seemed fuzzy and distant.

"On maybe the second day...after one of your 'fits,'" she clenched her teeth to keep from flinching at the memory and continued. "I rushed out of the house to go visit my friend Zecura. I wanted to get you some kind of painkiller or sleep potion or..or something, anything to help you! But...when I went to leave I tried to grab my saddlebag," she said gesturing over to a simple leather bag with a pink butterfly clip. "But I grabbed your bag by mistake...and then I lost it." With her last words she looked down at the ground.

Fluttershy and Wanderlust were silent for a long time after this, Fluttershy too sad to move or speak and Wanderlust too tired and disheartened to move from the place where he had collapsed. The silence abruptly came to an end as a loud squeaking was heard coming from behind Fluttershy. Fluttershy turned and found a small white rabbit to be the source of the squeeking. "Oh..hello Angel Bunny." Fluttershy adressed her pet. "Do you need something."

The rabbit stood there for a moment taking in the scene before him. His master looked like she was about to injured pony was awake. There was no food that the rabbit could see. That seemed to be the most important thing to the rabbit at the moment as his tiny stomach let out a rather beast-like growl. This elicited a small giggle from his owner and she swept him up with one of her wings and placed him on her back.

"Let's get you something to eat." She said looking at her pet before turning to look at Wanderlust with a sad look. "Would...would you like something to eat?"

Wanderlust opened his mouth quickly and was about to reply 'yes' but something stopped him. He had been in this pony's house for who knows how long getting taken care of by her and, although some could argue that it wasn't his fault for having been unconscious most of the time, he had done nothing for her; nothing good anyways. What he had done was smash through her roof, made her run into the Everfree forest (he assumed that this Zacura she was talking about lived there) and he had made this young mare spend hours tending to his injuries. Not to mention that she would have had to pay the doctor to fix his wing. Wanderlust knew he couldn't take anything more from her.

Rising slowly from his place on the floor, Wanderlust did his best to hide the shakiness of his legs. Once he had all of his hooves back under him he looked at Fluttershy and simply said "No." in as kind a fashion as he could. "I-I think I should get going actually. Thank you for everything Fluttershy." Looking up at the ceiling he could see the sky through two holes he made. "I'll come back and fix that as soon as I can." With that said he started towards the door.

Fluttershy started panicking as she watched Wanderlust start heading for the door. Despite hardly knowing this pony and despite what just happened between the two, she didn't want him to leave. "A-Are you sure..that you don't want to stay for dinner?" She asked feeling suddenly incredibly nervous.

Wanderlust couldn't lie, every part of him was telling him to stay except for a small nagging voice at the back of his head telling him to go. For once, the small voice was too annoying to ignore. "I would love to...but I really have to get going." He lied knowing that he had absolutely nowhere he could go.

"Oh...well then," she replied sadly. "At least let me make you something to go." Before he had a chance to say anything she dashed off into the kitchen. Sighing Wanderlust stopped walking and sat down on the floor.

A few minutes later Fluttershy walked out, grabbed her saddle bag and walked back into the kitchen. Wanderlust blinked in surprise and stood and walked into the kitchen.

What he saw almost made him cry for joy and weep in sadness. Everywhere Wanderlust looked he saw food:GLORIOUS FOOD! He saw large bowls of salad, at least a dozen sandwiches and a small crate filled with apples. And he knew that he wouldn't be able to bring himself to take any of it. He looked over and saw Fluttershy trying to shove a shiny red apple into her already overstuffed saddlebag.

"Fluttershy...What are you doing?" He asked in despair.

She froze and looked back over at him. "Umm..j-just making you a snack to go?" Her answer sounded more like a question as if she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. After another attempt at forcing the apple into the bag, she gave up and dragged the bag over to him.

"I can't take all this..." He said quietly.

"W-Why not?" Fluttershy asked and bit her lip lightly.

'Come up with a good lie...THINK!' Wanderlust thought before answering lamely. "I'm not that hungry."

Fluttershy just looked annoyed at this answer. "Really? You're not hungry?"

"Nope." He answered. Almost immediately following this is stomach growled and he tried to cover it with with a loud cough.

"Why don't...you just keep it? You know for when you do get hungry." She said and both of the ponies found themselves trying not to laugh. Fluttershy once again pushed the bag towards Wanderlust and he knew that he had to take it.

Wanderlust walked out the front door straining under the weight of all of the food he was now carrying with Fluttershy following behind him. "Thank you Fluttershy, for everything." With that he turned and started walking away.

"Wait!" She called and ran inside. Wanderlust just stood there waiting for her. A few moments later she emerged carrying a jar of yellow liquid and quickly ran up to Wanderlust and placed it in front of him.

He recognized it as the painkiller that he had seen before. "Thank you Fluttershy." He said and, on a strange impulse, hugged the mare who had given him so much.

She let out a loud squeak and was too shocked to move. After a moment he let her go, turned and walked away. She watched as he shrunk into the distance and tried to hold onto the heat from his hug.