The Bond

Chapter 4

Forest

The sky was filled with dark clouds, indicating that rain was coming. It was the start of autumn and my first school year, so I was feeling pretty cool, as this also meant that I was ready to become an "adult". I had even got new glasses, as the old ones had got small.

As I got closer to the school, more and more kids started to pop up from the corner roads that dotted this suburb area. Most of them seemed to be at the same age as me, but some obviously were older. Perhaps they were siblings, who lead their younger selves down to the school building.

After a while, I was on the schoolyard. I was awestruck just on how large it was, covering a small forest and even a football field. As I walked down the yard, some other kids started to look at my direction and soon enough, a group of boys walked down to me, surrounding me.The biggest one of them, who wore a wool hat and had a black hair, started to talk me.

"Hey four-eyes. Whatc'ha doing in here? This is the normal kid's school, not some chess school down in the rich area." the boy said, chuckling with the other kids. I fixed my gaze at the fatty, who was little stunned. They must have hoped to find an easy target in me, but I wasn't going to give in. The fatty raised his fist in what seemed to be an attempt to hit me, but luckily he was quite slow, so instead he got a hit on his stomach. Luckily for my and everyone else's safety, the school bell rang and the teachers started to assemble us in rows. Before I got to leave, something grabbed me by the leg and made me fall down. Soon, I found myself staring at the eyes of enraged bully, who had been ashamed in front of his audience.

"Friday, at three, in the forest, don't chicken out."

I gave the kid an mnemonic stare and blandly stated.

"Don't leave me waiting."

* * * * *

I snapped out of my slumber and immediately rose upwards, only to be greeted by Alex and Mike, who sat next to the campfire. Both were grinning, while looking at me. Mike trotted over to me and gave his right hoof off to me.

"Finally, you're awake. We were just pondering about waking you up" Mike says while still holding his hoof towards me.

I also grinned and quickly I find myself up nose to nose with Alex. Suddenly, he changes totally, dropping his grin off and starting to stare down to the ground. Before he got anywhere, I had grabbed him by his shoulders with my both front hooves.

"And don't you DARE to make a cheesy apology. I..."

My stomach rumbled.

Alex smiled smugly as he rose his head to match my height, which proved to be little difficult as he was taller.

"Heh. We're a bit short on the food right now." Alex said, while he took off towards the already dead fire. I just stood there with my lower jaw almost hitting the ground and finding Mike laughing his living lungs off while rolling on the ground. Looking at Alex, I could see that he still had the wound from yesterday, but it didn't seem to bleed so it didn't raise any alarms.

"I need a wash." I stated blandly, perhaps a little grumpily way, as Mike stopped laughing and took this as a tip to leave me alone. I just sighed and headed off to the pond, while thinking of what we were going now. As Alex had just said, we didn't have any food and there probably wasn't anything we could safely eat here. Also as if it helped to know, that meat was out of option, as ponies are herbivores. By then, I knew I would need to have a little chat with the guys, telling them more Equestrian life in general.

By the time I got to the pond, I found myself staring at my face which mirrored off the surface crystal clear. My mane was all messed up, I had bags forming under my eyes and my glasses were covered in a layer of dirt. In an attempt to make myself presentable, I quickly washed the dirt of my face and I also attempted to comb my mane somewhat straight, but with little luck as it seemed to just puff up into a afro type style

My thoughts then drifted onto explaining the situation to them; Now what should I tell them about? Well, Mike is a somewhat a fan, even though he doesn't admit it, so he knows some basic stuff. He would probably want know more about Pegasus, but sadly even I knew very little, as the show only stated that they can control weather, fly and are little more powerful compared to unicorns but still weak compared to Earth ponies as I had seen last time... Alex would be my main focus, as he was literally new to all of this so it could be easier to explain that he's an Earth pony, so he doesn't need to bother himself with magic and flying; thought I knew that it would take some time for him to adjust to being quite a powerful pony. I smiled on that right now, I was the most reliable source of information for us, but still I was quite lost on some subjects and although I was an avid fanfiction reader, I didn't trust any information they offered on any subjects, as most were based on rather bizarre ideas or conclusions the fans have proposed to fill in those rather elementary questions.

"Hey Tom! Are you coming?"

Turning, I saw Mike looking at my direction.

"Yeah.....I'm coming." I shouted while standing up and starting to pace back to them.

* * * * *

It must have taken me a good portion of the day to answer all the questions that Mike and Alex made to me about Equestria and about ponies in general. To rather unique surprise, Mike was more interested in the down area that stallions had, making me face hoof myself many times and generating an confused look from Alex who never got the dick references, even back on Earth. Sadly, I knew very little to nothing about pony anatomy, so it left Mike little displeased but luckily Alex diverted the conversation by asking questions about culture and technology level in Equestria, which I knew a lot more about. Of course, both of them asked questions about their new bodies, particularly Mike as Alex didn't have anything extra on him. MIke was happy to know that he could manipulate weather and walk on clouds in conjunction to being able to fly. I tried to calm Mike's excitement, as Alex seemed to be down a little, as he was only a normal Earth pony. He tried to smile to me, as to implicate that he was okay, so I stopped to pester Mike around and decided to tell Alex about himself. It must have took him by surprise to find out that he was now the strongest one of us, which equalled an eruption of protest from Mike but a quick glance from me shut his mouth. In the end when the guys laid down on the questions, the sun was at its highest point. As it seemed like there wasn't nothing else the talk about, I stood up to and began to make my leave when,

"Tom... What about you? You haven't said anything about unicorns."

It was Mike, who must have had snapped out of daydreaming. I sight, lovering myself back to ground and looking back at him.

" Not much to say. The only major difference is that unicorns are able to use their horns to perform magic. Oh, Unicorns are also weaker than Pegasus ponies, but not a whole lot." I said, while Alex looked at me.....with a hint of jealousy?

"Can you do any magic?" Mike asked with a curious tone.

"I haven't tried yet. Besides, it's not the main thing on my mind right now." I said to Mike, who seemed to think otherwise, but I had to get this conversation to other tracks. Alex seemed to bite the bait, dropping the awkward face.

"Like what?" He asked, turning his head to Mike, who also looked at me with an odd look. I sighed and turned my head to right, which they also did.

The forest loomed about five feet away from our current place, which gave a good look for them on what I meant. Simultaneously, we all gulp and turn our heads back. As I looked at them, both were shivering, perhaps from fear? I had told them about Equestrian wildlife, basically telling about manticores and hydras. I sighed yet again as I began to stand up.

"We need to go through the forest, whenever you like it or not. We cannot stay here, as we have no food and there isn't anyone else nearby." I said, while walking towards the forest. Mike was first to answer.

"Oh yeah? And what makes you think there lives peop....erm, ponies there?" He said, getting a nod of approval from Alex, who also seemed to dislike the idea of going in the woods.

"Does the name Everfree ring any bells in your head Mike?" I said to him, without bothering to turn and face him and instead continuing towards the woods. As I had predicted, Mike immediately ran to me and joined me, while Alex remained still.

"Alex, Are you coming?" Mike said as if he read my mind. I could here Alex frowning in defeat and joining us, claiming that he would follow us wherever we would go, erupting an comical sniff from Mike, which made me crack up and Alex soon had us both touching our heads in pain. But then again, Alex didn't smile at any point when doing that...

But enough soon, we found ourselves on the edge of the Everfree forest. I don't know what got to me, but I made a little prayer for both Celestia and Luna as if it had any meaning. Still, it gave me some comfort inside, although I was never a really religious guy for even being an agnostic. Hell, at this point I was even ready to believe that Moon was made out of cheese.

Looking at my sides, I could see both my friends moving in their places little anxiously. I didn't express any feelings towards them, as I raised my left hoof and started to walk to the woods, knowing what we might be facing off.

"And we're off...."

* * * * *

Even though all of us were pretty scared of the forest creatures, none of us admitted this openly and instead each of us kept to himself. Whenever I tried to engage in a friendly conversation, both of my friends refused to say more than one or two words before falling silent.

“It shouldn’t take too long for us to reach the other side.” I assured to them, and slightly to myself. From them, only Mike turned his look at me and simply nodded in acknowledgement.

I just sighed yet again, as I tried to search for any indication that we were on the right tracks, but it didn't help since not much of the Everfree forest had been shown so far. I didn't want to tell this to the guys, who by now had began to give me worried looks.

Then ahead of us, a bush started to rustle.

My eyes turned into big saucers as I backed off towards Mike and Alex, keeping my gaze at the bush.

Alex was shivering in his place, planting his face down to the ground and covering it with both of his hooves as to safeguard it.

Mike's wings just flapped out open, as if telling him to fly to safety. His face bore no expression what so ever.

I lowered my horn, ready to jab it at whatever nasty thing would come out.

In a millisecond, the rustling stopped but nothing came out.

We all just sighed in relief, excluding Alex who still laid on the ground. Mike went over to the bush as I convinced Alex that nothing was going to eat us. As he stood up, he flinched before falling back to the ground. Before I could wonder why, I saw the wound. Some kind of infection had started to form over it.

"Didn't want to worry you guys. I tried to keep the wound from getting infected, but it didn't help to spend the night laying on ground and I didn't have anything to cover the wound with." Alex said, while carefully standing up. I decided to trust Alex, as he was only one of us who had some kind of medical training from his time in the Red Cross.

"Hey guys! I found something."

It was Mike, who was over at the bush, poking his head deep into it. We walked to him and he presented us with his founding.

It was an old looking brown fabric, what seems to have been part of an bigger outfit; Perhaps an jacket? Sadly, it didn't give any other indication and it seemed to be old enough to have been there for some time, so it didn't raise any thoughts from my Bronypedia. After a brief talk, it was decided to move on as we still had the energy to move.

After an another hour and many video game one-liners later, we still hadn't found any indication of an road or to that matter no other living form besides us. We had seen some animals from a distance, mostly a deer eating grass, but all had runned away from us at the first sight.

It didn't also help that all of us were hungry as hell. If nothing, I would start eating the grass we were standing on. Also Alex had started to whine a while ago that someone or something was keeping an eye on us. Even Mike claimed he saw something on the sides, but I wasn't in the mood for jokes as my stomach gave me bad time.

By now, I was starting to lose hope little by little. How could I have been so stupid? I didn't even know all of the compass directions and here I'm leading two of my pals most likely to their death through starvation. I even hoped that an animal would come to end our misery when we would be laying on the ground just a few feets away from an apple tree...

Then it struck me.

Maybe.......just......maybe this is..........a dream?

I felt like openly crying....

"Tom...."

It was Mike, who had come next to me and had put his right hoof to my shoulder, as if to show an act of solidarity. Thought it didn't help my hunger, it light me up little on the inside. As if some mind link had been broken, Mike backed off and headed ahead of me, leaving me with my thoughts. Perhaps......he understood me?

Then Alex came to me, but he instead came face to face with me, lowering his head to match my height. He looked around him, as to see if anyone else was near, but soon he turned towards me, bearing a stern look in his eyes.

"Tom. Trust me on this.... Please don't go down the same road I did, as it doesn't lead to anything good. Besides, I and Mike need you right now more than ever."

By now, tears had gone down my cheek and down to the ground below. Alex didn't point this out though, as he raised me up and lead me towards Mike to catch up with him. Soon, we came to a clearing.

The scene........ It was just godly beautiful. The clearing was filled with flowers of all colours, that created irregular color patterns that would make even the most experienced gardener jealous. How ironic it was that such an majestical place existed in this forest? Perhaps it was just that there were no ponies to pick up the flowers, so they could multiply rapidly, but I disliked it and instead put on as one of the natures miracles.

MIke was ahead of us in the field, bearing the same face of disbelief that I also had.

But something wasn't right, as Mike looked at us and pointed out something that was on the other side of the field.

As I looked at what Mike pointed out, I heard a growl from behind. As Alex turns around, his face slowly turns white. I couldn't blame him for his cowardice as I saw what was behind of us.

It was a wolf, a timber wolf to be precise, that seemed like it was still quite young, as it was small compared to us. What it didn't have in size, it had in its mouth that it happily clapped open and shut, producing an ominous noise.

Neither one of us said anything as we turned towards Mike and started to gallop for our lives. Even though Alex might have been able to defend for himself, his wound effectively prevented it and I wasn't a match for it, even with my horn as the wolf was too small to try to stab with it.

It seemed like an eternity as we galloped towards Mike, who was unaware of the whole ordeal. He tried to shout something at us, but he stopped immediately as he saw what was chasing us. His wings popped up yet again and he joined us in the running. The wolf behind us was panting heavily as it seemed to catch us very fast.

As we got closer to the other side of the clearing, I saw something coming from the woods. Was it other timber wolf? If so, then we were officially screwed. But to my surprise, the figure stood still, as if it waited for us to come. Deciding that this figure was much better option than getting eaten, I just continued running. Getting closer to the thing, I see it wearing some kind of an cloak, that seemed oddly familiar, and the thing stood almost at the same height as me and Mike.

Perhaps..... an another pony?

The cloaked figure took something out from its saddlepack. It seemed to be an pouch of some sort, but with ropes attached to its end, just like with boala. To my surprise, he/she started to roll it around, as if gathering speed. Soon, the pouch flew over our heads. I looked behind my shoulder, seeing that the pouch opened in middle of the air and some kind of powder spread from it over the wolf. The thing stopped dead on its tracks, sniffing the air and in a blink of an eye, it fell down to the ground. We also stopped just in time to meet our saviour, who seemed more interested in the wolf that had chased us.

None of us said anything, as the cloaked fellow inspected the wolf for few minutes, getting some claws from its pawns and some fur of its coat. Soon the figure turned towards us and we only saw the glowing eyes beneath the hood.

Something clicked inside of my head.

Wait....... It couldn't be.....

But before I got the chance to say anything, the cloaked figure left us and started to walk towards the direction that we had just came out from.

Zecora......?