CHAPTER UNO
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Down Wind, a light grey-blue coated pegasus with a cream white mane and tail with olive green eyes glided effortlessly over a forest in central Equestria. He had a two saddlebags draped across his back which fit comfortably without interfering with flight. A map was held in his hooves as he tried to find his sense of direction of where he was.
“Let’s see. Canterlot was North of Manehatten whi…or was it west?”, he said, “Yes, definitely west. So that means I have… to go~… that way.” he pointed his right hoof in the general direction.
Quickly folding his map and placing it in his saddlebag,
he took off leaving a strong gust of wind behind him.
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He had been flying for a good hour and noticed it was dark as Luna’s moon fully took over its brother’s place in the night sky. He looked at his green watch to confirm his suspicions
“Wow already night…”, he spoke out loud, “meh, No prob.”
With haste he ascended to the cloud layer to pick his bed for the night. Luckily there was a perfect, fluffy, white cloud that had his name written all over it. He brought the cloud down from its pack to a much warmer layer just over the forest canopy. Setting his enchanted saddlebags on the cloud he pulled out a wool blanket and set it aside. He closed his saddlebags anad found a comfortable spot to lie down for the night. Being satisfied with his position, he grabbed the edge of the blanket and covered himself to fall in a deep peaceful slumber.
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Down was waken up by the sound of a saw blade chafing a hard surface. To investigate the noise he calmly sat up to see a chartreuse pegasus with a brown mane and an unopened switch blade for a cutie mark trying to open his saddlebags. The tool he was using though would make a foal burst out loud with laughter. A full grown pegasus was trying to open a saddlebag with a saw blade. It was quite amusing to him so he decided how long it was going to take the mugger to realize that he wasn’t going to open the saddlebags.
About another minute passed when the thief finally cried out in frustration, “This is POINTLESS!”
“You need help with that”, Down said in a casual manner.
The pegasus froze in shock by the fact that he had just been caught. He slowly looked over his shoulder to see his victim lying on his side with his muzzle resting on his hoof as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. This scared him even more.
“L-look man ah didn’t take nothin`. D-don’t get mad ah don’t want any trouble” , he said in a light western drawl.
“I know so I suggest that you high tail it outta here before I shove that saw blade so far up your plot hole, your shit will come out in halves!” he said darkly.
The failed assailant didn’t need a reminder and as soon as he registered what Down just said he took off the cloud so fast it would make the Wonderbolts proud. Chuckling lightly to himself The olive eyed stallion got to his hooves and put his blanket away in his saddlebags. He knew that he already lost enough daylight with the confrontation earlier so he adjusted his saddlebags on his back and began to hover slightly off the cloud. With a swift kick to the cloud, a plume of fluff was all that was left of his makeshift bed. The sky was clear today, perfect flying weather, he thought.
On that note he continued on his previous route to the valley of Canterlot. From one of his friends he found out there was a small town just on the out skirts of the Canter Mountains.
He said it was a town in which ponies could live peaceful lives despite their past sins in other cities. Boy did he hope his friend was right. Down’s past was one someponies have nightmares just thinking about it. He didn’t like to think about it either. Too many bad memories to think about. Like the time…
“Hey were did all the clouds come from”, he started to stray from his train of thought but sure enough all around him were mass groups of clouds not offering any visibility to the comforting blue of the afternoon sky. Knowing that it was suicide going through these clouds while being so close to a mountain side he made his decision.
“Well! Looks like I’m trotting the rest of the way.”
The traveling stallion made his decent to the forest below and landed in some sort of clearing. Examining his surroundings he was in a forest. Not the famed Everfree forest but more serene and peaceful. Rabbits were hopping and many species of bird were fluttering by and resting in the tree tops. A small stream was flowing a couple of paces from his current location in the forest. Before he got lost even more in the scenery he pulled his map out of his saddlebags. After a short examination he found out where he was.
“Whitetail Wood, eh”, he spoke while putting a hoof on his chin, “By the looks of it a trail is just a quick trot to my left, perfect!”
Again folding his map neatly he stuffed it in his bag and set off towards the trail. Luckily his map was one of the most recent geographical updates so it only took a few strides through the forest to reach the dirt road. Quickly setting off down the west facing side of the trail. The walk down the trail was quite boring rather than amusing until he stumbled across a brown box. Curious to what the box held inside he trotted over to it and quickly opened it. Inside was a female dark chocolate rabbit with a matching fluffy tail. She looked sad, hungry, and alone in the box. It was a sight that could warm the coldest windigoes heart if you look past the hurt expression of the rabbit.
“Hey what are you doing all alone in the forest”, he soothingly said, “by the looks of it you were abandoned.”
The little rabbit nodded its head.
Reaching into his saddlebags he pulled out a carrot and brought it over to the bunny, “Would you like something to eat?”
The girl bunny’s expression instantly lightened and hungrily ate away at the carrot.
“Wow you were hungry huh.”
The famished rabbit merely glanced for a split second then went back to finishing its carrot. When the bunny finished the carrot everything down to the stalk he looked up at the savior as if asking for seconds.
“Sorry, that was my last carrot”, he shrugged. The bunny looked at the floor in sadness because of its untamed hunger. “Hey! I got an idea”, he exclaimed, “How about you come to town with me and I’ll get you some more carrots.”
The brown rabbit instantly jumped on the pegasus’s back and found a comfortable position to curl up in.
“I think I will call you Cacao, would you like that name?”, he asked the bunny who energetically nodded its head, “Good. Well then Cacao would you like to continue down this road?”, he got another nod, “Then lets go!”
If anything was shining down on him that day the goddess’s glory was because at that moment a patch of blue sky had shown through the dense clouds that alone was a signal that flight was now an option. Before spreading his wings and soaring high in the sky he needed to check something.
“Cacao hold onto my mane.” the bunny answered that question when he felt something pull at his hair, “Ok, hold on!”
With a quick jump and a flap of his powerful wings he was airborne. The added weight of the saddlebags and the bunny went unnoticed in his flight because of all the times he worked out his wings. His only priority was to get to the open patch of shy in the hole of clouds his accent was rushed because of his drive to get to the sky it was an experience that all pegasi felt when they hadn’t been flying in a while. In that amount of time to think of pegasi nature he reached a view that made him especially giddy he had reached a view of his destination.
“PONYVILLE!"