Amber and his now like-it-or-not friend Rock (who looked very much like his namesake) managed to get through the night in an unknown forest. Despite that neither pony knew anything about the other, they slowly began to warm up to each other.
Once Rock calmed down enough, he mentioned that he didn't have anything with him at all. This was fine with Amber since he was in the same situation- only he was armed with his incredible cracked mirror and still soggy cloak.
Unfortunately, neither pony had the tools or talent to build a fire at all so the night was spent entirely in the dark. It was only now did Rock mention his fear dark. Naturally Amber rolled his eyes. When questioned why Rock didn't mention that earlier Rock simply stated that, "It wasn't dark then." Again Amber rolled his eyes.
So the night was spent with Rock tightly clinging to Amber. Rather than let himself get too bored and to avoid further suffocation, Amber began a rather lengthy conversation which passed the night faster than they both expected...
****
Amber was feeling very awkward with Rock squeezing him as he was. Every time he would try to pry him off Rock would just squeeze harder, complain about Amber being mean again, and then bury his face as deep as he could into Amber's chest. Amber flushed with embarrassment as he gave up.
"So, uh, Rock?"
"Mhm?"
"That's not your real name, right?"
Rock gave a single muffled grunt in assent. Amber chuckled, 'What a kid.'
"Feel like telling me your actual one?"
Two more mumbles, an obvious 'no'.
"Why not?"
Rock gave three replies this time, although Amber couldn't quite make out what that exactly means.
Rock peeked his face out from Amber to translate, 'Idunno,' before forcing it back.
Amber scoffed. Definitely a kid.
After a few moments Amber noticed that the other pony was strangely quiet and still. Alarmed, he took a quick look at his companion. Rock's breaths were long and steady, and as far as he could tell Rock had almost fallen asleep.
"Hey...Amber.." asked a quiet voice, "How 'bout," a yawn, "You tell me about yours first..kay?"
"If you're in for a bedtime story then..."
A dozy nod from Rock.
Amber took a deep breath, "Well, okay. It's not all too complicated really. See, you know what amber really is right? Tree sap or somethin' like that. Sap that gets fossilized."
"Its...'caz you're amber colored isn't it?"
Amber tweaked one of Rock's ears. "No interruptions. And it isn't. What happens is that stuff from a long, long time ago can get stuck in it, and then years and years and years later, it still there. Stuck and preserved in the amber!"
"So...you...preserve things?"
"More or less. I'm...I'm a story pony." Amber smiled, "Kind of. It's a family tradition. And I'm sorta new at this. I mean I just started last month or so."
Rock's interest was piqued and out went the idea of sleeping, "Oh wow! A storypony? No kidding?"
Amber shrugged as best he could, "Yeah. I really am."
Rock pushed right off Amber and instantly turned around and pinned Amber down, his eyes alight, "Oh! Oh! So that must mean you've got a bunch of stories to tell! Ooo, ooo tell me one!"
"It...it doesn't work like that..."
Absolutely stunned, Rock sat back on his haunches. How could there be a storypony with nothing to tell?!?
Amber caught the look on his friend's face and explained, "I'm not that kind of storypony. Sorry. I guess it's more like...a story...collector...pony."
Rock cocked his head to one side, still confused.
"Look. I need to find a story worth having. A story cool enough to be told. A story which, by tradition (or at least so my pa says), I need to be a part of. I can't go around willy-nilly telling ponies the same old stories over and over again, can I? Like my pa told me before I left myself-"
Amber stood up and puffed himself up as best as he could. The effect was quite ridiculous, something more akin to a golden pony trying its best to imitate a cloud and barely keeping a straight face, "If ya think ya can jest go out there an repete everythin' everypony else is sayin', then ya ain't I bright as I hoped ya are. They already-"
Amber broke down into gales a hooting laughter with Rock quickly following suit. After a few breathless attempts, Amber got started on his impersonation again.
"They...ha...They already herd them stories already me boy...and....oh Celestia...they don't wanna here them same ol' same ol'. They want sometin NEW! So git yer lazy flank outta here and find us a new 'un. An' don't think ya can just go be on and not do anything! Ya gotta be IN it, ya hear? Now..."
Again, Amber was cut short by his laughter. He tried to explain, "See...my pa was horribly drunk when he told me that! Haha, and he's a professional storypony...really...ha..good with accents.....he lapsed into four different ones when he told me that!"
The two friends laughed and laughed throughout the night.
***
Or at least killed off the better part of an hour. Now the two's situation was reversed- Amber managed to laugh himself to sleep while Rock was wide awake was wasn't about to fall asleep again anytime soon.
Rock pranced around the 'campsite' giggling to himself. Amber's dad seemed like a hilarious pony, somepony he ought to meet some time. He looked back at his amber-furred friend. He looked so peaceful, yet so strong and brave for falling asleep out here. And so utterly boring!
Filled to the top with excited energy Rock was ready to do...something! But..not too far from Amber. It was still dark- just enough light to make out where Amber lay. Some of Rock's exuberance died out just then.
Rock groaned and began pacing around Amber in a tight circle. Rock didn't mind the dark too much if Amber was around. He seemed to know what he was doing. 'He's been out for a month,' Rock rationalized, 'So he must know how to handle himself.'
He briefly contemplated waking him up to ask him why he wasn't as bothered as he was, but wisely decided against it. He'd probably just tell him to go back to sleep, which was totally impossible.
Rock frowned at glared at the dark for be so...dark. He sighed and began trotting slowly away from the safety of Amber. He wouldn't mind if he just took a look around. Of course not.
***
It took a few tries, but Rock managed to take enough brave steps away to get a better look of the surrounding forest. So far it was just...a bunch of trees. Big, big trees that were really tall with enough leaves to block out most of the moonlight. A bunch of bushes, a few smaller trees, and lots of moss. Otherwise a forest.
Rock was about to turn back and try to sleep when something caught his eye. A couple trees off there was a large patch of moss growing on the side of one of the larger tree trunks. What was so special was that particular patch of moss was glowing a pale blue glow.
Drawn to it like a moth to a light, Rock slowly made his way towards it. He took one glance back towards sleeping Amber and kept going. Totally fixated on the moss, Rock forgot all about the encompassing dark and found himself at the moss patch faster than the thought he'd be.
He turned around to call out for Amber to check this out, when. He gasped. He must've forgotten how dark it was or misjudged how far off this moss was or something- but...the important thing was that Amber was nowhere in sight!
Panic welled up in Rock before he forced it back down. Gritting his teeth the tried to think of a solution. Naturally, he figured that if he were to walk back exactly how he did when he got here, he'd end up where he started. Easy.
Right before he started, he rushed back and swiped his tail across the moss and dragged a hoof across it too for good measure. Now, in case his plan didn't work out, he'd at least know where he came from. Rock silently congratulated his good thinking. He felt oh-so confident and even a little bit smug as he trotted off in the same direction he left in.
****
Amber was having a nice dream about sunshine and rainbows and rolling around on the grass with a old mare friend of his. Key word being 'was'.
Having been just recently accustomed to Rock's endless chatter, the odd quiet surrounding him was jarring enough to even invade his dream. Talk about a loud silence. At first he chalked it up to being Rock just needing to take care of his 'business', Amber calmly waited a few minutes for him to come back.
After the fourth, he decided it was time to go looking for him. Unfortunatly, it was still to dark to see and nowhere near daytime. Judging by the moon, an hour or so had past. Not good. Worse than not good.
Without anyway to see for himself Amber would just get lost trying to find the lost Rock. The obvious solution was to make some light- which wasn't going to happen- or to wait until the sun rolled around, which wasn't happening either.
Amber groaned and thought things over in his head. Why should he care anyway? He was just a random stranger, nothing wrong with them going seperate ways. But still, a lingering doubt hung in his mind. Rock was obviously young and more than a little naive, but he did meet him all the way out here in the wilderness. So it was all a facade most likely.
Amber rolled through the possible scenerios through his head over and over. Rock could've just gone out to chase after something, or maybe wanted some privacy after all. Or he could've just ditched him. Or maybe something awful happened to him!
As Amber saw it, he had two options: either accept the loss and move on, or spend the rest of the night tearing down the entire forest looking for him and not get any sleep at all and just be rewarded with a hug or somthing stupid.
He donned his cloak and let out an exasperated breath, "Once I find him...oh Celstia help him..."