//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Going on as unplanned. // Story: Inner workings - Galsthan's stories // by HyperRandomness //------------------------------// Thursday, April 16th 2012. 10:14 A.M. Okay, I honestly have no idea where he is now. Do you? No, I don’t. You’re the one writing it, just make up a name and place for where he is or something! It’s not that simple, you know. Creating an entire landscape and name for it would take awh- Just think of something! You have readers waiting to read the rest of the story! Okay, fine, I’ll think of something. Empty Field. Wow. That’s got to be the most boring name for a place ever, and really, a field!? I could have thought of that one! Then why didn’t you? You’re the one writing this, not me! Ugh, jeez, just let the viewers read, okay? … Galsthan was well past exhausted by this time. All this frequent running around, climbing, and ignoring zebras really had him wiped out. His legs refused to move on, so Galsthan laid down for a few short moments, until he quickly accepted the idea of a nice, long sleep. Sure, he had been unconscious under the hospitality of those zebras, but it’s never quite the same rest until you do it willingly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick Fix woke up slowly, yawning and crawling out of bed just in time to turn off her alarm clock before it chimed. She had set it for 10:15, but she was almost always up exactly one minute before it. She went through her normal morning routine: made herself breakfast, ate quietly, cleaned and brushed her hair and teeth, then grabbed her saddlebags to go visit Galsthan to get the latest par- …Oh. Right. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Galsthan woke up no more than twenty minutes after he had laid down. Maybe he did have enough rest after all. His body disagreed, but he pressed onward to continue his mad search. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick Fix exited her house, on her w- You’re cutting the character jumps really short now. Are you running out of ideas? Heck no, I have this planned all the way out to chapter 20. The problem is... well... Well what? Um… I’m waiting. I don’t know how this chapter should go. I have every other chapter practically written out in my head, but I never thought of what to write after Galsthan cleared the zebra village. I could tell you what happens after he gets to a different place, but I don’t want to put any spoilers here. … … In that case, you’d best be thinking it up fast. Eeyup. Anyhow, Quick Fix left her house, ready to depart on her morning shopping agenda. First stop, Galsthan’s blacksmith shop. Shoot. First stop, Galsthan’s blacksmith shop. Applejack’s farm. Quick Fix was going to stop by to say hi to the Apple family today, particularly to Applejack. She wanted to buy a few things there anyway, and it would be nice to see another friend after being unable to locate Galsthan the day before. She really wondered where he could be, but only for a second, before her mind turned to what could have happened. He might have been mauled. Hurt. In pain. Hugged viciously by a creature in the everfree forest. Yeah, she thought casually, hiding her worries, that must be what happened. As Quick Fix walked onward, Why do you keep scratching things out? Oh for the love of..- I keep scratching things out because I wrote the wrong thing, okay? Well, I don’t think the readers would know that, so why not ju- Well they know now, since you asked! You didn’t have to tell me, y’know. …shut up. AS QUICK FIX WALKED ONWARD, she became increasingly worried for Galsthan’s safety. Well, when I finish with my shopping, I can go look for him some more. Maybe he’s back by now? Quick Fix assured herself, before noticing she had already come across Sweet Apple Acres and had nearly walked right by it. She turned to enter the gates, and was greeted by a familiar orange friend. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Galsthan had walked through the brown field, pieces of dried grass occasionally breaking off and sticking to his legs as he walked. This was probably the most boring thing he had done in his entire life, aside from things he may have done when he was small. His parents told him he didn’t do much until he was five or so, but he supposed that was to be expected. What could such a small pony do in the first place? he wondered, continuing his progress through the field. Galsthan gasped. It wasn’t because there was some huge creature in the field, or that the field might have been poisonous, or anything exciting like that. On the other side of the field, there was a massive river. “Oh, come ON!” Galsthan yawped, clearly not being excited about this new obstacle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After departing from the farm with saddlebags full of goodies, Quick Fix headed for the center of town. The town hall, in particular. Maybe the Mayor knew where Galsthan was. As she made her way to the town hall, she noticed a large gathering of what seemed to be panicked ponies, some of which may have been becoming hysterical. For some reason, they were all looking up. So, naturally, Quick Fix did the same. There was a stallion standing on the roof of the town hall. and then there wasn’t. After a massive audible gasp, every eye followed the falling body down, until ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Galsthan stood at the very edge of the river, looking up and down the great expanse of water, gushing and toiling rapidly. It would be too fast to swim across. Galsthan began formulating a plan, theorizing that if h- Wow, dude, that was pretty harsh. What was? Leaving the readers hanging like that. Why didn’t you finish the sentence? Suspense. …dull. Hey, YOU write a story and tell me you didn’t include a single moment of perplexity. Well, everypony knows what’s going to happen to that stallion anyway, he’s just gonna h- SHUSH! No spoilers!! Oh. Right. Sorry. Carry on. Mmhmm. Anyway, Galsthan theorized that if he could construct a raft, he could just float down the river. That would be good for three things. One, he could look along the shores to see if Quick Fix had maybe fallen into this vicious river and washed up somewhere. Two, it would be much easier to cross that way, and far less hazardous. Three, he hadn’t been even mildly creative for over a day. He was getting antsy. Galsthan immediately sprung into action. Acquiring a saw from the toolbelt he never took off, he located the nearest tree and began working. He began sawing away at the base of the tree with the intent to cut it down, but his simple hand saw was not fit for the job at hand. It took nearly ten entire minutes of back-and-forth cutting to fell the tree. Ten minutes that Galsthan did not have to waste. He worked effectively and swiftly, carving out the tree to make it hollow, then lopping off large parts of the ends to make a makeshift canoe. It would have to do for now, but he also needed a paddle, so he took a portion of an end he had cut off and made a paddle from that. He strained to push the slapdash canoe to the water, as it kept lodging itself on everything in the path, resulting in more effort to push it around or over. By the time it reached the river, Galsthan was burned out. He felt as though he could exert himself no more, but the drive to find Quick Fix kept his fire bright. Galsthan climbed discomforted into the temporary canoe, then pushed off the shore with his alternative paddle. He haphazardly rushed downstream, attempting to keep his balance as not to fall into the water. There was nearly no telling what was below the surface, so Galsthan didn’t want to risk any hospital-worthy injuries while he was out on his own. He barely made it 200 meters downstream when he hit the other shore, sending him head-over-hooves tumbling down the sand. He stood after a short moment, only dazed and possibly a little bruised. He stood and shook off the powder, then hastily making his way off the shore and towards… Wait.. where does this go, anyhow? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, you’re seriously starting to tick me off with all the character jumps. Well, we DO need to find out what happened last in Quick Fix’s perspective, right? Well, I gue- PLUS, if we wait too long, events will pass. But you’re WRITING this story! Time doesn’t ha- YES IT DOES! NOW SHUSH! … He hit a trampoline. Where in the world did someone get a trampoline? Wiping the confused look from her face, Quick Fix wanted to assert herself to the front of the crowd to see if the pony that’d just fallen from the roof was okay, both mentally and physically. Yeah, assertion. That’ll happen, Quick Fix thought sarcastically to herself, rolling her eyes out of the force of habit. She tried a couple of times to push a couple of ponies out of the way, occasionally asking them to move, but they remained right where they were, eager to get to the front as everypony else. After realizing her efforts were fruitless, Quick Fix simply tried to stand and look over everypony instead, just to at least try to get a glimpse of the suicidal pony to see if he was okay. Turns out, he was just fine. She caught a short view of him walking away, perfectly healthy. Well, maybe nauseous, but otherwise alright. Quick Fix breathed a sigh of relief. At least she knew somepony was alright… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, very clever. What? That last line, there. Well, it’s true, isn’t it? Can’t we do without the lame wording? No, and it’s not lame. Yes it is. No, it isn’t. Yes, it is! No, it isn’t! YES, IT IS! NO, IT ISN’T! NO, IT ISN’T! YES, IT I-shoot. HA! Shut up. Well, anyway, Galsthan was doing his thing, running about and not falling unconscious, thankfully. He was just short of becoming hysterical in his unsuccessful search when he thought he spotted a brown pony, but it was only glimpsed for a moment and far off in the distance. “Quick fix?!?” Galsthan exclaimed joyfully, proceeding with much enthusiasm towards the brown figure. As he drew nearer, he could see that it was definitely a brown Mare with a white mane, just like his little Quick Fix. He charged as fast as he could to embrace his sighted friend, who turned towards him as he approached. He quickly swept up his friend in a tight hug, saying, “I finally found you! All that effort was worth it! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” “Wow,” responded a male voice, throwing Galsthan for a spin. He immediately let go. “Didn’t think my parents would be THIS concerned about me running away. To think, after what I told ‘em, they sent a member of the ROYAL FAMILY after me.” A small tear of happiness worked its way out of the quick-fix-lookalike. “Uh…” Galsthan began, before saying, “…that’s, uh, right! Yeah, they totally sent me to find you. I bet they’re really eager to see you returned home, safe and sound.” Galsthan lied through his teeth, putting on a fake smile to reassure the lost pony. How many lost ponies are around today? Galsthan wondered idly to himself, before the lost stranger responded, “Wow, really? I was just joking around. Can’t believe they actually care that much…” The stranger pony sat almost saddened for a moment, before asking, “So, you’re taking me back to town now, right?” Galsthan glanced around for a moment before saying, “Yeah.” The stranger pony turned away and started walking. Galsthan stalled, which caused the other pony to turn around questioningly. “We are going back to town, right? It’s this way.” Galsthan looked sheepish for a moment before trotting ahead of the stranger, saying, “Oh, yeah! Right. Let’s go.” What did I just get myself into? He questioned himself silently. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (THIS TOOK TOO LONG TO WRITE, and school is starting. Woo.)