//------------------------------//
// An Abrupt Friend 
// Story: Outsider's Tales 
// by He_who_wins 
//------------------------------//

Thunder roared across the hills as rain gushed forth from black clouds. A few trees were bent with the force of the storm. Occasionally, fierce lightning streaked from the clouds to meet the earth, providing a brief instant of blinding light.

A small figure in a ragged, cloak still trudged on through the mud that served as a road here. It took a look up at the sky, cracked its neck, and kept walking.

It was too dark to see, so it had to rely on the lightning to see. The same lightning that nearly struck it a few times already. No matter. A single storm isn't going to stop this one. Not even a second one. No amount of rain, or mud, blasting wind would ever stop this one!

*CRRRACKK*

The figure stopped and frowned, then chuckled to itself. 
Although that lightning might.

****

The figure kept walking through the entire night. Thankfully it petered out mostly right before dawn, although it was still sprinkling a bit.  It said a quick prayer to the sun as it rose, but then quickly cursed as the soaked earth began to dry. 

That darn musty, uncomfortable feeling quickly settled into the figure, made worse by the drenched cloak. It groaned, but kept walking. Maybe somewhere out here there'd be a dry spot to lie down and rest.

It took a quick check of its surroundings. Not likely.

****
By now the figure was dead tired. It had been walking all day in the middle of one of the worst storms ever without ever taking a break at all. Of course, it knew it didn't have anyone to blame but its self, but hey. Places to go.

Finding a comparatively dry patch of grass in a ring of nearby trees, it lay down and began to stretch itself out and get ready to have a well deserved sleep. There were even a few big boulders around for shelter. Still, it had something to do before it could finally sleep.

It shied off its still wet cloak and reached around for a small saddlebag on its flank. He opened up the depressingly small pouch and sighed. It used to have another much bigger bag. Mentally berating himself for losing it, he reached in an removed the one thing it held- a tiny cracked mirror.
It held it in one hoof, trying to remember how it was cracked, frowned, and began to look itself over.

What the figure saw was the face of a young colt. Its coat was covered in mud but a few patches of amber fur managed to stay clean. The mane, or least what was left of it after several obvious bad self attempts, was a reddish brown. Its face was a soft yet obviously boyish once, deep orange eyes, and a few scars on his right cheek that never quite healed right.

"Ha," he said to himself as he brushed back his mane, "Still lookin' pretty sharp eh, Amber?"


"I'll say," A new cheery voice piped up, "Quite a way to pull off the rugged look huh? You're doing it pretty well!"


Amber stood and craned his neck around searching for the owner of this new voice. Company would be nice, but sometimes he ends up with the wrong folks at the worst of times.

"Show yourself," he growled, "I've no time for shenanigans."
There was a slight pause then a chuckle, "Alright, he he,"

One of the nearby rocks started to shift. It stopped moving for a movement, but then rumbled again twice as much. A small sound floated up to Amber's ears...Was this rock laughing?

The 'rock' shifted slightly in its merriment and tumbled to its side. Amber blinked- this was no rock- it was another pony!
It had quite the odd coat, a grayish color with what looked like to be some sort of molted discolorations, giving the appearance very much like a oddly shaped boulder. Its mane and tail were also the same color as its coat, another a few bits of a deep blue-ish color poked out here and there. Oddly, there was no cutie mark.

'Must be some sort of dye, which would explain the lack of the mark. Otherwise that would...' Thought Amber, but any further thoughts were brought to a halt as the 'rock pony' opened its eyes to look at him.

Its were the clearest eyes he'd ever laid his own.
Those new white eyes stared straight into orange ones.

After what seemed like a few minutes, Amber broke it off, slightly unnerved about how the other kept eying him curiously.

"Soo...whatcha up to?" It asked, eyes full of an odd excitement.
" Uh..Just passing through...and nothing at all?"
"Well, which one is it? I mean 'cas you can't exactly do both of those things at once."
Amber cut it off with a wave of a hoof, "Let me ask you the same question."

The other quickly became quiet.
It then smiled and offered a hoof, "Nice ta meet'cha Amber! Although that is kinda a silly name for a colt."
Amber bristled, "Is not!"
The other placed a hoof on his lips, "Oh hush. I was only joking."

Amber stared for a moment, then whipped his mane back, shoved the mirror back into its pocket,  and started to walk off.

"H..hey! Where are you going?!?" The rock called out.
"Don't care!"
"That doesn't seem very smart!" The rock started after him, "I mean, you gotta know where you're going right?"

Amber groaned. This trip was going to be a  lot  longer.

****

The rock pony was not showing any signs that it was going away. It followed him for at least two hours by now and even managed to track him down once Amber finally managed to lose it on his fourth try. It was starting to get annoying, even creepy.

Amber pegged the rock pony as another colt, and managed to coax it into telling him so. He wouldn't answer any other questions though. Not his name, his age, or his reason (if any) for following Amber around. Amber decided to refer to him as 'Rock', and he answered to it readily.

The two continued on the muddy road, Rock telling Amber, in much detail, why he thought Amber was a funny name and that Amber wasn't very smart seeing as he doesn't care about destinations. This quickly turned into an argument with Amber getting nowhere at all. He was about to launch into a tirade of his own when Rock pointed out a large forest that took up most of the next horizon.

Despite being ready to drop  along with the sun, Amber reasoned it would be safer to camp out in a forest than out in the open regardless of what was in said forest. Rock had no complaints and was almost rushing Amber into the forest.

Once inside the forest Rock seemed to have forgotten the concept of 'personal space' and was constantly getting close enough to Amber to trip him a few times. Amber would try to scare him away with his angriest glares but only received sheepish grins in response, After the eighth time, he gave up on trying to chase Rock away and grudgingly accepted his presence.

Rock was being only quiet now. Every now and then he would get really quiet and whip is head around as if he was looking for something. Amber commented on this, but only got offhanded 'nothing's as a reply. Amber's trip with his unwanted companion continued much like this up until nightfall, and then Rock firmly planted himself down and declared that he'd be going no farther.

As much as Amber wanted to continue without him, another pair of eyes would defiantly be useful, so he tried his best to convince Rock to keep going, at least for a little while. Rock refused.


"Come on Rock, just a bit farther. It's not that hard." He reasoned.
Rock shook his head like a foal, "No way! Besides, we got no idea what's out there!"
"Neither do we here."
Rock sighed dejectedly, "Oh alright...it you really want to."

Amber rolled his eyes, "Fine, we can rest here." 

Although he could never prove it, Amber swore that he saw a tiny smirk on his companion's face. Amber shrugged and smiled too. He just got played like a mother and her foal!  'I'll get him next time,' Amber thought as he lay down to sleep for the first time in two days.

"Uh...Amber?" 

"What Rock?"

"Thanks."

Amber let out a puff of breath as his response and was about to drift off when he remembered just how he lost his old saddlebag.
****
 "Ya, no worries Mr. Amber, I gotcha covered all nice and safe!"

"Th..thank you very much for watching my bags! I be right back ok?"

"No, no. Thank you..." 
****
And that's why Amber was short his favorite saddlebag. Tired as he was, he didn't feel like getting robbed a second time. Angrily the stomped over to where Rock was laying down, with the latter looking terrified.

"OK," Amber shouted as loudly and threateningly as he could manage, "Jig's up! Where's all your little bandit friends hm? Tell me and I won't have to hurt you too badly!"

"Ahh! Ahhhh!" Tears started to form in Rock's eyes, much to the confusion of the now savvy Amber, "What..wha...whaddya...mean? Rob you?!? I..I thought you where going to rob ME! That's why I stayed still when you found me! I thought you were a nice pony...and...and..." Further comments were downed out by full out crying.

"Uh...I...erm...I..." Amber was at a loss for words, caught completely off guard by Rock's reaction He tried to pat Rock reassuringly saying he wasn't trying to be mean, but was swatted aside and called 'A big mean, rude, un-smart, meanie mean face' between the hiccups caused by Rock's tears.

Amber sat and shook his head. This was...unexpected. Amber searched his head for anything he could do to calm down the crying Rock. Objectively, his noise could attract more unwanted attention- but personally the teary eyed Rock reminded him too much of his younger brother back home when one of Amber's pranks got out of hoof.

Then he knew exactly what to do. He lifted Rock's head and made him look at him, then wrapped his arms around the other.

After a few more hiccups Rock quietly whispered: "Apology accepted.'