Dust sat there for what seemed like hours, mindlessly casting his gaze from one thing to another. Books, cauldron, vials full of who knows what, creepy masks that seemed to penetrate the soul. There wasn’t much else that he noticed now that he didn’t earlier.
Dust pulled out the badge he had picked up on the forest floor from earlier, staring at it. He noticed that it was still relatively shiney, given where he found it and what it no doubt has been through. He kept his eyes fixed on the object, as if it would give him all the answers he was looking for.
If only he could be so fortunate.
Sighing, he stashed the badge under the cushion of the chair he was in, hoping Zecora wouldn’t find it. He then started for the door, figuring that now would be as good a time as ever to get some training in. He grabbed the handle to the door, turning towards Zecora for a second then opening the door and walking out.
He was greeted with silence yet again. Something that Dust was becoming gradually unsettled of. You can’t seriously be telling me that there’s nothing else in this forest, Dust thought to himself.
Dust picked a direction that was opposite from his earlier venture with Applebloom, hoping he’ll run into a clearing or something at some point. He went on, mindlessly wandering the forest and marking trees for what seemed like hours before stumbling across a small clearing.
The clearing before him held several flowers of different kinds, ranging from blues to yellows. The moonlight from above casted brilliantly in the center of the clearing, over a lone flower that seemed to glow. Dust took a few tentative steps towards the lone flower, until a stabbing pain lanced through his head and he dropped to his knees.
“Me? Captured? How insulting! Captured? Impossible, that’s for sure!”
The memory ended just as quickly as it started, leaving Dust dumbfounded and slightly in pain from the lingering effects of the memory. He brought a claw up to his head, the other digging into the earth below him. His mind raced, looking for some sort of explanation to grasp onto.
He didn’t get a chance to think of anything as something from his right plowed into him, sending him flying across the clearing. He rolled twice when he hit the ground. Dust staggered back to his feet and looked in the direction of his assailant. Multiple wolf like creatures that looked to have been made out of the surrounding trees stared back at him with deep glowing yellow eyes.
“Not what I had in mind, but I guess it’ll work,” Dust said to no one in particular, watching the movements of the beasts in front of him. They inched closer and closer to him ever so slowly, those eyes always watching him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw it, one of the beasts beginning the attack by charging him. a wicked grin spread across his features, his claws growing and turning pitch black. The wolf closed in on him and he jumped out of the way, reaching out and clawing at the creatures right hind leg, severing it from it’s body. The wolf lost it’s balance and footing and crashed to the ground, sliding to a halt near the edge of the clearing.
“Next,” Dust called out as he looked back at the group, noticing that another wolf jumped at him, taking the opportunity to attack while he was busy with the other one. Out of instinct, his body sunk into the ground, combining with the darkness. The wolf landed where Dust once was and looked around, confused. Dust dragged himself out of the shadows behind the wolf.
“Boo,” he whispered, digging his claws into the back of the wolf and ripping it apart. Wood mixed with tree sap began to litter the ground of the clearing.
He turned around just in time to see a wolf get nailed by a stream of water, causing it to sail through the air and smash into a tree just outside the clearing. Dust looked on for a few moments as a light blue creature, that couldn’t have been much taller than Dust, with a rather long jaw and red spikes going down it’s back, jumped out of a neighbouring bush and into the clearing. A Totodile.
“A party and I wasn’t invited? C’mon now,” He called out to Dust, a large grin adorning his features.
“Surprise?” Dust replied meekly, unsure of what exactly was going on.
“You shouldn’t have,” the totodile responded, moments before getting pounced by one of the few wolves still sticking around. Dust let out a heavy sigh and shook his head as he turned his attention to two other wolves left in the clearing, assuming the totodile could take care of the one. They both jumped at him. Dust waited till they got closer and then stepped out of the way of one and grabbing the other by it’s leg, forcing it to lose it’s footing and driving it into the ground, it’s neck giving off a satisfying crack. It’s friend was knocked off it’s feet from the impact of the other. Dust strolled over to it, just as it was recovering, and drove a claw through it’s head.
Dust turned around to see that the totodile was walking towards him, that large grin still plastered across his face. Dust’s claws returned to normal, now that there wasn’t much danger around now.
“So I’m going to assume that you were the one spying on us,” Dust accused.
“Spying? Maybe…” he responded. Dust glared at him, one of his claws turning deep black again. “Alright, alright, so I was! Can you really blame me for being curious?” He confessed, throwing his claws up in a defensive manner.
“Right,” Dust shook his head and began to make his way out of the clearing and back onto the path he had taken to get there.
“Hey! Wait up!” The totodile called out, running to catch up to Dust and walk beside him.
“You won’t mind if I tag along don’t you?” the totodile questioned.
“Shouldn’t you have something else to do or somewhere else to be?” Dust shot back.
“Nope! Not really, so how bout it?” Dust glanced at the totodile beside him. He didn’t approve of his “friend” here spying on him and Applebloom, but figured that keeping him around would be a good idea. Afterall, he was the only other pokemon that he has found in this world.
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” Dust conceded.
“Alright! This is gonna be great! We can be awesome friends and party and stuff!”
Or maybe he would regret this one day.
“Oh, by the way, my name’s Calder! What’s yours?” Calder exclaimed.
Dust realized that it would take a long while to get used to Calder’s out-going personality.
“You can call me Dust,”
“Alright then, Dust. So what’s next on the agenda?” Calder questioned, staring intently at Dust.
“Well, I think it’s time to explore more of what’s outside this forest.”
***
They found their way back to hut and proceeded down the path that lead to the farm, all the while Calder talked up a storm about what he and his friends did to some poor store owner back at home. Dust blocked out most of it, only picking up on something that multiple planks of wood, a wheelbarrow, a barrel of water and some ice.
Eventually the duo found their way to the edge of the farm, just as the sun was taking it’s rightful place in the sky.
“Pretty neat place here,” Calder stated, taking in his surroundings.
“Yes, I suppose it is, now keep low and don’t get seen. I’d like to take a look around,” Dust responded, taking careful steps outside of the forest line and making way towards the orchard. Calder followed suit, except he didn’t even try at being subtle.
“Not get seen? Where’s the fun in that?” Calder pouted, looking to Dust.
“I’d rather not cause a ruckus in a town that most likely doesn’t know we exist,” Dust retorted, glaring at Calder.
“Well that zebra and the other small one knows about you and they didn’t create a ruckus,” Calder argued, crossing his arms.
“I’d rather not take any chances here, Calder. In due time, but for now, stay low,” Dust pleaded, his gaze softening.
“Alright, whatever you say, chief, as long-”
“See ya later, Applejack!” A familiar voice cut of Calder, coming from nearby the barn. Dust reached out and grabbed Calder’s arm, pulling him behind a tree. He raised a single claw over his mouth, signifying for Calder to be quiet from then on. Calder just shrugged and complied, looking towards the barn.
Applebloom was running away from the barn and house and down a path, leading to a set of fences and to where Dust assumed was a town, a set of saddlebags filled with who knows what draped across her back. Standing in the doorway of the house itself was an older looking mare with an orange coat and yellow mane and tail that were tied at the ends and wearing a brown stetson. Dust gathered that this was Applebloom’s older sister Applejack. The older mare began to make her way towards the orchard, Dust taking that as a sign that they better go. He nudged Calder.
“I think it would be best if we leave,” Dust whispered, pointing in the direction that Applebloom had ran off to. Calder nodded and followed Dust out of the farm.
A few minutes of walking and they found themselves right outside the town of… something. Dust still didn’t know what the name of the town was. He’ll find out soon enough he figured.
Dust and Calder made their ways around the outside of the town, hiding behind anything they possibly could. From trashcans to stands to trees and houses. Thankfully to their small stature, they were able to hide fairly well behind most objects. They had a few close calls, namely because Calder couldn’t bear to stand in one spot for too long and began to wander, but they managed.
Dust made a mental note of a couple of the more important locations. Such as a hollowed out tree with a sign reading “Golden Oak Library.” He’d have to pay that place a visit when it went dark. Another being a large building that was the Town Hall, positioned in the middle of everything. He also took note of the types of ponies that were around town. Some with horns and others with wings and then some sporting neither one, just like Applebloom and her sister.
“Oh wow, that place looks awesome! It’s like it looks like it’s made out of candy!” Calder nearly shouted, his mouth beginning to water. Dust grabbed Calder’s mouth, clamping it shut and pulling him into a bush.
“Hush, or you’ll bring attention to us,” Dust lectured, releasing Calder’s mouth.
“Hi Dust and Calder!” A high pitch voiced greeted. Dust snapped his head in the direction of the voice to see a bright pink pony with an equally pink mane and tail bouncing along, as if nothing wrong was with this picture. Dust sat there, stunned and unsure what to make of the situation that had just transpired. He looked over to Calder to find that he only looked back with a rather amused look on his face.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Dust deadpanned.
“Whatever you say, Dust,” Calder snickered. Dust sighed and grabbed Calder by the arm and led them out of town.
***
Once on the outskirts of town they relaxed, moving around more freely instead of sneaking around. They haven’t seen any of the ponies wander this far out of town, apparently the forest was something to be feared and with the incident with those wolves, he could kind of understand.
They made it back into the forest and found the path once again to get back to the hut. Calder hummed a tune to himself along the way.
“What is that song you’re humming?” Dust questioned. He shifted his head slightly to get a slight look at his companion.
“Oh, it’s just a song my mother used to sing when I was much younger. Don’t remember the words anymore though,” Calder responded. He tilted his head up at the canopy above, as if searching for the sun in the small breaks in the leaves and branches.
“I see. Where is your mother now? I’m sure she’s worried about you being out here,” Dust asked, though soon regretting it.
“Dunno. She left to run some errands one day and just never came back. I never found out what happened,” Calder’s tone was filled with sadness. He cast his gaze to the ground, no doubt in thought about being reminded about his mother.
“I… my apologizes, Calder. I wasn’t aware,”
“Don’t worry, you couldn’t have known about it,” he put a claw on Dust’s shoulder. Dust merely nodded, not wanting to say something stupid to cause more of a problem. The rest of the walk back was in silence. Soon enough they reached Zecora’s hut.
“Hopefully Zecora won’t mind this,” Dust muttered to himself, reaching out with a claw and grabbing the doorknob. He slowly opened it, calling out.
“Hey, Zecora, I hope you don’t mind some extra company…” Dust trailed off. Upon opening the door, he was faced with not only Zecora and Applebloom, but two other fillies as well. One was orange with a purple mane and tail as well as a pair of tiny wings to boot. The other was a bright white pony with a purple and pink mane. This one also had a horn atop her head. Dust stared at the two and vise versa. Complete silence filled the room for what seems like minutes. Until Applebloom broke it.
“Surprise?” She chuckled sheepishly.
“Applebloom I told you not to bring anyone here!” Dust nearly shouted.
Applebloom winced.
“Sorry! I kinda sorta told them about you they had to see you and wouldn’t take no as an answer…” she trailed off, looking to the down and digging at the floorboards with a hoof.
“You sure like your surprises, don’t you?” Calder mocked.
Dust sighed and looked back to the other two fillies in the room. The one with wings seemed to have moved closer and had a look of awe in her features while the other one was just about to cower in fear.
“This is awesome! Aliens, this is so cool!” The orange one blurted, her tiny wings flapping like mad. A large smile found its way across her muzzle as she looked to Applebloom.
“Well… this is Scootaloo,” Applebloom pointed to the orange one. “And the other is Sweetie Belle,” she proceeded to point to the white filly that was cowering by Zecora, who sat in silence just watching the scene unfold the whole time.
“Alright, well, my name is Dust,” he placed a claw on his chest and then pointed it towards Calder. “And this is-”
“I’m Calder!” He exclaimed, a large toothy grin plastered across his mouth.
“Speaking of you, Calder,” Dust shifted his attention to Zecora.
“I hope you don’t mind housing another.”