“Nice and cozy, right Boko!” he said to his Chocobo companion. The chocobo was a yellow type, and it stood many feet taller than the pegasus.
“QUE!” screeched the Chocobo in delight.
“Hahaha. You said it, pal,” laughed the pegasus.
As soon as he stopped talking the ground started to rumble. The two companions stood up in shock.
“A quake?” said the pegasus, “This is a big one.”
“Que!” screamed the Chocobo.
“Look at the sky?” asked the pegasus.
The orange pegasus look towards the sky and saw a large meteor sail through the clouds.
“Woah, look at that!” yelled the pegasus.
The meteor crashed into the ground causing the ground to tremble once more. The pegasus looked towards his companion and smiled.
“You wanna check it out?” asked the pegasus.
“QUE!!!” squealed the Chocobo.
“I shouldn’t have even asked!” The pegasus jumped onto his companion.
“Ah! Wait! I almost forgot,” The pegasus jumped off of the Chocobo and kicked dirt into the campfire putting out the flames.
“Okay! All set. Let’s go, Boko!” He jumped back onto his companion and made their way to the crashed meteor.
The two quickly made their way northeast of the forest they were camping in going through a fairly thick desert, but thanks to Boko’s speed they crossed miles of land in a matter of minutes. The two made their way to the entrance of the forest they saw the meteor land in.
The pegasus jumped off of Boko and petted its head. “Okay Boko, I want you to stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”
The pegasus headed down the pathway into the thick of the forest. The forest was easily navigable and didn’t have many twists and turns. He found himself in front of a large ditch and slid down into it, seeing the meteor made the indent in the earth. He started to make his way towards the meteor, but he heard screaming behind him. Two goblins were harassing a yellow pegasus in a pink dress. He ran over towards the quarrel and unsheathed the broadsword he brought with him with his wing.
“Let go of her!” he screamed at the monsters.
The monsters took their attention away from the girl and charged the orange pegasus. The pegasus placed the sword in his mouth charging back at the goblins using his wings to boost his speed. His speed surprised the goblins allowing him to swerve behind one of them and slash it in the back. The goblin screamed in pain, turned around and slashed at the pegasus with its claws. The pegasus predicted the attack and cut the goblin’s arm clean off causing the goblin to pass out due to pain.
The second goblin snuck to the side of the pegasus while he was busy and kicked him in the stomach causing the pegasus to cough up his sword. The goblin swiftly grabbed the sword by the handle pointing the blade to the orange pegasus. The pegasus backed away disarmed leaving him at a clear disadvantage. Suddenly, the Goblin fell to the ground. Behind it was the yellow pegasus that he was trying to save, holding a bloody knife on her wing.
She fell to her knees dropping the knife on the dirt, breathing heavily.
“You okay there?” asked the orange pegasus, “My name is Flash Sentry, call me Flash.”
He offered the mare his wing to help her stand up. She gripped the wing and pulled herself up still breathing heavily.
“I’ve never been in an actual battle before,” she muttered, “Thanks for saving me by the way.”
“You saved me back, so we are even,” answered Flash cheerfully. He picked up the bloody knife and handed it back to the mare. “It’s always good to have a weapon on you in case of monster attacks like that.”
The mare took the knife and sheathed it. “My name is Fluttershy. Nice to meet you, sir Flash Sentry.”
“Sir?” he asked stunned, “That’s a first. I’m not much of a knight in shining armor if you know what I mean. I am just your everyday friendly wanderer.”
He walked over to the goblin corpse and picked up his sword, sheathing it. “That luckily had sword training when he was a colt... Just the basics though.”
Fluttershy looked over towards the meteor and said, “I saw this giant rock come down from the sky. The shock waves destabilized my flight causing me to crash land into those goblins.”
“How unlucky,” said Flash sympathetically, “I just saw this meteorite land from my camp and decided to check it out.”
“So this is a meteorite, huh?” muttered Fluttershy to herself, “I wonder if it has anything to do with the wind stopping.”
She looked towards Flash and said, “Oh yeah, I thank you again for saving me, but I must be on my way-“
A deep moaning sound came in the direction of the meteor.
“Another monster?” Fluttershy asked meekly, “I don’t think I am prepared to face another one.”
“I’ll go check it out,” said Flash, “Stay here.”
Flash dashed towards the sound unsheathing his sword. The moaning stopped, and Flash called back, “I think it’s safe to come over here. It’s just some old geezer sleeping on the ground.”
Fluttershy cautiously walked over to Flash and saw an old unicorn rubbing his eyes with his hooves.
“Are you hurt?” asked Fluttershy.
The old unicorn turned towards the concerned mare and answered, “I’m sturdier than I look, ya know!”
He slowly got up indicating that he was badly beaten up... or just old. He took a look around his surroundings, “But where in the blazes am I? Sakes alive! What happened over here? A giant mole have a fight with a dragon and chucked this enormous stone here?”
“It’s a fallen meteor. It seems its crash knocked you out,” said Flash ignoring the senile unicorn’s comment.
“Hey don’t be thinking that I am going senile, young man! I see it in your expression. I am the great-“ the unicorn stopped talking, “The great umm… Who am I?”
He shook his head violently, “I can’t remember a thing!”
“You must have hit your head pretty hard, or you are just going senile,” said Flash jokingly.
“Hey! You said it out loud that time!” screamed the old unicorn.
“Thank the stars that he wasn’t hurt badly by the meteor, though. He was knocked out pretty close to the meteor. It’s probably a miracle that he is unharmed,” Fluttershy said.
“Stars… Star. Starsquiggly? Hmmm. Ah! I remember now! My name is Starswirl!” exclaimed the old unicorn, “Yeah I think some called me Starswirl the bearded,” he said proudly stroking his long beard.
“What kind of nickname is ‘the bearded?’” asked Flash, “Are you sure you aren’t making this stuff up, old man?”
“I am sure that is my name. There is no doubt in my mind, but everything else is just blank…” Starswirl starred at the ground trying to recall anything else.
“Oh yeah,” Fluttershy mumbled, “I have to excuse myself. I need to leave, right now.”
“Where to?” asked Flash.
“The Wind Shrine…”
“AH!” screamed Starswirl, “The Wind Shrine! That is where I am headed. Can you take me there?”
“Sure. I was planning on walking the rest of the way anyway. My wings are already tired out,” Fluttershy answered.
“Thank you so much! I just feel it in my bones that I need to go to that shrine!” cheered Starswirl, “Besides I can’t let a sweet girl go on such a perilous trip all by herself!”
Fluttershy turned to Flash Sentry, “How about you, Flash?”
“… Sorry, but I’m going to pass, good luck though!” answered Flash.
Fluttershy nodded and turned around to leave with Starswirl. In the middle of walking away she stopped and turned around. “Again. Thank you so much for everything.”
“Godspeed, young colt!” saluted Starswirl.
Flash sentry waved goodbye and headed back to Boko. Flash decided to ride eastward towards the way to the next town while telling Boko everything that happened along the way. As Flash finished his story, Boko suddenly stopped, flinging the pegasus off of its back. The pegasus face planted into the dirt, sliding a few feet before the friction stopped him.
“What the heck was that for, you crazy bird?! That hurt!” yelled Flash.
“QUE! Kweh, kweh!” screeched the Chocobo.
Flash slumped down. “I know… it’s just an old stallion and a mare… And with all the goblins and other monsters roaming around... Fine. I got it. I got it.”
“Kweh,” tweeted Boko in triumph.
Flash conceded “I’ll go after=”
Suddenly the ground started to tremor violently.
“An aftershock!?” Flash exclaimed. The cliffs around them started to collapse. Flash then heard screams deeper in the valley. He recognized those voices.
“Oh no!” Flash screamed. He got onto Boko, and it sprinted in the direction of the screams.
“Faster, Boko! Faster!” shouted Flash. Two figures came into view: Fluttershy and Starswirl.
“Boko! You get the geezer and I’ll get the mare!”
Boko sprinted forwards dodging the rock slides coming in from both sides of the valley. Even the ground collapsed into deep fissures probably due to underground caves collapsing. Boko picked up Starswirl with its beak, and Flash grabbed onto Fluttershy by her dress. The four of them swiftly escaped the valley.
Flash had Boko travel a significant distance away from the valley before stopping to rest. He laid the two unconscious ponies on the ground and set up a fire nearby to keep them warm. He looked towards the sky and saw that the sun was going to set in a couple hours.
“Boko, it looks like we are camping out here for the night.”
Hours passed and the two ponies remained unconscious. Flash didn’t know much about first aid and haven’t had a clue on how to check to see if the two were okay, so he just paced around them waiting for them to awaken. The two didn’t seem too injured and neither of the two was bleeding, so Flash wasn’t too worried.
The sun slowly set, and the moon rose into the sky. Boko fell asleep, and Flash stayed up to guard the sleepyheads in case a monster appeared and kept the fire going. After a few hours, he woke up Boko to watch the two ponies, so he could take a walk. Flash went up a nearby hill that overlooked the demolished valley. The moonlight lit up the rubble of the valley. The air still remained completely stagnant.
Flash looked up into the air, “What a day… I wonder if you had to go through something like this?” Flash reminisced the past in his head.
“Heh, Probably not,” whispered Flash to himself, giggling.
Flash heard the rustling of grass behind him.
“Boko, I told you to stay by those two!” scolded Flash.
“Boko is still watching Starswirl. I just woke up,” answered a gentle voice.
Flash turned around and saw Fluttershy walking towards him. “G’morning, or should I say good night? It’s still dark out.”
Flash looked into the night sky. “Hey. How did you know I was over here in the first place?” Flash said looking back at the yellow mare.
“Boko told me.”
“You understand him? I thought only I could do that,” Flash said surprised.
“I guess I can too,” Fluttershy said happily, “He has a cute voice, and he tells really funny jokes.”
Flash looked stunned. “You can probably understand him more than me. Haha…” Flash whispered and sighed.
“It seems you have saved me again, Flash Sentry,” Fluttershy said, “It seems I cannot escape being in your debt.”
“I’m telling you that it’s no big deal. Don’t worry about it. I’m not the type to keep tabs on people.”
Fluttershy smiled in response, “You are a very nice person, Flash Sentry.”
Flash pointed his hoof towards the ruined valley. “it seems that the meteorite’s shock waves caused these landslides. It’s terrifying what nature can do if we’re not careful.”
“Can we go back?” Fluttershy asked.
“I wouldn’t risk it,” answered Flash, “there still might be some loose rocks waiting to crush us under its weight.”
“That makes getting to the Wind Shrine difficult,” Fluttershy said painfully, “I guess all we can do is head north. That path is a lot more dangerous.”
Flash started walking back to camp. “But this time, I’ll be there to accompany you”
Fluttershy radiated, “Really? Are you sure?”
“Sure as I’ll ever be,” answered Flash.
Fluttershy and Flash headed towards the light of the campfire that he made. The two sat by the campfire warming their bodies from the cool night.
“Uuuurghuuunng…” murmured Starswirl in his sleep, “Gotta… get to… the Wind Shrine… Hurry!”
“Seems this old fellow is dead set on getting there,” said Flash, “But he needs his rest. He's pretty old after all.”
Boko and Flash took turns on night watch, and Fluttershy went back to sleep with Flash’s urgings. Dawn came and Boko nudged his master awake squealing small “Kweh’s” into his ear. Flash grudgingly got up and turned to see that both Fluttershy and Starswirl were already awake.
“Good morning, Flash,” said Fluttershy happily.
“Hmmm…” contemplated Starswirl, “It feels that I missed something”
The old stallion observed Fluttershy for a second and walked over to Flash, “Oh you’re such a mare’s man,” whispered Starswirl jokingly in Flash’s ear, “What did you do? Hit on her? Ask her out? Propose?”
Flash blushed, “N-n-no no no. I don’t feel that way towards Fluttershy?”
“Really?” Starswirl rubbed his beard in disbelief, “I always had the feeling that you got the hots for her. Just a hunch, ya know? I would if I was your age.” Starswirl laughed. “Well then! We should be off, right?”
Fluttershy approached Flash, “What on earth did you two talk about? You had a very strange look on your face.”
“Nothing at all,” Flash muttered.
Fluttershy and Starswirl made their way on the pathway north. Flash stood still, contemplating his life choices.
“You’re coming with us, right?” asked Starswirl to Flash Sentry.
“O-of course!” Flash answered, snapping out of his daze. He jogged to catch up with the two, “Come on, Boko!”
“Que!” squealed the Chocobo, running with his master.
The four headed north towards the north western Tycoon dessert. Goblin Bandits that lived in the dessert encountered the group, but Flash and Boko scared them away by killing a handful of the bandits's group. Goblins were mostly cowards. They only cared for their own skin and didn’t have a shred of decency and honor within them, so the rest of the bandits turned a blind eye to the group, their violent nature being suppressed by their fear of death.
Tall, untraversable mountains surrounded the group as they headed north funneling them towards a ominous cave. The group stopped in front of the cave entrance staring into its dark depths.
“There was never a cave here before,” said Fluttershy concerned.
“It probably opened up when the meteor crashed,” explained Starswirl.
Flash petted Boko. “Boko, I think this cave is too dangerous for a chocobo. I want you to stay here. I promise that I’ll be back to get you, okay?”
The chocobo gave a few sad “kweh’s” and nodded abiding to his master’s wishes. The chocobo then stood firm screeching out one last, “Kweh!” to his master.
“Thanks, Boko,” Flash nodded.
The group headed into the dark cave...
-To be continued