Okay, I had been there in about a day or so. But I hadn't even seen the tail of anypony from ponyville. But I guessed I would have made a fool of myself somehow. For instance; I somehow fell asleep sitting, and that usually does NOT end well. Luckily I didn't wake up with my face in the mud, and I didn't have any friends that had taken advantage of the funny situation. Either would end with people giggling around me when I wake up. I grumbled and scratched my eyelids before sitting up with a groan and staring aimlessly around me for a couple of seconds (some habits never die). "Hey, how are you holding up," I heard over my shoulder.
The other pony landed as smoothly as if he were walking all along. He carried a couple of flowers in a bouquet, strapped to a small backpack of his. And each of them had a different color, petals and shape. "Yeah, I'm good. But what are those for," I said. I would have felt left out of something if I had my memory. I mean, who would NOT have been thinkin' fishies when another pony comes up to ya with a nice set of flowers? It would either be awkward, really awkward, or INCREDIBLY awkward for one of us. "Oh, yeah. Two of these flowers have healing properties, and the rest is just something I stumbled upon that taste pretty good." Or the flowers could be for eating... Don't judge me for doubting him.
"Ah, right." Then I remembered the other filly, the one from yesterday. "Hey, where is the other filly?" "I don't know, I slept for a long time. But somehow you slept even longer. By the way, did you hit your head?" I touched the top of my head; it was bandaged. "Oh, the other filly told me a rock hit me yesterday," I said. The funny thing however, was that my sense of logic was somewhat decreased as well. And I didn't think about WHY a rock would hit me, I just thought it did and didn't require an explanation. But HE realized why. "Oh, sorry about that. Guess my first impression didn't come out well this time. I'm Breeze by the way," he said. The way he talked, the way he apologized, even the way he WALKED/FLEW suggested that this was a proud pegasus. While I was literally nobody.
"Hi, I'm. I-... I don't know actually. I don't remember. I can't remember a thing actually," I said. But I shook his hoof (somehow) and then explained my current state; Foggy memory, heavy pain in my head and a thorn in my hoof (kidding). Acorn arrived, and we all got to introduce ourselves to each other a second time. Breeze was a 1st class flyer in his village, but he got a week off and had decided to get away from everyone else for a while. Apparently he didn't like the fuzz about him beating even the teachers' record (hotshot). His family always bragged to others about him, and he was really well known. But it all came to a price he didn't like to pay; everyone treated him as the celebrity he was. And no-one cut him some slack.
We skipped me.
Acorn was a little filly, living in a cabin in a forest a day from there or so. She and her grandmother had lived together for most of her life, and she had never met her parents. Her grandmother apparently had a big library. And with it: a lot of knowledge. She knew the entire forest, and taught Acorn everything she knew. Her grandma was old and wouldn't live forever, so it was good that Acorn could be there for her. Acorn herself though, was nothing short of a natural (pun intended) talent. She was an earth pony unlike her mother and grandmother, which were unicorns. She said that her father was a pegasus, but she didn't wanna talk more about it. An awkward silence followed after that before I suggested that we should do something (genious). Acorn said that her grandmother could treat my skull, which I should REALLY get a look at (the rock must've been huge). And Breeze agreed, so we got our plots flying about a little before we realized just how lost we were. Breeze had never been to Oakwood (Acorn's forest), I had lost my memory of where I ran from and Acorn had fainted as I had carried her. Soooo... We had to take a gamble there, and we just flew in the general direction Breeze saw me running from.
Breeze was the better flyer, so he took Acorn on his back. On the way he talked much about how it was around where he lived. The fame, the expectations and the jealousy from competition. But I think he somehow enjoyed it more than he admitted. In a way it was his world, and he knew it inside out. On the way though, we discovered that Acorn is scared of heights. REALLY scared. Even though she tried to hide it, she was deadly silent all the way and shook a lot all the way. She was even close to falling off once, but Breeze noticed in time. So we tried BLINDFOLDING her, and it worked (more or less). By the time we flew lower to see if Acorn would recognize anything every now and then, but hours went by without luck. We took a break and landed before we set up a small camp. It seemed like Breeze had some increased hearing, (or something close) because he heard that we were being followed. Or rather, someone was there at least. He said that he went to find good trees and bushes for food. But he returned with urgency and before dragging me with him to a post-battleground.
"What in Equestria," he said in clear awe. This was an impressive scene for a battle; all was obliterated. There were shattered rocks, splintered trees, branches and logs everywhere and even craters! But the confusion from that was nowhere near what we felt when we discovered ice, fire and watermarks. ON THE VERY SAME TREE! (And everywhere else of course, but the tree was by far the strangest) Whoever fought here had some serious firepower, and had to use it. But there were no signs left behind of whatever had fought here, no hoof-prints (the ground was too scorched, frozen, or simply ravaged to make anything out), no items or... remains (which was a great relief to both of us).
We walked around, searching for signs of life. At first, there was none to be found. But as the trails got less scorched, Breeze found hoofprints. And after that our jaws dropped through dimensions as we found three bears. Bears the size of a room was almost piled up in front of us. But neither had burns, frost burns or anything else. Well, except for the massive wounds that is. But that seemed rather "normal-like" at that point. The bears were breathing and they didn't even bleed too badly. "Okay, so. Three massive bears can't possibly have created this entire ruckus by themselves. But I feel fine with not meeting whatever did this," Breeze said after a moment of silence.
I had forgotten all the clichés in movies and the likes, so I didn't have anything good to come up with at the moment. But I had to agree of course. I gave him a nod and we flew off to find Acorn, eager to tell her the news. But not finding her where we left her was not exactly calming to either of us. In the camp we had left Breeze's handybag™, Acorn's very small pouch and some leftover flowers (they tasted better than 'meh', which was good enough for me). And Acorn of course, which was now replaced by a new bag... Great.
"What's this?" I asked Breeze. My instincts told me to open the bag of course, but Breeze focused more than me. "Let's leave it for now, we gotta find Acorn!" And so we did. Not. She found us, just as she had found some strange fellow out in the forest. NOTHING WAS STRANGE! (My sarcasm broke the scouter there.) "Hey! Breeze! Please help me," (gotta love dat innocence). Breeze (which was closest at the moment) dashed towards her, but made a REALLY sudden stop when a white unicorn with a black mane (and a really AWESOME western coat; Clint Eastwood style) stumbled forth. He had a cut running over his face, bleeding badly. "Uh, hi there," Breeze hesitantly said while sending Acorn a confused look. "We have to help him!" She said, clearly stressed. Which made me notice the gash on his limping back-hoof. Breeze looked at me; neither of us liked this.
But I sighed and trotted over to them, and took him on my back (I noticed how carrying stuff/ponies was surprisingly easy). And Acorn ran ahead of us, she grabbed her pouch and pulled out some leaves (I would have been paralyzed with confusion if I had my senses running). As I put the pony down on under a tree, she grinded them between her hooves and applied it to the cut on the pony's face. It was painful for him - I could tell - but he was also very tired. "Breeze, find some carnitals! I can mix it with something else for the hind leg!" Acorn said with the most serious voice yet. She would've made a good nurse. "Roger that!" Breeze said with a military pose, clearly knowing what to do (which I really wouldn't, no matter my state). He flew upwards, looked around, and flew away.
He was in bad shape, but was very much conscious. He looked around the camp. But his eyes stopped at the bag, and I noticed him noticing it. "Is it yours?" I said. He looked at me. His eyes didn't reveal anything but exhaustion, then he gave me a nod. I strolled over and grabbed it before bringing it to him. He opened it and grabbed something (again with the magnetic hooves) and ate it. I was gonna ask, but let it be. Acorn ran about and looked at the nearby plants. "I have to find something else, wait here with him," she said before setting off without giving me a chance to reply. A fool would have NOT asked him at such a moment.
I gathered up, took a deep breath, and asked him with my most manly voice: "So, uh, um, well. You wouldn't happen to have seen any bears around here would you?" (Okay not so manly then, don't judge me.) "Well, bears n' bears. A've seen some wild lil' cats runnin' about. Tryin' to show guts by breathin' elements at meh. Don' suppose you've seen too many of those little buggars though. Not being from around here n' all," He said and pointed to my empty spot. "We all have our secrets boy, best not to share too many. N' best not say too much, lest ya'll let 'em kill ya," he said. And I was left speechless. Mostly because none of this made sense to me. An awkward silence followed. "To answer your question, yeah. I have seen some bears. Before buckin' their sorry behind."
Yet another awkward silence followed. He sighed. "Look, I know that you are not from-" Acorn came galloping back, to us. Carrying flowers and a full pouch. She sat down and immediately started to mash them together with a mortar and a pestle. I turned to the other pony. "Eh, hey. I didn't catch your name," I said. He looked at me, looked at Acorn, and said: "Dice. Dice Blackmane." Acorn stopped mashing herbs and looked at him. Then she finished off quickly and added a little water before applying it to his hind-leg. "My grandma talked about you. She said you were deceiving everyone you met and stealing their money. And that you were a very wanted man," she said, staring into his eyes. He returned it with a lazy gaze; he had heard this pretty many times.
"So ya have have heard the legend of me. Bet you don't know much else though. Anyone been talkin' 'bout how I stole from Sir Oro? A man that was lovin' cookes a lil' too much? Anyone ever told you 'bout how I passed the money on? Nah, too much details," he said. He was clearly a proud ma- colt (shaddap, I'm still not used to switch it like that). But something wasn't clear yet, and I dived headlong into it: "The three bears. You were the one who took them down right? But you're not a unicorn, why was there ice, fire and watermarks all around?" "Oh, ya noticed that didn't ya. I don' use magic, ever. I prefer to get up n' personal. The elements came from the bears you see. Pretty nasty lil' kitties." And awkward silence followed. For the longest time. "What?"