The afternoon sun grew hot on their backs as Dinky and Derpy walked along, beating them down with its unforgiving rays. They had been traveling along for the better portion of two days now, taking their time in their journey to enjoy every sight and indulge their every curiosity. Despite the lack of home comforts (including a bath, for that matter. Derpy was deathly terrified she smelled horrible), the trip had been a delightful one, particularly for Dinky.
“How are you doing, sweetheart?” Derpy asked, gazing down at her daughter.
“It’s hot, Mommy,” Dinky replied heavily, beads of sweat dripping down her brow. “Could you please fan me again?”
“Sure thing,” Derpy said obligingly, and began to hover just above her daughter, using the downdrafts created by her wings flapping to induce cool air to the ground below. It wasn’t perfect, but she hoped it would be enough. It needed to be, for they were almost out of water.
It hadn’t exactly been Derpy’s intention for the pair of them to run dry- she had packed plenty before she left. But what she hadn’t anticipated was needing to ration the supply; the majority of their water had been gulped down yesterday, forcing the two to have little liquid at their breakfast. Biscuits were pretty dry without water.
“I didn’t think adventures were so hot,” Dinky remarked to her mother. “Or so long. My hooves are tired!”
“We’ll rest in just a minute, sweetheart, don’t worry,” Derpy replied assuredly. “Do you see those cliffs up ahead?”
Dinky looked up. It would be hard to miss the staggering outcroppings, as they had been traveling to them for most of the entire afternoon. They loomed over the landscape like a sea wave, threatening to fall and crush all who came near.
“That’s Galloping Gorge, Dinky,” her mother continued. “How does going to see them up close sound?”
Dinky suddenly refilled with energy, dashing out of her mother’s shadow and crying, “That’s so cool! Ms. Cherilee told us once that archeologists keep finding all sorts of neat old pony artifacts there, even drawings done by really old ponies from a long time ago!”
“Well, why don’t we see if we can find one of those really old ponies, huh?" Derpy asked, a grin sliding across her features.
“Yay!” Dinky cried exultantly, leaping for joy, then immediately dashing off towards the gorge as fast as her little legs would carry her. With a sigh that mingled with laughter, Derpy followed closely behind.
Derpy took a deep breath of the sweet air and gave a long, warm sigh. It had been years since she had been out in the wilds of Equestria. Years since she had felt any semblance of freedom- freedom from responsibility, from worry, from any sort of fear. It was just her and her wonderful child, out in the beautiful land that she called home. It was like a dream come true.
I just hope we can afford it, she thought grimly. After all, I’ve never had an entire week off before. That’s a lot of money we’re not getting.
She shook her head violently, putting on a burst of speed to race past her daughter and almost instantly losing equilibrium and crashing into the ground, where her daughter leapt onto her with a stream of giggles. This had been a wonderful time, and she wasn’t going to let anything distract her from enjoying her time with her little filly.
“Look, Mommy, look!” Dinky cried, pointing ahead. “We’re right at the gorge, lookit, lookit!” she galloped over to the edge of the cliff and peered down intently, as if scanning it for the ancient ponies she had learned of in class.
“Be careful, Dinky!” Derpy warned, getting to her feet clumsily. “Don’t get too close to the edge, I don’t want you to have another fall!”
“It’s so far down, Mommy!” Dinky said breathlessly, seemingly ignoring her mother’s warning. She paused for a moment, then cried in delight, “My voices echoes! Watch- I mean listen!” and she gave a throaty scream that indeed echoed back to her in diminished returns.
“Dinky, I told you to not go to the edge of the cliff!” Derpy reprimanded sharply. “Now get back over here.”
“Yes, Mommy,” Dinky replied in a dull voice, apparently dripping in disappointment. As she pattered back to her waiting mother, a great thunderous Crash! Echoed from the bottom of the canyon, causing the tiny unicorn to jump a good three feet in the air. “What was that?!”
“I don’t know,” Derpy anwered, peering over the edge herself in a search for what had made the noise. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a mighty tree still tumbling to the lower depths of the deep gorge, its many leaves still a healthy green. Had the earth beneath it given way and allowed it to fall to the ground below?
The answer came in the form of a distant cry of frustration, followed by a stream of curses. Very vile, very loud curses. Derpy’s head shot back up and she saw, across the gorge and overlooking the depths was a dark green stallion that was still letting his mouth spit out a variety of complaints as he stormed over the fallen tree.
Dinky, who couldn’t have missed the stallion’s remarks even if she was deaf, looked up and peered at the newcomer. “What’s he saying, Mommy?”
“Uh…”
“Ooh! What does that last word he said mean? I think he said-”
“Let’s go over and have a talk with him, shall we?” Derpy asked hurriedly, hoping she could prevent any further damage by starting a conversation with the stallion. Or at least get him to shut up.
“OK!” Dinky said compliantly, leaping onto the usual position on her mother’s back and peering down as they flew over the emptiness of the gorge.
Derpy, who had been watching the stallion with her right eye while she focused on flying with her left, felt a strange sensation as she caught sight of him. She knew him from somewhere, but she couldn’t quite put her hoof on when and where. If she just had her memory jogged…
It was as if he had read her thoughts. The next words that came out of the fuming stallion’s lips were, “… not since Baltimare have I dealt with this wicked amount of bull-”
Baltimare! But it can’t be! “Bluegrass!” Derpy burst out, the memories of an old neighbor and friend rushing back to her in an instant. “Bluegrass, is that you?”
“Eh?” the stallion stopped mid-rant and turned to see the strange pair coming towards him, a shudder of recognition coursing through him as he caught sight of the pegasus. “Derpy! Well dye my hooves bright pink, Derpy Hooves!”
“Bluegrass!” Derpy said again, settling down next to the stallion. “I haven’t seen you in years! -How, how are you?”
“Well, not too great at the moment,” he replied, his voice deep and husky. “That blasted tree was one of the healthiest in the entire area, and I was hoping to take it down and haul it back to the site. Instead, the ground started giving way and I had to abandon it. Lost some good tools, too.”
Dinky hung back behind her mother’s back hooves, peering up at the hardy stallion curiously. His size intimidated her, and after the whole matter with Stormwatcher, she felt a bit shy. However, as she watched her mother and the stranger converse, she felt her uneasiness begin to ebb away.
Bluegrass caught sight of the timid filly, and gave her a warm smile. “No! Is this Dinky? She’s sure grown a lot since I last saw her!”
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Derpy said, twisting around to look down at her daughter. “Dinky, this is Bluegrass. He was a neighbor of mine when I lived in Baltimare! He’s an old friend of Mommy’s!”
“Hi,” she said tentatively, gazing at the stallion with a small smile.
Bluegrass knelt down on all fours and peered at her with kind eyes. “You don’t remember me, of course, you were so small when your momma packed up and left town for Ponyville to live with your aunt, but I knew your momma real well. She was the little sister of the neighborhood where we grew up.”
“You knew Mommy?” Dinky asked.
“Knew me, teased me, played with me, and was basically my big brother,” Derpy confirmed. She gave a laugh as her daughter mouthed in awe.
“But that was so long ago! Wouldn’t you be really old?” Dinky protested.
Derpy was taken aback, but Bluegrass absolutely roared with laughter. “Your momma’s not THAT old, kiddo! Course, I sure feel a lot older than I am.”
“Bluegrass, you wouldn’t happen to have any water, would you?” Derpy asked, remembering the potential crisis. “You see, when we left Ponyville, we…”
Bluegrass smirked at her. “Didn’t think to ration it out, did’ja? Typical Derps, always flying into danger. Sure, I’ve got some back at camp. Follow me.”
The forest that encroached on Vanhoover was a deep, powerful wood that had been a part of Equestria for centuries. The trees that grew here drew from an ancient power, one as old as Equestria itself. They were tall, massive in size- and according to Bluegrass, perfect for logging. “The amount of properties these trees contain is perfect for whatever resource we could think of,” he explained. “Not just parchment and basic supplies, but unicorn objects and magic. I’ve heard some of the trees I’ve felled made their way to Canterlot more than once! Heh! Imagine Princess Celestia using something made from one of these!”
Dinky stared up at the sprawling forest of redwoods in awe, feeling particularly miniscule in comparison to their gargantuan size. For one who had spent her entire life living next to the Everfree Forest, she had never imagine something could grow this tall.
“Ah, here we are!” Bluegrass declared as the woods opened up to a small clearing where a camp resided. It was a fairly rustic affair, obviously crafted by Bluegrass himself and built to sustain only one pony. For Derpy, it set off a sense of unease. Something about this setup wasn’t right.
“When I moved out of Baltimare, I left behind the carpentry company I was working for and decided to start working with wood right at the beginning,” Bluegrass explained as he checked the coals in his fire. “Guess it didn’t matter when I put my hooves on it, I always knew how to handle wood.”
“Why did you leave Baltimare, Mr. Bluegrass?” Dinky asked inquisitively.
Bluegrass didn’t respond, pulling a face that disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived. “Well, I obviously don’t have any faucet water here at home, so we’ll have to travel a bit. There’s a stream of fresh water you can use.”
The trio traveled along through the woods for a few more minutes before the sound of water coursing over rock broke through. The three ponies, unicorn, pegasus, and Earth Pony, laid eyes on a stream of crystal clear water. To Derpy, it was as if it beckoned to them. Dinky immediately bounded forward and drank from the stream face first, then pulling back as she pulled a face. “It tastes so funny!” she exclaimed.
Bluegrass let out another booming laugh. “Nothing in that water except water, kiddo! No treatments, no extras, no minerals or whatever else they do with water these days, it’s just water pure and simple. You can’t get more natural than that.”
Dinky stared down at the water for a moment, and then began drinking again. Derpy sat herself down a bit more gently and took deep, thirsting gulps until she felt like she could drink no more. Not wanting to run out again, she took the water bottles from her saddlebags and began filling them to the brim. She would be more careful this time around.
“Why don’t you all come back to camp, rest a spell?” Bluegrass asked. “Looks like you all could use a breather, and I’ll have some good fresh chow for your daughter.”
Derpy gave her old friend a damp smile. “That sounds wonderful.”
An hour or two later, the pegasus and her unicorn filly were relaxed in front of a pleasant fire, Dinky practically salivating over the smell of tasty stew that awaited them. She kept gazing at the pot that hovered over the coals in eager anticipation, just waiting for a sign that it was ready.
Derpy kept gazing at Bluegrass. She had known him well before she had left her home, and she wondered what had sent him out here. He had loved Baltimare, even telling her once that he never wanted to leave, that he would die there. So why had he come all the way out to the middle of nowhere?
She heard a gasp of pain and watched as Bluegrass straddled into his makeshift cabin, gritting his teeth in apparent agony. Worrying for his sake, she crept silently indoors behind him.
The sight she saw was gruesome. Blood was streaming from a broken hoof that had been split by means she didn’t even dare to fathom. Bluegrass sat next to a table that was covered in medicinal supplies, tugging at a bandage that refused to leave its home.
“What happened?” Derpy asked, horrified.
Bluegrass turned around, not having noticed she was there. “It’s nothing,” he replied brusquely, turning his back on her.
“No it’s not, let me help!” she replied forcefully, stumbling forward to examine his injured hoof. She took a step backwards when she saw its condition, as well as the condition of the other front hoof. Both were covered in numerous scars and scabs, wounds both old and fresh. The fact that Bluegrass could even walk was nothing short of a miracle. “What have you been doing to yourself?”
“I lead a hard life,” he answered shortly, trying once more to put the bandage on the still bleeding wound.
“But that seems almost deliberate! You haven’t been harming yourself, have you?” Derpy asked suspiciously.
“And if I was?” he challenged. “It’s better than the alternative.”
Derpy fell silent, her eyes going to his cutie mark. The very same one it had been the moment he had lain eyes on their mutual friend- a pair of wedding rings, bound together. “Bluegrass?” she asked softly.
“Mm?”
“Where’s Sunfeather?” she asked softly, her heart starting to pound painfully in her chest. “This camp looks like you’re the only one who lives here.”
Bluegrass stopped tending to his wound to gaze up at her, his eyes full of a pain so deep and raw it took Derpy’s breath away. It made her heart sink and twist in protest, as she recognized a pain she knew all too well. “I’m… I’m sorry,” she whispered tearfully.
“Tell me something,” Bluegrass asked her gruffly, his voice choking. “Do you tell anypony why you left Baltimare?”
“No,” she answered.
“Because it’s too painful to talk about- I know, I’ve been there. When Sunfeather, when she- I had to leave. I couldn’t take being there without her. I ran, Derpy, I ran until all I could do was be alone. It’s all I’ve got left.” He gazed out of the one window and down at the camp, where Dinky had lain down to rest for a moment. “Does she know what happened?” he asked.
“No,” Derpy responded softly.
“She needs to,” he said. “And soon. She’s not a little kid anymore, Derpy. Soon she’ll be an adolescent, and she’ll have to know what happened to her father. I’ll bet five bits that Berry Punch has been urging you to tell her what happened?”
Derpy nodded slowly. “I know I need to,” she replied. “I just don’t know how to. How do I tell her about him?”
“That,” Bluegrass said as he finally managed to best the bandage and tie it around his hoof, “Is something you’ll have to decide for yourself. I can’t make it for you. But you need to make up your mind, because someday she’s gonna come asking, and you’ll need to answer. For your sake as well as hers. You don’t want to end up like me, Derpy.”
Derpy sat there in silence, staring at the floor beneath her hooves to hide any chance of tears falling down her face. She barely heard Bluegrass walk past her out the door and down towards the fire where her fatherless daughter awaited their next meal.