Comfort Far Away

by Spic Ultimo

Monsters

"For the last time, nothing happened!" It was at this point where Echo had asked for the hundredth time, 'What happened?' I can't really complain,though. That's classic Echo for you.

"Alright, that's enough, you two," AJ said, "Breakfast should be ready soon, if yer hungry." We were relaxing under one of the apple trees in the orchard, discussing what exactly we could do in a small town like Ponyville. "'Sides, can't bicker on an empty stomach, can ya?"

"Can't deny that." Echo replied, "We should head inside. I'm pretty sure Solus here needs a shower form doin' the dirty deed." He said as he turned and stuck his tongue at me. Instantly, my cheeks flared red, and Applejack gave no attempt to stop her laughter. That little... well, at least it couldn't get any worse.

I have a hefty sigh before saying, "While I will deny that anything happened, I will not say no to a shower. Do you mind, Applejack?"

"None at all, Sugarcube. Help yerself." As we walked inside, she introduced me to three other members of her family. "This here's Applebloom." She said pointing to a yellow filly with a red mane. "This is Big Macintosh, or Big Mac for short." She pointed over to a stallion way larger that i was. he had a black coat and a short blond mane. And last, but not least, there's Granny Smith." she finished, gesturing towards a green pony with a white mane resting on a rocking chair. For a second, she seemed dead, until she gave a loud snore that startled me a bit. "And Apples, This here's Solus." She said, pointing towards me.

"Uh, hey everypony." I said awkwardly, all their attention suddenly directed towards me.

After my horrible greeting, AJ directed me to the bathroom and I gave her a quick thanks. "Now be sure ta be out by breakfast, ya hear?"

"Yes ma'am." I said, giving a mock salute. After she was out of sight, I closed the door with my telekinesis and locked it. I took off my scarf and set it on a towel rack as I pushed aside the shower curtains and started the water. I quickly noticed the had warm water, which was something that was never available at the orphanage.

I gave a hefty sigh when I felt the water come into contact against my coat. I don't remember the last time I bathed in warm water, so i just let it cascade down over my body for a while. I began to clean myself, using my telekinesis to wash my back and other places generally difficult to reach. Stepping out of the shower, I noticed a thick cloud of steam hung in the room. I hadn't realized how hot the water actually was.

I began to dry myself as the steam was slowly starting to clear, and retrieved my scarf once it was easier to see. I walked up to the mirror to put my scarf back on, but it was blurry with the water vapor so i began to rub it off with my hoof. When I moved my hoof out of the way, my eyes widened with pure terror and I nearly lost my balance at the sight of my reflection.

The evil me from my dream was staring at me with his blood red, pupiless eyes and sickening grin, up until he started speaking.

"So, did you enjoy our little show last night?" He asked, sounding exactly what something from the deepest pit of Tartarus would sound like.

"Who are you?" I asked, getting a wierd feeling from his general direction.

"A friend, an enemy, I can be either, depending on how you choose to behave yourself within the next months." He said showing off his overly pointy teeth.

"W-what do you want from me?" I asked, barely above a whisper.

"It is not what I want, but what we want. Be careful, boy, you will not be able to contain me for much longer." He said, his image starting to dissipate.

"Solus?" I heard Echo call from outside the bathroom. "You alright in there? Breakfast is getting cold, and the apples won't start 'till everyone's at the table."

"I'm c-coming!" I said, hastily putting on my scarf, wanting to get away from the mirror as fast as possible. Unfortunately, that caused me to crash right into Echo, who was still right on the other side of the door.

"Whoa! You okay there, Brony?" He asked, searching my eyes with a bit of concern.

"Yeah... I'm just... really hungry?" I lied, coming up with that horrible excuse in mere seconds. Fortunately, he bought it, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Then what're you waiting for!" He exclaimed, galloping to the dining room. Chuckling slightly at his antics, I followed suit and was almost instantly greeted with the scent of apples upon entering the area. My jaw nearly dropped down to the ground at she sheer amount of Apple related foods that seemed to cover every inch of the table's surface.

"Close yer mouth, or you'll catch a fly!" Applebloom directed towards me. I did as she said, but still stared in disbelief at the table. The only other time I had seen so much food was at Pinkie's party, but even then there were so many other ponies there that it was reasonable. But this much for only six people? I had no idea what to make of it.

"Somethin' the matter, Sugarcube?" I heard applejack direct towards me, and shook me from my thoughts.

"It's just... that's a lot of food, and I was kind of expecting a small meal, not anything like this." I said a bit sheepishly, not knowing how any of them would respond. "Are we expecting company, or something?"

"No sir, this is for anyone and everyone at this table, so what're ya waitin' for? Dig in, everypony!

******

Needless to say, breakfast a AJ's was awesome, even if everything did have an apple-ish taste to it. We were just finished and were on our way to town, when I remembered about the stallion last night.

"Hey, AJ?" I called out to her.

"Yeah?" She responded turning over to me.

"What happened to the stallion that had attacked us last night? Did we just lave him there?

"We'll, you did, but me and Echo called over the closest night guard and had him taken care of. Ah'm sure he-"

"Did you see how cool the guard looked?! With his bat wings and his awesome eyes and dark coat!? And then the armor! Solus! We have to enter the Night Guard Batallion! Think of how awesome we could be! We could be like Batmare and Robin, the Colt Wonder!..." I let Echo go off on his rant, mostly because I like seeing him happy.I just smiled and listened on, putting one hoof in front of the other. Though it sounded far fetched, it's not the first time he's mentioned it, and I have considered it a couple of times. They're always looking for a couple of faceless nobodies, so I figured, 'why not'. I guess we'll be able to find out in a while.

Author's Note:

Once again, sorry for being late! On the bright side, we've now reached 100 views! this is only the first milestone of many to come!

Have a nice day!

--Solus

Comments

[Tesla Moon]

Reading through I found a couple of errors like a lower case "I" and a missing t in at near the end but I still loved the story.