A gift is made!
A gift is made!
Like the inner-workings of a clock the sun rose on its trek through the sky, uniform and in harmony with the rest of the worked, but a certain buffalo was too busy to notice. Little Strongheart was too wrapped up in her own endeavors to notice the beginning of another day. Alone, fighting the cold, out on the edge of Appleloosa's massive apple orchard, she stared anxiously at the obstacle in front of her, heaving for breath and wiping away a tiny trickle of blood. "Just one more," she told herself. "Just one more!" she stormed forward, shaking and crushing the earth under her as she barreled into the thick-trunked tree before her. Her head collided with the wood and before her thundering force it had splintered to pieces. The tree fell to the ground, feeble and defeated, and Little Strongheart marveled at the fruits of her hard work. Months upon months upon months of head trauma have finally paid off. "Let's see another buffalo do that!"
Taking pride in your work, Little Strongheart?
"Who is there!?" she shrieked, her head darting back and forth to locate the whispered words the resounded in her head louder than the bells at Appleloosa's steeple. "Derpy? Carrot Top? B-Braeburn? Is that you?"
No, Little Strongheart.
Little Strongheart's eyes widened and she kneeled down before her ethereal visitor. Before her stood, tall and proud, all the mothers and fathers that have come before her. "Ancestors! You honor me with your presence!" she answered loudly. "P-please forgive my rudeness. My ears are now wide and open to your ancient and powerful words."
Look towards the east, Little Strongheart.
"I listen and obey!" Frantic, panicky, and clumsily Little Strongheart pushed herself up and threw herself in the direction of the rising sun, nearly blinding her. "Ancestors," she squealed with a wince, "all I see is light."
Open your eyes, Little Strongheart, and see the gift we want you to receive.
"I see," she replied, "I see... a pyre?"
Go, and receive our gift to you.
Carrot Top's day had started miserably. A crick in her shoulder joints, an eyeful of the sun, some of the worst morning breath in months, and on top of that, an emergency visit to the dreaded outhouse. She was sure nothing could make it worse, till she realized she was out of coffee. "I hate this place," she groaned as she pulled at one of the many knots in her mane.
"Good morning, Carrot Top!" Derpy sang as she bounced into the combination living room, dining room and kitchen. "Uh-oh, somepony wake up on the wrong side of the blanket?" she teased her best friend who now stared back venomously at her. "C'mon, Carrot. I'm just teasing. Say, what's for breakfast? I'm starving!"
"Leftover oats," Carrot Top yawned as her terrible breath wafted through the air. "Celestia, help me."
"Are we out of toothpaste?" Derpy flew up to the top cabinets and started fumbling around with the boxes of stocked foods and ingredients. "If you want, I could fly to the store right quick and pick some up."
"Toothpaste isn't going to fix me." Carrot Top collapsed on the table. "I'm just going to lay here until the pale pony comes to take me away. Yep, that's a good plan."
"Are you having another mid-life crisis?" Derpy balanced a baking tray on her head as she tossed various things behind her, landing expertly on their mark on the kitchen counter.
"I would have to be middle-aged to have a mid-life crisis, Derpy..."
"Well I know the perfect thing that always picks me up?" she giggled as she began pouring flour into a bowl.
"Muffins?" Carrot Top tiredly sighed.
"No, silly! Spending some quality time with my best friend!" Derpy glided over to Carrot Top and embraced her, pulling her up and floating her over to the kitchen counter. "When I always feel down, I know just being around you makes me feel better."
Carrot Top felt overcome with emotion. "Oh, Derpy!"
A knock came from the door, and Derpy immediately dropped her best friend on the floor. "Who is it?"
Carrot Top felt overcome with pain. "Oh... Derpy."
"It's Little Strongheart!" came an answer. Wasting no time for an answer, the door nearly exploded off its hinges as the usually reserved buffalo nearly bounced from plank to plank of the shoddy wooden floor, teaming with jubilee. "Carrot Top, Derpy! I just had the most amazing morning!"
"You don't say," Carrot Top replied wearily as she pulled herself off the floor.
"I had a vision!" Little Strongheart was jumping in one place, slowly breaking the floor underneath her with her uncontrollable happiness.
"A vision, like a vision of the future!?" Derpy gasped in shock. "What happened? Did aliens invade? Diamond Dogs capture the royal jewels? Or did the pony on the syrup bottle finally make her move?"
"Not of the future! A vision from my ancestors!" Little Strongheart corrected her as she began to push Derpy and Carrot Top out the back door, out into the dry morning air of the frontier. "I was practicing my stampeding by ramming myself into trees—"
"That explains everything," Carrot Top groaned.
"And the next thing I knew my ancestors were there praising me and telling me to look east past the rising sun! And I saw the great and powerful fire!" Little Strongheart pointed out towards the San Palomino Desert. "There! It's out there! They told me that a gift is waiting for me where the sacred fire was!"
"Little Strongheart," Carrot Top started, "couldn't that 'sacred fire' have been the sun you were staring at, which isn't very good for your eyes."
"I know. Were it not for temporary blindness, I would have been here much sooner!"
Carrot Top groaned, louder than before, and began rubbing her temples. "It's going to be one of those days. I can feel it already."
"That's amazing, Little Strongheart!" Derpy squealed with excitement. "I never got a visit from my ancestors before! What's it like? Was it the white with their lower bodies as tails? Did they have wings? Do buffalo ghosts have wings?"
"No. They were just there, and then they weren't," Little Strongheart explained. "But they told me that a gift is waiting out there in the desert where I saw the fire, and a buffalo always heeds a message from her ancestors."
"That's great, really, I think," Carrot Top yawned as she strode around Little Strongheart and back to the hovel. "Just, if you really go out there, don't hurt yourself. The last time you disappeared you caused a panic for everyone."
"I have learned from my lessons, which is why I have already told Chief Thunderhooves about my vision and my plans."
"Then, uh, why aren't you out there searching for your fire-vision?"
"Well," Little Strongheart awkwardly cleared her throat, "as happy as the Chief was about my visit from the ancestors, he said that I'm still too young to go out into the desert alone and that if I am to go out I must have an adult chaperone with me. And... I told him I would request you two to accompany me out on my journey."
Carrot Top nearly did a spit take. "What? Me? Out there? You're kidding, right? No no no no no no no! I can barely tolerate this place!" She was growing hysterical as she paced in circles, sputtering off any complaint that popped out of her head. "Th-the air is dry and there's no food and there could be dangerous beasts and you know I'm not that fit!"
"I did not know... you felt so strongly..."
Dinky, barely awake from her morning sleep-in, ambled out of the back door. "Mom, Carrot? Moustache and Braeburn are at the front door."
"Well, Little Strongheart, let's go!" Carrot Top suddenly urged onward. "Time is a-wasting and we're burning daylight. Hup to it, one two three!"
"Moustache and Braeburn are at the door? Moustache,. moustache" Derpy repeated to herself in confusion before the proverbial lightbulb went off on her head. "Silverstar!" She rushed back into the dusty hovel, the door slamming behind her from sheer force.
"Huh?" Little Strongheart gasped as the weak mare started pushing on her hindquarters, still staring at the spot Derpy once inhabited. "Carrot Top, what are you doing?"
"Adventure time, let's go," she grunted.
"Where are you going?" Dinky inquisitively asked as she jumped on Little Strongheart.
"An adventure of fun, danger, mystery and adventure. Now beat it," Carrot Top prattled as she finally got Little Strongheart to start moving. "We aren't going to find your ancestor gift thing if you don't move so move it!"
"Uh, yes, well then, off we go!" Little Strongheart, unsure of the sudden outcome but not caring to think about it, dug her hooves into the ground and shot off into the desert, Carrot Top following further and further behind.
"Yee-haw! Faster, Strongheart!" Dinky squealed as she clung on to Little Strongheart tightly.
"Actually, if I go any faster we will lose Carrot Top." Little Strongheart came to a sliding stop and turned around, Carrot Top a mile behind her and heaving for breath. "Do you require assistance!?" she yelled back at her.
"I'm," Carrot Top gasped for air, "fine!" she gasped again before collapsing into the ground. "This was not a well thought out plan."
"I think it was very well thought out. We are looking for the location of the sacred fire in the desert so we went into the desert. It sounds good to me," Little Strongheart said without the slightest hint of sarcasm and only genuine intentions, and only then Carrot Top knew how bad a plan it was. "Are you sure you are alright?"
"Little Strongheart, am I ever sure about anything?" Carrot Top pulled herself out of the dirt, spitting out a wad of sand. The air was chilly now, but every second that passed pushed the sun higher and higher into the sky. Soon, she knew, she would be sweating bullets and smell worse than three-day-old cowpies. "Okay then, lead the way. Now that I'm out here, might as well get myself killed in a wild goose chase."
"We are not chasing geese, we are looking for the remains of the sacred fire." Little Strongheart turned to the mountains in the distance. "I saw it, somewhere there, where the peaks meet the heavens."
"Really poetic," Carrot Top sighed. "How do we plan on getting to those mountains?"
"By hoof?"
Carrot Top nearly collapsed again that moment, and Dinky exploded into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "Oh man," Dinky choked through her chortling, "this is going to be a fun morning."
"Fun for you maybe; I'm not light enough to ride atop Little Strongheart..."
"Somepony should go on a diet."
"Bite me!"
Little Strongheart, confused by the ramblings going on around her, decided on the best course of action. She butted Carrot Top into the air and caught her on her back. "Are we all ready to go, friends?"
"What just happened?" Carrot Top bleated. Dinky only giggled at her as Little Strongheart, steadfast and stubborn, started the trek to the distant mountains. None of them were exactly sure of how far those were.
Derpy was zooming from one side of the kitchen to another as she worked on making a breakfast for her two visitors that neither of them asked for. "It will be ready kinda maybe sorta soon I think!" she yelled over the roar of her batter mixer. "Just gotta preheat the oven and mix the juicer. Oh! I should see if we have any of Carrot Top's carrots! She won't mind!"
"Miss Derpy, none of this is necessary," Braeburn sighed. "I just came to deliver a letter addressed to Carrot Top."
"Oh nonsense!" she continued to yell as batter splashed everywhere. "I was just making breakfast anyway and a good day starts with a good meal. You need to have all your nutriantals!"
"Er, Miss Derpy, I already ate before I came. This isn't necessary," Silverstar tried to say over the hum of the beater, only to have a menacing spoon shoved in his mouth.
"Canned beans is not breakfast," Derpy admonished him. "You need to eat right or you're gonna fall over and all anypony will say was his breath stunk like beans."
Silverstar didn't mumble a word as the pushy pegasus continued to fix their breakfast.
Braeburn cleared his throat, initially failing to catch Derpy's attention before he repeated the action louder. "Miss Derpy, as kind as this is I already had my nutritionally balanced breakfast and need to get back to work. So I'll just leave this letter here and be on my way. Uh, you two have fun now. Don't do anything you wouldn't want your daughter to see." Braeburn dropped the letter and galloped out of the hovel faster than Derpy could react.
"Is he always working?" Derpy asked.
Silverstar spat the spoon out of his mouth. "Yes, he always is. Dumb kid if there ever was one."
"So why are you here?" Derpy asked as she shoved a baking sheet into the oven.
"Do you... really want me to say it?" he answered her, an embarrassing blush spreading across his muzzle.
"It would be really nice to hear." Derpy smiled to herself, her face turned towards the oven as she watched her messy creations cook.
Carrot Top, for the first time in her life, regretted having such a large and voluminous mane. She might as well have been wearing a thick winter coat to combat the waves of the sun. "Dinky," she groaned, both still atop Little Strongheart's back, "don't you know any magic that could make this any less unbearable?"
Dinky shrugged. "Nope." She was faring a lot better against the sun than Carrot Top. "I don't even have telekinesis; I can't start producing shade from nothing."
"It was worth a try," Carrot Top sighed before coughing up a cloud of sand. "Little Strongheart, are you okay down there, you know, carrying us?"
"I feel just fine," she brightly chirped. "Do not worry. To find the gift from my ancestors I will be stronger than ten buffalo put together!"
"I'm... glad," Carrot Top replied awkwardly. She wiped away another wave of sweat, most of it getting caught in her matted mane, and took in their surroundings. Sand, as far as she could see, and the mountains didn't look any closer. "Little Strongheart, are you sure about this? You're saying you saw these visions... after you had been ramming your head against a tree?"
"Yes!" was Little Strongheart's exuberant reply. "I managed to knock over an entire tree by myself after repeated attempts at it! The next time that Bighorn tries to aggravate me he will not be on top of me so easily." She flared her nostrils and picked up her speed, nearly throwing off her passengers.
"W-what!?" Carrot Top blurted out with little thought.
"What's a Bighorn?" Dinky asked, leaning over Little Strongheart's head.
"Dinky, you don't—"
"An infuriating and insufferable bull," Little Strongheart cut her off. She slowed down her pace, giving her room to talk between breaths. "He mocks me and says that I am more like a pony than a buffalo now, even riling other bulls to join him. It is not a pleasant experience." She came to a complete stop, staring down at the dirt between her hooves, but her vision was suddenly blurred by a veil of messy orange curls.
"Are you okay?" Carrot Top asked, standing over Little Strongheart.
"O-oh, I'm fine," she stuttered. "Let us return to our journey."
Carrot Top took a long and deep breath. "So it's actually one of those days?" She quickly trotted back to Little Strongheart's side. "Dinky, you're riding me now. Let Little Strongheart take it easy."
"Oh alright," Dinky groaned, hopping between the two. "So, Little Strongheart, what did the horny boy mean when he said you were like a pony?"
"Dinky!" Carrot Top yelled as loud as she could, attracting a few buzzards. "Watch your language, and you shouldn't intrude on other's lives. What would your mother say if she was here?"
"The exact same thing I did," Dinky answered her with a single tone. Carrot Top knew she was right. "So, Little Strongheart, is it a bad thing to be called a pony in your tribe or what?" She ignored the nagging sounds emanating from her ride.
"No, it is not a bad thing at all," Little Strongheart replied with confidence. "All my friends are ponies now, and they are all wonderful. But, to be constantly singled out is still not a pleasant sensation."
"Oh," Dinky replied. "That does sound pretty bad."
"More than you could know," Carrot Top sighed.
Derpy walked closely next to Silverstar as the went along there way through the now busteling town. By now, everyone in Appleloosa knew about the new couple, and not a single pony could wish ill for the sheriff who put all his heart into protecting Appleloosa or the funny pegasus who worked the same way. It was blissful, a kind of happiness Derpy had not felt in a long time. "So, what's the agenda for today, Sheriff?"
"Rounds, like always," Silverstar answered her quickly. "I'm not the most fascinating stallion in the world, Miss Derpy."
"Oh that can't be true. You live out here in the wild wild wild west! That's three times more wild than Ponyville," Derpy giggled at him. "You have to have a few stories lying around."
"Well," Silverstar hummed with a wry smile, "there was this time that a Gila Monster attacked this city."
"A Gila monster?" Derpy cocked an invisible eyebrow and narrowed her eyes. "A Gila monster is smaller than my hoof. How does a city get attacked by that?"
"Not a Gila monster, but a Gila Monster."
"What's the difference?"
"The latter is at least a thousand times larger." Silverstar held in his amusement at Derpy's eyes began spinning out of control as she tried to process such a wild story. "It's not a lie, Miss Derpy, we were attacked by one of those, and let me tell you, it wasn't easy getting rid of it. Though, it does make for an outrageous story."
"And did 'mine truly' get rid of it?"
"Well, I guess you could say I had a hoof in it."
"Oh, Mr. Silverstar, you know how to woo a mare." Derpy playfully swooned as she draped herself over Silverstar.
"M-miss, Derpy, please quit teasin'. You're embarrassing me." Silverstar's face, even though normally covered with his brown coat, was colored bright red.
"No. I like it," Derpy teased before closing her eyes and taking in Silverstar's warmth.
"Are we there yet?" Dinky groaned, her face buried in Carrot Top's mane. It has been the sixth time in a row she had asked. For the sixth time Little Strongheart answered her with a patient no. For the sixth time Carrot Top remained quiet. "Are we getting any closer to those mountains anyway?"
"We have to be," Little Strongheart answered her again. "If we keep going towards it, it is impossible to move further from it. We just have to keep going forward."
"That kind of logic is going to get us killed," Carrot Top hissed. The sun beating down on her sweat soaked head was vaporizing her patience rapidly and every breath of air was followed by a cough of dust straight from her lungs. "We should turn back now before we dig our graves even deeper."
"I do not understand. We are walking, not digging," Little Strongheart answered her sternly, breaking Carrot Top's final nerve.
"It's an expression! An expression of how we're going to die!" Carrot Top vented on Little Strongheart as she felt every single thought in her mind explode in a fit of agitation. She thought her anger had overtaken her so much that it was causing the ground under her to shake, but a moment's notice later told her that was not the case. The ground was indeed shaking. "H-huh? W-what's going on? Is it an earthquake? Please tell me it's just an earthquake!?"
"The ground is going to split open and eat us!" Dinky cried out in panic as she clamped herself to Carrot Top's back.
"D-don't be ridiculous. That only happens in the movies!" Carrot Top was trying to convince herself more than dinky, and as she looked down the ground began to tear apart as something under her began lifting them higher and higher into the sky. "W-what the hay is going on!" she cried out, panic shaking her nerves into a messy frenzy. "Oh, Celestia! It's the end of the world!"
"It is not the end of the world!" Little Strongheart shouted over crying mare. "It's a Gila Monster!"
"A Gila monster? A Gila monster!?" Carrot Top yelled back. She looked down, and If any part of Little Strongheart's sentence was true, it was monster. A behemothian and sand-scaled beast had risen from some kind of slumber in the ground under them, and now they were on its back. "That is not a Gila monster! I can crush those with my hooves! Now explain what the hay this is!"
"Not a Gila monster, a Gila Monster!" Little Strongheart corrected her breathlessly. "Stay calm. If you begin thrashing about it will only serve to aggravate it!"
The leviathan Gila Monster took one step forward, sending waves of vibration cascading through it's silo-sized legs and rushing down it's mile long back, shaking up its passengers. It let out an angry hiss that filled the air and thoughts of anyone listening. The monster started lifted its tail readying to crush it's invaders flat.
Carrot Top felt a familiar urge to vomit take hold of her and she turned to Little Strongheart with frightened eyes. "What do we do!?" she sobbed, almost paralyzed in fear. "We're going to die if we don't do something!"
"We have to make our way to the head, slowly," Little Strongheart explained, trying to make her scared and cracking voice as soothing as possible. "Easily, and calmly. C'mon."
"We're dead," Dinky sighed as she watched the looming tail rise slowly over them.
Little Strongheart grabbed and Dinky and hauled the filly onto her back. "Carrot Top, we need to go," she beckoned as she took the first small step towards the head of the beast. "Just move slowly and lightly and it will not be able to crush us as easily. You can do it."
"Crush... right." Carrot Top, adhering to Little Strongheart's almost reassuring words, pulled herself back up as she started her desperate race for life. Every neuron in Carrot Top's frazzeled head was firing the panic signal, compelling her to buck up and run away. There was no place to run to, just to Little Strongheart. "Calmly, calmly," Carrot Top whispered to herself to no avail.
"It's above us!" Dinky shouted to get Carrot Top and Little Strongheart's attention. The Gila Monster's tail had finally reached its apex and was ready to crush them in one swift and deft action.
"Plan?" Carrot Top gulped as her lift started flashing before her eyes..
"The only plan now, is to stampede!" Little Strongheart shouted. She threw herself forward, hooves heavy with force, and stampeded to the head, rupturing the scales of the beats with every step, and as she moved as fast as she could, Carrot Top was a split second behind her but unable to keep up. The tail of the beast was now in full-swing.
Carrot Top heaved for breath with every step, tears flying in the wind behind her as she chased Little Strongheart, the distance between them growing with every fraction of a second and the shadow under her growing larger and larger. She prayed for a miracle, something and anything that could save her from this predicament, but she she felt a hoof slip off of a an oddly jutting scale. She slipped, completely losing balance, and every failure in her life played in front of her, over and over again infinitely in the span of a second,
"Carrot Top!" Dinky screamed as she watched the horrifying scene unfold.
Little Strongheart expertly whipped around, pivoting herself about a single hoof. The mountainous tail was seconds away from crushing Carrot Top. She lowered her head, and resumed her charge, straight towards Carrot Top. She rammed head first into the still frozen stiff mare, blowing the both of them to the edge of the beast's side and narrowly avoiding the would-be decisive crush of the monstrous tail.
A second passed where no one did anything, one second too long Little Strongheart knew, but even she needed to calm herself after narrowly avoiding a grisly fate. She pulled herself up and extended a hoof down the Carrot Top. "Are you okay?"
Carrot Top took the hoof, letting out a pained gurgle before pulling herself up with the buffalo's help. "Not really."
"Uh, girls," Dinky squeaked as she tugged Little Strongheart's head towards the back of the creature. A large and deadly claw was being raised on them now. "Run, please!"
"Let's go!" Little Strongheart pulled herself and Carrot Top back into a frantic gallop to escape their next threat. The head was almost in view, and with it their chance of survival. "Just a little further! We can make it!" she shouted back to Carrot Top.
Carrot Top, running solely on her second wind and adrenalin, flopping her head back and forth to Little Strongheart. The claw of the beast came down mere inches behind her, taking off a few tail hairs dripping with sweat.
Little Strongheart felt the seconds pass like hours as she continued to push herself to the safety of the Gila Monster's head, always looking back to make sure Carrot Top was still just a head away. Just a little more, just a little more! she kept telling herself as desperation and perspiration began to cloud her vision and each step felt an eternity apart. "Carrot Top! Put everything into one last sprint!"
Carrot Top, believing herself incapable of going any faster, just threw caution and logic to the wind as she barreled forward ahead of Little Strongheart, screaming the entire way as her heart hammered away in her chest and every ounce of blood begin rushing to her ears.
Little Strongheart, happy to see Carrot Top more or less still well, rocketed forward as she and Carrot Top cleared the final stretch to the head of the beast.
Carrot Top collapsed, unable to take anymore, right on the head of the beast. If she hadn't been running for life, she would have been begging for death. "Are we done?" she pleaded as Little Strongheart slid to her side. "Are we safe? Can I finally vomit and get it over with?"
"Not quite," Dinky squeaked as the head of the monster swiftly flung them upwards, launching them high into the air. Seeing its invaders at long last, the Gila Monster opened its mighty maw, ready to catch and swallow its prey in one terrible bite.
Carrot Top felt the gravity overpower her as she slowed down in mid-air and begun pulling her back down to the world where only a gruesome death seemingly waited for her. She didn't have any energy left to scream. She was useless to her own cause as she watched the monstrous mouth grow larger and larger. With what little strength left, she tried to struggle, to even flap if it would give her one more moment of life as the seconds counting down her death grew smaller.
"Gotcha!"
Carrot Top looked up. She was hanging, between teeth, suspended by the iron hold of Little Strongheart.
"You okay?" Little Strongheart asked her as she started pulling her up. A second later, they were back on the Gila Monster's head, Carrot Top gasping for breath over Little Strongheart.
"I love you!" Carrot Top blubbered as she struggled to pull herself off the cow. "I still partly blame you for getting us into this mess, but I still love you!"
"I am honored to know you have such strong feelings," Little Strongheart giggled. "By the way, where is Dinky?"
Carrot Top panicked for a moment, but was immediately crushed under Dinky as the little filly crashed right on top of her. "Right here," Dinky answered Little Strongheart.
"Good," Little Strongheart sighed with relief. "We are all now safe and well!"
"Safe and well," Carrot Top groaned as she felt Little Strongheart grab her and drag her over to one of the Gila Monster's eyes. "What are we doing now?"
"Steering," Little Strongheart answered her.
The Gila Monster, now confused and disoriented, turned to try and get away from the strange monsters that had suddenly appeared in its vision, but no amount of turning seemed to get it any further and it started to run as fast as it could to escape the hulking brown giantess and it's strange and foul orange growth.
Derpy stared with disbelief at Silverstar. "You got rid of it by tying a pie to a stick and holding it out in front of it..." She had listened to Silverstar's recounting of this supposed attack for the past hour, leading to a very disappointing climax. She had hoped for a little more dashing heroism, but she had found that when it came to solving town problems, the ponies of Appleloosa were quite fond to using pies. "I shouldn't be surprised," she groaned.
"Gila Monsters aren't very smart," Silverstar snorted. "It's not like we have an army of spear wielding ponies to bring it down. We Appleloosians make do with what we have."
Derpy elbowed Silverstar in the side and chided him. "And you have pies."
"Yes, we have lots of pies." Silverstar answered her with a wry grin just before catching a familiar scent in the air. "Speaking of which," he awkward started, "would you... care to grab a pie... to share and all that with me?"
"That sounds delightful!" Derpy squealed as she wrapped herself around one of Silverstar's forelegs. She enjoyed feeling him move as he trotted over to a nearby stand. It was the feeling of how very real he was that she enjoyed. Not another dream of some other stallion, but a really real one. "Any tables nearby?"
"Not that I can see," Silverstar answered her.
"Then, how about we go to my place?" Derpy asked as she nuzzled more into Silverstar's tangible leg.
"Isn't your hut usually empty this time of the day?" Silverstar asked in-turn, feeling his face grow hot from the rushing blood.
"No, Dinky should be home," Derpy expertly answered him. She felt his pulse subsiding, and couldn't help letting out the faintest giggle. "C'mon, I need to feed my silly little filly before she starves herself even sillier."
"Can't argue with that," Silverstar sighed happily as he started the path to the dilapidated hovel that Derpy and Carrot Top had been living for almost a year. Neither spoke a single word on their walk to the quaint hut, Silverstar out of habitual quietness, Derpy just because she wanted to enjoy the moment. Finally in front of the door, Silverstar rapped on it a few times, waiting for a certain Dinky's sarcastic answer. No one answered though.
"Huh?" Derpy bleated as she detached herself from Silverstar and opened the never-locked door. "Dinky, mommy's home! And she brought pie!"
"Pie usually gets the foals moving," Silverstar commented. Derpy didn't move and inch. "Miss Derpy?"
"This morning, Little Strongheart, ghosts, breakfast, Dinky." Her eyes spun in place for a moment, processing every minute detail of every hour that has passed since then and now, and then exploded with energy. "Mommy senses tingling!" she shouted loud enough for the heavens to echo her cry.
"M-Miss Derpy?" Silverstar squeaked as Derpy moved faster than his eyes could follow. She was already outside with a chariot tied to her back. "Miss Derpy, what are you doing?"
"I'm getting my filly! Now are you coming along or not?" she asked him menacingly. Not wanting to argue, Silverstar hopped into the back of the chariot and with a supernaturally strong flap of her wings, Derpy took off into the air with only her instincts to guide her.
Riding on the Gila Monster was an experience that Carrot Top would later recall as amongst the most terrifying events of her life, and after hours of Little Strongheart's graceless steering of the monster, it had at long last crashed itself headfirst into the side of a mountain range, the very mountain Little Strongheart claimed she’d seen her sacred fire in.
"We're here! Let's go!" Little Strongheart chirped, almost dancing with glee as she picked Carrot Top up from her resting position. With Dinky safely clamping to her back Little Strongheart grabbed Carrot Top and flung the both of them onto a nearby jutting cliff safely, finally off of the gargantuan Gila Monster. She turned back to and bowed graciously. "Thank you so much for your assistance." The Gila Monster began opening its mouth again.
"And that's our cue to leave," Carrot Top snapped, regaining the feeling in her legs. She grabbed Little Strongheart and pulled her in deeper into the mountain where the Gila Monster could not reach them. Dinky, still clinging to Little Strongheart, giggled madly at the frantic Carrot Top.
Feeling safe for the first time in hours, Carrot Top collapsed to the rocky floor, heaving for air and life. The sun in the sky was just beginning its descent below the western horizon, giving her the perfect pink sky to recuperate to against the cold rocky ground. "This is not a day I needed," she feebly sighed.
"But we are so close to finishing our journey!" Little Strongheart expressed with delight. "We're close, I can feel it in my horns!"
"Your horns can wait!" Carrot Top yelled out breathlessly.
"Careful," Dinky warned her, "you don't want to cause an avalanche."
"An avalanche would be a nice change of pace," Carrot Top snapped back at her in a whispered tone. "Just give me a few minutes, please. I can't keep up."
Little Strongheart sat herself down, closing her eyes and harking back to the morning when she had received the ethereal message. No other buffalo in the tribe that was her age had received a spirit message, a fact she took some comfort in and will continue to when the call her names. The proud look in Chief Thunderhooves' eyes when she told him. "Let us begin climbing," she said suddenly.. "I saw the sacred fire towards the top of of the peaks. Let us hurry!"
"You're going to kill me, Little Strongheart," Carrot Top moaned as she pushed herself off the ground. One look up, high into the peaks, was enough to break her spirit again that day.
"Let's go!" Dinky cheered as she and Little Strongheart put their hooves on the stone wall, Carrot Top a couple seconds behind them.
Hours, hours upon hours spent climbing up and down mountain walls searching for the gift that might have never existed; that's what Carrot Top thought at least. She wasn't going to trust Little Strongheart's 'vision' anytime soon, but yet she was there, running up and down the mountains with the ever positive buffalo and the even snarkier filly. "Are we even close to done?" Carrot Top growled as she dropped to the floor, a puddle of sweat collecting under her. "I can't take this day anymore!"
"I can see something," Little Strongheart said quietly. "Something faint, at the top of this last peak."
"It's at the top?" Carrot Top gasped, her frozen breath rising above her. "Of course, it's always at the top. Nothing in my life can ever be easy," she complained more, but Little Strongheart simply strode right past her, seemingly poised and strong. Carrot Top watched her place a weary hoof on the rocky wall and immediately slip right off. "Are you okay?" Carrot Top's asked with concern.
"Fine, I am just tired," Little Strongheart answered her with a weary voice. "Although, I may have... overexerted myself just a little." One deep breath and single gaze up towards the high peaks took what confidence Little Strongheart had left. She wouldn't give up, though. She was given a vision by her ancestors, one to her alone. With her back towards Carrot Top and Dinky, she addressed them with spurious sureness. "Why don't you two wait down here? I can go on alone," she lied.
"I'm going up too!" Dinky argued back, bounding up to Little Strongheart.
"Little Strongheart, you can't keep this up," Carrot Top pleaded with her. "Give up if only for your life's sake and let's figure out some way to get back home, or find some warmth at least. We're going to freeze to death at his rate!"
"We... we are?" Little Strongheart sighed, choking back a tear. "But..."
"Strongheart!" Carrot Top yelled. "This is ridiculous and we should go."
"It is not ridiculous," Little Strongheart whispered quietly to herself.
"What was that?" Carrot Top seethed, her legs quivering as she picked herself up.
"It is not ridiculous to me," Little Strongheart whispered again with her icy breath.
"Speak louder!"
"I said It is not ridiculous to me!" Little Strongheart finally roared back, her back becoming rigid with fury. "This is important to me! I have worked hard, very hard for a long time... and after all this time I finally get some kind of reward! No matter what I do, it seems Braeburn will not ever like me as I like him, and I am made fun of in my tribe for being around ponies more than them! This morning I get a vision from my ancestors, considered one of the greatest of honors and privileges for us! And while you may find it ridiculous this is still more important to me than my life right now!"
With her back towards them, neither Carrot Top or Dinky could see the anger and tears building up in her face, all the emotions she had built up beginning to surge out of her like a rainstorm. She turned around, ready to face Carrot Top's ire. She found a startled filly who was shaking violently in the cold weather, and a once bright orange mare looking uncharacteristically pale. "And yet, for all it is worth, all I did was put my dear friends in danger..."
Carrot Top felt her legs tense up. She was fighting every urge slam it against her own face. "Why," she muttered to herself, "did you have to go and say all that."
"Oh, hows about we start a fire?" Dinky suggested. "We can use some rocks around here to start a fire, right?"
"It seems like the best course of action," Little Strongheart lamented.
Carrot Top walked up to the rocky ledge of the wall next to Little Strongheart, placing a hoof on it. "I'm going to regret this," she groaned. "I am going to regret this a lot... get on. You too Dinky."
"Carrot, what are you planning?" Dinky asked her curiously.
"Oh, it's not obvious? I am going insane and think that I actually contain the strength to carry you and not-so-Little Strongheart over here to the top of this peak. Of course, the chances of me being successful are slim and and I'm most likely going to slip and we'll plummet to our deaths so somepony or somebuffalo or someanything hurry up and talk me out of this before I'm shaking hooves with my gramma!"
"You... you would do that for me?" Little Strongheart asked her, eyes wide as saucers and dripping with more tears, each one freezing not long after escaping her eyes.
"Oh Celestia, why me," Carrot Top whimpered as she felt out the rocky ledge. "Well... get on, you two." Dinky wasted no time in burdening herself on Carrot Top's shoulder. Of course, it wasn't Dinky Carrot Top saw quite worried about. "C'mon... Little Strongheart."
"Carrot Top, you do not understand what this means to me," she half-drearily answered Carrot Top. "This is the nicest thing you've ever done for me." She placed one hoof around Carrot Top's shoulders and clamped her hind legs clamping around Carrot Top's stomach.
Immediately, Carrot Top felt the weight of Little Strongheart. "Watch this be the last thing I ever do for you." The cow may have looked smaller than Carrot Top most of the time, but she was easily heavier.
"Time to get a leg up, Carrot," Dinky chuckled.
"Very funny," Carrot Top grumbled back.
One hoof at a time Carrot Top began her ascension up the rocky walls. One slip, and she would die. They all would die, and, if Carrot Top was lucky, she could write 'I told you so' on the ground before she would pass away and finally attain the peace she longed for. Of course, if the fall didn't kill them, the cold would. Death was such a lovely subject to joke about, Carrot Top mused, but no amount of inappropriate jokes was enough for the reality of death. One hoof went over the other, again.
"You're so strong," Little Strongheart hummed into Carrot Top's ear. "See, you should not doubt yourself when you are capable of so much."
Carrot Top choked over her next words. "Y-yeah, I guess. Well, I mean we're not as strong as you buffalo but ponies are pretty naturally strong." And just like that, a compliment out of the blue had jostled her more than any thought of death had.
"Don't be so modest, Carrot," Dinky beamed at her. "Look, you're almost a fourth there!"
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"Actually, yeah," Dinky giggled, "nopony would have ever thought you could get this far."
"Don't encourage me," Carrot Top sighed as she put another hoof in front of another. Another over-exertion of her meager strength. She realized the only reason she wasn't freezing to death was the warmth radiating from Little Strongheart hugging her so closely.
"You know, I truly was ready to give up," Little Strongheart admitted, hugging her head into the nook of Carrot Top's shoulders. "You were right."
"Well of course I was right."
"But then you found the strength to keep us going. You are amazing."
Silence. Carrot Top had nothing to say.
"I can never repay you for this."
"Be quiet. I can't concentrate," Carrot Top snapped. It was too much for her to listen to Little Strongheart's tender words. It was nothing Carrot Top would ever expect of her.
"Half way there, Carrot!" Dinky announced. "C'mon, girl, move them thunder thighs."
"You really are your mother's daughter," Carrot Top sneered back.
Another hoof in front of the other and Carrot Top continued her once-thought-hopeless ascension, every inch bringing with it another round of cheers and admiration from Dinky and Little Strongheart respectively and another wave of mixed emotions. "Would you both shush? I can barely hear myself think." Of course, they didn't stop.
"Just one more spurt of energy!" Dinky giddily exclaimed, the edge of the cliff mere feet away from her. "Show all those ponies that bullied you in gym class who's boss!"
"How did you know about that!?" Carrot Top growled at her as she pushed up a little harder.
"I guessed." Dinky jumped up from Carrot Top and landed on the top of the cliff. She reached down with both of her hooves towards the two stragglers. "Grab on!" she shouted with a cheerful smile.
"No offence, Dinky," Carrot Top huffed, "but I don't care how good you are in gym. You cannot support this one-ton cow." Just one more hoof up and she would be at the top.
"Thank you," Little Strongheart blithely replied. "I try hard to keep up with the other young buffalo. But, I'm afraid the ‘little’ part of my name will haunt me in my growing years."
"You! Are Not! Little!" Carrot Top yelled as loud as she could as she finally got her hooves at the top of the base and pulled herself up, throwing Little Strongheart off her. As she finally collapsed to the ground, the taste of dirt infiltrating her mouth, the moment had dawned on her of what she had just accomplished. "The top... I got us to the top!"
"I knew you could, Carrot Top!" Little Strongheart squealed in delight as she wrapped her new hero in a tight and crushing hug. "I could not have made it this far without you."
"Put me down and let me die... please... before I heave all over you," Carrot Top groggily groaned.
"So, is it up here?" Dinky asked, suddenly appearing between them. "That thing your ghost grandparents were trying to show you?"
Little Strongheart gently let go of Carrot Top and searched around. Everything before her seemed barren and empty. Nothing was all she could see. "This is not right," she whispered to herself. "This has to be the place they wanted me to go to." She walked to the center of the scape, assessing everything around her. "But, where is it?"
"Maybe, it was one of those ‘adventure is the reward’ deals?" Dinky questioned, a hoof by her face.
"I am not going to die for some sentimental horse-apples like that!" Carrot Top shouted in disbelief. She sprung right back up and galloped up to Little Strongheart. "Where is it!? It has to be here! You said it was here? You saw it here! Do you not understand that we're going to die here now? If I'm going to die I at least want to die holding onto ancient buffalo treasure that will curse the next sap that touches it!"
"C-Carrot Top, please calm down," Little Strongheart urged, but the mare had lost it. She was kicking and bucking furiously around her with no direct target for her frustration, looking like a complete fool. "If you waste more energy than you really might be in danger of dying of exhaustion."
"Exhaustion, hunger, hypothermia? What's the difference at this point!?"
"Carrot, you're on fire!" Dinky shrieked.
"Of course I am! This was all a big waste of my life!"
"No, you really are on fire," Little Strongheart pointed out, urging to the stream of smoke emitting from one of Carrot Top's hooves. Moments later, it erupted into a true flame.
Carrot Top didn't need to look down anymore. "Fire... Fire!" Panicking, she started running around in circles, unable to think of any basic action to rid herself of her flammation.
"Stop, drop, roll!" Dinky called out.
"Stop, drop, roll!" Carrot Top repeated and she fell to the floor again and began rolling in the dirt in degradation. When the fire was finally out, all she could manage was a pitiful: "Why me? Why just me?"
Little Strongheart traced Carrot Top's burn line back to it's source, and it was there, buried under dirt and ash on closer inspection, was a pile of fiery-red feathers. "I don't believe it, but it is indeed phoenix feathers!" she squealed with uncontrolled enthusiasm.
"Phoenix feathers?" Dinky echoed.
"Phoenix Feathers!" Carrot Top shouted with renewed vigor. She shot back up again and bolted to Little Strongheart's side. "It really is phoenix feathers! Well, phoenix down to be more precise? Your ancestors wanted you to find this!?" she asked incredulously.
"It would appear so. We will need to handle these with care. I wouldn't want us to have charred carrots to deal with," Little Strongheart laughed, prompting little more than a stifled groan from Carrot Top.
"Terrible jokes aside, how are we going to get home?" Carrot Top bemoaned, motioning towards the horizon. "The sun is down, and, as I've only said a million times by now, we're going to freeze to death here if we do nothing." She was worried for their lives, but Dinky and Little Strongheart didn't seem fazed in the slightest. Instead, the buffalo held a feather between her hooves to Carrot Top's face and it gave off a supernatural warmth.
"We can survive the night with these," she said with a smile. "When the sun is up, we'll return to Appleloosa."
"We got lucky," Carrot Top groaned.
"Maybe the ancestors intended for this to happen."
"I'll believe that when Braeburn finally shuts up and shows a real emotion," Carrot Top gruffed.
"I do not follow," Little Strongheart answered back, but Carrot Top remained silent and unmoving. Little Strongheart gathered up all the fallen feathers and she and Dinky huddled up next to Carrot Top, basking in the ethereal heat of the sacred feathers.
"This has been the best day in a long time!" Dinky squealed at last. "Why didn't we ever do this sooner?"
"Because we almost died," Carrot Top spat back.
"It could have been worse. We could have actually died," Little Strongheart replied with a giggle. Carrot Top shot her an annoyed glance. "But we didn't, and it is thanks to your not giving up, Carrot Top. Were it not for that, we would still be on the ledge below, actually freezing. You are really amazing."
"C-can you stop saying things like that!?" Carrot Top exploded.
"Carrot Top is blushing!" Dinky laughed. "Carrot Top and Little Strongheart kissing in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
"That isn't funny!"
"I think you would make an excellent husband," Little Strongheart added.
"That's not— wait! Why am I the husband!?"
"Because I am the wife," Little Strongheart asserted.
"I... no! I'm the wife!" Carrot Top argued back.
"No, because I am the wife."
A abrupt blur of gray exploded out of the sky, landing mere inches away in a cloud of dust. As the dust settled away, it revealed a certain blonde pegasus pulling a large wagon. "Did I miss a wedding?" was all she could say as she stared at Carrot Top and Little Strongheart.
"No, we are just arguing over who would be the wife in the relationship," Little Strongheart answered her.
"Oh," Derpy replied. "Well, this isn't the ending I was expecting, but I'm glad you found happiness, Carrot. Is this your honeymoon?"
Carrot Top could've broken down and cried, or she could have snapped and assaulted Derpy, but instead, of all the tactless actions, she rolled back her head and laughed as hard as she could., even though she found none of it funny. "No, Derpy. Now, can you please take us home?"
"Just one moment," she growled, her tone turning dark and serious with a ferocity befitting an enraged manticore. "Where is she?" she hissed indignantly.
Dinky quickly hid behind Little Strongheart's wide back.
"I can smell your fear, Dinky!" Derpy scolded her. "Get over here now, young filly!"
"I can explain!" Dinky retorted vainly, still cowering in the shadows of the buffalo.
"No amount of explaining," Derpy started as she prowled around Little Strongheart, her voice dripping with venom, "is going to get you out of being grounded for a month!"
"B-but, mom!" Dinky cried back before being suddenly tackled out into the open, pinned to the ground be a mother who had lost her patience long ago. Moments later, they had all been loaded into the cart and were soaring through the sky on their way back to Appleloosa. Silverstar had been in the cart the whole time, too afraid of a certain pegasus to make a sound.
Carrot Top stumbled through the swaying doorway of her designated hovel, collapsing down on the floor paralyzed with exhaustion. "You know, I think this cozy little dump of a home is almost starting to grow on me... almost." Derpy strode past her, leading Dinky to their room with vigilant eyes and a fierce aura.
"I have half a mind to staple you to my back!" Derpy scowled at her. "Do you know how worried I was!? I dang near had a heart attack! Have you ever been attacked by your heart? Because it isn't pretty! Now get in there, think about what you've done, and if you're sorry enough by the time I'm done talking with Carrot, maybe I'll read you a bedtime story... if I'm feeling nice enough!"
"I'm too old for bedtime stories anyway," Dinky retorted, but one scorching stare from her mother quickly had her changing her tune. "Or, you know, one might not hurt, if I'm sorry and all, and you're feeling nice and all... I love you mommy!." She disappeared into their bedroom quickly, shutting the door behind her.
"I'll mommy you," Derpy mumbled to herself before turning back over to Carrot Top, who hadn't moved an inch. "You! How could you bring a filly into the desert! You're supposed to be the brains of this outfit!" Her anger had far from subsided as she continued to bore down on Carrot Top. "You're the supposed to be the one pony in the world I trust more than myself! How could you let her out there!"
"Hey, this wasn't my idea," Carrot Top shot back. "It was Strongheart's! You remember from this morning, right!?"
"So you go with her and bring my daughter!? That's what you decide to do!?" Derpy exasperatedly yelled at her.
"She came on her own accord!" Carrot Top screamed back, utterly mentally exhausted. Derpy remained silent, and Carrot Top was ready to break down from all the aggregate emotions of the day. She spoke again, softly and feebly. "Look, I'm sorry, but before I could finally pound it into that thick buffalo's ahead what a bad idea this all was we get ambushed by a fricken Gila Monster the size of the Smoky Mountains. I was trying to turn us around, but what the hay was I supposed to do at that point?"
"Not get her involved in the first place!" Derpy yelled back as loud as she could. She and Carrot Top stared at each other for a long second, both seething, before dropping to the floor exhausted out of their minds.
Silence echoed between the both of them before Carrot Top finally made a sound. "I'm sorry," she feebly bleated.
"I know," Derpy sighed back. "I'm sorry for yelling. This is partially my fault too... so, how was your day?" she asked, completely devoid of energy.
"Decent," Carrot Top answered her, just as devoid of strength. "Yours?"
"So-so," Derpy yawned. "Oh yeah, Braeburn brought a letter for you. It's on the counter."
"Screw that, I'll read it later," Carrot Top hiffed.
"Now what?" Derpy questioned, drawing circles on the floor with a hind-hoof.
"Coddle Dinky to feel better?" Carrot Top suggested.
"Not sure if it will work this time," Derpy lamented as she picked herself up. "I was so worried, you have no idea." With what little energy she had left, Derpy picked herself up and dragged herself to her room where Dinky waited, Carrot Top following behind. She pushed open the door, and on the other side was Dinky, with a couple of red feathers taped to her back.
Dinky stared at them like a deer stares at headlights. "Uhh... I can explain... Little Strongheart did give me these as a gift... and... uh..."
"My little princess wants to be like mommy!" Derpy squealed out in delight as she scooped up Dinky and started kissing her fervently.
Carrot Top stared passively at the scene, too tired to smile like she wanted to. "And that's how I'll end my day," Carrot Top sighed, leaving Derpy and her daughter to bond alone. The day was now over, and she was going to need a long and relaxing rest after all she had been through.
The blinds were closed to the beating sun outside. No sliver of light could penetrate it and disturb Carrot Top on this restful morning. No light could get to her, but no light could ever match the friendly call of a well-intentioned friend.
"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! Carrot Top! It's time to wake up!" Derpy squealed in delight as she balanced a spatula on her nose. "Carrot, the dirt isn't going to study itself!"
Carrot Top slumped out of her room, eyes half dead and shoulders slumped. She could feel another day just ready to pull her down to a new low. "I was having the most wonderful dream," she scowled.
"Was I in it?" Derpy giggled as she placed a plate of waffles in front of Carrot Top.
"Yes, you were. You were so quiet and helpful..."
"You gonna eat that?" Derpy asked as she eyed the waffles she just placed for Carrot Top. Carrot Top's response was to barrel into the plate and devour said waffles with the disposition of a hungry timberwolf. "No syrup?"
"Syrup is for happy ponies," Carrot Top groaned. "Well, now that I'm up, might as well continue with my day..."
"That's the spirit!"
A knock from the door caught both of their attentions. Carrot Top didn't need more than one attempt to guess who it was. "Come on in, Little Strongheart. Door's unlocked... it's never locked to begin with."
Little Strongheart burst of enthusiasm as she entered the sunbleached hovel finally busted the door off its hinges, leaving it to lay deformed on the floor. "Derpy, Carrot Top! I need you girls to... how do you say it? Hold my haunches!"
"Can do!" Derpy saluted as she fluttered over to the cow's backside.
"That can't possibly be right," Carrot Top groaned back. "At least, I really hope that's not right."
"I shall try again," Little Strongheart bleated as Derpy started holding her haunches. "I need you two to encourage me from afar as I try to get Braeburn's attention with this gift I made." She pulled out from seemingly the folds of her fur a necklace. It was ornamented with phoenix feathers. "Derpy, you can let go now."
"The phrase is 'have your back'," Carrot Top corrected her as she stared at the necklace. "You ask your rival for Braeburn's affection to help you in this?" She stared at Little Strongheart incredulously, who stared back sincerely. Seconds later, Carrot Top found herself laughing to herself. "Of course you would, and you would help me if I asked, right?"
"Of course! What are friends for?"
"Not for holding each other's haunches, that's for sure." The kitchen was consumed with laughter. Maybe, Carrot Top thought, today would be a really good day. Just maybe.
Rounding the corners of Appleloosa, Little Strongheart felt her heart flutter from street to street as she played out the fated moment in her head over and over again. She would offer the sweet little gift to Braeburn, and he would be so overcome with it that he would look at her in the way she looks at him. She had doubts about the last part, but wishfulness never hurt. "He's usually at Silverstar's home this early."
"We're almost there," Derpy giggled. "I wonder if Silverstar would object to a double date."
"Derpy, for my sanity, keep those thoughts to yourself," Carrot Top snapped.
"There he is," Little Strongheart whispered as they turned the corner. "Ancestors, I thank you for the moment you have given me."
"Just go for it!" Derpy pushed Little Strongheart forward, or at least tried to. No matter how much she pushed, Little Strongheart wouldn't budge.
"Strongheart," Carrot Top started, "are you sure about this?"
The odd use of her name caught Little Strongheart off-guard. "Y-yes. I am sure. I have been wanting to do this... for almost a year now."
"Then go for it now before you he disappears and you're left wondering what the hay could have happened."
A resounding click went off in Little Strongheart's head as she turned back to that cute colt as he idly chatted with Silverstar. "I'm going," she said to Carrot Top and Derpy, conviction in her voice and movement. "I thank you both for watching my backside."
"Close enough," Carrot Top replied.
She ambled closer to him, slowly. Her face felt on fire, and the phoenix feathers were nowhere near it. Silverstar noticed her presence first, and motioned to her for Braeburn. He turned around, looked at her and smiled, like he always would. A smile filled with youthful vigor and innocence. "Good morning," she started as she waved to them. "How are the both of you on this good morning?"
"I'm as fit as a fiddle as the saying goes," Braeburn answered her in delight.
"I've had better," Silverstar offered. He backed away slowly, moving closer into the shadows where he could watch the scene unfold. Under his breath, he was rooting for the nervous buffalo.
"Here to start your rounds?" Braeburn asked her. "I'd be afraid to be a criminal in this town with your around. Well, I would be nervous to be a criminal period. Don't want to end up like some less savory family members."
"Yes, but, I have something more," Little Strongheart awkwardly started. She reached back into her fur and pulled out the hoof-made necklace. Hours spent crafting the little bauble were pushing for this moment. "I actually made this for you." Dangling from a hoof, she held it up to Braeburn. "It's made from phoenix feathers, so it will keep you warm on your cold nights at your orchard."
"This is for me?" Braeburn whispered to himself as he took the necklace onto his hoof. "Gee, I don't know what to say about this... really." Awkward silence passed between them, Little Strongheart frozen stiff, and Braeburn scared almost witless. "This is really nice, again. And, uh, I'm really glad to have a thoughtful friend like you, Little Strongheart. So, thank you."
"You're welcome," Little Strongheart half-heartedly replied. "I put a lot of effort into it."
"Yeah, I can tell," Braeburn weakly answered her. "I'll see you around?"
"Yeah," Little Strongheart feebly sighed.
From their own shadow of a corner, Carrot Top and Derpy watched, one with disappointment, and one with anger. "Derpy," Carrot Top started, "why don't you go cheer up Little Strongheart?"
"What are you going to do?" Derpy asked back.
"Have a talk with our friend," she hissed. Derpy stared at her for a moment before taking her hint and flying off to catch a broken buffalo. Carrot Top went another way,slowly closing the ground between her and Braeburn, he mind buzzing with words she had for him, few of which good for public spaces.
Braeburn felt a presence catching up on him. Turning around he caught Carrot Top. Quickly gathering his thoughts, he took a deep breath and smiled her way. "Good morning, Carrot Top!" he happily announced.
"Are you as thick as a tree!?" Carrot Top finally settled on.
"Come again?" Braeburn bleated in shock. "Carrot Top?"
"That poor girl put all her feelings into that gift!" she shouted at him.
"Er, Carrot Top, Miss Top, you're makin' a scene."
"I don't care about that right now! How can you accept that gift from her like that, something I'll have you know we almost died over, just so you can give her that pitiful excuse for a brush off! That girl likes you enough to give up phoenix feathers for you! And this is how you act?"
"Miss Top, I have no idea what you're talking about!"
Carrot Top blanked out for a moment, and when she finally came to her hoof was an inch away from Braeburn's face and he stared at her wide eyed. "Why are you so difficult!" she yelled at him before turning tail and galloping off.
No door was in place to impede her. Carrot Top stomped angrily into the hovel, her force so great that she actually broke one of the floor boards. "Great, just great. What else can go wrong?" she scowled to no one in particular, only for her eyes to catch a letter sitting innocently on the counter. Her name on the front along with the logo of the company. "No good can come of this," she groaned as she reached out and bit open the top of the envelope. She shook out the contents and began reading, her expectations already exceptionally low.
Dear Carrot Top,
We are pleased to inform you that the data you've reported from your findings in Appleloosa have been regarded as a great success. Your stay in Appleloosa will be coming to an end soon and can move back to your home in Ponyville. The company will stop paying for your food and lodging at the end of the year.
With Gratitude,
Agrivolution Inc.
Going Beyond a Taste of Heaven
Carrot Top's eye had become bloodshot in a matter of seconds. She crumpled up the letter, and, without confirming if she was alone, screamed as loud as she could. She was indeed alone.
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How dense can Braeburn get
I'll be honest. Braeburn has gone from funny to just plain annoying and makes me want to punch him in the face. Also, I thought Carrot Top wanted to home, shouldn't she be happy about the letter?
1835833
1835491
The fact that readers are growing frustrated with Braeburn means I'm doing I'm job right! At this point, it is indeed not supposed to be funny.
*grins* Very cool stuff, One or two small typos:
wrapped - should be rapped
feint - should be faint
"She came on her own accord!" - "She came of her own accord!"
Carrot Top does not get paid enough to deal with this.
This sounds... actually kinda great.
Soooo (added to favorites).
Before I go in, here's a random image:
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/327/1/8/pregnant_strongheart_with_braeburn_by_xniclord789x-d5lvqd7.png
Original by xniclord789x (deviant art username)
Lets do this
And then everything starts falling apart...
1895522
I have a few editors, but some of this stuff was done when we were new to the fanfic scene. We're better by now. Regardless, enjoy what you can of my rambling!
EDIT: Oh yeah! And thanks for the tip on the previous chapter!
What?
1896214
Thank you for your part in making this fic a little more readable. The fact this wasn't caught by another reader is somewhat baffling.
Braeburn is kind of a dick. As somebody who actually is totally oblivious to when somebody has feelings for him, I am totally authorized to make that judgement.
1895613 "inequine"?
Yeah, yours sounds better than mine. Thanks.
Why is this chapter so long?
Poor Carrot Top.
Still yellow.
but still love it
The third one lol
That was a fast change of attitude
Yeah Buffalo's and in the future Yaks are pretty strong but I think with that theory Earth ponies have a pretty good strength
Wow Carrot Top that was pretty amazing
Phoenix Feather kind of reminds me when Rarity needed the feathers for her fashion line but apparently not just only it can affect your hearing but also burst into flame if you step on it too hard
Now that's a change of attitude from Derpy and it's kind of scary
Still in the friend zone ouch
Well then it was a pretty epic chapter but also in the end was pretty sad so it looks like little strong heart told derpy and Carrot Top about the ancestors called out for her to find something in the mountains which Carrot Top thinks it is a bad idea but then she decided to go because Braeburn was there and Derpy got super excited that silver Star was there as well and Dinky came along with Carrot Top and little strong heart on their way to the desert it took them a little bit longer than expected and a little frustrated from Carrot Top they encountered a monster called Gila Monster and they better run for it luckily the monster wasn't too smart so they used it to get to the location but now they have to climb the mountain and little strong heart felt like giving up after what they've been through but then Carrot Top showed determination and carried both dinky and little strong heart up to the mountain meanwhile Derpy and Silver Star and just hanging out with each other showing her around and even telling the story about some crazy event going on in a town and they were having a wonderful time until she noticed something is missing and her mother senses so what's going to find her daughter and the other side they finally made it to the top but they think they found nothing until out of anger Carrot Top accidentally stepped on a phoenix feather and cause it to go on fire and little strong hearts realize that this is the one but after they try to figure out how to get back Derpy showed up and she is not happy so they finally returned back home and Derpy basically scolded dinky and not only that Carrot Top and both of them yelled at each other because of the situation but after they cool down the apologize for the reaction a day after little strong heart showed up to show them what she made and she made a necklace for Braeburn which that looks pretty cool once they got there she show it to him and it was not the reaction she was hoping for and still he didn't think as just friends and she was pretty sad about that and Carrot Top was more upset he basically rejected her even though he had no idea what was he talking about and it basically realized that he really is that thick headed and apparently things got worse that she got the mail from her job that she can return home and now she just answer her question it gotten worse