He woke up at the crack of dawn, as he did almost every day. An old habit he’d kept from the Undiscovered West, from the times when waking up late was a literal matter of life and death.
Times were different now, of course. Sleeping in wouldn’t result in a band of mercenaries kidnapping him like that time in Siribilo, but it would result in a mare being quite, quite upset.
Speaking of which…
He cracked an eye open and saw her sitting on the other side of the fire, awake and alert in the early dawn, still plagued by insomnia. Oh, he did appreciate her! They’d barely known each other in the grand scheme of life, but he deeply appreciated his strange friend and the fascinating story forever scarred into her body.
She frowned at him, suddenly, and though he thought he’d been subtle, it seemed she noticed him wake.
She stood up without effort nor sound and walked towards him, her gaze promising a scolding on the theme of hurrying up and getting ready.
He debated pre-empting her, lifting his hoof and saying alright, alright! I’m getting up!
A vicious beast pre-empted his pre-emption.
Before she could reach him, a snarling manticore jumped out from behind the nearby bushes, placing itself between the startled unicorn and the wide-awake stallion. It glanced over him for a moment, barely a second, inspecting North Ridge as if looking for something.
“What… What in Equestria’s name…?”
The words tumbled out of North Ridge’s mouth, his brain scrambling to understand, to protect, and to maybe, just maybe, recognize.
The manticore turned to Rarity and then did it become truly frightening. Its ears flattened against its skull, its massive wings splayed out like a shield, and every hair on its body stood on end. It hissed at her, its clawed paw raised and its pupils wide as moons, as if it were frightened by Rarity just as much as she was by it.
“North!” Rarity gasped in fear. “Do something!”
“Now, now, Rarity, it’s just a manticore!”
“Just a manticore?!”
“Yes!” he continued, rather excited to be honest. “I can deal with it! They’re easy to subdue and—” The manticore turned to him as he said that, giving him a look of offense and confusion. “And…”
The thought drifted away, his mind now faced with the possibility of the past catching up. He looked the beast over, what he could of it at least, and took a shot in the dark.
“...Tangerine?”
The manticore growled in assent, its tail thumping up and down on the ground before turning back to Rarity and baring its teeth at her.
“Tangerine!” North exclaimed, breaking into a wide grin. Briefly. “Oh. Wait! Wait!” He barged forward, pushing past Tangerine and jumping in front of Rarity. He raised a protective forehoof and looked the beast in his eyes. “She’s a friend, Tangerine! She’s a friend.”
Though his hairs remained standing up, Tangerine’s expression softened, his searching eyes darting back and forth between Rarity and North.
“When have I ever lied?” North asked, and added after a pause, “Alright, well, I’ve lied many times, but this time isn’t one of them!”
A few seconds went by, and eventually Tangerine relented. His ferocity faded, his hairs lowered, and North Ridge grinned when the beast sat on his hindlegs, his ears flitting up and his paws lifted to his chest, transforming him from a terrifying beast to a timid, harmless overgrown cat.
“Oh, Tangerine! Tangerine!” North exclaimed, rushing forward and embracing his friend. He stood back and looked the manticore over, practically glowing as he did so. “You’re certainly a sight! A fantastic sight, at that! How did you find me?! Oh!” He quickly gestured to Rarity. “Tangerine, this is Rarity. I met her a few days after crossing the border!”
With cautious steps, Tangerine moved towards Rarity, meekly held out his paw, and said with the softest voice:
“Mew?”
Rarity’s eyes darted back and forth between his eyes and his paw, and though in her hesitation she did not shake his paw, she did offer an attempt at a nervous smile. “...How do you do.”
Her delighted laughter rang in the air, intermingling with the crackles of the logs burning in the fire.
“He didn’t!” Rarity exclaimed to Tangerine, who nodded furiously in return as he stirred the soup cooking over the fire. She turned her sights to the grinning North Ridge. “You didn’t.”
“I did! I was chained, beaten, had a migraine that would kill me, and I still spat in his face and told him—” He cleared his throat. “Well, I told him things you wouldn’t approve of involving his mother. I could tell you what I said, if you’d like.”
“No, thank you,” she replied. “Oh, how uncouth of you! You must have had a death wish.” She leaned in, riveted. “What happened next?”
“Tangerine happened.”
Tangerine stopped stirring the soup long enough to straighten his posture, glancing to Rarity and then excitedly throwing a string of mewls and growls towards North.
“Yes, yes, I remember how you threw him out the window,” he said nonchalantly. He then eyed the soup and smacked his lips, leaning in. “Is it almost ready? It smells fantastic.”
“It really does,” Rarity added, breathing in the scent.
Tangerine nodded, taking a nearby bowl and filling it up as North nodded his head in hungry encouragement. Once it was full, the manticore put the spoon down and offered the bowl to Rarity.
She lifted her hoof. “Ah, no, thank you,” she said, kindly.
“More for me!” North exclaimed, already reaching for the bowl. “You can start preparing my next four bowls, please, Tangerine.”
Tangerine rolled his eyes, reaching for another bowl, while Rarity could only laugh.
“Your next four bowls?! And I thought Twilight was a glutton!” She turned to Tangerine and noticed the manticore putting his bowl down and stepping away. “Is something wrong?” she asked, glancing at North when Tangerine mewled a reply.
“He needs to relieve himself,” said the stallion between spoonfuls.
Once he’d disappeared into the forest, North turned to Rarity.
“What do you make of him?”
“He’s certainly very interesting, though not entirely what I imagined from the stories you’ve told me,” she said, still looking off towards where the manticore had disappeared off to. She turned to North. “That’s quite a first meeting you had.”
“It went better than expected, all things considered. It could have been me he was hurling out the window! ...Or at a bookcase.”
Rarity pointedly didn’t dignify him with a reply, instead turning back to the forest.
“I’m surprised he came looking for you,” she said. “I had the impression you’d parted ways permanently.”
North stared into his soup for a moment, trying to voice what he’d long tried to ignore. It really was true, wasn’t it? One can’t always escape the past.
He put the bowl on the ground and took a breath.
“I was the one who asked to part ways,” he confessed. “I didn’t give him a choice. He was…”
“You didn’t?” she asked, surprised. “Why not?”
The answer was hard to voice. In fact, it was hard to think about; hard to accept that ghosts would not stay in the past.
“My wife,” he said and was surprised to find tears in his eyes. “He reminded me too much of better days, I suppose, when she was still here. It was too much.”
Her ears lowered. “Oh, North…” She mulled on her words and ventured forwards. “I confess that you never talk about her so I’d just assumed you’d… well, you know.”
He laughed. “You and I handle this in very different ways, Rarity. I don’t speak about her, and you—” He grinned. “I might make good money writing about Princess Twilight’s biography.”
“Aren’t you exaggerating a bit?” she said, her cheeks tinted red and her hoof clutching her necklace. At his pointed stare, she continued. “In any case, be that as it may, I… Well, I would like to hear more about Frost.”
North looked at Rarity.
Really, really looked at her, at this mare he strangely saw so much of himself in. Saw in her his past that had caught up, and saw in her a story that he had now joined.
And if that was so, then it was his role to make sure this story ended as it should.
So he made a choice.
“Very well! I will tell you one last story, if only because it’s the last one I’ll tell.”
The delight in her expression vanished.
“What do you mean?”
How difficult. How difficult it was!
“I’ve decided I’m no longer going with you to Ponyville, Rarity.”
And there it was, and it was just as painful as he imagined it would be.
“What?” She laughed, but it was strangled, uncertain, unwilling to believe. She smiled, and it wasn’t a smile. “And where, may I ask, are you going instead?”
“To the next event, wherever it’s held.”
Rarity blanched, knowing full well what that was. What it meant.
“North. North, if this is a joke, I’m not finding it funny.”
“I wouldn’t joke about this.” He smiled wryly. “Rarity! You must have seen this coming.”
“No, I didn’t,” she said quietly. “I actually didn’t.” She thought of Tangerine and wondered if maybe he had. “I gather I don’t have a choice.”
“You gather correctly.”
“And you won’t change your mind?”
“I won’t.”
There was a long pause. Long, and long, and he decided he would allow it to be as long as she needed it to be.
“I… I’m frightened.” Her eyes sparkled with tears. She laughed, and it was heartbreaking. “I’m not ready.”
“I know. I know, and I don’t blame you,” he said kindly, “and it’s why I’m not asking you to come with me.”
Another pause.
“Why?”
He thought carefully about it, for all things that mattered deserved care.
“I’ve been a distraction to you, Rarity. A dashing distraction, clearly, but a distraction still. To put it in a way our dear princess would approve, I’ve been a footnote taking your attention away from the story that needs to be told. It’s been some time I’ve cared for a story as much as I care for yours. I don’t want to hold you back from finishing it.”
She said nothing.
“Rarity, I—”
“I know what you’re going to say, North. I think I’ve always known."
And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, as hard as it was… he was right.
She looked back to him. “He’s going to come. After you’ve left. He’s going to gloat and tell me I made a mistake and...” She gritted her teeth. “Damn him. Damn him.”
“Rarity, now now! If he dares come to you, I have some very good insults you can say about his mother!” he said, and how grand it was when she laughed, genuinely and sincerely.
It didn’t last long.
“Will I ever see you again?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“You will,” he said, and he meant it. “This isn’t goodbye.”
“What is it, then?”
He leaned back. “So long? See you soon?” He mulled it over and found what he wanted. “It’s a promise you’re going to make to me.”
“What promise?” she asked.
“A promise that, even if I will no longer be with you, even if my footnotes in your tale disappear, well…”
He grinned.
“Promise me you’ll catch up to ours, hm?”
“Alright,” she said, the tears fresh on her face. She made an effort and grinned valiantly. “I promise I shall, but… I still want this last parting story of yours. And it better be a damn good one.”
“Rarity! Rarity, I would have it no other way! I’ll tell you the best story I have! And do you know why it’s the best story to tell?”
“Why?”
“Because it starts just like a bad joke,” he declared, and gestured for the forthcoming manticore to take a seat.
“I believe you’ve told me this one before,” she remarked, the twinkle in her eyes now from amusement rather than tears.
“Have I? Well, would you say it’s worth hearing again?”
She thought about it for a moment and grinned.
“Absolutely.”
“Well then!” he said, settling in for one last tale. “A zebra, a stallion, and a manticore walk into a bar...”
Good to see this updating again.
Your author's notes hold all the sweetness and silliness I'd expect of any Mono-words and meme fusion.
I'll be nabbing that meme, too.
NOOOOOO, North Ridge! ; _ ;
Now I really want to hear his story.
Awwwwwwwwww
9558762
His story isn't long, but it's already been written.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/407450/north-ridges-debt
9558863
That's hardly a story. More like an introduction.
I really want to see more of this character.
I don't quite understand what Discord will do. But still.
THROUGH the face.
A manticore named orange? Is this why it attacked Apples during their transportation?
I've enjoyed these interludes, even if they just keep circling the question of why they're even happening. What happens in this story that Rarity disappears, but then decides to go all the way back home? In any case, goodbye, North Ridge; it's been a pleasure having you in this tale.
I am astonished you updated this story again so quickly after the last update; now you're just spoiling us. I agree fully with JMP and can't say it any better.
Tangerine certainly has..
(Wait for it...)
...appeal!
Discord needs a new hobby. Surely cursing ponies gets old eventually? Also WOW no more North.... I'm sadder than I thought I'd be about that..
Me, during the prologue: Okay, I need to at one point stop the little snippets so I'm just not going to get attached to whatever random OC i pick for this and it'll be fine
Too late chromatic... Too late
I bet you were attached to him by the 4th time you wrote him
9559393
Ba dum tsss
Also I'm so hungry this exact moment I can't even cry, I'm just
sad
More and more I’m suspecting Rarity’s curse has something to do with love. And specifically excludes Twilight for some reason.
Maybe something like Calypso’s curse in Heroes of Olympus? She’s cursed to meet heroes who she will fall in love with, but who can’t ever stay because of their duty.
Not literally like that, but that general category of thing.
So tantalizing! It makes we crave more...
It's sadder than I expected to see North Ridge depart... assuming you don't decide to make more interludes about him anyway. I'm curious if this will mark a shift in the story as a whole.
Awww, it's so cute!
It might be cuter and friendlier now, but I still don't think it's harmless.
The fourth wall breaking is strong with this one.
I wonder why Rarity is convinced Discord will pop up if she goes back to Ponyville?
If North Ridge is a footnote, then you're Terry Pratchett.
Why am I so sad about a random OC who was just introduced in the sequel going away? I know you like to play with our hearts but I wasn't expecting it to go like this.
Nobody:
Mono: lets give you all the feels
I wish I could upvote each chapter and every time i reread your work. Not since I was a child and I read at least one book from the chronicles of Narnia a day every day for months on end have I found an author that so completely and utterly captivates me
9562367
I would think that something has happened. in between the present story and this seemingly-in-the-future interlude story.
I doubt this will be the last we see of North Ridge. He is just too interesting!
9577781i think Discord has plenty of power or at least enough to influence events. But I also think he is bored of whats happening. He had his revenge, now he is bored because he expected the Princess's to have escaped or been freed already. He doesnt have that challenge anymore that he wants. And also, I think he wants to actually believe that while Twilight might have actually tricked him, he is afraid that they had really turned into friends along the way. Snd then he essentially tortured them.
The other option is Celestia fought him and limited his influence on events. But would that be temporary or permanent which would be the question.
SO GUYS, I’m new and I was wondering what this story is like and I figured i’d Just ask the readers or the author them self if they have the included nation to answer. But yeah, I WANT to get into a new long adventure fanfic but I’m not sure if this is up my alley or not.
What’s the romance tag connected to here and to which characters? Do I have to read the prequel story for this to understand what’s even happening or is it mostly explained as it goes? How’s Discord in this bad boy? Is he in “puppet-master” mode or “anti-hero” or “vague chaotic force incarnate” or what? I’m a big Discord fan (at least from seasons 2-4) so how is he treated here? How alien or disorienting is this alt universe? Is it so upside down as to be like Fallout Equestria or is it lighter like the writer is just disregarding certain seasons? Any insight here would be golden! Thanks guys.
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Let's answer all your questions in quick succession!
Romance tag is connected to Twilight and Rarity.
Yes you ABSOLUTELY NEED TO READ THE PREQUEL STORY it's very necessary. Don't worry though, the previous story is still a big adventure.
Discord is... definitely a puppet master here, though he's clearly more than that.
He's treated as the villain here, though a villain with a complex series of motivations.
The alt-universe is a reimagining of Equestrian history based on the lore of the show but clearly not afraid to be its own thing. Characters are easily recognizable as the ones from the show and have similar traits/dreams, but the history of Equestria is vastly different (but completely original). You could read it (the first story) without having watched any of the show, really.
I will leave you by saying, prior to reading these stories, I had a very low opinion of romance in general. The first book is now in my Legendary Favorites, so even if you don't like romance, read it anyway.
-GM, master of the Kingdom.
Welp.
Now I have to wait.
I have both a mixture of "oh no Rarity what did you do / are you going to do" and "awwwww let's free luna dream team!"
I eagerly await more!
EDIT: I wasn't sold on the two-year timeskip at first, but now I realize why it's happening. Twilight got to be all mysterious and broken and Rarity had to save her. Now, in order to balance out the scales, Twilight has to get through to Rarity. It's perfect. And that skip is the way to do it while dragging us readers along for the ride.
-GM, master of Denza.
9605440
Hmm well I wanted to jump to the most recent story and I’m normally not a fan of romance but... what the hell, I’ll give the first story a shot! Thanks for the help! Especially since I might never get another Quantum Castaways or Over the Edge and through the Wood chapter. I’d HIGHLY recommend those stories to anyone reading this btw. Good adventures!
I'm scared to find out exactly what's happening in this plot, I've been putting the pieces together but I don't want rarity to go through any pain and it already feels so painful!! :''0
Yes.
Even better!
Ah, dang. I thought we were adding Tangerine to the story, and instead we're losing North Ridge.
I've caught up to another story.
The thoughts and emotions coursing through these word horses have to be just as conflicting and confusing for me to guess at as they are for them to feel. There's a lot of baggage to unpack for a lot of these characters and basically none of them are doing enough for themselves to get through it.
But then... Misery is comfortable. There is no risk to staying in misery. Twilight can attest to that. She only broke out of her library when there was a greater danger to staying that transcended any fear of the unknown. There is a certain stability to being an immortal ghost locked in a library, or a mountain, or behind a waterfall, or... as your own dynasty? In a castle?
Cadance's curse is a bit convulated to define in this format and I lost my train of thought.
I think what I'm saying is we need to dangle Pinkie over a pit of alligators or lava or something and put Luna on the clock. That'll get her running.
And so my watch begins.
9605440 Discord is basically a pure narcissistic sociopath. He's totally merciless with the ponies he sees as his mere playthings, allowed them to be killed by all manner of monsters... but is now PO'd that the Princesses lied to him to make the misery and death stop.
He's a grade-A A-hole.
Frankly, I'd feel nothing but satisfaction to wipe him from existence. He's as pure a monster as there ever was. One finds similar people to him in all manner of criminal cases. People who harm without regard, and then are stunned when they're deceived in turn.
Nuuuuuuu! I need more RariTwi in my life and I finished all this in a little over three days. Damn my insatiable appetite for all forms of media and consequential inability to pace myself and make things last!
Ah. I see what's happening here.
Damn, and I just got attached to North. I dislike you right now, you better make it up to us!
I'm not sure where I should place this Sidestory.
Somehow Rarity has vanished, there are "Missing"-Notes everywhere, Guards are "hunting" her.
If I think at the Time of the "Aragorn" Scene at the Begin, where she meet North, maybe this help a bit to build a Theory.
Rarity has the Scars, she wear the Necklace, so I think it will be placed somewhere between the Time Twilight has lock herself in the Library and the Time where she has give her Necklace to Pinkie Pie.
I think its somewhere between 6 and 12 Months after Twilights Lockdowwn.
Maybe, after she has stop to go to the locked Library, Rarity has left Ponyville without telling anypony something.
She wanted to be alone for some Time.
Because she hasn't tell anypony, her Friends have miss her and with the help of Princess Denza, the "Missing" Noted was made.
After some Time, she has find her new Home at Hollow Shades.
After that the others know where she is and she was not longer missed.
and we are at the Time at the end of TEL.
Formyself, I don't think this Scenes are somewhere between TEL and TEK or TEK and TEC.
No mama. He was my OC. I’ll do it
I really like this North fellow.... Anddddd he's gone.
Also, did this side character just become self-aware that they were distracting the heroine from their main quest? That's pretty hilarious, even if the outcome is sad.
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