Wander.

by Sire Derpington

Two travelers in the woods

I hardly slept the night before, I had completely forgotten about my health. I was so busy yesterday; I never even bothered to eat. The last meal I had was back at Sweet Apple Acres, I needed to eat soon, my stomach let out an approving growl. Derpy was still lying asleep peacefully; it seemed despite how uncomfortable the bench was Derpy could still sleep peacefully. The sun was coming up and intruded the bleak night. It got so cold last night, I couldn’t let myself fall asleep. I knew in my dreams I’d at least be warm, but I was so freezing at the time I couldn’t fall back into slumber. Granny Smith never bothered to pack a blanket, but I couldn’t complain, after all beggars can’t be choosers.
I opened my saddle bag; I had hardly touched it since I got it, except when Derpy was attempting to steal one of my muffins. All the foods in the bag were all apple related in some way shape or form. Pies, Muffins or just plain apples, you name it, it was there. I grabbed an ordinary apple and started eating. Ponyville was finally getting up after a long night. Windows were suddenly filled with the colorful faces that Ponyville was accustomed to seeing. By the time I was finished with my apple, Derpy was stirring in her sleep. I hoped that meant she’d get up soon. I hardly even knew the mare but I trusted her completely. I knew she tried to steal from me, but she had good reason too. Derpy was just a lonely pony who ran away from home. Actually, I felt sorry for her, She didn’t have any friends and was shunned back in Cloudsdale, I wasn’t sure if I had ever been shunned before, But I assumed it didn’t feel good.
If I wanted any answers, it would be best if I leave Ponyville, but where is the question. I hadn’t had the slightest idea where I was even from, Even if I left, would it be right to let Derpy come with me? She had a family waiting for her, whether she wanted to see them or not. Derpy stirred some more. It’d break my heart if anything happened to her, wherever we went. Then Derpy finally got up from what seemed like an eternal slumber. With one eye open and a face full of sleep she said “Good morning! How did you sleep? Me? Well, I slept like I was lying on a cloud. We Pegasus can make anything seem comfortable!” I chuckled; it was nice to have such a peppy friend. I was going to have to tell her that I was going to leave Ponyville soon. Whether she wanted to go or not, I was going to leave, I had too many questions that had to be answered and I wasn’t going to let Derpy stop me from answering them.
“Derpy, I’m going to leave Ponyville soon, I don’t know where, but it doesn’t feel right that you should come with me, but if you want too I’m more than glad to have a companion on the road.” It seemed like Derpy didn’t even take a moment to think about it, almost instantly she replied “Yes! Yes! Yess! I’ll go with you! I don’t care where but I think we’ll have fun! I don’t have any luggage or things; I left that all back at home, so we can leave soon!” She was grinned with excitement and her joy seemed to be rubbing off on me, as I started smiling too. “I really don’t know where we’ll head in that case; I guess we’ll just go in the direction opposite of where I came. Derpy, do you know where everything is around here?” She shrugged and gave me one of those of ‘I have no clue’ type of faces. “I’m from Cloudsdale, I barely knew my way around there, and I hardly even visited down here.”
She was just as clueless as I was then. “Well, like I said, I don’t have a plan; I guess we’re at the will of the wind, huh? Once you get up completely, we’ll start that way.” I pointed towards the opposite side of the town, it was a long stretch of houses, and in the distance I could see a forest. “T-that way?” Derpy stammered “I may not be from here, but even I’ve heard the stories about that forest. That’s the Everfree forest, Things aren’t normal there, not even the Pegasi can control the weather there. Are you sure we have to go there?” Derpy actually looked scared; her eyes were now wide with fear. “I didn’t know you were superstitious, Derpy.” She looked at me with the most serious but laughable face I’d ever seen anypony make and said “I-I’m not superstitious, this is fact! I once knew a guy who went to the Everfree forest once and never came back. Well… He moved away but still! I never saw him again.”
I hoped Derpy wasn’t always this scared when it came to most things, which could be a problem. “Calm down, What about it makes it so scary, it’s just a forest.” Personally, I thought Derpy was over-reacting. “JUST A FOREST!? It’s not normal there! Plus it’s scary. Also….I don’t like dark things…” How petty of her, she was afraid of the dark. Oh well, I don’t blame her, we were both young; Young and naïve. “It’ll be alright there, I mean what’s the worst that could happen?” What a mistake saying that was. “DON’T! YOU’LL JINX IT!” She shouted. Derpy was obviously scared and I couldn’t ever recall anypony ever acting like this before. Derpy was the kind of pony that heard rumors and fables all the time, except she really believed the tales.
After a long debate of Logic vs. Fear, I finally convinced her to come along with me. I didn’t really have to go to the Everfree forest, but without a plan it seemed like the most logical thing at the time. As we we’re walking, I had to usher Derpy around like a dog on a leash. Within minutes we were there, The Everfree forest. The rumors had got one thing right; it sure was dark and ominous. The sun was out now, but it seemed like none of the light it was producing hit the forest. It wasn’t happy and welcoming like the orchards back at sweet apple acres, it was creepy and full of doubt. The trees seemed to be alive and making faces at us. By this point, Derpy was shaking like an alarm clock. Trying to prove superstition wrong, I ponied up and was fully prepare to face my fears. Strange, Days ago I was the one cowering in fear of a chick, Now I’m the one fully prepared to face the unknown.
I lifted Derpy and put her on my back, I didn’t think I was that strong, must’ve been the fact that I was an Earth pony and was naturally strong or that she was a Pegasus and was naturally light. As I walked closer to the woods, the ominous feeling got stronger. To calm my nerves, I decided it’d be best to talk to Derpy to reassure us both. “Derpy, what’s Cloudsdale like? I don’t think I’ve ever been there, well, I guess, if I did I wouldn’t really remember.” That seemed to calm us both. At least I thought it did. With Derpy it was hard to read what she was thinking sometimes and other times it was extremely easy. “It’s a city in the sky, where all the Pegasi live. We control the weather for Equestria down below. However, I don’t think a single earth pony or unicorn has ever been up there, we can walk and live on clouds, but I don’t think you guys could, you might fall straight through.” We were now both inside the forest. Moss-covered and leafless trees spired up to touch the atmosphere. Tall ferns went up to brush my hooves. Not even the grass was its own usual bright green and instead had this washed up murky dark green color. Brambles flowed out of their bush homes and seemed to have a mind of their own.
Despite me constantly reassuring us both, I couldn’t help but feel scared at the sight of this all. Derpy was treading no better, as she now was covering her eyes in fear. There wasn’t really a path for me to follow in these woods, it seemed like ponies seldom go in here, so I had to trot over thorns and other awkward obstacles. Over time, the woods started to look stranger and it became apparent that we were lost. It was my mistake for assuming that this was ever a good idea.
“Hey Derpy, You might have noticed, but I think we’re lost.” Derpy replied by saying “How are we lost? You didn’t know where we were going since the beginning; we’ve been lost this entire time! I told you this was a bad idea!” Derpy was now on the verge of tears, I didn’t feel good to have a young Pegasus about to cry on your back. Trying to calm her down, I told her that she could have another muffin from my saddlebag. Last time that seemed to calm her down, I hoped it’d calm her down enough for me to find our way through this forest.
In hindsight, this was a bad idea; So far I had found nothing to help with my memory problem. Derpy was devouring an apple muffin; I guess she was a Pegasus who really loved her muffins. That’s when it hit me; Derpy could fly up and see if she could see the way out. “Derpy, I’m assuming you can fly, right?” She nodded her head yes. “Why don’t you fly up and she if you can see the way out of here, maybe we can get out of here that way.” Derpy proceed to finish every last crumb of her muffin before answering. “Alright, I think I could fly up, I was never a very good flyer in flight school, but I’ll try for us!” She then proceeded to flap her grayish wings quicker and quicker until she was up in the air. Now that she was flying I could see that she was a klutz, she seemed to be running into every dead or decayed branch up there. I didn’t think she was doing it to be funny either; it actually looked like it hurt most of the time.
She finally hid behind the treetops that went ever so high and disappeared from my view. After a good few minutes, Derpy finally came down. She had a look of glee on her face, the happiest I’d ever seen her since we went inside this forest. “Wander, it was so pretty up there! It’s another great day outside, the sun was shining and I could see Ponyville a couple miles away, I guess everything is so thick you can’t see sunlight down here. Anyways, I could see this rock thingy over there.” She pointed towards north. Over there were the usual sights of this forest, really dark sights such as dead trees and ugly ferns. “What rock thingy, what do you mean?” I was kind of curious of what she meant by that. “Well, I don’t know what it’s called, it kind of looks like it was made out of rocks or something, and it went high in the sky, like past these trees tall. It was over there in a clearing.” I didn’t really think that’d help get my memory back at all, but I was up for anything, I mean after all, I did walk into a dark creepy forest hoping to regain something.
With the grace and ease of an elephant, Derpy fell clumsily back to the forest floor. I lent her my hoof and helped her up. She was now trotting behind me, Rather than sitting on my back. I didn’t mind her doing that, she hardly felt like a feather on my back. “What’s it like to be in the air? I mean I can’t fly and I don’t think I’ll ever go up there.” Derpy’s face lit up and the sound of it. “I can’t fly well, but when I do, it’s lovely, you feel weightless and free of any boundaries. Sometimes back in Cloudsdale, when it wasn’t a windy day and we weren’t making any clouds, I could fly high and fast, It filled me with true joy, something everypony there prevented me from having. They used to call me names, make fun of me, talk bad about me behind my back and I never had a single friend, All because I’m different and my eyes aren’t normal. But, when I was in the air, I didn’t care about all of that, I was free.” It was weird to hear about her old life, I trusted that somewhere my family was waiting for me, but Derpy was trying to get away from it all. Despite how bad it was she at least could recall it all. Maybe that was it, she wanted to forget it all, every time she thought about her life it hurt, Ponies disowning you and shunning you just because of what you are.
We continued down the forest not saying a word, to be honest, I was kind of shy, in times of silence or awkwardness I noticed that I would blush. Over time, we finally made it to the clearing she saw. It was strange, everywhere in the forest there were ugly misshaped plants, but this clearing didn’t have any plants, All it had was the lovely bright green grass I was accustom to seeing in Equestria. The clearing went about a mile in a perfect square shape. Instead of having a large canopy of trees blocking all the sunlight, it didn’t have a single thing blocking the sun, save the giant pyramid type thing in the center of it all. Derpy was right when she said that it was a giant rock thingy, I couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be. It had this washed up, reddish color to it. It didn’t look like it was 100% natural, but at the same time it didn’t look like it was 100% pony made either. It touched the very fabric of the sky and it was an enigma to me that Nopony noticed this before, as it looked like it hadn’t been touched by the hooves of horses before. I looked at my partner and saw her in awe too. Her eyes were wide at the very sight of it all, too. I patted Derpy on the back to get her out of the daze and beckoned her with my hoof to follow.
Derpy and I were now galloping on this field of green, going ever so closer to this pyramid in the woods. To be honest, I was more curious than anything to see what was inside and what it might have been used for. I mean what was it doing there and how come Nopony ever noticed it, you probably could have seen it from 30 miles away! Within minutes our gallops slowed to a walking pace as it was nearly half a mile away and not close enough to sprint within reason to. Slowly but surely we reached it. Unlike I expected; it didn’t have a door or anything to get inside from the bottom. The wall was covered in strange markings in a writing I couldn’t read, I just barely recalled how to speak and read, I wasn’t ready to try and read another language. The wall had a soft rocky texture but was strange; I had never felt a rock texture like it before. I didn’t let it get the best of me though; it was probably for a religion or something.
I wanted ever so badly to go inside it but I couldn’t see an entrance down here. There might be a way down from the top though. “Hey Derpy, I don’t think we can enter from here, but I was thinking and I figured there might be a way from the top. If you could fly up and see, that’d be fantastic.” Derpy didn’t even have a second thought about it, after going through the entire cycle of lifting off again; she was off in the air. She was headed for the very peak of the pyramid. It looked hard to land on, but what did I know, I had have never flown before. Knowing Derpy’s terrible flying skills, it was strange that she aced the landing. With the grace of a swan she landed. Before I knew it, a bright green florescent laser came up from the pyramid and went straight through Derpy towards the sky. I felt myself screaming and tears running down my cheek. I didn’t know what happened to her or if she was alright. Over the sounds of me screaming I could hear a loud buzzing sound. My only friend, who had a family waiting for her, was now probably a pile of ashes. I didn’t know how it happened or why but I wasn’t thinking about that, I started climbing the large steps on the pyramid. I didn’t care that I could get hurt or that the laser hadn’t stopped yet. The trek I made didn’t even matter, when I got there, the laser stopped, as the dust and debris cleared i tried to hold back a flood of tears, Derpy Hooves whom I just met and started to know was not even a pile of dust. There was nothing left of her. For the first second, I didn’t feel anything, I couldn’t feel anything, and I was numb! Emotions filled my young body and I was overcome with all my emotions. I stepped on the platform Derpy was on. Everything went bright, I couldn’t think and everything faded to white.

Comments

[EmberSpark]

Jolly good job my dear old chap! Quite the riveting tale you have got going, and I am quite excited to see where this adventure shall go! Allons-y!

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[Shahrazad]

This story has been reviewed by: The Equestrian Critics Society

Story Title: Wander.

Author: Sire Derptington

Reviewed by: Shahrazad

“Wander.” is a story about discovery. About finding yourself, possibly at great cost. It has the makings of a good story. It has all it needs to have serious depth. It’s unfortunate that the amateurish mistakes here are like oil on a crystal clear pond. The story aims high but just doesn’t ever quite hit the mark. It would be a fun read if the story had some serious editing work done.

Full Review

Score: 5.0/10