//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty-Two - Running Of The Leaves (Part 2) // Story: Moving On // by Manitive //------------------------------// Fall was beautiful in Equestria, way more beautiful than back home. The weather wasn't as moody, and it was a lot warmer and a lot less breezy, which I quite liked. The colors of everything, but especially those of the falling leaves, seemed a lot richer and not as sad and gray. But all of that went unnoticed by me, mostly because of that one annoying sound that prevented me from completely appreciating the beauty fall in Equestria was. Thump Thump Thump. With each new step I took, the dull sound of my feet hitting the dirt below seemed to grow louder, more noticeable. With each new step I took, my legs started to hurt more and my lungs tried to desperately get more of that oh-so-needed air. But, with each new step I took, I was also increasing the distance between me, Twilight and Rainbow. It looked good for me, it really did. No signs of Twilight, Rainbow or any of the others since I left them behind at the starting line. In fact, I hadn't seen any of the other participants in quite a while. I must've had a good lead. There was one problem that was starting to show itself, though; I was starting to get exhausted, quite possibly because, since the start of the marathon, all I did was run, run, run. And we were maybe fifteen minutes into the marathon, at most! The others were apparently a lot smarter and took it a lot slower than me, which would explain why I hadn't seen any of them since the start. I admit it, there were moments where I really thought about giving up. Shit was really starting to get exhausting, and Pinkie Pie's constant rambling above me was not helping either. Speaking of which... "IT LOOKS LIKE WILLIAM, PONYVILLE'S SOLE HUMAN, IS STARTING TO GET TIRED!" She screamed into the megaphone I wished Spike would finally pull out of her grasp. "IS HE ALREADY GOING TO GIVE UP? I HOPE NOT BECAUSE I WOULD BE VERY VERY VERY SAD THEN!" Literally everything she had talked about since the start, every-fucking-thing, had something to do with me in one way or another. At first, it was something about this being the first time an alien was participating in the Running Of The Leaves and then she went on about how happy she was that I decided to participate, all the while everyone in the next hundred miles could hear her. She wasn't only annoying but also embarrassing me by her constant talking about my performance. But who knows, maybe she was just trying to show that she was supporting me. I hate to admit it, but that, the possible shame that came with losing to Twilight and the thought of being a slave to Rainbow for one whole day were the three main reasons why I hadn't given up already. I gritted my teeth and just stepped it up a notch, trying to show Pinkie Pie that I wasn't going to give up anytime soon. I was going to go through with this. I was going to get to the finishing line, no matter the costs. If I would reach it before Rainbow Dash and Twilight was a completely different thing. **** Fifteen minutes later, and still no finishing line anywhere in sight. My legs, my lungs, my whole body was screaming at me to stop this useless attempt of getting to the finish of the marathon. I was thirsty as fuck. My legs actually felt like they were going to fall off at any second. At this moment, I was hating myself for even thinking I could actually finish that whole thing in the first place. At least Pinkie Pie finally started shutting up about me and directed her attention more to what was happening behind me rather than what was happening with me. The good thing was that I was finally getting an idea on how Rainbow Dash and Twilight were doing; they were doing fantastic. A little too fantastic for my taste. Though I really tried to keep the distance between me and Rainbow, every time Pinkie Pie screamed into that god-forsaken megaphone, it was because she was getting closer to me, which constantly reminded me that the possibility of losing was not that slim. And I didn't want to be her slave for a whole fucking day, I really didn't. From what I had heard, Twilight was also getting closer to me, though she wasn't decreasing the distance nearly as fast as Rainbow was. She was taking her time, it seemed. Losing to Rainbow, okay, I could get over that. She was an athlete, after all. But if Twilight, an ex-librarian who did nothing else than reading books all day (and still did), was going to catch up with me, I would've strongly doubted myself. "APPLEJACKS JUST OVERTOOK LYRA!" To my surprise, it was Spike who screamed into the megaphone this time. That was actually the first time he had the chance to comment on something since the start of the event. "THAT MEANS THERE'S ONLY...Wait, is that Scoota?-I MEAN SCOOTALOO BETWEEN HER AND RAINBOW!" I nearly stopped out of surprise for a second. Scootaloo was just two places behind me? Did I hear him right? "WILL WE GET ANOTHER NERVE-WRACKING RACE LIKE LAST YEAR?" I could literally feel Pinkie Pie yanking the megaphone out of Spike's grasp. "WE SURE WILL, SPIKE! I MEAN, LOOK AT WILLIAM GO! HE SURE WILL DELIVER US A CLOSE RACE THIS YEAR!" Yeaaah-no. I definitely wasn't going to deliver a close race that year. I was already feeling like I might pass out at any moment and I wasn't even able to keep a steady pace anymore. In fact, I was getting slower and slower. It was only a matter of time before Rainbow and the others were going to catch up to me. But then, suddenly, I saw something on the horizon. At first, I was confused what that blurry thing on the side of the road was until I remembered that there were stands that offered sweet, sweet water to the competitors for free. I increased my speed without me actually knowing, the object on the side of the road getting sharper and sharper with every few meters I got closer to it. I was right with my assumption. It was, indeed, one of those stands, operated by a mare that I definitely had seen before. A mint-green unicorn mare with a lyre on her butt. The weird thing was that I somehow connected her Cutie Mark to pony butts. Well, it was weird until I remembered why that had been the case. She was that one mare from the hospital, that one creepy mare that literally raped my hand with her mouth. I actually shuddered at the memory. Have you ever shuddered while running? It's weird. I briefly considered to just keep on running and not grab myself a cup of that sweet, refreshing water, but quickly thought better of it. I was simply too thirsty, and there was just no way in hell I was going to get anywhere near the finishing line without drinking some water. I was rather going to take the risk and get me something to drink than just fall unconscious. I swiftly approached the stand and It didn't take long for the mint-green pony to notice me, though her reaction wasn't quite the one I expected. Instead of going totally crazy again upon seeing me, the guy with the hands, her cheeks turned a shade of red that I've rarely seen before. Her face was literally as red as a tomato. She looked me dead in the eyes as I stood in front of her stand, not blinking once - as did I. Absimindetely, it seemed, she lit up her horn and took hold of one of the many relatively big plastic cups that were standing on the counter, levitating it up to me to take. With a thankful although reluctant nod, I quickly took a hold of the cup, turned myself into the direction of the finishing line, downed its whole content in one go and then, without thinking twice, threw the empty cup over my shoulder. Before it could've hit the ground, though, it was stopped by the unicorn mare, who swiftly deposited it in an empty bin bag that was hanging on the left side of the stand. I was actually quite impressed that she managed to do that while still staring at me with a blush on her face. "I'm Lyra, by the way." She said awkwardly, out of nowhere, making me stop just as I was about to continue on jogging. I briefly turned my head to look at her before looking back forward, contemplating on whether I was going to tell her my name or not. I saw no reason not to tell her my name, though. She didn't try anything. She actually seemed, at that moment at least, fairlynormal. "William." I managed to utter out between my deep, labored breaths, turning my body back into the direction of where I had to go. I gave her one last thoughtful look over my shoulders, a look that she returned with a weak, although thankful smile before I started to make myself on my way again. I guess that was her way of thanking me for trusting her after what transpired at our first time meeting each other. Did I trust her, though? Probably not, I'm not too sure. I mean, that meeting actually went a lot better than the first one, so that's a plus. I remember that, before meeting her for the second time, I thought that if I would cross paths with her one more time, she was going to drag me into her basement and do things that I really didn't want to happen to me. But now, upon meeting her for the second time, she seemed not that cray-cray in the head, though I was still wary of her. For all I knew, she could've been just acting, just waiting for the right moment to strike. So, all in all, I may have trusted her a little, just a little, but that's beside the point anyways. The important thing was that I was back on track, feeling just a tad bit better with the little refreshment that the not-so-creepy-anymore Lyra provided me with. It didn't help me get past my exhaustion, but it did help me get my hopes up a little. **** Thump. My own feet hit the ground heavily. My whole legs felt like they were on fire, and I was straining with each and every new step I took, even more so than before. It was a struggle for me to even lift my feet, and sometimes I even nearly tripped because I failed to lift one of them. But, regardless of how much my legs hurt and my lungs burned, regardless of how much the reasonable part of my brain told me to stop it, I knew that no matter how hard it was, everything Rainbow had in store for me once she won the bet was way worse than the pain I currently felt. Rainbow. Spike and Pinkie didn't utter one word since I left from Lyra's stand. I had no idea how she was doing. But, I had no time to think about her. There was something else that caught my whole attention, a sound that I haven't heard in what felt like an eternity. The sound of hooves hitting dirt. Panicked, I looked over my shoulders, seeing a small blob of various colors closing in on me quickly. My eyes took a second to focus on the blob, but once they did, I had to actually stop myself from tripping over my own feet. "RAINBOW DASH IS NOW SUPER-DUPER CLOSE TO WILLIAM!" "F-Fu-fuck!" I grumbled angrily as I quickly whipped my head back forward, struggling to even get that simple curse out. Even though my legs didn't want to, and I was sure I was going to regret doing it, I stepped it up a gear, trying everything to increase the distance between me and the cyan mare. Thump. I felt increasingly hotter. "YEAH, PINKIE! IT LOOKS LIKE SHE FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO HIM!" Spike screamed, his voice sounding a little blurry and untypical, like it wasn't really his. But it was his. I felt weird, confused, even a little dizzy. "BUT, WHAT'S THAT? IS THAT...?" "THAT'S THE FINISHING LINE!" Pinkie screamed excitedly into the megaphone that she probably yanked out of Spike's grasp. "THIS IS GOING TO BE A REALLLLLLLY CLOSE RACE!" Confused as to what they said, I concentrated my eyes on what lay in front of me a few hundred meters. After my eyes took a moment to adjust to the object and I did a quick double take, I realized that they weren't kidding. The finishing line in all its glory. Oh, how I craved to reach it, to pass through that red tape and be the first one to cut through it. The first one, even before Rainbow, Applejack or any of the others. But there was that small part of my brain that suddenly told me that something was wrong with me, that I should stop right at that instance and get some rest. I ignored it, instead biting through the pain, blurriness, dizziness and trying my best to just pull off those last hundred meters that were left. Coming from behind me, I was able to pick off the sound of Rainbow's hooves hitting the dirt harder and harder as she more than obviously quickly decreased the distance between me and her. Thump. Another step that brought me closer to my goal. Pinkie Pie and Spike were definitely screaming something, but I couldn't quite make out what. It was a total mess of words to me, nowhere close to understandable. Rainbow wasn't more than half a meter behind me, the dull thump her hooves generated the only thing I picked up between my deep, ragged breathing. Thump. Another step. For a second, I lost my eyesight, but once I regained it, there were two roads in front of me, one blurrier than the other. Something definitely wasn't right with me, I realized. My brain wholeheartedly agreed. Thump. Rainbow was beside me. She looked concerned, but she was spinning. Why was she spinning all of a sudden? Why was everything spinning all of a sudden? Why did I feel dizzy? And why did I only hear my own rapidly beating heart? Thump. Before I even realized what was happening, I found myself suddenly lying on the ground, face-first, getting a mouthful of not-so-tasty equestrian dirt. I coughed and rolled over tiredly, coming face to face with concerned-looking magenta eyes that belonged to none other than Rainbow. To my left, I saw an unidentifiable blob of purple and orange, while to my right another blob of, solely consisting of purple, stood. But instead of the normal bright colors, everything was getting rapidly darker, less colorful. I slowly trailed my eyes back to Rainbow, confused as to what was going on. The last thing I saw was Rainbow mouthing something to me, or maybe she was actually screaming, before everything went black, my body finally giving up. **** I woke up sometime later to the sound of a hushed, distant conversation, every word bouncing around my head uselessly and not making any sense. Instead of trying to connect the words to form a comprehensible sentence, I chose to instead focus on where I was. With my eyes still closed, my hands wandered firstly across the soft blanket that covered me before they went down to the comfortable surface I was lying on, trying to figure out what exactly it was. I grabbed some of what I quickly found out was some sort of cloth, though there was something beneath it, something that was soft and yet firm. Feeling a little startled as I couldn't really recall what happened, I opened my eyes slowly, being momentarily blinded by the unexpected brightness, blinked twice, and was then greeted by the sight of a wooden ceiling. With my eyes still straining to adjust to the sudden brightness, I turned my head sideways to look at the hand I was previously exploring my whereabouts with, quickly learning that it was a mattress I was lying on. A relatively comfortable one, at that. The hushed whispering I heard when I woke up didn't feel that distant anymore. In fact, it felt like it was coming from directly to my right, to which I slowly turned my head to. At first, it was just a blur of various bright colors, but once my eyes adjusted to the richness of the colors, I found out those blurs to be Fluttershy and Rainbow, both of them conversating between each other. The latter, to my surprise, looked rather worried, while the former apparently explained something to her. "Rainbow, just let him get some rest." Fluttershy said softly, a small frown on her face. "He'll be fine, I promise." "I still don't feel like he should be here, y'know?" Rainbow said, casting a quick look out of the window to her right. "He should be in the hospital." "Rainbow, everything's fine, he just overexerted himself a little." Fluttershy assured her once again, putting a hoof to the cyan mare's shoulder. "All he need is rest and he'll be fine." "But-" "Jeez, Rainbow, stop it." I interrupted her, rubbing my face annoyedly as I chose exactly that moment to interrupt her annoying, worry-fueled talk. A mistake, as I quickly learned. In the matter of less than one second, I felt something soft and furry colliding with my chest and quickly throwing its appendages around me, squeezing the life out of me. After taking a look down, I was mildly surprised to see that it was not Fluttershy but Rainbow who was embracing me, nuzzling the crook of my neck with her muzzle. Caught off guard, I looked over at Fluttershy, who remained silent and merely smiled cutely. Not knowing how exactly to respond to Rainbow's sudden show of affection, I just awkwardly put my arms around the cyan mare's barrel, giving her a gentle squeeze. Rainbow, after embracing me for a few more awkward seconds, finally pulled away and flapped her wings twice, swiftly lifting herself up in the air. A smile of relief on her face, she punched my shoulder lazily, not hard enough for me to actually feel any real pain, and then said, "Dude, never do that again!" "Do what?" I asked, my mind still a little groggy. "Falling unconscious, duh." She said, looking at me like I was an idiot. "Unconcious?" I repeated, furrowing my eyebrows as I tried to remember what she was talking about. "I don't remember...-oh, yeah, that actually happened." I frowned as the memory hit me. "Wait, does that mean-" "That you lost?" Rainbow ended the sentence for me, a smug smirk on her face. "Yes, yes you did. But not only to me, you were last since you didn't make it through the finishing line at all." "Fuck..." I muttered under my breath, mentally chiding myself for accepting the bets in the first place. Losing to Rainbow was okay, I was able to live with that, but losing to everyone else and Twilight? That actually was a deep wound in my pride. Raising my voice again, I asked next, "So, when do you want me to be your slave?" Rainbow opened her mouth, but before she was even able to get one word out, Fluttershy spoke up. "Uh, I suggest that you rest for a few days. I don't know how much of an impact the race had on your body, but I really would advise against doing anything too strenuous for the rest of this day and maybe tomorrow." I turned my head to look at her, surprised that she actually managed to get all of that out without sounding to timidly. She blushed a little as she saw me looking at her, quickly trying to hide behind her long, pink mane. "I-if t-that's okay with you, I mean..." "Eh, I'm okay with that." Rainbow shrugged. "'s not like there's anything that needs to be done right now." "Except for the broken window in my bathroom." I added angrily, giving her a frown as the image of my shattered window came to my mind. "You still owe me for that, you know?" Rainbow looked me dead in the eyes for a few long seconds, an empty look on her face, before she suddenly flew out of the open window. "Byegottago!" With a heavy sigh, I looked over at Fluttershy. "You don't believe how much I hate her right now." "I-I probably don't." Still looking at where Rainbow vanished to, I suddenly noticed something amiss. A certain orange filly that just-so-happened to be my daughter. I actually felt a little sad that she wasn't there when I woke up, but maybe there had been a good reason for her absence. So, the question prepared, I asked the butter-yellow pegasus, "Hey Fluttershy, where's Scootaloo anyways?" As if on cue, the door to my left sprang open and in darted an orange blob, quickly leaping up on the bed and on my chest, hugging me even stronger than Rainbow did before. A smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I embraced my daughter with one arm, petting the purple mane atop her head with my spare hand. "I'm so glad that you're alright!" She said, letting go of me for just a second to look me in the face before quickly going back to hugging me to death. Just like Rainbow, she nuzzled the crook of my neck, her fur tickling my skin. To say that she was worried sick for me probably would've been an understatement. My heart warmed at the adorable sight in front of me and the unfiltered love I was receiving from my daughter. Fluttershy apparently felt the same as I could've sworn I heard a quiet 'aww' coming from her direction. After silently embracing each other for what felt like an eternity, though it definitely wasn't awkward like the one I had shared with Rainbow, Scootaloo reluctantly let go of me and took a step back so that she could look in the face. "I actually finished the race, dad!" "Yeah I remember, you were third, weren't you?" I asked, holding one up to her and forming a fist with it for her to bump with her hoof, which she quickly did with a big smile on her face. I then moved my other up to her head, ruffling her mane before she swatted my hand away with a small giggle. "I'm really proud of you." I looked over to Fluttershy just in time to see her give a look that said that she'd let us alone for some time before she quickly left the room, opening the door and shutting it quietly behind her, leaving us alone back in it. Now that I had the time to inspect where I was, I realized that the room looked unfamiliar to me. "Where are we anyways?" "Fluttershy's cottage." Scootaloo answered. "It was the closest to where you fell unconscious and since everypony else was so far behind you and Rainbow, Fluttershy brought you here." I raised an eyebrow, not believing what she just said. "Fluttershy brought me here? Like, on her own?" "Nah, her animals helped her." Scootaloo chuckled, probably at the mental image of poor Fluttershy trying to drag my fat body around - at least that's what I was thinking. Really though, that was a really amusing thought. We lapsed into a comfortable silence once again as I idly scratched her behind her ears, low, content purrs emitting from her throat. But then I felt something amiss, something that was quite important to me. Something I actually really liked. My cheeks took on a pink tone as I wondered why I felt that it was missing, even though I didn't remember pulling them off. Slowly, I trailed the hand that wasn't busy spoiling Scootaloo down to the sheets that covered my chest, quickly giving a peek to what lay underneath it before letting them fall down again, blush getting brighter and brighter. My heart skipping a beat, I looked around the room frantically, my eyes darting from the wooden table in front of my bed, to the nightstand to my left and finally to the small wardrobe on the opposite wall, but they were nowhere to be seen. 'Fuck.' "Uh, Scoots?" I asked worriedly as I stopped scratching her ear completely, to which I only got a sleepy 'mhm' "You don't know, by any chance, where my clothes are, do you?" To my complete horror, she just shrugged her shoulders, continuing to fall asleep on my chest. I gulped. "Did Rarity came by earlier?" She nodded her head. I groaned. "Fuck."