Revisiting Lessons

by Grey Rebl

Arrival

Endings are scary.

Some things are just too good to end. Unfortunately, that’s the reality of things. A person’s favorite show would be over and he’d weep of being back in the show hole once again. A couple would break up, agreeing that being together would hold the other back as their paths were too different. A man’s best moment would be so fleeting that it can only be immortalized with something as flimsy as a photograph. Even former best friends had it, driven apart by the obligations of society. But people are all about sentimentality, and so the hollow feelings will always stay.

It hurt like shit when my favorite things end. Because it happens all the time, I’d dive into the next best thing before I feel it. But it’ll never be the same. Get too attached, and the cycle continues. It happens over and over and over again until, before I knew it, I grew out of them.

That’s life. People anxiously seek out for the one thing that will last, never realizing that they’ll change. If a kid grew up with Mario, would he still like it the same way he did as an adult? With the same passion? Sometimes, the truth scared me. I always wondered if, one day, I’ll become an adult who’d mindlessly serve his dues—and I did.

But even so, early memories were no less important. We all arrived from somewhere. Where else but the beginning?

It was a happy day outside. The sun was up, the air was cool, and the silence was everso relieving. Under Celestia’s watchful sun, a warm blanket of safety covered every place where the light touched, warding off the malicious creatures hidden in the shadows. The atmosphere was thrifting and alive, laced with a call for play. It seemed like a great day in the free foliage of the Everfree Forest.

“Uuugh…”

But then a groan erupted from the cold depths of my soul and ruined it.

My hooves dragged themselves across the dirt, slow and careful. Damp dirt spotted my aquamarine coat. My spine ached from the resolute embrace of the earth after literally popping out of nowhere in the sky. I was vigorously shaking my shaggy greyish-blue mane to a maddening itch in my scalp, only for sticks and leaves to entangle themselves even deeper into my mane. The itchiness got worse.

Only at square one and I already felt like shit.

The plan was simple: I choose a direction and follow it until I found something recognizable. Of course, the goal was Ponyville.

I had walked for likely half an hour and no sign of civilization thus far. I took up learning how to move my new body while I was at it. Having wings mean nothing if I can’t fly. Same went for my hooves. If I couldn’t do something as simple as trot on four legs, I’m helpless, because in the Everfree Forest, anything could happen in the wild.

But that’s the thing: nothing did.

That scared me. It was as though the forest had something planned, something to screw me over just in case I slight it in any way. It should’ve been a good thing considering how the Everfree was used as a plot device for various happenings in HiE fanfiction, sometimes with a visceral and dark twist. If it’s not a manticore, it’s timberwolves. If it’s not timberwolves, it’s a manticore. Who knows? It could be something entirely new!

“Some HiE cliche would often jumpstart the story, allowing the protagonist to be saved by best pony by default,” I said aloud. “Yeah, I could use something like that… I mean, what is the worst that can happen?” I paused, waiting. Nothing happened. Not even a bush rustled. I grumbled, “Yeah. Figures. Knowing my luck, my life will stay mediocre even if karma drives this world.”

With a sigh, I continued onward. I guess it’s for the best. Even now, my every step were given my undivided attention. The last time I took a stroll, I tripped and died.

Then, I hissed as the goddamn itch reverbrated in my scalp! I was prepared to lose my hands to integrate with this world, but I didn’t think I’ll regret it so much so soon—it’ll drive me insane at this rate!

Then, salvation came from the sound of running water.

My ears perked at the sound. Could it be? A river?

In a quickened pace, I trotted past a bush, several trees and a slight hill until I found myself at the sandy bank of a serene and murky river. There could be murderous creatures in there, just waiting to drown any who enter, like mutated piranhas, magical crocodiles, killer seaweed...

I instantly dunk my head in. I shook and twisted in the water to rinse off the grime in my mane. When I emerged with a sputter for air, a grin broke out, for the itch was no more! I felt stupid clean in after what felt like ages.

“Holy shit—yes!” Seems fortune was feeling generous this time. Looking around, I instantly recognized this place. The landmark was just like the show's Season One premiere, where a certain gentleman of a serpent first appeared. Then, I frowned in thought as priorities took stage. “Which side of the river did Ponyville come from?”

If there's any advantage I have, it was the memories of my past life. All of them. Death put it bluntly when the soul remembered. What he failed to include was that those memories carried over through the reincarnation process. In other words, I had a perfect photographic memory of my past, especially all the episodes of MLP:FIM. Convenient. Yet, it’s a pity I won’t have the luxury nor excuse to forget...

But that meant I didn’t know what didn’t show. In the Season 1 premiere, the Mane Six crossed a river to get to the Castle of the Two Sisters, where the Elements of Harmony resided. If I had to choose a direction, I would either end up at my destination or the old castle.

Knowing the volatile nature of the Everfree, I couldn’t afford to stray around too long. Unless whatever’s swimming in the water could walk on land, the river was my safe line, keeping danger to only the forest side.

I could ask for directions from the one and only Steven Magnet, but, looking around, I didn’t find tail or scale of him anywhere. No guide. The choice of whichever direction I should go could be decided by a coin toss. Still, I needed to think. Aside from a few episodes to reference from, I didn’t have enough information to work with.

Glancing between the deep and dark foliage, I saw nothing for me to use nor recognize. Just moss, crooked trees, and even more moss. But then, I gazed up slightly and an especially hilly part of the forest came to view. The hill bulged over the treeline, a hard thing to miss. Even better, its location lined up with the direction of the river.

With a bit of height, could I reliably find a path towards Ponyville? There’s a chance, but it seemed so far. Couldn’t there be a better way? A thought came over me: I glanced at my wings.

After a long stare, I shook my head. “Can’t be that easy...”

...or could it?

A long trek had passed and the hill began to exceed the height of the treeline. I was still not high up enough to see what I wanted, but the progress was motivating.

Eventually, I reached a waterfall that trailed like a serpent along its cliff face. The water poured into a generous pool of water big enough to be twice as wide as the river. The space glistened with suspended vapour, and I welcomed the chill that graced my coat as I trotted close. To my surprise, the water was crystal clear, fresh. I dipped a wing in: Cold. I relaxed.

I took a gander at the waterfall again as I enjoyed my second sensation of cleanliness since coming to this world. Boulders piled around the waterfall, allowing for a convenient path to the upper ledge. However, they’re too high for me to reach...but since I had wings…

I went to the base of the rocks, staring up at the ledge with a slight bit of trepidation. I thought it over while traveling, but being lost in the Everfree meant I had to consider every advantage I had. Being able to fly would help immensely. How soon, I had no idea, but I had to try at some point. Besides, I was psyched up for it ever since becoming a pegasus!

I wasn't sure if there was a proper way to do it, but imagining a cat felt like a start. Silly, I know, but I had little to lose and much to gain if I tried. With an arched back, haunches up, front low and wings spanned high, I ran the image of a calico scaling a tall dresser in my mind, feeling up the motion in my own body.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, mentally preparing myself until, tensing, I sprung up and flapped!

I at best gained two feet before slipping under my hooves and falling on my ass.

“Oof!”

Groaning, I decided to just lay there on the dirt as I wallowed in the pain, pebbles poking my hide. I felt too stupid to get back up.

“Too many cat videos...ugh…” With that said, I pathetically laid my head down in defeat.

The long way around it was then.

After making a pit-stop to drink water from the pool, I found a decent path leading up the hill. It took a bit of guts to abandon the river, but I knew I couldn’t just stand around forever. I got better at walking, too. Still stumbling, but less. Helps that there’s no fear of witnesses seeing all of my embarrassing falls. The perks of being alone, yeah?

As I went along, I slowly realized how much I underestimated the scale of the hill. The hill turned into a mountain, and the path ahead just kept on going! Deciding to follow it up further, the footing narrowed and the hill slanted. I would’ve lost time keeling over if it weren’t for the hours of practice I had walking. But it still didn’t seem to end! However, it was after one stretch, one turn of a corner, that I stopped to breathe toward wide open skies.

I arrived at a ledged, and what I saw stole my breath away.

“Woah.”

A beautiful view of the Everfree Forest. Celestia’s Sun brightened the usually dark treetops. The murky green no longer seemed invasive, now a rivetingly rich lemon. I could even see the shining river that I followed, winking at me. But it was the colorful flowers decorating the tree tops that caught my attention. Reds, blues, and violets: They lay scattered delicately across the green like a garden, Mother Nature’s domain. The wind blew, and the trees rustled like the flowing sea. The sun shined, and the gold lining within each flower twinkled like the wishing stars.

Then suddenly, the sun shifted and so did the world.

The forest took on a lively orange. The wind swayed harder as the air got cooler, and the branches and flowers danced with nature’s cheer. Even though the day was ending, the forest had never seemed so alive. Rather than slumbering solemnly, the Everfree Forest decided to party the daylights out. For a cartoon-like world, there was so much beautiful depth.

I knew that, deep inside the Everfree Forest, it was survival of the fittest, filled with monsters, dread and darkness, but when I saw the big picture I thought for a moment that the Everfree wasn’t all that bad. The end of a day had never felt so great.

...end of the day?

“Oh no,” I whispered, horrified. I shouted at the sun, “Oh, no no no! Celestia, for once in your life, be incompetent in your job for a few extra hours and—and—...oh wait.”

Crack!

Before I could contemplate the irony of that statement, I heard a low crumble from beneath my hooves. I froze, wings tight against my barrel as I thought the worst. Sadly, the worst was happening, and the ground gave way...slowly tilting towards the edge.

“Well, shit.”

And the ledge broke.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

I tumbled, scrambling for something, anything to stop my fall. I began to right myself...just in time to collide stomach first into a root growing out of the side of the cliff, which snapped from the force. I accidently clung to the log of earth as I breathlessly wailed, the treeline rushing to meet me. The dreary green returned, and branches scratched my coat and tore through my feathers.

My battered body bounced from branch to branch until, finally, my fall ended with a merciless thud. Crushed leaves listlessly followed. I coughed dust, laying there.

“Nevermind,” I croaked. Another cough. “The Everfree is still shit.”

As I moaned in pain, I thought I was supposed to be dead again. Not a day had passed, and I fell at a height that's impossible to survive for a second time. It’s so comical that I was willing to believe that this world was conspiring against me. I don’t know how or why it’s possible, but one thing is for certain: cartoon physics may had saved me, but cartoon karma was a sadist.

“Just had to pay back my words from ealier, huh?” Huffing, puffing, I asked the Everfree for what it’s worth. I thought that was it.

But then I heard breathing, heavy and rumbling from behind...

Hitched, I craned my neck to look. I whimpered at what I saw. “In interest, too?”

The manticore roared with a rage of over nine thousand interrupted cat naps.

I didn’t stop for anything as I scrambled to my hooves and stormed through the foliage, and the pain and thundering steps followed. It hurt, as it should, but it was less than expected after surviving an impossible fall. I could think and I could move. That was good.

Mrooooarw!

The angry manticore behind me seemed to disagree, as though to say, “Sit still and die!” or something along those lines. Not good.

“Calm your shit!” I hysterically yelled back, narrowly missing a tree. “I really feel like living!”

The manticore responded with a rough swing of his paw. I reacted by speeding up— lightness came over me, as if my hooves had wings. I was tripping.

As if in slow motion, my face came closer and closer to the cold, harsh ground, all too aware of my impending demise. Every cell in my body shouted at me to live. How could I, though? I couldn’t even win against my own legs!

Simple: I lose harder.

Face kissed dirt, but I gave no resistance to the momentum and pushed forward with a snarl. My haunches sailed over my head, and I met the feeling of weightlessness once more as the slanted terrain allowed me to "fall" away from the manticore's reach.

I used the mountain. I let gravity do the work.

Upon landing, I slid along the earth without care nor thought of cleanliness. Forehooves, hind legs, and wings—every limb flared desperately to do everything in their power to push and drag me forward and away from the manticore’s burley paws! If I could survive what’s arguably a mountain fall and a sky dive of death, these pitiful jumps meant nothing to my body! I’d take on all of it!

I threw my head up to sail over a bush! I rolled, tumbled, only to pump my hind legs to clear another set of bushes just to roll and tumble some more!

“Ugh!” I slammed onto the edge of a crooked oak tree. Agonizingly, I slid my body across the jutted bark and pushed off, just in time for the manticore to slam recklessly into the tree!

A part of me wanted to laugh as I rolled away. Just like a cartoon! But my mirth died when Celestia’s sun finally saw to its rest and shadows consumed the Everfree Forest. Night time finally arrived.

Darkness. A chill overtook me. Any obstacle could be unavoidable and I was helpless to follow an uncertain path. If I hit anything dead center, I’d be forced to a stop and then meet a bitter end. Going straight wasn't an option.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the manticore, who was too tough to let a bunch of vegetables stop its mad charge as it snarled even louder! My chest jumped at the volume, my efforts spiking to match the frantic beat of my heart. I pushed off at an angle, fell and—

Thwack!

“Aaargh!”

—collided into a branch. I twisted and turned, narrowly avoiding anything else before tripping over a bush and sailing into another nosedive. With no time for regrets, I fearlessly returned to the cycle of suffering and falling.

The snapping of wood followed by a pained roar echoed. It seemed even the manticore wasn’t immune to the dark. I didn’t stop to care. What mattered was the drumbeat of my heart shouting at me to live.

Push and fall; crash and slide; hurt and shout. He wanted me, I wanted out. I would lunge desperately and somehow evade the manticore each time, perilously bouncing down the mountainside only to do it all over again.

However, the moon reached its peak to signal the full turn of night, and then moonlight showed the way. As I slid on grass, I thanked the princess I could see again...just in time to see a slope up ahead, steeper than the rest. Another lion-like snarl riveted through the forest. Dropping all of my hesitation, I sped up.

“Raaaargh!” Shutting my eyes tight, I desperately leaped and roared.

Behind me, a heavy thump and a gust of wind followed.

In mid air, I could feel it, the humid breath of an open maw closing in on my tail. My leap of faith was too weak. I stared at the empty skies in anguish as if it could help. The stars twinkled innocently at my plight. So, I closed my eyes and prayed...before snapping my wings open!

The result was pathetic, barely a breeze compared to rushing wind of the fall, but it was enough. I fell faster. My body tipped, and I didn’t pause to throw my head down and whisk my tail and haunches away before the manticore’s mouth clamped. I opened my eyes just in time to see the surprised look on his face.

I saw my landing and flapped desperately to right myself. Eyes clenched tight, I rolled into a ball and let gravity do its work as wind licked my pony ears. I ricochet off a rock before violently tumbling through the wild vegetation. Gravity’s hold remained uninterrupted, the distance between me and the manticore widening.

I would've been delighted, but my body was about to cap out. I wheezed, choking on dirt as every tumble sapped my every bit of energy from my limbs as sticks and dust stuck to my wings. My cells screamed for air—I'll be finished at this rate!

Splat!

But the mountain finished first as I finally splat on even ground.

I was sprawled, limbs wide, coughing coarsely as dust spat out.

“C-come on! Move!”

A shadow washed over me and my pupils shrunk. I ignored the pain and kicked off just in time for the manticore to thunderously land right where I was and blow me away. My acquaintanceship with weightlessness had reached the point where I couldn’t give a damn anymore, so I limped gracelessly upon finding kinship with the cold, hard dirt.

Wheezing, I struggled to stand as my joints creaked in protest. The manticore just stood from where he landed and looked at me with a cheshire grin, confident I wasn’t going anywhere. I couldn’t bear to make an expression back, the pain being too much to bother. Even though my cartoon body was capable of surviving long impossible falls, my stamina wasn’t infinite. I hardly had the energy to move.

Done with the spectacle, the manticore took a step forward, ready to make one final pounce. I was running out of time.

No matter how one looked at it, the match-up was skewed. It's a flightless Pegasus versus a manticore whose interrupted nap time and wild temper were in direct causation of each other.

But even so...I’m not some pony awaiting his end. I was too human to give in—what can I do? I looked around erratically. What can I do?!

When my eyes landed on a pair of thick, curvy oaks that vaguely resembled splitting paths, I found my answer.

“Hey.”

The manticore paused, looking quizzically, but it didn’t stop him from wounding up his pounce.

"You've surprised me just then, but..." I smirked, puffed my chest and brushed my wings open, showing off as I taunted, “Think you can still catch me now that I can launch off smoothly?”

The manticore’s widened eyes flashed. With an earsplitting battle cry, I poured all of my remaining strength into a dead sprint toward the curvy oaks! The manticore mightily pounced and roared, putting its all to end this chase once for all! Good, because I already stopped it.

When a cat sees prey, it pounces with startling speed and accuracy. However, like all hunters, they have a tendency to predict the movements of their target according to its direction and speed. I’m a pegasus, and pegasi have a certain reputation in canon for having a cocky attitude proportional to their flying ability. The manticore realized this, which was why the he never expected me to dive flat on the ground to an immediate stop, causing the feline to overshoot and then wedge itself between the curved oaks ahead!

Only the front paws and its upper chest passed through before its girth prevented it from going any further. The manticore was dumbfounded. He set his four legs underneath himself and pushed, turned and pulled in comical attempts to pry himself out. Unfortunately for him, the odd shape of the trees and their elasticity kept him. The trees even stretched like a funny animation with each motion! He’s stuck.

I just sat there, exhausted and relieved. I’ve never ran so hard in my life! With a bit of humor back in my mind, I I chuckled weakly at the manticore’s predicament as a nostalgic feeling welled up inside. Too many cat videos, I swear. Like a cartoon. It didn’t seem like he could get out anytime soon anyways.

When I felt like moving again, I circled around to meet him face to face. His eyes turned red at the sight of me, squirming into a frenzy. The trees stopped him short, so the only thing I felt from his flailing paws was a harmless breeze. Realizing how futile it was, the manticore stopped and glowered at me instead.

I sighed. “You know, looking at you, you look a whole lot less scarier than I thought.”

I didn’t mean it as just an insult. It was true, he looked more of a Saturday monster for kids than the apex predator threat I initially thought up in my head. In fact, he looked exactly as depicted in the show, friendly in design for little girls. I knew I wanted to be in a world true to the canon of the show, but seeing for myself how even the natives of the world looked like a flash animation felt surreal.

Everything held a two-dimensional tone, but the colors and objects popped out. If I had to compare, it was like the high-end cinematic animation that only movies had, but too expensive to be made in episodic form. Like virtual reality but genuine.

But that left me detached, didn't it? If I were to guess, a normal pony would look on with fear at the creature. For me though? Just another character in a cartoon. Still, if he's sapient, I wonder if I could use a bit of diplomacy so that I won’t be tracked down once he broke free.

As if to disprove my point, the manticore gave a long, harsh roar. Birds rustled out of the trees, the wind of his lungs blew my mane and even my face wrinkled from the force. By the end of it, I stumbled back from the ringing in my poor, poor ears. The manticore turned smug, satisfied with his petty, and savage, victory.

It didn’t scare me exactly, but I lost a lot of confidence in my idea.

“Let’s keep this civil,” I spoke tersely. “Okay, Manny—can I call you Manny?" The MLP's Manny was a manticore as well, but I can use it here. "Doesn’t matter—I don’t know what your deal is, but I had a bad day! I'm too tired to deal with this so late into the evening so let’s just forget about this and let bygones be bygones.”

Manny responded with an even stare before snorting dismissively.

“Don’t you give me that! You were gonna—gonna…” I blinked. A thought just came over me. All this time, I ran in fear of my life, but with the world following the cartoon, did it also follow the rating? “What were you going do to me?”

Manny stared at me menacingly. Then, with a cheshire grin, he slowly and visibly licked his lips. Smug, but without a certain kind of maliciousness...

“Eat me?” It sounded too wrong to be the case, so I thought about his past actions instead. “Wait, no, you were trying to scare me off.”

Judging by the manticore’s vivid expression of surprise, I scored.

“All this time…you—” That did it, the final straw to break the camel’s back. “Are you fucking kidding me?! You chased me all the way down a mountain! What were you—I could’ve died!”

Manny glanced down at my beaten form before staring back helplessly, as if to say, “but you’re alive now, so what’s the big deal?" That drove me livid. His throat rumbled, ready to erupt with another one of his roars as if ready to protest.

“Enough of that already!” I shouted and he shut his mouth. “I’m sick and tired it! I’ve fallen from the sky—twice! Got an itch that almost drove me batshit crazy, and it’s not like I could pluck the damn sticks out with these damn hooves! I tripped and fell so many times that I can feel the bruises turn into a fucking aneurysm!”

The manticore winced for each seething word that spat out of my mouth. Slowly, but surely, the indigence in him shifted into uncomfortableness, then, to fear. Seeing this, I felt empowered to say more.

I mockingly said in a hushed voice, “You could’ve let me go my merry way and you’d have your sweet little nap,” then shouted, “But nooo! Instead, you chased me down with my LIFE on the line! Do you have any idea how much it hurt to get the hell away from you?! I fell from a mountain! A mountai—!”

I blinked, shocked. Manny had shrunk into the wedge in backing up from by verbal assault. Beads of tears formed along the corner of his eyes.

A feeling told me: It’s him. He’s Manny the Manticore from the Season 1 premiere. There was no basis or proof behind it, but I felt it. But if that was true, it was a huge coincidence. What this changed, I don’t know, but it didn’t matter. I already let out the day’s steam, so I quickly calmed down. I sighed. To say anymore felt childish. Besides, staying angry at a cartoon character won’t help me.

“I’ve said my case,” I muttered, “so leave me alone.”

Manny was silent. From how expressive he was, I knew he felt shame. Cartoon expressions were honest like that. With nothing else to do, I huffed, turning to leave.

But then, the forest resonated with the howling of wolves, followed by a horrific smell.

Manny and I widened our eyes. Timberwolves.

I shook my head. "Oh for the love of—that's just not original."

They sounded close, and this spurred Manny back to gettingout of the wedge’s hold. From the distress in his face, I knew I had to move. If even the burly cat feared this world's timberwolves, then there must be a good reason why. I was still too exhausted to do another run and I didn’t have the generosity of gravity anymore to act as a crutch.

“Doesn’t matter now. I’m going.” Manny looked at me pleadingly, but I turned my back on him and limped away. “Don’t. You brought this on yourself. Survival of the fittest, after all. I gotta do what I gotta do to survive. I do my thing, you do yours.”

Then, he meowed. I stopped.

Not a roar, a snarl, nor a growl. He abandoned all sense of intimidation and meowed. I gulped, and glanced over my shoulder. There he was with the moon acting as a spotlight, his head ducked low in a solemn bow. He was sorry. And he was willing to express weakness for my forgiveness.

Another round of howls snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Too many cat videos,” I mutter. With a shake of my head, I ran and disappeared into the foliage, leaving Manny behind.

He’s on his own.

And so was I.

As I left, all I could think about was the amazing view that I saw at the edge of the mountain before I fell.

Doors open and close.

People are free to choose whichever door they feel benefits them most, be it deciding between the time a teen spends on video games and finishing a TV show or choosing between two well-paying jobs. However, there’s always a cost for each decision made; an opportunity cost.

Choose either but never both. In certain friendships, this was especially true. I was once under the naive belief that the thing that brings friends together would always stay. They tend to, but it was to my shock as a Brony that friends themselves didn’t. With the fandom’s inactivity and decline, it was no surprise. Ponies won’t always be in their minds, and they’d later forget them in favor of other more fulfilling pursuits. I wanted to stay connected to my friends, but I also wanted to stay connected to ponies.

It was a silly fear, but I was scared that, if I chose to leave, I would be just like them and abandon ponies entirely. They’re a connection to my inner child and younger me refused to be swamped into dullness of adulthood. So, I attempted the impossible and tried to keep both. Of course, not everything can please a person all the time. Hobbies change constantly and I was forced to catch up until, friend by friend, the distance widened so much that I was the only one left, unable to keep up.

Ever since, I was determined to find new beginnings with new friends, ones that will last. The cycle instead repeated. On and on it went until, finally, I decided that being alone was better than earning nothing for what I worked to keep. Solitude didn’t make it better, though. Ponies never made me happy the same way ever again.

Serves me right for trying so hard to maintain relationships across the internet.

It was human to change. To a Brony who wanted to be happier, it was okay to moving on from ponies. In life, people were allowed to pursue their well being and fortune. To find a better state of self, it wasn’t wrong to find something new, to begin anew and have the determination to face a split path again.

But if it is alright to start anew, was there anything wrong with revisiting what’s already over?

The Everfree Forest shuddered as the howls of timberwolves vibrated the air, singing their hunt’s call.

Through it all, Manny lay stuck and still, bowed in defeat. It had been minutes since I left, and the howling got closer, but he continued to do nothing. How could he do anything? Trapped between a pair of trees, he’s helpless as his size was used against him. For timberwolves, even if he was a manticore, a sitting duck was a sitting duck. All he could do was accept his fate.

Then a bush rustled, and Manny looked up, ready to face the first of the timberwolves.

I bursted from the shrubbery with a puffed mouth and a bulge under my wing.

Manny was so astonished to see me his jaw dropped. I barely gave a glance before hastily dugginv into the dirt under one of the trees trapping him. My coat was already drenched in dirt, indistinguishable from the original blue. What’s a little more? Once a dent was made, I spat into it the contents in my mouth. It was water from the nearby river.

I sputtered, “Idiot! What did I just say about survival of the fittest?! When I said I had to do what I must, the same goes for you, too!” I kneaded the dirt in the indent, softening it up so that I could dig even faster. “You’re supposed to struggle, fight tooth and nail to the bitter end even if your bones break! Do everything in your power to live another day because you feel that you deserve to! That’s what living is!”

In my rush to dig a damn hole, I didn’t notice my hoof crack under the labor. My hooves were already numb by then, and it’s not like they’re meant to shovel hard dirt! The howling got louder—no, they’re already here. Shadows flickered behind the plant life as the song reached its crescendo, but there was no mistaking the yellow glow of their eyes, watching us.

Manny just stared in awe and his eyes glistened at my speech, but his expression also implied weight to another thought: Why? I felt the question bore into the back of my head as I dug in mad desperation.

And then they emerged. Timberwolves, dozens of them, slowly crawled into the open, not to be cautious but to be menacing. Their joints clacked with each step. Every lucid thought in my head screamed at me to run and leave the manticore to the wolves, that I was going to die. Gritting my teeth, I stayed. I swore to see it through to the end!

“It’s not wrong to come back,” I hissed, more at myself than Manny. “I know it sucks to care, but I can’t help but give a damn anyways! In the end of the day, I refuse to feel like shit again!”

The Timberwolves stalked close and Manny looked fearfully at them, but when he glanced down at me and my battered, overworked hooves, his fear was overridden by something else. Be it from my speech or my effort, that something welled up in his soul. Whatever it was, it filled him with determination.

This was no time to sulk, it was time for action!

“Raaaaaaaaaaaaaawr!”

The roar thundered the clearing with the command of a king! Manny widened his stance despite being encumbered, challenging the timberwolves with a indomitable growl. To the extravagant display, the timberwolves backed away, cowed. Despite everything, I smiled.

I heard the thumping of dirt. A bigger wolf emerged, mean and gnarly, sporting more branches than mere sticks. He snarled angrily at the pack, as if urging to attack already. This asserted him as the Alpha in my mind. Growling as well, the timberwolves eased in. Finally, like rubber snapping, they sprung forth.

Manny batted away any that came close. He clawed with his paws and swung with his scorpion tail. Meanwhile, I continued to dig under his protection. I was close, so close! I heard a snarl to the side and turned just in time for Manny to crush it like toothpick. I flinched at the resulting debris.

I didn’t dare watch as the sticks emitted an eerie green glow and began to condense. More and more, sticks piled around us as Manny savagely defended me, but the appearance of magic accelerated the beating in my chest. It wasn’t a good sign. Soon enough, the sticks reformed a timberwolf to dive in again.

The hole was finished. I finally took out the item under my wing. Between my hooves was a sparkling, rainbow apple with a lightning-shaped stem—a zap apple.

I wasn’t just sightseeing when I enjoyed the view on the mountain. I memorized landmarks and flora...especially potential sources of food. I didn’t pick it up for something to eat, oh no---I picked it up because I remembered its properties displayed in the episode of FiM, “Family Appreciation Day.”

I bit into the zap apple without hesitation. And it bit back. My tongue buzzed from the taste, sweet as apples yet electrifying as hot sauce. However, I refused to savor it as I spat it out and looked at the core of the apple. The seeds were exposed. I dunked the seeds into the hole and then scrambled to cover it back up.

“Grow dammit!” I shouted, finishing the deed! “Granny Smith, you better be right!”

But that was all I got to say before the Alpha slipped by Manny’s paws and latch into my tail. I yelped, slipping from under my hooves as I was dragged to be served to a waiting pack of timberwolves.

Manny wailed in grief as he struggled futilely to come to my aid.

“Shit! Shit!” I twisted around and kicked at the Alpha. “Stupid! Dog! You!” He refused to budge and continued to drag me out of Manny’s reach. I could no longer focus on him though. With me away from the strong and buff manticore, the other timberwolves switched to easier prey.

I punched, flared and screamed. I warded them off for a few seconds before one of them dove in and caught my hoof. Instantly, a flash of weakness passed over me. I didn’t dare to find out what happened next as I tore my hoof out along with its jaw. The timberwolves dog-piled onto me, and it was only through my merciless squirming that they didn’t get another solid bite in.

Seeing that his pack wasn’t able to do me in yet, the Alpha ominously circled around. The timberwolves attempted to pull away my limbs from all sides. Laid on my back, I was too preoccupied with anything else. Manny sounded from where he was, helpless to watch. The nauseating smell of decayed wood assaulted me. Sticks and leaves were all I saw until, suddenly, the timberwolves dispersed.

The Mare in the Moon was the first thing I saw before the Alpha bit down.

“Aaaaugh!”

Agony, pure agony. The wooden teeth didn’t pierce anything, being merely sticks, but the world of a thousand needles reigned in every part of my body.

The Alpha held firm around my head, wriggling for a better grip. I screamed until I could only rasp, slapping my feathers into its face—anything to get him to let go! But I couldn’t do it. Numbness overtook my body, starting with my extremities. My wings fell to my sides and my wobbly hooves were the only limbs fighting back until they too began to slacken. My neck strained as I went limp.

Desperation hammered my engine to stay alive, but darkness seeped from the corners of my eyes. With my head upturned by the Alpha’s mouth, I saw the horror in Manny’s face as he watched me get mauled. For the second time, I was dying. I would laugh if I could. So boring, so lame—about to be done in by one of the MLP fandom's common cliches.

I didn't want that. Not again.

Black soon neared the center, at the cusp of becoming a void...

...

A spark.

My eyes found light when I saw it, the crackling of electricity coming from the spot where I buried the zap apple seeds. I smiled.

About time.

Crack! Boom!

Nature’s fury thundered across the Everfree Forest as, in a fit of magnificent lightning, a zap apple tree instantly grew from under the roots of the curvy oak and tore it to shreds!

And so, one of the split paths shattered. Everything paused. Slowly, the timberwolves looked with fear crawling to their eyes. A might paw crushed one instantly.

Manny, now free, gave hell to the timberwolves. He snarled in rage and charged. The Alpha was forced to let go of me to escape, but it was too late. Manny tackled the wolf to the ground and then roared into its face before slapping it around like a rag doll. The lesser timberwolves tried to get one in, but they all met a pitiful fate versus his scorpion tail. It wasn’t a fight. It was a slaughter.

The Alpha’s confident visage broke, now just terrified prey desperately trying to escape a lion’s wrath. Manny pawed and slammed, chipping away whatever protection the Alpha had until he was a nothing more than mangled vegetable. For the final finish, he bit on the wolf’s leg and swung it to the skies! Manny threw him with such strength that the Alpha finally broke into splinters as he disappeared into the sky.

The remaining timberwolves stared up at the sky and then at Manny. Manny growled menacingly. And just like that, they whimpered and cleared out in record time.

When the last timberwolf went out of sight, Manny quickly went to my side and gently nudged my barrel. He hummed, worried.

“I...I’m alive,” I croaked. Everything but my mouth was numb. “Thanks for the save. Good job.”

Manny preened at the praise. I huffed. Down with that ego, man.

Our victory was short lived. Howls suddenly erupted throughout the forest. This time it was louder, more numerous. Manny swiveled around, startled at the sheer volume of the howling.

But then he turned to me of all things. Even though I was weak and useless now, he still poured the fear and hope in his face onto me. He could’ve saved himself now that he’s free, but he chose to stay with me. He’s entrusting his life on that choice. Heh. Same how I entrusted my life to mine.

“Haha,” I laughed humorlessly. “If you look at me like that, how could I say no?”

“Go straight into this direction until I tell you to stop.”

That was the only order I gave him before I bit down on a tuft of Manny’s crimson mane and hung onto his back. We sped off at breakneck speeds. We galed across the open path and past the shadowy trees, the Mare in the Moon lighting our way.

The night seemed ablazed with fireflies at hyperspeed as illuminated predatory eyes blurred in pursuit. Tens. Dozens. Hundreds! The timberwolves infested the shadows beneath the forestry and weaved between the trees like water in a tidal wave. The army of footsteps echoed an ominous rhythm in the dark, sticks and leaves snapping and cracking.

The noises were gaining on us while Manny cleared substantial distance with each stride. Smooth, but turbulent for me. I bounced at every beat as I struggled to keep hold. My limbs hardly recovered, barely clamping around the rest of Manny’s back.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to suffer long,

I shouted through a mouth full of hair, “We’re here!”

We emerged into an open clearing and Manny skidded to a halt. The legion of timberwolves surrounded us while beneath their shadowy shroud. The yellow eyes piled and piled across the black canvas of dark, the shuffling of wood broken by an occasional snarl.

I simply released my hold on Manny and slipped out of his back, falling unceremoniously to the ground with a thud. The manticore was kind enough to set me upright as I soothed the abuse my jaw took. He didn’t understand why we stopped here in particular but he placed his trust in me and was willing to follow it through, settling into a wide stance as he growled for a fight.

“Easy, easy.” I calmy caressed the red of his mane with my muzzle.

He stopped but was visibly puzzled.

I faced the thousands of eyes that encircled us. Their growing numbers had reached the point where the clearing tinted with a yellowish hue, a testament to how impossibly numerous the timberwolves were. Despite that, I was stone-faced calm, unflinching to the predatory stares.

“No matter how close you look at it, we are definitely surrounded. But…” I leaned down to gently whiff a patch of Poison Joke, “...take a step back to see the bigger picture, and then it’s not all so bad.”

Not just that patch, Poison Joke was everywhere. It coated the clearing, adorned the shrubbery, infested the stones, and climbed the trees. In the realization, the rustling, the snapping, the eyes—everything stopped. The clearing went dead silent. I smiled as one of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’s most iconic magical plant stole the Everfree’s breath away.

This was another landmark I saw from atop the mountain.

I spoke daringly toward the glowing eyes. “So, you can just go on ahead, try to fight a manticore and then get duped on by a plant...or you just be on your way. My advice?” A narrowed stare bore through the crowd accompanied with a threat: “Make my goddamned day.”

The timberwolves whimpered amongst themselves like a pending council. It didn’t take long; the decision was made. It started out slow, the yellow receding and winking out, but as the seconds ticked, more and more of them left the scene until, finally, like a closing curtain, all the eyes were gone. Not a speck of yellow remained and the horrendous odor faded.

When the last of the smell tapped out, I collapsed onto Manny’s side with a deep, riveting sigh. The exhausted manticore laid down as well, closing his eyes. Bathed in the moon’s spotlight, we both breathed blissfully in the end of a long road. Inhale. Exhale. Manny’s side rocked me with each breath.

We did it. We won our peace and our happy ending.

A sudden tiredness overcame me and a slight trail of an ethereal mist caught my eye. I followed it and felt over where it led—my forehead—with a hoof. There was warmth over the numb spot where the Alpha bit. I gasped and pulled my hoof off. It wasn’t blood. No, more like it didn’t exist in this world, I realized, only an equivalent.

“We...got off on the wrong foot,” I suddenly said, staring at the warm sparkling mist on my hoof.

A grumble and then a hum.

“Yeah. Duh, I know,” I chuckled. The misty hoof fell limply to the side. “Name’s Tutorial Blues. Nice to meet you, Manny,” I murmured softly.

Manny just purred. Knowing he heard me, I relaxed my head on his scruffy fur.

The crickets lulled us to sleep as the blue flora and leaking mana danced around us in the midnight breeze.

It’s not wrong to come back.

It’s the heart of nostalgia to recall the good times. Even though things end, the experiences were real. There’s only regret that it didn’t last longer, not regret that it happened at all.

A TV enthusiast would revisit his childhood show.

Best friends would gather around in a holiday to talk about old times.

A man would smile as he shared his photo to his sons and daughters.

A former couple would smile at a each other’s bright text message, knowing that the other is happy in the world.

To start over along a path already traveled by is like an attempt to re-experience it, to relive something except with an entirely new perspective. If I had realized this...I wonder if I would’ve acted differently in how I treated my memories with others. Those people in mind were just faceless profiles without a recognizable name. Recalling them felt hollow.

How hypocritical for a Brony who once boasted the ideals of friendship. When I felt like shit on my bitter days, it felt wrong to revisit the good moments after tarnishing them. Shame, guilt, anger... Mistakes were made. I fell harder like no other with no other direction left but up.

But maybe, just maybe...I don’t have to feel so shitty anymore, now that I could remember. Although I had a perfect photographic memory of my past life, the problem was that it was too perfect. I couldn't tell if I was mentally a brat or a stuffy middle-aged man anymore.

Nor I could tell if I was the Brony from back then or still the cynical existential crisis I am now.

Maybe that's another reason why I decided to reincarnate to Equestria: To jump down from the lonesome mountain top and start from the beginning to find out.

I snapped my eyes open.

The soothing sensation of a woolly blanket welcomed me. My ears flickered at the bubbling of a pot and the crackling of fire. I felt warm. I blinked, feeling conscious of the tightness over my forehead—bandages over the wound. Glancing around I saw the decorative masks along a wall near the ceiling. Expressive, yet their tribal appearance didn’t detract from the homely atmosphere. After all, I knew one of them symbolized “hello.”

“Ah! From deep slumber, it seems you are awake.”

Slowly, with disbelief written in my face, I turned to the voice.

“I’m glad I won’t have to force down the medicine you shall take.”

Zecora smiled warmly at me with a wooden bowl of soup, a friendly beginning of a new day in the wild happenings of the Everfree Forest.

I couldn’t help it—I chuckled. Not best pony, but it’s close enough.