//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: The Equestrian Chronicle // by Souldrainr //------------------------------// Twilight and Spike listened intently to Andrew's recap of everything that was discussed during the summit, cut short as it was. Seeing as Chrysalis would be indisposed for at least several days, they decided to come back to the library, and were seated in the living room. "Sooo, let me get this straight." Spike began. "Since you're the only human in Equestria, you're basically going to be treated as if you were a king or something? Like, by default?" Andrew shrugged, "I guess?" He said uncertainly. "Not exactly..." Twilight said in a dull, crestfallen tone. She was lying on all fours on the couch, her front hooves on—what Andrew would call—the armrest. Spike was seated next to her, with the human across from them. "Yes, his privileges stem from his status as an..." her voice trailed off for a moment as she sighed, "...as an endling. But I believe it's more out of convenience than anything. His status will make it much easier for him to, for example, get in direct contact with the rulers of other nations, among other things." "I guess that makes sense." Spike commented. "So, if he and a pony both show up to a hospital, and the doctors had to decide between saving him and pony, they would save him because he's the last of his kind, right?" "Spike!" Twilight exclaimed, "What has gotten into you lately! Of course they would save both!" What was with spike being so morbid lately? "I know they would try their best to save both!" Spike said in his defense. "It's just... Sombra, Chrysalis... things don't always work out for everyone involved... so..." Twilight's stern expression softened as she looked back at the not-quite-baby dragon. She frowned, crossing her front hooves and bringing her head to rest on the makeshift pillow, burying her muzzle in a tuft of fur. "I... I don't know, Spike," she admitted. She couldn't imagine having to decide who gets to live and who has to die. "Is there something wrong, Twilight?" Andrew asked. Twilight had seemed aloof since before they left the hospital over half an hour ago. Twilight's ears perked and swiveled instinctively at the mention of her name, but returned to their drooped state. "I-I don't know, it's just that I..." Twilight stuttered, trying to find the right words. "I met some of those changelings. Granted, we were fighting them, but still. I saw them, I interacted with them. Now they're all gone…” It was Andrew's turn to frown. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. That people die all the time? No, definitely not that. Luckily, he didn't have to say anything, as a knock on the door cut through the awkward silence just before Celestia herself entered the library. The sudden arrival of her ruler and mentor instantly knocked Twilight out of her grim thoughts. "Celestia!" Twilight yelled as she almost instantly crossed the distance between them and nuzzled the alicorn. "Hello Twilight." Celestia said as she exited the embrace and greeted Spike, before shooting the human a stern gaze. "Andrew Detmer." She said in an authoritative tone. "What exactly were you thinking, flying off like you did? Chrysalis is lucky you didn't hurt her even more with the way you treated that carriage." Andrew scowled. "She got here faster with my help." He shot back. "Help that could just as easily have worsened her already severe injuries." "Well, maybe the time I saved is exactly what will save her." Celestia narrowed her eyes at the human, even as her protege looked back and forth between them in a confused manner. Celestia tore her gaze from Andrew and met Twilight's with a softer, if just as commanding expression. "Twilight, may I speak with you in private?" The alicorn asked. "Um... yes, yes of course." Twilight replied before leading Celestia upstairs. Andrew huffed in displeasure, crossing his arms against his chest as he leaned further back on the couch. He fidgeted with his hands, tapping one finger at a time, starting from his pinkie to his pointer finger and back again, except he was using his telekinesis to do the movement instead of his muscles. It was something he only thought of a few hours before, and he figured it might come in handy if he could do it with his full body at some point. Besides, using his powers seemed to calm him more than regular fidgeting. "Wow, I haven't seen Celestia that mad in years. That was almost as bad as when Twilight found the cake stash under Celestia's bed." Spike commented. Andrew couldn't help but chuckle at that. "You think that's funny," Spike said, "Twilight didn't learn her lesson that day, and would go to the kitchen and ask for chocolate cake, on Celestia's orders, of course. Somehow, rumors started floating around the castle that Celestia was getting fat from all the cake she was eating. Lucky for Twilight, all those calories went straight to her head from all the studying she was doing. Twilight finally grew out of that, or just got tired of cake. Either way, she never got caught.” Another chuckle from the human. "You use that as blackmail, don't you?" Andrew accused. "Me?" Spike asked incredulously as he pointed to himself, "Why, I would almost never!" Andrew grinned now back in higher spirits thanks to the young drake. "Yeah, ok." He replied. He looked at the stairs. He couldn't hear anything coming from up there. Spike, noticing Andrew's attempt at listening in, chimed in with, "It's no use, silencing spell." Andrew ceased his efforts before standing and making his way to the front door. "I'm gonna head out," He called. "You sure that's a good idea? Celestia seemed pretty heated just then, probably won't help if you're suddenly gone when she comes back down." Andrew shrugged, "If she has something important to tell me, she should have said it before going upstairs. I'm gonna be in the Everfree for a bit." "The forest!? What are you going to do there?!" The young drake exclaimed. "No clue," the human admitted, "Just going to walk around for a bit." "Are you sure you—" "I'll be fine." Andrew said, cutting the dragon off and closing the door behind him. Now outside, he came face to face with a pair of celestial guards who eyed him warily. Without exchanging any words, he simply turned and walked in the direction of the Everfree. On his way to the outskirts of town, he returned the hellos he was given, but kept a brisk pace so as to discourage further conversation. Thankfully, everyone took the hint, and didn't bother with small talk. It wasn't that he didn't like to talk to the locals, he just wasn't in a talkative mood at the moment. A few minutes later, he was finally at the treeline that marked the entrance to the strangely normal forest. The sky was also relatively clear above the forest, which was apparently uncommon. He saw a shadow on the ground off to the side and he looked back to find the source, but the sun wouldn't allow him to make out the object causing the shadow. He sighed, and turned back before walking past the treeline. He had a feeling he knew what that was anyways. Or rather, who. It wasn't long after that when Andrew heard the rustling of leaves and snapping of branches coming from behind him. "Can you slow down for, like, two seconds!" Dash yelled behind him. "Not in the mood to talk, Dash." Andrew stated as he continued to forge a path through the forest. He heard the rustle of leaves, and saw Rainbow fly in front of him, facing him as she flew backwards in tandem with his steps. "Whatcha doin in the Everfree?" She asked. "Never mind that, what went on at that meeting thing!? Did you see the wings on that dragon! Celestia may as well have lowered the sun with how well he was blocking it." If her attitude and line of questioning was anything to go by, Andrew guessed that Rainbow hadn't heard about Chrysalis. He didn't want to be the one to open that can of worms to the mare, however, so he settled with answering her questions. "Yes," he started, "it's kinda hard to not notice a dragon the size of a mountain when he's only a few feet from you." Rainbow was about to say something in reply, but let out a startled eep when a force took hold of her midsection and forced her to the side, just in time for her her to see a tree pass by her previous path. She was then placed on the ground. "If you're going to follow me, at least look where you're going..." He quipped. "Yeah yeah." Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes as she trotted alongside the human. "Sooo, what are we doing in the Everfree? Ya know it's not the safest place to be, right?" "I'm aware," The human replied. "That doesn't seem to be stopping you from following me in." Rainbow fanned her feathery appendages, lightly brushing the tips on Andrew's swinging arms so he would turn and see. "Wings, bro. I can just fly away at the sight of trouble. Then again, I guess you can too." "Not in a talking mood right now, Dash...." Andrew warned. "Why, did something happen? Are you ok?" Rainbow asked worriedly. She received no answer, and kept her head turned towards the human, looking for signs of a comeback. Not only did she receive no response, her muzzle was also pushed back against her will, this time narrowly missing a low hanging branch. She snorted and huffed, "Fine, if that's how you wanna play it, I'm game. Not sure what you're planning on doing out here, but doing it with a friend sure beats doing it alone." Rainbow looked forward and trotted evenly alongside the human. Friend, huh... Andrew mused. If Rainbow only knew what he did to Steve, regardless of it being an accident. Or what Matt did to him. He shook those thoughts from his mind. He was supposed to move on from all that. No point in focusing on the past so much when the present and future was so... not bright... interesting? Fascinating? Adventurous? Alien world and all that... He really wished something like this could have happened when Steve was still alive. He could already imagine the hi jinks they would have gotten into after acclimating to their new world. "Thinking happy thoughts?" Rainbow asked in an amused tone. Andrew reddened at the comment, and sped up his pace, the pegasus easily following along. They continued walking for several minutes before Rainbow spoke. "Hey look, a squirrel! Been wondering where all the critters were at." She exclaimed. Andrew tried scanning the area ahead for the animal, but the effort proved unnecessary as Rainbow trotted up ahead to the base of a tree, where a squirrel was busy munching away on a nut. "What's up little guy?" Dash asked the mute creature. The animal looked up at the pegasus, but otherwise paid her no mind as it continued to enjoy its meal. "Yeah, thought as much," Dash smirked mirthfully. "I'm no Fluttershy..." "You say that like she can talk to animals." Andrew commented as he approached behind Dash. The animal immediately scurried up the tree at the sight of the human, going so far up so fast that they lost sight of it. "Whoa, what did you do to scare him off like that?" She asked the Andrew. "Nothing, it's probably just because I'm the first human it’s seen." He answered. "But what was that about Fluttershy? "Oh, she can talk to animals." Dash clarified, as if that was a perfectly reasonable thing to claim. "Of course," Andrew replied sarcastically, "silly me." "Why, what's wrong?" Dash asked, happy at least that the human was talking again. "Animals can't think." Andrew started. "For most of them, at least, all they care about is eating and sleeping. None of them can learn more than a handful of words, and even that takes months or years of training. They aren't like you and me, they’re mostly mindless, driven by instinct and nothing more. Haven't we been through this already?" Rainbow Dash looked at him like he had just proclaimed the sky to be purple. "Did we?" She shook her head, "Never mind that. I’m not sure how it works where you come from, but a lot of animals here are pretty smart. Haven't you been to Fluttershy's? Have you seen Angel Bunny?" Andrew thought back to when he first entered the quaint little cottage. "Yeah, I remember," He said. "There was a rabbit holding a cookbook, and it ran away at the sight of me, just like all the other animals." He gave a quizzical expression, and continued with, "Now that you mention it, he did run away just to stop and run back to his bowl to get a piece of food to take with him. No way would a regular animal have done that." "Right." Dash agreed. "Sooo, where are we going?" "Nowhere," Andrew replied, "just wanted to take a walk." "In the Everfree..." "Someplace quiet, and alone." "Nnneat." "Very." "Speaking of neat things, get ready to fly in a bit, Andrew." "Hmm? Why?" The human asked. "There's a pack of timberwolves up ahead." Rainbow warned "What? Are you sure, because I don't see anything." Andrew said in a hushed tone, slowing his pace. "Look, right over there," the mare pointed with a hoof to a small clearing far ahead of them. Andrew found it difficult differentiating the bark of the timberwolves from that of the rest of the trees, but the faint glow of their eyes was a dead giveaway, even from this distance. "Yeah, I see now." Andrew said. "But it sounds like you weren't even trying to look for them, how could you make them out so easily?" "I'm a pegasus," Rainbow stated, "how would I be able to tell ponies on the ground apart when I'm in the sky without good vision?" "Huh, I guess that makes sense," Andrew commented as he resumed his normal pace. "Hold on!" Rainbow called out as she trotted back to his side and moved with him. "What do you think you're doing?" "We'll be fine." Andrew stated calmly. "Yeah, I get that we can just fly away, but what if—" "We'll be fine." Andrew pressed. "How can you be so sure?" Rainbow questioned. The human shrugged. "I just am, don't you trust me?" "I-I mean..." Dash trailed off. "Okay fine, I trust you." "You only met me a few days ago..." Andrew shot back. "You're the one that asked me if I trusted you! Besides, you seem like a nice enough pony... or, human, or whatever.” It was about a minute later that she continued in a hushed tone, “Andrew, are you sure we’ll be ok?” “Trust me, they won’t try anything. In case you care though, I won’t hurt them or anything, if they do. Well, I’ll try not to, if it comes to that." He could do without a repeat of what happened with Twilight. "Besides," he added, "they’re only wooden wolves, I doubt we need to bother worrying about anything smaller than a dragon, and what are the odds of running into something that big?” He finally entered the clearing where the timberwolves resided, Rainbow following closely behind, wings spread out, ready to flap at a moment's notice. The timberwolves all walked around the edge of the small clearing, choosing to stand at the opposite side from the human and pony. He looked to see if there were any from the day before, but he couldn’t tell them apart. The alpha from the other day was noticeably different, but he wasn’t here either. A different pack, maybe? If they were, they didn’t seem as aggressive as the other. He noticed stems coming from the corner of their eyes, akin to eye lashes. Perhaps they were female? Were there any eye lashes on any of the timberwolves before? “Stay next to me,” Andrew said as he took a tentative step forward. One of the timberwolves took a slight step back in reaction. He grinned.