Knight of Equestria - On Distant Shores

by SupraMacPringles


Chapter 26: Island of Fools - Part 1

At first there was darkness, before what looked like a moon in the distance lighting up the area. He spotted the hooded figure again, this time he was sure it was a pony of some sort. It called out to him in a soft voice.

"Come on, we're almost there."

He outstretched his right arm to the hooded figure, who disappeared towards what looked like a temple.

The smothering darkness began to dissipate quickly, as the moon in the sky became the blinding sun.

...

Matthew Nabal awoke on a beach, drenched, with his right arm extended as it was in his dreams. He quickly blocked his eyes from the intense sunlight overhead before climbing to his feet. He looked around, frightened and confused, before realizing three things; firstly, he was on a beach, nearby a dense looking jungle. Secondly, his body ached all over. Thirdly, he was alone.

...

In the present, Rarity was busy re-organizing various things around the Carousal Boutique. The bells attached to the door jingled lightly, and Rarity rushed to greet a potential customer.

"Hello and welcome to the- oh, hello Twilight Sparkle." she said, realizing just who the customer was.

Twilight seemed immensely downtrodden, something Rarity picked up on immediately.

"Hey Rarity..." Twilight responded.

"Oh, what's the matter, dear?"

"It's just... I haven't seen Matt in ten days."

Indeed, it had been quite awhile since Matt and Twilight's little spat. She hadn't seen any trace of Matt since that day, and after three days had passed she had begun looking for him around Ponyville. Nopony she asked had seen hide nor hair of the human.

"Really? But I thought he lived at the library with you?" Rarity replied.

"He does... Well, he did." Twilight said somberly. "We... had a bit of an argument."

"And he just disappeared?" Rarity inquired.

"Not exactly. I... more or less kicked him out?"

Rarity looked at her surprised for a moment. "Well, that must've been quite the argument..."

"It wasn't even that severe... both of us just..."

"Overreacted?"

Twilight was silent in response, answering Rarity's inquiry.

"It's nothing to worry about, darling. If Matt is half the gentlemen I think him to be, I'm sure he'll return and apologize."

Twilight perked up a bit at the thought. "At this point, nothing would make me happier. Though, I think I should apologize too."

Rarity smiled, glad to be able to brighten her friend's day, even just a little. As she saw the look in Twilight's eyes, she was reminded of something.

"By the way, Twilight. I've been meaning to ask you..." Rarity said.

"Oh? What is it, Rarity?" Twilight replied.

"I had that little red book from the library for some time, although I didn't really find it's methods too effective. Have they been working for you?" she asked with a coy smile.

Twilight Sparkle was immediately flustered. "I-I-I... Well, that is to say... No, not really." she stammered, blushing heavily.

"I certainly hope you weren't laying the royal charm on too thick." Rarity responded with a giggle.

"I wasn't! I mean, I think I wasn't... He just never really showed interest. He'd been spending a lot of time with Rainbow Dash lately, as well..."

"I've heard. Rainbow was here earlier, asking if I'd seen Matt around." Rarity replied.

Twilight's mood worsened quite noticeably.

"Maybe it's better this way..." Twilight said sadly.

...

Matt sat on a piece of driftwood that had found it's way ashore the island and gazed out to sea. There was definitely no land in sight. He had postponed going into the dense jungle behind him to allow most of his clothes to dry in the intense sunlight. Several thoughts swam through his mind at once; Where was he? Where were the others? Did anyone else survive the crash? He had no way of knowing. But he had felt the need to survive strong within him. He felt that somehow, he'd survive this ordeal and make it back to his warm bed in the library.

Grabbing his mostly-dry clothes, he began his trek through the jungle, hopeful to find his comrades all in one piece within.

After making his way into the thick of the jungle, he began to notice a strange lack of any sort of wildlife in the brush. Not so much as a bird. Nearly two hours into his journey, he heard something from a nearby bush. The rustling startled him greatly, but whatever was causing it didn't seem to notice. The bush just continued to shake. Against his better judgement, he approached and peered inside.

He was shocked to see a familiar mint-colored pony, seemingly asleep and tossing and turning greatly. He reached out and shook her gently.

"Lyra." he whispered. "Lyra!" he said louder. Lyra opened her eyes and let out a long yawn before seeing who woke her. She let out a loud gasp and quickly climbed to her hoofs.

"Whoa! Hey! Uh, look you, um... thing! I may not look it, but I'm a trained musician! So back off!" she yelled as she got into a defensive stance.

Matt glared at her for a moment. "Nice to see you too, Lyra. Are you alright? Where are the others?"

Lyra didn't drop her defenses. "How do you know my name?!" she questioned, before feeling sharp pain originating for the back of her head.

Matt quickly understood that something was wrong. He knelt down to Lyra's eye level. "Lyra? Lyra, are you feeling okay? Do you remember who I am?"

Lyra winced from the pain again, though she did seem to relax herself a bit. "N-no... Should I?"

"My name is Matt Nabal. You and I are friends. We got into... a bit of an accident, traveling with some other friends. We all got separated."

"We did? I..." she gently rubbed her head again. "I can't remember."

Matt stood again and crossed his arms. "It seems you have some kind of injury. Do you want me to take a look? I know some first-aid."

Her expression seemed to soften, before a sudden thought came across her.

"Wait... how do I know you're telling the truth? As far as I know, you could be just some kinda... weird, tall monster! Who else were we traveling with?" she demanded.

"The Doctor, Bon-bon, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia." Matt answered.

Lyra looked a mixture of surprise and confusion. "I-I don't know any Doctors... or anypony named Bon-bon... but, Vinyl and Octavia are good friends of mine..."

"So? Do you trust me?"

"I-I guess, for now." she replied.

"Fantastic. Now come on, we've got a lot of ground to cover if we're to find the others." he said, heading off in some direction.

"Any idea where we are exactly?" she asked.

"Not really, just that we seem to be on an island."

She sighed and followed after him. "I guess it could be worse."

...

"Well, this is just fantastic, Doctor." Octavia said.

"You should be happy we landed at all, and weren't lost in the time vortex." The Doctor replied.

"I just don't understand how a time machine can be so easily thrown off course..."

"Well don't look at me. I'm not the one who flung us here." he responded sarcastically.

"I... I know. Do you think Vinyl and the others landed alright?"

"I'm sure the others are somewhere on or around the island. I can't be certain if they survived, however. We need to get looking. We especially need to be sure the TARDIS is here, too."

"I-I understand. Please, lead on."

...

The other two members of the group were also lucky enough to find each other, somewhere deep into the dense canopy. Although, one of them wasn't quite themselves.

"Look, lady. You're cute, but the jig is up. I know this is some kinda prank." said Vinyl Scratch.

"For the last time, Vinyl; this isn't a prank, I'm not coming on to you, and we need to find our friends!" Bon-bon replied.

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "Alrighty, then. I'll play along. Lead the way 'friend'."

...

A few hours into their search for any sign of their friends, Lyra and Matt came to a consensus; they were both very hungry. The search for friends turned into a search for food.

"So what do you even eat?" Lyra asked.

"Same things as you, mostly." Matt replied.

"So fruits and veggies. Got it."

Matt looked about and discovered a small river nearby. "I wouldn't mind some fish, actually."

Lyra looked at him judgmentally. "What are you, an animal? Do you eat other critters, too?"

While he was aware ponies were vegetarian in diet, part of him longed for the taste of anything besides apples.

"Fine, fine. No fish." he looked around again, trying to spot any source of food as his stomach growled. "I'm gonna climb up a bit, get a better look."

"Yeah, sure. Guess I'll just sit here." Lyra replied.

Matt approached a strong looking tree and began his attempt at climbing it. Naturally, this being something he'd never even attempted to do before, he struggled a bit. Lyra noticed this.

"You alright, buddy? Ya need some help?" she asked.

"No, I can handle it." he replied, finally getting some footing on said tree. "It's just a tree after all."

As he continued to struggle with the simple task, Lyra took notice of what seemed like fruit in a few of the trees above, including the one Matt was climbing. The fruits were small and green, blending into the leaves easily. Lyra used her Unicorn magic to gather them en mas, even wrapping them up in some big leaves as a sort of cradle.

"Hey, Matt. You can come down. I handled it."

"What?" he asked, noticing the pile of fruits she had apparently gathered. "Oh, uh... good job."

"... You want some help getting down?" she asked in a mocking tone.

Matt glared at her before carefully making his way back down. "Ha, ha. You're the master of comedy."

"Thank you, but I already knew that." she replied, smirking.

After several hours of no luck finding any signs of their friends, Matt and Lyra decided to make camp for the night. Despite Lyra offering to do it with magic, Matt insisted on starting a campfire himself which after many failures produced a billowing fire pit.

"Way to go, two-legs. Too bad we don't have anything to cook." Lyra said.

"If ponies don't eat meat, what do they cook?" Matt asked.

"Oh, y'know. Corn and hay and junk. I thought you said you've live in Equestria, how don't you know this?"

"Well I haven't lived there for very long. Something like two-to-three weeks. Time has really be slipping away from me." he replied, leaning back against a tree.

"So what's up with that? How'd you get there?"

"From what I know it was a sort of... magical mishap. My friend Twilight-" he stopped when her name escaped his lips. "That is to say, Princess Twilight Sparkle somehow pulled me here from my native world."

Lyra stifled a laugh. "Did you just say 'Princess Twilight Sparkle'? Now I know you're messing with me."

"From what I know, her being a Princess is a recent development, you probably just forgot."

"Yeah, I guess..." she responded, rubbing the sore spot on her head. "But there is one thing I didn't forget; the love of my life." she declared.

Matt had come to understand she had forgotten Bon-bon along with the rest of their friends. "Oh? You didn't?"

"Nope! He's such a great stallion, and such a talented musician. We've been together for a few months now. I think you'd like him, he kinda talks like you. All fancy and proper." she gushed, a tender tone to her voice.

He certainly wasn't expected her to say that. On top of Lyra acting more lively, Matt had never heard anything about a man in her life.

Before he could question her, Lyra continued talking. "What about you, two-legs? I don't suppose you have somepony special back home?" she asked, half-joking.

Matt sighed. "To be honest with you, i know next to nothing about romantic interest. I once had someone tell me they loved me, but I just couldn't understand."

"Whoa, seriously?" Lyra replied. "You mean... you don't know what love is?"

Matt shrugged in response.

"Well, ya see... uh..." Lyra said, trying to form a good description. "It's when you like... think about somepony all the time, and... want nothing more than to, like... be with 'em a lot..."

Matt paused before responding, considering Lyra's partial description. He thought of the purple Alicorn who brought him to Equestria. He felt awful for whatever he did to upset her and wanted to rush to her side and apologize, so things could go back to the way they were. Twilight Sparkle had been on his mind for quite sometime, but Matt had always thought that it was because he had just been around her all the time. But he knew that things were too different and that she probably despised him after their previous argument.

"I... I guess you might be on to something, Lyra." he replied. "But, well... how do I explain this without upsetting you? You ponies are... 'cute', sure. But... it just couldn't work."

"But there was somepony in mind, huh?" she said, causing Matt to try and stammer a reply and Lyra to giggle. "Hey, relax. Somepony once told me, 'love transcends all'. Although... I can't exactly remember who said that."

"Sounds like solid advice, thanks." Matt said sarcastically.

Lyra rolled her eyes in response. "Whatever, do as you please. I'm going to bed." she said, lying back and turning away from him.

Matt thought it best to get some rest, too. He was still sore from the crash, and dozens of thoughts swam through his mind as he drifted off.