//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The First Standoff // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// “That idiotic, bird-brained moron!” Gusty cursed for the eighty-seventh time. (But hey, who’s counting?) “What was he thinking? ‘Oh yeah, by the way, Gusty, I’ve been lying to you about nearly everything for your whole life, and now I’m joining the army, but I don’t have the decency to tell you myself, so I left an incredibly vague note instead.’ Seriously.” After finally giving into her exhaustion last night after three hours of cursing her brother’s stupidity, gusty woke up that morning, had an amazing breakfast (which she didn’t have to share with Ocean for the first time in her life; he always took all the good strawberries), and began to - you guessed it - angrily pace the clearing and curse her brother some more. It felt great. She continued to curse his name until his dying day, until she ran out of insults. So, when she sat next to the fire at a quarter till noon, the sensible-and-logical part of her brain decided that now would be a good time to try and talk some sense into her, so it said, I don’t think cursing is going to do you any good. Oh, really? Gusty replied snarkily. I hadn’t noticed. Thank you so much for pointing that out for me. I never would have known otherwise. You are just sooo helpful right now, you know- I may be a voice in your head, but that doesn’t mean I can’t detect sarcasm, the voice-in-her-head said hotly. Gusty snorted and rolled her eyes. I can’t believe I’m having a conversation with my own subconscious, she grumbled to herself. My, how low I’ve fallen. I can STILL HEAR YOU, the voice said, sounding so much like her brother that Gusty half expected to look up and see him trotting into the clearing with a bag of coins in his mouth. Gusty ignored the voice in her head and tried to think of new insults to throw at her brother, whether he could hear her or not. Simple minded jerk? No, that’s too good for him. Hm, maybe mooney-eyed, empty-headed feather brain. Gusty smiled in satisfaction. Yes. That’s perfect. “You hear that, Ocean?” she said loudly. “You’re a mooney-eyed, empty-headed feather brain! Uh, whaddya think of that, huh?” I think, the Ocean Breeze inside her head said in an annoyed voice, that you need to work on your curses for a bit more than sixteen seconds. And you shouldn’t just shout them out like that. Somepony could be listening to you and get the wrong idea. It also attracts attention. Do you really want to attract the attention of everypony within a mile of us? What if Grogar hears and comes to investigate? Yes, Ocean, I do, Gusty replied in a satisfied tone. And why would Grogar be all the way out here? Why are you arguing with a voice inside your head? Am not! Well, uh, you started it! Gusty spluttered. Did not, Ocean contradicted, but fell silent. Gusty sighed. At this rate, she was more likely to go insane before she did anything to stop Grogar. She resumed pacing until a thought popped into her head. Ocean isn’t here to tell me what to do anymore, she thought with relish. Which means I can do whatever I want to do! I can go to town finally! I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Ocean piped up warrily. I mean, I think I might’ve had pretty good reasons for saying no, so, maybe you should stay here? Where it’s nice and safe? That sounds like a great idea. Yes, let’s do that. Shut up, Ocean, Gusty grumbled. She set off into the forest, excitement building inside her with every step, until she realized that she had no idea where town was, or how to get back there, and that she was hopelessly lost. You see? This is exactly what happens when you don’t listen to me, Ocean scolded inside her head. You’re not even here and I still can’t get rid of you, Gusty moaned. How lame is that? You know what, I’m just going to stop listening to you altogether. What do you think of that, huh? I think you won’t last five minutes, Ocean said ruefully. You’re lost in the middle of the woods, you’re completely clueless about what’s out there, and as soon as you get out of this you’ll eat so much candy that you’ll get sick, because I won’t be there to tell you when to stop.n And if that isn’t enough, you’ll almost definitely get kidnapped by Grogar and recruited into his army. Yeah, that’s what I tho - Hey! Unfair! That is totally unfair! I can take care of myself, Ocean, I do not need you to do it for me! Now just leave me alone! Ocean made sounds of protest, but Gusty shut him down and ignored him. She focused instead on what she thought a town would look like, based on what her brother had told her many years ago, back when he thought she was too little to remember much. “There’s like a hundred houses,” she remembered him saying, the firelight reflecting in his eyes. He wasn’t even fully grown yet, but he was already working harder than some of the other ponies in town. His hoof gently stroked her mane, and Gusty remembered feeling very sleepy, but she fought to stay awake, thirsty for any knowledge about the world outside. “On busy days, it’s like the whole marketplace is an endless sea of ponies, and you can scarcely hear yourself think.” “What’s a marketplace?” little Gusty asked sleepily, her eyelids drooping. Ocean smiled. “It’s like a bunch of tents, and each of them have something in them that they give away, but you have to give them something back in return, something just as valuable.” His eyes got a far-off look in them, Gusty remembered, and he seemed to get lost in memories. “I work there a lot. Especially for a pony named Rex. He’s kind of mean and impatient, but he pays me well. He sells furniture, and he’s right across from a book stall. The pony who works there is really nice. When I’m on break, she offers to teach me how to read. I’m not very good, though. She has spell books sometimes, though, so maybe I’ll get one for you. And everyday I walk by this place called a hotel. It’s like a really big house where ponies who are visiting stay, but only for a little while. It looks big and grand, but the ponies there are a little… rough. And scary. But the ocean is so pretty from town. It sparkles in the sunlight, and you can see the fisher ponies yelling at each other because their boat is too close, or they’re stealing all their fish, or they stole their spot.” “I want to go to town one day, too,” little Gusty announced, barely awake now. “Someday, Gusty.” Ocean sighed and lay his little sister next to the dying fire. “Not today. But someday.” That was how he used to put off Gusty’s desire to go to town. By promising that she could do it later. Well, that ‘later’ stretched on for years, and now it was finally happening. She thought about dozens of houses and tents, just like her brother said. She thought of streets bustling with ponies. She thought about places with no trees. Her horn lit up, and she teleported. When she opened her eyes, she finally saw what her brother had kept from her all those years.