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// Chapter 4 (Joe) 
// Story: Raising the Reborn 
// by Liquid Ice 
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“Good-Bye Tyler!”  I shouted as he drove away, leaving me all alone in the front my house with a box full of squirming ponies.  Ty had been a bit skeptical about leaving the ponies with me out in the open, but considering I’m the last house on a dead end street, and any neighbor that might be curious are at least a half a mile away, I was able to convince him otherwise.  I turned away from the street still struggling to keep the ponies in the box.  (You won’t believe this but keeping them in a box while they were bucking and poking you is an incredible feat!  Sarcasm…)  
I took the ponies to my mom’s garden in the backyard for a couple reasons. First off, because it had a fence around it tall enough that no ponies could jump over it, secondly was more of a personal reason… when you have a very creative mom and you give her a garden full of zucchinis and squash, you will be eating thing that you didn’t even know was possible to make!  I have had zucchini spaghetti, squash smoothies, pumpkin brownies, you name it I’ve had it, so my second reason to put them in there was in the hopes that maybe they could… get rid of them somehow.  On the assumption that they were hungry I try to give them a zucchini, but after the first lick it was clear that they wanted nothing to do with it.  Not that I can blame them.
I walked back to my house in the hopes that I might find something that wasn’t in some way ‘mom’s garden’ related.  Stepping through the door, my mom looked up at me, (wow can you say most beautiful woman ever!) and asked casually, “Hey, did you have fun with Bryan and Ty?”  Now to the casual passer, this question would be nothing out of the ordinary, but for her son it is more like the Spanish Inquisition.  
“Yeah.”  A safe answer not giving away anything that could be used against me.
“How were the railroad tracks?”  She knew.  Sweating I tried to find out if this was a bluff.
“What do you mean?  You know that I wouldn’t go over there.”  A lied. I searched her face, but couldn’t see anything.  It was the perfect poker face.  Never play cards with my mom; you will lose every cent you own.
“All right then, I believe you.”  No she didn’t, she was merely making a strategic retreat.  She continued to look at me until I turned away.  Just her gaze is enough to make you feel ashamed.
“I’m going into the woods in a little bit.”  I say as I rummaged through the kitchen cabinets.
“Then before you go clean up the computer area, you need to stop taking all the dishes over there. I mean really is it that hard to take the dishes form over there to the sink? " 
“No mom.”  She likes going on these tangents, and the only thing you can do is to agree with them over, and over, and over again.  Yes mom, No mom, all the time mom.  Eventually you learn to block her out half way.  So you can agree but still not hear. I know I must sound like a terrible human being,  but it’s the only way to stay sane!  
Hurrying to grab a box of raisins, a large water bottle, and put all the dishes from the computer area in the sink, I run out the door and over to the garden.  
“All right guys we have to get out of here.  Mom always comes out and gardens at six o’clock.”  It was only after I say this that I saw the garden gate.  It used to be a wooden gate with a simple latch, now a wooden gate with a simple latch and a burnt out hole in the middle.  
Wow. Can you say stupid?  Fire throwing ponies plus wooden gates don’t mix…  I checked to make sure that all of them were still inside the garden, there was Applejack the little orange one.  Sweetie Belle, the unicorn.  Pinkie Pie, the energetic pink one.  And… you guessed it, no little Pegacorn. 
I rubbed my eyes.  
“Oh, crap.”  My first instinct was to run and find Celestia, but I thought better of it.  There was a wide open hole for any of the ponies to just go out of.  Better to just have lost one than four.
I got the box out again, put the three ponies inside, put the water bottle and box of raisins inside of it and started for a clearing that I knew was in the forest. 
Heading into the forest with the grace of a cat, (Meaning I fell on my face and nearly got hit by a stray shovel.)  I started my way through the forest and to the clearing I knew was there.  I’m not sure if I said this, but my mom is not an animal person.  My dad on the other hand, he had almost an unhealthy obsession with animals.  He could have done better as a vet than as an accountant.  Anyway, my dad got a dog when I was about eight years old, my mom had an extreme argument with him until my dad said he would go and take it back. He didn’t.  Instead he went into the forest and made a small clearing about a quarter mile away from the house where we then kept the dog.  All was happy and joyful for a week of two until the dog disappeared, and to this day I believe my mom found it and got rid of it.  That was nine years ago. The clearing is still there, sure maybe it’s a little overrun with plant life, but hey, that’s what lawn mowers are for.  And I’m sure that the ponies will be fine until I can mow it.
I’m getting off track, sorry about that.  The clearing is about an acre wide circle with a chicken wire fence around the outside.  There are old, decaying chew toys lying about, and there, in the center of the clearing, was my tricycle.  Sure it was a rusted out peace of trash, but it brought back memories and I couldn’t help smiling at it.  It was from a time when life was good, no crazy politicians, no wars, just blissful ignorance.  Well maybe not ignorance, I glanced down at the box of ponies in my arms.  It was a time of joy, and joy had come again. I put the ponies inside the fence, content as I watched them tumble around and explore their new home.
As I walked back towards my house I kept glancing from side to side, hoping that I might be able to catch a glimpse of a rainbow, of a brilliant white that would signify I had found Celestia.  Depression started to set in as I realized I had lost a being of complex mythology.  Quite a big screw up don’t you think?
I heard a sound to my left as I was about to reach the end of the forest.  As quickly as I could, I jumped from the path and ran around trees leapt over rocks and scrambled under fallen trees. 
Sweating and parched from my search I found her; a creature of such exquisite beauty.  Celestia was basking in the rays of the afternoon light with her wings outstretched, a mere orange silhouette in front of the sun.  She was sitting on a boulder surrounded by smaller rocks; Ivy clung to their sides in a familiar fashion. I remembered this place; I climbed over those very rocks when I was younger. I gasped, and she turned her head to look at me.  As I looked up I saw power in her eyes, and a majestic grace that she was far too young to have, but there was no mistaking it.  This was a creature of intelligence, a being incredibly powerful and ancient.    
Then it was gone.  She jumped down off the boulder and started walking back to the garden as if nothing had happened…  I shook my head, trying to convince myself that it was a trick of the light, or my imagination.  These things couldn’t be intelligent, right?  
I picked up Celestia to take her to the clearing, or tried to at any rate, but she was defiantly not happy about me taking her anywhere.  And that brought about a whole bunch of new problems, she was the biggest of all of them not to mention the heaviest, I could pick her up, she wasn’t that heavy but still with her kicking and struggling not to mention the occasional flames that jumped from her horn.  To say she was the hardest to get to the clearing is like saying the sun is the largest thing in the solar system.  It took half an hour to get her to the clearing, and it had to be the most irritating half hour of my whole life!  Gah! She’s so headstrong!  I sit down next to her, my clothes still smoking from the many times flames had hit them.  I just sat there and glared at her, and she just sat there and glared at me. 
Eventually after a few minutes of pure glaring and frustration I stand up to go and sit down with the rest of the ponies.  At least they weren’t going to be as irritating to be around.  I sat down next to Applejack who just sitting there contentedly and hardly glanced up at me as I sat down beside her.  
“Hey.”  I said as she looked up at me.  She snorts and turns her head back down to the ground.   “Pretty evening huh?”  I nearly face palmed.  Talking to her as if she can understand me?  Really?  I sighed and pick up Sweetie Belle as she wanders past.  She yelps as I do so and she squirms with all the might she had in that little body of hers.  “It’s all right.” I say, trying to calm her down.  I even made little hushing noises like my mom does some times to my baby sister.  She did stop struggling, only for a terrified shivering to take its place.  I felt like such a jerk!  And the sad part is that there was no reason for it.  I set down the terrified little pony and watched her run away as fast as her little legs could carry her, which just made me feel more like an ass then I did before.  Applejack gave me a cold look and I decided then was a good time to go and find out what Celestia was doing again.  
She was standing a small distance away, alternating from watching me, to the other ponies, to the sun set.  But as I watched, slowly with each passing minute of the clock, her eyes began to close, until finally at the moment the sun set and twilight started, Celestia was completely asleep. It was kind of odd how perfectly her sleep schedule was related to the setting of the sun. I would need to figure that out, but for the time I was just glad that she was asleep.
As quietly as I could, I snuck out of the clearing and started to head back to the house. I opened the back door as quietly as I could and then walked up the steps to the kitchen.  I looked over to my right and saw my mom at the stove. Now my mom is a great cook and all, but what she was cooking was the problem. I sat down at the table and asked with the biggest, fakest smile on my lips I could get.
“So, did anything interesting happen today?”
“Oh, nothing special.  But there’s something I need to ask you.”  She said as she put down a tray of spaghetti squash in front of me.  “What happened to the gate of my garden?” 

A/N:  <Ty> While this is Joe’s chapter, I will be doing a quick authors note. First off, each author writes his own chapter. Joe wrote this one, I wrote the previous, and Bryan the one before that. Second, each author has basically inserted themselves into the story. Joe is really like this in real life. Just as Bryan and I have also inserted ourselves in. The cities in the story are where we actually live, and our hobbies are our actual hobbies. Also, since there are three different writers, you'll probably see quite a difference in the style of each chapter. That’s about it. If you have any further questions, just ask.