//------------------------------// // Lost and Found // Story: You're not Twilight // by Miner //------------------------------// When Aaron came to, he felt like a boulder is crushing him. But it turns out to be only Misty and Sparky who landed on top of him. Testing out his limbs to ensure nothing is broken, he groans, getting up, heaving due to the extra weight. Aaron was never the most physically fit person, but he wasn’t out of shape, either. It has been a while since he had to put his back into doing something. Surprisingly even after getting up, his two companions remained where they were on his back, not waking up, a blessing in disguise. He rather not deal with unnecessary conversation while lost somewhere unknown. The trees above his head make it difficult to determine how long they were unconscious, but the light fading has him on edge. If he was to make a guess, they have about an hour before nightfall. He must get out of the forest before that happens. Who knows the kind of dangerous animals that live in this forest? He rather not find out. That would be the ideal plan if he was alone or with ponies who know what they are doing. But with a city mare and a baby dragon depending on him, he needs to find a place to camp and start off in the morning, “What a day,” He grumbles to himself. After watching the shadows of the trees for a moment, he found where the sun is setting and walks in the direction of Maretime Bay at a slow pace. But that this rate, they are not going to make it out before nightfall. Many thoughts ran through his head: how is he going to explain this to the sheriff, how is he going to pay for the damaged jeep, is all this some kind of punishment for his misdeeds on earth, and what is the point of all this? It was sunset when Misty starts to wake up. “Ow,” “Good evening to you too,” “What? Aaron, what happened? Where are we?” Misty gets off his back, leaving Sparky there, “Somewhere in the forest. But that is not important right now. We were out for a while, and night is falling,” Misty starts panicking, looking and moving in random directions but not going too far from Aaron. Aaron gives her a questionable look as he continues to walk, “Now we continue to head in this direction-” “Quiet, just be quiet!” Misty interrupts him causing him to turn around to face the craze mare, “Misty, this is no time to panic,” “I think that this is a perfect time to panic. We are lost. We wretch that car thing,” Misty waves around them and stomps her hoof, and points to the baby dragon before poking Aaron in the chest accusingly, “And with Sparky here, they are going to think we did all this on purpose, and it's all your fault!” Flabbergasted, Aaron shakes his head before defending himself, “My fault! If your dress didn’t get stuck in the jeep in the first place, we would be back at the Daycare explaining to Hitch where his little boy went off to,” She growls at him, “No! I mean that this is all your fault!” she paces before him, never taking her eyes off him, “I got sent to jail because you ran into me and made it worse by dragging me into all this. I am never going to be able to get my cutie mark at this rate. And Opaline, AAH! Queen Opaline!” She pulls on her jaw in horror as Aaron stares at her mental breakdown, “I don’t remember when I last called her. She must be so mad right now. I am so dead; my life is ruined!” She trembles as Sparky wakes up and hops off Aaron’s back. Aaron has no idea who this Queen Opaline is, but if she is anything like Opal, she is bad news. But that is a topic for a later date, “Nothing is ruined but that jeep Misty,” He tries to reassure her, “Anyways, you should be glad that we can even have this conversation in the first place,” However, this didn’t have the desired effect on her as Misty did a double take, “What?! What are you talking about?” “We are in an unknown location of the forest that could be filled with hungry predators that lust after pony flesh, and we were fortunate that we didn’t run into a pack of them when we landed. We also have a baby dragon that can burn the forest down with us still inside,” He gestures to Sparky, chases after a flying bug before he nabs him when he got too close to him, “And I alone of the two of us can safely navigate us out of the forest without getting lost. We should be able to make it back to Maretime Bay by lunch tomorrow if we hurry,” He rubs Sparky's head, “But we first need to find a place to sleep with the time we have left because I want to see tomorrow. And you, Misty, are going to help me find a way to get a baby dragon back to sleep before he attracts unwanted attention to us,” Sparky struggles to get out of his loose grip and dodges Aaron’s weak attempts to catch him again. However, during their little play time, they fail to notice the crazy look in Misty's eyes as she loses it, “YOU! ARE! CRAZY!” She shouts at him, causing Sparky to hide behind Aaron, “We can’t go back to Maretime Bay because they will put us in jail for life. You are the worst stallion I have ever met in my life!” Aaron has met many kinds of people in his life; some of them have their reason for hating him and have called him all kinds of things that he rather not go into detail about, while others could care less what happens to him. But being called crazy for trying to survive using logic is a first. He blinks, trying to come up with a reasonable response, “You are a sad, strange little mare. You have my condolences,” He puts Sparky on his back and raises one hoof at Misty for some reason, “Farewell.” He turns to walk away, getting a growl from her, “Oh yeah!” She turns to march away, not watching where she was going, “Well, good riddance you-AAAAAAHHH!” Hearing this, Aaron rushes over to see that Misty had fallen into a large den of some kind. It was big enough to fit over a dozen ponies comfortably. Even in the dim light, he could tell this was abandoned for quite some time, “Misty?! You, okay?” “I am fine, just fell down,” Misty puts pressure on her left hoof before holding it close to her chest, “AAH! Hamburgers!” Aaron stares down at her in disbelief, ‘A fall from twenty feet left us with light bruises, but a slide down a steep slope is capable of injuring a pony? What kind of logic is that?’ He thought to himself, shaking his head, “Misty, is there any blood?” She feels around her hoof, not finding any, “No,” “Good,” She looks up at him, questioning his logic, “How is that good?” “It is good because you won’t get any infections,” Aaron slides down next to her safety, “You have to remember we are on our own until we make it back; so any kind of infection would be the worst-case scenario,” He looks up seeing Sparky rolling down next to them giggling, “More importantly there is no way you are getting back up there like this,” “What do we do?” “Honestly, the best thing to do here is to wait until Morning,” “You mean make camp here?” She looks around the den, unsure about all this, “We have no other choice by the time I get you out of this hole. It will be nighttime, and we wouldn’t be able to travel safely in the dark. I have a hard enough time just watching after Sparky with you now injured; we would be asking for more problems. The best way to use the time we have left is to make camp and get a fire going. In the meantime, you hop on over deeper into the den and get comfortable; it’s going to be a long night,” Slowly Misty was able to drag herself deeper into the den and lay down against the stone wall. Sparky spent his time going up the hillside before sliding back down, laughing all the way. Aaron gathered rocks and sticks to make a small campfire ready to burn. Just when she thought he was getting nowhere with his efforts to light it, a small fire came to life. “Aaron?” She calls out to him as he blows on the fire, “Any reason you didn’t try to get Sparky to light the fire?” Aaron turns to face her and lowers his eyes with a blank stare at her, “Right, dumb question,” He leaves the den and returns, making a pile of sticks to feed the fire as Sparky pulls on a root sticking out from the wall. He has a rather sizeable pile now; as the fire burns away safely, Misty stares at him in wonder, “Have you done this before? You got that fire going rather quickly,” Misty says out loud, not realizing that she had as Aaron stares into the fire, “I spent some time ruffing it before coming to Maretime Bay,” Aaron looks at his hooves, ‘It just to a bit to get used to the hooves, that is all,’ he whispers to himself before moving in front of Misty, “What?” “Don’t worry about it,” Aaron gave Misty's hoof a look over, doing his best not to hurt her, “It looks like you're only sprained it, nothing serious. You should be fine in the morning. Just try not to sleep on it during the night,” “Okay,” She takes back her hoof, looking away as Aaron returns to the fire keeping it alive as Sparky moves next to him, staring into the flames. As the night goes on, Misty's gaze keeps returning to the stallion before her. Aaron is an enigma to her. The more she learns about the stallion, the more questions she has. But no matter how she puts it, there is one thing for certain. Aaron is much older than he appears to be. When they first met, she thought he was a young stallion without a Cutie Mark just like her, and maybe she could be with some pony else that also knows her pain. But Aaron has shown himself to be way more capable than most ponies would be given credit for, no matter what may happen. Perhaps he may not be as crazy as she thought he was, “Sorry for yelling at you earlier,” “Don’t worry about it. Water under the bridge,” Aaron stops Sparky from touching the flames before pulling him to his chest, “You should get some rest, Misty. You will need it in the morning,” Misty sleeps as best she can as the fire burns through the night. Morning came quickly, much to her disappointment, so she snuggles deeper into her warm bed, pulling her pillow to her chest. . . ‘Wait, I don’t have a blanket and pillow!’ Misty eyes open to find that Aaron and Sparky have turned her into a pony sandwich in the middle of the night. A heavy blush crosses her face as she remains perfectly still. On one hoof, this was an invasion of personal space; on the other, it is very welcomed. She is so confused. She turns to Aaron's sleeping face, gently blowing air on her mane. As much as she would like to deck him for cuddling her in his sleep, another much louder thought goes through her head if he is with her, then maybe everything will be alright. Misty quickly shakes her head, blushing madly. ‘Bad brain, where did that come from?!’ However, her movement causes Aaron to stir as they stare at each other. Aaron slowly slides away from her, looking away. “Sorry about that,” “It's alright,” Misty replies, looking away and squeezing Sparky, “It was cold last night,” “Right,” Aaron rubs his forelegs together, An award silence covered the campsite as both ponies try to compose themselves. However, they didn’t have long to think to themselves. As grinding rocks sound from the stone wall as a door opens, causing both ponies to turn around. The stone wall they thought was a dead end was a secret door as a Pegasus mare stops halfway through, shocked to have been discovered.