As the years rolled by, new chapters about this winding journey in self-discovery get written. Growing up, moving out, meeting new ponies, forging an identity, tripping and getting back up, enjoying new hobbies, seizing the day... This long and ubiquitous game of life has a way of bringing anypony to all sorts of places, the majority of which, their past incarnation couldn’t have possibly conceived. Routines and status quo gradually making room for something so unfathomably exhilarating, something so wonderfully grandiose, while the world gets swept by innumerable waves of change.
But for as much as things have a way of moving forward, a lot tends to remain the same, too.
For Sunstone, it was essentially back to square one. All means of progress had been erased; it’s as if the last 10 years didn’t happen at all.
The poor stallion was nearing his thirties and had to return back to living with his old folks. Not by his choice, mind you. An unfortunate series of circumstances had befallen upon him, booting him back where it all started.
Being the oldest sibling, and being the last one to leave the nest. There was something thoroughly humiliating about this. If he found his life unimpressive before, now, it was borderline pathetic. And to what end, really? Had he not busted his flank his whole life to secure himself a cozy lifestyle in the future? Studying relentlessly and applying himself at school to snatch a snazzy job like every other salaried worker?
Look at him now: Sitting on his haunches at the kitchen table, a yellow newspaper opened in front of him. Desperately scrounging the ads section to find a new and better form of employment where his expertise could shine.
His neck was curved downward and his face was completely buried in his lecture. As if he was trying to intimidate the paragraphs with his vitriolic stare alone to rearrange the letters into something more acceptable.
Unfortunately, nothing yielded. Yet another day of finding nothing but posts that either required courses his studies didn’t cover and/or field experience he didn’t have. And a minimum wage was out of the question; who could avoid having the bank foreclose on them with something that could barely cover a week’s worth of groceries? Canterlot’s cost of life could be a cruel mistress if you didn’t shove that silver spoon far down your throat.
Sunstone took another sip out of his lukewarm coffee. A true meal fit for the failure that he was. All hail the almighty loser, he mentally chanted.
His mother was doing the dishes by the sink. Hovering the plates with her horn telekinesis and washing out the goobers in midair with a brush. Well, she was sort of half paying attention to her chore. She couldn’t help but give genuine sad looks at the pitiful state her son was in. Seeing him so morose, so defeated, well, it was tugging at her heart. Twilight Velvet was still a mother, after all.
“Found anything interesting this time around, Sunny?” was her first effort to jumpstart a conversation.
“‘Fraid not,” he said after swallowing a big gulp of his bitter drink. “Looks like you and dad are going to be stuck with me a bit longer than expected, heh.”
“D-don’t say it like that! You know you’ll always be welcomed here. You know that, right?” she said, scrubbing a pan with a little too much intensity.
Sunstone dropped his paper and rubbed his temples. “Yes, mom, you’ve said it enough times for me to take the hint. The point has been sufficiently driven home, trust me.”
He peered at the leftovers of his veggie omelet he didn’t have the guts to finish. With his appetite missing, he half-heartedly pushed the plate away.
“It’s not that my current job is all that bad, but... It’s just not enough. I need something that pays more. I’ve crunched the numbers, and at the rate I’m saving up, it’ll take me another full year before I can accumulate a decent-enough cash down to afford my own house. Probably two years, realistically. And by then, who knows how much inflation will have screwed the economy.”
Sunstone segued his speech with a humoristic glance toward his mother.
“Bet the princess and her inner circle of nobles are having a reeeaaal good giggle at us crumb-eaters when they purposefully plunge us into recession after recession. ‘Austerity,’ they then proclaim. Psshhh, yeah, good one, princess Celestia. Wonder if that’s the kind of ingenious wisdom she’s passing onto her faithful student.”
“S-speaking of jobs, you ah, hehehe, y-you still work as a field researcher in the abandoned Canterlot crystal mines, right?” Twilight Velvet asked, desperate to change the subject.
“Yup. Earning peanuts by freezing my flank in that cold and desolate cave system is my vocation, apparently. I don’t know why they even bother sending me to convey on-site geological surveys. Everything that was worth something has already been picked clean by greedy unicorns a really long time ago. I don’t see anything important ever happening again down there. Sometimes, I swear, it feels like I’m being held hostage in this stripped mine. Like I’m some kind of... I dunno, some kind of prisoner, I guess.”
“Surely, you must be exaggerating just a little bit?” she tentatively asked.
“Eh, I probably am. You know how melodramatic I can get,” snarked Sunstone in return. “Still, I highly suspect that my superior only tasks me with this... pseudo busywork, because she has no idea what else to do with a flathead like me.”
“With a flat- Sunstone!! Don’t call yourself that!”
“Hey, why not? Everypony needs a nickname.”
Twilight Velvet didn’t feel the need to entertain her son with a response.
As this “pleasant” morning talk dwindled down, Sunstone began to reminisce about the events that forced him to go on the hunt for a better living wage. He had reasons to not be entirely satisfied with his current job. It was a bit disheartening for him to uphold this kind of unambitious low-end position after being so close to obtaining something a lot more prestigious.
Indeed. About five years ago, Sunstone finished his time at university with an internship that sent him straight to Manehattan. His gradebook was beyond satisfactory, and his top percentile performance caught the interest of the Equestrian Geological Association. Naturally, Sunstone gladly accepted this once in a lifetime opportunity.
This was it, this was finally it! A gateway for his name to have a place in history books. A means to be remembered. A reason to believe that maybe, just maybe, he was something more than an irrelevant detail.
It took very little time for him to pack and kiss the family house goodbye. His parents were all emotional, as were his siblings and Spike who, back then, were still all living together. The five of them felt melancholic and saddened by his departure, but for Sunstone, it was a whole different category of emotions that turmoiled inside of his stomach.
It felt exciting. It felt liberating. It felt good.
Finally, finally, a way out of this place. Finally, he would stop being told about how Twilight’s magic was becoming more and more potent each passing day. Finally, he would stop unwittingly hearing about how Shining kept being promoted along the royal guards’ ranks at record speeds. No more playing second- nay, third fiddle.
For him, this was a new start. A way to do his own thing, far away from those who overshadowed him so much. The perfect solution to focus on his own projects without them feeling so dang inferior. No longer would he be constrained by having to share a bedroom wall with those who had done nothing but bring him jealousy and unpleasant thoughts.
This couldn’t have been made more obvious when Sunstone moved in with two other alumni in an apartment not too far from the EGA headquarters. The rent was rather hefty, but splitting it three ways helped a lot. That first night he spent in a bed away from home, Sunstone had been blessed with the most pleasant dreams.
Over the next few months, Sunstone quickly climbed the corporate ladders, and what started as a modest internship quickly shaped up to be a permanent job offer. He had been relocated to the research and development branch of the renowned firm, with a keen aptitude in figuring out and creating new means to facilitate the extraction of heavier ores.
This went on for a couple of years. With Sunstone’s projects and ideas managing to find grants funded by the Crown, this couldn’t have been going any better. There was a point where he even started considering becoming a teacher in the matters of geology, what with him having lived the best moment of his less than stellar childhood at school. He could totally picture himself in front of a class full of students eager to learn, sharing his passion for everything rock related. And the best part of that was, the EGA was actually endorsing this decision. With a few appointment classes offered by his firm, Sunstone would be ready to spread the good words about the benefits of the mining industry.
At this point, it was undeniable: Sunstone was living the dream.
But you know what they say about the good times.
Good times never last.
It happened one evening, when his two faithful rent buddies announced to him that they wouldn’t renew their next lease. The two of them had fallen in love over time, something Sunstone was well aware of, but the stinker was, the lady wound up becoming pregnant. The couple decided that living in an expensive apartment in the big city was no place to raise a foal, and they agreed to move to a quieter place.
Sunstone understood why they took that decision, but at the same time, that left him in a rough spot. Now alone, the next trimester became financially unsustainable. He defaulted on multiple payments, to the point that his landlord started bullying him with threats of eviction. Sunstone’s school debt was still omnipresent, and with food and taxes, his paychecks came a little short.
With every other apartment being more or less in the same price range, he tried to find new people to cohabit with until his savings became more stable. He really did. But they were always either problematic, unreliable, drifting away after a few weeks, or all of the above. It was a frustrating game of musical chairs, rotating ponies after ponies.
In the end, Sunstone’s expenses piled up to insurmountable amounts and, with his head hung low, he returned to Canterlot. There were no other options. His parents were accommodating, of course, especially since Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor had since then moved out to live in dorms.
Unfortunately, Manehatten and Canterlot stood approximately four hours apart, and that’s if you took the express train. Being so far away from his workplace became a huge problem, because commuting for eight hours, five days a week, was absolutely mental.
Oh, Sunstone tried to make it work. But after two weeks, only two weeks, he gave up. His productivity at the EGA had tanked significantly, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the higher-ups. Rather than waiting for a pink slip, Sunstone took the honorable decision of stepping down himself.
Just like that, what started as a promising career deflated to nothingness. All that was left were the memories of a better time. Of something that could’ve been.
Sunstone downed the rest of his roasted beverage. Taking a trip down memory lane had brought him nothing but misery, something he sure could do without. There was enough to be disappointed about in the present, after all.
He brought his cup and plate to the sink counter before they could attract flies. Next to his mother who has tried really hard to keep a bright smile this whole time, Sunstone just had to cock an eyebrow.
“Mom? ... You’ve been wiping the same pan for five minutes.”
“I have? Oh! Uhhh, heheheee...!” she sheepishly smiled.
Sunstone rolled his eyes. “Alright mom. What’s on your mind?”
“Me? Oh, nothing, nothing!”
Yeah, haha, no. She was really bad at hiding her true intentions behind those pale blue eyes of hers. She couldn’t tell a lie to save her life.
“Mom.”
She turned off the water tap and dropped her kitchen equipment. She sighed, knowing that the upcoming discussion was going to be an unpleasant one.
“Look, Sunny... I-I know very well how you feel about it, but please, why don’t you let your dad and I give you just a little bit of financial aid for a change? Y-you could consider it a loan if you’d prefer! I mean, obviously, you wouldn’t even need to pay us back, we’d be super happy if-”
“No. No deal,” Sunstone predictably replied.
“But... why? You’ve always refused our help. I don’t get it, Sunny. You don’t need to do everything on your own. We’re here to support you, you know.”
“Yeah? Riddle me this then: Did Twilight cry for your help when she became the princess’ personal protégé? Did Shining ask for mommy and daddy’s bits before he was made captain of the royal guards? No! Neither of them licked your boots to achieve their goals; they did it all on their own! So you would think that, by comparison, my sorry 28-year-old ass should at the very least be capable of affording its own plot of land without resorting to begging for your cash!!”
Her heart was racing. “H-honey, it’s not a competition...”
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong.”
It’s always been a competition, he said in his head.
Twilight Velvet wouldn’t win here, that much was a given. Who has ever won these kinds of arguments against Sunstone? He was far too deep in his beliefs. His ego would never allow her to have the final word on that particular subject. Instead, she tried a different avenue.
“Well... If that’s how you really feel, and if you truly do not want any of our money, then have you instead considered looking for a house in the suburbs? Like, say, in Ponyville instead of Canterlot? It’s not too far away from here; I’m sure the commute time to your current workplace wouldn’t be all too harsh to handle. House prices are pretty affordable over there I reckon.”
“Yeah, and you know why that is?” he rhetorically asked, chuckling. “Because there’s always a bunch of crazy shenanigans happening over there. No wonder they ask for so little upfront: It’s the insurance companies that must fill their pockets! This town is a scam, I tell you.”
He started to strut away, possibly to crash on the couch and wait for the hours to pass. Yet, something nibbled at him in the back of his mind.
“Besides,” he quietly resumed, facing away from his mom, “I know what you’re trying to pull here.”
“W-what? I’m not... um...”
“Yeah yeah mom. I can read you like a book. You just want me to go there so I can crash with a certain purple unicorn.”
“Sunny... I’m sure she’d be more than happy to-”
“I’m not moving in with Twily, mom,” Sunstone sternly replied. “For Celestia’s sake, she only left for Ponyville, what, two days ago!? I would definitely come off as a liable opportunist. Also, didn’t she take that sycophantic drake with her anyway?”
“Hey now, don’t you talk about Spike that way, young stallion!”
“Doesn’t matter. Point is, they probably don’t have enough room for a third wheel wherever it is that they live now. My presence would just spoil their fun. And, you know, it’s probably for the best, since there’s no way I could ever be convinced to go squat her house. End of discussion.”
End of discussion indeed, because, right on cue, dry knocks reverberated in the house. Somepony was at the door, patiently waiting to be answered. Twilight Velvet obliged, happy to have found an outing. This private moment with her eldest son had made her so skittish, it was almost a relief to have been given a chance to distract herself with something else.
Sunstone followed her out of the kitchen until he bifurcated to the living room, where he tossed himself on the lounge. No sense in having two ponies greet the stranger. Attentively, he heard a couple of “Hello Mrs. Velvet,” “Beautiful day ain’t it,” “Sign here please,” which was a pretty standard exchange when it came to mail calls. A moment later, Sunstone’s mother re-emerged back from the lobby, an envelope held between her teeth by the string.
But that envelope was no ordinary envelope.
“Is that a royal seal?” Sunstone asked, partially intrigued.
“Seems to be? Oh I wonder what this is all about!”
She unrolled the parchment, levitated it in front of her, and began reading the cursive words, her eyes squinting in concentration. Only a few lines in, and she gasped out loud, her face completely covered by a mask of pure shock. Sunstone had rarely seen her displaying over-the-top reactions like this before.
“What? What is it?” he asked, now definitely more intrigued.
It took her a few seconds to realize Sunstone was addressing her.
“O-oh? This? It’s nothing. Just more boring Canterlot paperwork, hehehe,” she nervously giggled
Sunstone simply crossed his front legs on his torso and cocked his head. For the second time this morning, she had been caught in her lies.
“We’re playing this game again, aren’t we? Look, mom, I'm no dupe. It’s a royal seal. I know what it implies. It’s something about Twily and her personal ties with the princess, isn’t it?”
She silently nodded, bracing for the upcoming storm that would undoubtedly erupt from her already disgruntled son. She knew how badly Twilight’s personal victories could set him off. And this one was a big one.
A very, very big one.
“Care to give more details?” Sunstone insisted.
“Weeell,” she started, biting the inside of her cheek, “r-remember how the sun was late to be risen this year during the Summer Sun Celebration? The one held in Ponyville two days ago? Something... something happened. And it involves your sister...”
Uff...
Uff...
Running.
Feels like I’ve been running for my entire life.
Ever since I barreled down that accursed mountain, it’s been nothing but run, run, run! And whereas one would expect me to do so with the clear goal of escaping danger, haha! ... They’d be sorely mistaken! Because that, my friends, would imply doing the smart thing. But me, the unusual specimen, well, I haven’t really been in touch with my rational side. S’why you could currently find me closing the gap with two bears on growth hormones – you know, the ones who could flick me to the fifth dimension molecule by molecule.
A mere nopony confronting a situation one step removed from the Armageddon: Me no likey them odds. Hey, anypony waging their bits on me? Come on, don’t be shy; you could win big, here!
Fatalism aside, what was I even supposed to do here? Like seriously, what can a simple dimwitted buffoon such as myself even accomplish in this particular scenario?
Hey, maybe I could talk them out of doing whatever it is that they’re doing? Use my silver tongue and convince them that they’re committing a big no-no? Toss in tea and biscuits to seal the deal?
... Nah, let’s be real.
It was going to get physical. Oh you better believe it! I couldn’t see myself cheating my way into an easy win here. My pragmatic flank was going to get kicked hard enough for me to regurgitate my own tail.
Look. Call me overly sensitive, but I wasn’t exactly keen on treating my pain receptors like second-class garbage. Weird, right? Let’s not forget that less than an hour ago, I came awfully close to a concussion after riding one demented cart ride, this, right before plowing down the most unsafe flight of stairs in the universe. Think I’ve sufficiently paid my ouchie toll for the day. Could feel it in my bones still; how’s that for some proof? I’ve done nothing but take my personal safety for granted, so now, the last thing I wanted was to be gutted like a piñata by two unstoppable creatures.
But my legs, these four audacious gray tubes under my torso, they couldn’t stop bringing me into danger territory. Clearly, they didn’t get the memo when I preached for self-preservation. Here they were, digging into the soil, confidently pushing me toward the place I feared most: The fountain. That archaic circular landmark plopped smack down in the center of Outer Grove’s main plaza. Thanks legs, very cool. Ugh. Weren’t they aware that patching a hemorrhage with courage alone was just fairy tales?
Meanwhile, my cardio was about to call it quits. Unlike my legs doped up on bravado, my diaphragm simply couldn’t keep up with my pace anymore. I had no other choice but to slow down and catch my breath. Oof... Boy was I out of steam. My muscles were working overtime, and they were more than ready to unionize against the poor choices that I’ve made. Luckily, my trusty eyes were still operational, and they took this short pause to analyze what was going on exactly. From left to right, then right to left, it was time to draw a portrait of the situation at large.
And it wasn’t exactly a black-or-white type of deal.
For one, I had indeed reached the aforementioned fountain. Very dull, that structure. An uninspiring ring a couple of meters in diameter made of poorly-carved stones. To add insult to injury, the pathetic basin had been filled with a murky pool of stagnant water where lily pads and lichen made their home. I mean, there wasn’t even a statue or anything to give the whole shebang a bit more oomph. You know, if Mayor De La Tour hired my services, I would’ve happily reshaped that ugly thing into something more respectable. It was rather telling that the Ursas didn’t even bother with it, probably thinking that it was already a broken pile of junk, ha.
... I trailed off big time here. Sorry.
But see, when facing off a wild animal that could swallow me whole if it so desired, my brain tends to fidget just a bit. Call it fishing for time if you will. One does not perish when one stalls.
In any case, that mountain-sized bear had been left all on their own. Their bigger comrade in destruction had nicked off somewhere else, separating the two of them in the process. As if that would alleviate my position at all. One Ursas, two Ursas... What difference did that make? Knowing it only took a single one of them to bring carnage of apocalyptic proportions, to me, that all seemed so arbitrary.
But...
But there was a problem. And not an insignificant one either.
See, my eyes weren’t lying: Everypony else had sought refuge. Whether this was by their own doing or through the efforts of my group of friends, I had no way of telling. Maybe they went ahead with the plan we cobbled up on a whim before I succumbed to my ill-timed panic attack? I sure hope they did. That’d be swell.
Still. Whatever caused the streets to become eerily deserted effectively left me as the sole taskforce to deal with that Ursa Minor. Even the royal guards and... Her... were nowhere to be seen. But that wasn’t what worried me the most, no. Because, in truth, I wasn’t the only pony who had been left behind. The reason why I hadn’t been targeted yet by that big mother Hubbard was written in the sky.
Simply put? I wasn’t the main bait. THAT was the reason. Somepony else had taken my role here. And not exactly by choice either.
And that pony...
That small, orange, ridiculously adorable yet totally terrified pony, well... she was none other than the objective of my rescue mission.
It was Honey Dream.
It was her. It was her, and she was stuck in a less than subpar position.
She was backing off slowly, two globular cyan eyes peering with unfathomable intensity at the Ursa looming over her. I could almost see my own reflection in them despite the darkness. Her quivering mouth was hung halfway opened. Even from this distance, I saw the entirety of her body shaking in ways no foal of her age should. But those eyes... sweet Celestia, those eyes. Her expression! I had front row access to witness the complete disintegration of her precious childhood innocence. Today marked the day she saw how ugly the world could truly be. And she’ll never be okay ever again.
Her trembling tail, that beautiful bundle of crimson and copper, ended up bumping into the side of a store that had met its demise. A fate she was soon going to share at the rate things were going. Caught in a trap, retreating became impossible; she was just about ready to be devoured.
All of my self-centered worries flushed away in an instant. No longer did I fear for my own life. No longer was I constrained by my insecurities. No longer was I paralyzed by indecision. Something took control of my senses. Some kind of... I dunno, parental urge to protect? Weird. Whatever the case was, my mind was set.
I had to act, now.
My legs, my tenacious legs, they went in full overdrive. I ran towards the Ursa towering over my all-time favourite filly at speeds I thought myself incapable of reaching. The monster had their claws retracted and was approximately three seconds away from doing something my imagination was outright refusing to picture.
Still on the run, I unholstered the pickaxe that somehow still kept me company after this whole time. My jaw was clutching the handle hard enough to chip a tooth or two. I rapidly escalated a broken chunk of wall that had fallen into a makeshift slope. At the tip of the conveniently placed debris, I pounced with great athleticism and soared through the air...
... the exact same way I did during those play-pretend games I used to share with... well, you know who I’m talking about. Except now, I was armed with a mining tool, not a fluffy pillow.
What a dissonant image my mind automatically rewound to. Was I experiencing that “reliving memories before you die” myth ponies propagated? I was still in midair, reconsidering my position in this world. Everything slowed down to give me just enough pause to ponder the circumstances that had brought me here. What an absolutely bizarre life I was living. Completely, completely out of this world – that’s just... wow, y’know?
What kind of clueless imbecile ever said that nothing ever happens in Outer Grove, again?
CHLUCK!
As I inserted the pointy tip of my pickaxe into the flesh of the Ursa’s back paw, time resumed back to normal. I didn’t expect anything out of my cocky power move, but who knows, maybe I had hit a literal Ponechilles’ heel? Well, whatever little damage I did, it was enough to trigger a deafening howl that sent my poor sensitive ears flat on my head. Been a lotta loud noises in one day.
I didn’t even take a breather to recover my tool or to check if the coast was clear: I rushed ahead and dove like a hoofball player on top of my “niece” to shield her from any potential retaliative comeback. After the little number I pulled, I expected revenge.
I wrapped myself as good as I could around Honey Dream as we slid together a fair distance away through pebbles and dirt. We could still hear the Ursa echoing plaintive moans, possibly dancing on one foot and going “owie owie my pinkie!”
At this point, we managed to gather our bearings (well, as much as we could). I then did what I did best and tossed Honey Dream onto my withers, that soft little spot she loved to claim as her own so much. I think she was still a bit perturbed by this whole sequence of events and didn’t even realize that she had been displaced to relative safety – at least, for the time being.
Since I apparently have not fled enough in one day, I resumed my “getting the heck outta here” routine. I chose a direction at complete random and darted forward. I was running on fumes, but now that I had someone on my back to protect, perishing was no longer an acceptable failure case.
I felt my own body tremble from Honey Dream’s hysteria. She was completely traumatized. Who could’ve blamed her? Who in their right mind could have possibly blamed her!? Like sheesh, at her age, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep with my eyes closed anymore.
“Un... uncle Calx?” I heard her slowly whisper.
“Don’t worry sweetie, you’re safe now, I gotcha! I’m going to get you out of here!” I said with a throat that felt like molten lava.
She nuzzled me even harder than she already was. “T-thank you... Thank you! Oh, thank you thank you thank you!” she repeated, sniffling all the while.
Hearing her angelic little voice encouraged me to press on. Slowly but surely, I was tricking myself into believing that I was actually going to make it!
“Going to get you out of here...” I said again, more determined than ever.
My brain was mush. My heart was busy pumping blood where it was needed most in this exhausted body of mine. I could hardly focus. Couldn’t clear my head. Didn’t have any idea what to do now. Finding shelter seemed like a good follow up, but... where could we even- I mean, there had to be a place where-
Wait. Of course, you triple idiot! The Two Arches! Duh! They’d welcome us with open hooves over there for sure.
Buuuuut I was currently running the wrong way, because of course I was. Fate was playing tricks again; who could’ve predicted that? And look, I wasn’t about to stop, pull a U-turn, and wave hello to the Ursa whose ankle I just disrespected. I wasn’t a master strategist by any means, but that to me didn’t seem like a winning move.
No, instead, I sank into a small depression between a clothing boutique and a patisserie; both of which had lost their upper floors. Bummer. A problem for later, though. For the time being, I skulked further between the two bricked walls.
Outer Grove was unusually rich with small secretive passageways, I’ll say this much. Didn’t know all of this town’s many twists and turns by heart, but I did know that in-between each building were small transversal pathways that all connected together in a thin backroad parallel to the main boulevards. This secluded snaking path wasn’t really employed so much as it was used to stash crates of merchandise and to hang fresh laundry.
Wedged between the back of the buildings and the tall cliffside of the mountain, this would make for a perfect escape route. We’ll use it to travel back to the Two Arches – maybe even elude the Ursa I’ve angered while we’re at it.
One problem though.
Fence.
Chain-linked and tall. With barbed wire on top for good measure. It did a wonderful job blocking all access to the corridor of freedom I’ve just spent five minutes praising. Wasn’t that rich! And while my pickaxe and my chisel came to the rescue in a timely fashion earlier, sadly, I didn’t come equipped with anything that could let me pry open this obstacle. Metal sheet cutters weren’t standard issue in my toolkit.
However, not all was lost.
Whoever erected that barrier fit to stop half a dozen manticores failed to secure the lower part. It floated about a quarter of a meter off the floor – at least, a damaged part of it was. It curved upward with just enough height to let a couple of stray cats through. And whatever small critters had found this failsafe improved upon it: They dug a shallow trench in the hardened soil to give even more room to crawl underneath.
A filly would have no trouble sneaking to the other side.
A grown stallion, however, wouldn’t.
... Well then. Looks like it was time to pull that idiotic move I’ve seen in way too many sappy movies already. Never thought I’d see the day where I’d be the one performing the heroic sacrifice trope. Hey, did I mention I didn’t want to be a hero before? However, for lack of a better option, our hooves were tied. Sigh...
I heard a faint gasp coming from the filly on my back. She too must’ve begun to understand the unfortunate ramifications behind our inability to progress any further.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed.
“Huh? What for?” I queried, genuinely confused.
“Because... because I- It’s my fault! It’s all my fault!”
I twisted my neck to look at her, still puzzled.
“I, I was with Roller Wings and Comely, and, and, and I told my two friends that I was going to distract that big monster so they could run away... S-so that’s what I did. That’s why I was there, alone, when you found me! T-that’s why you’re trapped with me, uncle Calxie, it’s all my fault, and now, and now, w-w-we-”
“Waitwaitwait... You faced that Ursa Minor all on your own!?”
“I’m so sorry!” she simply insisted. “Please don’t tell my mom! Please!! I told Roller Wings and Comely to hide in our secret cave where we play, I... I know they’re safe! Y-you have to believe me!”
She... really went out of her way to save her friends’ life at her own expense? This, despite knowing fully well her chances of survival weren’t exactly stacked in her favor? How incredibly brave and selfless! And she was apologizing about it? Excuse me!? Seriously, few are the ponies of my age who would have gone out of their way to take such risks, but her, having only existed on this rock for seven meagre years, she didn’t hesitate one second to take a stance. Heck, I’m surprised she didn’t get her cutie mark for putting her life in peril like this.
I... hmmm. How peculiar. Why was it that I felt a weird kind of pride building inside of me? Kid wasn’t even my own. I had no right to- I mean, it wasn’t my place to-
...
B-but nevermind that! Tick tock, tick tock, clock was still spilling out seconds!
I invited Honey Dream to re-engage with the floor, gave her a heartfelt hug, and then, I looked at her dead in the eyes, my hooves on her shoulders.
“Don’t you ever feel sorry for doing the right thing, sweetie. What you did was incredible, and you will never be punished for that, you hear me?”
I gave her a moment or two to fully soak that in. There was so much more I wanted to say about her amazing accomplishment, but, once again, we had very little time to spare. It’s a damn shame I had to put a sock in my praise. Instead, I unlinked from her and carried on with the plan.
“It pains me to say so, but... we’re running out of time.” I pointed ahead. “You see that fence? There’s a gap right by the corner. You need to crawl through, take the service paths, and run along aaaaall the way to reunite with your mother at the Two Arches. It’s the big building where we held my party yesterday evening. Do you remember where it is?”
She nodded like a dutiful little soldier.
“Good, good! Go there and go find your mom. Then, tell her where your friends are, so that we may go fetch them after we chase the bears away. That okay with you, sweetie?”
“Y-yes! Yes, you can count on me, uncle Calx!”
“I know I can. You’re the most trustworthy pony I know. Now go! There is no time to waste.”
She immediately followed my orders. It was wonderful to know she understood the direness of our situation. She was so mature for her age. An inspiration to foals everywhere, I say.
Once she reached the other side, she started strutting forward, until she froze mid walk. Her ears lifted up and turned toward me. Then the rest of her head did the same. She looked rather perplexed.
“You’re... not coming with me, uncle Calx?” she asked with big blinking eyes.
I signaled negatively. “We both know I can’t fit through. I’ll find another way, don’t worry about me.”
“B-but...no! You have to come!” she pleaded.
“Honey Dream...”
“W-what if something happens to you? Huh? What if? It’ll all be because of me!”
Her chin quivered and a long hot tear escaped her eye. Dammit. Them feels were cooking up inside of me. I wasn’t built for this. Seeing her feel guilty about my accidental involvement squeezed my heart in all the wrong ways. Of course it wasn’t her fault. Only the dumbest of all dumbasses would believe that! But in her current state, I don’t think anyone could convince her otherwise.
“I will see you later, Honey Dream,” I simply said, not too sure how to apprehend the situation anymore. “I promise.”
She sniffled a big chunk of snot. “Y-you do?”
I silently nodded, eyes closed. “You have my word.”
She approached the fence and gently put her hoof on it. I did the same. The two of us, making contact on our respective side. So close, yet so far away. Two centimeters of rusted metal: That’s all it took to split us up. Not going to lie, it was a bit frustrating. I could still look at her in the eyes, which just made it so much worse.
“I...” she said, her head looking down. “I love you, uncle Calx.”
She really loves you, you know, repeated Skybrush in my mind.
… Ouch.
For the first time in the last 20 years, I felt like crying.
I fought really hard not to. I really, really did. I had to bite my lower lip so hard, I almost drew blood. I could feel my throat getting itchy and my cheeks warming up. The warning signs were all there.
It took a lot of effort to not lose control, but thankfully, in the end, I managed to keep my emotions in check. Now was not the time to open the floodgates. Was there ever a time for that? What was the point of giving in to waterworks? Seemed counterproductive at best and a waste of time at worst if you asked me. Besides, I was still on the wrong side of the fence; saving my own skin remained top priority. So, no crying. Not now, not ever.
A final goodbye wave in Honey Dream’s direction paired with a “right back atcha, buddy” (decisively, I was really bad at this), and off I went. With a pinch of luck, I’ll find a good hideout to duck and cover. If I could avoid sending myself straight to heaven’s gates, today could still end on a semi-decent-ish note.
When I popped out of the narrow path, the weight of everything started to grow heavy on me. My dwindling optimism had a hard time finding the right words to cheer me up. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was turned around, drained, and-
GrrOOOAARWWRGGG!
-still in danger!
Didn’t take a genius to deduce that the Ursa wasn’t done with me. Apparently, imbedding a pickaxe in somecreature’s foot made me top of the list. You know how the saying goes: Out of the frying pan and into the fire. I hereby coin this as my new motto. Actually, no, that wasn’t quite accurate. I had already been seared and charred, so it was more like, “out of the fire and into the magma pit.” There. Glad we got that sorted out.
Anyway. Heh. You know what I did next? Hmmm? Take a good guess.
I ran.
Yeah. I ran! Big shocker! Ten points for those who guessed correctly. Sweet Celestia, it felt like tonight would never end. As soon as I was done plugging a leak, something else broke. In this clever metaphor, it was me; I was going to be the next “something else” to break. Being chased by an Ursa Minor who would settle for nothing less than biting my head off could only end one way. To think that I actually believed I could outrun that mastodon. It was almost hilarious, in a pathetic kind of way. Eh, it wasn’t for lack of trying though.
After not even a minute of fleeing elapsed, I started to feel the bear’s hot humid breath moistening my fur. My time was up. All it took was for them to reach forward and flatten me like a pancake. It was only a matter of-
WAIT WAIT WAIT ALLEYWAY TO THE LEFT SPOTTED!
I veered so sharply, I redefined what a ninety degree angle was. Swiftly throwing myself into yet another alleyway. For what, the third time tonight? Hat trick, I guess. Made me wonder if this time, Outer Grove’s urban planning was going to be kind enough to throw a bone at me. Was being allowed to slip away too much to ask?
Apparently, it was. Because, as per tradition, I counted my chickens before they hatched.
“Oh, come on!”
No drumroll needed: I was greeted by yet another dead end. Hello there my fenced friend. Been a hot minute, hasn’t it? This time, it was made of wood and had been painted white. Cool variant, but still positively impossible to breach. Out with the old, in with the same.
Turning around didn’t yield any better results. The one and only exit was now covered by a wall of glowing blue fur with little stars scattered throughout. I wasn’t allowed to try my luck again with another alleyway. Three times was not the charm, I’m afraid.
I was uh... Yeah, I was trapped. There weren’t even any side doors from the buildings casing me in on which I could bang and beg for my life. Nor were there any fire escapes, ladders, or anything I could climb to Deus ex Machina my way out of this one. It was just me, the Ursa, and one disgusting detritus-filled corridor. A one versus one with no spoilers and no punches to hide.
Completely out of options, I took the cowardly path and hid behind a heap of trash. A couple of melon crates that had been stacked into the ugliest cardboard snowman I’ve ever had the displeasure to lay my eyes upon. A mighty tower of babel where flies and fungi reigned like kings. And the stench. Urk. Boy was it ever impossible to put into words.
Yeah, you know what was worse than basking in a bacteria-riddled petri dish full of junk? The piercing animalesque noises that stuck with me like the flu. And this weird feeling of doom that crept into my spine. Accompanied by cold shivers that by no means meant anything good.
I mean, was this it? This was it, wasn’t it?
I’ve lived my whole freaking life, only for my plug to be pulled like this? In my mid thirties of all moments? There was no way I could’ve predicted this gruesome and crude ending. When I woke up this morning, how was I supposed to know it was going to be the last day I...
...
Ha.
Hahahaha! No, surely there was a way out of this one, right? There has always been a way out. Every time I faced adversity – and there’s been a lot of adversity – I’ve always managed to find my legs and keep on going. So, given my unforgiving but consistent track record, this time had to be no different. It simply had to, because... because I refused to believe these were Gray Calx’s final moments. I still felt largely unsatisfied with this life I’ve lived. I couldn’t go; I was not ready to move on. I had... so many untapped projects I could’ve started. So much wasted potential that still hadn’t had a chance to flourish. Unaccomplished life goals practically begging to be put into motion.
I didn’t want to go.
Oh for the love of me, I did NOT want to go!
I mean... At least I had been allowed just enough time to do something good. I got to save Honey Dream right before I tossed myself into the gaping maw of death. At least... At least I did something right in my life. If only once. Maybe that counted for something? I sure hope it did, because I had nothing else to show for it! I had made so many bad decisions – really, REALLY bad decisions – but perhaps reuniting a mother and her only child was my magnum opus? Maybe there was solace to be had in knowing that, even if I wasn’t going to be a part of their future, these two could carry on and live together happily. Could this have been the sole reason I had been allowed to exist in Equestria at all? Thirty years of aimlessly bumbling around, culminating in this one particular moment?
Heh. How fitting that I would perish alongside the trash in this crummy place. Right where I ultimately belonged. Almost poetic, wouldn’t you say?
As I ungraciously faced my death like a total chicken, covering my head under my hooves with my eyes wide open – the exact same way Honey Dream’s had been – it took me a moment to realize that the Ursa who wanted me gone so badly hadn’t made their move yet. In fact, I could hear them growling from much further away now. Which means, uuuh... I wasn’t... quite done yet?
Ha!
I wasn’t quite done yet! Oh lord have mercy on my soul, I still had a chance! Hahaha, take that, you stupid narrative! You can take my ticket out of here and shove it up where Celestia’s sun don’t shine! What else you got, huh? Come on, don’t be shy: I’m eagerly waiting for your next move, here! Anything you can throw at me, I can take no biggie!
“Hello? Anypony in there?”
Oh.
That... that voice.
WOW that voice. I hadn’t heard it in so long. It came from somewhere close by. WAY too close for comfort, in fact. And make no mistake: It was addressing me directly. But holy moly, did it ever feel so weird. You think you remember somepony’s voice so well until you hear it again, don’t you? My mind had distorted and vilified her timbre so much in five years, it was shocking to realize that it sounded more... I dunno, more caring? Definitely more soft-spoken than the twisted image my mind created and came to believe.
And now it was my turn to retort? With uh, words and such? Give her the satisfaction of a “hi, wassup, how do you do?”
…
As unbelievable as it sounded, preconceiving my own death hadn’t been the worst thing to come out of tonight’s episode. I hadn’t reached the bottom of the barrel yet. And with the bar constantly getting lowered, I don’t know if ever will.
Zzz... urk!
Groan...
Waking up.
Feels like I’ve been sleeping for my entire life.
I oughta tell you guys, I had the weirdest fever dream. It involved a metric ton of injuries, a duo of bears, some kind of tower bell, a whole lotta panic, and I think Mr. Prospector may or may not have had a role throughout this whole malarkey. But that wasn’t the worst part, oh nononono... Wanna know what – or rather, who the final boss of that nightmare was? Get this: It was plagued with the presence of my sis- I mean, cough, um, the princess of Friendship. Guess her name being dropped at my party two days ago really scrambled my paradoxical sleep for the worst, huh?
Yeah, by now, I think it would behoove me to stop pretending none of that happened. Oh it was real alright. Yesterday had been an absolute trainwreck of a day. A total travesty. Worst day of my life for sure. Weeeell, maybe not. It was up for debate.
But yeah. From the moment I came empty hoofed with rubies, all the way to my fateful encounter with the pony I despised most. I came dangerously close to exposing myself there, by the way. Five years of taking the most vigilant precautions, only for my efforts to almost be voided in an instant. I have no idea what I would’ve done if she and I came face-to-face. Probably fight and say a bunch of ugly things, I dunno. Maybe one of us would’ve strangled the other. At least we managed to avoid that disaster. So it’s not like yesterday was all that bad, when you really think about it. Ha. Haha...
...
Where was I right now anyway?
I was prone on the floor, for one. It felt hard and displeasing; my poor ribs were sore all over. For some reason, I hadn’t snuggled into the comfort of my bed. Or ANY bed, for that matter. A quick scan of my surroundings, and I could see I was in some sort of hovel. With poor decoration, barely any furniture, cracked walls that hadn’t been caulked yet, a faulty drippy faucet, a tapestry that was quite passé, a picture frame of me, and- aw hell, it was my house, wasn’t it?
Yup, home sweet freakin’ home. Same ol’ dump that could hardly justify my motherload of a mortgage.
I was by the entry door. In fact, my back was resting on it. Ooookay?
Luckily, I was slowly starting to half remember why I had chosen this particular spot to wait for the sandmare. See, after a bunch of circumstances totally outside of my control separated me from that witch of a princess, I had an important decision to make right there and then. With a minimal amount of musing, I concluded that I have had my fill. Enough was enough already. I was done.
I cheated death an unacceptable number of times. I was anxious, hungry, dehydrated, and drowning in emotional vomit. I still hadn’t had a proper dinner, and I still hadn’t tended to my fresh wounds. Plus, Twilight’s nearby presence got me to think a lot. Unpleasant thoughts, I assure you. Rotted my brain to its very core.
So, taking that all in, I simply walked home. Limped home, in fact. Without meeting anypony else. Without checking if Honey Dream had made it to the Two Arches proper. Without verifying if my friends or anypony else were on the lookout for me. I just couldn’t take it anymore, okay? I had reached my limit.
When I finally secluded myself indoors, I… I don’t know why, but I felt the overbearing urge to block the door with my back, as if I feared that something would try to barge in. I felt safer garrisoned over there, playing the neurotic gatekeeper. A psychotherapist would’ve probably claimed that I was subconsciously trying to barricade my problems out of my home and, by extension, out of my life. Not a totally inaccurate diagnosis, but who the hay was I to evaluate my own condition, really.
Fear of the outside world or not, it’s with my tail to the door that my consciousness went kaput. And I might’ve had an idea that could explain why my body went lights out as quickly as it did.
Yeah, remember how I said yesterday that “tomorrow would suck?” Well, we were now tomorrow, and it did indeed suck. It sucked! My joints ached, my bones felt hollow, and my skin was reduced to a fragile membrane. I mean, Saturday had been a test of endurance for sure. Physically taxing in ways even a well-built pony like me couldn’t have anticipated. Or properly deal with, for that matter.
Which is why I think today was going to be spent at home, recovering. Maybe finally quieting my hunger and enjoy a copious brekkie with the remnants of my groceries. Have a lil’ morning brew while I’m at it, hmmm. Don’t wanna pat myself on the back too hard, but I kind of deserved it. Oh! And a hot bath! That also seemed like a good-
Knock knock knock!
-or I could just go buck myself.
Now, what kind of impolite provocateur had the guts to be disrespecting my privacy this early in the morning? After all, it was only 11 AM- whoops. I overslept. Not used to oversleeping.
Still! Who could be standing at my doormat? I wasn’t expecting guests, especially on the very next day after a third of the town got torn to shreds. There were better things to be done over selling toothbrushes and vacuum cleaners. How utterly bothersome.
I hesitantly cracked the door open, letting the faintest amount of light in. Only my spying eyes could be seen from the dimmed interior.
“Howdy, neighbour!” boomed a voice on the porch.
Well, at least it wasn’t a door-to-door salespony. And that’s where the good news stopped. Trust me, those two energumens were equally as joyous and twice as annoying.
“Oh... Hello Mr. and Mrs. Blueberry,” I said with a tinge of disappointment.
Blueberry Leather and Blueberry Strudel. He and she. Colored after their name and happily married for far longer than my time in Outer Grove. They acted as block captains for this section of the neighborhood, which put them in charge of ten residences or so. “Being in charge” more-or-less meaning that they kept the ponies under their jurisdiction up-to-date with new developments, alongside making sure that their lawn was trimmed to respectable lengths. You know, pointless garbo like this. But they sure took their role seriously. With such pride too. To each their own, I guess.
Blueberry Strudel had a knack for haute cuisine and could bake a mean loaf. The kind of mare to leave a steaming hot rhubarb pie by the windowsill. Geez, I hoped her bakery hadn’t been Ursa’d to oblivion...
Blueberry Leather, meanwhile, was an interesting case. Unlike the rest of us, he was – get this – a pegasus. A dying breed in Outer Grove. His wings gave him the perfect biological advantage to be employed as a courier, delivering letters all across town. Since the mail rarely came in and out of Outer Grove (again, trains being a rare occurrence), he had to coordinate himself with the bigger cities to uphold tight schedules. Or something. I’m sure he did some “hard” bureaucratic work every now and then.
Anyway. These two were very bubbly ponies. Smiles permanently glued to their face. A typical “Double Income No Kids” couple who loved to insensitively flaunt about their many high-end personal possessions.
I didn’t like them much.
“Oh it’s so wonderful to see that you’ve made it out in one piece, deary!” said Blueberry Strudel with fake relief. Only to gasp a moment later. “But what happened to your head? Is that... is that blood!? My oh my, don’t you just look so awful!”
“My juicy lil’ berry is right! Neighbour, you look terrible! I mean, more than usual. Just... really, really terrible! Hahaha!”
Blunter than a mallet, these lovebirds.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said, rolling my eyes. “How about this then? You tell me what you want, and in exchange, I promise not to slam my door shut in the next few seconds.”
They both laughed together in an exaggerated fashion.
“Oh! Always the funny one, neighbour!” said Blueberry Leather, wiping a tear, right before elbowing me with wiggling eyebrows. “Totally makes up for your rather eeeehhh grotesque appearance, am I right?”
Sometimes, I wish I too wielded the power to banish ponies to the moon.
“But my hubby digresses. You do digress, don’t you, my schweet tender berry?”
“I indeed digress!”
Uuuuggggh...
“Anyway,” resumed the postpony, “me and the missus, as block captains, we’re going from house to house to warn everypony that there will be a public heralding in approximately 30 minutes at the plaza. You too are of course invited to partake, neighbour!”
“Oh?” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Lemme guess, it’s going to be about yesterday’s attack, am I right?”
They joined their voices in a big gasp.
“Yes, exactly!” said the wife. “Mayor De La Tour wants everypony to be aware of how we’re going to handle the repairs, among other things.”
“Neighbour, how did you know!?”
No, they weren’t being sarcastic. They genuinely believed I had psychic powers to correctly guess the answer.
“I’m just that good, I guess,” I mockingly replied.
“That you are, deary! That you are!” chuckled Mrs. Strudel, before clearing her throat. “We’d like for you to join the rest of us in half an hour, and- oh! Erm, I know you’re a little bit of a… shall we say, unsophisticated fellow, but please, if you come with, do try to be on your best behaviour, deary! And clean that ugly scab off your forehead.”
“That’s right! We need to demonstrate to the princess of Friendship that we too are capable of having a refined culture here in Outer Grove, hahaha!”
Wow wow WHAT!
Okay, pause for a sec or two! The hay did that walking annoyance just say!?
“W-what do you mean…?” I said, looking left and right in paranoia. “She’s still… She’s still here?”
“A-yup!” proudly nodded the pegasus. “She’s going to co host the assembly alongside the mayor. Oooh, aren’t we so lucky?”
“SHE’S STILL HERE!?”
“Oh tsk tsk, deary. This is exactly the kind of abrasive reaction we want to avoid today,” cringed Blueberry Strudel.
“H-how long? How long is she planning on staying?” I demanded with the worst possible expectations.
Mr. Leather tapped his chin. “Mmmmh, weeeell, if the rumors are to be believed, then she should be here for a week.”
A whole week!? Like uh, seven days kind of deal?
Uh-uh! No way! Not happening! I wasn’t going to bunker up in my house and live on canned greens like a hermit for that long.
It was too risky, all too risky. The longer she prolonged her trip in Outer Grove, the more likely she was to accidentally bump into me. Or figure me out. It only took one of my friends to spill the beans for her to debunk my ruse. As much as it pained me to admit, if there was one thing to be said about the princess, it’s that she was way too clever for her own good. Her powers of deduction were something to be feared.
Oh Faust! What if someone tells her in great detail what I look like? What my CUTIE MARK looks like? I’d be caught in an instant. Even hiding in my house wouldn’t do me any good when she can just blast the door off its hinges.
I needed to skip town. Immediately.
That was the only way. Spend a few days in a distant hostel, waiting for things to simmer down a little. Because if she ever finds out I exist around this corner of Equestria, then you bet she’ll relentlessly hunt me down. When something’s on her mind, she does NOT let go.
The neighbours, totally oblivious to my inner panic, stretched their necks a little too close to my face with big toothy smiles.
“Sooo, can we count on your presence?” they insisted together.
“NO! I mean, no- I mean… Sigh. Look, can you two keep a secret? I’m ah… working on a surprise for the princess! A big cool surprise, yup! So I won’t be able to join today’s seminar, darn. You understand, right?”
Blueberry Strudel put a hoof on her chest. “Oh my, absolutely! How generous of you, deary!”
“Our mouths are sealed, neighbour!” added her husband.
I scratched my mane. “In fact… Can you please tell anypony that you haven’t seen me at all today, should they ask? That’d do me a major solid. You know. All in the spirit of the surprise, or whatever.”
Together, they both imitated a Zipper pinching their lips shut. That’s as good as it was going to get. I simply had no choice but to count on their goodwill.
… I was so doomed.
Operation “Escape Outer Grove” began around noon. I wasn’t a sneaky pony, but I didn’t need to be. At first, I tried to keep to the smaller, quieter roads to avoid drawing suspicion. I even employed the same back-alley Honey Dream had when she managed to escape a most terrible fate. You know, the one that I just couldn’t reach no matter how hard I tried yesterday? Bit ironic, in a way.
… I hoped Honey Dream was okay. And Skybrush too, for that matter.
Skybrush… Good gravy, I had never seen her that broken before. Brrrrr. It has done nothing but haunt me ever since. Her beautiful visage was usually so radiant and warm. She and her daughter deserved nothing less than a happy ending. How I wish I could’ve personally checked on them, just to put my mind at ease. Just to verify that they were indeed alive and well. It’s a damn shame I was in such a rush...
…
No, surely, they were fine. You’re thinking too much again, Calx. Skybrush and Honey Dream were two strong ponies – way stronger than I was. They didn’t need my needless foal-sitting.
Gotta focus. Outta here, chop chop!
Chastising these intrusive thoughts out of my mind, I doubled down on my progress. As I was saying before, being all ninja-like was a bit redundant. Why? Because there was little to no one in the streets. Everypony must’ve congregated at the plaza for that meeting the Berries yammered about. That seemed a bit too convenient to me, but hey, I’ll take it.
Thus, travelling through Outer Grove has been a breeze. That even left me a bit more time to evaluate the destruction the town had been subjected to. It wasn’t pretty, but it could’ve been much worse. A majority of the establishments only suffered minor structural damage. Some were a bit worse-off, but nothing a bunch of able-bodied ponies couldn’t fix. Broken window panes could be easily replaced and streets could be swept clean in one afternoon. Heck, we had enough timber stockpiled around to rebuild a whole new town if we wanted to.
Moreover, the onslaught had been mostly contained within the surroundings of the clocktower, which turned out to be commercially zoned. This meant that the residential areas had been more or less left intact and, miraculously, not too many ponies had lost their homes. My neighborhood, for instance, was almost in pristine condition. Well, except for my house. Buuut this one was a feature, not a bug.
After a few more minutes of prancing alone, I finally made it to the train station. As expected, nopony was waiting on the elongated platform to hitch a ride. Though not nearly as expected, there wasn’t a train waiting to depart. Ugh. Guess things could only go right to a certain extent.
Gotta admit, that was a bit strange. Usually, there was a passenger train present on Sunday mornings to bring back home the few tourists who travelled here for the week-end. Maybe those in charge caught ear of what happened to Outer Grove and decided to put their trains on hold as a contingency measure? Mmmh. A bit dubious. I mean, how could they have reacted this quickly? At the risk of repeating myself, the news did not travel in and out of Outer Grove in the span of a day.
And, you know, it’s too bad, because contrary to other towns, this station didn’t come with a ticket booth. The demand for commuting via train simply wasn’t high enough to justify having one. Instead, the conductors themselves would handle the fees and manually collect the fares from pony to pony. A little bit of an archaic way to go about it, but sometimes, the traditional methods are the best.
Where I’m getting at is, there weren’t a whole lot of ponies around here I could query to ask them how soon I could choo choo my way out of here. Except for those two male railroad workers on the tracks a little further up. The scruffy mustachioed ones under their striped hats. Hard at work, and potentially affable enough to appease a few of my enquiries. Maybe they knew something? They wouldn’t be here if they didn’t. Or something. Work with me here, people.
Well, my mind was set. Manual laborers were often chatty fellows, yes? I had nothing to fear, haha.
As I approached them, my nostrils flared up. Eww, what was that foul smell? The waft came from the left and- oh!
Would you look at that. Two barrels cooking under the midday sun. Completely filled with, you guessed it, expired oil. They’re the ones that our pair of zany lumberponies brought out of the Two Arches halfway through my party. I almost forgot about their existence until, well, until two seconds ago. Heh, I wonder if those wooden drums knew what the rest of the town had to go through. I mean, look at these two rapscallions. Still standing, still filled up, still pretending nothing bad even happened. They’ve just been idly waiting, sharing a precious romantic date on the train platform, while WE were fighting for our lives a couple of steps away. They had no idea! No clue at all!
... Okay, can anypony explain to me why in the world I was personifying barrels full of bubbling waste? Didn’t I tell myself to focus less than 10 minutes ago? Oh sweet Celestia, my mind. My poor, poor mind.
Erf. Alright then. Show time.
“Howdy,” I said to the workers, “quite the day we’ve had yesterday, han?”
Welp, it’s official: I was cringe.
“Hmmm,” simply grunted the bulkier stallion.
And they weren’t as chatty as I thought them to be. Great. Let’s crank the awkwardness up a notch, why not.
I coughed in my fetlock. “Look, ummm, you two look busy, so I’ll be quick: Do you happen to know if a train is scheduled to depart today?”
“No can do Sir,” replied the politer half of the duo. “The tracks have sustained critical damage around the station and a little further up as well. Until we get that fixed, no trains can reach us.”
“Oh... How long do you think the repairs will take?”
The big grouchy guy rolled his eyes. “Tche. With da piss poor material we’s got, Imma says ‘bout twos day. Probably threes.”
Ahhhh nope. Not good enough. We had to do better than that. Anything short of today was a wrong answer.
“Well- what if I helped you guys?” I said, desperate for a way out. “I’ve assembled minecart tracks for the past five years, and I’m quite skilled when it comes to manual labor.”
Grumpy pants exhaled in annoyance. “Ye well, unless youse can pulls an entire railroad outta dat purple mane o’ yours, lad, youse ain’t gon’ do us much good.”
Well youse gotta have more faith in me than that, my cranky friend.
“Yeah? That all? I’ve got this covered! Just give me aaaahh twenty minutes or so.”
I galloped away with a clear plan in my mind. For once, I felt confident about the trick I was about to pull. The skinnier, gentler worker, however, didn’t share the sentiment all that much.
“Wait- You know we can’t pay you for this, right?” I heard him shout my way.
“I don’t care. I’ll happily do some volunteer work!”
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I still felt like a sack of dung today. Yet somehow, the prospect of getting my hooves onto something I was good at was too good to skip. Being hard at work, to me, was a balm. No quicker remedy to heal up than getting into some kind of routine headspace. Mentally and physically. That sounded a bit paradoxical, sure, but trust me, I was right on this one.
“... Gee, that pony sure wants to get the hay out of here,” I overheard Mr. Polite say to Mr. Grouchy.
Oh, you didn’t know the half of it, brother.
As the sun slowly made its way across the sky, the valley became coated with all sorts of warm orange shades. Despite everything that’s been happening to me – to all of us, I had to admit, it certainly was a pretty sight. I completely understood why Skybrush loved to paint these gorgeous shows of light so much. Her landscapes painted at dusk were always my favorites.
Once again, the passage of time left me rather famished. Felt like the daisy sandwich I hastily chomped on this morning had been digested eons ago. Knowing what I know now, I would’ve definitely packed a lunch.
Five hours. Took us five hours. Plus a thirty minute break; we were only ponies after all.
Still. That was a far shot from the initial two to three days estimate. I guess you could say that three earth ponies working hard and efficiently as a team was the right way to go about it. We hadn’t been born with a natural talent for fixing stuff up for nothing, after all. Eventually, at long last, we deemed the job more or less done, and my new nameless buddies took that as their cue to leave. Sure, we could have refined our work a little better if we really wanted to, but it’s not like we did the bare minimum either. I filed our efforts as passable, which, given my urgent desire for falling off the radar, was good enough for me.
By the way, you’ll have to excuse me if I wasn’t giving any juicier details about what went down during these five hours, because these jolly ol’ fellows I worked with? Well, small talk wasn’t their forte. That was quite alright with me. Like I said before, I vastly preferred to work alone. So in a way, we were all on the same page there.
The first thing I did to accelerate the repair work was to bring a crate of spare parts from my workplace. Remember? The one that gave me, as Mrs. Blueberry would so kindly put herself, “an ugly scab” when I accidentally used it as a landing pad? Turns out, metal beams for minecarts were compatible with the ones used for larger locomotives. Hurray for standardized parts! Even the rivets and everything would fit without complications. That got a rare smile out of me.
Before you ask, no, I still hadn’t been caught during my back-and-forth to the quarry. It wasn’t even that far, and it was located in a part of Outer Grove that didn’t attract that much traffic, so I wasn’t really worried. Plus, nopony was there today. Not only were we a Sunday – and y’know, who worked on a Sunday – but also, I’m pretty sure punching in was the last thing on everypony’s mind after surviving yesterday’s events. Well, except for the two repairponies, but they were the exception that made the rule.
And uh, yes. Technically, I did steal from Mr. Prospector.
Yeah I didn’t really feel good about being a thief. But it was a strictly necessary crime. I’ll just have to come clean, tell him that I was the culprit, and get the material deducted from my next few paychecks. Whatever. Getting screwed monetarily was worth it, it was so worth it, if it meant that I could dodge a one-on-one with a certain winged unicorn.
No idea when I could even contact Mr. Prospector next. I was going to miss a few work days, after all. Something extremely out of character for me. I owed him an explanation for my unexpected unreliability. I’ll have to write him a letter and tell him that I had to take a temporary leave for a few days to deal with... I dunno, a last-minute funeral for a deceased uncle or something. Meh, not the most convincing excuse, but I’m sure I’ll think of a proper lie on my way out.
Wow. Look at me. Stealing and lying to my boss. My boss!
What was happening to me? That wasn’t me! I didn’t do those things! I was losing it. Or myself. Or both.
All in the name of escaping our veneered royal envoy. Yeah, thanks! Thank you oh so very much!
She has done nothing but cause my grief! She turned me into this absolute mess of a pony who acted without thinking. Thanks to her, I had been reduced to a sorry excuse of my former self; that stallion who was once grounded and capable of using common sense. I was Gray Calx in name only at this point.
Thankfully, I could soon put all of my worries behind me. I was on the cusp of leaving. And the princess would be none the wiser, ha!
Mmmh? Who could be tapping on my shoulder right now?
I mean, I was just sitting on my haunches, politely waiting for a train just in case it decided to show up. I wasn’t above pulling an all-nighter if need be. What’s one night camping under the stars in the grand scheme of things, really? One thing was clear though: Returning home was off the board.
I mean... I wasn’t doing anything wrong, was I? Perhaps I looked a little bit weird being all on my own on the boarding deck? But did that seriously warrant being poked by somepony? It’s not like I was trespassing or anything! So who could possibly require my attent-
“Oh, hello Sunstone!”
Hello Sunst- Who the buck just called me by that name!? Whose skull do I have to crush!?
...
...
Oh.
Oh okay then.
Sigh...
I suppose there wasn’t any way to avoid the princess anymore when she was, y’know, standing right in front of my freaking face! With that big stupid hideous grin on her face.
So that’s it then? That’s… that’s the way we reunited after all those years lost to time and regrets? Just like that!? Well pull the freaking curtains, everypony; show’s over!
I always had a feeling that my past would catch up with me down the line, but I mean, today of all days? What was so special about today? I wasn’t prepared for this! I didn’t need to prepare because that situation never ever needed to happen!!
Maybe I tried too hard. Fleeing from the princess? What was I thinking!? Stupid me! I should’ve seen that it had been futile from the start. My whole life had felt that way, so why did I expect a different outcome today? In retrospect, it was rather obvious that she was magnetized to my exact longitude and latitude. I should’ve just given up, faced the music, and let fate have its way. Would’ve saved me a lot of time and effort.
Twilight Sparkle. The almighty princess of Friendship. Look at her. Still as dumb-looking as I remembered her. Dumb purple coat. Dumb navy mane. Dumb horn. Dumb wings- oh that’s right, she had those now. Fancy pants, you.
“Say, have you seen a pony named ‘Gray Calx’ by any chance?” she asked, tilting her head. “I’ve been looking for him all over town for the whole day, but came empty hoofed. It’s almost as if he went into hiding, hehe~.”
“Uh... yeah... I think he went that way,” I said with absolutely no emotions, shut up, I wasn’t being emotional.
“Oh, thank you so much, Sunstone! You’re a lifesaver!’” she smiled.
She strutted away, bobbing her head and humming to herself.
Three...
Two...
One...
The princess turned to ice, a hoof in midair. All I could see was her barrel inflating and deflating, faster and faster now, as hyperventilation started to nestle in her lungs. Her ears drooped and her whole body trembled in epileptic shivers. She stayed like this for a moment, until slowly, her neck turned back toward me with the puffiest and wettest of eyes.
Goodness gracious, I’ve seen some ponies ugly cry in my life, but this, this was monumental. A picture for the scrapbook for sure. With the snot dripping down her snout and everything. Choking on her own breath behind a symphony of hiccups and sobs.
“S-Sunstone...? You’re... You’re alive...”
Yes, but for how long?
And there you have it. The unforgiving hoof of reality finally slapping her in the face. Not with a bang, but with a whisper. Quite literally. Took her long enough.
I could already picture how the rest of the night would unfold. It was going to get... interesting, to say the least.
Looks like I’ve done it. The bottom of the barrel. I’ve finally reached it. How surprising to see it existed after all.