//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty-Two: Back to the Beginning 
// Story: The Titans' Orb 
// by Mister Horncastle 
//------------------------------//





We reached the outskirts of the city with exquisite timing, and as nightfall came, we stealthily descended upon the airport like shadows. Repeating the steps from Gatwick, Twilight and I entered the Flight Control Tower with ease, where she quickly found us a flight. Annoyingly there was a layover in Rio de Janeiro, but with no other option, we made it work.

Blu had chosen to stay with us. Now a perfectly sapient being, he thirsted for an adventure beyond the jungle. Rightly promoting himself as our group’s pathfinder and reconnaissance unit, he decided that there was no nobler cause for a parrot than to aid in the saving of an entire planet. He also proved himself to be the perfect decoy, for when Twilight and I had infiltrated the Control Tower, he had taken it upon himself to flutter around outside and tap on the windows with his beak. This had distracted many of the employees inside, giving us plenty of additional breathing room. It went without saying, he quickly became a very welcomed eighth member of Twilight’s Company.

We were now on the second plane, and once the cargo hold was sealed, the lot of us flopped onto our backs and sighed in unison.

“We did it.” I breathed, stretching, “Next stop, England.”

“That was… stressful.” Fluttershy murmured.

Admitting that it was, I assured her that the worst part was over now, and in just thirteen hours, we would be back on British soil. Once we were in the air, Twilight gave us all a dose of Thermic Hide, and then we unanimously decided to have a nap. We came together to form a very exhausted pile in the middle of the cargo hold, and quickly drifted off together. I had more strange dreams of that pale blue unicorn, though not quite as intense as the first one. One thing was the same however, for every dream I had about him ended in the exact same way. Staring into the eyes of Princess Celestia, I uttered my final words, before taking my own life in front of the Titans’ Orb.

“Lest not abhor, he who brings me back to you, but love him rather, as you once loved me…”

My eyes flickered open, and I sat upright, trying to make sense of it. Alas, as always, I couldn’t understand a thing. My ponderous thoughts were then quite literally shaken from my head by some turbulence, which woke the others as well. We all slowly got unstuck from each other, and once we were properly awake, AJ distributed some snacks, and while we ate, we got to talking about the next stage of our quest.

“So, when we’re ready to hunt down the next piece, will we be getting on another plane?” Rarity inquired, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s an efficient mode of transport, but surely there’s a better way of getting from place to place?”

Concurring, Fluttershy pointed out that although flying had reasonably got us into Brazil, the sheer walking distance it had put us from the Orb piece was just a tad extreme. Everyone agreed with that sentiment, myself included, and it irked me to think; had we thought to do a layover, and gone straight to Eduardo Gomes airport, we would have acquired the fragment weeks ago. We would have never encountered Inigo, and we would have avoided all the horrors we had suffered at his behest. Then, from within my mind, a rather lengthy thought sprung forth, which I hadn’t meant to conjure. It carried the same Scottish accent as before, when I had first touched the Orb fragment.

{Hindsight is a downward slope, laddie. Just think about it, Twilight blued out on the first plane, so a layover would have been impossible anyway. But let’s say she hadn’t, and you were never captured, then you would have never started that riot. Inigo would still be at large, all those poor souls in the Stock Heap would still be captives, and that sweet Nicole would still, well… you get the picture. You and the girls may have suffered, yes, but the path you took led to the destruction of Inigo, along with his cartel. Countless lives were saved at your expense, so don’t fret on the ‘could haves’ and ‘should’ve beens’, okay lad? There’s always a silver lining.}

“That’s true…” I muttered under my breath, acknowledging the unexpected bout of wisdom.

I wasn’t quite sure why the thought had come to me with the accent, but then again, I did enjoy putting on different voices from time to time. I was a talented mimic, and doing impressions was a very enjoyable pastime for me. Shrugging, I guessed that my inner monologue was just beginning to do the same. It would be foolish to think that I had survived Inigo’s treatment with an unscathed mind, perhaps the voice was a touch of trauma-induced madness?

“Well, don’t look at me.” I chuckled to the girls, returning to the present, “Hopping on a plane was the best idea I had to offer. I know it’s lengthy, but it works.”

“I suppose even human ingenuity has its limits.” Rarity teased.

“Well alone, sure…” Pinkie said cryptically.

Craning our necks, we looked at the pink pony with confusion, and I gestured for her to elaborate.

“So, you know how Twilight’s magic can harness your electrical signal thingies? Well, what if instead of just using them to find the next shard, we used them to take us there?”

Inhaling loudly and lighting up, Twilight looked at Pinkie with exuberance.

“You know, you might be onto something! If I knew where the next fragment was, and I could harness the right electrical frequency, then theoretically I could cast a teleportation spell, and let the signal transport it!”

“How would that work exactly?” I asked, now lost.

Dumbing it down for me, Twilight explained that the further a unicorn teleported, the more mana it cost. Even with her magic, going any further than a few hundred miles would be impossible, she would blue out immediately! But if Pinkie’s suggestion bore any weight to it, then instead of trying to teleport from one spot to another, she could instead, hone in on a man-made frequency, and try to teleport to its destination. Essentially, she could ride the signal, allowing her to travel incredibly long distances, without expending much mana at all. Humming with disinclination, I pointed out that there were a lot of ‘what ifs’ surrounding this theory.

“I know that.” she replied, “But let’s say hypothetically, for the sake of the argument, it works… I could set up a portal node at our camp, and then I could teleport myself to the next piece, or close to it at least. Then, once my magic’s recharged again, I could open a portal from my location to yours. It would be both easy, and foolproof!”

“So, why the hell didn’t we do this for the first shard?” I queried.

“Because Pinkie only just suggested it, you witless buffoon!”

Immediately biting her bottom lip, Twilight quickly acknowledged the harshness of her words, and gave me a look as if to say ‘I didn’t mean that’. Everyone looked at her sternly, and she cleared her throat.

“The point is… this could work.”

Nodding, I chose to overlook the outburst. Rude as it had been, the conniption was clearly more of a frustrated slip of the tongue, of which she had immediately regretted. Looking over to Pinkie, I smirked, stroking at my chin as I did so.

“You know, if there’s one thing the cartoon got right, it’s to trust in Pinkie and her hunches. So if she thinks this’ll work, then let’s do it.”

“Now that’s something we can agree on.” Twilight huffed.

With the others also in agreement, the plan was set. Upon arriving at Gatwick, we would return to my old home and set up camp somewhere on the land. Then, when she was ready, Twilight would set up a portal node and then head back to the airport. Once there, she would use its frequencies to pinpoint the next piece of the Orb, followed by an attempt to teleport as close as possible to it. If successful, she would deploy a second node there and promptly open the portal, returning to us with her findings. After that, we would all go through together, and collect the fragment as a team.

“Now that is a good plan!” I declared, clapping my hands together.

“Hear hear!” Rarity agreed, sticking one hoof into the air.

The others whinnied and cheered with accord and confidence, and it seemed that there was finally a vague sense of unity throughout our company. With all the important business out of the way, we delved into some more leisurely conversation, with the girls bringing up the shanty I had sung on the boat.

“I didn’t know you could sing that well.” said Fluttershy.

“Or at all.” added Rainbow Dash.

“Oh pfft! Nah, I can’t sing.” I scoffed, “Well, I can, but I… choose not to.”

“Why ever not?” Rarity exclaimed, “Your voice is wonderful darling!”

Shrugging, I explained that I had only broken into the shanty because I had been spurred by the moment. In truth, I was incredibly shy when it came to singing. Tentatively scooting closer to me, Fluttershy admitted that she could wholeheartedly relate to that.

“But um, be that as it may… I for one, would love to hear you sing again.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that, and from within me, came a small surge of confidence and self-worth. Then, taking a far less delicate approach, Pinkie zipped up to me and shouted directly into my face.

“Sing it again! The song had sugar in it!”

Rainbow Dash seized Pinkie and helped restrain her, while I chuckled away and promised to her that I would surely sing it again at some point. With the subject of music now in the air, Rainbow Dash pointed out that before getting captured, I had promised to let them hear more of the music on my phone. Rarity and Fluttershy sat bolt upright with excitement, remembering this as well.

“Uh, I don’t recall this?” said Applejack, frowning.

Emitting a nervous chuckle, Rainbow explained that it had just been something between the four of us, as we liked to stay up a little later at night. Wishing to be included, Pinkie and Applejack asked if they could hear some songs as well, which I very gladly agreed to. Digging through my bag and retrieving the earbuds, I let Pinkie listen to a song first. Scrolling through my wide variety of songs in search of something joyful and upbeat, I eventually settled on ‘Hey Ya!’ by Outkast.

Within seconds, the pony was bobbing up and down and tapping her hooves to the beat, with an almighty grin on her face. About midway through, she stood up and broke into dance, shaking herself from head to tail and strutting her stuff. Then, quite unexpectedly, she began to aggressively thrust her hips in a very questionable manner.

“Oh yeah! A little bit of funk! A little bit of funk!” she grunted, grinning wickedly.

Averting my gaze, I looked to the others with wide eyes. They were all clearly mortified as well, as the majority of them were blushing and doing their best to keep a straight face.

“Does she, erm… not realise how that looks?” I asked through my teeth.

“Nope!” Dashie laughed, greatly amused by the display.

With a smirk on my face, I leaned against Rarity and looked back at Pinkie.

“I’m gonna tell her.”

With a gasp, Rarity frowned and gave me a firm shove.

“Don’t you dare!”

She got to her hooves and went over to settle Pinkie down, for the mare was now grinding against someone’s suitcase, sending Rainbow and Applejack both into a fit of hysterics. Staring at the scene before me, I slowly shook my head and mumbled to myself in disbelief.

“Somebody’s gotta tell her…”


When the song finished and the hilarity came to an end, I gave Applejack the earbuds. At first, I was going to select one of the more countryesque songs from the band Hey Ocean!, but then I remembered that their lead singer was none other than Ashleigh Ball. Being the voice actress for the cartoon versions of both Rainbow Dash, and Applejack herself, I feared that might have been a little too mind-boggling for the pony, and so I played it safe with ‘Boondocks’, by Little Big Town. I certainly made the right choice, made clear by Applejack hugging me after the song had ended, declaring that no music had spoken to her like that before.

“Is there like… any way we could take some of your music back with us?” she asked.

“Hmm, I don’t think that’s out of the question…” I began, scratching my upper neck, “Perhaps at the end of all this, I could get my hands on a portable music player, like an iPod or a Walkman. Then I could download a bunch of songs to it for you, and you could take it back to remember me by.”

“Why, that’s a swell idea.” she replied, smiling warmly, “I’d like that very much!”

“As would we all, I reckon.” Rarity added, giving me a bright smile.

“Then I’ll see to it that you go home with one.” I declared, dipping my head.

Pinkie’s ears then began to flap irritably, and I could only presume that it was related to her Pinkie Sense. This turned out to be the case, as we were all very soon disturbed by some more turbulence, which sent us sliding across the cargo hold together. It only got worse from there, and the lot of us soon found ourselves tumbling about the place like pinballs. Pinkie of course, made a game out of it, and laughed and squealed with delight whenever she was kicked up into the air, or sent sliding around. The rest of us however, were slightly less amused.

“This had better stop soon.” Applejack moaned, “I’m starting to feel nauseous.”

“I’m sure it’ll be over soon.” I assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving it a quick squeeze.

As though to spite me, the plane shook even harder, scattering us even more aggressively. Rainbow Dash was flung into Pinkie, and Twilight found herself cascading into my lap. I looked down at her and gave an awkward smile, raising my eyebrows with amusement.

“Look, I know you wanted to make amends, but can we take things a little slower?”

“Oh go fuck yourself.”

The two of us broke into laughter at that, and I helped the unicorn right herself and clamber off me. Placing a hand on her wrist, I immediately realised that something was wrong.

“Twilight, you’re freezing.”

Even through my own dose of Thermic Hide, the mare’s fur was noticeably cold to the touch. She yanked her foreleg away and got to her hooves, grimacing.

“I’m fine.”

“You’ve not cast Thermic Hide on yourself, have you?”

Breaking eye contact, she looked at the floor and I realised that she was shivering. Her lips looked dry as anything and her nose was visibly running. How hadn’t any of us noticed? Overhearing what I had said, Rarity came over and involved herself.

“I’m sorry, but did I just hear that correctly?”

Not wishing to confess, but also refraining from falsely outing me as a liar, Twilight receded into her shell even further, haunching her shoulders and closing her eyes, quivering from top to bottom. My heart sank, as I realised exactly what was happening here.

Twilight was punishing herself…

“I’m j-just, s-saving some mana, f-for when we arrive.” she stuttered.

“Bollocks to that.” I told her, “Cast Thermic Hide, now.”

“I n-need, the mana.”

By now, everyone was beginning to crowd around, still wobbling to and fro at behest of the turbulence. Desperate not to have an audience, Twilight relented and cast the spell upon herself, faintly glowing orange and letting out an almighty sigh of relief. Rarity ordered Fluttershy to check the unicorn over, and thankfully she was given the all-clear.

“What the hell were you thinking!?” I barked, “What good is a little extra mana if you freeze to death, huh? You’re hardly any use if we have to drag your refrigerated carcass around, now are you!?”

Blinking rapidly and trying not to cry, Twilight mumbled something of an apology, causing me to back off. Angry as I was with her, mainly I was just worried. For all my ire towards her, and for all said and done, this kind of self-inflicted punishment wasn’t the way forward. Rainbow Dash clearly thought otherwise, as she looked at the unicorn without a shred of empathy and rolled her eyes. I sat beside the pegasus, which was when she huffed angrily and looked at me.

“How come everyone’s just doting on her now?” she scoffed, “After the way Twilight’s been, she deserves to freeze.”

“Rainbow, come on…” I tutted, “She’s your friend.”

Looking down at her hooves, Rainbow Dash grumbled with annoyance.

“I know but, ugh… I’m just so mad at her!”

“We all are, Dashie. But even so, she’s your friend.”

Gently placing a hand on her head, I combed my fingers through her multicoloured mane.

“Deep down, the six of you adore each other and you know it. I promise you, once you’re back home, whatever this weird phase is with Twilight, it’ll pass.”

“Alright…” she huffed.

Things settled down after that. Twilight was given some space to think about her actions, and once the turbulence came to an end, Rarity prepared some tea for us.

“How’s your hand feeling?” asked Fluttershy, sipping from her cup.

“Itchy more than anything.” I replied, showing it to her, “It’s starting to get flaky now, and you have no idea how tempting it’s been to start picking at it.”

“Callum, that’s disgusting!” Rarity bleated, rolling her eyes.

The others laughed, and I went over all my other injuries. The croc bite was mostly healed, it was just a little pink and sensitive now. Most of my other wounds had fully recovered as well, only leaving behind some scar tissue here and there. The only thing that hadn’t completely healed was the deep laceration on my chest, left by Inigo’s machete. Rarity’s stitch-work had certainly helped, alongside a generous coating of Oozima, but that hadn’t stopped the gash from forming a very crooked red scar, which ached more often than it didn’t.

“On the upside, my fingernails are nearly all the way back.” I said, grinning.

Twilight shuddered, and I knew that she had been reminded of the moment Inigo had pried them off and thrown them at her, along with what she herself had been made to do to me. I gave her a solemn expression, knowing exactly what she was thinking about, and that’s when a thought dawned on me.

{Maybe that’s why you made my clone feel pain?}

It was just a hunch, but it made a small semblance of sense to me. Twilight had no doubt been traumatised by what had happened that day, it would be absurd to presume otherwise. She had been forced to sit and watch a person undergo literal torture, and then partake in it, all while being completely powerless, without so much as an iota of control.

Now again, it was only a theory, but I speculated that Twilight had perhaps seen an opportunity to go back to that moment in her mind, and this time, she could be the one in control. Had her actions been an impulsive trauma response? Some way to cope? Some distorted method of self-therapy? As I pondered, it seemed more and more likely to me that she had tried to recreate the traumatic event, in an instance where she had all the power. She had attempted to lessen the impact that Inigo’s violent cruelty had on her, by taking his place as the torturer.

{You didn’t do it out of hatred, or spite…} I thought, glancing at the unicorn, {No… No, what you did was some twisted act of self-preservation!}

{I think you’re onto something there.} the Scottish voice agreed, {It doesn’t excuse what she did, mind you… but aye, what she did wasn’t out of malice, not really. The lass was trying to fix herself, just in a really fucked up way.}

Nodding faintly, I looked away from Twilight and kept my thoughts to myself. I was still angry with her, and most irrefutably beyond being able to forgive her yet, if ever, but this had certainly given me a lot to think about…


The rest of the flight went without much issue, aside from a handful of us very much needing the bathroom, with poor Fluttershy nearly in tears over how badly she needed to go. We heard the sound of the landing gear coming out, and we prepared for touchdown, latching onto one another and tensing up at one side of the cargo hold. Against my ribs, I could feel Rainbow Dash’s firm featherless wings, still wrapped tightly in bandages. My heart sank and I closed my eyes, now fighting against the bitter pain I felt for her.

The plane hit the tarmac and we all jolted forward, with Pinkie Pie letting go and propelling forward with a squeal of delight.

“Weeeeeeee!”

She skidded to a halt and giggled loudly, while the rest of us broke form and prepared to move out. Twilight cast Invisipone onto us, and Blu went to hide inside Fluttershy’s mane.

“Uh… buddy?” I chuckled, pointing at him, “That’s not going to work, we can still see you.”

“Cock and balls!” he squawked angrily, causing Fluttershy to gasp loudly and sending Rainbow Dash into a fit of hysterics.

With that plan a bust, Blu quickly improvised. Displaying his intelligence with a stroke of genius, he hopped over to the pile of luggage and located a duffel bag that wasn’t too full. Grabbing the zip with his beak, he opened it up and slipped inside.

“I’ll come out when the coast is clear! Caark!”

I gave him a thumbs up, and then remembered that he couldn’t see me. Verbally confirming with him, I joined the others as they gathered by the cargo door. It opened, and an airport worker clambered inside. Getting past him was a breeze, and speaking of breezes, we all let out merry hums upon reaching the ground.

“Oh British weather! How I’ve missed you!” I sighed heavily, putting my arms out.

Being at the tail-end of summer, the air was still quite warm, but compared to Brazil, it was like stepping into a refrigerator, just the way I liked it. The others seemed to agree, with both Applejack and Rarity commenting on how much easier it was to breathe, now that the air wasn’t quite so humid.

“Yeah-yeah, the weather’s great, I really need to pee!” Rainbow cried out, dancing on the tips of her hooves.

“Me too!” Pinkie added, dancing in a similar fashion.

“Oh goodness, me three!” gasped Rarity, suddenly noticing how urgently she also needed to go.

“Me four!” I called out.

“Me all the numbers!” Fluttershy wailed.

Realising that we were all about to bust, we hurriedly made our way off the runway, giggling to ourselves like children as we all desperately tried to hold our bladders. Quickly locating the small section of woodland from before, we found that the chain-link fence had been repaired, but that didn’t last long. Despite now having low mana, Twilight was far too desperate to care, and literally blasted the fence open at the middle, snapping the chain-link and making it seem as though a monster had torn its way through.

“You’re damn lucky you didn’t just blue out!” I said to her as I clambered through the hole.

“It was either that or piss myself!” she shouted back.

All laughing, we reached the woodland and split up, charging off behind trees and bushes to relieve ourselves in private. In the distance, I heard Rainbow Dash emitting a dramatic moan, intentionally being loud enough for us all to hear. Snickering to myself, I decided to rise to the occasion and tilted my head upwards, where I let out the most ridiculous pleasured wail I could muster.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooohhh!”

Guffaws of laughter from all six girls rang out through the woodland, and when we eventually came back together, we couldn’t help but break into a second wave of intense giggling.

“The two of you…” Rarity tutted, looking between me and Rainbow, “You know, I don’t think either of you could be more immature if you tried!”

“Is that so?” I retorted, smirking.

“That was not an invitation for you to prove me wrong.”

With my face plastered with a grin, I gave the mare a sly wink, before settling down and taking a big breath.

“Alright ladies, let’s not stand on ceremony. Let’s get a move on!”

There was a flutter from above, and then Blu descended upon us, having found us after escaping the duffel bag unseen. Landing on Fluttershy’s back, he looked around at us with excitement.

“Quaark! Where to now? Where to now?”

Looking into the distance thoughtfully, it felt wrong to call it home. Still, it was a place I knew, and aside from the ponies around me, it was the closest thing I could call home. As such, I looked at the bird and called it just that, to which he tilted his head with interest. Gripping my backpack straps and nodding to the girls, we took off with haste; nightfall was rapidly approaching, and we wanted to cover a little more ground before calling it a day.

We found a larger patch of woodland after a very cautious half-hour trek, at which point we set up for the night. The lot of us were exhausted by this point, and after a quick bite to eat, we all went to bed. Fluttershy and I were just drifting off, when we were both disturbed by the sound of someone loudly sniffling outside.

“Do you hear that?” I whispered.

“Yeah.” Fluttershy replied, her ears twitching, “I think… I think someone’s crying.”

Inhaling sharply, she speculated that it was probably Rainbow Dash, whose mood had been fluctuating as of late. Ever since finding Blu, things had been harder for her; despite not being the bird’s fault, his healthy cerulean wings was a constant reminder of Dashie’s inability to take to the air, and all of us had noticed the odd flash of jealousy in the mare’s eyes.

“Do you think we should go and comfort her?” I asked.

Shaking her head, Flutters said that she would talk to Dashie tomorrow. Being the proud pony she was, being seen crying would only upset the pegasus further. I exhaled heavily through my nose and said that I understood. Lying there awkwardly, we listened to the sniffling for quite some time, until eventually we heard the sound of fading hoofsteps, indicating that whoever had been crying, had now stopped and taken themselves back into their tent. With a pained expression, I wrapped an arm around Fluttershy and she pressed up against me to get comfortable. Both feeling a little sour about the whole thing, we went to sleep with an air of unease about us.


The next day, the two of us were quite surprised to see that Rainbow was oddly quite chipper; perhaps a good cry by herself had done her some good. We had a quick breakfast, before taking off once again.

“I wonder what state your old home’s in…” Rarity pondered while we walked.

“Better than the state we left it in!” Dashie cackled, trotting along beside me and Applejack.

Chuckling, I thought back to the day we had practically obliterated the place. It was then that a thought dawned on me, concerning the ‘mess’ I had left behind.

“So, Twilight…” I began with an awkward expression, “How exactly does the whole ‘cloning’ malarkey work on a biological level? Like, say my family buried the clone I stabbed… would it decompose normally?”

Huffing sleepily, Twilight reiterated that clones were magical constructs through and through, of which only simulated the compounds of an organic being. Eventually, after just a few days, the magic would dissipate, and the clone would begin to break down, simply flaking and crumbling away into nothingness.

“I bet that gave the undertakers a fright!” I laughed.

“I’m sure.” she replied glumly, slowly plodding along at the back of the group.

{Well someone didn’t sleep well.} I thought, rolling my eyes.

Rejoining the front, I merrily trudged beside Pinkie and Rarity, until we came across a familiar landmark.

“Ah!” I sang, “The River Mole.”

As deep and powerful as ever, the river flowed before us. Applejack asked how we were going to cross, which was when Rainbow Dash strutted forward with confidence.

“Uh, same as last time? Fluttershy can take all the bags, and I’ll just fly us… uh… ov-er…”

Looking all around, Dashie’s face quickly scrunched up, as it struck her harder than ever that she could not fly. Even with others present, she couldn’t stop herself from falling backwards onto her bottom, throwing her head up into the air and bursting into a soul-crushing howl.

“Oh Rainbow…” I breathed.

Everyone came over to comfort her as the poor girl just sobbed and sobbed, unable to handle it any longer. She took to savagely beating the ground with a hoof, spraying dirt in all directions as she spluttered over and over again that it wasn’t fair.

“It’s alright Dashie…” Fluttershy cooed softly, “We’re here for you, okay?”

“Alright? Alright!?”

Arching her back and straining as hard as possible, the raw, fleshy remnants of her wings ruptured from the bandages like a moulting arachnid, bursting forth from its old carapace. The hardened Oozima that covered them broke away as she splayed them out for us and glared into our faces.

“LOOK AT ME!”

And look at her we did, for it was impossible not to stare at the fleshy tendrils in horror as they quivered and swayed in the air. Gritting her teeth and hissing loudly, Rainbow took in a deep jagged breath, before speaking to us in a raspy, high-pitched, broken mewl.

“I’m… a freak!”

She collapsed onto her side, and we all watched hopelessly as Rainbow bawled her eyes out in front of us. I was almost brought to tears myself, I just wanted to fix it for her; I would have put her back together myself if I could, feather by feather. But for all the will I had, I could not fix her, and the poor thing had no choice but to cry herself out, while Rarity and Twilight used their magic to carry our bags across the river; it went without saying that Fluttershy carrying them across would have been insensitive beyond measure.

I knelt down in front of the mare and stroked at her neck and upper shoulders, firmly pressing my fingertips into the tense muscles, hoping to relax her. It worked to some degree, and the others left me to it. Still crying, Rainbow rolled onto her front, wordlessly telling me that I was helping. Inhaling deeply, I glanced a few times at her wings, and that was when I noticed something.

“Oh my goodness… Rainbow, look!”

With snot hanging from her nose, Dashie looked up at me and followed my gaze, and realised that I was gesturing to something on her left wing. Respectfully and delicately, I moved my hand to the plucked limb, and ran my index finger over the beginnings of a cyan plume. The crying came to a halt, as we both realised at the same time, that slowly but surely, some of her feathers were growing back.

“Do you know what this means?” I said to her.

She looked at me and blinked a few times, and I broke into a huge grin.

“You might be able to fly again one day.”

Her face strained once again as she broke into another, far happier cry. Lunging forward, the mare wrapped herself around me, now full of hope. I didn’t even care that she was getting snot on my shoulder, I just held her back and squeezed her tightly, until from behind us came the sound of someone clearing their throat. Turning around, I came face to face with Blu, who was waddling up to us. He hopped onto my shoulder and looked at Rainbow Dash, bowing his head respectfully. That’s when he stuck his beak into his wing, and with one swift movement, he melted my heart. Tugging firmly, the parrot forcibly removed one of his own feathers and presented it to the pegasus, offering it to her.

“It might not be the exact same shade, but… graark… while you’re waiting for the others to grow back…”

Rainbow scooped up the bird in her hooves and held him close to her chest, snivelling her thanks. He chirped that she was welcome, and then hopped away to return to Fluttershy. Getting to my feet properly, I took the bird’s feather and placed it against Rainbow’s bare wing, and used some of the ripped bandages to fasten it to her, tying it tightly to keep it safe and secure. I received another hug, and then we went over to the river’s edge together, where we found the others all somehow on the other side.

“How’d you do that?” I blurted out.

Rarity and Twilight both lit up their horns, and Rainbow Dash was swathed in a mix of blue and pink magic. She was then gradually lifted into the air by the unicorns’ joint telekinesis, and then drifted weightlessly across the gap. She was put down next to Fluttershy, of whom quickly got to work at reapplying some new bandages to replace the ripped ones. I put my hands on my hips and reminded Twilight that she was supposed to be saving her mana and allowing it to replenish.

“That’s why I got Rarity to help.” she argued.

“Not that I was much help.” the white unicorn laughed awkwardly.

They were about to lift me too, when I shook my head and claimed that I could jump across. Scoffing, Applejack made the foolish mistake of telling me that I couldn’t make the jump, making me all the more stubborn to try.

“Place your bets now everypony!” I shouted over, chuckling.

Backing up by a fair amount, I looked at the point where I would need to jump from, and readied myself to sprint and spring.

{Maybe this isn’t such a good idea…} I thought to myself, taking in just how wide the gap was.

{Oh, you think?} the Scottish voice deadpanned in reply.

Shrugging, it was too late for second guessing myself, and so with a deep breath, I charged forward at full pelt, and jumped…





“So Callum, how much further do you think we have to go?” asked Rainbow Dash, snickering.

“Not too far now.” I grumbled through gritted teeth, with a face like thunder.

We had walked a good way now, and having fallen into the river, I was absolutely soaked. We were very close to the field that bordered my family’s land, and Twilight strode beside me with a spring in her step, her face plastered with a smirk. Refusing to look at her directly, I let out a quiet mutter of annoyance.

“Yeah, yeah… laugh it up.” I spat.

Attempting to stifle a chuckle, Twilight looked down at her hooves and cleared her throat. Slowing my pace, I allowed the others to take over so that I could walk alongside Rarity at the rear. She levitated my shirt to me, having dried it as much as she could with her magic. I took it from her and put on the damp garment, and upon taking a moment to glance at my dripping wet hair, the unicorn began to giggle.

“Oh, you think it’s funny, do you?”

Before she could reply, I bent down and shook my head like a dog, sprinkling the mare in river water. She squealed and ran away, to which I gave chase.

“No! Get away from me, you beast! You’ll ruin my mane!” she yelped.

“Get your pearly rump back here right now! You need a shower!”

“I washed myself just this morning!”

“You missed a spot!”

Rarity screamed with fright and continued to run away. The two of us bolted past the rest of the group and made our way down the forest path. Eventually her stamina gave out, and she came sluggishly to a halt, turning to face me with terror.

“I beg of you sir… spare me!”

Unable to stop myself from bursting into a hearty laughter, I doubled over. The others caught up to us, all cackling and chortling at the scene.

“It’s… not… funny!” Rarity panted heavily, “It takes ages… to do my… mane!”

“We know!” the rest of us clapped back in unison.

Still trying to catch her breath, Rarity joined in on the laughter, admitting that her morning routine was longer than everyone else’s put together. Once she was no longer wheezing like an asthmatic, we pressed on for the final march, with my old home being right around the corner. A good ten minutes later, we were there, at the same wooden gate we had left from, built seamlessly into the tall closeboard fence that I had personally helped to build just a year ago.

“We made it.” I sighed.

Taking off my bag and passing it to Pinkie Pie, I jumped up and clambered over so that I could unlock the gate. The first thing I noticed was how overgrown the land was, it was practically a meadow; mowing the lawn was usually my job, and it seemed that nobody had taken to picking up the slack in my absence. Sighing heavily, I briefly reminisced on the memories of playing on this land with Archer and Chilli…

When Archer was just a pup, he was even smaller than Chilli. Those two would chase each other all around this garden, and no matter how hard he tried, Chilli was always faster. But then he got bigger, until he was easily five times that of Chilli’s size, and then she could never catch him. Nowadays, that dog was nearly the same height as the ponies, and could easily stand over six feet tall on his hind legs. That Scottish Deerhound was a truly magnificent animal, and I would never forget those early mornings when I had to let the chickens out. Archer would always come with me, and if he spotted a deer, he was gone in a flash, thundering across the land at thirty miles an hour, and that was no exaggeration.

As for Chilli, I thought about how I used to hide with her at the far end of the garden beyond the apple orchard. There was a little den I had created, where I would cook the pigeons, rabbits, and squirrels I had shot with the air rifle. Chilli would always sit with me, and I would share the meat with her. My brother and I had taught her to be something of a gun-dog, and when either of us took a shot, she would charge forth in search of the quarry, fetching it for us, dead or alive. I could only wonder… if Bruce had indeed returned the dogs by now, had Oliver continued this activity with the little spaniel?

Tightening my lips, I savoured the memories for a few seconds longer, before unbolting the gate and pulling it open for the girls. They rushed through hurriedly, and then I closed the gate behind them, bolting it shut.

“Gosh, it’s weird being here again…” Applejack remarked.

“Isn’t it just?” I replied, shrugging.

Turning to the right, I directed the girls into the apple orchard, where I then escorted them to my old hideaway. The trees and bushes here were incredibly thick, and would serve perfectly as the location for our hidden camp; I wagered that we wouldn’t even need to cloak ourselves back here. Though a little run down, my old den was still mostly intact, complete with a firepit, a sitting log, and a lean-to, draped in a camouflage tarpaulin, of which was blanketed with moss.

“Huh, looks like someone else had the same idea.” Rainbow Dash remarked.

“Yeah, me.”

“Wait, you built this?”

Nodding, I explained that this was my own private camp, where I would often come with Chilli to get away from my family. Twilight was quick to notice the smattering of empty glass bottles by the lean-to and gave me a look, raising one of her eyebrows and gesturing to it. Chuckling awkwardly, I admitted that on quite a handful of occasions, I would steal some of my mother’s alcohol, and bring it here to get drunk and wallow.

“I would have thought that her ghastly behaviour would have put you off alcohol?” Rarity hummed, her voice carrying a hint of judgement.

“You’d think that, but no.” I huffed back, “I’m still my mother’s son in that regard, I love a drink like a flower does the rain. It’s being a heartless brute that I was put off of.”

My reply garnered a few laughs, and I went on to explain that with how rough my life was prior to the girls showing up, I needed something to take the edge off every now and again. At that, Applejack asked what kind of drinks I enjoyed, to which I answered honestly.

“If it has alcohol in it, I’ll drink it.”

Rolling her eyes with amusement, AJ went on to say that she would have brought me some cider from Sweet Apple Acres had she known I was a drinker. Thanking her, I suggested that it was for the best that she hadn’t, as I would likely only end up wanting more.

“You can’t miss something you’ve never had.”

“True, true…” she replied.

Moving on, we set up camp, with Twilight and Rarity both using their telekinesis to clear away all the dead leaves, giving us a nice dry earthy clearing. The camp immediately looked neater, and I complimented their fine work, which was met with mockery from Rainbow Dash.

“Ooh, fine work girls!” she sang out in a prissy, flamboyant tone.

“Hey, I know your hooves are ticklish, so watch yourself.” I warned her.

“If you touch my hooves, I’ll bury you alive.”

Scoffing, I teased that she wouldn’t even be able to get me to the ground, let alone beneath it. Seeing this as a challenge, Rainbow pounced at me, gripping me with her front legs and attempting to wrestle me to the dirt. Grinning, I decided to show the pegasus just how sturdy I could be. Resisting the mare’s valiant efforts to pin me down, I asked if she really wanted to embarrass herself.

“Oh shut up, I’ll get you on the ground, just watch me!”

Shoving into me with all her might, she desperately made futile attempts to knock me off my balance, until at last she grew impatient, and decided to play dirty. The girls gasped with shock as Rainbow Dash scooped up some dust with her hoof and threw it into my face, hoping to blind me and leave me open for an attack.

“Rainbow!” Rarity barked.

“Oh, you asked for it.” I growled playfully.

“Uh oh.”

Scooping the pegasus up, I easily flipped her over onto her side, where I descended upon her, kneeling down and squishing her to the ground with my upper body. Gripping one of her back legs, I made my way for a hoof, which was when Dashie shrieked out in panic and was able to wriggle free. She launched herself at me, and now with adrenaline properly coursing through her, she was able to put up a decent fight.

“What did I say about touching my hooves!?”

“Hm, let me recall…” I hummed sarcastically, “It was uh, ‘something-something, I’m a little bitch!’”

Pinning the mare for a second time, I used my body weight to prevent her from wriggling, and squeal as she might, I was able to force her against the ground, powerless.

“Submit, or I’ll tickle these hooves until you shit yourself!” I commanded, grabbing her back leg again.

“Fuck! Okay-okay, I submit!” she cried out, going limp.

I let her go and chuckled to myself, before standing up and facing the others.

“And that, ladies, is how you subdue a pegasu-AAGH!”

From behind, Rainbow Dash had leapt at me, and was now gripping onto me with all four legs, using her front ones to wrap around my neck and strangle me.

“I didn’t tap out!” she hissed into my ear.

Try as I might to shake her off, her grip was too strong, and she choked me harder and harder, desperate to win.

“Now, you submit, bitch!”

“Oh, I’ve got you right where I want you.” I rasped through a strained breath.

Loosening her grip slightly, Rainbow let out a confused ‘huh?’, while I prepared to end this once and for all. Springing into the air, I flopped backwards like a breaching whale, and with our combined weight, poor Rainbow Dash was completely flattened into the dirt. The force was so great that it drove the air out of the mare’s lungs and left her dazed and winded. She emitted an almighty groan and rapidly tapped at the ground, begging me to get off. Rolling to the side and returning to my feet, I looked down at the defeated pony, gasping and moaning in pain, covered from head to hoof in dust.

“So, as I was saying… That’s how you subdue a pegasus!” I puffed, grinning, “Please tell me you guys saw that?”

Turning to look at the others, I realised that they weren’t focused on us at all, they were looking off behind me, their eyes wide with terror. Quickly turning around, I realised what they were looking at.

Or rather, who they were looking at…

“What-up faggots?”

Gulping, I quickly recovered my composure. I dusted myself down and sniffed loudly, before dipping my head to him in a cautious greeting, clenching my jaw.


“Hello Oliver…”