//------------------------------// // New friends and new grudges // Story: Havoc // by Slick Dash //------------------------------// A quick few minutes later, the orange country pony had taken Rookie from the large tree to the centre of the clearing once more. The smell of damp fallen leaves filled his nostrils as he walked, and he couldn't help but take in a deep breath as he walked. It felt amazing, the aroma filled his lungs and sent a warm tingling through his body. He closed his eyes in relief and sighed. "Guessin' you didn' get much smell o' nature up in the 'capital.'" The final word was said with such loathing that Rookie opened his eyes. He saw Applejack still a few paces ahead, looking back at him. "Uhhh... no... I guess I didn't." Rookie grumbled, silently agreeing that if it felt this good to breathe in his surroundings, he mustn't have had that much experience with the feeling. But there was a nagging suspicion. "Actually..." He began, frowning as his mind fought hard to pull a single gem of memory from his murky mind. "I think... I did get some air at least..." Applejack frowned in genuine surprise. "Really?" "...Yeah." It was starting to come back, no actual details, no words or images, and out of the gloom of his amnesia it came... only a smell, a smell of burning. Rookie shuddered as it felt like the stench filled his nostrils, making his stomach squirm with displeasure. He brushed off the comment, and briskly headed on. "So where is it we're going again?" Applejack watched him pass, knowing he wasn't saying something. Then again the stallion had awoken in an almost impossible situation. She sighed with sadness, silently correcting herself. What once would have been an impossible situation, until Discord took over. "Just keep on goin'." the orange mare said gesturing ahead with a flick of her head. Back towards where Rookie had entered the camp. Rookie did as asked, and continued towards the large clearing's centre. As he approached, out from behind a bush came two ponies. One a mare and the other a young stallion, both looked a similar age to Rookie himself, if not maybe a little older. Then he recognised the orange fur, ruffled wings and the angry cut just above her left eye. "Well!" He cried happily, laughing sarcastically. "Little miss too uptight!" The pegasus looked up, as did the male pony, Rookie didn't recognise him. Scoot's expression darkened the instant she recognised the stallion. "What the hay are YOU still doing here? Heading to a cell I hope!" Rookie opened his mouth to send back a barbed rebuttal but was cut short by Applejack -who seeing where this could go, and how quickly it could- hopped ahead of him and addressed the orange pegasus. "Scoots, meet Rookie! Your new charge!" She cried happily. "WHAT!?!" Scootaloo and Rookie yelled simultaneously, both staring in horror at the orange mare who merely smirked at their reactions. "Rainbow's orders!" The mare said simply to Scoot, who glowered in annoyance, yet seemed to accept the situation as soon as the leader was brought up. "Get 'im learned right!" Applejack continued, to which Scootaloo nodded. "an' find 'im a place t' stay, somewhere near the boundary, may as well get t' know where he'll be workin'." Scootaloo gave another nod. At that, Applejack turned to Rookie, shot him a kind hearted smile and moved off in a new direction. Rookie watched her go, now feeling slightly vulnerable. The only pony who had shown him some genuine kindness here was quickly vanishing from sight, leaving him with the ever angry looking Scootaloo. He turned to said mare, and gave a half smile. "Hey..." He said in the attempt of a kind greeting. The purple maned mare rolled her eyes at him and turned to address the stallion following her. Rookie took his appearance in: A cream coloured coat, dotted with a few bright brown patches. His mane matched the patches, if not a little darker, atop his head he wore a red bandanna, and a single small gold loop hung from his right ear, Rookie was reminded of old colt stories of pirates. He smirked, the odd apparel suited the stallion. "Pip, I can't deal with this now!" Scootaloo said quickly, flashing Rookie an annoyed glance, she turned back and her face softened slightly. "You mind taking him to your tent, you've got a spare bed right?" "Sure!" the stallion said happily, giving the largest smile that Rookie had seen since arriving as he glanced over. "Finally a stallion to talk to!" He laughed. Though nervous still, Rookie sent him a nervous smile. "This isn't a house guest Pip!" Scootaloo shouted angrily to the stallion. "Just relax Scoot!" the stallion laughed again, even his laugh sounded like an impression of a pirate. He began to move towards Rookie, as he passed Scootaloo who sighed in annoyance. "The way you act, you'd think we weren't fighting a war..." The stallion ignored her with a quick shrug as he reached Rookie. Stretching out a scruffy furred hoof, he smiled and spoke in a kind voice. "Name's Pipsqueak! Nice to meat yah!" Rookie took the hand and shook it apprehensively, not sure how he felt about this stallion's over the top joy. "R-Rookie... nice to meet yah." "Well that's a name from Rainbow if I ever heard one!" He laughed glancing back at the orange mare, who shook her head in incredulity before taking to the air with one push of her wings. "Just get him to the tent!" She said flatly as she hovered away. "No problem." Pip smiled to the departing pony, then Rookie saw his brow furrow. "And get that head checked out!" And scoot was gone. The stallion sighed and turned to Rookie. "Never listens to me..." He said glumly looking at a large smudge of dirt on his hoof. With a quick flick of his hoof, he dislodged it and smiled. "Well come one 'Roomy!'" And with that he was off, walking briskly and purposefully. Rookie jumped at the fellow stallion's fast and sudden movement, with s start, he rushed to catch up, still looking around at the terrifyingly unknown place. As he caught up, he heard the stallion talking, and he guessed it must have been him he was addressing. "The tent isn't exactly 'huge,' but it's ok, gets a little lonely living there on your own. But with all the work on the barricade and the boundary, most stallions stay up at the outposts." Rookie slowed as he reached the stallion side and began to match his pace. He was happy to stay quiet, but if he was meant to live with this pony, he should at least try to learn a little about him. "So why exactly are you staying here?" He asked, not really bothered by what response he got, craning his head up at the many tall trees strung together by catwalks. "And why do you live in a tent and not those things?" He added, more interested in that answer. Pipsqueak shrugged. "Well my work's here, I'm part of the infantry. He gestured to his flank, inviting Rookie to look. He did, and there emblazoned against his bright fur was a golden hilted cutlass. Rookie raised his eyebrows and nodded, impressed, he thought it looked pretty cool. Pip laughed. "Always loved playing pirate! Didn't know that I'd be any actual good at it!" Rookie laughed along with him. He was quickly warming to the stallion. "So? What you got?!" Pip asked, glancing back at Rookie's flank. He froze, staring at the spot just ahead of Rookie's tail. "What?" Rookie frowned, stopping as well. He tilted his head to glance at his cutiemark. He didn't remember what it was, and it really hadn't come to mind to check after everything that had happened. As his eyes reached his flank, his jaw dropped, as Pip stated the painfully obvious. "Uhhh... you don't have a cutiemark mate." Sure enough, on his flank there was nothing but dark fur. Rookie frowned, that was... odd. He glanced up at Pip who looked at him with a slightly surprised expression. "How old are you? I mean if you remember." "Uhhh... I think- Wait!" Rookie exclaimed. "How do you know about-" "Your memory? Scootaloo told me, she doesn't believe you." Pip explained casually, before shrugging and moving on. As he stepped away he continued to talk. "I don't see why, we've come across other ponies with memory loss spells used on them." He glanced back and looked at the strong looking dark stallion. "Admittedly we've never got one back here alive, and definitely not a pony of... your persuasion." Rookie narrowed his eyes, unsure if he liked the stallion's tone. "My 'persuasion?'" He challenged. "Well..." Pip blushed slightly. "A Loyalist." Rookie's face hardened, he was getting sick of this! "Everypony keeps calling me a loyalist! I don't even know what that means! Loyal to who? I can't be something I don't even understand!" Rookie shouted angrily, stopping dead and stomping a hoof in frustration. Pip raised his eyebows in surprise, he glanced ahead, then back to his follower. "Hey, we're nearly at my tent, let's get there and then I'll explain everything you want to know, ok?" he encouraged happily. Rookie froze in surprise, he wasn't sure why, maybe it was because of his rude welcome from 'Scootaloo' but he hadn't really expected an explanation so easily. "Really?" He asked in surprise. "Of course, I can only guess what it must feel like not to remember what your life's been like." Pip said calmly. The relaxed nature of his voice seemed to float across the breeze, and reach Rookie and the rage he had felt moments ago, ebbed away. "The least I can do is fill you in on what's going on in the world. Who knows..." His ears perked up from the sides of his bandana, the ring jangled lightly at the sudden movement. "It may even bring some of your memories back!" Rookie perked up as well, realising the stallion's logic had some possibilities. Maybe if he heard about the world, some idea of his place within it may come back to him. With excitement for the first time, he rushed ahead, running in the direction of several pointed tents not too far off. Pip laughed at the sudden show of emotion from the dark stallion, and cantered after him happily. ... "So do you remember where you are?" Pip began. They were sat in a spacious tent, with two wooden benches on either side of a fire. The embers were small, and the occasional trail of smoked floated up and through the hole in the roof right above it. Rookie held a stick and stoked the fire absentmindedly while thinking. "I mean, like what country..." "I-I want to say.......Discordia? Or something like that..." he said slowly, raking the dark shadows of his mind. "Close!" Pip encouraged before correcting him. "You're in 'Discordance' people who live here are called 'Discordians' so I can see why you mixed it up." Rookie nodded slowly, showing it made sense. "Anything else? Where you lived? Who your parents are?" Nothing, the question brought nothing but depression as Rookie raked his brain and nothing came. He began to look around again, trying to distract himself before the depression really took hold. He glanced at the door to the tent, which was nothing more than an unfurled flap, in the centre of the material was an emblazoned sun bright and yellow. "What is that?" Rookie asked, gesturing to the symbol. "Your banner?" "Well, you seem to know something about warfare at least..." Pip said jokingly, but looked slightly worried by Rookie's knowledge of such things. "Well, it kind of is. It's what we fight under, but it was around long before us..." Rookie turned and raised an eyebrow, inviting Pip to explain. He exhaled slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well... I've never met a pony who didn't know this... so... around 18 years ago, we weren't hiding in towns like this..." He flung a hoof out towards the door, gesturing to the unseen trees and houses. "I originally came from a town called Ponyville." "Wait..." Rookie frowned, and Pip nodded, seeing the connection click in the other stallion's mind. "Yep, we're in 'NewPonyville. This is what we made to try and recreate the old town." Rookie was still frowning, and soon Pip began to as well, unsure why he was still looked confused. "You ok?" Rookie stared back into the faint embers of the fire. He couldn't be sure why, or how, but the name seemed familiar, somehow the name 'Ponyville' sounded like a place he should know. Why? Not a memory, more like a feeling that felt like a voice, female, sad and mournful, said the name. "I used to live in Ponyville, with my friends..." Rookie shook his head, and returned his attention to Pip. "Keep going." After a moment, the cream stallion began again slowly, watching Rookie with a wary eye. "Well, like I said, I used to live in Ponyville. A lot of ponies here came from there, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo-" "Gee that sounds like a barrel of laughs!" Rookie laughed sarcastically, which brought a slightly crestfallen look to Pip's face. "She isn't that bad you know... only a little high-strung these days." "'High-strung?'" Rookie repeated sceptically, rubbing his still aching back from the orange pegasus's assault. Out of the corner of his eye, Pip spotted movement outside of the tent door. So immersed in his moaning, Rookie didn't hear the soft hoof steps on the other side of the material. "I mean seriously!" Rookie complained. "I get security, but did she really have to hit me that hard?" He stroked his jaw where Scootaloo's elbow had struck him, wincing slightly from the still sore spot. Pip opened his mouth to warn the groaning stallion, but before he could, the worst possible thing was said by the dark stallion. "And don't even get me started on that uptight pegasus you guys call a leader!" In an instantaneous blur of orange and purple, the door billowed open and Rookie was sent into the solid post holding up the tent. "Don't you dare insult Rainbow!" Roared an infuriated Scootaloo. "Who are you to judge her? You've been living it up with all the other traitors at the capital, while she's had to deal with battle after battle, friend after friend dying!" She was panting hard, glaring at Rookie with nothing short of loathing. Rookie stood there, pushed up against the post by his neck, his eyebrows somewhere near the top of his skull in surprise. "Uhh... Scoot?" Said a slightly nervous Pip as he rose from his seat. Rookie squirmed as he felt his chest growing tighter for lack of air in his lungs. "Let him go." the bandana wearing stallion commanded, a lot more confident in his second sentence now seeing the pain on Rookie's face. Scoot gave the pirate stallion a quick glance, before returning to shoot Rookie one more hateful look. Suddenly, her hoof released his chest, and he dropped to the floor awkwardly. "You have no idea what she's been through!" Scoot spat viciously as she turned and approached the door. Through coughing and spluttering, Rookie rubbed his neck, and looked up at the departing mare. "Well... I don't really have an idea about anything much, do I?" He growled sarcastically. Scootaloo froze, and glanced back at him, for a glimmer of a second Rookie swore he saw regret flash across the hard mare's face. But with a sniff, Scootaloo's face returned to its cold usual self. "That's why you're going to be seeing Twilight every day." She said calmly, reaching out and lifting the tent flap to exit. "She'll help you... Get the picture." She looked to Pip, her face softening as she spoke. "Sorry about that Pip... it's just he... yunnow?" Pip gave her a stern look, showing he didn't agree. Scootaloo bowed her head in apology. When it rose she was back down to business. "I just came to tell you, he's expected by the northern barricades tomorrow morning at eight. Make sure he gets there..." She flashed the dark stallion a malicious smile. "Or I will." and with that she was gone. Pip let out a loud whistle followed by a shaky laugh. "Scoot's'll follow Rainbow anywhere, and beat down anypony who says anything bad, I'd watch it if I were you." He smiled, Rookie didn't, still angered by the latest injury for him to sustain. He rubbed his neck as he returned to his seat, and encouraged Pip to continue explaining the world to him, resigned only to listening now, in case more curious ears were listening outside. "Well... Ponyville was part of a place called Equestria..."