//------------------------------// // Gambits and Lectures // Story: Displaced // by LeafBug //------------------------------// The unlikely duo's journey seemed to make time slow to a crawl, and Albus was getting less and less comfortable with the fact that he was following this 'Pony' away from his only known source of water. It wouldn't be terribly surprising to him if 'Dash' was just doing this to get him even more lost than he already is before ditching him. Obviously, this mindset wasn't doing him any good. So he decided to ask the increasingly impatient Dash something that had been bugging him for a while. “So... how exactly do you fly with wings that small?” In a magnificent show of blatant disregard for the laws of physics, Dash flipped onto her back and continued flying that way in order to address her companion. “Well, you see, there are these motions that I do, commonly referred to as 'Flapping', and I-” “Stop being an ass, you know what I mean,” Albus interrupted snappishly. Cocking an eyebrow at him, Dash replied with, “No, not really. Enlighten me.” I can't tell if she's still being an ass, or if she really doesn't get it... Regardless, he decided to comply. “There's no way that wings as small as yours, in comparison to your body at least, should be able to give you any sort of meaningful lift. Not to mention the whole flying upside down thing you're doing right now, which is just weird, by the way.” She looked confused at this, but gave a slight smirk and said, “You mean you really don't know? I thought you were just dumb.” Getting increasingly irritated at this pony was becoming much too easy, and Albus was starting to lose his temper. “I don't make it a habit to study up on the inner machinations of the anatomy of a different species,” he all but snarled. Dash blinked in surprise, retorting with, “Hey, don't get testy, I just thought you'd know, seeing as how it's pretty much the same thing for you. Or do I have to give you a lesson on basic ambient magic?” He had no idea what the fuck this pony was talking about, but he felt it was a good opportunity to get information about how this place works without looking like an idiot; seeing as how this 'ambient magic' was apparently common knowledge, he couldn't really ask about it directly without raising suspicion. It would be all too difficult to explain the circumstances of his getting here. So, he opted for a simple, “Humor me.” Rolling her eyes and sighing, Dash began, “I guess it'll pass the time, if nothing else... Anyway, as you may or may not know,” Albus decided to ignore the jab in favor of taking mental notes, “all living creatures in the world have some form of ambient magic. Since I'm a pegasus pony, and you're a gryphon, ours are pretty much the same. We can fly even given the disadvantages that would normally not let us do just that, small wings and weight issues respectively.” Weight issues? Is she calling me fat? No, wait, that doesn't make any sense. Maybe because I'm half lion or whatever, I should be too heavy to fly, but this 'ambient magic' lets me do it anyway... that actually makes sense, barring the whole 'magic is real' thing... At this point of her impromptu lecture, Dash flipped back to a regular flying position and continued with, “It also explains the whole flying upside down thing, unicorn ponies being able to use spells, earth ponies having much higher strength thresholds, dragons being able to breathe fire, yadda yadda yadda.” Stopping for a moment, Dash finished with, “I can't believe I actually remembered all of that from school, Twilight would be proud...” Albus, on the other hand, was mentally filing away the wealth of new information he had just been provided by his pegasus guide. Pegasi, Unicorns, and Dragons, oh my. Earth ponies? Maybe that's what they call ponies without wings or horns here; unless they have pony shaped earth golems walking around, which wouldn't be overly surprising at this point. Silence reigned for a moment before the albino gryphon of the group noticed something strange about his guide. Well, more strange than usual. Being the inquisitive person he is, he decided to bring it up. “So, what's up with the mark thing on your flank? Does it mean anything?” Dash turned her head and gave him an incredulous look. “Do you really not know what a cutie mark is?” Albus, for his part, did a remarkable job of not bursting into laughter after hearing the title of her ass-tattoo, and played it off as smoothly as he could. “I'm not terribly familiar with ponies, if you haven't noticed.” This, of course, was based on the assumption that it was a uniquely pony thing. He didn't have one, so he just kind of guessed that gryphons didn't get them. Thankfully for him, he was right. “Right,” Dash replied with a kind of 'oh yeah' look upon her face. “A cutie mark is what happens when a pony discovers their special talent, and is a visual representation of that talent. Like, mine represents how my talent is going fast, being an athlete and the like.” At this, she got a big, boastful grin on her face, and continued with, “You happen to be in the presence of the fastest flier in Equestria!” Dash stopped for a moment, then made a face and started grumbling under breath about how she was starting to sound like a professor. Or Twilight. She shuddered at the thought. A rainbow lightning bolt... lightning bolt equals fastest flier in Equestria? Makes sense, I guess. Wait, Equestria? “Is that the name of this country?” Albus blurted out before he could stop himself. Dash gave him a look. “Uh, yeah, duh. How do you not know about Equestria? We're kind of a superpower, you know.” Shit, shit shit. Albus tried not to panic as he thought of a way to dig himself out of the hole he just oh so willingly jumped into. “Well, I figured that I was in Equestria, I just wasn't sure. Ponies exist outside of the borders, you know.” It was a risk, assuming things like that, but it was the only convincing thing he could think of at the moment. Thankfully, Dash seemed to believe him. Or at least go with his story. “Uh huh. Well, now you know.” That didn't sound very convinced... Wanting to make sure he completely avoided that possible crisis, Albus asked the obvious question. “Are we getting any closer to town?” Dash seemed a bit confused when he asked this question, and replied, “I don't know, let me check,” before flying high above the treeline and looking in the direction of their travel. Albus noted idly at this time that his vision was good enough in this form that he could still see her quite clearly, even though she was at least 100 feet away. After looking around for a second or two, Dash returned with a surprisingly genuine smile on her face. “We're almost there, about a half hour's walk from here, that-a-way,” She announced, pointing with her hoof somewhere not quite in the direction they were originally facing. “Right then, vamanos.” Albus replied, already starting in their new direction at a slightly elevated pace. “Vama-what?” Damn it. He'd forgotten that a pony probably wouldn't understand anything he said in a language other than English. Come to think of it, the odds of them speaking English were so astronomically low that he decided to count himself lucky they were able to communicate at all. “It means 'let's go' in a language you evidently don't know. Let's get a move on, I want to be there before sunset.” And with that, he set off, Dash quickly taking up the lead again. Not like time was a legitimate concern, the sun was still high in the sky, barely past noon most likely; he just wanted to avoid explaining how he knew a language from another planet. Honestly, he was kind of surprised that she let it drop that quickly. Maybe the initial hostility is wearing off. Or maybe she's realized that she's alone in the woods with an apex predator. Actually, she's probably just anxious to get home and away from the feathered asswipe that she's volunteered to take care of. That sounds about right. Time passed surprisingly quickly, and Albus was taken from his various thoughts and reflections by the sight of a snow covered Ponyville through the trees, only about a half mile away. Even from this distance he could see a few vaguely pony shaped colorful dots wandering about in the town. The forest seemed to wrap around the town in a sort of semicircle, a road leading away from the town on the other side apparently forking into two paths; one leading to what would look like another forest, if it didn't have a few large buildings near it (which he could just barely see), the other leading off towards some mountain in the distance. The sight, however, was slightly ruined by a more pressing matter at the moment, and he cleared his throat to get Dash's attention. “What?” “You can go on ahead if you want, I've gotta... answer a call of nature real quick. I'll be right behind you.” At that, Dash gave a nod and zipped off towards Ponyville, leaving a rainbow colored contrail in her wake. Albus stared in confusion at the rainbow afterimage for a moment, briefly wondering how a pony could possibly accelerate that fast, or even go that fast, before filing it under 'Magic' and meandering a bit further into the treeline to do his business. After an awkward ordeal of trying to figure out how not to urinate on himself (Damn this new anatomy!), Albus started out towards Ponyville. On the way there, he thought about what exactly he was getting himself into. Surely enough, this was the only civilization he knew how to reach without dying of some cause or another, but it was also a completely different culture, with rules he didn't know. Not to mention the fact that magic is evidently a reality in this world, which just throws out a whole bunch of his rules. Slowing to a stop about a quarter of the way to his destination, he thought. Now was the time for a choice, surely. He could leave, no doubt, and could conceivably carve out his own life in the wilderness, but did he want that? Could he even do that? He wasn't exactly Mr. Wilderness... Even if this new town was filled with ponies and not humans, did he want a life of isolation (assuming he could even live said life)? Throw in the fact that he didn't really know how to hunt, and that the forest seemed kind of... uninhabited, and the choice leans even more heavily towards going to the nearby town. So why was he having such a difficult time convincing himself to keep walking? It's not like he could go back to his old life without outside assistance, assuming he'd even want to. This was a clean slate, a new start. Well, sort of. He might have soured his gryphon-pony relations with how he had treated Dash. Even so, that was only one pony, and he'd handled the situation decently enough. It's not like he'd be treated as a freak or anything when he got to town, Dash's reaction to him had assured him of that much at least. Through his rumination he hadn't even noticed he had started towards Ponyville again until he was about 30 feet from the welcome sign, the few ponies around the outskirts of the town just starting to notice his presence. Well, might as well roll with it. I've got nothing to lose, I suppose. And with that thought, Albus walked into the deceptively quiet town of Ponyville.