//------------------------------// // Hope And A Lesson In Murphy's Law // Story: When The World Bets Against You // by Tie RoamingHooves //------------------------------// Sand punished the lonely pair as they trekked through a small village in Saddle Arabia. A mare was walking alongside a smaller form walking on two short and stubby legs found themselves in a market which was seemingly abandoned at the onset of the sudden sandstorm. This was met with complaints from one of the two travelers, both of whom were in search of a loved one they shared. Both of whom, thought of this pony more so of a loved one than in their entire circle of friends in one way or another. “Augh, this sand is getting on my nerves!” a brazen voice said piercing the uniform fracus of the blowing wind and sand. “What do you want me to do about it?” another much younger voice asked as more of a deadpan than a question. “Well... I don’t know, ugh. I just hate sand. It gets in between my feathers and it annoying to get out.” “I can’t exactly do anything about it unless you want me helping you take a bath and Celestia knows that I won’t do that.” “Whoa, their squirt. I didn’t mean anything by that. No need to be all flank hurt by it.” “I’m not mad, I’m just worried about Twilight.” the smaller one said with a longing sigh. The mare on the stopped and took the baby dragon by the shoulders and looked into his eyes which were obscured by the the blowing sand and the scarf protecting his eyes from it. “Spike, we are all worried about her. You have more reasons than anypony to be. But this is why we’re looking for her, she’s our friend and we’ll stop at nothing to find her. Spike, I can’t have you quitting on me now when we’re this close.” “And what if you're wrong!?” Spike suddenly snapped causing the pegasus to recoil. Not able to gain a hoofhold on the sand, the pony fell backwards knocking the cloak’s hood off of her head exposing her rainbow mane to the wind and sand. “What if she’s really gone and we’ve done this for nothing?!” “Because she not, Spike. I just know it somehow. She’s close. Don’t give up hope.” Spike looks away in mild disdain. “I just wish everypony would see that she's gone and never coming back.” The rainbow maned pegasus scowled a bit and knocked spike into the air and onto her back causing him to yelp. “Sorry kiddo, I didn’t travel across the world to get this close and have you quit on me. We’re doing this and that’s how it’s going to be.” Spike put his arms around the pony’s neck but continued protesting. “She’s gone, Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow Dash snorted and kept walking. The two of them kept making there way through the town. The cocky pegasus however was actively looking for any sign of the lavender unicorn whether it was obvious or not. All Rainbow Dash had to go on was a hunch that she was close and it was enough for her to act on. As they continued moving forward, that feeling kept getting stronger and Rainbow picked up her pace. The pegasus looked up and noticed no visible landmarks of which she could judge her location whether it was a building or a rock. Instead, there was only sand...and hoof prints. Wait... hoofprints! In this wind the wouldn’t last long at all meaning somepony was close! Rainbow Dash’s light trot turned into a full fledged gallop as she bounded through the sand following the depressions in it which were only getting deeper and more pronounced as she went on. Spike on the other hand was holding on for dear life trying not to fall off because he didn’t exactly feel like getting lost in this sandstorm. He quickly got used to it and looked ahead trying to see what has Rainbow Dash so excited. His eyes initially caught sight of the hoofprints in the sand before continuing upwards finding a very obscured silhouette in the distance... one that he knew any where. “No. Way.” came his reply to the situation. He recognized that form anywhere even through the barely noticeable cloak was covering her body. It was that of the one and only Twilight Sparkle. “Told you so, squirt.” Rainbow Dash said smiling. Even though she cared about her image much more than the average pony, she didn’t care if she sounded winded from her running this short distance. She was much better in the air anyways and she had finally found Twilight. Of course there would be a sandstorm. That is exactly her her luck. Did the portal open in the past two weeks? Nope. Did she have to evade ponies in golden armor and just about every other living thing there is including having to stow away on a ship which she had to guess was heading to where she needed to be? Yup. On top of sand, there was now suddenly wind. “Calm down, Ashley, old girl. Calm down... at least you haven’t been found by those other horses yet.” She hadn’t noticed the sound of galloping behind her partly because of the wind, and partly because her not paying attention. She did notice when she heard yelling behind her. “TWILGIHT!!” came a distant and distorted yell. Turning around she saw the a figure in the distance that looked like a small man riding a pony... except that small man had spike on his head that pony had wings. The lavender pony sighed and started running. “FUCK YOU, MURPHY!!” came a very appropriate response.