//------------------------------//
// Something to Think About 
// Story: Severance 
// by StealBox 
//------------------------------//

"I can't believe this crap! I knew they were rude, and possibly racist, but superstitious to boot!" I was angrily pulling stakes out of the ground as everypony took down the tents and packed them away.

"Hey, calm down! Why are you so angry about this?" I looked over at the earth pony who'd said that. I didn't know his name, we were just working on the same tent.

"Why aren't you? I'd be pissed as all hell if someone accused me of something I had nothing to do with! 'Bad omen' my ass," I grunted while pulling out a particularly stubborn stake. And I had been in such a good mood earlier.

While we waited for Andre to get back with the money, Diamond explained to Silver and I that the sheriff told her that we had to leave. The citizens of the town had apparently decided that the cave-in at the mine was some kind of 'sign' that the pony caravan was bad luck, or cursed, or some other nonsense. The justification for their reasoning, if you could even call it that, was that the cave-in, the first one in that mines history, occured not more than a few hours after we were given permission to set up camp.

"Living the way we do, you get used to being treated like a plague. You can't waste your energy being mad all the time. I, for one, am glad that they told us to leave instead of coming at us with spears." The cloth was removed and folded as we spoke, allowing us to start taking apart the frame.

"Silver mentioned something like that too. What exactly happened in Zabrica? Why were you all run out so violently? You all seem pretty nice, and it just doesn't make any sense to me." Everypony within earshot of my question stopped working, sad looks overcoming their features. They started looking back and forth amongst themselves, like they were deciding if they should let me know or not. I could tell it must have been a painful memory for them.

"Zabrica..." one of the ponies started, "isn't a very peacful place." He just looked down again after that.

"The zebras are almost always in conflict with the lion prides," a pagasus mare picked up where he left off. "The lions attack whenever they want pray that puts up a better fight than the gazelle herds. And then there are the hyenas, they prowl in the dark and strike at any unsuspecting creatures from the shadows. They've even been known to foalnap young zebras who are out playing at night."

"Prolonged periods of peace are a rare thing for the zebra tribes," said the earth pony I had asked originally. "When we first arrived, they were happy to have us. Our presence bolstered their numbers and deterred several attacks. They treated us kindly, they fed us, and they gave us a place to settle down for quite some time. It was nice..." He sounded like he really missed that place, and the others held expressions of fondness for that memory. "In exchange we helped them gather ingrediants for their potion making, helped tend to crops, and provided a significant boost to their defenses."

"That sounds like a pretty ideal partnership. What went wrong?"

"Well..." He trailed off, his expression saddening along with everyone elses.

"The zebras don't fight amongst themselves very often," an earth pony mare took over. "They're always too busy protecting themselves to fight eachother. But we stayed with them for almost two months, bolstering their defenses and fighting off the lions and keeping the hyenas away. I can only think that our help... gave them time to argue with eachother."

"They started yelling at eachother a lot," said a pagasus stallion. "And when the fighting started, we... must have become an unnecessary burden on their resources. They told us to leave, but we had been there for a long time, we had... unpacked, I guess is the best word for it. Putting the caravan back together takes time... time they weren't willing to give us."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would they attack you just because you wanted time to pack?"

"We weren't really in a position to ask..."

"What is going on over here!" The ponies all turned and, seeing Diamond, gave quick bows and then went back to work. As she made her way over to me I noticed that the tents in this area seemed to be the only ones not packed away yet. "Cotton, what were you doing over here?"

"I was just asking about what happened in Zabrica. Everypony kinda got distracted telling me about it..." Even she looked sad at the mention of that event.

"I see. Well I hope your curiosity was satisfied. It isn't something we like to talk about." She started walking away, probably back to her mobile home, and I followed along.

"It was, I guess. But it left me with some thoughts, and a theory that I'd like to run past you."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"You don't like living like this do you? Always on the move I mean."  She stopped walking at that, but didn't turn to look at me. After a second she started moving again, and I kept following.

"What makes you say that?"

"When they were telling me the story, they talked about how the zebras let you stay with them for a long time. They way they spoke about it, and the looks on their faces... They were describing something they wanted to have again." She stayed silent for a few seconds before letting out a small sigh.

"It's true. We did enjoy our time there. We didn't have to think about where we would go next. We didn't have to worry about running out of food before we got there. For a while... it was like we had a home."

"So why don't you try again? Maybe somewhere more... stable... than Zabrica seems to be." She scoffed at the suggestion.

"Zabrica may be the latest example, but it is by no means the first place we have been kicked out of. It only hit harder than before because we had time to get comfortable first. Our group is large, as you've no doubt noticed, and the arrival of a thousand strangers is never well recieved. But, we have been wondering for generations, and we've grown used to it."

"I can see how having a thousand ponies show up on your doorstep would be discouraging, but why are you always run out of places? Couldn't you find some sort of niche to fill? Maybe integrate into their society somehow?"

"We aren't always run out. Sometimes we aren't let in in the first place. As for integration... I suppose it would be possible, if we had any money." That through me for a loop, how could they have no money? She must have sensed my confusion somehow because she answered my question before I could ask it. "We are all one big family here, we help eachother, and as such we've never needed any currency. Whenever we need supplies, we just go out and gather them ourselves."

"Yeesh... no wonder no one wants you. Adding a thousand bodies to an economy without bringing in any money of their own would be devestating to any place that isn't filthy rich." She simply nodded at that as we approached her trailer. There were two earth ponies hitching themselves to the front of it. Once we reached the stairs into the trailer she turned to look directly at me for the first time in this conversation.

"Is that all then? It's been a long day."

"Just one more question, have you ever tried to build a home of your own? No one could kick you out that way, just pick a nice field and start building." She looked away from me, and spoke with a resigned tone of voice.

"We could never do something like that..."

"Well why not?" She let out a few rhythmic puffs of breath, like a laugh that didn't quite make it, then turned back to look me in the eye.

"Look, Cotton... I can see what you're trying to do, and it's very sweet of you. But this is our lot in life, and that's simply how it is."

"But-"

"That's enough Cotton. Why don't you go find Silver Wind, I'm sure she'd like to spend more time with you." With that final word, Diamond walked into her home and the two ponies in front pulled it away. Slowly but surely the caravan began to move, following the sun west as it set, and continuing on into the night.





We were on the run. There was a huge mob of ponies on our tails, brandishing pitchforks and torches and harsh words. But despite the throttling we were in for if they caught us... there was no fear, only laughter.

She had come to me this morning and invited me to do some pranks with her. We spent the whole day running amok throughout Ponyville, and needless to say... we did everything. Snakes in a can, water buckets over doors, super spicy lemon drops placed innocently out in the open. We even replaced a jar of Applejack's zap apple jam with a jar of liquid rainbow. The poor sap who baught it didn't even know what hit him.

As we kept running and laughing, we sent a glance at eachother, but once our eyes locked, we couldn't look away. No longer looking where we were going, it was only a matter of time before we tripped over our own hooves and went tumbling along the ground. Eventually we came to a stop, my back to the ground and her on top of me. We just kept smiling and staring into eachothers eyes. It didn't take long for me to get lost in their sparkling cerulean depths.

The mob of ponies disappeared, the sun fell from the sky, leaving the night in it's wake. The stars winked out, sucked up by the blackness of space, and the ground fell away beneath us. We were left floating, alone in the void, but we noticed none of these things.

"Cotton."

"Pinkie."

"It's time to wake up."

Huh?

"Wake up Cotton!"

*Blink*

Eyes.

"AH!" *Thwack*

"AH!" Shouted a feminine voice, followed by several gasps and the sound of shuffling hooves.

I bolted upright, taking in the scene of the wagon where I went to bed. There were several foals of varying ages backed against the walls, they looked kind of nervous. And off in one corner was a familiar pagasus, rubbing her jaw.

"Ow! Why did you hit me!"

"Why were you standing over me like that!"

"I was just trying to wake you up!" She winced while continuing to rub her jaw, "that really hurt, ya know!"

"Well, sorry, it was a reflex. What would you do if you woke up with somepony standing over you for unknown reasons?"

"I don't know," she stopped rubbing her jaw and flexed it a few times. "Geez, who knew you were so jumpy?"

"No one's ever done that to me before... Anyway, why are you all in here?" I asked, looking over the array of children in the wagon.

"I'm in charge of this group of kids while the camp is being set up, but I'm outnumbered and they always wear me out with their games! Then I thought, 'hey, I should get Cotton to come play with us!' And here we are. So come on!" She started marching to the exit, and I opened my mouth to try and protest, but she anticipated my response. "And you're not allowed to say no! You have no excuses and nothing better to do."

"Augh... Can't I at least get some breakfast first?"  





"Bye-bye everypony!" Called out Silver to all of the children now being lead away by their parents.

"Bye Silver!" They called back, "bye Cotton, thanks for playing with us!" I forced myself to put on a smile as I half heartedly waved to them.

"No problem, glad you had fun! You little demons." I mumbled. I definitely saw now why having to deal with them all alone would wear Silver out. They insisted that we actively take part in all of the games, forcing us to run around with them through several variations of tag, and a few rounds of six flags. It was sort of like capture the flag, except each team had seven flags and you only needed to capture six of them to win. That rule had something to do with not allowing an entire team to guard a single flag.

"What was that Cotton?" Asked Silver, who was suddenly a lot closer than the last time I looked.

"Nothing." Thankfully a few clouds had drifted in this morning, and were giving us a nice reprieve from the sun. I started walking away myself after that. What am I going to do with myself for the rest of the day? God I hate boredom.

"Hey Cotton, there's something I wanted to ask you."

Is it bad that I'm already used to her following me around? "And that is?" I inquired while aimlessly walking along.

"Who's 'Pinkie'?" For reasons I can't explain, that question made my heart skip a beat. Like the name was some deep dark secret I didn't want anypony to know about. 

"Where did you hear that name?" I stopped and turned to address Silver directly.

"You said it in your sleep when I was waking you up this morning."

Well that's wierd. I've never talked in my sleep before.

"So, is she your marefriend?" It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything or that would have been a spit take.

"What!? No! Nothing like that, we're just friends!" That assumption had blindsided and flustered me. "Where did you even come up with that!?"

"Well, nopony says a mare's name the way you did if there's nothing going on. Plus..." At this her mouth stretched into a satisfied grin, like she just solved the mystery in her own personal crime novel. "...You're blushing." I hadn't noticed before, but now that she mentioned it, my face felt like it was on fire.

"Sh-shut up you! There's nothing going on! Pinkie and I are just friends, really." She just giggled at that.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night..." She said in a resigned tone of voice. She turned her head away, and I felt relieved that she seemed to be dropping the subject.

I should have known better than to get my hopes up.

"So, if she's not your marefriend," she said while starting to walk ahead of me. "Then that must mean..." She turned her face towards mine and fluttered her eyes. This set me on edge, but I still wasn't prepared for what happened next as her voice took on a seductive tone. "That you're..." I felt something soft come up and lightly caress my chin, followed by my heart stopping. "Available."

Tearing my eyes away from hers, I saw that the soft something was her tail. My face heated up even more as it continued to slowly move along before the end of it poped off the end of my chin, flicking my nose in the process. I felt my heart start pumping again. Unfortunatly, it was directing blood flow to a certain spot more than anywhere else.

I could see several ponies already looking my way, and as I felt it happen, out in public, with no pants to hide it... panic immediately set in. 

I NEED TO BE AWAY!!! I screamed in my mind.

I tensed my legs, preparing to run but then, in a flash, I was back in my wagon. With a spliting headache to distract me from my imminent panic attack.

"Agh! Fuck, wha-? Ah!" Each heartbeat sent a new wave of pain crashing through my skull. How did I- Agh! I collapsed onto the sleeping mat, head still throbbing. "I can't even- ngh- think, aughhh..." I just laid there, wincing in time with my heartbeat, hoping I could fall asleep and be rid of this pain.

"Hello?"

Ow. Fuck me. I cracked an eye open to get a look at the intruder. It was a little unicorn colt with a yellow coat, dark blue mane and no mark yet.

"I saw a flash in here, was that you mister?" He asked while walking up next to me.

"Augh... Leave me alone." He didn't however, and I clenched my teeth in pain as he continued talking, but in a raised pitch.

"*gasp* You're hurting! What happened, is it bad!? Don't let it be bad!" Each syllable was like another nail to my temples as he hopped around the room to look at me from every angle.

"Ow. Please stop talking. I'll be fine."

"But you're not fine! What if you don't get fine!? You're not supposed to get hurt! I-I-I'll get somepony who can heal you!" He promtly ran out, and as relieved as I was for the kid to stop yelling in my ear, I couldn't help but grumble agitatedly all the same.

"Of course nopony's supposed to get hurt, dumbass, it just fricken happens." I tried to relax and lower my heart rate, to increase the time between the shots of pain. The kid couldn't have been gone two minutes before he came running back in, an adult unicorn trotting in behind him. She had a light brown coat and a black mane and tail, she had a cutie mark of some kind of constellation.

"What happened and where are you hurt?" She spoke quickly, almost in a panic, while looking me over for injuries. Clearly she was as concerned about my health as the kid had been.

"It's just a bad headache, and I'll be fine if you stop yelling in my ear. All I need is a little nap."

"Oh..." She trailed off, while sending an angry glance at the kid. He returned a sheepish look before quickly scampering out.

He probably made me out to be dying, judging from her paniced behavior.

"Well," she said before looking back down at me. "I can fix that while I'm here." Her horn was enveloped by a deep green aura, then she lowered it down and lightly pressed it to my temple. The pain I was almost starting to get used to began slowly receding as she kept her horn to my head. "So... what spell were you trying?" She said by way of bedside manner.

"Uh... I teleported. Accidentally, I guess. How did you know?"

"Strong migraines, in unicorns at least, are a common symptom of overtaxing one's horn. And you say that you 'accidentally' teleported? I've never heard of an adult unicorn experiencing accidental magic before, but teleportation is a complex spell and could easily overtax you if you haven't learned how to do it properly."

"So that's what this is. I've read about teleportation and was trying to learn it for a while, but my teacher never let me try it. She insisted I 'sufficiently master' an entire series of other spells first. Ha, guess I showed her, eh?"

"Hm. Maybe if you do it again without the-"

"Cotton!" Came a frantic shout a fraction of a second before a certain sky blue cannon ball barreled through the flap into the wagon and smashed head first into my nurse. They went tumbling into the wall at the front end, where they came to a rest, tangled up in eachothers limbs. "Cotton, I'm really sorry about-" She stopped suddenly when she realized that the unicorn she had tackled wasn't me. "Uh... Hi Star."

"Hi yourself," she deadpanned. "Now can you get off me? I was in the middle of something." They quickly disentangled themselves before focusing back on me. Silver hopped infront of my face, while the now named Star went back to work finishing off my already far less painful headache.

"Hey Cotton, I'm so sorry about before. I didn't know you were so shy, and that was just totally out of line." She lowered her gaze to the floor, "Besides... I should have known you were saving yourself for your marefr-"

"She's not my marefriend!" I exclaimed while bolting upright, Star's quick reflexes being the only thing allowing me to narrowly avoid impaling myself on her horn.

"Watch it!" She shouted, but I ignored her.

"How many times do I have to say it, Pinkie is not my marefriend." Star had done a good job repairing my braincase so far but she wasn't done yet, and my lightly throbbing skull kept me from shouting, even though I wanted to.

"That's what you keep sayinggg," she sang, ending it with a few giggles, and a cheshire grin that she held for a few seconds before turning serious again. "But honestly, I am sorry. So waddya say? Forgive me? I promise I won't tease you as much anymore."

"*sigh* It's fine. Just don't do that again, alright?" She grew a large smile, her eyes started sparkling, and I could swear I heard a sound like a squeeky toy going off.

"Thanks Cotton, I'm so relieved you're not mad at me. Don't you worry," she said while merely placing a hoof on my shoulder, as opposed to her usual habbit of large amounts of bodily contact. "I'll be a more considerate friend from now on."

This all seems a bit much for some teasing that went overboard. Why does she put so much stock into my opinion of her?

"Yay, we're all friends now," said Star in a mock happy tone. "Now will you please hold still so I can finish this already? You nearly stabbed yourself moving so suddenly before!"





It only took a few minutes for Star to finish up, after which Silver asked me out to lunch to celebrate the new start to our friendship. She also invited Star, then forced her to come with us when she turned the offer down. She started packing a picnic basket, the three of us idly chatting about nothing in particular while she put it together and grabbed a checkered blanket. I learned that Star's full name was Stargazer, and that she prefered to go by Star because it was shorter. 

Silver was still being flirty, but so far was staying true to her word and hadn't done anything physical. But I was still wary, especially now that there were two of them. The wariness only increased when Silver wanted to have the picnic outside of the camp in an open field. Away from witnesses, being my first assumption. I argued that it would be more comfortable to stay under one of the tents, there being only a scant few clouds in the sky between us and the oppressive fireball. She replied only that there was nothing for me to worry about.

By the time we arrived at a nice location the sun had long since come out from behind the clouds, much to my annoyance. Given that my hate of heat had already been made known, I didn't voice my complaints as we set up the picnic. I was pleasantly surprised however when the sun suddenly went away. I looked up, pessimistically expecting only a small cloud that would move out of the suns way in a matter of seconds, but what I saw was Silver. She had just set a cloud overtop of our blanket, now being held in place by the weather controlling power that she, being a pagasus, possessed.

After that, everything was pretty normal. We had lunch, we talked... Well, more like they talked, and occasionally asked me something that I would answer in as few words as possible. It's just how I'd always been. I don't like to talk, I just listen. That's why it became my 'special talent' when I got here.

But then something started to happen. I didn't even notice at first, but I was starting to open up to them. As more and more time went by, I began talking more often. Explaining things in greater detail, I even started talking without being asked a question.

We started telling stories about ourselves, about interesting things we'd seen or done. They shared stories from their travels, about the many lands they'd been to and the creatures they'd encountered. I told them little stories about some of the non-lethal lab accidents I'd seen or been a part of, and of my time in Ponyville.

And then I noticed something else. As the minutes turned into hours, I realized I was enjoying myself. I was talking with them, openly, and I liked it.

That realization struck me like a brick. And I recoiled from it.

"-So then I said, 'now make like a tree, and leaf!', hahaha!" Said Silver, just finishing the story of how she faught off a pack of timberwolves all by herself without getting a scratch. Embellishments abound, to be sure, but it was entertaining. "So how about you Cotton, have you ever seen timberwolves before?"

"Yeah, I saw some once," I said while standing up. "But I think I'm gunna go now, I want to get in some teleportation practice before we start taking down the camp."

"Oh, that's cool. Let me pack this up real quick and we can join you." Silver and Star got off the blanket, and then Silver unceremoniously stuffed it into the now empty basket. "Let's go!" She said with a big smile.

"Actually, I'd rather be alone, if that's alright with you." Their ears perked up in surprise, and they looked at eachother briefly before turning back to me.

"Come on, can't we watch? Please?" Silver was giving me the puppy eyes.

"You really should let us come with you," said Star, without any sort of begging in her voice. "You do remember what happened last time right? What if it happens again, are you just going to curl up in the dirt until somepony comes looking for you?"

That kind of defeats the purpose of being alone, but she has a point... "Do you think you could teach me that spell of yours? That way I could fix myself up when I need to."

"W-well... I'm not really a teacher, and few unicorns have an affinity for healing magic..."

"Oh, I know!" Interupted Silver, "you could ask Lady Sigil to teach you, she knows all kinds of magic. She even teaches many of the children who want to learn more advanced spells."

"No, that's alright. I'm sure she's busy anyway, I'll just work on something else for a while then. Maybe I can get my illusion spell to finally work or something..."

"Nonsense!" Silver said before putting her wing through the handle of the basket and folding it shut. She then trotted to my side, carrying the basket like some kind of shoulder bag. "Diamond is very good at managing her time, I'm sure she'll be willing to find time for you."

"Besides," said Star, walking up to my other side, "after those stories you told us about Ponyville, and your studies with Twilight... You can't deny that you'd love the opportunity to learn more magic."

*sigh* I knew they'd gang up on me sooner or later. At least it's over something I know how to handle, and not... physical stuff.

I didn't struggle as they dragged me back into camp and towards Diamond's mobile home. I was preoccupied, thinking about what new magic I could learn... and the way I had been enjoying their company. I was getting attached to these ponies... and I didn't know if I wanted to let it happen.