//------------------------------// // The Long Road and Thoughts Of The Past // Story: In Search Of His Wings 2.0 // by Hearnishere123 //------------------------------// It would take Slash a full day to walk down the mountain road which clung to the rock face. With a glance he noticed the Sun was setting, which meant the trek down would become a bit trickier under the night sky. However, he didn't want to wait another day to set forth on his journey. Knowing that him worrying about it now would lead to nothing, he began thinking about this road in which his journey would truly begin from. A smirk formed on his face as he remembered the history of how the road came to be. The road had been carved out sometime over nine centuries ago by earth-ponies and unicorns so they could reach Canterlot safely. There were safer ways to reach Canterlot, however, the unicorns would never belittle themselves so far to think of asking the pegasi for help. While the earth-ponies, who didn’t really hold much hate for the other races from olden days, simply preferred to keep their hooves on the ground where they felt they were in control of their surroundings. These facts ruled out all air travel, which only left a three day hike through the treacherous landscape of the mountain to reach Canterlot. It was like this for almost a decade, until the unicorns had an idea of clearing a path out of the mountain for faster and safer travel. However, when they tried to make such a path, it only lead to a few landslides. Hurt, beaten and ready to give up, a few earth-ponies approached them with an offer to help build the road on the condition it was free to use by all who wish to travel it. Of course the unicorns were reluctant at first, not wanting to appear as desperate as they truly were. In the end, they agreed and slowly began to clear the land away with direction by the earth-ponies warning them on which piece of rock would cause a landslide. The path took nearly a year to finish, but once finished the Princess offered them a few deeds to some Canterlot land to make their homes. ‘Mother once told me she was so happy to see the unicorns finally taking help from the other races and the deeds were her way of hoping they would keep working together to help build a better bond between the races.’ With the thoughts of the road’s past leaving his mind, he slowly began to realize that the hours had seemed to pass him by. The moon hung high in the starry night sky, while he was nearly to the base of the mountain and the road’s end. Shaking his head slightly, while letting out a low laugh, ‘Mother did warn me about spacing out like I normally do. Guess I should have listened to her.’ A small rumble from his belly interrupted his internal thoughts. Sighing, he stopped moving for a moment as he reached into his large saddle bag, pulling out a nice sized crystal. ‘Behave yourself now, I don’t need to get lost in the history of the crystal caverns and how my egg was found there, at least for now.’ He slowly began to crunch the crystal, enjoying the taste. After that his stomach returned to being calm. As he continued down the road, he could already see the small inn that many a pony would spend the night at before heading up to Canterlot in the morning. He had heard of it from the travelers who always came to seek his mother’s audience. Shrugging off the thought and memory of how Faust dam boring those could be, he simply dragged forward, not wanting to stop for rest for the night just yet. Slash simply passed the inn with little care for it, heading for the three way fork in the road. The left one would take him to Baltimare, which the journey to would take weeks to reach it with nothing much to really look at. The middle road led to the small town of Ponyvile, which was the nearest town to Canterlot, but not much else to the town. Finally, the right road led under Cloudsdale, through wonderful landscapes just to reach Vanhoover. Needless to say he had chosen the right road, even if it took a week longer to get to than Baltimare. Slash kept treading along for what he could only assume was an hour or so. Soon enough his body started to complain, wanting to rest, maybe even sleep. 'I guess I have walked enough for now,’ he thought as he came to a stop. Looking to the sides of the road, he spotted a nice small clearing he could sleep in. ‘Better than nothing, though a bed would be nice,’ he shook his head a bit. ‘No, no, no. I have to grow used to this. Sure the only time I have ever gone camping was when in the castle gardens when I was ten, but I still ended up running through the castle to sleep in my bed.’ A small laugh escaped his lips from the memory, ‘Get it together Slash! You acted so happy about setting out on this journey to discover yourself. Don’t start regretting it over a stupid bed, are you a wimpy noble pony or are you a brave royal dragon?’ The bushes began to rustle which made him flinch before he saw it was simply a raccoon. A moment passed and he deadpanned as hard as he could, ‘Well it is official; the dragon raised by Celestia herself is nothing more than a wimpy noble with his hooves barely muddy.’ Sighing he walked over to the clearing and lowered himself, resting his head on his claws. ‘No wonder mother thought it was a good idea to let me leave on this journey. I mean I can hold my own in one-on-one combat with the knights but I complain when I have to sleep on the ground and flinch when I am caught completely off guard by a small woodland creature. Dam I am pitiful.’ With his eyelids slowly growing heavier, ‘Note to self, grow a spine.’ With that he closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.. -=-=- The Sun was a quarter of the way in the sky before the Slash began to stir. Wanting to simply stay asleep for bit longer, sadly this would not happen as his mind rushed back to him. His eyes shot open remembering he was lying on the side of the road and not in his comfy bed back in the castle. Of course opening his eyes so fast let the rays of light flood in. “Crap, that stings!” he yelled as he shut out the light from his eyes. ‘That was stupid of me.,’ he groaned. Slowly, but steadily, he stood up and reopen his eyes carefully. Stretching just a bit to wake his muscles, ‘Damn, my body is so stiff. Well night one of many to come has ended. I do hope my body gets used to this by the end of the week.’ His eyes began to scan the road before glancing at the Sun the best he could. ‘It seems to be near noon, guessing from the near high hanging Sun.’ sighing he reached into his bag and pulled out a crystal about half the size of the one he munched last night. Eating it before his stomach could bug him about it, he could feel slated enough to keep moving. Taking a step forward he felt his tail pull him back nearly tripping him. With a glance back he saw his bladed tail tip was impaled in a tree behind him. “Buck… I forgot to put the sheath over it when I left the castle.” Taking a few steps back and turning around to grab his tail with his left fore-claw. Pulling on it a few times before it came loose, as he let go of it. Sitting back on his hind legs, he pulled his large saddle bag off and began to dig in it for his sheath. After a few moments, he pulled it out of his bags and placed it over his bladed tail before latching the strap that held it in place. ‘I need to get my A game on. Making simple mistakes like this was foalish of me.’ Sighing at his self-scolding of himself, before throwing the saddle bag back on and started walking down the path knowing he had time to make up for oversleeping. -=-=- Time seemed to pass as quick as the landscape did. He had not attended to sprint down the road like he had, but it did feel quite nice to feel the wind blow through his short orange mane that ran down his spine and stopped three-fourths the way down his tail. Celestia told him that from all the dragons she had ever seen, there never any with a mane instead of spines or scales running down their spines. Slash soon focused his thoughts on the as he saw a speck in the distance, ‘I wonder if it is somepony coming or going to see mother.’ Slowing his run down to a light jog for the next few minutes, he noticed the speck did grow larger, however, not as large as it would be if it was heading toward him. ‘Well that answers that he is going, though he could have just passed through Ponyville or something,’ Those thoughts were soon pushed aside as unimportant, like most of his thoughts. Nearly half an hour passed by, before he seemed to be slowly catching up with what he could see was a wagon. As he approached, he noticed a little filly sticking its head out a side window in the wagon. Once the filly’s eyes caught glimpse of Slash, he could hear a shout and the wagon came to a stop. Slash sighed, ‘Please don’t be the type of pony that hates dragons and or does not know about me via the rumors that are sure to have spread from when mother took me in as her son.’ He hoped as he finally caught up to it as a large stallion walked to the side of the wagon to look at what his foal was yelling about. The stallion was tall but bulked earth-pony, had a light blue coat, nearly cyan but not quite. His mane was grey maybe silver and was spiked out a bit like he had not combed it since he was born. A small true blue cloak covered much of his body. None of that mattered as much as his greenish eyes, which were glaring at Slash with a fiery anger. Which caused him to come to a dead stop as the stallion spoke “Come any closer and you will regret it beast.” The tone was stern but there was an underlying quiver in it. Over the years of being forced to watch his mother deal with the nobles, he had learned to pick up on bluffs and lies. ‘Don’t do anything foalish Slash, he has not noticed your attire but it is clear he is not looking for a fight,’ Relaxing a bit Slash lowered his head to show he meant no harm. “Please do not fear me, for I mean you no harm. I admit the sight of me galloping toward you would seem frightening. However, I am simply traveling along the path same as you. My name is Sir Slash Raptor, a drake simply on a pilgrimage of self-discovery.” Slash knew he wasn’t on a ‘simple’ pilgrimage nor was he a simple drake, but the more he can ease the colts concern, the better. The stallions left eyebrow lifted a bit as he began looking over Slash. Still unsure about the dragon, he could tell this ‘Slash’ did not mean him any harm, at the moment. “I am not convinced, but I should at least introduce myself in return. My name is Brave Boulder, and my little one inside is Summer-Blossom Boulder. Now with that out of the way, would you be kind enough to explain what a dragon is doing in Equestria?” Brave asked with little to no hint of fear in his voice now. Though like the others in Canterlot, there was fear in the back of his eyes. Nonetheless, it was a warmish greetings, which put a smile on Slash’s face as he raised it slowly. “I was hatched here in Equestria; it is my home as much as yours. Now about me being on the road, well my mother, um,” pausing to consider his words carefully, “The one who hatched and raised me thought I should travel so I can grow more as a dragon.” Slash stated with the least amount of details he could. If this pony did not know that he was hatched by Celestia herself, then this could go off less formal and more ‘normal’. Though he had to admit that when a pony talks to a dragon it could never really be normal. Brave gently nodded at Slashes words as he processed them. Without warning his eyes shot open for a few seconds before returning to a more normal shape. With a few glances at Slash’s attire, he realized his thoughts were right, “I am guessing you were born in Canterlot?” At those words, Slash’s hopes were dashed and he lowered his head before nodding. “Yes sir, I was born there,” softly biting his bottom lip. That caught Brave’s eye, which made him realize the dragon might have left that out thinking Brave had not heard the rumors. “I, eh, let us forget I mentioned Canterlot. I can tell now that you are harmless, well as harmless as a dragon can be.” Perking up a bit, Slash looked Brave in the eyes once more, “Thank you sir, that would be nice, though I guess you know who I am.” Sighing softly, “I had kind of hoped you didn’t know. May I request not to be treated in any formal manner?” Brave let out a might laugh, “And yet your attire seems to state otherwise.” “I only have the symbol embedded as a reminder of… mother. Though you do have a point, however, without knowing who I am, somepony would just think I am protected by her,” Slash stated, though knowing it was a flimsy counter point. Turning his head to go back to get in the wagons harness, “I can somewhat see what you are saying.” Pausing for a second, “Can we walk and talk? I don’t mean to be rude, but I would like to gain some more ground before evening.” Slash had to agree with Brave on that point. Nodding slightly he began to walk alongside the wagon to the front as Brave was slipping into the harness. Soon the wagon began to move and they slowly got into a nice pace before picking the conversation back up. Brave started before Slash could, “So how far are you heading?” “Well first stop for me is Vanhoover, then all of Equestria!” Slash proclaimed with a big goofy grin, which showed off his sharp fangs without him noticing. Brave was taken aback by his goals, “By your grin I can tell you are not joking. Then I guess the question becomes, why Vanhoover first?” Those words caught Slash by surprise, “The view along the way of course. Passing under beautiful Couldsdale, through a few lovely valleys, and the city is said to be breathtaking from the hilltop before entering the city. I consider it a perfect trek to start my journey!” he exclaimed at the end. Letting out a heavy toned bit of laughter, “You might be right about the view, however, it is all hill country, with at least two paths over mountains. This is the smoothest part of the trek there. Slash, you have chosen the longest and roughest road in all of Equestria as the beginning to your journey. I would almost feel sorry for you if I wasn’t doing the same.” This just struck Slash as hard as his combat instructed did when he first met him. He had never thought the terrain would be so rough. In all the books he read, never once did they ever mention anything other than the beauty of this road. “Please tell me you are kidding. For I have never read that in any of the books I have read.” Brave smirked, “Did you know most books about Equestria are written by Pegasi?” His jaw dropped at the realization, had those books really written by pegasi, and then of course they would leave out how tough the trek was due to them simply flying. “If what you said it true, then I am in for a painful trek, am I not?” Doing his best to keep his smirk from forming into a goofy grin, “Unless you read ‘An Earth-Ponies Guide Across Equestria’, you have never read a travel book by a Unicorn or a earth-pony. Which means you have no idea what the terrain of Equestria really is like.” Brave’s words stabbed Slash hard, causing worry to creep in about the other paths he had chosen for his journey. “I am sure it can’t be as worse as the three day trek that ponies had to take to get up to Canterlot before the path was carved.” “I assume you have never walked that path before,” Brave inquired in a serious tone. “No I have not, but ponies broke limbs on that path, so how bad can a made road be?” Slash said with a fearful hope. Nodding to that point, “True, but the point I was trying to make is. Are you prepared for this trek or do you only think you are?” “Maybe not the roughness of the road, but I am set to travel across Equestria. If I end up not being prepared, then I deserve whatever happens,” he explained in a regretful tone. Once again that had made Brave take another thought about Slash. “Well at least you now know how hard it is going to be,” he was interrupted by a few giggles from behind him. Not needing to look back to tell who it was, “Summer, since you no longer seem afraid, why don’t you introduce yourself,” in a almost happy tone of voice. Slash had his head turned looking back at the small filly. When she noticed he was looking at her she let out a soft ‘eep’ before ducking back into the wagon. A smile slipped to his face from her cuteness, though she might just be normal, but he couldn’t tell since he had rarely seen little fillies. ”She seems to still be a bit scared of me. Anyway, I must say, you seemed to become friendly to me a bit too fast to be normal. May I ask why that is?” “Simple, I realized who raised you. Knowing that one fact alone tells me you would never hurt anypony on purpose. Though I still don’t fully trust you, I have faith that Princess Celestia raised you right,” Brave stated as straight as he could to Slash. He had feared that was the reason. Basically he had been given fake friendliness from the fact his mother was ruler of Equestria and would never raise a being that could ever harm her little ponies. “I rather you did not realize who I was, to be honest.” “You know if I didn’t realize who you were back there, we would still be having our standoff no matter your attire. I can understand not wanting to deal with being treated formally, but when you are on the road time means everything.” Brave stated the last part as though it was an unwritten rule. He had a point even if Slash didn’t really want to accept it, “I will try to remember that. Thanks Brave.” “You’re welcome.” looking at the sky, he saw the sun was hanging low, “How about we pick up the pace before it gets dark?” Brave asked hoping to make up even more ground. Slash just nodded and kept pace with Brave as he sped up. Sure he had just met this pony, but Brave seemed to be a seasoned traveler. Which meant it would be wise to listen to and learn a bit from him. Besides, Slash would most likely stop at the Cloudsdale outpost that lies on the ground below it for a while. There they would say good bye to each-other, until then he should enjoy having somepony to talk to. -=-=- The next few hours seemed to pass slower than Slash would have liked. Mainly due to the fact that he could not enjoy the surrounding landscape like he wanted to. However as the sun began to touch the horizon, he noticed Brave begin to slow, “Are we just slowing down or do you want to stop soon?” It took a while, as though Brave was thinking about it. “I will be stopping and pulling off to the side in that clearing ahead. You can do as you please, though I won’t force you to stay or go. Besides, we barely know each-other, so I don’t really have a strong position on the matter since you appear harmless.” His tone was flat but firm. From all Slash could tell he was not insulting him. Though Slash would admit that he wasn’t always right when listening to a pony’s voice. He was better with reading eyes, “If you do not feel that I am imposing, I would gladly camp with you and your daughter for the night. To be honest, I am in no real hurry to get to Vanhoover.” “Well I guess that is fine with me.” Slowly pulling off the road before stopping, “May I ask why you are not in any hurry?” Brave said as he slipped out of the harness and slowly turned, jumping onto the front seat of the wagon, about ready to go in and check on Summer. Slash kept moving a bit farther to the side of the wagon for room to lie down. “I am 30 years old; I have at least one thousand years, if not two, more to live. Mother told me the Elder dragon diplomats never talk about their age. So she honestly doesn’t know how long I will live,” he turned around before sitting on his hind-legs then lowering himself onto the ground. “I figure at my slowest pace and not counting in if or when I gain my wings. It rounds to 40 years easy, without counting for any and all side tracking I may end up doing.” The life span of dragons struck Brave hard with envy, and yet sadness. He realized that no matter how many friends Slash made, they will all die leaving him behind. Sure he would always have Princess Celestia, but that made it sadder. He could tell Slash treated her as if she was the one who had laid him. If Celestia felt even half that about him, then as a parent, she must have had a few nights fearing that she might outlive her own son. He was broken from his thoughts by a small hoof poking his side. Turning he saw Summer poking her head out from the fabric covered door, while her hoof was resting against his side. “Daddy, you okay?” she said with her quite usual voice. “I am fine sweetie, how about we go inside and I will make us dinner?” he asked hoping to hide his pity for Slash. Summer stepped back to allow him inside where he began to make a small dinner for the both of them. Outside, Slash was already chowing down on a small red crystal, one of his favorite tasting, though real gems tested sweeter. Once the crystal had settled in his stomach, his mind started to kick back into full gear. Though it was not about how rough the roads he had chosen for his journey would be. Neither the fact that Brave was not truly being friendly, but just showing a bit of kindness due to Slash’s mother being Princess Celestia. No, his thoughts were focused on how he should make his first impression at Cloudsdale Outpost. Should he walk out of the forest alongside Brave, or should he let Brave go on without him so Slash would not get him or Summer mixed up with any bad reactions towards him. If one thing could be said about pegasi, it was that if there was nothing blocking the view, they could see for great distances. Slash would instantly be spotted once he left the forest. Before he could think much longer on the topic, Brave slowly walked out of his wagon. Sitting on his back hind-legs, Brave just stared at Slash. This, to say the least, un-nerved Slash, for there was something in his eyes that he had never seen in the eyes of any of those in Canterlot. Their staring lasted for a bit before Brave finally spoke, “You know you are asking to be hurt. Setting out on a journey to see Equestria and meet many ponies along the way. I can tell you are smart enough to know what will come from this, am I wrong?” the words traveled along a tone of sadness. Slash simply rolled his eyes before looking at the now raising moon, “You are not wrong; however, that is the whole point of my journey. One cannot grow from peaceful, uneventful meetings. Only through butting heads, finding differences, and trying new things, can one truly grow as a pony or in my case a dragon.” Lowering his gaze back down to Brave, “I am sure that you went through this in some form or another when you were just a young foal. However, this journey is my foalhood. Being a dragon simply means that my foalhood lasts longer than a ponies, and must be a far more difficult experience.” A soft sigh escaped his lips, “I have worries about how bad things could and most likely will turn out. But my worries will only hold me back.” Those words shocked Brave slightly, from not expecting such a thought out reply. “At least you understand what awaits you. While I wish for it never to happen, I know better otherwise. I have seen my fair share of pain through my life. No pony can ever be truly prepared for pain and sorrow.” Brave paused and turned his head to look at the cloth covering the wagon’s doorway. “We should reach the edge of the forest by high noon and reach the Cloudsdale Outpost nearly an hour later. Sorry for bothering you. Good night Slash," he said in a soft tone before heading back into the wagon. "Night..." Slash could not understand why Brave would say those things. 'It is not like he could care about what happens to me. I mean we met little over seven hours ago give or take.' His thoughts lingered for a while longer before pushing them to the side and laying his head down onto his claws. Soon sleep found him with little to not resistances.