After they had finished laughing, the debate continued.
“There’s got to be more like us.” Rachael said “Do you really think we’re the only ones going through this?”
I stared at her “No I don’t; but we wouldn’t even know where to start, we could end up getting lost, or worse we could get
spotted.”
“But Tavi, they’re all alone and scared.” pouted Rachael
Jed looked at Rachael for a moment then glared at me.
“What?” I said, swallowing a bite of salad.
“You know darn well what! You remember what momma taught us bout’ helping those in need?” she said
“Fiddlesticks, how can we help them?” I asked, pausing for a moment, realizing that I instinctively called Jed fiddlesticks, before continuing “We had to re-learn how to walk this morning. I don’t think we’re in any state to be able to provide assisstance."
“That’s fine.” said Jed matter-of-factly “I can help more people than you could anyway”.
Oh really? I found my eyebrow raised into the most challenging stare I could.
“You’re on!” I said and trotted out of the kitchen.
I heard Jed whisper something almost inaudible to Rachael, and she grinned.
It sounded something like “She’s so easy to manipulate”
ooOOoo
After breakfast Rachel went to her room to set up her DJ equipment, and Jed was fiddling-around with her violin in the living room. We were going to wait a couple of days before leaving so that we could adjust to our new equine forms. I decided to try and run laps outside to figure out how to run. If we were ever spotted, we would need it.
After tripping on a rock for a third time gave up and walked inside.
I went to check on Rachael, to see how she was handling the transformation. I thought she might just be putting on a brave face. I knew I’d have to sneak up on her to get the truth. Not an easy feat with hooves, no matter how lightly I stepped it was never completely silent.
I was just outside her door. I put my ear to it, but didn’t hear anything. I used my mouth to slowly turn the doorknob. It tasted like copper. Pulling the door back ever so lightly, I looked inside expecting to see anything from Rachael crying into her pillow to finding a note saying that she’d run away, I certainly wasn’t expecting this. She was posing in the mirror like a little girl with a new dress. She was currently attempting to mimic a very old, but popular fan-video. She was on her hind legs and had a large speaker on wheels in front of her. I felt a slight tickle in my nose, rising.
“Alright everypony take a seat, I got this.” She stated to the room
You win this round sneeze. “Achoo!”
Rachael immediately turned around and stared at me for a few seconds, a grin slowly spreading larger every second. I swear that grin gets wider every time I see it.
“Hey Octavia, you’ve gotta try this, it’s awesome.” She said gesturing to the mirror.
“I think I’ll pass” I said
“Tavi!” Her face became serious “You’ve been given a wonderful gift. You’re a pony now. There are bronies everywhere, wishing they could be you right now. You owe it to them to live their dream.”
I knew she wasn’t going to drop it so I stood in front of the mirror, thinking. I went with what was the most common screenshot of Octavia from the show. I stood on my hind legs with my eyes half lidded, a dignified frown on my face and cello in hoof.
ooOOoo
This went on for almost an hour. I’ll admit I was having more fun than I’d had in a long time. Unfortunately a crack of thunder brought us back into the real world. We went down stairs to check on Jed, since she hated thunder more than anything else. She was standing in the living room looking out the window with a grim expression on her face.
“Nature thinks this is the best it can do” Jed turned around “but this farm house has stood for generations. Through all kinds of weather”
The storm raged on outside for hours and well into the evening, it wasn’t far from being a full blown hurricane. The wind howled and the rain was pouring down from the clouds above. Eventually the rain turned into hail, and sounded like machine gun fire as it rattled against the tin roof. Thunder and lightning bringing the shadows into sharp relief. One crash of thunder was particularly loud. My ears were ringing and I smelled smoke! Something was burning! Then I noticed the orange glow from the stairwell.
“FIRE! FIRE!” screamed Rachael.
My body went into autopilot. I strapped the large instrument to my back and ran for the door, with Jed and Rachael in hot pursuit. The front door was closed and the fire was advancing on us. There wouldn’t be enough time to open it with my mouth so I used my hind legs to buck the front door down. We all ran inside the old barn across the field.
Everyone looked back at the house. The second floor was completely ablaze, the glass from the shattered windows littering the immediate area and the fire was slowly consuming the bottom floor. The hail was battering the ever weakening structure. There was a loud crack and the entire house collapsed on itself, crumbling like burnt toast. The only thing still standing was the chimney.
For a long time everyone was silent. There was only the sound of the storm outside. We were all tired but we were too scared to sleep. The storm raged on for another twenty minutes before it eventually died down. Perhaps now that the dangerous storm was over, we might get some shut eye.
ooOOoo
. I had to find her. She sent me away to protect me. Sacrificing herself would only buy me time and I wanted to spend my last minutes in Equestria with her whether she wanted it or not.
She was at the night club trying desperately to fend off the draqonequus before her. He was merely toying with her. That traitor, he would pay for his crimes once the princesses found out.
I ran up to her only to draw the attention of the deity she was fighting.
“Tavi, I told you to run!” screamed Vinyl, being backed into a wall.
“How precious!” said Discord “what a pity to break up such good friends”
I dashed over and hugged her with all my might.
Then there was a white flash and everything went dark...