//------------------------------// // One Step At A Time // Story: Touching Rainbows // by dontexistanymoresorry //------------------------------//         One step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time.         “I’m getting pretty good at this.” Twilight says to herself.         Twilight walks down the road. Gravel and dirt shifting and crunching beneath her feet. Her arms where swaying by her side, her walk became more fluid, as a result more strut like. Her fur is a greasy mess, littered with dirt and little pieces of rock. Her tail is just as dirty as the rest of her. Her eyes where half closed and passively observing the surrounding woodland.         The forest wasn’t too dense, you could clearly see far into it, the cold rays of sunlight still echoed through the old worn branches of the forest. The white bark radiated with the suns beams and illuminated the surface of the earth with fabulous tint and pigment. Twilight however, had little appreciation for its glorious splendor, she was exhausted. Every step was a chore.         She had walked so far, and no Portland was to be found. A while before, she came across a fork in the road and took the one to the right. There was no sign saying which road led where. Since then she’s been walking. It’s too late to turn around. Not a single sign has been seen since. The condition of the road has dropped dramatically, no longer was it polished and uniform. Now the edges of the road were torn, and lost its solid grey tone to a paler shade. The road had more holes, and slowly got worse the farther she travelled.         Walking, walking, walking.         Yup, I sure can walk alright… Twilight thought to herself in attempt to battle the defeated feeling she has.         Her breath is slow, and consistently so. With each painful exhale misty breathe exits her mouth like a gentle wave in the air. She looks upward. The sun is setting, casting reds and oranges across the sky, making a beautiful splash of colour across the dying sky. The clouds had begun to gather more as well, not many, but a few as opposed to the perfect sky before. Twilight paid no attention to this, her state was beyond unreachable, her mind was focusing on movement and efficiency. Her stomach roared and begged for food.                  Walking, walking.         The sun set more, and stars began to show their face on the theatre of night.         Food… water… sleep… any of those would be fantastic right about now… where is everybody… are they all dead? No, the road before was well kept and updated… how did I get so lost… where did I mess up… Celestia help me…                  Her thoughts seemed to echo through the forest and bounce back to her as she walked. It’s maddening, nothing moved, nothing changed, just the sky. Just the untouchable, and more or less irrelevant sky. The concrete of the road ended abruptly, and the rest of the road was dirt and light gravel. The builders must have given up after a while… oh no… does this road go anywhere? Of course it does… but to where?!         Twilights thoughts didn’t echo this time. They simply died. This was more maddening than the echo. It was lonely… dark and cold… afraid and concerned… frightful and nervous…         The road continued onward. The sky darkened further, no longer did the sun pepper the sky with gorgeous colours and hues, rather it left entirely. Simply night was left to the sky. Stars and clouds filled the sky with depth and art. And moonlight shone through the forest, filling it with nocturnal blue light, blasting serenity throughout the woods.           I… need… food… water… anything…         She kept walking. For however long she could. Time flew like a baseball. Fast and quick, but it felt like an eternity to watch it fly. The world around her was dark. Nothing moved. Nothing has. Only purple life inhabits the forest. Twilight keeps moving.         Walking.         Twilights strut dies, her motion becomes dead and laboring. Dragging her feet along with her, knees buckling every so often.         The sky's a dark blue, and the moon a peaceful white. Twilight looks up at it, as if it's the last night she'll ever see.         When she looks down...         Deep in the forest...         A orange light glows dimly.         Twilight gasps in joy with the energy remaining. She tries to speed up by straightening her stance.         Jeez, I wish I had saved my run for this... She tries to jog, but to little avail. Still moving, still walking, still going.         The orange light grew much closer, and Twilight can see what it belongs to. It's a cabin, small, probably only one room, but there's light.         Twilight forces herself to run, pulling her feet light weights across the earth. The cabin is getting closer, the light is shining brighter, and the silhouette of the building is clear. Twilights breath becomes heavy and dry, as her throat loses all moisture.         Still moving.         Still moving.         Still...                  Moving...         Still...         She looks up. She's face first in the dirt and gravel. Bleeding from the lip and nose, her knees and hands scratched.         She tries to stand, but her knees won't allow it. Her hands and arms are too sore to move.         Her head falls back to the earth, dirt soaking up her blood adding colour to the brown, gray dust.         She looks up again, she's so close... the cabin looks like a 5 minute walk away. She tries to roll over, everything is scratched and sore. She looks to the cabin and tries to teleport there. But as her horn glows, her pain triples.         “Ahh!” She cries out in pain, but manages to flip over. She looks at the cabin. Takes a deep breath and yells out.         “Hey! Please! Help!” She takes another breath and goes to yell again, but only a scream exits her.         She blinks. Rather deliberately. Another light appears. A larger one, that reaches the earth, with a figure in the center of its aura. Twilight tries to raise a hand, as soon as it reaches its maximum height it collapses back to earth. The figure in the light jerks forward suddenly, and starts to run towards her. Twilights eyes close. And the world goes dark again.                    “uhh...” Twilights eyes flicker open, which she quickly closes as orange light burns her eyes. Slowly she opens her eyes again, and she looks around.         She's inside the cabin, which looks slightly larger on the inside. It's walls are logs and where clearly laced with some form of finisher to prevent any decay. They were a deep brown, glistening lightly in the orange light. Where the cleavage of the logs met so did dust and rubble, not too consistent but dense.         Twilights eyes flicker again. Her breath is shallow and her throat stings with each intake of air.         She coughs, causing her whole body to shake. She looks to her left, there's a night stand with a lantern on it, the little glass door on it is open. On the night stand a little pad and pencil lay gathering dust. The pad had musical notes and lyrics scribbled all over it, almost illegible. She looked up at the rest of the cabin.                  A door way, not too far ahead, allowed for a little table and a wooden armchair with some crude pillows to be seen. A fire place could be seen as well. The doorway was maybe 4 feet away, and the room ahead must have been at least 4 times as large as this room, which isn't too big.         The figure walked past the doorway, his silhouette blackened by the fire behind him. Twilight turned over again. There was something she didn't notice before. There was a window,  with some minor frost lining it. It was dark out, not as much moonlight as before, practically none. The ground is littered with more snow and glistens in the remaining light. The road is so far away, it looks almost calm in the remaining light.          She turns back over.  The character she saw before, is standing a little outside the doorway, leaning against it. Twilight is too exhausted to say anything.         “You're awake I see!” The figure says happily. It's a male voice, deep, and toned.         Twilight says nothing in response.         “Well uh... hate to sound rude but, what exactly are you? I don't think I've ever seen anything like you before, just a little curious is all.” He says it plainly, but happily to, making it sound like he is indeed genuinely curious.         Twilight says nothing, though she'd like to, if she had the energy to. Her foolish running had finally caught up with her, and it caught up fast and hard.         “OH, THAT'S RIGHT! You need food! Stupid, I should have thought of that immediately...” He says as he turns back around walking out of sight behind the doorway. “I apologize, you see, I'm not really used to guests around here. I've been living out here in the woods, on my own, for about... 3 months now? Made myself a cabin over time, slept here, made it comfortable. The people who HAVE seen it are shocked none of it's bought! Imagine that!” Now that he's had a chance to speak more, his accent comes out. It's British, not extremely heavy, but awfully present. Plenty of key words he says he accents, and adds a dip in the pitch, like a trumpet. He continues to talk, as pots and pans clank around out of sight. “You see, I'm a musician of sorts, I write acoustic songs, using my guitar and laptop. I lied a bit before, I do actually have some things bought, like my laptop, guitar, a little generator, satellite cell phone, pots and pans, and gasoline, for my car. I mean, I'm not going to live here alone with zero connection to the outside world now, am I?” More clangs emit from behind the wall. “Oh, by the way, you seem to be clever, of sorts that is, not to any offense, I've only just met that is, but uh... I'm guessing you have no idea who I might be? I mean, you're not really wearing any clothes now are you! But ehmm.... Well, if you have come in contact with a handy little device like a cell phone then I'm sure you've heard of Instagram? I'll assume not, allow me to explain. It's a little teenage phenominon where you can take a picture, and upload it as if you were updating your personal life! Fancy, right? And well, you see, I decided to put a project call 'Project Castaway' where I live out in the woods and do my thing, but in doing so, I end up challenging people to go out and do the same! So far it's really worked to! People are listening to my music, and my songs act like a journal of sorts for my life here. Well I'm boring you, I'll be right over, just finishing up here. I hope you like rabbit!” Those last words echoed in Twilights ear.         Rabbit.... rabbit... rabbit... o dear...         In Twilights head, Fluttershy appeared, crying as she watched Twilight eat Angel.         “AHH” Twilight yelled.         “AHHH?” the man yelled in response, “What's the matter? Don't like rabbit? Or something in the bed?”         “Is that?! MEAT!?” yells Twilight in horror.         “Yea? What’s the matter? Little protein never hurt anyone! Well, except the little rabbit of course!”         “Not helping!” Twilight yells at him.         “Well calm down anyhoo it’s not as if food like this grows on trees!” the character says as he walks over to the bed and places the plate on Twilights lap. Twilights mouth is tight shut, and her eyes glare down at the food with disgust and curiosity. The character walk back out quietly mumbling to himself, he returns quickly with a bright candle and places it right on the night stand. His figure is finally illuminated. His face is thin and gaunt, his nose long and his mouth thin. His hair is shaggy and black, his eyes a vibrant green, and his body thin and an average height. He looks at Twilight concernedly and opens his mouth.         “Well, that’s dinner, and that’s what we got so go on and nosh down on it.” He looks at the food and back to Twilight. Twilight looks at him defeatedly, like the sparks out of her eyes. “Oh what’s the matter now? Fire in your heart run out?” she still looks at him the same way, but this time takes a breath in and starts to speak. Little tears growing in her eyes.         “You look nothing like me...”         “O dear… Well I would ask the same thing… you see, uhmm… I don’t really know what you eh… are either. Well, I’m a human… and you appear to possess some almost equine traits. I’m not quite sure how else to put it… Uhm… well, perhaps you’re some government experiment? I’m not too sure…”         “I’m not some experiment!” Twilight says angrily, the man takes one step back. “I’m a girl! And, and… and this is… wherever this is! I don’t know!” She says tears streaming down her face now. “I’m not an experiment…”         “Well dear… I don’t know what else you are… forgive my rudeness… besides that, eat up, I’ll drive us into town tomorrow, and we’ll figure out everything, alright?” He says calmly, without any of his usual humor in his voice. “we’ll figure this out just fine.”         Twilight looks back down at her plate, and retracts her head a bit, she looks back at the man. “How do you not know anything? At all… about me… I can’t be the only one…”         “Well dear… I utilize social networks for bringing my music out there, and delivering my little blogs here and there, but I actively avoided the world for a while… and I really haven’t been online in say… a month perhaps! Sorry dear. But you know what, I can still go look it up, give me a second, I’ll get my phone over here.” He says calmly.         “Wait.”                  “Hmm? What’s up?”         “What’s your name? How old are you?”         “George Wellis! 18 years of age in 5 weeks! Most people expect something like 24 or 35 when they hear my little story! Well I’m originally from London you see, but I made a move to America! Here I’m doing my personal studies of music and nature! It’s a transcendentalist sort of deal. You see I had finished my required schooling at 17, and my music was already doing great, so by the time my schooling had ended I had enough cash to do something like this! And my career only got better! Talking to much, I apologize. What’s your name?” he says in one big breath.         “My name’s Twilight Sparkle.”         “Twilight, huh… pretty name, mind I just call you that?”         “Uhh, no of course. But umm… this food… meat?” Twilight says.         “Well, I figure you’ve eaten it before to have teeth like mine! Are you a Vegan?”         “Vegan? Oh, like only veggies, I guess, yes…”         “Well… if you’re anything like me, you need protein and probably like it to! Give it a shot! There’s some lettuce there to, I cheated a bit and stashed a lot of it before I came out here!”         Twilight looks back down at the plate, and takes the knife and fork in hand. She looks out the door again. She watches George walk to the arm chair in the other room, and pick up a little rectangular device that shines a white light, which he fiddles with. Twilight looks back down, and reluctantly stabs the meat with the fork. She screams as she does it. George shoots out of his chair and runs over.         “Everything alright!? What happened?” He looks and sees Twilight covering her face with her hands looking away from the food. “Goodness, it’s already dead may as well not let that death be in vain! Here, let me cut it for ya, then you can eat it.” He sits down on the edge of the bed and begins to cut. Twilight observes him, looking at his attire. He’s wearing a red flannel and some blue jeans, slim and worn.         Twilight opens her mouth and asks him something. “Why do you wear clothing?”         George jerks a bit, but resumes cutting the meat. “Well uh… I don’t have fur nor do I necessarily want to go around starch naked wherever I go. Speaking of which, I’ll get you some of my clothes for tomorrow when we head out to town.”         George sits back up and gestures to Twilights food. “Well, there ya go, eat up, I’ll go do some digging.”         Twilight looks back down at her food. It’s all cut neatly into little squares, little rabbit squares… She takes her fork in hand, and slowly approaches the food. Her fork reaches the meat, and as she presses in, the meat molds around the metal, until the fork pops into the flesh and sinks into the meat with ease. Repulsed, Twilight lets it sit there for a bit, until she raises her fork, and the little rabbit square with it. She brings it closer to her mouth, and stares at it for a bit.         “Staring at it won’t put it in your belly! Plop it right into your mouth!” George yells from his armchair.         Twilight looks over her brow crossed, George is there snickering lightly. Twilight turns back to the food, and closes her eyes. She opens her mouth and plops it in. Her entire figure stiffens and all her hair rises up as her eyes widen and her pupils shrink.         “Go on! Chew!”         George taunts.         Twilight stiffly looks over to him, and then slams her eyes shut as she grinds her teeth against the meat. Her shoulders rise as she goes to chew again. Slowly as her chewing continues she loosens up.         “Come on mate… swallow.”         Twilight opens her eyes, pupils as small as ever, and she swallows. As she does she shakes with disgust.         “Goodness it’s not that bad now, it is?” George says.         “But it’s meat!” Twilight says defensively.         “Well, wasn’t it tasty?” George asks.         “I-I, uh… a little…” She says in disgust of her own words.         “Heheh, knew you’d like it.” George says. “Well, why don’t you finish that off, and we’ll get a start tomorrow once you wake up, I’ve learned quite a bit, but I’m going to keep digging. You can stay there, I’m plenty happy with my armchair. Put the plate on the night stand and put out the candle when you’re ready for some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning!”         Twilight looks back down at her food. It’s cut for her, cooked for her, she has a bed to sleep in, a roof over her head. And company… I have all this… just out the kindness of some strangers heart… I was alone… walking away from anything… and out of sheer chance I came across the nicest soul… tears built in her eyes, and a smile spread across her face. She wiped the tears away. He never even asked for a ‘thank you’ either.         “George.”         “Hmm? What is it, Twilight.”         “Thank you.”         George smiled, and nodded before looking back to the fire. Twilight returned to food.         She finished it rather quickly, and set it aside the nightstand, and blew out the candle.