//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 : The Meeting. // Story: What A Rarity // by Mil Spec Pony //------------------------------// The Meeting I awoke next to my bed, I could not fall asleep in it. The beds I had slept in the last 8 years were bunk beds or beds with military issue mattresses. So sleeping in a soft, oversized bed felt…wrong and if I tried to sleep in on the couch or the floor my internal clock wouldn’t allow it, and I would wake at precisely 05.00 AM. I would spend a few minutes rolling from side to side, but eventually I would get up since it was clear that I would not be able to fall asleep again. The coffee machine was brewing, the toaster was toasting and I was searching the refrigerator for something edible. I had not prepared a meal since I was in the military and that was just a can of grub that needed to be heated. Eventually the toast was covered with a few slices of Salami, just for the record, warm coffee and Salami don’t mix well. After my… special breakfast I decided to do some morning exercise, I had hardly been training during the construction of my house, so I did feel a little rusty, but I quickly got into it again. I had had always felt it relaxing to exercise, how contradicting it may sound. After some time the sun started to show itself on the horizon, and I found myself staring at it. I had seen the sun rise many times while I was on duty, but standing there in my little “Gym” watching the sun rise, I felt something. A feeling that the next couple of months were going to be…something else. The television offered nothing, but news about murderers and political scandals, so I turned it off and walked out into my garden. Well if you could call it that, the grass that had been planted was growing, slowly but surely. No flowers had been planted, but I was going to plant roses. My mother loved roses, back when my parents were still alive she had a big garden with all kinds of colored flowers, but the ones she loved the most were her bright white roses. As I stood there in remembrance I decided to drive to the nearest florist, but as I looked at my watch to see what the time was I noticed that it was Sunday and before I could form a new plan of what I was going to do my phone rang. The display informed me that it was Michael. “Hi boss, do you want me back?” I asked hoping that he would not say yes. “Don’t worry Nick, I told you that should take the time you needed, so no, I’m not calling to ask you to come back. I just wanted to hear how you’re doing” Michaels voice was sincere. We talked back and forth, I talked about how the last couple of weeks had been, and he told me a little about what the company was doing at the moment, he was cut short though, a familiar voice interrupted him, but I could not hear what the voice said. “Sorry Nikolai I have to go, work call’s” I could hear annoyance in his voice. “Don’t worry about it, and… thanks for calling… talk to you later boss” “Yeah, talk to you later” Our conversation was short, but I was happy to have talked to him. I didn’t really have anyone that I thought of as friends other than him, so getting a call from him was something I enjoyed. -- Without anything to do I walked down towards the shore, there was an old wooden walkway, it did not seem sturdy at all. Never the less I ventured out onto it. It creaked menacingly and I quickly got off it, right then and there I decided to rebuild it, since I had nothing better to do. “Hmm, damn you Sunday” I said to myself as I remembered. I couldn’t buy any materials so it seemed that rebuilding it was out of the question, but then my eyes drifted toward the nearby forest. “There has to be a few logs that I could use” I thought to myself, truthfully I just needed something to do, I had no carpenter skills of any kind, but I liked the thought of rebuilding something. My closet didn’t really contain any summer clothes, walking around in my house I wore a shirt and jogging pants, but that wouldn’t do, there was most likely thorn bushes and other things my clothes could get ripped on in the little forest, so I needed some appropriate to wear. -- I looked like a soldier that had lost his equipment, I had my favorite hiking boots on, my pants had Danish military issue camouflage, the last time I had worn them were when I had left the military to join RSC. On my upper body I wore a sleeveless shirt and on my back i had a camelback pouch, I wanted to be on the safe side since I was such a warm summer day. After a good walk along the dirt road I finally stood at the edge of the forest. It was a luscious green, it was a really pretty sight. The nature here was much prettier than the places where I had been with the company, if there even were any. I slowly made my way into the forest; inside it was like another world, it was quiet, yet loud at the same time, there were so many various and vivid colored flowers, I couldn’t stop myself from smelling them. The scent of each flower was sweet, but in different ways. After my little “flower child” experience I sat down in a clearing and took a sip of water, as I sat there I noticed a cluster of purple and white a little distance off. My curiosity got the better of me and I stood up to go and see what kinds of flowers they were. As I came closer to the cluster of bright colors I noticed that it wasn’t flowers, but instead it was an animal that was asleep. It was a horse, no it was much smaller, it was a little pony. I had never seen an animal with such colors, its coat was a bright white and it mane, and tale were indigo purple. “Wow, it’s really pretty. Wait what’s that?” I whispered to myself as my eyes traveled back and forth on the little pony, my eyes stopped on its flank as I noticed what looked like 3 diamond. “Is that a tattoo” I whispered to myself. Before I could think more about it the pony’s position shifted and it sat up, facing away from me. It surprised me and I dropped flat onto my butt, crushing a mix of leaves and twigs under my weight. The little pony’s head turned quickly in the direction of the noise; it made eye contact with me. We sat there looking at each other, as I stared into its eyes I felt paralyzed. It had big beautiful Azure blue eyes. The thing that made me break eye contact was the glow that came from it horn. Yes I did say horn. It glowed brighter and brighter, but then disappeared suddenly resulting in a small gasp from the pony. I still sat there with mouth agape. ”Am I dreaming, or is this heatstroke” I said while looking around to see if there were any other “weird” things going on around me. “Please good…Uhm…sir you’re not going to hurt me are you?” My eyes flew back to look at the, well... unicorn pony. ”Did you... just talk” I asked, sounding like a complete idiot. The little pony carefully nodded. ”I am lost you see and I do not know where my friends are, have you perhaps seen others like me?” its voice was frightened, yet soft and elegant at the same time, it was clear that it was a female. With the surprised look still plastered on my face I answered her. “Uhm, no. That is no don’t worry I won’t hurt you and no, I’m afraid I have not seen any…Uhm ponies, other than you” The fear in her eyes disappeared to some degree as I told her that I wouldn’t hurt her, but it was replaced with sorrow as I said she was the only pony that I had seen. The thoughts were racing in my head, but somehow I realized that all of this was real and in front of me there was unicorn that was afraid, lost and longing for her friends. “I can help you look for them if you’d like” The little pony looked at me with happiness in her eyes. “Oh yes please, I would be most grateful and –nneggh” she tried to stand, but she dropped back down onto her stomach. I crawled a little closer. “Are you okay?” I asked concerned. You could clearly see that see was physically exhausted, the slightest movement made her body shake. She was in no condition to lie here in a forest least of all walk. “I…I” tears began streaming down her muzzle. “I’m so tired, but I need to find my friends” she forced the word out through her sobs, as she did I felt a sting in my chest; I was now strongly determined to help her. “Miss, your body is completely exhausted, I don’t think that It would be wise of you to wander these woods, besides-“I pointed towards the sky that earlier was sunny and blue were now getting clouded by dark clouds.”-it is most likely to start raining soon, but you’re welcome to rest at my place, while I look for your friends” “But I…I…” she was silent for a few seconds. “ I would like that, thank you very much” she didn’t protest, she knew how dire her situation was. Her face slowly blushed and softly she whispered “would you mind…carrying me” I smiled at her request “I won’t mind, I’m just glad that I can help” then the thought struck me, how was I going to carry her. She was intelligent so it would most likely offend her if I carried her like an animal, so I decided to carry her with her lying in my arms like you would see a prince carrying a damsel in distress. One quick movement and she lay in my arms. She was much lighter than I expected. As I stood with her, I looked down at her. “Now let’s get you out of here” The white unicorn nodded softly and I started to carefully walk out of the forest, it was dusk so I had to concentrate not to trip over anything. Finally after some time we were outside the forest and the lights from my house could be seen I the distance. “The light you see there is from my house, so we’ll be there soon” The little pony did not respond, she had fallen asleep. ”Wow you really are exhausted if you can fall asleep in the arms of a complete stranger” I thought to myself. Her head moved a little and was now resting against my chest, she looked peaceful and I found myself to be staring at her for a few minutes. Then the first raindrop fell and I knew it was time to get inside. -- Just as I walked through the door the rain started pouring, but both of us were relatively dry. The little pony was so sound asleep that she had not so much as registered as the drops had hit her. As I stood in my living room with her in my arms I thought of laying her on the couch, but since I had no use for my own bed, I decided to lay her there instead. She was not a stupid animal so she would hopefully appreciate the feeling of a soft bed. I laid her down softly, careful not to wake her, as she touched the sheets she made a satisfied sigh. “Now you just get some rest and I’ll go look for your friends” I whispered as I wrote a note. A note that read “I have gone back to the forest, to search for your friends, make yourself at home, I’ll be back with your friends before you know it. Nikolai” It was now dark outside and raining heavily, but I had promised her to go look, so with a warm and dry set of clothing accompanied by a rain coat and a heavy duty flashlight, I was all set. Before walking out of the bedroom I stopped to stare at the little pony in my bed. “Don’t you worry, if your friends are out there I’ll find them” I said in a whisper before walking out of the room and into the dark and rainy night. End Chapter 1.