Flipyap couldn’t tell how much time had passed.
Twilight Sparkle was the first to break the silence.
“Excuse, me but what is Nipple Academy?”
Yapflip sighed. This is going to be a long story.
Everfree Forest
Evening
Under the stars and moon, a zebra was picking herbs. The trees provided shade, but it wasn’t like she needed it.
‘ Zecora was now on her way back, careful to avoid any holes left by the diamond dogs. Those bandits had already stolen several important gems for her potions. They weren’t going to get her gems this time though. She was already half-way done burying all the holes. The problem was though that the dogs kept making new ones.
As she headed for home, she noticed a shine near the hill. It was barely visible but seemed to reflect the moon.
Zecora had been both mesmerized and confused when the meteors rained down over the forest. She had been worried of a forest fire, but then the mysterious speckles of light faded into the darkness.
Meanwhile…
Twilight’s Library:
The two mares had taken a few moments to recover from the story the grunts had told them. They now knew about the training, the war, the Covenant, the ship, and the disaster.
Twilight Sparkle was in between shock and confusion; she didn’t want to say something that she would regret later, but these aliens made her have so many questions that she couldn’t resist asking.
“So do you think…I don’t know…maybe you could…well…”
“Spit it out,” Yapflip interjected.
“Doyouthinkyoucouldtakeustothatcrashsite…if you don’t mind of course.”
“Uhhhhh…sure…whatever she said…” Flipyap motioned, rubbing his head in confusion as to what the unicorn had just blurted out.
“Um, she said… she wanted to ask you if you, if you wanted… would be so kind as to lead her to the crash site.” Fluttershy said.
Under the circumstances he experienced last night, Flipyap would have called the mare crazy. However, Fluttershy’s voice seemed to seep into his brain and control it if, for only a moment.
“Alright,” he said, before any grunts could answer back.
“Are you crazy!” Yapyap Jr. screamed, “You want to go back?”
But already the group was out the door and on their way to the Everfree Forest.
The moonlit path seemed to be a platinum road along a green, mint colored forest.
Flipyap couldn’t remember his homeworld. A lot of the Unggoy that he had known had told them that it was just a freezing ball of cold. There was nothing good about it and frankly, it was good riddance now that they were in the Covenant. In a way, Flipyap seemed to comfort at that thought. After all, he had only remembered the training on his planet. This forest however, seemed like where he would end up in the Great Journey.
Yapflip looked to the stars and sighed.
“What’s wrong?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
“Have you ever just stared at those blinking lights in the sky and think if there was a home out there?” Yapflip seemed to whisper, as if his own words sounded alien to him.
“Well,” Twilight began, “I do find myself enjoying those stars in the sky on a clear night. Now that Princess Luna is back, the night seems more radiant and the stars themselves have never twinkled brighter.”
Yapflip knew what the feeling was like. Whenever a grunt had asked him why he looked at the sky all night and never got any sleep, he would only reply curtly with the saying, “Cause I am not a sleepy dummy like you.” He never wanted to tell them anything more then that. In a way, he was scared of what they may think of him.
When he stared at the stars, he always wondered if there was something bigger. Of course there were those meanies and every species in the Covenant that was bigger then him. Yet, he didn’t mean big as in…well…big. Big to him was something of a whole different level. Big was something measured in one’ self rather then in one’s size. That was why he always believed they stood a chance against the other species. Maybe he was placed on this planet to think otherwise.
Yapyap Jr. seemed quiet. He had been looking around and behind the group, expecting something to come up behind him. He was sure he had seen a shadow. This time though, it was fast, zipping by like a rocket.
Maybe I bumped my head too hard in that crash.
WHOOOSH!
Two dark figures seemed to shoot out of the bushes and onto the startled, and screaming, group. Yapyap grabbed a stick and was about to whack one of the creatures when it turned around to face him in the moonlight.
If there was ever such a thing as a fever you could get from playing with needlers, this was surely the result of one who had it. This creature before him was pink all over and had a wacky hair doo to top it off.
“What in the name of…” Yapyap began to say as the pink pony jumped up on him and yelled at the top of her lungs.
“Got you! Hey wait a second…who are you?”
The other figure got up, revealing a rainbow colored main and a cyan coat. She was laughing.
“Boy did we get you,” the rainbow pony said, “You should have seen the looks on your faces.”
Yapyap just stood there, dumbfounded. He was almost ready to make a mess in his armor, not to mention attacking an unarmed prankster.
“That,” he panted, “wasn’t...funny.”
“Oh come off it now…” the rainbow pony suddenly stopped mid-sentence to look at the creature before her.
He looked like a mix between a crab, an insect, and well…Scootaloo. She wondered if they acted like chickens too. Noticing another one of those things hiding behind a bush, she decided to test her theory out.
“BOO!”
Yapflip yelped and fell flat on his back. The rainbow pony was on the ground, laughing her guts out.
“HEEEEYYYYY!!!” Yapflip said in anger.
When Twilight got up, she seemed to be annoyed and relieved to see these two ponies.
“Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, what in Celestia’s name are you doing scaring these aliens for?”
The rainbow pony stopped rolling on the floor and looked up. It was then that Yapyap noticed that she bore the same feathery wings as Fluttershy.
Though she certainly doesn’t act like her he thought bitterly.
“Wait,” the one called Rainbow Dash slowly began to say, “aliens?”
Fluttershy had just gotten up when Pinkie Pie seemed to tackle her friend down in a bear hug.
“Oh Fluttershy! Are these really super-icky-not-wanting-to-ever-touch-space-invaders?”
“Well,” Fluttershy whispered, “Yes. I did find them in the Everfree forest. They certainly are strange little critters. They told us stories of giant ships that travel space and…”
Pinkie Pie gasped and then looked at the grunts with a suspicious eye. Now Yapflip would never have expected something as cute and cuddly as this creature to ever cast a negative doubt in his brain, but he couldn’t help but become frightened.
Fluttershy didn’t seem to notice at all.
“He’s not a bad pony if that’s what you think.”
Pinkie Pie’s gaze suddenly erupted into a joyous grin as she said, “Well of course he isn’t a pony silly!”
Realizing the joke, all four ponies began to laugh.
Flipyap got up and looked to see two new ponies laughing with the others. That was when he saw the sheen. It was not a regular sheen that you would see. Unless, of course, you were staring at a Covenant ship.
Crash Site: Northern Hills of Everfree
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had decided to accompany the group as they made it to the top of the hill.
What a loudmouth Yapflip thought as he saw how the rainbow creature was talking about a heroic deed she did in the town and how Twilight hadn’t been there to see it.
Then again, I shouldn’t be pointing hooves. WAIT! I have fingers! Yapflip made a grunt of frustration. Was this pony language getting to his head?
They had just made it to the top of the hill.
What they saw next made everyone stop in their tracks and made Pinkie Pie begin a spasm of dramatic gasping.
What was left of the Redemptive Penance was a mess of hull, vehicles, and wreckage. A broken seraph lay near a splintered tree. What appeared to be a piece of the middeck was lying on its side.
Flipyap had seen the wreckage from the phantom before, glowing like fireflies. The field now had been smoldered, but thankfully no fire had erupted in the forest. That was when Flipyap noticed bright blue fluorescent blood near one of the pieces of hull.
He ran down the hill and right towards the hulking piece of ship, that apparently consisted of two decks that had been broken off. The top deck was a corridor, nothing special, but the bottom left was already embedded in dirt and sand. It was part of the Unggoy R and R areas.
A small figure was against a wall within the building, a trail of blue blood leading away to a small compartment used for trash disposal.
The rest of the group had caught up, only to stare in silence as the Unggoy in the ship panted. Flipyap was by the grunt’s side already.
The Unggoy before him though, made him stop dead in his tracks. The poor grunt had no legs; in fact, he didn’t have a torso at all. The grunt looked up and said in a stuttered voice, “H-Hhhh—hhhH---Hi there…Flip-Flipyap.”
Flipyap ran to the grunt and tried to lift him up, but it was no use. There was already so much blood on the ground that it was a miracle he was still alive.
“Hey—hey there Twitchy.” Flipyap could barely say his words clearly.
Twitchy was the nickname given to the grunt known as SabSab. It was because the grunt had a disorder that made him twitch and stutter. Not that it annoyed any grunt. Most Unnggoy just left Twitchy to himself, sitting in a corner to examine his only friend: a plasma pistol.
“Twitchy?” Yapflip said as he came up to where the grunt was.
“You’re bleeding…badly.”
“No—nnnn—no—no kidding Yappy,” Twitchy managed to say.
“Can’t you do anything to help him?” Yapyap said to the ponies.
“I’m afraid that only Nurse Redheart could help him,” Twilight said,” and I don’t think she has blue blood in her supply closet.”
Twitchy gave a yelp of pain and began to breathe faster.
“I-I-I thought I could hide in the compart---compartment you know…just to stay safe. I always thought I was trash any-any-anyway. No—no---no one wanted trash…no ---no—no one want—wanted me. It was so-so-so scary. There—there—was so so—much mu—much pain…and-and noise”
“It’s ok, you gonna be okay Twitch. Don’t go now…please don’t leave us here.” Flipyap quietly pleaded with the wounded comrade before him. A comrade he had bluntly ignored until this point.
“Its-its-so-so co-cold here. I al—always—always wanted to be like you Flipyap. You—you—made me feel like—like I wasn’t just a no—no—nobody.”
“Just hold on a bit longer Twitchy,” Flipyap was near tears,” just please hold on.”
“I-I-see my home. My—my –momma made me—those—nice mud—mud—crab shakes. I—I—want to go ho—home now. I don’t—don’t –don’t want –want –to die. I want—want—to see my my…momma…”
And with that, Twitchy stopped twitching.
There were sniffles, but Yapflip suddenly darted off the hill and deeper into the crash site.
“Yapflip!” Flipyap seem to sob his name.
“Let him go for now,” Fluttershy said in an almost whisper-like voice.” He-he just needs some time to himself.”
Yapflip ran off into the dark trees of the Everfree. He grabbed a rock and threw it like he would a plasma grenade. It rebounded with a pang off the hull of wreckage. He screamed, he yelled, and he finally fell to his knees sobbing.
Why..Why him? Why did Twitchy go? He didn’t do anything!
He was just trying to go home!
That last thought had been said out loud.
Yapflip wanted to stay there. Stay until he died. He didn’t care anymore. Twitchy was a nice grunt. He deserved to have friends. He wasn’t supposed to die. Yapflip was supposed to die. He was the rebel. He was the screw-up. He was the annoying scrub grub. The talkative butt head. He should have died. Twitchy should have lived.
He began to shiver. A cold, crisp wind was blowing against him. He wanted to freeze. That was when a soft warm hoof went on his shoulder.
“Listen Fluttershy…I know…”
But it wasn’t Fluttershy at his side.
It was the cyan flying pony that had scared him earlier. Her face however, showed no playfulness. It was just sad. The maroon-rimmed eyes seemed to stare into his own beady gray ones.
The words expressed in that stare said a million words. But its one clear message was this. Don’t blame yourself.
“Oh…its you.” Yapflip shrugged the hoof off his shoulder.
“I saw that little alien there. Was he your friend?”
“No,” Yapflip said bitterly, “he was always by himself. We all thought he was crazy. He was nice though. He gave me food nipple when I needed one badly. He said that a big grunt like me needed more food to satisfy my big, grunty thirst. Not even Flipyap does that for me.”
“So why are you wanting to hurt yourself?”
“Cause I deserve to die now. Twitchy needed to live. He was nice grunt. Not bad grunt. Not silly grunt. Not any grunt.”
“You know,” the pony said, “I am not much to talk about things like this. I usually like to brag about myself but, when I lose something so important to me, I feel like crawling into a hole and just staying there.”
“Why haven’t you hid in hole?”
“Because I knew that wouldn’t help my situation and it won’t help yours if you keep blaming yourself.”
Yapflip turned to finally face the pony forward. He noticed that she was using her wings to levitate a few feet above the ground. What he did next was something he didn’t expect at all to happen.
He had latched his arms around her in a hug.
But get this.
She hugged back.
-
Zecora was nearing her hut now. The forest was calm, cool, and serene. Just then a glint shone over a tree.
And two green, luminous eyes watched the zebra trot along the forest floor.