//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: A New World, A Fresh Start // by drnkntst //------------------------------// Chapter 17 It was dark and very late. So late in fact, it had started to be early. Rick had at some point wondered into the woods. The moon was full and very bright. It was more than an hour before Rick realized what he had done. “Where am I?” The weird noises coming from the bushes and trees on either side of the trail finally worked their way into Rick’s consciousness. “Crap, now what?” He pulled the flashlight out of his pocket. The LED minimag lit up the trail and Rick progressed further, he had to find a place to camp for the night. He found a clearing off a small side trail and started to set up. He managed to gather enough stones to make a fire ring and then gathered wood and made a fire. “This will have to do.” Rick looked around the clearing, he knew that fire was the most effective way to keep away wild animals, so he wasn’t afraid, he just didn’t want to be out here anymore. He looked up at the night sky, “damn, it’s a beautiful night.” “Do you really think so?” The sudden voice startled Rick, “who’s there?! Come out!” Rick called into the forest. He shielded his eyes from the fire and took out his flashlight and searched. A tall, dark blue pony came into view. “C’mon out! I don’t attack anyone who doesn’t attack me first.” Rick put away his flashlight. The new pony walked into the clearing. “Is that why you are out here by yourself?” The light from the fire gave Rick a pretty good view of the nosy pony. He could already tell it was a mare by her voice, but now he could see that she was a unicorn with… wings? Her mane was ethereal, dark blue with a light blue border. She also had slippers that appeared to be glass and a collar that was black and decorated with stars and a crescent moon in the center. She was tall, the top of her head at level with Rick’s nose. She also wore a black tiara with three crests. “My name is Rick; I’m a human from Earth. What’s your name?” “You ask questions without answering mine? That hardly seems fair.” “I’m… sorry? What question would that be? “You said it was a beautiful night, I asked if you really thought so.” The tall pony seemed to be grinning, but it might have been a smirk. He sighed. “Yes, I really think it is a beautiful night. Where I’m from, the light from the large cities often obscures the view and you can hardly see any stars, even on a clear night.” Rick looked back up to the sky again. “The moon even seems close enough to touch.” He sighed again. “So beautiful.” “You seem troubled. What has happened?” “Heh, you’re the second pony tonight who tried to help me with a personal issue. I lashed out at the first, I won’t do that again.” He looked into the eyes of the blue pony; they were hard to see with his own starting to water. “I just hope I can make it right.” He told the newcomer everything, leaving out the events that took place the day he arrived in Equestria. He told how he had withheld things from Twilight. How he even begged her to not ask questions. He told how he yelled at Twilight in both his dreams and in her own home. He didn’t bother to hold back any tears, he welcomed them, he was not ashamed of them. “…and what’s worse, I’m afraid to go back. I’m afraid I won’t be allowed to make it right. Damnit!” Rick slammed his fists onto his tear soaked knees. “What will I do now? What do I do if she never wants to talk to me again? I couldn’t blame her, I said horrible things. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy… what if none of them want to talk to me again. I’ll have no place to go, I’ll… I’ll… I’ll be alone again.” Rick buried his face in his hands and sobbed. The large blue pony placed a hoof on his shoulder. Rick looked up at her, “I think you shall have your chance.” She grinned and pointed with her chin toward the main path. Rick stood up and looked in the direction the pony indicated but saw nothing. He looked back with a questioning look but she wasn’t there. “If you want to make amends, you must trust me,” came the voice from nowhere, “return the way you came.” Rick had seen enough weird things in this world to not ask too many questions. Besides, the most likely explanation would be the mysterious pony just wandered off. Rick spread the fire out so that it would die on its own. His grandfather had taught him how to make campfires so they wouldn’t get out of control, one of the many lessons he kept. Too bad no one ever taught him to shut the hell up. Chapter 18 Rick didn’t have to go too far. About fifty yards down the road he could start to hear something, “…anyone, please help.” The voice was faint, tired, scared. More importantly, the voice was familiar. He ran. “Please, don’t let her be hurt.” He ran as fast as his flashlight would let him, it was bright but did not have a great reach. “This is my fault. If I hadn’t run, she wouldn’t have chased me. If she hadn’t chased me, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt. It’s all my fault!” He ran, fueled by his rage with himself. He begged the universe to make his imagination wrong. “…Rick, help. I’m sorry…” The voice came from down a hill, an unreasonably steep hill. Rick didn’t care, he was going to do this. He was going to do whatever it took to make it right again. Rick bounced from one tree to the next, whatever it took, he had to get down there. His light came across a scared, shaking and injured Twilight. While she wasn’t in as bad a shape as he feared, it wasn’t good either. She slipped down the hill and hit the same trees Rick had, the difference was, Rick had hands and stood on two legs. She had somehow managed to get herself caught in some vines, upside down. Something else was off, she was still scared. “Please, don’t hurt me. I only want to find my friend, please.” She was scared… of Rick? Had he really been such a monster to her? But why would she have come after him if he had? It made no sense. “Please, I need to find Rick.” Light dawned on him, sadly, it had dawned on Twilight so much she couldn’t see his face. He grinned, a little. “Well then, mission accomplished.” She stopped struggling, “Rick, is that you?” He turned the light on himself, “it is you! Rick, I’m so glad I found you. I…” “Before you go any further, let’s get you down from there.” He grinned at her. Rick placed the flashlight between his teeth and pulled out his pocket knife. The blade was sharp and shone in the light. Twilight smiled despite the blade. She had tears running from her eyes. “Thank you, Rick.” He lowered her to the ground. Twilight winced and favored her rear left leg. Rick picked her back up and hefted her onto his back. She gripped as best she could without fingers. Rick climbed back up the slope, it was much tougher than going down, especially with Twilight’s added weight. Rick crested the slope and collapsed. He was breathing heavily but he was still smiling. He was just happy he had found his friend. He was beyond happy that she wasn’t mad. “Twilight… *huff, huff* I’m so… *wheeze* sorry… *cough* I yelled at you… you were just trying to help…” Twilight climbed off Rick’s back and lay down on the path near him. “No, I never should have invaded your dream. You asked me to trust you and I didn’t. I’m sorry.” Rick sat up and looked at her leg; it was sprained, possibly broken. “We can talk about this more later, for now, let’s get to someplace safe.” Rick gingerly picked Twilight up off the ground and carried her back to the camp he had recently left. He found the clearing, set Twilight down near the ring and rekindled the fire. “We’ll rest for the night and head back to town in the morning. Now, let me take a look at that leg.” First aid was another lesson Rick was glad he had taken from his grandfather. The leg wasn’t broken but it was close. Rick had taken a pair of sticks and made a splint using the bandages he still had from around his chest. Twilight gasped at the sight of his scars; they were still red and scabbed but they were healing nicely. “Yeah, I know the wraps are nasty, but they’re all I got.” Rick played it off, he knew exactly why she was gasping. “Rick, thank you for helping me. I thought you never wanted to see me again and that was why you walked out.” Twilight’s eyes were watering again. Through the tears, her eyes were bloodshot. There were streaks from each eye, she had been crying, a lot. “Really? I thought the same. I was so scared you would never talk to me again. I was worried you and your other friends would be mad at me for yelling and I would be alone again. You were only trying the help, I’m sorry I did that.” The two talked, blamed themselves and begged each other for forgiveness. After a while, Twilight fell asleep, but Rick didn’t. Rick was relieved but felt he should keep watch. He had his friend back, he had all his friends back. He would have to thank that strange blue pony, if he ever saw her again. Chapter 19 Shortly after sunrise, Rick started to break camp. He spread the embers of the fire and made sure there were no twigs or leaves near the fire ring, normally he would pour water on it but he didn’t have a bucket. Twilight was still sleeping, the remnants of tears still showed on her face. Rick hadn’t slept but he also wasn’t tired. Instead, he felt alive again. “Twilight, it’s time to get up. We need to start back to Ponyville, I’m sure Spike is worried sick.” “Unh, wha? Spike? Huh, Rick, Where are we? It looks like… the Everfree forest! But how...” The events of the previous night came back to Twilight. “Oh, right,” she looked at her injured leg. “How am I going to get out of here with my leg like this?” “Well, I know what they do on Earth when a horse breaks its leg. But instead of that, how about I carry you back to town in this?” Rick held up a hammock that he rigged up out of vines. It was made like a backpack and had a small seat for Twilight. He put it on and approached Twilight, “now climb on. I’ll get you to town in no time.” “Thank you, Rick.” Twilight gingerly climbed into the hammock, favoring her left back leg and cringing every time she moved it. “By the way, what do they do with horses on Earth who've injured their legs?” “Uhhh, lets’ forget I said that.” “Stupid brain, you’re supposed to stop me from saying shit like that!” Rick looked fixedly at the sky to avoid eye contact, beads of sweat were starting to form on his forehead. “Oh, I see. If you don’t want to tell me, it must not be a very nice thing.” Twilight was settling into the hammock, she held onto his shoulders with her front hooves. “I understand things were different on Earth and I certainly appreciate the fact that you are trying to spare my feelings. Thank you.” Rick let out the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, “dodged that bullet… damnit.” He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself a little. He stood up slowly, careful not to aggravate Twilight’s injury. The two headed down the path toward Ponyville. During the trek, they discussed the mistakes they both made the night before and apologized to each other, again. By the time they left the forest, the conversation had shifted. They discussed Rick’s woodland skills. His father had left when he was young and his mother died from cancer, so he was raised by his grandparents and Rick’s grandfather had taken him camping many times when he was still alive. Twilight stopped Rick in his recollections. “Rick, we’re… we’re still… friends, right?” She had asked the question reluctantly, like she was afraid of the answer. “Of course we are, if you want to be that is,” he could almost feel her relief. “Twilight, friends don’t abandon friends over a mistake. It is true I felt violated and I was very mad, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst part was, I thought I had just lost my family all over again. I don’t know what I would have done. My biggest fear was that I hurt you. I was so scared that you wouldn’t want to speak to me after I yelled at you like that. And if you didn’t want to talk to me, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, none of them would ever want to see me again.” “Rick, do you honestly think we would do that to you? That we would abandon you because you got mad?” “I don’t know what I thought, I was hurt and scared. I didn’t know what to think, that’s why I walked out. I wasn’t leaving, I just needed some time to think. I never thought you would chase after me.” “I admit I was scared you were leaving. I followed your trail, but then I fell. How did you find me anyway?” Rick thought about how to answer that without sounding crazy, he decided on the truth. “Some tall pony walked into my camp, we talked and then she told me to go back the way I came. She said I could make amends if I did.” He looked up at a random cloud thinking back on the conversation, “strange, I never did catch her name.” “RICK! TWILIGHT!” The familiar voice came from high above, both travelers knew instantly who it belonged to. “Good morning, Rainbow Dash. What are you doing out here?” Rick asked as she swooped down to meet them. “Me!? What about you? Spike told me how you yelled at Twilight last night then ran off. Now I find you… WHAT DID YOU DO TO TWILIGHT?!” Dash had seen the injuries on Twilight’s leg and was furious. “It wasn’t enough you hurt her feelings, you had to hurt HER too!” Rainbow was getting ready to strike, the only thing stopping her was her need to not hurt Twilight. “Stop it, Rainbow Dash! Rick didn’t hurt me! In fact, he saved me and took care of me.” Rainbow was completely disarmed. “Now c’mon, my leg isn’t getting any better like this.” “Yes ma’am,” Rick was happy she was in a better mood. He looked up at Rainbow Dash, “you really are loyal aren’t you? You looked like you wanted to kill me.” “You bet I am. I don’t like when anypony hurts my friends.” Dash folded her front legs and turned her head. “Am I still one of those friends?” Rick was almost afraid of the answer. “Yeah, I guess,” Dash looked at Rick with one eye and a big grin. “You did save Twilight after all.” The trio walked on toward the hospital in town. Twilight and Rainbow discussed the night before and what transpired to cause the events. To Rick’s relief, Twilight didn’t talk about the dream. He was especially grateful they didn’t engage him too much, he could feel his energy quickly fading. All he cared about was getting to that hospital. It was already his fault Twilight was hurt, he didn't want to make it worse, he wanted to make sure he made it right.