Both Sky and Hikaru were quite sure that they would be able to find something in no time.
Hikaru rushed through the backstreets of Ponyville as fast as he could, trying hard to avoid running into anypony who might know him or be looking for him.
He was rushing so fast that he failed to notice the pony around the corner and ended up crashing right into them.
WHAM!
"ACK!"
Hikaru and the other Pony crashed onto the ground full force.
"Ugh...." groaned Hikaru feeling a bit dazed. "I am so sorry.....oh!"
"HIKARU!"
It was Iris.
"Umm....Hi...Iris..." Said Hikaru nervously.
Iris stared at Hikaru for a second, a bit unsure of what to say for a bit. Hikaru then noticed her expression turn into a frown, then into a face of anger.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" She yelled. "I thought you ran away! I was worried!"
"Im sorry!" Replied Hikaru loudly. " I didn't know what else to do. I knew my Dad would probably try to get me in loads of trouble, and...I don't know ok....I was scared and I ran."
Iris sighed.
"So now what? You came back, are you here to stay?"
"Im not staying" Said Hikaru doing a quick glance behind him to make sure that nopony had seen him. "I just came back to grab some stuff. Im leaving Ponyville, maybe for good. Its obvious that I can't stay here, so Im going to try to start a new life somewhere else."
"You can't just go off on your own like that!" Said Iris loudly.
"Shhhh! I can't let anypony know I am here!" Whispered Hikaru. "And Im not going on my own. Sky decided to go with me."
"WHAT!?!"
"ACK! I SAID QUIET!"
"YOU'RE BEING LOUD TOO!"
"NO IM NOT!"
"YES YOU ARE!"
"ARGH! SHHH!!!!! ok ok, sheesh! Lets just....quiet down please!"
Hikaru sighed.
"She won't take no for an answer. I didn't want her to go but she just wouldn't relent. Like, she really wants to go with me, and I guess I could use someone else for company. And I guess to make sure I don't totally mess things up, hehe."
Iris thought back to the other day when she had told Sky about Hikarus disappearance.
'She probably left right after I talked to her about this whole thing...' She thought to herself.
"Its been decided." Said Hikaru with a sigh. "I'm doing this, and please please PLEASE I beg of you, don't tell anypony. We really don't want anyone to know why we are leaving and where or anything.
Iris didn't like this idea at all, but at the same time, she realized why Hikaru was doing this, and given the situation, she might have done the same too.
Iris sighed.
"Thanks." Said Hikaru seeming to automatically interpret Iris's sigh as a yes. "It means a lott. Thanks for everything. You really helped me quite a bit through all the stuff going on with my Dad and everything else."
It was true, Iris had worked at the hotel for many years, and had seen Hikaru grow up through them. Quite often, she would talk to Hikaru about random things in life, and often give him advice or try to cheer him up in different situations.
She had become somewhat of a mother figure to him, and Hikaru had a great appreciation for her.
Hikaru gave Iris a quick hug, turned, and ran off to meet up with Sky.
Iris watched him leave with a somewhat sad expression on her face. But at least now she understood exactly what had happened to him.
"Be safe..." She breathed softly. And she headed back to the Hotel.
--------
Hikaru and Sky met up at their meeting location and started heading down the road that would take them in the direction of Manehattan.
Hikaru started thinking about Nocturnal Oasis. He still very much wanted to go. But how would he get back into ponyville to a large event like this without being noticed? He looked over at Sky walking by his side. He still felt bad that she was pretty much being taken away from a pretty much decent life in Ponyville. But what could he do? She really wanted to join him.
Hikaru looked down at his music player. He scrolled down to some tracks from Ferry Coltsten. His excitement for Nocturnal Oasis started to grow once again.
"Hey Sky?" He said turning to her. "I was thinking about this whole thing with Nocturnal Oasis. I know the both of us really want to go still....but....can we still make it work? I mean, I just don't see how we can get back into Ponyville without being seen by a local who would certainly know of us by then."
Sky looked down thoughtfully and considered the situation.
"Well...." She began. "We could just try to sneak in as best as we could. I mean, there's going to be hundreds of ponies there, maybe even thousands. And most of them coming from out of town. I think we should be ok....and if needed, we could always try to change our look a little bit. Dye our mane, maybe you could cut yours...."
" WHY DOES EVERYPONY WANT ME TO TRIM MY MANE OH MY GOSH!" Yelled out Hikaru.
"Stop making such a drama princess." Laughed Sky nudging Hikaru playfully. "You have to admit, it is getting pretty long. I can hardly see your face anymore. "
Hikaru swished his mane aside with a quick shake of his head.
"Psh" Said Sky rolling her eyes.
Hikaru just gave her a little smirk and continued walking.
The two continued on their trek for another two hours or so. The entire time, they talked about almost anything. School, Life, Food, If Twilight the librarian was purple or violet, but mostly, they talked about Music.
Sky shared many of the same artist and genres or music that Hikaru enjoyed, and it was nice for him to be able to talk to somepony who understood his love for those particular styles of music.
"Above The Clouds And Beyond make amazing tracks." Said Hikaru going down the list of the artist in his music player. "Im surprised you haven't heard more of their stuff."
"Other than Skybase's remix of Far From In Love, I really didn't know much of them."
"Ah yeah." Replied Hikaru. "Thats one of my all time faves. I actually like that mix better than the original."
Sky laughed.
Hikaru grabbed his headphones off from around his neck.
"Here.." He said hoofing the headphones to Sky. "I want you to listen to this song. Its Cloudwave by Rank 1, Fillydelphia Force mix. I can't tell you how many times when I was feeling down, I would just play this, and....I don't know. It just helped me escape. Escape from everything, like it was another world. Its special to me."
Sky took the headphones and listened to the song.
She immediately realized why Hikaru loved this song. It was absolutely beautiful. The synths, the beat, everything about the song just had a nice calm and mellow feel to it despite its upbeat trance rhythm. It was easy to see how somepony could feel as if they were in another world by listening to this. It was really nice.
Sky finished the song and gave the headphones back to Hikaru.
"That was really nice, I liked that a lot."
"Yeah..." Said Hikaru with a smile. "Its also one of the very first trance songs I ever found. Still one of my all time faves to this day, despite having...um..."
Hikaru checked to see how many songs he had in his music player.
"Haha. 786 songs."
Sky's eyes opened wide. "How did you manage to fit that many songs in that thing?"
"Oh this thing can hold probably up to 2000 songs!" Replied Hikaru, proudly holding the device up in the sunlight. "I'm not even at 1000 yet, so I got a long ways to go. So many songs out there, so little time-OH HEY LOOK! A HUMMINGBIRD!"
Sky laughed at Hikaru's ability to be so easily distracted. She watched Hikaru as he carefully watched the hummingbird move from flower to flower drinking the nectar contained within.
She suddenly noticed that it was starting to get dark as the sun was just about to disappear below the horizon.
"Hey Hikaru?" She started, still looking off in the distance.
"Yeah what's up? He replied, leaving the hummingbird alone, probably much to its relief.
"Its starting to get dark, maybe we should find a place to sleep for tonight so we can be refreshed for tomorrow."
Hikaru looked out just in time to see the last bit of sun dip below the horizon.
"Yeah you're right." He said while kicking a stone off of the path. "We might be able to find some shelter over by that cliffside over there, maybe a cave or something."
They both headed over to the cliffside and were disappointed to find that there was no cave. However, there was an overhand of rock in one area, at least it would keep them sheltered from any rain that might happen to be transported there way via Clousdale original cloud.
Plus, the cliff blocked any wind that might be blowing in their direction.
"Its going to get pretty cold in a bit." Said Sky starting to feel the heat of the day sun leaving them. "Luckily, I brought this flint to start a fire!"
"Flint? HAH!" Scoffed Hikaru.
He pulled a small metal can from his bag.
"And what is that?" Asked Sky curiously.
"Watch."
Hikaru tossed the can onto the ground, and with a loud swoosh, the can opened up and split apart to reveal a perfectly blazing fire on a pile of small sticks.
Sky looked at Hikaru.
"What? He asked with a smile.
"What was that?"
"Fire in a can."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Wow."
"I know."
================
Three days had passed since Sky and Hikaru had left Ponyville. Their days consisted of walking, talking, and finding shelter for the night.
It had rained a bit on the second day of their journey which forced them to stop for a few hours while they waited under the shelter of a rocky overhang for the rain clouds to pass, but it seemed to be clear skies ahead for the rest of their journey, which Hikaru estimated to be about another days worth.
The plan was simple for once they reached Manehattan. Sky had a few friends who lived there who owned a large apartment building. They had offered to let Sky live there in the past if she ever wanted to get away, so she figured that now would be a great time to take them up on that offer.
There were many job opportunities in Manehattan and
This was literally an entirely new start for the two of them. A completely different life than what they had previously been living. This new life, they hoped, would be filled with much more happiness and adventure.
It would be a little over a week until Nocturnal Oasis. Meaning that once they settled down in Manehattan, they would have to prepare their plan for sneaking back to Ponyville for this event without being seen. It sounded quite difficult, but both were quite confident that they could figure something out. And besides. The Tickets cost 200 bits each. Sky was not about to let that go to waste.
Hikaru was walking along next to sky. His head bobbing to the sounds of Lamenting Canterlot by Axel Coon. He had taken out the headphones so he could play the music through the music players small speakers. It wasn't the best sound quality, but he didn't want to seem rude by wearing headphones as if he didn't want to hear Sky if she happened to say something.
It seemed that all was going well in this journey, Hikaru was happy, Sky was happy, They were making good time, everything was going perfect. Until they found themselves at the end of the road they had been traveling. Literally. The road turned to grass, and grass into trees, The end of the road.
Hikaru stared completely confused at the forest before him.
"Hikaru...." Started Sky slowly with a hint of concern in her voice. "Wheres the road?"
Hikaru looked back and forth, hoping for the road to suddenly appear somewhere by magic. But there was no road to be seen. "Ummm...." He replied frantically try
ing to figure out what was going on. "Its....not here..."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT HERE?!?!" Screamed Sky with a look of panic on her face. "Wheres the road! Don't tell me we went the wrong way! All this time? HOW?"
Hikaru just looked down and sighed.
"Maybe....." He began. "I might have read the map wrong......"
"READ THE MAP WRONG?!?!"
"Ow my ears."
"Sorry...no-actually, Im not sorry, READ THE APPLE BUCKING MAP WRONG?!?!?"
"Will you calm down, my gosh!" Said Hikaru raising his voice a little. "Look this is no big deal, we just went the wrong direction at one of the road turn offs yesterday most likely. We can just head back and find the right one. It will set us back a day but it should be alright."
"Oh yeah?" Questioned Sky. "And how do YOU know that any of those roads are the right ones in the first place? Maybe we have been going to wrong direction since DAY ONE!"
"Will you stop raising your voice like that?" Said Hikaru getting a bit annoyed. "Its getting on my nerves!"
"You're lack of direction is getting on my nerves and more." Said Sky under her breath.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" Yelled Hikaru suddenly.
"None of your business!" Replied Sky giving Hikaru a sarcastic look.
"I think it is if you just said something about me!" Yelled Hikaru.
"Oh so now anytime your name is mentioned I just HAVE to tell you every little detail about what I say? I guess I have to tell you every little thing that I even THINK that might involve you wouldn't I!"
"Oh so you're implying that you think bad of me too now? Wow Sky, thats pretty low of you."
"Low of me? Its low of you to think that I would think anything bad of you! What kind of pony do you think I am? Some friend I must be huh."
"Yeah, some friend."
"What was that?"
They were suddenly interrupted.
"Ugh will you two just SHUT THE HAY UP?"
Hikaru and Sky jumped at the unfamiliar voice that suddenly sounded out from somewhere above them.
The looked up toward the source of the voice and saw a strange creature resting on the top of one of the trees. A creature that neither Sky or Hikaru had ever seen in pony before. The creature had a strong and lean body of a lion, and large majestic wings of an eagle. It also had the head of the same great bird, with a few feathers flowing slightly over the creatures eyes. This creature, was a griffon.
"Woah..." Exclaimed Sky and Hikaru in unison.
The griffon raised its wings and flew off the top of the tree and hovered down to the ground to stand in front of the two ponies who looked on in awe.
"Are you two losers really that pathetic?" She said with an annoyed tone in her voice. "I'm trying to sleep here and you both decide to just make the biggest freaking racket ever about something stupid? Pathetic ok?"
She looked at sky. "Do you even hear yourself? You freak out and blame him for some mistake. Stupid mistake but something anyone could have done, and you just don't relent do you? Psh, you're just a lame dweeb who over-reacts and snaps under pressure huh. I can tell."
She looked over at Hikaru.
"And you. You just love getting a reaction don't you. Its almost like you're TRYING to egg her on to get her even more ticked off at you. You're pathetic. I've never seen such a sorry couple in all my life. Freaking ponies......"
"Oh we're not-"
"Whatever. Just shape up your act. I can't stand a bunch of losers like you two messing stuff up."
The griffon took flight and flew back up to the top of the tree she had originally been resting on.
"Oh and for the record." She began. "The roads still there. Its just on the other side of a few rows of trees. Those freaking budget cuts made all upkeep on this road vanish into thin air so trees grew over it. Just keep going straight and you'll reach the road again."
"No way!" Said Hikaru happily. "Thank you so much!"
"Yeah yeah whatever." Said the griffon from the top of the tree. "Get lost will ya."
"Right, haha, sorry." Said Sky. "Lets go"
And with that, both of them continued on through the trees toward what they were told would be the continuation of the road.
The griffon in the tree yawned and turned over to go back to sleep.
"Losers."