//------------------------------// // Finding Friends both Old and New // Story: Continuing the Dream // by Blue Breeze //------------------------------// "Don't drop the soap." I say to Dark and Ice before the others and I walk away. "Was that really necessary?" Twilight asks. "They deserve it for getting put in here in the first place." "Even still, they're here and we need to get them out. What are we gonna do?" "How am I supposed to know? We don't have twenty thousand bits!" "I know, but we can't just leave them here. You know those collars they were wearing?" "Yeah. So what?" "They restrict magical energy, meaning they can't use their powers with them on." "So, what you're saying is, they're screwed." "Well, now necessarily. It just worries me is all." "You really shouldn't worry too much, Twi. I know first-hoof just how tough Dark is, and I'm sure he's tough even without his powers. And I trained Ice mysef. I know he's tough." "Yeah, I'm with Blue, Twi. Dark and Ice aren't the ones we need to worry about." Vinyl says. "Well, if you all say so." "Trust me, Twi. Blue may be an idiot-" Hail says. "Hey!" "But he'd never do anything to let his friends get hurt." "Okay, I'll trust you all then." "Good to hear. Nowwe should go back to meet up with the others." did I mention we planned to meet back up infront of the hotel after an hour? No? Well, I'm mentioning it now. The four of us exit the prison and begin to walk back to our meeting spot. Ugh, walking is so boring. I wish we could just fly there. After walking for a bit(again, very boring), we reach the front of the hotel to see everypony else but Pinkie Pie show up. "Find anything?" I ask. "No." Octavia answers sadly. "None of them are anywhere to be found." "When we asked for Vine, the only pony around here to fit her description was some feller named Big Wood." Applejack says. I snicker a bit at that. "Oh, grow up." "Right sorry." "What about Ice and Dark?" Fluttershy asks. "The bail is twenty thousand bits all together." "WHAT?!" they all shout. "Exactly. I have no idea what we're gonna do about them." I look around a notice our ball of talking and walking cotton candy was missing. "Hey, where's Pinkie?" Pinkie suddenly appears from a nearby potted plant. "Here I am!" "Oh, hey, Pinkie." this doesn't surprise us anymore. "Hey. I heard everything, so no need to tell me. I actually have an idea." "You know how to get Dark and Ice out?" "Oh, not them. But I do have something for the others." "What is it?" "I went made posters to put around town." "Great idea, Pinkie!" she pulls out the fliers she had made, all of which were really just crudely drawn sketches done in crayon. "Oh, um, these are g-great, Pinkie." "I just knew you'd love them!" "Well, I guess since we can't do much about Dark and Ice at the moment, we better continue to search for the others and spread these posters around." Everypony nods and we begin to distribute the posters to each other. "I say we just stick to our groups from before. We'll stick to around the hotel area and the rest of you go around to the farther out parts of town. We'll meet back at the rooms in a few hours." "Right." they all say. Twi, Vinyl, Haily, and I begin to walk down the street to start our search. "Are we really going to put up these posters, Blue? Nopony's going to be able to tell you they are from these." Hail says. "It'll make Pinkie happy if we do it. Besides, it's not going to hurt anything." "If you say so." We begin to go around to random buildings and putting up the posters. After putting up one over a store sign, the owner comes out. "Hey, who put this here?!" Hearing this, we dash off somewhere else. Haily puts a poster up, but mistakingly puts it on the flank of a large stallion. "Hey!" I come by and nervously laugh at him before pulling Hail away. Who knew putting up posters was so difficult? Over at the strip club Vinetion and Fleur continue to watch the mares up on stage as they sit over at the mini-bar. "Aren't you glad you listenbed to me now, Fleur?" "Well, I must admit, I am having fun. But it is quite weird having a, well, you know." Fleur says, slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, I know what you. It's pretty hard to get used to. No pun intended." As they sit, watch, and drink, a unicorn pony with a mug of beer for a cutie mark watches them suspiciously. 'Hmm, why's Big Wood acting so wird?' she thinks to herself. Vine takes a drink from her glass to find that it's already empty. "Huh, guess I'm out." Fern(you already saw her name, don't act like you didn't) walks over and grabs the empty glass. "Allow me to refill that for you." "Thanks." as she walks away, Fern wiggles her rump at Vine. "Um, what are you doing?" "Oh, sorry. Just a bit of a twitch." Fern lies. Fern goes to to mix another drink and as she returns, she spills it all over Vine. "Aw, what the hay?!" "Oops, sorry." "Ugh, it's fine. Just go get me some paper towels." "Aha!" "Aha what?" "I knew it! You're not the real Big Wood!" "W-What do you mean?" "The real Big Wood would've freaked out at me for doing that!" Vine and Fleur panic as they quickly grab Fern and take her out of sight from everypony else. "Hey! Let me go!" They set her down as soon as they think nopony is around to here. "Okay, sorry. You're right, I'm not this Big Wood guy. His goons just mistook me for him and I thought I'd play along." "Hmm, sounds legit. But then who are you really?" "You hear about that attack on Ponyville from the Everfree Forest last week?" "Well, duh. Only everypony in Equestria has heard about that." "Well, I'm one of the ponies who helped save it. I'm Vinetion." "And I'm Fleur." "What?! But those two are mares! You're both stallions! How can that be possible?!" "We touched some flowers in the forest and they did this to us." "Really? I didn't know there were any plants like that around here. Huh." "So, are you gonna rat us out?" "Nah, you're both cool with me. I'm just glad I was right in you not being the real Big Wood." "Why's that?" "Because he would've flown off the handle and hit me. While the money is good here, the way I'm treated isn't. Not just from Big Wood, but from everypony here other than the other mares. I'm always getting whistled at, always getting vulgar comments yelled at me, and getting my flank slapped." "That's horrible. I'd probably rip a stallion's balls off if he slapped my flank." "Yeah, but I have a lot of patience. I put up with it to get money to live on." "Well, you seem like you deserve money and to be treated right." "Yeah, but it's not like I can do anything about it." "Maybe you can." "What are you getting at?" "Where exactly are you staying?" "Just this little penthouse Big Wood has for his workers. It really sucks." "Well, how about you come with us back to the Excoltibur hotel and stay with us." "Really?" both of them nod. "That sounds great." "And then you could stay with us in Ponyville. We know a bar in town that's hiring. It's way better than this place." "That's awesome! When can we go?" "We could go right now if you want." "Sounds good. Oh, and I'm Fern by the way" Fern walks off to get ready to leave. "I think that was very kind of you, Vine." Fleur says. "Yeah, well, I just didn't want her to keep suffering. No mare deserves to be in a place like this." Back to us After hours of searching, putting up fiers, asking ponies, and getting a ticket for disturbing the peace(I hate cops sometimes), we all just decide to take a break for going back to the hotel. "Ugh, I know I said I'd never drink again, but I think I'll make an exception just this once." I say. "Well, there's a bar right over there." Vinyl says, pointing to a bar. "Good." We walk over to said bar and take some seats inside. "Apple cider." I tell the bartender. "What about the mares?" "Um, we're good." Twilight says, the other girls nodding. Over off at the other end of the stand, Zephyr sits with Jack. "Man, I really should be going back, Jack." "Comenow, it's still early. They're probably still gone." "I just really miss everypony though." I hear then talking and look over. "Zephyr?" He looks over and notices us. "Guys!" We all rush over to him and hug him. After the hug, I hit him upside his head. "Ow! What was that for?" "You idiot! Do you know how worried everypony is about you?" "I'm sorry. I just won a bunch of money gambling and, I don't know. I guess I just let it get to me." "Wait, how much money?" "Well, I still have one hundred and ninety five thousand bits left." "WHAT?! That's great! You can pay for Ice and Dark's bail now!" "They're in jail? Huh, I'm not really that surprised." "Yeah, but we should be getting back to the hotel now." "Right. I'm coming, Tavi! "Tavi?" Jack asks. "Yeah, my marefriend, Octavia. Sorry, Jack, but I really gotta go." The rest of us leave the bar in a hurry, Zephyr speeding ahead of us. Jack just sits there, a sad look on his face. He leaves the bar and rerurns home. Upon reurning home, he breaks down and sobs. "Why Celestia did he have to have a marefreiend?! I thought what we had was special!" he goes over to the suit Zephyr had left. "All I have left to remember him by is this suit." he sniffs it. "At least it still has his scent. Okay, I'd like to move on now. We get back to the hotel and find the girls waiting up there for us. "Look who we found." I say. "Zephyr!" they all shout. Octavia rushes over to him and starts hugging him. "Oh, I've missed you!" "U've missed you too, Tavi." they break the hug and she starts tugging on his ear. "Ow!" "Do you know how worried you've made me?" "I'm sorry." "Sorry won't cut it. We're going to have a long talk about this." "Yes, Tavi." "And no bed time fun for a while." "Aw, man." Before we go on, two familiar looking stallions and a mare walk up. "Hey, guys." Everypony looks at them in shock. "Vine?! Fleur?!" I shout. "Yeah... Long story short. We touched some plants that made us stallions. Some guys took me for the owner of a strip club named Mr. Big Wood. Sorry that we were gione for so long." "Well, I guess that makes sense. But who's this mare." "Oh, this is Fern." "What's up?" Fern says. "We met her at the club and offered to let her stay with us. Is that cool." "*gasp* Of course it's cool. We can never have too many friends." Pinkie shouts in excitement. "What Pinkie said. Well, it's good that we found you and Zephyr, but Dark and Ice are in jail and Drax and Spitfire is still missing." "What? Since when?" "Last night. Same time you two and Zephyr went missing. But not to worry, Zephyr's going to bail Dark and Ice out." "How?" "I won a couple hundred thousand bits while gambling." he says. "What?!" everpony that didn't already know shouted. He shrugs. "Guess I jut got lucky." "That's good, but what about Drax and Spitfire?" Fleur asks. "Hey, I know." Fern says. "I always hear gossip down at the bar. I'm sure someone's bound to talk about your friends there." "And we'll go back there with her." Vine says. "Then it's settled. We'll get Ice and Dark out tomorrow while you try to find something on Drax and Spitfire." "Deal." they say. Everything is finally coming togther. Author's Note: Fern comes from little dashie. I've had a pretty good track record with writing these OC's, so hopefully I can keep that up with Fern.