To say that Pippin was surprised to wake up was an understatement. Waking up in the dark? A bit more surprising.
“Ugh, my head.” Pippin moaned as he tried to sit up, only to feel something against his back. He panicked for a second before he realised it was the back of a zoid chair, which slides forward to secure the pilot into position.
“I’m in a zoid? Then why is everything black, we always leave at least a quarter of a tank of regel left when we do maintenance,” He said as he hit the manual release to his seat, dismissing his memory of the other days events as a horrible nightmare.
Fumbling around in the darkness, his hand finally found a service panel which he clumsily removed. “Hopefully the power lines just got cut or something… ugh, this is going to take forever to do by touch.”
After about a minute of searching, he finally found the wires he was looking for. With a quick twist, a clang came from the canopy as it slowly cracked open, revealing dim sunlight from outside. Pippin got up and stretched, before nearly doubling over in pain.
“AGH. Why does my everything… ache?” He said as he gazed at his arms, or more specifically, his blood coated sleeves. A quick glance around revealed a cockpit full of displays, just like he remembered.
“Oh great Glidolers, that was real?” He asked himself as this revelation washed over him.
It took a few minutes for him to get over this crisis, before he determined that he had to get out and evaluate his situation. For all he knew, he had been captured by the Digald empire and imprisoned somewhere. It came as a surprise when he found himself in the middle of a forest.
“How did I get back in the dark forest?” He asked the air as he looked at the trees, which he was pretty sure had grown a few hundred feet, before noticing the grass his zoid was laying on.
“That’s new,” He muttered, glancing at blades of grass that could have been used as greatswords.
The more he looked around, the creepier the place got. The trees seemed to reach for him, the sky was completely blocked by branches, and even the sounds of the forest seemed to scream at him to leave.
“Alright, theres a few good reasons not to travel on foot,” He muttered as he climbed back into his zoid and began tapping the monitors.
“Darn, they’re all dead. Hmm, they don’t appear to be damaged. It must be the power systems that were damaged by the harmonic cannon,” He muttered as he pulled himself below one of the displays and set to work.
“I know Japapa doesn’t like it when I do temporary fixes, but this is an emergency,” He muttered to himself, before pausing. “I really miss Japapa…”
After a few minutes of tinkering, new light flooded into the cockpit. He quickly pulled himself up to the monitor and started skimming through the display.
“Wow this thing’s a wreck. It looks like everything is offline! One of the wings is pretty much gone, the other appears to be missing pieces and I am getting no feedback from the energy emitter whatsoever!”
Pippin then grabbed the controls and forced the zoid to lay down. He scrambled out of the cockpit and climbed down to the ground as fast as he could. He ran a few feet away before turning around and staring in horror.
“Well, no wonder the energy emitter is not responding, it’s gone,” He muttered glumly, gazing at a few pieces of scrap metal on the ground. “Or, maybe it’s just spread across a five mile area.”
The zoid was a wreck, and that was putting it lightly. The head was covered in blackened metal with the only clean spot being a rough round divit where the horn once was, the wings… err, right wing was missing half its feathers and the other one was just a length of torn scrap metal, with no salvageable parts in sight. The body of the zoid was holding up surprisingly well, all things considered, but there were still large holes and cuts in the armor from where a bio raptor had stomped on it.
“Oh boy. I’m not going to be able to fix half of that! I’m an apprentice generator mechanic, not an apprentice zoid mechanic!” He exclaimed to the seemingly empty forest, only to be answered by the howl of a wolf.
“Okay, back in the zoid,” He said nervously, before scaling up the side of the zoid and practically leaping into the cockpit.
The canopy slammed shut as the zoid leapt to its hooves, all the while Pippin was muttering to himself. “There’s no such thing as giant animals. There’s no such thing as giant animals. There are giant wild zoids, but there’s no such thing as giant animals.”
This mantra seemed to work for the moment as the forest once again grew quiet around him. He still waited for a few seconds before letting out a sigh of relief. Of course he didn’t know that a loud forest going abruptly quiet is anything but a good sign.
The loud snap of a twig caused him to whirl around and stare into the darkness. On the flickering main screen was something far too large. Blocks of texts and error messages filled the screen as automated systems tried to identify what Pippin now realized was something hidden by a titanic shrub. His eyes darted around the cabin as he tried to override the subroutines and force the worn and ragged electronics of the energy emitter to calm down, taking in details like twenty five meters tall or unregistered energy signature, species unicorn? It was by complete accident that Pippin’s hands brushed against the dashboard causing twin headlights to flicker from the Pipsqueak’s canopy and illuminate the darkness. Two yellow eyes like blaster cannon shells flashed in the light framed by a blonde mane and unnatural pale purple fur. Pippin’s heart hammered in his chest and the Pipsqueak’s faulty systems chose that moment to zoom in and fill the main screen with those two dilating glowing eyes. Two equally high pitched screams filled the air as zoid and unicorn turned around and galloped as fast as their legs could move.
The forest moved past in a blur. Pippin’s hands moved with an unnatural and unconscious grace to urge his zoid forward as fast as possible. He didn't even flinch when the left screen sparked and failed, rendering his zoid half blind. Panic and a half baked plan of getting away from anything that could eat him in one bite kept him running at breakneck speeds. It was only upon coming to a break in the trees revealing late afternoon sky and more importantly up to an unnaturally foggy cliff that he slammed the controls back causing the Pipsqueak to slide to a stop. Stopping did not mean he was rational yet.
“Giant monsters are real. Actually zoid forsaken real! I can’t believe they actually exist! They shouldn't exist. They were just supposed to be scary rumors to keep guys like Tony in line, but they actually exist!” Pippin babbled, battling the urge to let his face fall to the control panel.
“So now I am lost in the dark forest, probably surrounded by Digald forces, without any weapons except for two feather blades on a broken wing, AND there are giant monsters running around! I’m doomed! For the second time in two days I’m doomed!” He cried as he lost the battle and collapsed onto the dash.
He stayed like that for a few seconds, until a small beeping noise got him to look up. He blinked in surprise when he recognized the blinking screen as the scanner display.
“No way. Reggel! And lots of it!” He said with a small glimmer of hope. “Where there’s reggel, there’s gotta be a town, and since I’m still in the dark forest, it can’t be my home town meaning that it probably hasn’t been attacked yet!”
Pippin slowly turned the cockpit from left to right, scanning for the source of regel. Much to his confusion the signal seemed to be coming from down the cliff. This didn't make sense. A generator was a giant kilometer tall tree like structure. They needed to be taller than everything around it to help change and control the weather, yet this one was below the biggest cliff Pippin had ever seen! Although, technically the generator could still try to work, but things would definitely not work correctly. Maybe this was why the dark forest was so out of control! A generator running in an enclosed space could supercharge the local area creating a giant forest easy! That still left Pippin wearily setting his zoid to trot over a quarter of a kilometer away from the cliff edge, only occasionally venturing closer to look for a way down.
The regel low indicator had just turned on when a gap in the fog appeared that revealed three things. First was that what he assumed was a cliff was actually a canyon. Second was a ramp carved into the cliffside wide enough for him to casually trot his zoid down into the canyon. Third and most amazing was what was on the other side of the canyon.
Sitting in the afternoon sun was a zoid sized castle in crumbling ruins. It stood on the top of a short hill and was adorned with empty windows large enough to jump the Pipsqueak through without touching any edge. The fact that it was built with bricks almost as large as his zoid was mind boggling, as well as the fact that there were no human sized additions. No archer slots, no small ground level doors, not even turret emplacements on the towers! It was like somebody took a palace, scaled it up to zoid size and then left out all the bits to make it viable for actual human use. It was a mystery. Just like most ancient mysteries it should also be one of the lowest priorities on Pippin’s survival checklist.
Forcing himself to turn away, Pippin guided his zoid down the cliffside ramp. The bottom of the canyon was not what he expected. There should have been a river or something to carve out a canyon this big, but all that was there were rocks and strangely flat ground. Like a dog following its nose Pippin was guided by the scanner display. Travel was easy and he was soon steering the Pipsqueak into an oddly bright cave large enough to fit even the largest of zoids into. The walls were smooth grey stone glittering with gems and crystals that Pippin didn't recognize. A short ways in the cavern opened up to reveal a generator unlike anything he had ever seen.
It was tree like, just as expected but that is where the similarities stopped. Instead of stone or wood like biotech it was made out of solid grey blue crystals. Branches seemed to glow with otherworldly power as they reached up higher than any generator Pippin had ever seen. The readings he was getting were unbelievable, and he didn't even know what half of them meant! What the heck was a thaum and why was this generator maxing out the scanner in thaums? Shaking his head in confusion, Pipsqueak was about to guide his zoid forward when he heard a yelp followed by a loud scream coming from the cave entrance. It sounded like some sort of animal, but before he could dismiss the sound, the word "translate" appeared on a screen. Pippin blinked in surprise, before tapping translate. Suddenly, a young voice began speaking over his radio.
"Help! Somepony, anypony help!"
"What? Somebody's in danger!" Pippin said before charging toward the noise.
The shouts, winnies and growls led Pippin outside and back up the cliffside ramp. Just as he reached the top of the ramp he saw movement and yanked on the two main control joysticks, causing the Pipsqueak to duck down low. Carefully peeking over the edge of the canyon he saw two giant creatures. The smaller one he recognized as the monster from before, but in the light of the afternoon sun it looked oddly familiar.
It had a head that was too large for its body, was an ungulate, had a horn, like his zoid used to have, was smaller than most large scale zoids with a head big enough for a large scale zoid, and it could be summed up in a few choice words: light lavender unicorn filly with a blonde mane or like a lavender and blonde version of his zoid. This smaller “monster” was doing an admirable job of using a picnic basket encased in a yellow light to fend off what made Pippin redefine the word monster. It was a huge wooden wolf, seemingly made of logs and branches with two glowing yellow eyes staring angrily at the flailing unicorn.
"I'm warning you, my mom taught me cross eye karate!" Yelled the equine, causing Pippins jaw to drop in the process.
It talked! Huh, I guess it’s some sort of zoid, dressed up as an animal. Why would anyone do that though? Ugh, fewer questions and more helping, she's in danger! Pippin thought to himself.
"Oi, bark breath!" Pippin yelled as he pushed on a sliding joystick, causing the Pipsqueak to kick a rock at the wolf. "Pick on somebody your own size!"
The wolf angrily turned to him, growling with murder in its eyes.
"Umm, for the record, I-I'm much smaller than you. Hehe," He said as he shifted his zoid into reverse.
In seconds the wolf was upon him, tackling him onto his left side. Almost as if he was in a flashback, he activated the wing blades and sweeped his only good wing out, in an attempt to knock the wolves legs out from under it. Unfortunately, the wolf proved to be much quicker than the bio raptor.
It swiftly caught the wing in its jaws and yanked back on it, straining the small metal joints that connected the feathers to the wing bone. Warnings and errors began to flash on his screen as Pippin desperately tried to free the wing. The sound of creaking metal filled the cockpit as Pippin slammed an emergency release button, freeing the feathers from the wing.
The feathers popped free, nearly causing the Timberwolf to fall off of the zoid, but Pippin wasn’t that lucky. The wolf angrily spit the feathers out then lunged for another bite, this time going for the neck, when a picnic basket collided with its head.
“Hey! Leave him alone!” Shouted the light purple unicorn.
The timber wolf looked up at her in surprise, the picnic basket hanging around an ear before it shook its head and sent the basket to the ground, making a loud crash as an assortment of metal pans, some chains, throwing knives and a single half eaten cupcake spilled out of it. The timberwolf immediately yelped and lept back at the noise as if struck, allowing Pippin to get his zoid to its hooves.
“Hey, do you have any more pans?” Pippin asked the unicorn.
“Umm, no, they were all in the basket,” She called back as the wolf rounded on her.
“Darn,” Pippin said, before slapping his forehead. “Wait, what am I doing, I’m made of metal!”
Pippin firmly grabbed both main sliding joysticks and pushed themselves forwards sending the Pipsqueak into a gallop straight for the timberwolf. Once the wolf turned to face him Pippin yanked up on the joysticks causing his zoid to rear up. Several twitches of his hands directed his zoid to pound it's chest creating an enormous racket. The wolf reacted immediately, yelping before retreating back into the forest. Pippin kept going until his zoid finally lost its balance and collapsed backwards in a heap. After a moment of letting his heart slow down Pippin grabbed the controls and hauled the Pipsqueak back to its hooves.
Attempting to open diagnostics resulted in the right screen shorting out, leaving only the main screen still active. With an annoyed sigh, Pippin began fiddling with the user interface in an attempt to bring diagnostics up on the main screen when he noticed the unicorn staring at him.
“Oh hey, are you alright?” Pippin said to her.
“I should be asking you that question, that timberwolf nearly bit your wing off and took most of your feathers in the process!” She exclaimed.
“I’m fine, I was able to release the feathers before they took any serious damage, so I should be able to reattach them, no problem. What about you, are your systems okay?” Pippin asked as he lowered his zoids head down to gently bite onto one of scattered feathers, completely missing the unicorns look of confusion.
“I’m okay if that’s what you’re asking,” She said as she watched the metallic pony picking up pieces of itself.
After a small period of silence, she scuffed her hoof on the ground before working up the courage to speak up again. “So… my name’s Dinky, Dinky Doo. What’s yours?”
Pippin looked up from the feather he was trying to reattach. “I’m …?”
Pippin stared at the words “Can't translate.” with a hint of irritation.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Pippin muttered, unaware of his voice still being projected out to Dinky.
“Let’s see, um, Pippin? No. Pip? No. Piper? OH come on! Pipsqueak?” Was what Pippin was trying to say, what his zoid actually said was, “Let's try this then, uh, no. No. Oh come on! Pipsqueak?”
Pippin dropped the controls and leaned back as far as he could in his seat before shouting, “Curse you Tony Amarichi!”
When no translation error popped up Pippin squinted at the screen and asked in a monotone voice, “Really? You got that village idiot’s name right, but completely messed up mine? UGH.”
“Umm, are you okay?” Dinky asked nervously.
Pippin blinked, before grabbing the controls and nodding the Pipsqueak’s head. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just having issues with my translator,” He then went back to trying to attach the last feather blade.
Another uncomfortable silence passed over the two before Dinky once again broke it. “So, why did you run away earlier?”
Pippin felt his face heat up as he mumbled, “Oh, well you see I kinda thought you were a giant monster that was going to eat me… or something.”
A short lived moment of silence cleared the air, before a fit of giggles erupted from the little unicorn who proceeded to fall to the ground and start rolling.
“Alright, alright. I get it, it's ridiculous. But it seemed perfectly logical at the time!” Pippin said as shoved the controls and slamming the last feather in place, making a new warning pop up as a result.
~~~
Dinky managed to get a hold of her giggles long enough to right herself, before asking, “How was thinking that I was a monster, logical?” She said, before bursting into another set of giggles.
~~~
“Well, for starters, you’re pretty big.” Pippin said bluntly as he began to read through the various error and damage indicators.
“I am not fat!” The filly shouted indignantly.
Pippin glanced up to the main screen at Dinky with a raised eyebrow. “I never said that. Like I was saying, you’re twenty five meters tall, covered in fur, and you have those big, bloomin eyes. It was an easy mistake for any bloke to make.”
Dinky stopped giggling as she stared at the Pipsqueak in confusion, although Pippin didn’t notice as he turned back to the alerts and continued talking.
“Eventually I was able to figure out that you were just a zoid, disguised as an animal, when you called out for help. See? Perfectly logical,” Pippin finished with a self assured grin.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Sure.” Pippin said as he noted that half the redundant power lines along the back and sides were damaged and would need maintenance.
“What’s a zoid?” Dinky asked innocently.
Pippin’s blanched and looked up to the main screen to see Dinky looking at him with innocent, wide, realistic eyes. For a moment he just sat in the cockpit and stared at Dinky. When Dinky shifted uncomfortably in an unnecessary, obviously real show of discomfort Pippin reached for the controls with shaking hands and began to pull back on them.
“A Zoid is a giant, robotic animal, l-like the one you’re piloting,” Pippin said, while making the Pipsqueak take a small step backwards.
~~~end of current rewrite. Everything after this is noncannon~~~
“But I’m not piloting anything. My mom won't even allow me to pilot a wagon,” The filly said with a bit of concern.
“B-b-but... Y-you have to be piloting a zoid! If you’re not piloting a zoid, then that would mean that… you’re… a…” The metal colt stopped talking at this point.
“Pipsqueak, are you okay?” Dinky said, taking a step towards him, only for him to take a step back.
Without warning, Pipsqueak turned around and ran into the forest.
“Hey! Wait up!” Dinky called out as she shoved the pans back into her basket and picked it up, before chasing after him.
The chase only lasted a couple of minutes, before she found the colt slowly trudging through the forest. He was acting completely different from a few minutes ago, as he lethargically moved his legs forward, almost like he was trying to march through a pool of molasses.
Dinky slowly trotted up alongside him, gazing at him as he continued to slow down. Eventually, he stopped moving altogether. Even the light in his eyes seemed to fade.
Dinky set her basket down next to them, before turning back to the colt.
“Did he shut down?” Dinky said as she was about to wave a hoof in front of Pipsqueak, but stopped when she heard a light pounding coming from his head.
Training her gaze on a small crack that had formed on the robot’s head. It wasn’t so much a crack, as it was a hatch that went up and down with every thump. Slowly, Dinky reached out with a hoof, acting as if she was diffusing a bomb, and lifted the metal panel. A small creature came tumbling out, falling to the ground with a thud.
It was a small thing, reminding her of a tiny monkey. It was covered in beat up clothes that Rarity would have thrown a fit over. What was horrifying about it was that the clothes were covered in blood stains, while the bare skin revealed several bruises. When Dinky had finally finished looking it over, she noticed that it was now staring at her with a look of utter terror.
“Pipsqueak, is that you?” Dinky asked as she reached out to him with a hoof, only to yank it back when a sharp pain shot through it.
“Ow! He bit me!” Dinky exclaimed, waving her hoof out before looking back to the small monkey like creature, who was now gagging and trying to wipe its tongue off on its sleeve.
Frowning, Dinky sighed, until a bright light appeared above her head as she came up with an idea.
After tossing the lightbulb away, Dinky backed up and laid down about a meter away from the little guy, who finally stopped cowering and now looked at her in confusion.
“It’s okay, I wont hurt you.” She cooed with a smile.
Pipsqueak gave her another look of confusion before glancing around the forest and releasing a sigh. He then, cautiously, walked up to her and spoke, but all she could hear was some weird gibberish that sounded vaguely like another language she had heard when her mother took her to Prance.
“Huh, I thought you could speak equish?” She said aloud, before noticing that Pipsqueak was starting to act something out.
First he pretended to be walking on four legs, then collapsed. He then got up and pulled out a tiny little gourd and turned it upside down and shook his head. After that, he pointed to the gourd and then pointed further into the forest.
“Umm, okay.” Dinky nodded as she began to follow the short little fellow.
She slowly followed the tiny guy for what seemed like hours (five minutes) before she finally got tired of it. Her horn began to glow as Pipsqueak was encompassed by a golden glow, followed by a squeak of protest from him. She then gently set him down in her mane, before taking off at a brisk trot in the direction he was heading. She slid to a stop when she came upon a large magnificent tree.
She could only stare in awe at it. It was beautiful! She was pretty sure that this would have been the discovery of a lifetime, had she discovered it first. A quick glance to her flank confirmed a lack of a cutie mark.
“Aww, come on! I thought for sure that this adventure would have gotten me my cutie mark!” She whined as Pipsqueak slid out of her mane.
Dinky watched as the little monkey like thing ran up to the base of the tree, before locating a small knot in the side of it that was leaking sap. It took out the tiny bottle it had shown her from before and quickly began filling it with the tree sap.
“Tree sap? What do you want with tree sap?” Dinky asked out loud as Pipsqueak walked back with a smile.
Pipsqueak had just enough time to gesture towards where they came before dinky seized him with her magic, ignore the tiny yelp of surprise. A quick jaunt back from whence they came, and they were back at the robo pony.
Dinky let pipsqueak hop down and run to the robot, and watched as he poured the contents of the gourd into a small hole that appeared in the side of the robot. Before she could question why a robot would need tree sap, she noticed that the eyes were glowing again. Pipsqueak quickly climbed back up and hopped back inside the cockpit, the metal canopy closing behind him.
“Finally, I thought I was going to have to spend an hour trying to get some reggel,” Pipsqueak said, as he proceeded to stretch out his metallic legs, testing them for any damage.
“Why are you driving a pony robot mister monkey?” Dinky asked with new found innocence.
“HEY!” Pipsqueak wheeled around on her. “I am NOT a monkey! I am a human being. There’s a difference… I think,” Pipsqueak then looked up for a moment, before shrugging. “I actually haven’t seen a monkey before, so I don’t really know. B-but folks back home usually use monkey as an insult, or a sign of affection, so I’m pretty sure I’m not a monkey.”
Pipsqueak then turned to her with a nervous expression. “S-sorry bout runnin from ya earlier. I’ve never seen anything like ya.”
Dinky pouted accusingly, before sticking out her hoof. “You bit my hoof!”
Pipsqueak backpedaled. “Oi! You try standing up to something that’s, like, a hundred times bigger than you and then see it approach you as you fall on your back! See how well you react!”
Pipsqueak dropped his accusing tone when he noticed the sheepish look Dinky was giving him. “A-and it’s not my fault! I thought you were going to eat me or something.”
“Eat you!” Dinky exclaimed. “Why would I eat you, you just saved my flank!”
Dinky put on a knowing look as she said, “And besides, ponies are herbivores.”
Pipsqueak was about to object before he let out a sigh. “Sorry, you’re right, I was just scared. I lost my parents to wild zoids when I was young. When you walked up to me, it felt like I was back there again,” Pipsqueak said, gazing at the ground.
Dinky frowned in concern, as she walked up to his side. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s alright, you had nothing to do with it. Anyways,” PIpsqueak perked up. “I gotta go fill this zoid up with reggel from that generator we went to.”
Dinky tilted her head to the side as the two began to trot, her basket levitating behind her. “You mean the tree sap stuff?”
“It’s not tree sap, its reggel. It’s a high energy fuel source that zoids use as both lubrication and a reactant for their reactors.” Pipsqueak said with authority.
“Huh, tree sap is robot fuel, who knew?” Dinky said, as Pipsqueak nearly tripped over himself.
“I told you, it’s not tree sap!”
“Then why did it come from a tree?” Dinky asked.
“Because its not a tree, its a generator. Didn’t you notice how it didn’t look like any of the other trees around here?”
“Yeah, it was very pretty.”
“Generators look like trees, but are distinctly different. Generators are able to stabilize the climate in areas, fertilize the soil, and produce reggel which is used as zoid fuel.”
“Huh, I guess that describes why the everfree forests weather does its own thing,” Dinky said idly. “Where I come from, its up to the pegasi to control the weather, while the earth ponies fertilize and maintain the soil.”
“Really?” Pipsqueak commented in awe while dinky replied with a nod.
“I wish humans could do that. We have to rely on generators, and if the generator breaks, it can mean the end of an entire village! That’s why I was learning how to become a generator mechanic,” Pipsqueak said as the duo entered the clearing and walked up to the large tree.
Pipsqueak layed down next to the tree, before the plate on his head popped open again.
“I synced my radio up to my zoid. I should be able to talk to you while I fill up it’s tank.” Pippin said as he climbed out of the zoid.
A few moments of silence passed before pip awkwardly said, “So… what brought you out here in the first place? I mean, it doesn’t seem like the sorta place a girl like you would hang out in, so why are ya here?”
Dinky blinked, “Oh, I was just trying to get my adventurer cutie mark!” Dinky cried happily.
“Cutie mark? Sorry, but I don’t think that translated right. What do you mean by a cutie mark?” Pip asked as he poured another container of reggel into the zoid.
“It’s a mark that a pony gets on their flank when they figure out what their special talent is.”
“Special talent? Like what you’re really good at?” Pippin asked as he collected more tree sap.
“Yep! Ponies usually do something that involves their cutie mark. It doesn’t determine their future, but it usually helps them know what they’re best at.”
“A’right, I get it. So you thought that you would get this cutie mark by going on an adventure? That’s kinda brave,” Pippin said as he dumped his last bottle of reggel into the zoid, before climbing back into the cockpit.
“W-well, I wouldn’t call it brave,” Dinky said, a blush forming along her face. “It was kinda stupid, to be honest.”
“I think it would be stupid not to chase your dreams,” Pipsqueak said as he got to his hooves.
Pipsqueak froze for a moment, before sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. “Umm, I’m kinda lost, and I don’t think I can go back home right now. Do you know of a village or hut that I could stay in, just for the night?”
Dinky smiled happily. “Sure, Ponyville is right on the outskirts of the forest. We can probably sneak you into my house without anypony seeing.”
Pipsqueak nearly tripped over himself when he heard that. “There’s an entire village of you guys? H-how… b-but… How could we miss an entire village of giant ponies!”
Dinky thought to herself for a moment, before shrugging. “I don’t know. I’m actually kinda surprised we missed a village of robo ponies.”
Pipsqueak smiled but said nothing as they started to trot out of the forest.
The sun was setting on the horizon by the time they had reached the edge of the Everfree. The moment he broke from the tree cover, Pipsqueak was staring in awe at his surroundings. There was an actual well built village made for giant multicolored ponies sitting in front of him. He could see ponies of all colors not only walking, but flying around and going about their daily business like nothing was wrong.
The ponies weren’t the only thing that was bothering him. Now that he was out of the forest, he could see a good view of the landscape. It went on for as far as the eye could see. Much farther than what the dark forest could ever hope to hide. Pippin felt his hands shake, as the reality of the situation hit him.
*sniffle*
Dinky looked over in surprise to see the robo pony hunched over, with wings drooped and his head down. He looked miserable, which was impressive, considering his lack of facial features.
“What’s wrong?” Dinky asked as she trotted up next to the crying colt.
He slowly looked up at her before looking down in sadness once again. “I don’t think I’m going to go back home again.”
“What! Why?” Dinky exclaimed.
“W-we’ve mapped out the entire continent. I’ve seen the maps, and there is nowhere that something this large could be hidden. Look around! I can see hundred of ponies, even a castle on a mountain! Everywhere I look I can see lush grass and trees. There’s no way nobody noticed this, let alone fit it onto an unexplored place on a map!”
The colt collapsed onto the ground. “I’m never going to see them again. I am never going to see Tony, or any of my other friends!” He sniffled. “I’m never even going to see my village again.”
“So what are you going to do about it?”
“Wha?” Pipsqueak said, gazing up at Dinky in surprise.
“What are you going to do about it? Yes your friends are gone, and that’s always difficult, but you’re still alive,” Dinky said before putting on a stern face. “The way I see it, you have two options. You can either sit here and mope, or you can pick yourself up, look for a way back, and maybe even make a few friends while you’re at it.”
Dinky then took a few steps forward. “I’m going to go back to my house and grab something to hide you with. I’ll be back lickity split.”
With that, Dinky ran off, eventually disappearing into a sea of technicolor ponies, while Pipsqueak let himself mull over the filly’s words. She was sorta right afterall, I mean, he was still alive and as Japapa always said, “As long as you’re alive, then you should never give in and never give up!” He could still miss the friends he lost, still search for a way home, but that didn’t mean it was the end of everything.
Pippins thoughts began to drift towards Dinky. He had already made a friend, hadn’t he? Here she was, going out of her way to help him, even going so far as to offering to let him stay in her home. It was just the sorta thing you would ask a friend to do.
“Yeah, I guess I am kinda lucky to have met her,” He said to himself, right before he heard the sound of hooves approaching.
Pip quickly dove behind a tree, slamming his cockpit into it in the process, and halted all of the zoids motions. The sound of hoofsteps got closer and closer, and Pippin could feel his heartbeat rising. He was just about to flee when he heard Dinky call out for him.
“Pipsqueak. Where’d ya go?”
Pippin let out a sigh of relief as he stepped back out from behind the tree.
“I’m over ‘ere,” He said as he looked at the new saddlebag that she was wearing.
Dinky glanced over and grinned, before taking the bags off and digging through them.
“I talked to my mom and asked her if I could bring a friend over,” Dinky said as she proceeded to stick her entire hoof into the tiny bag. “I didn’t mention anything about you being a robot so we are going to have to make sure your disguise holds up to close inspection. I couldn’t find anything like a trenchcoat or a robe, but I was able to find something that would cover your legs.”
Dinky grinned as she pulled out a large article of clothing.
“... Bloody ell.”