//------------------------------// // 7 Remnants of Another Life // Story: Ponies Give Me Hope // by Kuyashii //------------------------------// I woke up nearly an hour before dawn and watched the sunrise from the doorway of Twilight’s hut. Just as the shafts of golden light touched the treetops, Twilight emerged from her corner of the hut and yawned. Spike was still snoring at the foot of her bed. “Good morning,” she said cheerfully. “Good morning, Twilight,” I replied. “How’d you sleep?” “I slept quite wonderfully, thank you for asking!” She smiled at me and completely assuaged any lingering homesickness. It wasn’t like I had much else waiting for me back home, and I felt as though we were already old friends. Breakfast was a delightfully tasty affair. All of the ponies gathered again in the town square, sitting at tables around the smoldering remains of the bonfire from last night. An orange pony wearing a cowboy hat and three apples for a flank mark wheeled in a large wagon shortly after every pony had gathered. The wagon was filled with pots of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Every pony lined up and came away with steaming bowls of rich, creamy oatmeal, topped with a variety of fruits and berries. I made my way through the queue and quickly downed my first bowl, preparing to seek out seconds when Lily plopped down at the table Twilight and I had chosen. “Hello, Lily Blossom!” Twilight greeted her with her usual enthusiasm. Lily nodded and smiled at Twilight, but she wouldn’t look at me. Twilight seemed to notice, but before she addressed the tension, she also saw that my bowl was empty. “Oh! Allow me, Max. Would you like some as well, Lily?” Lily nodded again. Twilight grabbed my bowl and her own with magic and trotted over to the line of ponies forming for seconds. I didn’t know what else to do, so I tried to apologize. “Look, Lily; I’m sor—” “I don’t care,” Lily grumbled. I appreciated her honesty. “I didn’t mean to—” “Then you’re careless,” she snapped. “Hey, I’m just trying to—” Her eyes narrowed as she interrupted me again. “Apologize? I don’t want to hear your apology. How about a new rule? We are not to speak to one another for the rest of your stay here.” I almost allowed myself to feel snubbed, but then I remembered that what happened last night was ultimately my fault. A lovely, looming cloud of failure parked over my head, and I started to feel an uncomfortably familiar ache in my chest. It wasn’t long before Twilight returned with three full bowls. “Here you go, you two. Eat up!” While Lily and I set to the new portions of oatmeal, Twilight caught Pinkie Pie’s attention and waved her over to our table. With the whole patrol sitting together, Twilight assumed her leadership persona. “Listen up, everypony. Today, we’ll be taking our standard route west, curving north toward Old Ponyville, and then back down to New Ponyville. As usual, we should arrive home just in time to help the Apple family prepare for dinner.” I mentally checked out for a moment to ponder the humor in an entire family being named after apples. It was no wonder that they ate so much apple related stuff. I presumed that it must have been some kind of cultural thing. “Max, are you paying attention?” Twilight didn’t seem upset by my lapse of concentration—rather, she seemed amused. “I am now.” She nodded, satisfied. “Good, because this is important! As I was saying, the purpose for our patrols is twofold: verify the integrity of our borders, and search the Everfree Forest for a lost pony. She left New Ponyville just shy of two months ago, and we haven’t seen or heard from her since.” Lily turned away from our group, while Twilight continued. “She’s out there somewhere, but it only becomes more dangerous for her with each passing day. We are to keep an eye out for any clues as to her whereabouts as we patrol the Everfree. Perhaps we may even find her ourselves, and bring her home.” Pinkie Pie scooted over toward Lily Blossom and threw a hoof around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, Lily,” Pinkie reassured her. “We’ll find her.” ***** We embarked on our patrol immediately after breakfast. Twilight gave me a satchel that Rarity had made for me overnight. I was amazed at the intricate, detailed needlework—Rarity was quite the seamstress. There was a day’s worth of provisions inside: some apples, bread, and cupcakes from the feast, as well as a glass flask filled with water. It cheered me up that she had thought of me. As we walked, I lingered near the rear of the line, mulling over the situation with Lily and the significance of the lost pony. I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice when Pinkie Pie fell back to walk beside me. “So, this must be weird, huh? You being a . . . Whatever you are, so far from home,” Pinkie Pie inquired, her fluffy tail bobbing up and down as she trotted along the path. ”Where is your home, anyways?” Despite my internal crisis, I laughed. “Well, I’m called a ‘human’, and I don’t exactly know where home is anymore.” Pinkie Pie’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, watching me drink in the sights. “Is it like this there too?” There were more shades of green on display between the trees, shrubs, and grass than I had ever seen before. Flowers and fruit bearing trees dotted the landscape, speckling the fields and tree canopy with color. “No,” I replied. “Not really. It’s especially beautiful here.” We passed a large patch of blue flowers off to one side of the path, which the ponies gave a wide berth. In the distance, between the trees, I spotted the ruins of a castle. It was set into the side of another mountain ridge beside the Eastern Mountains, and the remnants of its glittering towers and blindingly white walls were breathtaking. I tried to imagine how it looked in its prime. Pinkie Pie smiled at me and made her way forward to talk to Lily, leaving me alone with my thoughts again. That was my first carefree interaction with Pinkie Pie. It was a pretty big milestone for me—just a year ago, I didn’t think I would have ever been able to look at that little pony without bursting into tears, and already I was able to converse with her without painful memories cropping up until after the fact. Since my eyes were clouded with daydreams and had blurred with tears, I didn’t notice that the group had stopped. I tripped over Twilight and sprained my wrist trying to catch myself. “Ouch!” she yelped, which prompted the other ponies to clap their hooves over her mouth. Her eyes were wide, staring up through the leaves and branches. I followed her gaze, and caught a glimpse of something gliding silently across the sky, slithering through the air like a snake through grass. The creature flew behind two tall, birch-like trees, and in the gap between them I was finally able to see it unobstructed. It was some kind of hybrid—an assortment of body parts attached to an elongated trunk covered in dark brown fur. A zebra’s mane and antlers adorned its head, with one arm which looked like an eagle’s claw, the other like a lion’s paw, and legs which looked like a cross between a chicken and a dinosaur. Its tail was scaly, and ended in a white tuft of fur. It might have been comical under other circumstances, but the reaction of my companions coupled with the chill down my spine tempered the humor of its appearance. Soon enough, the creature had carried on, away from us and out of sight. The ponies gasped in unison; they had been holding their breath. “What was that?” I asked, once I was satisfied that the danger had passed. “Dissonance,” Twilight said, growling slightly. About a quarter of a mile later the trees thinned, and we could see out of the forest over a vast valley of rolling hills, lush grass, beautiful flowers, and the wrecked remnants of dozens of buildings in the center of it all. Some of them still sent wisps of smoke spiraling up into the sky—there wasn’t much left standing. The charred trunk of a massive tree stood sentry over the rubble near to where the center of town would have been, and the crystal shards of another castle or fortification stood just beyond it. “Old Ponyville,” Pinkie Pie whispered. “Can we go back now, Twilight? Please?” Twilight silently guided the group back down the path, but I stole one last glance over my shoulder as we departed. Dissonance had perched in the shattered remains of the crystal structure, surveying the debris with his shoulders shaking as though he were laughing.