//------------------------------// // Chapter 36, A Day like Any Other // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 9 -- Future Perfect // by shysage //------------------------------// The next day, Shysage and I woke up together on the far side of the lake. Like I said, Shysage and I had spent some amazing intimate times here on a number of occasions... There was just too much going on, too much uncertainty right now... The Sun was just topping the nearby trees, and the warmth felt very nice. Still, we were surrounded by fairly tall rushes, and we could not see anything around us. This probably meant nopony else could see us, not that it really mattered. We rubbed noses a while, right there. We finally got up, made our way out of the rushes, and walked slowly back towards Ponyville. We stopped and had breakfast together on the way. Still, from the sounds we were hearing, the mountainous woodpile was becoming a handy gathering spot for Ponyville. This was fine. Shysage and I just looked at our little hill next to the huge pile of wood and sighed at the same time. Our goal was to wander to Princess Twilight's Castle and see about doing some more Canterlot Recording. Walking past Dawn's, we saw two holes in the ground, but nopony outside. It sounded like a full house inside, though. As we neared Princess Twilight's Castle, the Filia and Fiona Twins ran out of the Castle and down the steps laughing, and almost ran us over. After apologizing, the four of them were quickly playing Cutie Mark tag in the grass, and ran quickly off to the meadow behind the Castle. Up the stairs, down the hall, into the Library; we saw no sign of anypony in the Castle. Shysage and I both turned into people, found the Canterlot Recorder stuff, and were soon sitting down on the rug. After recording the battle with Macabre yesterday, Shysage and I realized that the following day, both our Twins arrived in Canterlot. We should start Canterlot Recording there. Shysage reminded me though, that, aside from meeting our Twins, the yelling pony who had beat up both he and his Twin... Well, it would be a strange chapter. Meeting my Twin again... Equestria Girls Fluttershy getting her sister back from the dead again... Then dealing with that yelling monster, who had no concern about the pain he caused my Stallion, his Twin, or anypony else for that matter... Well, we got to work. I had put together the first sentence. Shysage sighed right away. "Summer, we are out of ink..." We both sighed together again. There would be no Canterlot Recording, not this morning anyway. Without moving at all, still sitting next to each other, there on that rug, we kissed briefly. I love my Stallion. We got up, and put the Canterlot Recording stuff back where we had found it. We hugged tightly for a few minutes. Then we both changed back into ponies, and headed down the hall, and back outside. Still, we didn't know where we would go, what we would do. That seemed to be a recurring theme for us... ... Once we were in the grass outside the Castle... There was just nopony around. Without anything else to do, we slowly made our way to the East meadow. What else... Passing Dawn's on the way, we noticed a pony struggling to get a pole set in one of the two holes we saw this morning. Evidently, Dawn's was getting a porch! Shysage immediately turned into a people, and grabbed the pole, and held it steady, while the clearly amazed pony slowly brought some carefully chosen stones, and forced them into the hole, down around the pole, to hold it steady. We realized that by himself, this pony couldn't do both tasks. Well, I left. Actually, I ran off. Shysage held the pole until the base stones were firmly in place. Still a people, he grabbed the second main porch post, and forced it in the second hole as far as he could. The other pony repeated his task again, and sunk carefully sized rocks down next to the wood, holding it steady and straight. Adding the rest of the porch roof would take care of anchoring the tops of these poles. Shysage changed back into a pony, and led this other pony slowly to that little hill in the East meadow. The pony didn't question, but just walked with my Stallion, and sat next to him on that hill. Little was otherwise said between them. Well, I don't know... I think Shysage quickly realized who this pony was, maybe from his Cutie Mark. I felt who he was right away... It was Desert Spring... And, just like my dream, he was also a Pegasus, from the dry meadow beyond Dodge City. His Cutie Mark was a shiny Blue desert stream on a light Tan, circular background. His coat was Brown, and his mane and tail were dark Red. I ran quickly to Fluttershy's Cottage. My sister (Equestria pony Fluttershy) didn't even need to be told why I had come; she surely felt why. The Shyna Twins didn't need to be told either. The five of us hugged tightly and cried softly for a few minutes. My Sis said to her Twin (Equestria Girls Fluttershy) "Twin, are you sure?" Twin said softly "Of course", and both Fluttershys hugged tightly a minute maybe. My sister, Equestria pony Fluttershy explained. "Summer, we actually felt his presence three days ago when he arrived in town. I am pretty sure he felt ours right away as well. "Still, we realized that we needed some sort of formal introduction before anything else. Fluttershy smiled at me. "Sis, that's where you come in" she said softly. "Can you bring him here?" she asked next. I hugged my sister tightly a few minutes, trying to not cry. Then I went to fetch Desert Spring. It took a little while, but I found him with my Stallion on that little hill in the East meadow. I really should have known to look there first. Well, maybe not any more, I don't know. As soon as I got close, Shysage said quietly "Desert Spring, please come with us." With Shysage in the middle, the three of us walked slowly through town, then out to Fluttershy's Cottage. We weren't in a hurry, and the only thing Shysage said was "Desert Spring, this is Summer, my Mare." I just smiled. I was pretty sure Desert Spring already knew, rather he already felt that. And I am so glad I am Shysage's Mare! The three of us walked up the hill towards the clearing around Fluttershy's Cottage. In the warm Sun sat both Fluttershys, both Shynas and three huge Black Panthers. My sister was blushing. I expected no less. Desert Spring walked up and sat down facing both Fluttershys. The Panthers crowded around him immediately, and purred loudly. He evidently got their seal of approval right away. "Fluttershy, this is Desert Spring" my Stallion said softly. Shysage and I then turned and walked back down the hill. The Shyna Twins quickly joined us. After we were clearly far enough away, the Shynas gave us a little more insight. Equestria Girls Shyna said while crying softly "Both Fluttershys have talked about this a lot. Neither wanted to hurt the other, but my Fluttershy is still pretty battered from two bad husbands in the Equestria Girls world, and needs time... Equestria pony Shyna smiled and added "And Shysage taught my Fluttershy that she absolutely had to wait for a kindred spirit. Well, as soon as he arrived in town, she knew he was that. Desert Spring is easily her equal in so many ways." And I was pretty sure... Relationships with other pony types might be fun, but only relationships between such kindred spirits could ever last... Still, this was a family discussion if there ever was... And I couldn't help but cry at this point. "But what if we need to leave soon?" Well, nopony really knew if, when that would happen. I was just concerned for my sister... Shysage had to hug me a little while. Equestria pony Shyna smiled again. "Fluttershy will just wait until she can come back here. She is sure Desert Spring will be worth waiting for..." It was quiet for a few minutes as we headed slowly to the Castle. Equestria pony Shyna said quietly "I'm pretty sure he has already felt his way through the rest of our family. I think he is pretty amazed." Well, I guess I was not surprised at this. The deep Fluttershy sensitivity that we all carried, it really was rare, and for Desert Spring to find us all together like this... Once we got near the Castle, the Shyna Twins bolted quickly away, and joined the Filias and Fionas playing Cutie Mark tag behind the Castle. I was tempted to join them, and I know Shysage would not have minded. There was just too much going on right now. Shysage and I wandered over to my tree, not too far from the Castle. We sat down next to each other, and stared off across the meadow. Shysage hugged me right away. Nothing was said for a little while... Then I quietly mentioned "Shysage, I don't think there is anything else keeping us here..." ... Shysage got up, and I did too. Well, we walked together. Actually, we headed to the meadow to the East. We were barely at Dawn's when we noticed, off in the distance, that Desert Spring, both Fluttershys and three huge Black Panthers were relaxing together on that little hill; each pony was fussing with an animal friend. Of course, we didn't want to interrupt them. And, I guess... Alyssa needed a good friend who would be here a while, maybe that was Desert Spring. It was just hard. We turned around and walked some other direction. I am really not sure where we headed, which way. We were soon in some meadow around Ponyville, and we just kept walking. We didn't know what else to do... It seemed like, behind us, there was just one closed door after another. Shysage and I both cried after I said that. We had walked quite a distance, away from Ponyville. We weren't paying much attention where we were going. We were basically just walking slowly... somewhere... together, because we had nowhere to go, nothing to do... Shysage saw a clump of pretty big trees off in the distance, and we decided to head there. Maybe we would find another nice hill to relax on together... The closer we got to that bunch of trees, the more we realized how big they were. Once we got close, Shysage gasped and said they were Redwood trees, then said quietly "How could we possibly have missed these..." He explained that Redwood trees grow almost as big as Sequoias. This didn't make a lot of sense to me, except that Shysage was not surprised at how tall these trees were. And the diameter of the trees at their base was... big... They easily dwarfed the scraggly low Live Oak trees in the surrounding meadow... We walked directly towards them, and soon saw the most beautiful ferns covering the ground around these trees. It was all very pretty. Shysage also realized the Redwoods were growing in a large circle. We walked around for a little while, looking for an easy way into the center of this amazing circle of huge trees. We found a gap between two trees, and headed inside. This amazing circle of extremely tall trees was maybe 200 feet across, Shysage thought. On the inside of the circle, there were also ferns around the bases of the Redwoods. Towards the center of the circle, the ferns gave way to the lushest, pony knee deep grass. And the grassy area formed a natural, slight hill, with the highest point in the center of the circle. It was near noon, and the Sun shone warmly through the arc of Blue sky past the top of this circle of very tall trees. Shysage said this direct Sun would only last maybe an hour or two. The warm sunlight felt amazing. And there was a very calm breeze blowing slowly across. Shysage said this place looked like a fairy tale. The grass felt amazing, it was very soft. The grass tasted amazing too... We snacked briefly. This place smelled amazing too, because of the trees Shysage said... We headed for the slight hill in the center of this circle of huge trees. We flopped down on our bellies in the grass at the top of that small hill, in the very center of this ring of huge trees. I was right next to Shysage. We cried... We had cried a little while, when I realized, rather felt, that my sister Fluttershy was right next to me. She gasped right away, and said quietly "Oh my." Fluttershy thought a moment, then said, again quietly "I guess it's time. Well, I told Desert Spring already, and he said he would wait." Fluttershy gasped again as she looked around at this amazing sanctuary surrounded by trees that reached to the sky. Heads buried together in the grass, the three of us cried softly together for a while more... After maybe an hour, we abruptly lost our direct sunlight. It wasn't because the Sun dipped past the trees... Something big had walked up to us, blocking the sunlight. Shysage, Fluttershy and I, we all sat up at the same time. We faced a huge White Alicorn. He said what we all realized... "I am Orbsah Tnuoc... I am the Keeper of Equestria... And he really was big, the size of a large horse in the Equestria Girls world, Shysage said later. Like last time, and without being asked this time, the three of us stood up, then bowed. Well, we were wiping away tears too. But it seemed... Maybe the Keeper was fighting tears too... He spoke slowly... "I cannot express... You have done so much... Rescuing... Helping... Caring..." It was quiet a minute maybe, then he continued. I guess he got right to the point. "You three amazing ponies must leave now, and go back to your time. I will be there too, but no matter." It was quiet a again. He was clearly thinking, but there was a lot at stake with us returning to our present. Shysage was thinking too, and said quietly "Sir, we don't want to erase all this..." Shysage had to stop there, and just cried. Well, Fluttershy and I did too..." But the huge White horse was crying too... Through tears, he said slowly "The price for what you have done... You must never tell a soul... You can never tell a soul... You have all travelled to the Past, and so you understand why..." He stopped here, but Shysage clearly realized that we couldn't say absolutely nothing. Well, he told me later he realized that. It didn't matter because Orbsah Tnuoc clearly understood our fears. He addressed them. "Children, you may refer to my title, and indicate that, on my authority, you have been silenced about this." He was thinking a minute, then he added this. "Powerful young one, you were given a dream some years ago, the dream you have actually lived through these last weeks. You may mention to your Princesses that this is what you have been doing, but you must not supply any other details." The Keeper was in thought again, then quietly said this. "Your Princess wisely understood that dream as a warning. You may mention, from my mouth... That one warning is all they require. Another dream, more details, this won't make any difference." Shysage just sighed, as Fluttershy and I wept quietly. But Orbsah Tnuoc was weeping softly too. He spoke again. "Dear ones, fulfill this, and at some point in the future, in your future, you will return to this very day, to this very place. This will become your present..." Fluttershy stopped crying, and she, too sighed. Coming back to here and now, to Desert Spring... It was quiet for a few minutes. We were still bowing before Orbsah Tnuoc. He asked us to stand up. Then he said quietly... "I'm sorry... I can't make this part any easier..." The Keeper... Our huge tree sanctuary... Everything faded from view...