//------------------------------// // Chapter 6, Signs // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 10 -- Ariel Dawn // by shysage //------------------------------// Well, the next morning, we started a new habit. The night before, we had stayed up until midnight maybe, as people, sitting and hugging, basically relaxing, leaning up against a tree. Then we both changed back to ponies, and Shysage curled up around me, and we both fell asleep. When we awoke (late) the next morning, we hugged and rubbed noses for a little while. Soon after, we were in the air, flying together. Flying felt absolutely amazing, and flying together... Still, I think we both felt homesick for other Pegasus friends flying with us. But this morning, we started something new. We would do this from now on while we were here, weather permitting. Starting at our tree, we flew up to maybe 200 feet. We wanted to be close enough to the ground so we could see any animals that might be down in this sea of Oats that was our meadow. But we also wanted to be high enough so that any animals below couldn't easily notice us. Starting at our tree, we flew a slow spiral, gradually flying further away from that tree. Our spirals were not perfect or uniform by any means, and that didn't even matter. It was so amazing, flying lazily in ever larger circles over the meadow. But, after the Cougar yesterday, we felt we had to. This was amazing Pegasus fun, but it was also necessary. We were working to protect ourselves. Our goal and hope was to find any more Cougars before they found us. Keeping our tree(s) to our left, we just kept flying. It was good exercise, and amazing fun together. And we realized that, even though the closest other tree was miles away, finding our tree again would be easy. From the air, it was easy to see our tree, then a well worn and broad pathway through the Oats down to the long narrow lake. And we laughed because we could see the places we had laid down together in the grass. And Shysage had marked where we were when we came here, too. He shoved a pretty large branch into the ground at that spot. That was also easy to see. So, even if we had flown far away, we suspected that finding our tree again would be easy. Our goal that first morning was to spiral out until we came to the closest tree. That tree was pretty far away, easily a few miles. By noon maybe we were flying huge circles, and could actually fly close to this nearet tree. It looked like our tree did; it was a bunch of scraggly trees blown together by the wind. Shysage led us in a circle around this new tree. Aside from some birds, we saw nothing else. Shysage suggested we land and check it out, so we did. A breather was welcome anyway; we had been in the air for hours by now. Shysage looked around some for a few minutes. As far as he could tell, this tree seemed to be directly West of our tree. It had no lake nearby, but was otherwise a lot like our tree. And I still don't know the details about how my Stallion can navigate like that, telling directions and such. Like I have said a lot; I really treasure his wisdom in a lot of practical areas. This tree was higher in elevation than our tree, and we could sit under this new tree, look East, and slightly down hill, and see our tree, miles off in the distance. We sat there a while, together and alone again, leaning up against each other. I just sighed a bunch. Being with Shysage, that was just home... Well, there was no lake nearby, and it was a warm day, maybe the middle of the afternoon, and we were both thirsty. Shysage said we should do a fairly large circle around this tree, then head back to our lake. We were quickly in the air. Flying still felt so amazing, even though we had been flying all mornin-- "Summer, look..." Shysage said. "Look at what?" I thought this. "Endless Oats? Dotted with small clumps of scraggly trees?" I really wasn't sure what Shysage even wanted me to look at. But he veered off, headed further to the West, as far as I could tell. I followed him, of course. The closer we got, the harder it was to miss. The trees we had seen, only sparsely dotting this meadow, were clumps of a few scraggly trees, wind blown together, and not more than maybe 35 feet high. But this... We landed at the edge of the grass, and faced a green carpet of lush ferns... ...Surrounding a lone, majestic tree that was maybe 150 feet high... For what seemed like a very long time, all we could do was sit and stare. We just sat there next to each other, awestruck at the view of something so big, and said nothing. We just looked in amazement at this huge tree, standing tall and alone, in the middle of an endless meadow full of pony food. Large birds occasionally flew into and away from some of the highest branches. Shysage also said quietly that it was a Redwood. I just accepted that; I don't know trees like he does. But when he said quietly it was the same tree as the ring of trees where we met the Keeper of Equestria (in the future)... I sighed right away; there was no dread here. Like the large circle of these trees we found in the future, we actually felt very calm, not apprehensive at all. Shysage said later it was from the tree, but the air smelled wonderful. A few minutes later, I asked quietly "What is this place..." Shysage didn't reply. Neither of us knew. For what seemed like hours we didn't move. We didn't even talk. We just waited, looked, well stared, and listened. Maybe we were waiting for the Keeper. I guess we really had no clue. Well, we really knew very little, really nothing about why we were even here, or even where or when we were. But this tree... It seemed as out of place as we felt right now... ... As the Sun headed towards the horizon further West, Shysage said we should head back to the closest tree, and spend the night there. He said he felt this was safer than spending the night right here, out in the open, even though both of us felt so at ease. We were soon in the air, and we landed at the closest scraggly tree as the Sun dipped out of sight, and it quickly got very dark. Like I mentioned, the Moon wasn't very big yet, so it got very dark at night. Shysage and I settled on the most protected side of this group of trees we could find, and were quickly on our bellies next to each other, looking out across the meadow, as the evening shadows grew darker. A canopy of twinkling stars soon covered the sky as the crickets, and maybe some frogs sang the night away. For a while, Shysage said little. I knew he was deep in thought, so I asked him. He said he was watching the stars to get some idea about directions. He explained that, as we rested behind the wind break at our other tree, we were facing North. He could tell because of a star he called Polaris; all the other stars seemed to move around it. He had already found that star, now to our left. This meant we were facing East, and our tree was miles further East. Well, I could never figure all that out! I just had to thank my Stallion again for his wisdom. I was sure I would be dead by now without him. I leaned lovingly up against him. "Shysage, I just want you to know--" Shysage gasped, then said slowly "Summer look..." Hmm... Was it something besides stars I was supposed to look at? Because right now, the only light around was from the stars. For a while, Shysage said nothing as I looked... searched... Maybe what I was supposed to see was in plain sight all the time... I finally gasped too... The Equestrium... A perfect triangle of stars, low to the horizon, off to the East... Standing still, tall, as other stars moved along behind them... It marked the home of the Pony Nation... I guess our tree, well the other tree, it was low enough that we couldn't see the Equestrium. But here... There it was... I started weeping softly... The Portal had brought us to the dim reaches of Equestria's past, maybe even before it was Equestria... Maybe even before our previous, first visit here when we rescued Cel and Lu... We were back... The music drifting slowly and quietly in the background(1) since we arrived, that alone should have tipped me off... And I simply could not stop that torrent of memories... Shysage just held me as I cried. Well, we cried together. We cried ourselves to sleep, hours later... It looked like mid-morning when we both woke up the next day. We were still on our bellies, right next to each other. Our realization that we were actually deep in the Past... Well, for the longest time, Shysage just hugged me some more, and little was said. I think we were reeling inside. The role we had played in Cel and Lu's lives, and the love we shared... We felt both honored and humbled by that. But the excruciating toll Dark Melvain had exacted over repeated trips back into the Past to help Cel... What was next? That was just a scary question. Shysage did say slowly at one point "Summer, now we know the direction to Coptol, but I don't think we should go there until and unless we have a good reason." Ok, so Coptol was, well now is, the capital city, the only city of the Pony Nation here in the Past. The three pony tribes, Earth, Pegasus and Unicorn, live in this city together. Well, they tolerate each other; this was probably more accurate. And they could not agree on a better name for their city. Still, Shysage was right. The further back into the Past we were, the more dangerous our time around other ponies became. I agreed with him, of course. Neither of us had any desire to head there. And I think we were hoping for more vacation. But we were both hungry and thirsty. We took to the air, and flew back to our tree, then flew a few large circles around the lake, just to be careful. Then we landed, and ate. We were both very hungry, and ate a lot. We kept getting drinks too, then went back for more Oats. I'm not quite sure why... I stopped eating, and looked up. Shysage had been eating only a moment ago. I knew because we always stayed close to each other now. Shysage's head was raised high, and he slowly looked around us, looking here, then there. He even got up, turned around and looked some more. Well, if it was danger, Shysage would have said something right away. I just sat down and watched. It was clear he was deep in thought, and I have learned that the results are easily worth a little patience on my part. A few minutes later... "Summer, can we fly across the lake?" he asked quietly. I nodded, and he led me to the other side of our lake. Like I said, this lake is rather long, but not extremely wide. It probably formed from rain-water collecting in a low spot between two almost imperceptible hills. Flying across the lake didn't take long. After we landed, Shysage, still looking around, wandered briefly, then sat down, looking mostly in the direction of our tree. He didn't need to ask; I followed, and sat down right next to him and looked off across the meadow like he was. "Summer, close your eyes" he said softly. Of course, I did, right away. And I know my Stallion; there was absolutely no fear in this at all. With my eyes closed, I felt his pony nose; Shysage gently kissed the side of my head. "I love my Mare" he said quietly. I just smiled with my eyes closed, and sighed. I have observed a number of times; it seems Shysage is always looking for new ways to show me he cares. He makes me feel so cherished... "Summer, with your eyes closed, assume you are sitting in front of the fountain and small pool in front of the Town Hall in Ponyville. Then, look to where the steps at the front of Princess Twilight's Castle would be." Of course, I kept my eyes closed and did this. I had flown over Ponyville a lot, and could usually know where everything was, based on where I was in town. Of course, I looked in the direction of Fluttershy's Cottage first. I missed my sister... But I quickly had my gaze on the entrance to Princess Twilight's amazing, magical Castle. I was remembering how beautiful it looked, especially at night. Magical lights-- "Now open your eyes" Shysage said softly. I did right away, and just gasped... I have already mentioned that a few days after Shysage and I had come here, Shysage turned into a people long enough to auger a large stick into the ground at the exact spot we had come here. That stick marked the spot, still slightly stained with Shysage's blood, where we first arrived. When I opened my eyes, I was staring right at that stick... And it didn't take long to compare our surroundings with Ponyville; the elevations were right, the contours were very close, the lake, even the meadow to the East... We were in Ponyville... There were no buildings here yet, of course. We had brought Cel and Lu here once on a flying trip while we raised them, and found basically this. And the founding of Ponyville around the Apple's farm was still centuries, well over a millenium in the future... The Portal... We had not moved at all, we had just been moved back in time... A long time... And, for what it was worth, that group of trees that were our trees... They were within feet of where my tree was in our present, well, is... whatever... Shysage was still sitting next to me. He put one of his front legs around me and hugged me. "Welcome home" he said quietly. I just cried... ... For an hour or two, we just sat there. We were in Ponyville before it was Ponyville, buried deep in the Past again, and the capitol of the tenuous Pony Nation was a few days travel to the East. Well, I think we were both still reeling emotionally. On our first trip to the Past, in less than five minutes we were flying high towards the Pony Nation with two precious foals on our backs. That pretty much determined how the next two or so years would go, except that we had no way of knowing the events that would unfold at the end of that time. But this time wasn't like that at all. We had been here maybe a week now. And over maybe the last 48 hours, events had just slowly unfolded that helped us orient ourselves to our surroundings. I don't think it was dread we were feeling. It was more just the auguring unknown. I just sighed. It seems we just left that feeling. Well, I think Shysage realized I needed help. He moved to face me, and we rubbed noses a little while. That helped a lot. "Summer, let's fly some" he said quietly. I love flying, and that helped too. We were soon in the air, and I just followed him. We weren't especially high, but Shysage was taking us West. Thirty minutes later, we were laying on our bellies at the base of that huge Redwood. I immediately felt better, and relaxed. I think Shysage was counting on that. We had not seen the Keeper, but still. This was a reminder that we were in good hands. We had a purpose here, and everything would work out ok. We talked to true friend some. Then I looked at Shysage and smiled. He smiled back, and we rubbed noses a little more. In the shade of that huge Redwood tree, Shysage and I took a nap. A few hours later, Shysage woke me up. "Hi beautiful" he said softly. A big smile was his reward. "Summer, we need to fly back and get dinner before it gets dark" Shysage said softly. We were soon in the air, and flew back to our tree. From there, we flew a few big circles to look for animals in our meadow. We didn't see anything. But I felt a lot better. As the Sun headed low to the West, Shysage and I landed by the lake and ate and drank together. We rinsed off in the lake too, and that felt wonderful. Well, Shysage was, well, looking at me a lot. "Summer you look amazing when you are wet..." He said this slowly. I think Shysage needed this... I splashed Shysage with one of my front legs, jumped back into the lake, and ran along the edge. I wasn't running fast; I wanted Shysage to follow me, which he did. Well, he gently knocked me over into the lake, and he was soon laying on his belly right next to me, as I was laying on my back in a few inches of water. I didn't move. Shysage blushed. I love my Stallion. He took care of his Mare. He made me feel like a Princess. It was amazing. Afterwards, we relaxed together, splashed more, then sat on the edge of the lake and watched the Sun set as we dried off. All of a sudden, Shysage began weeping softly. This was surely different, something was seriously wrong I thought. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I led us both back up to the wind break in our tree. Shysage cried the whole way. (opt:btm10b) When we got there, still crying softly, Shysage sat down and said slowly, haltingly... "Summer... I... You were... Wow... I don't know why... I didn't want... I couldn't... I'm sorry... I almost didn't..."