Our little poker night earlier this week went pretty well. Nopony got seriously injured at the least. Everypony ended up having a lot of fun once the punishments stopped happening. Since then everypony's injuries have healed, Dark's mane and tail went back to normal, and Orion is luckily still able to have kids after that. Don't get any funny ideas about how I know that.. He just decided to share after visiting the doctor.
Right now I'm hanging out with a few of the others at the cafe after getting off work. Tonight I'm finally getting back to the Everfree Forest after weeks of not being able to. Last time I went in was the time I encountered Dark and we got into a fight. Good times. Good times... not really, but whatever.
With all the crazy stuff like the monster invasion, the trip to Las Pegasus, and then the unscheduled visit to my parents' house in Cloudsdale, I've been reaaly busy. It's quite frustrating really. I move to this town to study the forest and then be kept away by a lot of crazy junk. Oh well. At least I've been having a hay of a good time with it all.
As I sit with Drax, Ice, and Vine, Orion walks through the front door and comes to join us. "Hey, guys. What's up?" He says.
""Hey, Orion. Not much." I say. I examine him, looking at his face. Might as well ask what I've been wanting to for a while now. "Hey, Orion?"
"Yeah, Blue?"
"I've been wanting to ask for a while where you got those scars on your face. You don't seem like the kinda guy to do something dangerous enough to get those."
"Oh, these? Well, it was very dangerous and stupid. You all know how I'm into atronomy, right?"
"Right."
"Well, I've been wanting to study the star patterns on celestial beasts."
"You mean like ursas, scorpios, and lupine?"
"Precisely. One night I was studying a sleeping ursa major when a baby ursa minor caught my with a paw and sent me flying. I was lucky I was able to fly out of there in time before I became an ursa snack."
"Hmm, pretty nice. So, have you ever gone back?"
"Gone back? Oh, no way. I learned my lesson. It's too dangerous to go back. At least on my own it is."
"Well, I'm heading there tonight, you wanna come along?"
"Wait, are you serious?" He say, raising an eyebrow.
"Buck yeah, bro. I'll study the plants for the weather, and you can study the sleeping monsters for astronomy. We'll watch each other's backs so neither of us get hurt."
"Do I need to come along and make sure you two don't get into any more trouble?" Vine jokes.
I wave her off. "No way. We'll be fine. What could possibly happen with two of us?"
"Well, can I think it over first?"
"Sure, go right ahead."
Orion then goes on to think with his two seperate consciences.
{What do you guys think?}
[Do it, bro! This may be our big chance!]
(While normally I'm against doing something this wreckless, this is probably the best chance we're gonna get figuring this stuff out.)
{Then it's settled. We're going}
He nods. "Alright, I'm in. I say we do it."
"Sweet! This is gonna be awesome, bro. You head to your house and get what you need while I do the same."
"You got it."
We both get up from our seats as we make our way out with Drax shouting behind. "Try to not get hurt or bring any psychos home this time!"
"No promises!" I shout back.
He shakes his head as he chuckles.
"Well, better start prepping the house." Ice jokes.
"I'll get the first aid kit ready. You and Zeph get the couch prepped."
"Heh, on it after I get off."
The three remaining ponies just laugh. Yep, this is all just a big joke to us now. Show's you just how crazy things are for us.
Orion and I go our seperate ways as we go to our homes to get ready for the big night. As I get home, I do my normal routine of prepping. I take a nap, make myself some fresh chimicherrychongas, grab my notes, and then head out. Depite having gone so long without doing all that, doing all of it felt pretty autonomous. Either I'm just that good, or I'm just that used to it. I'd like to think it's the first one.
Anyway, right now I'm heading to meet up with Orion at the forest's entrance near Fluttershy's place. We had agreed to meet up at about six and right now it's about ten til then. Pretty good timing if I do say so myself.
I reach the forest entrance to find Orion already waiting for me. "Eager, aren't we?"
He chuckles. "You know it. Now, let's do this!"
"Buck yeah!"
We do an awesome brohoof before heading inside together. This should be interesting.
"Okay, I say first we do the plants since they'll be the easiest." I say.
"Okay, that's cool." he looks over to a bunch of blue flowers. "Hey, what about those?"
"No! Don't go near those!"
"Why not?"
"Because that's Poison... um... I can't remember the name, but just remember it's very bad if you touch it."
"Okay, okay. I get it."
[Geez, take a chill pill.]
(Be nice. He's just trying to warn us.)
The rest of our time plant inspecting is pretty boring. Only things of interest we find are more Hood Swap plants and poison joke, but neither of which are very useful to us. To a certain trolling mare, yes. To us, no.
"Are we done yet? This whole plant thing is pretty boring." Orion says.
[*makes snoring noises*]
(Agreed.)
I finish eating up a chimicherrychonga. "Sure, I'll agree it's getting a bit boring. Normally something crazy happens by this point."
"Sweet! I remember where there's this ursa cave around."
"Okay, lead the way."
I start following Orion as we pass through dozens of trees and bushes, supposedly on a path to a cave where ursas sleep.
"Are we there yet?" I ask, getting bored by how long this is taking.
Orion pushes passed some leaves and smiles. "Indeed, we are."
I look passed him to see a cave where an ursa minor can be seen sleeping. "Woah, cool."
"Yep, you stand back and keep on the look out. I'll go over and examine its fur."
"You got it."
We both walk over to the cave as I get in position just outside of it and Orion steps inside to get near the giant baby. Still astounding how something so huge can be so young.
I stand by, bored as Orion examines the celestial coat. "Fascinating." he says.
"Yeah, real fascinating. You nearly done."
"Yeah, I-" he begins to have trouble talking as he feels a tickle in his nose.
I quickly rush over and catch him before he sneezes. "Phew. That was close."
"Yeah, thanks. We almost woke it up."
Suddenly, I flinch as I feel a drop of water fall on my head. "Hey, is it raining?"
"In a cave?"
We both look up to see a humongous ursa major standing over us. "Oh buck!"
The beast roars, making the entire cave shake. We quickly run off in an attempt to escape.
"I think we lost it." I say, looking behind myself as I run.
Orion stops as we near a cliff, but I don't see it in time, so I push us both down the steep cliff. AS we hit the bottom, we land on a lupis' tail and cause it to wake up.
We get up, looking to see we landed in a resting place for a pack of lupis minors. After our little fall, they are fully awake and looking hungry.
"Orion."
"Yeah?"
"Grab onto something."
He listens as he grabs onto a tree and I start creating my Blue Tornado. The tornado captures up all the wolves, sending them all crashing in multiple directions.
I land, feeling confident. "No problem."
"Yeah, nice work." Orion says, walking over to me.
We turn as we suddenly hear a bit of growling. We see a small lupis minor, a baby even, limping towards us in an effort to try and look intimidating. It trips and falls to the ground.
We rush over to it and look at it. "Blue, it's hurt."
"I can see that. We gotta do something for this little guy. I say we take him over to Fluttershy's to get patched up."
"Agreed."
I put the small star wolf on my back as we rush out the forest as fast as possible, ignoring every obstacle in our way.
We reach the exit and rush over to luttershy's and quickly knock on the door.
Fluttershy opens it, lloking worried. "Blue, Orion, what's wrong?"
She gasps when I turn to show her the lupis. "He's hurt. Can you help him?"
"Of course. Quickly come in." Fluttershy takes the wolf and uses disinfectant on a cut on its leg. After that she takes some spare bandages and wraps it up. "There, he should be fine now. Just a nasty cut on one of his legs."
Suddenly, the lupis wakes up and looks at us. I walk up to it. "Hey, buddy. ow ya doin'?" It opens it mouth at my hoof, but instead of biting, it licks me. "Hey, I think he likes me." I suddenly get an idea. "Hey, Fluttershy? Can I keep him?"
"Sure, you're the one who found him. He's basically just like a dog, so taking care of him is pretty simple."
"Yes!" I look over at Orion. "Well, thanks for the fun night, bro. I'll see ya around. Now I've gotta take this little guy home and introduce him to the others."
"No problem. Good luck." he says.
We both leave Fluttershy's as I head home with the lupis. I get there soon enough and walk inside. "Guys, I have a new friend I'd like you all to meet."
"Say what?" they all say.
The lupid pops off my back and goes over to them. "Meet my new pet lupis minor. I found him while out in the forest with Orion."
"Awesome, Blue. What's his name?" Zeph says.
"Hmm, I'm not sure yet. I'll think of something."
"Um, don't look now, but I think he just marked his territory on the rug." Drax says, pointing to a stain on the rug.
I facehoof. "Ugh, I'll get the cleaner."
I can tell having this little guy around is gonna be fun.
Author's Note: Finally! Now I've got an awesome pet! But I'd like you guys to get in on the fun too. I'm gonna let you guys suggest a name for him. I'll pick the best and use it next chapter. Come on, I know you guys must have some good ones.