Another week passed and my foot was fully healed, Twilight’s magic sure did some wonders. Rainbow also grew closer to me, she wanted to protect me from everything. I assured her that everything was fine and that she didn’t have to worry. This made her lower her guard, but she was still always following me, except when I went to the bathroom.
It was a normal morning. Rainbow and I were playing games on the PlayStation 3, I was playing and she was watching, because her hooves couldn’t hold a controller. She did encourage me when I was playing games or laughing at me when I failed miserably. We were already staring 2 hours at the TV, sometimes took a break to eat or to go to the toilet. We had much fun until we heard a small ticking on my door.
I paused the game and went to the door. I opened it and saw a little yellow Pegasus standing at my feet, looking down. “Can I come in?” She asked shyly, still looking down. I got out of her way and she came in.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, this wasn’t the normal Fluttershy. She said nothing and jumped on the couch, I sat down beside her. Rainbow was sitting on the floor, we both exchanged puzzled looks.
“It’s…it’s… it’s horrible, I miss Angel so much.” She began crying, her head pressed against my chest. I pressed my hand against her back and looked at Rainbow, for a moment she had a jealous look on her face, but this was immediately replaced by a curious look. I then placed both my hands on her face and made her look up, our eyes met.
“If you miss him so much, then why didn’t you want to go back?” I stared directly into her eyes. Her tears went down her cheeks before dropping on my lap. She found her voice and spoke.
“Because these animals need me a lot more than the animals in Equestria, but I miss Angel.” She cried again. I stroked her mane and said comforting words; I saw that Rainbow felt sorry for her friend.
“Well, pack your things. We’re going on a camping trip to find your new pet.” She looked up; I saw happiness in her eyes, together with some tears.
“Do you really want to do that?” She was already hugging me, well, squeezing would be a better word. She finally let go and I managed to breathe, Rainbow was just laughing on the ground.
“Yes, I do. Now go pack some things, we’ll leave in half an hour.” She ran outside towards her cottage. I closed the door and packed Rainbow and my things. After that was finished, I went to the 4 other mares to ask if they would come to. Only Applejack and Rarity couldn’t come, because they were busy with their work. It was just Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie, Spike, Twilight and me. We would be back in two days. When everyone was ready, we hopped into the car and drove to the camping place where I lost Hugo. It wasn’t time to keep looking at the past, it was time to move on and I’m sure Hugo would want that too.
*****
It was midday when we arrived at the parking. It was still a half an hour walk until we would reach the camping spot. I had a bag pack and the rest had saddlebags, Spike had a very small backpack. I made two rules: no magic and no wings, only in emergencies. They all agreed and we began walking.
We arrived at the camping spot and I immediately set up the tent. Twilight came to me and asked if I wanted help. I, of course, said yes, because setting up the tents was one of the hardest things on a camping trip. The rest searched for some food while Twilight and I were now, literally, wrestling with the tent.
“Can’t I use my magic, just this once?” I looked at her and gave her a ‘don’t you dare’ look. She immediately knew that she had to do it the old way and after some thinking and calming down the tent was ready and so were the other tents.
When the rest returned with food, it was time for a late midday snack. Everyone got one apple and began eating. While they were eating, I slowly walked away, to the cliff where Hugo died. I sat at the side of the cliff, it was strong enough to hold me. I sat there for five minutes, tears began forming in my eyes, the memory was still as painful as on that faithful day. I heard the steps of a pony, I looked behind me and saw Rainbow standing there.
“Do you mind if I sit next to you?” She asked, calmly.
“Not at all.” I said with a little smile while trying to hide my tears. She came closer and sat down next to me, her head resting against my shoulder.
“It was here wasn’t it? This was the place where Hugo died.” I couldn’t hold my tears back and began crying. She gave me a big hug, trying to calm me.
And so time passed, me crying and Rainbow calming me down. We talked a bit about Hugo and all the things we did together, like our pranks in school. I felt relieved to finally open my heart to someone else. When I managed to stop crying we went back to the camp, I’m sure going to be visiting this cliff again.
At the camp everything was alright, Twilight was reading, Spike was sleeping, Pinkie was being Pinkie and Fluttershy was looking at the animals. “So, Fluttershy. Have you already made a selection which animal you’re going to take?” I asked, my sadness was gone, for now.
“Well, I’ve seen a bunny who looked just like Angel, now I just need to win his trust.” She pointed with her hoof at a little white bunny. When she did that it got scared and ran away. Fluttershy gasped and ran after it, I ran after Fluttershy and soon the whole group was running after Fluttershy, deeper into the forest.
After five minutes of running everyone was tired and so we stopped. The strange thing was that the bunny also stopped, when I looked behind the bunny I saw a great brown bear standing there.
“Slowly… back… away… now.” I spoke quietly and slowly, not wanting to startle the bear. Everyone went slowly backwards, but then there was Pinkie. She just jumped in front of the bear, the bear roared in Pinkie’s face. “Run!” I screamed.
Everyone ran, even Pinkie who was now scared like hell. “Forget the rules, use your magic and wings.” I said, running for my life. Rainbow immediately took off and Twilight shot some magical beams at the bear, the only thing the bear did was sneeze. I noticed that we lost one pony and that the bear also stopped. We lost Fluttershy.
I ran back towards the bear, only to see that he had cornered Fluttershy. Just when he was about to bite Fluttershy, I grabbed her and ran away with her, luckily she wasn’t so heavy. The bear was still on our tail and managed to tear a sleeve off and some skin from my arm. Then came Rainbow with the rescue, She dove down and pushed her hind hooves right into the bear’s face. I fell down unconscious, the only thought in my head being ‘we’re safe’. I sat Fluttershy back down, right when I did that a small white bunny came towards her. It seemed that defeating the bear was the key to gaining that bunny’s trust. She took the bunny and placed it on her back, and we slowly walked back towards the camping spot.
When we arrived, we saw that the rest of them were already there. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 6PM, time for dinner. At home I made some daisy sandwiches for everyone, and Spike and I ate some salad. When the sun set, we made a campfire and told some stories, Twilight about the time that she saved her brother from the evil queen, Rainbow told about how she managed to do a Sonic Rainboom, Pinkie told us about her parties, Spike about his time with the dragons and Fluttershy said nothing, as she was too busy with her bunny. I told them about my high school life.
It soon was 11PM and it was time to go to sleep, tomorrow we would go swimming. I haven’t told them so it would be a surprise. Everyone retired to their tent, Rainbow sleeping with me. The tent wasn’t that large so we had to lie close to each other, but I didn’t mind, I liked it. I was so tired of our encounter with the bear that I drifted into sleep immediately.
*****
I could feel the warmth of the sun through the fabric of the tent; it was the warmth that had awoken me. I turned around to wake her up, but to my surprise she wasn’t there. I opened the tent and got out, as sleeping with your clothes on is pretty uncomfortable. I looked up at the sky and saw Rainbow flying, she had ignored my no flying rule, and I decided she should be the first to swim.
“Rainbow, I said no flying.” I yelled at her, so she could hear me. She looked at me and with an apologetic grin she landed in front of me.
“I just needed to stretch my wings.” That was no excuse; she was going to get a nasty surprise.
Just when I was about to explain what I had in mind for her, the other ponies came out of their tents. Not wanting to spoil the surprise, I let it drop and began making the breakfast. It was again sandwiches, but now with roses for the ponies, and for Spike and me a sandwich with some chocolate.
When everyone was finished with their breakfast, I told them to follow me. They followed me and after 10 minutes we arrived at the lake. They all looked surprised and Rainbow was the first to speak.
“Why are we here?” She asked, looking at me. I just went to her and grabbed her, I walked towards the lake and stopped at the beginning of the lake.
“Because you’re going for a swim.” Before she could react, I threw her into the air. She was too late to use her wings and fell into the water. When was again at the surface, she spoke.
“You jerk!” She yelled, her mane hanging in front of her eyes. Meanwhile I was busy trying to grab another pony to throw into the water. In 5 minutes everyone, except Twilight was in the water. I ran after Twilight, but she did something nasty. She levitated me into the air and towards the lake. I gave her a ‘please don’t’ look, but it was to no avail. The magic stopped and I fell into the water.
“Hah, how do you like that?” Rainbow asked me mockingly, I just was watching Twilight and to my surprise she walked into the water. We enjoyed it for about half a day, playing in the water, lying on the ‘beach’. At midday it was time to return home, we packed our things and put it into the car. Everyone got in the car and we left, back to the farm with a new pet for Fluttershy.
*****
When the sun began to set we arrived back home, everyone was tired and went straight towards home, Fluttershy thanked me again before returning home. Rainbow and I went into our own home. I was too tired to do anything else so I washed myself, put on my pyjamas and went to bed. Rainbow needed some time to get all the lake water out of her mane and coat, then she also went to bed. In bed we talked about everything that happened the past days and giving each other a kiss before departing to dreamland.