//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: The Kindness of Strangers // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 4 "Yer goin' on a what now?" Applejack asked. It was the following morning, and Twilight was preparing to leave town. "A walkabout!" she said with a smile. "When you lose yourself, or you don't know where your life is headed, you go out into the wilderness with nothing but a knife and your wits, until you find yourself." "Twilight, ya don't honestly think there's another ya wonderin' around out there in the wilderness do ya?" Applejack asked sceptically. "Of course not, it's a metaphor." Twilight said as she strapped the knife that Overdrive had given her to her flank. "Twilight, Ah hate ta be the one ta break this too ya... But ya don' 'xactly have any wits ta use out... where ya goin' 'gain?" Twilight chuckled, "Oh ye of little faith, I'm going to the Mohoofie desert. I was up all night reading about desert survival, I will be perfectly fine." "Ya say that now. But when ya git there an' realise y'all are doin' somethin' stupid, there ain't gonna be nopony out there ta help ya." Applejack said. "At leas' lemme go out there with ya." "I appreciate the officer Applejack, but I need to do this on my own. I will be a couple hours walk from El Paso Fino, and I promise not to let the city skyline out of my sight, if something does go wrong, I will be able to get there no problem," Twilight said. Applejack sighed. "An' everypony says I'm stubborn." "I'll be fine Applejack." Twilight said, she closed her eyes and thought very hard, and disappeared from the Library. "This won't end well." Applejack said as she walked out the Library door. -- Twilight Sparkle reappeared in a desert landscape. It worked; she had to be in the Mohoofie Desert! She'd never tried to teleport such a long distance before, but it had worked perfectly. She looked east, the sun was about to come up. "And Applejack said something was going to go wrong," Twilight said, "Now, basic needs: food, water, shelter." The sun came up and she looked around, there was remarkably little, "don't get discouraged, you'll be fine." Twilight walked through the desert for several hours, by now it was midday, and the harsh sun was right over her head, the temperature had jumped 20 degrees in the last few hours. Twilight was tired, and she was thirsty. "Applejack was right. This was a horrible idea." Twilight said. Twilight turned around, she thought she had heard someone call out. "Help me!" called a soft voice in the distance. Twilight turned and ran towards it, she was both amazed and dumbfounded by what she saw, it was Derpy Hooves, badly injured and covered in blood. "Help me! Please!" she called out. Twilight rushed over. "Derpy? How can you be here? What happened?" "It hurts! Please make it stop hurting!" Derpy pleaded, she was crying, but it wasn't tears that flowed from her eyes, it was blood. "I... I don't know how." Twilight said. Her voice was wracked with guilt. Derpy looked up at her. "Yes, you do." Twilight looked at the knife at her side, and pulled it out with her teeth. Derpy merely nodded. Twilight closed her eyes and plunged the knife into Derpy's heart. Twilight opened her eyes to find her knife was sticking hilt end up in the sand. Derpy was gone. Of course she's gone... she wasn't ever here, don't be silly Twilight Sparkle. "Pathetic," called a voice from above her. Twilight looked up, lying on a rather large rock, was none other than herself. "I expected better than this, from you of all ponies!" the other Twilight said. "You know better than to run away from your problems!" Twilight's jaw dropped, this wasn't happening, she was imagining it. She closed her eyes, and she hoped that when she opened them, the other Twilight would be gone. She opened them. The other Twilight was still there. "Trying to run away again?" the other said. "Pathetic." "I'm not running away... I'm out here to find myself," Twilight said. "Well you found her," the other said. "Now you get to listen to what she has to say." Twilight Sparkle looked at the other her lying on a rock, a small smile formed on her face. "Okay Twilight Sparkle, you've been wandering around in the desert by yourself without any water wayyy too long now. There is nopony there... you're just dying of heat exhaustion. I think I'm just going to lie down and let it happen now." Clearly, Twilight had lost it. "Hey you stupid filly! You're not allowed to die before I get to say what you need to hear!" the other screamed at her. Twilight shut her eyes tight. "I'm not listening to you!" She quickly lost consciousness. -- "Hey? You all right there?" Twilight heard a voice, followed by a gentle nudge. Her eyes popped open, and standing over her was a creature of the likes of which she had never seen before. This creature had hands. Hands! Long feet both of which were covered by an equally long pair of shoes and equally long tail, and was wearing an orange vest and a brown hat that somewhat reminded Twilight of Braeburn, Applejack's cousin from Appleloosa. "You're alive! Amazing! Here, have some water." the creature said. It was holding a canteen in the front of her, and poured some of its water into Twilight's mouth. Twilight found herself drinking the entire thing before she had realised what happened. "Poor Sheila, when did you run out of your own water?" the creature asked. Twilight's vision became clear again, she looked at the creature that was standing over her, and realised that she did know what it was. "... Are you, a wallaby?" she asked. The creature chuckled at her. "A wallaby? Noooo, I'm a kangaroo!" The Kangaroo helped Twilight to her hooves; she was still dizzy from dehydration, which made standing difficult. "Need more water? I got plenty enough to share," the kangaroo asked. "No. No thank you, I should be all right for a while... Thank you so much for helping me, if you hadn't come along..." "No need for thanks Sheila. No trouble at all really." the kangaroo said. "The name is Roy Melbourne. Just Roy to you, what's yours?" "Thank you Roy, I'm Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said. Roy chuckled a bit at hearing Twilight's name. "I love pony names. They're... unique to say the least. Tell me Twilight Spackle, where's your camp?" Twilight chuckled at Roy's mispronunciation of her name; his South Islander accent had butchered it completely. "I don't have a camp actually... I'm on a walkabout," Twilight said with some embarrassment that she was failing at it. "Oh god." Roy said, his hand smacking into his forehead. "Not another one. Shelia, I'm from South Island. I wander around the outback for fun, fun! Do you know how many idiots I see wandering around out there without a clue of what they're doing? I've had to save twelve. So here I am, on holiday in Equestria, what's the first thing I see? Another person on a damn walkabout!" Twilight smiled nervously, but Roy merely smiled back at her, "I was hoping ponies were more sensible." He turned around and waved Twilight to follow him. "C'mon, I ain't leaving you out here without food, water, or shelter." Twilight nodded, and followed Roy Melbourne back to his camp, trotting along at a good pace while he hopped along just ahead. -- The sun was setting. Twilight Sparkle and Roy Melbourne sat around a campfire next in Roy's camp. Twilight looked at her new friend. "Thank you for everything you've done, I really appreciate it!" "No worries Twilight Spackle!" Roy said with a smile. "Please, just call me Twilight!" she said with a smile. She looked at Roy; she had never met a Kangaroo before. Her curious mind had formed so many questions that she wanted to know the answers too, but Twilight just didn't know where to start. "What do you do for a living Twilight?" Roy asked her, he had beaten her to the punch. "Um." Twilight paused; really, she didn't actually do anything that resembled work. Princess Celestia had her in Ponyville studying magic, and friendship. "I'm a Librarian." Twilight said eventually. It wasn't a job in the normal sense of the word, but it wasn't inaccurate either. She DID live in a Library, and took it upon herself of helping anypony who needed a book from it. "I read about walkabout in one of my books, and well, some things happened back home that I'd rather not talk about right now, and I decided I needed to go on one." Roy smiled at her, "Don't worry yourself none. You need not tell me anything you don't want to." "I appreciate that, what do you do Roy?" Twilight asked. "I'm a Bounty Hunter," the kangaroo said. Twilight gave him an odd look, cocking her head slightly; she didn't know what that was. "I hunt bad people. People who commit crimes and flee into the wilderness where local law enforcement don't have the resources to go looking for them, and then I bring them to justice." Roy said. Twilight was impressed with her new friend. "Sounds like a noble profession." "It's got its ups and downs," Roy said with a shrug. "Most important thing on the job is don't hesitate, you go up against some bad people, and sometimes you gotta kill them, otherwise they won't hesitate to kill you." The colour in Twilight's face drained, and she became rather nervous. "You've... killed somepony before?" Roy looked at his new friend uneasily; he could tell that she was uncomfortable. "I haven't killed any ponies as a Bounty Hunter. There are less than two hundred ponies on South Island. So you don't run into them very often. I wasn't always a Bounty Hunter; I was a soldier in the Royal South Islander's regiment during the war." "The... war?" Twilight was confused; she didn't know what Roy was referring to. "THE War, the World War." Roy said. "That was almost 30 years ago." Twilight cocked her head again, she had never heard of this war, it had been long before her birth, but in all the books she had read, there was never once a single mention of "The World War." Roy shrugged again. "The Principality of Equestria wasn't involved." He paused and took a sip from his canteen. "You know, I've got nothing against ponies... But ever since coming here, it seems like everybody doesn't even know that there's a world outside your borders." A stern looked formed on Twilight's muzzle, and she was about to protest the kangaroo's accusation, but the more she thought about it, she thought that he might be on to something. Instead, she changed the subject, looking around to see the moon rising. She was quick to point it out to Roy, who looked at it with a smile. "Yeah, it's a beauty ain't it? I love looking up at the stars, some night's when I'm in the outback, far away from the city lights, and you can look up and see... everything. I love it!" Roy said. And here they had found a common interest. "My friend Luna would be so pleased to hear just how much you love her night." Roy turned around and looked at the pony with confusion. "Sorry? What do you mean by 'her night?'" "Oh come on, you know... Princess Celestia and Princess Luna created day and night respectively, and they alone are responsible for maintaining balance that comes from the day and night cycle." Twilight said. Roy looked confused. Twilight got angry, she felt like Roy was mocking her, pretending not to acknowledge her mentor and her friend for their work. But then it hit her, and she realised just how different Roy and her really were. "I'm not religious... Hell, I don't believe in god at all. But I respect what you believe, even if I don't believe in it." Very different. "Thanks," Twilight said, she forced a yawn and looked sleepily at Roy. "It's been a really long day for me, I think I'm going to try and get some sleep." Roy yawned back at her and nodded in approval. "Sounds great to me, think I'll do the same. Be sure to bundle up. It can get really cold in the desert at night." -- Twilight did not sleep however; she instead lay awake for most of the night, thinking about the things Roy Melbourne had told her. She thought she understood the world around her, but now, after talking with Roy, she wasn't sure. She had always accepted that the princesses had made day and night. She'd never even thought to have questioned the validity of it. She had to wonder, how much did they really do? How much was just story? What she did know is that Princess Celestia had reigned for 1001 years. Alicorns were said to be extremely long lived. She figured that the princesses had to have had parents that ruled before them, but she hadn't the faintest idea what had happened to them. She had never even thought to ask her mentor such personal questions about her life. She had gone on this walkabout to find herself. Now after meeting Roy Melbourne, she was more lost than ever. "Hey! Stupid!" a voice called out in the distance. Twilight looked up. Roy was fast asleep. She looked back over to find a pony standing over her. It was herself, the other Twilight. Twilight was about to scream in surprise, however the other was quick, and stuffed her hoof over the frightened unicorn's mouth. The other looked her in the eyes. "Be quiet!" she screamed at the unicorn at the top of her lungs. Twilight looked over at Roy, he was fast asleep. "He can't hear me," the other Twilight said plainly. "Don't talk until I tell you to. Roy Melbourne is a very light sleeper, a peep from you and he will be awake, looking at you and seeing that you're talking to nopony... from his point of view." Twilight tried to question just what the other was, but found the other's hoof in her mouth again. "Shut up you dumb filly! You can't run away from me this time. You can't run off from your responsibility." Both Twilights looked over at Roy, sleeping peacefully in his bag. "You even had the audacity to even consider running away from your life in Ponyville, and going with Roy Melbourne to South Island." The other had Twilight there; it had been just a thought, a single, casual, stray thought that had popped into her brain for a few seconds. Why not go to South Island? What does Ponyville need me for? "Your friends need you, stupid filly, and you want to abandon them because you feel like everything bad that's happened in Ponyville is your fault," the other's eyes narrowed on Twilight Sparkle. "How dare you to even think that you are so important that the universe revolves around you? Yes, you and your friends were destined to wield the Elements of Harmony against Nightmare Moon at the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration. That was your destiny, but that is over. As far as the universe is concerned, you have served your purpose, and you're just a regular pony now. So you need to stop thinking that you are so special that everything bad happens because of you. Do you understand me?! Let. Go." Twilight could only nod. The other's words had rendered her speechless; she couldn't have said anything even if she wanted to. The other removed her hoof from Twilight's mouth, and sat down in front of her on her stomach. "Now, you need to stop running away," the other's voice had changed from its harsh tone to a sweet one, like a mother would use to console a sad child. "I know that you're scared. It's okay to be scared. But it's not okay to let fear control you. When you feel scared, always know that you have six wonderful friends waiting for you to come back to them. Not to mention the new one that you just made." The two Twilights looked over at Roy, sleeping so peacefully in the desert night. "It's not going to be easy," the other said. "It's never been easy. But you and your friends have faced down far more worse. As long as you have them, you can't fail, because you have something your enemy has never known. He doesn't know what friendship is. You do." The two Twilights looked at Roy again. "You can stay with him one more day, and then tomorrow night, you have to go back," the other said. "Do you understand?" Twilight merely nodded. "Good, now go to sleep, you're tired and you need your rest," the other said sweetly. Twilight yawned and laid her head down to sleep, within a minute, she was out like a light. The other merely faded from view. Standing on a sand dune less than a kilometre from Roy Melbourne's camp site, Princess Celestia watched her student as she drifted off to sleep. "Good night Twilight Sparkle." The Princess said, "Sleep well." I love you. -- Twilight Sparkle awoke to the sound of a fire crackling, and a sizzling noise that only eggs could make. She popped her head up to see that Roy was indeed cooking breakfast consisting of two eggs, and a various assortment of desert grasses. He looked over at his new pony friend and smiled. "Morning,'" he said kindly. "Sleep well?" "I did! Thanks for asking," Twilight said returning the smile. "Breakfast is ready if you're hungry," Roy said, prepping two plates of scrambled eggs and several of the grasses. Twilight took the plate in her mouth and set it on her sleeping bag. Roy absentmindedly handed her a fork, however he had realised what he was doing quickly and retracted it, with a look of embarrassment forming on his face. "Sorry... I forgot you don't have hands." Twilight looked at the kangaroo. "Don't worry about it," she said with a grin. "What are you doing today Roy?" The kangaroo shrugged. "Wasn't planning on doing anything actually, I'm here on holiday." "I was wondering... can you tell me what South Island is like?" Roy spent several hours discussing his homeland; the conversation naturally progressed to his experiences in war. He'd been many places Twilight had never even heard of, but found herself wanting to visit each one of them. She wanted to see the beauty of the Rhone-land itself. Sit on the banks of River Rhone and skip stones across the water. She wanted to wander the maple forests of the Hoofson Bay. She wanted to see the port cites in the Low Countries, and watch the ships sail to and from. It reaffirmed in her that she wanted to see the world. She wanted to leave Equestria and Ponyville behind forever and see what else the world had to offer her. But then she remembered what the other Twilight had said, she couldn't abandon her friends. Not when they needed her the most. She wanted to travel the world alongside Roy Melbourne. But she simply couldn't. The pony and kangaroo had spent the entire day talking about what each of them had seen, (Roy's stories were far more numerous), but the sun was beginning to set. Twilight couldn't help but looking at it solemnly. She didn't want to leave behind her new friend, but there wasn't a choice involved. "I have to go back." Twilight said finally. Roy looked at her and smiled, "I know." Twilight looked at the kangaroo and gave him the biggest smile she had ever given. "Thank you, for everything." She gave the kangaroo a hug, and tried to say her goodbyes, but Roy was quick to stop her. "No goodbyes, I don't think this is the last we'll be seeing of each other. You can't get rid of me that easy." Roy said. Twilight giggled. "Of course! You owe me a trip through the South Island outback! Goodbye Roy." "Goodbye Twilight Spackle." Roy said, waving her goodbye, and with that Twilight teleported away back to Ponyville. She never saw Roy Melbourne again.