A New Direction
April 27, 2012
When morning came, I was already awake. My sleep had been sparse that night, as there was far too much on my mind to allow for a peaceful rest. It had only been a few days since I'd met the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the young man who had discovered them, but since then things had been moving at a brisk pace. There had been the injuries to Angel and Apple Bloom, which they had yet to fully recover from. Then just last night we had stumbled upon none other than Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle, along with the young couple who had found them. And now, some time today, I was due to meet with Moey in an effort to explain myself to my wife.
There was just so much that needed to be sorted out. We still needed to confirm the locations of Rainbow Dash and Applejack—both of whom had been recently located by DragonLS—and somehow organize to get them to meet up with Dragon and Princess Celestia. We needed to ensure that Angel and Apple Bloom had time to recover from their injuries, and we needed to keep an eye on Sweetie Belle's increasingly frequent magical outbursts. The arrival of Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle might help there, but the princess was stuck in the body of a child—an apparent side-effect of Discord's spell to transform her into a little filly before the Equestrians were transported to Earth, according to Twilight. Of course, then there was Twilight herself, who seemed distant and aloof compared to what I had seen on the show. The couple who had found Twilight and the princess also intrigued me. The young lady named Michelle seemed nice enough, but her fiance, Nathan, seemed distrusting. That could either be a good thing or a bad thing, but all it was at the moment was just another thing to worry about. Then there was Rarity, who we assumed must also be on Earth, but who, as far as we knew, was the only pony who was completely unaccounted for.
We also had to worry about Discord. He hadn't bothered us since disappearing with Ashton, the poor bloke who had somehow made Discord angry enough to transform him into a dingo, but he could likely return at any time. We were counting on Ashton to keep Fluttershy's and Pinkie Pie's identities a secret from Discord, seeing as Equestrians were somehow unrecognizable unless their names were spoken—a side effect of the chaos blast that sent them to Earth in the first place.
I stretched, pulled my blanket aside, and sat up. Nearby, Angel was still curled up in a sleeping bag, fast asleep. John, however, was missing. If the muted voices outside the tent were any indication, he was probably out there getting breakfast ready with some of the others. I wondered if Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her group would be joining us. After the unexpected meeting with Princess Luna last night, I had met those who were travelling with her, including Twilight. Once all was said and done, their tent somehow managed to end up at our camp. I assumed Pinkie Pie was the one responsible for that little miracle, and though Nathan, Michelle, and Twilight decided to sleep in their tent, Luna had been moved into the Crusaders's room in ours.
Once I was outside I saw that John had indeed begun breakfast, along with Fluttershy, Apple Bloom, and Twilight.
"Good morning," I said, taking a seat next to Fluttershy as she watched the food cook over the fire. I recalled how awful the food had been when she tried to make breakfast not long ago, and was relieved to see that she was in charge of dishing up while John did most of the cooking. "Something smells delicious."
"I told ya John's a good cook!" Apple Bloom said. She shoved some rubbish into a plastic bag, keeping herself busy with cleaning up after the food preparation.
"Let's not forget who helped me pick out the ingredients," I replied, earning myself a smile from the former filly. She then let out a huge yawn, reminding me that I wasn't the only one who hadn't had much sleep. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had been particularly tired last night, and were still asleep in the tent with Princess Luna when I woke up.
Twilight, who had been assisting John with the cooking, came over to sit with Fluttershy and I. She stared at the ground a moment before speaking.
"I want to thank you," she said. She looked me in the eyes then. "For finding my friends, I mean. Pinkie told me how you organized to bring everypony together, and how you've located even more of my friends elsewhere. It must have been difficult, but you've somehow managed to reunite half of us." She looked uncomfortable speaking to me, and I couldn't blame her. I was used to it from former ponies by now.
"I can't really take all the credit. It's just an amazing coincidence that we've managed to find so many so quickly." I thought then about the people I knew of who had located former ponies. "There is one thing that might be a key to all of this, though."
"What's that?" Twilight asked, her interest piqued.
I hesitated, wondering whether or not Nathan had shown her the internet. "Well, there's this... club I belong to for people who write stories—"
"You're an author?" Twilight stared with rapt attention.
"Kind of." I leaned forward and tried to explain. "Everyone I know of who has found one of your friends belongs to this 'club.' Everyone but Nathan, that is. I have yet to ask him about it."
"Everyone but who?" Twilight asked.
"The man who you've been travelling with," Fluttershy chipped in. She leaned over and handed us each a plate.
Twilight seemed confused for a moment, then said, "Oh, right! Nathan." She held her plate out as John served up some eggs. She was silent for a while before continuing. "I know he has medical training, but I'm not sure about writing. If what you're saying is true, we should be careful about jumping to conclusions. We must remember that correlation does not equal causation."
I raised an eyebrow. "What?" I asked as politely as I could.
A sigh. "Just because most of us may have been found by members of this 'club' doesn't automatically prove that there is a connection there. While it would be a sound theory to suggest that perhaps there is a link, it would be unwise to, er, put all your eggs into one basket." She held up her plate of eggs and shrugged. "It's certainly something we can look into, though," she added as if to humor me.
I nodded and dug into my own breakfast. Twilight had a point, and it would do no good to get the other Equestrians' hopes up only to find out that it really was just a coincidence. Hell, Rainbow Dash and Applejack may have been located, but we still didn't know who had found them. Then there was Rarity, who was still unaccounted for. There were no guarantees that any of them had been found by fan fiction writers.
We'd just have to take things one step at a time.
After breakfast I helped clean up, then got started on re-organizing our supplies. Things had become misplaced since we first set up camp, and I wanted everything to be easy to find in case we needed it. There was no telling how long we'd be roughing it, so it was important to stay updated on things such as our food and medical supplies. The first aid kit in particular was fast running out of bandages, and while Nathan had brought his own supplies, it would do no harm to top up our own.
I was in the tent counting how much fruit we had left when Fluttershy entered. She looked up and smiled briefly, then knelt down beside the room the Crusaders shared with Luna in search of something.
"How are the kids doing?" I asked.
Fluttershy stopped rummaging for a moment. "They're okay," she said quietly. I could tell from her tone of voice what she was thinking.
"What happened to them isn't your fault," I said, but Fluttershy just looked away. She had been the one to help free me from Luna's sleep spell that had backfired. What I hadn't known at the time was that Fluttershy had also commanded a large and varied group of animals—everything from snakes to birds to lizards—to help guard our tent while she ventured outside to find out what had happened to me. What she hadn't expected was that the animals would prevent anyone from leaving the tent, as well. One poorly-timed bathroom break for Sweetie Belle later, and she, John, and Angel had all ended up with various bites and scratches, with Angel suffering the brunt of the attack. To have that happen to him so soon after receiving his injuries from Sweetie Belle's errant magical blast... Well, it was no wonder Fluttershy felt awful about the whole situation.
"I understand," she murmured. She went back to her search. "I was just looking for a toy or something for the princess."
I raised an eyebrow. "Princess Luna plays with toys?"
"She does now," Fluttershy said. "She has a toy that her humans gave her, but I wanted to see if there was anything else she could play with. Anything to keep her mind off of... well, you know."
I most certainly did. Being trapped in the princess's nightmare had shaken me up a bit, but what was worse was that the girl seemed to remember everything that had happened within. The princess knew she wasn't meant to be a little filly—or girl, in this case—yet she couldn't help but have childish needs and emotions. I could only imagine what it must feel like to have two separate personalities battling for control of one's mind.
Unable to find anything useful, Fluttershy stood up. "I don't suppose the princess is a hoofball fan," she muttered. Sighing, she turned to leave.
"Hey," I called out before she reached the exit. She stopped and turned to look at me. "Thank you. For helping me out last night."
A small smile appeared on Fluttershy's lips. She nodded, and a moment later she was gone.
The rest of the morning made things abundantly clear that having so many people around didn't make things any easier to deal with. Back when it was just Pinkie, Fluttershy, and I, it wasn't too difficult to address their individual needs. I'd only had two mouths other than my own to feed, two extra bodies to clothe, and so on. Since picking up the Crusaders, however, our group had grown to include a total of twelve individuals. Four humans, eight Equestrians... five of which were children.
I thought about having the true humans—Nathan, Michelle, John, and myself—look after two Equestrians each. It would have taken some of the load off our shoulders if we no longer felt the need to look after every one of the former ponies at every waking moment of the day. I dropped that idea, though. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were capable of looking after themselves for the most part, and I assumed Twilight would be fine as well. It was all the children who needed to be taken care of, what with injuries and emotional outbursts and dual personalities. With seven adults looking after five children, it would lessen our burden even further.
The rest of the adults agreed. Twilight was tasked with helping Sweetie Belle control her magical outbursts, as well as helping the former filly understand that she couldn't be blamed for what she couldn't control. Nathan and Michelle would look after Princess Luna, seeing as they had the most experience with handling her anyway. While they couldn't help her out with her magic, they did seem to have a knack for keeping her occupied and relatively happy. Fluttershy would look after Angel, of course. I could think of no one better to care for the former bunny. John would look after Apple Bloom. She'd also been through a lot lately, and I felt it best to keep the human she was most comfortable around in charge. I would be looking after Scootaloo which, in my opinion, was probably going to be the easiest child to care for. Other than an apparent nightmare or two, I wasn't aware of any injuries or severe emotional scarring that she had to deal with. I could handle her just fine. That left Pinkie Pie to assist anyone who needed it at any given time.
With everyone sorted, I wandered the campsite until I found Scootaloo sitting under a tree. She was picking stones up and idly tossing them into the forest, clearly bored.
"Hey," I said as I drew near. I put my hand on the tree and leaned against it. "Having fun?"
Scootaloo looked up and shrugged. "Yeah, a real blast," she said before sighing and shaking her head. "Sorry. I guess I'm kind of bored."
"I noticed," I grunted. "Want to toss the football around?"
The way Scootaloo's eyes lit up was all the answer I needed. With all the things that had occurred over the past few days, it was easy to forget just how therapeutic a moment of fun could be. Scootaloo tagged along as I retrieved the football, then went about looking for a decent spot to play. We eventually found a spot nearby that was clear enough to run around a bit. I did a few stretches before we began, which Scootaloo mimicked. Soon enough we were ready to play.
I decided to throw the first pass rather gently, but Scootaloo wouldn't have any of it.
"Come on, you can throw it harder than that. I can handle it!" she shouted after easily catching the ball. She tossed it back and made a show of tapping a foot impatiently. So that was how it was going to be, hm?
The next pass sailed right through her hands, and she was forced to go run after it. She didn't seem to mind, though, if the grin on her face was any indication.
"That's more like it!" she said. "Keep throwing them like that." Her next throw had an impressive amount of heat on it. Not as much as Apple Bloom could muster, but still impressive considering that she'd only been in a human body for a few weeks. We took turns trying to force each other into making more difficult catches.
"So how you holding up?" I asked after having to jump for a catch. I hurled the ball back at her.
Scootaloo caught the ball, then considered her answer. "I suppose it could be worse. I mean, no offense. I know you've been helping us out and all but, you know." She looked down at her body. "Still human, still not home. Apparently make-believe," she added quietly.
Alarm bells went off in my mind. It didn't take a bloody rocket scientist to figure out that she must know about the cartoon, but up until that point I'd never thought to ask John how much the Crusaders knew.
"Hey," I said, walking over to her. "You're as real as it gets." She held up a hand before I could reach her, however.
"Yeah, yeah. I know," she said. She tossed the ball to me and gave a small shrug. "I already talked to John about all that stuff. Like I said, it could be worse." She held out her hands and I threw the ball back. "I'm just glad we can still have some fun."
I considered her situation. She was, what, about nine years old or so? The kid's attitude impressed me. I was sure she was probably a little more rattled than she let on, but she was handling it better than I would have imagined. I had a sudden thought.
"Come sit for a minute," I said, walking over and sitting beneath a tree. Scootaloo came over and sat nearby. "I want to be serious a moment. You know that we're going to try our best to get you back home, right?"
Scootaloo nodded. "Of course! John gave his word, and you already found Twilight and Princess Luna, so I know we can count on you." Her smile made my next words more difficult.
I looked her in the eye. "Well... have you given any thought about what you'll do if we—" I sighed, not wanting to continue, but knowing that we owed it to the Equestrians to be honest. "If we fail," I finished quietly.
Scootaloo was silent. I felt awful for bringing up the possibility that she might never get home, but it was an issue that needed to be addressed. The fact of the matter was that we very well could fail. In fact, it was highly likely. Magic-wielding Equestrians aside, we still didn't know how to get them back home. Maybe reuniting them all with Princess Celestia would work. Maybe it wouldn't. It was important to prepare the young ones for that possibility. It would be far worse if they were expecting nothing less than success when they discovered they could never get back home.
I sighed and looked away. "I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have brought that up, especially when we were just beginning to have some fun." I felt like the world's greatest villain for what I had just said. It wasn't the right time or place for that. I should have just kept playing ball.
"We'd be together, right?"
Her words snapped me out of my self-loathing. I looked back at her as she continued.
"You and John would still be here to teach us how this world works," she said. She smiled despite the few tears running down her face. "So we'd be alright. We'd... be taken care of."
A mixture of pain and pride flooded my emotions. It was about as strong a response as could have been given, and it proved to me just how tough Scootaloo could be when push came to shove. My pride in her grew even more when she tossed the ball back my way.
"Come on," she said, getting up. "We were just beginning to have fun, and you haven't even thrown me any deep balls yet!" She gave a little smile. "And if I do get stuck here, I plan on becoming a totally amazing athlete!"
I stood up and shook my head with wonder. "Alright then, go deep!" She was right, of course. Win or lose, succeed or fail, the important thing was to make the best with what you had. As I threw the ball, I decided that when Moey arrived later that day, I would no longer try to hide what we were doing. I would tell him the entire truth, and make the best with whatever happened from there.