A Chaotic Land

by donutsforthewin

Chapter 3: It's Been a While

2 months have passed since the day my life was turned upside down. I was younger back then, more innocent. I did not know of the dangers down here. I did not realize how common death was down here. This was not the world I used to live in, but it took what it wanted from me nonetheless. It captured me, by my own will. I can return to the clouds if I want to, but I know I never will.

This world has mysteries. Mysteries I was told of in stories by my grandfather, and mysteries I have found myself. The mysteries of this world are not the kind I could ever solve, not on my own at least. That is why I am lucky to have a friend.

But, that is not the only reason to have a friend. This world pulls at you. You can't escape it. You can't run from it, where would you go? There is no place in the world safe from the world itself. You have to fight it. Endure it. You need an anchor. Something to hold on to. No shield can protect you from the pull of the very world you stand on, live on. No sword can help you fight it off. That is why you need friends.

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As I said before, 2 months have passed since I began to live on the surface. I have been learning to fight with Star, I have been learning to, ugh, read (Seriously, when is that ever going to be useful? Nopony is going to send me a letter or anything) with Star, and I have been learning about the world, with Star. Basically, I have been learning everything a pony needs to know, and I have been learning how to read (Seriously, not useful at all), from Star. My head hurts.

"How old are most ponies when they get their cutie marks?" I asked. If I had to learn, it was going to be about something interesting today, I was going to make sure of it.

"You are older than most ponies are when they get their cutie marks, if that is what you really were asking." Darn, she saw right through me. But it was pretty obvious. "But, it makes sense that you don't have yours yet."

"Why?"

"Because, you spent almost your entire life in the clouds, and the time you did spend down here was mostly in this shack. Ponies get their cutie marks when they discover their special talent, and since yours obviously isn't learning, I'm not surprised you don't have yours yet."

"Today we are going outside." Star continued, completely off topic. She does that sometimes. "You, being a pegasus, might have a special talent for something involving flying, not to mention being able to fly well is a big help if we get in a sticky situation."

I had only flown once in my entire life, however, it ended horribly so I have been kind of hesitant about trying it again. But, I had waited long enough, flying was fun.

We walked outside and I tasted the air. It might sound weird, but the it air tastes so much better on the surface than it did in the clouds. In the clouds, it is thinner, and the only thing the air has touched was clouds, and clouds taste pretty bland. Down here, the air touched flowers, trees, grass, and picked up all sorts off lovely scents and tastes. Much better than just clouds.

Is soon as I could, I took off. If felt so great to be in the air, that lovely tasting air. I loved the feeling of freedom that came with flying. I couldn't believe I had been nervous about flying again. Flying was amazing.

"Now it is time to learn about flying." Star said, crushing my feeling of freedom.

"How can you know more than me about flying too?" I was sure I knew more than her in at least one area, but I still had yet to find it.

"Well, pegasi don't fly just because of their wings you know."

"What? Of course we use our wings to fly. That is why we have them. Right?"

"No, you fly using magic." I looked up, towards my forehead. Flat, no magic. Star noticed me looking at my forehead and laughed. "Just because you aren't a unicorn doesn't mean you don't have magic. Why do you think you were able to learn how to fly in just a day, without having to build up wing muscles? You use the magic to fly."

"But, if we use magic to fly, then why do we have wings in the first place?"

"Well, it is hard to steer yourself in the air with your hooves. Your wings are for steering." OK, that made more sense.

"But, if flying is all about magic, than why can't unicorns fly? They have magic"

"Well, flying isn't all just about magic. Your wings are made for flying, horns are not. I can levitate myself, but I can't go nearly as fast as you can with your wings, and I can't keep it up nearly as long as you can either. My horn allows me to direct my magic to do what I want it to do, but your wings are specifically for using magic to fly. They are much better at using magic for flying."

I continued flying around for a while, then Star suggested I practice aerial combat. She would throw sticks at me with her levitation, and I would dodge them or bat them away with the stick I was holding with my mouth. I wasn't very good at it at first, but I eventually started to get the hang of it. We practiced for a while, then went back to the shack.

Star started to cook some vegetable soup. She always did all of the cooking. I tried it once, and well... I certainly wasn't going to get a cutie mark for cooking.

After we started eating, Star announced "You need to learn your special talent soon. It could be something very useful."

"But, I'm not going to find my special talent by just sitting in this shack, doing the same thing every day." I didn't see where this was going.

"Exactly, we are going on a field trip."

"What!?" I nearly spit out my mouthful of soup.

"A field trip. You are not going to find out anything about yourself doing the same thing you always do. Besides, it is getting pretty boring just sitting in this shack all day. Although, it might be less of a field trip, and more of an adventure. I don't know where we will be going."

My ears had perked up at the word adventure. That is what I had wanted to do ever since Grandpa had told me the stories about the surface. But, the place I used to live was probably just a mile or so away from this shack, and about a quarter of a mile up. I had never even gone two miles from the place I was born in my entire life!

"I have lived long enough in this shack." Star began, "It is about time I left. And, it is much safer to go with somepony else to watch my back. Although, we need to get you a real sword, Spark. That stick you trained with is not going to cut it (no pun intended) if we come across real trouble."

"It's been a while since I did some proper adventuring. How does that sound Spark?"

"Sounds great, Star, But where exactly am I going to find a sword?"

"You can borrow one of mine for now, but these swords I have are designed for unicorns. Usual swords are made from heavier metals to allow ponies to put a lot of force behind their attacks, but these swords are designed to just be sharp. My levitation takes away the weight from them, so they can only cut, my attacks don't have much actual force behind them. They use lighter metal to save on cost."

"That didn't answer my question."

"Oh, right. We are bound to come across a town or something eventually."

We discussed it a little more and came up with something almost like a plan. It didn't really have any details, or goals, or anything really. We were just going to pack some supplies and start walking. Yeah, not much of a plan.

So we packed and started walking, all according to plan. I looked back, and wondered if this was really such a good idea. Oh, well. I realized we had already finished with everything in the plan, we had packed, and we were walking. Some adventure this was. Time to start improvising.

Comments

[fiendofthet]

I realy liked the part at the beginning about having friends. You explained it in words that were really deep and in an interesting way.

However, there is one major problem with this section. Unlike you other two chapters, this one had multiple spelling and grammar mistakes. Just take another read-through and it will be fne.

That being said, it is still an interesting story and I can't wait for more.

~fiendofthet - author of Fallout Equestria: The Dreamer