Secrets of the Forest

by Cloud Thunderhoof

Chapter 3

Snow didn’t sleep that night. Under most circumstances he was most active after the sun fell below the horizon, but what Lyra had written kept him up against his will. The stallion’s emotions ran the gambit of confusion, shock, hope, and distrust. His mind raced, she appeared to be his age or a little older, 23 at the most; there was no way she could have been on the run for 14 years. Snow was ten years old when he was discovered and it was a miracle he had survived this long. His conflicting thoughts and emotions fought for dominance in his mind.

She must be a plant sent to lure me out, but there’s no way to fake the eyes, is there? Even then, how they would know I’m here anyway, he thought in a desperate attempt to dismiss her presence as some sort of trick. However his efforts were in vain. Maybe this has all been some dream; maybe I’m still in the Crystal Empire being pumped full of those drugs, his inner voice continued. Snow then punched himself in the gut, confirming he was not dreaming.

He knew he should have been happy to have found her, but it only served to make him more worried and anxious. Snow always believed there were other survivors of the storm of hatred which had left him orphaned and alone, and if Lyra was actually what she claimed to be than his hopes would not be in vain. However, after a decade of searching for another like him Snow wasn’t sure he could handle the reality of finding one.

The blue pony needed fresh air. He took a steel box out of his saddle bags and placed it on the table. He looked into a glass piece on the front of the box and a light shone in his eyes. After a series of clicks it popped open and revealed the treasures within. The box had trinkets form his past and some of the artifacts he had stolen. Snow removed a framed picture from the box and looked at it. A tear came to the pony’s eye, the picture was taken the last time his whole family had been together and alive. He spoke in a quiet and apologetic voice “I promise I’ll make it up to you”. Snow then tucked his journal and the stolen maps into the box and closed it.

Snow walked down the stairs to the front door. “You know its next to impossible to sneak up on me”, he spoke calmly.
A mint green mare stepped out of the shadows and replied “I’ll keep BonBon from giving you the third degree as long as you do something for me”.

“That depends”, Snow said without turning his head to look at Lyra.

“I want answers” she replied as Snow walked outside.

Outside it was a cold autumn morning and the sun sat low on the horizon, throwing off brilliant shades of orange. The town was still asleep and the streets were empty. The brisk morning air helped him clear his head and forget what had happened last night.

The only other’s he saw out were the public works ponies and the weather team. He took a moment to admire their work. They pegasi above were busy creating a cover of light grey clouds over the town, indicating a light storm ahead. He watched the way they darted back and forth and it intrigued him. Snow had always wondered what it would be like to fly, but he had never gotten the chance to actually try it.

A shadow flicked across the sky and then settled next to snow. The ice blue stallion looked up and saw a Pegasus hovering above him. The pony hovered in front of the sun and it made it hard for snow to make out any details. Then the pony landed and he could finally make out their features; the pegasus turned out to be a cyan mare with a rainbow mane. Her cutie mark was a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. Snow guessed she worked on the weather team but had some sort of speed related talent.

“It’s going to start raining soon so you might want to go indoors”, she said.

“Thanks for the heads up”, Snow replied semi-sarcastically.

“What gives, I was just trying to be nice”, the mare said in turn, obviously hurt by Snow’s lack of gratitude.

“Sorry, I’ve just been having a rough day, that’s all”, Snow replied.

“It’s only seven a.m. and you’re already having a bad day, that sucks. Say, I can’t say I’ve seen you around here before”, the mare said, changing the topic.

“I just blew into town yesterday and I’m just taking some time to get familiar with my surroundings”, he said.

“Guess I’ll see you ‘round, oh, and if you don’t like surprises then you’ll probably want to watch your back”, she said with a small hint of malice.

Before snow could ask what she meant, the mare took off back into the sky. The blue stallion did not like surprises; mostly because if something could surprise him then it meant it was better at being stealthy than he was, and that scared him. What could have she have meant, the blue earth pony thought, pondering why she sounded as if there was some secret. For the most part the town seemed calm and predictable; the surprise in question was probably nothing.

Snow trotted around the small town for about an hour. It seemed to have a very tight knit community. The town began to wake up during his walk and he got a chance to see it up close. It was so calm and everypony knew everypony else, for a moment it reminded him of his home town. Snow reminisced in the few good memories he had of where he grew up. However pain came with the happiness. The stallion did his best to ignore the memory that now demanded his attention, but to no avail. The memory of the night when his world was turned on its ear came back to haunt him, the night when fire rained from the sky.

Hunger tugged at his stomach and Snow realized he hadn’t eaten since the morning before the occurrence in the Crystal Empire. Began walking to one of the other places Twilight had written down on the slip: Sugar Cube Corner. The building in question was tall and stylized as a gingerbread house. The doors were open and he could see an open sign in the window.

Judging from the lack of patrons they had either just opened or they weren’t very popular. A mare sat behind the counter looking bored. Both her coat and her curly mane were bright pink. When the blue stallion approached the mare seemed to explode with excitement.

“HiwelcometoSugarCubeCornermynamesPinkiPieandyourahostoriannamedMountainSnowwhocameintotownyesterdayonthetrain”, the words tumbled out of her mouth and she broke out into a wide smile and let out a squee.

Snow finaly processed what exactly had been said and he couldn’t hide his confusion. “Are you some sort of psychic?” he asked, only half joking.

“No, my friend Twilight told me”, the mare replied. Then she seemed to drop under the counter and the exact same instant appear behind Snow, garnering a startled yelp from the stallion.

He had a bad feeling about the mare, but he decided to stay there and try to blend in. Either way his stomach was killing him.

Author's Note:

I'm sorry if this chapter seems rushed, i needed to get this out mostly for the first part and im getting a little writers block with regards to the next chapter. I would rely like to get some feedback on what you guys thought about this chapter.

Comments

[Fugly Duckling]

i've noticed that in alot fics that there are way too many ponies that go to Sugarcube Corner for breakfast... i hope they have good dental care

[setablaze53]

RUSHED?! RUSHED?! YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVEN'T SEEN MY WORK!

[no longer on]

3234177
Yea, whenever I attempt to write, its like twisty wtf cheerios and fruit loops and some random shit. Impossible to understand, really.

[setablaze53]

3235329 TAKE A LOOK AT MY CRAP WRITING! THEN WE'LL SEE WHO'S SAYING THAT! I have this whole rant thing in a read before story thing, and I lost my train of thought and everything turned into a disaster. I think I started talking to myself somewhere in there. Here I'll copy paste it. Read this crap!

I think this needs to be said. Don't judge my stories by their description/lack of tags/whatever is on the front cover. (No one has. Just felt like saying this.) I'm horrible with short descriptions of things... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I just lost my train of thought. Great... I forgot what else I was going to say. Damn you music that I constantly listen to for background noise on this site! Curse you!

Oh well. Just read the story while I bash my skull into the desk for how stupid and easily distracted I can get. Have fun, bye.

Authors note:
Stupid *thump* Ow. Stupid. *thump* Ow. Stupid *thump* Ow. Forgive me if this affects my writing in a bad way. Hey, maybe the brain damage will help! Nah, I'm just being overly enthusiastic. *Le Sigh*... If you still haven't noticed, I'm dumb.

EDIT:I JUST FREAKING REMEMBERED! (I hate myself right now) I was gonna say something along the lines of how the titles of my stories will often have almost nothing to do with them and may sound or be completely dumb. LIKE ME! Plus, most if not all my main protagonists will resemble me. Go ahead, make fun. I'd actually LIKE to see some comments on how dumb this was! Now I'll be outside in the rain bashing my skull into the cement next to the pool this time if anyone wants to... I don't know. Just leave this sorry excuse for writing already. (First chapter anyone?)
END

This is why I'm scared to look in a mirror sometimes. This is also by far the longest comment I've made. BTW, this is in one of my future stories and I don't think I'm going to let people read that. They might get scared and run, so have fun making fun of me for this. I don't care.

[no longer on]

3235497
Daym, that's more crazy than Reese's Puffs. And why I'm naming off random cereal, I have no idea. Maybe its because I'm OUTRAGEOUS!! Maybe because of sleep deprivation. Either way, you are not insane, you just like to kill.

[setablaze53]

Thank you. *sniff* That means so much... WAIT WHAT?!

[Cloud Thunderhoof]

3234177

Your story is fine, I don't see what your talking about

[setablaze53]

3235628 ...eh... I can't get enough facehoof. (My bored randomness, sorry.) I guess 'Rain' is alright, still rushed, but nothing compared to before that. I had another story, I took it down. I could explain more, but I don't think it will be good on anyone's health. (Plus, I can't think of the right words to say.) Especially with what I've already said here. Sorry about spamming the comments section with this stuff.

[Closet-Bronie-333]

nice touch at the end