Chapter One

It was a glorious day- the Pegasi were on their game today. The skies were clear, and the temperature was a perfect 23 degrees Celsius.

Days like these made me wish I ran out of materials more often, but my experiments are always more interesting for me- I would rather stay inside with a few compounds and a Bunsen burner than be in the wild.

Still, I can’t forget why I come here in the first place. Sure, it’s easier and cheaper to just buy reactants, but I always preferred the quality of the materials I get and the fact that it helps stave off insanity to hike these paths.

Even more than that, it helps me keep in shape- definitely an issue when your diet consists mainly of Nutella, Frozen Waffles and Coca Cola. It’s not like I can’t cook- far from it, I consider myself half decent at the art, but my trade is rather... time consuming. Waking up at 6 AM and cooking don’t mix.

Anyway, I’ve only been out here for three days, but I’m still far behind my original schedule. Right about now, I should be at my campsite with my tent pitched, but I took a bit of a detour when I found a new iron vein that had eroded to the surface.

Sure, it was common around here, but it was still nice to mark some new points of interest down on my map again. Where there’s iron, there might be more valuable materials.

Suddenly, a scream broke my train of thought. I ran down the path to find the source- I had been hurt on a hike before, and that wasn’t something I would ever want to happen to anypony else.

When I finally come to the clearing where the scream came from, I’m shocked. I see a female pony having what looks like a panic attack in the middle of the path. She looked dirty, injured and unprepared- yup, seems like the average hobbyist hiker. Still, this seemed different somehow.

I see her jerking motions slow slightly, and walk up to her, steadying her movements by pinning her down. She seems to react to this, which is definitely a good sign. After about 10 minutes of squirming, she woke up and stared into my eyes.

“Shh, shhh.. It’s okay. Relax, relax. You’re safe now.”

She continued staring until she finally cleared her throat and said “Wh... Who are you?”

She sounded hoarse, if you excuse the pun, and I was worried. She looked emaciated, and a little dehydrated. I stuttered, nearly silently, before saying “John... a... are you okay?”

I knew the answer to that, but I still needed to ask. Self examination is a good sign.

I offered her my hoof, hoping she still had the strength to stand. She was able to, with some assistance.

She just sighed, and answered my question; “Uhm... No. Probably not.” I fixed my glasses, meeting her eyes. “I’m sorry... That you had to see that. It tends to happen, though that’s honestly my worse nightmare yet.”

“Oh, it’s fine... I heard somepony screaming, loudly, and I had to come make sure whoever it was was okay,” I fixed my glasses again before continuing, “But when I saw you were asleep I tried to wake you up, but in order to even get close I had to pin your legs down. You wouldn’t stop kicking and screaming.”

“Sounds about right.”

“What are even you doing all the way out here by yourself? This is pretty far from any village.”

“Well, let’s just say I’m looking for a new home.” She looked pretty miserable.

“May I ask why...?” Noticing how offensive that might sound, I took a step back- “I mean, if you’re okay with telling me. I wouldn’t want to make you anymore uncomfortable than you already se-”

“Stop. It’s okay, really.”

“I’m sor-”

“No. Don’t say it again.” She giggled before saying “It’s okay, you don’t need to say sorry. You have nothing to do with my past, and I guess the only thing you can do is help me get on with my future.”

I blushed. I was always awkward around girls... Then again, who isn’t? “Well... there is always Ponyville.” I cleared my throat before saying “That’s where I live, and I’m sure I can help you get comfortable there. There are a lot of people, and all of them are really nice to new comers. But, of course, if you don’t want to go you don’t have to. It’s just a suggestion, really...”

“You aren’t very sure of yourself, are you?”

I shook my head and smiled. “I don’t really get out of my lab at home much... I’m not very socially... Experienced...” She raised an eyebrow at this, causing me to nod. “I study a lot, and I’m always messing with new mixes. It’s a hobby, really...” I hope that didn’t come off as nerdy or something like that. People sometimes get pissed when I nerd out.

She stepped forward, saying “Alright. That sounds wonderful. Ponyville, that is. I need a new place to start over, and with a friend I’m sure it’d be easier.”

I blushed and smiled. “Well, it’s a rather far trip... I was out looking for a few resources for a new experiment I have planned. But I was on my way back when I ran into you. If you’re ready, we can go ahead and start our journey.” Well, that was a lie, but under these circumstances I have to head home. Take it slow, maybe be back in six days.

She nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

We headed for the first mountain that was on the way back. I’d have to take it extra slow, something I never enjoyed doing.

A thought popped into my mind- we might be a bit strained for food. I guess scavenging will be the order of the day.

We continued talking as we hiked, which went rather smoothly- thankfully, she was a rather good hiker. We got to know each other rather well during that day- I found out her name, Music, and more about her hobbies and personality. She found out a lot more about me, I was surprisingly talkative for her being someone I just met. She found out about my trades, chemistry and engineering, my hobbies; Saxophone and, well, video games.

We got to the peak of the first mountain in both a surprisingly short and unfortunately long time. It was almost dark, and I decided to camp out on the summit.

I considered sending Music out for food, but I decided against it when I remembered how starved she looked earlier. I left her to put up the tents while I went out to find some edible plants.

After about 30 minutes of searching (with some success), I came back to find the tents half pitched and Music seized up in another of her... fits, for lack of a better word. I held her down so she didn’t break the tents or fall off a cliff or whatever. Other than that, I couldn’t really do anything to help- she seemed to come out of these just fine without any help, anyway.

After she came back to reality, I smiled. “You doing okay? I can set up the tents if you want. Take a seat over there, start a fire if you know how.”

She nodded, and went over to the area where I indicated to sit down. She obviously didn’t know how to start a fire, because she didn’t do anything once she sat down.

I sighed, glad I found this pony when I did- otherwise, I don’t think she would have survived for very long in the wild without assistance.

I finished pitching the tents (I always bring two- now I remember why) and went over to start the fire. I had an idea, and called Music over to watch me.

“I want you to be able to start a fire for yourself- you never know what might happen, and it’s also just more time efficient if you do.” She nodded in response, and watched as I took out a piece of flint and a knife.

I carved some small pieces of bark off of the logs I brought back with me, and cut those up further to make them ignite better. Continuing, I took the smaller twigs and made a “teepee” around the smaller tinder. Finally, I took the largest logs and put them in the same formation around the kindling, making sure to leave a spot to ignite it from.

She watched quizzically as I took the flint and struck it with my knife, causing sparks to land on the tinder. Thankfully, we were having a bit of a dry spell at the time and the kindling ignited as quickly as the tinder.

As the flames grew, she looked at me with a surprised look on her face. “See? It’s that easy,” I said, making a subtle Bob Ross reference while I prepared a spit and a pot of water to cook a stew.

She smiled, obviously thankful for the lesson I taught her.

***

The next morning, I had to postpone my scavenging for breakfast and lunch until nearly 9:00 AM, due to her sleeping in. It wasn’t too bad, though- I would prefer waiting for a few hours if it meant she would be rested up enough to keep moving. I had packed up my things already, and I assumed we would be moving out at around noon, getting about six hours of hiking in.

When she woke up, I helped her pack up her tent and invited her to scavenge for breakfast. I knew of some safe berry bushes and they could be crushed into a juice for a drink, or eaten to fill us up.

For lunch, we wouldn’t have to look to much- I had sandwich material and berries could make a nice jam if needed.

Several times along the way, I had to stop her from eating poisonous berries that looked safe to eat- at least to the untrained eye.

She always thanked me when I did, but I normally just smiled in response.

We reached the clearing where I had gotten berries from every other time, and I was rewarded with wild blackberries- safe, thankfully.

I used some tupperware to store the berries until later. We ate a few, and continued chatting while we did so.

I told her a lot about my past- where I had gone to school, why my name is so “weird”, all the normal stuff.

She stayed surprisingly quiet about herself- either she was very modest, or something very bad happened. Probably the latter, considering the way she keeps seizing up in a dreamlike state.

I pressed her on it, once, but she just stared into space and started to tear up. That’s when I stopped asking.

***

Later that day, Music had the strangest request I’d ever heard; “Uh... John?”

“Yeah?”

“... Can I sleep in your tent tonight? I had a few nightmares last night, and I think I’d rather be near somepony I trust.”

I raised an eyebrow, but I knew she was serious. I nodded and kept on walking.

“Thanks, John. You know, you’re probably the only pony who’s ever been this nice to me before. And I mean that.”

I blushed and smiled, losing any ‘Tough’ demeanor I had built up from hiking.

I’m just glad she’s never seen me angry.

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