• Published 8th Jul 2014
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Vocaloid in Equestria: beta session - DerpyStarlet



Me and my brother got sucked into our computer and now I'm Rin and my brother's Len in the Vocaloid group.

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Chapter 41: Grazing the surface

Several children were complaining, their voices distant. "Oh come on!"

"You screw up!"

"Loser!"

"Reject!"

I could hear another voice, a deeper one. From what I heard, I could only assume they were some sort of...teacher, I think?

"Come, come now. No need to waste energy on-" When I thought the teacher was going to say my name, it was muted, as if I wasn't meant to hear the name. "-Just keep to the work you know and improve on what you don't. At any rate, this one will never surpass any of you, which is rather disappointing."

The next voice I heard was smaller, and I thought, maybe it was my own.

"What did I do wrong?" I pleaded.

The other voice replied, a snide tone in their voice. "Oh, nothing really. It's just that you failed to understand what a sentence is. You don't just add three words to it and expect it to turn into a sentence, do you?"

The smaller voice replied, sounding saddened. "No, but these are the only words I know how to spell..." Said the voice, trailing off.

The other voice spoke again, sounding somewhere between genuine surprise and ill contempt. "Oh? You only know how to spell three words? Now that is just sad."

There was no response from the younger voice, and I realized something; It was infuriating, being able to hear, but not see, what was going on!

The older voice scoffed, and in a soft but deliberately harsh way said, "Well, that only proves you are incapable of learning, and therefore will never graduate."

I then heard the other voice again, but this time it was echoed. It was like I was listening to the other voices head instead of its actual voice: Why must I have such a fool for a student? They don't belong in school if they can only spell three little words!

The smaller voice seemed to be directed at me now, as it asked desperately, "Why can't I do it? What's wrong with me? Am I- am I really so disappointing?"

A sinister voice echoed from behind me, quite like whisper, yet it seemed stronger in the silence before it's coming and it answered with three, simple, words,

"Yes. You are."

~Macintosh Hills, Outskirts~

"Hello? Hello?" Asked a voice, one I didn't recognize at the moment.

What is that sound? It sounds like mumbling to me, I thought groggily, waving my hand at the source.

"Hello? Hey airhead! Wake up! I know you're not dead, so wake up!" Called the voice, sounding irritated.

Oh, of course. I know that voice. I opened my eyes slowly, feeling somewhat sleepy; although I don't know why or how I fell asleep in the first place. What I do know is that I was running before, and suddenly, I go blank. Well at least my neck isn't hurting anymore.

When my eyes adjust to the sunlight of what appears to be evening orange, I see the silhouette of, yet again, the angry looking version of me or rather, Meyou, as she calls herself, trying to wake me up. She was standing tall and proud over me, no doubt feeling smug. Was any part of me really this conceited? Well it doesn't matter, her wake-up call was a success, more or less.

"Well it's about time you woke up, do you know how long you have been sleeping!!!" Meyou shouted, already sounding agitated. Is it the fact that we look alike that she feels obligated to hate me? She has done nothing but rant to me from the very beginning!

"Nice to see you too." I deadpanned. I didn't really feel anger toward her, just some odd fascination toward her actions. She acts like she hates me, yet she is helping me, in the best way she can, even if that way is being rude as possible. I don't know if I had a "gift" for reading people(or ponies for that matter) but I do know that she cares about me in the short time we've been together, maybe not in the way most others would, but hey, no one is perfect right.

I can't help but smile as I think this, which prompted Meyou to shout, "Hey, don't you dare smile at a time like that! There's no reason for it, and it's creeping me out! So put that stupid smirk away!"

I giggled a little at that. I began to sit up, wanting to stretch my arms out, but I stopped when I felt excruciating pain in my back. It wasn't bad enough that I felt the need to lie down again, but it was bad enough to draw tears from my eyes. It felt like I turned myself into a pretzel and was thrown down some stairs, forcing my back to go through extreme stress, possibly near breaking point once or twice.

Meyou must have sensed my pain, because now her face had a look of concern on it, either that or she could see the pain on my face, it's kind of hard to tell which it is since she can read my mind .

After I took some shaky breaths I asked, "Why is my back hurting?" Then I took a look around.

"And how did I get here for that matter?"

I was just at the foothills of some large reddish colored mountains , then I turned around to see the path I left, before passing out previously, whenever that was.

The path was crooked, like I was trying to zigzag or something. Would make sense, avoiding all of these huge rocks I would need to move a lot, especially if I was running. Shoot, I must've jumped over a dozen of them too, because there are several patches of disturbed soil along the way as well. Particularly the ending part leading to where I sit right now.

Why don't I remember coming through here, or for that matter, why was I sleeping here in the first place?

"Did I crash?" I ask somewhat jokingly.

"Well, you were running pretty fast." She explained to me.

I looked at Meyou with an astonished expression.

"No, seriously, you could have outrun a car if you wanted to, with the kind of speed you were getting!"

"Then why don't I remember!" I shout, feeling frustrated with myself, and Meyou.

"I don't know, probably because you hit your head on a rock or something."

My expression falls into dismay as the realization hit me. "How bad did I crash?" I asked, a little frightened.

Meyou sighed before she explained as best as she could. "Well, for starters you were extremely hyped up, probably from the adrenaline rush you had. You weren't paying attention to half the things I was saying at the time, especially when the rocks started coming into view. At one point, you were yelling, and I quote, 'I'm queen of the world!', before you tripped over a small rabbit hole. After that, you were crashing in every bad way possible. I'd say you went a good 30 yards before you crash into some rough rocks, decimating your skin. When you finally stopped, I could have sworn you were a goner."

Meyou looked sad for a moment before continuing, "You had joints that were sticking out in the wrong places, most of your skin was gone, but the worst part, was the fact that I couldn't hear you breathing."

"But I am breathing!" I claimed, feeling like somehow it wasn't real, like she was pulling some kind of practical joke on me, but she didn't change her expression as she continued.

"I felt so scared for you... I was about to assume the worst when the fact suddenly hit me that-" she then smiled at me with her cocky grin "-If you were dead I couldn't exist, and if I didn't exist than I would have no reason to really worry, now would I?"

"So what then?" I asked, feeling somewhat confused about this whole thing.

"Well, then I waited for you to wake-up. I have no physical capabilities unlike you so I simply waited until you could hear me, which took an awful lot of time I must say. I even heard your bones pop into place before you woke up! It was quite unsettling. Do you feel any other pain?"

I shook my head. "No, just my back, that's all." I felt the odd sense of freedom in my neck, which reminded me of yet another thing. "My neck, it's all better!" I exclaimed while feeling my neck over with my hands.

"Wait, are you serious?!" She asked, somewhat unbelieving.

I nodded my head, feeling absolutely wonderful, until my back felt it. I can't help but wonder to myself at this point, which is worse, a sore neck or a sore back? I decided to stand up by rolling to my side hip using my arms to brace me, but the result was my back suddenly screaming at me with a burning passion. Yeah. My back is definitely worse off.

Slowly but surely I stand up to my feet, which was no easy task. I began to walk a little bit, feeling my aching back, but not in the worst sense. In fact, it felt rather good to walk around, sort of. My back was still hurting, but you know what? It's easier to walk, rather than to crawl really.

I continued to walk around aimlessly for roughly an hour. I wasn't completely sure of how long I had been walking, as I was lacking a watch.

At first, it tingled, like blood wasn't flowing into it before, but it was now, and the sensation was odd, like someone running pins and needles over my back. I didn't know if I wanted to cry, or lay down, but I decided on standing.

I was just barely holding myself up, as I moved my back around and around, keeping myself distracted with random thoughts like: cheese and sprinkles on a cupcake, a dog wearing glasses, playing chess with candy bars, even writing a story on a cotton candy cloud- Wait what? Okay that's just too weird even for me. Or is it? I wish I had more of my memories back!

After my back stopped tingling, I decided to look through my backpack, which was squashed flat due to the fact that I had been laying on top of it. I quickly shook it, removing the dirt on it and making it all puffy again. I then rested it upon the ground, unlatching the two buttons to open it. I then reached my hand inside, hoping to find something good, but I couldn't find anything. I reached in as far as my arm could go, only to feel empty space inside. I took my arm out of the bag, and sighed, but as I did, I heard a crackling sound coming from one of the four side pockets. I looked over, and saw something sticking out of one of the pockets.

It was a colored piece of paper, apparently a corner part sticking out, so, using my common sense, I decide to slip it out. What I found surprised me.

"A map." I whispered to myself.

Clearly, Meyou was able to hear me anyway, because then she said, "Well that's good and all, but are you any good with understanding directions, let alone reading them?"

My tactic for her comment was to simply ignore what she said. I then proceeded to read the map.

On the very top was labeled the word 'Equestria', which obviously stated that I was well supplied for this experiment, whatever it was really about. Then again, I have a backpack with an endless abyss, of which I cannot retrieve anything without effort. Oh well, pros and cons, right? Anyways, back to the map. I could see that there were about two and a half dozen locations on this map, not including the lands beyond Equestria. One thing was for certain: my choices aren't very limited, but for now I was just trying to figure out where the heck I am right now. I mean, I knew I was near some mountains, but I still couldn't figure it out! The only colored mountains are purple, orange and cherry colored. But the mountains I am in front of are red, so did I take a wrong turn? I saw a pink arrow on the map saying, 'dragons be here' and 'yonder to griffins', but both of those were across the ocean. Why would my host put me in a completely different place than what he gave me a map for? Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I continue to look through the map, until I realize that I was being too critical with it. It can be easy to assume that everything on a colored map would be exactly that color when you get there, but the fact is that this map was just holding guideposts, basically an overview look from a ground perspective. At least that's what I thought.

With this in mind I decided to review the map closer, to see something with resemblance to where I was. Sure enough, I found it, or at least I assumed I did.

"Macintosh Hills. Yeah, sounds about right," I stated with a small smile. "Now it's just a matter of where to go from here?" I looked at the map again, feeling lost as to where I needed to go from here. As far as I knew I had complete freedom, besides what was outlined when I arrived, in what I could do. The number of destinations doesn't help either.

I heard Meyou say, "Well I can't say that you will choose the best destination for yourself, but make sure you know where that castle is before you decide okay? I really don't want to see anything unpleasant." She then decided to use my head as a elbow rest as she stood over me and the map.

"You know, as much as I hate to admit it, you are right; We do need to have an idea of where it will be." I agreed. "But tell me, why do we really need to listen to this stranger's instructions? I mean, seriously, it's like he randomly came up with these rules and we have to follow them because he thought it would be amusing."

"I know what you mean," Meyou replied, while stretching her arms over my head, keeping her elbows on it.

"But we did agree to this experiment, so we need to trust him, right?"

I sighed. "I guess you're right. We wouldn't have just agreed to this project if we didn't trust him, so I say we can't be picky about the instructions we receive."

I gazed over the map until I spotted the word 'ruins' on the map, marked by a large concrete slab with worn out pillars on top, as well as stairs on the sides of the slab, centered in a horseshoe shape tree line beside a river running past it. I was no genius, but I thought that is the old castle's resting place. Good thing is that I'm not anywhere near it, assuming I read the map right that is.

Next was deciding where to go, so I decided on the more curious approach of a random placement of my fingers.

First I put the map on the ground, then I stood up, spin around in place a couple of times, then sat down on my knees. By this time I would have no idea where anyplace is, or where it would be.

I took my right hand, spread my fingers, then gently set all five of them on the paper in a spread out fashion, using my fingertips as a random destination point. Wherever my fingers touched was a potential place in my decision. I opened my eyes and looked to see what I got.

To my surprise, I only got one thing on the entire map while my other four fingers missed every other target except unmarked grassland.

"Hollow Shades?" I asked myself aloud.

"You don't like it?" Meyou asked curiously. "If you don't like it, you can always retry." She offered.

"Nah, it will be fine," I answered in a plain tone, "Besides, if I redo it again it will likely be harder to choose. At least with this, I have only one destination to choose, and it honestly sounds pretty cool." A big smile began to form on my lips as I folded the map and put it back into its pocket on the pack. I then stood up and announced, "Okay, Hollow Shades! Here we co- ugh... I don't feel so good." I then fell onto my knees again, feeling suddenly very dizzy for some reason.

"Oh yeah, um, you did kind of lose a lot of blood before, so I recommend you don't move around just yet. You're still recovering as it is."

I looked at Meyou for a moment, before lying face-down on the ground, about ready to go to sleep again.

"How long have I been sleeping?" I asked in a monotone voice, while avoiding inhaling the dirt in my face.

Meyou smiled sheepishly as she said, "Well, I may have neglected to mention that you were asleep for about four-teen hours before your bones started popping into place again. After that your body just healed itself; It was kind of gross and cool at the same time. But hey, that means you're crash-proof, isn't that great news?"

I looked at her with a dark haze over my head. "You mean I was asleep for over half a day? No food, no water, and you wait until now to tell me?! How can I still be alive in the first place?!"

"Beats me. Maybe your metabolism is faster, or something."

"Oh please, if that was the case I would be far more hungry than I am right now! Not to mention I wouldn't have the strength to move like I was not three minutes ago."

It was true, I would be hungry after four-teen hours, running only increasing the hunger, and thirst. All of a sudden, I feel both hit me like a freight train.

My stomach was growling, my throat was feeling dry, and the sensation was not helped by the dirt that had gone down my throat. Now, I was very certain of something: I desperately needed food! Just then I remembered something that Meyou said earlier.

"Did you say, that I tripped over a rabbit hole earlier?"
Meyou shrugged. "Yeah, you did, why?"

I grinned mischievously. "Because that means there is a rabbit here. If there is a rabbit here, that means meat for my tummy!"

Before Meyou could object, I ran in the direction I had come through, looking for the hole I tripped on. Little did I know it, but Meyou was shaking her head hopelessly, as I continued to look with a ravenous hunger.

~

It took me a little while to find one, but when I did I felt my mouth water.

The hole I tripped on earlier was abandoned long ago, it even had spiderwebs in it. Oddly enough, I was fascinated by the webs themselves since I noticed the blue coloring in the web, like a fading light in the darkness. It wasn't uncommon for spiders to be in deserts, even though technically this wasn't officially a desert I was in anymore, but mountains. Then again there are desert mountains and in this case everything was dry enough to say desert so- Oh? Where did this burst of knowledge come from?

Oh yes, as I was saying, the rabbit hole was empty for quite some time, so I had to look around for another. I found one about seventeen yards from the hole I was looking in. Sure enough, one rabbit was already poking out its head, a brown one to be exact.

I don't know if this rabbit looked like the ones back home, but if this guy was anything to judge by the cuteness of the species, I had to rate it as 'overly adorable!'

A head bigger than its body, long floppy years, big black eyes, whiskers- Okay focus! It wasn't very big, but considering the circumstances, this little guy I spotted, would hold me over for a minute or two, giving me plenty of time to ravage around for more. And since I could go pretty fast, I would daresay this rabbit was as good as dinner.

Meyou wasn't anywhere to be seen right now. I guess she thought that I was wasting my time, or something. Whatever, I didn't feel the slightest bit worried about what she thought at the moment. All I knew was that right now, I was extremely hungry. I could feel saliva on my lips trying to overflow my mouth. I decided to wait behind a rock and wait for the right opportunity, particularly when it wasn't listening for anything. If I act too soon, I might lack the energy to chase it down, but if it does spot me, I will have to try and scare it into the open area away from these rocks. There may not be many boulders around to kick, but that didn't change the fact that the rabbit can use those to its advantage. With its small frame, it could make sharp turns easily, but me being so big means that I'd have too much momentum to make a turn like that.

Which is why I needed a plan to scare it out into open space, where if it tries to make a sharp turn, I could still see it enough to catch up with it.

The bunny seemed to be relaxing now. The ears were now loose again, certain that it was no longer in danger from predators. It began its annual routine of foraging for food, unaware that I was about to make my move.

The moment I jumped over the rock, a new burst of energy came. I was more aware of my surroundings, my speed, and more importantly, how I felt.

I no longer could feel the pain in my back, only the dull aching feeling in my stomach, telling me that I must catch that rabbit at any cost. As it turned out, that wasn't going to be hard for me.

The entire span of time that passed between me and grabbing that rabbit was four seconds easily. One second for running and grabbing the rabbit's ears, the other three were for me to skid to a halt, leaving a small trench where I stand, waist deep.

My heightened senses allowed me to react faster than I had before, with a greater sense of confidence, thus allowing me to grab the rabbit's ears long before it had a chance to run, or for that matter, get a chance to notice me at all.

I was so fast in that moment, I could not believe it! Sure, I knew I was fast and considering that I had out ran a herd of buffalo earlier today- I mean, yesterday, but this was brand new to me.

Oh well, when you're hungry, I guess you can do almost anything right? Or maybe I'm just hallucinating.

My mouth was watering already as I thought of the creative ways I can eat him, while he in turn tried to escape my grasp, but since I had him by the ears, and the fact that his paws were way too short to reach my wrist, it was in vain. He didn't even have claws to scratch me with, which was odd for a rabbit; How else can they dig if not with their claws?

Well whatever the reason for that was, I really couldn't care less at the moment. Presently, I was thinking on how to cook this little fella- Wait, cook?

My stomach began to growl louder as I think of the possibility of waiting any longer, then suddenly a voice whispered in my ear, "What are you waiting for?"

I jumped in surprise, thinking, where did that come from? When I turned around to see who it was, I was annoyed to learn that it was none other than Meyou, now standing and smugly looking down upon me with her trademark smile.

I couldn't help but wonder if I was just as annoying as she always seemed to be. I hoped not.

"Are you going to eat it or what?" She asked with her smile still in place.

I shrugged. "I don't know how to make a fire." I replied, feeling embarrassed.

Meyou frowned, seeming puzzled. "Can you try friction?" She asked.

I looked at her as if she was crazy. "How am I going to make friction?" I replied, bewildered. Sure, in my mind it would be easy to keep a fire going once started, there being plenty of tumbleweeds and all, but how can I truly make fire? I didn't even remember basic survival skills, if I even knew them to begin with, and I doubted I would remember just in a flash of desperation.

Meyou sighed, either from a thought in her mind, or from reading my own, before she said, "You know, if you can run so fast as to catch a bunny before it even notices you, I'm pretty sure you can rub two sticks together fast enough to make a fire. Don't you agree?"

I thought about that for a moment. It's true, if I can run that fast then what's to stop me from rubbing two sticks together with my bare hands? I decided to experiment by using my free hand, holding it up to eye level, then I flung it from side to side as fast as I could. Yes, I don't have any of my memories that I knew of, but if one thing is for certain, the body doesn't forget the same way your memories do. For example: breathing is something you never forget, which goes without saying that your brain is what makes everything work the way you want it to. Movement, action, impulse, are all imprinted in our bodies, so unless you were reset completely to the core of your functions, you never truly forget basic functions.

Okay, back to what I was saying before. I flung my hands back and forth to see how fast I could make them go, in a bold fashion. I only managed to do it for two seconds, before my wrist tried dislocating itself. My hands were a blur in midair, visible yet see-through, phantasmal in appearance, but solid at the same time. There was even a humming sound before and after I stopped.

My eyes were wide with astonishment, and so was the bunny's. My wrist was sore from the experience, possibly a crack in it from when I had crashed before, still trying to heal. My back even felt it for a moment; But then again, my arm is kind of attached to the rest of my body, so my whole body actually felt it. Pretty cool if you were to ask me, but very bad for my medical expense at the moment.

"Well, do you think you can start a fire now?" Meyou asked in a haughty fashion, but I was too excited to care.

"This is awesome!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"I'll take that as a yes." Meyou replied.

I turned to look at her and to my surprise something was different about her. "Why are your clothes and hair blue?" I asked, in confusion.

Meyou shrugged. "I don't know, maybe I just decided to change color."

I shrugged back. "Maybe you used food coloring." Before Meyou could object, I continued. "Well I guess I better set up camp. Maybe in a spot with no rocks or pebbles on the ground, you know, a soft sleeping area. Do you agree?"

"Alright, I guess so." She responded grudgingly.

I then began to walk around for a spot to set up a campfire while still holding the bunny in my right hand, obviously displeased by how I'm treating him. "Don't worry," I comment, "It will all be over soon, I just need to start a fire then cook you up for dinner."

Suddenly the bunny screeched, struck by a new sense of panic. It began to swing its little legs all over the place, as if it would simply get lucky and fallout of my grasp, all the while squealing helplessly. I was surprised to see such a reaction. It was like it had a reason to fight all over again; maybe it didn't like me talking to it or something?

"Oh, I think you just upset the poor little guy." Meyou stated in her usual sarcastic tone.

"What do you think I did to make him so upset?" I asked, feeling at a loss for answers.

"Maybe it's because no one told him he was on the menu tonight, until you casually told him just now."

I chuckle a little bit before answering, "I seriously doubt that."

"Why, you think he's not entitled to care if you eat him or not?"

"It's not that he isn't entitled, just saying he's incapable of it."

"How do you know if he's incapable of it or not?"

"Because it's an animal!" I shouted, "it's not like it's going to start crying like a baby!" As if on cue, I heard something new coming from the rabbit. I turned to look, staring in astonishment at what I saw: Rabbits could actually cry like a baby. Teardrops were flying everywhere as it simply slumped there, dangling in midair.

I tried to shrug it off by saying, "Well it's just a natural, um, survival skill, yeah that's what it is. It uses this approach to scare off enemies, I guess. It's not like it's going to start praying or any-" Before I could finish that last part I see the rabbit holding its two front paws together, before it started mumbling something loudly.

"Well it's not like it's going to start writing a will or something like that!"

After it stopped praying, it pulled out a small piece of paper from what seemed to be out of nowhere, not that I cared where it got the paper but wondered what it was going to do with it. it looked like it was looking for something, but I wasn't willing to be patient, so I snagged the piece of paper and looked it over. According to the text on the paper, it was a will of possession to whoever finds the parchment? You have got to be kidding!

My tummy started growling again, this time more determined to get my attention. To be honest, I had mixed feelings presently. I was so dang hungry, but I couldn't bring myself to kill this little bunny, simply on the grounds that it was an intelligent creature, suddenly coming to the realization that the moment I caught it, it was going to die, and is just now beginning to show signs of sorrow. Shoot, it didn't even have family, if this will document is correct.

But I was still so hungry. There's not a trace of food around here. The only edible stuff I could see the occasional tumbleweed or dead tree. Sure, I could eat the bark off the trees, and try out the tumbleweeds, but considering I had no knowledge of these plants at all, I might very well set myself up to being poisoned, not to mention that if I did eat them I would have to deal with the number one problem I have. Dehydration. The more stuff I eat, the more I need water. Food tends to dehydrate you faster. One individual can live without food for one, two maybe three weeks at best, but you can only live without water for two or three days. I've already went one day without water, and my throat is burning! But if I cooked this rabbit I can get some moisture out of it if I cook it just right. It may not help my hydration in the long run, but at least my throat won't be as dry.

I had more reasons to eat this little fella for comfort's sake than I did to simply let it go!

I used my free hand to grab the rabbit's chest, which it responded to by slapping and kicking it, but like I had said before, it had no claws, so I wasn't too worried about it hitting and kicking me; In fact, it felt more like a soft plushy doll was fighting back rather than a living creature. When I had a firm grip on its chest, I let go of its ears. Then I took a firmer hold on its head, clutching my fingers tightly around. My hope, was to make its pain end, as quickly as possible, by breaking its neck. I was going to do it quickly, quickly enough that its life ended before I could open my eyes, but when I looked at it, its eyes were closed tight, apparently getting ready for what was to come. I could feel its body shivering, shivering with fear.

"Forget it, I give up!" I growled. I gently set the critter back on the ground, then watched as it ran away, as fast as it could, back to its hole. I then decided to lay down on my back, hoping it might relieve some of the stress in my stomach. It didn't work.

"You did the right thing." Meyou commented in her most sincere voice. I didn't bother to look at her, as I was too hungry to bother with arguing in any shape or form.

"Now, are you ready to eat yet?"

I looked at her as if she was everything I hated in this world, which wasn't much yet. "No, I like starving to death, it's my favorite sport. I only went after the rabbit for the soap opera drama." I answered sarcastically, a bitter tone of resentment behind it. To my surprise I heard her chuckling.

"I know how you feel. It's not fun to feel so hungry. Which is why I was trying to point out something to you earlier."

"And what is that?" I ask more harshly.

"You haven't asked the backpack to give you anything yet."

I chuckled a little bit before realizing she was serious. "You saw me looking through that backpack, I can't reach anything in it."

"Well, Discord did say to look to your backpack for your basic needs. So doesn't that mean that there is a way to get your stuff without reaching for it, such as asking for it?"

I open my eyes, realizing what she was saying. "Good idea!" I exclaimed, before running off to where I left the backpack.

After I wasted about four minutes looking for it, I finally found it. Who knew that finding a backpack in the desert would be so hard? You would think that it would stand out with its color, but somehow it managed to avoid my finding it.

I wasted no time in flipping the pack open before I shouted, "Give me food!"
Which, considering, was a bad idea, for my head was right over the entrance. The next thing I know, a very big, very solid box shot out like a rocket, right into my face.

After several moments of pure agony, I managed to straighten myself up. The box I was hit with was a wooden case, roughly 4 inches in diameter, 18 inches in length. I immediately crawled over to pry open the box, which wasn't hard. Inside was a sight to behold for someone in my condition.
Leeks, the crate had three dozen large leaks inside of it.

Tears start to water my eyes as I said," thank you Discord!" Before chowing down.

I didn't notice the other me was shaking her head at my silly antics, still smiling, but I also didn't see the sorrow behind it either.

~

"How much further is it?!" huffed a buffalo.

"We're almost there! I remember seeing the dust cloud dying further up ahead!" replied another, breathlessly.

"Then can't-" A third buffalo started, but stopped to gasp for breath "-Can't we take a break? We've been at this for so long! Strong Heart, please tell her we can stop now, you can't say that a break won't do us any good at this point!"

Strong Heart, who was ahead of the one complaining, turned her head back to look. Most of her body as well as both of her companions were wet in most places, especially under their throw over bags due to the hot sun earlier in the day. She, with Wind Flower and Trench Trotter, followed the engraved path in the desert for almost a day straight, hoping that it would help them reach the strange new creature before it made its next move. There wasn't much promise that they would ever see it; For all she knew it was already too late and well beyond her kind's borders, where she would never be able to cross. Exploring foreign lands was a dangerous task. She had already heard of a monster at the edge of Equestria that can devour entire herds before they had a chance to run away. Strong Heart, as well as many of her kin, already knew how dangerous it was to leave familiar ground without the threat of monsters at the border.

Strong heart replied to Trench Trotter, "It would give me more pleasure to agree with you than to argue, but I have to go with Flower on this one. We need to at least see if our target is just over there. If she is not, then we camp for the night and rest on the next."

Trench Trotter was a black male calf, with a smudge of white on his ear tips. Usually Strong Heart wouldn't bring him along, mostly for the fact that he was partly an outsider.

Some buffalo enjoying the life closest to the pony settlements, dealing in trade and goods, straying from the traditional path of the herd she and her family lived by. Most of their calves were no good to the herd when it came to traveling, but they weren't without their advantages.

Trotter usually brought his scouting equipment with him when he traveled, which Strong Heart didn't know how to use. She figured that getting close to the strange female was out of the question; the further the better was the mission, which was why she chose to bring him.

Compared to others, he was well set for long travel, even better than her at times, especially in mountain terrain, which made him more valuable; however, that didn't change the fact that he was not as disciplined as she was.

Yes, he could travel at their pace, but the hardest thing for him to do, was keeping his mouth shut.

"But that's three more miles! The sun is already disappearing, our only light source will be gone in less than half an hour!"

"Well what do you suggest we do? Sit right here, now, when what we are looking for may just be over there, which, by the way, we traveled all this time, just to catch up to?!"

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because if she is over there and decides to leave again before we see where she was going, we are going to travel for yet another full day and night just to catch up to her, again! And I would very much like to sleep in a tent tonight, and the next night, if only to see who we are looking for just over in the distance."

"And if we don't, then what?" Trench Trotter asked in a skeptical fashion.

"Then nothing changes. We will sleep tonight and the next night as we have planned.
It will do us no good if we find her and we are only half alive to watch her; We need to rest before we can continue."

Trotter seemed satisfied with her answer and remained silent.

Suddenly, Wind Flower stopped abruptly, causing a sleepy Strong Heart to nearly crash into her before stopping herself.

"What is it, Flowe-"

"Shhh!...Look over there." Flower interrupted.

Strong Heart looked in the direction of the mountains to see a small orange glow at the foot of them, faint, but visible.

"Strong Heart?" Whispered Flower.

"Yes?"

"Is that what I think it is?"

Strong Heart bobbed her head, "Yes, I think it is."

~

"So what's the plan now?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, don't you want to go to Hollow Shades, or what?"

"Hm. I think staying is the best option, at least for now. Tomorrow I'll get an assessment on all of our supplies in the pack, or rather I should say, my supplies since you don't need any of it. No offense."

"None taken!" Meyou replied in a cheery fashion. "It's actually a relief not to worry about the small things, like getting cold or getting too hot, feeling starved or thirsty. Heck, I don't even need to use the bathroom anymore."

"But doesn't it get difficult not to feel anything anymore?" I asked.

"What makes you think I can't feel still?"

"Wait, you can?"

"Yeah, the same as you can feel me. Remember when I hit your head?"

"How can I forget? You claimed that you were the manifested version of my memory and hitting my head prove that I wasn't dreaming."

"Yeah, well, that's how it is with us. No one will see me, feel me, or hear me, but you can."

"But how can you be real, if the rest the world can't see you?"

"Oh that's easy. How do you register pain?"

I thought for a moment before answering with, "The brain, I think."

"Ding ding, we have a winner! Without the brain, you can't register everything your body is doing- Well, actually, without it you wouldn't be alive. Everything you do is done through your brains nerve system; Whether it be walking, talking, or any basic function you don't think of doing manually, such as breathing. But it is also through the brain that emotions come to be formed at birth, then developed throughout the years depending on how your body and your actions respond to choices or physical attributes you perform."

"Wow, you actually do have a brain bigger than your mouth."

"Shut up! Anyways, I may not be real, but that doesn't stop your brain from thinking I am, so if I hit you, your going to feel it; unless, you don't believe it will."

"So you're saying that I'm just thinking you up to torment myself like a crazy girl?"

"No, I don't think so. You see, if I was just a figment of your imagination and nothing more, I wouldn't have been able to tell you my third person view of your mangled body earlier, nor would I have been just sitting around, waiting for you to wake up, not to mention how I knew about the letter. Aside from all of that, you never would have come up with the retorts I came up with, because I'm too good at it." She laughed softly.

"Well, you know we do technically share the same brain, so if you think about it, I'm actually much better at retorting then you are." She frowned at me from across the fire I started, crosslegged in midair while I was on my knees placing a tumble weed into the fire as well as a couple of thick dead branches. I had devoured two of the three dozen leeks in the box, practically emptying the whole thing. I had to cut back on the stuff before I consumed it all, which wouldn't bold well if it was the only box of food I had. I did ask the backpack for something to drink, which it then sent shooting out one large jug of water, but this time I remembered to keep away from the opening of the pocket, and I was able to enjoy a very refreshing evening, talking with Meyou for the most part, but I was also enjoying the quiet out here in the open.

I didn't get to enjoy this too much since I came here, except the time I was out cold, but that didn't count. It's so serene and peaceful that I felt nothing bad could ever happen here.

A thought struck me about our conversation at that moment.

Meyou was able to respond to my question without hesitation this time, and apparently we seemed fairly smart, which is good I think, but I also remembered the letter I got from Discord yesterday. Do I really have more in my memory then she does? And if so, what kind of person was I to begin with?

So many questions I would love to ask, but I just didn't know how to go about asking them. How am I going to remember anything at this rate? Then I thought back to Discord's letter.
It said that the more I did things, the more of my memory would come back! But then again, did I really want to remember?

I shook my head dismissively, a smile having appeared on my face as I said, "I have way too many choices on my hands."

Meyou chuckled as she said "well that's kind of what freedom is about...Making choices is a gift! Just be grateful to have so much of it is all I can say."

I just smiled before a massive yawn escaped my mouth, bringing a sudden drowsiness to my attention. Meyou noticed it too.

"I think you need to rest now." She commented.

"Well if you ask me, I have slept enough when I was passed out for 18 hours. I don't really need to sleep."

"True, true, but your body didn't get to enjoy the meal it had just now. Your entire body was making do with what it could to fix you up. In order to heal, you need good rest as well as food and water to keep your blood cells fresh and healthy. If you think about it, your body was living off of nothing, but your fat reserves to fix up your body. That's saying a lot considering you don't have any fat at all."

"So in other words, my body was doing a patch-up job?"

"Basically, yeah."

I just shrugged. I wasn't going to argue with the fact, plus I was really tired now, so what the heck?

I laid down on the ground right by the fire using my extremely long hair to make a cushion for my head. My body felt fine on the ground, especially since it was by the fire, but I also took the measure of taking out a blanket from my backpack -the color matching my hair- for extra warmth before saying, "Good night," to Meyou. She just waved her hands in acknowledgment, which I accepted as her good night to me. Before I knew it, my eyes closed, soon to be lost in the realm of sleep.

Elsewhere...

A rugged voice sounded, echoing against stone walls. "All right, she has fallen asleep at last. Come, we must make arrangements."

A smooth, melodious voice, with a strong, resonant sound, said, "Is this really necessary? Can't we let Luna handle this?"

"I'm afraid her involvement will bring out the worst in her."

"But surely being an emissary of dreams, she can help hold it back."

"I would if I could, but the chances are she will wish to intervene, but even if she didn't attempt it, she will surely unravel us. Whether by intention or not."

"So we simply make Miku's dreamscape invisible to Luna long enough for our influence to help her?"

"Essentially, yes. The more time we have the better. Discord already wreaked havoc when he split all of us apart. No telling what he has planned, but whatever it is we can't let him get to her, not when she is so exposed to influence."

"Oh yes, especially now when she is like an infant. The powers she has being given are incredible, yet she is learning them far too fast. At this rate, she will be superior to almost every creature in this land. I should know, I have reached out to all of their minds and have learned of their weaknesses and strengths. They would not stand a chance against her if she were to be corrupted."

"That is precisely why we need more time. Tell Meyou we need more positive feedback from her. We can't very well keep Miku safe if she feels annoyed enough to shove her out of her mind."

"Agreed. It's too dangerous to let Miku know that she has mental power over us. Out of blind rage she could banish us away from her mind, Leaving...him... a wide-open door into her mind." The melodious voice seemed hesitant, as if even referencing whomever he meant by 'him', might possibly be dangerous.

"We simply cannot afford that. Not so soon, no, it would be a disaster if she saw those dark memories flooding in overnight...... well what are you waiting for? Get out there and get working! We only have seven to eight hours to get this done!"

"Technically we have more than that, we are in the realm of-"

"I don't care! Time is of the essence and you're wasting it, so get out of here and get working! You'll have plenty of time to talk after you've made your rounds!"

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