• Published 27th Apr 2012
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The Problem With Magic - deathtap



An angry, bitter man bets with a rather strange character and ends up in the most unlikeliest world

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Day 26: All's Fair in Love & Games - Part 4: Sleep is for the Weak!

Author's Note:

I am incredibly sorry this took so long. I appreciate everyone being patient with me and I promise that the next chapter won't take as long as this one to produce.

“She'll be fine,” Red said to me with a hint of annoyance. Granted, it was probably the twentieth time I had asked if Twilight was okay, but I was concerned, damn it. Red covered her with a blanket and tucked her in gently before proceeding to shove me out of the curtained area around her bed. She pulled them closed behind her, and I leaned sideways trying to keep my eye on her for as long as possible. There was a strange, overbearing sense of loss as she vanished from my view, and it had only been a few seconds.

What the hell was wrong with me?

That aside, I had unexpectedly become the designated babysitter for Pound and Pumpkin... again.

Although neither of those things was actually my main concern. Right now I wasn't sure if I was reluctant to leave Twilight's side, annoyed that I had inherited the responsibility of the twins or if I was fearful of facing Applebloom's wrath. She decided to wait for me outside the medical tent, but I wasn't sure why. She was a Guard sent to protect the Elements of Harmony, and I believe it was supposed to be her sister. But if she was suspicious of me, why would she leave me along with Twilight?

I pushed the question out of my head. There was no use confusing my rattled brain any further.

“When will she wake up?” Pumpkin asked.

Red smiled and ruffled the filly's mane. “Anytime tomorrow or maybe even the day after. Depends. It might take a little longer for the effects to wear off of her in particular. The more magical you are, the longer the sickness can last.”

“Can I stay?” I grinned sheepishly.

“If you want. She won't respond and I don't want these two here. You know how children are when they get bored, and it'd be cruel to them to make them wait... especially at a fair.” Red ruffled Pumpkin's mane again.

As usual, she was right.

“Nurse, why haven't I passed out like her or Pinkie?” I asked.

Redheart gave me a look.

“I mean, Red, why haven't I passed out like her or Pinkie?”

“That's better,” she replied with a nod before turning around and started to put a few things neatly away. “I would think it's got something to do with your allergy. Since Sleeping Sickness is a magical oriented disease it won't affect you as much as those that have a strong affinity to it. So, unicorns are going to have it a lot worse than pegasi or earth ponies, and its going to affect the Elements a lot more.”

I leaned to the side trying to peer behind the curtain again. “Are you sure-”

“Yes, Forest, I'm very sure she's perfectly fine!” she interrupted me and pushed me back with her hoof. “You've already asked me this and the answer's still going to be the same. I wouldn't be this calm if there was something wrong with her.”

I bowed my head. “Sorry. Well, in that case, I'll just get out of your mane. Are you going to move her to the hospital?”

“I'll see if I can get Spike to take her home later, but right now why don't you just go out and have fun with your two little friends. It couldn't hurt giving them something to eat. They looked famished.”

I looked at the twins. “You guys hungry?”

They nodded in perfect unison.

“Okay. Let's eat! What do you guys want?”

They looked at each other and grinned, then back at me, “Salad!”

“S-salad? Really?”

“Yep! Mom and auntie Pinkie make the best sweets so...” Pumpkin replied coyly.

“We don't want sweet things... that aren't made by mom or aunt Pinkie,” Pound finished for his sister.

Pumpkin grinned. “Can't eat anything sweet not made by our folks or auntie-”

“So what you're saying is that you guys are sick of sweets and want to eat something savory, right?”

“Savory?”

“Salty. Not sweet.”

From the smiles they returned to me, I had hit the nail on the head. Why did they have to be so damned cute? Their somewhat guilty grins made me laugh to myself, but the joyful feeling did not last very long.

“Well, time to face the music,” I mumbled as I headed for the exit. Inhaling a small sigh, I steeled myself. This was it. I was ready to face the incoming storm.

Or not.

Outside the medical tent, Applebloom stood on the other side of the demarcated path looking pretty pissed off if I do saw so myself. The glare she was giving me was harder than concrete as she walked on over.

“Uh... hi?” I gulped, meeting her halfway.

“You've got one minute to 'splain yourself before I take ya to jail,” Applebloom stated, her tone ice-cold. “I don't care what our relationship has been, an' I don't care if you somehow saved Equestria from a dragon invasion or stopped some pony-enslavement plot! Explain. Explain what ya meant!”

I may be dumb, but I wasn't stupid – if that makes any sense. Her question was just plain weird. “Um... what?”

“You heard me!”

“I know I heard you, but something's off. We've been over this.”

She furrowed her brow and gave me a skeptical look. “No we haven't.”

“Yes we have. We so went over this. I know we went over this... right? Unless I dreamed it. Did I dream it? No, I couldn't have...” I muttered the last part to myself.

“What're ya talkin' about?”

Applebloom looked what I felt. Confused. Did I really just imagine it all? No. Thst was impossible. Zecora was with me.

“Remember... the Everfree? I-”

I was interrupted by the agony that roared through my wrist. The suddenness made me stumble as I tried to hold onto something to maintain my balance, but nothing was there. This was far worse than it had been before. Where before I just blacked out, this was incredibly painful, but what made it worse was the different kind of pain the flooded through me. This was like a repeat of the last time, except it felt wrong.

This felt... final.

“Forest? What's wrong?” Applebloom asked.

My eyes were shut tight, but I somehow managed to pry them open through sheer will when she spoke. It was like someone putting a bag over my head muffling out the sounds.

“It hurts!” I... yelled? I think I yelled. I couldn't tell.

Desperation got the better of me. I wanted to do something, needed to do something, to make the misery stop. Anything. So I rolled around on the ground thinking that the fire would stop if I stopped, dropped and rolled. That this would somehow put out the sensation. The pain changed and whereas before it felt like someone had placed my entire leg into a pot of boilet lava, now it was like a million needles inside were pushing out through part of my skin.

Red must have heard me because she came rushing out the medical tent.

“What's going on?” she shouted. I felt her hooves touch me. Or, I think it was her. Couldn't tell since my vision was full of tears. “Forest? Forest! Somepony help me!”

“Oh dear,” another voice stated. It was almost as gentle as Fluttershy's.

“Tender, can you pin him down?” Red asked.

“Ward! Ward! Help!” shouted the gentle voice, a little ungently as I heard the desperation in there.

Seconds later I felt strong hooves place themselves upon me. This successfully stopped me from flailing about as I was forced to the ground.

“What happened?” Red asked.

“The bracelet's hurtin' him again.”

That was Applebloom's voice. She sounded genuinely concerned. I think.

“Has something like this ever happened before?”

“Only at the most inopportune times.”

There was a long lingering silence.

“Tender, why don't you take these two over there, please.”

“Yes, Nurse Redheart.” Two hooves removed themselves from my torso. “Come along, kids.”

“W-what's happening?” I heard Pumpkin asked.

“Forest is just having a bad reaction to some magic. Nothing to worry about.”

The way Tender said it made me believe that it was all okay. I was glad of that, even if it was a bold-faced lie. I was thankful for her protecting them. They did not need to see this. I stopped myself from flailing about, and forced the corners of my lips upwards.

“See kids? He's smiling, so he's going to be just fine. Come along.”

“Ward, can you hold him yourself?” Red asked in a harsh whisper.

“Yes, ma'am,” a stallion's voice stated, and boy was he right. He held me down quite easily. The guy was really strong.

“Okay, I'm going to get something to sooth the pain-”

“Ma'am, what about that spell, ma'am? You know, the one where he shoots that light in the air?” Ward's voice asked.

There was about two seconds of silence, but it felt like an eternity to me.

“I don't know it. You?”

There was no response. Maybe Ward shook his head, but since my hearing started to fade out more and more, it could have been that I couldn't hear the reply. I could hear the sound of my pounding heart echo through my body and in my head. Soon that was all I could hear. The music of the fair, the voices of the ponies, the sounds of the rides thumping along their rails. Everything just stopped and all I could heard was the steady beat of my heart and my breathing.

So, I began to think about something else in an attempt to numb out the pain.

I thought about where I had come from, and how far I had come. I thought about all the friends I had made, and how my entire being as a person – no, pony – had changed. I've come such a long, long way. Who was I now? I had played my role as Forest for so long that I had become him. This was the kind of person, pony, whatever, I wanted to be. But I was John. Am him. Did that mean that being Forest had actually brought out the real me? Was 'Forest' always within me? Did I just need to be given the right push? If so, them who was I really? Wasn't this life a lie? Wasn't this all an act? If it was, then why do my feelings for Applejack and Twilight feel so... genuine? Why did everything feel so real?

It was all terribly confusing.

The hooves around my waste released themselves.

The beating of my heart started to slow down. I got scared. Hearts slowing down were never a good thing. I've seen enough movies to know that, and the fact that the pain also started to fade away didn't help much either. I wanted to scream. I wanted to shout. I wanted to call for help, but there was nothing, nothing, I could do. As the the pain slipped away, I started pleading. Pleading to the universe to stop.

I didn't want to die.

Somebody, anybody... please, help... me...

“... -orest Fire... me where you-”

Like someone sticking a red hot-poker in my chest, my heart roared to life and my eyes flew open. Yes, it was because of the suddenness of the pain and the feeling of... life, for lack of a better word. The pain returned, and where moments before I was missing it, now I wished it would go away again. Only not like just moments ago. Not like that. That feeling felt way too... final.

My body seemed to collapse inside itself, like someone pushing everything into where my navel would have been and just like that, the pain really disappeared. This time in the best way possible.

Normally.

I blinked and looked around. There were quite a number of ponies standing around me. Some wore worried expressions, others looked quite concerned, but most had the one look that assured me that all had gone well. Relief. Most of them looked relieved.

“Forest? Are you okay?”

My eyes focused in on the speaker.

Red was level with me, next to her was a large blue stallion. He put a hoof on my shoulder. I looked at it for a moment trying to get my mind to wake up, but I was confused. The touch seemed to help wake me up. I looked back at Red and opened my mouth.

“...”

“Forest?”

I coughed. That seemed to awaken my vocal chords. “Yeah. Fine.”

“Oh, thank Celestia. You had us really worried there.”

A comet of light-colored fur charged at me and enveloped me in her hooves. The tightness of the hug made me feel so happy to be here. I hugged her back just as zealously. “I'm... I'm okay, Pumpkin.”

She pulled back and wiped her eyes with the back of her hoof. “Promise?”

“Pinkie Promise,” I croaked. That made her laugh a little as she sniffled.

“Forest, do... do you want to lay down inside?”

I thought about it. When Twilight wakes up and gets word about this, she was going to really kill me. The best option was to stand up and keep on going. At least that would soften the blow of any stories she would hear. I couldn't keep worrying her. That had to stop.

“No. I'm good. Just...” I pulled one hoof under me, then the other, before pushing myself up. It was not so bad. I actually stood up quite easily, but had to shake my back legs a little. They felt like jelly. “There we go. Upsy-daisy. I... heard the Marking Spell. Did you cast it?”

“Cast what?” Pumpkin asked.

“The Marking Spell...”

Pumpkin tilted her head to one side. “No. I was over there with Nurse Tender.”

“I said it,” Applebloom stated.

Despite her angry face, I could tell she was happy to see I was doing fine. Guess the whole honesty shtick didn't just stay to the older sister. They were both terrible liars.

“Thanks for...” I thought about saying 'saving me', but that probably wasn't a wise idea in front of Red and the two kids. “Thanks for helping. I owe you.”

“That was different,” Red commented looking at me.

“What was different?” I asked.

“Your bracelet didn't emit that light thingy it usually does. It just... I dunno... just...”

“Coughed.”

“What?” I looked at Pumpkin who was standing next to Applebloom.

“It coughed. It went 'pah'.” She did two small arcs with her forehooves for emphasis.

“'Pah?'”

“I'm being serious, Forest.”

“She's right. It didn't do the light thing it usually does,” Applebloom put in.

They all looked so worried.

“Aw, guys, don't worry about it. I'm used to this kind of thing.”

That worked. Most of the bystanders went on with their own business. A few hung about, but mostly for other things (like the food stands or games near where they stood).

Pumpkin took a step forward and placed a hoof on my chest. “Y-you're not just saying that?”

The look in those eyes. Why did I feel so guilty? “Do I look like the kind of pony that would try to keep something like that to myself?”

“I guess not...”

She didn't look convinced.

“Has this kind of thing happened before?” Red asked as she lifted my hoof up to inspect the bracelet.

“All the time,” I lied.

Red looked past me and I turned my head slightly to see Tender nod.

“Pumpkin, Pound, are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”

The kids looked at Tender. They both shook their heads and both stood really close to me. It felt so strange. These two hardly knew me and they were so protective. Well, hardly is the wrong word.

“That's a great idea!” I exclaimed. “Why don't you guys get something to eat. You wanted salad, right? Can you get me one too? I'm starving.”

“Then why don't you come with us?” Pound asked, not falling for it.

“That's because I got to talk to Red. It'll be boring adult stuff. You know how it is.”

The twins looked at each other.

“Okay. We'll be back soon. What kind of salad would you like?” Pumpkin asked.

“Surprise me.”

I waited patiently as they walked away on either side of Tender.

“Thank you for that. Really. I appreciate it.”

“Those two have taken to you, haven't they?” Red smiled gently. “So, back to the subject at hoof. Has this thing happened before?”

“Not this bad,” I confessed. “This was the worst. It's been acting funny ever since the big light show.”

“Light show?”

“Ever since the time I got all the unicorns to cast all their magic into it. After that the bracelet has been acting real weird.”

Red thought about it.

“Maybe the amount of magic caused it to... break?” Applebloom suggested.

“Can a magical bracelet break from magic?” I asked.

Red opened her mouth to reply, stopped, thought about, then shrugged. Applebloom followed suit. Neither of them knew the answer.

“Great,” I muttered to myself.

“Red, is Forest all right?” Applebloom asked.

“Seems to be. Why?”

“I need to talk to him in private, if you don't mind.”

“I don't. Okay. Forest, if you need us, please come back.”

“Will do.”

Red nodded and returned to the medical tent followed by Ward.

“Funny that.”

“Funny?”

“I mean it's funny that you got your attack as soon as you were about to tell me somethin'. If Red hadn't been so... if you hadn't looked so...” She coughed. “I could have said the spell earlier, but I thought you were fakin'. Sorry.”

“You... you thought I was faking?” A few ponies stopped to see why I had shouted. I blushed and looked away.

“Wouldn't you? Look at the timin'! You were about to tell me something and... boom! You have an attack. It doesn't really instill much trust, y'know.”

She had a point.

“I wasn't faking.”

Applebloom looked away. “I know.”

“Okay. Let's do this again. So...”

She put a hoof on my lips.

“No. I think I got the gist of what you said. I don't know what's goin' on, but... against my better judgment, I am going to trust ya. You've been nothin' but good to us, and... well, now that I thought of it, I kinda actually owe you.”

“Owe me?”

Applebloom looked down. “For Applejack. I tried so hard to get you two together and then the whole thing with Atom and...”

“You don't owe me for that! You can't owe me for that. You couldn't have known that Atom was skulking around Ponyville.”

That made her smile. “Skulking?”

“Yeah, well, he kinda skulks doesn't he? How he always walked around with his head down a little.”

And she giggled. It was music to my ears.

“You're right!”

“Don't tell him I told you. He'd beat my flank!”

“I don't doubt it.” She laughed this time.

That put a smile on my face. “Speaking of which... have you seen him?” I looked around in a futile attempt to spot the stallion in question.

Applebloom shook her head. “Nope. Not since... not for a while, come to think of it.”

“H-how long?”

She tilted her head to one side and thought. Then she narrowed her eye and waggled her head as if she were shaking her brain in her skull. “Can't recall.”

Alarm bells we off in my head. There was something off.

“H-how about... in the Everfree?”

“What? You mean when you went to go look for him?” Applebloom thought about it. “Nope. Can't say that I did.”

“Y-you mean that you didn't... see him? Or... hear him? I mean...”

“Forest. What are you doin'?”

“Just-”

“Stop. Just stop.”

“What for?” I asked, wondering why she was getting worried.

“Forest. Stop. Just don't say anythin'. You don't need to say anythin'.”

I knew what she was doing. She was protecting me. What kind of a friend was I if I kept something like this from her? My time was almost over anyway, and I had to do what was right. I closed my eyes and too a deep breath. Then I spoke as fast as I could.

“In the Everfree Forest I saw some Guards and you-”


“He's comin' round.”

“What did you do?” That was Pumpkin's voice. I would know that voice anywhere. Why did she sound so far away? “Did you hurt him?”

“Pumpkin, now is not the time. Forest, are you okay?”

“Did someone get the number of that car?” I moaned to myself.

“What cart?” Pumpkin asked.

I was too woozy to care at that moment.

Applebloom was shaking her head as my vision focused on her face. “I told you to keep your mouth shut, didn't I?”

“Since when do I listen?”

“You ought to. You'd stop getting hurt so much.”

I heard some hooves galloping our way as Red, Tender and Ward appeared again.

“What happened?” Red demanded.

“He had another attack.”

“Yeah, because you attacked him,” Pumpkin said shooting venom at poor Applebloom.

I shook my head. “No. Not true. Applebloom tried to protect me from... my stupidity. Didn't listen. Should listen. Seems when I do, I get hurt less.”

My jaw ached. I placed my hoof on it and moved it back and forth.

“I tried to catch you before you hit the ground. You're kinda heavy, you know that? Couldn't hold you up. Fell flat on your face.”

I opened my eyes as wide as I could and leaned my head back away form her. “Are you calling me fat?”

In that one moment, with that phrase, all hostility seemed to evaporate into the air. They all shared a laugh, except me. I just smiled. My stomach felt winded.

“You ain't fat, Forest. Just heavy.” Applebloom walked over to me and put a firm hoof on my shoulder. “And I understand, Forest. I know what you mean. So you don't have to... say anythin' else. Okay? Ever.”

She was a smart girl.

“Okay.”

The corner of her lips went up. “Good. I've got to go... run some errands. Will you be okay?”

“Of course.”

She nodded, turned, and started to walk away. “Oh!” she stopped and gave me a look. “Good luck on winnin' the contest. Not that I expect you to win though, even with Pinkie out of the runnin'.”

I had completely forgotten about that.

“Never! Victory shall be mine!” I let out a fake, maniacal laugh.

All she did was shake her head and continued on her way, a smile on her lips.

“Forest, why does it hurt?” Red asked. She saw the confused look on my face. “I'm talking about the bracelet.”

I gave her my 'enlightened' look. “No idea.”

“Twilight told me about the basic functions, but why does it hurt you? What makes it... burn?”

I gave her a look. “You're asking me that?”

“Okay, can you best describe how it works, then? I just need to know. Maybe you know something that I don't. Maybe I can find a way to help you.”

“As far as I know, it burns when magic gets in it. It's supposed to take in magic from... everywhere, I guess, so it doesn't make me... sick?”

Red put a hoof to her chin. “I don't think that's quite right. It shouldn't be able to pick up direct spells. Spells cast towards it should be pushed away. Only ambient magic, that is magic around us, should be absorbed by the bracelet. At least that's what I think Twilight said.”

“When Aiden showed me how it works he cast magic at it. Then... yeah, lots of times unicorns have cast magic into it. Saved my life too.”

“How?”

“Ursa incident,” I said simply.

She seemed to remember. “That all?”

“No. But now that you've mentioned it, it always worked the same. Magic in, big pillar of light out. But after the RACE, after Princess Celestia managed to get it off my wrist, it worked differently. After that, I put it on in the Pit and...”

“The Pit?”

“Um... yeah. Diamond dogs and stuff. Long story. Remind me to tell you about it some time. Anyway, I put on the bracelet there because... of reasons. After that the magic that came out of the bracelet changed. A lot. I found that different magic from different ponies now had different... reactions? I can't think of the word.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, like Sweetie Belle's magic made like a blue swirly thing. Twilight's magic did the same as before, but like a cannon blast, and much, much more powerful.”

“Powerful?”

“Yeah. I don't know how else to describe it.”

“Did Twilight say she made this, or was it given to her?” she asked gesturing to the thing on my hoof.

I shrugged. “Dunno.”

“You don't know much, do you?”

That left me somewhat speechless. "I, uh... well, that is to say-"

“I'm going to talk to her about it, if that's okay with you.”

“With Twilight? Of course! You can talk to her about anything and everything that is about me, but on one condition.”

“That is?”

“You also mention my rugged good looks.”

All she gave me in response was an eye-roll followed by a head-shake. “Go. Have fun. Bye.”

The three medical ponies turned around and headed back to their tent.

I looked at Pound and Pumpkin. “Was it something I said?”

That made the two of them groan and started to walk away.

“Must be my breath,” I muttered, just loud enough for them to hear.

Pound couldn't contain himself. Pumpkin, on the other hand, seemed immune.

“Hey!” I shouted. “Where's my salad?”

The two froze in mid-step.

“You forgot, didn't you?”

“Sorry, Forest!” They both turned around with wide grins on their faces. “We didn't forget. We ate it!”

“How could you?” I wailed.

Then I proceeded to chase them in mock-anger as they giggled with glee.

And for the first time in my life, I thought how great it would be to have kids. The suddenness and randomness of the thought struck me like lightning. Imagining little versions of me running around out of the blue. I stopped and sat down on an empty bench. There were two other thoughts that went through my head. Sadly, being a father reminded me of my old man. Why? Why couldn't I just get him out of my head? Secondly, my father damn near killed me. How good of a father could I be with something like that in the back of my mind.

“Tired already?” Pound asked, plopping himself next to me.

I seized him in a headlock and rubbed the top of his head. “Gotcha!”

“No fair!” He bemoaned, and I let him go.

“Yeah, guess I'm a little tired,” I sighed.

Pound looked on at the ponies walked around the fair. He sighed and jumped up on the bench staring somewhere far away. “You know, sometimes I wonder what's out there.”

“Hm?”

“I mean, out there. Beyond Ponyville. Beyond Canterlot. Beyond the mountains, rivers, and the sea. What's really out there. When you went away, I got to thinking... you know, I kinda want to do something like that to. Just go. Go somewhere far away. Meet new ponies. See cool places. Go on a real big adventure.”

I looked at the colt and furrowed my brow. “Won't you miss your folks?”

“Of course I'll miss them. Of course I'll miss home... but I want to know. Aren't you curious? What's out... there!” he waved his hoof towards the skies.

“I've got a good one for you.”

“Yeah?”

“What if, and I mean if. What if there was another place far, far away. So far away that... you know, you couldn't see it on a map, or anything. Like... somewhere so far away that... it's not even on this world.”

Pound took it in. He placed a hoof on his chin, and thought about it. Then he smiled. “That sounds awesome. Another world.”

I smiled. “Yep.”

“You know, Brian is from another world.”

“I know. Kinda hard for him to hide it, am I right?”

“He tell you that? He says that you can't go back there because the way was closed... but,” Pound let the silence linger. “Can you keep a secret?”

“Of course.”

“Sometimes, in the Everfree, when I go alone... I see things, and hear noises.”

“R-really?”

He nodded. “But you can't tell anypony. You have to promise me.”

“Of course.”

“Sometimes I hear... a big city. Or a ball game. Or something. Voices. I thought they were ghosts, but... yeah, just...” he shrugged. “I don't think that the way was really closed. And don't get me wrong, the sounds are very quiet. It only happens very rarely, and... well, I don't go in there anymore.”

“Why? Is it scary?”

“No. Zecora caught me and told me that she'd tell Pinkie that I've been wondering through the woods. You don't know what Pinkie can be like when she gets mad.”

I couldn't even picture Pinkie getting mad.

“But, you know something?”

I looked at him as he sat there gazing into the distance.

“There's more than enough to see here. I don't need to go to another world.”

“That's really insightful of you, Pound.” I patted him on the back. “Well, when you go off on your adventure, let me know.”

“You'd come?”

That shut me up. “I'll try. That okay?”

He nodded. “Okay. I've already accepted the fact that you're not going to marry auntie Pinkie.”

That came out of nowhere. Weren't we talking about going on grand adventures a few seconds ago, but I played along. “Oh?”

“Well, after I've seen how much you like Twilight, I guess she's okay for you. But don't hurt her feelings, okay? That wouldn't be nice.”

I smiled. “You have a crush on Twilight, don't you?”

He blushed. “A little.”

I smiled and ruffled his mane. “Aw.”

“What? I do, okay? She's just... she's so cool and-and... well, you know what I mean. She's just... awesome.”

Couldn't argue with that. “She is, isn't she? She's super special, and I just want to make her the happiest mare alive.”

“How are you going to do that?” Pound asked.

I shrugged. “I dunno. I really don't. But I've got to try. I... have to make the most of everything.”

He looked over me at something behind. I couldn't read the expression on his face, but it didn't bode well for me.

“Oh. My. Gosh!” a voiced piped up. We both looked up to see Amethyst looking at us from across the road. “Forest, are... are you going to propose to Twilight?”

“What? No!” Kill the rumor. Kill it right now before it had time to form.

To make matters worse, Pumpkin, who had been gone for all this time, probably hiding, appeared. She saw my shocked face and automatically took Amethyst's side. “What? What?”

“He's going to ask Twilight to-”

“No!” I screamed. “Stop! Don't say it!”

“Say what?” Pumpkin insisted.

“Nothing!”

“Nothing? Don't be so shy!” Amethyst grinned. “You want to propose.”

“What was that?” another familiar voice asked in a familiar nasal-grating tone. It was Crystal. “Who's proposing?”

“Nopony's proposing!” I shouted.

Amethyst giggled. “Forest is.”

“No!” I yelled.

“No what?” Crystal asked.

“I am not going to propose to Twilight!” The music that was blaring in fair died right after I had said the word 'not'. Anypony within earshot must have heard me say: 'going to propose to Twilight'. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Why did these things have to happen? And I had thought everything was actually getting better.

“You can't marry Twilight, Forest,” Pumpkin stated. “You're marrying Pinkie! You're becoming my uncle!”

Pound was moving further and further away from me. Was he actually trying to ditch me? The traitor!

I opened my mouth to say something to Pumpkin, but couldn't find the words.

“I didn't know you wanted to proposed to Pinkie,” Crystal said smiling. “You stud.”

“Me? A stud?” I thought about it. “Well, now that you mention it...”

That made Pound smack his face with his hoof.

“So, are you going to propose to Twilight or Pinkie?” Another voice asked. Now that was Lavender. What was going on? Why were they all coming here? There were more and more ponies appearing around our general vicinity.

“Pinkie, right?” Pumpkin asked.

“What about Twilight, then?” Pound retorted.

Soon there was a debate going on about who would be the better choice. Why was this happening to me? I couldn't propose. There was no way that was possible. How did is come to this?

“Are you going to propose?” Amethyst asked louder than anypony else.

In my panicked state of mind, I muttered the word: “Maybe.”

“M-maybe? You mean you've actually been thinking about it?” Amethyst was genuinely shocked, as was the rest of them.

Not a soul moved.

“Oh, would you look at the time!” I said looking at my hoof. “I think it's time for me to... go away... yeah... that's the time. I'll see you later and... yeah... bye.”

“Your secret is safe with us!” Amethyst shouted at my retreating figure.

“It isn't, is it?” Crystal asked. That made me freeze in mid-step.

“Nah.”

“Thought as much.”

The two giggled with each other.

As much as I wanted to run away, I knew I couldn't leave things as they were. I trudged back to the two evil mares, double time. “Stop it. Please. It's not fair on her!”

“Ooh. On who?” Amethyst asked leaning against me.

My mouth froze. My brain froze. “I have got to learn to shut up.”

“Too late. Now you have to tell us who? Who is it?” they pressed.

Pound stood beyond the group of mares. “This is stupid. Who cares? Forest, let's go.”

An excuse to leave? Taking it. “Okay. Lead the way!”

“Not so fast!” Amethyst stated trying to bar my path.

“You mean not fast enough!” I replied dodging her and slipping away.

“I'll be sure to try and keep it a secret!” Amethyst yelled. “I'm not going to try very hard though!”

At least she was being honest.

Getting away didn't take very long, but as I walked through the fair, I kept catching ponies faces staring my way. Some had wide grins, others a knowing smirk, and – wost of all, some of them actually nodded at me as if there was some big secret that they were part of. If Twilight or Pinkie ever got wind of this...

Truthfully, I didn't know what to do. On the one hand (hoof?) I was actually really thinking about it. I mean really thinking about it. What would life be like with a special one? What would we do? Could I really spend my life with her? Could I actually have a future with her? What would it mean if I actually went through with it and stayed?

My head started to spin. The mere thought of asking Twilight be with me just felt so perfect, but it was not an option. Even if I did ask her, it wasn't like I'd have the option to stay. Right?

“Hey, Forest, what's wrong?” Pound asked looking up at me.

My attention came back from the daydream. “Nothing. Just... just thinking.”

The colt raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Are you planning something? I mean are you really going to do it?”

That was a real mature question coming from him. It felt strange, but he actually seemed to understand a little of what I was going through. Sadly, I couldn't humor the thought. I had given my word, and I knew that the sudden pain in my bracelet was a warning.

A very severe warning.

The fact that it had started to stop hurting made me realize that Tutela had a lot more power over me than I thought. A lot more. She had full control over my fate and could hurt me a lot worse that she had let on. The fact that she couldn't take me back to her private domain was one thing, but she had shown that if she couldn't trust me, she'd make sure that it would be the last thing I'd ever do.

In other words, she could kill me if she felt like.

“I get it,” I muttered to the ether, hoping that she could hear me. “I know, okay? I won't... I won't betray you, so please just don't do that again.”

“Do what again, Forest?” Pound asked, obviously confused at that statement.

“Nothing, bud. Just... just telling the universe that I understand something. Something very important and that I won't do it again. Ever. And no, I don't think I'm going to propose. I have... some other things that need to be taken care of.”

“Well, okay,” the colt replied slowly, giving me the 'you're-really-weird' look. I should have been used to it by now. He's been giving me that look pretty frequently. “If you wanna talk about it, I maybe a colt, but I'm here.”

I smiled and couldn't resist ruffling his mane. “Thanks. You're a great friend.”

We walked together for some time in silence. Then he stopped and sat down at a bench next to one of those rides where you sat on animals. A merry-go-round, I think. Or was it a carousel? The music that came from it had a catchy tune, and the young ones riding it had huge smiles on their cute faces. Some of the younger ones had to ride on it with their parents (or guardians), but they didn't seem to mind. What would it be like if I was one of them? Not the kids, but having a little one of my own, riding with him or her as she squealed in joy. What would it be like to watch him or her grow up? What would I the name be? And would I actually be a good father?

“What's wrong with me?” I moaned. I should stop thinking about this. It wasn't even something I should entertain. It wasn't something I could have. Ever.

“Forest!”

“W-what?” I asked, pulling myself out of my daydream.

“What's wrong?” Pound was standing in front of me with his hoof on what would have been my knee. “You're more pathetic than usual.”

“Oi!” The expression on his face made it quite clear that he meant it as seriously. “Just worried about Twilight, Pound.”

That seemed to satisfy him. “She'll be fine. Nurse Redhart said so. Don't you trust her?”

“Of course.”

“Then stop worrying. You're making me worried too, y'know.”

Really. How did someone as young as him be so much more mature than me? Unable to resist, I ruffled his mane. “You better stop growing up so fast. You'll be older than me in no time.”

He pushed my hoof away. “Between the two of us, somepony's got to be the mature one.”

That made me chuckle. “Alright. Then I'll stop being a big baby, and we're gonna have fun from here on out. Deal?”

Pound rolled his eyes, but he couldn't hide a small smile on his face. “Deal.”

“Let's go play some games. What should we do next?”

“I wanna go on a ride.”

That seemed reasonable. “Okay. That sounds fun. What ride? As long as it's not the roller-coaster. I don't think my heart could take another round on that... thing.”

Pound's sweet smile changed into the kind of smile a predator would give its prey. A cruel, mean smile with a knowing twinkle in the eyes that spelled ill for me. I gulped.

“Okay, no roller-coaster. I want to go on that ride,” he said pointing a hoof behind me.

I looked his way and gulped. “O-okay. But we sit in the middle...”

“What? No! The point it sitting on the far end! That's where it's the most fun!”

“B-b-b-b-b-b-b-bu-bu-but-”

“Come on!” the colt shouted as he sprinted towards the ride in question.

I curse myself for letting him get the better of me, but I also was happy that he was trying his best to help me stop worrying about Twilight, even if that wasn't the real reason for my concern. He was most certainly a good kid.

As I caught up to him, he held out three tickets for me. “H-how did you pay for these?”

“I didn't. Three bits, please?” He held out his other hoof.

“Whose the third ticket for?”

“Me.” Pumpkin was standing at the front of the line to my left. I hadn't noticed her, and an overwhelming feeling of guilt came over me. I had ditched her after the whole marriage fiasco with Amethyst and the others. She seemed to know it and gave me a knowing smirk. “You thought you could lose me, eh? Well, think again!”

Desperate not to face that line of inquiry again, I tried to change the conversation.

“Um... why don't the two of you go on the ship together?” I offered looking at the ride. It was an obvious attempt at getting away from that subject again, as well as a plea to be spared this ride.

It swung past the middle point where I stood, every pony screaming with glee – or horror. I sure hoped it wasn't horror. Please, sweet Celestia, don't let it be horror.

“It's not that high, Forest. You don't have to worry.”

I laughed nervously. “Not high she says. Don't worry she says...”

“It isn't!” Pumpkin argued.

“Don't give me that! Do you see them? Are any of them having fun?”

Of course they were having fun. What else would they be having? Who would what to ride that abomination of a ride if it wasn't fun? Luckily for me it wasn't as high or looked nearly as terrifying as the coaster.

“Come on, Forest. It won't be as fun if you don't come.”

“What are you two? Sadists?” I muttered rubbing my hoof along my face trying to muster up some semblance of courage. It wasn't getting any easier.

“Sadist? What's a sadist?” Pumpkin asked.

Her brother just shrugged.

I thought about telling them, whether it was appropriate, but then again it wasn't bad, was it? I could tell them, right? “It's some... pony who likes making others suffer for fun.”

Pumpkin thought about it for a second. “Well... if making you ride this makes you suffer and I'm going to have fun watching you... then I guess I am.”

“Woe is me.”

“Whoah is you?” Pound queried.

“Indeed.” I wiped the perspiration slowly forming on my brow.

“I don't get it,” the colt replied utterly confused.

“Okay, all aboard!” the ride attendant announced. “You three going on the end?”

“No,” I deadpanned.

“Yes!” the twins said over me.

“Okay! Go on, then. Up you three go. Best seats on the ship! Say, aren't you that racer who ran the Race? Can I get your autograph?”

I was glad to have a distraction, but Pound wouldn't let me off so easily. He waited until I finished signing the paper and when I turned around expecting to see the big rocking ship's end seats full, I was dismayed to see that Pumpkin had reserved the seats next to her for us.

“I saved you a seat,” she said with a grin that was supposed to be sweet and cute, but had a hint of something more sinister.

“Thanks,” I growled with gritted teeth.

Pumpkin scooted over to the end, I placed myself in the middle and Pound sat to my right, closest to the ride's platform.

“Are you folks ready?” The attendant shouted from his little booth.

Everyone shouted that they were. They were ready to venture on the 'high seas', to 'ride the storm' and to do other nautical things that involved going up and down a lot. I stopped listening after the second cheer. My bowels felt so tight that I swear I could have crushed diamonds in there.

The ship moved backwards.

It didn't go so high up. Of course I knew that it was building momentum, but a small part of me hoped that this was the peak. I knew it was delusional, but I could dream, damn it. Why did I always let things like this happen to me? Deep down I already knew why. Every moment that I spent here was a treasure. My time with these wonderful equines was more precious to me than anything. So I would suck up the horrible feeling of heights that I had. I would suffer the ride which terrified me to my very core. I would do it because for each moment I spent here, I would be able to get on with my life. For every second I was here I could say that I had lived.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair.

As the ship swung downwards my belly felt lighter. Funny how I had liked that feeling, but ever since...

“No! Don't think about that!” I shouted out loud.

Pound looked at me and had the widest grin plastered across his face. “Smile, Forest!”

“Never! I will never smile again! I will never-” the ship went up until it reached its peak before decending backwards for the fourth time. To me that was the worst part because it felt that if I hit the ground I would know about it. The side of the ride zipped by as we made it past the halfway point and up once more. This time it well all the way, and I ended up looking straight down. Straight. Down. At the ground. The very hard, very strong, very solid, ground.

“I. Hate. This.” I gritted my teeth as the ride started to descend once again.

Pumpkin screamed in glee as the ship again swung back down. We watched as the ponies on the other end of the ship facing us were now grinning downwards. Well, a few of them weren't grinning. At least I wasn't the only one suffering.

Then down it went again. Backwards. Oh, how I hated that. Up and up it went and again I was looking straight down towards the ground. True, it might not have been as high as the roller-coaster, but it was high enough. Higher than enough. And the roller-coaster didn't plummet vertically like this.

The ship rushed forwards again. This time faster than before. The ponies were having a ball, and I could make their faces out. A few of them were scared, but they were half Pound's and Pumpkin's age. That did little to boost my self esteem.

The worst came the next time. The ship went up above and beyond a straight drop down. Now I actually had to look up to see the ground. That was perhaps the worst thing a person (pony?) with an immense fear of heights could go through, so obviously I was subjected to the brunt of it.

I swore. Well, I tried to. It came out more of a constipated moan than actual words as the ship started its next descent.

Had to take my mind off of this. I had to think of something else. Anything else.

Then something strange happened.

The sounds of the fair had drowned out. The screams of delight from the twins had faded away. I could see them, their mouths open in elation, mouths wide open as they both screamed in delight, their eyes shut in an expression of glee. I could still hear their scream, but it sounded faded and slow, like someone put them in a slow-motion replay.

It wasn't as if I was spared this effect. My eyes would not move any faster than the what I could see. I could not move any faster than anyone else. It was like my brain went into overdrive and everything else, including my own body, was stuck in this lull. Anything within my eyesight I could see and actually analyze and think about it.

Something was off. Something about all this felt wrong. I got scared. Scared of this overwhelming feeling of cold that enveloped me. My core felt like it had been turned to ice.

With all my might and will I shifted my gaze to the left. It was so agonizingly slow. It was painfully slow.

As the ship moved further down, everything started to speed up and as my eyes could see to the side clearly this time. That was when I saw her. I saw a mare hovering at my level just over and behind Pumpkin's head upside down.

Or we were upside down, and the mare was the right way up.

Then eyes locked. Her eyes stared right into mine.

I felt my mouth open slowly. Felt my lips part millimeter by millimeter. She smiled at me, or maybe she already had a smile and she was making it bigger. I didn't know. All I did know was how strangely happy she looked.

My mouth opened wider and wider, time seemed to get faster and faster as I got further and further away from her.

What did I want to say? Why was I opening my mouth? Why did I feel so strange? What was happening to me?

Then, like an avalanche, the dam that held back time, or whatever happened, seemed to burst. The worst part of it is all was that everything seemed to want to catch up to where it had decided to slow down. Suddenly I was stuck in fast-forward mode. What should have taken tens of seconds to happen was happening in half that time.

Only as the ride stopped did the speed up stop.

Pound jumped off out his seat and stood on the platform looking at me.

“Wow, Forest. I didn't know you could hold your breath for that long! I never heard anypony scream for as long as you did.”

“I... didn't.... know... either...” I panted.

Pumpkin patted my hooves. “You can let go now. I can't get out if you won't move.”

“Hooves... stuck...”

Slowly, and with all the will I could muster, I let go of the rail that locked me in where I sat. I could have sworn I had actually managed to bend the bar.

“So you guys wanna go again?” the ride attendant asked.

I flashed him a look, then got out of there so fast, that all that was left was a streak of flames as I stood on the far side of the path across from the entrance to the ride. The others found that extremely amusing. Pound was laughing so hard that he could barely walk. Pumpkin giggled so hard, she was snorting.

Those two didn't bother me one bit. The same couldn't be said abut a certain someone (somepony?) else who also couldn't contain herself. She floated over and had to landed on the ground since remaining afloat seemed like an impossible task with her guffawing like that.

“It wasn't that funny, okay?” I moaned.

“You're right, it was funnier!” Rainbow belted out in another laughing fit and wiped a tear from her eye. “I haven't laughed like that in a while. You're a funny colt, Forest. You make me laugh.”

“I'm glad you find me entertaining,” I growled in response.

Rainbow kept on laughing.

Despite my earlier words, I couldn't help but smile. To be honest, I hadn't seen her laugh in quite some time. It was refreshing, that squeaky laugh of hers.

Our eyes met again and I could have sworn she looked different. Like her eyes were... prettier, I guess.

I shook my head more as an excuse to stop looking at her. What was wrong with me? I closed my eyes and took a deep breath through my nose.

“Y-you were all like 'ah'! And Pumpkin was like 'eek', and Pound was all 'yay', and-” Rainbow roared with laughter again. “And the way you ran out of there!”

“The best is when the boat started moving and Forest was screamed like a little filly. That was funny.” Pumpkin announced. Despite she being a filly, apparently she didn't scream like one and I did.

I pouted. “I wasn't screaming like a filly.”

“You always say that and you always know that you have.” Rainbow grinned and knocked her head gently on my neck when my pout didn't go away. “Come on, I'm just joking.”

“Really?” I asked dryly.

“Nope!” She burst out into a laughing fit again.

“Thought as much.”

If I had seemed distant, she didn't notice. I guess I had gotten really good at hiding things considering that my entire time here I've been hiding everything. When Rainbow touched me I felt like my entire insides had frozen. It was almost like that feeling you get when you drink something cold. Like insides turned into ice. My body felt cold and I shuddered trying to shake the feeling away. My laughter died in my throat and this was not lost on her.

“Forest, I really was joking.”

“I know, I know. Just not feeling well. The ride, you know. Up and down. High places.” I looked down feeling a little dizzy.

Rainbow lowered her head so that she looked up into my eyes. “You sure?”

“Positive,” I replied with a weak smile.

“That's better,” she said when she saw my happy face, which may or may not have been a little forced. Okay, so it was really forced.

“So, where's Abby?” Rainbow looked around. “Wasn't she with you?”

“She said she had other things to take care of.”

“Oh yeah? So, it's just you and the twins?”

I nodded. “Just the three of us. Four, including you. Twilight's at the medical tent after getting kayoed by the Sleeping Sickness. Pinkie too. Don't know where the others are. I think Applejack is with Fluttershy.”

Rainbow nodded slowly. “That would mean Big Mac's with them. I swear that guy's so thick...”

“Wait, I thought he was in love with Cheerilee or something. At least I think I did.”

“Oh that,” Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, he likes her, but I don't think he loves her. He plays along sometimes, but Cheerilee isn't really looking to settle down, I don't think. We're not that close, so I don't really know. You ought to ask Crystal. She'd know. I think Mac is just taking things as they come.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Well, I think Fluttershy has like a huge crush on him and I think that Applejack wants them to get together. But...”

“You don't approve?” I asked at the change in her voice.

She looked at me. “Honestly? I don't know. Applejack and Fluttershy are my best friends, so I think it's kinda cool that they'll be sisters-”

“Whoah! What? They're that far along already?” I asked.

She looked at me as if I was the weird one. “No, I'm just saying. I don't think either one has even been on a date with each other before. I think he likes her, but he's so boring. I don't know what Fluttershy sees in him.”

“Well... he's big,” I offered, a smirk on my lips.

The implication wasn't lost on Rainbow. “Oh, ew, Forest. That's something I don't want to think about.”

“I know it's crossed your mind already.”

This time she laughed along with me. “I think it's crossed every mare's mind in this town. If he wasn't, I don't think it'd fit his character, you know.”

“Big Mac with a Little Mac?”

“Can we stop talking about his... you know. It's kinda sad.”

She had a point. “True.”

“Anyway, I think I'll go check up on Twilight and Pinkie. Wanna come?”

I shook my head. “N-no thanks.”

That seemed to surprise her. “Why not? I thought you'd just at the chance to see them. Twilight especially.”

“Yeah... well, there are reasons.”

“Like?”

Pound overheard this and grinned. Then Pumpkin followed suit. It was an evil grin. They knew why I didn't want to head back that way. They began to silently pantomime my whole accidental marriage thing I had stupidly, stupidly, stupidly shouted behind Rainbow. The mere thought made my face sting. How could I face Twilight after she hears about this?

“Forest embarrassed himself?” Rainbow asked as she turned around and spotted the twins in the middle of the silent play.

“Don't answer that!” I begged throwing myself at their hooves.

“Aw, I missed it. Too bad.” Rainbow grinned at me.

I stuck out my chin and frowned at her. “Thanks.”

She laughed at my expense, but in a good way. “I'll catch up with you in a bit.”

Rainbow floated in the air for a moment. It looked like she wanted to say something, but seemed to change her mind and instead rose up higher into the late afternoon sky and glided away.

“What now, Forest? Wanna play a game instead?” Pound asked.

“Sounds good. No more rides, unless they're for babies. I don't think my stomach can take any more excitement.”

Pound shook his head sadly at that. “You're worse than my dad.”

“Your dad doesn't like rides?”

“Dad gets real bad motion sickness. He only has to look at rides and he gets sick. He's real bad with them. Once he took me and sis on a carousel. He ended bed ridden for a day. That's one of the reasons why we don't really go out of town very much. Mom doesn't wanna go anywhere without dad, and dad can't ride on anything that moves.”

“Well what about teleporting. That doesn't involve much movement.”

Pound shuddered. “You'd think that would be better, but for some reason it's not. You get really, but if we do travel then dad lets himself be teleported if we really need to go somewhere, but usually he stays at home.”

I couldn't help but laugh. “Wow, that really sucks. I wouldn't know, never tried it before.”

“Why?”

“Because he's allergic to magic, silly. What would happen if you teleported?” Pumpkin asked.

“Probably would die,” I said after thinking about it for a second. That was not the answer the twins wanted to hear, especially after the episode earlier on. “I-i-it's okay. I don't mind. Teleporting is overrated.”

“W-we don't get to travel very much anyway,” Pound cut in, trying to steer the conversation away from something so morbid. “Not when you're one of the best bakers in Equestria, right? Mom and dad's cakes and stuff are in huge demand. And auntie Pinkie can't hold down the fort for long, not with being an Element an all. Things could be-”

“Pound, you're babbling,” Pumpkin informed her brother.

He glared at her.

“Let's go play some games!” I shouted interrupting them before they got into one of their sibling fights.

“What game should we try?” Pumpkin looked around and pointed at a stand. “How about that one?”

We walked over and took a look. It was strange, there was a bunch of weird things hanging around, and it was clear that whatever was going on over there, it had something to do with magic. Things don't float around like that unless magic was involved – or science. But the way things were glowing and moving, it was magic for sure. I didn't need to get any closer to see that.

“Ah, step right up for a chance to win some exciting prizes!” The mare behind the stand whipped up and smiled. I jumped back out of reflex because although she looked and sounded like a pony, she wasn't. She was different. “D-did I scare you?”

“Scare me?” I was puzzled, but her voice was so full of concern that I realized that she was being serious. “N-no. Not at all.”

“Great! So, you wanna play or what?”

Her mood change was so rapid, that I quickly doubted that she was verklempt in the first place. Still, I was relieved that she had changed her tune. Roll with it! I told myself. “Sure thing! How do?”

“R-really? Y-you're gonna play?” she asked putting her forehooves on the table of her stand and leaning dangerously close to me.

I backed away instinctively. “Um... yeah?”

“Really? You're not joking?” she asked leaping over the table and grabbing me by what would have been my collar, if I had been wearing a shirt. “Really, really?”

I leaned back as far away from her as my neck and skin would allow me. “Y-yeah!”

“Honestly?” she pressed, her nose on mine.

“Y-yes! I really, really am not! Joking, that is!”

“This is great!” she shouted releasing me making me fall backwards to the ground.

I looked up to see her bouncing around me with a huge grin on her face. Who knew I could make a mare so happy by just wanting to play a game? Was this why most of the stands were run by stallions? Nah, that couldn't be it.

As I was mulling in my thoughts, I felt a shove from behind me. The not-quite-a-pony was shoving me forwards towards her stand. “This is so, so great!”

“Uh... why?”

“You're my very first customer! I've been sitting here all day, but nopony else has wanted to try this out.” She blew her nose into a napkin and wiped something from the corner of her eye. It wasn't a tear because that would have been too damned convenient.

“Wait. What do you mean by first?” That didn't seem right. It was late in the afternoon by my reckoning, almost break time in the real world. “You just finish setting up your stand or something?”

“You're not from around here, are you?” she asked leaning her stand to my left as I looked at the glowing things floating around just over the table.

“You could say that,” I replied neutrally.

“Well, I'm a nocturnal pegasus!” she said and stood back and spread her wings.

They weren't the feathery kind. They looked like skin. If I had to venture to guess, they looked like the wings of a...

“Bat pony!” Pound exclaimed excitedly.

“Bat pony?” I studied her a little bit more, all the while she looked back at me with eyes that were on the brink of tears. That alone was enough for me to melt. A small feeling of guilt welled up in the pit of my stomach because it felt like I was cheating on Twilight a little bit by finding another mare cute. But then again, I liked Twilight a lot, so comparing the two was like comparing a continent with a grain of sand. “That's way cool. Never met a bat pony before.”

The expression on the pegasus' face was priceless. Even with her fangs – yes, fangs – she looked absolutely adorable. Normally I would've had an aversion of pointing teeth on an equine, but after the choppers on the diamond dogs – or Tutela for that matter, these were nothing.

Wait. Did that mean that bat ponies were changelings or something?

No. Couldn't be. This equine was adorable, but still there were similarities that I could not ignore. At least her fangs were not as massive as they other two.

“Just so you know, we don't really appreciate being called bat ponies, but yeah, you could say I am one.” She folded her wings back down. “We're actually called vespers, and don't you forget it!”

“I won't!” I grinned mischievously. “Bat pony.”

She pursed her lips in an 'oh, ha-ha', fashion, but she knew I was just kidding around. “For a stallion, you're pretty cool.”

“I know,” I replied cheekily. “Wait, what do you mean 'for a stallion'?”

“Isn't it obvious?” She replied, and then nudged my side. “Not really into stallions, if you know what I mean.”

At least she was upfront about it. “I'll keep that in mind.”

She laughed at that. “So, just to be a hundred percent sure, you're not afraid of me, right?”

“Should I be? Will you bite my neck and feast on my blood?” I asked sarcastically.

“Of course not. I'm not a vampony.”

“A what?”

“A vamp-”

“No, no. I heard you the first time. Just trying to pretend you didn't say it to me.” I felt somewhat dirty that I had even entertained the thought of a blood-sucking equine. “I've never seen one of your kind before.”

“Yeah, we don't usually hang around in the daytime. That's why we're nocturnal.”

“Okay, I get that, but I've been here for a month and I haven't seen a vespa before.”

“Vesper. My kind don't usually hang around this far east, we're more of a west coast kinda lot. But I wanted to see the world, so here I am. I'm going to head on home in a couple weeks, but I want to stick around here for a bit. I'm heading to Cloudsdale tomorrow! I'm sooooooooo excited!”

She giggled like a little filly and clopped her hooves for good measure.

“Um, that's cool,” I stated. “So, what're the fangs for?”

She gave me a look as if I had slapped her suddenly. Then she leaned in towards me again and made a face.

“Huh. You're not joking, are you? You really haven't hear of us. I feel so sad for you!” she wiped a fake tear from the corner of her eye again.

“Thanks,” I muttered sarcastically.

“Anyway, they're for biting into Moon Stones.”

“Moon Stones?”

“Yeah! What? You're going to tell me that you've never heard of them too?”

“Let's pretend that I haven't.”

She blinked and rubbed her ears as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard. “Where have you been?”

On another world where magic and Moon Stones don't exit. I thought to myself. “I have amnesia.”

“Oh? Oh! That has got to be a pain in the rear.”

“I wouldn't know. Never had it before, and if I did-”

“Can't remember! Ooh, I have got to use that next time I go through a bad breakup,” the vesper grinned and giggled maniacally. “Anyway, Moon Stones. Yeah, they're delicious! It's like biting into a sweet mango, but not quite as sweet, and, and it's got this tangy taste that melts on the roof of your mouth, and then there's a hint of salt too, just a pinch in the right place so that after you bite into it the juice isn't... would you like to try a piece?” she asked. “You're drooling.”

I wiped my chin. “Sorry. Just sounds real great. I'm always ready to try new things. Especially food. Especially good sounding food.”

Pumpkin poked my torso. “That's not such a good idea, Forest.”

“Why?”

“It's just that-”

“It's delicious!” the mare said, tantalizingly.

Pumpkin looked at the mare. “I know, but it's just-”

“Is it harmless?” I asked.

“Yes, of course it is, except-”

“If it's harmless then why can't I try one?”

Pumpkin placed a hoof on mine. “Forest, listen to me. This is important. It's because-”

“Here, look. I've got one right here. It's so good. Doesn't it look scrumptious?”

She wasn't joking. It looked out of this world. Well, it looked out of what I thought was out of this world. The fruit was just like a dark opal. It looked smooth, like a pebble, but had streaks of green and blue light reflected off the surface. As I tilted my head, the light reflected from it changed shape. It really looked like an opal. A really, really big opal, about the size of a large watermelon.

“Here, let me show you how we open it.”

She opened her mouth and bit it right in the center. As she did, between her two fangs the fruit cracked open like an eggshell. She then rotated the fruit a little with her hooves and bit it again. She kept doing it until she got almost all the way around. Afterwards, she pulled the ends apart in two halves to reveal a pale, fleshy interior that was dripping with moisture.

The first thing that hit me was a scent similar to strawberries, or something to that effect. It wasn't really a strawberry smell, but it was the closest thing I could relate it to. It was sweet, but had that scent of a nip in it. Anyway, it looked fantastic and refreshing. My mouth watered even more.

“Our teeth are quite useful. Most ponies have to use a saw or something to open these, but not us! We've got the goods to eat these on the go! Still, it hurts the teeth a bit if we don't do it right in the middle. Takes time and patience to get it right.”

“Your kind live of this?”

She nodded. “Well, in a way. There are plenty of things out there, but mostly we're...”

“I'm sorry, didn't quite catch that.”

“We're...” she muttered something, but it was still too soft for me to hear.

“One more time.”

“We're omnivorous!” she stated. “We eat shellfish... and stuff.”

That made me smirk. “That all?”

“You don't mind?”

I shook my head and shrugged. “Should I?”

“Way cool! Here, try a bit of the Moon Stone,” she said offering me a piece. The juices were slowly flowing down her hoof.

I took it greedily.

“Forest! Listen to me-” Pumpkin tried to say grabbing my other, free hoof on the ground.

“Hm? What is it?” I asked as I placed the piece in my mouth and bit down. The explosion of flavor was amazing, but what made it especially incredible was an electric like zing that flashed across my tongue waking up my taste buds amplifying the already powerful flavors making my mouth drench itself in my saliva.

Then a pop went off somewhere followed my a familiar burning sensation.


I woke up on the ground with my head spinning. There was a large crowd gathered around me. I turned my head as I felt two small hooves on my shoulders and spotted the twins supporting me – or maybe they were using me as a shield. It certainly looked like that. Behind her was the vesper huddling between the twins, myself and in front of her stand.

Slowly I got up and cricked my neck. “Ugh. What happened?”

Pumpkin darted in front of me. “See? I told you he was okay!”

The crowd all looked at me to confirm what she was saying was true. I grinned. Seemed appropriate.

“Why does it feel like I got hit by a train?” I muttered rubbing my jaw. I smacked my lips and the residue of the juices made me close my eyes. “A very delicious train...”

“The fruit is grown in underwater caves that use the reflection of light from the moon's glow, Forest. Everypony knows that!” Pumpkin shouted as she turned to me, her eyes narrowed in anger. “I kept trying to tell you but you wouldn't listen to me.”

I scratched my head. “Well, color my stupid, but I have no idea what you're talkin' about, lil' girl!”

“Aunt Applejack doesn't say that,” Pumpkin stated.

“I know. I was just being... never mind. What do you mean?”

Pumpkin gave me a skeptical look, but she seemed to forgive me. “What I'm trying to tell you is that Moon Stones are only grown in certain places with certain conditions. It has to be just right, and... um... they're... um... well, it's just that you can't eat them.”

“What? Why?” I moaned.

“Because it's a magical fruit.”

“The more you eat, the more you toot?” I replied without thinking.

There was a good three seconds of silence before Pound burst out laughing. He clutched his sides and rolled on the ground. Several other ponies – well, stallions, the mares did not think it was that funny – began to laugh along with the young colt. It was great that the whole mood had shifted. Even the vesper giggled a little, but cautiously. I slapped her on the back, and she looked up at me with a bright smile.

Damn these ponies. Damn them and their ridiculously cute faces.

Pumpkin shook her head, but the smile on her face made it clear that she had forgiven me.

“Sorry. I'm a little allergic to magic. So, this isn't your fault.” I smiled at the vesper.

“W-what?” she gasped. “H-how is that... is that even possible?”

“Apparently.”

Pumpkin pursed her lips and shook her head. “See? This is what happens when you don't listen to me.”

“Aw, don't worry. I never listen to anyone.” I frowned after saying that. Now I understood why horrible things kept happening to me.

“You gotta listen to me, Forest,” the filly said gently, as if I were a baby.

As I opened my mouth to reply, the bat pony shoved her hoof in my mouth. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Just let me get this straight. You're a pony that's allergic to magic?”

I nodded.

“Then why are you living this close to Canterlot! If you're so allergic, you should be heading out towards the borders! There's not so much magic out there, you know.”

“Really?” I had spent the vast majority of my time near Ponyville, with the exception of that failed attempt at running away from Twilight with Spike.

“Yeah! My kind is from the mountain rage to the west. It's got these high cliffs that are right next to the shore. It's so nice to fly there because of the wind. Hits the cliffs and you so up! Easier for us without feathers to fly out there.” She flapped her wings a couple times for effect. “Not saying that we can't fly, just that it's easier for us to- I lost ya, didn't I?”

“Yeah. I have no frame of reference, considering that the only flying I've done was on an airship, and that didn't go too well.”

“Oh. Well, our kind used to live in these really big caves along the cliffs where the Moon Stones grow, but now we have proper homes in the valley.” She walked over to me and patted my head. “Are you from out there maybe? Ooh! Maybe your family is from where I'm from!”

“And where are you from?” I asked.

“Lunara. You know it?”

“No, he doesn't remember anything,” Pound stated. “He doesn't remember anything about himself. Not even his name. We all call him Forest because he was found in the Everfree.”

“Well, he might know it if I told him the name and it reminded him!” the pony retorted. “It must be horrible, not knowing who you are.”

I shrugged. “It's not that bad. I've made a lot of friends, so I'm actually quite okay with it.”

“But what about your family? Do you have any foals of your own? What if you have a wife waiting for you?” She shook her head and hugged me. “I'd be so worried.”

“Sure they would,” I stated rolling my eyes. “Anyway, I highly doubt that I'm married. I mean, wouldn't my family have put out a wanted poster or something?”

“You mean a missing notice. You wouldn't get a wanted poster... unless you were a criminal. Are you criminal? Wait. I know you. Are you someone famous? Haven't I seen you before? Are you like some- oh my gosh! You're that runner! Of course! You're that guy who won the Race!” she made a noise that sounded like a squeak and a giggle and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. “Sign!”

It wasn't a request.

Taking the items, I signed as best as I could. Still no improvement despite spending my entire day in Cheerilee's school. Guess it takes time to master writing with one's mouth – then again it was only one afternoon, which I spent passed out for the most part. I looked at the vesper in her eyes and she looked at my signature with a mixture of... I don't know what. Disgust? No, too happy to be disgust.

“That is awesome! You write so horrible that no pony will think it's a fake! No offense.”

“Oh, none taken,” I lied. “I didn't get your name.”

“Oh! Where are my manners. Je m'appelle Nocturne.”

I just blinked.

“Yeah, I know. My father was Prench. He taught me how to speak it. I'm half earth pony, in case you didn't notice.”

That made me blink again. “French?”

“Yeah, from Prance.”

My mouth dropped. Did she seriously just say what I think she said? “Wait. Prance?”

“Yeah, Prance... why?” She gave me a strange look. “You do know it's a country, right?”

“Um... yeah, sure I do.” I looked at Pumpkin who nodded as if I was confirming with her that what the vesper was saying was true. “And... no, couldn't tell about the earth pony thing. Sorry.”

“Really?” Nocturne looked at herself, lifting her wings to scan her body. “Isn't my body's build just a tad different?”

“Honestly? I can't tell.”

She suddenly looked sad.

Damn you and your stupid cuddliness you damned ponies! I shouted at her in my head. “Oh! Now I see it. Yeah. You're very earthy, um, in all the right places?”

That frown turned upside down. “I know, right?”

At this point I couldn't tell if she was being serious or just yanking my chain, but then again she seemed like a good person- pony, so I didn't mind.

Pumpkin was now deeply interested in the vesper's stand and was looking at it rather intently. I leaned to the side to see what had taken her interest, but my mind was taking its time to catch up, so I decided to use a decoy to prevent Nocturne from thinking I was slow. Which I wasn't. Let's just move on. “Prance. Nice place?”

“I know! The lights, the rivers, the way that Luna's moon adorns the sky. Isn't it romantic?” Nocturne sighed and had this dreamy look on her face. “I hope that one day a nice filly will take me there on an airship.”

“Couldn't you just fly there?”

She gave me a dry look. “That's not the point. The point is to be taken there romantically for romantic stuff and do romantic things.”

“I get it!” I muttered. “You're a romantic.”

She just blushed at that. “A-anyway, I think the Prench are a little snooty. Some, of course.”

I couldn't help but laugh a little at that. How could two different worlds have the same basic stereotype? It was uncanny, but perhaps also predictable. There were a lot of ridiculous and obvious parallels between both worlds.

Then a nagging thought entered my mind. If the worlds were so similar then would Equestria a fake? An illusion of my own madness? Was this all just one big joke? Did I really come to a whole new world, or was I just unconscious at the bottom of a mine shaft? Was all this just a from my mind?

No. Couldn't be.

Could it?

Not wanting to even humor that sentiment any longer, I pushed it out of my mind. I would rather spent an eternity with Tutela than to have this all be nothing more than a figment of my imagination. So, I put all my energy into trying to make out what the vesper's game stand was all about.

“How do you play this?”

“This? Oh, it's easy. All you have to do is steer that vesper through the night sky without touching anything. Not the stars, or the moon, or other vespers and pegasi. If you reach the castle,” Nocturne said pointing to a near perfect model of the Royal Canterlot Palace, “then you win!”

“How do you steer the vesper?” I asked looking down at two joysticks.

“Oh, that's easy. The left joystick controls your movement. Up, down, backwards and forwards. The right stick adjusts the speed. Since you're my first customers, you get to play for free for the first round. Okay?”

Pumpkin, Pound and myself all squealed in joy.

“Okay, so the color of your area is the color of your vesper,” Nocturne said.

I looked down in front of me and saw that the area under the joysticks were painted a light blue. Pumpkin's was a violet and Pounds was a yellow. He made a face, obviously not liking his color choice.

This wasn't lost on Nocturne.

“They're all light colors. Since my theme is night, dark colored vespers on a dark background was too hard to see. So, I made them light colors. They game's gonna be tough anyway.”

Made sense.

“Okay, so don't touch anything. Any obstacle will send you crashing to the ground!” The way she said it made the three of us grin. She was funny. “And we wouldn't want that now, would we? The first place will get this!”

“A Moon Stone?” I asked looking at the fruit.

“Wait! What did you say?” a unicorn asked walking right up to the stand. “Did you just say that the winner would get that?”

“Um... yeah?” Nocturne replied not really sure.

“Sweet Celestia! You've got to let me in on that! Take my money!” the unicorn shoved a bit onto the stand and took his place next to me.

“Wait! I want to play too!” A pegasus mare announced and stood next to that unicorn.

Then three more ponies took up spots next to Pound, and soon all eight controls were being manned (ponied?) by eight equines ready to win and take the glorious fruit home.

Shame that I wouldn't be able to eat it, but then again it would be a nice addition to my winnings. Well, at this point anything would be a nice addition to my winnings.

Nocturne explained the rules and how to play and soon we were all gearing to go. “Okay. The first one to reach the castle wins!”

“This is gonna rule!” Pound rubbed his hooves together. “Time to lose, Pumpkin!”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yeah-huh.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yeah-huh.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yeah-huh.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yeah-huh.”

“Why not see who wins first, then you can argue,” I offered.

That seemed to convince them to stop, although now a part of me was dreading what would happen if either of the twins actually won. That meant that I had to beat them both. For justice! For the peace of all mankind (ponykind?), but most of all for the sanity of every adult within earshot of the twins. My eyes drifted to the pony sitting on the other side of Pumpkin, and he looked at me with a look of sheer horror. The same thought must have crossed his mind because he looked over to me and nodded.

That was it. A pact. We would not allow either of the twins to win. At least, that was what I thought it meant. I certainly hope he wasn't hitting on me.

“Okay, is everypony ready?” Nocturne announced.

We all shouted in response.

“Get set!” she stated.

Every single one of us leaned onto our controls as if we were starting a race of some sort. Pumpkin and Pound had their tongues stuck out at the sides as they started at the game in deep concentration. Funny how genes worked like that.

“Go!”

The first thing I found was my character in the water flailing about. I had hit another player's character and the two of us crashed into what I assumed was the sea or lake below. The others were soaring through the ride dodging clouds, birds, other vesper, pegasi and even random things like cakes, dogs and the occasional unicorn for good measure.

Suffice to say that the two youngsters were so far ahead of everyone else that they were actually in a league unto their own. There went any dream of winning this game and that Moon Stone.

Or was there?

Seemingly out of nowhere, a white colored vesper roared past the two twins' characters, almost making them spin in circles where they stood. We all turned our head to see a pony at the far end manning (ponying?) the controls like a pro. I mean, this guy had skills.

There was no contest in who the winner was.

I looked at his cutie mark and frowned. Of course it had to be some sort of controller or something. Why else would he have raw natural talent for playing this game?

“No fair! How'd you do that?” Pound asked when the game was over.

Relieved that the twins had not won, I went into my sulking mode. Because I lost. Badly. I suck.

“I dunno. Just... I like games. Always have.” He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, kids, but I just have this real competitive streak. I don't even really want that prize.”

That made every pony there perk their ears.

“So, I guess I'll just take-”

“Rematch!” I shouted before anyone else could even begin to think.

“Yeah!” Pumpkin and Pound both shouted.

I just bought myself another chance to win a prize. This time I hoped that I wouldn't end up in the water.

“You're on!” the equine with the computer console cutie mark shouted. “Bring it!”

At once, every single pony that had played before rushed to their places. Again the twins sat at their respective seats, tongues stuck out in deep concentration. Then I noticed that the gamer pony also stuck his tongue out as he took the controls. Maybe it was because of the the tongue that they were able to do so well! So, I stuck mine out as well. Hey, I needed all the luck I could muster.

Nocturne did something and all the vespers were back at their started places. “I'm gonna change the course, just one second...”

Suddenly the course was now a maze of craziness. There were rainclouds spouting lightning bolts, crazy pegasi flying amok, some unicorns on the ground hurling boulders upwards and controlling them in mid-air so that they flew in random directions, and a few earth ponies using their rear legs to buck objects with deadly precision and speed into the air.

“Uh... can we go back to the original level?” I asked.

“What's the matter? Too difficult for you? Are you afraid?” The gamer pony said trying to get under my skin.

“Well... afraid? No. Difficult? Yes! Look at that! How can anyone navigate through... that!”

“Why do you sometimes say anyone?” Pound asked.

Oops. “I... dunno...”

“I dunno, I think that I could do it.” He stretched his arms out in much the same way I would if I was trying to crack my knuckles. “Won't know unless I try.”

“Oh, and one more thing,” Nocturne stated smiling at us, “I'm making it so that the tails of the vespers can be used to block things. So, you can use it to deflect objects and stuff. Or knock other players to the ground. I've also changed it so that when you get hit, you land on the ground for a few seconds, then you can start again. Aren't I a nice pony?”

“Well... then at least we can still play even after getting cut off at the start,” I muttered giving the others a bland look. One of them had ruined my chances of winning.

“Okay, let's get this thing started!” Nocturne screamed.

We all got ready to play. Tongues out, shoulders and hooves cricked, and determination planted on all our faces as we readied ourselves for the... game. Somehow I had forgotten that this was only a simple game that didn't really matter if I won or lost.

Actually... with Granny's hooch on the line, there was a lot at stake here.

“On your marks!” Nocturne called out. “Get set... go!”

And off we went. I managed to skillfully, yes skillfully – luck had nothing to do with it, avoid crashing into any other vespers as we charged out of our starting positions. I narrowly avoided one of the other competitors as we vied for the same open space and went upwards over a cloud... only to be struck by a lightning bolt cutout as it stuck out from behind a cloud. I cried in anguish as my character fell out of the sky and crashed into the ground.

“Aw, man,” I moaned.

“Mane?” a blue stallion to my side asked.

“Uh...” I blinked a couple times. “Yeah. Mane. That's what I said. 'Aw, mane.' Not man. That would be silly.”

“What's a man?”

“Um... Brian?” I grinned.

He looked at me, thought about it, then shrugged. That seemed to satisfy his line of inquiry.

In the meantime, the gamer pony and the twins had taken the lead. They were so far ahead of the rest of the group, that a few of them just threw up their hooves in disgust. But not me. I never give up. Something that my experiences here have taught me. Not to give up, despite the overwhelming odds.

“Go, go, go!” I shouted at my vesper as he or she levitated above the ground ready to go. I gripped my controllers and pushed up to make him rise into the sky, only to have one of the unicorns hurl a boulder at me and down the vesper went again. “Aw, come on!”

“Use your tail, Forest,” Pumpkin said through the corner of her lips.

I watched her character turn around just as a boulder, lobbed by another unicorn, collided with her vesper's rear, only to have it bounce off and hit Pound's character sending him crashing down into the ground. She gave him a cocky smile as her brother sat with his mouth agape. He turned his head slowly to glare at Pumpkin but she was more interested in overtaking the pony in front of her.

“Button?” a voice shouted in surprise from behind me, the suddenness made me stop what I was doing and turn around.

Standing there, with her eyes wide open in shock, was Sweetie Belle. Spike was standing a little behind her just as confused as I was. He looked from her to the pony in question, then back at her, then to me.

The gamer pony turned around slowly, his face unreadable. “Hi, Sweetie. How are you?”

“What are you doing here?” Sweetie asked, oblivious to the rest of us.

At this point I notice that my character was hovering over the ground. So, because I didn't like drama and because I was so far behind everyone else, I continued to play.

“W-why are you here?” she asked. “I thought you had moved away.”

“Well, sure I did. I live in Germaney. You know that,” the stallion replied. “I came to visit my ma. Her birthday is coming real soon and-”

I narrowly avoided a boulder as it whizzed by me. I slowly lowered the vesper and took my time going under some storm clouds. Slowly. Carefully. Failed. I growled as once again I found that my character on the ground. The conversation next to me seemed to be going on, so I tuned in again.

“... I see.” Sweetie Belle's voice was silent for a moment. “W-well, it's nice seeing you again.”

“Yeah. You too.”

Then another lingering silence.

“Hey, Forest,” Pound whispered to me.

“What?” I whispered back.

“Who's that stallion?”

“How would I know?”

“You know he kinda looks like you.”

Now that he mentioned it, he did. Apart from the shape of the head and the fact that he hard a mark on his posterior, we really did have the same look about us. Of course our mane styles were different as mine was graciously bestowed upon me by Aloe from the spa. I looked better, if I did say so myself.

“Wouldn't it be funny if he was your brother?”

I blinked. “Would it?” I was about to make another witty remark when the gamer pony spoke again

“H-hello, Spike,” Button said. “Um... how is it going?”

“Not bad,” the dragon replied. I could tell he was trying to be friendly, but there was just something in the way he said it that seemed off. It sounded pretty hostile, to be honest.

Then came that lull of silence again. Why was it happening so often? Only the sounds of the fair filled the void. Because of this, a lot of ponies had stopped to see what was going on, so the crowd around the stand was steadily growing bigger and bigger. And because of that, almost everyone playing the game w as distracted. Well, that was good for me. At least now I stood a chance at actually winning this game. Or finishing it, since Pound had the right idea and continued to play along also.

“So...” Button said, his voice trailing off.

“So,” Spike echoed. He folded his arms in front of his chest and turned away.

“I guess... I guess I'll see you two around,” Button replied awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah. Guess so. Sweetie? Where do you want to go?” Spike asked still not looking his way.

“Oh. S-s-so you and Spike now? Hey, that's... that's great! I-I-I'm happy for you.” Button's voice betrayed his words. He didn't really seem that happy at all. In fact, he seemed really unhappy about it.

Something in my mind clicked. “Oh dear.”

Sweetie nodded. “Y-yeah. We are. Together, I mean. Spike's great. He's really nice, fun, and he's also-”

“A dragon.” Spike's voice was incredibly cold. It sent chills down my spine. It was clear that he was not very happy.

“Y-yes, you are,” Sweetie said, her voice slightly wavering. “My coltfriend's a dragon.”

“Uh... that's great!" There was another silent gap as none of them said anything. The tension was so thick that I could feel it. And that's saying something. I mean I usually don't notice these things, but right now I could feel it like a heavy fog pushing against the back of my head. "So... I guess I'll be seeing you two around, huh?”

“O-okay, see you around, Button.” Sweetie turned around, perhaps a little too quickly, and started walking away.

“Yeah. See ya, Sweetie, Spike.”

I turned around to see Spike and Sweetie walk away together, but just before they went around a corner, the mare turned her head around and stole a glance at Button who was looking at something in the sky next to me. Then I decided that the best thing to do at that point was to win the game and ignore this episode. There were a few things that went through my mind, but the most prominent was: poor Spike. It was hard not to feel sorry for the guy. On the one hand (hoof?) I thought he'd found his one true love, but it seemed that she still wasn't over whoever this guy was, or maybe I was reading too much into it.

What was up with these mares and old flames? Damn you, Atom! I muttered to myself in my head.

“No fair!” Pumpkin whined snapping me out of my reverie.

“That's the way life is sometimes I'm afraid,” I replied.

“That's still doesn't mean it's fair.”

“I know, I know, but that's just the way life is sometimes, I guess. Don't feel bad about it. It's not like it's your problem, right?” I said trying to comfort the filly.

“Not my problem? How is it not my problem? It totally is my problem! How would you like it if Pound pushed you away from your controllers just when you were about to win?” Pumpkin replied folding her hooves in front of her and pouting her lips. “Not fair, Pound. I'm telling.”

Of course she was talking about the game. Why would she notice that exchange with Spike? Plus why was I worrying about it too much? I mean, Spike was a big dragon. He could take care of himself if he needed to. He doesn't need to leave like he did the last time, and Sweetie did chase after him when we tried to escape Canterlot in secret. That's got to count for something.

“Forest, say something,” Pumpkin demanded of me.

“Stop cheating, Pound,” I stated.

He mumbled something, but my mind was on other things.

“W-well, we have a winner!” Nocturne shouted trying to take back control of the situation. “Everypony congratulate this young colt for a job well done!”

There was an applause as the others did as they were asked, all the while the brown pony next to me was still staring at something in the sky with great intensity. I did not know what was going through his head, but it seemed appropriate to not bother him. Actually, I just didn't need to get myself involved.

Just then something whizzed past my ear and hit the back of the stand next to my character with a squishy sound. I looked up to see a tomato slowly ooze off the back of the game's wall and land on the ground. I turned around to see a group of ponies glaring at me, or not. They were glaring at something behind me. But that couldn't be right. The only thing behind me, besides the stand, was Nocturne.

“Get out of here you freak!” one of the ponies shouted.

“Yeah!” another stated.

“Hey! I have as much of a right to play this game as any of you!” I retorted, my mouth reacting before the rest of my body. The pony who threw the pony stared down at me. Yes, down at me. The guy was almost Big Mac's size. I felt my bowels tighten up real good.

“Not you,” the tomato-thrower grumbled, much to my relief. “I'm talking to that!”

I turned around. “That... stand?”

“No! The changeling behind you.”

“Changeling?” I turned around again, but all I could see was the top of Nocturne's head as she hid behind the rest of her stand. “Where?”

“Right there!”

“I still don't see it,” I replied peering at the stand expecting a changeling to mold out of the background like a chameleon.

“In front of you, you moron!”

I just didn't get what they meant. Then it clicked. “You mean her?” I asked pointing at Nocturne.

“Yeah! Duh!”

“You think she's a changeling?” I asked out of surprise. I looked at Nocturne again. Indeed, there were a few things about her that did resemble a changeling. The two most prominent things were probably her two little fangs and dark colored fur, but the fact of the matter was, unlike Tutela, she was... cute. I didn't feel threatened by her at all, not that Tutela threatened me... oh, who was I kidding. Of course she did. Tutela was one scary bitch. That and her bat-like wings were nothing like the bug-like wings. “But she's a vesper! I mean, look at her! She looks nothing like a changeling!”

I tried to stop myself from blurting out the last part of my statement, but my mouth was quicker than my brain. Seriously, what was wrong with me? If someone heard me they might think that I've actually met or known what a changeling was.

“Don't worry about them, Forest. Some ponies think that changelings and bat ponies are the same thing,” Pound answered.

“Vesper,” Nocturne corrected from her hiding spot. “Not bat pony.”

“Sorry. Vesper,” Pound replied blushing a little. “Miss Cheerilie says that it's because many ponies are still real scared of them and think that they are the same.”

“Princess Luna was still Nightmare Moon,” Pumpkin began standing next to her brother, “and then there was that changeling invasion. A lotta ponies got confused between the two.”

“I... don't understand.”

That seemed to get the bully's attention. “What? You don't know? Where were you?”

“Um... I got amnesia. I don't remember anything.” I lied, but my mind was on another thing. I realized that these two were standing in front of the stand defiantly as if they were a wall against the bully.

The kids glared him.

“But they're not, right?” I asked trying to push them out of the way. Didn't want them to make the crazy stallion angry.

“No!” Nocturne shouted standing up and glaring at me. “No. We're ponies. No matter what they say, it won't change that fact. I'm a pony, despite my teeth and the fact that my wings are not made of feathers, I'm one of them.”

“Keep telling yourself that, bug!” came the taunt.

“You shouldn't talk like that. Most vespers become Royal Guards, you know. Usually Luna's private guards and patrol the night with her. Miss Cheerilie says that ponies who think that vespers are bad are bad. So, you're bad!”

“What did you say to me, you little punk?”

"I said you're bad! Bad, bad, bad, bad-bad, bad, bad!" Pumpkin screamed.

That did little to calm the whole situation down.

“W-w-wait!” I pleaded, not wanting to get into a scuffle with the twins. Oh, who am I kidding. I didn't want to get beat up. Obviously the pony wouldn't go after the children. Right?

“You better control your kid, or I'm going to buck your face.”

I furrowed my brow. “Um, she's not my kid-”

“Uncle Forest will make you sorry!” Pumpkin stated on my behalf.

“Oh? Is that so?”

I looked at the filly and she gave me a firm look. She wasn't going to back down. Sadly, the little girl had more backbone than I did, but I mean come on! I just almost died recently – again. I didn't want to be put into a position where I could be in danger even in the most blandest form. I wanted to go one day without having to face conflict of some sort.

Granted, that was probably too late at this point as I had almost got my flank handed to me by Applebloom, was threatened by Lance and who knows what else. I had to hand it to myself. I could get into quite the mess. I blamed it on my mind and my mouth being on different wavelengths; they never seemed to get along. Well, maybe I could put up a resistance. Maybe I could somehow manage to fight back in some way.

Who was I kidding? There was no way I could handle this guy by myself.

The pony walked towards me all threateningly, and he was a little bit taller and bigger than me. Still, I had to act like I was... what? Tough? Even Pound was tougher than me. So, I did what was natural in a situation when a bigger dude was bearing down on you. I braced myself for impact. At least the stallion was nice enough not to go for the kids.

“Hey! What do you guys think you're doing?” a voice shouted.

My eyes spotted the stallion standing to my right just inside the perimeter of the crowd. His eyes were narrow.

"This isn't any of your business!" The bully shouted.

Lance calmly bent down and picked up a cotton-candy stick from the ground with his hoof and held it in front of him. It looked ridiculous, but at the same time it surprisingly looked threatening as well.

"What's this all about?" He asked me, ignoring the bully blatantly.

"Hesaidthattheponythereisachangelingbuthe'swrongbecausetheponyisavesperandnotachangelingandhewantstofightForestbecausehe'sstickingupforherlikeagentlecolt!" Pumpkin replied.

I had no idea what she said.

“You do know that just because she's different doesn't make her bad, right?” Lance asked.

“What would you know?” the bully retorted glaring at the newcomer.

Even though I was supposed to be this guy's rival, after the Applebloom incident from earlier and the fact that he was now protecting me, I was genuinely happy he happened across us.

“Look, everypony's got a right to have their opinions even if they are wrong and misguided, but it doesn't mean you get to hurt others," Lance stated.

"Ooh! Burn!" I shouted and grinned.

Lance seemed to appreciate this because I could see the corner of his lips turn upwards. It was only for a brief moment, and it was so slight that I had to really stare at it, but he did smile.

The bully was not intimidated in the slightest. “Oh? What are you? A Guard?”

“No. Look, don't make me hurt you,” Lance said calmly. “Because I can. That is something I do not want to do, so don't make me. Got it?”

“Oh? What you gonna do? Hit me with that... twig?”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “This? This sliver of wood is more than enough for a weakling like you. Do you want to see how I hit things with... twigs?”

What happened next can only be described as, dare I say it, magic. Lance took a step forwards and in one smooth movement swiped the stick through the air. The next moment a huge wave of blue seemed to appear and smack the bully full on sending him flying backwards into a trash bin. I had no idea what had just happened, but whatever it was wasn't magic. I knew it because I wasn't feeling faint nor did my wrist burn, which would have happened because I was really close to him. Not only that, but Lance was an earth pony, and he couldn't cast magic even if he wanted to. I think. But that's besides the point. What the hell was that?

“You want to know what it feels like if I actually hit you with the twig?” Lance asked calmly as he walked towards the bully as he pulled himself from the heap. “You might not live to tell about it if I do.”

“N-no, that's okay. I g-get it. S-she's cool...”

The guy ran away almost as fast me! I had never seen a pony move that fast before... except me of course... on the television thingy when I saw myself. A small part of me felt a little sad about that. At least when I ran away I got a trail of fire following me, so it looked cool, I think.

“How'd you do that?” Pound asked taking the tiny stick from Lance's hoof. “Can you teach me?”

Lance smiled. “Maybe when you're older. It's not something you can just learn overnight. It takes years and years of practice, training and meditation. But if you really want to learn, I can teach you except that you'll probably have no time to play and will have no time for fun.”

“Is that why you're so unsociable?” I asked.

“W-what?” Lance didn't expect that.

“I mean, you always look mean, say things that imply impending bodily harm, and have the demeanor of a... I dunno. What's a dangerous creature?”

“Um... a cockatrice?” Pumpkin suggested.

“A what?” I asked as I took the stick from Pound and studied it. There definitely was no magic, but the stick felt warm to the touch. Not hot, but there was definitely some heat there, like it had been sitting in the sun for a while.

“A cockatrice. It's like a lizard-chicken that can turn you to stone just by looking at it.”

I did not know how to reply to that. "Lizard chicken?"

“Hey, you want a round? The two of us?” Lance asked in an obvious attempt at being a tough guy. It didn't really sound that threatening anymore, but I knew better.

I looked up at him before bursting out in laughter. “After what I just saw you do? No way.”

“I'll go easy on you,” he offered.

“Somehow I don't trust that malicious grin on your snout,” I replied pointing to his muzzle. “You ain't gonna make me fight a battle I have no chance whatsoever in contributing to in any way, shape or form.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” the swordspony asked.

“It means that you'd be able to beat me pretty badly whether you're taking it easy against me or not. I'm too delicate to fight you. Just ask... well, every single pony here!”

Lance lowered the stick and shook his head. "Okay, I get it. I didn't realize you were so weak."

"Oi. I'm not weak, just delicate."

“Whatever. Then have you seen Applebloom? I would like to talk to her.”

“Yeah, she was with us a while ago. She headed that-a-way,” I said pointing towards the medical tents.

“Forest! We're bored! Let's go play something else,” the kids moaned.

“But-”

Pound's eyes lit up. “I know! Let's go on a ride-”

“Games it is!” I shouted and lobbed the evil pair onto my back and bolted out of there as fast as my legs could carry me.

One thing that really made me glad to be here was the ponies. Even after all this supposed fame and fortune, they treated me as if I were a part of the crowd. That was really nice of them. I could tell that many wanted to come and ask me something, most probably for an autograph, but they refrained from doing so even though I secretly wanted them all to fawn over me like some sort of movie star. Seriously, why not? I was a celebrity. I even had these tiny action figures of me. What else did I need to do to have a legion of fans following me around all over the place? Then again, the thought of that really happening seemed somewhat annoying. What if I wanted to be alone? If these goof-balls followed me around then that would be impossible. I remembered what happened to Rainbow in the restaurant and how that press guy kept bugging her and asking her those really intrusive questions.

“Forest!” Pumpkin shouted snapping my attention to the things afoot (ahoof?).

“Ah!” I screamed. “What?”

“Stop spacing out!” she retorted.

“What?”

“You're going to crash!” she screamed and I felt her hooves tighten themselves around my neck.

She was indeed correct. I was going to crash, but I couldn't let the twins get hurt because of my stupidity. I was running pretty fast. I mean, full speed fast. The ground was blurry and ponies were leaping out of my way. I couldn't hit the breaks like this. It'd send the two on my back flying through the air. Although I considered that they'd be able to safely use their magic or wings to prevent themselves from getting hurt, I couldn't risk it. They Cakes trusted me with their offspring, and I'd be damned before I harm them. The first thing I did was turn my body towards the lake so that if I did fall it would have been safer in the water. As I drew closer, I used all the strength to shove my hooves down as hard as I could into the ground in front of me. The ground under my hooves was soaking wet and hard, so I couldn't dig them into the ground as I spun out of control. We hit the water at a pretty high level of speed making me skim along the surface before coming to a stop and sinking beneath the water.

With terror flooding my body, I quickly burst through the surface and searched for the two that were supposed to be on my back in a panicked frenzy splashing about the water like some sort of maniac.

“Forest? What are you doing?” a familiar voice asked.

I turned to see both Pumpkin and Pound looking at me from the bank of the lake.

I have no idea what came over me, but I rushed to the two of them and hugged them both with all my might. I had done something so incredibly stupid. How could I have endangered their lives the way I had just done? If anything had gone wrong, anything at all... I didn't want to humor the thought.

“Forest! Quit it!” Pound protested.

Pumpkin just giggled. “Forest, stop! I can't breathe!”

No. I couldn't stop. I felt so terrible. So awful. So... irresponsible. “Sorry, sorry. I... sorry.” The words felt weightless compared to the gravity of what could have been.

“Now we're all wet again,” Pound pointed out as he pried himself loose form my grip. “What's wrong with you?”

“Oh, nothing. Just thought...” I had hurt the two of you.

“You're acting like mom.”

Despite the fact I knew he was making fun of me, I didn't care.

“Don't worry, Forest. We're tough. It'll take more than that to hurt us,” Pumpkin said with an air of confidence that didn't resemble her age.

These were my last few days with them, and I was going to treasure every single moment I had. My heart was torn. There were just way too many things on my mind that I couldn't actually make head or tail about what to do. All I knew was that I had to go back to Tutela, or else I'd risk revealing myself as a human. That could not happen. Never. I wouldn't be able to ever justify it to all of them. I just could not get over the fact that if I changed back into my true form here, that all my friends, the love that I had received, everything, would have been for nothing. Even though some ponies seemed to accept it, having it be real would've been another thing. There was no way, no way, I would let that happen. I mean, yeah, they suspected and yeah, there was the fact hat my 'secret' was out to some of them, but somewhere deep inside I really didn't think any of them really believed I was really a human.

But did it matter?

I just didn't know. And why did it affect me so much? Twilight even said that she'd protect me from anything, but in my heart I understood one thing clear as the bright, sunny day that was starting to fade away. It if had not been for Tutela, I would have never come here. In that respect, I owed her and that knowledge alone made me realize that she was more than I gave her credit for. I just wished there was a way that would appease my sense of guilt. Maybe that was the pony in me. After all, coming here had got me starting to be like them. I mean really be one of them. Not in some half-assed fashion. There was just some things I refused to even entertain now, whereas I knew that I wouldn't have given two shits before.

Was it something in the water? Or was it because they were so wonderful that I couldn't help but catch a tiny inkling of their kindness, generosity, honesty and loyalty. Not to mention their funniness and the magic of it all.

Still, I really wanted to know what the true meaning of friendship really was. Perhaps I would never know, and now that I think of it, I was okay with that. I had made friends. I had learned to love. They would go on. That lesson taught to me by Trixie had sunk it good. I didn't mind that I would leave them because I knew deep down that no matter what happens, they would live on.

“So, what should we do now? Go and play a game?” Pound asked. "We won't ride you Forest, we don't want you to crash again."

I nodded. “Yeah. Probably a good idea. Why not look for a game over here near these stands?” I looked around, but there wasn't really one that interested me. Most of the stands here sold beverages and food any way.

We looked around at all the stands, again. Finally the twins saw a game they liked. They ran over and started to play, but I was feeling out of it. My chest felt heavy and so did my eyes. It felt like I had a large bag of something on my chest.

"Forest!" I heard a voice then a hard poke on my snout. "Wake up!"

"I'm awake!"

"Forest, are you okay?" Pumpkin asked. You kinda fell asleep again."

I looked up, the sun had long since gone and now the fair was alive with ponies in the night. The rides looked so cool with all their neon lamps on, or whatever it was inside them. They could've been magical lamps for all I knew, but they looked and resembled the neon lamps from Earth.

“You... you wanna go sleep?" Pound asked. "I think the nurse said that if you sleep it'll make you feel better."

"You know, that's not a bad idea. Let's head back to your parents' stand, okay? I'll leave you there and you can go hang out with your father."

"Boo. Dad's boring. He never rides with us."

"I'm sorry kids, but I really can't keep my eyes open." I smiled at them, but my eyes really did feel so heavy.

"Fine. Then take us back to mom and dad's. We get to ride on you again."

"But-"

The look on their faces told me that they were not going to take no for an answer. With a sigh, I lowered my body to the ground and let them climb onto my back. Then I started to move.

“You're going the wrong way.”

I made a face, “Of course I am.”

We walked together for what seemed like ages. At least it seemed that way to me. I kept literally nodding off, and Pound took it upon himself to smack the back of my head whenever he felt that I was falling asleep. Finally the familiar scent of coffee hit my nostrils. The mere thought of it seemed to give me a second wind and I actually found myself trotting towards the stand. There I saw Mrs Cake serving a line of ponies. I stood in line, eager to get some of the wonderful smelling coffee. It seemed appropriate with the cold night.

Mrs Cake had her head below the counter as I walked up. “What can I do- oh, hi Forest. How're the kids treating you?”

I smiled at Mrs. Cake. “Fine. They're taking great care of me.”

“That's nice. My husband's back, so you can leave them with us if you wanna.”

“Well... I was feeling a little tired, but I think I'll be fine if I get a cup of coffee. So, there's no need. Besides, Pound and Pumpkin are showing me around the fair and it's been really great. If they want, we can still hang out-”

“Yeah! Uncle Forest is so much fun!” Pumpkin shouted the last part in my ear by leaning against my neck to get closer to her mother.

It took me a second to acknowledge what she said. “Wait. Uncle?”

“Yeah. If you can be an hon'ry Apple, then why not a hon'ry Cake?”

“Ho-nah-reh-ree, Pumpkin,” he mother corrected her.

“That's what I said.”

I chuckled.

“So if he's an honorary Apple and an honorary Cake,” Mr. Cake asked coming out from behind one of the stand's partitions. He had in his hoof a tray of steaming hot cupcakes. He did a quick look around in the sky as if watching out for something before placing it inside the glass stand. “What does that make him?”

“Forest Fire Apple Cake!” Pumpkin stated.

“Forest...” I whispered.

“... Fire...” Mrs. Cake followed.

“... Apple...” Mr. Cake sighed thoughtfully.

“... Cake?” Pound asked raising an eyebrow.

There was a lull in the air after that.

“I'd eat it,” a customer suddenly stated.

“Me too!” a brown unicorn nodded in agreement.

A pegasus mare smacked her lips. “That actually sounds real yummy.”

“Forest fire apple cake...” Mr. Cake stroking his chin. “You know, that does sound appetizing. Do you mind if I take a crack at it?”

“Not at all. Why would I mind?”

Mr. Cake just smiled. He closed his eyes and then jumped up onto his hind legs and laughed. “I've just got it! An inspiration! Oh, this is going to be great! The color... the sugar in it... yeah! Pinkie! Pinkie, I need you to caramelize some sugar! Where's that mare when you need her? Dear, can you pass me the flour? You there, pour me two cups of milk! Hop to it, my good sir! I'll need four eggs and-”

“You better get out of here before you get recruited,” Mrs. Cake whispered to me. “Come back in an hour or so, okay? He gets like this when he has an inspiration. Worse than Pinkie. Oh, and here's an triple shot espresso. That ought to keep you up.”

I nodded, took the small container with the coffee, and quickly slipped away with the twins.

When we were out of earshot, Pound grinned, “So, now that you're an honorary Cake, does that make you my big brother?”

“It kinda does, I guess. Or uncle. Whichever you want.”

At that the colt grinned from ear to ear. “You know, I've always wanted an older brother. Pinkie's more like my big sister, even if I call her my aunt, and now you're my big brother!”

Pumpkin sighed sadly. “I wish that you and auntie Pinkie could get married."

I was lucky that I didn't take a sip from my triple espresso when she said this out of the blue. My face felt like it was on fire.

“He's with aunt Twilight, Pumpkin.”

“I know. I know! But... think about it, Pound! If Forest marries Pinkie, then he'd have to live with us! Then we'd get to see him everyday and we'd go to school together, play together, go on picnics together. He could let us ride on his back to school and we'd get there so quick, we could sleep in a little bit extra!”

Pound looked at me. “Big brother?”

Oh Luna, my heart! The way he called me his big brother made my insides melt. I've never had anyone call me anything endearing before and it felt so nice. “I'm sorry Pumpkin, but Pound's right. I'm with Twilight now.”

“Aw. But you were with Pinkie first!” Pumpkin moaned.

My eyes went wide. "I-I-I..."

“He's with aunt Twily now," Pound reiterated.

“But uncle Forest likes Pinkie more! Right?”

“What? I, uh, that is to say, uh, that, uh, you know, um...”

“Hi you three. What's happening?” A voice shouted from above us. I looked up to see a silhouette slowly emerging from the darkened sky catching the light of the fair below her as she descended down towards us. Never before had I been happier to see Rainbow. Well, that's not true. I was pretty happy when she pulled me out of that ursa incident. She landed near us. I was so thankful that she had cut me off. Saved my fat ass she did. Did kids always asked these kinds of difficult, impossible-to-answer, questions?

I ran up to the pegasus. “Hi Rainbow!” I shouted in her face.

She rubbed her ears, clearly not impressed with the level of volume. "Hi Forest. Hi kids!"

Pumpkin stood up on my back. “Hey Rainbow! Guess what! Forest's our new big brother! He's Forest Fire Apple Cake!”

“Forest Fire Apple Cake?” Rainbow thought about it for a moment. “That does sound delicious.”

I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows. “Sorry, Rainbow, but I'm taken.”

She bit her bottom lip in a sarcastic smile nodding slowly. “Oh, ha, ha. Very funny.”

“I try.”

“So, where's Twilight? I don't see her lips glued to yours.”

This time it was my turn to give her a wan smile. “She got kayoed by the Sleeping Sickness. She's resting in the medical tent.”

“Oh?” Rainbow turned around and did something that looked like a fist-pump (hoof-pump?), I couldn't really tell exactly from my angle. She seemed to calm down as she turned back to me a second later. “So, wanna hang out?”

“Sure. Wait. Why would you hang out with us?"

The pegasus merely shrugged. "Why not?"

I didn't have a proper answer to that. "We're about to play some games. Need to win my hooch!”

Rainbow shook her head. “You do know you're not gonna win, right?”

“Oh no? Well... just watch me then! I know just the game.” I turned around and grinned maliciously, “And I have to beat it.”

Then I headed towards the one stand that I had to defeat. The one game that had been bothering me since I saw it. A game that tested patience, a game that tested resilience and exercised your skill. A game that was legendary amongst all games in existence and pressed the best and most elite of all could complete. A game that would win the hearts and minds of the populace. A game that I told myself that I had to win. The hardest game in all of Equestria!

Duck-fishing.

I was going to win, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop me. The kids and Rainbow followed in silence as I walked towards the final game for myself. The last challenge. Like the Race, like the incident in the Pit, something inside me seemed to kick into gear. Like this was something I had to do. Something that needed to be done. It may have seemed stupid and mundane, but it really was the only game I actually had to defeat. The feeling was so compelling. Perhaps it had something about those two jokers that ran the stand. That and the fact I had to regain what little dignity I had to begin with.

As I stood at the top of the make-shift road that led towards the stand, it seemed that every pony in my way stepped aside. I lowered my head and narrowed my eyes trying to look as intimidating as possible as I walked slowly towards the two stallions in question.

“So, you've come back, eh?” The unicorn with the mustache said as he spotted me.

“I have!" I shouted excitedly.

I heard a smack and saw Pound wiping his face. Was it something I said?

"Yeah, the four of us are going to play. Okay guys?” I asked looking at my companions.

Pound nodded, Pumpkin smiled, Rainbow rolled her eyes, and I laughed sadistically.

“That's four bits! Here are your poles! G'luck. You'll need it!” At that the unicorn laughed sadistically and walked to another group of fillies repeating exact same words and laughing once more.

We all got into position and started to play.

Pound quickly caught his first duck, it had a green collar around its neck, and pulled it up and towards him. He turned it over and revealed a four. He placed the rubber ducky in front of him, then tossed his line to try and catch another one. In the meantime, Rainbow fished a red one out with the number one printed under it. Next was Pumpkin, who caught a blue nine and placed it in front of her.

“What are you waiting for?” Pound asked.

I grinned, “Just getting the feel for things.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“I can't catch them ducks as fast as you guys,” I said, trying to laugh it off.

Pound looked at me as if I was the strangest pony he had ever met. Probably spot on.

Lowering my rod, I aimed for a black duck. I got the little noose around it and pulled. The number underneath read minus four. I placed the duck in front of me and waited. Pound hooked yet another duck instantly after I did. Another green one and he peered under it. A six.

“What's six plus four?”

“Ten.”

“Ten? Um... okay,” he looked up at the prizes hanging above him. Something caught his eye and he lifted up his hooves. If he had fingers, I would venture to guess he was counting them. He turned to me, “How many more points do I need to get fifteen?”

“Five. You'd need to catch another green ducky."

He nodded at me and lowered his rod over the ducks. He concentrated hard on them and looked like he spotted his potential target. Leaning forwards, he lowered it over the target and tried to catch it. No good. It went beyond him and out of reach. He snarled and looked over to me.

“Missed.”

“I can see that.”

We both shared a laugh.

“I'll get it next time round!” Pound announced, and waited patiently for the water to carry the duck back around to our side.

A growl distracted me and I turned to see a clearly annoyed Rainbow Dash hovering just above her seat trying to fish another duck. She was just aiming at random, and soon she caught a black one. Taking it, she turned it over and showed it to me. A minus seven.

“Ugh. I hate this. There's no skill involved. It's all luck!”

“Yeah! Only luck,” Pumpkin grumbled as one of the stand's unicorn brothers took her pole away. Apparently she had already lost winning nothing at all.

“How many ponies have actually been able to beat this game?” Rainbow growled at the two unicorns.

“How many? What do you think, Flim?”

“No idea, Flam. I think it's... zero!”

The two of them began to laugh as if that was the funniest thing they've ever heard. As they did, I quickly fished another duck out and looked under it. The red showed the number three. I quickly placed it down in front of me.

“I really don't like those two,” Rainbow grumble quietly to me. “What number did you get?”

“One. I need another red.”

She looked at me funny, “You're trying to win that over-sized bear?”

“I am. If I can't win in numbers, then I'll win in volume! The bigger the better.”

Rainbow looked at me, “For Twilight?”

“Of course.”

“Oh.” She looked so upset.

“What's wrong?" I asked.

“Nothing. Just... I think it's nice that you're trying your hardest. You're pretty cool like that.”

I felt heat in my cheeks. “Thanks, Rainbow.”

Pound gave an angry roar before stomping around angrily. “So close! I had fourteen!” He shouted.

“Better luck next time. You'll need it!” one of the two unicorns taunted before bursting out in laughter.

Pound glared at him.

Rainbow tossed her rod onto the counter and hovered next to me, “Well, I'm done. Won nothing. You sure picked the worst stall, Forest.”

“Thanks, Rainbow.”

She put a hoof around my shoulders. “I know these two creepos. They're not the honest sort.”

“I'm aware of that,” I replied halfheartedly, my mind still fully bent on searching for the right red rubber ducky.

“Then why pick this stand? Why give them any business?”

She was right. Why had I picked this stand? Why did I have an overbearing desire to beat this little game? It made no sense, and yet I felt that if I did not do this then something terrible would happen. A cold chill rolled along my spine, like something really bad was coming.

Like a storm.

Then something told me that these two events were nothing more than coincidence. I felt a cold chill run along my spine again and I felt the skin beneath my fur gooseflesh from the sensation. Whatever it was, it really affected me.

“Hey!”

I shook my head. "Ow. My ear."

“Come on, other ponies want to play!” Flim or Flam shouted at me. I wasn't sure who was who.

“Take it easy,” Rainbow replied in my defense. “Can't you see he's thinking?”

“Looked more like he fell asleep to me, wouldn't you say, Flim?”

“I would say, Flam,” the other unicorn shouted from the other side of the stand, where he would have had absolutely no idea what the former was talking about.

I sighed. “Take it easy, I'm about to win right now.”

“Oh yeah? What makes you think that?” Flam asked.

“Because.”

“Because?”

“Because I believe.”

I heard a snort of laughter from next to me and gave Rainbow a nudge. Even I couldn't keep myself from smiling at her reaction. "You believe?" She roared in laughter when she tried in vain to imitate me.

“I've never heard anything so corny in all my life,” the one I thought was Flim announced. “Have you, ol' buddy, ol' chum?”

“Can't say that I've had the pleasure,” the other responded.

I pouted. “Aw, you guys are just jealous.”

“And you suck at this game, Forest!” Rainbow landed on the ground next to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. "But it's okay. You're still all right in my book."

Her touch sent chills down my spine. The good kind, funnily enough. It made me stop pouting and look over in her direction, our eyes meeting. I had no idea how... beautiful they were. Granted, I never had the desire to look into her eyes but now that I was I found myself practically entranced by them. I felt my cheeks grow hot as she smiled at me.

Then she gave me a sharp slap on my back. That snapped me out of whatever was happening to me.

“What was that for?” I moaned, trying to rub the stinging spot, which was conveniently out of my reach.

“Good luck. Looks like you're gonna need it.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing... except you're gonna lose.”

“Thanks, Rainbow Dash,” I deadpanned.

“Anytime, Forest Fire.”

I searched the ducks again, trying to find a red one. There were quite a few floating around, but none of them felt right. Something inside me was telling me that I had to wait just a little bit longer. Why that was, I didn't know, but the feeling just wouldn't go away. Each time I chose a duck, this pressure would start pushing against my head telling me to stop. Suddenly I felt an overwhelming urge to burst out singing. That was instantly followed by an overwhelming urge to eat something sour, then I wanted to dance the tango, before feeling that digging a hole in the ground where I stood was the most essential thing I needed to get done.

“What's wrong with me?” I muttered trying to shake the strange feelings from my body.

“There's always something wrong with you.”

“Thanks, Rainbow, you're a real pal.”

She grinned and poked my nose. “But seriously, you feel weird?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah...”

“You know why?”

Didn't my first statement already answer that question? “I wish I did.”

“What are you feeling?”

“I feel like... different. Like I have to do the most ridiculous things ever. Right now I have an overwhelming urge to paint stripes on my body and walk around talking in rhyme, and now I feel the need to jump in the air and do a double back flip.”

“Can you do a double back flip?”

“No, of course not,” I replied. “And I know that, so why would I have this overwhelming urge to do it?”

“You're asking the wrong mare,” Rainbow replied.

I looked up at the stand, then at my pole, then at the ducks floating around in the water going in circles around and around in the man made (pony made?) river. There were a few other ponies playing, but something just seemed off. Something about all this was...

“Wrong.”

“Huh?”

“Something is wrong. Something is not right.”

“What are you talking about, Forest?”

“Something bad is going to happen. Something terrible something... awful...”

“Forest?” Rainbow was right next to me, but her voice sounded so far away. “Forest? Are you okay? You don't look so good.”

I backed off away from her, more to do with trying to find a bin to vomit in, but as soon as I got distance away from her the strange feeling vanished. Everything was normal. I turned around and saw Rainbow looking at me with a completely puzzled expression on her face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah... I think so...” I walked back towards her expecting to have those feelings flood back into my body, but nothing happened. Everything was fine. “I'm fine? Yeah. I'm fine.”

“You sure?”

“Eeyup. Feel good. Okay, let's finish this.”

Again I looked at the ducks floating around the waterway, trying to find the right one. Seeing them spin around like that, I started to get those strange feelings again. An overwhelming need to do something utterly random followed by a slowly encroaching feeling of danger that gradually got stronger and stronger that only stopped once I put distance between Rainbow and myself. The danger felt very real, but it wasn't because of Rainbow; it wasn't her I feared. There was something... else.

“Hey!”

I snapped out of my trance. “Sorry, sorry. Was just thinking.”

“Well, stop thinking and play! We're all waiting on you!” Rainbow gestured towards Pumpkin and Pound, both of whom looked unhappy and bored.

This time I pushed Rainbow away from me claiming that her presence was cramping my style. She seemed to accept this reason because of her supreme awesomeness and allowed herself to move slightly away. Since the feeling was gone, I could definitely get back to the task at hand. I humored, for the briefest of moments, whether or not the feeling was important but it passed quickly and I resumed on the mission at hand (hoof?).

It was time to win that bear!

Taking the rod, I did a twist and lobbed it out where it landed, by pure luck, on a red ducky and I racked the bastard out as hard as I could with all my might. It soared through the air and landed just behind me on the ground.

Pound bend over, but just before he touched it I screamed. "Don't touch it!"

He yanked his hoof back as I fell to the ground and peered at the bottom of it from the side. There it was. The number that I had been waiting for.

"Rainbow, can you check it out?"

"Sure, Forest, but I'm not going to look at it from the ground."

"Please? You gotta. It won't work if you don't. And Pumpkin and Pound, you too. You just got to look and confirm the number."

They all looked and noted the bright red numeral there.

"Okay? Got it?"

They all nodded in response.

"I win, you know," I told the unicorn at the stand.

"Sorry, won't know unless I check." He grinned and waited for me to hand it over.

I narrowed my eyes. "Okay..."

This was it. This was what the trick had to be. As I handed (hoofed?) it over, I felt my bracelet tingle.

"You know, you shouldn't use magic to change the numbers at the bottom of the ducks. It's really unfair and quite a nasty thing to do."

At once the the unicorn jumped back snatching the duck from me. The other came over and they both looked at one another before bursting out in laughter. It sounded uncharacteristically forced to me, not like the boisterous showing off laughter they had decided to spout at me and my friends mere moments before. This was a guilty laugh. I held myself up as best I could, but it was clear that already too much power had been absorbed by my bracelet. I felt the pain in my hoof and my eyes started to grow heavy and I slumped towards my right.

"Hey, I gotcha."

I turned my head slightly to look up. Rainbow Dash smiled down at me and was supporting me with her body against mine. I gave her my best smile. "Sorry, Rainbow. Can you get the kids back to their mother? I might be out of it for quite a while."

She looked at me and understood. "No problem, you just let me handle things from here, okay?"

"I'm sorry, but..."

As I hit the ground, I heard shouting, noise, some other ruckus, a lot of screaming and shouting. Why do I always miss out on all the good things?


I awoke to find myself lying on a bed. As to where? No idea. The sound of humming was coming from next to me and I looked up to see a familiar machine. Then I felt a violent shake and looked straight.

"Wake! Up!"

I felt a stinging sensation on my cheek and shook the pain off. It front of me was Pound and a little behind to his left was Pumpkin.

"W-where am I?" I asked.

"Pound! I said wake him up, not hit him!" Mrs Cake said to her son and pulled him away in that rough-gentle way that parents do.

"S'okay. Didn't hurt," I lied.

Mrs Cake lowered herself slightly to make sure that I was okay before standing back up and going about her work. "Forest, you're back at our stand. Rainbow carried you here on her back. She said something about letting you rest until later. Anyway, the fair's over and everypony's going home. You should too. I think I saw Spike and Sweetie heading towards the town, so I think that you can get into Twilight's place. That is where you're staying, right?"

Throughout the entire time she was talking, she was doing something. Whether it was putting away from cutlery, or putting glass and porcelain cups she had used to serve her customers. I noticed that Mr Cake was nowhere to be seen. I got up and rolled my shoulders to crick my back.

"Mom, can Forest take us on another ride?" Pumpkin asked.

I swear I felt the blood in my veins turn to ice at the mere mention of this. It took my another second to realize that the filly was rolling on the floor in fits of laughter. It took me a moment to puzzle out that she had successfully, purposefully, made me feel that fear. Still, I couldn't help but smile at her, although it was a wry one.

"Everything's closed." Pound sat stood next to me. "We're helping clean up. You wanna help too?"

With nothing better to do, I nodded.

"Are you sure? You can go and rest at home, you know. Me and my husband, when he's back, will take care of everything from here on out." Mrs Cake stood in front of me and I could tell that she was just being polite. How I could do this, I have no idea, but her eyes were practically screaming for help.

Again, with nothing better to do, I nodded.

"Great! I was hoping you would be actually willing to help!" Mrs Cake zoomed off and returned within seconds with a list. "I need help putting all the surplus items into another pony's cart. He's bought out what we don't need and is taking it with him to Cloudsdale."

"Sounds nice," I muttered and took a look. There wasn't very many items on the list, but the numbers on the far left hand side scared me. "Fifteen boxes of sugar?"

"Yes! We made a nice bundle from this. Now we can buy some special ingredients for the next batch of baked goodies!" Mrs. Cake walked off with a skip to her step.

"How big are these sugar boxes?" I asked Pound in a loud whisper.

He pointed to a carton box of around a foot long. On the side it had the face of a pony with large amounts of makeup on and wearing in a clown's costume in a golden circle with a faintly drawn circus in the background with a red, white and blue tent in the foreground. A golden or yellow ribbon was spread out along the bottom underneath the clown. On it, in bold red words, was 'Sweet Tooth's Extra Sweet Sugar', then under that in some fancy script read, 'The Sweetest Thing. Ever. Period!'.

"That's... eloquent." I looked at the box closer and couldn't help but chuckle lightly to myself. It certainly was ridiculous.

Pound didn't hear me as he was bothering his sister by throwing little sugar cubes at her. She was dodging them quite easily, until Pound started using his wings. Then Pumpkin threw up her shield and the two of them started pelting the cubes at one another at full speed or strength depending on who you were looking at.

"Um... so... who one the game contest?" I asked.

At once the twins ceased their antics. They looked at one another, then turned to me.

"Well, nopony."

"Yeah. Since everypony's asleep, Granny said she'd just have to wait until next time."

"So, no kisses, eh?" I asked.

The twins both shook their head. Pound with a disgusted look on his face, and Pumpkin with a blush on her cheeks.

I looked back at the list and saw that I needed to transfer six sacks of coffee. Below that, ten boxes of napkins, twelve boxes of plastic utensils and so on and so forth.

"Well, I'll be seeing you two later. I've got to go and do this before I fall asleep again."

The twins looked up at me and smiled. It looked forced, but I could be mistaken. Perhaps a part of me hoped that they'd miss me if I were gone. Deeper inside me I hoped not. As I turned to leave I felt something attach itself to my leg. I looked down to see Pumpkin hugging me. "I had fun, uncle Forest."

I smirked and ruffled her mane. "Me too, Pumpkin."

"See ya!" With that, she bounced off in much the same way Pinkie does when she's going about her things. I walked a way down the path, past all the stands being taken down and pulled away, past the volunteers who were taking down the decorations that Pinkie had put up (certainly not by herself, I don't think... well, being Pinkie, she probably did).

It didn't take me long to reach the larger carts at the edge of the fair.

"Forest?" A voice asked.

I turned around and spotted Carry, the same mare from before in all her glory. Literally. She needed to go on a diet.

Her eyes instantly narrowed themselves as she leaned into me forcing me to crouch down where I stood. Her eye kept on me until I gulped. Maybe she didn't need a diet after all.

And like that, her scrutinizing gaze left me as she leaned back on her hooves and gave me a wide smile. "So, what're you doing all the way out there?"

I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Something told me that I should watch what I thought around this particular mare. With a wide grin, I replied, "Hi Carry. Just need to move some items from the Cakes' cart to... this guy's cart."

Carry took the paper from me and scanned it. "Oh, the pony from Cloudsdale. Yeah. His cart's over there."

He hoof pointed a bright blue cart with large golden stripes along its sides. On it, it had something written in a language I didn't know. It kinda looked like Russian, or something. Maybe it was Greek. I don't know. I don't speak whatever it was that language was.

Carry led the way of to the pony in question, who was standing on top of his cart pulling something. He spotted us and stopped what he was doing and floated down. "Hi!"

"Hi, Squall. This here's Forest-"

"Oh! The runner! Hey, yeah! I know you. C-care to give an autograph? I'm actually a big fan of yours. Well, a new big fan, I guess."

I smiled. It felt good to be appreciated. "Sure. I... don't have anything to write with."

Squall looked so disappointed.

"Boys." Carry muttered and shook her head slowly. "Here, use my pen. You're going to have to get your own piece of paper though."

I looked at her and then down at the list. "I could use that."

"You could, but I gotta keep this. For me records. So ponies will know if I made a mistake," she stated and looked the list over once more.

"Well, at least let me shake your hoof."

I received his hoof in that weird impossible grip that I seemed to have mastered unconsciously. I felt my hoof tighten around his as we touched. No matter how many times I've done it, it still felt weird to me. To be able to hold something without wrapping my fingers around it. Fingers. It seemed so long ago that I had those things and yet, I barely missed them. Even now.

"I'm gonna help you load your cart," I began.

He at once threw himself into a tirade that it was unbecoming of me to use my body for anything apart from running. As flattering as it was, I stopped him with one short sentence.

"Well, if I don't help you, Mrs Cake's going to be mad, which will make Pinkie mad, which will make Twilight mad, which will make every single one of the Elements of Harmony and the princesses and any and all associated peers and family, mad. Then, they'd probably tell me that I'm lazy and that I should help others no matter what. Besides, it'll make the job go by quicker and I've got nothing better to do."

Squall blinked a couple of times before shrugging. "Okay, in that case, I don't want to get you into trouble. Thanks."

"Anytime." I turned to Carry. "Okay, I'm ready to start!"

About ten minutes in, I was cursing my big, fat, stupid mouth. Why, oh why, did I promise to help out when I was struggling to lift even a single one of those sacks of coffee. I felt so weak. Maybe it was that Sleeping Sickness trying to knock me out where I stood. I did feel a little dizzy. Still, I forced myself to stay away and began the next set of boxes without saying a word.

"Hey, Forest! That's the last one!" Squall called out to me. "Just load it inside. I'll get everything sorted out with Carry, okay?"

I nodded and smiled. As soon as he turned his head, I started to pant as if I had run to Canterlot and back non-stop. Squall turned around and I immediately struck a 'nothing-to-see-here' pose and blew on my hoof and wiped it against my chest casually looking his way and gave a wave. He raised his eyebrows and gave a slowly nod before furrowing his brow and turning around to look for Carry.

Again, as his back was turned, I drank in as much air as my lungs could possibly hold.

Luckily, the next box wasn't too heavy and I found it easy. Because of my stupidity, I had loaded the cart all wrong. All the big things were in the very far back, so there was no room there for the one light box that I had. It was still large and hard for me to carry, but I had to somehow get it on this thing. So, I tried to push some sacks to the side, but my muscles were too tired and I felt so, so sleepy. "Come on, Forest. Just a little push."

Nothing doing. Nothing budged. Sighing, I looked inside and saw that there was some space at the very rear of the cart, or the very front of it. Depends on your perspective. I walked to the side of the cart and climbed aboard. As soon as I did, I placed the box in question on top of the empty space and nodded. "Job well done, if I do say so myself."

I turned around and placed my hoof on top of the box I had just scrambled over and felt it shift under my grip. Significantly. I gulped as I saw the boxes and things teetering dangerous to one side, then the other. Suddenly, before I could even think or move, the entire piles came crashing down on top of me pinning me down. What felt like a few seconds, I found myself looking around with just my eyes. I must have had fallen asleep, because I could hear voices from outside. I recognzed them to be Squall's and Carry's.

"Hey, where'd Forest go?" Squall asked.

"Well, we did take some time. He must've finished loading the boxes and went home. You wanna count? Make sure that they're all there?"

My heart leaped for joy. They'd find me at that rate. Right now, with the weight on my back pushing down on my chest, I couldn't yell if I wanted to.

"Nah. I trust Forest," Squall replied. "He wouldn't've cheated me. He's a good guy, I know it."

My eyes bulged out of their sockets. As flattered as I was with the gesture, the fact that he wasn't going to check up on his cargo meant that I was stuck. I tried to shout, scream, make noise. Anything. But I couldn't even make a peep. What was I going to do? I just hoped that he'd wait until morning before he started on his trip back to-

"Are you leaving now?" Carry asked.

"Yep. My friends are all here, so we're going ahead."

Son of a bitch! I shouted in my head.

"Well, hope you had fun at the fair. See you guys next time."

There was silence after that, so I could only assume that Squall nodded and his friends must have use some sort of silent gesture towards Carry. Unless she ate them all. Suddenly I felt the cart shift violently to the side, then to the other side, then the goods moved backwards and I could see through a gap between all the boxes. For a moment I thought that Carry read my mind again and was looking for me to rip me apart, which might have been preferable than the situation I had just landed myself in. Why do I always get into these messes?

Like looking outside the window of an airplane, the ground was going by quickly before the ground disappeared out of view as the cart surged into the air. It was being pulled upwards and I could feel myself being pressed to the floor and back as the gravitation or whatever it was pushed me down.

The last thing I saw before blacking out, either from the speed of the cart, the weight of the boxes, or the Sleeping Sickness, were the stars in the sky. The last thing on my mind was, surprisingly, Rainbow Dash.

Strange that.

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