Linkin Pony Recharge: Chasing the Sun

by Kaciekk

Chapter IV: Watching The Town

Author's Note:

There will always be a lot of characters in my stories. In this chapter many characters will be introduced, but you do not need to remember them. They are minor characters and are not significant to the story, if anything, they show how tight the community is in the camp.
The only ponies you really need to remember are the main characters: GentleSketch(well of course), JumpingJolt, Sketch's Dad(CharmingRhythm), HyperBlitz, and for the secondary characters: Sketch's Mom(HeartFelt), and possibly SweetHooves.

I sat on the floor staring at a low table piled with several books. Lime green magic lifted a notebook. floating to my mother, it was opened by her and the pen danced around.

“Alright, we worked on sentence structure today…” She thought aloud.

“Mom,” I murmured, placing my chin on the table, “Why do I have to do this? I’m thirteen, I’ve been learning things forever.”

The mint green Unicorn looked at me blankly. “There are still things you can learn. And practicing will make you better.”

“But I basically know everything.”

“It’s impossible to know everything.” I glanced away as she spoke. I have trouble making eye contact when someone was talking. I could do it if I was speaking as long as it wasn't awkward, but not when the conversation was on the opposite end.

“I know practicing is important but…”

Mom shot out a question randomly: “How do you know whether to use ‘I’ or ‘Me’ in a sentence.”

I answered just as quickly. “‘I’ is a subject, and ‘me’ is an objective pronoun.” I wondered if ponies my age usually knew all of these things. It was possible that I was smarter than the average thirteen year old only because of my parents.

“Very good.” Mom smiled.

I sighed and I stared off to the wall.

“GentleSketch, you usually love learning. Why all of the sudden you do not want to?” Mom questioned.

I shrugged and hummed “I don’t know.”

The mare paused to think, then continued. “What’s gotten into you lately? You’ve been acting odd.”

I shrugged again and repeated “I don’t know,” but with actually moving my mouth this time. “Puberty?” I have felt strange recently and accepted that. Puberty may as well be a reason I was off, but I could not tell if my mother agreed.

Squinting her eyes, Mom examined me thoroughly. “Has something been bothering you?”

My shoulders lifted once more. I hated myself for shrugging so much. I wish I could answer my mother’s questions.

Mom sat up. “Okay. You can go. I think that’s enough for today. I’m not going to keep you stuck here forever.”

I closed the books and placed them in a neat pile before leaving. While deciding to take a walk around the camp, I wondered if Mom let me go to make me feel better. Perhaps she wanted to avoid an awkward conversation of not make me sit through one.

I stepped outside on a small path that lead to a main path. I was stepping into a community where everybody knew everybody. It may have grown since it first began, but it is quite easy to know everybody.

Why walking towards the center of the camp, my vision shifted to study several groups of ponies. Some talked, some worked some rested, others planned. Many times I pondered really what there was to do in the North Hills camp, but I realized as life goes on, more problems will come up

A purple mare skipped up to me. She pushed her brown hair out of here face and prompted herself. “GentleSketh, have you seen Cherry?”

I shook my head. “No, sorry AgileArrow.”

Almost ignoring me, her eyes shot past my shoulders. “Oh, nevermind, there she is.”

Twisting my neck around, I observed AgileArrow trot over to a burgundy mare. She kissed Cherry on the nose and they started chatting. My ears could not adjust to whatever they were saying, so I went on with my business.

The route below me brought me towards the center of the camp. Pausing, my ears twitched. I went to a section that was covered by a cloth. Slipping between two support beams( not the correct entrance), I placed myself in front of a wooden table. Pink hooves sorted vegetables on the table.

“Good afternoon, GentleSketch,” a tan Earth-pony greeted me.

“Hello, Aunt SweetHooves,” I replied.

SweetHooves may not be my real aunt, but she is pretty close. Really, she is like a second mom to me. She took care of me when I was younger and my parents had no room for me anywhere(also the reason JumpingJolt and I are like brothers).

I continued to watch the black maned mare place different types of food into categories. I sought a stray carrot and my hoof slide it over with the rest. “Thank you,” SweetHooves said with a kind smile.

I stood there for a moment. I felt a tingle in my nose and breathed out a sneeze . Great, SweetHooves is the last pony anybody would want to sneeze next to. It is not that she is a germaphobe, it is that she does not like sickness for her husband always gets sick(and she’s the one to take care of him).

“Don’t sneeze on the food!” SweetHooves snapped, her face scrunching up and bringing out the scar on her eye.

“Sorry,” I murmured meekly, pushing my ears back. “But I sort of did it to the side.”

“I’m going to have to clean all of these off again.” SweetHooves shook her head.

“I really didn’t sneeze on them,” I said but I guess she did not hear me.

“I don’t want the whole camp getting sick.”

“It’s not like I’m sick. It was just a little sneeze.”

I cannot believe I was continuing to talk about a sneeze.SweetHooves glared at me for a second and then sighed. I found myself stepping away for I probably was no help for the mare.

Before I could complete my next stride, an off-white pony broke my path. The young mare held a bag of herbs in her mouth. She set it in her hoof and looked at me.

“Oh hi, GentleSketch.”

“Hi, LilyMist.” I responded. I glanced at the herbs. “Can I help you maybe?”

“No, I think I’m fine, but thank you anyway.” LilyMist shook her red and pink mane and was on her way.

Strolling deeper into the tent where the ceiling rose, I observed ponies working together. They stood on crates trying to fix a wooden beam above them. One pony grunted a few words while another was asking for help.

“Where did Sun go?” Said one. “We need a unicorn.”

A teal stallion spotted me and called over. “Hey, GentleSketch, could you h-” He hesitated. “Oh wait, nevermind.”

When I realized he was about to ask me to help them, I slumped down quickly. I am a Unicorn, but I could not use magic. I had the horn, but not the ability. Although I was weak, I desperately wanted to help. I feel humiliated knowing that ponies overlook me as a Unicorn.

I swayed my head down and started shuffling away. I heard the voice of the stallion. “Wait! GentleSketch, could you find SunSwirl, or AgileArrow or some Unicorn maybe?”

“Sure…” I said between my teeth without turning my head.