The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 10 -- Ariel Dawn

by shysage

Chapter 15, Old Pony 101

Well, there were four of us now. We had just rescued another young Pegasus mare from nine Cougars. She had been flying fast for a long time, flying for her life really. How in Equestria she ever found us... Soon after we had rescued her, she fell asleep in my people lap, exhausted. We didn't even know her name or anything. Well, buried this far back in the Past, the only Pony city was Coptol, the main city of the three Pony tribes before Cel and Lu were made Princesses over Equestria. Shysage and I, we knew the way there; we could easily see the Equestrium every clear summer night. We just had no reason to go there. Well, now maybe...

Our new charge was maybe medium green, with a bronze mane and tail it looked like. I guessed she was around two years old, and no Cutie Mark yet. And she was sound asleep. For the next few hours, Ari (Ariel asked for the shorter form in everyday use) Ari and I cried quietly together, hugging, as our new friend slept. Shysage stayed alert, alternately up in the air or on the ground watching across the meadow, looking for any more Cougars. We had flown substantially to the west until we rescued her, and we were in view of that huge tree sanctuary. Still, this was probably a bad place to spend the night, out in the open meadow like this.

Maybe the middle of the afternoon, Shysage came over to us, and gently draped his pony head over my people shoulder. This put his head next to mine. I didn't mind.

"Shysage, I love you..." I said this gently. I really meant it.

"I love my family" Shysage replied just as quietly. Ari smiled, got up from my lap, and hugged her dad (Shysage) with one of her front legs. Shysage mentioned he hoped our visitor woke up soon. He agreed this was not a good place to spend the night, especially since there might still be other Cougars searching.

Shysage paused in thought a few minutes. Looking off into the distance to the east, he said, to nopony in particular "It's a little late for a trip to Coptol..."

This drew our visitor rapidly from her slumber, and she stood quickly but unsteadily up, and was crying right away. She spoke in old pony, of course, and we couldn't make a lot of sense out of what she said. She was clearly beside herself. "...no Coptol...", we picked out this much; she said this over and over. She absolutely did not want to go back. Shysage sighed. We would need to find out why at some point, but now was not the time. She would stay with us. And, since it was early fall, that probably meant she would spend the winter with us too, maybe longer. I don't think our family minded.

But in the middle of her pained old pony, Ari walked up to her, stopped right in front of her, and smiled. "Hoy" Ari said again.

Our visitor stopped talking and crying right where she was, sniffled once, managed a smile, then softly said "Hoy" back to Ari.

Ari didn't stop. She said quietly "I'm Ariel", then bowed her head briefly.

Our visitor helped us out anyway. "Annie" she said quietly, then she bowed too.

Ari lifted one of her front legs and sort of waved for Annie to follow. Ari started walking back east, and quickly said "Mom, dad, come on!"

Annie clearly understood Ari, but didn't move. "No Coptol" Annie said quietly, and with a clear questioning in her voice.

Ari looked back at Annie, smiled and answered right away "No Coptol".

I changed back into a pony, which again drew an amazed stare from Annie. I was my normal white and gold, but I saw no reason to do otherwise. The four of us walked back to our trees. Flying would have been faster, but Annie probably wouldn't be ready to fly for a while. Annie was next to Ari, who was next to me. Shysage was on my other side. Little was said on our trip back, which took maybe an hour and a half; we walked slowly to make it easier for Annie. Our family knew very little old pony, but that was all our new friend spoke. I guessed silence would probably be the rule for a while.

Well, at one point, Ari looked at Annie and cautiously volunteered "Friend?"

Well, Ari evidently communicated. Annie stopped, so we all did. Annie said slowly to Ari "Friend", then smiled, and hugged our Ari. Well, they both hugged. (While spelled the same, the old pony word for friend is almost two syllables, since the i is long like y, so "fry-end" quickly or something close. That's what we heard anyway.)

Ari insisted Shysage and I hug Annie too, and we said our names slowly before hugging Annie. Annie hugged Shysage easily enough, but she was still tentative where I was concerned. She had seen me change into a strange body and quickly dispatch nine Cougars... But I carefully repeated "Friend" the old pony way, and hugged her, well, we hugged. I think that helped her relax.

When we got to our trees, we headed down to the lake, and ate and drank some. Annie ate a lot, but this surprised nopony. If she had flown fast the entire distance from Coptol, flying for her life...

When we were all mostly done, and before it was too dark, I said quietly "Annie, come". I guess that worked in old pony, and Shysage led us to our cave. Without even waiting for Annie to be concerned, Ari headed quickly in, and Annie happily followed her. I went in next, and Annie and Ari were already on their bellies next to each other. Giving them a little space, I laid down near Ari (Annie was at the back of the cave), and Shysage was quickly next to me, closest to the cave entrance. Well, we had four in here again. I didn't know whether to smile or cry. I noticed tears in Shysage's eyes, I guess that's what he picked. I think we all missed... But taking care of Annie, that had to be our first priority for now. True friendship demanded nothing less. That was fine.

The sun went down shortly after we were inside, and it was quickly pretty dark. Ari tried tentatively "sleep?"

Annie thought a minute, then replied quietly. Well, it sounded to me like "slip", I don't know. Ari and Annie were soon asleep

Shysage and I already had our heads right next to each other, and we rubbed noses for a little while. That felt amazing. Still, I could tell Shysage was deep in thought. He whispered soon enough.

"I think we should learn and start talking old pony as soon as possible... We don't know who Annie is, or why she is here, but we need to do everything possible to blend into her world, which is Coptol in the Past, well, before Equestria." Shysage said this last phrase very quietly to avoid a reaction from Annie. Still, he was right. We would need to explain this to Ari tomorrow.

After Shysage explained this, we rubbed noses a while more, then I stopped; this time I was deep in thought. Shysage just waited patiently, then it was my turn.

"Shysage, I feel like I owe you an apology... I really did and still do miss my sister and everypony else. But we can't help when or why we are here. I think I need to work a little more at enjoying what we have, where we are, when we are."

I paused here briefly, then quietly added "Does that make sense?"

I could tell then that Shysage was already fighting back tears, and he quickly wrapped one of his front legs around my neck and hugged me tightly. Maybe he felt the same way. We wept softly and quietly together like that for a while.

Still, we were soon back to rubbing noses again, and that lasted a while more. I stopped at one point and said quietly "Shysage, I really love you..."

"Amazing Mare, I love you so much..."

Probably staying up later than we should have, we drifted off to sleep.

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I awoke the next morning to Ari and Annie slowly and quietly talking. And the morning sun beaming through the forest from the east lit up our cave nicely. It was a little cool yet. Well, the girls were laughing quietly on occasion too. Shysage was already awake, watching them. He whispered quietly to me "Old pony vocabulary lesson."

Ari would point to something with her nose or one of her front legs, and Annie would say the word in old pony. Ari would then repeat the old pony word, sometimes laughing herself, at what was coming out of her mouth. Both Ari and Annie were being very patient, working together until Ari could say the word correctly in old pony. And a good amount of review was taking place too. It was amazing to watch. And Shysage and I were also learning old pony words. Like, the word for rock in old pony is pronounced like rook.

Well, we really didn't know how long they had been awake. But after watching this go on for maybe an hour, it was clear they had exhausted the items here in our cave.

It was quiet a minute maybe.

Ari hesitantly pointed directly at Annie...

Annie understood immediately, and put her head down. "Friend" Annie said slowly and quietly, then looked up and smiled at Ari.

Ari said "Friend" quietly back, and they hugged. We had no idea what Annie had come from, but Annie and Ari seemed to be getting along very well. We needed to get Ari away from Annie long enough to explain that we needed to shift exclusively to old pony, and I wondered how we could do that. But Ari seemed to already be diving into old pony anyway, so maybe...

I shivered; Shysage got up, and I lost my warmth! I followed him out of the cave, and Ari and Annie joined us. Shysage normally would have mentioned what we were doing, but said nothing as he led us out of the woods, across the east meadow, and to the huge meadow around our lake, Ponyville before Ponyville. The warm sunlight on my back felt amazing. Shysage and I spoke quietly and briefly, then he took off, and circled high overhead for a while looking for Cougars. I felt a certain responsibility to stay here and protect our visitor if needed. Shysage agreed he would probably be more of a help in the air anyway.

The trip from the cave to our trees and the lake took quite a bit longer than it otherwise would have. Ari's old pony lesson started anew as something as simple as a walk surfaced hundreds of new objects to learn. Until Shysage took off, we just carefully watched Ari and Annie, and stopped when they did. Well, we listened too, and Shysage and I were learning, and sometimes laughing with them as we tried to say new words. Annie was so sweet; she had no problems enfolding us into she and Ari's fun. I doubted we would remember as much as Ari clearly was however. And Ari occasionally tried to get the words for actions. The word for eat in old pony sounded like aet (long a quickly followed by our word for eat). Communicating the specific action Ari was after, this wasn't always easy, and frequently both girls ended up laughing together. But Ari was quickly learning... And Annie was so cheerful about this; she was every bit the patient teacher. Annie and Ari both were clearly enjoying this whole process together.

We found out the old pony word for fly quite by accident. Ari was scrambling for words to answer a question. When she said the word "flee", Annie pulled out her wings. We didn't fly just then, and Annie rested her wings. Still, for a bunch of Pegasi, that was an important old pony word to know.

That morning was pretty quiet. Two hours of relaxed eating and drinking, I think we all enjoyed the calm. Annie was clearly a lot more relaxed, and very hungry. She didn't work too hard to stay with Ari; Annie clearly trusted all of us now. This gave Shysage an opportunity to quietly pull Ari aside. And I gotta' hand it to my daughter...

Shysage whispered quietly "Ari, I think..." Shysage stopped there and was searching for words.

Ari smiled, then whispered back "Ya dad, you and mom are secrets from the future. I think we need to just blend in here for now."

Shysage and his daughter hugged. Shysage cried. We both so deeply love our Ari. Getting her to our present so we could explain everything, that would be amazing. But for Ari to already know how we needed to act here and now...

Anyway, we almost always spoke old pony from that day on.

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