Sidetracked

by flamevulture17

6. Trails

“Come on, don't tell me we need to take out ALL our stuff to get to the spare tire.”

“You keep complaining like that and I might just consider leaving you here when we're done.”

Felix groaned. “I just want to get out of here.”

Max sifted through the luggage in the back of the car. “Don't act like you are the only one. We all do.”

“Whatever, you know what I mean.”

The bickering sessions lasted periods of up to two minutes before falling silent again. Often the excited pink earth pony would try to get their attention or jump in on the conversation, but to no success.

Pinkie Pie tried every conventional way to get them to stop ignoring her. She refused to try the Pinkie way of surprising them with her presence, having worked horribly the first time. She didn't want a repeat of the scary situation. That small cannon the angry human had sure was loud.

She retreated back to talk to Big Mac.

Applebloom watched the men fiddle around with boxes and other strange items while having no choice but to overhear the least pleasant of conversations. Name calling and insults nonstop. She wouldn't ever talk to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo like, at least for that long. Why would they argue so much? Are they not friends?

She would get her answer eventually, but first she wanted to find her two friends. They were supposed to be playing ball that afternoon, but it seems like something more interesting came up. Creatures walking on two legs, fixing an enormous carriage made of metal and rubber wheels.

Applebloom managed to slip away from the group without Big Mac knowing. Pinkie knew right away, but kept quiet and winked at her with a smile.

The little earth filly made it back to town. Her first stop would be Rarity's boutique. On her way there, ponies around town were looking rather nervous and whispering rumors among themselves. She could barely make out what the buzz was about.

She would find out later, first she'd get her friends together and show them the bipeds. Applebloom made it to the shop and knocked on the door. A minute later, the door swung open to reveal a well groomed white unicorn. Rarity took one look at Applebloom and turned around to call out to her sister.

“Applebloom? Aren't you supposed to be in school?” the store owner said, tapping a hoof on her chin. Apparently the filly didn't catch the hint that this was the last place she'd be at this time of day.

“It Sweetie Belle here?” said the farm filly.

Rarity looked a little concerned. “No. She's at school. I'm am quite surprised to see you here, I thought you'd be with her in class.”

Applebloom looked like she had an epiphany. “Oh yeah! Thanks Rarity!” She gave no time for a response as her little legs carried her away.

“Huh?” Now Rarity was curious. It wasn't like Applejack's sister to skip school and visit her at her own residence while asking for Sweetie Belle. It piqued her interest. With such an uneventful day so far, Rarity decided to find out the oddity that just ran off. She closed the door behind her, locking it from the outside, and trotted after Applebloom. Maybe Applejack could explain why her sister was out of school.

During her trek through town, she noticed ponies murmuring rumors and silently gossiping to themselves. She knew it all too well that when word of something unusual come around town, the resident ponies would speculate what they heard from each other.

Something was up. And maybe Applebloom was tied to it somehow.

The white unicorn didn't know why she was even running. She knew where Applebloom was going and slowed down to catch her breath.

“Hi Rarity,” squeaked a voice beside her. The tired pony traced the source of the voice and found two ponies sitting at a table having a premature lunch together. “Fancy seeing you here. What are you running from?”

Rarity's panting subsided as it was embarrassing to show how out of shape she really was. “I- uh, I wasn't running from anypony.” She did recognize the pony, but her name slipped her mind. “I'm sorry darling, remind me of your name?”

“Lyra.” The mint-green mare smiled. “And of course this is Bonbon.” The earth pony to her right nodded as she took a bite from her hay fries, nearly stuffing her face. Rarity frowned in minor disgust.

“What's the rush?” Lyra began. “There isn't some horrible bug monster attacking the town again, is there?” Bonbon quickly shot her a scrutinizing glare, but her friend just shrugged.

“No no, nothing like that.” Rarity grinned nervously. “Anywho, I better get going.”

“Wait don't you—“ Lyra couldn't finish her sentence as the acclaimed unicorn ran off. “Hm.”

The two ponies stared at each other in silence. After a second or two, Bonbon took out a pair of sunglasses from behind her and put them on. Lyra was about to mouth a response, but the pony slipped away without a word. Lyra looked back at her food, not wanting it to go to waste. She'd finish the rest and then see if she could catch Bonbon in the midst of a secret mission or something.

- - -

Applebloom approached the schoolhouse not long after her visit to Rarity's. Fortunately for her, recess had just begun, giving her one less excuse to worry about for why she wasn't in class that morning. She entered the playground where the two faces she wanted to see were playing ball together.

“Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo!” the filly called, galloping up to them.

“Applebloom?” Scootaloo squeaked. “Where were you? Ms. Cheerilee was worried when you didn't show up to class today.” The tiny pegasus grinned suggestively. “Did you fake your sickness and ditch? Why didn't you tell me? We could have done it together.”

“Hey, what about me?” Sweetie Belle chimed in. “I've never skipped school before. Sure could have been fun if you told us you weren't coming to school today.”

Applebloom looked at them with a blank face like she had done something wrong, but shook her head free of the daze, too focused on the excitement of why she was there. “No no girls, I wanted to show you something! Follow me!”

“But what about-” Scootaloo trailed off as Applebloom left as soon as she arrived, “-school?” The farm filly practically jumped with exhilaration and—with a skip in her step—galloped down the dirt road. The two fillies left behind could only glance at each other largely confused. They shrugged and reluctantly sped after the dust trail kicked up by their friend.

They nearly caught up to the yellow pony now. “Wait up, Applebloom!”

The ponies slowed to a trot as they reached the Apple Orchard several minutes later. Sweetie Belle spoke up first, now directly beside Applebloom. “So what did you want to show us?”

As the three rounded a line of trees, they got their answer. Some distance away was a large metal object on wheels stuck on the roots of an apple tree. Scootaloo was the first to spot two fully clothed creatures walking upright stacking what appeared to be boxes and various leather items.

The trio remained silent, but retained due vigilance and continued towards the strange creatures. Off to the side were Big Mac and an all too eager Pinkie Pie waving at them. The party mare was about to say something when she was cut short.

“Sweetie Belle! What is the meaning of this!? You should-” Rarity stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes met the unusual sight before her.

“Hiya Rarity!” Pinkie bounced up to her friends. “Nice day. You come to help the humans?”

“The what?”

“Them of course.” A pink hoof gestured to the car where two men did their utmost to ignore the band of new ponies that were now standing around.

“W-who?”

“Their just a little lost and want to go home.” Pinkie explained, having rephrased what she heard the humans talk about as they worked to get the carriage back into shape. “I want to help, but how could anypony not want help from Pinkie Pie?”

“Are they- er- dangerous?” Rarity angled her head back. “They seem...” She could find a proper word to express her thought at that moment, only to taken by surprise by a voice.

“Good going genius, now everyone thinks we're psychos.”

“For christ's sake, Max, how many times to I have to say I'm sorry until I regret what I've done?”

“I don't know, not enough apparently.”

Rarity exchanged looks between the men and Pinkie Pie. “They talk.”

“Look who's talking!” One of the bipeds yelled proficiently. He muttered something under his breath as he walked away out of sight when the other person intervened.

How rude! Rarity's disgust was already her basis for judgment of their behavior, but the fact that they were such creatures she'd never seen or heard of before may have given her second thoughts not to be a xenophobe. “Where's Twilight? Should she be the one to tell us what's going on?

Pinkie bounced. “She was here earlier and apologized for Rainbow Dash for wrecking their carriage and flew off to help the other humans at the hospital after one got hurt and now we're just waiting for them to get back and now they are doing something with the wheels and we're here to watch for now.”

Okay, that was a lot to take in, for Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and of course, Rarity who were left blinking at Pinkie with her enormous smile.

“Shouldn't Applejack be here?”

“She's at the hospital too.”

“Just what else happened today that I should know about?” Rarity asked, a little upset of being kept out of the loop for what she assumed was a matter of great importance for both parties, especially the humans. The clothing they wore were short of dull. Were they for fashion or simply practical reasons. She wouldn't get answers to her growing list of questions without Twilight to explain everything.

Each of the ponies were wondering what could manifest from this situation as with every interesting event that came before it. No experience in Ponyville was left unsolved, but this wasn't just some villainous attack on the town or some friendship problem.

For now they watched with eager eyes every move the human's made, which didn't sit well with both men.

For several seconds, nobody moved. Felix leaned against the brake lights while Max had his arms crossed and his back turned away from the ponies. The men exchanged the most aggressive of silent facial expressions that was laced with awkward stares and occasional nose scratches. Felix kept his eye trained on every pony present for the sake of security. He didn't want any of them to vanish out of sight and then reappear behind him. If that happened, it wouldn't end nicely for that pony.

Then, as Max was working up the courage to turn around and address the group of equines the speech he's been preparing in his head to get rid of some of them, his phone started to ring.

Max and Felix quickly looked at each other with confused looks of their faces. Max reached into his pocket to check his cellphone, only to realize it wasn't even ringing. As soon as he glanced back his friend, Felix snapped out of his frozen state and took out his own phone. The screen displayed an unknown number without an area code.

Very strange.

Felix continued to stare his phone as he refused to pick up, letting the ringtone play seven times until it went to voice mail. After the tone, he was expecting someone's voice to come through, but there was nothing but a weird and creepy static. He immediately ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket.

“What was that?” asked one of the child ponies.

Felix was quick to respond. “Nothing.”

Off in the distance, hidden from view behind a apple tree was a pair sunglasses peering from around the corner, carefully gripping a non-magical device of her own.

- - -

“So, uh, where is here?” Candy began, gesturing all around her.

“This is Ponyville General Hospital on the west edge of town,” Twilight replied confidently.

“No no I mean where is town relative to the rest Oregon?”

“Oregon? I've never heard of that place before?” The pony tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Do you mean where Ponyville is Equestria? It's the closest settlement to the capital city of Canterlot which resides at the very center of the country.”

“Where is this Equestria place?” Candy pointed out. She was having trouble understanding anything the pony was saying.

Twilight realized just how confused the human was by looking at her eyes wander in confusion. Since neither of them understood where the each other came from, she'd have to find common ground and explain briefly the basics of her world.

“Equestria? Well, that's going to be hard to explain since you are not originally from this world.”

Candy sat up. “I know, you said something about mirror world and you seem to know who we are while everyone else doesn't.”

“Humans only exist independent of this world through a portal built from an enchanted mirror as a doorway between the realms. Everypony in this world has a human counterpart with the same personality and voice, but neither world knows the other exists. It is highly secret and carefully monitored by the royal crown, including myself and my friends.”

Twilight went no further as she observed Candy's reaction. Surprisingly enough, the woman was not shocked nor confused by the information, but instead was relaxed and intrigued. Perhaps the acceptance that she was not in fact loosing her mind served to relieve irrational fear. Candy had given her undivided attention to Twilight, leaning on the back of the chair with one arm.

“I know this is a lot to take in, but I was wondering how you and your friends found the portal and made it here from the Crystal Empire without alerting the guards.”

“I never came through any portal. Even denying it is really strange. As far as I know, portals and enchantments don't exists except in video games. I'm not much of a gamer myself.”

Twilight pondered that over for a second and moved on. “If you didn't slip through the portal undetected, then where did you come from.”

Candy shrugged. “I have no idea. As far as I know we were driving on side streets in Oregon yesterday and happened to stumble on this place trying to find our way back to the interstate.”

The most the woman tried to explain her origins, the more Twilight was confused. There were too many things she was saying that she didn't understand, almost something a crazy pony would say. But Candy isn't crazy, not by any measure. Just lost, and under stress. She had no choice but to believe her.

“I see.”

“Whatever, I guess once we get back on the road we'll retrace our steps and finally get back on track.” Candy rubbed her hands together as if to indicate she did actually believe that herself. The simple fact of verbally speaking it made her feel a little better.

“I'm sorry about your friend,” said Twilight.

“He'll be fine. I hope he's fine.” The doctor assured her several minutes prior that Ben needed to rest. His leg wound will heal in time. They did discover a fair amount of magic flowing through him as he slept, but couldn't pinpoint the source. Candy took a long breath after her brief pause and continued. “Besides, I can't go back in time and change what happened.”

Twilight pondered the thought of a the temporal spell she had used to correct her own mistakes, but because that did not turn out well in the end, it wasn't worth to mention it. “No, but I believe the past are memories that is best benefited to ourselves as ponies when we learn from them.”

“Memories?” Candy frowned hard. “This just happened like twenty minutes ago. I don't even know what the hell is going on.”

Twilight could tell the human was getting more frustrated as time lingered. “Please, don't dwell on the gravity of such circumstances. I'm sure there's a good explanation for why you're here.”

“I don't want to know why I'm here,” Candy spoke up with a little more force than the alicorn was expecting. “I just want to get out of here and forget this ever happened.”

“But this is happeni-”

“No! Stop it.” Candy snapped her burning gaze directly into Twilight's shocked eyes. The women then stood up out of her chair, towering over the princess pony. “I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to tell me I'm not delirious so you can con me out in some bullshit therapy session or something like that where you get me to cry my heart out before you tell to let go of my past. Well you can forget it. Now leave!”

Candy pointed straight at the door after finishing her last breath from her last word. Although she was shaking, she held a confident stance.

“Excuse me?” Twilight protested. This was not at all how it played out in her head.

“I said get out.” This time Candy grabbed the doorknob and swung the door wide open.

Footsteps from behind trotted toward the pair as another voice attempted to pitch in. “Please, Ms. Candy, you mustn't-”

“You too!” Candy beamed. “All of you get out!”

Nurse Redheart and Twilight swapped very concerned and angry looks. Yet, with the hesitation wearing of in an instant, they, including the doctor pony who hadn't said a word, stumbled out the door as it slammed violently behind them.

The muffled sounds of bare hoofsteps faded from Candy's mind as she shoved her back against the door and fell to the floor. She sighed so heavily that a whistle escaped lips through her gritting teeth. She squinted up at the ceiling, then clasped her hands over her face to cover her shame. She was in great fear of the repercussions that may follow suit after that outburst.

After a few minutes to herself in silence, she slowly glanced up at the hospital bed. Ben's feet remained lifeless and pale, almost matching the color of his socks. His shoes were neatly placed near one foot of the bed, having been removed sometime after the purple winged unicorn showed up to distract her. Candy was extremely annoyed at how easily Twilight used her emotions to manipulate her into talking about her feelings.

Her head filled with thoughts aplenty, and from the speed of her heartbeat she tried to calm herself down. Staring back down at her hands, she crossed her legs and anchored herself to the tile of the floor, the door made to brace the heat of her back.

Or all the things she could be thinking, she wondered if Ben was aware of anything. If he was dreaming, she hoped that for his sake that it wasn't any worse then the reality they were in.