• Published 12th Jun 2012
  • 2,786 Views, 71 Comments

In a Pinch - Akailo



A brony gets sent into equestira little does he know he's destined for much bigger things.

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Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We had been walking for a while now. I still had no idea where we were going, all I knew was the dogs came from this general direction.

If things couldn’t get much worse, the sun was starting to set. It was hard enough to see where I was going in this forest with the sun up, never mind at night. I told myself it was time to set up camp. I didn’t feel happy walking around with a small filly in the dead of night.

Looking at the stab wound on my arm surprised the hell out of me. The cut had almost totally gone in such a short period of time. Not that I was complaining but it sort of freaked me out. Pushing it out of my mind I looked for a place where I could bed down for the night.

Looked like Ruby had beat me to it however as she snored lightly on my shoulder as I carried her through the thick undergrowth. She was so cute curled up like that in a little ball my heart almost stopped yet again, these ponies are trying to kill me with cuteness I swear.

Well at least she didn’t need to worry about finding a bed for the night, I however was starting to get tired and hungry. I had very little wilderness experience so I wasn’t about to go looking for mushrooms or trying to catch something I wouldn’t know where to even start.

I figured that fruit was my best bet then perhaps finding a clearing where I could set up a fire for the night to ward away any animals. After a good few hours of searching I finally had everything I needed.

I had been lucky and was able to find some fruit bearing trees, no idea what the stuff was but it looked sort of like a mix between an apple and a pear. Smelled fine so I wasn’t too worried about it being poison or anything.

As I was gathering wood for the fire I began to feel Ruby waking up from her nap, poor thing must have been overloaded from shock from earlier so I was just glad she was aright.

Yawning loudly she began to open her eyes and look at me, jumping off my shoulder while I was sitting down preparing the wood and some flint I had found.

“Sorry about making you carry me Mr Thud, I'm normally a big filly and walk all by my self,” Argh that name again still I couldn’t stay mad at her.

“Hungry?” I questioned to her and before she even opened her mouth her stomach began to rumble. I couldn’t help but chuckle at this, “ Yes then, here food.” I handed her some of the fruit I had found.

She sniffed at it carefully, unsure of what to make of the strange fruit but after a while took a big bite into it. “Wow this is really good Mr Thud, thanks for helping me before by the way, Mommy always told me to thank some one who is really nice to me.”

Smiling I returned my attention to the small camp-fire I was setting up before hand. Flint in hand I began to create a good spark to get the fire going. After a few minutes I finally managed to get it lit, part of me was really proud of that.

However as the flames began to rise from the pit something caught in my chest. A deep feeling that I couldn’t describe at first but as it began to grow along with the fire I realised what it was.

Fear.

Something about the fire scared me, no not just scared me terrified me. My body was screaming at me to put it out, get rid of it anything but just get away from the dancing blaze before my eyes.

Before I knew it, I was backing away from it almost whimpering. Ruby caught note of this and began to move towards me.

“What's wrong Mr Thud?” she asked with genuine worry in her voice. I tried to answer her but my mind had shut off and my blood turned to ice. I had to get rid of the evil thing some way, some how.

Without thinking I started to smash the fire with my firsts, just to put it out. I couldn’t feel anything during this all I knew is I had to get rid of it any way possible. It took a while but eventually I heard a small noise from Ruby. I must of scared her doing that.

Looking down at my hands, they had both been burned slightly but the strange thing was unlike the cut nothing was happening here. No healing, not sure why I expected it too.

I didn’t know why but I didn’t like fire. I thought back to the fight with the diamond dogs, they had called me a troll. I had not really thought about it until now, but what if trolls in Equestira were like trolls in the forgotten realms.

Trolls in that group of stories had great regeneration abilities but could be killed with fire, perhaps this is a built in response to protect my self from that weakness. Whatever it was I made a mental note to never get close to fire again, at least if I could help it.

Grinning sheepishly I apologised to the small filly and within time everything was quiet again and she had fallen asleep next to me. Remembering my hunger I grabbed one of the fruit I had gathered and placed it in my mouth.

What happened next I don’t think I will ever forget. The fruit was the most vile, horrid and disgusting food I had ever put in my mouth. The taste was indescribable but trust me I would of preferred to eat old socks. I couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with the fruit, Ruby had liked it fine, even having seconds, it didn’t seem to affect her in the slightest.

Downhearted I began to wonder where on earth I would find food now. Then it hit me, that savoy earthy smell, almost like baked potatoes. Searching around I tried my best to find out where that heavenly smell was coming from.

Finally I managed to track the smell to the fire pit I had violently crushed, it couldn’t be though I thought to my self, I never cooked anything in it. Digging through the remains all I could find was the piece of flint I had used to start the fire in the first place.

Annoyed I brought the stone to my face growling at it for teasing me, it was when I realised it. That wonderful smell was coming from the stone its self. I gave it a tentative lick feeling like a fool.

Rocks are not food I kept telling my self but that taste, oh that wonderful taste. Before I knew it I was sucking on the stone like it was made of sugar I couldn’t resist.

Without realising I bit down. Stopping in panic I expected pain to shoot through my teeth as I shattered them all on the stone. But no, the stone cracked like it was a piece of sweet rock I used to get while on holiday as a child.

Flabbergasted I began to chew the small shards of flint, it felt good, almost right some how. Well now I just couldn’t believe it. I could eat rocks and they were damn good too. I thought perhaps I might be like a dragon and how they eat gems.

Promising my self I would try a gem the second I could I began to drift off to sleep, all the while making sure Ruby was safe.


“Wake up.” I groaned as I told my self five more minutes wouldn’t hurt. “Wake up Mr Thud, its morning.”

Who the hell is Mr Thud, then all the memories of the day before came flooding back to me. Oh right me. I began to drag my self off the ground and tried to get an idea of my surroundings.

What I wouldn’t have given for a soft bed right then, my back was killing me for sleeping upright next to a tree. I grabbed a small tree from the ground and tested its balance a bit in my hands. Not a bad weapon considering I was going after potentially murderous animals.

I slung the makeshift club over my shoulder and scooped up Ruby, placing her on my shoulders like the day before. Since it was morning I tossed the left over fruit to Ruby and let her munch on that for a while. She seemed happy enough with it.

Feeling my own empty stomach I began to recall last night and thought it worth testing. I scooped up a bunch of pebbles from the ground and tossed them into my mouth giving them a satisfying crunch.

Ruby was looking at me with an image of disgust on her face, “Mr Thud Mommy always told me never to put dirt in my mouth, its icky.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her, then again I could hardly believe I was eating rocks my self, but here I was.

“Me think it ok, taste good,” I don’t think she believed me but in her place neither would I.

“A nice dragon back at home used to eat gemstones, is it a bit like that Mr Thud, because I never saw him eating rocks.” I was starting to get a bit annoyed with the question and answer session we were having, and considering I could hardly talk it just made it worse.

“It fine, find Mommy yes?” I hoped that would take the subject off my eating habits for the time being. It backfired, now she was starting to tear up. “No cry, no cry.” I tried my best to cheer her up but it felt for naught.

The next few hours the only sound I heard was her sniffling as she finally managed to calm down. She's cute sure but I promised my self once I got back to earth I was never going to have children. I guess that was a bit mean of me since she lost her mother but the crying and questions drove me mad.

Back on earth I was a loner, I didn’t like to talk to other people at all. I didn’t want friends, I hardly cared about my family and I really didn’t want a relationship.

And now look at me, in what was meant to be the bastion of kindness and friendship, with a filly who’s mother was kidnapped and almost killed. Yeah real kind place, and I had only been here a day.

After pushing my way past a few more bushes I found something that made my heart soar. A road, sure it was dusty and looked hardly used but a road was a road. And roads meant people,(or in this case ponies).

It looked like the road had been barren for a while, the dirt had some slight indentations but from what I could tell nothing very fresh, however it looked like a cart had passed through a while ago.

Perhaps that was the slave profession that Ruby had escaped from. With no leads I began to follow the tracks, they were either going to bring me to my goal of finding Ruby's mother or to other ponies. And either would be good right now.