Previous Chapters
Close
Down to Baltimare1,000 words
A Time of Uncertainty2,541 words
Pipe Dream1,677 words

Pipe Dream

"Thanks again for another haunting performance, my friend," the manager of the Dry Dock spoke to Fiddleback, who still wore his disguise, outside of the restaurant. "As payment for your work, and still, in my opinion, a rather odd choice for remittance, here are three barrels of our fine establishment's best quality grade lemonade."

Fiddleback looked to the three large wooden barrels nearby, only nodding in response to the pony as he usually did. The manager, knowing his business was done, pawed the ground in a fidgety way.

"Well... see you next time." The pony turned about and reentered the restaurant through the back entrance. Looking back to his prizes, Fiddleback set to knocking each barrel onto their sides. Once that was done and they were each portable, he began to push them in a line. With many sloshing noises from the liquid inside moving about, he rolled them throughout the streets of Baltimare in a careful manner; the thought of what event was going to take place later on tonight filling his mind.

Having finished their breakfast, Skia and Charybdis both decided to go to the local library. The filly bobbed her head up-and-down as she skipped ahead of her cousin. Looking over her shoulder, Charybdis saw Skia attempting to hobble after her on her lame leg, and decided to slow her pace enough for the changeling to join up with her.

"Oh, I forgot to ask something," Skia suddenly spoke, after they passed by another, random townspony. "Have you read that book your aunt and I made for you yet?"

"Yeah, I finished a few weeks ago," she replied. "It was really good, Skia. I still can't believe that the dragon lord was behind the whole thing..."

"He's the last guy you'd expect, huh? It took me a while to think of his character when I plotted out who woul- hey wait a second... Look who it is over there," Skia said again, pointing a hoof over yonder. When Charybdis looked in the direction she motioned to, she saw a shape the filly soon recognized was the violinist from the restaurant. He was a fair distance away, following a path just outside of town, pushing three barrels of some sort in front of himself, and still wearing his strange, concealing attire.

"Is it me, or does he look like he's heading into the woods?" Skia inquired, noticing where the path he was on lead. Charybdis shrugged, before remembering something.

"You know... that reminds me of something. There's an old legend that involves the Gloomwood," she said. "They say there's a "great white tree" in there that's been alive and growing since the first sunrise the world ever experienced. Its sap had the ability to cure any ailment, or so they say."

"Oh, it does, does it?" Skia spoke with a interested gleam in her eye. "Where did you hear this?"

"In a history book I read in school... about the town's history and local folk tales, of course," the filly responded. "It also said that many ponies tried to venture into the woods to find such a tree, or at least settle there, but almost none returned. The ones that did told of great creatures and monsters that lived in the forest, and how deadly they were to behold."

"That sounds... gruesome..." the changeling commented. "I wonder if something like that tree exists..."

A curious look came over Charybdis's freckled face. "That violin-guy... do you think he might have any idea about it?" she asked, as they both saw him disappear behind the first trees of the treeline, out of sight. "He's lived in the woods since I can remember. If it's true, maybe he'll know about it. And if he knows, we can go into the forest and find it!"

"No, absolutely not!" Skia instantly declined. "You just told me how dangerous it was in there, and there's no way in Equestria that I'm going to let you just prance about in a place like that!"

"B-but Skia..." Charybdis began again in a low whine, pouting her lip in an effort to appeal to her cousin's pity. "If we find that sap, we can cure my mom! We can save her! All we have to do is ask the violin player if he knows anything."

"You said so yourself. That story's just a legend. A myth for the foolhardy and injudicious," the changeling said once more. "I'm not about to let you give your life wandering through a rotting, decrepit forest of death over a half-baked fable."

"But Skia..."

"No buts! You're not going in there, and that's final!" Skia said in a louder voice. Her nettled expression lightened as she saw the effects of her words. Charybdis had lowered her head, allowing her silver mane to conceal her face, and let out a loud sniffle.

"Charybdis... I know how afraid you are for your mother, but the doctors are doing all they can for her," Skia spoke in a much softer tone. "We need to trust in their expertise. I promised your father I would watch you and make sure to keep you safe, and that's what I plan to do."

Charybdis was silent, and soon stopped walking. "I just... I don't want her to go," she said in a dreary, despairing voice, lifting her head and revealing her watery eyes. "I don't want her to... to die."

"Oh, Charybdis..." Skia breathed, unable to resist the urge to just grab her smaller cousin in a powerful, sympathetic hug. "There, there... It's okay," she whispered into the filly's ear; her tone tender and compassionate. "You just need to wait things out, and everything will be fine, I promise you. I just know your mother will pull through, somehow. She's got your father with her, right?"

"R-right..." the filly responded, wiping away a tear.

"And he's an all-powerful alicorn, correct?"

"Yes..."

"Listen, as long as he's with her and she's with him, your mother won't give up," Skia said again, reassuringly. "She will pull through. You just have to wait and see."

After flashing Skia a marginally timid smile of agreement, and then a letting a few moments of silence pass, she nodded with a more confident expression. "O-okay," she said. "I believe you."

Smiling back, the two went on their way again. As they continued on, though, Charybdis couldn't help but let her face change to one of doubt.

Night spread over the countryside like a blanket, revealing a crescent moon and the thousands of stars that came with it over the town. By this time, Skia and Charybdis had returned to the house, and were settling down after a long day.

In one of the armchairs sat Skia, intently reading a book whilst in her true form, now that there were no stranger's prying eyes to be threatened by it. On the rug nearby, by the light of a candle, Charybdis played with her toys; depicting a clockwork knight bravely fighting a stuffed toy dragon. Judging from her sluggishness, she was dog-tired at this late time.

The filly let out a mighty yawn. "Skia... I think I'll go to bed now. I'm pooped," she spoke.

Skia smirked. "I'd imagine so. It's almost nine, after all. Do you wish for me to tuck you in?"

"Yes... please," she yawned again. Placing a bookmark into her tome, Skia gladly got to her chitinous, hooved feet and accompanied her cousin to her room. After plopping her smaller form onto the comfy mattress, Charybdis let her head fall freely onto the pillow. Skia used her magic to telekinetically pull the covers forward, until they were up to the young unicorn's chin.

She closed her eyes sleepily as Skia leaned over and planted a kiss on her forehead; careful not to collide with her horn. "Sweet dreams, little one," the changeling whispered in a loving tone, upon finishing her task. Tiptoeing out, she quietly left Charybdis's room, and closed the door behind her.

Skia made her way back to the chair, picked her book back up, and proceeded to begin reading from where she last left off. Fifteen minutes soon passed, and all was quiet and peaceful in the abode. But, as Skia flipped to another page with a rasp of the turning paper, another noise went out behind her, causing her to look back.

Despite how quiet it sounded, her webbed changeling ears clearly caught something that resembled squeaking hinges, and it was coming from Charybdis's room. Wanting to know what made it, she got back to her hooves, and walked up to the room's door; placing a hoof on the knob and twisting it.

"Charybdis?" she asked in a quiet voice, peeking her head in. After but a second of scanning the room, her green eyes widened into pure orbs of surprise and confusion when she saw she wasn't in her bed. It quickly turned to utter terror as she then saw the nearby window was wide open, allowing the summer breeze to fly in. Skia rushed into the room, pushing the door open as she looked around for her cousin.

"Charybdis?!" she shouted desperately in a panic, looking out the window to the empty, moonlit road of Baltimare.

389 views

Previous Chapters