The Land Before Hooves

by Moon Flame

Chapter 2. The Desert Mark

The sand burned underneath Fluttershys' hooves. It parted ways as she walked over it, making every step feel as heavy as the air she breathed.

The six pony friends had found themselves walking over a vast desert. There had been arguments earlier whether this had actually been a good idea. In the end it had been the image of that big Sharptooth head that had showed up inside the ponies minds and spoken to them with his small yellow eyes.

See you later when you’ve fallen asleep, my little pony.

The discussion had then ended.

Fluttershy tried to raise her head now and then but it was almost like the blinding sun was pressing her down. Suddenly there was movement in the sand ahead. Curious, Fluttershy lowered herself. A lizard poked his head out.

“Oh. Hello there little one.”

The lizard looked at Fluttershy with his, to the untrained eye, expressionless appearance, and asked her a question. Fluttershy giggled

“I'm a pony, a pegasus pony to be exact. Here, see my wings?”

The lizard asked Fluttershy another question.

“You don’t see my kind often here because i am not from around here. I live in a place called Equestria. It is located in another dimension.”

The lizard dug out the rest of his body. His long tongue hissed as he asked his question to Fluttershy. The pegasus closed her eyes and smiled approvingly.

“Of course you can come with me! Here, climb on.”

Fluttershy reached out her hoof and let the lizard climb on top of her back.

The rest of the groups manes hanged limply at the sides of their heads due to the non existing winds. Their thoughts went to their home world, of which they missed more and more the more time went.

“Urh… How are we gonna get back to Equestria?” Apple Jack whined.

“My hoofs hurt.” Rarity complained.

“My mule burns.” Pinkie Pie whimpered.

“We should have never left the forest.” Rainbow Dash said while shooting a fat glower at Twilight. The pony princess groaned, as much of the heat as her friends complaining.

“Would you have preferred staying with the Sharptooth? Despite, wasn’t it you who wanted to leave in the first place?”

“Yea. But i didn’t mean THIS. Fluttershys confidence is less barren than this dust bowl.”

“Rainbow Dash, manners!” Rarity scowled.

Fluttershy was way to occupied talking to her new lizard friend than reacting to Rainbow Dash. She had been talking to animals ever since she was a small filly. She had her own animal care centre back in Equestria and was loved throughout the whole animal kingdom surrounding Ponyville.

As the ponies march whent on they felt more and more tired. Soon the pain in their hooves stopped bothering them, like their bodies had given up alerting them about their aching bones, speaking of…

“Look, over there!” Rarity exclaimed and pointed her hoof.

The ponies spotted a shelter-like structure ahead. As they came closer though it would soon turn out that it wasn’t a shelter at all, but a pile of bones. The spine of the dead animal laid over the sand like a hose while the chest had the spine jut upwards slightly. The head of the poor animal was buried half in the sand.

“What happened to him?” Fluttershy asked

“I don't know.” Twilight answered darkly. “But i have a feeling we should be careful from here on out.”

The ponies kept on walking, leaving the bone pile behind them. The exhaustion splintered their heartbeats, but that mattered little to the them. All they could think about was Equestria. Little did they know that they were being watched.

The longneck squinted his eyes against the sun. He had no idea why he had been following the ponies. Maybe it had been the promise of company? Or maybe he thought they might have more luck finding food and water than he had? But as he now watch them wander into the blue those thoughts didn’t matter, he knew they were going to die.

The holes that formed behind the longneck quickly filled with sand again as he walked. He figured he might as well turn tail, he surely didn’t want to be close by when the Sharptooth felt their smell.

The longneck suddenly stopped. He closed his eyes, remembering that happy pink pony that he saw jumping happily inside the pound back there. He now imagined the curly mane of the pony, stuck on a pile of bones, jutting slightly out of the sand.

The longneck gave a long sigh. No. He couldn’t just leave them, that much friendship was left in him. The longneck couldn’t remember how long he had been waiting for his own death, but somehow he had survived all this time after he left The Great Valley. He now figured he should make sure that all that wouldn’t have been for nothing.

Twilight felt her dry lips grind against one another. She couldn’t feel her hooves anymore. But now she heard a voice.

“Ponies?”

“Huh?” Twilight looked up, her stiff neck hurting. It was that longneck again. He was standing in in their way.

“Uh… Hi again.” Twilight managed.

“You are heading in the wrong direction.”

“And who made you the leader here, spaghetti head!” Rainbow Dash boomed brutish. The longneck looked down at Twilight. His distinguished eyes met her purple ones.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Do you remember the pile of bones you walked past there?”

There was nodding among the group.

“Yes.” Twilight answered.

“Alright, first question, how do you think the creature died?”

The silence laid over the pony group. The longneck continued.

“Which way was he lying, tummy up or tummy down?”

“Tummy down.” Apple Jack answered weakly.

“Now, that means with all certainty that he died from thirst. Had he been hunted down by a sharptooth he would have laid on his back with his ribs torn apart. Now, which way did the tail point when you found him?”

Twilight looked at the longneck with realizing eyes. She knew were he was going.

“In this direction.” She answered.

“And what does that tell us about the water and food supply in this direction if he wandered through here before he died from thirst?”

The silence that followed were so complete that the ponies might as well had been nothing but a pile of bones themselves. Twilight sighed and answered. “...That we won’t find anything either.”

“Urh, my hooves hurt. I want to get back to Equestria!” Rarity whimpered.

The longneck raised what his race name suggested and looked down over the pony group.

“Listen ponies, i don’t know what this Equestria is, but whatever it is that doesn’t matter now.”

“Wait? What do you mean it doesn’t matter, its our home!” Rainbow Dash blasted, somehow managing in her dried out condition.

“I understand it is your home, and you will have plenty of time to miss it later, but right now it doesn’t matter, you are in the middle of the desert. You need to find water now or you won’t make it. Water and food, thats all that matters.”

Twilight was speechless. Was the longneck right he would have just saved their lives.

“Why are you telling us this mr…?”

“Littlefoot.”

“Littlefoot.” Twilight mirrored.

Fluttershy heard a hissing sound behind her head. It was her new friend.

“What is that?” Fluttershy answered the lizard. “Do you know were we should go?”

The tiny lizard turned his head slightly.

“Alright, down you go.”

Fluttershy reached out her hoof and let the lizard down. It went on running zig zag ahead of her.

“Come on girls, i think he can show us were we can find water.”

Fluttershy trotted after the lizard, though right then Twilight saw an agile figure come running across the desert.

“Fluttershy, WATCH OUT!” The princess blasted, to late.

Fluttershy froze. She found herself standing only a couple of hooves in front of a two legged creature. It was way smaller than the monster that they saw by the pound but it still towered over her like Littlefoot. Its head turned clockwise while glaring at her. It opened its mouth and gave out a hoarse roar. Fluttershys horrified eyes looked down. Her tiny lizard friend came running behind the new arrival, probably on his way back to her. In one sudden movement the big lizard lowered its head and glared at the tiny lizard, who froze in place.

In a flash the big lizard opened its mouth and bit hold of the tiny lizards head, tossed it into the air and swallowed it whole. Fluttershy gasped. Her pupils narrowed. The big lizard looked unbothered. It was then gone as fast as it had appeared.

Fluttershy made a long, whining sound. Her eyes filled with tears. Twilight came up behind her.

“Fluttershy.” Twilight comforted while grabbing the crumbling pegasus.

By the time Littlefoot arrived, the yellow pony was crying uncontrollably. He watched the scene from his longneck perspective and felt a big stirring inside. Not because of the dead lizard, creatures had been dying around Littlefoot for years, but something about the mourning pony with wings made him remember himself mourning his mother, who died after she tried to protect him from a sharptooth. He repeated the name he heard the others call the pony.

“Fluttershy.”

The other ponies looked at Littlefoot. They parted ways when his head came sailing. He stopped close to Fluttershy.

“That lizard was your friend.”

“H…h…h, yes…h” Fluttershy sobbed.

“And you were his friend.”

“H…h…, yes.” She sobbed again.

“And you will always remember him as your friend, just as he remembered you as his friend before he died.”

Fluttershy looked up at the longneck. She snorted.

“Yes.” She answered.

There was a short silence. Fluttershy looked straight into Littlefoots understanding eyes.

“Then, in that way, you will never be apart. As long as you remember him and everything he taught you he will remain in your heart…”

Fluttershy snorted. Her tears stopped.

“…Forever.” Littlefoots eyes got dreamy. He closed them to avoid his own tears to show.

The silence fell upon the group. Fluttershy snorted now and then but her crying had stopped.

After half an hour Fluttershy had gotten over the worst of what happened and was merely ready to move on. Twilight faced Littlefoot. She looked at him with big eyes and emphasized every phrase.

“Littlefoot, not only have you probably saved our lives, but you helped my friend grieve and get over the loss of her friend. I may be the princess of friendship back in Equestria, but i doubt that there is anything that i can give you that is enough to thank you for what you have done.”

Littlefoot didn’t quite know how to react, but he smiled modestly and reached out his tail.

“I was happy to help.”

Twilight touched Littlefoots tail. In that moment Twilights horn gave a big flash.

Littlefoot was suddenly engulfed in a great light. The longneck lifted from the ground. The other ponies stared in wonder at whatever was going on. After several seconds of hovering Littlefoot slowly landed in the sand. The light disappeared.

“Uh…What just happened?” He asked.

There were gasping from the rest of the ponies.

“Would you look at that!” Apple Jack said, sailing upon her consonants.

“Look at what?” Littlefoot asked.

“Your cutie mark!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“Huh? What…” Littlefoot turned his neck around. That was when he saw it. Right there, on his left flank, was a symbol. The symbol looked like a white star with several other smaller stars around it. His face twisted in fear.

“What is this? AM I SICK!?”

Littlefoot knew very well that being sick in these lands spelled death as well as climbing straight into a Sharptooths mouth… Which he did once when he was little… but that was a different context!

Twilight looked at the mark. She shook her head in bewilderment.

“But... I don’t understand, only ponies are supposed to be able to get cutie marks.” She looked at Littlefoot, her eyes shrouded in wonder. “So much to know.” Twilights face widened into a huge smile of pure fascination. ”So much to RESEARCH!”

Twilight started jumping happily up and down like she was Pinkie Pie.

“What is a cutie mark?” Littlefoot asked whoever was listening. Apple Jack took over from the overjoyed Twilight Sparkle, known in Equestria for being a bookworm.

“Its the symbol that represents your special talent. Every one of us ponies has one, look.”

The ponies showed of their cutie marks. Apple Jack had three red apples. Pinkie Pie had three balloons. Fluttershy had three butterflies. Rainbow Dash had a cloud getting slashed by a rainbow lightning bolt. Rarity had three diamonds and the jumping Twilight Sparkle had a pink star surrounded with several other white stars. Littlefoot looked at his mark again. He should be wondering what his special talent was, but all he could think about was his question.

What in the world have i gotten myself into?

Comments

[Viper Pit]

i think whats more accuret then littlefoot getting a cutie mark is that he just absorbed some of twlights magic and it manifested into said mark

[HB_DS2013]

This sounds like something up Jongoji's alley.

[The dragon hunter]

Alright, first, you should consider getting an editor (there are a lot of mistakes, both big and small, that make the reading of the story annoying); second, Littlefoot doesn't seem enough confused by his current situation or the ponies themselves (I mean, shouldn't he at least ask what a princess is, given that dinosaurs don't have a government?)