Chapter 2- Don't Starve
I brought my quivering leg up to my lips, my breath giving the limp a brief relief from the cold. Then another shiver shook my body, and I curled up in the surrounding moss to conserve what little heat I had. The leaf I was huddled under didn’t do much for insulation. What I wouldn’t give to be back in my comfy castle bed, snuggled in thick blankets with a warm coco. Ugh, my feelers felt like they were gonna fall off.
I was lost. There was no whitewashing that fact. I had completely lost my trail in the green maze of grass and trees, and with every minute it had gotten more and more unlikely that I’d find the way back… until nightfall forced me to concede. Without light, my meagre chances would drop to an impossibility. That didn’t even account for whatever was out there, from mosquitoes to spiders and other animals I didn’t know of. Oh, I was glad Fluttershy wasn’t here, because I would have asked, and her answer would make me shiver even harder than I already was. Because of course, it was cold. I’d only managed to sleep in short spurts, each time jolted back into the waking world by another chill.
Oh, I so wished for the sun…
Clenching my clattering teeth, I peeked out from my covering leaf. The world was still shrouded in shadow, but if my internal clock was right, dawn was not far off anymore. Of course,only if this world even had the same cycle of day and night…
My stomach roared as I took a few shaky steps to regain feeling in my legs. Another thing to add to my list, food and water. Food felt more pressing at the moment, but I knew water would become a big issue before long.
So I had to either find the portal, a river, or help. And keep my eyes open for food. Turning back into my pony form would be a last resort. This sort of spell required a lot of energy, which I couldn’t afford on an empty stomach, especially as I’d either have to find an amount of food fit for a pony, or turn into a breezie yet again, which would likely leave me too exhausted to find sustenance afterwards. Or to run away if something else found me to be a good source of sustenance...
Not a good idea.
Since I had no reference point for where I was, every direction was equally wrong. After a while of walking, the patches of grass grew more sparse, starved of sunlight by the densely-packed trees and replaced by soft moss everywhere. My heart sank a little. Whatever direction this was, it was clearly not going to lead me back to the portal. I let out a sigh of frustration as I pushed my head into my hooves. How was I going to find my way back? I could barely remember what my tree looked like- no, I hadn’t even gotten a good look in the first place, I could have walked past a dozen times without noticing! I had to find help.
“HELLO?”
I shrieked back, started by the sudden loudness of my own voice as it cut through the deafening silence. With wide eyes, I looked around, hoping that someone heard it- and only that someone. Where there birds in this world? The thought was terrifying. A bird would snatch me up in the blink of an eye.
After a minute that felt like eternity, I let go of my breath. Alone. Relief and despair held each other in a shaky balance.
If there’d been more information about the breezies, I might have been able to guess where they liked to settle. I still assumed it was their world I was in, if only for it being the only thing that made sense to me. Though there was no guarantee…
Biting my lip, I continued on. Until a sudden thudd startled me out of my horseshoes. After a brief moment of consideration, I snuck towards the noise, keeping my body low, treading as carefully as I could.
Walnuts.
Water streamed into my mouth at the sight of the wrinkly, brown shells, slightly larger than myself, hiding away those delicious blessings of Celestia. I gleefully charged towards them, memories of long nights of study, with a large bowl of walnuts at my side- I shook my head, calling myself back to the present, as I knocked my hoof on the tough casing.
Breaking it with my hoof was not an option, for obvious reasons. Nor was it likely that I could carve through with a rock, at least not within a finite span of time. But there! As I circled around the second nut, there was a small, dark hole, possibly caused by falling on a rock. It wasn’t big enough for me, but I could just about squeeze my hoof inside. I’d have to widen it somehow if I wanted to plunder the nut’s meat. Biting my lip, I raked my hoof inside, leveraging my strength against a weak-looking edge of the hole. Puffing out my cheeks, I pressed with all my might, feeling the blood shoot into my face from the effort.
It bent!
Slightly.
Gasping for air, I fell to the ground, running a hoof over my heated cheeks. A frustrated whine grew in my throat, I was so close to having something to eat! My stomach howled, as if to show how empty it was by echoing its own noise. Drawing myself back up, I fought back a fit of desperation. This nut held at least twice my weight in food, if I broke through its armor, I wouldn’t have to worry about it for a week, two if I rationed it well!
All I needed was time, effort… and something to use as a lever. Looking around, I quickly found a piece of splintered treebark.
Still,it was a long and arduous process. Five times I had to stop as my lever broke and I had to look for another suitable piece of wood. Sweat soon ran over my face, growing cold in the chilly air. With burning lungs, I drew another breath, stemming my new lever into the hole, a good chunk had been bending outward at my last attempt. I threw my weight against it, clenching my aching teeth against the bark-
I fell back as a chunk as wide as my chest broke out of the nut’s shell. My limps burned as I sat upright, eagerly getting a good look as light fell into the widened hole.
Only to see it hollow, stripped of all meat by something that had come before me, and for which that small hole must have been wide enough. My lips quivered as I stared at the empty promise of sustenance, my limbs mocking me with their burning from an effort that had no point! Screaming out my frustration, I pounded my hoof into the hard shell, gritting my teeth as pain jolted through my leg. I just want something to eat, I thought as I slid down to the ground. And now I was exhausted, my teeth and limbs ached and I was hungrier than ever before! My stomach underlined that last thought with a growl.
“SHUT UP!” I hissed as I clutched my chest, curled up on the cold ground and shivered. Hot tears gathered in my eyes as I cursed myself for ever going on this failure of an expedition. Why couldn’t I just sit in a comfortable reading chair, passively picking up lessons other, clearly smarter ponies had written down during their sensibly planned exploits, but no, I had to try and learn on my own and LOOK WHERE IT BROUGHT ME! I might die here, and all because of a malfunctioning portal thing!
Slowly, I drew myself up to my legs, then wiped the tears from my face. I needed another source of food, some shelter and…. Whatever else you needed in the wild. Why had I never gotten around to reading Ponyson Cruzoe, the tale of the mule surviving on a forsaken Island? It might have given me some pointers. I shook my head as I turned around-
And found myself face to face with a breezie. With a bone-rattling shriek, I stumbled back, staring wide-eyed as the newcomer recoiled in surprise. His cream-colored coat was adorned with pale, orange shapes, like some sort of tribal markings. From beneath a wild emerald mane gleamed eyes of amber.
“Tirfan Je?”
“W-what?” I blinked, tearing my eyes from a sort of harness he was wearing. Celestia, those looked like ant skulls!
“Tirfan Je!” He repeated, furrowing his brows as he took a step towards me.
Right, breezish! Thank Celestia Fluttershy had given me lessons. “I’m uh… T-Twilight Sparkle.”
The breezie slowly rose an eyebrow, as if he was waiting for something more, but all I could do was give him a sheepish look.
“Nir zu Zulap kun?”
What about my- “Uhm, come again?”
The breezie heaved a frustrated sigh, before he repeated his words much slower: “Where is your clan?”
“My Clan?” I blinked, receiving another strange look for my hesitation. “I’m alone.”
His eyes widened at my answer. “Alone? Your clan left you?”
I nodded. Yes, it was a lie, but this breezie was showing me sympathy, and he was clearly better prepared to survive out there than me. I think you can forgive me for telling a white lie in my circumstances!
“You don’t look good.” The breezie whispered as he bit his lip, eyes traveling over my exhausted body. Then he took a skull off its harness and removed a wooden plug. Instantly, a delicious smell of raspberry entered my nose, opening the floodgates in my mouth as I thanked him before burying my face in the makeshift container.
It was so good! The sweet taste nearly brought me to tears as the crippling fear of starvation crumbled away, leaving warm relief in its wake. “Thank you.” I whispered again and again.
“Uh, no problem.” He said awkwardly, obviously put off by my exuberant reception. Tapping his hoof, he watched as I filled my stomach. “What is your name again?”
“Twilight Sparkle.” I gasped, then swallowed my filled mouth before I put empty skull aside.
“Honeydew.” The breezie said, pursing his lips at the container. Only now did it occur to me that he may not have expected me to eat all of it. He did not say anything however, giving me a moment to gather my thoughts, now that immediate survival was knocked down from my list of primary concerns. “Uhm, Honeydew, have you heard of the Galestriders clan?”
He looked up. “Is that where you are from?”
“No, but I was invited to visit them, by- a friend. Do you know them?”
“I’m afraid not, Twilight. They are not from here.” He looked taken aback. “You’re a stormchild, aren’t you?”
“A- a what?”
“You were caught by a terrible storm, and it brought you too far from home to ever return?”
Well, I did not like sound of that. Still, it was fitting enough to work, so I nodded. Somehow, I felt that explaining my status as a pony princess a hundred times his size wasn’t the right thing to do while my life might still depend on his sympathy.
He mulled over that for a minute. “I can… take you to my clan.” He suggested. “But the final decision lies with the elder. You- you did not come at the best of times.”
“Please!” I gasped with widened eyes. At the very least, they had to know where the portal was.
Honeydew gave me a smile as he took back the skull-container. “Do you have a stash of supplies you would like to take with you?”
“Uhm… no” I muttered. “I don’t have anything.”
He gave me another look of the pitying kind. “Alright, follow me. If we hurry, you can meet the elder tomorrow at sun-high..”
“It’s one and a half days away?” sun-high must be noon.
“If the gale agrees.” He said mystically before gesturing for me to follow.
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Well I think we found twilight's love interest
9379678
I hope not, that would be too predictable.
Personally, I hope she finds a nice mare to hook up with. Hetero is so vanilla.
9381141
Fair enough
9381141
a romance should be predictable, if it came out of the blue, it'd feel completely empty.
I don't see how "predictable" is at all a viable term when critiquing a ship.
Hmm. On one hoof, kudos for quick thinking, that telling this random breezie "I am actually a Princess from another dimension who shrunk herself by a factor of 100 to explore your country" might not be the best idea.
On the other hoof, she's playing it a little too straight-forward; it feels a bit out of character for Twilight to intentionally perpetuate a lie without any second thoughts, and to flatout reason what amounts to "I need to cash in on his sympathy for me".
A subtle wince of guilt or a mental image of Applejack shaking her head could go a long way here.
Also, Twilight, before you go away from the portal on a one-and-a-half-day trip, in which time the portal will ineviably close, ask this breezie first, if he knows about the portal.
Even if he doesn't (maybe only the village elders do), or he may have heard rumors about it but doesn't know where exactly it is, at least you tried.
Also also, Twilight, make sure to emphasize that finding the portal is really important to you. Yes, it'll probably lead to an awkward moment, or the obvious question of "Why?". But what's more important? Avoiding an awkward moment, or getting home?
.
...If you choose to not let Twilight do any of that, please make sure to have her smack her forehead later on in another "Why didn't I turn back into a pony?!"-moment.
9381273
on the first matter, I think Twilight can be excused for wanting to cash on his sympathy considering her life is quite literally on the line here.
On the second, this is my bad, I originally did include the question, and he would answer that he cant diverge from his path that much, there are also another thing that would complicate matters further, which will come in a chapter soon...
Basically, it destroyed the pacing. In retrospect, I could have had Twilight think that it's very likely the portal has already closed... but thats hindsight ^^
Wor of God/The Author: I f***ed up
media.giphy.com/media/XN4YWNbz4SNMI/giphy.gif
I must say it was a joy to read for the entertainment factor and your writing skill was very well, but, you also could have named this chapter (And part of the last one) 'Do it for the plot!"
This story started so well and is so entertaining! The scenes and the descriptions really caught my attention, and now this chapter!
I'm not sure if it makes sense that she doesn't want to tell him anything, but maybe she just thinks he get scared by whatever that could mean for his world if she appeared there?
As soon as I started writing it I thought at least of one possible why she wanted to lie.
I think I might enjoy the romance especially if the lie continues for a bit and for whatever reason I hope they can visit each other in a sequel. That they maybe figure something out that would allow both of them to live in each others world.
To be honest I'm more a fan of the idea that she just makes a place in her castle where he can live without fearing anything and maybe she also he can endure whatever she would need to do to be able to carry him around should they visit her parents.
I just like such potentially akward and funny things. I think I figured out that I prefer situation comedy.
Oh the other possibility would have been that she can also make him bigger but since she can be little and big I prefered the first option.
9543365
if she made him bigger, where would be the fun in that? ^^
I'm guessing the spell still works when she sleeps?
Okay so we know that Twilight is not good at surviving out in the wild or any unknown area which I did read another story is kind of the same situation she was in and it was a pretty good story called The Bug in The Cave by Skijarama but anyway her survival skills was not too good and she will never survive out there but until a Breezies name honeydew found her now he's taking her to his village hopefully they will have mercy on her