Trench

by Dashie04

Leave This City

I wake up, I pray that it’s early enough. When I see Earth on the horizon, I realize that it’s the perfect time to enact my plan. I find an open piece of ground, and stomp on the moon dust to make sure it is still soft. I take my wing and start writing a message in the dust.

After I am finished, the message says:

I’m heading back to reclaim Trench, I don’t know if I’ll be back.

I rub my wings together to get the dust off, and head a few feet to the Bandito camp. Seeing that everypony is still asleep, I take some of our wood stockpile and start heading in the general direction of Trench. There was just one problem, I knew we were East, but I didn’t pay attention to where Trench was.

---

After a while, I decided to head West, I can somewhat remember when I first escaped Lema. I went West of the Bishops’ Tower and eventually stumbled upon Trench. Wood is very hard to fly with, so I had to pull a Wingless and trot all the way there. I realize that I have no food, but if I chase delivery ships, who knew where I’d end up.

I trot for a whole day with no luck. When I pass by the glass dome of Lema, nothing good will happen, so I recognize I have to go wide. I lay down my wood, laying on the ground and attempting to sleep in the coarse dust. It’s very uncomfortable, but I somehow do fall asleep.

---

Picking up my wood, I realize just how boring this actually is. I trudge on, hoping for some appearance or fragment of civilization. A few hours pass, but I do finally find a city. It’s unlike any city I’ve ever seen, it’s not covered by a dome, and everypony appears to be outside. I trot in, dropping my wood.

I’m a nopony here, they don’t recognize me, and I don’t recognize them. I walk up to a pony who’s laying down and watching colts and fillies play. He has a long, grey mane and deep blue skin, with wrinkles.

“Sir, do you know where this is?” I ask.

He looks at me strangely.”I believe you are in Sol, though you would know that if you were from around here.”

“Except I’m not, say have you heard of a place called Trench? I get this is a really silly question, but it doesn’t hurt asking,” I reply.

“You say, that’s where Wingless got off to...” he looks down, as if trying to count something,”20 years ago?”

He phrases it like a question, and I wonder if this is where she’s from.”So,” I say,”how do you know her?”

“She was from here, I think it was a couple down the street, but she was their child. I heard some nasty things from that household, anyways, I believe Trench is a couple day’s time,” he points his hoof in a direction,”West.”

I thank him for his help.”Do you have any food?” I add, as a last-minute statement.

The old stallion nods,”Sure, just come on in. I understand if you have to get some food before trudging off to Trench.” He heads inside.

I enter his house, a quaint moon rock house, and look for some food. I find some haybacon and cook it carefully, after asking the kind old stallion, first. Upon eating it, I apologize for leaving so early. I head outside and continue my trudge West.

---

My wood with me, I eventually realize that I have to sleep for the night, so I put down the wood and try to fall asleep, I have been getting to sleep a lot faster after nothing but trotting all day. I fall asleep quickly.

---

Nearly driven mad from the isolation, I hope that this will be the last day. I didn’t want all my searching to be for naught. Not helping matters was the moon’s endlessly grey surface, constantly appearing to repeat itself while slowly making your brain hurt.

After another full day of trotting, I’m on the verge of giving up. I set up a fire and watch as the fire slowly falls away, leaving nothing but glowing embers. I didn’t want to fall asleep, I just wanted to watch the fire. I can’t tend to the fire with the little wood I’ve got. Eventually, I’m sitting in near-darkness, Earth on the horizon. With nothing more to look at, I fall asleep after the second fruitless day in a row.

---

Waking up, I continue heading West, not having much left in me to continue. After another half day of trotting, I’m done.

That is, until I see a pony lying next to a hill. I fly to them, and examine them thoroughly. One of their wings is cut off, so she’s a misfit, her color palette is nothing special, seeing as how lunar ponies could only have a few, but she’s a modest blue. Her eyes are green, and she looks about ready to give up, too. She has a black mane, and she clearly has bangs, but the are pushed back.

Well, it’s a pony I can relate to, I think, but how useful will she be?

“Hey, do you know where Trench is?” I ask out of desperation.

She nods and motions me toward the hill, the hill with a hole dug into it.

I step inside Trench, left alone by Ocin. He ponies are located in their rooms, all with a disdainful expression on their face. The pony leading me through motions them up and into the eating room.

They follow us, and soon, everypony is congregated in the eating area.

“So,” she says,”we’ve found Prancey. He does not have Wingless with him.”

A very audible groan goes throughout the crowd.

“Thank you,” I say,”ummm, what’s your name?”

She blushes,”Call me Blue.”

I nod.”Thank you Blue, I have unfortunate news, Wingless is dead.”

Everypony gasps.

“Ocin killed her. However, I can assign you your jobs. I’ll take leadership duties, and we will begin rebuilding Trench tomorrow.”

Everypony claps their wings together, of those who have them, and there’s a mutual cheering.

Looking at everypony who is with me in this Moon Colony, I smile while realizing something I’ve always known, but never realized.

I’m sure, after all I’ve gone through, I can live a better life.

In Trench, I’m not alone.

Author's Note:

And there it is! The end of the story. Love the ending, as I always do with my stories, though the chapter’s slow-paced.

I hope you enjoyed, and I’d like to see you leave comments on how much you enjoyed this story. If you stuck with me.

I’ll post a blog post on details for Equestrian Idiot tomorrow, until then, I hope you enjoyed.