Return to Equestria

by David Silver

27 - To Great Heights

“How many days has it been?” I don’t know, seriously, we had a couple of nap-cuddles as we hiked up. Always up. The path always leads up. There’s no sun, really I don’t know….

David was poking at a fire gently. "A few. We're not even that far off. In fact…" He directed a finger towards the horizon. "If you squint real hard, you can see the lights of Pegasus Ville from here. I meant to ask, where did you want to set up shop?"

Back glanced in the direction they would head that day. "Zephyr Heights. What's next, Ponyville?"

Only David chuckled at the joke only he got.

“You know!” Ragdoll wailed. Ocellia kicked her fifth back leg in response. “You can… perceive me? Gloomy see’s me as a confidant… Ocella sees me as a tool. But no… you see me! OC quit kicking me in the face with your fifth leg or I swear I will sleep in that pile of garbage that will not kick me!”

That was when he realized he was asking a question of someone who could not respond coherently. He reached instead for her blanket, to draw it up over her. "When do we want to move?"

"That's cute." Joypad was sitting and smirking. "But she should probably wake up so we can consider that moving thing."

"On it!" Back reached with a wing to shake Gloomy. "Wakey wakey!"

---

Gloomy awoke for the second time in a cold sweat and called out. She thrashed about for a minute before realizing that she had somehow moved to the floor. Her friends were already awake, and making breakfast…

"Welcome." David grabbed a plate with his cheating human fingers and brought it around towards Gloomy. "You alright?"

“I am far from alright.” Gloomy smiled thinly. “The world is changing… even while I sleep. Thank you for staying with me Mr. David…”

With the food delivered, David stood up on new feet, hooved feet. "It is changing, but not all in bad ways." He stretched his shoulders even as he flexed each leg in kind. "Sorry, not trying to belittle your situation."

“Wow, when you stretch like that… you really are old…” Gloomy looked to her fellow mares for confirmation.

Joypad smirked as she took a few steps in a broad circle around the camp. "I know it's hard to believe, but this is pretty spritely. Whatever we did, it's working for him."

"About that." Back wobbled a hoof at Joy and David. "I didn't forget! That was my first proposal. It's hard to forget that…"

“It's like you meet something out of a storybook.” Gloomy inhaled sharply before casting a long sigh and a wistful smile at Back Story. “And then it treats you like you’re the most interesting thing it’s ever seen… Believe me, I understand that attraction.”

David kicked dirt into the fire, cleaning up to move as if that were far more important than any part of the conversation going on.

A fact Joy didn't miss. "Don't think he's ready to clear up that question."

“He’s the one who asked the question?” Gloomy scrunched her thick eyebrows and squinted. “The price of asking a question is always the answer. The answer is the reward for bravery… and the cost of failure.” The filly clopped a catchy little beat with her hooves.

With a last kick, he set the campfire to its sullen rest. "They never answered, so that doesn't work out." David dusted himself off of what little ashen bits remained from the camping. "Ready to go?"

“He is afraid.” Gloomy’s hooves beat a simple but powerful rhythm, like a heart beat, as she looked between Back and Joy. “He asked the question, an answer is all you owe. Any answer.”

Joy turned away from the once-fire, starting her march of the day. The disc was following her, each taking a turn in guiding it. "That is a question I'm fine sitting on until we're not in the middle of all… this."

Back scurried up to Joy's side. "That's still an answer."

"Not it isn't!" Joy scowled at Back. "That is, exactly, not an answer."

"You're not fooling me, or him." Back stuck out her tongue. "If the answer was 'no way!' you'd just say that. You're saying it's not that. That's an answer."

“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Gloomy nodded sagely in agreement.

Joy shoved at Back Story. "Stop picking apart my words! Fine, if that's an answer, let's hear yours. That's only fair." Her eyes narrowed. "By the way, I'm not big on sharing, just to put that out there."

Back colored at the implications. "One mare and one stallion." She raised two hooves. "That's as many as there is supposed to be. Um… But he's from another culture. Maybe he's used to a lot of wives, or husbands, or both? I dunno! I'm very curious! I want to know more, about him, and where he comes from."

“You’re both lucky.” Gloomy smiled sadly. “You get to fight, and he get’s to choose. Charlie is a magical artifact. He belongs to the pony that wields him. Right now, that is not me.”

"Look…" David was quiet after that request for attention. "It's… I just feel alive right now. I might have said something very dumb. You are welcome to chastise me."

"Aw." Back giggled, not looking very put out by the whole thing. "Glad you're feeling better then."

"That was the idea." Joy veered towards Gloomy. "So where are you headed again?"

Gloomy Sonet glared up at the mountain from the remains of their abandoned camp. “Up… always up. Charlie is guiding another filly now. They are going up.”

"Not to discourage…" Back's wings fidgeted with her steps. "But 'up' doesn't have to mean Zephyr Heights, or maybe it does! I dunno. This is… Oh, is it alright if I use this for stories?"

“When I first found Ragdoll Charlie, right after he stopped screaming, he asked me where I wanted to go.” Gloomy’s eyes glazed with determination. “I told him I wanted to live up there, on that mountain. Then he asked me what I wanted to take. He’ll be there.”

Joy jumped into the air, shrugging in her moment airborne. "Sounds like as good a reason as any. Hopefully, your doll's waiting for you."

"That wasn't a no." Back Story casually made a note for future story purposes.

“Love is never a hard no.” Gloomy smiled before a light ignited in her eyes. She sang in an unfamiliar voice. “The light that shines through the shining night, is a lamp that I carry from my mother’s home. And the light that burns through the window panes…”

The Unicorn broke down. “And the love remains… I’m running out of time…”

Joypad gently snatched up the filly, continuing on her way with a new rider. "It'll be alright. I don't know all the hows or whys, but I have a good feeling, and those aren't usually all off."

“My great grandmother taught me that there are two kinds of rainbows.” Gloomy noted from her new found perch. “There are the rainbows everypony sees. And there are the rainbows you only see once. Because after that they’re just gone. And even if you don’t catch that rainbow, you better chase it, or you're gonna regret it every day of your life”

"The worst kind." Joy glanced to the side at David. "Am I right? They put those in games all the time. It's like half the reason they go off on wild quests."

David chuckled in agreement. "The number one inciting event, chasing a rainbow of some variety or another. There are worse reasons to save the world."

Gloomy gave David a smoldering, bitter shrug. “ I don't know why you do things…”

“Why do any of you care?” Gloomy snarled out of the blue. “I know what you are. I know what he is. I don’t even doubt that you care… but ‘why’ is a fair question, Mr David.”

"Me? Because I'm a nice person." His tail lifted with his steps, wagging a little. "Or at least try to be. I like being a nice person. There's no specific benefit, I just like being it. Is that bad?"

“I grew up on Charlie’s stories. Worlds and stories just like this that you decided were just a dream. And you never thought back even once.”

"I barely remember what we had for lunch yesterday." David lifted his hands in a helpless gesture. "Looking for thinking on the past? Generally pretty bad at it, and not even gonna argue with it. It was tasty though, I remember that. Thanks."

Joy burst into laughter. "You're very welcome for that thing you don't remember but sure was good."

“I’m sorry, Mr. David.” the gray filly flattened her ears. “I didn’t mean to lash out at you. My episodes were really bad around this age. If I fly off on wild tangents you should let me know. I have medicine to keep the anxiety in check. I… have mental health issues. So if I have mood swings and make wild accusations, please let me know, because I only ever realize it happened after it’s too late, and then it’s just embarrassing.”

"Well…" Even if David seemed happy to remain quiet, Back Story was there. "Pretty sure this counts as one of those times. I don't even know what you're blaming David for exactly, and he has something to blame right in front of us. Really, proposing to two mares, at the same time, in front of each other. It's like he wants to start a fight, or get hit. Both is an option."

“Wait… is that an option?” Gloomy cocked her head to the side.

Joypad barked into laughter. "Sure, often is. You get into a fight, you'll probably be hit. So, David, how good a fighter are you?"

"Can I surrender ahead of time?" He put up his hands wardingly. "I really don't want to fight."

“Mister David…” Gloomy shuffled nervously…

Joy snorted softly. "Coward… Then I get to claim the prize." She glanced the other way at Back Story. "You too. We won by default."

Back Story leaped, going airborne for long enough to clap her hooves. "Yes! I'll share. Hm, but what to demand?" She hit the ground in almost a new hop, only coming down to a trot. "Oh! Story time. No excuses. I want to hear more about your culture. Give it up."

“I would also like to hear a story about the world you come from.” Gloomy nodded.

"This is a price I can accept." He stuffed his hands into his pockets. Pony legs or not, his pants were still useful, and had pockets. The power of pockets was not to be trifled with. Ponies had pockets too, they just made no sense. "So where do you want me to start? Give me a topic."

“You are a friend of my best friend.” Gloomy cast wide, curious eyes at the satyr. “How did you meet?”

"Shoot." He rubbed behind his head, scrunching his eyes with thought. "That was a while ago… And I just finished telling you that detailed memory is not my thing. Shoot, how did we first meet…? I want to say it was on a chat. You have chats." He dug out his phone and wagged it at the others. "Like this, talking about fiction, pony fiction, amusingly enough."

Back tapped along with the story. "How fascinating. Like we had a meeting about humans. I could see some bonding over cryptids!" She took a few quick notes with rapid taps at her phone. "Do go on."

"I was talking about a game I wrote, and the stories, and we just, you know, chatted." David shrugged softly. "And he liked writing, especially with a little, what, you want to call it a good example? I was as good as he was getting, but that was enough for him to start writing too. We both write on the same place." He wagged the phone anew. "On our Internet."

Back took down every word, a recording app running in the background for later deciphering. "Worth every second!" She would not hurt for fodder for her own stories.

Author's Note:

Gloomy was handled by No One, and the story continues!

Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own here at atreon!

Don't want to do an ongoing thing? You could

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Stories from another world. At first a few words are cognisable, but as time goes by and you return to them and compare to other words,a nd how those words are collected and related, you can find out that the words you first knew, can mean totally different things even within those stories, and even more things if used in other ways?