• Published 6th Oct 2021
  • 2,748 Views, 220 Comments

Return to Equestria - David Silver



Older, yes. Wiser, perhaps? If he had learned anything, he wouldn't be there. Offered a new chance to visit Equestria, he takes it, not understanding just how much it has changed since the first time. At least he lacks wings or a horn.

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7 - Over New Hills

Walking. One of the primary parts of getting to distant places when one didn't have a car or other transport was walking, and so much of it. David did his best to walk like he had someplace to be. Walking lazily? Not his style. One two, arms moving in powerful counter step, each foot placed firmly into the next motion. For being sedentary, he was good at walking. "How far away is it, do you know?"

"That way." Joypad pointed the way forward. What they traveled wasn't a road exactly, more of a trail that was stepped on more than what was around it. It could become a road, perhaps, with a little effort. "We keep going until we see it. All I could tell you." She leaned over and grabbed a bottle, attached to her hoof easily. Her other twisted the cap off. Ponies in that world were far more explicit with their selectively sticky hooves. "Hopefully not too far."

And the walking. Over them flew a pegasus, headed back towards Maretime bay. They were too high up, and their eyes too set ahead to notice the human or the earth pony trundling under them. "Well." David shrugged softly. "Means we're headed in the right direction."

"At least that!" Joypad slammed her half-drank bottle back in the floating disc. "I thought you said this was going to be exciting?"

"I was worried it would be, but if it isn't, this is me not complaining."

"What if I complain instead?" Joypad swerved in closer to David's side. "I don't walk this much usually! I'm getting sore in places."

David smiled. He had a kid with him. A teen kid. A young adult kid, but still a kid, compared to him. "What can I do to help without stopping?"

"You were always eager to use those fingers." She directed her nose at one of his hands, swaying as it was. "You any good at them?"

Was she? He reached for her, and she didn't resist that time. He began to rub gently behind an ear. "Oh, that's not bad." Her eyes half-closed as she walked along. "But that isn't what hurts. Further back, where my legs run into my sides."

"Mmhmm." He obediently slowed a moment to get back, rubbing gently at where her foreleg met her body. Her muscles were alien, compared to a human, but he gently felt and rubbed, learning where they were and applying what he hoped was soothing pressure along the way.

"Oh... more, there, yeah..." Her complaints had died. Joypad was enjoying the perks of having a friendly human around. "Right there... It hurts... so good... Is that a human magic, to make something scream in the right pain that it feels good?"

David kept at it, trying to home in on the spots that provoked the right kind of response. Pony muscles were not human ones, not that he was a trained massage therapist for humans. He just went where it felt needed, imagining his 'life force' flowing gently into the pain, soothing it. It was largely his imagination, but those he treated, few they were, seemed to not complain about it.

"Shoot." Joypad nudged against him. "I was avoiding this? What I get trying to be all 'professional'. Whatever, I give permission for this kind of stuff whenever you're up for it."

"Hooray." He had been given permission to serve her whenever he got the urge. What an honor! "Seriously though, feel better?"

"Much." She accelerated forward. "Like you forced the tiredness right out of me, thanks David." She felt at the ground then. "Hm, are we going uphill? Makes sense I guess. Their city is... up. Kind of its defining feature."

"Then up we go," laughed David, plodding onwards with his firm stride. He wouldn't give up, not while Joypad pressed on. His pride prevented admitting defeat first. "We go until sunset?"

"Not that long." She turned an ear back to their floating disc, not that it said much or many noise. "We need a little time to set up the tent and stuff, and I don't want to do that in the dark. Do you?"

"Checks out." Companionable silence settled between them until the sun began to grow heavy. "About now, I figure?"

"Yeah." She veered off the road, looking around. "This... looks flat enough." She began sweeping dirt aside with brushes of her hoof as if to mark the spot. "We'll put the tent here."

David went to grab the tent, but grunted more than got the tent moving. "Something up?" asked Joypad, watching him, judging without a specific word.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was tired, just... "Sorry." He sank down onto a rock. "Not going to be super helpful."

"Gave up finally, huh?" She reared up and grabbed it in her mouth, tossing it onto the spot she had planned. That it unfolded and landed, deployed, was just a little bit of pony magic. "There we go. Greymane, you just relax while I get the fire going." She rustled around in the disc for supplies. "Huh... He didn't include any logs."

David looked around. "There's wood around." He gathered himself back upright. "I'll get some." Despite his moment of weakness, a chance to relax was enough, and he marched off to at least get some wood.

"Don't hurt yourself." She got to assembling rocks in a circle, preparing for the fire to be. She grabbed a pan and set it next to the future fire. "Any luck?"

David unloaded, letting several heavy logs fall with heavy thuds in the ring of stones. "Need some small sticks?"

"Uh... yeah... Yeah do that." She wobbled a hoof a little. "You're supposed to light the little stuff, right? Pretty sure..." A survival expert, she was not. "Yeah..."

David began gathering up small sticks and twigs in a meandering path. Soon the fire pit was filled with those heavy logs and a nice filling of small bits of wood waiting to be set alight. "Alright, all set. We have some matches or a lighter?"

"Right here!" She wipped out something that burst into a stream of flames. It was like she was holding a little dragon, belching flames by her command. "The best bits can afford." She turned the faux-dragon on the wood and it was soon crackling to life. "And now, dinner!" She tossed the lighter aside and slapped the pan down instead, getting right to cooking.

David collected the lighter to place in the disc for the next time they wanted a flame. "That's kinda cute... Are dragons still a thing?"

"Still?" Joypad hiked a brow up at David. "They're made up."

"Like humans?" he joked with a smirk.

"Yeah! Like... oh..."Joypad crashed to her haunches. "Guess... Huh... If we see a dragon, be nice! I don't want to be cooked."

"Deal." Neither of them had any strong desire to experience a dragon's flame from the wrong end. "What are you making?"

"Whatever this is." She grabbed a packet and tore it open, hooves moving in opposite directions to let it splash into the pan, sizzling on contact. "Mmm, smells nice!"

"No argument there." He couldn't quite place what he was smelling, but it struck a good note. Beans? Some kind of veggie... A mix, and she was stirring it up and cooking it with a spoon attached to her hoof like it was no big deal. It was a bit nifty, and uncanny. "Want me to mind it?"

"Hm? I got it." Joypad waved away with her free hoof. "You just relax those tired bones and wait for dinner." The fire cracked with a pop under the pan, lending its heat to the process. "Oh, want to grab a drink? I got a six pack of something that wasn't water, just for after the walks."

"A day ending treat?" David hopped up and peeked in the disc, shuffling things around until something that looked like a six pack of soda came into view. "Here, I think." He plucked them out and waved it at her gently.

"That it. Bring two over here. One's for you." He popped two free just as she instructed, surrendering one to her to sip from and sitting himself back down. "And served!" She grabbed two plates and filled each with half of what was for dinner. "Eat before it gets cold. No microwaves out here for second tries."

A microwave that worked in the middle of nowhere? David could imagine a pony having exactly that kind of thing, but Joypad was not such a pony, as she had warned. He accepted his plate with a nod. "Itadakimasu," he said, clapping his hands together gently once.

"What?"

"Thank you for the food." David got to eating, making short work of it despite any delay caused by the little prayer. "Mmm, not bad at all, like it." Was that lentil? He was fairly sure lentils were involved. Good, he liked those, and most other foods out there. "Thank you, for coming with me."

"As if I'd let my human just wander off and get eaten by a random... Aw." She was distracted by a sudden little round rabbit peering at her. "Aren't you a cute thing?" The rabbit fled, as rabbits are known to do. "Aw..." The same word, but a very different emotion. "Guess I'm not that good with animals." She looked up to see David was already doing things. "What?"

"Cleaning up." He was doing his best to get things straightened to use again the next day. "Least I can do since you took care of the food."

"Oh. Thanks!" She rose to all fours, stretching lazily. "Now, rest time." And off she cantered into the tent, vanishing beyond the flap. "Cozy, but it works." A light clicked on inside the tent, her shadow visible as she got comfortable in there.

A space he'd need to be. David set the things back in the disc. "Does this thing have... a top or something? What watches it while we sleep?"

"Hm?" She poked back out of the tent, peering at David and the disc. "Huh... Good call. I think there's a tarp in that mess. See if you can't cover it."

Which is what he did, pulling out the tarp and using it to seal up the disc as best he could. "There we go. That'll at least discourage things from poking their snouts in here without permission." It was the best he had, so he abandoned worrying about it to climb in the tent with Joypad. "Goodnight."

"I only have one blanket," admitted Joypad. "I think the shopkeep there thought we were way closer than we are." She waggled the blanket she was wrapped in, clearly big for one person, but would require two people to be comfortable to make use of it at once.

"Lay it down instead." David made a smoothing gesture. "A soft warm thing to lay on will get us through the night."

"Hm." She only hesitantly stepped free of the blanket. "I feel bad just having you with nothing."

With the blanket given up, David got right to smoothing it out into a carpet of sorts for the bottom of the tent. There would be nothing on top of them, but at least they had a soft thing to be on top of. "It'll do for now, I think."

She sank down on it, curled. "Barely. If we survive the trip to Zephyr Heights, we're getting a second one for the way back."

About that... "Think the pegasi got something for travel back? They got the computers to you. They didn't hike, did they?"

"I didn't ask," admitted Joypad without hesitation. "By the way, you were wrong."

"I was? Not new, but what was I wrong about." He flopped out on his back, eyes closed and breathing slowing in an attempt to lure himself to sleep. "How?"

"Nothing horrible so far. I told you. Worrywart." She poked him, but quiet was allowed to reign after that. It was sleep time.

Author's Note:

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