Soundspeed
The next week or so set the precedent for my relationship with Oswald: he'd do his best to help me out with whatever I needed him to do, and fail spectacularly at it, and I just facepalmed. Keep in mind that I never asked for his “help” on anything, he just gave it. I know he was trying to be helpful, and I certainly can't fault him for that, but... gosh darn it, by the third time your tent almost catches fire, even a phoenix chick stops being adorkable.
That's not to say that Oswald was a burden, far from it, really. He’d occasionally do things like find me actually edible stuff. He even got me to a blueberry bush once. I don't know how he knew where they were, but good gravy did I cherish every time I could avoid the standard fish jerky. The biggest way he was useful, though? I’ll tell you: being good company. I mean, it’s so nice to just have somebody to talk to after I spent weeks by myself in lands with no memorable features and no distractions from the road except how much your legs burn from walking. I could rant to Oswald about anything, tell him any secrets I felt like sharing, and he would listen and just chirp in with his phoenix-speak whenever he felt like talking back. Maybe it was just the whole 'he thinks I'm Mommy' thing, but we had a pretty good rapport going all the same.
One of the cool things was that Oswald grew pretty quickly. He was a newborn chick one day, and a week later, he was what I’d describe as a teenager. A week after that, I had my own full grown phoenix flying around me, squawking happily about life. Frankly, it’s pretty uplifting to have a phoenix around, especially one who just seems to be in a perpetual good mood.
~~~
I lean back in my chair and Oswald nuzzles my cheek. I smile at him and scratch his head feathers. In its own way, it’s kind of our go-to way of showing each other affection. It’s something that does not go unnoticed by my pony audience, as both Pinkie and the Crusaders ‘awwww’ at the same time.
"That's so adorable!" says Pinkie.
"You two are so cute together," Sweetie Belle coos.
I look up at them and, sure enough, even the ones that didn’t speak have those large, slightly goofy smiles on their faces.
The two of us flinch back and shoot uneasy glances at each other. It's not fun showing affection to your pet phoenix if a bunch of girls are going to call it adorable, and judging by Oswald's expression, he seems to agree with me on that point.
I clear my throat and shake my head. "Anyway, I doubt you want to hear about how Oswald and I traveled for a long time without anything interesting happening."
"That depends," says Twilight. "Where were you going?"
"The Zebra Lands were our first destination," is my answer. "It was the closest country, so it was the one we hit first."
"Wait a second,” Rainbow Dash interrupts. “The Crystal Empire is a little closer than Zebrica. It’d be a lot simpler to come here first; heck, you could have even taken the train."
"Well, technically, yes," I concede, "and that is exactly why I chose the opposite direction from the Empire. I knew you guys would most likely look somewhere around here first, just because it’s closer and much easier to access."
A shroud of silence falls over my listeners. A small smirk creeps up on my face. "You did check there first, didn't you?"
"… maybe we did," Twilight mumbles.
I snicker a little, cracking my neck and shifting on the chair to get a bit more comfortable. "Well, there are other reasons too, like the morning train schedules and the shape of the route I planned… But that's ancient history. We're dealing with what I did, not with what I might have done.
“So, Oswald and I found ourselves traveling towards the zebra lands one fine spring morning, I think, when the next interesting thing came along. Or, should I say, interesting pegasus."
The group looks at me with a little more interest. "You met a pegasus on your way to Zebrica?" asks Fluttershy.
I smirk and nod. "Yeah, I guess you could call him a crazy old hermit."
"Who was he?" asks Celestia. "I wasn't aware of such a thing as hermits along those routes."
At the memories of that guano-insane pegasus, my lips stretch up in an arch. "I’ll just tell you the whole story; it’ll make more sense then."
~~~
I told you I found Oswald in a sort of wooded area, right? Well, not too far out of that forest, the terrain gets more mountainous. Oswald and I weren't exactly hiking up Everest or anything – biggest mountain on Earth, remember, Twilight? –, but we found ourselves climbing things higher than the grasslands I had been hiking before I came into the forest. Or at least I climbed, seeing as Oswald here has that convenient little ability to fly.
I lost a lot of weight on those mountains, believe me. The foothills were pretty rocky, and nothing really grew around the area except for weeds and bushes that I couldn’t eat. Occasionally, we'd find some few-and-far-between patches of berry bushes, and Oswald used his natural hunting talents to catch us a few small rabbits to munch on – oh come on, Fluttershy, don’t give me that look, you know it’s not like we did it out of fun –, but even though I was eating just barely enough to get by, even my supply of fish jerky was getting dangerously low. I was worried that the time in which tightening the belt wouldn’t be enough would come soon. It rained on the third day, so water was replenished to a point where I knew we could hold out for a day or two, but that was going to become an issue if we didn't get to more lush areas fast.
And that's when we got lost.
You see, when you can't go in a straight line because there are things you have to circle around, either because you’ll fall in or it’s impassable without climbing gear, you tend to walk in circles more often than not. When you combine that with the fact that nothing about the place was recognizable to my eye… yeah, you get the idea of the tight leash I was in. To counter that, I took a rock and began making scratch marks on some of the biggest boulders around so I would know if I had gone that way before.
It seemed like a good plan, at least until every boulder I passed was marked.
"This isn't good, Oswald," I muttered to my bird companion. "If we don't find the right way soon… we may not get out of this." Oswald cocked his head and I scratched the back of my neck. "If–"
Then it hit me how I'd been an idiot the entire time. Oswald had wings; he could just fly up and find a way out! Yes, I know, good going on that one, TD. Score one for your ‘wilderness survival’ logbook. "Hey Oswald, I think I have a plan that will allow us to find what we're looking for," I said to him. "All we have to do is–"
My speech was cut off when I felt a prick in the back of my neck, kind of like a vaccine shot. I frowned and reached back there and, just like I thought, there was something sticking out. I quickly pulled it out, and was surprised to see that it appeared to be a dart of some form.
“Where did this co…“
And then I saw pretty colors when whatever drug was on the dart took effect.
* * * *
I don't know how long it was before I woke up. At the time, I only knew that I was in a cave of some sort, with a delightful headache to nurse, and Oswald perched on a large rock right ahead. I groaned and put my hand up to my head; it was bleeding a bit, but not much. Maybe I’d fallen and hit my head on a rock or something.
I sat up and, slowly, did my best to get off of the floor, but I was cut off by an odd voice I'd never heard before. "You stay right there if you don't want sleepy time again!"
Wait, what?
I turned my head to see who was talking to me. What I found was a gray pegasus with really unkempt brown hair. He was standing with a sort of blowgun balanced on his left wing. "… what's going on?" I asked groggily.
"What's going on is that I'm not one to be fooled!" he yelled back. "I know what you're after: you're after me! You're trying to capture me to take me back to Celestia!" His expression darkened. "Well, it's not gonna work! I caught you, odd hairless thing, not the other way around!"
My loopy brain was working overtime to try to make the slightest bit of sense out of what this pony was saying. Something about Celestia and how he's not going back… but what does that have to do with me?
I shake my head to clear it a bit. "Uuuh, listen… whoever you are. I'm not here to take you back to Celestia. I'm trying to escape her myself, actually."
"LIES!" The pony zoomed towards me with a speed that surprised me and stuck his snout right in my face. "Nopony else has any reason to come this way! NONE! I chose it for that very reason!" He landed, but he looked even more peeved than when he was in the air. "I'm not going back to Celestia. She'll never let me go with everything that I know."
"Uh... what?"
The pony began pacing around. "Of course I'll have to change caves now. Curse you, Celestia, this cave has been my home for twelve years!" He wheeled around to face me again. I swear, what Dash’s got in speed, that stallion had in acceleration. "How did she find me?!"
"She still hasn't as far as I'm aware!" I insisted. This was getting frustrating. "I wasn’t sent to find you!"
"Horseapples!" he screeched. To my horror, he stuck his nose on my arm and took a long sniff. "You smell like Canterlot!"
"Wha... that doesn't make any sense! I haven't been to Canterlot for at least four months!"
"Ah-ha!” the pony shouted triumphantly. “So you have seen Celestia, haven’t you?"
Aw, dang me. I just had to get the crazy stallion even more incensed, hadn’t I? "W...Well yeah, but she didn't send me to find you!” I pleaded for the third time. “I don't even know who you are!"
"Of course you do!" said the pegasus. "Even if you haven't been sent to find me, everypony knows who Soundspeed is!"
~~~
Rainbow Dash gasps at this. "SOUNDSPEED?! You mean the Soundspeed, sixty-third captain of the Wonderbolts?!"
I nod. "Based on the way he was talking and what he was saying, I guess that’d be him." I see Celestia close her eyes and shake her head; she even mutters something to herself to complete the picture. I cock my head at her. "Uh, so what did he do, or what does he know that makes him want to run from you?"
"It's a long story, and we're listening to yours right now," she says cryptically. “If you don’t mind moving on…”
Of course she doesn't respond to a question with a real answer. I didn't expect her to really.
I shake my head and continue on.
~~~
"Uh, look, I don't actually know who you are. Not sure you can see it, but I'm not exactly an Equestrian native."
Soundspeed waved his hoof dismissively, snorting. "Even if you aren't from Equestria, you should still know who I am. I am renowned in more than one country."
"What I mean is, I'm not from this planet.”
That got the answer I was expecting: Soundspeed cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "Er... then you must have grown up a little farther away than where I toured."
"Just a bit," I joke despite the situation. “Maybe a few hundred light-years or so.”
He snorted again, rolling his eyes. "Well, in that case, if you haven't heard of me and you aren't here to bring me back to Celestia, then what are you doing here?"
I got to my feet, and this time Soundspeed didn't stop me. He still eyed me with more than a little trepidation, but he didn't give any signs of action. I brushed myself off and looked around for Reginald, who was thankfully only lying a few feet away. I walked over to get it just as Oswald swooped down to land on my shoulder. That was something that Soundspeed didn't seem to like much. I scowled at the twitchy pegasus. "Something wrong with Oswald?"
"You have a phoenix," he said bluntly.
Oswald nodded proudly, and I smirked at him. "And…?"
"Celestia has a phoenix," Soundspeed whispered.
I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Enough with Celestia already!” After a deep breath, I continued, “I'm trying to avoid her, too. That's why I'm out here to begin with."
I guess me controlling my temper was what finally convinced Soundspeed to calm down, not completely, but he looked less like he was going to either attack or run away at the drop of a hat. His wings folded back in, and he sat down in front of me. "So, you're running from Celestia, too. What'd she do to you?"
"She used me as a lab rat during one of her dimensional portal experiments. She pulled me in, and now she says she’s unable to send me back through. I'm wandering around the continent, trying to find somebody who can do what she can’t."
The stallion cocked his head. "So, you're really not here to capture me?"
Now it was my time to snort. "I think we've already established that clearly enough already."
"Huh." He stood up and walked towards the back of the cave, where he had a bit of a living space made up: a cot was leaning against one of the cave walls, and a little table and chair were set next to what appeared to be a fire pit made right underneath a large hole in the ceiling. Everything was rough and well-worn; I suppose he really had been living there for twelve years. It surely looked like it.
A large chest was next to the table; that was his object of interest. He flipped the lid open, took out what looked like a hay bar, then he bit into it and began chewing noisily. He motioned to me, offering it, but I put my hand up and shook my head. He nodded, closed the chest and walked back over. "So, you're running from Celestia, eh?"
"Yeah, she took me from my world."
"You already said that. But what does that have to do with you being here?"
Seeing as my backpack was right where Reginald was laying, I knelt down next to it and opened up the side flap that contained all of my maps. I pulled out the uppermost one and unrolled it to confirm if it was the one I was looking for, then I walked up to Soundspeed, who looked curiously at the map when I turned the sheet his way. "I'm trying to get to the Zebras, to see if they can make things right for me. I got lost here in the middle of the trip. Would you know anything about that?"
Soundspeed studied the map for a second or two before he broke out into rambunctious laughter. "You're looking for Zebrica? Wow, how did you end up lost with a bunch of maps in your pockets?” He wiped a tear from his eye. “You're not very good at this, are you?"
"No," I mumbled grumpily. “It's my first time traveling on foot through a wilderness.”
Soundspeed chortled for a second or two more before taking the map from me and putting it on the ground in front of him. "Okay, we're about here, yeah?" he said, pointing to a certain spot.
I shrugged. "If you say so..."
Soundspeed glared up at me. "I do say so; I've been living here for longer than you've been on the planet." I raised my hands in mock apology, and he scoffed, turning back to the map. "Okay, so we're here. The outskirts of Zebrica are...” His hoof traced along a few lines. “... about forty miles to the west."
I grunted in acknowledgement. "That wouldn't be too bad of a walk if I knew how to get out of this god-forsaken rock pile."
"Hey, this god-forsaken rock pile is my home!"
"So you'd be one to know your way around it, right?"
Soundspeed smiled smugly at me, his chest swollen with pride. "Nopony on the planet knows their way around these foothills better than I do! I could find my way around with my eyes closed."
"Or,” I deadpanned, “you could just fly over them."
The stallion shot me another withering glare. "Of course, you mongrel! What I mean is, I could get out even if I couldn't fly!"
I scratched the back of my neck. "Yeah, about that, I was about to get Oswald here,” I pointed to my dandy, dim bird friend, who flapped his wings once, “to fly up and lead me out right before you showed up. I'm not sure how much I need your guide skills to get out."
Soundspeed grinned a grin full of arrogance. "But I bet you'll go look for a guide as soon as you get out, won't you, Mr. Can't-Read-Maps?"
That put a bit of a dent in my smugness, make no mistake about it. "Uuh, about that..."
His swagger returned full force, if not stronger than before. "That's what I thought. You will be needing my help."
"… Maybe."
Soundspeed rolled his eyes. "Uh huh, 'maybe'." He snorted and gulped down the rest of his hay bar. "It's too late in the day to go in that direction now. You can stay here tonight if, and only if, you promise to not tell Celestia where I live. I can assure you: even if you do, I'll slip past her nets."
I rolled my eyes in turn but made a Pinkie Promise. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
As Soundspeed looked at me like I had gone completely off the deep end, the silence in the cave was almost palpable. I suppose that a Pinkie Promise would be rather odd to an outsider, even if they're from Equestria, but it was still uncomfortable to have a pony whose sanity you doubt stare at you like he feels the exact same way about you.
Thankfully, he seemed to get the idea that I wasn't going to rat him out about his whereabouts. He went over to his cot to lay it out for the night. "You may sleep wherever you want; just keep a thirty foot distance from me. Same goes for your bird."
Oswald squawked indignantly, but Soundspeed didn't acknowledge it – he merely climbed onto the bed and lay down. "Well, Oswald, I guess it’s time for us to catch some zees, too," I muttered.
"Light a fire if you want, it doesn't make a difference to me," our host said.
I nodded and took him up on the offer. Since we were in a cave with no draft, I figured my sleeping bag would be good enough to keep me warm for the night, so I didn't bother with the tent. I moved the bag a reasonable distance towards the fire and climbed inside, while Oswald, as per usual, perched on my backpack and put his head under his wing to nod off.
I smirked and rolled up a sweater to use as a pillow before nodding off myself, still unsure of what to think of the distinct Mr. Soundspeed.
Stats
Page generated in 0.049 seconds
Total duration
754 users online
834,667 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Haha, nice! It is out; reading has commenced!
After reading:
TD, just tell Soundspeed that you punched Celestia in the face (twice). That'll take care of his suspicions
2185524 In a new record as of editing time to boot!
Hope there were no mistakes this time.
No you're the Sam stuhlinger of equestria you bloody quack!
interesting.
Nice chapter!
Wow, I just came over to Fimfiction... Lucky day.
I am interested in what he thinks Celestia did to him... If it was an attempt to date I will laugh.
Is Soundspeed a reference? Cause I watch a commentator on youtube by that name, and his OC is a pegasus.
I can see Soundspeed making out to be an interesting character (and a humorous one at that). Can't wait for chapter 6!
Was going? Or maybe just "that would become".
2185683 ... damn it, I just can't get a chapter perfectly correct, can I?
2185698
Eh, the mistakes are few and far between.
That was the only one I found.
2185755 Well that's a relief.
what would've been really funny is if Soundspeed looked at the staff and saw the "punching out Celestia" moment.
...
What did Soundwave did? Its looks like even Celestia hate him, and she love everybody, even give it a chance to Discord
Dat tense change.
You should tell soundspeed you gave celestia a knuckle sandwich
2185642 That's precisely what it is. Soundspeed and I are decent friends on Youtube and we both did commentary until Hasbro started blocking my videos in the US en masse. He promised to do a review of the original story so I put him in here as a thank you.
Very curious to know what Soundspeed did, though I highly doubt you are going to tell us. When this is over, will it be the end for canon TDverse? Or should I say this will be the end for TD's journey?
2186246 Let's just say I can neither confirm or deny more of the main canon story but I know what's going to happen.
2186081
What about it?
My God... TD RUN!!!
You more or less just broke another Pinkie Promise! You just gave Celestia the rough location of where he lives!
May Pinkie have mercy on your soul.
Oh god I do love characters like Soundspeed. The hermit that doesn't seem all there but turns out to be a complete badass.
2186264 Of course you do. I don't know why I asked, but I'm eager to see what will happen next. Will stay tuned.
Another awesome chapter. I particularly liked the little self-interrupt when he tells Fluttershy off. Twas amusing. And Soundspeed is definitely an intriguing character, looking forward to hearing more about him.
TD is still best human.
Ahhhh I see what you did there...
2186282
A story shouldn't switch tenses randomly. That's common sense even if it's occasional missed when writing.
The fact that you even need to ask...
2186453
What about Onyx, America, or Anonymous?
2185611
Ya think that Soundspeed was the only Pegasus she'd ever met that could 'keep up' with her, as it were?
2186525
The way I see it, he was changing from present to past when TD was telling his story. Arguably, all the past tense portions of the story are TD's dialog. It only shifted between line breaks. I know it's bad writing most of the time, but if it's incorrect doing this way as well, I never knew.
2186533
America...Could that America be, the human in Running from Twilight?
s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/thank-you-based-god.gif
I sense a reference to another brony here...perhaps XxSoundSpeedxX on YouTube?
2186755 Him and I are sorta friends on Youtube. For a while there our channels were the same thing. He said he'd review the original and this is my thanks to him for that.
woops. guess celestia is going to be going after him.. probably to rape him silly. :P
What DID he do?
All I could think off was the guy from The Life Of Brian who hasn't spoke fir 19 years......until Brian breaks his foot.
2187097 Methinks it was something with Celestia..........and he never called again!!!
2186842
Huh.
Wait wait wait, you also did commentaries? Are they gone by now or are they watchable somewhere? I'm following Soundspeed and most other commentators I could find, and now I'm curious as all hell.
Also, you're gonna have to make Soundspeed in this story say "Gotta go fast!" or "What a cunt!" at least once.
2185524 You'd think that would be something he'd want to brag about.
"Hey, you hear about that monster who punched Celestia in the face?"
"Yeah, I did that."
2185553 Who?
2187759
Black ops 2 zombies survivor. Really paranoid and crazy.
2186740
Why yes. Yes it is
2187869 Wait Is He From Tranzit?
2187480 I link to my Youtube channel on my profile page. If you're not in the US you can see all of my MLP commentaries but if you are you can see about half as well as my fanfic readings, reviews, and commentaries for some terrible movies.
2187910 Oh wow, you're that guy!
Cool! 
Gonna go watch some of them now (or later) - I think I saw your channel mentioned on somebody else's but then promptly forgot to actually check it out, because I absolutely remember the name and the avatar (which I thought was just a coincidence with your first TD story's pic), but I haven't seen the vids. Luckily I am in fact very much outside of the US.
By the way, the link in your profile is slightly broken. It goes "blah http youtube user / http youtube user / ECS blah blah" (an extra part at the beginning).
2187904
Yep and die rise.
2187971 Was He The One With The Mustache Or The One That Looked Like John Jameson From Spider Man:TAS?
The one who wears khaki shorts.
2187944 Okay, it should be better now. I put the link in the biography.
And thus the sidestory where TD and Soundspeed marry and have sex was born.