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My Own Man2,044 words
Whatever Comes Next2,865 words
Painful Memories and Regal Presence5,598 words
An Unexpected Reunion1,452 words
A Proper Explanation2,217 words
Let the Games begin3,947 words
The Time is Now4,270 words
Wishing we were Home4,519 words
Sedatives7,373 words
Monthly Checkup8,642 words

Wishing we were Home

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Just to let you know, I didn't put in the notes saying whose viewpoint it is when it transitions, you are all (I hope) smart enough to discern the transitions from person to pony and whatever, thanks for reading, if u like it, send it to a friend or something, I want more people to view, and you are my best way of doing so, the next chapter will be the reunification of ponies and humans, thought I'd let you know, but anyways, comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated, so thanks and hope you enjoy this chapter, and that you will continue to read in later chapters too.

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“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.”

-Denis Waitley

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It had been an hour, since we got out of the arena, and nearly getting rammed by an Ursa minor
“Well I mean, come on Mist, you honestly have nothing to say after that?”

Travis was trying to get Mist to talk, he hadn’t spoken for the whole time, he had just been looking off, as if deep in thought about something that was really on his mind.
at that too, Travis, Mist and I had been trekking down the dirt trail for at least an hour now, and we had no idea where we were or which way led to Ponyville at all.

“Mist? You alright man?” I tried to get him to come back to us, but to no avail, he still walked staring off at the ground deep in thought.

“MIST!!!”

I yelled in his ear, making him jump nearly out of his coat, I watched him jerk his head around as if someone was going to murder him in his wake, he continued to look around until his eyes fixed on the two of us simply staring at him with confused and concerned looks on our faces.

“Oh... Hi guys...” Mist said before looking down at his hooves and digging at the ground

“You’re really starting to scare me bro.” Travis gestured to himself as he spoke for emphasis.

“Well... I’m sorry if I did...” His voice was sad and quiet as it always sounded, besides the quiet

“What’s on your mind man? You were so eccentric when we got out, what’s eating at you?”

“It’s just... My family...”

“What about them? Won’t they be happy to finally see you again after so long?”

His continual silence said it all, I didn’t want to go any deeper for any such explanation as to why his parents or his family wouldn’t want to see him or why he was so depressed.

“Guessing you have nowhere to go now?” Travis asked, breaking the emotional silence between all of us.

“Really Travis?” I said trying to disregard his rudeness.

“What? Don’t you want to know too?” He tried to defend himself with his abrupt curiosity.

“Yes, but at the same time I still have the respect to let him keep his personal thoughts to himself!” I retorted back.

Travis just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking on ahead, not wanting any more from me to him about him being too nosy.

We walked on, eventually the terrain changed to a slight incline and the ground became more mountainous, showing less greenery and more jagged rocks protruding from the ground and larger boulders around us.

After another twenty or so minutes of walking, we came to the top of the incline, to show the sun almost nearing the tips of the mountains in the west, we could now see the vast Everfree forest from the far side.

I’d say it was at least a good six or so miles across, by the time the sun would have set, we would probably be stuck in the middle of the dense timberland if we decided to risk it, along with all the fun creatures we would meet along the way, whom I’m sure would be willing to eat us in our sleep.

“Lets set up camp.”

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We managed to set up a small camp by the time the sun was hidden from view by the mountains, just barely outlining Canterlot castle in the vast distance ahead of us.

“We’re almost home...”

I looked on over the forest from the top of a cliff I now stood on the end of, trying to get a glimpse at Ponyville from the heightened elevation and vast distance between our two locations, but all that could be seen was the large willow looking trees and a large murky looking bog of sorts off to the side in a clearing, I turned to see Travis walking towards me.

“Well, we have some apples that Mist managed to get from the storage room before we got out, some stale bread too...” He said as he bit down on his stale cracker, making a slightly disgusted face from it.

“Be happy you have food.” I laughed a little passing him by to head back to the temporary settlement.

“I’m going to look for a future route down for tomorrow then.” Travis stated as he strolled along the cliff’s edge, loud crunching could be heard accompanying him on his search.

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When I had arrived, Mist had just gotten here as I did, in the faint orange light of the sunset, I saw his coat was somewhat visibly duller and had different shades of brown and green on it with a bit of debris in his unkempt mane, he was carrying some sticks and logs he had found for the fire in his saddlebag we would have before calling it quits for the night.

“Got some wood and tinder for the fire? That's good...”

Other than pointing out the obvious, I had nothing better to say, I still though wanted to leave the orientation of Mist’s concerning embodiment out of the conversation, he only responded with a slow nod, showing no change in expression while dumping his hull of wood on a growing pile of it near his hooves.

I then proceeded to grab an apple from the small pile of supplies from Mist’s saddlebag earlier, I plopped down next to the small ring of rocks surrounding sticks, twigs and all other burnable matter, Mist levitated a box of matches from the pile of things, he then proceeded to open it and light a match right after, igniting the small carbon based pile of stuff.

Things stayed quiet after that, I munched on my apple while he stared into the orange flames as their flare could be seen in the reflection of his eyes, he was usually quiet from what I can tell, but this was a self contained silence, this wouldn't be normal for anybody, or anypony at that.

“You really need to make the better of this Mist, you do realize you’re going home after ever so long.”

I tried to lighten him up, but he just kept staring, his eyes looked deep and empty, as if all in the world could never be enough to heal his internal isolation of his own... whatever emotion he was feeling right now, he’s not making it any much easier to depict him in any way, shape or form right now.

“This might be a while...”

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Travis walked along the cliff’s edge, kicking a rock along as he went, he was supposed to be looking for a way for him and his friends to get down it tomorrow when they were to depart for the small town of Ponyville, he wasn’t sure though that it was the actual Ponyville of his heart’s ambitions, which contained the ideas of a writer from Maryland but there was an equine superior race, so as of now anything could be true.

He then stopped, noticing the quiet of it all, it was unsettling, it reminded him too much of the arena, so quiet, so lonely, so isolated from everything...

“Damn landscape...” Travis shook his head as he continued to walk along, kicking a rock off the edge before leaving the spot.

He eventually came to a suitable spot in the cliff side, where they could get down without too much trouble, eventually he would go back to give the info to Taylor and Mist...

Right after he found out where this cave led to...

Heat emanated from the inside of the cave, suggesting something volcanic possibly? He didn’t know but he did want to find out, tentatively making his way in, he began his little exploration for his own curiosity.

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I was now laying on my back, watching the smoke from the fire rise into the orange clouded sky, I gave a casual glance over to Mist, he was still staring into the flame with his large aqua colored eyes, he had now been at this for ten to fifteen minutes now, I really for once wanted Travis to come back so that he would do something to liven up the mood.

“Wait, where is Travis? He should have come back by now.” I now got up to walk over to where I last talked to him.

Looking around I didn’t see any sign of him, BOOM a low rumble of the earth shook me up a bit, I looked around for a reason, and as if for explanatory purposes, I saw Travis rounding the bend in the mountain path , running with a look of desolate fear upon his face.

“Travis!” I yelled at him, “What the hell did you do now?”

He then proceeded to wave his hands in the air and yell something as he ran, making gestures to go away as the rumbling volume grew more immense, and the ground shook more violently, making me almost lose my sense of balance.

“Go! There’s a BOOM get going, what are BOOM deaf? GO! BOOM” I could make out as Travis go closer, as he passed me by he grabbed my arm and dragged me along with him.

“Wait! what are you saying Travis?”

BOOM

“I’m saying for you to move your ass NOW!” he continued to drag me along as he ran at full speed.

I resisted and pulled back from him, making him lose his grip, “WHAT though is it!?!” I yelled at him, concern now present in my tone.

BOOM

I watched him look above me, his face turned pale as he turned and hauled ass, I noticed that the ground around me was shadowed over and I felt hot waves of air hit me from behind, suggesting something was breathing on me, something bigger than me obviously.

Slowly turning around, I made eye contact with it’s feet, as my eyes scaled up it’s body, I eventually met with two yellow eyes, both with cat’s eye slits, the eyes were on a large, pointed scaling face, whose nostrils blew smoke, and mouth shown many razor fangs in my general direction, that could only be owned by a very large, fire-breathing, sharp teeth bearing...

Dragon.

“Ummmmmmm...... Hi there?...”

I tried to be and sound friendly, but the beast already seemed in a foul mood, and was in such a mood, anything seemed appropriate to attack and wreak havoc on, especially something that was moving and breathing, to dodge it’s attacks and make it all the more frustrated, and give it all the more reason to want to kill me.

With a loud roar and a deep inhalation of oxygen, it blew hot red flames from it’s mouth nearly scathing me, I ran, I can tell you the Ursa minor was scary but god... This was NOTHING compared to this kind of fear, this was something that actually wanted to kill me out of it’s own anger and frustration that I didn’t cause mind you.

”If I make it out of this alive, Travis is in store for an ass kicking.”

Pretty much all I could do was run for right now, and make sure that I didn’t end up getting killed in the process of keeping my life a lot longer by doing so.

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“Alright now! Unless you want to get your ass burnt to a crisp, we gotta get moving Mist!”

I felt bad for Taylor, I ended up upsetting a dragon by going into the cave he lived in...

Finding a large pile of gold and gems...

And proceeding to try and take some while he was snoring while sleeping on it...

I really just wanted the big one in his claws, the deep-red ruby, which was my favorite by the way, blood red in color, value ever so high with that size, it just called to me... Or I just wanted it, to be frank here, I wouldn’t be in this situation if I had just settled for some gold or smaller gems less near his face, but my wants and desires can be so demanding at times.

Back to reality here, I came to find Mist still sitting at the fire, which was now a dying flame of embers, he had still ceased to move in the time I was gone, I gave him a shake on the shoulder, but no response came from the cyan unicorn.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!”

That seemed to shake up Mist from his deep trance, making him blink several times before looking around, then to make eye contact with me.

“Did... I miss anything important?...”

“Nope, just a giant fire-breathing dragon that will singe our hides if we don’t get outta here, no big deal.” I stated sarcastically, “Just go back to what you were doing Mist.”

“Wait... Dragon?...” Mist looked a little unsure right there, I was really getting tired of his slow, pony mind right now.

“YES! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU!?”

I watched him cringe below my suddenly louder-than-normal voice, the fearful look that he almost always wore on his face in a situation like this, or any other situation at that.

I jerked my head around to see a jet of flame come from somewhere back where I left Taylor, indicating the dragon was almost definitely pissed off right now.

Without any further hesitation, I grabbed Mist, slung him over my shoulder, making him give off a quiet yelp of surprise, and took off at full speed in the direction of where Ponyville was supposed to be, the rumbling of the dragon’s footsteps were now further away, giving me time to get a head start in case Taylor was so kind as lead it back towards our location, ensuring that we all die painful deaths of burning and teeth in our bodies, or claws, which wouldn’t be the way I wanted to die tonight.

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Fluttershy looked off over the horizon, after hearing that angry roar of what she discerned as a dragon somewhere off in the distance, she carefully scanned the distance to see where the angry creature was sounding from, she couldn’t stand too much longer with him being so unhappy, she would try her best to calm it down, after she found it that is.

A jet of orange flame shot up multiple times off in the distance, it was too far though for her to have to fly all the way out there, it was getting dark, she would have to tell Twilight, then again, she wasn’t sure weather or not to get Twilight.

After what happened the other day she was pretty upset, she was constantly telling all of them that it was her responsibility for the human and that she had failed her by letting her get kidnapped, she was always in her room with the door shut, nopony had seen her the whole time, the only time she had opened her door was to let Spike give her food and to put the dishes outside.

Fluttershy’s mind was a jumbled mess, she could either tell Twilight, but possibly put her in a not so much better mood than she was, or, she could leave her be and hope the dragon would calm down, (which she was sure it wouldn’t).

She paced back and forth, weighing out the outcomes of it all, from dragon to Twilight and Twilight to dragon, it was hard being the element of kindness when either option would cause some harm.

Angel then appeared with a small nightcap on his head, dragging a small pillow as he walked towards her, the commotion in the distance with the grumpy dragon was not helping him sleep at all, he stopped in front of a pacing Fluttershy, who was talking back and forth to herself in an urgent manner, poking her in the foreleg with his paw made her come back, she jumped a little and gave out a small squeak as she looked around and then saw an angry looking Angel near her hooves.

“What is it Angel? Is there something wrong?”

Angel pointed in the direction of the dragon’s rage and held up his pillow to show her that he was trying to sleep.

“Yes I know Angel... But what about Twilight? I mean, she’s not in the best mood for this sort of thing...”

Angel shook his head violently and pointed in the direction of the dragon again.

“But...”

Angel stood firm on his need of sleep, the sooner I was quiet, the better for him and all other animals trying to sleep, he pointed yet again towards the commotion.

“Okay Angel... I hope Twilight doesn’t mind...”

Fluttershy flew off in the direction of Ponyville, not sure how Twilight was going to react, but the conditions favored the dragon, mainly because it would satisfy two instead of just one with her friend, the dragon might end up coming this way with it’s rage, which made it all the more urgent for her.

Angel watched Fluttershy race off into the distance, the night was beginning to take over as the earth began to lose light, the sunset was finally over and the moon began to rise where the sun once rose, he dragged his pillow back in the cottage and threw himself onto the rug in the middle of the living room, and covering his head with his pillow, he tried to block out the sound of the noise in the distance while waiting for his caretaker to get back with her other equine friends.

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“I am going to laugh if I make it out alive...”

I was still on the run from the dragon, he wasn’t giving up until he killed something it seemed, he was chasing me recklessly, destroying everything in his way to get at me, this would be a good story to tell when I got back, that I made it out alive from a rampaging dragon.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!”

The dragon was still not in the best mood though, I tried to maneuver around trees to confuse him, but that seemed to be a worthless tactic, since he was just snapping all of them like they were twigs as he went.

I had a stoke of luck when the dragon and I reached a more dense part of the forest, visibility would be lost there and I would have a chance to stop and hide if it couldn’t see me.

I found a large tree that had the soil washed away from it’s massive roots from years of rains and storms, I quickly slid below to take cover, just hoping that he wouldn’t find me.

The snapping of trees suddenly stopped, I heard grunts and small roars of frustration as he stomped around, he was staying in this one spot, breathing small bursts of flame everywhere, trying to flush me out of hiding, I had no way of running with out it finding me and then charring me to the bone.

“Just gonna have to wait it out then...”

I got comfortable where I was now, still staying alert if the dragon did just so happen to find me.

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“Wait!... Where’s Taylor?” Mist asked over my shoulder as I ran blindly, just trying to get as far away from the dragon.

I slowed down to a halt and let Mist down off my shoulder, looking behind me I saw nothing but trees, no sign of the dragon, no sign of the camp, no sign of Taylor.

“Somewhere...” I pointed towards where we came from, “Back there...”

“Wait... You mean to tell me that... there’s a rampaging dragon back there and... He’s back there too?...” Mist sounded concerned and I couldn’t blame him for that.

“Yes, but I wouldn’t worry about him... He’ll find a way out of it, what we can do is make it back to Ponyville and get help, or to any other civilization...”

“You just better hope he’s not dead when we get help...” Mist said curtly, yet again, I can’t blame him.

Him and I could only hurry along in the general direction of Ponyville, to get help and try to make it back to Taylor before he got killed, again.

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Twilight sat on her bed thinking, thinking about how she couldn’t protect him, thinking about how she had failed her mentor by not being able to protect the human whom she had somewhat grown attached to, she liked having him around, he didn’t have the cleanest mouth with profanity and all, but he was indeed a good ‘human’ for that matter, but she really wanted to know what the so called ‘it’ was, his words echoed in her mind as she remembered the last time he mentioned it.

"I don't want to talk about it, I never want to talk about it, I don't even want to THINK ABOUT IT, FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE!!!"

Those words that he said, with such force and hate of the subject mad it all the more concerning, Princess Celestia probably had no intention of learning the true nature of it, but she felt that she needed to know, one way or another, he seemed so... isolated from everything, having no intention of wanting to accept it and keeping to himself because of it, Twilight then heaved a sigh and dropped her face onto the pillow right below.

There was a knock from downstairs, Spike would get it, since she had no intention of showing her face to anybody after what happened, there were muffled words from the main lobby and soon after, rushed steps from Spike coming up the stairs for her it seemed.

“Twilight!” Spike started, “We have just a bit of a problem here!”

Twilight got up and shuffled her way to the door, opening it ever so slightly so she could see who was here, Spike stood at the door with a frantic expression on his face, nopony else was there.

“Who’s here?” Twilight asked bluntly.

“Ummm... that would be me...” Came the quiet voice of Fluttershy as she flew into view from downstairs.

“What’s so bad now Fluttershy?” Twilight showed no emotion in her voice, just the same blunt tone she had used for the past day now.

“Well... I was out making sure that the animals were all tucked in and were getting ready for bed... and that the nocturnal...”

“Get on with it Fluttershy, not to be rude or anything, but you’re giving me unneeded information here.”

“Ummm... Well... There was this commotion off in the distance... and I saw fire.... So I think there might be an angry, rampaging, ferocious dragon out there...”

Twilight’s eyes grew large and the door flew open, making Fluttershy and Spike jump back a little startled, Twilight pushed through them and rushed down the stairs and began levitating books in front of her face.

“This is the chance I have to redeem myself!”

“Twilight, what are you looking for?” Spike asked, She payed him no mind and continued to look for the specific book that she had trouble finding.

“Ugh! Where is it?!” Twilight was going through every shelf that had the book she was looking for, but still failed to find it.

“Ya lookin’ for this?” Pinkie popped her head from a pile of books that Twilight had made while on her furious search.

“You had to be the one to find it huh Pinkie?” Twilight smiled a little as she shook her head, levitating the book from Pinkie’s hooves.

“Well of course silly! I know where all your books are!” Pinkie said matter-of-factly.

“But how did you know that was the book I was looking for?” Twilight questioned

“The nice story man told me!” Pinkie was smiling as if the ‘story man’ was someone they all knew.

“Okay then Pinkie, whatever you say...” Twilight said with concern as she went to the book, Pinkie happily bounced around the room, humming to herself being Pinkie.

“What book is it Twilight?” Spike asked for a second time.

“Bestiary of Equestrian Creatures. A book on zoology basically...” Twilight said now getting lost in thought as she flipped through the pages of the book.

“Uh... say what now?” Spike was not exactly following with what she was saying.

“A guide to all creatures of Equestria...” Twilight started, “You know Spike, I’ve got just the book for you so we don’t run in to this problem so much, It’s called the dictionary, you should read it, I already have about four times though.” She was now messing with him, going back to her normal self.

“Oh very funny Twilight.” Spike rolled his eyes.

“Fluttershy, do you think you can help me round up the others? This may be a bit much for you and I to handle on our own.”

“Oh... Yes, I’m sure I can...” Fluttershy responded quietly before going out the front door.

Twilight closed the book and tucked it into a saddlebag before strapping it on herself and walking out the door as well.

“Cmon Pinkie we better get going.” Twilight called to the pink mare, who was balancing multiple books by their corners on one another.

They stayed that way as she bounced out the door with Twilight, as the door shut behind them, Spike stood there, staring in awe at the massive tower of books balanced in such an impossible way, but that was Pinkie, he snapped out of his staring and looked around himself, he gave a loud sigh as he began to pick up books that Twilight had thrown around in her search.

“Sometimes I wonder Twilight...” Spike said out loud to nobody in particular as he cleaned up the mess, leaving the tower there, just because he wanted to.

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