The Dangers of Boredom

by ClankHoof

We're Going on an Adventure!

Shadow first raged, and then wept as they headed back to Twilight's treehouse. She had to practically drag him behind her, which further slowed their pace. Shadow only quieted down when she shoved a scone into his mouth, which he sucked on, still blubbering slightly. She put hot water onto the stove, and attempted to try to get his mind off his foul mood.

"You know, it's been almost exactly a month since I last saw you sitting in my kitchen, answering questions about why you were here and why Sweetie Belle was in the hospital because of the...accident."

Shadow instantly became quiet, but the route Twilight had taken left him with mixed feelings of anger and unease.

"Those were dark days, Twilight. Please, let us not speak of them." He said darkly, "It is still too fresh in my mind, no matter how the outcome had been."

The tension in the room left it a bit stuffy, and Twilight went to open a window.

"Hey, I didn't know you were coming over, Shadow," Spike yawned loudly as he came downstairs. "How's it going?"

Shadow breathed deeply, calming himself. "Fine, Spike. Though I can't say this has been one of the best days."

"Really? What happened?" Spike asked as he sat down at the dining table across from the grey pegasus. Shadow gave him a brief overview of what he and Twilight had been through, and Spike whistled in disbelief.

"Wow, it seems like you've really run into a stream of bad luck." He said as he pulled the slice of pie from Twilight's bag. He was about to bite into it, but then an idea popped into his head, so he hopped down from the table and brought a step stool over to one of the higher shelves in the kitchen.

He looked around a bit before opening the cupboard and bringing out a large jar. He moved his hand around the jar before smiling and retrieving a claw full of small gems. Then he stuffed these into the pie slice and devoured it whole.

As he put the jar back, he remembered that Shadow was in the room too. "Tell no one about my stash, and I'll tell no one about your obsession with you-know-what!" and started humming a tune Shadow was all too familiar with.

"No! How did you find out about that? I didn't think anyone else knew!" Shadow gasped in disbelief.

"Good, then we have a deal?" The dragon smirked cruelly. The pegasus nodded.

Twilight came back into the room with a book hovering in front of her, and a smile present on her face.

"I think I know what's been going on, Shadow. You're used to traveling a lot, and no big event has put Ponyville in peril for weeks. I think we need to get out and do something fun! not sit around cooped up and getting fat on sugary treats." She looked up, making sure Shadow was paying attention. "We need to go on an adventure!"

Shadow couldn't believe his ears. He'd actually been thinking about leaving Ponyville multiple times, as he grew tired of the quiet life, but never followed up on it because there was always something holding him back. Now that one of his friends was suggesting it to him, he felt like he was free to circumvent the globe.

"That's a great idea! When do you want to leave?" He said excitedly.

Twilight went over some numbers in her head. "Let's see, with Fluttershy in bed with the flu, and Rarity finishing up her newest lines of designs, I think we'll need about a week to prepare and make sure everypony is up to it. Not to mention the usual part about making sure everything will run smoothly while we're gone..."

"Which almost never works out," Spike whispered to Shadow, who understood exactly what he meant; it was always only a matter of time before the unexpected happened in Ponyville, and the town was overdue. He didn't mention this to Twilight, however, as he didn't want to spoil the plans to go traveling around Equestria again.

Twilight started making lists and charts, and after Shadow was pegged in the head with a few flying books on the history and geography of Equestria, he decided it would be beat if he could slip out to begin getting ready himself.

"Oh, leaving Shadow? Would you take these to the rest of the group, so they know what's going on?" She flung a dozen scrolls Shadow's way without taking her eyes off the book she was reading, and he had to duck as they hit the wall behind him. He failed to see the large volume that she also tossed at him, which nearly knocked him out cold.

"I need that book returned to the Mayor, with the note inside stating why I thought she has a terrible taste in books. It was one of the few I COULD put down. I mean, a pony in love with both a gay changeling and a timber-wolf? And the mare herself was such a flat character, I almost fell asleep. I'll never read another Dusk book in my life." She moaned in disgust, then picked up another thick volume labeled '20 Shades of Brown,' a rather bland looking book with the close-up of a saddle on the cover.

~S~

The week had passed fairly quickly, with few other mishaps that needed the Elements to take care of. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had attempted to get their cutie marks by trying to replacing the towns water supply with juice, so that everyone could enjoy a tastier drink at the drinking fountains. This of course backfired, as the color they used was similar to that of rust, and caused multiple ponies to think that their pipes were rusted, so many had to close their shops for the day, and others had their fur become dyed a bright pink color after showering, which in some cases ruined the identities of some of the ponies affected by this conundrum.

“Wee! We’re all pink now!” Pinkie exclaimed happily when she saw this, as it had no effect on her other than providing herself with more sugar. She had recently taken a bath herself, and had drunk all of the liquid when she was done.

The Crusaders gave themselves up and helped return the natural colors to the ponies.

~S~

Finally, the day had come for the group to set off. Five of them, Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Shadow, and Applejack, were already gathered outside of Twilight’s treehouse. They were still waiting for Pinkie Pie and Rarity.

“What the heck is taking so long? They were supposed to be here ten minutes ago!” Twilight complained. She had been triple-checking her saddlebags to make sure she had everything she needed, though the others had to tell her that she had too many books.

"We're not going to travel the entire globe, Twilight. Therefore, we don't need any information on ice beasts of the Falimore Bluffs, or some mythical land of intelligent hairless bipeds with dysfunctional personalities." Shadow said distastefully.

Applejack looked at Shadow questioningly. "Have you been talking to Lyra again? You know she's not of right mind. Bon Bon has even been putting her through hours of therapy.

Shadow just shrugged before continuing to take inventory on his own bag, full of average camping gear and enough food for him to snack on for a few days, if need be.

"Actually, if you think about it, there are plenty of universes out there," said a voice from above them, "One of them is bound to have life that parallels our own, in one way or another."

This time, Shadow was more prepared for one of Pinkie's random entrances, but the sight of the pink mare climbing out of one of the windows of Twilight's house and walking down the steep side of the tree to meet up with the group left him staring at her in mild disbelief. Most times she seemed crazy, but every once in awhile she baffled even Twilight at her knowledge of the unknown. Some ponies even thought she'd make an interesting philosopher, if she lowered her sugar consumption.

Twilight shook her head. "Pinkie, the multiverse theory may be correct, but there is no real way to know since nopony's created a device capable of going from one universe to another."

A male earth pony and the same blonde pegasus from the Sugarcube just happened to pass by at this moment, and the stallion had taken a few steps toward the group, opening his mouth looking as though he disagreed with Twilight, but his companion dragged him back before he could say anything.

None of the other six ponies noticed this, as they were now watching their last member trotting over. Rarity had a rather large sunhat on her head, dark blue flowers and gems wrapped around the brim, that complimented the colors of her purple eyes and mane. Behind her, Sweetie Belle was struggling to pull a cart that contained a mountain of bags, suitcases, purses, and other carrying cases that could hold what seemed like her entire Boutique.

"Think you've got everything you need?" Twilight asked sarcastically, frowning at the sight.

"Why, I think this is the first time I didn't forget anything dear," Rarity exclaimed, oblivious to her fellow unicorn's distaste. "Somepony was even so kind enough as to remind me to bring the kitchen sink!"

Rainbow Dash groaned loudly. "It'll take us days just to get to the next town if we lug that much stuff around!"

They managed to convince Rarity to bring only two bags - of which it seemed to take forever to repack - and then began trotting away from the tree. They’d gone about three step when a cry halted them in their tracks.

“STOP!” They all stop and turned towards the cry. It was Pinkie Pie.

“Ugh, what now?” Twilight sighed.

Pinkie beamed. “You know what this adventure needs? A narrator!”

“Wait, a WHAT?”

“A narrator. you know, someone who can tell others what’s going on. Get into our minds and tell everyone their thoughts. Someone who will-”

“Pinkie, I respect your enthusiasm, but why would we want some random pony stalking us and trying to guess what we’re about to do?” Twilight asked, “And I don’t it’s possible to read minds.”

“So, you don’t want our journey to sound amazing?” Pinkie replied, her smile wavering a bit.

“You know, maybe she’s got a point...” Rainbow Dash mumbled.

Twilight looked defeated. “You know what? Fine. Do what you want Pinkie, as long as we can finally get the show on the road.”

“Silly Twilight, it’s a story, not a show.” She bounced over to a lone unicorn who was resting in the shade, again leaving the rest of the gang as confused as ever.

“Hey, you want to narrate a story?” Pinkie asked the random stallion, who had a short green and red mane.

The pony looked up. “Um, OK. What do I have to do?”

“Just follow my friends around and say everything we do in a cool voice, depending on the situation.”

“Uh, OK? But what do I do if you do something extremely boring or crazy?”

Pinkie thought briefly. “Improvise! Or just scream really loudly, like this: AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!” She screamed at the tippy top of her lungs, drawing attention from some other ponies walking by.The stallion’s ears were ringing, and his hair was now partially blown behind him by the force of the scream.

“But, what would that accomplish?”

“Well, you’ll certainly get a reaction from Shadow or Twilight!” She replied, bouncing around happily.

The two ponies in question exchanged looks of annoyance.

“Ugh what is wrong with some of the ponies in this town?” Shadow asked groaned loudly.

“I don’t know.” Pinkie answered.

“Pinkie, you’re one of the ponies I’m talking about.” He said, furrowing his brow.

“Oh, those weren’t problems; those were alternate solutions!” She giggled.

“Okay then, are we finally done? Good. Let’s get going then” Twilight ordered. They finally started to leave town, absentmindedly quickening their pace, just in case another problem popped up.

~S~

“Um Pinkie? I think your maps broken.” Fluttershy asked after noticing the same bush four times.

"No, that’s just the narrator pony. I asked him to stay out of sight, so as not to distract us,” Pinkie replied. "Though, now that you mention it, it doe’s say we’re still in Ponyville,” she turned the map upside down and proceeded to beat it against a rock, trying to fix it.

“Huh. I guess the batteries must have run out,” Pinkie then crumpled the map into a ball and tossed it over her shoulder which then exploded when it hit the ground. only Shadow looked back at the exploding map, still forgetting that things like that happen.

“Why did we trust Pinkie with directions in the first place?” Twilight said as she pulled out her own map and examined it briefly before turning them in the right direction.

Author's Note:

Wow, I really seemed to weaken my character at the beginning of this one. I'll be sure to make up for it later :P