Faith Summers was just another person who's life was constantly tossed around by cruel fate, and so are her friends. When a freaky storm really turns their life upside down, they find themselves in a place they would never imagine.
Faith was another girl that fate was not kind to. Her friends were all victims of such circumstances as well. However, they were bound together by such pain as well, and were no longer alone. Faith could never ask for better people in her life, even with the lonely life she thought she had to lead. However, the rollercoaster that was fate was about to take new loop. When a freaky storm completely turns their lives upside down, they find themselves in a place that no one would expect: Equestria. Now in a land where happiness is a commonplace, they will find themselves on a journey that will help them grow, make new friends, and, hopefully, find that happy ending they've always read about.
You probably haven’t heard of me. I’m not surprised. Not many people would know someone who’s never knew life outside a house’s wall. Or purposely isolate themselves from public eyes after discovering betrayal. Or who is the unknown sole heir of a family fortune without knowing the responsibility of it. Or led a hard life protecting a sibling from everything dangerous. Or being a sibling who was sheltered from everything good or bad. Or the sole survivor of a terrible accident where you lost everything you loved.
That’s the story of me and my friends. The unpredictable rivers called fate and circumstance led us to those situations. But at the same time, it led us to each other. With that we found ourselves with something in common; we were alone. That loneliness pulled us together, and turned us into the friends we’ve come to know each other as.
But I’m thinking too far back. This isn’t the story of how we met each other and found the friendship we’ve come to hold. Not how we learned about each other’s hardships and helped each other through it. This is the story of how our lives took a completely unexpected turn. How we found ourselves in an unfamiliar land, filled with life beyond our imagination. Finding new friends to share our stories and pain with. Finding ourselves on a journey with everything against us. And to find our fates tied with so many others’.
But now I’m getting ahead of myself. I guess I should start from where this all started. On a day where our happiness was the first thing on our minds.
On the edge of a lake, a dock sat still in the water, standing firm in the waving water of the lake. Next to it was a medium sized boat, docked and sitting idly in the water.
“Hey guys!” a female’s voice suddenly shouted from the shore side of the dock. “Sorry I’m late!”
A seventeen year-old girl came running onto the dock, sprinting at her top speed. She had dark brown hair, clear skin, and golden eyes. Today she wore a white top as well as blue khaki jeans. This was Faith Summers, a young woman with her own aspirations to life and the people around her. Anyone that knew her well knew that she was one of the most dependable people that they could trust.
Faith ran up to the boat and gripped onto her knees as she breathed heavily at the ground. She looked up to the boat and called out, “Hey guys! I’m here now! You hear me?!”
“Yeah, we hear you!” a male voice answered back, “Can’t believe you’re late today.”
“Give her a break, Hunter,” another voice, this time female and more serene, came up, “you know she tends to be occupied with more things than she can handle sometimes.”
Two people looked over from the deck on top of the small yacht. On the right was a male, who looked just as old as Faith. He had slightly tanned skin, dark brown hair, and green eyes. He had on a blue shirt as well as black jeans. Such a person was Hunter Sparks, one of Faith’s friends. He was an athletic individual who liked to play a lot of sports, and was probably just as dependable as Faith.
Next to him was a tall young woman who also leaned over the railing of the deck. She had blond hair with light blue highlights, fair skin, magenta eyes, and blue eye shadow. She wore a light blue dress as well as a hairband in her long hair. This was Raine Skydance, another good friend of Faith. She was a wealthy girl that had access to many resources, but that didn’t detract from the nice polite demeanor that she always put out.
Faith chuckled as she got onto the walkway, and stepped onto the deck, “It’s alright, Raine. Something came up as I was preparing for today, and then one thing led to another. Before I knew it, I’m sprinting to get here from our room. Anyway, is everyone else here?”
“Well, most of us yes,” Hunter responded, “Raine was here when I brought the drinks, and then the twins got here next. Speaking of them, they’re in the kitchen preparing some stuff. You mind bringing this box of food to them?”
“Why don’t you?” Raine playfully scolded while tapping him on the back of the head, “It is not very gentleman like to make a woman do a man’s job.”
“It’s alright,” Faith laughed, “I’ll get it to them.”
With that, Hunter gave Faith a crate full of food, and she proceeded to carry it past the dining room and then into the ship’s gallery. In there she was greeted by the sight of two people, a guy and a girl. Both had orange-brown hair, brown eyes, and light skin. This was basically the description of the Evergreen twins, Willow and Maple. The only other difference that separated the two was the fact that Maple had a bow clip in her hair. That, and the fact their personalities contrasted heavily: Willow was serious and outspoken, Maple was shy and quiet.
Faith found both of them preparing some of the food. Willow was busily cutting fruit up while Maple worked to arrange them on different plates.
“Hey there, you two,” Faith greeted, setting the box on the counter, “How’s the food coming?”
Maple was the first to look up from what she was doing, “Oh, hello, Faith. Everything is coming up just fine.”
“Is that the fruit Indigo was supposed to bring?” Willow asked, setting aside the knife in his hands, “pass it here. I’ll get it here.”
As she slid the box of fruit to him, a thought passed through Faith’s head, followed by a question, “Hey that reminds me. Where is Indigo?”
Both twins looked at each other and shook their heads. This response immediately concerned Faith, as she knew something was up. Indigo was not the type of person to be missing from an occasion like this. She immediately walked out of the kitchen and came back onto the deck. There she saw Raine and Hunter moving around some chairs and tables.
“Hey guys, has anyone seen Indigo?” Faith asked.
Hunter put down the folded chair he was moving and shrugged, “Nope, haven’t seen the guy all day. Raine?”
She simply shrugged her shoulders as well, “Haven’t seen the lad all day. Oh goodness, what’s that doing there?”
Faith put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment. She knew for a fact that her friend must be around somewhere, as he always was. She stopped thinking for a moment to watch as Skyla was walking to a barrel, which was apparently the main cause for her attention.
“For goodness sakes, Hunter,” Skyla shouted as she approached the object, “Everything has their place, but a bloody barrel in the middle of the deck is not one of them. It’s not even on the list of things for the boat.”
“Only you would know that,” Hunter shouted back, “Besides, I didn’t move any barrel!”
Faith looked at the barrel for a minute as Skyla looked at it with slight disgust. It was simple, painted white like the mini yacht they stood on, and had nothing particularly interesting. Except for some lettering on the bottom labeled “I. F.”
“Uh oh”
Before anyone could react, the top of the barrel suddenly popped open. Confetti and ribbons shot out of the open top and Raine, scared and confused, shrieked and fell on her bottom. Out of the barrel popped a man, with his arms out stretched in the air.
“Surprise!” was all that followed the popping.
Faith immediately recognized the guy that leapt out of the barrel as none other than Indigo Fontaine. He was the most easily recognizable, with his hair black with white highlights at the end, fairly light skin, and his eye’s color were… Well, Faith actually wasn’t sure about that last detail. His eyes were so squinty that they appeared to be constantly shut, so his eye color was never discernable. Other than that, he had on blue and white sleeveless shirt and blue white cargo pants. He was possibly one of the most cheerful people Faith and her friends knew and he doesn’t disappoint with his antics.
“INDIGO! What the friggin’ heck!?” Hunter shouted, a bit startled himself, “what were you doing in there?”
“Waiting for everyone,” he responded nonchalantly, “I got here first at 6 AM, but no one was here, so I decided to take a nap in the Surprise Barrel.”
Faith immediately raised an eyebrow, “Surprise Barrel?” she flatly asked.
Indigo laughed as he hopped out of it, “Yup, newest thing I came up with. I wanted to surprise Raine for her birthday, and since we were on a yacht, what better way to do it than with a barrel?” He looked at Raine , who was still on the ground, “How effective was that, Raine?”
“A little too effective,” Raine managed to get out, “Could you be a dear and help me up?”
As Indigo took Raine’s hand, Faith heard running from inside the cabin. Willow and Maple ran up, with the brother in front of the sister.
“What happened?” Willow immediately asked, “I heard shouting from the inside.”
“Indigo wanted to have a surprise party,” Faith simply responded, “So he hid in a barrel.”
“He hid… in a barrel,” Willow facepalmed, “Why…? How did we not see that coming?”
Maple leaned over to her brother and whispered into his ear, “I told you it looked like it would fit a person…”
“Indigo, it’s not even a surprise party,” Hunter deadpanned, “it’s not a surprise if everyone isn’t in on it.”
“Awww,” Indigo moaned playfully, “Oh well, it was still fun. So how about we get started?”
Faith nodded in agreement, “Yup, but first…” she motioned for Hunter and the Evergreen twins to her side, “don’t we all have something to say.”
Everyone nodded, and every person on the boat but Raine gathered around in a group and face her.
“C’mon everyone,” Raine remarked, “I have a feeling I know what’s coming.”
Faith smiled and grabbed Hunter and Willow’s hands at her sides. The two them did the same with Indigo and Maple. The five of them looked to each other, and turned to Raine and smiled.
They then threw their arms up in unison, “Happy Birthday, Raine!”
“Cheers!”
A clattering sound of glass rang out, as everyone bumped glasses in the air. The day had been nothing but joyful to them. They were now in the middle of the lake, with the yacht completely surrounded by water. Throughout the day they’ve been doing things together, doing various activities and mishaps together. Everyone had some fun socializing while having some of the food they brought to the party. Of course, it wasn’t a party without some moments with this group of friends. Hunter had challenged Willow to a chugging contest with large glasses of what looked like juice. When they started, Indigo apparently failed to mention they were drinking tomato juice with hot sauce in it. A lot of it. So when he did say something, the two had already performed their spit takes and were going for something cold or was milk. After that debacle, Raine turned on some music, and everyone decided to do some dancing. Everyone’s ability to dance was varied, needless to say. It ranged to Maple and Raine being great at it, Faith and Willow being just average at it, Hunter being just plain horrible, and Indigo… just being himself. After that, Indigo somehow found some fishing rods, and everyone decided to take turns fishing some fish. Well, success apparently was taking a break or was lazy, because the fish either were completely dumb or were twice as lazy. Hunter kept hooking extremely small ones, and was getting angrier each time. Faith actually managed to catch something, but it got away when she couldn’t respond properly. Once again with Indigo, he had caught everything but fish, ranging pieces of wood, waterweed, metal, a boot, and somehow another fishing rod. They thought their luck was not going to answer them anytime soon until Maple got a bite, followed by a tug that nearly took the poor girl off her feet. It took Willow, Faith, and Hunter’s help to finally pull out an extremely large fish. Naturally they let it go, with some trouble involved of course with its flopping hitting those that tried to haul it back in. Eventually, everyone just settled to having a drink.
“This is for all the good times we had today, yesterday, and tomorrow,” Raine gladly announced, “as good friends.”
“To us,” everyone said in unison as everyone took a sip from their drinks.
As everyone drank their drinks, Faith took her eyes off her own to look at everyone else. She smiled as she recalled the times they shared. She has always known them throughout her life, since the first day they met. She honestly didn’t know where she would be without.
“Anyway, everyone, I have some exciting news to share,” Raine ushered everyone.
Everyone immediately quieted down as Raine set aside her drink.
“Remember how I told you all I was looking for opportunities to find a window of opportunity to show off my artistic talent?” Everyone nodded in unison. Raine has been going on recently in trying to find a way to show the world her creative talents, starting with what she called a “stepping stone” job.
“Anyway, I was going to apply to be an intern at the art center, right? And then one of the teachers, who happened to be my mentor, had to take care of a lecture and couldn’t do the class, so he asked me to…”
Faith rolled her eyes as Raine went on. She was known to get extremely lengthy when she was talking about her stories, and this one sounded like it will go on for a while.
Hunter started to give flat look of annoyance, “Can we skip that part? Daylight’s going.”
“Huh? Oh sure, anyway, I was offered to be a teacher assistant and took it. But that’s not the news. So on my first day I was going to demonstrate a simple painting, and one of the free artists that had their work in the center’s gallery was there and…”
A firm voice and soft one from the twins piped in, “Move on, please.”
“Oh right. Anyway, long story short, I was offered a chance to hang a piece in the gallery. But that still isn’t the best part! Anyway, I happened to find a piece I completed that I was particularly proud of. I decided to take that and as I was taking to the gallery, when I ran into what I didn’t know at the time the daughter of the superin….”
“Just skip to the good part!” Indigo yelled, waving his hands in the air.
“Oh… well, to cut an extensive story short, for the sake of everyone, I’ve just been commissioned to do not one, but three murals for the local high school. Two walls, one on the concrete ground. And if I do this great, I’ll be recommended to other schools for my work!”
Everyone started to give praise to her in various compliments and cheers. “Wow, that’s awesome!” “Way to go girl!” “You certainly are going up in the world.”
“Thanks everyone,” Raine smiled, “it’s a blessing and a prayer to have such amazing friends with me. I don’t think I would’ve made it this far without any of you.”
“To Raine and her success as an artist!” Indigo said with encouragement as he raised his glass.
“To Raine!”
The night as everyone decided to take it inside the cabins to continue their conversations. Faith was just on the deck at the railing, looking out the surface. The full moon was reflected off of the water’s surface, glistening brightly in white light. She looked out, lost in her own thoughts, as Hunter started to walk to her side.
“Hey there, Faith,” Hanter greeted.
“Oh, hey Hunter,” Faith greeted back as her thought train stopped, “what are you up to?”
Hunter leaned on the rail, “Not much, just wanted to get some fresh air.”
“And the others?”
“The twins are on the top of the roof, looking at the moon. Maple definitely likes looking at that thing. Indigo’s inside with Raine. I think the two are comparing art ideas or playing some game.”
Faith chuckled, “It’s most likely the latter.”
“I guess,” Hunter shrugged, “Damn, that really is a large moon today.”
Faith and giggled a bit at the remark. Out of all the friends, for some reason, Hunter comes off as the one person she always seem to go to for many things. The two have been through thick and thin, with Hunter always there to stick up for Faith.
“Anyway, I was looking for you for something,” Hunter started off.
Faith looked to him as she continued to lean on the railing, “Sure ask away.”
Hunter started to open his mouth to start off, but then shut it as a look of uncertainty came up instead, “I’m … not sure how to put this in a way that isn’t going to offend you.”
Faith cocked an eyebrow at the sentence, “Are you okay? This isn’t about a girl, is it?” People have actually mistaken them for a couple several times before, although the two have shrugged them off before due to the fact that romance was not on the front of their minds.
“No, it’s not that,” Hunter put his hands in his face and then leaned on the rail again with his arms, “It’s … semi-complicated.”
Faith started to actually worry a bit, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Hunter looked to her with a look, one that Faith had a bit of difficulty reading.
“I … might be leaving the home soon.”
Faith was immediately confused by this response, “I think you need to explain that a bit better than that.”
Hunter nodded, “Well, I recently I decided to try my luck to see if any private schools with good athletic teams. I tried out by participating in some cross country with a team I often went out to practice with, you know, those guys from the school we sometimes help stuff with.”
Faith nodded. She and her friends took time to volunteer work at different schools to help with different things.
“Well, to put it simply, Faith, there was this talent scout from a college that was apparently looking for … you know, talent. Anyway, he saw how well I can run and jump, and didn’t believe I lived at the home. Anyway, I let him know I passed my basic qualification exams and SAT, and now he wants me to swing by the college to show what I got.”
“Why? Are you worried about it going wrong?” Faith asked.
Hunter shook his head, “It’s not that, Faith. It’s … I didn’t catch the name, but it’s one of those far away colleges, far from here. I don’t know, Faith, I want it to work out. But at the same time, when it does, how would I break it to the others.”
This started to make sense to Faith why it was getting complicated. Hunter, out of any of them, didn’t like it when they had to watch someone that they knew for a while leave. He was the type that really didn’t like to see people go.
Faith happened to be that type of person as well. She simply didn’t dwell on it before. Now that she did, she realized how much she didn’t want to be left behind either.
“I … guess the best we can do is to see how the others would react to it,” she tried to get out, “But still, why come to just me for this?”
Hunter simply stared out to the black horizon, “I guess I felt we thought alike, you know. But you seemed to be better with these kinds of things, you know. I mean, the others see you as kinda of the person with the final word. Hell, I still think you’re better at this than I am.”
“So what is it that you’re worried about if we tell this to the others?” Faith asked.
Hunter simply looked down at his feet as looks of uncertainty and worry ran on his face, “I don’t want us to leave each other. Ever since we found each other, everything we’ve done had always been together, no matter what happened. I can never see myself leaving the others behind, no matter what I think I want to do in the world. But at the same time, I have to remind myself that we have to each other to our own devices sooner or later. I’ve never had a more conflicting thought, honestly.”
Faith put her hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him the best she can, “Well, it’s a bit soon to jump to conclusions. Let’s at least tell the others first. I sure they’ll understand. Like you said, we’ve done everything together; let’s get through this one together as well.”
“Heh, thanks,” he responded, smiling a bit, “let’s get inside, I think I felt a raindrop.”
Faith cocked an eyebrow, “Yeah sure, if there isn’t a cloud in the moon filled …sky?”
When Faith looked up, she saw that the moon was no longer visible. Instead, the night was covered completely in black clouds, as stars became invisible in the sky. Then Faith felt something pelt her shoulder. She rubbed it, and it felt wet.
In the skies of Ponyville, dark clouds hung in the sky as heavy rain poured on the town. Rain was definitely scheduled on the pegasus team’s weather calendar, but for some reason, it was far heavier than anyone was expecting. What started off light rain, it quickly and unexpectedly shifted to amounts of water equivalent to that of a waterfall. Anyone outside immediately ducked into the nearest home and shelter, trying their best to get out of the rain.
One such mare, however, was not so lucky. In the dark reaches of Everfree Forest, a lavender coated unicorn dashed through the wild plants of the forest. On her back was an equally hapless baby dragon, who tried to make himself as small as possible to avoid being pelted by the rain. Such an unlucky duo was none other than Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike. They were just leaving Zecora’s hut when they were suddenly drenched by the pouring rain. Now they were just trying to get to the nearest piece of cover as possible from the rain.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted as he clung to the back of the unicorn, “Are you sure you know where you’re going?!”
“I think so!” she replied as she galloped through the rain, “I’m pretty sure it’s this way.”
Actually, she had no idea where she was going. She had been too busy trying to sprint through the forest that she actually lost track of the road that led back to town. Not helping was the fact that it was night, which meant no light to guide them through. Now, she was just trying her best to find somewhere they can hole up in.
“Twilight, to your right!” Spike called out again, “I think I see a cave we can hide in!”
Twilight turned her head in the direction. Indeed, there was a small hole amongst a wall of rock that held a cave entrance.
She didn’t need an invitation for shelter from the down pouring water. She immediately changed her direction, and ran for the cave. She managed to duck inside, getting away from the horrendous downpour from outside. She tried to shake off some of the water on her, while Spike hopped off and did the same.
“Well, this place looks to be dry enough to stay in for a while,” Twilight said as she looked around the cave, “Could use some light though.”
Twilight immediately lit her horn, as a scarlet red aura followed by a white light lit up. The darkness that hid cave went away, revealing the rocky walls that made up the cave. She then noticed something at the back of the cave.
“Hey Spike,” Twilight ask curiously, “Have we ever been this cave before?”
“How would I know? Do I look like I go cave diving?” his immediate response.
“You go gem hunting with Rarity, so you would know,” Twilight deadpanned.
“Well, not here then, never have here before,” Spike responded, then a thought crossed his mind, “Maybe I should show Rarity this cave…”
A scene was running through his mind as ideas went through his head.
Oh Spike, we hit the mother lode of gems! Rarity exclaimed as she and Spike found themselves literally swimming in gems.
What can I say, I’m a walking good luck charm, he replies with a very suave voice.
Oh c’mere you, Rarity hugged Spike affectionately and moved closer to his cheek as she was preparing to kiss his cheek…
*BOOM*
A loud clap of thunder and flash of lighting roared and flashed through the entrance of the cave. Spike yelped and jumped as he immediately grabbed onto the nearest thing, which just happened to be Twilight. Twilight gave a flat, annoyed look as the baby dragon clung onto het fur, which was slightly painful but was something she was used to. Spike shook for a bit, then saw Twilight’s face.
He sheepishly smiled and immediately unhooked his claws and immediately got off of her. Twilight went back to looking at the back of the cave, where she saw what could be an opening. When she got closer to the hole, she found that it was bigger than she anticipated. When she shined her light into it, she found what could be a staircase.
“Hey Spike,” Twilight called over to him, “check this out!”
Spike started walking to her side, “What’d you find? A long lost cave of ruins…” he immediately gawked at Twilight’s find, “Ooookay, never mind. Wait, are we going down there?”
“Why not?” Twilight asked, her eyes lit with curiosity, “we could be looking at something big. If there something down there, we could be looking at something big!”
Before Spike could stop her, Twilight started walking down the stairs. Spike simply stood back, as he watched the student of the Princess of the Sun walk down to the unknown depths of the cave.
“Well, I guess I’ll stay here… alone…” Spike simply called out.
Another clap of thunder and flash of lightning was the only response he got. He yelped and immediately ran towards Twilight as she reached the bottom. What they found made them stop in their tracks.
They found themselves in a large room, which was probably large enough to rival the library back in Ponyville. On the walls of the caves at their sides, there crystal stones embedded in the walls. There were up to six different colors of gems, each color in its own set in different, separate places. There were white gems in the ceiling that glowed brightly, lighting the whole cave. In the back was a moderately large pool of water, which had an aqua blue tint to it. The rock formations behind it was rather intriguing, as it looked like it was built like a shrine.
Spike whistled in fascination to this, “I guess we found something. You ever read about this Twilight?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Twilight replied, still in awe of the place.
As she walked around, she observed the whole, but her eyes kept going back to the pool. It laid with absolutely no ripples on the surface, as if it had never been disturbed for centuries. It drew Twilight in like a fish to a lure, her curiosity now more prominent than ever…
Faith had been on boats before. They have rocked a bit, and she got sick only one before. But she always felt she could handle any boat ride she boarded.
Not today.
Before Faith and Hunter could question a few raindrops, they were suddenly drenched by a down pour of heavy rain. Right after that, the boat suddenly started swaying left and right, rocking precariously in different directions. The duo, who had been at the front, clung onto the railing as they hung on for dear life.
“Faith, don’t let go!” Hunter called to her.
“Not planning on it!” she responded loudly against the now roaring rain.
As Faith clung on, a lot of spontaneous thoughts ran through her mind. She knew for fact that today wasn’t supposed to rain. She and Indigo had personally checked the weather five times before the party. As she never heard of wind that capable of making waves in a lake. One thought crossed her mind; this was not normal weather at all.
Faith clung onto the railing, still holding on as crashing waves knocked around the boat, when heard a faint voice.
“Faith! Hunter!”a shout that sounded like Indigo’s came.
“Indigo!?” she tried to shout back, “are you guys alright!?”
“We’re fine! Willow and Maple were able to get inside as well! Faith, Hunter! Get inside the cabins! Use the railing to get yourselves over here!”
Faith turned to Hunter, who nodded to the unspoken thought they both had.
“Alright! We’re coming!” He shouted back.
As instructed, Faith and Hunter used the railing like a climbing rope as they tried to battle against the rain to safety. Faith tried her best to not lose her grip against the whole ordeal. She wasn’t as strong as Hunter who easily kept his grip on the railing. There were times that they had to stop when the rocking was too much to move against.
“Faith, hang tight,” Hunter supported her, “We’re nearly at the door!”
“I know!” she yelled back.
Before long, for what seemed like a grueling eternity, Faith and Hunter were close to the door. As the entrance was Indigo and Willow, both of them with ropes on their waists to keep themselves from getting thrown around.
“Guys, grab my hands!” Indigo yelled as he held out his out reached arm.
Faith turned to Hunter, who was in front of her and completely drenched in rain water, “Hunter, you go first!”
“Huh!? No, you should go!” Hunter replied instantly, “You can barely hold on!”
“This is no time for arguing!” she yelled back, “Your closer! I’m not! Just get inside!”
Looked back to Indigo, then to Faith, uncertainty coloring his eyes, “Alright! But be quick!”
Hunter immediately reached out grab Indigo, which was actually proving to be a bit more of a chore than expected. Even at full wide arm’s length, the distance between the cabin door and the nearest railing was surprising quite distant. Eventually, with a bit more reaching on Hunter’s part, he grabbed Indigo’s hand and was dragged immediately into the safety of the interior by Willow.
“Alright, we got Hunter,” Indigo called out, “Faith! Get closer so I can reach you!”
Faith nodded, and started to creep carefully. Through all the rain and boat rocking, all Faith could do was keep moving and focusing on her objective. At last, when she was as close as she could get to the entrance, she started to reach for Indigo’s out stretched hand. Unfortunately, she had more difficulty, as she didn’t have the same arm’s length as Hunter did. She kept trying to get closer, as she continued to let go of the railing with her other hand.
Her hand was beginning to touch his fingertips, “Almost there, Faith…”
A hand immediately reached out and grabbed her wrist. Hunter, who apparently abandoned the safety of the interior and was now holding Indigo’s shoulder, grabbed Faith’s arm with a strong grip. A smile of hope immediately shown from his face.
“Gotcha,” he immediately exclaimed.
Unfortunately, neither of them noticed the unnaturally large wave, one that was taller than the boat itself. Before anyone could react, they immediately hit hard by a torrent of water. Faith felt herself hit by it the most, she was swept off her feet and flung backwards.
What happened next occurred all too quickly for anyone. Faith felt herself flying through the air, finding herself not stopping. She then realized that Hunter was no long holding her. She also saw that the boat’s deck was looking farther away. Before she knew it, she fell backwards straight into the water.
Faith immediately opened her eyes and felt the slight of water on her eyes. She saw herself underwater in the dark depths of the water. She immediately struggled to get her body in the right direction. Faith was, according to some, an above-average swimmer, so she was definitely good enough to fight against tides.
However, as she started to try swimming to the surface, something caught her foot. Faith tried to look down to see what it was, but could find nothing. She resumed to trying desperately swim to the surface, as it felt farther than before. The more she seemed to struggle, the more she felt she was being dragged down to the bottom.
Dammit, Faith thought to herself, can’t… keep going… running… out of air…
Getting flung so suddenly into the water, Faith didn’t exactly have the time to react properly and get a lot of air in. While she was capable of holding her breath for a while, this was the usually when she was prepared for such a trial. She wasn’t in this case, and resorted to covering her mouth as she tried to keep whatever air she had left.
No… I can’t… keep it… She ended up opening her mouth very briefly, letting a small group of bubbles out. She shut her eyes hard as she struggled to keep her air in, starting to become faint. The bubbles, on the other hand, floated nonchalantly to the surface…
Without warning, as Twilight approached the pool, a group of bubbles surfaced to the top and popped.
“Huh?!” Twilight acted in slight confusion.
She stood back a bit, as she watched the pool for anything else. When there were bubbles, there was usually something living in the water. She wasn’t exactly prepared for what was coming next. The pool, which was completely still and tranquil, started rippling. It was subtle at first, but started to become more apparent as if some wind was swaying the water left and right.
Spike clung onto Twilight as they watched this phenomenon, “Twilight, what’s happening??” he voice had tinged with fear.
Twilight was too busy watching in fearful amazement as the pool continued its act. When it seemed like it was calmer, Twilight tried to get a closer look at it, walking slowly and cautiously…
Faith felt herself losing strength, as she struggled vainly to keep her breath in. It was completely dark all around her, with nothing but water surrounding her. She weakly looked up as she tried to see the surface. Much to her surprise, light seemed to be coming from the surface.
She knew it was now or never. With the last of her strength, she pushed out her arms as she maneuvered through the water. With each push, she felt it was harder to keep her breath and stay conscious. Everything in her body already felt extremely numb, and the lack of feeling in certain limbs certainly didn’t help. Nonetheless, she kept going, fighting to live as she got close to the surface.
When it looked like she was extremely close to surface, she gave it the last of her strength to get to the surface, opening her mouth and letting out the last of her air…
A heavy torrent of bubbles came the lake’s surface this time, causing Twilight to jump a bit. This is followed by something jumping out of the lake, which definitely caught her off guard. It started to splash around wildly
“Twilight, I think that’s a pony!” Spike shouted.
When Twilight looked closer, and it was indeed a pony. One that was floundering in the water as she tried to desperately to stay on the surface and gasping for air.
She’s drowning! was the first thought that came to Twilight’s head, leaving here no time to waste.
She immediately dove in and started swimming to the still struggling pony, who was starting to go under again. Getting taught swimming lessons was probably would have been a good idea, but she was pretty solid swimmer anyway. When she got close to the drowning individual, the latter had gone under again. Twilight quickly held her breath and dove under water. When she caught sight of the pony, now identifiable as a mare, she immediately got under her and put her foreleg around her shoulders. As she was doing so, she looked down, and, for a second, was puzzled by what she saw. She immediately turned her attention to the surface, and started to swim to the surface.
As she emerged from the water, she let a gasp of air. She looked around to see herself on the surface again, this time with a mare on her back. She looked to the pony, who apparently looked unconscious. She started swimming to the edge of the lake again with her cargo on her back as Spike ran to the edge as well, a worried look on his face.
“Twilight, you okay!?” he asked, “You were down there for a long time! Are you alright?!”
“I’m fine,” she responded as she got out of the lake, “help me with this pony. I think she inhaled some water.”
Spike helped her get the pony off her back. They laid the mare on her back, and Twilight quickly performed chest compressions to get her breathing. The mare, her head turn to the side, spat out some water. Twilight stopped to check her pulse, which she found to be normal. She wiped her head a bit. Reading those tomes of basic medical practice apparently paid off.
She looked over the pony, who still had her eyes shut. “Hey, are you awake?” All she got in response was labored breathing. “I guess that’s a no.”
“What should we do, Twilight?” Spike asked, growing more worried.
“Go outside and see if you can find somepony. Preferably Fluttershy or Zecora, since they might be closer,” she responded.
Spike nodded and ran up the stairs that led outside. Twilight looked to the mare, and then looked to the pool of water. Oddly enough, the large pool of water went back to extremely tranquil state. The thought that previously struck Twilight came back again, and she immediately walked to the edge of the pool. She held her breath, and stuck her head straight into the water again. She looked down to confirm what she saw.
When one finds themselves drowning in a lake, it’s usually due the fact that they underestimate the deepness of a lake. Twilight expected a deep lake. Instead, the pool was actually quite shallow, just deep enough to put a whole body under but shallow enough to be able to reach the surface without problems. Twilight took her head out, then looked to the mare she rescued.
How was she drowning in a shallow pool? Twilight thought, along with several other questions that ran through her head.
“Twilight!” Twilight’s train of thought halted as he heard Spike, “I found Fluttershy! Her place is close by!”
“Alright, I’m coming!” she called back.
She put the mare back on her back, started to climb back up the stairs in the cave. Whatever questions she had now, helping their victim should come first.
“Congratulation, Mr. and Mrs. Summers. You have yourselves a young girl.”
“It’s… she’s beautiful.”
“Here, let me hold her.”
“What should we name her?”
“It should be something meaningful, dearest.”
“How about Faith? It’s what we really had that helped you carry her all the way here.”
“Alright then, Faith Summers… welcome to the world…”
Faith opened her eyes, and everything in front of her in a flashy blur. She tried to move her arms to shield her eyes, but found herself exhausted to do so, so she simply resorted to shutting her eyelids. As she tried to get used to the light, she started hearing voices. Two of them, to be precise.
“…and you found her like this, in an underground lake?” one voice, female and concerned, asked.
“Yeah, she swallowed some water, but managed to get it out, and it got her breathing,” another voice, female and younger, answered.
Swallowed water? Faith thought, That’s… right. I remember trying to hold my breath and then…?
“Well, initial observations say that she looks alright. If she starts having any other symptoms, let me know,” the first voice came up again.
“Thank you, nurse,” the second said.
Nurse? Faith thought again, am I in a hospital or something? Well, only one way to find out I guess.
Faith slowly opened her eyes, with the light being less blinding this time. She looked up expecting a white hospital setting, but instead was met with wood ceiling instead. She looked around to find herself next to a window, where the sun was shining through. She turned her eyes to see that she was in what looked like a small cottage, with a few decorations here and there.
She turned her head a bit to the side, and her eyes met with a pair of blue ones. When she got a better look of who they belonged to, her mind stopped working for a split second. What stood before her was what looked like an equine like creature, which had yellow fur and a pink man. She’d call it horse, except it looked a little too short to be one. A pony felt like a better word to describe what’s in front of her.
“Oh… you… you’re awake,” the creature spoke, albeit very softly.
Faith’s mind stopped working again. It talked, and she understood it. That made it quite clear that something was going on. She then looked again to catch a glimpse of something on its back. There were wings, of the feathery variety, on its back folded. One conclusion ended up surfacing from Faith’s dumbfounded mind.
The next words she chose to say would later make her feel incredibly stupid sometime down the road.
“Am … I in heaven?” she blurted out without thinking.
It’s quite needless to say that she was met with a very confused look from the pony, “Umm, what?”
“Hey, Fluttershy, How’s our mare doing?”
Another pony apparently entered the room, this time a lavender colored one. She had a purple mane and tail with pink stripes in them, but that wasn’t what caught Faith’s attention. It had a pointed horn on its head. What did Indigo call those creatures again? Unicorns? That definitely rang bells in her head that she was definitely, at least she believed at the time, to be not alive.
“Oh you’re awake!” the unicorn exclaimed, walking to her side, “You had us worried there for a minute.”
Faith was still dumbfounded, but was still had enough composure to deliver an answer, “Umm, where am I? Where did you find me?”
“You’re at the edge of Everfree forest,” the unicorn answered, “I found you in a cave lake, drowning. I barely got you out.”
Faith blinked in slight confusion, as she remembered drowning in a lake, just not one in a cave.
“Yeah, I remembered getting pulled under…” she replied, looking up again, “I guess this is the part where you tell me I’m dead.”
Once again, her sentence was met with confusion, “Uh, didn’t you hear me? I pulled you out of the lake, you’re alive.”
“Don’t beat around the bush, please. I know for the fact that unicorns and winged horses aren’t real. In fact, when I touch you might be a …,” she stopped talking when she reached out to touch the unicorn, but saw something else that shocked her.
Where she was expecting her hand when she reached out, it wasn’t there. In fact, all she got was a flat stub, which was a purplish tinted white or a very light purple. Still in shock, she lifted her other arm to touch it, she saw that she had an equivalent in place of her left arm. To put it bluntly, she had two hooves in place of her hands.
Faith probably never screamed louder in another time in her life.
Needless to say, both ponies were taken aback by her panic attack.
“Woah, what’s wrong?!” the unicorn exclaimed.
“Wha – what happened to me?!” Faith, not thinking straight, tried to get out of bed. When she tried to stand upright and take a shaky step forward, she immediately felt down and landed the side of her face. “Oww…”
Her eyes moved to see where her feet were, only to find they weren’t there either. She instead had hooves for feet, and her legs were bent in a way similar to that of hind legs. It made it clear in her head that she wasn’t a human being anymore. The tail certainly wasn’t helping either.
“Oh my! Are you alright??” the yellow pony said, worried.
Faith looked turned her head forward, and met a worried look of the pony. It didn’t take many gears in her head to turn much to know where this is going.
“Get me a mirror, please,” she asked, calming down a bit.
“Uhh, sure,” the winged pony responded, “Twilight, can you get the small one on the drawer?”
“Got it,” the other pony, apparently named Twilight, responded.
It wasn’t long before she had a mirror in front of her being held by… something, but that wasn’t the thing catching Faith’s attention. Looking at the mirror, another pony face looked at her. It, or rather she, had a round snout and some large golden eyes. She was silently thanking that something was the same. Her attention turned to the head, where she saw pointed ears, a purple mane with stripes in it, and a unicorn horn.
“I’m a pony,” she said, trying to suppress her surprise.
“Yeah, you are,” the unicorn said, now concerned, “are you saying weren’t one before?”
Faith lifted herself up, propping herself rested her back on the side of the bed. It was safe to assume that she wasn’t in heaven, as she never heard of any afterlife that involve being turned into a pastel colored equine. So was she dreaming instead?
“That depends,” she responded to the question, “I’m not dead, so I’m not dreaming, am I? Cause I’m pretty sure I’d be awake, on floor from falling out of bed.”
Once again, she was met with confused looks, “No, I can assure you that you aren’t dreaming.”
Faith somehow wasn’t surprised to get that response, and started raising a hoof, “Well, I suppose I can try to …” she stopped when she remembered she was raising a hoof, not a hand. “Lack of fingers…, right…” she silently berated herself for not remembering.
Before she said anything, a swift blow to the back of her head. “Ow!” she yelled. She held the back of her head and turned around. She set on her eyes on a white bunny, standing upright on the bed, and a very annoyed looking one at that.
“Oh, Angel,” the yellow pony, raising her voice slightly, said, “That’s not very nice. Are you okay?”
Faith merely rubbed the back of her head as she watched the bunny hop off the bed and to the winged pony’s side. “Well, judging from the throbbing pain in my head, it’s safe to say that I’m not dreaming,” she chuckled.
The unicorn still looked concern, but her expression softened a bit, “That’s good to know, but I’m still concerned about that bit where you sound like you’ve never been a pony before.”
Faith smiled sheepishly, “Oh, you heard that? Well, can I know your name at least, considering you saved me from drowning?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the unicorn said, slightly embarrassed, “My name is Twilight Sparkle. My pegasus friend here is Fluttershy.”
“Oh, hi,” Fluttershy greeted softly, smiling shyly and she turned her head with her long mane hiding most of her face.
Faith smiled a bit; the shy pegasus’s personality was a dead ringer to how Maple would act, “Name’s Faith. Faith Summers. And as you can probably tell, I wasn’t a pony before, believe or not.”
“Yeah, we kinda got that,” Twilight remarked, “So what were you before we found you as a pony? Were you a griffon, a dragon??”
“Well…” Faith rolled her eyes a bit, trying to think of the best way of explaining her original body, “Well, I was this two legged, ape like, thing with hands called a human.”
Again, her explanation was met with confused looks. “No, I don’t remember reading anything that meets that kind of description,” Twilight answered.
“Well, you believe me at least, right?” Faith asked.
Twilight gave a thoughtful look, “Well, it’s viable, to say the least. But if it’s true, then I’m concerned how you came out of that lake. What were you doing before that?”
“Well…,” Faith thought for a moment, remembering the events last night, “I remember fighting to stay on a boat in a lake, while it was practically raining cats and dogs….
“Oh dear!” Fluttershy exclaimed rather suddenly, “Were they hurt??”
Faith immediately gave a panicked look and shook her arms in front of her, “No no no! There weren’t literal animals involved! It was just raining really, really hard!”
Fluttershy gave a squeak and blushed in embarrassment, “Oh…I’m sorry.”
Yup, definitely like Maple, Faith thought. “Anyway, I think the wind was pretty powerful as well, cause' waves of water were making the boat tilt all over the place. Before I could reach safety, I ended up getting dumped overboard and getting dragged to dark bottoms of the lake. How did you find me again?”
Twilight, who had been listening intently, spoke up, “Well, I found you in a lake of a cave that I happened to be in, taking shelter from the …rain.”
The last words seemed to have hit a chord with Twilight, as it did with Faith. “It was raining?” she asked with an eyebrow raised.
“It was scary,” Fluttershy added, “A lot of lightning came down.”
That can’t be a crazy coincidence, Faith thought, can it? For two completely different places to have a completely similar event.
There was a moment of silence, before Twilight spoke up, “Well, only way I know I’ll have an idea is if we go to the library and look this up.”
Faith watched as Twilight said this line, with a sparkle in her eyes. Now where did she see that before?
“I’m sorry, Twilight, I can’t come,” Fluttershy apologized, “I have to clean some of the animals that got into the mud yesterday night.”
“It’s okay,” Twilight said, “Hey Faith, looks like we’ll be together for this one. You want to come along and research this together? I bet we can find out a lot more things in the books.”
Faith thought for a moment. A part of her is saying she was better off taking this thing on quickly by herself, but another part of her is saying to trust these ponies and accept the offer. Plus, she actually liked the sound of the idea, “Better now than never, I suppose.”
“Great, let’s go then,” Twilight turned and started to head out of the bed room, with Fluttershy following behind.
Faith looked down, and started getting up. Keeping in mind of her new form, she got up and stood on all fours. The sensation of taking on a completely new stance felt strange to her, as if she felt all four hooves on the ground. She lifted her right foreleg, and took a step forward with it. She looked back and then lifted her left hind leg, which still proved to have a strange feel to it due to how everything in her legs have taken on different positions. Nonetheless, she managed to take a step forward without too much a hassle.
Slow and easy, Faith, she told herself, take it easy now.
She then took her left foreleg, and easily took a step forward. She smiled as she felt she mastered the technique of basic walking. Then she forgot to step with her right hind leg, and fell on her chin.
“Ow!”
Twilight and Fluttershy came running back into the room, finding Faith flat on her belly on the floor.
“Hey, are you okay?!” Twilight asked as she and Fluttershy started to lift Faith up.
“Oh, I’m good,” she answered, getting lifted back on her feet, “I’m just… learning… how to walk.” That sentence felt far more embarrassing to say aloud than she thought.
“I would ask ‘why’, but that has started to become repetitive,” Twilight snarked slightly, “It shouldn’t be that difficult to walk.”
“I was two legged before, remember?” she reminded her, “I guess I don’t have the mentality or motor function to operate four legs.”
“Oh dear, that won’t be a problem, will it?” Fluttershy asked, worried.
“I hope not,” Faith answered as she started taking steps, “I think I’ll adjust. It’ll be like trying to learn how to ride a bicycle.”
This is before she proceeded to trip over her own hoof. Twilight and Fluttershy merely winced as Faith hit the ground again.
“A four wheeled bicycle, lined up in a straight line…,” she mumbled painfully.
Twilight and Fluttershy lifted her back on her feet. “Well, I guess I should’ve realized this sooner,” Twilight remarked, “I’ve read that transformation from one type of living being to another sometimes doesn’t come with the motor functions necessary to operate the new body.”
Faith merely looked down at her legs, “Well, unless you have a solution, Twilight, a pony tripping on her feet every short distance is going to attract unnecessary attention. And trust me, I’ve read enough stories to know how that ends up.”
Twilight put her hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. If she was going to bring Faith along, they needed something to help her walk. She looked at Faith, then looked around a bit as she thought hard. Finally, that imaginary light bulb flashed above her head.
“I got it!” Twilight said as she dashed for the door, “I’ll be back in a minute!”
“Wait, where are you off to??” Faith called out.
“To Zecora’s! I’m going to borrow something from her!”
Twilight and Faith were walking towards the edge of town now. The distance between Fluttershy’s cottage and the town Twilight called Ponyville wasn’t that far, surprisingly. Now the only challenge was Twilight getting Faith across town and to the library.
Faith looked down as she observed the result of Twilight’s “preparations”. She now had on a black robe that apparently belonged to a friend of Twilight’s that lived in the forest. The hood was down, and cape part covered the rest of her body. It was what was beneath the robe that was keeping Faith’s attention. Wrapped around each of her standing hooves was scarlet tinted aura, which at the moment somehow held them in place. That same aura was coming from Twilight’s horn, which was still shining. Faith immediately assumed magic, considering she was in the body of a colorful equine.
“Twilight, I know I don’t want to attract attention, but I’m pretty sure that a black robed pony wandering around town is going to catch some kind of negative look,” she commented.
“Oh relax,” Twilight responded with a smile, “there aren’t that many ponies between here and the library, and if anypony asks, I’ve got you covered.”
Faith merely nodded, “Alright, my life is in your hands…er… hooves. Oh, you know what I mean.”
Twilight giggled a bit, “Well, then let’s go.”
Twilight started to walk into town, in the usual manner she had always done it. Faith soon followed suit, except unlike Twilight she wasn’t technically walking. At least, not on her own will. A few more attempts at Fluttershy’s house had proven that Faith, for lack of a more scientific term, did not know how to walk. Twilight came up with the idea that she would use her levitation magic to help move Faith around. After testing it out, it became clear that it was possible.
Faith felt as her feet moved in sync to Twilight’s. They needed the robe to keep eyes away from Faith’s feet to prevent anyone from asking why Twilight had to apply her magic to make her move. The still did not have many alternatives, and Faith decided this was the best course of action. Besides, Twilight also theorized that it might help Faith in being able to walk on her own eventually.
Faith certainly wasn’t complaining, as this was much better than tripping every step she took. At the moment, she kinda got the idea of how puppets must have felt like.
As Faith looked up from paying attention to her leg’s movements, she occasionally looked up to check around her. From where she saw it, Ponyville was actually quite nice looking. They were plenty of ponies doing different activities, ranging from socializing to taking part in their own activities. For such a place that seemed so small, it was actual quite busy.
“Like what you see?” Twilight asked, looking behind.
“Oh, uhh, yeah!” Faith answered, “It’s nothing like where I’m from. It’s not as busy, but there was always something to do.”
“Really,” Twilight said curiously, “maybe you can tell me about where you come from when we get to the library.”
“Okay, sure,” Faith smiled at the idea. She started rattling off subjects in her head: what she wore, what books she read, what places she went, her friends…
My friends…, the thought made Faith stop thinking for a moment.
When Twilight looked back, she noticed Faith’s face go pale for a bit. “Faith, is there something wrong??” she asked, concerned.
Faith snapped back to reality when she heard her, “What?? Oh I’m fine,” she responded with a smile, “Are we getting close to the library? I think I saw someone give me an odd look to the side.”
“Well, actually, we’re right outside of it,” Twilight pointed out.
Faith looked up and was taken aback by what Twilight had identified as the library. In front of them was a rather large tree that was taller than most of the trees the inexperienced human ever laid her eyes on. There were also windows and a door in the thing, suggesting it was a building as well.
“Surprised, are we?” Twilight chuckled, “If your jaw continues to hang like that, I might actually need to take you to the hospital.”
Faith realized that her mouth was indeed wide open, and immediately closed it. Her friends have always told her she would have a certain face, which included a hanging jaw, whenever she was particularly fascinated by something.
“Oh, sorry,” she smiled sheepishly, realizing the expression was still very obvious even in her pony form.
“It’s fine. Come on inside, we got a lot to do.”
Faith followed Twilight inside the library, once again thanks to the latter’s magic. The former looked around, taking in the interior. The place was well lit, and wherever she looked, there were plenty of books. If this was just nothing more than a simple trip, she would have spent hours going through many books.
Twilight looked at Faith’s face and recognized the same adoration for literature. “Welcome to the Golden Oaks Library. Home to the books of Ponyville and yours truly,” she introduced to Faith.
“Wow, so you live here??” she asked, fascinated, “Lucky, you must have a lot of time on your hands… er, hooves. So, where do you think we should start?”
“Hey, you’re back, Twilight?” a voice called out, accompanied by footsteps on the stairs, “How’s the mare you rescued doing?”
Faith looked up to see what should surprise her, but considering the string of other things that caught her off guard, she still reacted not so subtly. What came down the stair was a purple scaled, lizard looking thing. It had green eyes, and looked smaller than she and Twilight. If anything, it kinda looked like a miniature dragon.
“Uhh, Twilight,” Faith leaned toward Twilight to ask, “I don’t mean to be rude, but who, and what is that?”
“Oh, I guess I should introduce you two,” Twilight said as the dragon walked towards and stopped in front of them, “Spike, this is Faith Summers, the pony we rescued out of that lake. Faith, this Spike, my assistant.”
“Wow, so you have a dragon for an assistant?” Faith remarked, fascinated, “that’s pretty cool.”
“Well, baby dragon, but who wants to specific,” Spike held out a hand to shake, “Nice to meetcha’, Faith.”
Faith was about to lift a hoof to respond, but realized she couldn’t. In fact, she realized she felt like her hooves were being held in place. And then remembered why she couldn’t, and felt her brain kick itself for forgetting.
“Twilight, I think you can let go of me now,” she requested awkwardly.
Twilight did not get it at first, and simply gave a confused look. Faith motioned her head downwards, looking at the robe. Then Twilight looked there and immediately remembered what she was doing. She casted away her magic, letting go of her telekinetic grip on Faith’s hooves. Faith, after moving her hooves to make sure they really were let go, shook Spike’s hand out of friendliness.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you as well,” Faith said with a smile, “Wow, never thought I’d be running into dragons in this lifetime.”
Twilight watched as the two interacted for a bit, then a thought crossed her mind.
“Hey Spike, can I talk to you for a minute?” Twilight said.
“Huh, yeah sure,” Spike shrugged.
“Faith, do you mind looking through the books without me? I’ll be with you in a minute. The books that we’ll start with are on that shelf over there,” Twilight pointed towards a section of books.
“Alright, got it,” Faith nodded, “I think I can make that short distance, if you were worried.”
Twilight laughed a bit, “Don’t hurt yourself.”
As Twilight walked off to have a conversation with Spike, Faith walked over to the books Twilight pointed out. It seemed the trick Twilight put on her worked, as she didn’t have trouble taking her steps. She took off the robe as she looked at the various books on the shelf. A lot of them were on subjects that she clearly had no idea what they were talking about. Faith decided to reach for the book that looked the most relevant.
Then another puff of logic crossed her mind, and she looked at where her hand used.
“Wait, how am I supposed to grab anything with these?” she muttered to herself as she looked at her hooves.
As she tried to think for a solution, a sentence panged into her head, voiced by someone very familiar.
If all logic fails to make sense, just take a swing and try, and work from there.
Faith tried reaching out and placed her right hoof flatly on one of the binders of the books. To her surprise, as she pulled out, she felt she had a grip, and the book slid out smoothly. As she took it to her side, she smiled at the little victory she earned herself.
Hehe, thank you, Indigo, she thought to herself, it’s nice to know your advice is with me even if you… aren’t…
Her expression changed from joy to somberness as she was unable to finish the thought. She suddenly realized something, a thought that hadn’t occurred to her ever since she had discovered where she was and never sunk in.
I’m… alone…
Her thoughts started to branch out to a memory, something that related to right now except for the little detail that made it different from now.
Faith and Indigo were searching through shelves of the library, sifting through the various books that filled the library shelves.
“Indigo, what exactly is it that you’re looking for?” Faith asked as she tried to sift through various books on their subjects.
“Legends that connect to dragons, duh,” he asked, unhelpfully, “Now use that writer’s intuition to help me find the good ones.”
Faith let out a flat sigh, “My intuition is good for novels and stories, but seems to be falling flat when it comes to actual research.”
Faith rolled her eyes to the notion. There were times when Indigo dragged Faith, and sometimes someone else, to help him find research material on various things. The others have always found ways to avoid going. Faith had not.
“Indigo, I found everything relevant to everything but dragons, you sure we’re looking at the right things?” she asked again.
“I dunno,” Indigo shrugged.
“Then why are we in this section?” Faith questioned, “Isn’t it a waste of time to be trying to find something that yields no results?”
“Yeah, but at least I’m not doing this by myself.”
Faith raised at the remark, “What do you mean?”
“Well, most people try to take care of these things by themselves, and yeah some do succeed. But sometimes I wonder if they seem far lonelier they appear to be. Then I take a look at people who worked in group, and see them succeed more at what they do.”
Faith looked at Indigo when he said that. Despite the fact that she couldn’t tell what he was thinking most of the time, he often made some interesting observations.
“I mean even if we don’t find anything right now, I still enjoy doing it with you more than doing this by myself. Research and discovery is a lot more fun when you’re sharing it someone, after all.”
Indigo smiled as he said this, something that Faith observed him do all the time. However, there were things he sometimes said that made his perpetual smile something good to see.
“That’s something I probably should remember,” Faith remarked, “Hey, does this book look good…?” she asked as she took a book out and opened it up…
“So let me guess this straight,” Spike said, “Faith over there wasn’t a pony before?”
“Yes,” Twilight said, what could have been the umpteenth time she said it.
“And when she was drowning in a completely different lake, only to pop up in the one we found her in?”
“Yes,” Twilight’s voice was flatter this time.
“And you think it has to with that freak storm we had yesterday.
“Yes,” the response was practically as flat as smooth marble.
Spike still folded his arms and looked at the unicorn skeptically, “Twilight, I know we’ve been through a lot of things, but do you really buy all that?”
“Well, I don’t know if what she is saying is true,” Twilight responded, “But I can’t say she’s lying either. Only way to know for sure is if we look into this together. Now don’t give her a hard time alri…”
Before she said another word, she heard a thump. The familiar sound made from a book hitting the ground. She turned and went to where the sound came from. She saw Faith, and book that apparently fallen next to her. And she was…crying?
Twilight saw that Faith was indeed sobbing, as she was also sadly muttering something under her breath as she covered her face with her hooves. Twilight walked up to her to see what’s wrong.
“Hey, are you alright?” Twilight asked softly.
Faith merely mumbled untellable noise in response. Twilight got closer to her and put her hoof over her shoulder, trying to comfort her the best she can.
“*sob* … frie…s…,” Faith mumbled.
“What was that?” Twilight asked softly.
“My friends,” Faith finally managed to say, “I miss my friends.”
Twilight realized what she was talking. She must have been with others when she went missing, “I… I see. I guess you must be very close to them.”
“I am,” Faith sniffled, “They’re all I have left.”
Twilight was actually caught off guard by this statement, “Wait, they're ... what?? What about family?”
“No…,” Faith responded, tears still coming out of her eyes.
“No?” Twilight repeated, confused, “What do you mean? Don’t you have parents?”
“No,” Faith repeated, before facing Twilight. She calmed down, but tears were still forming in her eyes.
Faith wiped away the remaining tears that were still flowing on her face before facing Twilight again.
“I … always lived in an orphanage ever since I was kid,” Faith started to explain, “I was told that was sent there as a year old baby. I was raised by the orphanage’s staff ever since.”
“Didn’t you know who your parents were?” Twilight asked.
Faith shook her head, “No, I didn’t. It … never really crossed my mind that I even had parents when I was young. To me, it was just myself, the staff, and whatever kids came and gone.”
“But we don’t stay naïve and innocent forever. As I got older, I began to notice how the other kids were constantly coming and going. I grew … curious on why there were other adults that would come, meet some of the other kids, and take them away. Pretty soon, the questions in my head started to bubble to the surface, and went around asking the nuns about everything. They caved soon enough, and told me about the orphanage I lived in.”
“Luckily, at the time, the implications had completely soared over my head. I decided to be like the other kids at the orphanage, and wait until someone came to pick me up.”
“Of course, that never happened. Every time there were adults, every kid in the orphanage plus me tried their best to get their attention. The staff always told me to show my best self if I wanted their attention. But try as I might, some of the other kids either overshadowed me or I was just never noticed.” Faith chuckled sadly to herself, “I guess I was one of those children that just seemed far too… generic to the adults. I suppose adults also aren’t likely to adopt teenagers, because as I got older, the less adults starting to pay attention to me. Pretty soon, I guess the idea of being adopted became a pipe dream for me.”
Twilight, who had been listening to all this, had been feeling nothing but shock and surprise about Faith’s life. She did indeed know the situation about orphanages, but she never heard of an instance where young foals were never adopted, not even in their early teens.
Faith was quick notice Twilight’s saddened expression, and her face quickly showed regret it, “I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No… please,” Twilight stuttered, “I didn’t… You haven’t …”
“Do you mind… if I go get some fresh air?” Faith asked, looking down, “I feel I’ve done enough to dampen your day.”
Faith got up and started to walk off, not waiting for Twilight’s response. Twilight turned, at first trying to stop her, “Faith… I…,” but her hesitation kept her from saying anything. A part wanted to say that she was sorry, but another part told her that Faith needed to be alone for a while. As Faith walked away, Spiked walked up to Twilight.
“Twilight…,” he said softly, “You’re not going to stop her?”
Twilight sighed, “She just needs some time alone. I guess you heard all that.”
“Yeah. I never… heard anyone carrying that much baggage,” he replied, “are you sure she won’t try to run away or anything?”
Before Twilight could answer, a loud thud could be heard at the door.
“I’m alright. Just tripped.”
“I don’t think she would get far anyway.”
Faith sighed as she sat outside the library. She looked up to see that there were a lot of clouds. They didn’t seem like storm clouds, as they were much whiter and less fearsome looking. She thought about how she ended up going from staying on a good building relation with these ponies, to just plain ruining it with her sad, sad bio.
Dammit, she cursed to herself, I’m really not good at this stuff by myself, am I?
She heard the library door creak open, and she turned around to see Spike peeking from the doorway. He probably was trying to sneak a look at her, because he stepped back a bit when she made eye contact with him.
“I can see you behind there,” Faith said, “I have a friend who always liked to play hide and sneak a lot. Even the smallest detail won’t escape me.”
Spike sheepishly smiled as he walked out of the door, “Sorry, just wanted to see how you’re doing. Which, by the way, are you okay?”
Faith looked down, then looked back at the dragon with the best smile she could muster, “I’m fine now. Well, not good, just… fine. What said otherwise?”
Spike just walked up to her and sat next to her, trying his best to think of an answer. “Well, your… mane is all over the place,” he said before face palming at himself.
Faith cocked an eyebrow before a hair fell in front of her eyes. She brushed it aside, and her hooves came in contact with her mane. It was actually surprisingly long, but also felt pretty disheveled.
“Oh, I see what you mean,” she remarked, “I didn’t notice it at all, honestly. I was never one to be concerned about my looks, anyway. It’s not your fault.”
“That’s good, I guess,” Spike replied, smiling sheepishly.
Some more silence followed, as the two stared in different directions. Faith took a look at Spike, who in turned looked at her back.
“What?” Spike asked.
“It’s nothing,” Faith replied.
Actually, Faith had a few questions in her head. Which had questions hooked to them as well, and ones hooked to those questions and well, and etcetera. Her thinking about that time with Indigo has basically transitioned into asking everything about the baby dragon sitting next to her. But the event that happened beforehand had made her too somber to actually try it.
After more silence, Spike finally spoke up again, “I … actually overheard you talking about yourself.”
Faith flinched when she heard him, “I’m so sorry…” she started to apologize.
“No, no it’s fine!” Spike waved both arms, “I don’t think anything… bad about you. We just met, and that kinda was outta the blue. Just took me off guard, that’s all.”
“O-oh, I see,” Faith sighed, relieved, “I just … felt that was a lousy way to introduce myself.”
“I guess. But still, you’ve lived in an orphanage for, like, your whole life. It must be pretty lonely.”
Faith looked to the side for a minute, “Well… you’re right… and wrong.”
Spike looked curiously, “What do you mean?”
“It… wasn’t bad… I wasn’t alone all the time. There were always the other orphans I would play with, before they had to leave. But then again, there wasn’t anyone my age that could stick around long enough that I can truly call a friend. But there were other orphans, who have been with me forever since I met them.”
“Really? Who were they?” Spike asked.
She smiled again, only this time it seemed to be slightly more positive. “The first one was Hunter. When he first came, he was a loner who tried to isolate himself from larger groups. At first I was one of the only kids to try to talk to him, and went for a while trying to avoid people. Eventually, I got him to open up when I beat him in a game of baseball batting. Now that I think about, finding out he hated losing was the first actual thing I learned about him.”
“That sounds like somepony familiar I know,” Spike chuckled.
“Is it? Well, Hunter and I have been the greatest of friends ever since. Then came the twins, Willow Evergreen and Maple Evergreen. First time I met them, Willow was the overprotective brother while Maple was the scared little sister. But I was quite curious about them, being twins and such, due to the fact that I never met a pair like that. Willow was stand offish, and while he would talk to me a little, he wasn’t completely opening up. Maple, on the other hand, while she was shy as heck, wanted to actually hang out with me. And some say, when one twin comes, the other follows. Maple started opening up to me, which followed with Willow being less hostile with me. We’ve just stuck together ever since.”
“Then there was Indigo, the friendliest guy I’ve, but also the biggest mystery in my life. When he came on the first day, he was completely quiet. He wouldn’t say anything or talk, and he always sat by himself. I could barely get anything out of him. Then suddenly after a week of being there, he suddenly was possibly the friendliest person in the building. I was surprised, truth to be told, but after a bit, I welcomed the change. Still couldn’t figure him out, but he always that ray of sunshine on my shoulder.”
“Last but not least was Raine. She was a strange case of being an orphan, in her terms.”
“How?” Spike asked curiously.
“Well, for one, she came from a rich family. Her life was … confusing, to put it lightly. She had a mansion, which was where she really lived. However, for some reason she kept getting dropped at the home we lived in. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a picnic for her. But my friends and I were always there to keep her company, and pretty soon she start visiting us all the time when she was a bit older.”
Faith smiled fondly as she remembered the things that she her friends have been through. Most the memories she remembered were ones that certainly felt like they occurred yesterday.
“Wow, they sound like great ponies anyone could have as a friend,” Spike complimented.
Faith nodded, “Yeah, thinking about them right now has definitely made me feel better. Thanks for cheering up.”
Spike rubbed the back of his head in bashfulness, “It was nothing. Anyway, Twilight probably wants to see you when you’re ready.”
“Yeah, okay,” Faith said, “Where are you off to?”
“Uhh… nowhere,” he smiled in an innocent-as-possible, “Just… taking care of some stuff… Uh that’s it. A-anyway, see-ya.”
Spike ran off before Faith could say anything to stop him. Faith simply shrugged to herself as she got up and entered the library again. She made sure she didn’t trip again, or else she probably will need a trip to the doctor’s. She looked forward to find Twilight, along with piles of books next to her. She appeared to be completely engrossed in whatever she was reading. Faith walked over to her to try to get her attention.
“Hey, Twilight,” the lavender unicorn didn’t respond. Faith walked closer, but did not see the single, loose book that just so happened to be at her feet. Inevitably, she tripped.
“WHOA!”
She fell into one of the book piles, which cause some of the books to fly into the air. Some landed on the floor, and some on her. One book landed on the open book in front of Twilight, which actually did cause her to look up. She turned her head to find Faith half buried in some books.
“Oh my goodness!” Twilight exclaimed, “Faith!? Are you okay, what happened??”
Faith poked her head out of the books, moaning, “I’m fine, just tripped. Again…,” she rubbed her head in embarrassment, and to comfort the imaginary bump of pain on her head, “What’s with all these books?”
“Research material!” Twilight quipped, smiling sheepishly as she helped remove books off of her.
“Research?” Faith questioned, picking up one of the books off of her and read the cover, “’Exploring the Aether for fun and profit’? Twilight, what…”
Twilight cut her off, “I really want to help you. You said that your friends are the only ones you have left, right?”
Faith nodded, “Yeah, so…?”
“I’m gonna help you get home no matter what,” Twilight announced confidently, “You shouldn’t have to be separated from them like this. I’ll do what it takes get you home, okay!?”
Faith was touched by Twilight’s proclamation. Besides her friends, no one who didn’t know her were that selfless to help her despite only knowing for a few moments.
“Thank you,” she replied gratefully, “I… don’t know how to respond.”
Some silenced was shared between the two, before a low gurgling noise completely broke it. Faith gripped her stomach, feeling her gut rumble for a bit.
“Oh! Well… this is… pfft,” a silly looking grin showed up on her face, as she tried to stifle laughter. She looked up to find an equally ridiculous smile on the lavender unicorn’s face.
“….HAHAHAHA!”
Both ponies burst into laughter, unable to hold it back much longer. Both of them laughed their heads off as they rolled on the floor.
“Oh goodness gracious,” Faith coughed out, still in hysterics as she calmed a bit, “I guess I should take care of my body first before all else, huh?”
“Ye-yeah,” Twilight responded while wiping a tear, “I think the research can wait. Let me go fix you something before we start on our research.”
As Twilight walked off to the kitchen, Faith got up and decided to reorganize the books she ran into. As she quick read each title, she heard a faint rumble from outside. She looked out of one the windows to see that the previously white clouds start to become grayer. She walked up to the window, seeing that the clouds were indeed a deep shade of gray and far more ominous than before.
Why do I feel like my troubles aren’t over yet, she thought to herself worryingly.
“Hey Faith, can you come here for a minute?” Twilight called from inside, “I need to know if you’re allergic to anything.”
“Huh? Oh right, coming!” she responded as she walked to where ever Twilight was.
Whatever was worrying her, she felt she was better off dwelling on it later. As she walked away from the window, a single drop hit the window, tapping it softly.
Back in the forests of Everfree, all was quiet with dark clouds looming over. Well, it would be technically be empty too, if it were not for the presence of a white unicorn and purple dragon wandering the place. Spike had technically told Twilight that he was going to go see Rarity, but didn’t mention the part he was going to the cave with the latter.
“Spike, are you absolutely sure it is here?” Rarity asked, what could’ve been the tenth variation of the same question.
“It’s supposed to be, I’m sure of it,” Spike answered back.
Actually, he wasn’t quite sure. For the past few hours, Spike took her to where he believed was the location that the cave was. The issue was that it happened to be in an area where it went off the main path. It quickly became apparent that they were lost at that point.
“Rarity, I know it was here,” Spike said, “You gotta believe me.”
“I believe you, Spike,” Rarity responded in a sympathetic tone, “believe me, I would never think that you would fake a story of Twilight pulling out a drowning mare. But still, this cave you kept talking about seems to be quite a ways away and must be somewhere else. Are you really sure it is worth it?”
“I’m sure of it,” he said with as much confidence as he mustered, “When I show you this cave, you’ll be knocked off your socks.”
“Darling, I’m not wearing socks,” she responded amusingly.
With the response flying over him, Spike decided to continue the search. Whatever it was going to take, he was definitely going to find the place.
On the small yacht, Hunter was on the side of the side of the deck, tapping his feet furiously. After Faith fell off board last night, the five friends have gone to various lengths to find her for the several hours. Hunter and Willow had started steering the yacht around to try to spot her. Indigo got a rubber raft and oars and started to scout out the area. Raine had called on her cell to send help, but it turned out to be delayed, so she decided to join Indigo on the raft.
So far, no one has found a trace of her, much to Hunter’s frustration. Hunter continued to scan the horizon, hoping to find anything that could lead them to Faith.
“Hunter, can you find anything?” Willow called out to him, the former standing at the other side of the ship.
“Still looking,” Hunter responded back, impatiently, “How’s your end?”
“…Nothing,” he simply answered. A bit of time passed before he spoke up again, “This is hopeless…”
Hunter immediately turned to Willow when he heard the remark. He didn’t like what he was hearing. “What the hell do you mean??”
Willow turned around to look at Hunter, “We’ve been searching forever. You’d think we would find something by now.”
“What are you saying?? That we should give up?!” Hunter started to get confrontational.
“That’s not it. I’m saying we should regroup until we can get help.” Willow replied, trying to keep.
“And then what?? That’ll take way too long. You seriously thinking about giving up now??”
Willow was doing his best to keep a straight face, “Hunter, listen to yourself! We haven’t had any luck finding her. If we did, we wouldn’t be out here for hours. We have to try again with more help another.”
Without warning, Hunter suddenly grabbed Willow by the collar.
“We are NOT leaving Faith!” he yelled furiously, “I refuse to leave her. She could still be out there.”
“And what then?!” Willow shouted back, gripping Hunter’s shirt collar with a single hand, “How do we know she is still even alive?! We have no idea what’s her state, let alone where she is.”
“So why should we stop?? She wouldn’t give up on us!”
“I know that! I’m not saying we give up. I’m saying we have to try something different! Do you intend to stay here, in the middle of this god-forsaken lake, just to try to aimlessly find one person?!”
The two of them simply stared down each other, still gripping each other’s clothing. Hunter didn’t want to admit it, but Willow was right on one thing. They still had no idea where to continue looking for Faith.
“Hey, guys!” Maple suddenly started calling from the front of the boat, “Willow! Hunter! Indigo and Raine are back!”
Hunter looked away from Willow when he heard this. Sure enough, the top of a latter was hooked on the side of the boat, and the group’s resident mood maker got onto the boat, followed by Raine.
“Hey guys,” Indigo positively greeted, seemingly not reading the current atmosphere, “What’s going on??”
Hunter immediately let go of Willow, who did the same as well, “Nothing, just settling our differences.”
‘Settling our differences’ was a phrase all too often used when it came Willow and Hunter. Everyone pretty much agreed that when those two argue, it would inevitably lead to physical blows being exchanged. The others would scold the two for whatever disagreement they got themselves into. An unspoken rule was created as a result, as Hunter and Willow agreed to drop everything when someone else was about to get involved.
Of course, Indigo raised an eyebrow without changing his usual expression, “You sure?”
Willow quickly straightened his shirt, “We’re fine. Trust us.”
Indigo shrugged, “Alright. Anyway, Hunter, I’m sorry.” He bowed his head to Hunter.
The latter had a feeling he knew this was the answer to his unspoken question, “You couldn’t find Faith either, huh?”
“Yeah,” Indigo simply answered back, “It’s so weird, though.”
“What is,” Willow cocked an eyebrow, “the fact that Faith is missing for too long or the fact we can’t find her?”
Indigo looked up, lost in thought, “I mean… Even if things weren’t running in our favor, I honestly thought we would’ve been able to find something. Yet we didn’t: not in the middle of the lake, not on the shores, and not even underwater.”
Hunter gave a skeptical look, “What was that last part about underwater?” Now that he thought about, Indigo did indeed look soaked, as water was dripping from his pants.
“Indigo went diving occasionally,” Raine explained, “He thought he could find something underwater.”
“But still, no one disappears without a trace just like that. And Faith is great at swimming, so we would expected something as soon as last night to find her. But nothing, not her or any trace, has come up. That’s strange.”
Hunter couldn’t help but feel that Indigo had a very good point. For all the time they’ve been searching, absolutely nothing came up, despite how thorough they’ve been.
“Plus, there’s the fact that freak rainstorm. Raine, didn’t you say we wouldn’t have to worry about bad weather for a while, a week at least,” Indigo asked.
Raine nodded, “Yeah, but since when have forecasts always been accurate? Plus, I don’t see how a bit of rain has anything do to with this.”
“But still, it was way too large to be not noticed by forecasters,” Indigo pointed out, “Plus, I don’t remember a storm capable of creating large waves. Doesn’t it sound strange?”
Hunter shook his head, “Indigo, how on in the fu…” Raine gave him a look, “How the hell does that have to do finding Faith?”
Indigo gave a quizzical look while tilting his head sideways, “I dunno, isn’t that a good question?”
Hunter smiled amusingly as he shook his head. In times like these, it’s still amazes him that Indigo was capable of thinking such random assumptions despite the gravity of any situation. He looked up for a minute, realizing how dark it was starting to get. He hadn’t realized at all that the sunset pretty much almost set, and the moon was visible again.
“Damn, dark already,” he remarked.
“We should probably call off the searching,” Raine suggesting, “We’re not going to get anything done at the dark.”
Willow nodded, “Right, let’s…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Indigo interrupted him, “Uhh, guys, anyone feel like taking two on ‘Freak Tropical Rainstorm?’”
Hunter looked, an indeed, there were once again dark clouds, threateningly looming over them in the sky. It quickly got dark as the clouds moved over them. Hunter felt a something wet bounce off his shoulder.
“Aww, shi…”
“Hey you two!”
Spike and Rarity looked. Above the trees, a cyan and rainbow colored pegasus flew in.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” Spike waved, “What’s up?”
“I was about to ask the same thing,” Rainbow responded, “What are you and Rarity doing in Everfree, wandering around like this?”
“Spike insisted that we try to find the cave he and Twilight previously took shelter in last night,” Rarity answered, “We’re a just a tad bit off track at the moment, but hopefully Spike here will be back on track.”
“Well, you better be faster about it,” Rainbow remarked, then pointed to the sky, “Rain is schedule to come down soon, so you better make it quick.”
“Oh my, is that so,” Rarity said warily, “In that case, we should probably hurRRRY UUUPPP!?”
As she made her remark, a sudden flash of heavy rain came down on the trio’s heads. Heavy torrents of water poured from the sky, making large crashing noises with the local trees and Flora.
“Yikes!! Run!” was all Spike yelled before sprinting off in a random direction.
Rarity and Rainbow followed suit, trying their best to follow the young dragon through the forest. They ran through the thick brush and forest as the sound of thunder and flash of lightning happened around them.
“Rainbow Dash! I thought the rain wasn’t supposed to be bad since yesterday,” Rarity yelled, “You told me that yourself!”
“I did! We and weather team made sure to triple check the clouds ever since the freak rain yesterday. I even made sure the rain in the clouds were only able capable of class 3 rain. This is way beyond what we were setting up for,” Rainbow Dash shouted.
“Hey, guys! Over here,” Spike shouted behind him, “I think I see shelter.”
Following Spike’s voice, the two mares sped up to follow him and get out of the rain quickly. All three dove into a cave, which was dry and got them out of the rain.
“Well, that was… an unpleasant surprise,” Rarity remarked, looking at her wet mane, “And to think I had this fixed up today after yesterday’s fiasco.”
Rainbow chuckled at the sight of Rarity’s drenched mane. “Really? I think that’s an improvement any day,” she playfully comment.
Rarity ignored the remarked as she levitated a compact from her saddle bags, opening it to examine herself with the mirror inside. Spike, after shaking off the water for the second time in a week, looked around the cave. He felt that this place was familiar. Then he saw the end of the cave was a hole, a definitely familiar sight.
Spike quickly walked towards Rarity and pointed towards the entrance. “Rarity, over here! It’s over there,” he said, excited.
“Wait, what is?” she asked, caught off guard.
“The cave, this is it!” he replied with enthusiasm. While things didn’t go exactly as planned, everything had worked out in the end.
If he could afford to think at the time, it would be that things would most likely not work out well in the end.
Just like last night, a freak amount of rain had started to pour on the group’s head. Naturally, their first instinct was to duck straight in the inside of the boat. However, the wind grew strong in a heartbeat, and the boat rocked uncontrollably, sending its occupants all over the place. Hunter and the others immediately grabbed the first things that were nailed down to keep themselves from getting thrown around.
As hard rain poured onto his head, Hunter made an effort to look straight for the others, while gripping onto the railing of the boat. He saw that Raine had decided to grab the side railing as well, and held for dear life. He saw Indigo taking cover under the table that was nailed down, ducking down and hanging onto the leg.
“Aahh!” a female shriek came from another direction.
“Maple! Keep close!”
Hunter turned his head to see Maple and Willow coming from the front of the ship. When the downpour started, Willow headed straight for the front of the ship, to retrieve Maple. It felt like it was an hour since he took off, so it was actually a relief to see the two alright.
Without warning, another wave of water smashed into the boat, tilting again precariously. Hunter braced himself as he felt more water spray onto his head. He also heard Maple screech, followed by hearing a thump from something hitting the deck. He looked over to see that Maple had fallen over, and it looked like her foot was in one of the water drains.
Maple lifted herself up and held her head for a bit, and saw her foot in the hole. “What… Oh no…,” she tried to pry her foot out, but didn’t succeed, “Help! I think I’m stuck!”
Willow saw this, and was clearly had a moment of distress, “Maple! Hold on, I’m…” Before he could act, a spray of water hit him in the face, causing him lose his grip on the railing and fall back. He quickly recovered and shot his hand up, grabbing the railing and keeping himself from sliding around.
“Hey, you alright, man!?” Hunter shouted to his friend.
“I’m fine!” he shouted back, “But I’m too far from Maple! You’re closer! Help her out!”
Hunter didn’t think twice to act. He began to straddle along the rail, working his way slowly to Maple. He tasted the combination of washed up lake water and rain in his mouth, and the boat continued to shake relentlessly. Regardless, he pressed forward with determination, and eventually got to Maple’s side. He bent down, one hand on the rail, and tried to see if he could pry her foot out of the water drain.
It didn’t come out willingly, though. “Ow! Ow!” Maple winced, “I think it’s in the wrong way.”
“Here, lemme get it righted,” Hunter got both hands to get a good grip on her foot, “Here straighten your foot out, and it should go through just fine.”
Maple did so, and with a tug, Hunter got her foot out. He helped her on her feet and she got a grip on the railing.
“Th-thank you…,” Maple said shakingly.
“INCOMING!”
What came next came in a complete blur. Before Hunter could act, a humongous wave hit the side of the boat opposite to Hunter and Maple’s side, and water came rushing in on the deck. Hunter was swept off his feet, and got knocked over the side of the barrier. However, either by pure instinct or sheer luck, he managed to grab onto the side, hanging for dear life. He looked down to see the raging lake water, far more ferocious than the tranquility it previously exuded. He tried to pull himself up and into the boat, but for some reason felt too weak to do so.
That’s when two pairs of hands reached out and grabbed his arms. He looked up to see Willow and Raine above him, holding onto his arms.
“Hunter, you alright?” Willow called out. Hunter nodded in response.
“Don’t worry, we got you,” Raine assured him.
“Hey, guys,” two pairs of arms were wrapped around Raine and Willow’s waists. “We got you two. On the count of three, we pull him up,” Indigo called out.
For one second, the feeling of relief had overcome Hunter. The next, an enormous amount of fear surfaced up. As the boat tilted again, this time on the opposite of their friends, he saw a wave of water. Not just an ordinary, leg brushing wave. It was tall, too the least, and it seemed to be at least the height of the boat. And it was still building height.
Oh fucking hell and back…, he thought before shouting, “Everyone, look out!!”
Raine was the first to look, and needless to say, a look of shock immediately became her expression. However, she, nor anyone else were able to act before the next thing happened.
Without warning, the boat hit with enormous amounts of force, along with a strong surge of water sweeping through the deck at waist height. Everyone was literally thrown out of the boat and into the water, Hunter included. He his vision blurred greatly as he entered the water, he blinked a few times as everything cleared again as he found himself in the water. He looked around for the others. Raine was in pretty deep and was trying to go for the surface, Willow was trying to reach toward Maple, who appeared to be unconscious, and Indigo appeared to floating around rather nonchalantly.
Hunter looked up and decided to try to luck going for the surface. However, when he tried, he suddenly felt like something had caught his leg. He looked down at his leg, and could barely make out some like of black object wrapping around his ankle like a snake around a tree branch. He tried sliding it off with his free foot, then reached down and try to pull it off. Both attempts proved to be futile. He looked up to find himself to further from the surface water, and furiously thrashed upward. Try as he might, his efforts to resist getting tugged down to the surface did nothing. It wasn’t helping that he felt that the water was trying suck him in now. He looked around to find the others, but it had become so dark around him that he barely see anything. Then a rushed round of air started to escape his mouth a bit before he quickly covered his mouth with his hands.
Dammit, I need air, alarms ran off in his head as he tried to hold his breath a little longer. He then started to feel light headed.
No, it can’t … end like... this.
“Spike, are you sure it supposed to do that…??” a worried Rarity asked.
“Uhh…, I think…?” Spike replied.
In truth, he wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. When they first entered the underground cave, Rarity, to say the least, squealed like a little girl that saw their lifelong idol. It was all fine until the pool at the end of cave was acting up again. It was moderate at first, but when the group got a closer look, suddenly escalated in an instant. It was like someone started to set off a bunch of bombs underwater. Water was sloshing all over the place, and looked as if whole waves of it would jump out of the pool completely. This was clearly far fiercer than the first time Spike and Twilight witnessed it.
“You’re saying this happened before,” Rainbow asked inquisitively, “What’s making it do this?? Is there something under there making it do that?”
Spike shook his head, “I don’t know! Twilight said she didn’t find anything at the bottom of the lake. That, and the fact that it was a shallow lake! I’ve got nothing.”
To their surprise, it had begun to settle down before coming to a complete halt. It went back to its moderately tranquil state, as if what had occurred before was non-existent. The duo of ponies plus one baby dragon looked at the lake, unable to decide what to do.
Rainbow was the first to act, as she started to hover closer in. “Careful, Rainbow,” Spike cautioned her as he tried to follow up slowly.
“No biggie,” she tried to assure the other two, “it’s probably nothing. Freaky, yeah, but it’s totally fine.”
Rarity didn’t become any less worried, “Darling, I’m not so sure. Twilight was here last time, and they had to rescue a pony from drowning.”
Rainbow snorted, “What? Your saying that somepony else might pop up?” At this point she hover just over the edge of the lake, one hoof dangerously close to the water.
Without warning, a hoof shot out of the water and grabbed onto Rainbow’s hoof. “HOLY BUCK!” She sprung back in surprise, trying to shake off the grip, but couldn’t.
As she moved away from the lake, she also ended up dragging out a pony. One that appeared to sputtering water and gasping for air. Spike and Rarity ran to their side as the cyan pegasus managed finally shook what felt like a death grip off her fore hoof. As they gathered around, a closer inspection revealed it to be a blue tinted white unicorn stallion.
Spike shook him a bit as he lay on his side, “Hey! Are you alright?”
“Spike, I’m not sure that’s proper first aid,” Rarity spoke up.
“…thers…,” a voice spoke.
“Huh?” Rainbow got closer, “Speak up!”
The stallion, still unmoving and eyes completely shut, spoke with a strained voice, “…others… in … the water.”
“What!? Seriously!?” the rainbow maned pony prepared to dive into the pool, “Say no more, I’m going in!”
“Hold on Rainbow!” Rarity ran after her, apparently intending to do the same.
“Wait, girls… I… ugh!” Spike decided to follow suit as the other two dove into the water.
Spike, while he didn’t know what was going on right now, knew one thing: Twilight would have a fit about this once she gets wind of it.
The next morning, it was decided between Twilight and Faith that the latter should go to the hospital to check up on her health. While it seemed that she was absolutely fine, the lack of motor skills among other things had worried the lavender unicorn. They decided to check if there were anything else that might be a concern.
Currently they both were at the hospital, in the lobby to be precise. Faith and Twilight sat in a pair of chairs as they waited for the test results. Faith simply tapped her knees, as she felt quite content for herself. Twilight, on the other, looked oddly nervous, as she kept muttering nervous ramblings to herself.
“…oh dear, oh dear. What if those results come back with nothing? Then we might end up having to retake everything! But wait, what if they find something weird and completely alien?! Oh, then they’ll take you for questioning and possibly put on truth serum or something or try to dissect you in your sleep!” was just at least a quarter of the wild assumptions she came up with.
Faith turned to Twilight, now very worried about her new friend’s mental state. “Twilight, relax. I think it’ll be fine. It was just a small test,” she tried to assure her.
“JUST A SMALL TEST!?” The panicking unicorn gripped the other’s shoulders, “Faith, your entire life is at stake here! This isn’t just any trip to the doctor to check your heartbeat and go home with a lollipop! IT is a test that determines your current state and everything that will determine your future!!” at this point, Twilight’s mane had a random loose cowlick spring up.
“Right, my life at stake here,” the white-purple unicorn said in a sarcastic, deadpan tone, “not yours. So why are you panicking as if it was your test?”
Twilight immediately picked up on the tone of her voice and her unamused look, and quickly let go, smiling sheepishly, “Sorry, I panicked. Happens with tests I have.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Faith chuckled, “Still, I’m pretty sure that everything will be alright.”
“Faith Summers?” a nurse called out as she came in.
“Oh, over here,” Faith waved over.
The nurse walked up to her, holding a clipboard, “Well, the doctor took look at the x-ray and other physical exams. They didn’t find anything wrong with you, at least nothing that comes off as obvious. Anyway, you said that you recently nearly drowned?” Faith nodded. “Well, from where we see it, you’re perfectly healthy. If you feel ill or anything that might look like some kind of symptom, come back immediately, okay?”
“Okay, nurse,” Faith responded, “Thank you, though.” As the nurse walked away, she then turned to Twilight as she hopped out of her seat, who looked a lot more relaxed, “See? Everything's perfectly fine. It was just nothing more than a simple trip to the hosp…”
“INCOMING!”
Faith was interrupted by a sudden shout from down one of the hallways. She and Twilight turned their heads towards the direction, and saw something coming towards them. It appeared to be a bluish gray pony with a messed up blue mane, careening down the hallway in a wheelchair.
His voice also, for some reason, sounded very familiar to Faith.
“HEY!! Get the out the friggen’ way!!” the stallion shouted again.
Faith snapped out of her mini trance to see that the wheelchair coming at her fast. And fear pretty much was making her hooves weigh like lead. She looked to Twilight, who was yelling something but she could make out what she saying. She tried to translate what she was shouting.
Duck and cover, was all that typed into her brain.
She instinctively hit the floor, closed her eyes, and covered her head with her fore hooves, bracing for impact. What happened was against anyone’s expectations.
When the wheelchair hit Faith, it hit her with its wheels first. Having something suddenly in its way caused it to fly into the air, sending it and its rider flying in the air. The pony, now easily identified as a pegasus stallion(1), screamed in surprise as he flew helplessly through the air. He hit ground chest and lower jaw first, and skidded on the floor for a bit before stopping.
Faith, who felt the surprisingly light impact on her body, opened her eyes to see the end result. She saw the wheelchair turned over in one place, and a now moaning stallion ahead of it. As she got up, Twilight hurried to her side.
“Faith! Are you alright??” Twilight asked, panicked.
“I’m fine. It didn’t feel like a hard hit, actually,” she replied, brushing her coat, “How’s our free rider, though?”
The two unicorns walked up the collapsed stallion, who was had his eyes shut and was still moaning.
“Excuse, mister,” Twilight asked, “Are you okay?”
“No,” was the immediate response she got, “who was the asshat that placed a road bump in the middle of a hallway?”
Okay, now why does he sound so familiar? Faith thought to herself.
Twilight winced a bit at the remark, “Well, you shouldn’t have gone joyriding on a wheelchair in a hospital. Somepony could’ve gotten hurt!”
“Oh, someone did get hurt, alright,” the stallion rubbed his head, “this guy. By the way, I was trying to escape, thank you very much.”
Now why does that voice ring so many bells? Faith asked herself, paying no real attention to the conversation.
“Well, you little attempt at early release almost landed my friend here in a bed here!” Twilight argued back, “Now apologize to Faith here.”
“Yeah, sure, whatev…,” the pegasus’s voice suddenly trailed off as he opened his eyes, “Wait, who?”
Faith looked down at the pegasus, who was looking back at her. A pair of very distinct green eyes met her golden yellow ones. The look of surprise covered his face, while a slow twist of realization crept into Faith’s head.
She after all, knew only one person with the same voice and eyes.
“HUNTER?!” she blurted out.
“FAITH!? Holy hell, is that you!?” the pegasus stallion shot straight up on his feet
“Yes!” Faith nodded rapidly twice, “Omygosh, it really is you!”
“We thought we lost you!” Hunter replied, excitement and relief mixed in his voice.
“Uhh…, excuse me?” Twilight interjected, looking a little confuse, “I’m kinda lost here. Faith, do you know this stallion?”
“Oh, right he’s…”
“There he is! Stop him!”
A sudden shout from what looked like a doctor was followed immediately by what could only described as a bunch of hospital staff members attempting a football tackle on Hunter. He could only mutter a ‘oh crap’ before bunch of ponies completely dogpiled him. Faith and Twilight winced as the inevitable occurred. They looked to see a pile of nurses and doctors piling over him.
“Hunter! Are you okay??” Faith shouted into the pile.
A head poked out of the bottom of the pile, “Oww… That. hurt.” He said bluntly.
“Finally got you! I still can’t believe that you went down a flight of stairs in that wheelchair,” one of the ponies on the pile remarked.
“A flight of stairs?” Twilight repeated with a cocked eyebrow.
Hunter smiled sheepishly, “It wasn’t that hard. What, you expected me to run on OW! What’s pulling something at my behind?! Is it a tail? Do I have a tail now!?”
Faith went around the pile to check the back, and was met with an extremely odd sight. There was light blue pony in a hospital gown, tugging a blue tail. Actually, she was biting said tail and growling like a dog. Her mane also looked pretty disheveled.
“The heck…?” was all Faith pulled.
“Faith, what do you see back OW! there?” Hunter called out.
“Ummm well...” Faith called back, extremely hesitant.
“Do I wanna know?”
“No, not really.”
“Finally, there you are,” a doctor came up and dragged the dog like pony away, “Really, how many times has this got to be?”
Faith simply gave a blank look at the pony being dragged while still barking mad. She then saw Spike ran up, who was clearly out of breath.
“Spike, what are you doing here,” she asked as the baby dragon slowed to a halt.
“Phew, give me a sec,” he replied, breathing heavily while holding his knees, “Kinda been running all day. Now where’s…” He caught sight of the dogpile next to him. “Oh well, we got him.”
“Spike, what are you doing here?” Twilight repeated Faith’s question as she walked.
“Oh Twilight, hey there. I was kinda watching this guy, hoping he was okay after we fished his out of the underground lake. When he woke up, he freaked out completely, like he’s never seen a dragon before. Anyway, he jumped out his bed and try to make a beeline for the front door. The doc and I were able to keep up cuz’ he stumbled a lot. But when he got his hooves on a wheelchair, it was almost impossible to keep up him. This guy!” The dragon gave a grumpy huff, folding his arms. “Really! I go through the trouble helping him out of a watery grave along his friends, and this is the thanks I get!? You agree with me, right girls??”
Spike turned around only to be met with a duo of stares. Ones that included shrunken irises, gaping mouths, and speechlessness.
“What?”
“Oh, Hunter! I missed you so much!”
“Yes, Faith I know.”
“I completely felt lost without you and the others.”
“I missed you too. Now please stop hugging me. People are gonna stare, especially since I can’t do it back.”
Faith, who had been hugging her friend for quite some time while her face was rubbing against his, quickly let go and gave a sheepish smile. It was quite understandable, considering he had been tied by the legs with the bed posts.
“Did they really have to tie my goddamn feet to the posts,” Hunter lamented irritably, “all four of them.”
Faith simply shrugged and looked out to the room. On one side, a nurse and doctor were going through what looked like some notes on Hunter. On the other side, Spike was explaining what he had been doing last night to Twilight, whose expressions changed constantly from shock, frustration, and worry.
“And after taking them to the hospital with Rarity and Rainbow Dash, you decided to stay to see if they would be alright?” Twilight said, finishing up a recounting of events that Spike already explained.
“Yup,” Spike simply replied, looking like he just saved a princess.
“And you didn’t think to come to me immediately about this new development?” Twilight eyes narrowed.
Spike’s own expression quickly changed to nervous smiling, “Well, it might have crossed my mind once, but I wanted to make sure they’re alright. I mean, I couldn’t just leave ‘em like that.”
Twilight continued to give a look that crossed irritation and anger. Then she gave a content sigh, “Well, you helped hold down the fort and kept an eye on them.”
Faith walked up to Spike. “Thank you, Spike, for rescuing my friends,” she said, wearing a grateful smile, “I… really didn’t think something like this could happen, and I’m glad to have met you. So, again, thank you.”
Spike rubbed the back of his bashfully, “It was nothing. Well, it’s still a pretty big deal, I guess. I still had help, though, so you should probably thank Rainbow and Rarity as well.”
“I’ll be sure to do that. Hey, Hunter, got something to say?” Faith called back to her friend.
Hunter, who was looking around from his restrained positioned, looked over, “Oh huh? Yeah, thanks, dude. I suppose?”
Faith chuckled at his friend’s hesitation. The doctor finished up his conversation and walked over to the group.
“Oh, Doctor Stable,” Twilight greeted him, “How’s our attempted escapee doing as far of his condition?”
“Hey, I resent that!”
“Well, besides that previous fiasco, it seems that he is in perfect condition,” the doctor told them, “If anything, that incident showed us he’s okay enough after a near drowning incident. We can release him right now, if you wish.”
“Thank you,” Faith thanked the doctor, before something else caught her mind, “Actually, I was wondering. Was there anyo…er, anypony else that had similar conditions and registered at the same time as him?”
The doctor flipped through his notes, “Yes, four others in fact. Your dragon friend here and two others also brought them in last night. We recently got done with examinations, and they all seemed to be in perfectly good condition. Were you thinking about them getting released as well?”
“That would be convenient for us,” Twilight responded, “I’ll handle any paperwork you got. Hey Faith, go ahead of me, while ask the doctor here some much needed questions.”
“Okay, sure,” Faith replied as she started to walk out the door.
“Hey, since I can be let go from this place,” Hunter called out, “Can you, like, I don’t know, untie me!?”
Faith smiled sheepishly as she and the others untied him from him from his bounds.
Faith and Hunter walked in the hallway, following the nurse as she led them to one of the rooms that held one of their friends. Faith had just finished telling the other what she knew so far.
“So, ponies, huh,” Hunter remarked, looking at himself.
“Yup,” Faith simply nodded, before looking down at his hooves, “You already seemed to gotten the hang of walking.”
“Have I?” Hunter lifted a foreleg, then simply shrugged his shoulder, “I guess I just a natural at doing stuff when I’m not thinking too much about it.”
“I could barely walk without Twilight’s help,” Faith chuckled to herself, then thought back on their friends, “So, you think that others will react badly as you did?”
Hunter winced as he was reminded of his early gaffe, “Well, let’s see… Willow would probably more worried about how Maple would take it, as usual. Maple, on the hand, would probably be gushing over every cute thing that comes within ten feet. Or fascinated, take your pick. Indigo… I dunno, would wanna know everyone’s diet. Anything’s possible with the guy.”
Faith made a giggling noise, “It is, isn’t it? What about Raine?”
“Her? Wellllll… I’m drawing blanks here. Criticize everyone’s color choice?”
Faith looked up as the nurse directed the two to one of the doors in the hallway. She looked in smiled. There was a mare on the bed inside, sleeping soundly.
“Why don’t we ask her ourselves?”
“Raine? Raine, are you awake?”
Raine stirred, as the feeling of sleep slowly but surely escaped her body. Her mind was groggy, as she felt she heard a familiar voice.
“Raine? Is it you? Please open your eyes if it is?”
With a little bit of effort, she opened her eyes, and found herself staring at a white ceiling. She quickly realized that she was in a hospital room. She also realized who the voice belonged to.
“Faith, dear? Is that actually you??” she looked forward, expecting to see her friend.
Instead of that, what she did see was a pastel colored, lightly purple shaded white unicorn. That also happened to have a familiar pair of yellow eyes.
“Oh good, you are awake,” the unicorn said with relief, definitely sounding like Faith.
Raine blinked several times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, “Faith, are you a… unicorn?”
“Oh, yeah,” Faith replied, “It’s kinda of a long story. Or rather, I think it would be one ‘cause I have no idea how this happened.”
Raine was having difficult time believing what was occurring in front of her, “Faith, if that is really you, and this isn’t a dream, is it?”
“Oh, that… well…” before Faith could try to come an answer, several strands of her mane fell in front of her eyes, “Oh, whoops.”
“Oh my, Faith, your locks are all over the place,” Raine said, observing her friend’s extremely disheveled hair, “Come here, let me see I can fix that.”
Faith trotted closer to Raine, as the latter reached out to adjust her friend’s hair. As she did, she saw that her hands had been replaced with a pair of hooves. She recoiled a bit, as she was taken surprised, but a part of her mind already realized that the unexpected just happened. She resumed her attention to Faith, and, much to her own surprise, brushed her mane with ease.
“Thanks Raine,” Faith said gratefully, “I didn’t really get a chance to fix this up. Didn’t realize how messed my hair was.”
“It isn’t a problem,” Raine chuckled slightly, “I’m absolutely relieved that you are okay. Tell me, where are the others? Tell me they are okay as well.”
“Oh, I think their fine,” Faith assured her friend, “Hunter is actually with me at the moment.”
“Our resident athlete? Where is he?” Raine asked.
“He’s outside, dunno why though. Hey, Hunter! Get in here!” the unicorn shouted to the door.
Raine looked at the doorway to see what looked like a bluish gray pony peeking into the room. The green eyes it had made it clear to her that it was indeed Hunter.
“Hunter, for goodness sakes,” Raine spoke first, “What are you doing?”
“Oh, uh…,” Hunter voice sounded very hesitant, “Nothin’, just standing here.”
“Hunter, what is it?” Faith asked.
Hunter poked his head out, looking very worried. “Oh nothing. I just you know, worried.”
“Worried, about what?” Rained asked, now starting to become concerned.
“N-nothing, I mean. You look a lot better than the doc was telling me. Didn’t think any of that … you know, plastic surgery, was gonna help.”
Raine immediately picked up on what he most likely was talking about: her face. It is known among the others that Raine didn’t mind getting dirty to get something done. However, there were two body parts that were considered off limits: her face and her hair.
“Hunter, what are you getting at??” she asked, at the edge of panic.
He pulled out a hand mirror from who knows where and held it out to Faith, “Here, give it to her Faith. Better she see the bad news herself.”
Faith, looking distinctly confused, took it and handed it to Raine. Raine held it up, half expecting to see some kind random stitching in the wrong place or a horrendous scar. Instead, she was met with the image of an equine with a soft round snout staring straight back at her. She had her magenta eyes, a blond mane, and several loose strands of light blue hair sticking out at certain spots. If anything, she looked like a pony version of herself.
“Now, now, don’t need to wear a long face, but in the end, we will still think of your beauty as something from within,” he said with fake, if not sarcastic, pity.
At that moment, Raine didn’t care if she got seven years of bad luck.
She pulled back her arm and threw the mirror out of anger at Hunter. He ducked out of view of the doorway, and the mirror instead hit the wall beyond it and broke into several pieces.
“Bollocking idiot! Don’t ever do that again!” she yelled indignantly.
The only response she got was a roaring amount of laughter coming from the hallway.
Faith simply facepalmed (2), “Well, I probably should have seen that coming.”
“I see that becoming a pony didn’t dampen his bloody sense of idiotic humor,” Raine remarked sarcastically, “Anyway, I guess being one isn’t half bad. If anything, I wonder if my hair is actually a different shade.”
“Good to know your taking this well. Anyway, I’ll go check how the others. A friend I met is gonna get you guys released today. So wait it out until then,” Faith said as she walked out the door.
“Cheers to you, my friend. And it was an absolutely relief to see you again.”
Faith looked at Hunter with the angriest looking eyes she could come up with as the two walked down the hallway, following the nurse to the next room.
Hunter had an amused smile, before looking Faith’s angry expression, “What?” he asked innocently.
“You know what,” Faith replied in an unamused tone.
“Oh c’mon,” Hunter retorted, “It was funny! It’s fun to mess with her!”
Faith simply shook her headed, “Just promise me the next person we find, you won’t try anything dumb.”
“Fine, but I can’t guarantee anything,” Hunter answered with a smug grin.
Faith simply gave a sigh as the two approached the next room.
“Hello, who do we have here?” Hunter asked no one in particular as he went to one side of the bed.
He and Faith found they had been led to a bigger room. It held several beds, with curtains separation each one. They had been directed to one of the middle ones, and were told that another one of their friends was next to it.
“I’m not sure who this is,” Faith said, stepping on the other side of the bed.
The pony in question was a green stallion with an orange mane. He appeared to be still out cold, as his eyes were shut tight.
“You wanna guess if it’s Willow, who’s a light sleeper, or Indigo, his shifty eye-ness keeps throwing everyone off,” Hunter asked his friend.
“Only one way to find out,” Faith shrugged as she approached the unconscious looking pony, “Excuse me, can you please wake up?” she whispered into
The pony in question moved slightly, but failed to open eyes otherwise.
Hunter rolled his eyes, “You’re not getting anywhere doing that.” He got closer to the pony, and put his head next to the left ear.
“HEY, FOOL! RISE AND SMELL THE ROSES!”
Hunter’s shout was extremely sudden and caused Faith to flinch. When she refocused attention to the subject on the bed, she thought she saw something. The eyelids appeared to have quivered slightly. What she did see was that the shut eyed pony looked, if anything, slightly irritated and gritting his teeth.
Hunter apparently must have seen something first, as he started to walk to the feet end of the bed, holding something shiny. “So we’re gonna be playing that game, eh?” He sat on his haunches and held up a pair of metal bedpans.
Faith immediately covered her ears before the thunder ran down.
*CLANG**CLANG**CLANG*
“RING-A-DING-DING, YOU KOALA!”
“AAugh!” The pony in question yelped as he shot up with his back straight, eyes shot open with shrunken orange irises, and hooves plugging up ears. He was giving a look of a distinct mix of shock and anger.
His yell also made it very clear who it was for Faith.
“Willow! Is that you?!” she asked, right before Hunter finally stopped banging the pans with a satisfied, smug look on his face.
“Yes, dammit,” the finally up and awake Willow relied with suppressed irritation, “I was trying to keep my eyes shut all the way through this.”
“Trying to wake up to the land of the two legged, huh?” Hunter remarked.
“Yes, thank you very much,” the annoyed stallion replied, trying to twist a hoof through an ear.
Willow always said that whenever he had a dream wanted wake up quickly from, he would keep his eyes shut all the way through ‘til the end. It he felt it was good method for waking up.
“Well, kinda hard to do that when it’s not a dream to begin,” Faith said with an awkward smile.
“Wait, so does that mean…” Willow turned towards her, and looked at her from head to toe, “…Faith, is that really you?”
Faith had a feeling this was going to be a pattern, “Yup, in the fur and flesh.”
Willow suddenly shot out and hugged Faith from his bed, “Don’t disappear on us like that again,” he said, relieved while retaining his serious expression.
She decided to not move for a bit, “It’s good to see you too.”
“Hey, dude. Guess who’s here as well,” Hunter flailed his arms a bit.
“Shut up, I knew who you were from the moment you entered the room,” Willow replied, in a very snarky manner, before letting go of Faith, “Anyway, where are the others? Where’s Maple??” His voice started to sound worried.
“The others are all here as well,” Faith answered, “someone is actually in here with you.”
Willow started to look a little distressed, “Is it Maple?? Please tell me she’s alright.”
Hunter grabbed the curtain to the left of the bed, “Well, why don’t we check what’s behind curtain number 1!” he swiftly pulled it aside.
Willow yelled incoherently in anger and confusion when he saw who was behind the curtain. There was pony shaped cast just lying there, along with the limbs being hung up by cloth attached to the ceiling, the only thing they could see that wasn’t covered up in cast were eyes that were wide open in surprise.
“HUNTER! What the hell!” Willow shouted angrily.
Hunter gave a genuine look of confusion before looking himself. He immediately looked away awkwardly and quickly shut the curtain. “Okay, that.... wasn’t on purpose,” he awkwardly remarked.
“So I guess it’s actually on this side,” Faith said as she tugged away the curtain to the right of the bed.
On the bed next to the right of Willow’s, lying there was a green pony who also happened to have an orange mane. She was lying there with her back turned to the others. Faith walked around the bed to see that is was a mare, due to the round snout and long eyelashes. She was also happened to look like she was out cold.
“Hey Willow, I think this is Maple,” Faith called out to him, “She looks like she’s sleeping it off, though.”
“Oh, really?” Willow asked, a little more relieved, “Well, can you check to see if it is her? Wait, what am I saying? Of course it’s her. See if she reacts to her name.” He looked to his left to see Hunter again holding a pair of bedpans. “No, you are not doing that again,” he said while slugging the guy in the shoulder.
Faith chuckled as she inched a little closer Maple. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the pony that was possibly Maple looked rather worried, due to the small frown and eyebrows in an upright at the center position.
Faith rolled her eyes at the sight, Like brother, like sister, I guess.
“Hey, Maple, are you awake?” she whispered to her, “It’s me, Faith.”
One open eye was the response she got, and she saw that it happened to be orange, just like Willow’s. This cleared any doubt that it was indeed Maple. She looked left to right with the open eye, apparently taking in Faith’s image.
“Hey, your awake,” Faith said with a smile.
Maple ended up shutting her eye again, much to the unicorn’s confusion. Faith saw that Maple was biting her lip, something she would do when extremely nervous. Faith quickly picked up that Maple most likely didn’t recognize her.
“No, no, it’s okay, it’s me,” she assured her, “A lot stuff happened, and now I’m a unicorn.”
“Is it really you, Faith?” a soft, shy voice came out of the eye shut pony, “This isn’t a dream?”
“No, it isn’t, Maple,” she responded, “I’m right here. It’s okay.”
Maple opened her eyes as a small smile came from her mouth. She saw Faith and immediately pulled out her arms to hug her. Faith, expecting it this time, immediately reciprocated the hug.
“It’s so good to see you again,” Maple said, relieved, “I was so scared I wasn’t going to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you too, Maple,” Faith responded.
The two of them hugged for a solid minute before a fake cough from Willow caught Faith’s attention. She immediately untangled herself from the shyly joyful mare as the latter looked to her left to find a relieved Willow and a waving Hunter looking back.
“Oh, Willow! Is that you,” Maple asked.
“Yes it is,” he replied, “I’m glad you are okay.”
“Hey, what about me?” Hunter exclaimed.
Maple gave a blank stare for a moment, “Oh, umm… Who are you again,” she asked innocently.
Hunter jaw opened wide enough to nearly hit the floor. “It’s me! Hunter! Don’t you recognize me!?” he said with exaggerated emotion.
“Hunter, we’ve been turned into ponies,” Willow said in his usual seriousness, “Why would you are going through the trouble of I.D.-ing everyone?”
Hunter gave a swift ‘shut it’ as Faith chuckled at the scene. Even in different forms, it seems that their disagreements still will carry over no matter where they are.
“Anyway, I guess two more off the list,” Faith spoke up as she walked up to Hunter.
“Yeah, I guess,” Hunter rubbed the back of his head, “That just leaves our personal fool, huh?”
“Oh, you mean Indigo?” Maple asked, “Does that mean you already found Raine?”
“Oh yeah, we did,” Faith answered, “She’s okay, so you don’t have to worry about her.”
Maple let off small ‘yay’ clapping her hooves together, as someone entered the room. It was the nurse that had been guiding the two throughout the place.
“I heard some yelling going on here, did something happen,” she asked with concern.
“Well, I guess you want to know where your last friend is, right,” the nurse flipped through her papers on a clip board.
“Yes, that would cool,” Hunter answered.
“Alright, just let me…,” the nurse cut herself off as she stopped flipping through notes, “Oh…”
That didn’t sound comforting to Faith. “Um, is something the matter?”
“Oh, it seems he was just recently released.”
Faith and Hunter blinked for a moment before the two let out a flat “What?”
“Yes, he appeared to have … left the hospital right before you and Miss Twilight came to us with the issue of releasing your other friends,” the nurse said as she looked through a section of papers.
“Wait! You saying he’s off on his own!?” Faith asked, alarmed.
“Yes,” the nurse explained, “He would appear that he was the first of your friends we examined. After we found him in perfect health, he insisted he was fine and left on his own accord.”
Willow held a hoof to his head in with a frustrated look on his face, “Of course it would like him to wander off on his own.”
“Could you tell me what he looked like,” Faith asked desperately.
“Umm… he was a unicorn with a light blue body and dark blue mane,” the nurse answered.
“Alright,” Hunter exclaimed, prepared to sprint through the door, “If we hurry now, we can still catch the guy…”
“Hold on,” the nurse got in front of him, “I still need you to sign some forms before we can release you.”
“What!? I thought I was released!”
“Well, not yet, officially.”
Faith walked forward, “I’ll go. I know a bit more about the town and I’m not a patient here.”
“Cool, cool,” Hunter said as relaxed his tension, “Get going, or you might lose the idiot.”
Faith nodded and sprinted out the door. The nurse was clearly confused as to what was going on.
“Uh… What exactly is wrong that we let him leave early??”
“Well…,” Willow began to answer, “It’s just that with Indigo, anything is quite possible.”
Faith ran towards Ponyville(3), intent on trying to find her friend. Contrary to what many people to tend to think Indigo as nothing but troublesome, he was actually much smarter than he tends to let on. It just that his intellect was only equaled to the whimsicalness of his odd mannerisms.
She came into two, looking around for any potential signs. She already asked the front desk where he went, and he seemed to have been heading in this direction. She looked up to see that there was a pair of ponies sitting on a bench. One mint colored one was slouching on her back while a cream colored pony sat next to her on her stomach.
“Excuse me!” Faith shouted to them as she trotted up to them, “Have you seen a blue unicorn by any chance? One with a dark blue mane?”
The mint unicorn looked up for a moment, “A blue unicorn? Hmm…. Did I see one?”
“I believe she meant the one that asked us directions, Lyra,” the cream pony said before turning to Faith, “He passed by here, asking us for the nearest fruit stand. I told his to go to the market place.”
Of course he would listen to his stomach first, Faith thought to herself. “Thank you,” she thanked the pair before heading off, only to return with a rather embarrassed expression, “Uhh, where is the market, exactly?”
“Over there,” the pony named Lyra pointed to the part of town where some stalls were visible.
“Thanks again,” she thanked before heading off again, nearly tripping over herself.
Unbeknownst to her, Lyra started to look toward her with a very interested look.
Faith headed into the market, looking around for her friend. The market was very lively, as ponies were coming and going from stall to stall. She looked around to see if anyone knew where Indigo could have walked off to. She tried the first stall she saw, which was being manned by a gruff looking stallion. His clothing suggested that he was selling cherries.
A cherry seller? That’s a thing here? She silently thought to herself before getting back on track, “Excuse me, sir. Did you see a blue unicorn here, by any chance?”
“That depends,” the stallion leaned forward, “Ya’ here to buy cherries?”
“Umm, no?” Faith answered, a little taken aback.
“Then I didn’t see anything,” the stall owner huffed, “Now get outa here if you aren’t buyin’.”
Faith walked away with huff, as she didn’t expect such a rude answer. She looked around to see if there was anyone, possibly someone kinder, that would know where to find Indigo. Her attention was turned to an apple stall, which caused her to go ‘bingo’ in her mind. Next to sweets, apples were one of the many things Indigo frequently snacked on.
As she approached the stall, she heard a little girl’s voice calling, “Buy some apples! Git yer apples here!”
Faith looked to see a little yellow filly in front of the stall, shouting enthusiastically to attract customers. Faith walked up, deciding to drum up dialogue before she delivered her question.
The yellow filly caught sight of Faith, “Howdy there, ma’am. Are you lookin’ ta’ buy some apples?”
Upon closer inspection, the young pony had a red mane, with a bow tied to the back of the head. “No, I’m just looking around,” she politely refused, “are you here by yourself?”
“Nope, I’m helpin’ ma’ sister today!” the kid replied cheerfully, “Hey, Applejack! We got a customer!”
From behind the stall, an orange pony with a blond mane and tail popped out. She also wore a stetson, had green eyes, and had freckles on both sides of her face.
“Well, howdy, miss,” Applejack greeted Faith, “What can I do for you today?”
“Yeah, I was looking for a friend,” Faith answered back, “You wouldn’t happen to know where a blue unicorn with a dark blue mane went?”
Applejack immediately nodded to the question. “Ya’ mean the one with the squinted eyes? Yeah, Ah’ saw him,” Applejack replied, “He actually swung by here just now.”
“He was really nice,” the yellow filly remarked, “he thinks Ah’ got what it takes to get mah cutie mark!”
“Yup, that sounds like him,” Faith noted, as she knew how Indigo was good around children.
“Anyway, feller was nice and all, but didn’t have a single bit on him,” Applejack added, “But considering Ah’ decided to cut him some slack, so Ah’ gave him a free sample. Anyway, if yer looking for him, he just went in that direction, to the fountain.”
“Thanks, miss…” Faith didn’t pick on the name right away.
“Applejack, miss,” she introduced herself, “Anyway, you best be off finding yer’ friend before he wanders off agin’.”
“Thank you,” Faith said before running off in the direction she was directed to.
Faith quickly ran in the direction, as the fountain came into view. She looked around for Indigo, going only by whatever info she already knew about him. As she tried to look around, she saw ponies coming and going as they pleased. She started to grow slightly frustrated as the thought of possibly missing him again came to mind.
“Hey there,” a muffled voice came from behind her, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Faith responded as she paid no attention to the voice, instead seeing a pony pulling cart in the distance, “I’m trying to look for a friend.”
“Really, what does your friend look like??”
“Unicorn with blue coat and darker blue mane,” she said as she watched another pony bounce past, “You seen him?”
“I think so. Wait… I definitely know where he is.”
Right in front of her, was, in fact, a unicorn with a blue coat as well as a dark blue mane, sitting upright nonchalantly on a bench. He also had eyes that looked shut, and held an eaten up apple in one hoof while chewing a mouthful of it.
The unicorn immediately swallowed whatever was in his mouth and greeted Faith in an unmistakable voice, “’Sup?”
“Indigo?!” Faith exclaimed, under a little disbelief.
“Who else?” he responded rather calmly, “Hey, Faith. You’re looking fine.”
“I’ve been looking all over for you!” Faith said, “What are you doing here? Why didn’t stay at the hospital?”
“What, and waste a lot of time lying in bed and do nothing?” Indigo said as he tossed the apple core at a trash can nearby, “I wanted to take look around. By the way, Faith, you look nice as a unicorn.”
Faith immediately noticed how calmly he was taking everything, if anything, he looked to be enjoying everything. “You’re certainly taking it well, being one yourself,” she remarked.
“Well, it’s a bit… strange, I must admit,” he said, raising a hoof to look at it, “Ah well, gotta enjoy while it lasts. Been too long since I had such a good dream.”
That last bit did not get past Faith without her catching on, “What was that last bit Indigo? You think this is a dream?”
“Yeah, I mean, what else is it?” he responded.
“Umm, Indigo,” Faith said, “This isn’t a dream. I’ve been here since yesterday.”
The blue unicorn tilted his head to the side while giving an expression akin to confusion, “Wait, really? So… this is all real?”
“Yes,” she simply replied.
“And you are standing, right before me, as a unicorn?” he asked again.
“Yes,” she replied again.
“And we are basically in the land of ponies, with flying and magic happening all around us,” he asked yet again.
“Yes,” Faith answered flatly, seriously wondering if this will turn another round of twenty questions.
Thankfully it didn’t, as Indigo looked he understood. “Oh wow, this is awesome,” he exclaimed, “That would explain the fatigue, though.”
“Yes, it is… Wait, what?” Faith did a double take on what he said.
Without warning, Indigo completely collapsed on his side onto the whole seat of the bench.
“Whoa, Indigo!” Faith immediately ran up to his side.
When she looked at him, she found that he was actually out cold, sleeping rather contently. Faith shook her head, realizing he was most likely ran out of energy. She looked around for a bit, then looked up. She reflected on what just happened, as she now realized her friends were now here with her, but now are in same boat as her. She thought for a moment, then raised a question and pertained everyone she knew, and the situation that was taking its forty winks in front of her.
“Ha ha ha! Seriously!? Oh, this is too much to take!”
“Umm… Hunter, would you please tone it down? This is still a hospital.”
Twilight, who had just recently finished the last of the hospital forms, was trying to get Hunter to quiet down his laughing. It wasn’t working, as he found the sight of Indigo, who Faith had brought back, slouching with the head facing the floor on Faith’s back. Faith had recently returned with an asleep unicorn on her back, finding Twilight and Hunter right away. She had to explain the half-adventure she had trying to find their friend, which Hunter found the ending to be hilarious. Faith was somewhat glad that Twilight had decided to send Spike home early.
“Yeah, sure, sorry,” Hunter tried to apologize in between fits of laughter, “But when I see something funny, the air’s gotta come out, ya know!”
Twilight simply rolled her eyes, returning her attention to Indigo, who had begun to snore for no apparent reason. “Are you sure he’s alright, Faith? You don’t want me to get another doctor here?” she asked her friend.
“No, I’m sure it isn’t necessary,” Faith replied, “He tends to do things like this. It’s… difficult to explain him.”
“Who’s difficult to explain?” a female voice asked.
Faith looked in the direction of the voice to see Raine, who was now identifiable as a blue pegasus, walking towards them. She seemed to be having slight difficulty walking, as it was slightly noticeable that she would have an odd skip or small slip up with her hooves that she tried her best to hide. That was like her, to try to keep up her grace despite difficulty in doing things she wasn’t used to.
“Hello again, Faith,” she greeted her friend, “and Hunter,” she turned her head and simply nodded once to him, who shut his eyes and stuck his tongue out in retaliation, “I was recently informed that it was okay for me go, so I decided to see if I could find you two first,” she explained, before her attention turned toward Twilight, “Oh, and who might your friend be, Faith?”
“Oh, right,” Faith said, “Twilight, meet Raine Skydance. Up and coming artist. Raine, this is Twilight. She was one of the first ponies I met in the world.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Twilight greeted, holding out a hoof to shake.
Raine shook it with a smile, “Salutations to you as well, Twilight. Any friend of Faith is a friend of mine. I should probably thank you for helping our friend in her hour of need.”
“It was nothing,” the lavender unicorn replied, “Anypony would’ve done the same in my position.”
“’Anypony’, huh… I guess pronouns here will be a little different,” Raine said thoughtfully.
She then turned her attention to Hunter, who seemed to staring out of a window.
“Hunter?”
He turned his head to Raine, who looked at him with the same smile she always wore. “What?” he asked immediately.
“Did you thank Twilight yet?” she asked him.
Hunter turned toward her, before turning his attention back to Raine looking confused, “What for?”
“For helping Faith, obviously!” Raine looked like she was ready to brain him with a vase, if she could find one, “What, you never realized she helped Faith this whole time??”
“Umm… well, I thought she just happened to be the girl that Faith just met,” he replied defensively.
“Actually, I was with her since yesterday,” Faith interjected.
Hunter gave a look that mixed mild annoyance and slight frustration, “Not helping.”
“Hunter, goodness gracious! How can you be so callous?” the blue pegasus exclaimed, “We should consider ourselves lucky Faith is as safe as she is right now! Why, if I remembered correctly, you were extremely desperate to find her!”
Hunter immediately recoiled, not liking the direction the conversation was going, “Hey, we don’t need to bring that up!”
“I will stop the conversation there, but only if you thank Twilight for what she has done,” Raine ordered seriously.
Hunter looked awkwardly at Twilight, who wore neutral look on her face. He inched closer to her side, and wrapped his right foreleg around her shoulder. He looked away as he moved Twilight closer to him, in what could only be described as his version of a thank you gesture.
“Uhh, thanks, T-Twilight,” he let out, still trying to avoid eye contact.
Twilight smiled softly as she looked at him, “It’s fine. Trust me, I’ve had worse thank you’s before.”
Hunter immediately looked at Raine, who smiled with amusement. “Better?” he asked, irritated.
“Much,” she simply replied.
Faith couldn’t help but smile widely at the scenario unfolding before him. A part of her found it amusing, while another found it to be heartening. Hunter was known for his pride by most people who only meet him a few times, but Faith and her friends knew he also had a humble side. It’s just that he had a difficult time admitting his thanks to total strangers that he knew nothing about.
Hunter immediately let go, looking very awkward, “That’s all it is, ya know I mean?”
Faith chuckled at the sight of her friend behavior, before her eye caught something at the end of hallway Raine came from. Coming down the hall was Willow, who looked like he was carrying someone. A closer observation made it clear to Faith that it was Maple who was on his back. From the looks of it, he had difficulty walking, let alone carrying his sister on his back.
It didn’t take long for Hunter to also notice the green pony down the hallway. “Hey, Willow! What took ya, and what the heck do you think you’re trying to do??”
“Hello to you too, Hunter,” Willow greeted rather dryly as he stopped when he reached the group, before looking at Raine and Twilight, “who are these two?”
“Well, it is good to see you are well, Willow,” Raine greeted him politely, “It’s me, Raine. I see you are also well, Maple.”
“Raine? Is that really you?” Maple asked, surprised, “Oh wow, I almost didn’t recognize you! You look really pretty.”
“Yeah, it’s good to see you as well,” the brother responded, “Nice to see more people I know.”
Faith walked up to Twilight’s side, “Hey Willow, this is Twilight. She helped me during my time here. Twilight, these are the Evergreen Twins. Willow is the brother and Maple is the sister.”
Maple waved a shy hello, while Willow continued to give the same serious expression he had been wearing the whole time. He eyed Twilight cynically from head to toe.
“Well, I guess I should thank you for helping Faith,” Willow finally said, “I was worried she would end up with someone less… accommodating, if anything. So … thanks, I suppose.”
Twilight laughed nervously, “You’re… welcome, I guess? Anyway, I’m curious about why you’re carrying your sister like that.”
“She can’t walk,” he bluntly state, “or rather, she doesn’t know how to. I’m just carrying her so she wouldn’t hurt herself trying to do so.”
Faith eyed his shaky legs. “You sure you’re okay?” she asked skeptically, “You seemed to be having trouble just standing up.”
“Its fine,” he insisted with a straight face, while taking a few steps forward, “This is nothing. She isn’t that heavy anywaAAAYYY!?”
While he was talking, the green pony hadn’t noticed that Hunter had slipped his tail in his path. When Willow stepped on it, the pegasus pulled it out, making the former slip and lose his footing. He landed on his upper chest and lower jaw first, before landing flat on the ground. Faith winced as he did hit the ground.
“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” Twilight asked with worry in her voice.
Willow merely muttered in disgust as a hysterical Hunter laughed next to him, holding his head.
“Ha ha ha! Oh god! I can’t believe that worked!” Hunter laughed to himself, “Oh yeah! I can definitely see advantages to this body!”
“You said it,” a voiced suddenly quipped from Faith’s back.
Surprised, Faith whirled around to see who it was, but was confused when she found no one.
“Over here,” the male voice said, again behind her.
Faith twirled again, and saw that everyone had begun to give both confused, amused, and ‘Are you kidding me?’ looks. She immediately caught on, as she remembered who she was carrying.
She turned her head to her back, as she now eyed Indigo, who gave an amused grin.
“Hi again, Faith,” he simply greeted.
“Really?” she responded, “You didn’t think to give me heads up when you woke up?”
“Indigo!? Is that you?”
Before he gave an answer, Maple suddenly got up from Willow’s back and hurryingly trotted to Faith’s side. She seemed to have little to no trouble with walking on all fours.
“Oh my goodness, it’s really you, isn’t it! Oh, are you okay? Why are you slumped on Faith’s back? Oh gosh, are you hurt??”
As she continued to roll out questions to Indigo, Willow, who was still on the floor, gave a rather dumbfounded look. Hunter and Raine looked down at him with smug looks of amusement.
“So, what was that about her not knowing how to walk?” Hunter remarked.
“You know that she likes to play horsey with the kids, so she probably figured out a bit quicker,” Raine playfully added, “You’re taking her for granted again~~.” Her singsong voice had cropped up when she finished that sentence.
Willow gave such an un-amused look that seemed to trump plenty of ones that he gave before in response to whatever incidents that the others get themselves into. Meanwhile, Maple continued to have a conversation with Indigo, who was still slumped on Faith’s back. The latter was beginning to get a little annoyed by the fact he was still on her.
“If you’re awake now, mind if you can get off now, Indigo?” she asked with patience.
“Huh? Why?” he asked, “it’s fun to go pony riding.”
“Yeah, but the pony you’re riding is me,” she retorted, “So you mind getting off?”
Indigo immediately hopped off, still wearing the silly grin he had. He then walked up to Twilight and held out a hoof without saying anything. The lavender unicorn was bewildered, and looked to Faith for an answer.
“I think he’s waiting for you to introduce himself,” the latter shrugged.
Twilight let out a quiet ‘oh’ before hoofshaking with the odd unicorn, “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, for the third time in this conversation.”
“Indigo, haven’t we told you to wait to introduce yourself first before offering a handshake, not the other way around,” Raine chuckled.
“Still a greeting, right?” Indigo answered with a silly grin.
Faith merely smiled in amusement to his response. No matter how many times they told him, he would sometimes purposely act otherwise to his enjoyment.
“So now what?” Willow spoke up.
Faith was slightly confused by the statement, but felt like she knew what he was getting at. “What do you mean?” she asked anyway.
“Well, now that we found you, normally we would go home,” Willow explained, “But since this isn’t our world and we have no idea what this is like, it’s obvious we don’t have a direction we can go. So again, what do we do now?”
Faith immediately understood what he was saying. While she herself had already found help right off the bat, she was just mostly following whatever directions Twilight had given her. However, now that all her friends are in the same predicament as she is, the situation has changed completely. Now, they have to find a way for all of them to get back home.
After a bit of thinking, Twilight immediately spoke up, “Well, you all can come to my place first and decide from there what you should do.”
Raine and Indigo smiled to the idea, while Hunter and Willow gave some skeptical looks.
“I don’t know,” Hunter said, “Sounds a little too good to be true, honestly…”
“Hunter, come on,” Raine urged him, “It’s not like she intends to question us. Besides, she helped Faith, so we might as well give her a chance.”
Unsure, Hunter rubbed the back of his head.
“Ugh, fine,” he said, “I’ll give it a swing.”
Willow still looked suspiciously at Twilight, “Are you sure we’ll be fine?”
“Of course,” she said, trying to assure him, “Why? Are you worried about your sister?”
Willow immediately placed himself in front of Maple.
“Yes,” he answered bluntly, “I don’t want anything happening to her.”
Faith rolled her eyes this. Willow was always protective of Maple when they got into a new or potentially dangerous activity, ever since they were kids.
“Uh… Willow,” Maple spoke softly, “I think we can trust her…”
Willow turned around and gave her an unsure look, “You sure?”
Maple shyly nodded her head, and Willow expression softened a bit as he faced Twilight again.
“Fine, I guess we’ll follow you for now,” he said begrudgingly.
Twilight smiled brightly, “Okay, then. Let’s go,” she said, “The sooner we go, the more we’ll get to know each other.”
As Twilight led the group out of the hospital, Raine looked to Faith with a smile.
“Nice girl, isn’t she?” the blue pegasus remarked, “You certainly attract come interesting characters to yourself, you know that?”
Faith chuckled at her friend’s comment, “Maybe I do, but it still works out. Hopefully, if we start meeting the locals, they’ll be equally friendly.”
“Well, only one way to find out,” Raine said as the two walked with the others.
The sun shining brightly as the group traveled into town. Faith looked up, just noticing now how bright the place was to begin with. Twilight had told her last night a bit about her world. She somewhat found that a princess was capable of raising the sun rather than it going on its own. Though at this point, she’s willing to believe a lot of things, due to her situation.
She looked to her friends, who all seemed to have their preoccupied with the same thing: walking. Hunter continued to be doing it like he was born with the instinct, although it looked like he had a bit of a stumble between steps. Raine, just like before, was trying to keep up a graceful step, but also still subtly tripped occasionally. Willow was clearly having much more trouble, as he was tripping up a lot as he tried to watch his steps. He seemed to pay more attention to Maple, whose previous burst of instinct seems to have faded and she herself was moving slower to avoid tripping. Indigo, on the other hand, appeared to be doing it with no trouble whatsoever, had even adopted a small hop between steps.
Faith trotted up to Twilight, who was at the front of the group leading.
“Thanks again, Twilight,” Faith said to her, “For helping us.”
“It’s not a problem,” Twilight responded humbly, “It’s the least I can do to help. At least you aren’t alone anymore, now that your friends are here.”
“Yeah, it’s certainly a relief to see them now,” the purple-white unicorn said, “Although, this is probably not how I imagined our reunion. Now we really got a mystery on our hands… err… hooves, oh you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, we sure do,” Twilight noted, “Hey listen, I think I have angle….”
“Oh, Twilight, there you are!”
Before Twilight finished her sentence, a white unicorn with a purple walked up to her and Faith. The latter observed how styled and curled the mane was, something that she thought was only possible with a lot of hairspray.
“Oh, hi Rarity,” Twilight greeted her, “Were you looking for me?”
“As a matter of fact, yes I was, darling,” the unicorn named Rarity responded, “I just heard the ponies I helped rescue were recently released by you. I was just here to see how they holding up. After all, being in a near drowning incident certainly has an effect on anypony.”
“They’re fine, Rarity,” Twilight said, “In fact, I actually want to introduce somepony that I met yesterday.”
She directed Rarity’s attention to Faith, “Faith, this is my good friend Rarity. She runs the Carousel Boutique. Rarity, this is Faith. I found her the other night, and she’s friends with those ponies you helped out.”
“Is that so?” Rarity said as she looked at Faith, “Well it is a pleasure to meet yoowhaaa hA!?”
Faith was both worried and confused by this offset greeting, “What, what’s wrong?!”
“Goodness gracious, what did you put your coiffeur through to get it in that condition!?” she asked with extreme worry.
Faith was definitely confused by this question, “You mean my hair? Is it really that bad? I thought it was just the occasional loose hair or two.”
“Actually, Faith, it’s pretty bad,” Raine noted, “the ones on the top look like someone used it like a mop, while the back is pretty abysmal of case of asymmetry as well.”
“I actually was thinking the same thing,” Rarity said as she approached Raine, “You must an eye for style as well, if I’m not mistaken.”
“I’d like to think I have more of eye for art,” Raine chuckled, “My name is Raine Skydance. I must say, your mane is simply elegant.”
“Thank you, darling,” Rarity said as she lightly adjusted the twisted part of her mane, “It is certainly a bit of an ordeal to keep up, but it is worth it. You wouldn’t realize how many stares I get from stallions.”
“Yeah, nice hair, douchebag,” Hunter looked to the side, muttering to himself, “How much hairspray ya stole before the fashion police arrested ya?”
Raine’s ear twitched distinctly, and without warning, one of her hind legs lifted up and bucked Hunter in the foreleg. Hunter let out a yelp of pain, and then glared at the blue pegasus angrily as he rubbed his injury. The some of the others winced, while Willow and Faith looked as if this they expected this to happen.
“Sorry, thought I heard something behind me I didn’t like,” Raine nonchalantly replied, “must have been a fly. Pesky things.”
“You callin’ me a fly?!” Hunter yelled indignantly.
“Anyway, thank you for rescuing us,” Raine said, “It certainly nice to know that there was somepony there to help us.”
“Well, it’s good to see that you seem to be adjusting well,” Rarity noted, “Although to be honest, I didn’t think you’d be walking this soon, being used to using two legs before.”
Faith was immediately overcome by shock and nervousness when she heard that last sentence. How did she know!? Wait, does she know?!
Everyone was equally shocked, but it seemed that Twilight was actually more shocked, “Rarity, wh-what are you talking??” she tried to asked in a calm tone, emphasis on trying.
“Oh don’t worry, Spike told me everything,” Rarity said with assurance.
“How… much?” Faith asked worried.
“Oh, just the whole thing about Faith being something called a ‘human’ and being from another world,” Rarity responded, “Wait, I guess that was supposed to be a secret, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, I think something like that you should keep mum about,” Raine replied, awkwardly, “Starting from now, right, lads and lasses?”
“Yeah… I really probably told Spike to keep it between us all,” Twilight said with equally awkward tone, “With this whole thing happening between us, keeping this to ourselves should’ve been a priority.”
“Ya think?” Hunter deadpanned with unamused eyes, “No one else knows about us, right?”
Rarity raised a hoof, “Well…”
“Hey, Rarity! Ya find them?!”
Suddenly, from the sky, came a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. She left a rainbow colored trail behind her tail as she flew in. She stopped just short above the ground in front of Twilight.
“Hey Twilight, I heard you bailed out those ponies I helped rescue,” the pegasus exclaimed, “Trying to get credit for my good deed, huh?!”
“Wha…?! No, I was just releasing them for my friend here!” Twilight retorted, pointing to Faith.
The cyan pony turned to Faith, who immediately was taken aback first, then tried to look as innocent as possible.
“Uhh, hi?” she greeted, smiling as widely as possible.
The pegasus mare hovered to Faith, and looked at her with squinting eyes. If anything, Faith could tell that she was probably assessing her.
“So, you’re not from around here, are you,” she asked.
“No, not really?” Faith replied, unsure how to answer.
“You ever heard of anypony with rainbow mane? Did a Sonic Rainboom? Biggest candidate for the Wonderbolts?” the pegasus fired off more questions.
Faith wasn’t sure how to answer, until she noticed something. She acted like Hunter when he was bragging his prowess.
“Are you referring to yourself?” Faith guessed.
“You got it!” the pegasus now flew higher while showing a few flips, “The one and only! You gotta have heard of me, right?”
“No, she hasn’t, Rainbow!” Twilight interjected, “Sorry, Faith. This is another of my friends…”
“The one and only Rainbow Dash!” Indigo suddenly interjected, sliding out to Faith’s side.
Rainbow held up her head in pride. “See, he certainly knows who I am,” she said with a triumphant look.
Twilight looked confused first, then very skeptical at Inidgo.
“Wait a second, how did you know her name??” she questioned the blue unicorn.
Indigo simply shrugged, “I dunno, I heard the name a lot while out wandering and connected the dots.”
“See, this guy clearly knows who the awesome one here is,” Rainbow bragged loudly.
“Were you one of the ponies that rescued us?” Indigo asked jovially.
“You betcha!” Rainbow enthusiastically responded, “Although, I guess I got a bit of help from Rarity here.”
“In that case, thank you too, Rarity,” Indigo thanked the white unicorn, “I’m sure you three did an amazing job.”
“Well, your certainly welcome, darling,” Rarity said with rather humble look.
Twilight immediately raised a brow, “Wait a second, what did you just say?”
“That they did an amazing job,” Inidgo replied confused.
“No, no before that,” Twilight specified.
“Thank you, Rarity?” Indigo tilted his head to the side.
“No, no, no,” Twilight shook her head with slight frustration, “How many ponies did you say did an amazing job?”
“Oh, three!” the stallion beamed happily.
Faith started to catch on what Twilight was getting suspicious about.
“Uhh… Indigo,” Faith started to say, “How did you know who rescued you and the others?”
Indigo flinched slightly to this phrase, but didn’t change his expression.
“Oh, I sorta heard it back at the hospital,” Indigo said without thought, “Staff were talking about. Loudly.”
“Indigo, the rest of us never heard anything about our rescuers,” Willow rebutted, “And from what I know, the number of rescuers tend to change between the actual place to the hospital.”
“Oh really?!” Indigo displayed a little panic, “I sorta… found out who the three ponies by asking someone directly.”
“Oh really,” Rainbow got up in his face, “Then you have no problem telling us who your third rescuer was.”
While he didn’t appear to be fazed, his voice did seem to have a bit of nervousness in it, “Um… he had a purple body and … a green mane?”
It was Faith’s turn to cock an eyebrow, as she definitely didn’t know any pony matching that description. However, it did match similarly to someone that wasn’t a pony.
“Uh huh… suuuure,” Rainbow remarked before turning to Rarity, “anypony you know matches that description?”
Rarity looked skeptical, but played along anyway, “Well, now lemme think… Someone does come to mind…”
“Yeah, he must be a decent stallion,” Indigo commented, “could do without the claw grip, from what I heard.”
Yup, he’s lying, was all that pinged into Faith’s mind.
“Right, a stallion…,” Rarity chimed nonchalantly.
“Well, I didn’t say our third guy was a pony,” Rainbow grinned smugly, “so ya didn’t like getting carried around by claws, huh?”
Rainbow got into his face, and Indigo immediately backed up awkwardly, “I said too much. didn’t I?”
“Ya think, dude?” Hunter deadpanned, “Ya might as well fess up.”
“Alright, I confess,” Inidgo admitted, “I knew it was you two and the little dragon who helped us out of that lake.”
“I think we caught that on early, but how did you know?” Rarity asked.
“Oh, I was awake,” Indigo answered.
Rainbow Dash blinked, “Wait, what?”
“You’re saying… that you were conscious the whole time,” Raine said in detail.
“Yup,” Indigo verified with a smile.
“How!?” Rainbow shouted incredulously, “Your eyes were shut the whole time!”
“Uh, hey. Color palette for brains,” Hunter waved at her, “take a second look at him.”
Rainbow stared straight into Indigo, who continued to wear the same smiling expression. One that still kept the perpetual squint that prevented anyone seeing his irises. It took a second or so for this to register into Rainbow’s head.
“Wait, is something wrong with your eyes?” Rainbow bluntly asked.
“Nah, this is just the way I look,” Indigo replied, “I was awake all the way to the hospital.”
“Pfff, you couldn’t tell?” Hunter remarked mockingly, “Most people often realized it within a minute or so.”
The spectrum haired pegasus immediately flew up and got her face straight into his.
“Are you implying something??” Rainbow immediately asked with hostility.
“Am I? Or are you just full of hot air?” Hunter stared back, still wearing his cocky smile.
“Alright, enough of that,” Twilight’s horn glowed as magical aura covered the end of Rainbow’s tail, pulling back the pegasus mare from the stallion one.
“Hunter, please do not antagonize the ponies that just rescued you,” Faith requested as she walked up to him.
“I don’t like her,” Hunter merely responded, “She irritates me.”
Faith merely shook her head as she looked to Twilight, who walked up to her.
“Anyway, now that that’s been cleared up, we should get to the library,” Twilight said, “We should really get to the library, we’ll discuss want to do there. Do you mind if Rarity comes along to talk?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Faith nodded, “after all, I guess since she knows a bit, it’s only fair we tell her what’s going, since she’s you friend and all.”
“I take it there’s more to this than just being in a lake,” Rarity commented.
“That reminds me,” Twilight turned to the cyan pegasus, who was still fuming while looking at Hunter, “Rainbow Dash, can you get the other girls? Oh yeah, do you remember where the cave lake was?”
“Pff, of course I do,” she replied, “Why, you want me to swing by there?”
“Can you? It’ll be nice to keep track of where it was rather than try to wander around looking for it.”
As Rainbow flew off (which Faith was unable to fully catch where she blasted off to as she left in a literal blur), the Willow walked up to the lavender unicorn.
“Twilight, why are you telling her to gather more ponies?” he asked skeptically, “Do you have something in mind?”
“Well…,” Twilight hesitated to answer, “Is it alright… if I bring my friends in to help?”
Hunter and Willow reacted with surprise to this statement.
“Wait, wait, wait. I thought we were keeping this under a blanket!” Hunter said.
“Yeah, but… let’s discuss this back at the library. We’ve wasted a lot of time already,” Twilight bluntly stated before walking forward and leading the group again.
“W-wait a second! Aw come on!” Hunter blurted out, but got no response as the others proceeded to follow her.
Faith walked to his side with an amused look on her face, “Guess we’re getting more than we bargained for, huh?”
“This is gonna suck,” Hunter bluntly stated, “I just know, this is gonna suck for some reason.”
“That’s a tree?” Willow asked, incredulously.
“Yup,” Twilight replied.
“That is not a tree,” Hunter said skeptically, “at least not a live one.”
When they did get to library, everyone’s attention had shifted straight to Twilight’s home. Some of them were in awe of the appearance, others were denying the fact that one could live in a tree.
“I think it’s cool,” Maple mumbled politely.
“I dunno…,” Indigo noted, “Hey Twilight, do the leaves change colors between seasons?”
“Uh, yeah,” Twilight responded, “Every fall the leaves would fall off, and they wouldn’t grow back until the spring.”
“What’s the matter? Never tried building a tree house?” Raine playfully ribbed.
“Shutup, I’ve always wanted one, but the stupid trees at the home never held up easy,” Hunter countered.
“Let’s just get inside and we can debate on what factors as a tree house inside,” Faith said impatiently as she walked in first.
The group came inside, and Faith saw that some of them looked impressed by the room in general.
Hunter whistled a bit as he looked around, “You actually live here, girl?”
“Of course,” Twilight replied as she walked the group in, “Welcome to Golden Oaks Library. Ponyville’s primary source of books and information in one place.”
“Heh, sounds tempting,” Willow looked up wistfully, “Isn’t that so, Indigo?”
Indigo didn’t give an answer, as he was already at a shelf skimming through the titles of books.
“Hey Twilight, you’re back?” Spike shouted out from upstairs.
“Yeah, Spike, you mind coming down here? Some guests are here,” Twilight responded.
Spike came out and started to walk down the stairs as he saw the others, “Oh hey, it’s you ponies, from that lake. It’s good to see…”
“STAY BACK!”
Suddenly, a book came flying from out of nowhere and nearly hit Spike. The baby dragon yelped and lost his footing, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Faith spun around to find that Raine in a position where she looked like she just threw something, and very surprised looking Indigo who seemed like he was holding air.
“Uh oh,” Faith muttered, as she remembered something very crucial.
“Oh goodness, are you alright, Spike?!” Rarity gasped.
“What on earth is that… thing?!” Raine said as she reached for another wayward book on the ground.
“Whoa, easy on the sugar and coffee, Raine!” Indigo quickly stopped her from trying anything.
“Hey, Spike is not a thing,” Twilight exclaimed with a hint of anger, “He’s a baby dragon!”
“Same thing!” she said in a scared tone before ducking behind Indigo.
Hunter couldn’t help but laughed at the scene, while Willow elbowed him and decided to actually do something.
“Allow me to explain,” he said, “Raine has a sizable fear of lizards, so she tends to overreact around them. This was due to a traumatizing incident in our childhood.”
Hunter paused his laughter to give him annoyed look, “Really, are you really gonna bring that up like that? Is that what we’re calling it now?”
“It wasn’t that funny,” the green pony responded with annoyance, “I still remember how her scream blew out my eardrums…”
When the two started to bickering again, it was Rarity’s turn to ask questions as she walked up to the pleasanter looking sister, Maple.
“Umm, excuse me, darling,” Rarity tried to get her attention, “Maple, right? Could you explain what they are talking about?”
The shy earth rubbed the tips of her hooves shyly, “Umm, well… When we were younger, we got this pet lizard, and Hunter decided it was funny to use it as a prank. He sorta dropped it onto a piece of paper she drew on and she… screamed. A lot.”
“Well, I don’t see how that could turn into a mental fear of lizards,” Rarity noted skeptically.
“Well… no… not alone…” she added softly, “but that night, somehow, the lizard got out of its cage. And it sorta… crawled. Onto her back…”
“The bloody thing was all over my back,” Raine lamented loudly, “all over my poor, soddy back.”
“Oh, I see,” Twilight understood, “Well, Spike isn’t that kind of dragon, I can assure you. Isn’t that right Spike?”
“Oh yeah, sure…” Spike trailed off a bit before looking a little sad, “I guess…”
Hunter was able to temporarily settle his argument and turned his head to see Spike, and saw the dragon looking rather depressed.
He immediately called out to man, “Hey dude. Don’t let it get to ya, alright?”
Spike immediately looked surprised at the pegasus, “Oh, it’s fine. I’ve gotten looks before. It’s all good.” He smiled awkwardly and sheepishly.
“Yeah well, as long as you don’t get too close, I’m sure she won’t freak out worse,” Hunter said as he smiled amusingly at the still fidgeting Raine, “ten feet or so. Fifteen just to be safe.”
“Gotcha, dude.” Spike gave a thumbs up.
“Ah, well, I guess that’s resolved, Now we should probably wait for the others,” Twilight said optimistically.
Coincidentally, some knocking came from the door. Twilight immediately walked up to the door, while the others quickly gathered. Indigo and Rarity managed to goad Raine out of her panicked state, while Hunter did some small talk with Spike. Willow immediately went up to Faith with a somewhat doubtful look on his face.
“Faith, are you sure you’re with her decision,” he asked his friend.
“What, you mean in bringing others to help us?” she asked back.
“Yes, do you honestly think it’s a good idea?” he asked with a worried but serious tone.
Faith looked up, thinking for a moment. While he was being his usual worried self, Willow did raise a rather valid. Faith may have gotten to know Twilight, but the rest of her friends were another story.
“Well, might as well give them a shot, right,” she simply replied, shrugging.
Willow huffed a bit as Twilight opened the door and greeted her friends. Faith looked to see that it was the apple seller that she met earlier in the morning. Following her was Fluttershy, who seemed to be trying to hide her presence as much as possible when she saw the number of residents in the room.
“Everypony, I’d like you to meet two of my friends,” Twilight said as she presented her friends.
“Name’s Applejack,” the orange earth pony introduced herself, “Ah’ think I met a couple of you already.”
“Oh yeah, you’re the apple seller,” Indigo pointed out, “Thanks again for the freebie.”
“Not a problem, sugarcube,” Applejack responded cheerfully, “But do ya’ mind introducing yer’self, and Twilight, mind tellin’ us why you called us here?”
“I’ll start explaining once the other girls get here,” Twilight responded.
Willow rubbed his chin in an observant matter as he eyed the orange earth pony.
“Like something you see, brother,” Maple asked.
“Straight forward and to the point,” Willow noted to himself, “I think this might work out after all.”
“Lookin’ for a chance to score,” Hunter remarked with a wide and mischievous grin.
“Shut up,” Willow bluntly replied.
“So, who’s the yellow pony behind you, my friend?” Raine asked politely.
Faith looked behind the others to see Fluttershy trying to minimize her presence in the room.
“Hey, Fluttershy,” Faith waved to her.
“Oh, hello Faith,” she shyly greeted, “So... are they all your friends?”
“Yes, they are,” Faith replied with a smile, “You know, there’s actually someone I’d like you to meet.”
She turned to and motioned to Maple, who hesitantly walked up to her.
“Fluttershy, this is Maple Evergreen,” Faith introduced her, “You see, when we first met, you sorta remind me of my friend here.”
Fluttershy looked hesitantly at Maple, who in turn nervously swept the ground. The silence between them was so apparent that one could even hear the dust settle onto the ground.
“Umm… I’m Fluttershy…” the yellow pegasus softly whispered.
“Oh, hi… I’m Maple,” the green earth pony replied in an equally inaudible voice.
Even more silence followed, before Fluttershy spoke up again.
“It’s… really nice to meet you,” she said.
“Likewise...,” the other party replied, performing another nervous leg sweep.
Another moment of awkward quietness ensued. At this point, it started to get to the others.
“This is like watching the world’s longest quiet game,” Hunter quietly whispered to Faith, “or the most awkward.”
“Willow, your sheltering is backfiring again,” she quipped to Willow.
He simply facehoofed himself at that fact that his own sister was unable to strike up a simple conversation.
“I’m sorry,” Maple suddenly apologized, “my brother is usually the one to talk to new people first.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Fluttershy noted, “He must be really dependable.”
“Uh huh,” the sister nodded.
“Well, your sister enacting small talk is a small victory, isn’t it,” Rarity remarked to Willow.
“I suppose,” Willow reluctantly admitted.
Faith watched as the two shy ponies talked, as they both slowly came out of their shells. She knew that the two would get along, even under the current circumstances.
“Hey guys and girls,” Indigo randomly shouted, “Not to be rude or anything, can anypony explain this?”
Everyone turned around to Indigo, and were surprised to see what he was referring to. In the corner of the library was Indigo, and sitting behind him was a large present that was bigger than him.
How in the world did we miss that, Faith thought to herself as she wore surprised expression.
“Ho, boy, Twilight,” Hunter teased playfully, “Ya got a secret admirer you tell no one about?”
“Wh-what? No!” Twilight responded embarrassed.
“No, it’s not,” Indigo said, as held up a tag tied to the present, “It says ‘For the new pony in Town.’”
Faith raised an eyebrow, “What…? That’s rather... I didn’t…”
“Wow, not even a whole week and you already have a stalker,” Hunter snarked while clapping slowly.
“Hey!”
“Hey, I’m a new pony, too,” Indigo pointed out, “so does that mean I get to open it?”
“Well…” Twilight dragged out, unsure how to answer.
“You see…,” Applejack adjested her hat awkwardly.
“Umm, how do we…” Rarity rubbed the back of her head.
The others, besides Faith, were making gestures and mouthing the word “No” multiples times.
“Umm, yes?” Fluttershy uttered, unsure.
“Good enough for me!” Indigo decisively said as he gave the ribbon on the top a tug.
Once the ribbon on top was undone, the top of the lid suddenly burst open as confetti and ribbons flew out.
“SUUURPISE!”
Suddenly, a pink pony popped out of box, to the complete surprise of everyone in the room. She also happened to be apparently wearing some kind of party costume. Faith and her friends were the most surprised out of everyone in the room.
“Holy!?” Hunter exclaimed, taken aback completely.
“Oh mother…” Raine uttered before fainting dead away.
The pony landed on the floor and disappeared in a blur, showing up in front of Faith and getting uncomfortably close.
Faith backed up a bit, “Uhhhh, hi?”
“Thiiiiiiiiis is singng telegram,
I hope it finds you well
You’re invited to a party
‘Cause we think you’re really swell…”
Before Faith could react, the pony suddenly zipped behind, somehow leaving behind her costume. She whirled around to see her now in front of Hunter, in completely different costume. This one was what could only be described as a completely oversized version of Rainbow Dash, which she found to be ironically amusing and completely incredulous at the fact that it was under the previous costume.
“I saw that you were new in town
So come and celebrate
The cake will be delicious
The festivities first raaaaate…”
“Huh, wait, what,” Hunter could do nothing but stutter before she sprinted off again. Once again, she left behind her costume, which Hunter was completely taken aback by it.
This time she appeared in front of the twins; Maple was already hiding behind Willow, who was tried to act as a wall while trying to keep a straight face. Emphasis on “trying,” as when it was their turn, the pink pony had chosen to approach them from the side, completely catching the two off guard. It could be that she wearing confetti poppers for a hat this time, as they popped and made the two jump.
“There will be games and dancing
Bob for apples, cut a rug
And when the party’s over
We’ll gather around for a hug…”
She zipped off again, leaving no response time for the twins. She appeared again over Raine, who was on the ground and on her back. She had just opened her eyes, only to meet with the sight a hyperactive face over here. The party pony once again ditched her previous outfit in favor of an outfit that had balloons, which somehow allowed to hover over the poor girl.
“No need to bring a gift
‘Cause you will be the host
Welcome parties are fun for all
For the new pony the most…”
Raine did not move from her spot as the pink pony dashed away again, leaving the balloons to float the ceiling. She then appeared in front of Indigo, who had not moved from his spot at all. She was wearing cake for a costume this time, as Faith was once again thinking how she could possibly be wearing all these costumes at once.
“It won’t be same without you
So we hope that you say yes
So, please, oh please R. S. V. P.
And come and be our guest.”
Indigo, at first, had literally no reaction whatsoever to this. The others quickly composed themselves, with Maple and Willow helping Raine up in the background. Faith looked at the pink pony, who was smiling widely, and then Indigo, who still wore his neutral expression.
“Sure!” he suddenly said with a smile.
“NO!”
Hunter and Raine suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tackled the unicorn to the ground.
“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked.
“Just giving my welcome party invitation,” Pinkie said with a smile.
“How did you even know I wasn’t from around here if we haven’t even met,” Faith asked.
“That’s just Pinkie Pie,” Applejack answered for her, “If ya’ ain’t from around here, expect a welcome party comin’ yer way.”
“Oh, Spike told me,” Pinkie cheerfully replied.
Willow, Hunter, and Twilight very quickly shot looks at Spike, who just shrugged and smiled sheepishly.
“I didn’t mean, it sorta… slipped out,” Spike tried to explain, “I just said how we were housing a guest, and she sprinted off.”
Twilight simply sighed as she put a hoof on her head, “I probably should have seen this coming a lot sooner than I had anticipated.”
“So, can we go to the party?” Indigo asked, sitting up and still held in place by Hunter and Raine.
“No,” Willow bluntly replied, “I really don’t think this is the time for one.”
“Aww, really,” Pinkie remarked, “But I got everything set up, and who doesn’t want a party?”
“It’s not that we don’t want to, dear,” Rarity explained, “But we just have a very manner to discuss at hoof.”
“Aww, no Pinkie Pie party,” the party pony whined sadly as she dropped onto a sitting position.
“We can have another time, if you want,” Indigo said with a smile, “I really want to know what a Pinkie Pie welcome party is like.”
Pinkie looked up and bounced up to her feet, “Okay – dokey, then. Party later, then!”
She flung all of the stuff she had used in the surprise back into the box. Faith walked over to Twilight.
“Is this something we should expect every day,” Faith asked her friend.
“I guess,” Twilight replied, smiling sheepishly, “But then again, she is quite random.”
“I see. Guess we’re going with what we usually apply with Indigo.”
“Which is…?”
“Expect everything, expect nothing, and prepared to be surprised regardless.”
Twilight chuckled at the notion as the others gathered in the middle of the room.
“So, should we start discussing our problem right now,” Willow asked.
“Is this why you called us here, Twilight? Somethin’ on yer mind,” Applejack asked.
“Yeah, well, let’s wait for Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained, “I had her go check out a cave me, Rarity, Rainbow, and Spike found on separate occasions. It kinda has to do with why these ponies are here…"
Suddenly, the door burst open as a rainbow hue blur flew in.
“Twilight, we got a problem!!” Rainbow showed up above the others, with a very serious look on her face, “It’s gone!”
“Wait, what is??” Twilight asked, “Don’t tell me…?!”
Faith clearly did not like where this was going. At the bottom of her stomach, for a split second, it hurt, because she knew what was the answer.
Faith was in an absolute panic. She never had to panic badly before, but there was always a first time for everything. Then again, this is a first time she didn’t look forward to, as it is also the first time in her life where everything is just plain upside down.
“You heard me,” Rainbow repeated, “It’s gone. Poof! Just not there anymore.”
“Wait, wait, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, “Slow down, and tell us what happened.”
“Yeah, well, here’s the deal,” Rainbow settled onto the ground as she began to explain, “After I told the others to come here, I headed straight for the place, just like you told me to. It wasn’t hard to find, I remembered the route when me, Rarity and Spike took to get there. But when I got to the cave, it like, wasn’t there!”
“Are you sure?” Spike asked, “You couldn’t find that staircase? I mean it’s underground, as in under the ground.”
“Yeah, I knew that! But it wasn’t there. There wasn’t anything there to show it was there before! I even tried to see if there were false door or something covering, but nothin’. It’s just not there anymore.”
Faith looked into space with disbelief as the situation sunk into her. She honestly thought the situation would be simple. With Twilight’s help, they would somehow use the lake they were found in, and get back home as simple as that. As simple as that, she thought. She never thought that it could possibly go wrong.
Faith looked to the others to see how they were coping. Raine was clearly not doing so well, and even begun look to Hunter with an increasingly panicked look.
“I’m gonna stuck here… forever…” she mumbled to herself, “M-my art career… please tell me we can still go back, Hunter…”
Hunter was too flustered to answer, as he was clearly having trouble coping himself.
“This is not happening… this is not happening…”
Maple wasn’t doing any better, as she was shocked by what she heard and held Willow tightly. Willow tried his best to comfort her, despite the circumstances gripping him as well.
“It’ll be alright,” he consoled her, “Don’t panic, don’t cry now.”
This is bad, this is really bad, Faith thought to herself, what do we do now?? Raine having about to breakdown, Hunter isn’t able to help, Maple is on the verge of panicking with Willow, and Indigo...
“So now what?”
Faith jerked her head around to find Indigo just sitting next to her looking at her. He was wearing his usual vacant look. He sat there, without changing expression at all, while she kept her attention on him, expecting something else to come out. Nothing else came out.
“Wait, what?” Faith finally responded. At this point, everyone else has looked to his direction.
“So now what?” Indigo simply repeated.
“Dude, don’t you get it?” Hunter said, agitated, “We just lost what was probably the only way outta this place.”
“Actually,” Indigo corrected him, “that was just the thing that got us to here to begin. We didn’t know if it was an exit as well. Plus, it was probably one of those one time things.”
Faith suddenly realized what he was saying. They just knew how they got here. They didn’t know if it could work the other way around.
“Yes, well, it was still a chance, wasn’t it,” Willow countered, “Are you saying we shouldn’t have thought it was actual chance?”
“Well, maybe so, but we would still wouldn’t know how to approach it,” Indigo countered back, “But the opportunity’s passed. So again, now what?”
Faith thought for a moment. Besides the thought of seeing her friends again and going home, nothing else had really came to mind. She looked to Twilight’s friends, who all had their own reactions at the moment.
“Uhh, excuse us,” Rarity finally spoke up, “But would you mind putting us in the loop here, that could be a good start?”
“Right sorry,” Faith apologized, “Kinda forgot you girls were still here. I guess telling you all might help. But where to start…”
“I think you should begin with perspective,” Twilight suggested, “I get the feeling me dragging out of that lake wasn’t the start of it for you.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Well, I guess it started yesterday…”
Faith told everyone in the group what she knew, to the best of her memory and detail. While it was short story, it was still fresh in her mind, so it wasn’t hard to draw up details. Plus, Twilight had helped give perspective of the events. Everyone in the room pretty much followed her from start, some of their expressing shock while others had worry. Spike decided to leave the room to take a nap. By the time she was done, everyone pretty much looked like they had something to say.
“Well, that’s certainly something,” Applejack remarked, “Ah’ mean, it’s still hard to believe, but still makes sense, in a way.”
“Nice to know you understand our situation,” Willow responded, “Still, I had forgotten Faith was here first. Didn’t think you would get this lonely.”
“Yeah,” she swept the ground, looking down, “it… wasn’t great.”
“It’s alright now,” Indigo assured her, patting her back, “We’re here now. So it’s okay now, kay?”
“Y-you’re right,” she said, smiling, “Sorry I worried you all.”
“It’s alright, Faith,” Raine said, giving an affectionate hug, “We’re sorry we weren’t there for you. Still, you held up fine for a day. No worries now.”
“Still, you came from another world,” Rainbow Dash said skeptically, “I’d say you were lying your ears off, but seeing how I saw that the whole cave disappeared, so I believe ya.”
“Obviously we weren’t lying,” Hunter huffed, “Guess you aren’t as dense as I thought you were.”
“You trying to make something of it?” the irked rainbow-maned pegasus got up in Hunter’s face, who gave his own scowl.
“Alright, enough of that,” Willow tugged back Hunter’s tail, getting him away from her.
Applejack had gotten up and did the same for Rainbow, “Ah’lright, sugarcube, enough of that. This better not become a regular thing.”
“Whatever,” Rainbow huffed, hovering back up a bit, “bet he can’t outfly me.”
Hunter simply looked to the side and scowled, “If I could fly, I’d be doin’ laps so fast that your head would being doing 360s all day.”
Faith raised an eyebrow, looking at Hunter’s wings, “You know, she can at least show you how.”
“Are ya kidden me, Faith,” he responded incredulously, “I know I’m an athlete, but I got nothin’ feather related to chase after that rainbow.”
“Are you sure,” Maple walked up and reached out to touch the wings on his back, “These look like they have lot’s of ….”
“YAHOOEY!?”
Suddenly, Hunter sprang up surprised in the air, his wings springing out. He went a few inches up before landing on his back. He wore a rather surprised expression as he just lied there.
“…feathers…?” Maple shyly finished her sentence, while also taken aback with what just happened.
“Hey, watcha do to me?!” he said as he got back up, then tried to feel his back for things, “Ya poke me with something or what?”
“All she did was poke your wings, you dolt,” Willow responded as he facehooved himself.
“What wings?” Hunter twisted his head around and looked down at his back. His eyes grew wide as he saw his now open wings on his back.
“Whoa, when did these get here,” he remarked in surprise.
“You never… noticed at all,” Twilight asked, quite surprised at his obliviousness.
“No one told me I had wings,” Hunter answer, trying to control, “Man, these feel weird. Like having a tail wasn’t enough.”
“You’re a pegasus, silly,” Pinkie playfully explained, “Of course you would have wings. You could totally go flying with Rainbow.”
Hunter winced for a second to the idea of flying with her, but then flying in general made him very interested.
“So, there is more than one type of pony,” Indigo asked curiously.
“Yup!” Pinkie energetically jumped to Indigo’s side, “Raine is also a Pegasus, and you and Faith are unicorns. That means you can do magic.”
Faith remembered that she did have a horn, and tapped it for a minute. She realized how she watched Twilight do magic yesterday, but really didn’t think about asking much about it other than just being fascinated by it.
“And what would that make us,” Willow asked, referring to Maple and him.
“Earth ponies, obviously,” the pink pony suddenly appeared, wrapping her arms around both twins’ shoulders, “just like me!”
“Oh joy,” he remarked dryly.
Off to the side, Raine had begun inspecting her new wings, which she also just realized she had.
“My word,” she said, flexing her wings, doing a little twirl in the process, “Well, lasses and lads, this will certainly prove to be an interesting…”
“Hey, look what I can do!” Indigo called out.
Raine looked in his direction, seeing what he was so excited about. In front of him was a book floating in midair, covered in a distinct indigo color. His horn also had the same color.
“Hey, this is awesome,” Indigo remarked with glee.
“OH SWEET MOTHER OF HEAVEN, HAVE MERCY ON US!” Raine’s pupils dilated before she held her head and fainted away.
“Oh my,” Rarity asked with worry in her voice, “should we be worried?”
“You have no idea,” Willow had his hoof over his eyes, just shaking his head in a mixture of shame and regret.
Faith just rolled her eyes at her friends’ overreactions. Her thoughts went back to her horn, as she wondered how she could learn to utilize magic herself.
“Say, Twilight. Could you show me how to use magic,” she asked curiously.
“Oh, sure, Faith,” Twilight replied cheerfully, “maybe Indigo can show me whatever magic comes from your world, seeing how good he is with…”
“Can’t,” Indigo bluntly replied as he walked over with the still hovering book next to him.
“Uh… why?” Twilight asked, a little taken aback, “You did know magic before coming here…right?” Her voice trailed off a bit.
“Well, that’s kinda hard to do when it doesn’t exist,” he replied.
Twilight immediately was shocked by this, “Wait, are you serious? You have no magic where you come from.”
“Yeah, that’s our reality,” Willow explained, “Where we’re from, magic is just a fantasy.”
“Oh my,” Rarity exclaimed, “then how do you get anything done?”
“Well, it’s a thing call ingenuity and perseverance,” he replied, “In a way, we always try to come up with a solution to whatever problem we run into, while trying our best to compensate for what we lack.”
“Wow, that’s a lot,” Pinkie commented, “Is that why you don’t have a cutie mark?”
“Huh?” Willow gave look of confusion.
“What’s … a cutie mark?” Maple asked hesitantly.
“Why this, silly!”
Pinkie got up on all fours and pointed at her flank, where a triplet of balloons adorned it.
“Oh, that,” Hunter remarked, then looked at his own flank, “Uhhh… yeah, got nothing here.”
Faith looked to Twilight, who had a star like cutie mark on her side. She then looked to her own hip, and found nothing adorned there at all. She then realized something. Looking at everyone else, Twilight’s friends clearly had marks on their flanks; Faith’s friends had nothing on theirs.
“So what’s the exactly the big deal with them,” Hunter asked, “it ain’t a crime or anything to not have a tattoo like that or anything, is it?”
“Are you kidding me,” Rainbow exclaimed, “It’s like the sign that makes your identity, your talent, your awesomeness.”
“Okay…” Raine responded, confused, “Could someone kindly translate all that?”
“I’ll explain,” Twilight said, “A cutie mark represents one’s talent. It’s like a sign that tells us our destiny. It represents who we are and what we can do.”
“A representation talent,” Hunter looked up, thinking, “huh, like a team symbol.”
“But wait,” Willow asked, “You’re making sound like not having one is abnormal. When do ponies usually get their marks?”
“About the age of a filly,” Applejack replied.
“As in … a kid,” his voice had an edge of dread to it.
Everyone from Faith’s group simply hung their heads in shame. Faith didn’t get it at first, but then recognized that everyone that was pretty embarrassed. Well, everyone but Indigo, who was once again just sitting there, and stopped levitating the book.
“Well, guess that’s another thing on the list, I suppose,” he said as he smiled randomly.
“Shut up, fool,” Hunter muttered.
“Well, I guess we can agree that we’ll be here for a while,” Faith said, trying to change the subject.
“Yeah, well, what’s our house situation,” Hunter asked first, looking up at Faith, “Which reminds me, where did you stay yesterday?”
“Uhh, here,” she answered, “Twilight had a spare bed for me to sleep in.”
“Of course,” Willow remarked, “but still, we have to decide where we have to stay for while we’re here. I highly doubt a library can house six people.”
“Ponies, Willow,” Raine corrected him.
Willow simply shook his head at that phrase, unamused.
“Umm, does that mean… we have to go to separate places,” Maple asked shyly.
This question got everyone’s attention, especially Faith’s group. Some of them had their heads down for a minute, mostly look concerned or worried.
“Well, that’s …inconvenient…,” Raine noted.
Twilight’s friend, save for herself, all looked confused at the others.
“Er… is something the matter, sugarcube,” Applejack asked.
“It’s … nothing,” Faith replied, trying to keep the mood light, “It’s just…”
“Whoa, whoa wait,” Rainbow said, not believing what she was hearing, “You guys live with each other or something?”
“Pretty much,” Raine noted, “Well, except me from time to time, but still, never been without each other.”
“Don’t any of you stay with yer’ parents,” Applejack immediately shot out.
That struck a chord with everyone, as they hung their heads again. Everyone but Twilight was confused, the latter realizing again what was up.
“Oh, did we say something wrong,” Fluttershy asked.
“Uh, Faith,” Twilight asked her friend, “I thought… are you not… the only orphan…?”
This immediately shocked everyone in the room, although for different reasons.
“You told her??” Hunter asked incredulously.
“It wasn’t on purpose,” Faith quickly said defensively, “I was really sad at the time, and I got lonely thinking about you guys.”
“We don’t blame you,” Indigo said in an assuring voice, which then switched to being despondent, “But I guess it was kinda inevitable.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Rarity tried to interject, “Are you saying you all of you don’t have parents?”
“Well… in a sense…” Hunter rubbed the back of his head.
Faith simply sighed sadly before chalking the answer. One that was pretty obvious at this point.
“Yes, we all come from an orphanage.”
This statement pretty much received the most reactions from everyone in the room. Most of Twilight’s group reacted with much shock, some more than others.
“Whoa, seriously?!” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “I mean, not to be rude, but why didn’t you guys say anything before?”
“Hey, ya think we would go around broadcasting such a thing?” Hunter responded, “Not the most pleasant detail I want on my sports resume.”
“Why are ya’ so ashamed of it?” Applejack questioned, “Ah’ mean, there ain’t nuthin’ wrong with being an orphan.”
“Well, maybe not,” Raine replied, her voice trailing off, “It would be perfectly fine if we were, say, eight to nine years younger.”
“Huh? What do you mean,” Twilight asked, partially confused, “I mean, how long have you all lived in an orphanage?”
“My whole life,” Faith replied immediately, which got reactions immediately.
“Since I was, I dunno, 7 – 8 tops,” Hunter answered himself, which also got a few reactions.
“8 and half years old, with my sister, naturally,” Willow quickly and decisively.
“Again, drop in and out. But I was officially an orphan since I was 8,” Raine answered in a relatively calm, yet uncomfortable tone.
“10,” Indigo said out loud, which got him some looks from the others, “What? I came late, okay?”
“So you’re saying in all that time, you’ve never even been considered for adoption,” Twilight surmised, “So by now you’re all basically the same age as us.”
“Pretty much,” Faith confirmed.
“Awwwwww, I’m sure a nice pair of parents would still want to adopt you,” Pinkie said optimistically.
“Well, yes and no,” Willow shook his head.
“You see, it’s easier for children to be adopted, due to having that youthful appeal,” Raine began to explain, “But once you’re a young adult, well… You get this… untold stigma attached to you.”
“W-what,” Fluttershy gasped, “what do you mean?”
“The parents only want the pups,” Hunter answered, slightly annoyed, “kids are expected to be innocent and all smiles. Teens, no, we’re just dogs to them. The big, old, ugly ones that could be nothing more than a headache. Hmph. To adults, teens are nothing but magnets to trouble.”
Twilight wore a clearly shocked look on her face, not realizing just how badly these ponies, while the same age as her, have such a hard time. She could only imagine what it’s like to be constantly passed over for other kids.
“I’m… I’m so sorry, I didn’t think…”
Faith immediately picked up on the reaction, and interrupted her. “No Twilight, its fine. We’re all completely over it by now. At least, a lot less sensitive about it.”
“That’s correct,” Willow added, “by now, most of us had already felt like it was time to move on with our lives. Besides, I refused most of the offers of adoption I get.”
This was met with surprise by the other ponies. “Really,” Applejack asked, “Well, why’s didn’t ya take it?”
“They wouldn’t take Maple as well,” he simply replied, “I wouldn’t go anywhere without her, no matter what. It was too bad most of the adults wouldn’t understand. Although I think they wanted me more for my intelligence than just to have a child to raise.”
“You mean like a trophy genius,” Twilight noted, “I’ve seen some parents flaunt their kids like that.”
“Uh huh,” Willow simply nodded.
“It was funny sometimes,” Maple remarked, a bit louder than her usual shy tone, “The looks on their face sometimes said it all. But Willow always made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere without me. I could say the same for myself.”
“Yeah, I can kinda say the same,” Hunter said, which earned some surprised looks. “What?” he asked, confused.
“Nothing,” Rarity answered, “You… didn’t seem like the type.”
Hunter flinched with an unpleasantly surprised look on his face. “Hey come on! Don’t be like that,” he blurted out, before calming down a bit, “I mean, I didn’t like the idea of not having a good home with decent parents, but I kinda didn’t like not being with my friends. So yeah, I honestly liked sticking with you guys more.”
“After my parents were gone, my life was all over the place,” Raine herself added, “To say it was bad would be a bit of an understatement. But my friends were always there to console in a time of need.”
“Same here,” Indigo waved a hoof, “I honestly don’t know where I can be without everyone here. I am a lot less lost with them than when I was by myself.”
Everyone in Faith’s group pretty murmured and nodded in agreement. Twilight, who heard everyone’s opinion on the matter, understood what kind of bond they have. While they didn’t have any parents to console to and couldn’t find new ones, they were able to be there to take away the loneliness.
“It sounds like you have quite the group, Faith,” Twilight remarked positively.
“I suppose so,” Faith agreed, “But yeah, even in our current situation, it’s great that my friends are here with me. That’s something that always gets me through most things.”
“Right, now that we’re all feelin’ better, what are we gonna do now,” Applejack asked.
Faith looked down a second, thinking, then looked at everyone again, “Well, I guess we will have to stay separately with others. I mean, it’s not like we won’t see each other forever.”
“Makes sense, I guess,” Hunter agreed, slightly begrudged, “still doesn’t feel right, ya know.”
“Alright, so how will split ourselves up,” Raine asked, then turned to Twilight’s group, “I guess you girls don’t mind taking us in.”
“Why, not at all,” Rarity answered with a hint of excitement, “I would love to have somepony like you as a guest.”
“Guess that settles that. Raine is staying with Rarity,” Faith noted, “Anyone who has a preference, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Willow looked at everyone with a bit of scrutiny on his part. He saw Indigo already chatting away with Pinkie, finding their similarly energized personalities to be very jarring.
“Wow, really,” Indigo asked in awe, “Your home is that gingerbread house I saw earlier in the morning??”
“Yup,” Pinkie said enthusiastically, “It’s called Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville’s super best bakery for all your sugary baked needs. Aaaaand home to yours truly.”
“Awesome!” he remarked gleefully, “I always wanted to know what a life-size gingerbread house looked like on the inside.”
“Why don’t you stay over then,” Pinkie excitingly offered. “We can play games, bake cupcakes, play with Gummy, and more stuff that we can probably think of.”
“Awesome!” he replied enthusiastically before he turned to Faith, “Can I, Faith?”
Faith just looked at Twilight with face that an unsure smile. All she got was a shrug.
“Sure, I guess,” she said with a bit forced optimism.
“HOORAY!” he and Pinkie cheered gleefully as they hi-fived each other.
“Well, they certainly are look forward ta’ it all,” Applejack remarked.
“Indeed,” Willow agreed, “Still, I suppose it can’t be helped, considering our lack of knowledge of the surrounding area. Or living on our own. Both very important.”
“Ah’ guess,” she noted, “So, y’all decided where ya’ wanna stay, cause mah place has enough room as well.”
“I appreciate the thought,” he said humbly, “But I really don’t want to…”
“Willow…”
The brother turned to his twin sister, who giving him a rather annoyed look. One that looked a little too familiar to Faith, involving glaring eyes and puffed cheeks. Despite have an equine face now, her annoyed expression whenever Willow did something that didn’t sit well with her. This usually takes most of the others off guard, due to it being unexpected for someone as shy as her.
“Um, what Maple?” Willow asked, a bit hesitant.
“You’re doing it again,” she simply answered.
“Oh, uhh… am I?” he said, a bit flustered.
“Yes, you are,” she said it such flatness that one could skate on it if it were ice.
“Y’all lost me here,” Applejack interjected, “What is it yer’ brother did ag’in?”
“He actually does want to come stay where you live,” Maple finally answered, “he wasn’t going to say anything, though. Again.”
“Ah guess this tain’t the first time he’s done that, sugarcube,” the farmer pony chuckled.
“I’m … just a bit skeptical, that’s all,” Willow tried to defend himself.
“You don’t take generosity well,” Maple countered.
Willow flinched, then hung his head in shame. “Don’t remind me.”
“Well, you two are welcome to stay at mah place,” Applejack noted, “The only thing ah expect is proper table manners is all.”
“I… thanks, I guess,” Willow thanked, his expression softening a bit, “Truth to be told, I always wanted to look at and actual farm up close.”
“Well, ah reckin’ ah can show you the whole place once you git’ yer hooves wet,” she said positively.
Willow simply nodded in agreement. Faith was bit amused whenever Maple had to relay her brother’s actual feelings.
Now all that leaves…, she thought as her head to last member of the group who hasn’t decided.
Her eyes fell on Hunter, who appeared to be staring out of the window, bored out of his mind. He then noticed Faith looking, and turned to face her.
“What,” he asked.
“So, have you made your decision,” Faith asked.
“What? Oh, not really,” Hunter stated, “I was just going to… um…”
“Haven’t made up your mind yet, have you,” she said with a deadpan look.
“Hey, I was getting there,” he try to retort, “It’s just, you know…”
Faith simply rolled her eyes, “Guy with a girl thing again?” She was all too aware of how uncomfortable it made him to be alone with a girl other than the others.
“Yeah, I know shut up,” he said in a huff.
“Well, why don’t you try asking Rainbow,” Twilight suggested.
Huner took a look at Rainbow Dash, and then turned to Twilight with a face that mixed disgust and discomfort.
“You’re kidding me, right,” he said, “You expect me to get along with her? Out of all ponies?”
“At least without picking fights all day,” Faith noted, “besides, you have wings and she knows how to use them. You can probably ask her how to show you how to fly.”
Hunter contemplated for a moment, looking at his wings. Then he walked over to Rainbow, who appeared to be pretty neutral to him.
“Hey, mind if I crash at your place,” he asked bluntly, trying to bury any previous animosity he had with her before.
Rainbow looked at him with a hint of unsureness and skepticism herself. “Didn’t think you would want to ask me. What’s the catch?”
“Nothing, really,” Hunter replied, sweeping his front leg, “just, you know, figured we started on the wrong foot. I’m just… you know… not good at asking others for help.”
He looked down, looking rather awkwardly at the ground.
“Okay.”
Hunter looked up at Rainbow, with a surprised look on his face. “Wait, what?”
“You can stay at my place,” Rainbow stated again, smiling with confidence.
“Wow, really? I mean, thanks, I guess.”
“Hey, don’t sweat the small stuff,” she said, then held out her front right leg, “you seemed pretty cool anyway. Let’s hoofbump on it, we cool?”
Hunter looked at hoof, a little confused at first. Then spoke ‘oh’ and bumped her hoof with his. “Guess so.”
Twilight and Faith watched as the two pegasi shared confident looks with each other.
“So, I guess everyone’s got their places, huh,” Twilight said.
Faith nodded, “Yeah. I’m kinda surprised and glad at the same time that it worked out this way.”
“Yeah,” Twilight noted, “As long as you are here, we’ll help you guys as much as we can.”
“Thanks,” Faith said with a smile.
Twilight returned the smile, and Faith decided to usher everyone back together.
“So now what do we do?” Fluttershy asked softly, “if you don’t mind me asking.”
Faith realized that the shy pegasus had been next to her without her realizing it.
“Well, I guess we could show you guys around town a bit,” Twilight suggested, “I didn’t get a chance to do that with you Faith, so doing with your group can make up for it.”
“That’d be great,” she agreed, “I could definitely get to know this town. What do you guys think?”
“Sounds awesome,” Hunter noted.
“Finally! I wanted to see the whole place since this morning,” Indigo was hopping in excitement, “Let’s go already.”
“Hold on a tad minute,” Raine suddenly said a stern tone.
“What you on about, princess? Something got yer’ knickers in a bunch,” Hunter sarcastically asked in faux british accent.
Raine simply rolled her eyes in response. “Dear, as much as I’d like to go exploring our surroundings, I, or rather we, simply do not look the part.”
“Hmm, elaborate,” Indigo suddenly put on a face that criss-crossed seriousness contemplation and energetic curiosity.
Raine nonchalantly put her hoof through her mane and stroke through it. Then flung some clumps in the air, which went all over the place and became a mess of hair on her neck.
“Your … mane,” Maple guessed timidly.
“Exactly,” Raine exclaimed, “it’s an absolute wreck!”
“Really, is it now?” Hunter said in a deadpan tone, “Just run that through water or hair gel or whatever you use and you’ll look good as new. What’s so wrong with havin’ a bit of bed head?”
“For you, that may be forgivable, but as a lady, I find my image is just as important as my talents,” Raine said in a matter of fact tone, “Besides, I’m speaking for everyone as well. We are not looking our finest, to put it lightly.”
Faith was about to raise her own objection when yet another piece of hair fell in front of her, which she decided to immediately shut up about it and just brush it aside. Willow and Hunter simply rolled their eyes, Maple nodded shyly in agreement while giving a very sympathetic ‘oooh’, while Indigo was just messing with his tail by tying loose knots.
“Why darling!” Rarity suddenly raised her voice, “What an important thing to miss. And to think it was our first topic!”
“Aww, c’mon girl, not you too,” Hunter said with dread.
“But of course, Hunter,” she responded, “A pony’s mane is a very important part of them. It says much about who you are and your background. And we simply have you all running around looking like a bunch of ruffians.”
“Who you callin’ a ruffian?!” Hunter shouted in anger.
“Don’t mind him, he’s loud,” Willow quipped, “but still, I suppose it’s for the best.”
“You actually want a haircut as well, Will?” Faith asked, surprised.
“Might as well get it over with,” he replied, “If we want to fit, looking the part is a good step in the right direction. Besides, if I had a mirror right now, I’d probably be a bit miffed by a bad hair day myself, truth to be told. I’ll go with Raine’s judgment on this one.”
“Am I the only one to find it’s a dumb idea?” Hunter piped up.
“Let’s find out!” Pinkie suddenly interrupted, “All in favor of Faith’s friends getting a manecut, raise your hoof.”
Raine, Rarity, and Willow naturally raised their hooves first. They were followed by Maple, Fluttershy, Indigo, and Pinkie; the former two hesitantly, the latter two enthusiastically. Faith looked to Twilight, trying to hopefully get some advice. Twilight simply shrugged, as she was pretty unsure as well.
“Okay, we give,” Faith simply raised her arm as well, with Twilight following suit as both smiled sheepishly.
Hunter simply frowned, and turned his head to see Rainbow and Applejack, who were only ones without their hooves in the air.
“Ugh. You also feeling me here, right,” he asked, sounding defeated, “this is dumb, ehh?”
“I’ve already put up with getting put with getting put in dresses that make me look like a clown,” Rainbow said as she rolled her eyes, “a manecut’s quick, at least. Just suck it up.”
The gray pegasus let a low groan as he got up.
“Alright, since we’re all in agreement, then let’s go immediately,” Rarity said with glee, “I know the best place to get the possible manecut in town.”
“Welcome, miss Rarity, how can we help you today?”
The pony at the desk up front kindly asked the white unicorn. Faith’s group looked around, taking in the sights of the spa.
“Ah yes, you see I have some friends in need of a much required manecut,” Rarity requested, “Six ponies. Three mares and three stallions.”
“Of course, right this way,” the spa pony lead the group to another room.
“This place is… fancy,” Faith noted as the group walked through the spa.
“Why of course,” the fashionista responded, “this is my go to destination for all my pedicures. The ponies here will make sure your stay here is as pleasant and relaxing as possible.”
“Didn’t think this place also offer haircuts,” Hunter snorted, “figured we’d be walkin’ in on some dusty old barbershop.”
“Well, there is such an establishment that did come to mind,” she noted, “sadly, I had just remembered the owner was closed for the day. Besides, by the time you leave this place, you will look absolutely dashing.”
“Oh joy,” he sarcastically responded, “this stuff looks expensive. You’re not seriously paying for all this, are you?”
“But of course,” Rarity said with a smile, “This is your first day here, after all. It would be unfair to expect something so soon.”
“That’s … very generous of you,” Willow thanked her.
“Everypony, here we are,” the receptionist directed them to a room.
Faith, the Mane 6, and the others entered the room, and the scent of hairspray was one of the first things that hit her. The room had several sets of mirrors and chairs at opposite sides of the wall, with some décor around the place. In the room were some ponies waiting for them, which Faith assumed were the barbers and stylists.
“Hello, everypony,” one of the stylists formally greeted, a pink pony with a blue mane and tail, “What can we do for you all today?”
“Hello, Aloe,” Rarity greeted, “My friends here are in need of a much needed manecut, think you can do the job?”
The mare looked at towards Faith’s group, then nodded, as if she understood the situation. The two mares exchanged a bit more banter, then the stylist walked up to Faith.
“So, we can do five ponies’ manes immediately to begin with,” she said to the light violet unicorn, “so who are the first few that shall go?”
Members of Faith’s group looked at each other for a minute, then to the stylists.
“Come on, guys,” Twilight encouraged them, “It’ll be fine.”
Hunter simply shrugged at the regard, “Fine, might as well give it a swing.”
He walked over and sat in one of the seats nonchalantly, and one of the stylists walked up and put a large cloth around the neck and over his body.
“So, my friend,” the stylist asked, prepping a pair of scissors, “What style do you have in mind today?”
“I dunno, what can you do,” the pegasus responded, a little skeptical, “and please none of that fru-fru stuff that those idiots have while they drink their fancy tea while twiddling their fricken mustaches while sitting on a two story porch… no offense, Raine.”
“None taken,” Raine responded, but although she did looked a little annoyed.
“I assure you, I am very capable of a variety of mane styles,” the stylist said with confidence, “You just need to describe what you have in mind.”
“Alright,” Hunter said complacently, “anything, right?”
The stylist nodded his head, and Hunter looked away as he thought for a moment. Then his eyes widened for a second as he fingured out what he want.
“Got it,” he said, “so, I want my hair to have that that look, you know. Something sharp, not too diesel, no cutting the corners deal. One look at me is gotta ‘cool and deadly’, knowwhatImean?”
“Uhh, what?” his mane cutter gave a very confused look.
“Ugh, okay. I don’t like looking too average, but nothing flashy involved. Nuthin’ scrawny looking, or greaser look. And don’t cut wavy either.”
“You lost me again,” the even more confounded stallion expressed.
“Of for grieving… Look, I just want something to make me look awesome, yet deadly. Like that wild spirit ridin’ in the wind, one ya want to get out of the way of, you feelin’ me?”
“I-I… no,” the stylist could only cough up.
Faith wasn’t sure if he should feel sorry for the guy, or laugh at the unique situation. Then Rainbow Dash suddenly stepped up.
“He’s wants a Mohawk, but not some run in the mill one,” she suddenly stated, “It’s got to be unique some way, but it can’t too ridiculous.”
The stylist blinked for a minute in her direction, a bit bewildered at her answer.
“See, she knows what I’m talking about,” Hunter said with a toothy grin.
“And this is why we don’t let Hunter choose the toppings of our salads,” Faith amusingly quipped.
The stylist simply shrugged and took what little understanding he still had to focus on the mane cut. At another seat, Willow was apparently making a bit of small talk with his barber.
“Listen, please keep it simple and short,” Willow explained, “I often don’t like dealing with long hai… er… manes, so try to make it so that I don’t need to be concerned about it for a while.”
“Of course,” the pony that appeared to be Aloe, “I’ll be sure that you’ll look nice as well. Do you want to go for something that will differentiate you from your sister?”
Willow blinked, “How did you know…?”
“Oh, I can tell, I have a twin sister myself,” she chuckled, “I believe she’s with yours at the moment.”
“Oh,” he simply said.
“Hi, Willow,” Maple called out to him.
He turned his eyes to her, and found her walking into another seat. She was wearing a towel around her head, apparently from washing her hair.
“Alright, so what style do you want today?” a voice that is practically the same as Aloe.
He turned his sight slightly to find a mare that identical to Aloe. He did a double take, and realized her color scheme was in reverse, having a pink body and blue mane.
“Oooh,” he said again, trying to suppress his surprise.
“Oh, a style,” she personally wondered, “well, I guess I can go something short and simple. It’s what my brother goes for anyway, Miss… uh…?”
“Lotus, my friend,” the mare chuckled as she wrapped the cloth around Maple.
Willow simply shook his head when his thoughts traced back to their similarities. Aloe simply smiled amused as she started to work on his mane. Faith looked away from watching Willow’s scene as she sat down in her seat, having just gotten her own hair washed through. She looked to the left the find that Indigo was sitting next to her. He was apparently fast asleep, snoring away like no one’s business, while the stylist working on his mane was going to town with it. It took a second for Faith to realize how much hair was all over the place on his head.
“This … is … impossible! Every strand of mane I cut, three more pop up in its place,” the shouted, exasperated.
“Calm down,” the stylist that was doing Faith’s hair told her coworker, “if you keep cutting so recklessly, you’ll mess up his mane.”
“I know, just… there so much that room for error is so little,” the guy responded as he snipped another large chunk off, “No matter, it will be taken care of immediately!”
“*sigh* Oh well, now then, Miss Faith, was it,” the unicorn stylist said as she took the towel off her head, “First we’ll be doing your mane, then we’ll stylize your tail accordingly. Is there a particular style do you want?”
Faith thought for a minute, thinking about what she wanted to look like. She thought back on everyone else’s manes. Twilight had hers straight, which looked plain and simple. Rainbow Dash’s looked like it was ready swept by the wind. Rarity’s was curled in a way that made it extremely fancy. Fluttershy’s was long enough to have covered a bit of her face. Applejack’s was done in a way that appeared to benefit her working style. Pinkie’s … was just all over the place, which was oddly appropriate for her energetic side.
“You know what,” Faith stated, “surprise me. I don’t have much of style I prefer, truth to be told. I like to roll with whatever I get.”
“Very well, then I shall do my best to give you a mane that best reflects you,” the stylist said as she prepped her scissors.
As Faith sat back in her seat, she felt a part of her mane being pulled back by a comb as the first snip was taken from it.
Sometime during the manecut, Faith had to close her eyes to prevent a lot of the hair from falling into her eyes. And somewhere during that time, she apparently forgot to open them completely despite not feeling anymore hair hit her face.
“Miss Faith, you can open your eyes now,” her stylists finally said when the sound of snipping ceased.
Faith opened her eyes, and looked in the mirror. She saw the first improvement was that her mane was no longer going to get in the way of her vision. She then noted how wavy and curled it look on top, yet was neatly straight enough to be unique. Her stylist held up a mirror that allowed her to see the back of her mane was put in a position that waved upward.
“Wow, this is… impressive,” Faith managed to speak out.
“Oh, do you like it,” the stylist asked, “I honestly was experimenting for a bit. I hope it fits what you may have been looking for.”
“It’s … absolutely amazing,” Faith complimented, “Wait, so now my tail gets the same treatment, right?”
“Correct, if you follow me now,” the unicorn said as she showed her the way.
As she got out of the chair and followed the stylists, she wondered how her friends will react to her new appearance.
“Wow, Faith. You look amazing!”
Faith had just come out of the room and into the waiting area, where the Mane 6 were waiting around. Twilight was the first to notice her, and was quite impressed with her friend’s new look.
“Thanks, I guess,” she smiled, blushing a bit, “it’s a really big improvement to my mane, I guess.”
“Why, darling, it’s quite astounding,” Rarity said with glee, “You are going to the object of jealousy to so many other mares.”
“Does that make me the chick magnet then,” Hunter’s voice came up behind them.
Faith turned around to find the pegasus standing behind them. His mane stood up in the form of a Mohawk, with the back spiked straight back. He also had a pair of thin bangs at the front that fell to both sides of his head. His tail was straightened out and cut a bit short.
“Thanks, girl,” Hunter nodded, “That hairdo guy really did know what he was doing. Tell me, does this bring out my cool side or what?” He started to strut around, show off a bit.
“Oh, it sure does bring out a side,” Applejack chuckled.
“You trying to start something, country girl,” Hunter reacted badly as he got in front of her with an angry look.
“He saying you look like a punk,” Willow suddenly spoke out, “it which is quite funny, considering you are close to being one.”
The others turned around to find Willow and Maple walking out. Willow’s mane seemed to have improved in appearance, shortened and strained out into a curved triangle. Maple seemed to have the same style complimenting her brother’s, except she had a bow at the end of hair, as well as one at the base of her tail.
“Thank you,” he replied, “You look quite nice yourself, Faith. Hunter, though… I have to ask, why a Mohawk?”
“Cause why not,” the pegasus answered, “B’sides, if I’m gonna be stuck in magical of land of colorful friken’ ponies, I might as look a way that’s gonna keep me out of the common crowd.”
Willow shrugged, “True, I suppose.”
Maple walked up to Faith, in awe of her mane. “Wow, Faith. You look really pretty.”
“Thanks, Maple,” Faith thanked her, “You look nice yourself; the bows are a nice addition.”
“Thank you, it was actually Willow’s idea,” she replied, “He suggested them cause he thinks they make me look cute.”
Willow immediately flinched as he blushed for some reason. It was met with amused looks from the others.
“So, she lookin’ cute, does she?” Applejack teased playfully.
“I-I just wanted to make sure others would be able to differentiate between us,” Willow tried to defend yourself.
“Yeah, suuuuuure,” Pinkie joined in with a mischievous look.
“I think you are a very thoughtful brother,” Fluttershy said with a shy smile.
“Thank you,” Willow said, reminding himself that how quiet the yellow pegasus was.
“Alright, that still leaves Raine and Indigo,” Faith noted, “by the way, has anyone seen Raine, I lost track of her when we got here.”
“Did somepony mention me?”
Faith and the others turned around to see Raine stepping out. Her mane flowed downwards, the blonde hair falling straight. She also appeared to have a few strands of blue highlights, especially one that ran in the middle of her face. She also apparently had some makeup on, as she had light blue eye shadow on.
“Wow, you really went all out,” Faith said, awestruck.
“Yeah, sheeyoot girl,” Hunter added, equally surprised, “Friggen’ A, how many brushes ya weeded before you got it to look that …wavy?”
“Well, it wasn’t easy,” she explained, “Since there were only five stylists and six of us, I decided that Rarity would help me trim a few loose ends and make it look nice.”
“After that, she picked up and started to apply her style on her own,” Rarity continued, “which I must say, you truly looking dashing. You truly make good on your profession as an artist.”
“Hee he, thank you,” she smiled, touched, “when you are in my kind of work, you tend to pick up skills without realizing.”
Taken off guard, Raine jerked around to find the blue unicorn standing directly behind her.
“Goodness lord,” she said, her voice a bit raised, “Don’t walk up others like that. Did you just done recently??”
“Yup, do I look good,” he asked with a smile.
Faith immediately took a look at his mane. While it was significantly neater, it was also a bit shorter. He had two bangs to the sides, both white highlighted ends. His tail was also a bit shorter, with white highlight at the tip as well.
“Well, you certainly look good,” Raine said, “but I must ask, why the white highlights?”
“Cause I thought it would look cool,” Indigo replied, “Besides Hunter’s rocking a sweet Mohawk, so I get to look awesome as well.”
Raine gave a look at Hunter’s mane and immediately rolled her eyes. “I barely understand the logic in that. Then again it’s you, Indigo, so who am I to question anything.”
“Ooooh, you look like really awesome, Indigo,” Pinkie complimented him as she hopped up, “Now you definitely don’t look like you just got out of bed. Oh, I’m not saying you didn’t look awesome before, but having bed hair can be silly. I mean, ponies say I have bed hair sometimes, but this is how I always looked, you know. But sometimes when I toss around too much in bed, my hair can get really really fuzzy and…”
As Pinkie rambled on, Twilight walked up to Faith as the latter gave up trying to follow the pink pony’s motor mouth.
“So, now that that’s settled, why don’t we start showing you around town,” Twilight suggested.
“Sounds like a plan,” Faith agreed before turning to the others. “Hey guys, Twilight’s going show us around town, so let’s move out,” she called to the others.
The others spoke up in agreement as they exited the salon. As she stepped out into the sunlight, Faith looked up to see the clear skies. She thought about how things are right now, how they all made new friends, and what lied ahead of them in the future.
“Hey, Faith,” Hunter called to her, “you trying to count clouds or something? C’mon.”
“Coming!” she called out, running towards the group.
One thing’s for certain; they were about to have the adventure of a lifetime on their hands. Or hooves.
