A little boy, wandering alone in the woods, trods along a packed, dirt path. The world is safe- but a whole new adventure awaits our protagonist.
A little boy, wandering alone in the woods, trods along a packed, dirt path. The world is safe- but a whole new adventure awaits our protagonist. Ness walks alone, along a dark path. The earth was saved, due to his and his friends' efforts. Now lost, bat in hand, he sets out to explore the world.
Fluttershy trotted through her backyard, carefully filling the numerous bird feeders that lined the back of the fence with precious bird seed. She set the bag down as she approached the first feeder, tearing the top of the bag off. She grunted quietly, her wings flapping as she tipped the bag into the top of the glass feeder. A loud commotion suddenly made itself known, emanating from the far corner of the yard. Quickly setting the heavy, burlap bag down, she made her way over to the source of the commotion. One of her animal friends, Mister Hummingbird, was angrily circling a bird she'd never met before. The assumed object of Mister Hummingbird's anger was a large, black crow, wearing a rather cute purple bowtie, and a pair of small sunglasses, rounding sharply at the outside corners. The sunglasses bounced on it's beak as it squawked harshly back at Mister Hummingbird.
"Oh my goodness," Fluttershy said softly to herself, then addressed the two avians "what in Equestria are you two fighting about?"
Mister Hummingbird chirped, pointing an accusing wingtip at the crow, whom was preening itself as if Mister Hummingbird and herself weren't there. Fluttershy studied the crow for a moment, finding it peculiar that the crow was dressed like it was, and the fact that it wore clothes at all.
"Um...Mister Crow?" the pegasus mare asked timidly.
The crow nonchalantly stopped preening itself, and looked down upon her from its perch on the fence picket.
"Um...I just wanted to know...what are you and Mister Hummingbird fighting about?" she asked gently.
Another harsh caw from the crow, and it turned, flying off in the vague direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
"Oh...um...I guess that solved itself..." Fluttershy stated, blinking.
The timid mare then turned to her hummingbird friend, watching him take up the spot previously occupied by the mysterious crow. Shaking her head, she admonished her animal friend, then returned to filling her bird-feeders.
Ness plodded along the dirt path, its packed state giving him the impression that it was a road well-traveled. Boredly swinging his old tee-ball bat as he kicked up dust from the path, he idly wondered just what part of Eagleland he was in. Sure he'd seen almost everything there was to see, and granted he didn't see much in the way of landmarks, which might've been a bit helpful in finding out where he was. Checking the many maps he had, neatly folded in his backpack, certainly didn't help matters either. Based on what he'd seen, there was nowhere like this on any map he had- and he should like to think he knew every inch of them, seeing as he'd checked them three times over in the last hour. Adjusting the cap on his head, he twisted it so the bill shielded his eyes from the blazing sun high above. He sighed to himself as he stopped, slipping off his backpack. Undoing the zipper, he pulled out the receiver he'd gotten from the Apple Kid back in Twoson, momentarily checking it, just to be sure he hadn't received any calls. The boy knew full well he you could hear the thing from a mile away when it rang, and though the device was a bit muffled when stuffed into his backpack, the unique sound was still able to be heard. Sighing to himself, he shoved the receiver back into his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder. He began walking once more, wriggling his other arm through other the strap as he plucked his bat off the ground. Glancing around, he noticed nothing but a thick grove of trees that appeared to go on for miles to the right of him, and the grass and dirt beneath the soles of his Converse. He watched for any sign of movement in the trees, and continually glanced behind him, keeping an eye out for any rabid dogs, or maybe one of those annoying crows. Thankfully, nothing had presented itself...yet...
Button Mash wrinkled his muzzle as he just narrowly avoided being vaporized. Tilting the joystick, he rolled, collecting two greens and a Zap Apple. His health meter refilled a bit as the character on-screen jumped on a Trooper, ejecting it from its shell. The Trooper's sprite flew across the screen, falling into a deep pit to the left of his character. A Big Trooper suddenly dropped from the top of the screen. It let loose a pixelated roar, before it charged towards his character. Button repeatedly bashed the secondary button next to the joystick, attempting to double jump over the giant, tortoise-like creature. His character almost sailed over the Big Trooper's head, but not before a single claw rose and prevented the maneuver, forcing Button's character to be tossed into the pit like a ragdoll.
"NOOO!" Button moaned "Four hours! Down the dra-ai-ain!"
Sniffling as he rubbed his snout, Button hopped off the bench placed before the console. Trotting into the open street, the buzz and hum of the many arcade consoles filled the air as Button passed them. He stopped suddenly, staring at two strange creatures standing at the Mare-io Sisters machine. A strange-looking baseball bat was leaning against the side of the console, along with a red-and-white-striped hoopty-hoop. The two creatures were dressed oddly, one all in purple, the other all in green. Dorsal fins sprouted from the tops of their heads, and both of them possessed flight goggles, each pair wrapped around their round heads.
'Whoa...' Button reeled, awestruck '...you don't see that everyday...'
As Button approached, he 'accidentally' overheard the conversation the two were having.
"Don't do that!" Green shouted to Purple, whom was fiddling with the joystick "You're gonna-"
The machine played a tune, indicating a game over.
"I told you!" Green said, muscling Purple out of the way "Lemme try! I bet I can get a better score than you!"
"Thing's busted," Purple sneered, showing its white teeth "doesn't matter if you're better'n me."
'Hay-for-brains,' Button thought, passing the two 'who can't figure out a simple arcade machine?'
"Hey! Pony-thing!" came the voice of Purple.
Button turned, turning to find Purple pointing at him, while Green still managed to somehow get a game over once more.
"M-Me?" Button asked, glancing around to make sure it was him they were talking to.
"Yeah! You know this thing don't work? Why doesn't somebody come and fix it?"
"It's not broken." Button stated, meekly approaching the arcade machine.
"May I?" he asked Green.
Green raised his hands, in a defensive gesture, as it stepped away from the machine.
"Hey, if you can get it to work, more power to ya."
Button stepped up to the seat before the machine. Hopping onto it, he removed a bit from beneath his hat, which he kept there just in case of an emergency. Popping the gold coin into the slot on the front of the console, Button gripped the joystick with his left hoof as his right positioned itself over the primary button. In his element, the 'Level 1' screen booted up, and then the real fun began.
Ness sat in the shade of the trees, munching on a Skip Sandwich. His muscles ached as he sat at the base of a tree, the grass tickling the back of his legs. Taking another bite out of the sandwich, he looked around, finding his surroundings very calming. He faintly heard the sound of rustling grass, and knew that it wasn't the wind. He swung his head left, making a grab for his bat, and trying to find the source of the noise. An enormous figure suddenly appeared, blocking out the sun. Shielding his eyes with a hand, he found a glorious creature standing over him, its wings spread out majestically. It was some sort of massive horse, a long horn poking out of its flowing mane, which was dyed literally every color of the rainbow, and then some.
"Hello," Ness said simply, blinking owlishly "out for a walk?"
It blinked, then folded its wings, staring down at him as if he'd grown a second head.
"Thou...dost not know of me?" it asked as its beautiful, light blue wings folded in.
"No...not that I know of..." Ness said, scratching his head "...unless you're some sort of shape-shifting alien..."
The pony muttered something to itself, and then directed its attention back to Ness.
"Who art thou?"
"Me? Nobody, why?"
"I mean to know thy name, creature." it huffed, setting itself down on the grass before him.
"Ness, what's yours?"
"Aurora, I am Aurora Borealis." it said, looking around, as Ness had done earlier.
'Aurora-? As in...the lights at the North Pole? Paula talked about that once...'
Ness cringed, remembering that he was alone here, and his friends were who-knew-where.
"So...um...Aurora..."
The winged unicorn's slender neck twisted, and indicated he had his attention.
"What are you doing here? Not to be rude, or anything..."
The pony chuckled, not even making Ness flinch. He'd definitely seen weirder, he believed there was very little that could surprise him.
"We have sensed thy great power, young Ness," the Aurora stated, chuckling softly once more "We sensed it long before thy landing- we believe that is why We were awoken."
"How long were you asleep?" the boy asked, genuinely curious.
The unicorn looked thoughtful for a moment, before replying.
"We do not know, the pattern of the stars feels so much different than they used to..."
'How can you feel the stars?' Ness wondered 'How could anybody feel the stars?'
Ness shrugged mentally, finding logic in that if he himself could use psychokinesis, then gosh-darn-it, the magical blue pony could feel the stars!
"You must be hungry after sleeping so long." Ness deduced, tearing the remainder of his Skip Sandwich in half.
"Not particularly....but...We suppose a small re-nourishment couldn't hurt..."
Ness held out the half of the sandwich that his mouth hadn't touched, germs and all that. The winged-unicorn's mouth tentatively closed around the crust of the sandwich, and his eyes lit up. Taking his half of the sandwich out of his hand, the pony devoured the sandwich in a scant few minutes, appearing to savor it.
"You must've been really hungry." Ness observed.
A small blush came to Aurora's face.
"Well, I'm going to go look for a hotel, wanna come with me?"
Aurora cocked a brow, staring down at the small child.
"Thou wishest we travel with thee?" he asked.
"Sure! I could always use the company."
Aurora smiled.
"Verily! We shall become travel companions, and the best of friends!" he declared, marching forward with a forehoof in the air.
'Reminds me of something Tracy would make up...' Ness thought, his mind turning to Tracy and Mom, then quickly pushed the thought out of his head 'I'll be home soon.'
"No way!" Green shrieked in Button's ear "No feckin' way you made it all the way to the last boss!"
Button did his best to keep his focus on the screen of the console, but the whoops and cheers he was receiving from the two bipeds were making that a bit difficult. Some ponies, like his Mom, Cheerilee, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Truffle, Rumble-
Button shook his head, refocusing his mind and reflexes on the task at hand. Point was, most of his friends and family didn't appreciate his skills the way he did, but these two...things...were eating it up! They were cheering him on! They practically understood him!
A particularly large fireball blasted out of the turtle-beast's pixelated mouth, and his character was burnt to a crisp, indicating a game over. The screen went black, and the main title screen popped up, along with the words "Insert Bit" below the Super Mare-io logo.
Button frowned, and looked at the Purple and Green both still in ecstasy from Button's runthrough.
"Well...I guess you guys are gonna leave now..." Button stated, beginning to trot off towards Sugarcube Corner- gaming for hours on end always made him a bit peckish.
"Hey, can we come with ya?" Purple asked.
Button stopped, then turned to face the two boys.
"Really?" he asked, confused "You actually want to hang out with me?"
"Why not? You seem like a pretty cool guy." Green stated.
Cool! Somepony actually called him 'cool'!
"S-Sure!" Button cried ecstatically.
"Huh, town seems a bit small, will they even have a hotel here?" Ness asked of the winged-unicorn trotting beside him.
"We know not, We've been away for so long, it seems..."
As they approached the settlement, Ness found it unsurprising to find the entire town inhabited by nothing but colorful ponies. Ness wondered, briefly, if he wasn't somehow transported into his little sister's imagination, as everything was blindingly cute and colorful. Not to mention the deliberately heavy smattering of ponies hanging around.
"Sir Ness, these ponies seem to be...skittish- nervous."
"Given that they've never seen a human before, and the fact that I'm carrying a baseball bat, approaching the settlement is probably more than enough to make them nervous." Ness deduced.
"Then should we not find a more subtle way into the settlement?" he asked.
Ness shrugged, thinking on it for a moment.
"That'd probably be misconstrued as us trying to sneak in, instead of just entering directly."
"I am afraid We do not understand."
"If we enter head-on, that'll show we don't mean any harm to them- no idiot who'd want to plan a sneak attack would waltz directly into town."
"Subtlety by directness, thou truly art a brilliant mastermind."
Ness blushed, his face burning as he and Aurora continued walking.
"Not exactly...but...yeah...I guess..." Ness replied, scratching at the back of his head.
"Oh wow," Ness whistled, staring up at the structure before the winged-pony and himself "that's something else."
"Indeed," Aurora stated, seeming to be just as speechless as he was "quite an impressive piece of architecture."
"Talk about a tree house." Ness murmured, almost mesmerized by the design of the building.
"Mayhaps this is a hostel? Is there anypony here?" Aurora asked, moving forward to knock at the door.
"Sure looks like it, looks really cozy, too." Ness replied, snapping out of his trance as he thought back to some of the hotels he stayed at during his trip around the world.
Aurora knocked gently, as if he feared the oak door might tip over if he knocked too hard. Ness took a wild guess that such a thing was possible, given the winged-unicorn's stature. The door creaked open, and yet another pony with a horn and wings answered, bags under its eyes, and its mane severely frazzled, as if it'd spent the day rubbing a balloon against it.
"Um, excuse me, Miss," Ness began, trying not to be off-put by the frequent twitching of the lavender alicorn's eye "we're looking for the nearest hotel."
The shorter alicorn's eye twitched a few more times before giggling to herself, making both Ness and Aurora a bit more uncomfortable.
"Er...I think we'll just go and...ask someone else..." Ness stated, turning to resume his walk down the empty street.
Aurora turned to follow his companion, shooting a concerned glance back to the alicorn still standing in the open doorway of the tree-like structure.
"Well, that was most certainly a library, not a hostel," Aurora said as the two delved further into the small town "if the numerous shelves of books were any indication."
"It still looked comfortable." Ness replied.
"Indeed." Aurora stated.
The two continued their journey, following a dirt road lined with businesses and shops, all haphazardly shuttered in their wake, as if a great depression had come through right before them.
"Seems pretty empty for such a large town." Ness said to no-one in particular, memories of Threed surfacing in his mind.
'At least there isn't a man-eating tent...' Ness thought, shuddering at the thought of the evil grin on the sentient circus tent that he and his friends once battled.
"Quite." Aurora agreed, then after a moment "Sir Ness."
"Hmm?" the boy asked, wondering what the large stallion might want to ask.
"What is thy purpose in this world?" he asked, curious.
"I don't know..." Ness replied "my friends and I were saving the world from the aliens, and then...then I don't remember much after that...I found myself lost in a forest, and I just started walking."
"And here we are." Aurora finished, nodding "Verily, it seems thou art truly lost..."
"Yeah..."
"Maybe fate has something in store for you, if it brought thou here so suddenly."
"I guess you're right..." Ness replied.
'What in the world could fate want with me?' he wondered 'I'm just a kid, sure- maybe we saved our own world, but how could I save this one, if at all?'
He honestly didn't want to think about globe-trotting this new planet, especially right after just doing so with his own planet. Maybe he didn't want to save the world again, maybe he just wanted to lay on a soft bed and sleep.
Ness shook his head, banishing all future concerns for the moment. If these ponies were as peaceful as they were colorful, he shouldn't have much trouble keeping fallout at bay, right?
"Sir Ness, art thou alright?" Aurora asked.
Ness blinked, finding himself staring at the laces of his cherry red Converse as he walked, now mildly caked with dust and dirt from the long trip to the settlement.
"Oh, uh...yeah, I'm fine- just thinking about a few things..."
"Well, I do believe I spot a hostel just down the street." the tall alicorn stated, a hoof shielding his eyes as his expressive eyes squinted.
"Oh, how can you tell?" Ness asked.
"It seems that it is indeed a hostel, if the bed painted on the sign is any indication." he replied.
"That's awfully convenient." Ness said cheerfully.
"Verily." Aurora replied.
"Let's see if there's anyone inside, maybe after we get a room we can look around a little more."
"'Tis a most brilliant plan." Aurora declared as the two of them headed into the hotel.
Ness walked out of the small bed and breakfast, his eyes downcast at the wallet in his hand. Aurora trotting beside him, glancing between the entrance of the hotel and themselves, confused.
"I do not think I quite understand," Aurora stated, an ear flicking "why were we not granted a room?"
"Something about bits...." Ness replied, equally confused.
"As in...a small fraction part of something larger?"
"I guess...I don't really get it, either," Ness said "it doesn't really help that there's no-one out here to ask."
"Indeed." Aurora agreed, glancing around the empty street.
"Well, there's always the forest..." Ness pointed out.
"Nonsense, surely there must be somewhere that will accept your currency?"
"Not if these 'bits' are the only accepted currency..."
"Perhaps there is an exchange rate?"
"Those things looked like pure gold, where am I going to get enough money to exchange about five hundred dollars?"
Aurora simply shrugged as the two of them now wandered the still-empty street. Ness took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, as if attempting to relieve the stress of the day.
Aurora suddenly stopped, and snorted, displaying his discomfort at...something...
The male alicorn then stomped, cracking the ground beneath his hoof something fierce.
"ENOUGH of this!"
"Aurora?" Ness questioned, glancing back.
"Back in my time, three ponies would take on an entire flock of griffons! Yet here, I see nothing but cowardice! Rethink thy choices, and make the correct one!" he shouted to the empty street, as well as the houses lining the street.
"Come, Sir Ness," Aurora stated, trotting past him "I believe we need a bit to cool off."
"Uh...yeah...I think that'd be best..." Ness replied, confused at the alicorn's behavior.
"Mayhaps there is a lake nearby," Aurora commented, once the two of them were just past the city limit "we could most certainly do with a wash."
'I'd think that since you're an alicorn, they would've let us have a room.' Ness thought, walking alongside his friend.
"Ah, such luck!" Aurora cheered, trotting happily into a small pond.
"Um...Aurora..." Ness stated, glancing with uncertainty at the cottage set next to the pond, that Aurora somehow managed to gloss over "I think this pond belongs to someone."
"Nonsense, this property belongs to Us, by royal decree."
Ness glanced worriedly at the cottage, the front door creaking open slowly. Ness gulped, and a feeling of dread came over him as he could only stand stock still in fear.
A cream-colored pegasus with a light pink mane with a small basket in her mouth exited the cottage, heading right for them.
Ness glanced between the cream-colored pegasus, her jaw agape, and Aurora- still washing himself without a care in the world.
"Uh...Aurora?" Ness questioned.
"Sir Ness?" Aurora replied, his broad back still facing both the Pegasus and himself.
The way the pegasus' wings were extended, he figured it must've been either surprised or preparing to charge the alicorn. Ness tried once more to catch Aurora's attention, and failed to do so. The pegasus, her wings now back around her sides, softly trotted past Ness, towards Aurora.
"Ehhm, um...sir?" the pegasus questioned quietly, a blush spread across her face "That's um...sort of...public indecency..."
"Nonsense, quiet one! Where else is such a fine place to bathe?"
"...anywhere but in my front yard?"
Aurora howled with laughter, forcing the pegasus to skid back a couple of feet.
"Thou art quite funny, quiet one! What is thy name?"
"It's...um...Fluttershy"
"Happy to make thy aquaintance, Fluttershy!"
"uhm...you too...I guess..."
"Aurora...I think we should be going..." Ness suggested, after watching the exchange.
"But We have not yet finished washing between our wings, Sir Ness!"
Fluttershy blushed harder, and cleared her throat.
"Well...um...I'm sure you can do that later on...but...um...I really must be going...and...I'd really rather you not bathe in my pond...so...um...sorry..."
Ness stared at Fluttershy, amazed that the little pony could somehow sound so demanding and meek at the same time. The pony gave the two a wide berth as she walked around the pond, trotting towards town.
"Er, yeah- we should...really be going..." Ness agreed, then motioned for Aurora to step out of the pond.
Aurora pouted, but slowly rose out of the water, flicking his tail of excess water.
"Aww, don't be like that." Ness chuckled, the alicorn still pouting.
"We will pout if We so wish." the alicorn stated grumpily.
Ness laughed some more as they resumed their walk, Aurora soon joining in.
Ahead of them, a rustic farm sat, and an orange pony in a stetson, hammering in a fence post.
"Maybe this one knows somewhere we can stay." Ness suggested, as they neared her.
