The credits came up, concluding my seventh viewing of Kung Fu Panda, and it turned out to be the perfect choice of film for everyone. There was enough fighting and humour to entertain Rainbow and Applejack, with enough well-written dialogue and emotional scenes to stimulate Twilight and Rarity. Even Fluttershy had been fully immersed, of whom I had expected to be less involved due to the violence; it would seem that I had vastly underestimated the ponies’ maturity.
“That was so cool!” Pinkie squealed, excitedly knocking her front hooves together.
“Eh, it was kind of cool, I guess.” said Dashie, leaning back and shrugging.
It was clear that she was trying to play down how much she had enjoyed it, which Pinkie didn’t pick up on whatsoever, scowling at the pegasus.
“No, it wasn’t ‘kind’ of cool, it was really cool!” she shouted.
The two were left to playfully squabble over what they thought of the film, while I took out the disc and returned it to its box, which I then put back with all the other DVDs. It was then that Twilight approached me, ironically bearing a terribly unapproachable expression.
“Hey uh, can we talk… alone?”
“Of course!” I replied merrily, “Let’s go somewhere more private.”
Quickly informing the others that I would only be gone for a few minutes, I led the way and escorted Twilight to my bedroom, shutting the door for additional privacy. This was a fantastic opportunity to finally connect with her, and hopefully get to the bottom of why she was so distrustful of me. Sitting on the bed, I gave the unicorn a warm smile.
“So, what’s up?” I asked, and then gestured to the carpeted floor, “Please, sit.”
Sadly, and just as I had anticipated, my friendliness rolled off the mare like water off a duck’s back. Choosing to remain standing, she looked me in the eye and frowned.
“It’s pretty clear that my behaviour has taken you by surprise. What, were you expecting me to act like that ridiculous cartoon? Did you expect this whole ordeal to be some happy little childlike fantasy?”
Trying my best to level with her, I shook my head quickly and shrugged.
“I don’t know what to expect, Twilight. I didn’t even think you were real until yesterday. I have no idea who you really are, or any of you for that matter. All I have to go on is what I’ve seen in that show, and at best, I would imagine you’re all at least somewhat similar. Personally I’d call that an educated guess, but if you want to set me straight, then by all means do so.”
Sighing in response, it was clear that she was trying to empathise with me, but was unable to do so very well. Wrinkling her nose and inhaling deeply, she went on to ask if I really wanted to know why she was so on edge, to which I opened my mouth to say yes. However, before I could get a word in, she continued anyway, implying that the question was rhetorical.
“The others don’t have a clue about what’s really going on. They think this is going to be some merry trip in an exciting new alien world, they’ve treated the past two weeks like it’s a damn vacation! But the Princess told me the truth. I’m the only one who knows how dangerous this place is, and what you humans are really like. I know all about your wars, and your crimes, and that even after tens of thousands of years as the only dominant species, you continue to butcher and ravage each other. You’ve driven countless species to extinction, and with each passing day, you devastate natural habitats in order to grow more food, and construct more buildings.”
With her lips trembling, Twilight blinked the tears from her eyes and looked at me, finishing her rant with all but a whisper.
“You’re not good, and I’m scared you’re going to hurt me and my friends.”
My heart broke for her, the poor thing really was terrified. It would seem that as leader of this group, Twilight had been subjected to all the gritty details and then some. By the sound of things, the Princess had given her the full monty when it came to humanity’s less pleasant attributes. Putting myself in her position, I could perfectly understand why she would hold me in such low esteem. Inhaling through my nose, I instructed her to look at me.
“You’re right to be afraid, this world is dangerous. But me?”
I placed a hand on my chest to add further emphasis, and slowly shook my head.
“I am not a threat to you. Now, I don’t expect you to believe that, nor do I expect you to trust me. But you trust the Princess, and she sent you to me. Why do you think she would do that, if I was going to hurt you?”
Furrowing her brow, Twilight couldn’t deny the logic, but it wasn’t enough, as she explained that it wasn’t inherently me as an individual she feared, but rather, she believed that my very nature would betray me. She trusted the Princess’s judgement, but in spite of that, she simply couldn’t shake a gut feeling that I would someday harm her. The words stung like icy needles; she genuinely thought I was some kind of beast, no different from a changeling, capable of being civilised just to keep appearances, but ultimately a monster.
“How can you be so sure?” I asked, “How can you just decide how good or bad I am?”
“Because I know what happens.” she snapped back, clenching her jaw.
“What?”
“If we fail this mission.” she said, shutting her eyes, “I know what happens…”
Her eyes opened, and she stared into mine with a burning hatred.
“… and it’s your fault.”
A shudder went through me, what did she mean by that? Swallowing, it dawned on me that Celestia must have told Twilight something awful, something about me. Whatever had been said, it had utterly traumatised the poor mare.
“Okay…” I breathed slowly, “So tell me, what happens?”
Twilight opened her mouth and jutted her head forward, as though she was on the verge of telling me, but regrettably, she receded back into her shell and refused to answer. Not wanting to push it, I held back on asking further questions. Whatever was going on here, I would find out soon enough, but for now I just needed to keep Twilight as close an ally as possible. She hadn’t pulled me aside to bond with me, it was to explain why she wasn’t as chirpy as one might expect, and it was perfectly justified. This was something of a wakeup call for me, and grounded me in my role; these ponies needed my guidance, and protection where necessary, they weren’t here to make friends. Of course, two things could be true, and if I ended up befriending the others then that was a bonus, but I needed to accept here and now that Twilight and I might never grow close, and that was okay.
“Well,” I huffed, “thank you for telling me as much as you have. I really appreciate it.”
“Sure, I guess.” she mumbled, looking away.
I was about to give her a final piece of reassurance when hoofsteps sounded on the floorboard outside. The bedroom door opened, and Applejack’s head popped around the corner.
“Just checking on y’all, everything alright in here?”
After flashing me a dirty look, Twilight turned her head to give her friend a fake smile.
“Everything’s fine, we were just discussing the mission.”
Knowing how on edge Twilight had been for the past fortnight, the farm pony saw right through the façade and passed me a doubtful expression, raising an eyebrow. Not wanting to rock the boat, I gave her a smile of my own and nodded with certainty.
“We were just going over some of the finer details.” I told her, “I hope the five of you aren’t too bored down there?”
“Nah, we’re good.” she replied with a grin, “Just been talking amongst ourselves and reading some of those books you have lying around, hope you don’t mind?”
“Not at all!” I said.
That’s when a jolt of fear ran through me. I had a recipe book lying around somewhere, with a fair few of the entries being meat dishes. After all Twilight had been told about my species, if she were now to discover that we ate meat on top, I could imagine it being nothing short of a disaster.
“That said, I know books aren’t for everyone.” I announced, getting to my feet, “Come on, let’s find something more active to do!”
Hurrying out of the room and back downstairs, I was greeted by the smiles of the other ponies, and I couldn’t help but break into a great big smile of my own. Just walking into a room and seeing these characters from my favourite TV show, living and breathing, it made me feel so warm and happy inside, this truly was a dream come true.
By the looks of things, they hadn’t found the recipe book, and I sighed a breath of relief, only to inhale in a huge lungful of surprise as Pinkie Pie jumped in front of me, her nose no more than a centimetre away from mine.
“I’m bored of books now, can we do something else? Are there any games we can play? What kind of games do humans like? Do you have any fun ones? I bet you have loads of fun games. Do you have buckball? Ooh, what about hoofball? Hmm, probably not because you don’t have any hooves. Do you have non-hoof hoofball? Ooh, ooh, I know, do you have handball? It’s okay if you don’t, I just want to play something. Can we play a game? Huh? Can we? Can we?”
Practically blown apart by her rapid-fire questioning, it was hard to track with each word, but the simple gist was unmissable; find a game for this mad pony before she exploded, and then exploded again! Chuckling, I told her that she was awfully close with ‘handball’, as we had a sport called football, or ‘soccer’ as the yanks liked to call it. Alas, I had no such football in my possession, and so I had to think of something else. My mind went blank, as the only games I played these days involved holding a controller and looking at a screen, which was hardly appropriate when Pinkie was itching for a runaround. Not knowing what to suggest, I took the easy route and knocked the ball back into her court, as it were.
“Is there anything in particular you would want to play?”
Freezing on the spot, the pink pony became completely inanimate, she didn’t even seem to be breathing! Gulping, I looked to the others with an expression of absolute bewilderment, fearing that I had somehow broken the damn mare. With a laugh, Rainbow Dash explained that Pinkie did this sometimes when she was in thought. After a few more seconds, Pinkie sprung back to life, bouncing up and down in a way that was completely identical to her cartoon self. Springing a little too high however, her head hit the ceiling, to which the bouncing ceased. Clearly uninjured, she whipped around to look at me with a big grin.
“I know!” she squealed, her mane wobbling like jelly, “Let’s all play Hide and Seek!”
Raising an eyebrow and pursing my lips, I looked at Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, assuming that they might be a bit too old for such a game.
“Is that what everybody wants to play?” I asked openly.
“Everybody?” echoed Rarity, “Oh, is that the human equivalent of everypony?”
With an endearing smile, I leaned up against the wall and decided that now would be a good time to quickly nip this in the bud. Nodding, I confirmed that it was, and pointed out that the word ‘everypony’ wouldn’t make much sense on a planet with no sapient ponies. Emitting a simple ‘ah’, Rarity’s eyes darted around sheepishly, clearly feeling a bit silly for not thinking of that. Wishing not to make similar mistakes in the future, she inquired if I could teach her more humanisms before we played.
“So, we can play Hide and Seek?” asked Pinkie, her ears springing up and her eyes glimmering with hope.
Aside from a playful groan from Rainbow Dash, everyone seemed okay with the idea, with Rarity rolling her eyes and giving me a look as if to say ‘it’s not usually my cup of tea, but let’s do it for Pinkie’.
“Of course we can.” I said to her, “Come on, let’s go.”
We headed outside, and as we went, I taught the girls the various differences in vocabulary between our words, such as hooves to hands and feet, manes to hair, fillies to girls, colts to boys, stallions to men, mares to women, and so on. The ponies were amazed by the small but significant changes in dialect, despite us speaking the same language. With that in mind, it baffled me that we even spoke the same tongue, considering the fact we were from worlds apart. Still, I chose not to question it, as a genuine language barrier would have been nothing short of a nightmare.
Although we had only agreed to play Hide and Seek for Pinkie’s sake, it actually became a lot of fun for all of us once we got into it. As predicted, Twilight did not partake, deciding instead to sit alone in the shade, reading more of my books. We had played for a little under an hour, and I had come to really enjoy myself. I had forgotten how enjoyable wide games could be, and I regretted that my only source of entertainment these days had come from screens. It certainly helped that I had an advantage playing, as the girls were all so brightly coloured that spotting them was, to speak like a pony, foal’s play.
“Let’s set Callum a challenge!” Pinkie yelled, “What if he goes and hides, and all five of us are the seekers?”
“Challenge accepted!” I announced proudly, bowing towards her.
Without hesitation, the girls gathered together and shut their eyes, all counting to thirty in unison while I darted away. With five seekers on the hunt, I decided to utilise my favourite hiding spot, the ironwood tree close to the house. Running over as quickly as I could, I clambered up and ascended the mighty tree, all the way to the top. There was no way they would ever find me up here. I loved this tree, the ironwood’s branches in spite of their slenderness were practically unbreakable, and so I always had confidence in scaling to the top. It was my all-time favourite spot in the garden, as I could get a whole view of the land, not to mention the woodland beyond it.
“Seventeen!” the girls called out, “Eighteen! Nineteen!”
Looking down towards the house, I was suddenly struck by a pang of homesickness. The childlike mirth and merriment from playing began to subside, as the realisation that I would never be coming back here again crept up on me. I was leaving my entire life behind; my friends, my laptop, my games, and of course, Chilli and Archer, my beloved dogs. Additionally, for what it was worth, I was also leaving behind my family, and although I suffered at the behest of their malignancy, there was still a part of me that loved them.
That was a lie, it was Oliver I still loved; Janice could stop breathing tomorrow for all I cared. My brother however, just like me, was a product of the environment we’d been forced to grow up in, and for as much as I loathed him at times, I knew that there was good in him. I was going to miss him, and all the good times we had together when we were younger, back when Dad was still around.
“Twenty-two! Twenty-three! Twenty-four!”
My attention drifted back to the girls as they counted, and the gloomy feeling slowly began to wash away. Who was I kidding? It was the familiarity I was going to miss, nothing more. Even if Dad was still here, and Oliver was still kind, and that rancid old hag left the family, it would still never compare… Even if everything had turned out okay, nothing in life could ever be half as good as this opportunity. I was about to travel the world with the Mane Six, on a breathtaking global adventure to find the missing fragments of a sacred relic, of which had been created by literal gods!
What lay ahead of me was a life fit for storybooks…
“Twenty-five! Twenty-six! Twenty-seven!”
And to think, that didn’t just mean on Earth. If I actually succeeded in helping them recover this Orb, then there was every chance that my deeds would go down in their history. Even if I couldn’t go to their world in body, my name could. Thousands of years from now, long after I was dead and gone, the name Callum Horncastle could very well be found in the history books of the Canterlot Library, telling tale of a hero from beyond the stars. The alien boy who willingly gave up his life in order to help Twilight Sparkle and her friends save the world. I would be escaping oblivion, saving countless lives, serving a glorious purpose, and experiencing a fantastical and exhilarating life, one that was at last worth living. Who in their right mind wouldn’t seize such a possibility?
It was worth it…
Come pain, trauma, tragedy, or even death itself, it was worth it all.
“Twenty-eight! Twenty-nine! THIRTY!”
The five ponies scattered across the land, the hunt had begun! Sitting up on my tall swaying perch, I watched them with a smile on my face, feeling more and more at peace. As though the universe agreed with my decision, I was treated to a gentle summer breeze that lightly caressed my face, comforting me. Closing my eyes, I inhaled through my nose, and for the very first time, I felt truly happy. Never before had I felt such a sense of authentic warmth and calmness, it radiated from deep within me, and at last, I felt genuinely whole as a person. Hanging my head, I broke into an enormous grin and allowed the tears to flow. Somewhat overwhelmed, I cried with a profound joy that was until now foreign to me, and I shamelessly drank in every ounce of the feeling, surrendering myself to it.
By the time I stopped crying and dried my face, I had completely lost track of the girls. I was just about to move to a different branch when I suddenly felt something hard nudging my arm.
“Um, excuse me? I found you…”
With a jolt, I whipped around to find Fluttershy sitting calmly on the branch beside mine, lightly prodding me with her hoof. I jumped enough to nearly fall out of the tree, only just catching myself on the surrounding branches.
“Blimey, you really are the quiet one!” I chuckled, “How did you find me?”
“With my eyes…” she replied, sticking her tongue out.
Taken off-guard, I burst out laughing and almost fell for a second time. I had never expected in a million years for Fluttershy to give such a sharp and witty reply. Giggling, the pegasus knocked her hooves together, proud of the reaction she had elicited from me, and prouder still to have been the one to find me. It was so lovely that she had already started to warm to me; this game of Hide and Seek, along with the film earlier, had done wonders for breaking the ice.
“Well, good job finding me.” I sighed, calming down, “Come on, let’s go let the others know.”
Using her wings for additional support, Fluttershy shimmied down to a spot she felt comfortable jumping from, before gliding the rest of the way down. I clambered a good way down, before spotting Rainbow Dash below and choosing to show off. Still about eight feet up, I jumped from the tree, performing a roll upon landing so as not to injure myself. I then used the roll’s momentum to spring back up to my feet, leaving Rainbow Dash gawking at me with raised eyebrows.
“Damn.” she murmured with approval.
Fluttershy was still off looking for the others to tell them where I had been hiding, and so I took the opportunity to bond a little more with Rainbow Dash. Noting that she was looking a little glum, I asked her what was up, to which she furrowed her brow.
“Eh, it’s just Twilight.” she huffed, “I asked her to join us for a game and she told me to eff off.”
Turning to face her properly, my eyes widened and I let out a small gasp.
“She swore at you?”
“Oh, she’s been doing that since we got here.” she confessed, “She’s been so uptight for the past two weeks, I’m sick to death of it. It’s like she’s a different pony!”
{Jeez…} I thought to myself, {I mean, it tracks with how stressed she must be, but still… swearing?}
Perhaps it was my naïveté, but I hadn’t been able to even fathom the ponies using swear words. With only the cartoon as a reference point, I had no way to gauge just how mature they actually were. Sticking with what I did know, I asked Rainbow if she knew anything about what Princess Celestia had said to Twilight.
“Dude, I wish I knew.” she grumbled, throwing her head to one side, “Ever since the Princess took her away to have that private talk, she’s been like this. We’ve tried asking her about it, but all it does is make her twice as prickly. I swear, she acts so weird too. Like, sometimes she’ll just get up in the middle of the night and walk around the camp, muttering to herself, it freaks me the heck out.”
So, the plot thickens. Whatever the Princess had told her had clearly gone much too severely to her head, to the point where it was giving her sleepless nights. Thinking about it, she did look awfully tired, and now I knew why. Well, at least the girls were aware of what was going on. Thanking Rainbow for divulging what she knew, I turned to greet the others upon their approach. Observing them as they made their way towards me, I began to take interest in their height. The cartoon had depicted them all with the same proportions as it was easier to animate, but in real life, the discrepancies couldn’t be clearer. On average, they stood at around chest height for me, roughly four to four-and-a-half feet by my estimations. Rarity was definitely the tallest, while Fluttershy was the littlest, being easily a good six inches shorter.
As for other bodily proportions, there was no missing the muscles on Rainbow Dash and Applejack. The farm pony’s thighs and glutes were practically swollen from how muscly they were. Their fur length also varied, with Rarity’s being short as velvet, while Rainbow and Fluttershy both had thick fluff all over their chests; I could only imagine how soft it was.
“Where in tarnation were you?” Applejack called to me, snapping me back to reality, “We looked everywhere!”
Before I could answer, Fluttershy pranced forward and pointed to the top of the ironwood tree with a ginormous grin on her face, glowing with pride. As she ruffled her wings in shameless delight, it became glaringly evident that she rarely won these sorts of games, if at all, which being Fluttershy, hardly surprised me.
“Wow, I never would have guessed. Nice one, Sugarcube!”
Trotting over to the pegasus, Applejack put her into a gentle headlock and ruffled her mane. Everyone else showered her with praise as well, clearly encouraging her to take part in more group activities when they got home; as far as the show went, it was hardly a secret that Fluttershy was quite the recluse at times.
Sadly, the merriment came to an end as Twilight uprooted herself and came to join us. Like a dark cloud on a sunny day, she loomed over, and before she had even spoken, there was an uncomfortable atmosphere.
“Playtime’s over.” she ordered, “Can we get going now? Or do you all need a few more minutes to act like foals?”
Pursing my lips, I felt torn. A part of me agreed with her, in the sense that we needed to be out of here sooner rather than later. We had a death to fake, and a perilous journey to embark upon, and if we wanted to get started today, then we needed to get a move on. However, it was also important for the others that they felt comfortable with me as their guide, and so the game of Hide and Seek had been totally warranted. Yes, there was a sense of urgency, but to insult everyone was totally uncalled-for, and it seemed that I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“Alright, that’s it, if nopony else is going to call you out on this, then I will!” Rainbow Dash barked, stepping forward, “I’ve had enough of this, Twilight, what the heck’s gotten into you? You’ve been rude to us for days on end, and I’m sick of it!”
Holding her ground, Twilight faced the cyan pegasus with a fearsome scowl.
“Rude? Rude!? You have no idea what’s at stake here, nor do you have a clue about the danger we’re all in! Do you understand that you might never see home again? You could die here! All it would take is one little mistake, and these things could make your next breath your last! Our lives are on the line, as is our home, and all you care about is fun and games!”
It seemed that the gloves had come off, there was no sugar-coating the situation now. Gulping, I looked at the others with caution, and as expected, they were now stricken with fear.
“Jeez, overreaction much?” Rainbow scoffed loudly, “There hasn’t been a single day where you haven’t been preaching your doom and gloom, and it’s getting real old. Look, I could deal with you just being a grouch, but now we’ve met Callum and are literally about to leave, and yet you’re still being a total bitch!”
I barely had time to clock that I had just heard one of the ponies’ first swear words, as Twilight strode forward and bared her teeth. Rainbow did the same, and it was looking as though they were about to trade more than just verbal blows. Without a moment to think, I rushed forward and stood between the two of them, using my deeper voice and larger size to establish dominance over the both of them.
“That’s enough!” I boomed, “I won’t have you fighting amongst yourselves! Come on, we haven’t even left my house for goodness’ sake! We might be travelling together for months, so how about we not fall apart on day one, yeah? Twilight’s right, you’re on a dangerous mission, and I am to be your guide. We need to sort out faking my death, and then get a move on. Now will the both of you pack it in?”
All the ponies were speechless, with my first impression as a ‘gentle giant’ now in tatters. My sudden display of dominance had shaken them all, with even Twilight left taken aback. Without uttering a word, she stormed off to the shed to sulk in the ponies’ camp. Rainbow Dash in turn backed away from me, angry that I had partially taken the unicorn’s side. I sighed with frustration; had I overdone it? Poor Fluttershy now looked utterly terrified, and I feared that it was me she was scared of. Thankfully, Rarity and Applejack came along beside me to help dispel my worries.
“Thanks for breaking that up, that could have been ugly.” muttered AJ.
“I didn’t overstep my bounds did I?” I asked nervously.
“Oh absolutely not, darling!” Rarity assured me, “They’ve been at each other’s throats for days, I thought they were actually going to hit each other! I can’t commend you enough for stepping in, well done.”
Dipping my head in acceptance, I turned around to see that Fluttershy was crying. Having just seen her at her happiest a moment ago, it felt like an icy dagger to the heart. The others tried to settle her down, and I stooped to one knee to join them, speaking to her in a calm, gentle tone.
“Hey… it’s alright, you’re okay.”
Slowly looking up at me, she blinked the tears from her eyes and continued to tremble.
“T-Twi-Twilight said… w-we’re all going to d-die!” she whimpered with a stutter.
“No…” I sighed, shaking my head.
Tilting my head and giving her a compassionate smile, I reached forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, boldly making contact.
“You aren’t going to die, okay? Just like you, Twilight is scared, and being scared can sometimes bring out the worst in us, because we’re panicking, and not thinking clearly, yeah?”
Continuing, I told her that Twilight was fixated on the worst possible outcome, but the reality was that for as long as I had breath in my lungs, no harm would come to her.
“That goes for all of you.” I said, looking around at their uneasy faces, “I know we’ve only just met, and that you have little reason to trust me, let alone with your lives, but I swear to you, I am going to protect you. Against all that comes our way, I promise, you will make it home, do you understand me?”
I never thought I was very good with words, but as I finished speaking, everyone seemed to relax quite substantially. Fluttershy’s crying came to a halt, and without warning, she reached forward and hugged me. Shocked by the sudden embrace, I froze for a moment, before putting my arms around her and clutching her loosely. She was holding me. Someone was… holding me. Almost brought to tears myself, I let go and beamed at her, giving her a thankful look that silently told her that she had just given me more love than I had felt in years.
“Heh, that was quick.” Rainbow teased, causing Fluttershy to look down.
Turning to look at her, I asked what she meant, to which she pointed out the obvious.
“Uh, it’s Fluttershy? She hasn’t warmed to someone this quick since that colt from Cloudsdale.”
At the mention of this ‘colt’, Fluttershy began to blush profusely, and proceeded to comb her mane over to hide her face. My eyes widened… Fluttershy, a boyfriend? Surely not. While it wasn’t impossible, I highly doubted that Fluttershy of all ponies had the confidence to engage in such a relationship, but then again, what did I actually know about these girls? In just half a day, I had learned that they had no issue with animated violence, were adequately acquainted with the concept of death, and at least two of them used swear words. Who knew, maybe Fluttershy really did have a boyfriend? Either way, I wasn’t going to pry; for now, it could remain another mystery to sit beside the Twilight Sparkle conundrum.
“Can we go back inside now?” Pinkie piped up suddenly, “The air out here smells like arguments now.”
With a laugh, I dipped my head and led the girls back to the front door. Holding it open, I instructed them to head in first, as I wanted to fetch Twilight.
“You’re kidding right?” said Rainbow, “She’s the one who stormed off, she can bring herself back!”
“That mare’s as sour as a lime right now.” added Applejack, “You really want to go kicking that beehive?”
Holding my ground, I looked at them both sternly and told them that if we were going to discuss plans for the mission, then Twilight deserved to be present. Rolling her eyes, Dashie said it was my funeral, and went indoors after Pinkie and Fluttershy.
Trudging over to the shed, I thought about what I ought to say, and how lenient I would allow myself to be in the face of Twilight’s belligerence. At the end of the day, she was the leader of this expedition and I needed her trust, however I might acquire it. Being able to work alongside her would surely help us stay out of trouble. To this end, I decided that I’d attempt to be as patient as humanly possible with her, no matter how cantankerous she was. After all, it couldn’t be worse than the way I was already treated on a daily basis.
Reaching the shed, it at first appeared as though there wasn’t a camp at all, that was until I kept walking, and passed through some kind of invisible perimeter. As I stepped through, the camp materialised out of thin air, revealing three tents, all evenly spaced around a stone fire pit, it was like something one would see in a science fiction film.
“Whoa…” I breathed.
Circling the tents, I took in their details, including the immaculate stitching that I could only presume was Rarity’s handiwork, or would ‘hoofdiwork’ be more appropriate? Lying just outside them were some odd-looking bags; these must have been their travelling packs! They looked like two individual satchels, joined at the top by a thick strap that went around a pony’s midsection, indicating that they were worn like a saddle. Strangely enough however, each satchel had some additional straps sewn into them, and upon closer inspection, I realised that the satchels could be detached from each other.
{Oh, now that’s clever…} I thought, understanding the design choice.
With a human in the mix, these saddlebags had been designed in a way that I could carry one of them if required, to lighten the load. Impressed by the ingenious innovation, I studied the bags further. Each pair was a different shade that matched the colours of their respective owner, complete with their cutie marks stitched onto them for a personal flourish. I then noticed that three of them had additional embroidery, with Fluttershy’s bearing the symbol of a red cross, Rarity’s housing the icon of a refrigerator, and Applejack’s having what looked like a cluster of vegetables. I guessed that those particular bags held a dedicated role, of which I could only presume were medical supplies, perishable goods, and dry food storage.
Although I was fascinated by the bags, along with the surrounding camp, my attention was drawn to one of the tents in particular, as I detected a faint sniffing noise. It took me a couple of seconds to realise what it was, and then I realised, it was the sound of someone crying; the sound of Twilight, crying…
Feeling a stab of empathy, I approached the tent and slowly parted the entrance. Peering inside, I found Twilight sitting with her back to me with her shoulders hunched, loudly sniffling to herself.
“Hey, are you okay?” I gently inquired.
“Go away…” she croaked, almost too quiet for me to hear, “You’re the last individual I want to speak to right now…”
Kneeling down, I tried to reason with her.
“C’mon, Twilight, I just want to help.”
“I said go away.”
Swallowing, I took a chance and remained in place.
“Twilight, you’re clearly upset, and you don’t deserve to be sat here on your own. You don’t have to trust me, but let’s at least talk, yeah?”
She stopped haunching and visibly loosened up, indicating that she had relaxed a little. Taking the opportunity, I reached forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, similar to how I had done with Fluttershy, hoping that it would have the same effect.
It did not.
The second I made contact, the mare whipped around and punching me square in the mouth.
“I said go away!” she yelled.
Falling back onto my bottom, I sat there in a state of utter shock, clutching my mouth. Holy shit, Twilight had just hit me! And she could actually punch pretty hard too, my lips felt like they were on fire! Licking my bottom lip, I tasted blood, and continued to stare at Twilight in something of a daze. Blinking rapidly, she realised what she had just done, and her lips started to quiver.
“I… I didn’t… I didn’t mean to… Y-You made me jump…”
Her regret was genuine, although it wasn’t visible for long. With a shake of her head, she forced away the guilt and glared at me.
“You shouldn’t have touched me, and I said for you to leave me alone.”
“I don’t think I deserved that.” I replied in a blank, lifeless tone.
Taken aback and somewhat unnerved by my calm response, Twilight fell silent, to which I continued.
“Now, I think it’s pretty clear that a lot of stress and a lot of responsibility has been bestowed upon you, an unfair amount, is that safe to say?”
Pausing, I wiped the blood from my lip, though I did not break eye contact.
“Well, whatever’s going on here that you aren’t telling me, it needs to stop, because you just attacked me, and that’s not on. Now, I came here to find you because the others want to get a move on, and I felt that if we’re going to discuss mission plans, then you deserve to be present, as group leader and all.”
With that, I backed out of the tent’s entrance and stood up.
“I’m heading back now, and if you’d like to follow me, you’re more than welcome to. Like it or not Twilight, you’re stuck with me now, so it’d be in both our interests if you at least tried to be a team player. You don’t have to like me, and you don’t have to trust me, but for the sake of finding the Titans’ Orb and getting you home safely, work with me, yeah?”
Before she could get a word in, I stood up and left the camp, without a doubt in my mind that she would follow. And then, for a reason totally unbeknownst to me, I broke into a smile; even with throbbing bloodstained lips, I was smiling, and I couldn’t fathom why.
{Perhaps I’m in shock from that punch?} I wondered, licking more blood from my lip, {Either that, or I’m just way more of a masochist than I thought I was…}
Stranger still, though likely related, was that despite the foul behaviour she had been displaying thus far, I felt oddly drawn to Twilight. There was something about her, something about all this tumult and hostility that I could relate to somehow. Was it because of my gnarly family situation? Was Twilight’s unwarranted scorn bringing me some twisted sense of familiarity amid this new and outlandish chapter of my life? Could that be what it was? It definitely made sense if so, but I wasn’t sure…
Whatever it was, I felt a connection to Twilight that I couldn’t explain, and in that one instance, I forewent her misgivings and made my solemn vow in spite of them, knowing it was the right thing to do.
“No matter what happens.” I breathed, “No matter how bad things get. Even if you do me wrong, time and time again, I will never wane in this promise to you. Though you may loathe and fear me, I shall remain your keeper all the same.”
Looking back to the shed, I found that Twilight had emerged and was now plodding towards me, just as I had predicted. Knowing she couldn’t hear me yet, I concluded my oath in the form of a whisper.
“I will protect you with all that I am, until the day I draw my final breath.”