Hello, And welcome back for another chapter of this fanfic, and I must say that I'm satisfied with the recent feedback, so thank you deeply and enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 2: A Field Trip
Neighagra Falls is considered as one of the most beautiful forests in Equestria, besides the trees and unique flowers, the most appealing characteristic of the forest are their beautiful waterfalls.
On the edge of one of the waterfalls there was a shinigami substitute named, Kurosaki Ichigo.
He was using the fresh water to clean his dirty and cold face, after a few moments he stood up, "That felt nice" he commented feeling more awake and fresh than hours ago.
He was doing surprisingly well traveling in this new world, it was a relief for Ichigo when he stopped seeing the snow and those mountains, it was nice the fact that the Artic Waste is very close to Canterlot, so it shouldn't take a long reaching the capital from today and tomorrow.
He grabbed Zangetsu which it was besides him, and put it on his back, "Are you done?, this is getting way too boring" The inner hollow called Shirosaki complained, this makes Ichigo to roll his eyes in annoyance.
"Yeah yeah, I'm done" The teenager said before continuing his walk.
Ichigo pulled out the map of Equestria and inspected it, if he wasn't wrong they must be close to the very end of the forest, he only had to go a little further to south.
"It won't take long before we reach to Canterlot, once there we'll talk to the princesses about our situation" The shinigami spirit of Ichigo summarized.
Before Ichigo said anything, he felt a hoove picking to the left side of his leg, this caused to the shinigami to turn to his side and saw a filly, probably not more than five years old.
The filly was gray skinned with a black mane, he had a little bag filled with sticks.
"A kid?" He asked to himself and crunched to reach his altitude.
"Sorry, mister, I was wondering where my mama is, have you seen her?" The filly asked in an adorable way.
Ichigo sighed, 'He got lost...' He thought in annoyance.
But annoyed or not, he could not just let this kid to wander in this forest without knowing where he is going.
"No, I haven't saw her" The shinigami began, "But I'll help you to find her, I promise" Hearing that promise, the filly's face lit up with hope and happiness.
"Really?!" The filly asked innocently, Ichigo replied with a nod while he smiled.
They walked again into the forest, the substitute asked again, "How do you got lost?", The filly went pensative trying to remember, "Well, we were camping close to the waterfalls, my mom asked me if I could collect some sticks and I just got too far away" He explained.
Ichigo nodded in understanding before saying, "Oh, I now I see why you had that bag of sticks" He nodded.
"Mister, would you mind telling me your name" The pony asked, and Ichigo shrugged, "Sure, it's just Ichigo".
"Nice to meet you! I'm Doodles Cleaner, my family's speciality is cleaning any kind of clothing in our laundry, my papa is the one who owns the laundry, and my mama is the one who helps papa to clean the clothes, I'm still learning to do that, so I can help when I'm older enough" The filly said with pride.
The shinigami smiled and felt quite sad, it reminded him about his family, he missed his two sisters, and even his childish dad.
"Are you alright, Ichigo?" The old man asked concerned in Ichigo's sudden change of attitude, "Yeah, I just remembered my family, I miss them" Ichigo replied, and he felt a warm hand in his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Ichigo, they'll be fine, just don't lose hope or we'll never get back home" With those words caused Ichigo to smile.
"I know, I'm not planning in giving up just yet, thanks, Zangetsu" The spirit nodded in approval, satisfied that his comforting was a success.
After all, Ichigo was his primary priority as a spirit.
Suddenly a grumbling was heard, he turned around and noticed that it came from Doodle's stomach, he smiled shyly.
'He must be hungry' Ichigo searched in his pocket, and pulled out an delicious apple, he handed over to the filly, who saw him in confusion.
The shinigami smiled before saying, "Eat it, you must be hungry right now" the pony looked at the apple in a tempting manner, unsure if he should take it.
"Won't you need it?" He asked, and Ichigo shook his head, the filly grabbed it (somehow) with his hoove and began to eat it, "Thank you!" He said gratefully as he ate.
"We should keep going, they must be worried about you by now" the teenager said before he walked again, andDoodles followed.
"Hey King, what if we kept the kid as a hostage? We can make his parents to pay with their money for him" Shirosaki recommended with a sadistic grin.
The shinigami chuffed, 'Stop saying those things, you have gotten so annoying since we got here' he complained causing the hollow to smirk.
"What's the matter? I'm just leading you to an easy way to get the hell out of here" The spirit shot back trying to sound like he's telling the true, but Ichigo knew better than listening any advise from him.
"Don't you understand the meaning of 'keeping a low profile'?" After a long time, the other Zangetsu asked, "Pff, more like; boring and pointless!" He corrected insulting the other spirit as he kept a smug.
Even with that insult he continued, "If in the meantime we do any crime and the news reach to the two princess's ears, they won't grant us a way out because they will see us as a threat" Zangetsu finished with his explanation, the hollow couldn't help but sigh at his statement.
"Alright, alright, I'll won't try to do anything that could fuck up everything, promise!" Shirosaki said in a surprisingly convincing tone.
Zangetsu lift an eyebrow before asking, "You promise?"
"I promise" He replied getting a nod of approval from his other half.
After many wrong guesses in where Doodle's camp is, in one of those attempts they headed to one of the beautiful waterfalls in the forest.
The filly's eyes widened in happiness when he saw the carriage that his family used to travel to the forest.
"There it is!" The filly exclaimed, and rushed to the camp outrunning Ichigo.
Ichigo grinned, "Oi, slow down!"
In the camp around the bonfire there was a unicorn mare and a earth pony stallion, the earth pony stallion who looked almost like Doodles, the unicorn mare was white skinned, and had a blue mane.
"Don't worry, I know he will be back" The stallion said trying to comfort his wife.
Then the sounds of a filly who was jogging was heard by them, "I told you so" The stallion told her, as the mare ran towards her filly and embraced him.
"Mother of Celestia that you're alright!" She exclaimed in relief, the filly chuckled.
"I'm okay, mama, it's all thanks to Mister Ichigo" He said.
"Ichigo?" She asked while lifting an eyebrow, and saw the orange-haired shinigami who was walking towards them.
The mother glare at Ichigo and his outfit, it was pretty weird looking, and that giant sword was quite intimidating. But since he found his son, it wouldn't hurt to give her own thanks.
"Thank you" The mare said without being capable in saying anything else besides the obvious.
Ichigo simply said, "Eh, It's nothing, I just found this midget and I couldn't just let him wonder in the forest like that".
The mare nodde before her horn began to glow purple, attracting an brown purse until it was in Ichigo's reach.
He grab it with his hands and opened it, revealing six pieces of gold.
"This is all I can give you right now, if you need something just ask me, okay?" She offered, an offer that Ichigo was about to reject along the purse, but an idea crossed his mind.
"Uh yeah you can actually" Ichigo began, "I was wondering what's the best route to Canterlot?" The mare's ears perked up and began to think quietly.
"Well, if I were you, I'll aboard to a train, since the train can take you directly there without any problem!" She said with enthusiasm, but Ichigo knew that the capital in other worlds (or from what he has heard) has something behind.
"What's the catch?" The shinigami asked for the surprise of the mare.
"Well" She began, "the trip to Canterlot costs five hundred coins" And just like she expected it, the shinigami's jaw was opened to the ground.
The mare began to scratch her mane before adding, "You see, that's where the richest people in Equestria lives, and as you can imagine everything it's very expensive, the food, cosmetics, anything!"
Ichigo put his hand on his face before groaning, "Great, that's another problem to deal with".
He glare at Doodles before he pat his head, "I'll see you other time, kid".
"Ok! Will you visit our laundry in Ponyville?" Doodles asked expectantly for a yes.
'Hmm, it wouldn't bad idea' He thought considering that he will stay in his shinigami attire, and it was actually getting dirtier from snow to dirt.
The shinigami shrugged, "I don't see why not" he replied making the filly to smile widely.
That being said, Ichigo began to walk on his own back where he came from.
After making sure he was far away, he sighed, "Darn it! Now what? I don't have any pieces of gold besides this!" Ichigo shouted with his anger at its finest, while he saw the six pieces of gold he possessed.
"Calm your senses, Ichigo, we'll figure something out" Zangetsu said with his calmest tone possible even for the situation they're in.
"But what I am supposed to do? I'm inexperienced in these financial problems, at least my dad had a clinic" Ichigo wondered as Zangetsu went pensative, thinking inthe best course of action.
"What about getting a job in Ponyville? There must be jobs that those horses can't work easily, mostly because they don't have hands like we do" Shirosaki recommended, an action that surprised the shinigami and spirit.
"That sounds like a wise choice" Zangetsu nodded approvingly, relief that the hollow is finally cooperating.
Even if it hurts, Ichigo was impressed by the sudden change, 'Maybe things will finally work out with all of us after this whole time'
"I know right?" The hollow said proudly, "You heard that, Ichigo?, maybe you should start listening to me instead of this grandpa!"
Ichigo sighed, 'or maybe not'