Sup! How's everybody doing? Good? Excellent, well here's the next chapter that took way to long to write, there may be some errors, if you find any major ones such as spelling or something of that nature, send me a PM with the problem and I'll try to fix it ASAP. Thanks.
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UPDATE 10/21/12 - Unfortunately my health has taken a turn for the worse, and the school work is piling up. The next chapter is going to take a little longer to come out. Sorry about that.
I was awoken by an interesting mixture of smells. It was something like, wood fire smoke mixed with fresh cut grass and some sort of spices, maybe cinnamon, I'm not sure, I was never a culinary expert.
When I opened my eyes I found myself lying in a hammock hanging in the rafters of a large round hut. There was a big boiling cauldron sitting atop a fire. There was a wispy trail of steam rising out of the pot.
"Ah, the young one is awake! Luck has shown itself without much quake." A female voice said. I knew that voice.
The zebra I had met in the market the other day walked out of the shadows and came right up to me. She prodded me in the side, I got ready for the pain but it never came. I looked down at my injured side, there was a thick bandage draped over it. She reached up and pulled it away revealing a raw looking patch of skin. I was healed.
"Wow, I guess I have you to thank." I told her.
"I may have sealed the wound under the knife, but it was not me who ended your strife." She said cryptically.
"Uh huh, sure, now what do I owe you? My soul?" I asked really hoping that it wouldn't come to that.
"Satisfied is the bill, but leave only when he comes to do his will." She said while pointing to a rather large bundle of colorful flowers on the counter opposite of the hammock.
"Uh, okay then, so what do I do until then?" I asked her. Just then a bright green flash was visible through the plank door. The door swung open and a light gray pony with bright blue eyes and a short bright blue mop of a mane and a medium length shaggy tail of the same color with a white streak through it. His cutie mark was a square mirror with a gold trim.
He walked over next to the zebra and just bobbed his head in my direction with an expression on his face that looked like he was asking a question.
The zebra just nodded her head and began to rhyme again.
"All in mends, under your tends, bring back to town you must, or it will be hard to earn his trust." She said while gesturing us to the door. I carefully stepped out of the hammock and walked out of the door. The other pony was right behind me.
"Ok, now what?" I asked her. She just smiled and slammed the door.
"Wait! I never got your name!" I yelled back inside. She cracked the door slightly and only said one word.
"Zecora." And she tossed me something that hit me right in the face. When I pulled it off I saw that it was my white hoodie, all repaired and improved with two handsome black racing stripes down the back, as well as slits for my wings.
"Nice." I said while slipping it over my head. I turned to the other pony.
"Now, who are you?" I asked. He just shrugged.
"Seriously? You have no idea?" I asked skeptically.
He just nodded. "What about a name?" I asked. He sat in thought for a second then scratched something in the dirt. I walked around to read it.
DITTO
"Well okay then Ditto, I'm Spark. Which way is Ponyville?" I asked, at least we were making some progress. Ditto looked at Zecora's hut then turned and pointed to a small path across from the hut.
"Alright, let's go." I said, Ditto nodded and we headed off through the forest.
We walked in silence for a while, the only sounds were our hoof steps and the eerie sounds of the forest around us.
Eventually I broke the silence.
"So you just found me and brought me to Zecora?" I asked. He just nodded.
"How did you find me?" I asked. He stopped and broke a branch off a nearby tree and hit the trunk a couple of times, I guess signaling he heard the sound of me crashing.
"Uh huh, well do you talk at all?" I asked. He just gave a slight shrug.
"Awesome, guess I never said thanks. So, thanks." I told him. He just gave me a big smile. However that smile faded and he perked up a bit like he was listening to something.
"What's up Ditto?" I asked, I didn't like this, the previously noisy forest became dead still. Not a sound could be heard.
Ditto crouched low and let out a growl almost. I don't know how describe it. Before I could ask again he grabbed me and pulled me into some thick bushes. When I figured out which way was up and peered up through the top of the shrub I saw what had set Ditto off. It was a swarm of those black bug-like ponies I had seen before. Hundreds of them all moving in one giant black cloud.
"Ditto, we need to not be here. Is there any way to get out of here unseen?" I asked while peering out of the bush in various directions. Ditto nodded and he led me out of the bush and through the forest off the path.
We were soon in a small clearing, well not really, more or less it was a break in the monotony in continues trees. It was a patch of purple grass, maybe a couple hundred square feet. More importantly there was a break in the canopy overhead.
"Hey Ditto, any chance we could just fly out of here?" I asked while stretching my wings a little. Ditto stood taller and listened around in various directions. He then gave me a big nod.
"Then hold on." I said. I hooked my hooves under his front legs and took off. I was feeling good, in fact I was feeling fantastic. I broke through the canopy and we were picking up speed heading away from the forest, Ditto giving me some turn by turn via some head nods and pointing.
Then suddenly Ditto froze and then quickly turned to me and pointed up fiercely. I didn't take time to ask. I climbed up above the cloud layer and landed, making sure to keep a good hold on Ditto. He didn't seem having any trouble walking on the clouds like I could. Up here it was actually a little sunny, we blended nicely with the clouds.
Before I could ask him if we were good a black bug pony stuck his head straight up through the clouds a few feet from us. He was facing the other way and looked like he couldn't see anything in the sunlight. He quickly ducked back down.
"Okay Ditto, let's be anywhere but here right now." I told him, he nodded and we took off.
It took us a while to find town, we tried to stay above the cloud layer as much as possible. When we did find the outskirts of Ponyville we broke down back under the clouds and voted to walk the rest of the way.
We touched down near some sort old farm, it wasn't Sweet Apple Acres like I had hoped but right now I really didn't care, we were safe. That is until I turned around and saw a cluster of black ponies flying right at us.
[Cloud's POV]
"What do you mean you don't know where they are!?" I yelled at Twilight and Applejack. Rainbow Dash and I had just finished breakfast at the diner in town when Twilight and Applejack burst in yelling.
"I thought I could help him, I may have misread the spell." Twilight said with an embarrassed smile.
"No buck!" I yelled at her. "He's hurt and Celestia knows where he might have ended up. We need to go find him."
"So what's the plan then?" Applejack asked.
"Twilight, do you have any idea where your spell might have sent him?" I asked while pulling a map of Equestria out of my saddlebag.
"I'm not sure, I caught a glimpse of a really dark forest and some sort of dark green lake or something like that." She said while rubbing her hoof on her chin.
"Oh come on Twilight! That could be anywhere!" Dash chimed in. "There's no way we can just go on that, try to think of an-"
"Here!" I cut her off. "It's a part of the Everfree forest, I've only ever flown over it though, it's virtually unexplored. We need to move now if we want any chance of finding him." I finished while packing up my map.
"Don't worry guys I have this." Twilight said. "I can just repeat the spell and get us there in no time." Her horn started glowing.
"No! Twilight do-" I tried to yell but it was too late. The purple aura shot out all over the diner and everything went black.
When I could finally see again I was in Rarity's boutique.
"Oh good darling! You're unfrozen." Rarity said while trotting over to me.
"Unfrozen?" I asked while stretching a bit, only to find myself constricted by a tight fitting silver tuxedo.
"Oh yes sweetie, you, Dashie, Twilight, and Applejack were all frozen for almost two whole days! Pinkie Pie and I found you in the diner and brought you back here, it was Pinkie's idea to dress you all up." She said with a soft chuckle.
My mouth was hanging open.
"Two whole days? Two whole days!?" I yelled
"Why yes sweetie, what's the rush?" she asked while straightening her hair.
"The rush, is that Twilight messed up a spell and sent a very injured Spark deep into the Everfree forest!" I finished telling her as I pulled the bowtie off from around my neck.
Rarity stood straight up. "I'll get the others up." She said and hurried over to Rainbow Dash who was wearing a short jacket, sunglasses, and short shorts. Rarity's horn glowed a light blue and a bucket of water levitated over and emptied itself on Dash.
She unfroze instantly, coughing and yelling. Next was Applejack, wearing overalls, suspenders, a bandana and her straw hat, and Twilight who was wearing what I could only call a sexy librarian's outfit.
Once we were all coherent, I filled them in to what happened, giving Twilight a few glares all the while. Just then Pinkie burst through the door, bounded off the far wall and started violently shaking up and down. Then she stood straight and her tail shot straight up.
"Uh, Pinkie? What are you doing?" Twilight asked.
"Pinkie sense tingling…something BIG is going to happen." She said while rushing to the window.
"Sugarcube that's ridiculous." Applejack said very surely. Just then there was huge thunder crack and a large lightning bolt. We all rushed to the windows just in time to see a large swarm of black bug ponies fly past us.
"Were those what I think they were?" Applejack asked, now very concerned.
"They can't be, not changelings, not here." Twilight said backing away from the window. I went over to Rarity's sofa and grabbed my saddlebags and goggles and slid them on.
"Cloud dear, where are you going?" Rarity asked taking a few steps towards me.
"Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling that if we follow those changelings, we'll find Spark." I said.
"What the buck are we waiting for then?" Rainbow Dash said while bolting for the door.
"Pinkie, can you go get Fluttershy and any others? We'll need all the help we can get." I asked Pinkie, she gave me a quick nod and cartwheeled out the door.
"This ought to be interesting." I said to myself while sliding my goggles over my eyes.
Are you excited for next chapter? I sure as hell am! Now excuse me while I go play video games and watch the new Forward Until Dawn, go watch it if you haven't already. And who's excited for The new season of The Walking Dead? First episode was awesome!