Bounty whips around to find… An empty corner.
You don't think it would be that easy did you?
"Now I'm seeing things… Sweet Celestia those ruins weren't good for me." Bounty grumbles as she walks tiredly over to the dusty bed.
She falls into the bed and soon enough her breathing goes deep and even.
Her purple passenger stands sentinel for the night.
"Thanks Tankard!"
After eating a great breakfast of 9-grain toast with butter along with a heaping bowl of fresh fruit salad Bounty was finally out the door and on her way. She had gotten a full night's sleep and was ready to hit the road and rid herself of the unwanted saddle bag on her back. She spread her wings and took to the clear blue sky.
If there was one thing that flying was good for it was thinking, and Bounty had quite a bit to think about. What had knocked her out on the ship? What purpose did this saddle pack have? Would the beast in the wreck still be there when she got back?
It wasn't a beast it was a Sanghelli Male giving a battle cry.
And then there was the voice in her head. Was the first sign of insanity a voice in her head? Or was it holding a conversation with the voice?
I believe it's holding a conversation with the voice, but you're past that point anyway.
Right.
Any questions about the wreck since you're so insane?
"Just ignore it." Bounty muttered to herself as she flew onward.
It certainly didn't help that she was alone and had no one to talk to.
The pair had flown all day before Bounty had to stop for a break and some food. While she had hoped that she could reach the border of the Blackwell, but a strong headwind had slowed progress considerably. She was forced to set down and spend one more night in the Blackwell.
It was going pretty smoothly. She had made a small fire with a tinderbox, and laid out her sleeping mat. Now she was content to relax and soak up the warmth from the fire to soothe her aching flight muscles. She reached into the pack of much hatred and pulled out some berries to munch on, while the stupid thing made it hard to sleep and it was a challenge to work her wings around them, it had its uses.
Movement, behind you and decently sized.
Bounty's ears perked and rotated to listen: rustling leaves, branches clacking together, a twig snaps. She leaps to her feet and whips around to face whatever was coming.
She waited…
Getting closer.
A sleek orange squirrel waddled out of the brush.
"Seriously? You got me riled up for this?" Bounty straightened up from her combat ready stance.
Then the thing burst from the brush. It was quadruped on four clawed feet and covered in steel grey armor plates, where there wasn't armor a blue glow leaked out.
Bounty let out a screech, and jumped backwards. "What is that!?"
Aren't you not supposed to talk to the voice in your head?
The thing let out a gargling screech before tearing off into the bushes once more.
Quantum was stunned, what Bounty didn't get from that was the raw stream of data that the creature had spat at him. He set about cleaning up what it had sent and trying to make sense of it.
Meanwhile Bounty was still freaking out, a beat that she had never seen before had jumped out of the bushes. Now too awake to fall asleep she folded up her sleeping mat and stuffed it in her pack. She kicked dirt over the fire and leaped back into the night sky, determined to escape the forest before setting back down.
Quantum managed to pull one word from the corrupted data stream.
"Keeper."
Three hours later…
The Dodge Junction station never really saw much excitement, there was the occasional time that a big apple consumer would come through, but that was few and far in-between.
So when an exhausted dusty white pegasus crashed into the station, wearing a rather official looking pack, it was cause for some concern. There was immediately three ponies around her ready to help, "Are you okay dear?" asked the station's ticket vendor.
"Yes, I'm fine, I've been flying for too long is all." Bounty says, shakily standing up from the small furrow she made in the ground.
That was a bad sign, if a messenger had flown themselves silly, then there must be something important going on.
"Where are you coming from?" asked the vendor.
"Just got out of the Blackwell to the east, ran into something that I had never seen before and had to get out of there. Been flying ever since."
Those word were cause for a full scale panic, "Oh my! Dearie what do you plan to do!?"
The pegasus continued on obliviously "Well I was going to Ponyville to talk with the scholar-"
"YOU HEARD THE MARE BOYS! LET'S GET THAT TRAIN MOVIN' ON THE DOUBLE!" The vendor bellowed.
The two stallions that had hoovered nearby to help the pegasus were galvanized into action by the outburst and moved to start the fires. One, a unicorn, disappeared into the engine and indistinct shoveling sounds could be heard, the second rapped on the side of the tender and shouted "SOOT!" The sound of a chair falling over with a body still in it can be heard, a brown earth pony mare, with a black mane that is caked with coal dust, comes rushing out of the station. "Yes, sir!?" she ask.
"I need two tons of coal, double time!" the stallion orders. The mare, her mission given, tears off.
"You'll have to forgive them, they're old military types and like to act like they are still in their glory days." The vendor tells Bounty. "You really don't have to go through all of this trouble just for me." Bounty says bashfully.
"Oh nonsense! It's not a problem at all!" The ticket master says cheerfully.
Any further conversation is drowned out by the sound of a large amount of coal being funnel from a wagon into the tender by the unicorn stallion. As the noise slowly decreases it is replaced by the rumble of the train being awakened from its cool slumber. Like the first deep breaths of an awake giant it chugs to life and hisses its displeasure at being kept in place.
A conductor, his uniform rumpled and unkempt like he had just woken up, called "All Aboard!" The vendor gave Bounty a friendly shove, "Off you go Dearie! And if you meet ah' Applejack in Ponyville tell'r that cousin Screamin' Apple says howdy!"
The conductor rushes over and gently lead the mare onto the train.
"Umm, Ok I guess…" The now confused adventurer says. "Um, Thanks!" she finally calls out the window as the train screams its pleasure at being freed from its forced standstill.
The town begins to fall into the distance as the tired mare falls onto a rather comfy seat and the world begins to fade.
And you said that my bag isn't good for anything.
The only reply is the soft snores of an exhausted adventurer.
Rarity sometimes wasn't the most subtle of ponies at the best of times, so when the late train rolled in and she felt a crime against fashion she didn't take it well.
"This is THE WORST…POSSIBLE…THING."
"What is Rarity?" came a little voice from the back room.
Often times this left her younger sister Sweetiebelle very confused.
Springing up from the couch that she had collapsed on Rarity called "Sweetiebelle watch the shop! I have a fashion crime to prosecute!" and ran out the door toting a sewing bag in her magic.
"What was that about?"
"I really don't know Applebloom, sometimes my sister is just weird."
"Girls! We need to get back to it, we don't want the colors to lose their pop!"
There was a clamoring of stirring noises and sloshing liquids.
"CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS DYE MAKE-" *Sploosh*
Wake up
"But Mrs. P. I don't wana… Mrs. P?"
Bounty tried to roll over on her bed only to fall off the bench she had been sleeping on with a thump.
"I miss having a bed."
She rolled to her hooves, joints cracking into place on the way, and looked out the window at the town that was rolling up. "So Ponyville, will you be of any use to me?"
She begins walking toward the exit of the car.
Good luck getting that bag off.
"If you're not going to be positive then shut up."
Oh-ho-ho talking to me now are we?
"Insanity is best combated by acknowledgement."
You made that up just now.
"Yup."
You wouldn't believe the look that the conductor is giving you.
She looks to the confused stallion standing to the right of the door. "Sorry, the trip through the forest wasn't exactly good for my mental health." She says sheepishly.
The conductor just stares.
"Right." Bounty says as she makes a hasty exit, "Thanks for the ride!" She takes off at a gallop, hurrying to escape what was surely going to be a very awkward situation.
You still don't have any idea where you're going.
"Oh for the love of-"
"Ahh, there you are darling!" came a rather refined voice, "You must simply come with me! That saddle pack clashes with absolutely everything!" A white unicorn pranced up to bounty and proceeded to invade Bounty's personal space. "A pegasus with such striking colors should only wear the highest quality clothing!"
"Erm, what?" Came the reply from the befuddled pegasus.
"Ahh, my beauty must have scrambled your brains… You. Come. With. Me. I. Get. You. Shiny." The Tailor says with a jovial gleam in her eyes.
"No thanks." Bounty says finally recomposing herself from the sudden assault on all of her senses.
"But why not? You must come with me to at least find something other than that dreadful pack." Came the whiny reply.
I happen to like this pack, it has been quite useful.
"This pack has served me very well, and besides it doesn't come off anyway." Bounty says, her voice clearly carrying a 'this conversation is over' note of finality.
A note that got lost in translation.
"Whatever do you mean darling!?"
Bounty heaved a sigh "It's a long story. Short version pretty much goes: I got knocked out. I woke up with bag on. Bag is stuck to me and can't be unstrapped."
The look of horror that spread across the unicorn's face was almost comical, "Darling that is simply terrible! Come with me, I will make sure that you don't have to wear that fashion crime for a second longer!"
You just made a massive mistake.
There was a sudden tingle as the unicorn grabbed the pegasus in her magic and pulled her into the nearby… Tent? At least that was what it appeared it to be.
Bounty blinked rapidly trying to get her eyes to adjust to the darker interior of the shop. Once her vision adjusted, she wished that she could've stayed blinded longer.
The interior was excessively gaudy.
"Err, Miss?" Bounty asked fearing for her looks. She was unceremoniously dropped onto a couch while the unicorn looked through a nearby chest.
"Oh! I never told you my name!" The unicorn said straightening up. She turned around and gave a curtsy, "My name is Rarity, and I am Ponyville's resident fashionista." Rarity turned with a flourish and continued looking through the chest.
"Well Ms. Rarity-"
"Sweetiebelle! Have you seen the blue pack that I had stored away!?" Rarity called over Bounty's question.
There was no reply.
"Hmm, she must have gone out with her friends again." Rarity muttered, "No matter, let's just get that pack off you." She says turning back to Bounty.
Heh. Right.
Rarity surrounded the pack in her indigo glow, "Hmm, it appears that it is seamless…" She mumbles to herself.
"See I told you that it doesn't come off." Bounty grumbles, trying to free herself from Rarity's magic grip.
Rarity doesn't hear or pretends not to. "I guess we could apply some brutish force …" She says still talking to herself.
Right, those straps are made with smart steel thread and reinforced with braided ceramic cables. They're attached with a space grade adhesive that is used to patch cracks in portholes. That isn't coming off without my say so.
"Wait, your say so?"
"Hmm? What did you say darling?" Rarity asks looking up from her work.
"Nothing, just thinking out loud." Bounty mumbles it wasn't a total lie, she was thinking on something. Just not what Rarity thought she was thinking about.
"Well, I'm going to apply some force to a small section and test the material strength."
The glow surrounding the bag shrinks down to a small section on the right foreleg. A pair of glasses flies over and slides on Rarity's snout, "Alright here we go."
The surrounded area glows brighter and Rarity begins to visibly strain. The area begins to stretch slightly and Rarity moves closer to inspect the area. She grunts and strains a little harder, suddenly the area begins to glow red.
Rarity lets out a gasp "That isn't supposed to happen!" The strap only has a little clearance between hot steel and fur, so it's not big surprise when some fur begins to smolder.
"hot, Hot, HOT, HOT!" Bounty cries, valiantly trying to blow out the smoldering fur.
A flower vase flies off a nearby table and is upended over the smoldering fur. Bounty breathes a sigh of relief when it soothes the affected area, "Let's not do that again." She says.
"Agreed" Rarity says with a titter.
"Well, it's still there." Bounty says, still slightly disappointed after the ill-fated attempt.
"Yes it is." Rarity replies giving the bag the stinkeye.
"I guess you don't get to sell me that bag after all, thanks for trying." Bounty says sullenly.
"Actually darling, I might have a friend who can help." Those words make bounty look up hopefully. "I happen to know a unicorn scholar that lives nearby."
"And you think she can help?"
"Darling she's Princess Celestia's prized pupil."
A/N: So how's life?... I have another one coming up, but I'm leaving for an island in the middle of a lake so it won't be coming till late next week. Did anyone catch the Plot development in this chapter!?
P.S. Check out Tracer vs Scout Rap Battle and My Apocalypse by JT Machinima. I was listening to both of them while writing and they're awesome.