VIII
"It's time to go" I jerked up at the random voice coming from outside of my sleep. My vision came into focus and I saw who was standing over me. It was Princess Celestia with Spitfire by her side.
I sat up and gently rubbed my eyes. "Hi Princess. Hi Spitfire. What's going on?"
"I heard about last night" Celestia explained to me. "It seemed like quite the experience."
"It was" I chuckled, knowing she didn't even know the half of it.
"You've done Cloudsdale a huge service" Spitfire added. "Without you, not only would Soarin have died, but probably everypony else, too."
"Well, I don't know about that" I said, blushing slightly.
"Never mind all this" the Princess interrupted. "We can get to this kind of thing once the war is over. For now, we should go back to Canterlot. You'll probably want to get back to work, as our number of soldiers has started rising." Before I could respond, the blinding light came up again and we were standing in the middle of the throne room of Princess Celestia's castle.
Connor turned around to greet me. "Welcome back, brother! How was this "Cloudsdale" place?"
"It was fine, I guess" I said. "We should get back to Ponyville soon. We've got some work to do."
"Sure thing. Oh and by the way, Discord's coming along to help us."
"I guess I can get you three back there right now" Princess Celestia interrupted. Once again, I had no time to respond before she teleported all of us to Ponyville in a flash of light. We were right in front of our house, but we could hear a loud and somewhat familiar banging sound coming from inside… my drums.
I ran through the door to see three small fillies messing with my drum kit. "WOAH, WOAH, WOAH!" I yelled. "Who are you and what in the Sam hell do you think you're doing to my drum kit?!"
A light yellow Earth Pony with a vibrant red mane and a bright pink bow stepped up first. "I'm Applebloom!"
Next was a white Unicorn with a gigantic smile and a very happy aura coming off of her. "I'm Sweetie Belle!"
And last was an amber orange Pegasus with stubby little wings and a appearance like she was the daredevil of the group. "And I'm Scootaloo!"
All three then yelled loudly in unison "AND WE'RE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"
I quickly checked my ears for blood, and then asked the second question again. Applebloom stepped chimed in with an answer. "We wanted to know what they were, an' then we found out they made sound, so we started seein' if we could make music with 'em."
"Okay, I'll show you a quick demonstration, but then me and Connor gotta see if anything major has changed in town."
"YAY!" they squealed in delight. I sat down and began to think of a song that had a good drum track to it. I decided to do Forest by System of a Down.
Come with me my little child
Through the forest of denial
Speak with me my only man
Walk with me until the time
Make the forest turn to wine
We take the legend for a fall
You saw the product
Now why can't you see that you are
My child
Why don't you know that you are
My mind
Tell everyone in the world that
I'm you
Take this promise to the end
Of you
As soon as I was about a third of the way into the song they were bouncing along with the beat. When I finished they squealed in joy again and then asked me if they could join me while me and Connor got info on what we missed in town while we were gone. I sighed and gave in, because I knew that they would whine their goddamn heads off if I said no.
The second I stepped outside I noticed that several of the buildings had collapsed. "This is not good… We gotta end this war soon" I sighed.
"For now, we'll just have to wait until we know what in the hell happened" Connor said.
"But there's gotta be a way" I said back. "We both know there's gotta be a way to end this war. I mean, who was the heartless prick that set up Equestria? Why would anyone in their right fucking mind start a war with a place as downright innocent as Equestria?!" By this point, I was yelling. I realized that I was probably scaring the girls, so I took a deep breath and said "We just need to find a way to end this. For now, let's just keep to our original plan, then we move on to that."
"Alright, then let's go!" Connor replied. We began to walk down the street towards the town hall to talk to the mayor. The three small fillies were bouncing happily around us as we walked. We all pushed open the door to the town hall and waltzed on inside, ducking because the doors were only pony-sized. The secretary didn't even bother asking us who we were there for, since it was fairly obvious to her who we were and that we had come to see Mayor Mare. Inside the Mayor's office was really only a desk with two chairs, one for the Mayor and the other for a visitor. I didn't bother sitting down and nopony else did either.
"Mayor Mare, what in the Sam hell happened while we were gone?" I asked almost angrily.
"A few buildings caught on fire and collapsed, but that's about it" she returned calmly.
"Is that it?" I asked skeptically.
"Just about" she said. "We're pretty sure it wasn't an accident, but we aren't too sure. Oh! And we fended off another attack while you were away."
"WHAT?!" I yelled.
"It was a small one" she assured us. "We did lose quite a few ponies, including all 4 of our tower guards, though. They probably learned from last time."
"Okay… I think we should go talk to Twilight next" I suggested, taking a deep breath to calm myself down and turning to face Connor and Discord (who had decided to come along as well).
"Whatever floats your boat" Connor said sarcastically.
The front door of Twilight's tree made a blunt sound as if the tree wasn't hollow. It turned out that Twilight was trying to open it. "Oh, hi there John! Hi Conner! What's going on?" she asked cheerfully.
"Not much" I said. "Would you happen to know somepony that's wise? Like, extremely wise?"
"Do I qualify?" Twilight asked jokingly.
"Shut up and answer his fucking question, Twi" Connor barked impatiently.
"Alright, alright!" she withdrew. "I would say Zechora might be able to help you."
"Zechora?" I said, very puzzled by the strange name.
"She's a Zebra" Twilight explained, "a very smart one, too. She tends to speak in a lot of metaphors, and she always rhymes her words."
"Sounds like kinda wise I'm lookin' for! Where would I find Zechora?"
"She has a little hut out in the Everfree Forest" Twilight said.
"Okay! Does it need any special directions or anything?" I asked.
"Nope. Just follow the path and you'll get there pretty fast."
"Okeydokey! Thanks for the help Twilight." I turned to go to the Everfree Forest. Connor and Discord decided to go home, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted to come with so I allowed them as long as they sat outside the house while I talked to Zechora. They weren't exactly happy about it, but I didn't want a hurricane inside the hut while I tried to get advice on how to end the war. I walked down the small dirt path until' I reached the forest. Like usual, my brain made the connection back to the S.O.A.D song I had played earlier for the "Cutie Mark Crusaders." I started singing it to myself quietly.
Come with me my little child
Through the forest of denial
Speak with me my only man
Walk with me until the time
Make the forest turn to wine
We take the legend for a fall
You saw the product
Now why can't you see that you are
My child
Why don't you know that you are
My mind
Tell everyone in the world that
I'm you
Take this promise to the end
Of you
I was not even into the second verse before I almost walked straight into a pole… pole? What the hell is a pole doing out in the middle of a forest? I realized it was one of the supports for a hut…
Zechora's hut.
I opened the door slowly and walked inside to see a very… African looking Zebra (I realize how racist that sounds, but I don't really know how else to describe it.) She simply looked up and smiled at me. "My forest home I see you have reached and what you need, perhaps I can teach."
Chapter title based on the song "Forest" by System Of A Down