Chapter 13 – Tales of Loved Ones
Once the villains finally managed to find their way back into G's realm, they were all met with the sheer ferocity of Rahzar's snarls. Needless to say he had been growing impatient since their departure.
"Well?" he growled. "Did you find him?"
However this was only met with several fierce gazes.
"Oh we found him alright," Scanty said, through gritted teeth. "And that little freak deserves far worse than death if I have anything to say about it!"
"Calm yourself sister!" Kneesocks quickly said, rubbing her shoulders to try to calm
Scanty down. "Remember your breathing exercises."
Needless to say Rahzar, along with Mimi and Foxy's two comrades noticed their frustration as everyone took a seat around the portal.
"I take it the hunt didn't go so well?" he asked sarcastically.
That of course was met with more malice.
"Didn't go well!?" Bebop snapped. "That little freak down right humiliated us!"
"Da, he made us do the jiggy-jigg," Rocksteady added, grimacing over the memory of G's little musical number.
But no villain got any sympathy from Rahzar, in fact it took all of his might just not to laugh, however this quickly changed once he regained his composure and returned to the serious matter at hand.
"So where is he then?" he queried.
Kneesocks sighed at that.
"We don't know," she admitted. "We don't know how he did it but somehow he created another crack to escape us, him and the rest of his little group."
Both Rahzar and Mimi raised an eyebrow at that.
"Group?" Porche asked. "What do you mean?"
"There were others with him," Chi answered. "Creatures that were clearly not of the world we were in."
At those words Foxy then saw his opportunity, while he may be in the villains favour after the little incident back at the mansion, he still needed to guarantee his position, thus he proceeded to speak.
"This is what I have been saying all along," he said with a grin, grabbing everyone's attention. "It wasn't enough that he kidnapped me and my two comrades for his own amusement, but now he is taking advantage of the desperation of others for the same purpose. He probably said that he would take them all home if they followed him, but is he really was so generous, then why didn't he offer to send you all back home the second he saw you eh?"
With every false word that came out of Foxy's mouth, the other villains seemed to be eating it up like cake, the only ones who seemed to see through the lies were Porche and Hamburg, who merely followed their captain no matter what he said, and of course Chi and Mimi, who know G too well to know that he would never be so cruel, plus Chi had managed to speak to him to earn the real truth. However Chi couldn't very well expose the truth without putting herself and Mimi at risk, so for now she decided to play it smart and chose her words carefully.
"Well it wasn't like you gave him the chance to do so," she said, much to everyone's surprise. "But whatever the case any chance of him fixing the damage if long gone, it would seem that we're on our own."
"Pale-faced girl has good point," Rocksteady pointed out. "Perhaps now would be good time to formulate new plan, da?"
Rahzar snarled at that.
"Formulate your own plans!" he snapped. "I wanna tear that little freak limb from limb right now!"
"Yeah, well get in line, dog!" Scanty retorted, fighting the urge to shoot Rahzar right there and then.
"Plus, need I remind you that we still have to find him before we go jumping into random dimensions?" Kneesocks added.
"Yeah, whatever happened to that Ninja spirit, yo?" Bebob asked, earning himself another snarl.
"That died the second we came to that forsaken place!" Rahzar retorted. "And I am sick of staying here!"
Kneesocks sighed at that.
"Well you won't have to wait for long," she said reassuringly. "Now that my tracking system has already located that little freak, it won't take as long to find him again."
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Meanwhile, the said Living Genre continued to drive the stolen van through the fields of Middle-Earth, every other passenger inside feeling more and more anxious by the minute, on top of feeling nauseous from the bumpy six-hour trip.
"Ugh… are we there yet?" Nyx asked, desperately fighting back the urge to be sick.
"Not yet," G replied. "It's gonna be a while until we get to where we're going."
At those everyone groaned in disgust, G could only assume that was the nausea talking, after all none of them expect for he and Edward have ever been inside a van before.
"I guess we should find a place to stop," G finally said. "After all, it is almost night anyway."
At those words, everyone looked up and saw that g was indeed right as the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. They did not realise how long they had been in this new world up until now, most likely due to the building travel sickness, but even an idiot knew that it was time to stop for the evening.
"There's a cave just up ahead," G continued. "I can't smell anything using it so it'll provide good shelter for the night."
"Is there really nothing else?" Goggles asked, not liking the idea of spending the night in a cave.
"Sorry mate," G replied. "I can't smell any local settlements so the cave's our only option. Besides I doubt any of you will want to be near any prying eyes, the humans who live here may be used to seeing strange things but even they haven't seen anything like us before."
They hated to admit it but everyone could agree that G had appoint, the last thing they needed was to be spotted by any locals that no doubt will probably be just as scary as that Warg they encountered when they first arrived. Sighing in defeat, everyone nodded their heads in agreement and allowed G and Goggles to make a detour towards the cave. By the time everyone had gotten out of the van and made camp for the evening, the sky had already turn black and began to fill with stars, the only light the group had was that of the moon and the headlights of the van.
"Any luck with the fire yet?" Goggles asked as Lug continued to scratch away at the two pieces of stone in his hands against the mound of dry wood the group had quickly gathered. "I don't think the van's battery is going to take so much pressure in one day."
"Quit pressuring me lad!" Lug retort as he continued to struggle with the flints.
Watching all of this G couldn't take the sad display anymore and decided to intervene.
"You know if you need fire all you have to do is ask," he said, much to Lug's annoyance.
"Oh and what can you do that I can't?" he asked sceptically, rolling his eyes.
Suddenly as if answering Lug's question, G released a blast of blue flames into the wood, mount, intently setting it alight and causing Lug to quickly jump back in fright as it almost burns his goatee off.
"Oh, sorry Lug," G said sheepishly, realising his mistake. "Didn't mean to startle you."
However even though Lug was clearly annoyed, everyone else couldn't let out a small chuckle in amusement.
"I'm not gonna lie G, that was pretty cool," Goggles commented, before sticking an iron kettle over the fire.
"I'll second that," Laura added, though somewhat a bit more hesitantly.
Before long everyone had gathered around the fire, keeping themselves warm and cosy from the cold wind outside the cave and enjoying some fresh tea that G had bought in the last world for the journey, a treat in which Goggles was certainly most appreciative of.
"Ah, good stuff," he sighed after taking another gulp. "What brand did you say this was?"
"PG Tips," G responded. "Not something you'd find in Equestria, that's for sure."
"I'll say," Goggles chuckled. "How did no one ever think to put the tea leaves in bags before, back home? It creates much less hassle with the dregs in the bottom."
That was but the first of many topics of pointless small talk around the campfire, which soon escalated into friendly chatter amongst the group, there was no real point to it but it did provide some small comfort from everything that had happened earlier that day. Not only that but in G's opinion it was also a good way for the group to get to know each other, which was a good thing since there was no telling how long they were going to be traveling together before G could get back and set things right. Suddenly Nyx brought up a subject that turned the setting somewhat awkward, at least in G's opinion.
"So… what's my mom like?" she asked, looking towards Goggles. "In your world I mean."
Goggles was taken aback by that, for a few minutes he was at a loss for words, however he soon tried his best to answer.
"Well… the best way I can describe her is that fact she's an amazing friend," he said, quickly grabbing the filly's attention. "Ever since I escaped my home country of Kappan and came to Ponyville, she was one of the first to actually welcome me. After a while she became a dear a friend to me as anyone, always helping me out whenever I needed it, especially when it came to my research."
"Your research?" Laura asked, quickly picking up on the conversation.
"Yeah," Goggles replied with a small smile. "As you may have noticed, I am a somewhat decent inventor, and as such I always like to find new methods for my creations. Heck, I once spend months on end developing a flying machine that actually helped me out when I was in a jam… I guess I have little Apple Bloom to thank for that too."
Nyx's ears perked up upon hearing that name, after all it was the same one that belonged to one of her closest friends back in her world, and it would also seemed that she was that close to Goggles in his and the same went for his version of her mother.
"Who's Apple Bloom?" Spud asked, curious to hear more.
Goggles sighed at that.
"Another dear friend of mine," he said. "In fact she was the one who found me when I was badly injured and brought me to Ponyville to heal. I guess I should also ask what's she's like in your realm Nyx?"
At first Nyx shared in Goggles' inability to find the right words to say, however this quickly changed as she put on a sweet smile.
"Well I suppose she's just a sweet as yours in Goggles," she said. "Heck, we're in the Cutie Mark Crusaders together."
Goggles couldn't help but chuckle at that, of course that would have been the case. And though the others aside from G had no idea what Nyx meant, they were still glad to see that she and Goggles had a common subject to share.
"So what about you three?" Goggles said, turning towards Lug, Mossy and Spud. "You guys got anybody back home?"
"Eh, not the way you do lad," Lug admitted with a heavy sigh.
"What do you mean?" Edward asked curiously, his scissors flicking away at the fire.
"Well none of you would remember, well except G, Nyx and Goggles, but our home was filled with tons of statues," Spud explained.
"Yeah, what of it?" Goggles asked curiously.
"Well the thing is, those statues weren't always statues," Mossy answered, much to everyone's surprise.
"Aye," Lug added. "They be our kin, lost to the mortal realm after Macha's owls had gotten to them."
However that explanation only raised more questions in everyone's mind, all except for G who basically knew this story from beginning to end, but chose to let the Irish fairies tell it regardless.
"Who's Macha?" Nyx asked.
"And what do owls have anything to do with it?" Goggles added.
At those words, Lug and his two friends sighed, clearly this was a tale they didn't like telling.
"Macha is a witch of Ancient Ireland," Mossy explained. "Mother of the Great Giant Mac Lir and a stealer of emotions."
"As the story goes, after Macha discovered that her son Mac Lir, wept an ocean in grief for his lost wife, after which she used her owls to take away his emotions," Lug added. "After his emotions were taken away, Mac Lir instantly turned to stone. And she has continued to do the same to all of Ireland's magical people ever since."
Needless to say that story gave everyone chills, especially for Nyx and Goggles who had seen first-hand the result of Macha's owls invading Lug, Mossy and Spud's home.
"And that was what happened to your kin?" Goggles asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"Aye," Spud replied, his face saddened with the memory. "Lug, Mossy and I are all that's left of our clan."
At those words, everyone's face fell, of all the stories they heard tonight, that was by far the saddest, however for some reason Spud's frown was quickly turned upside down.
"Ah but don't worry about us," he said reassuringly. "Our kin still live, all they need be is patient for the Selkie to send us home!"
However that quickly earned him a slap across the head from Lug.
"Whisht, will ye!" he snapped. "We don't need to bore them with our tales all night."
"Aye," Mossy added, seeing Lug's need to change the subject. "Let's lighten the mood shall we? Laura, perhaps you can share some tales?"
However the Keidran was taken aback by that question.
"M… me?" she asked sheepishly.
"Oh come on, a lovely girl like you?" Goggles said, making Laura blush a little. "Surely you have someone back hoe waiting for you? Friends? Family? Boyfriend maybe?"
At those words Laura blushed even more than before, so much so that everyone could see the pink beneath her orange fur, it was obvious that she was too shy to say anything. Luckily G knew exactly what to say.
"It's okay Laura," he said. "You're among friends here, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to."
It wasn't much but adding that to the gentle looks everyone was giving her, it seemed to calm her down a bit.
"Well I suppose there was this ONE guy," she said, instantly grabbing everyone's attention. "After growing up in the Coastal Fox Clan, one day a Basitin washed up on our shores."
"A Basitin?" Nyx asked raising an eyebrow.
"Another species native to Laura's home dimension," G answered, saving Laura the explanation. "Normally they don't leave their islands except for certain circumstances, they're a bit like Keidran, only they don't resemble any animals rather than their own personal species."
"And the one that washed up on that beach had to have been the nicest one I have ever met, even after he was banished," Laura continued, smiling at the memory. "His name was Keith, after I found him my family took him in. And after a time we fell in love with one another, soon enough Keith proposed and we were engaged to be married."
"Aww!" Nyx sighed.
However that's when Laura's smile faded and turned into a saddened expression, needless to say everyone took notice.
"Something happened?" Edward asked, a look of concern etched across his scarred face.
Laura nodded at that.
"It was my fault," she said. "Two days before the ceremony I just ran away."
"But why would you do that?" Nyx asked concernedly. "Didn't you love him anymore?"
"Of course I did!" Laura retorted, almost insulted to be even asked such a question. "But you see there was type of Milk that makes us Keidran do all sorts of crazy things, and my sister tricked me into drinking some before the wedding. I just felt so ashamed of my actions while under its influence, I… I simply ran away."
Upon hearing this, no one could decide what to think, pity that Laura lost her chance at love, or concern that she made a bad decision that led to it. Still they had to know more.
"So what happened after that?" Goggles asked.
"Aye," Lug added. "Surely that wasn't the end of it."
"I… I don't want to talk about it anymore," Laura replied, trying to hide her face in her hair.
Someone would have protested, but G and Edward simply looked to the rest of the group and shook their heads, stating that Laura should be left alone now. Soon enough the conversation went towards G.
"So what about you, G?" Goggles asked.
"Me?" G replied, confused by the question.
"Aye, isn't there someone special in your life?" Spud answered, much to the Living Genre's surprise.
After a few brief moments of silence, G soon laughed.
"Fraid' that's not in the cards for me mate," he chuckled, taking a swig of tea. "You see technically I'm not allowed to form that kind of relationship with anybody within the multiverse, sure I can form friendships but nothing in the terms of romance."
However humour aside, that explanation only earned him a few looks of concern.
"Is there nobody back in your home realm?" Laura asked.
"Again no," G answered. "I'm me, and me is as unique as they come. No doubles, no siblings, no nothing. Just me, and my magic."
"But… doesn't that get a little lonely?" Nyx asked, her eyes gazing upon the faltering face of G.
"Sometimes," G admitted with a sigh. "But that's why I travel, I see new places every day, make new friends every other week, in a nutshell I was living the highlife."
However despite what G was trying to show with his cocky grin, Nyx could see the emotion he was hiding deep within, there was just something about his regular eye that screamed the kind of person G really was. However she decided not to press him for now.
"Well, now that we got story time out of the way, how about some campfire music before we hit the hay, hmm?" G said, his voice quickly perking up.
"Music?" Edward asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You play?" Mossy added, causing another large smile to appear on G's face.
"No, but you do," he responded, before once again pulling something out of his vest.
Much to everyone's astonishment, which was surprising since they had come to expect the weirdest stuff for G by now, the Living Genre then pulled out a Fiddle, a drum, and a banjo all from his vest pocket.
"H… how did you…?" Laura stuttered.
"My pockets are bigger on the inside," G sniggered, answering Laura's question before she finished it. "Let's not make too much of an issue about it, shall we?"
Deciding to simply go along with it, Lug, Mossy and Spud welcomed the new musical instruments G passed onto them with a grateful smile and proceeded to play, it was as though they were playing their own instruments again. After about another hour, the music had long since stopped and everyone had dozed off into a deep sleep. Only two seemed to be awake at this time, Laura, who had been a little nervous about sleeping in a cave for the night, and Nyx, whose concerns were more for G than anyone else. She just couldn't get over with what G said earlier, did G really have nobody to go back to when this was all over? Well the least she could do was give him some comfort at least for tonight. Shifting in her blankets, she then slowly walked around the still-burning fire, past the sleeping forms of Goggles and the others and up to the Living Genre, who at this point was sleeping whilst sitting up against the van.
"Um… G?" she whispered, making sure that he was really asleep.
Seeing that he was, Nyx slowly took a seat next to him. Giving a small yawn she then laid down and rested her head on his blanket, however little did she realise, G wasn't as passed out as she first believed. Opening an eye he saw the sleeping filly cuddling up next to him, he didn't really know how to react but for some reason he found it comforting. Thinking back to how concerned Nyx looked when he told everyone that he was basically alone most of the time, he couldn't help but feel… somewhat content with what was happening at this moment. Never in his life had G felt like this, it was though for the first time he was truly feeling an actual bond with someone, granted he had friends but they always felt a little distant. Now it didn't feel that way, not with Nyx, nor with anyone else in the cave for that matter, it was nice. With one final smile, G closed his eye again and drifted back to sleep, and witnessing all of this from her side of the cave, Laura did the same, happy in the knowledge that she was at least sharing a cave with a caring group of friends.
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Author's Notes:
The Character Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke / :iconPenstrokepony:
The Character Laura belongs to :icontwokinds:
The Characters Chi and Mimi belong to :iconbleedman: