+*+ SANDBAR +*+

He knew his friends hated him at the moment, and that was probably taking it lightly. How could they possibly not hate him? He had switched sides and had grown quite attached to Aura Light and his gang, and when the time came that he could patch everything up again, he left. He knew they hated him. It was such a simple fact.

Yet he didn't know why he missed them. He was supposed to hate them, especially since they also hated him, but sitting under a random tree in the Everfree Forest wasn't really in Sandbar's best interests.

    He sighed as he got up, then shook his head. He shouldn't be doing this. They all hated him. He was supposed to hate them. There was in no way they would welcome him back into their little group.

And yet despite knowing all that and having it ingrained inside his mind, he stood up and took the first step forward. He knew where Zecora's hut was. Even if he didn't have an amazing sense of direction, he had been in the Everfree Forest one too many times already, and practically memorised every path towards her hut.

And so he took the next step, inhaling sharply. Okay, Sandbar, he thought, so you're doing this. So he did. He began trotting back towards his friends, one hoof in front of the other.

He had gone in a much leisurely pace, clearly anticipating how his arrival would go with a hint of fear, but he still kept walking on the damp soil with the air cold and heavy around him.

    It was silent, and it was unsettling, like how it always was. He didn't know what was so unsettling about silence. It just made him feel that way. Maybe it was because he knew things, but didn't dare say it out loud.

    He finally spied Zecora's hut and he stopped, contemplating whether to enter or not. He bit his lip. He had to decide on this soon. He couldn't stay out here forever.

Sandbar sighed, feeling an urge pulling on his hoof, forcing him to go closer to the hut, but his mind was heavy and foggy and wanted to stay where he was and weighed him down. He wanted to go home...

But he knew he was putting so much risk. On his friends, Zecora, himself. He knew his friends were strong, but they had been pushed near their limits these past few days.

They were slowly mending now for sure, and if ever they would decide to face Aura Light, they needed to be strong. He couldn't break their delicate bubble of protection that was still forming and strengthening.

   Sandbar sighed. He felt the pull of the hut getting stronger, and just like that, he took his next step. He looked at his hooves in horror, wondering where they would bring him.

He took a deep breath. Maybe he could take another step. What was the worst tht could happen? His hoof was shaking as he brought it up into the air at a low altitude, then set it down.

Good. That wasn't too hard after all, and nothing bad happened. Maybe he could do this. He took another step despite his brain screaming at him not to.

Just one more step, he thought as he lifted his hoof once again. The screaming of his brain was starting to cease, and he was happy to be in the peace for a while.

Before he knew it, he had already made it to the doorstep of Zecora's hut. He gulped as he stared at its wooden exterior. It wasn't supposed to be menacing, but it did to him.

Just knock, he thought to himself, you could do it. Just one simple knock. If they answer, he'd deal with that later. If they didn't answer, he'd deal with it later, too.

What he did know was that he couldn't stand there all day and wait. Nothing would happen if he did so. He brought his hoof to the door and firmly tapped it on the wood, the noise filling in for the silence just a moment.

    Nothing. By this time, he could either tap again or start walking back. Nothing would happen if he just stood there, and he had not much to lose, so he decided to knock again.

    This time, someone finally answered and he saw himself face-to-face with Silverstream. Her eyes widened at first, then shrunk a bit in fear. She clearly couldn't bring herself to smile, and he couldn't really blame her.

"Silverstream." Sandbar said. He didn't really have it in him to say anything, but he knew he had to do something. He didn't want to spend minutes staring at his friend then having the door closed in his face right after.

"Sandbar." the Hippogriff replied, both their voices devoid of any emotion. She didn't seem like his usual bubbly friend anymore. Things have changed, he reminded himself.

"I don't have anywhere to stay." the green Pony said, and he winced internally, knowing that it was probably the most stupid thing he ever said in his life, and he would regret it.

    "You should've thought about that before you walked out on us." Silverstream said so simply in such a clear voice and he really hated himself for admitting it, but she was right.

   "I know. But I still need a place to stay." Sandbar said as he looked at her with pleading eyes, silently rolling them at himself. He was being stupid. He sghed internally, preferring stupid over nothing, which was probably stupid in itself.

"There are so many other places." Silverstream said, clearly not as eager to let him into Zecora's hut as he was feeling himself. To be honest, he was quite surprised that this bubbly Hippogriff could act so firm with her words sometimes.

"Yeah, but they're far." Sandbar said, finally realising that he wanted to enter so badly despite knowing the number of stupid things he could encounter when inside.

"Fine, but by morning you gotta get moving along now," the pink Hippogriff replied as she decided to open the door all the way to let the colt inside.

    "No one gave you the right to dictate how long someone's staying here, Silvystream." a voice said, and at first he thought it was Gallus, considering 'Silvy' was his nickname for her, but he figured the voice was too high-pitched.

     Sandbar didn't really know how he felt when he stepped inside Zecora's hut. It felt so weird and different now. His friends were definitely different, the connections between them all had changed.

    It was unpredictable and fragile, he realised, and that was one of the environments he did not want to get stuck in, but it seemed like he had no other choice.

"Then how'd you say how long he'd stay here, Smols?" Silverstream asked as she closed the door behind her and stepped into the room, moving over to sit on her place in the circle.

"Maybe let's let him leave in the middle of the night," Smolder replied with a shrug, and he couldn't really tel if she was serious or not. He hopef she wasn't.

"Look, do whatever you guys wanna do, just don't mess around to much, alright? Aura Light's still roaming and I don't want chaos erupting in here. Things are already chaotic as they were," Ocellus told the group, paired with a subtle eyeroll.

    "Yes, mom," Gallus murmured, and it caused him to snap his head towards his Griffin friend. He had forgotten that the blue Griffin existed for quite a while already, and truth be told, he was willing to forget that for a little while longer.

    "So, do what we wanna do. Don't cause chaos. That should be easy."

+*+

"Awww... Shoot." Sandbar exclaimed first thing when he woke up in his hammock again, but as his eyelids fluttered open, he was quite shocked to see that it was still dark. He sat up and looked around.

     He could make out the vague outlines of everything with the limited moonlight he was granted access to. He looked up and shook his head as it seemed that Gallus' snoring would never cease.

    He tried to lie down in his hammock again, and he felt the homey feeling of it. It wasn't exactly the best thing he'd like to sleep in, but it was still cosy and most, and bearable to sleep in.

    He never did like the bottom hammock, though, but he didn't have wings to help him up there so he didn't really have another choice. He tossed and turned for a few moments, trying to find out which position was the most comfortable, but every time, there was always one scratchy spot.

He sighed, eventually giving up and sat upright on his hammock, or about as far as upright was, which meant leaning forward a little bit and his body rocking from side to side ever so often.

He spent a good few minutes looking around the room and just taking in everything once again. He was back. Aura Light was still out there. Aura Light... It had been a while since he gave that colt a thought.

    He wanted to help him, so badly. As his eyes travelled the room, he stopped at Zecora's cauldron. Maybe he could help Aura Light. He risked a look up and Gallus was snoring as loudly as ever, which was a good thing.

   He carefully swung his hooved over the side of his hammock and stood up, risking another look at the rest of the girls. They all seemed to be fast asleep, so that was good, too.

    Slowly but surely, he crept his way towards a table tucked away in the corner where a lampnwas resting, and he carefully lit it up. He used most of his body to cover the light radiating from it, hoping that the others wouldn't wake up.

He carefully moved with the lamp gently hanging from his hoof by a thin metal chain and he made his way to Zecora's bookshelf hoping that it wouldn't fall or cause some noise.

    Curse of the Spirits. That was what Aura Light had, and based off everything, there should be a cure. There had to be a cure. He began picking out books that could possibly contain any important information on the curse and set them all aside on a table.

Eventually after half an hour or so, Sandbar was standing in the middle of Zecora's hut with a table beside him and the lamp resting on it, and a good dozen books or so were stacked on the table.

They had to be enough, he thought as he bit his lip, looking at the books. They had to be enough. Taking a deep breath, he carefully removed the first boom from the pile and set it down on the table.

Then he began reading, flipping to the next page and searching and scanning for answers in every line for some type of sign about what the cure to the 'Curse of the Spirits' was.

    After going through a fourth of the pile, he was feeling hopeless until he came across this particular volume which was basically flooding with information about the curse.

     Feeling his nerves getting excited, jumping around and cheering, he carefully flipped to page after page, soaking in all the information like a sponge. He had never been much of what ponies say 'nerds,' but for some reason all the information just began to stick to him.

    Eventually, he made it to the page which implied that there could be a possible cure and his nerves got even more excited as he read through the passages thoroughly.

Then he finally came across this. The cure. He squealed, literally squealed like a tiny little Filly, and he looked around as he bit his lip, hoping no one would wake up and mentally cursing himself for acting like such a Foal.

He took several deep breaths and figured that he was calm enough to finish reading the rest of the procedures for the potion without fangirling too much. They were all wrong, he thought with a smile. There was hope for them after all.

    So he started working on the potion, and luckily for him, all of the ingredients he would ever need to make it was already in Zecora's stores, and all he had to do was place them in at the right time.

    He was glad that the potion wasn't too complicated and could actually be brewed overnight if he would do it right, and the most he had to wait for was a week.

    The only setback was that the ingredients were rare, and the Zebra might have a small rhyming fit on whoever stole from her wares the previous night, but he was dealing with that later.

After an hour of hardwork and sweat, Sandbar collapsed onto his hammock as he rolled over to look at the cauldron that was happily steaming with the potion.

He only had to wait for it to brew overnight, add a few last-minute ingredients, then it would be ready. He was glad Zecora had a minu-cauldron that he used, and that he didn't have to use the main one. He'd get into so much trouble for that.

He smiled as he stared at the hammock above him where Gallus was snoring loudly once again. He'd have a chance to get Aura Light back. He'd be happy again. Maybe his friends would be grateful.

Then the darkness took him.

+*+

     "Shoot! Wake up already!"

     Those were the first words Sandbar heard when he dropped into conciousness that morning. He flinched, but his eyelids still remained shut. After all, it wasn't the most pleasant words he could have woken up to.

    "Wake the heck up!"

    He groaned and proceeded to open his eyes to see a pair of purple ones staring back at him, and he only knew one friend with purple eyes. Silverstream. Now if that Hippogriff was the one to yell those words at him, he would be quite surprised.

Sandbar groaned as he sat up, using his hooves to gain purchase on the hammock to help him sit up, but he was rocking so much that it had caused the hammock to go upside down and spit him onto the floor. He could swear he heard laughing. He didn't really care. He was hungry.

He shook his head and grunted as he tried to properly stand up on the ground and examined the room with an unamused expression for a while before turning back to the rest of his friends.

   "What the heck is happening?" Sandbar asked as he raised his eyebrows, moving over to sit in the already forming circle, with some of his friends looking at him weirdly, or not at all, and they talked amongst themselves.

    "Ay, Zecora's got news on Silvystream's parents so she'd be hapoy right now," Smolder replied in an indifferent voice, elbowing the Hippogriff with a smile.

    "Indeed I do, Smolder. Now gather 'round, let's hear what I can remember." A voice said and they all turned their heads to see Zecora entering the hut and they all became silent.

"Silverstream, your family is safe and sound. Please do not panic for now," Zecora said as she moved on to preparing breakfast, and the pink Hippogriff sighed in relief at her words.

They resorted to talking amongst themselves while Sandbar was left alone in his place in the circle, hoping that no one would come across his potion.

He bit his lip as he looked around, gaze landing on his friends who were chatting happily together. He realised they didn't kick him out yet. That was good. He didn't deserve them. They were too trusting for him.

     Sandbar didn't really understand how there were such amazing creatures in this world, and wondered if he really deserved them. He was probably just one big burden that they'd learned to manage.

    He was grateful for that, and for the fact that most of them were still happily conversing with one another so that must be a good thing and that they weren't dying from his presence. At least, not yet.

     He allowed himself to relax a little bit and smiled as his gaze travelled around the room once again. Sometimes to an intriguing potion bottle, sometimes just to his friends who were chatting.

"Go eat, young creatures. I shall be off on another venture," the Zebra suddenly said. Sandbar's eyes widened, wondering what the hell was going on, but the striped creature was already walking out the door.

"I will see you later, tell you if things get better," Zecora said and before he knew it, the door was already slammed shut and he was now stuck in a hut with creatures who could potentially hate him and no figure with a remote sense of authority.

"So... hello." the green Colt decided to say, not wanting to leave any space for silence. Unfortunately for him, what followed his little greeting was the one thing he was dreading.

    "Well, I'm going to eat breakfast and if anyone else wants, uh... You can go eat breakfast, too," Sandbar said with an awkward smile, standing up as he walked over to the main cauldron which was filled with a spicy-smelling soup.

    He knew that asking them for a place to stay was the worst thing he had ever said in his life. He could've avoided all the awkwardness. He didn't reallg care at this point anymore. No point in trying to change the past. But he still wished he was able to.

Sandbar used his hoof to lift the ladle. It was hard, but they all knew that if you squeezed it hard enough, it would be as effective as a claw, and he poured two full ladles for his bowl.

He knew that Zecora would only use six ladles, one for each of them, but he had been at work late at night and had spent weeks in the Everfree Forest without much to eat, and temptation was calling really badly to him.

    So Sandbar proceeded back towards his spot in the circle and sat down, cradling the bowl in his lap, hoping that the others wouldn't notice he had taken more of his fair share.

    Even though he knew that being hungry for a week and staying up at night were good reasons to get a little more soup than needed, he was still quite paranoid that they would yell at him. They weren't exactly at their best states.

     He looked at his soup and he could swear that he had never smelled anything so amazing in his life, and he found himself immediately bringing the bowl to his face.

Sandbar immediately began drinking from his bowl, nevermind the soup was still hot for any Pony to handle. He was hungry, and the soup tasted good, and getting something in his stomach was his only priority at the moment.

He felt a searing pain at the back of his throat for just a moment as the soup went down, but it was gone almost as soon as it got there. He set the bowl back down on the ground, frowning a little bit.

     Sandbar would usually take his time to eat his food, savouring every bite, but he was just so damn hungry that he didn't really care, but now, he was starting to regret it. After all, it was his first meal that would even cut close to sufficient. He looked up and saw an angry Smolder narrowing her eyes at him.

     "What the heck did I do now?" the green Colt asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion, ready to attempt to defend himself, even if it was going to be disastrous.

   "You took more than your fair share! Don't you know what you'd done? Don't you know what that meant?" Smolder yelled loudly at his face that it was actually making him feel quite worried for himself now.

    "Silverstream refused to eat because she was worried about her family! Yona had been sending letters to Rarity and barely eating! Ocellus is getting too caught up in studying to even stop for a meal!" Smolder continued shouting in his face with frustration.

"And Gallus—!" the orange Dragon's eyes widened as their gaze travelled to the blue Griffin who was chilling. The Dragon gave a little huff. "Well, Gallus is fine, but he's giving up his breakfast now for them, not to mention he hates you!"

    "And I have to take care of all of them! I hate being the mom friend! Why must you force me into this?" Smolder finished, throwing her claws up in the air before stomping back towards her spot in the circle and sitting down as she blew a puff of smoke.

    "Sorry..." Sandbar muttered under his breath, but he was truthfully not sure with what he was supposed to say, but decided to just roll with whatever comes to his mind and see what happens from there.

+*+A+*+U+*+T+*+H+*+O+*+R+*+
+*+N+*+O+*+T+*+E+*+
Can I pour my thoughts onto the page? Yes.
Will you care? Probably not.
Oh, well. Let's just do this.

It's no surprise that I haven't been active here much lately. I mean, only one person's reading my later chapters at the moment, and I love her for that <3 But other than that, it's just lazy and really quiet over here. I haven't proof-read a chapter in a long time because I didn't really see the point in it, nor was there a point in adding an author's note. No one really cared anyway. It's not like you care neither. I'm wondering whether to just stop when I finally finish Nebula.

On another happier note, we hit 4k reads, and I never really expected that to happen, considering how quiet it is over here. So apparently some people still care about reading my work, and some new people are stopping by as well. I just want to say thank you.

While I'm grateful for hitting 4k, I doubt anyone cares about this, though. I mean, it is a kinda bad Young 6 fanfiction...
+*+G+*+O+*+O+*+D+*+B+*+Y+*+E+*+