Apocalyptic Beauty

I had no idea what to expect.

My name is Silent Huntsman. For the past seven years, I’ve lived in the Everfree Forest and isolated myself from the outside world. Why? It’s simple. Okay, it’s not.

Seven years ago, my name wasn’t Silent Huntsman. It was Quill Feather. I had a pretty good life. Born and raised in a fairly wealthy family, I wanted to grow up to be like my father, a writer. But one day, everything changed.

My parents and I were trotting home from the local market, bags in tow, when we tried hailing a taxi to get us home. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get one, so we tried walking instead. My father, adamant that he knew where he was going, brought us to a dark and secluded alley. Then, out of nowhere, a dark unicorn with a red mane leapt from the shadows. He laughed menacingly and said, “I know you’re wealthy. Give me your money,” -he grabbed me by the neck- “And the kid goes. I’d hate for anything to happen to him,” He smiled darkly.

“Fine! I’ll give you my money. Just let Quill go!” My father cried.

“Of course. I’m not a monster. But now, you uphold your end of the deal.” The strange unicorn smiled and edged towards my parents, brandishing a knife. I was a coward. I couldn’t help my parents… I ran. After reaching about fifty feet away, a heard an ear-splitting scream.

After that incident, I couldn’t forgive myself. I couldn’t face the world. Depression grew over me. I wanted to become stronger, make myself tougher. So I isolated myself in the one place nopony dare visit. The Everfree Forest. I vowed that once I had become strong enough, I would avenge my parents’ death, or die trying.

I hunted at night, using a homemade bow and arrows. I wanted to leave the past behind, so I took on a new name, Silent Huntsman. I trained myself to both a physical and mental peak. Being stopped from any social contact changed me. My coat’s colour turned from white to a teal colour, either as a result of the forest’s strange workings, or as an adaptation. I also lost access to many emotions, including jealousy, excitement, and possibly the most important, love.

But that was about to change.

Six years later, I woke up from my depression. I realised isolation wouldn’t bring my parents back. Nothing would. So I decided I was finally ready to show myself to the world. But it was hard, and something was stopping me. I can’t quite put my hoof on it, but something stopped me from leaving the forest. Only after another year did I finally work up the courage to leave.

Taking a deep breath, I leapt from the trees I rested in and found myself on a dirt path. Unfortunately, there happened to be a young mare standing right next to me. She yelped and hid in a nearby bush. I didn’t blame her. Anypony would do the same. Looking at me, she slowly emerged, and I could see her in all of her beauty. A pale yellow coat with a similarly pale pink mane, and on her flank, three butterflies. Not to say that I liked her or anything like that! I’d only just met her… ‘First impressions are everything,’ I thought, so I decided to strike up a conversation. If I was going to be social, I was going to have to start somewhere. Unfortunately, I had chosen the worst place to start. The shyest mare ever.

“Good day to you, madam,” I said, trying to be as formal as possible.

I was met with nothing but silence and an attempt to avoid looking into my eyes.

“Um… would you know where I am, perchance?” I asked, feeling it odd that she wasn’t replying.

“…” More silence.

“Uh… Could I please ask your name?” I asked.

“Um… I’m Fluttershy…” she said, trying to be as quick as possible to avoid talking with me.

Deciding to be honest, I admitted, “Terribly sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”

“I‘m Fluttershy…” Now I knew shy was avoiding contact. I persevered, hoping to get at least a name out of her. However, this continued for what felt like an eternity, until I noticed an object flying towards us.

“Look out!” I shouted as I pushed the mysterious mare aside, pulled out my bow and one arrow with my magic, quickly aimed, and shot the object, stopping it dead in its tracks. I never actually bothered to check what it was. The mare, surprisingly, wasn’t hiding like before. Instead she was staring directly at me.

“Oh, my…” She seemed to have forgotten to try to avoid contact.

“Um… you saw that?” I asked, almost feeling embarrassed.

“Yes, I did… You are… a good hoof with that bow… aren’t you?” She said, almost in awe.

“Yes, well,” I paused. What would I say? Would I admit I lived in the Everfree? Thinking that honesty would do best here, I admitted, “Seven years of living in the Everfree can do that to a stallion.”

She gasped. “You’re from the Everfree Forest!?”

“Um… Yes?” I said uneasily, wondering why she was so surprised. Then I remembered I was the only one living there.

She suddenly opened up to me. “Oh my, I… The Everfree Forest? How is it living in the Everfree? Is it scary? Are the creatures in the Everfree friendly? Mean? What about…”

“Um…” I interrupted her, immediately regretting doing so.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I must look like a very rude pony, I…” She tried apologising so many times, it made me feel worse and worse.

“No, no, I’m sure you’re a fine mare,” I said, trying to regain my formal attitude, “Look, my name is Silent Huntsman. May I ask yours?”

“Fluttershy,” she said with a smile, “It’s very nice meeting you, Silent!”

“Likewise,” I smiled back at her, “Now, I need to get a place to live. Do you know if there’s a town nearby?” I asked, as, if I wanted to live in a society, I’d need a home.

“Yes, Ponyville’s just down this path.” She raised a hoof pointing in the direction of the dirt path. And with that, I swiftly turned on the spot, and headed down the path. To my surprise, however, Fluttershy joined me.

“Excuse me,” I asked, “Is there something you wanted to add?”

“No, it’s just…You might need some help settling in, after all, and…” She quickly graced me with a quick kiss. I thought nothing of it, so I didn’t say anything.

We walked for about ten minutes before reaching a small town. It seemed like a calm place. However, those thoughts were immediately denied by a pink figure charging towards us. “Who…” I asked. Before I could get an answer though, We were bombarded with speech. “Hey, Fluttershy! Who is this guy, is he your colt-friend? Now, you know I’m only joking around, but seriously, who is this guy, and why have I never seen him before, because remember I know everypony in Ponyville so--”

“Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy interrupted her, “This is Silent Huntsman, and he’s just moving in to Ponyville.”

“That is correct.” I added.

“That would explain why I’ve never seen him before!” Pinkie smiled. After introducing ourselves, I left for the Town Hall to organise a house for myself.

Three weeks later, I had secured myself a home. I had met a few other ponies, which is great. The first was Vinyl Scratch, less than a day after moving in. When I found out I loved music, I was recommended to a DJ known as DJ PON-3. When I located this pony’s house and entered (After a surprisingly relaxed “Come in!”), I was blasted with dubstep music. After telling her that I appreciated her music, we got into conversation, and became good friends.

A few days later, I met Applejack. After learning that the main crop grown in Ponyville was apples, I decided to pay the apple farm a visit. To my surprise, the family who ran the farm were very relaxed. She gave me an apple to munch on, and to my surprise, I seriously enjoyed it. I asked her how she grew these apples so well, and she ended up telling me a lot of the Apple family history.

Later, I met Twilight Sparkle. Even though she only visited for a day, that didn’t stop her from being incredibly interested in how I had trained myself in the Everfree Forest.

A couple of days later, I went to the Carousel Boutique out of sheer curiosity, and met its proprietor, Rarity. As she welcomed me with her business greeting, (“Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where all of our outfits are shique, unique, and magnifique!”) she immediately gasped and shouted, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no!”

“Um, what’s wrong?” I asked, confused.

“Your look, of course! It’s so… Bland! Emotionless! Forgettable! It needs something. Something else! Something to set you apart from others-” She gasped. “-I’ve got it!” She ran upstairs, and moments later, came back down with a simple straw trilby. “Perfect! It fits you so well! Quaint, yet so practical!” she said, satisfied, as she put the hat atop my head.

“I love it,” I said, surprised at how she could make something of such high quality, “But I’m afraid I haven’t any money…”

“Oh don’t worry about that,” she said, smiling, “Money isn’t important when something like that fits so well with you! It just screams, ‘Look out world! I’m going to seize the opportunity of life, my way!’

Finally, the next day, I quite literally bumped into a group of fillies calling themselves the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’. I wondered what they were doing, and they replied simultaneously, “We’re gonna go get our Cutie Marks in Hang-gliding,” before running off. As they disappeared into the distance, I felt slightly worried. “They could hurt themselves!” I said to myself, before attempting to give chase, only to realise that they had disappeared.

It was night. I rested against my bed and sighed. “So,” I muttered, “What now?” I felt tired, so I attempted to get to sleep. Needless to say, I couldn’t. After a couple of hours of tossing and turning, I heard a knock on my door. “Who could be calling at this hour?” Opening the door and rubbing my eyes, I asked, “Ugh, can… Can I… help you?” Applejack was at the door. “AJ? It’s 3AM. This better be bloody important, or I’m going back to bed.”

“You bet yer sorry flank this is important!” she shouted. I could tell that she was just as tired as I was. “This is concernin' our festival startin' off cider season!”

“And this concerns me because…” I said, rotating a hoof to signify that I needed an explanation.

“We need your quick mind and brute strength,” She continued shouting.

“Why?” I asked.

“Security, ya dummy!” She lifted her hoof to her head as if it was obvious.

“You can explain inside, it’s freezing out here…” We went inside, then into my living room. We sat down on my sofa, I lit my fireplace and we continued talking, now slightly less annoyed at each other. “So,” I continued, “Why do you need me for security?”

“Ok,” she sighed, “I guess I should fill ya in. A couple days ago, we were sent an anonymous letter that them changeling folk had returned.”

“Changelings? Those things that steal ponies away, transform into exact replicas of them, enslave them and feed off of their emotions?” I asked, wanting confirmation of my definition.

“I don’t need no explanation, Silent! Now, we’ve been told that they’ll be attending the festival disguised as somepony. We don’t know who, so I’m counting on you to tell the fakers from the real ones,” she explained.

“So I’m to do this alone?” I asked, knowing that I wasn’t.

“Nah, you’ll have River Rhyme to help out.” She said, smiling calmly.

“Sounds simple enough. So, what happens when I find one of them?” I asked.

“Hold ‘em down. I’ll come and check if they’re one of ‘em,” she said, smirking, almost darkly.

“And if they are?” I needed her to confirm my thoughts.

“Throw ‘em out,” she smiled, as if this was some genius plan.

“That’s it?” I was surprised at this.

“Yup,” She said, like that was it.

“…” I couldn’t believe her plan. It was surprisingly, almost scarily, simple.

She yawned. “Welp, I’d better get back home. Festival starts at 1PM tomorrow. See ya then,” She said, waving and heading towards the door.

“Yeah, see you later…” After that, I used my magic to open the door, and she left. I stared at the door for a few seconds, lost in thought.

Changelings…

Tomorrow rolled around faster than I had hoped. Waking up later than best, I quickly woke myself up with an ice-cold water, swiped my hat and my bow and quiver of arrows from my desk, and ran out the door. I had about twenty minutes before the festival started. Luckily, it only took me ten to get to the farm where the festival was being held, so I was good for time. When I got there, to my surprise, I saw a huge crowd of about a hundred or so ponies standing outside the gates to Sweet Apple Acres, and one stallion trying to keep them out. Dark grey with a sky blue mane, I knew instantly who this was. “River Rhyme,” I smiled as I moved to help, surprisingly at a light canter, “Fancy meeting you here,” I laughed.

“Silent, I could use a hoof keeping these ponies out!” River shouted, distressed by the crowd almost trampling him.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” I smiled, sounding a lot more confident than I meant to.

“Then do SOMETHING,” River shouted, incredibly annoyed at my unintentional arrogance.

“Keep your mane on, I said I got this,” I reassured him, more relaxed the I possibly should. I conjured a temporary megaphone and shouted, “Listen up, the Cider Festival doesn’t start for another ten or so minutes, so perhaps you could get in a line, just to make things a little more organised?” To my surprise, the ponies obeyed almost instantly and got in a straight line.

River Rhyme was amazed. “Why… didn’t I think of that?” As I disposed of the temporary megaphone, I decided we could calm down for five minutes.

“So, River,” I asked, “Why are you so pissed off?”

“I think I had a couple too many last night,” He sighed, “Now I have a roaring headache.”

“Heh,” I laughed, “Not big surprise.”

“Ugh.” He wasn’t amused.

“So… Did you hear abut the changeling attack that‘s supposed to happen?” I said, wanting to change the subject.

“Yeah. Apparently, about six of them or so are going to ambush us while disguised.” He said like it was nothing important.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

At that moment, a dark cloud swarmed above us, slowly moving in to our position. Slowly, tiny parts flew off the cloud and headed straight for us. Then I realised. “That’s not a cloud,” I gasped, “It’s an army…”

Put simply, pandemonium ensued. Changelings flew down in their hundreds. Everypony in town was running everywhere, most heading for the safety of their homes. Buildings collapsed from the force the changelings used while flying to the ground. I froze in place. For the first time in seven years, I was scared. It felt… cold, and dark. Like I had just been thrown into a void. I could tell that River was sacred, based on the fact that he had frozen in place too. After a minute or so of immobility, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Applejack run towards River and I and shout, “I got a shelter under the barn in case of emergencies! Follow me!” She turned and ran towards the barn, with me and River following suit, after realising that we weren’t moving.

We ran into the cold, hard shelter, meeting up with the rest of the Apple family, as well as Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Scootaloo, Vinyl Scratch, and a few others. Needless to say, it was cramped.

We stayed in the darkness of the shelter, worrying ourselves sick about what might be going on, with only a small gas lamp as a light source.. After a few hours of this, I went out to get some fresh air. What I saw outside was something that nopony should ever see in their life. Ponyville was in ruins. Bodies of innocent ponies lay everywhere, many buried under destroyed buildings. Everything was a lifeless wasteland as far as the eye could see. I dropped to my knees. “YOU MURDERERS!” I screamed as I continuously bashed the ground with a forehoof, “DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT! NO NO NO NO NO! GAH!” I started sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn’t care less about looking masculine, or tough. I didn’t care about anything. We could all die right now, and I wouldn’t care. Everything was dead to me.

Even I was dead in my eyes.

After a minute or so, Applejack came out to see why I was taking so long. When she saw what had happened, she ran back inside to get everypony outside. When we were all outside, I finally brought myself to stop crying. I sighed. “I vote,” I said, trying to lift everypony’s spirits, “That we split up and look for survivors.” Everypony agreed and we started searching. Within an hour, we had found Lyra and Bon Bon, Mr and Mrs Cake (As well as the twins), Berry Punch (Much to River’s dismay, for some reason), and Octavia. As we regrouped at the shelter, Fluttershy piped up.

“What about the animals? They must be so scared right now!”

“If not dead…” River sighed.

So, after a group agreement, we all headed towards Fluttershy’s cottage… and met with a large crater. Fluttershy, needless to say, broke down in tears. “The poor creatures!” She sobbed, “Why!? Tell me, Silent, Why!?” She was in uproar. Eventually she slowly calmed down, resting her head on my neck. “Why, Silent?” she whispered into my ear. I decided not to comment. I didn’t want to hurt her even more. I was, though, thinking the same as her. Why? Why do such an evil thing? Why cause so much suffering? I didn’t have to wonder for long, as the answer would be right in front of me.