The slight trickle of water was cool and refreshing.
The gentle bubbling of the slowly flowing stream scattered the suns rays in a bewildering display of flirtatious glints and delicate, dancing colour. A warm breeze sang softly in unison with the streams tender musings as it lapped timidly against the tree top’s rippling chime of leaves, while an eclectic choir of song birds sang harmoniously in their lament to the late afternoon and its decaying patron star.
A scene of harmony, resplendent in its pleasantry, Yet it brought no comfort.
He gazed down to the stream bank at which he lay, observing somberly as a thin trail of crimson lifeblood snaked its way wistfully to the water’s edge. It coalesced into a plump droplet before lazily tipping over and dripping into the waiting stream below. Striking the hungry waters beneath, the droplet split, delicate fronds of twisting crimson ribbon forming and dancing for but a moment within the stream's clarity before disappearing forever.
It wasn't a sense of panic, or fear that gripped him. But rather a simple and dignified sense of melancholy sadness. Such was the way of nature though. You spent your life taking from it, nourishing from its bounty. Until one day, when it was your time and your days were spent, it would claim back all it had given. It would take and remould you to become a part of it once more. It wasn't tragic, or unfair. It was just- sad.
But such was the way of nature.
With a heavy sigh, his gaze turned skyward as the sun slowly relinquished its grasp upon the sky, drifting toward the canopy to slip away for another night of reprieve.
He smiled softly to himself as the veil of darkness began to wrap the land in its pallid embrace.
Even the chill touch of night could bring comfort if it carried with it the faintest memory of home.
~~~~~~~
“Fluttershy! Where is he taking us?” Twilight Sparkle called out mid gallop, her breath strained under the exertion.
“Wherever it is, he sure is in a hurry to get there'’” Applejack added, galloping closely behind.
“I’m not sure,” Fluttershy called back, a hint of concern evident in her meek voice as she led the pack of galloping mares through the forest. “He didn't say anything when he came to get us.” She turned back ahead and focused her eyes on a blur of white fur bounding energetically ahead of them. “Angel! Where are we going? What’s the matter?”
Angel Bunny twitched his ear in response to his caretaker's voice. He thrust his heel hard into the dirt mid stride, deftly spinning himself around while sliding to an abrupt halt.
Fluttershy squeaked and straightened her legs, caught off guard by her pet's sudden stop. She rammed all four hooves into the ground, grinding to a desperate halt before colliding with the tiny bunny.
“whoa there’!”
“look out!”
Twilight and Applejack cried in unison as they failed to break their momentum, skidding into the back of Fluttershy and collecting her in a ball of flailing limbs and tangled hooves as they tumbled forward in a heap. A thick plume of dust dissipated around the three mares as they lay in a muddled stack. Standing just beyond their noses, Angel waited with his arms crossed, impatiently tapping a foot against the ground.
Her head still spinning, Twilight raised her chin to look up at the diminutive bunny.
“Angel, where the heck are you leading us?!” She demanded as her head bobbed in circles, finding difficulty in deducing which of the three white blurs dancing in her vision were real.
Angel sighed wearily and uncrossed his arms before clearing his expression and abruptly plonking himself down in the dirt. He pretended to recline back while nibbling happily on an imaginary piece of food.
AppleJack, Twilight and Fluttershy sat up, cocking their heads with raised brows as they watched Angel begin to mime out a charade of actions.
Angel suddenly hopped up from the dirt, flapping his arms frantically with an exasperated look scrawled across his tiny face. He quickly stepped to the side and spun around, squinting back at his previous position while leaning in and stroking his chin pensively. He dashed back across again and began flapping his arms once more, the look upon his face growing ever more desperate.
Twilight and Applejack craned their heads back slightly and kinked their eyebrows, unsure what to make of the display. Fluttershy meanwhile leaned forward, eyes opened wide and lips slightly rounded as she paid careful attention.
Angel spun in place and grabbed hold of one of his hind legs, limping sideways along the ground, dragging a debilitated limb behind him as his face contorted with feigned agony. He jumped up and bounced on the spot while pressing his arms together, wriggling them from side-to-side in a serpentine motion before breaking them apart and pointing excitedly ahead while staring back at the group expectantly, his chest huffing from the taxing performance.
“Uhhh…” Twilight and Applejack traded an uncertain sideways glance before spilling forth with a flurry of alternating interpretations.
“Yer’ goin' on vacation?”
“You’re interested in neoclassical sculpture?”
“Yer' leg fell asleep?”
"There's an interpretive dance class in the forest?"
“You wanna’ learn ta' fly?”
Angel slowed to a stop, his ears drooping, shoulders slumping and brow lowering in a sour deadpan expression. Turning to Fluttershy, he paused for a moment before raising both arms accusingly back toward Applejack and Twilight, scowling impatiently while tapping his foot again.
“You were relaxing at home with a fresh carrot when Hummingway came and told you that he found a critter with an injured leg by a stream in the forest?” Fluttershy blurted rapidly.
Angel rolled his eyes in Twilight's and Applejack’s direction before spinning around and taking off through the woods again.
Applejack and Twilight stared at Fluttershy for a moment.
“I…How did you get all of that?” Twilight winced skeptically.
Fluttershy blushed with a nervous grin and lowered her gaze, scratching delicately at the ground with a forehoof while mumbling timidly. “We... have an understanding…”
“Well then come on y’all, we got us a critter to save!” Applejack reared up and broke into a gallop after Angel.
“Right!” Twilight forcefully agreed, an exuberant grin growing across her face as she took off into Applejack's dust trail, Fluttershy following behind a moment later.
~~~~~~~
"Pssst! Twilight. Are we still sure this here's a good idea to be followin' behind a Jack Rabbit?" Applejack whispered, gesturing her eyes toward Angel at the head of the pack "the lil feller' seems a tad lost."
The group had slowed from a full pelt gallop to little more than a brisk walk as angel stopped between every six or seven bounds to scratch his head and glance around with worrying uncertainty.
"I'm not sure," Twilight responded pensively," But we can't leave that critter out here. And Angel is all we have to go on right now."
"Mmmhmm," Applejack agreed begrudgingly. "We oughta' be a might careful though. We're getting a tad closer to the Ever Free Forest than I'd like."
"And the Sun has started going down. We have to hurry" Twilight added dryly, scanning the shrubbery left and right.
Applejack gave a singular nod and turned back down the path they had come, "Come on, Fluttershy. We gotta' get a move on, sugar cube".
A good distance behind the group, Fluttershy scurried nervously along the path, her head slung low to the ground. Her back arched acutely into the air, her feathered wings folded tensely to her sides as her hooves scrunched together with every uneasy step she took. She gazed timidly left and right through glimmering eyes peeking out from behind the veil of her long, flowing pink mane.
"Oh... umm. Okay. Yes. Coming..."
Fluttershy hurried the pace of her nervous steps as she scrunched lower to the ground. She whimpered softly to herself, giving off a faint squeak as something rustled off in the distance.
'Oh my..Maybe we should turn back and go home where its safe.'
'But that cute little critter is still out there.'
'We're getting awfully close to the Everfree Forest though.'
'But I cant let him down. He needs me.'
Fluttershy argued quietly with herself, alternating between subtle flashes of confidence and cowardice with each passing thought as she neared her waiting friends.
"If we don't find our way soon, we may never find that critter once darkness sets in. It isn't safe out here at night" Twilight said, frowning.
"NO!" Came a forceful voice from behind "I won't let that happen".
Twilight turned to face Fluttershy, finding her standing tall with her wings unfurled and brow furrowed with a sudden determination. She Kicked off into the air and floated just above the ground with slow beats of her wings.
"You girls stay with Angel and keep looking down here. I'll fly ahead to see what I can find".
"But"-
Before Twilight, Applejack or even Angel had a chance to articulate any protest or query, Fluttershy shot up into the air leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
... neither of us speak Bunny..." Twilight mumbled the futile continuation of her sentence, worriedly narrowing her eyes as she turned to find Angel with his lip quivering, reaching up longingly after Fluttershy.
~~~~~~~
Fluttershy beat her wings hard, propelling her through the air in powerful strokes. Her eyes tracked back and forth across the Forest below, examining every clearing, shadow and gully as they raced beneath her. The chastising burden of fear hadn't left her; far from it. She could feel its finger drawing coldly along the back of her spine and festering within the pit of her stomach. From up here in the sky she was more exposed than ever, but she refused to be dissuaded. The thought of an innocent creature hurt, alone and afraid in the dead of night was more terrifying than anything the forest could possibly confront her with.
'I have to find him.'
Her eyes narrowed upon a break in the tree canopy ahead, a rift snaking its way through the continuous tapestry of leaves.
'The stream.'
Fluttershy dove downwards with uncharacteristic speed, dropping into a perilous nosedive toward the water's surface. A moment before impact she flared her feathers, drew her head back and thrashed her wings in a forceful stroke, correcting her trajectory upwards and leaving her hovering just above the stream with vigorous beats of her wings. A desperate anxiety flared within her stomach as she gazed up and down the identical lengths of the winding stream; the descending shadows of the trees slowly stretching their way to the opposing bank with the setting sun ever present within her mind.
"Which way..." Fluttershy gave an exasperated whisper as her head swiveled indecisively back and forth.
'Which way, which way' the thought reverberated mockingly throughout her mind again and again as precious time ticked away in indecision.
'I have to find him.'
Eyes closed and teeth grit, she made her decision and thrust herself upstream with a powerful stroke of her wings.
"Please..." she whispered softly to herself as she skimmed just above the water's surface, each beat of her wings leaving fleeting ripples in her wake.
"Please..."
Her eyes darted rapidly back and forth along each bank, searching for any movement, any sign of the missing creature, anything.
"Please..."
Her lip quivered as the suns leading edge dipped beneath the cover of the treeline in the corner of her eye. With every ounce of her being she willed herself to fly harder and faster, searching desperately while trying to outrun the impending darkness.
"Please.. Please.. Please..."
Her voice trembled softly as the orange glow of late afternoon began to wash away. Her heart growing heavy as the muscles in her wings burned and a tear welled in the bottom lip of her eye.
"Please... No.."
Her vision fixated on the highest edge of the sun as it relented to the demands of an insistent moon, slipping silently beneath the treeline, disappearing behind the canopy's veil of leaves.
"No! Not yet."
The strong, ordered beats of her wings grew frantic and disorganized as she darted from bank to bank, desperately scrutinizing the suns final rays for some kind of last minute discovery.
"No..."
She whimpered weakly, the last vestiges of light melting away to nothing. Her head dropped and her eyes slid shut, forcing the tear welled within her bottom lid down her cheek. Her flight slowed coming to a hover as the singular tear surrendered its grasp and fell to become one with the stream below. With a final few labored beats of her wings, she descended into a clearing on the nearby stream bank.
"I'm sorry..."
She knelt on the cool grass folding her legs beneath her body, the dark of night wrapping itself around her in an unwelcome embrace. She buried her face behind her pink mane, gentle sobs and sniffles escaping through its silken strands to echo emptily through the darkened clearing.
She hadn't found him...
"I'm so, sorry..."
"Hmm?"
Fluttershy's eyes shot open in response to a nearby sound. She raised her head and brushed the wayward strands of her mane from her face, searching the growing darkness for its source. She scanned back and forth across the shadowy murk, her pupils dilating as they attempted to piece together the scattered moonlight. Suddenly, on the other side of the clearing, just beside the stream, she was confronted by a bright set of eyes staring back; a luminous pair of green orbs glaring from beneath a dark cowl. For a moment they sat frozen, unwilling to move. Whether by fear, surprise, or predatory instinct, she couldn't be certain.
A scant few metres from where she lay, her eyes pieced together the obscure shadow of an indiscernible shape against the back drop of the moonlit stream. Each moment ticked past with excruciating clarity as both remained still, unwilling to concede an action to the other. Fluttershy curled into the grass beneath her, debating whether to kick into the air and hope her wings wouldn't seize up before she could fly cowering back to Ponyville or to bury her face in the grass and never move again. Too afraid to enact either however, neither plan came to fruition. Instead she remained entirely motionless, each moment feeling as an age while she was left in statuesque silence to envision what manner of nightmare claimed ownership of the unflinching eyes that tasted her from across the clearing.
In a hard fought compromise with her courage, Fluttershy dared to inch her muzzle forward, squinting her eyes harshly, trying to perceive detail from within the shadowed outline.
The Figure reacted to her twitch, pulling its head back as she offered hers forward. It turned to the side and shook out its neck, letting out a low rumble of a whicker, the glowing eyes she had perceived disappearing behind sliding lids. The figure heaved itself over, settling onto its opposing side and offering her its back as it stared out over the dimly lit stream.
Flutershy's brow shot upwards, a realization dawning upon her.
"H-hello...?" She stumbled uncertainly.
... No response came.
"Hello?" she murmured slightly louder, rising to her feet and venturing a half step step closer.
... Still she was afforded no response.
Fluttershy dropped her head low and folded her ears, unsure how to proceed. She cautiously took another sideways step, drawing closer. Detail began to emerge from the previously indiscernible shape as her eyes slowly adjusted to the light of the shimmering moon above. She could see the figure was large with a coat of dark fur. Over its back hung a badly tattered cloak of dusty green, a hood extending up to cover its head. It sat motionless save for the gentle rise and fall of each breath visible beneath the thick fabric of its veil as it remained fixated over the stream in the opposite direction of her approach.
Tentatively she drew closer, her eyes tracing along the dark green cloak until they hit a slick, wet patch above its hip. She stopped for a moment and gazed down at its flank to find a deep crimson gash running part way down its leg. Her head recoiled as she raised a hoof off the ground in reflex, "Oh my, are you alright?" The previous hesitation in her voice dissipating within an instant, giving way to genuine concern.
The figure reacted to the question, lowering its head slightly and raising its shoulders, its silence enduring all the while.
"Um.. I mean..excuse me? Are you hurt? Maybe I can help?" She continued through pursed rounded lips as she trotted lithely forward. She slowed as she neared, still having garnered neither response nor acknowledgement. She stopped within hoof's reach and waited quietly a moment.
"Hello?" she leaned her head around sideways attempting to see around the dusty green hood.
Suddenly the figure sprung upwards, spinning around and rearing up onto its hindquarters, violently flailing a treading pair of forehooves at her while screeching a menacing whinny.
Fluttershy yelped in surprise and collapsed backwards onto her side, a look of horror frozen across her face. Quickly twisting in the grass, she scrambled away before springing into the air and launching back the way she came into the night sky.
Silence fell back across the clearing as the figure descended back onto its forehooves, its rear leg giving way slightly as it quietly watched the yellow Pegasus fly away from beneath its cowl.
~~~~~~~
"Wait, so yer' tellin' me that it's a pony out there?" Applejack questioned as she pushed her way through a thicket of bushes.
"Yes, but-"
"And he's injured?" Twilight cut in while using her magic to simultaneously create a brilliant corona of lavender light from her horn while also clearing a path through a separate patch of undergrowth.
Fluttershy delicately tip-toed around each shrub and branch in her path as she followed in the wake of her friends, Angel riding on her back curled contently within her pink mane.
"Yes, but-"
"I thought you said it was a critter stuck out here" Applejack called, muscling her way out the other side of the thicket.
"Yes.. I did-"
"Heh! Maybe that understandin' you got goin' on between you and Angel could use just a tad more work" Applejack teased with a lighthearted grin.
"Well, he is a bunny..." Fluttershy reasoned, turning back to Angel who offered a blank expression and simple shrug while comfortably wrapped within her mane, "But that's beside the point-"
"You're right, Fluttershy, We need to find that pony and help him!" Twilight reared up and proclaimed heroically.
"But that's the thing!" Fluttershy exclaimed, "I don't think he wanted to be helped."
"Nonsense,"Twilight dismissed her assertion with a wave of her hoof, "You probably just startled him is all."
Fluttershy dropped her head and mumbled quietly. "Only one of us was startled, and it wasn't him..."
"Hey, quiet down you two," Applejack hushed as she crouched behind a bush ahead of the others, "I think I see somethin' up ahead."
Twilight and Fluttershy dropped low, creeping forward toward Applejack. An excited almost giddy grin quivered across Twilight's face as she swayed her head from side to side above their hiding place. Fluttershy followed suit, barely peeking her trembling eyes over the shrubbery. Ahead was a clearing by the side of the stream, a familiar shadow lingering by the waters edge.
Twilight squinted her eyes shut and stifled an exuberant giggle, melding her sentences like an excitable filly enjoying the thrill of sneaking around all too much. "Isn't this exciting! stalking through the forest, just like in a daring-do novel! I wish rainbow dash could be here, she'd love this! do you think he's seen us yet? I read a book on camouflage a while back. I could probably fashion something out of these leaves if need be, Applejack, hand me those twigs and your hat-"
Applejack looked across at Twilight and narrowed her eyes . She pursed her lips and blew a short whiff of air at Twilight's horn, disrupting the illumination spell dancing around its tip and causing the light to flicker before going out like a birthday candle. "Well that depends entirely on whether or not hes used to giggling street lights marchin' through the forest."
"Oh.. Right. Sorry" Twilight grinned broadly with a nervous titter.
"Aint nothin' for it now," Applejack Sighed, trouncing through the center of the bush and into the clearing, "Let's go."
Twilight reignited her illumination spell and followed after Applejack, waltzing into the clearing.
Fluttershy's eyes ballooned while recoiling back in panic. She hissed after her friends through grit teeth, "Waaait! Giiiirls"-
"Hello there! My name is Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends," Twilight chirped brightly while gesturing to each of her companions.
"Applejack,"-
"Howdy," Applejack tipped her hat.
"Aaaand Fluttershy"-
Fluttershy slipped her face out sideways from behind Twilight and gave a nervous, illegitimate grin.
The three looked back over to the shadow to find that it still hadn't flinched.
Undeterred, Twilight continued "My friend here tells me that you may be injured, and we're here to offer whatever assistance we can" she beamed while shutting her eyes, content in the chance to perform a good deed.
The air of silence lingered unbroken.
Twilight opened one of her eyes and scrounged up her face. Instead of receiving the thanks and praise she was expecting, it seemed she was instead being entirely ignored, a sensation to which she was neither accustomed nor did approve. Confused, she sat back on her haunches and turned to her friends. Fluttershy could only offer a similarly confused shrug though, while Applejack stared back at the figure, her brow furrowing with growing frustration.
"Well there ain't no reason to go an' be rude. If you don't need our help, just say so and we'll be on our merry way."
The figure audibly exhaled for a long second while dropping his gaze across the stream. He slowly rose to his hooves and turned to face the three waiting mares, his eyes resting shut as they pointed toward the ground from beneath his hood.
Bathed in Twilight's illuminating aura, they could see that he was a large stallion of robust build. His coat was of a medium pastel blue that blended with the surrounding shadows of the night. He slowly slid back his hood to reveal an untrimmed mane of ice blue intertwined with streaks of almost luminous white. His muzzle was long and squared off harshly at the end; but most prominent upon his face was a long since healed scar stretching down over his left eye, along with a missing portion of his left ear.
"Now that's more like it. So, hows about we-"
The figure cut off Applejack's sentence as he dropped down onto his forehooves, his head slung low in an aggressive stance. His eyelids shot open to reveal a pair of bright emerald green eyes staring through lids pressed firmly into tight, menacing slits. His face contorted into a venomous snarl as he blew a short sharp burst of air through flared nostrils and a low rumble of a growl reverberated from deep within his chest.
Applejack's head briefly shot back in surprise before her brow furrowed, dropping low on her forehooves to match his posture. "Get behind me, Girls" she shot calmly.
Fluttershy instinctively recoiled backwards, rising into the air with hooves raised up in defence. She glanced back down through her hooves at Applejack and the shadowy stranger staring each other down. She dashed behind Applejack and grabbed hold of her tail with both hooves, speaking without breaks between each word as she desperately tried to yank Applejack back the way they came. "Heh, that's okay, hes fine, he looks fine, doesn't he? I'm sure hes fine, we should be on our way,he obviously doesn't need our help, sorry to have bothered you, have a nice night, lets go!" she sputtered between hyperventilations as she tugged against Applejack.
Caught off guard as the situation rapidly escalated out of her control, Twilight sat dumbfounded, her head swiveling back and forth trying to rationalize the situation. Suddenly, her discerning eye struck upon something. Despite his obvious intentions to mask it, the stallions rear left leg trembled subtly beneath his weight. She traced her eyes up his leg to his flank to find what must have been the gash Fluttershy described. The wound didn't appear fresh, yet it was still weeping fluids. It looked as if it had scabbed over and split several times, never having been given adequate time or treatment to heal.
"Enough!" Twilight charged her horn and disappeared in a purple flash of magical energy, stomping her hoof authoritatively into the grass as she re-materialized between the two. "We Aren't here to hurt you. You might not want our help, but you need it" she stated matter-of-factly. "If that wound isn't tended to soon its going to become infected and only get worse. You could lose your entire leg, or worse if you stay out here."
The stallion remained still but his expression softened as his eyes subconsciously darted back toward his hind leg, the suppressed burning heat and throbbing pain emanating from his wound growing evident within his mind.
Twilight's gaze and tone eased "We're from a small town named Ponyville not far from here. We could take you back there and get you the treatment you need. Then you can be on your way again. Either way, I'm not leaving you out here alone in this condition."
"um.. Twilight.." came a whisper from behind.
Twilight looked back to regard Applejack and Fluttershy approaching her. Twilight quickly turned back to the stallion, "Ummm.. just one moment please" she smiled pleasantly before turning around to face her friends. "What is it?" she hissed.
The stallion relaxed his posture slightly and raised back upright, brow raised as he watched the three mares whisper back and forth.
"Twi, are you sure about this? This feller' doesn't strike me as the friendly sort. Not sure its a good idea to be leadin' him back to town" Applejack cautioned, Fluttershy nodding her head sheepishly in agreement as Angel emerged from her mane to do the same.
"I know," Twilight glanced back over her shoulder at the waiting stallion "but we cant just leave him out here. I've studied enough about medicine to tell when a wound is infected and he obviously doesn't know enough about first aid to take care of it himself. He needs treatment and and a place to recover, neither of which hell get if we leave him here."
"Isn't there some way we could help him without showing him where we live?" Fluttershy quivered.
Twilight shook her head "there's no time, he needs us, girls. What kind of ponies would we be if we left him out here? What kind of ponies would we be if we had a chance to help, but walked away? What if something terrible happened to him?"
"But he's-" Applejack started argumentatively before stopping herself and exhaling heavily. "You're right. A Pony in need is a Pony in need... no matter how rude or ill tempered they may be..." she grumbled, pulling off her hat and dusting it idly.
Twilight turned to Fluttershy and waited for her response. She vigorously glanced back and forth between Applejack and Twilight before looking back to Angel as he popped out from within her mane, forcefully shaking his head 'no' at her. She exhaled and dropped her head while closing her eyes in concession. "He needs us..."
"Excellent!" Twilight beamed as she turned back to face the stallion, an utterly blank expression across his face as he watched them from above his upturned snout "So, shall you be accompanying us? or am I going to have to set up camp?"
The stallion lingered for a moment, as uniformly silent as ever before slowly turning his head to look out over the moon-lit stream once more. He sighed and closed his eyes, raising his head proudly before turning back to the three mares. He raised a hoof off the ground and marched forward as he slowly began to make his way toward them.
"Well alright then, follow me and we'll be home in no time," Applejack turned, groaning unenthusiastically, "Wouldn't want no pony gettin lost..."
The Stallion followed after Applejack, passing by Fluttershy and Twilight as they waited. He turned his head, opening his eyes for only a moment to stare quizzically down his muzzle at Fluttershy. Angel immediately burst from her mane, bounced onto her head and leaned forward, pointing two fingers at his own eyes before thrusting them accusingly back at the stallion.
Fluttershy recoiled her head into her shoulders and forcibly buried Angel back into her mane, giving an anxious laugh as the stallion continued by.
Twilight pressed a hoof reassuringly against Fluttershy's back before setting off after the Stallion and Applejack. "Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine."
Angel fought his way back out through Fluttershy's mane, curling backwards and inhaling a huge breath of air before expelling it in as forceful a raspberry as his meager frame would allow.
Fluttershy attempted to force a smile from herself, culminating into something more akin to a pained grimace.
"Yes... me too.. I'm, sure everything will be fine.."
