The Village

Twilight and Rainbow Dash came across a sign on the forest path. Made with aged oak, it was littered with scratches, most of them scratching out the words carved into it. Where it looked like it had once said Welcome to, the only word still clear now was the name: PONYVILLE.

“Gee, seems charming enough,” Dash said.

“Keep your weapon by your side,” Twilight cautioned. “We don’t know what to expect from this town’s inhabitants.”

As they continued past the sign, Dash turned to Twilight. “Are there a lot of settlements like this around?”

“Not many, no. Most of the remaining unicorns and earth ponies took refuge behind the Crystal Kingdom’s magic barrier. Those trapped south of the mountains have not fared so well. Of the settlements I’ve seen, most number ten or fewer.”

“How many have you come across since travelling south of the mountains?” Dash asked, peering at Twilight.

“Enough to have learned that staying in one for long is almost never a good idea,” Twilight answered. “Ponies band together to survive. Their settlement attracts the darken. Those who survive look for a new home.”

“So they come and go, like a cycle?” Dash stared at her hooves, a frown marring her lips. “How long usually before… you know?”

“Not long.”

The trail lead them out of the forest to an open field with wheat grass shimmering silver under. Up a hill ahead lay a farmhouse. The grey of aged wood bled through its original chipped and faded coat of red and white painted on years ago.

Twilight led as they made their way through the wheat fields to the farmhouse. They stopped on the dirt flat outside, tensed and glancing around. A pair of pitchforks sat on an empty hay cart by the house door. There wasn’t a candlelight to be seen, nor any sound from within to be heard.

Dash’s stance relaxed. “It looks abandoned. Should we poke around inside?”

Twilight nodded. “See if you can find yourself some food. It looks like this farm was abandoned recently.” As they walked inside, she glanced at the tools lying out in the open air. “In a hurry as well. They probably left behind some provisions they couldn’t take.”

“I guess we should make sure it doesn’t go to waste,” Dash said with a cheeky grin.

Inside the farmhouse it was pitch black. Spotting a candle on a nearby table, Twilight lit it with a spell. They stood in a kitchen, the candle on the dining table. All around them cupboards lined the walls and filled the space beneath the counters.

Dash dove right into the cupboards. “I wonder if they have any jarred fruit, maybe some fruit leather—ooh, what if they have jams!” She let out a giddy chuckle, licking her lips as she flipped through empty cupboard after empty cupboard.

While Rainbow dug around for food, Twilight examined the room. Beside the candle were a pair of books. One looked like a fantasy book belonging to a young foal, while the other seemed to be about cooking recipes. The fantasy book lay face down, saving what page the reader was on, yet its spine appeared to be unbroken.

“Twilight, behind you!” Dash shouted.

Twilight’s ears stood on end, her spine stiffening. She barely spun around in time to have the wind kicked out of her, a hoof planting itself firmly in her side. Her eyes winced shut. The blow sent her reeling and she fell against the table, banging her head against its surface on her way down to the floor where she crumpled.

She opened her eyes. The light hurt and the room swam in a dizzying manner. Her assailant stood overtop of her, pointing something long and sharp at her neck.

“What in tarnation do y’all think you’re doing rummaging through our cupboards?”

Twilight’s vision came back into focus. A pitchfork. It was a pitchfork that pointed at her neck. The room swam less. She glanced over to see Rainbow Dash being held against the floor by a massive red stallion. The room swam less. The pony who had her pinned was a mare, Twilight realized. One with an orange coat and a cowpony hat.

“Don’t even think about usin’ your magic here, missy. That horn so much as glows and you’re gonna find yourself with a new hole to breathe through.” The mare inched her pitchfork towards Twilight’s neck. “Now, I believe I asked the two of you a question.”

“We were looking for food,” Dash managed to chew out, her face being pressed into the floor by the stallion. “We didn’t think anypony was here!”

“Is that so?”

“I swear!” Dash said as the stallion pushed her face into the floor harder.

“You think she’s lyin’?” the mare asked, never taking her eyes off Twilight.

The stallion snorted. “Eeyup.”

“See, I can never tell whether a pegasus is lyin’ or not. They got coward’s blood runnin’ through their veins. Makes them natural born liars.” The mare lifted Twilight’s chin with the tip of her pitchfork, its point scraping Twilight’s throat. “Now what would make a unicorn such as yourself want to keep such company?”

Twilight glared defiantly, her lips sealed shut. She glanced down at the weapon pointed at her neck. Between the prongs of the pitchfork was room enough for her head. It would keep the farm mare from killing her briefly—but briefly was all she needed.

“She’s just trying to help me find my friends!” Rainbow Dash shouted. The stallion holding her pushed down harder. Dash let out a cry of pain.

The mare on top of Twilight looked over at Rainbow. “Now what did I tell you about lyin—”

Twilight interrupted, making her move. She forced her head forward in between the prongs of the pitchfork, escaping the pointed ends. The mare’s eyes widened in alarm as she tried to pull the pitchfork back, but it was too late. Twilight’s horn lit and a great flash of fire burst from it.

The mare dropped her pitchfork, bringing her hooves up to shield her eyes. In trying to distance herself from the flame, she fell over, back away from Twilight.

Twilight sprang to her hooves, pointing her glowing horn at the fallen mare. Her gaze snapped to the stallion. “Release her or your friend will burn.”

The stallion removed his hooves from Rainbow Dash at once, his eyes wide. Dash kneeled on her side, coughing and wheezing at finally being able to breathe again.

The stallion moved away slowly, backing up until his rear bumped into the counter. He trembled, frightened as a mouse. “P-please don’t hurt her!”

Twilight looked back to the mare on the floor. She glared back with the same defiance Twilight had not moments ago, only her eyes were filled with hate.

The glow surrounding Twilight’s horn faded. She scoffed. “Let’s go, Rainbow Dash.”

The farm mare’s defiant glare vanished. She blinked, looking between Rainbow and Twilight in clear confusion.

“Hold on,” Dash wheezed, one of her forehooves pressed against her chest. She turned to the mare that assaulted Twilight. “Have you heard of any pegasi passing by here? I’m looking for a mare and a stallion wearing armor just like mine.”

The mare took off her hat, revealing a short, tousled blond mane. She beat the dust out of it before putting it back on with a thin-lipped frown. “Afraid we haven’t seen any pegasi besides you in years. The last we saw was when a group of them raided the place that used to be our home.”

The stallion cast his eyes towards the ground as his companion spoke.

“This was our first surface trip to the ground as a squad.” Dash stood, wobbling slightly. “We got split up a little over a cycle ago in the forest southeast of this village when a manticore attacked us.”

The mare turned away from Dash, her lips sealed tightly shut.

“Please,” Dash said, trying again. “I’m just trying to find my friends.”

“So what?” the mare snapped. “Doesn’t it occur to you I might lie about seeing them, that I might lead you off someplace astray? I’ve shown nothin’ but a fond dislike of you and your kind—we attacked the two of you for cryin’ out loud!”

“Yeah, you could just make something up. Lead me on a wild goose chase.” Rainbow Dash huffed. “But I still have to ask. If I don’t, I might never find them.”

The mare scoffed, folding her hooves in front of her chest. “You’re too darned honest for your own good, you know. That kind of honesty can get you killed here, maybe even worse.” She chewed her lip, looking between Dash and Twilight. After a moment spent examining them, she stood. “I’m Applejack,” she said, finally. “This over here is my brother, Big Mac. I don’t know where your friends are, but I know of somepony who might.”

Dash let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“Can’t believe I’m helpin’ a pegasus,” Applejack mumbled. “Before you said you came in here lookin’ for food, right?”

“Well, yeah, but I couldn’t ask—”

“If you’re about to refuse the offer, I might just take you up on it,” Applejack interrupted. “It’d do you well to keep your mouth shut when gettin’ help, seeing as I’m sorely tempted not to give it.”

Applejack walked over to the cupboards beside Dash. Reaching inside one, she moved a board aside, revealing a hidden compartment. “But if I went and did that, I suppose then I’d be no different than the pegasi cowerin’ up in their clouds.”

She pulled her head out of the cupboard, handing Dash a package wrapped with parchment and twine. After, she dove back in retrieved a second parchment package and then two jars. “Fruit leather, dried stale bread, apple jam, and apple sauce.”

Dash stared at the package in her hooves, then at the package and two jars sitting on the counter. She wiped a spot of drool from her chin, blushing. “Sorry, we don’t get much fruit up in Cloudsdale.”

“The bread is dense,” Applejack said. “If you ration it well between the two of you, could last the pair of you a week, maybe two. That’s all we can spare.”

“I’ll try not to eat it all right away,” Dash said, grinning. “But no promises.”

Applejack smirked for a second before quickly correcting her mouth back to a scowl. Shoving past Dash, she walked towards the door. “Come on, I’ll show the two of you the way to Pinkie’s place.” She paused to look over her shoulder at Big Mac. “Help Applebloom out of her hiding spot while I’m out. Let her know the danger’s gone and I’m just makin’ a round trip out to town.”

Big Mac nodded. “Stay safe.”

“I reckon if either of these two wanted to do me harm, the horned one over here would have already,” Applejack said. “But I will.”

Twilight and Rainbow followed her abreast, out of the farmhouse and into the open night air. They were lead down a winding, overgrown trail opposite the side they came up. The wheat fields on either side of the trail were silent as the grave, their white ghostly stalks absent of insects or any other life. The sea of them leaned and rippled under the hollow wind.

The night seemed even more frigid here, out away from the forest’s shelter. It was hard to tell whether it truly was, or whether it was just the emptiness of the sky above, the exposure to the dark above.

It wasn’t until they reached the bottom and the trail flattened out that they began to see houses. Their rooftops were what they saw first. Thatching, pale and white as the fields around them, sat atop the homes. As they drew closer still, it became apparent most of the houses had been long since abandoned. Many lay in near ruins—even more in rubbled heaps.

“Applejack!” a mare shouted, walking over towards them. “What brings you into town in the middle of the night?”

Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Not quite sure what you mean, Mayor Mare.”

“Why, it should be sunrise any moment. You should go home and get some rest. Start early in the morning.” Mayor Mare paused, taking notice of the two accompanying Applejack. “These two aren’t from around here—I should know, I am the mayor after all.”

“No, ma’am, they’re not,” Applejack said, gritting her teeth.

“Are they tourists?”

Applejack sighed. She put on a fake smile. “Why yes, ma’am, yes they are. I was just showing them around our lovely, quaint little town.” She cleared her throat. “If you could kindly let us get back to it, Ms. Mayor? I’m sure somepony of your position has a lot to do.”

“Why yes. Yes yes yes.” The Mayor Mare fidgeted. She turned and walked away, muttering loudly. “Always so much to do. So much. Paper work, ceremonies, yes yes. Much to do.”

The three of them watched her go until she had walked far out of earshot.

Dash was the first to speak, once they had started walking again. “Uh, is there something wrong with her? Maybe a bit?”

Applejack gave her a confused look. “Whaddya mean?”

“I mean she seems a bit unstable, maybe even insane.”

“Well, we’ve all got our peculiarities. Some folk more than others. Then again you may be right; anypony who talks about the sun’s existence like that has got to have lost more than a fair share of their sanity. But then as I said before: we’ve all got our peculiarities.”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Yeah, well, I don’t think I have any peculiarities in the same way she does.”

“Why sure you do,” Applejack said, nodding her head. “You got wings, dontcha? That’s a mighty big peculiarity in and of its own self.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash refolded her wings. “How is that in any way the same thing?”

“I meet a whole lot more folk with peculiarities like hers than I meet with wings like yours. I’d say that makes them a mighty peculiar thing indeed.” Applejack glanced at Twilight. “Your friend don’t talk much, do she?”

Twilight’s ear flicked at her name being brought up, but she otherwise made no motion in response to being talked about.

Applejack wrinkled her nose. “Last time she spoke, she threatened to have me all burnt up.”

“That’s not true. The last words I spoke were, ‘Let’s go, Rainbow Dash,’” Twilight said.

Applejack gave her a deadpanned look. “Seems like she’d be a real bundle of fun on the road, too.”

“Eh, you get used to it,” Dash said, smiling. “She talks a bit more when other ponies aren’t around.”

Applejack shook her head. “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

The more they walked, the more deserted Ponyville seemed. One house they passed had a filly and her mother. The pair of them stared as Twilight and Rainbow walked by, the mother clutching her child closely. Their manes were dirty and haggard, their eyes wide and bloodshot, surrounded by the dark circles of many sleepless nights.

Dash shivered, tearing her eyes away from their gaze. “So where are we headed, anyway?”

“Pinkie Pie’s house. She can take the two of you to the White Witch. She’s the only pony in Ponyville who knows exactly how to get there.”

“White Witch?”

“She’s a shamanic zebra livin’ out in the Everfree forest—the most unsettlin’ of all the forests surroundin’ Ponyville. I hear noises comin’ out of that forest I don’t ever want to know the cause of. It’s a darkened place full of wrath, I tell you. The trees themselves are alive, inhabited by the ghosts of the lost and tortured.” A visible shudder ran through Applejack entire body. “I don’t want nothin’ to do with nopony who calls that place home.”

Dash trotted up to Applejack, walking shoulder to shoulder, and leaned in close to her face. “But you think she might have seen my friends?”

“No, but she may have some way of findin’ them. If you’re truly desperate to find your friends, well, she’s the sort of answer a desperate pony might turn to.”

“Well, it’s not like she’s going to turn me into a newt or anything, right?” Dash said, chuckling.

Without turning around, Applejack gave a half shrug, her eyes staying on the road ahead.

“Hey, wait, you don’t think she’ll actually—”

“We’re here,” Applejack announced, interrupting. They stood before a house as large as any of the two around it put end-to-end. A chipped wooden sign hung from a post, spinning lazily on one chain as the other was broken. Etched onto the sign was a loaf of bread.

Dash stared quizzically at the sign. “A bakery?”

Applejack nodded. “According to Pinkie, bakin’s not so entirely different from brewin’ potions. She visits the White Witch for help with her recipes.” She leaned in close, whispering in Dash’s ear, “I wouldn’t eat anything here, either, if I was you.” She ran her hoof across her throat, making a croaking noise. “You know, just to be on the safe side.”

Dash unconsciously shuffled away from her. “Uh, right. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Contented by Dash’s answer, Applejack approached the door of the bakery. She stood on its steps and knocked. “Pinkie? It’s Applejack.”

“Just a minute!” came a shout in reply. There was some shuffling around, what sounded like pots and pans. The sound of hoofsteps approached the door, then a mare opened it. Her mane was pink and curled and knotted, a rat’s nest sticking out from under her purple shawl. She greeted the three of them with a lip-splitting smile, smelling of things Twilight wasn’t sure she had ever smelled before. Like a pungent sour-smelling smoke.

“Oh, hey! New friends!” the mare said, shaking Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s hooves vigorously. “I’ve never seen you before, which means you must be new, because I know everyone in Ponyville!”

“So do I, Pinkie. There’s only a wagonful of us,” Applejack muttered. “Look, this winged one here’s lookin to see the White Witch. She’s searchin’ for a friend.”

Pinkie snorted and giggled, covering her muzzle. “Well of course she is! If anypony knows where somepony is, that anypony is the White Witch.” She reached inside her bag. “Cookie?” she offered Dash.

“Uh…” Dash shook her head. “No thanks.”

“Well, suit yourself.” Pinkie tossed the cookie on the ground to their side. “Anyways, come on in. It wouldn’t do if you all stood outside and caught gaptrout because of me.” She turned and walked inside, leaving them an invitation to follow.

Dash turned to Applejack. “Gaptrout?”

Applejack shook her head. “Ain’t the foggiest.” She tipped the front of her hat down. “Well, I best be gettin’ back to the farm. Y’all don’t go dark out there.”

“Wait, that’s it?” Dash said.

“It’s outta my hooves from here,” Applejack replied, then turned and left, eventually being swallowed by the night from whence they came.

“I guess we go in,” Twilight said, stepping inside the bakery.

Dash made to follow, but a flap of wings gave her pause. A crow had landed by the discarded cookie. It pecked it into crumbs with its beak, picking up the crumbs and swallowing them. Not a moment after it swallowed a second beak-ful, it began wheezing. Flapping its wings, a series of panicked caws escaped from it.

Dash approached it cautiously, her hoof extended out towards it.

Just as her hoof was about to touch it, the crow exploded in a plume of green smoke and fire.

Dash leaped back, her eyes wide. As the smoke dispersed upward, a large, fat lizard stood where the crow had been, looking alarmed and confused. In its state of panic, it turned and ran, disappearing into the forest and distancing itself as far as possible from the scene of its transformation.

Dash blinked. She looked around, hoping to see if anypony else had seen the same thing, but Twilight had already gone inside.

Heading inside, she swallowed the newly formed lump in her throat.

Dash found her way to the kitchen, where Pinkie and Twilight were both silently waiting for her--or at least mostly silently on Pinkie’s part. She hummed an uppity tune while prancing across the kitchen to a massive black wood stove, a pair of oven mitts on her front hooves.

She opened the stove and pulled out a tray of cookies, much like the one she had offered Dash. She inhaled deeply their scent. Her lips pursed and nose wrinkled up as she stared at them.

“Wait, if these are…” Pinkie muttered. She turned to Dash, rubbing the back of her head. “Woops. I guess it’s a good thing you weren’t feeling peckish earlier.”

She slid the cookies off the tray onto a plate and placed the plate on the kitchen table next to where Twilight stood.

Twilight shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”

“Suit yourself,” Pinkie Pie said with a shrug. She picked one of the cookies off the plate and ate it in one large bite, licking her lips afterwards.

“So,” she said, turning to Dash. “How did you and your friend get separated?”

“Actually there were two friends. The three of us got attacked by a darkened manticore, but my wing was injured so I couldn’t fly away. Soarin’ and Spitfire stayed to help me, but I don’t remember really what happened after that.” Dash picked up a cookie and gave it a test nibble. She took a seat and stared at it, turning it in her hooves.

“The manticore swiped at me. I think I remember diving into a cave or between some rocks or something to avoid it. I must have hit my head because everything went black after that and when I woke up there was dried blood on my forehead. That was about a cycle ago.”

Dash something something. “After we got separated they probably just flew away. I know they must have come back looking for my body. When they didn’t find it, they probably started looking for me.”

Turning to Twilight, Pinkie giggled. “Her optimism sure is refreshing, isn’t it?”

Dash’s brow furrowed. “Spitfire and Soarin are the strongest, fastest Wonderbolts in Cloudsdale. They can handle themselves.”

Pinkie Pie stifled her laughter and gave Dash a warm smile. “Glad to hear that.” She walked over to the table and slid the plate of cookies into a tin container. “Right now seems like the perfect hour to take a stroll through the forest, doesn’t it?”