A Clump Of Stumps

It was sheer luck that Cherry avoided the changeling invasion of Ponyville.

It all started when she and Cherry Fizzy, her coltfriend, purchased a love seat from Quills and Sofas. They'd entered the drawing for a romantic getaway, gaining an extra entry for each hundred bits of the price. A week later, they received a voucher for a round trip by train, three nights at the most prestigious resort hotel in Canterlot, and a dozen meal tickets.

Their bags were packed within the hour.

Cherry Berry had been to Canterlot before. As a balloonist, she knew the best repair shops for star-spider silk envelopes were the Canterlot air docks of Fancy Shipping, Inc.

But this was different. She wasn't here on business, but as a tourist, with the stallion of her dreams. She luxuriated in the warm afternoon sun, clip-clopping down the Canterway with her neck resting against his.

"And the best part," said Fizz, " is there aren't any crises."

She nodded, dreamily.

The hotel had a view of the Royal Palace and the Balcony of Dawn. A wake-up call in the still darkness was part of their package, along with breakfast in the observation lounge. Safe and snugly warm behind Crystal glass, they ate fruit bowls while awaiting the sunrise.

Across the way, Luna, Princess of the night, stepped out onto the balcony and, gracefully bowing her head to the west, lowered the moon. Cherry and Fizz joined in the polite applause. Cherry remembered her from the night that almost lasted forever. And the spiders. Oh, the spiders. She shivered.

Then came forth Her Majesty Celestia. Lighting her horn and unfolding her wings, she raised her head from the floor to the sky. Her wings lifted, as if she were raising the sun on their thin, broad shoulders.

This time, the applause was thunderous.

As the noise of hooves died down, an older unicorn stallion with a telescope cutie mark and a tweed jacket said, "Be sure to come back tonight. After moonrise, we should have a wonderful view of the comet."

The day was spent looking at historical sites and eating away from the hotel. There was a book signing by Twilight Velvet, editor of the popular Daring Do series and a bestselling author in her own right. There was a harp / harpsichord / harmonica trio on the Plaza which was far more melodious than it appeared. There was an artistic kaleidoscope exhibition in a little shop down a narrow, curvy alleyway overgrown with ivy.

It was a truly wonderful day.

It was a truly terrifying night.

With the promised comet came an unexpected flock of giant cockatrice. There was running and screaming. There was flapping and cawing.

Cherry Berry felt almost at home, as strange as that sounded. She knew her lot in life was to see good things fall apart. In the art of far Neighpon, Cherry blossoms signaled death and endings. Why should her time on this planet be any different?

The observation lounge had become a statuary hall in an instant, and the lithovoric beast had started pecking at the glass immediately. The hotel, with its classic marble parapets and rotunda, was a prime target.

So, they escaped into the city. Buildings were not safe, but running with heads down was. Fizz pulled her down the alleyway they'd been at earlier in the day.

It turns out a cockatrice's petrifying gaze seen through a kaleidoscope was as dangerous as the unfiltered thing.

Cherry came to with a gasp. Her head felt groggy.  She looked around. A team of firefighters was pouring golden potions on the statues around her.

"Miss, are you all right?"

She turned back to the firefighter who stood beside her. "I guess so," she said, rubbing her head with her forehoof. "I was with somepony last night, his name is Cherry Fizzy. Is he still here?"

On the ground lay several statues which appeared to have been knocked over. It was a sickening realization to see chips and cracks where they had fallen.

There was a stallion's hoof, stone, broken off at the pastern. Was it his? She bitterly walked over to it, and picked it up in her forehooves. It could be his. In grey, it could be anypony's.

She gave it with reverent silence to the nearest firefighter. The minutes stretched into hours as she wandered the neighborhood, looking for him. He wasn't in the alley, or the nearest streets.

Out at Celestia's Academy, the grad students were using their applied knowledge to help. She morbidly stuck with one crew who was piecing together the shattered and cracked unfortunates of Canterlot.

"That's all there is," announced Bright Spark mournfully. The statue the team had reconstructed was of a mare, running away with a visage of sheer terror on her face. Her hind left ended at the lower thigh with a giant bite mark.

"If we don't potion her soon, the venom will have her stone forever," said Night Shine, hovering bandages near. "Be ready."

Fizz found Cherry hugging and comforting the broken mare an hour later.

Her name was Henrietta Farmington, a chicken herder from Mustangia. She'd won her trip from a radio contest by identifying an advertising jingle from a half-second snippet. Her hotel was not in the nicer part of town, and it was totally demolished.

"You could stay the night with us," offered Cherry, after the trauma nurse had declared her fit for immediate release.

Late that night, Cherry woke to the sounds of whimpered sobbing.

Henny was laying on the guest bed, delicately poking at her stump with a forehoof.

Cherry yawned, and climbed up beside her. They had cried so much in the afternoon that their eyes hurt. Now, there was a weird sort of quiet calm about everything.

"There wasn't any blood," said Henny, "just flesh as solid and sound as if I'd been born this way." Her hoof traced the concave shape of the bite.

Cherry slipped her own hoof over her guest's. "You're stronger than you know, Henny," she said.

"But what stallion would take me now? I won't even be able to trot after chickens, much less gallop!"

Maybe it was the crying they'd shared, or maybe it was the joy of being alive and not in pain, but Cherry felt freer in that moment than she ever had before. "Chin up," she said, and kissed her on the cheek.

Maybe it was the startled gasp that Henny breathed, or the look of surprise on her face.  "Some ponies will see a piece missing," Cherry murmured, and kissed her below the ear. "Some ponies will see what isn't."

She kissed her neck. What was she doing?!? "Some ponies will see the trauma you suffered, and they'll have pity."

With a gentle hoof, she rolled Henny onto her back and kissed the center of her ribcage. Henny let her, a puzzled expression on her face. "Some will see a mare who lived." She kissed her in the same spot. "Some will see a survivor." She closed her eyes and ran her nose down Henny's barrel to the cutie mark that was cut in half by the bite.

Henny breathed softly.

Cherry was screaming at herself inside. What was this? Why was she doing this?

With eyes still closed, she kissed the concave edges of the stump. Gentle pecks, swift and barely weighing anything.

She could feel Henny trembling beneath her lips. She rested her head directly on the stump, and sighed. "You are made to be loved, no matter what happens to you in this world. Three legs or four, you matter."

Henny patted her on the head. Neither of them said a word.

When morning found them cuddled together, it also found Fizz scratching his head at the sight.

They promised to write each other. Cherry and Fizz sold their remaining meal tickets in exchange for an appointment for Henny with a top prosthetist, and headed back to Ponyville early.

They looked at the love seat in silence, and the drying green slime surrounding the husk of a changeling pod. They looked at the broken windows and the photo album sucked clean and blank of loving memories of their first date, their second date, and the events they'd attended as a couple.

"That's the last contest we enter," remarked Fizz.

"Could have been worse," said Cherry, "we could have been stuck here in the invasion with one of a dozen consolation prizes."

Fizz picked through the overturned kitchen, and lifted a broken appliance from the mess. "Looks like we could use a new toaster anyway."