Ponyville
Pop. 1,286
All races welcome
Wanted: Residents, Dead or Alive
Looking at the sign, things could hardly be more perfect. The world had gone to blazes, with everypony fighting everypony for just about anything, and to find somewhere a pony could get a decent night’s rest without getting a knife in their back was nothing short of a dream come true. Even so, here it was. A quaint little town nestled in a valley of the Canterlot Mountains, where it was told that the sign wasn’t a lie; anypony could come and settle in, and the only thing the residents cared about were whether you could work for a living. It was regularly said in other parts of Equestria, “In Ponyville, you leave your problems at the border and have a drink with friend and foe alike.”
For a little yellow pegasus standing beside the sign at the head of the valley, it sounded like the perfect place.
Among the Fae, Fluttershy wasn’t exactly normal. Most of them would settle down in a little glade or a favorite tree or what have you and live out the next few thousand years without really leaving except for special occasions. A smaller but still significant number had sought out a secluded forest and set up their own little kingdom, well away from the prying eyes of mortals. Either way, they found their home and did their best to stay there. For one to be out of her first few centuries and still wandering was nearly unheard of. They did their best to avoid mortals, and for the most part mortals tried to ignore them as much as they could. If one was out on the roads looking for a new domain, they were either young and still getting settled or they had done something bad enough to get them cast out of their previous home with torches and pitchforks. It wasn’t a bad assumption to make most of the time, but with every rule there are exceptions. In this case, the exception was timid, yellow, and honestly unable to find somewhere to live no matter how far she traveled.
Seeing as the sun was still high in the sky, Fluttershy made her way down into the town without any particular hurry, mostly walking but occasionally fluttering up into the trees whenever something caught her eye. Saying faeries like plants was rather like saying fish prefer water, and the vibrant colors of the valley were unlike anything the pegasus had ever come across before. She had seen trees with leaves of all the colors of the rainbow, one time all at once, and yet the lands surrounding Ponyville were painted with colors so pure and essentially right that she couldn’t help but stop and wonder at it, as well as her luck at finding somewhere a dozen of her kind had already taken over. Even as she got into the outskirts of the town proper, the quality of the world around her didn’t drop at all. The houses were brightly painted and cheery, and the roads were impeccably well-paved and lined with decorative flower boxes.
If possible, Fluttershy had always liked flowers even more than trees, and she happily trotted up to one at the edge of the street, seemingly without a care in the world. She bent down to admire them, and within a second or two the plants responded to her energy and perked up to meet her. It was hardly a rare effect within faerie circles, but most others didn’t know that they had such a pure emotional link to the land. For the most part only some fae had that level of connection without the mental discipline to control it, and Fluttershy usually kept her emotions under control. There were lots of wonderfully arcane reasons others would bring up to explain their race-wide inscrutability, but it really boiled down to emotional control. Happy fae were one thing, but anger or scare one that didn’t have total control over their responses and things were liable to go wrong quickly.
For her part, Fluttershy was reasonably good at keeping a lid on things. She stayed quiet, tended to not approach others, did her best to never disagree with others, all the things she had been taught growing up to distance herself from others. One bad spurt of grief for a lost friend and she could quite possibly ruin a forest for centuries to come. Even the forest around the old castle had been a relatively nice place before a beloved faerie queen died and her kingdom fell into mourning, taking the land with it. Of course, like anypony else her relative age, the pegasus was prone to emotional outbursts and occasional frothing rage when she had a really bad week, but she did her absolute best to keep it in, and for the most part it worked.
“Hey, haven’t seen you ‘round here before, have I?”
Fluttershy was suddenly shocked out of her reverie by a loud, somewhat rough voice just behind her. She immediately went into fight-or-flight mode, and the harmless flowers suddenly turned several shades darker and a few sprouted thorns. She reeled it back in quickly, but not so quickly as to not get a raised eyebrow from the orange mare that had startled her in the first place.
“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to step back away from the flowers, if’n you’d please.” The mare in question was an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and tail, and a weatherbeaten brown stetson riding on her head. Her eyes were a piercing green, and a stab of intuition told her lying to her would be futile. She looked about the same size as the dryad, and nothing in her posture suggested violence. In fact, for the most part, she looked like a reasonably normal, hard-working farmer. However, Fluttershy’s eyes skipped over most of that in favor of the large black sword strapped to her middle. Things were starting to get bad already, it seemed.
“Now, I know you don’t mean no harm by it, but there’s a lotta folks ‘round these parts that don’t take too kindly to ponies muckin’ about with their things.” Applejack followed Fluttershy’s line of sight down to the weapon at her side and chuckled ruefully. “Don’t you worry, sugar, I ain’t nothing to be afraid of. I’m the unofficial law around these parts, sort of a sheriff if you’re more comfortable with that sorta thing. Long as you don’t do nothin’ too bad, I don’t see any reason we can’t be friends.”
“F-Friends...?” Coming into town, Fluttershy had expected to find a nice little home on the outskirts of the town and go about her business with peace and not interact with too many ponies. Sure, the sign said everypony was welcome, but being immediately approached and an offer of friendship extended from the first pony she met had thrown a toaster into her mind’s gears.
“Well shoot, sugar, I don’t see your fairy magic as anythin’ less natural than the dirt or the rain; I’d love havin’ you come around my farm from time to time. Probably do wonders for my trees. If’n you’re ever up for a little companionship, stop by the farm sometime. Just ask around for Applejack, and I’m sure somepony’ll point you my way.” As she spoke, Fluttershy was knocked about with a pair of conflicting interests. She could go with the heavily-armed Earth Pony and talk more, or she could go her own way and risk not seeing her again. Of course, if everypony in Ponyville was as accepting as she was, she might be able to risk talking to somepony else. Applejack certainly hadn’t run her out of town for being a faerie, but could she be sure everypony else was of the same mind? This was a town of ponies with nowhere else to turn, so there would probably be some bad ponies in residence as well. On the other hoof, she-
“You all right, sugar? You’ve been standin’ there with a blank expression for a good minute now.” Fluttershy snapped out of her reverie and blinked several times, the farmer now looking at her with a slightly concerned crease in her brow. Well, that was as good a decision as she was likely to get for the next hour, anyway.
“Y-yeah, I’m okay. I’d like to see your farm, if you’re heading that way I mean.” Applejack chuckled and waved a hoof in Fluttershy’s general direction with a friendly smile.
“Sure, that ain’t a problem! C’mon, I ain’t got nothin’ else that can’t wait for tomorrow. Mah family’s outta town for a sale, so we’ve got the place to ourselves for a couple nights.” She walked off with Fluttershy quickly trailing behind her, the pegasus glad at last for having any sort of direction now that she was in Ponyville. Still no closer to finding anywhere to live, but at least she had a friend and some agreeable companionship for the afternoon. Sure, Applejack was a little terrifying at first glance, but she hadn’t done anything untrustworthy and Fluttershy knew she was going to have to get a little out of her comfort zone if she wanted to get anything done. The farm was slightly past the official borders of the town, and in an instant Fluttershy could tell why that was. The ambient magic of the place was tied into the psychological image of the area, among other things, and while Ponyville proper was a house of refuge for those with nowhere else to turn, Sweet Apple Acres was an organized, honorable place of work and family. Even without getting close to the farmhouse proper, the entire property was infused with an air of absolute, rock-solid certainty in the power of family and hard work.
Fluttershy and other beings in tune with magic and nature could read these things as easily as the paint on a wall, but just about every creature of higher thought could sense it in some way or another. Applejack, mortal pony that she was, could feel it in her own way, particularly given her almost violently powerful ties to the area. For her, it manifested as a place of peace and love, where she had been brought up and more than likely would die and be laid to rest. It was a universal constant for her, and she was dedicated to making sure it was always going to be there when she needed it.
Both ponies relaxed visibly as they crossed the intangible line separating it from the rest of the world, and within a matter of seconds both were happily chatting about the weather and their experiences in life. Even Fluttershy had some surprisingly entertaining stories about things she had seen in her few centuries on the road, and, having come from a place like Ponyville, Applejack’s own tales were practically the stuff of legends. In fact, as it turned out Ponyville was home to multiple literally legendary beasts that had decided to get away from the bustle of life elsewhere in favor of a quiet retirement where no one would stop to look for them.
They passed the time in peace and ended up sitting at a table on Applejack’s porch, idly regaling each other with their favorite tales. Fluttershy wouldn’t have minded going into the house proper, but for her part Applejack was still wary enough of her to not offer the invitation her kind needed to pass the threshold. ‘There have been assassins before, and there’s no reason to take chances when there’s seats right here anyway,’ she had said. Fluttershy hadn’t exactly been pleased with that particular turn of events, but she could hardly fault her. She was a random faerie from who-knows-where and Applejack would’ve been a fool to invite her across the threshold. Besides, the chairs on the porch were awfully well-made.
It had been well past sunrise when Fluttershy had first stood on the hill outside Ponyville, wondering if she should approach, and before they knew it the pair of them had emptied both pitchers of lemonade on the porch railing and the sun was starting to dip below the tops of the trees, casting a golden glow over everything as Celestia’s parting fanfare until the morning. Applejack stood up, her joints somehow still limber despite sitting still for a couple hours, and Fluttershy took a good several seconds more getting the tension out of her.
“So, ah’m gonna go out on a limb and figure you don’t rightly have anywhere in town to stay, and ah’m not certain just how the rest of the family would react to you without knowin’ you first, but ah figure you can stay here in the orchard a while if’n you like.” Fluttershy blinked several times, looking out over the grass and trees. It certainly seemed like quite the place to stay, and for her the ground or branches would be just as comfortable as any bed. Still, it seemed Applejack wasn’t done with quite yet.
“Ah built a cabin out on the river with my pa when I was just a filly, an’ I’ve been sure to keep it stocked with a little spare food and blankets ever since, jus’ in case ah wanna get out away from things for a bit. Ah figure you could stay there a spell, least until you get yourself a place you can properly call home.” Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically at the idea; a secluded cabin in an obsessively-kept orchard absolutely brimming with life? If she could come up with the bits, she was considering renting a little out-of-the-way corner of the orchard that she could make a permanent demesne in. She trotted along happily behind the farmer, and the ten-minute stroll through the trees was an utter delight for her more mystical senses. In her presence the trees seemed even more alive, and the wind whispering through their leaves was full of love and reverence for the farmer that tended them.
At last, they came upon a stream cutting through the forest, banked on either side by small gravel bars, save for one large willow tree that seemed oddly out of place in the farm. Fluttershy extended her will out towards it in greeting, but the surly old tree batted it away and went back to his own thoughts. Fluttershy pouted at that, but thought no more of it. Applejack, for her part, just chuckled as she followed the faerie’s gaze.
“Heh, don’t bother with the old stallion, he’s hardly the nicest tree here. Been here longer than any of the others, though, and ah reckon he’s a good bit more clever than you or I’d think too.” She turned and walked up the bank of the river a ways, before nodding toward a footbridge leading into what looked like a small hill. On closer inspection, she realized the hill was actually a small, wooden house with a huge amount of greenery on top of it and a round wooden door just across the bridge. It was natural, it was warm and inviting, and it looked like exactly the sort of place she would love to stay.
“That’s your place, right on the banks of the Goldberry. Think you’ll be alright from here, sugar?” Fluttershy nodded with a smile and took a few steps forward, before turning back one more time.
“Applejack?”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.”
Ice... Cold... Dark runners are coming, walking across the ice... Something is...
“Something is coming...”
Fluttershy shook her head as something woke her, her mane a mess and her wings tangled in Applejack’s quilts. She mumbled something out and didn’t quite catch it herself, apparently the remains of some sort of strange nightmare. She looked around, and she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The moon was half-full and shed less light on the ground than would’ve been ideal, but from what she could see all there were were the trees and the slight valley in their tops where the river ran through them. Her fears assuaged, she put her head back down and closed her eyes, trying to drift into a more pleasant dream.
Something is coming.
This time, Fluttershy bolted upright, and instead of looking she pushed the window open slightly and focused her ears, trying to figure out what was happening. The trees were awake, more than they had been all day, and they were awash with voices that only plants and those truly attuned to them could hear. They were talking of strange figures in the woods, beings radiating malice and ill intent towards them, as well as toward their masters. Even the willow’s surly voice could be heard in their chatter, something Fluttershy didn’t figure happened often. She crept out the window and through the orchard, and the trees recognized her as a friend of their mistress. They cloaked her, hid her among them until she was all-but invisible. By the time she made it to the river, no one the trees didn’t want to see her would see her. She whispered them her thanks, at least until she saw what was happening and the words caught in her throat.
The river was frozen over, the water barely sliding past a large block of ice wide enough for three ponies to cross with ease, and half a dozen figures in black cloaks were nearly across the river as Fluttershy arrived. It had been a beautiful summer day and the temperature hadn’t dropped anywhere close to freezing, which made it clear that there was some magic involved. Sure enough, one of the ponies had the telltale glow of magic just visible under his hood and was apparently holding the ice together for the group as they crossed. She was paralyzed with fear when she saw them, and for several moments she considered going back to bed and pretending she had just dreamt the whole thing. The trees, though, had other thoughts, and she could feel a harsh disapproval radiating out of them, unlike any she had expected to feel. In fact, it seemed to be coming from one tree in particular, and when she looked up she realized she was hiding in the shadow of the willow just in time for a loose vine to fall and slap her on the cheek. The tree wasn’t nearly so gentle as the others around it, but it knew its mistress. She and her family had tolerated it for years, since the planting of the orchard, and it knew full-well that they could’ve cut it down at any point. If this was how to repay that debt, it was hardly going to let an indecisive little faerie get in the way of that.
Fluttershy heard him as she rubbed her jaw, her face stinging slightly, and nodded. He was an old, mean tree, but he was indeed wise, and she started across the ice bridge with the surly approval of the old tree behind her as she disappeared back into the forest, heading towards the farmhouse.
She didn’t have to go far before she caught up with them; they were quick, but she was moving with the speed and grace of a wind in the branches while they could only go as fast as their slowest member. There were nine of them in total, all cloaked and hooded and bearing lethal-looking weapons. The one in front was the largest and carried a broadsword to match his frame, while the rest had more sensibly-sized swords and axes poking out of their cloaks, aside from the rear guard and his warhammer. That one seemed to be the reason for the rest of the party’s pace; that thing couldn’t possibly be light on his back. Still, they moved as one, and didn’t stop until they were within sight of the darkened farmhouse. Fluttershy curled up in the top of one of the trees nearest the path, silent and still as the leader turned back to face the party.
“You’ve all done well to come with me this far. Not many have the courage to do what we intend to do.” There were murmurs of appreciation from the group, aside from the warhammer-user at the back. He shook his head, and ended up pulling his hood off completely. He turned out to be a young Earth Pony mare, whose cream coat didn’t match her candy-striped mane in the slightest. She blinked several times, trying to get a pink strand of hair out of her face, and once it was tucked away properly she turned to the leader with a flat gaze.
“I still have my doubts about this entire business, Sentinel, you know I do. Sneaking through the woods like common thieves is hardly befitting our station or honor.”
“Be silent, Sweetie Drops, you have no idea what you speak of.” The stallion cast back his own hood, revealing a reddish-brown coat and matching mane. “Would you rather be out on the fields of battle, fighting and dying alongside hundreds of others and forgotten as soon as your blood cools?”
“At least I would die with the honor befitting a guard of Celestia, not this. Creeping through a forest and hiding behind numbers to kill a single pony in her sleep. There’s no honor in this, Sentinel.” Fluttershy nearly broke her cover when she heard that; they were coming to kill someone at the farm? Applejack was the only one there, and she seemed like a wonderful pony! Why would anyone ever want to kill her?! Her attention was pulled back to the conversation on the ground when another mare reached back and smacked the one named Sweetie Drops in the back of the head with a scowl Fluttershy could feel even without seeing her face.
“You dare to speak to your commander this way? Your father would be ashamed of you, Drops, and you can be sure Captain Platinum will hear of this as soon as we return.” The stallion smirked as the mare berated her comrade, his head held high and his eyes glittering in anticipation.
“Indeed he shall, and when I tell him what we’ve done here tonight every one of you will have a position of honor in the Guard indeed. We are taking the initiative to protect Equestria, here and now. In fact-“ The hooded mare cut him off as she rounded on him, her cowl finally falling back and her eyes wide.
“Are you telling me none of this was sanctioned by the Captain?”
“Indeed it was not.”
“Did you get the permission of the local cleric?”
“Of course not. I have no need of their stuffy bureaucratic nonsense when I have work to do. This mare must be exterminated, for the good of all of Equestria. I hardly need to explain myself to you, Righteous.” Rather than face him, Righteous turned her back on the party, and along with Sweetie Drops stepped out into the woods behind them, only pausing and turning back after she had put several feet between them and the rest of the group.
“Sweetie Drops was right. There’s no honor in any of you.” They turned and walked off into the forest, leaving the now very angry commander and his group of seven raiders to their business.
“Hmph, they’ll see. They’ll all see, once our great work is finished we shall have true power within the ranks of Celestia’s Guard, not as guards but as full paladins of Her Majesty. That is our true station, and what better way to prove our dedication and ability than by slaying this monster here, in its own home? Our work is ignoble, but we will have all the more honor for it. Now, no more delays; we’ve stood here too long already, and I fear there are things out there watching us...” He swept his eyes around the forest and up through the tree limbs, and it was only a matter of a stray branch swaying in the wind that kept him from spotting Fluttershy high above him. He turned and walked forward toward the house, his group creeping along behind them and Fluttershy feeling an even bigger knot of emotions in the pit of her stomach.
Fear was done with, the willow had taken care of that. The orchard would protect her, and she would protect it. What she was feeling now was confusion at how supposed warriors of Celestia could do something like this. Confusion, and something she tried to stifle whenever it came up. Something she didn’t feel often that was now bubbling up, melting away all other resistance.
Fluttershy was mad.
Maybe it was the trees influencing her, maybe it was something else, maybe Applejack was just a friend. Whatever it was, the little pegasus was gripped with absolute rage at the actions of this stallion and those that remained with him, and she reached out into the trees around her. Their wills, already stirred by the same things she had seen, were bent readily to her desires, and as one the forest began to encroach on the hooded figures still intent on their evil business.
Give the guards their due; they felt the malevolent power fall over them as soon as it started, but they didn’t break ranks when the trees themselves loomed over them, blocking out all moonlight and plunging them into total darkness. However, the darkness wasn’t their friend, and before their commander could warn them one of the unicorns threw back his hood and cast a light at the top of his horn that illuminated the path once more. All he was doing, though, was just selecting himself as the first target of the forest’s wrath. The trees themselves couldn’t simply reach down and grab him, but their means were no more limited for it. An old branch, long dead and only holding on by a twig, suddenly broke off of its parent and fell straight down onto the colt’s horn, knocking him out cold with a painfully wet crunch. He wasn’t dead, his helmet had prevented that, but it and his horn were both cracked in several places and his body made quite the impression on the rest of the group when the trees let in just enough light to see what had happened.
That was too much for some of the younger stallions in the group, and despite their commander’s furious yells for order two of them took off back into the forest trying to escape. Fluttershy felt them go and allowed them to flee, but she didn’t have total control over the orchard. They made it as far as the ice bridge, but the water from the river had already started flowing over it and made it even more slick, and in their haste they ended up tripping over each other and crashing into the far bank and the waiting boughs of a pissed off old willow.
The shriek of tearing metal and the terrified screams were enough to wake up the occupant of the farmhouse, and the commander saw it as the only way to get what was left of his raiding party back in order. He barked an order at the three that were left, and they all took off for the farmhouse as quickly as they could. The orchard didn’t reach all the way up to the house, and the trees could hardly move under their own power. They were safe from that threat as they made it into the clearing, but their troubles were far from over. A pale yellow shape took flight from the top of the orchard, dipped into the moonlight, and disappeared overhead. It might’ve been Fluttershy at some point, but her magic and the magic inherent in the orchard were enough to change her fundamentally. Had any of them taken the time to properly study her silhouette in the moonlight, they would’ve seen something more feral, fur ragged and leathery membranes where the feathers on her wings ought to be.
As they raced across the grass, they started to relax a little, thinking the worst was behind them. From a certain point of view it was, but from every other line of thinking they were still in deep trouble. Trees seemingly attacking them, creature they didn’t recognize flying overhead, all of these were things they had learned about during their training. They knew what it looked like when a faerie went on the warpath, but they also knew the Fae had their weaknesses. Like, say, the threshold of a home. The Fae were beings of nearly pure magic, and that meant it was nearly impossible for them to cross into someone’s home without their express invitation. Sure, this thing might’ve been invited in by Applejack if it was living in her orchard, but it might not have been and that was the if the commander and his dwindling troops were riding on as they bolted across the huge lawn.
They made it to the farmhouse without any further interference, and the commander smashed the door out of its frame in his haste to enter. There was no way they were going to have any semblance of stealth anyway, and he nearly dragged his soldiers in behind him. The last one, though, wasn’t so lucky. Something fast and distinctly non-pony winged down out of the sky and slammed into him, smashing him through the porch railing and sending him sprawling onto the grass. She pounced on top of him and sank her fangs into his throat, pulling his blood out with an ease that sickened her through her anger. Ponies aren’t exactly the best carnivores on the planet, and even with her magic she could only handle so much. The colt was pale but not dead when she pulled herself off of him, and he looked like he would be fine eventually if he got treatment soon. Fluttershy, for her part, turned and vomited on the ground next to him, every part of her regretting that particular choice of attacks.
The three inside the house watched with an unshakable terror at the spectacle unfolding on the lawn, but it looked like she was in no hurry to come after them at least. That was good, in their eyes anyway, and the commander took a moment of silence with his two lieutenants while their comrade was devoured outside. Their mission seemed to have reached its endgame, and the paladins that accompanied him thus far seemed to have the sort of determination he would need for the job. As long as he still had his last few followers, killing the mare in the house wouldn’t be an issue. Sure, they might die, but if they could get rid of that abomination it would be worth it.
Sentinel was shocked out of his musing by the sound of a body hitting the floor, and his head whipped around to see what was happening behind him. One of his soldiers was unconscious or dead on the ground, and Applejack stood over her with her stetson perched somewhat unsteadily on her head and a long rope coiled loosely around her foreleg. Specifically, the foreleg that was currently wrapped around another paladin’s throat. She didn’t have time to properly finish the job with their commander bearing down on her, and so she instead tossed the stallion aside. His head bounced off the stone hearth, and he didn’t get up.
“So, you mind tellin’ me why you’re in my house, why my trees are mad, or why there’s a giant bat eatin’ someone on my lawn?” Sentinel remained silent, just glaring at her.
Applejack sighed, putting a hoof to her head. “Okay, one chance. You can pick up your wounded, get off of my property, and we can just pretend this never happened. Otherwise, things are going to get messy. Okay?”
Rather than reply, the commander roared and threw a haymaker directly at the mare’s face. She didn’t dodge or block; rather, the rope on her leg snapped up and caught his hoof mid-punch, stopping it cold and somehow tearing the gauntlet completely apart through some unseen force. Just as quickly, the pieces vanished, and Applejack swallowed with a grimace.
“Coldforged steel? Really? Hardly worth the effort of making it if you’re comin’ after me.” She didn’t have her sword on her now, having apparently been woken up by the fighting in the orchard, but as the commander faced off against her she brought her rope up to bear, somehow completely defying gravity and holding it up in the air to face him. Sentinel drew his sword, the silver blade shining in the lamplight that bathed the room, and lunged for her again, this time swinging it sideways against her neck. She caught the blow with her rope and they both pressed into the conflict as hard as they could, the rope not cutting but the blade not breaking like his gauntlet had. Both weapons started to smoke after a moment, something in their makings conflicting with each other.
“You don’t like steel, hm? How’s this treating you? Astral silver must burn you but good, beast.” Sure enough, the smoke rising from their weapons seemed to be taking quite the toll on Applejack, her face beading with sweat and concentration. Suddenly, she lunged backward, releasing her pressure against the blade all at once and causing the heavyset earth pony to stumble forward. Seizing her chance she pounced at him, putting her years of applebucking into practice and slamming her muscular bulk directly into his face. He didn’t have anywhere to balance against, and her weight forced him backwards into the wall, his helmet cracking where it hit the doorframe with the full weight of two warriors behind it.
Fluttershy pulled herself together following her little bout of nausea and hurried up onto the porch to help Applejack, but the paladin-to-be had been right in his guess. She slammed into the wall of magic that made the house a home when she tried to pass the doorway, and the farmer was too occupied with other things to offer her a proper invitation in. She settled in, ears twitching, and got ready to deal with whoever came out on top.
The farmer took her advantage and held it, driving her steel-shod hooves into the paladin’s face over and over as she straddled his concussed form, but not using her rope for whatever reason. It twitched about under its own power behind her, but never went in for the kill. Given what it had done to his gauntlet, it was clear what would happen if she shoved it down his throat, but she never did. Either way, she didn’t seem to need it as she did her best to permanently impress the back of his head on the floorboards.
Unseen by either of them, the colt that Applejack hadn’t taken the time to properly kill pulled himself back to his hooves and drew a dagger, glaring in Applejack’s general direction and swinging the blade down at her head. Fluttershy screamed out and the colt faltered from the sound of it in his still-ringing ears, and between everything that had happened to him that night he only managed to thoroughly ruin Applejack’s hat.
As the mess of felt fell off of her head, though, her entire demeanor changed. No flash of light, no rising into the air, nothing extra to mark the change at all. One moment she was a pony, the next, she... Wasn’t. From a distance she might’ve still looked the part, but up close she was a monster. Her blond tail was gone completely, instead replaced with a solid mass of ridged flesh that would’ve looked at home on a reptile, and her ears reached up a solid six inches from the top of her head. The most disturbing change, though, was her rope. Specifically, it wasn’t a rope; rather, a long, dark green tongue was extended out of her mouth and into the air, twitching this way and that like a snake tasting the air. Her coat around her eyes each had a shock of red trailing down from them like little lightning bolts against her orange face, and her eyes themselves seemed entirely too large for her skull. The young paladin recoiled in terror, and his punch-drunk commander could only chuckle at what was before him.
“They were right, then. You’re not a pony, you’re a Tatzlwurm. Just another filthy monster waiting to be put down like the trash you are.” Stupid as it was, given the circumstances, neither one seemed willing to back down, and the colt gripped his knife in his jaw despite all four of his legs shaking. Without remorse, Applejack’s tongue shot directly toward him, punching through his armor and into his torso, and she swallowed. When he fell and the knife clattered from his teeth, he had a huge hole down his barrel, significantly wider than just where she had hit him.
“Ah mean, it’s not like ah was gonna let you walk outta here before, but ah sure can’t let you now. Also, it’s Tatzlpony. Ah’d like you to think on that for the next couple seconds, if’n you please.” She jumped back off of Sentinel as he tried to kick her in the gut, and as he went for his sword her tongue lashed out at him, pouring out of her mouth and coiling around his entire body. Still, he had time enough to glare at her between the lines of green flesh.
“Celestia will have your blood for this. I swear it on the sisters, you will die in agony!”
As she retracted her tongue back into her mouth, all that fell to the floor was a shining, silver blade.
As the adrenaline of the fight started to ebb, the Tatzlpony padded down the hall to the aptly-named hats and bows closet, and in the instant she put on a new stetson she was back to her normal equine self. It was only at that point that she turned and took a long look at the Flutterbat hanging upside-down on her porch just beyond what was left of the doorframe. They held each other’s gaze for a moment, both trying to assess the other, but after a moment Applejack just shrugged and shook her head.
“Ah am going back to bed, an’ we can figure out... Any of this in the morning. You’re gonna wake me up if anything happens, right?” The bat screeched, which seemed like the best confirmation she was going to get out of it. “Well, g’night, sugah.” The bat squawked at that, but as the lights were blown out throughout the farmhouse she flew off into the forest to find somewhere to sleep herself, under the comforting blanket of treetops, her ears perked all night for anything happening in the orchard.
*****
Come the next morning, Fluttershy had absolutely no idea what was going on. She remembered bits and pieces of what had happened the night before, but it all felt like a dream to her. Things she had seen but not really experienced, and before she could really figure out what was going on with her life she remembered that she had woken up with a splitting headache and went back to lying on the cool, soft grass. Even now that she was back to her familiar feathered form she was still unclear on how time quite worked, and she honestly had no idea how long she was lying there until her head settled down to a dull roar and she pulled herself back to her hooves. Of course, by the time she made it back to edge of the orchard, she felt like passing out again and letting the world pass her by.
The field around the farmhouse was filled with a veritable camp of armed soldiers in solar uniforms, all of whom were bustling to and fro with a certain frenzy. Fluttershy could see no less than three unicorns with medical insignias on their uniforms, and there were two gurneys with sheets covering their occupants being loaded onto a long chariot. Next to it, the two mares that had seen the writing on the wall and left before the fight had started were deep in conversation with an older, more grizzled stallion, but from their faces it didn’t look like they were being reprimanded for their small part in the night’s proceedings. If anything, they looked like Hearth’s Warming had come early and they really did get that impossibly expensive gift they had wanted.
None of that was what Fluttershy was paying attention to, though. On the front porch of the house Applejack was slouched over the railing next to a stallion in what were clearly liturgical robes. Fluttershy approached the pair, and whatever conversation they were engaged in ceased as they spotted the bedraggled pegasus, and Applejack waved her over with a pleasant smile. The stallion she was with didn’t seem nearly as thrilled, but he didn’t speak out against her.
“Hey sugah, glad you finally came ‘round. Ah was wonderin’ when you were gonna wake up. Gettin’ a little worried, actually. Where’s my manners, though? Fluttershy, this is mister Bon Mot. He’s the local preacher up in these here parts. Bon Mot, Fluttershy. She’s a new friend lookin’ to settle in our little town.” The pair of them looked each other over, and between the twigs and grass in Fluttershy’s unkempt mane and the general no-nonsense attitude Bon Mot seemed to expel from every part of his being they both immediately reached the conclusion that they ought to have as little to do with each other as possible.
“Yes, well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, miss Shy. Now, as I was saying, I will oversee the removal of the offending guardponies from your property and you should expect a cheque from the office of the captain of the guard as compensation for the damage of your property. Good day Applejack, good day Fluttershy.” Before the pegasus could even properly think about getting a word in edgewise, the cleric got to his feet, brushed off his vestments, and walked out over the fields in the general direction of the medical tent that had been erected by the path. Applejack chuckled and waved her up onto the porch, and Fluttershy gratefully leaned on the porch railing in the newly-vacant spot next to the farmer.
“Yeah, he doesn’t like me much. In a couple’a ways, he’s not too different from those guards that came after me last night. Thinks what I am and what I do makes me a monster, and I can’t rightly say they’re completely wrong.” The farmer pursed her lips and gazed off into the middle distance, all the while trying not to look at the bodies being flown away into the rising sun. Fluttershy wasn’t sure if she should interrupt her or not, but the silence didn’t seem to be doing the mare much good anyway.
“What is it you do? I mean, besides your cover as a farmer.” Applejack shot her a glare, but couldn’t help letting a slight smirk cross her features at the same time.
“Ah’ll have you know ah’m the best dang apple farmer in Equestria, little missy.” Just as quickly, though, she went back to melancholy, although not as much as a moment before. “Ah know what you mean, though, an’ it’s not rightly easy to explain. On paper, ah’m a Grey Guard. Not one’a those good, upstandin’ White Guards smashin’ all my grass out there, but not evil. Ah guess... Well, we do what needs doin’, and that’s just the way it is. We take the bad stuff, make it do what we want, and try to make the world a better place for it. Ah’ve done some bad stuff in mah time, an’ you saw that yourself last night.” The farmer looked down, clearly remorseful of what had transpired. “Ah mean, there’s a lotta stuff ah did in my life that didn’t go down quite how it was supposed to, and a lotta bad stuff that went exactly how it was supposed to. You saw the whole ‘Tatzlpony’ thing, right?” Fluttershy nodded, somewhere between glad that she had gotten Applejack out of her shell and incredibly saddened at her story. “Yeah, that’s somethin’ I came across in an old castle. Gave me the kinda power ah never would’a had before, but it’s not ‘zactly the sorta thing ah wanna take with me into the nursin’ home. ‘course, not like ah’ll ever get there. Jus’ gonna end up one more monster shoulderin’ the big ol’ wheel of time, y’think?” Rather than reply, Fluttershy just leaned over and hugged the pony with what strength she could muster through her magical hangover.
“I still don’t know exactly what I saw, but I know I didn’t see a monster in there. The only monster out there was that stallion, and you vanquished him just like a true guard should.” She nuzzled up against Applejack’s cheek, and all she could do was return the hug with a grateful smile.
“Ah guess ah did at that, didn’t I?” She squeezed the pegasus a little tighter and her smile grew a little more. “Well dang, Fluttershy, ain’t you just about the kindest pony ah ever did meet?” She finally broke the hug and the pair went back to relaxing with their forehooves on the railing, and they watched the Solar guardponies pack things up as they got ready to head back to Canterlot. It had been a busy morning for all of them, and Fluttershy was just glad she had missed most of it. They stood there in silence for a bit, until Applejack finally mustered up the words that had been rattling around in the back of her head since they had started the conversation.
“Y’know, ah wouldn’ mind havin’ you around the farm full-time. If’n you’re agreeable to the idea, ah certainly wouldn’ mind lettin’ you have the ol’ cabin full-time, mah gift to you. After all, just havin’ you ‘round here is already makin’ mah trees look better than they have in years, an’ that’s just one night. Ah figure if you’re agreeable to helpin’ out from time to time with the harvest an’ whatnot it’ll be well worth the expense.” The pegasus’s eyebrows went up at that quite a bit more quickly than the normally-reserved pegasus was accustomed to. A cabin in this orchard that she loved and seemed to like her in return, without rent or anything else? Seemed like just about the best accommodation she could hope for, circumstances or no. She nodded vigorously, a huge grin breaking out on her face.
“Oh, of course I would love to stay here with you and your trees! This is such a wonderful farm, I can’t wait to see what kind of memories we’ll make here together!” The farmer could only chuckle at that, not recalling any other time she had ever heard the buttercream pony ever string together multiple sentences in any of the conversations she had had with her before that morning. Seemed the night’s excitement had done quite a bit to bring her out of her shell, at least where Applejack was concerned.
“Can’t wait to have you ‘round for dinner, then.” She paused, trying to remember what it was she needed to say, but it came back to her after a few moments of silence. “Oh, and speakin’ of which, you’re more than free to come ‘round anytime you like. Open invitation into the house.” A nice home was one thing, but Fluttershy blinked several times as she tried to wrap her head around that one. A normal, seemingly-sane mare was giving her a full invitation into her home without any sort of rules or time limit? Most ponies would’ve considered that immediate grounds for internment in the nearest asylum, but Applejack felt in her gut that that was the right thing to do. She knew Fluttershy wasn’t going to turn that back on her and make her regret the decision, and so she had made it well before the faerie had come up to talk to her that morning. One kindness deserved another, and without her she might very well not have survived the night. It seemed like a fair deal.
“O-oh, of course! I’ll be here any time you want me to be, I promise!” Yup, definitely a safe choice to make. Applejack just shook her head with a smile and waved her off towards the treeline, above which the last of the transport chariots were disappearing into the mountains on their way to Canterlot with the remnants of the insanity that had transpired over the last twelve hours or so.
“For right now, ah figure you’ve got a nice little cottage to decorate up just however you want it to be. You go ahead and have fun, sugah!” Fluttershy trotted down off of the porch with a huge grin, glad to have finally found a place she could call home at last. She turned back one more time as she passed the treeline, and she knew this would be the place for her, and they lived happily ever after for the rest of their days.
...Right?
==FIN==
Author's Note
Here we are, then! I figured I aught to breathe life into some of the weird bits of background that we gave the Necroverse in our endless worldbuilding sessions, and this is what ended up happening.
Special thanks to all my editors: SaintAbsol (The guy that made all of this happen!), Star Catcher, Nicktendonick, and Mary Eveland. If I forgot you, drop me a note and I'll edit you in!
Anyway, I hope you liked the story, and be sure to leave a comment if you want to see more of the inner workings of the Necroverse! Bye!
