He Who Lets Light Fade

The best way to describe Applejack's current situation would be "bizarre." Applebloom somehow managed to touch Poison Joke, and the local Spa was closed for the day, meaning that the herbal medicine to cure its effects was unavailable. Seeing as how nopony else had the cure, she opted to visit Zecora at her hut in hopes of the zebra still having some of it.

"So, how much farther is this Zecora gal anyways?"

Applejack glanced over her shoulder at the fedora-wearing pegasus behind her. Randall Osiris, whose powers of destruction could trump every single menace the Elements of Harmony had faced, had also touched the flowers. For some reason, all they did was give his voice a helium-like effect, which would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that he threatened to be as annoying as possible if they didn't fix it. Seeing as how there were reports coming in of a lone Timberwolf hanging around Zecora's path, Leo decided to put his powers to good use and volunteered to come with Applejack as a sort of shield. While the farmer would normally object, she knew that he would probably go anyway. Besides, what's there to complain about, really?

"Not that far. Her hut's purdy close to town, so it should only be a couple'a minutes."

"Good. I hope that Randall isn't being TOO much of an issue. The dude was scary before, but I'll take scary over squeaky any day."

"How'd ya put up with his outbursts before? He seems like he's get on your nerves after a while."

"He did at first, but...well..."

Applejack looked over at her companion again to find him glancing at the ground. "We learned what the guy went through, and believe me, it wasn't pretty. It's not my story to tell, though, and there's NO way he'll tell you guys until he warms up to you."

They continued walking in relative silence until AJ asked "So, I heard that you were giving' Spike advice on getting' Rarity's attention?"

"Ha-ha, yeah. The little guy's head over heels for her, but I don't know why he thought no-one else knew about it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was like a beaver standing next to a fallen tree and thinking that no one would suspect it."

"Ah know, right? Poor feller. Ah'm not even sure if he's old enough for Rares."

"Pssh, relax, AJ. It's not like he's a baby or anything, right?"

Before the farmer could comment on the irony of that response, a growl erupted from a nearby bush. Faster than either of the two could react, a Timberwolf jumped out in front of them, its glowing eyes leering at them with malicious intent. As it was about to leap forwards, a cracking sounds echoed from above, and a large and sharp branch fell down, tumbling through the air until it landed point down into the Timberwolf's head. Applejack crept towards it, sadness etched on her face.

"The poor thang. Ah mean, Ah know it wuz trying' to eat us or somethin', but that don't mean in deserves THAT. It's probably in so much pain..."

She looked over at the branch in its head, and then her sorrow turned into confusion. "Wait a minute. This branch wuz healthy! No marks on it from chewing or anything! And it fell in just tha right way to spear the Timberwolf's noggin...that's probably the worst luck Ah've seen!"

"No, it was good luck, at least for us. The wolf was destroyed before it could even touch us. We're very lucky."

The orange pony grew angry. "No, if we were lucky, it never would have found us at all! Now the poor thang's sufferin'! How can you say-"

She stopped. In her ranting, she had turned to face Leo, but her attention was drawn to his Cutie Mark. The sun on his flank was faintly glowing, the light getting dimmer and dimmer until it faded. She looked up at him with shock, but before she could say anything, Leo said in a somber voice:

"That's the bad thing about being me. You don't get to have the option to just be lucky. You're stuck with a luck that can only destroy anything that threatens you, and you can just barely keep it in check."

The two said nothing on the rest of the way to Zecora's.