Author's Note

So, it's been awhile. The schedule I created, and told you guys about in the last chapter, initially worked but things fell through for personal reasons. I got Covid awhile back, I think in November, my grandfather, who I take care of and live with, also got Covid. He seemed fine at first but after a few months he started developing dementia. His doctor said it was something he was probably going to develop eventually, since he's over 90 years old, but covid caused it to happen sooner and develop at a much faster rate. That's just what the doctor said. Before this my grandfather was, for the most part, completely autonomous and capable of doing just about everything by himself. Most of my time now is spent either at work or, after the caretaker leaves when I get home, taking care of my grandfather.

I apologize for not getting these out quicker, but this is my current situation and will be my situation for the foreseeable future.

Lively Liberation

*Praline POV*

“Thank you, goodnight.” I wave out to my last customer of the day as I close up shop. It’s almost 7 and the rest of the shops around me have long since closed. It’s time to clean up and head home.

Through the window I see my only competition, Sugar Cube Corner. But seeing as they’re more of a bakery and malt shop while Praline and Cream’s Confectionary was exclusively candy, we weren’t really in the same market. PCC’s customers are usually foals while SCC is mostly adults. But still, we make sweets and that’s what matters.

It takes some time, but I’ve cleaned the shop up and I’m out the door. Not a few steps out I see Scooter coming towards me.

“Did the shop close yet?” The orange foal asked me in his scratchy voice.

“Yes,” I reply. His eyes instantly dim and his head tilts down, his face covered by his purple mane. It’s a heartbreaking sight. “But since I’m still here, I’ll let you in to get something.”

His expression changes instantly and he hugs me, bringing a slight smile to my face.

“Thanks Praline, you’re the best.” He lets go of me. “By the way, how’s Harpo doing?”

My smile soured at the question. “He’s been acting strange recently; very defensive. He’s been working with those anthropologist ponies for a while and I think it’s getting to him.” I eagerly attempt to change the topic. “How about you or Appleseed and Silver Bell?”

“They’re fine.” He releases a soft sigh. “But AS has a lot of chores and SB was grounded by Elusive. I spent the whole day alone.” His face fell again.

“How about, just this once, I give you a discount on your candy, and a taste of something special I’ve been working on.”

He jumps excitedly, his wings buzzing.

“Now remember it’s just this once.”

His head nods excitedly as I open the door and let him in. I take my position behind the counter and wait for him to make his decision.

He takes his time looking over my stock. There’s sweet, sour, bitter, and salty confections that Cream and I made earlier today.

“Do you have any of those caramel apple lollipops? The ones with the granny smith apples?” His eyes full of life and hope.

I shake my head, “sorry Scooter. Those sell out really quick, you gotta get here early to get your hooves on one.”

He barely flinches at my response and continues looking at the assortment of candies, as if he already knew the answer.

“What about caramelized fruits in general?”

“One of the first things put away are the caramelized fruits and vegetables.”

Scooter continues his search and puts his hoof on a glass container filled with jawbreakers and quickly shakes his head. He probably remembered that incident with the jawbreakers and decided he didn’t want to risk melting the rainbow factory again. The colt moves elsewhere for his dessert.

“Can I get a pound of blueberry salt-water taffy and a bar of raspberry chocolate?”

“Of course.” I wrap up what he wants in a small package. “That’ll be 3 bits with the discount.”

He pulls a bit bag from his mane, probably spending too much time with Bubble Berry, and hoofs over the 3 bits.

“Now, would you like to try that new treat I was working on?” He eagerly nods his head. “So, Harpo has been working with some anthropologists and found an ancient candy recipe.”

“This is a new human candy?” Scooters eyes were filled with wonder.

Human candies aren’t a rarity in shops. The majority of baked goods and candies are based on pictures of those food items and any instructions left behind … as long as those instructions were in picture form and easy to understand if you don’t speak the language.

“Yes, and I’ve been reverse engineering it. I’ve gotten various names from other anthropologists, and ponies who study humans as a hobby.” He stares at me questioningly in need of an explanation. “No human language has ever actually been translated. There are many theories and some groups say they definitively know what the languages were. I decided to settle on the name I liked best, the one Blitz gave me. He called them ~sour belts~ and told me what that meant.”

“But what’s the flavor?” He whined impatiently.

“So far I’ve only made strawberry, but I’m experimenting with others. I’m currently trying to figure out this other flavor Rainbow called ~blue raspberry~ and a generic green apple.”

“Come on,” Scooter whined again. “Let me try it already.”

“Alright, but these are sour and sweet candies. Most ponies can’t handle sour things, and these can get pretty sour. Are you sure you can handle this?”

“I LOVE sour candies. I can take it.”

I usher him into the freezer next to the storeroom where I already have the strips of the candy laid out on a tray. I put four in a small paper bag and give him a fifth.

He immediately pops the whole strip in his mouth without even chewing it. The effect is instantaneous; his eyes water, his lips pucker, and he begins to let loose a soft whine.

I chuckle at his reactions. “How’s the candy?”

He responds with a small whine but nods his head with, what I assume is, a smile. I’m not sure what he means by that. I asked him how good it was, so he nodded and smiled at me. I guess that means it’s good.

“Next time take smaller bites from them. They’re chewy candy and not meant to be eaten whole.”

*25 minutes later*

I’m home, I’ve eaten last night’s leftovers, and I’m in the bath. I hear the sound of Harpo coming down from our attic. I don’t understand why he needs to keep his human stuff up there: a museum would be better suited for them.

Once I’m done with my bath and dried off, I head to bed where I see Harpo lying in it. He’s facing away from me.

“Hey,” I say to him.

“You’re home later than usual.” His voice is cold and held a hint of anger and annoyance.

It’s not a tone I’m used to, but it is one I’ve heard before. But it’s usually after he knows I’d been around Blitz earlier. He can get jealous, especially when it comes to his anthropological rival, Rainbow Blitz.

“Scooter can in right after closing, so I let the colt in. He couldn’t hang out with his friends today, so I let him get some candy.”

“Oh,” Harpo’s tone becomes a bit brighter. “What kind of candy did he get?”

“He got some raspberry chocolate and I gave him…” I probably shouldn’t mention the new candy.

“Yes?” Harpo’s not been having a good day it seems and it looks like he wants an argument. Usually he’d let something like that go.

“Harpo, is something wrong? You don’t seem to be in the greatest mood.”

“It’s nothing.” His voice is emotionless. “So, you gave scooter those candies you let Blitz name.”

“Harpo,” I release a sigh. “If you’re going to be like this then I’ll sleep somewhere else tonight.”

“NO!” He shouts as he shoots up out of bed and look me in the eye. “I’m sorry, it’s just I got a lot of work done and something happened and it ended up getting ruined and I gotta start from the beginning. And … you know, mare troubles.”

Work ruined and rejected by another mare; he’s having a really bad day. Though he is being more aggressive than he usually is when it comes to really bad days. “I’ll accept that and forgive you. Though I want no more sass out of you tonight. I just want to sleep.”

I climb into bed and give him a small peck on the lips. “Goodnight,” we both say before we drift off to sleep.

*The Next Morning*

I wake to an empty bed, not an uncommon occurrence. Judging by the papers scattered across our room he has a meeting to get to. Probably sharing notes with his colleagues. I hope he hasn’t forgotten any in the attic again.

Thankfully it’s Sunday and I can get back to sleep, but there’s a thought that’s stuck in my head. Maybe he didn’t take all his notes. Knowing him he could have left them upstairs.

I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten anything.

I go to the kitchen and make my breakfast: honey oatmeal and a cup of apple juice.

It’s stuck in my head, what if he did?

I quickly finish my breakfast and take a stepping stool below the trap door to the attic. I have some trouble grabbing the dangling rope that opens the door. It takes a few snaps of my jaw, and I have the rope in my mouth. A quick tug of the rope opens the door.

There’s a noise coming from the attic: a sound I couldn’t hear until I opened the door. Either the sound wasn’t enough to pierce the ceiling, or Harpo’s been hiding something up there and he used a sound proofing spell. Knowing Harpo, the former is more likely.

I make my way up the ladder into the dark attic. The strange noise, sounding like some strange language, becomes louder with each step.

As I enter the attic, the lights turn on automatically. Must be a new spell Harpo learned.

The room looks the same as last I saw it, but now there’s a cage covered with a blanket. The sound of the strange language is coming from inside.

Did Harpo foalnap a mare of some kind and holding her hostage? No, he’d never do anything like that. It must be some type of experiment that he’s been working on; trying to teach animals to speak again.

*Janet POV*

“What made me decide destroying some random creature’s stuff was a good idea? I owed him for saving me from that forest, but what he did was really bad, and I probably should have been more cautious.”

After caging me, he took blood, hair, skin, and ‘other’ samples. Is he a scientist? How is a tiny unicorn a scientist? Unicorns are magic-the opposite of science.

“Now that I think about it, this might be the best place for me at the moment. Magic unicorns, wolves made of wood. What else is out there? I might just be safest in this cage.”

It’s not like thinking about what’s out there would help. I’m stuck in here and shouting hasn’t done me much good. I’m stuck here just contemplating what went wrong and my current lot in life … and the unicorn.

On the one hand, he saved me from the forest, on the other hand he violated my mouth and didn’t have the decency to wait for me to be awake. Then I can’t forget the notes and drawings he took on my body without permission, but he also gave me food, shelter, and (general) safety. He also put me in this cage when I acted up, so maybe he’s got a bit of the crazy in him. But he did leave me the blanket to keep warm.

‘I miss home; where I didn’t need to make my own decisions.’

There’s a loud creaking sound that breaks the silence of the room.

I quickly hide myself under the blanket. I leave just enough space to peek my eye out and see what, or who, is coming in.

Up the ladder came another pony. A cream colored one with a blue and pink mane. There’s something different about this one though, it’s missing its horn. Does that mean it’s just not intelligent?

Who am I kidding, that doesn’t matter. I need something that speaks my language AND is willing to help.

But I guess it couldn’t hurt asking this pony. It might understand me, or at least get the gist of what I want.

“Pony,” my voice deep and commanding. “I command you to release me from my prison.”

His face is contemplative, at least I think that’s what the expression is. It could just be confusion. His head shakes and he angrily says something I can’t understand. At least I think it’s anger, could be determination.

~”Don’t worry, I’ll save you.”~

It must be anger. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s probably going to try and kill me now.

Damn these crazy ponies.

It walks up to my cage. It turns and rears back, getting ready to buck telling me it’s a ‘he.’ I move back and make myself as small as possible in the cage.

‘I need to get out of here.’

Instead of attacking me, the pony hits the top of the cage flinging the top of the cage across the room.

The cage is open and I’m free to escape.

I stand to my full height and wrap the blanket around my body.

“FREEDOM,” I bellow loud enough to shake the house and the startled pony.

I jump from out of the cage, grab my backpack, and run down the ladder to the floor below. I’m only slightly slowed down by the low ceiling and the vases I accidentally knocked over.

The low ceiling forces me to crouch slightly and the broken glass is something I try to avoid stepping on with my bare feet.

The pony shouts something angrily and gives chase.

I run as fast as I can to escape the small creature. I’ll need to stop it somehow. It was that moment I caught sight of a large bookcase in my path and near, what I believe is, the house’s front door. All I’m going off of is the peephole on it.

I slow down as I get close, making it easier for me to grab the bookcase and pull it to the ground behind me. I hear a loud yelp behind me, confirming that I had indeed stopped him from chasing me, or at least hindered him.

It’s I quick sprint to the door and within seconds I’ve ripped it open, which is a somewhat Heraculean feat given the door is locked, and I dashed outside to freedom.

Outside, I’m surrounded by more tiny horses. Some flying with wings, some carrying things with magic from horns on their heads. They’re staring at me, their eyes wide, mouths open, and hooves stopped in their tracks.

The ground is dirt, the houses that surround me are thatch roofed architectural monstrosities that belong in a Dr. Suess book.

I need some time to process this, and what better place to that then away from these crazy and violent ponies. I look to my left and then to my right. On my left are more houses, and to my right is a forest. This forest looked just like the one I had been in before. It probably was.

The ponies begin walking, and flying, towards me. They start slow, but began to speed up.

I nervously pull the blanket tighter around my body.

There’s a lavender unicorn that says something and the others stop moving. Some even begin retreating. He begins to make his way towards me in their stead.

Without a second thought I run to the safety of the forest.

*Dusk Shine POV*

Was that a human? It can’t be those are supposed to be extinct.

“Dusk,” a masculine voice behind him drawled in its southern twang. “Whas that whut ah thought that wus?”

“I can’t believe it AJ. But get the others just in case. She ran to the Everfree forest, we’ll need to make sure she doesn’t get hurt. Tell everypony to meet me on the outskirts of the forest. There are a few things I need to get from the palace, and I’ll need to tell Barb what’s going on.”

He nodded and galloped as fast as he could to assemble our friends. I hope we can solve this quick and easy, but I have a feeling this is just a precursor to future conflict.