The Princess Fair of Everfree

by Briarpelt

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, Applejack, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Angel, Rarity, Fluttershy
Length: 3600

King Sombra's army is strong. Much of Equestria lies in ruins, and that which is left has been working itself to the bone to provide for the Equestrian army. Yet as the last of hope fades, one will rise to fight a final battle--for Everfree.

THIS STORY SUCKS AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIX IT. The only reason I'm not deleting it outright is because I may have some brilliant idea that magically makes it work sometime in the future.

King Sombra's army is tearing across Equestria, despite the valiant efforts of Celestia's forces. Much of the kingdom lies in ruins, and the ponies still at home have been working themselves to the bone to provide for the fighters. But as the battle approaches the Everfree Forest, its fearless guardian princess shall rise to protect it in one final battle.

"We shall stand. We shall endure. We shall remain guardians of true freedom eternal."

Written for FanOfMostEverything's Imposing Sovereigns Contest.

Published 2017-03-19 06:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-03-19 06:30:01 UTC

Chapter 1

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Chapter 2

The years, after that day, passed quickly. Fluttershy spent half her waking time caring for a growing community of small woodland creatures around her cottage, and the other half in the Everfree, learning its ways and discovering its secrets. Under those arching boughs, all her shyness seemed to melt away; what the ponies of Ponyville feared, she loved and thrived in. But she was afraid that if anypony knew, they would fear her, too, or they would come and take the forest away from her. They would change it, cut down its trees, drive out its many unique species. So she kept her second life a secret, and pretended to be deathly afraid of the strange wood.

She grew from a long-legged filly into an attractive teenager, and her tea parties with Rarity turned into spa sessions. Other than that, her life was peaceful and calm, little changed from the way it had been since she first moved to Ponyville. But five years after her arrival, something happened that forever changed her life. The Everfree Forest came under attack.

She learned of it through a breathless hummingbird who had zipped to warn the inhabitants of her cottage about the danger. “The Fire-Serpents! They’re coming! They’re coming to take over the forest!” she twittered, zipping around the garden in agitation.

Pandemonium broke out. Squirrels, chipmunks and mice raced around the clearing in various directions, while birds of all colors and sizes fluttered through the air. Fluttershy, at the center of it all, stood frozen, the hummingbird’s message sinking into her head. My home! They’re coming for my home! She wanted to break down and cry, or go hide until it was over. She stared at her beloved trees, imagining them burnt to form the serpents’ dwellings, or torn down in the conquest. She watched her animals, the ones who looked up to her for care, race hither and thither in total panic. And something inside her said, No.

I’m not going to let them take over my home, she thought. Then, she said it aloud. “I’m not going to let them take over my home. Our home.”

Every animal in the clearing stopped to stare at her. “That’s right,” she continued, “they’re not going to take over. I won’t let them.” Now firm in her resolve, she directed the most helpless creatures to various safe spots, and asked the most capable among them to prepare to either fight or help heal the injured. Spontaneously, with the small forces she had, Fluttershy prepared for battle. She went into her kitchen and chose the sharpest, wickedest knife she possessed. Weasels, cats, otters and wolves all sharpened their claws, and without another word, they raced into the forest towards its southeastern edge, where the fire-snakes slithered to their newly-sighted kindling.

Fluttershy herself led the charge. Fuelled by anger and fear for the Everfree, her wings buzzed faster and stronger than she had known they could. She wove around trees, soared over rivers and ravines, and dashed onward, knife in her mouth. Then she burst through the final branches, into an open field, and saw them.

The Fire-Serpents glowed with scales like embers, in colors from blood-red to bright yellow. Their eyes were black, like dead coals, set in their large, flat heads. Tongues of flame licked from between their jaws, and the earth was scorched beneath them where they slithered. The serpents were massive, ranging from one to two feet thick, and great lengths of coiling tail stretched behind them. And they were led by the hugest serpent of all, a good 5 feet at his thickest, whose body rippled with all of the colors of a raging forest fire. In his forehead was set an obsidian disk.

Fluttershy screeched to a halt in midair as she saw the towering monster. Her wings snapped to her sides and she fell, quaking, terror filling her breast and immobilizing her completely. She stared up at the King of the Fire-Serpents, rooted to the ground, hyperventilating. But as she gasped in air, something else entered her lungs: smoke.

She coughed, chest burning, eyes stinging. The pain snapped her out of her terrified trance, though her fear did not lessen. The Fire-Serpents had hardly noticed her, and continued to slither towards the forest. They’re almost there! I have to do something! She remembered her knife and sprinted towards the nearest serpent, slicing at its yellow-orange scales. Smoke billowed from the wound. Around her, the animals who had followed her launched their attacks.

The snake she had cut shrieked, a terrible sound somewhere between a hiss and a screech. It turned on Fluttershy, and she leapt into the air, just barely evading its wicked fangs. Though Fluttershy was terrified, though her world was a blur of fire and sky, she managed a single coherent thought: I can’t believe I just did that! I actually managed to wound it! Her heart rose now with the flame of courage beginning to kindle within it, a flame igniting to destroy the fires that would burn her home.

The serpent lunged at her again, and she dove to avoid its jaws, slicing at the underside of its neck as she passed it. Around her, she heard the pained hisses of other snakes and the shrieks of wounded animals, mingling in the sound of battle. Fluttershy rose above the reach of the serpent she fought, briefly surveying the scene, and her heart wrenched.

Though the serpents had halted their approach to engage her and her friends, it was clear that the battle would be short. Animals howled as their paws, used to claw the burning skin of the snakes, were scorched. A cat screamed as she was crushed in the burning coils of a bright red snake; a wolf’s cry was cut off as he was snapped in half by the powerful jaws of a blindingly white one. Few serpents had been injured, and none were dead. And the king of them all slid forward still, towards the forest.

The king! Fluttershy’s heart quickened as she saw him mere feet from the tree line, and without thinking, she dove in his direction. With a battle cry that rang across the battlefield, she charged, and sank her blade into the king serpent’s neck. He roared and whipped his head toward her, and she pulled her knife out just in time, tumbling backwards out of the spot where his jaws had just snapped. She caught herself, pulling out of her aerial loops, and shook her head to clear it, but she saw the head coming a split second too late. The king grasped her tail in his mouth, and whipped his head back and forth, attempting to drag her with it. But the end of Fluttershy’s tail crumbled to ash at the fiery snake’s touch, and she flew free, shooting upward and spinning around, batting at the flames to try and put them out. Pain seared her hooves, but her tail was no longer aflame, and she dove once again toward the snake.

This time, she aimed for his eyes. Charging towards his head, she turned the knife in her mouth so that it pointed straight down, and squeezed her own eyes shut in preparation for the squishy impact.

It never came. Instead, her right side was hit with a heavy, scorching blow. Her eyes flew open as she hurtled through the air, once more out of control, and saw the forehead of the King Fire-Serpent follow through with the strike. He had hit her backwards, and she flew towards his tail, which waited to coil around her body and crush her to death. But as he had anticipated her attack, she now anticipated his, and turned in midair, using her wings to push herself even faster toward the tail. At the last moment, she rolled around it, slicing it open with her knife. Then she dove, as the serpent’s head shot after her, and pulled up just in time for it to crash into the ground.

Seeing her opportunity, Fluttershy folded her wings and plunged straight downwards. Using her own weight to strengthen the force of the blow, she drove her knife into the very center of the obsidian disk on the King Fire-Serpent’s forehead. It cracked, splitting straight down the middle, and a great cloud of burning smoke poured out. Then everything went white.

Chapter 4

Fluttershy felt herself floating gently downward, and then her hooves—no longer sore from their scorching—touched the earth. She opened her eyes, and the white light all around her faded, revealing the silver-barked trees of the Everfree Forest. Something felt different, but she wasn’t sure what it was. There was a pool of still water before her, so she trotted over it, thinking that a glance at her reflection might clear things up.

Indeed, it did explain why she was feeling so strange, but raised many more questions in its wake. Fluttershy looked down and saw, in addition to her wings—which seemed to have grown quite a bit—a long yellow horn spiralling out of her forehead. “What in the world?” She gasped. And to her surprise, someone answered.

“All hail Fluttershy, Princess of Everfree.” She turned, and saw a familiar white face behind her.

“Athena!” And it was indeed the same owl who had led her to the Everfree, five years ago, bowing to Fluttershy with wings outstretched. “Athena, what do you know about this? Why…” she trailed off as she remembered something the owl had said on that first night they’d met. “I think it’s time for you to tell me how you knew who I was, all those years ago.” The owl nodded in response.

“Follow me, Your Highness.”

They flew over the treetops, Fluttershy adjusting as she went to compensate for the added length of her wings. Before long, however, Athena dove into a deep canyon by the ruins of an ancient castle. Fluttershy followed, landing a little roughly, but she hardly noticed as she took in the sight before her. A tall silver tree stood in a cave beneath the cliff, its branches trailing strings of silver spheres. It had a great, six-pointed star at its heart, and five orbs positioned along the largest branches. A clear, faint music issued from it, singing long chords that reached straight to Fluttershy’s heart.

“What is it?” She whispered, hardly daring to disturb the pristine harmonies that hung in the air.

“The Tree of Harmony,” Athena replied. “When I was young, I came here, as all owlets born in the Everfree do. I slept in its branches for one day, and while I dreamed, it spoke to me.

“It told me that one day, a pony would fall from the heavens with the ability to speak to other animals, a pony with eyes like the turquoise depths of the sea. It said that this pony would rise to become the Guardian of the Everfree, and that she would one day ascend to a form that would aid her in her battles to protect the land. And when I woke, I remembered the Tree’s voice, and I spent every night after that time watching the sky, searching the ground, and waiting for such a pony to arrive. Every night, that is, until your arrival. When I heard tell of a pegasus filly who had fallen from Cloudsdale that morning, I immediately flew over to find you—and you know the rest.”

“But I didn’t know Alicorn ascension was even possible,” Fluttershy wondered. “How did it happen to me?”

“Ascension can happen when somepony who has just performed a remarkable feat, tied to their destiny, is exposed to enormous amounts of magic. When you killed the Fire-Serpent king, all of his magic came pouring out in the smoke that had flowed through his veins. It was enough to trigger your transformation.”

“The Fire-Serpents! I almost forgot! What happened to them? Did we win?” Fluttershy yelped, looking to Athena. A surge of panic rose in her once again, but it was quickly quelled by the Barn Owl’s nod.

“Yes, indeed. You defeated their king, and the rest of them fled after that. The fires they ignited have been put out. You needn’t worry about them anymore.” Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief.

That night, the newly-crowned princess lay in her bed, unable to sleep. With Athena’s help, she had managed to cast a spell that hid her horn and made her wings look like they had before. Tomorrow, she planned to go to another village, hidden under a cloak, to commission a suit of armor and a sword. But there was still something troubling her.

I defeated the Fire-Serpents, she told herself. The Everfree Forest—my home—is safe, and so is everything living within it. I ascended to Alicornhood, for Faust’s sake! I’m a Princess! What is wrong with me?

But the answer came quickly. I killed, she thought. I caused living creatures pain, I led a dozen innocent animals to their deaths, and I murdered a sentient creature. I’ve never even squished a spider before. She grabbed her pillow and hugged it to her body, feeling tears leak out from her eyes and sobs wrack her body. I am a horrible pony. I may have doomed an entire species to extinction. But what else could I have done? Let the Everfree burn? I couldn’t do that. She lay awake for hours that night, until she finally cried herself to a deep, dreamless sleep.

In the years following, Fluttershy’s double life grew even more contrasted. She was renowned for her kindness and shyness in Ponyville, and though the Everfree was often peaceful, she grew bold and fearless. She practiced fighting with her sword, and grew strong and precise with her magic. She attached blades to her wings, and all who battled her fell. She strangled and beheaded would-be Minotaur invaders, blasted away the Harpies, and burned the Hydras. Sometimes, greedy ponies would come too, hoping to sell the Everfree’s wood and land. Those, she dispatched with a quick stab to the heart.

But as the years wore on, fewer and fewer enemies came. Perhaps she had simply killed them all, or perhaps they had heard of the fierce Warrior Princess of Everfree, and feared what they knew. But either way, Fluttershy’s beloved forest grew peaceful, and her secret self became more like her normal self by default—within her kingdom, only kindness was needed, and though she was confident and free, her vicious side slowly receded until it was nothing but a memory. And then the Crystal Empire returned, and even the memories were tucked away as she focused on her task and faded into emotionless routine.

Prologue

Author's Note

You're here? Well, maybe you mis-clicked. In case you missed the warning on the long description, this is a terrible story and I'm only keeping it around for the chance that I may be able to salvage it sometime in the distant future. When I saw the Imposing Sovereigns prompt, I chose the "Fluttershy/Warrior" pairing because I thought it might be an interesting challenge, something that few had even considered before... turns out, that's because Fluttershy isn't a violent, warrior-type pony. She's just not. Especially not in the scenario that I've created here, which is riddled with plot holes and confusion. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, THIS IS REALLY A TERRIBLE STORY. Maybe someone with more creativity and inspiration could fix it, or maybe I just took it in the wrong direction entirely, but at the moment, I have no idea how to make this work.

Prologue

The skies were shrouded with clouds of dust. Little rain had fallen on the weary land of Equestria for years. The ground was parched, and the streets of Ponyville mostly deserted. Few but the farmers remained, and they barely had time to rest as they worked nearly nonstop to produce enough food for a country at war.

Ponyville was one of the last farming towns. It also ran a small center of clothing production, as three of its residents had the means to manufacture uniforms, blankets, and other cloth necessities: Fluttershy, who raised and sheared sheep; Loom Rhythm, who wove the wool into cloth, and Rarity, who sewed the final products together. Between the three of them, they figured, at least a few more resources were being produced for the war effort. For Fluttershy, at least, it was the best she could do from her home. No matter how disastrous the situation became, nothing could drive her away from her little cottage at the edge of Everfree.

Her life had become routine: Wake at dawn to feed the chickens, have a light breakfast of canned apples and grainy bread (the entire kingdom was on rations, after all), then go out to tend the sheep and shear those whose wool was long enough. She’d spend all day working with them, stopping only for a brief lunch, then deliver the day’s harvest of wool to Loom Rhythm. It wasn’t particularly hard work, but it was solemn. She had a lot of time to think; a lot of time to worry.

Today, a bit of rain blew over from the Everfree Forest. It meant a slight change had to be made in the schedule, as all the sheep had to be moved into the small barn Fluttershy owned, so that the wool wouldn’t get wet. She hustled them inside with whispers and murmurs, but hardly heard her own voice; a longing had come over her, a deep longing to stand in this cooling rain and let it wash her toil away. She dreamed of diving into the Everfree and letting its powers merge with hers, leaving behind the war and the dryness and the terrible, terrible quiet.

That day, something inside her woke. Something that had long been sleeping, buried under monotony and worry, that had died a little each day until she’d been left almost empty—silent, but for the dry whispers that issued automatically from her throat to speak with the sheep and chickens. Her whole world had rung with silence, and her mind had been occupied with worry. But today, it rained.

Even within the barn, she could hear the rhythmic beats as each drop fell, beating down the dust in the air and causing a smell of freshness, of life, to rise from the grass and the trees. And a feeling sparked inside her, a feeling of hope, of wanting, wanting to live again. And so did a feeling of pain arise, sorrow for the years that had been wasted in this way, for all those who had lost their lives either to fighting or to feeding the fight. This isn’t fair, this isn’t right, she thought. So many lives wasted. And a strange feeling started to grow inside Fluttershy, the gentlest of ponies, who had only ever sought peace: rage. And the rage woke old memories.

Chapter 3

Fluttershy woke, finding herself floating in a vast expanse of blue. It was studded with points of white light, and a path of stars seemed to stretch before her. Oh my goodness! Am I dead? Did I kill the serpent? Is the Everfree safe? What just happened? Questions flooded her mind, but no answer came. She looked around and saw that she was alone. With nothing else to do, she walked down the path.

Epilogue

It had been a month since the day of the rain. Fluttershy was living and feeling again, spending any moments of her free time wandering amongst her trees and breathing in the scent of their life. Loom Rhythm had noticed the difference, and often remarked on how well Fluttershy looked when she came to drop off the day’s wool. Fluttershy just smiled each time, and returned the comment before heading back home.

Then, one night, an alarm sounded. Keen Eyes, the pony who had been stationed to watch the town that night, charged into Ponyville.

“They’re coming! They’re coming! King Sombra’s forces are here, and they mean to destroy Ponyville!” Everyone who heard understood immediately. Ponyville was the last major food supply for the Equestrian armies; take Ponyville, and Celestia’s army would be starved out. The whole town, small as it was, shot into panic. Then, a strong voice with a cowgirl twang rang out:

“Farmers, git yer pitchforks and any weapons you got. We’re gonna fight for this here town, and we’re gonna make sure that ol’ Shadow-Face cain’t take it easy.” At Applejack’s call, the ponies raced for their homes to follow her command.

In a small cottage at the edge of Ponyville and the Forest of Eternal Freedom, someone else was preparing for battle. The fiercest fighter Equestria had known in centuries dawned her battle armor and raised a long, sharp sword in her pink telekinesis. A pair of turquoise eyes, deep as the sea, narrowed. And as elegant wings bore her into the air, Princess Fluttershy could be heard to chant under her breath,

“We shall stand. We shall endure. We shall remain guardians of true freedom eternal.”

One last battle, she thought, determination and rage burning in her heart once more. One last fight. For Equestria, and for Everfree.

As Sombra’s army reached the town’s border, the army of farmers charged forward, Applejack as their leader. The first sounds of battle rang out, and Fluttershy dove. She aimed straight towards the center of Sombra’s forehead, just as she had targeted the forehead of a fiery snake, long, long ago.