Chapter 2 - Crash Landings, Language Barriers,And Fine Messes

Chapter 2

Crash Landings, Language Barriers ,and Fine Messes

Braxton's reentry into reality went with all the grace of a boulder out of a trebuchet.

He awoke to find himself crashing roughly through trees and bushes within a dark, unknown forest. Though hardly a stranger to hard knocks and long drops, the explosion and subsequent fall through the forest was too much even for him, knocking him unconscious and subsequently causing him to lose control of the spell masking his true form.

Had any been present to witness his ungentle arrival to this new land, they would have seen Braxton was NOT the slightly-graying forty-year-old man who bore the mark of many battles, but instead a much younger looking adventurer with the body of a twenty-one-year-old. One whose physique may as well have been chiseled from solid granite, much to the dismay of the sculptor who broke many tools creating this vision of the male form.

Braxton would need all his youthful muscle and magic at that moment, for when he came to rest, the baldric of his sword caught upon a sturdy branch and yanked him hard, nearly wrenching his hip out of its socket. It arrested most of his forward momentum, though not quickly enough. The sharp end of an interposing branch pierced him through his breeches and nearly made him far less of a man. Thankfully he was aware of little of it to start, stunned by the force of the fall, or he might have immediately realized that his left side the arm was caught up in a nearby branch, twisted and broken, but still attached to him.

Kylnn Ka' Tar was the first to regain her senses, and so took stock. She was still quite angry at Braxton for doing something so foolish and stupid, but observing him now in the state he was in, she had never felt so utterly helpless. Worse, she could do nothing to assist him as she lost memory of all her spells, including the ones that might have helped heal him whenever Braxton lost consciousness.

“Braxton, please wake up! I can't help you in this state!” Kylnn Ka' Tar pleaded within Braxton's mind, trying to coax him into consciousness. It took five minutes before Braxton stirred, and he immediately wished he hadn’t. He drew a ragged breath as awareness of his injuries flooded him, leaving him in agony as he realized his state. The pain severe. He opened his mouth to scream but no sound was forthcoming.

“Thanks be to the benevolent gods you are alive!” Kylnn Ka' Tar said as relief flooded her voice—though Braxton himself might have begged to differ, unsure if being alive was a blessing or a curse. All he knew at that moment was intense and unyielding pain; his hip was pierced, his arm was broken, he was hanging in a tree by his baldric, and he knew damn well that accidentally breaking that Staff Of Magi was an absolutely idiotic mistake. He groaned as the pain washed over him in another wave, recognizing only then the state of his arm.

“Aw, shit…” Braxton grimaces as he saw it. He knew he had to reset it, and he also knew that when he did, it was going to hurt even worse than it did now. But he had do it—and secure the arm—before he could get himself down. Looking up to the branch upon which he hung, dimly visible in what seemed the deepening dusk of evening, Braxton saw a twig that looked like it would break under a little pressure. He reached up with his good arm for it, though as scraped up as it was, even that hurt. When the twig snapped the entire tree shook, and fresh pain welled up in new nauseating waves; he had to let it pass and the tree’s motion cease before he moved again.

“This is gonna suck…” Braxton placed the twig in his mouth and bit down hard. In one quick motion he reset his arm, thankfully getting it right the first time. A good thing, because he didn't want to do it again, as the pain was blinding. The ring on his left hand glowed a soft blue light in the deepening twilight. The artifact did its work as within a few minutes the pain became more tolerable and now left him to look over the branch that had nearly gelded him. Braxton once more bit down on the branch as, this time with a whine and ragged breathing, he let the branch slowly slide out of his impaled hip, withdrawing its bloody tip two inches but still leaving another two to go.

His head swam and his breathing was labored as he fought back waves of pain. While his lefthanded ring dulled the pain, he knew it couldn't heal him before he bled out and if he gave the ring time, it would save him in a roundabout way. Using his right hand to steady himself and his left to reach into the pouch at his belt, he withdrew one stick of chalk. His vision once again swam at the pain the motions produced, and he fought back unconscious. This was getting old quick and he needed it to end.

Braxton drew a crude window upon the trunk of the tree with the chalk. “Home is where my heart belongs,” he whispered softly in the melodic tongue of the elves. In response to his plaintive plea, the ring upon his right hand glowed with a soft auburn hue and he lifted the crude window as though it could open all the while.

Kylnn Ka' Tar heard Braxton utter that whisper while she kept lookout for any danger. If she had a body to feel her heartbeat within, she would have placed her hand over it, for she recognized it had been almost five decades since he had used her sister’s gift. “He must truly feel like a cornered animal,” she thought to herself.

By this time, Braxton had placed his hand into the open window and withdrew a glass test tube that glowed with a brilliant neon blue hue. He then used his teeth to pull the stopper out of it before spitting it back through the window. In one solid motion he pulled himself off of the impaling branch, got his baldric free of the other branch, and despite the nausea that wracked him along with the pain, he forced the potion down.

“Yeah, that’s the stuff…” The deed done and knowing he was saved, he let himself fall out of the tree to the soft mosses below, then rolled over on his back and allowed himself to pass out from the sheer pain. The liquid in the tube he drank did its work while he slept; before long the impaling wound and all his other myriad injuries had nearly healed.

Braxton awoke feeling exhausted and dehydrated, as though he had been in an all-night drinking binge with old friends.

In those, however, he didn’t wake up until noon the next day, and wherever he was then, it was night out. The stars were unfamiliar to him, but at the moment he didn't care, just grateful to be alive. His senses returning to him—and the pain he had felt almost entire subsided—Braxton sat up stiffly and checked his previously broken arm, finding the bone nearly completely healed. “How long was I out, old friend?” he asked Kylnn within his mind.

Kylnn Ka' Tar's voice was a mix of happiness and relief, but there was also an element of wariness. “Two hours. Your awakening is well-timed. I wasn't able to rouse you earlier to tell you that we have company out there. I can sense their approach."

“Company, you say…” Braxton understood the implications immediately and once more let his eyes become cat-like, his pupils becoming slits as his vision slipped into a black and white spectrum. “Then let’s see…” He turned his gaze outward, scanning his darkened surroundings.

It was then he saw them: Five wolf-like creatures made not of flesh but some sort of living wood. Their eyes glowed a sickly greenish-yellow and their hearts sent green-glowing blood throughout their bodies, visible through breaks in the tree-like bark that covered them instead of fur. “What the… never seen creatures like those!” Braxton thought, slowly sitting up so the wolves were not alerted to his awareness as they stalked and moved into position around their prey.

Still badly weakened and in no shape for a fight with unfamiliar adversaries, Braxton took his chalk and drew a door upon the tree he had so recently been impaled upon, opening it as he had done the earlie window. He then pulled himself inside into the tree and shut the door with his foot, mere seconds before the first wolf of the pack reached the point where Braxton had originally lay; he could soon hear it sniffing around for their lost quarry.

The house foyer where Braxton now lay, catching his breath for a moment, allowed him to look at the wolf in question as though behind a pane of solid glass. “What the hell are those things?” he wondered at Kylnn, who knew no more than he. Visibly confused but uncertain where he was, the wolf-like creature and its companions sniffed around the tree a couple times before giving up and then leaving to find other prey. Standing up on shaky knees, Braxton held onto the banister that was near the foyer entrance. Braxton whispered again within the tongue of the elves: “Fireflies and stars shall light my path.”

As if in answer to his spoken prayer, a beautiful crystal chandelier that adorned the ceiling lit up and illuminated the foyer that Braxton stood in, along with wall lanterns up the stairs like welcoming stars. In the new light of the home, a plush chair with a sheet over it as well as several other pieces of furniture could be seen, each with their own covering. Sitting on the stairs, Braxton removed his boots before dragging himself up the stairs to the second door on the right where his bedroom awaited.

Hanging his cloak upon a hook as he had done so many years before, he next put his leather armor on a mannequin so it would keep its form. Everything he wore had its place; he then picked up Kylnn Ka' tar and placed the sword that was her home over the headboard, before removing the sheet from the tall oval mirror and stripping himself down fully to look himself over. The hole at his hip was fully closed and scabbed over. He would need a bath in the morning. His arm was no longer sore, merely a little stiff, and under the last of his power he crawled into the only thing familiar in a world he knew nothing about.

A six-foot-two midnight-blue Alicorn walked softly down a corridor she had walked many times since returning from her banishment from the moon.

Her mane and tail waved as if in an ethereal breeze, the twinkling within looking like spiral arms of a galaxy of stars in the sky. Her midnight blue wings almost touched the floor as she walked with a purpose; her hooves make soft clicking sounds off the silent corridor. As she carried her work, the blue Alicorn wore a beautiful iridescent soft green gown that complemented her figure and allowed her total freedom of movement. She walked with arms outstretched; her two fingers and thumb playing softly over doors adorned with various symbols, each belonging to a different pony within her realm.

She was Princess Luna, Guardian of dreams, keeper of the moon and protector against nightmares.

Luna had just finished walking down the hall that held the dreams of many of her earth-bound ponies, finding nothing amiss. It was only as she rounded a corner that began a pegasus hallway that Luna felt a pulse of magical energy wash over the dream world like a sudden gust of wind. As she followed the pulse back to its source, which seemed to be at the three-hallway intersection of the three races of her realm, she saw no physical door there, nor should there have been.

However, magic belonging to all three races seemed to be collecting there, and there was something odd. Ordinarily the corridors were always immaculate, but this night, this particular intersection was bathed in a white dust. Luna touched the walls and some of the dust came off of the walls where she touched it. Luna lit her horn to see what the substance was on her fingers and was surprised by what she saw:

“What is chalk doing here?” She wondered aloud, as if the substance itself would answer her.

Though very curious, the mystery would have to be put on hold as Luna sensed that down the unicorn hallway there were foals in distress and nightmares that needed to be dealt with. Luna smiled and made her way off to help her little ponies with them.

Braxton awoke after a full night’s rest, a relieved Kylnn greeting him upon awakening and teasing him that it had been many years since he had slept that long.

Agreeing, he tended to his morning ritual of bathing, followed by dressing in a muslin shirt and fresh pair of black breeches, eventually donning all but his actual armor. Feeling far more himself, Braxton then made his way downstairs and into his study after grabbing some tea made fresh from his kitchen, sitting down at his sturdy desk where he kept his book of spells. This massive tome was almost a foot wide and nearly four feet thick, and weighed in at nearly one hundred pounds, with a thick golden clasp helping to keep it shut.

Despite its weight, Braxton opened it effortlessly with a mere motion of his hand; the clasp giving way as the book opened without sound. Setting his tea to one side, he sat down to study from the massive tome, soon pulling a second book from a nearby shelf, this one the size of a textbook and about as thick.

Returning to his tea, he mixed in some of the leaves and began to study from the massive book, jotting small notes into the blank book with quill and ink.

While Braxton studied, Kylnn Ka' tar's voice rippled softly within Braxton's mind. “So what is our plan?”

“Only three main objectives Kylnn…” Braxton turned the page and took a sip of the revitalizing tea. “Find food, explore where we are…” Braxton set down his tea and scribbled a few lines into his text book before finishing his sentence. “... and somewhere in there find our way back to Avawyvrenn.”

“Is that wanderlust talking, Braxton?” Kylnn Ka' Tar asked in a playful tone.

“Ask wanderlust all you like; that does not mean it will answer...” Braxton quipped while Kylnn Ka Tar giggled softly. “Asking me on the other hand? Yeah, it is...” Braxton set the book aside now that he had his cliff notes for the day. He then pushed the textbook to half its thickness, then folded it into fourths, reducing the large textbook to about the size of a pocket notebook. Ready for action—or as much as he could, given the still-lingering effects of his wounds and the curious circumstances he found himself in—he made his way upstairs to don his leather armor, and placed the book into one of its pockets. He checked the mail to make sure it was undamaged, and made his way over to the window he opened the previous night by his potions-mixing table with a mortar and pestle.

Taking two vials of the same glowing neon blue liquid he used the previous night, he placed them in leather loops located in the small of his back—one at the right and one at the left, protected but within easy reach if he needed them.

The sun rose over the Equestrian lands at the willing of its ruler, much as it had done every day for well over a millennium.

On this day, a four-foot eight-inch filly raced from her farm home at Sweet Apple Acres. No more than twelve years old with brilliant amber eyes, a mane and tail of fiery red, and a carnation pink bow that kept her back locks out of her face, Apple Bloom wore a mint green tee-shirt and blue jeans adorned with a simple black belt fastened with a brass buckle, same as she did most days. She was hurrying to join her two equally young friends that were already waiting for her, ready to try the latest activities to earn their cutie marks.

As she drew near their club house in the apple orchards, she spotted one of her friends, a four-foot-six snow-white unicorn only a month or two older with eyes of bright emerald and mane and tail of soft lavender and pink. Sweetie Belle wore a pink tee-shirt under a white open vest with her white slacks held in place by a green belt with a silver buckle, making her look a little better dressed than her friends. Then again, that was no surprise, given who her sister was.

“Mornin' Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom greeted her friend in a country drawl. “Sorry I’m late, But big sis wouldn't let me go till I did my mornin' chores. Has Scootaloo arrived yet?” She looked around for the third member of their group.

“Good morning, Applebloom. Yes, Scootaloo is in the clubhouse,” Sweetie Belle replied in a dignified and gentle tone, but greeted her good friend with a hug.

At the call of Scootaloo's name, a four-foot-five inch Pegasus filly with honey-orange fur, deep violet eyes, and a pompadour-styled mane and tail stuck her head out one of the club house windows, her smaller wings barely visible in the window's shadow.

“Hey Applebloom! Good you’re finally here, but you’re bit late, though!” Scootaloo mildly groused as she came out of the window of the clubhouse and gripped the floor of the wooden deck before swinging down from it. Scootaloo's wings gave the young daredevil-in-training just enough lift to glide and land safely, but not true flight.

“Had to do my chores. And I did say sorry, Scootaloo.” Applebloom took her seat next to Sweetie Belle at the table made from the stump of an old apple tree outside of the clubhouse. “So let’s get started and call this meetin' of the Cutie Mark Crusaders to order!” she announced theatrically.

“So what are we gonna do today?” Sweetie Belle asked with a smile.

“Well, my idea was that we try to get our cutie marks in bow making,” Scootaloo suggested.

“You mean like with ribbons and such for winter wrap up?” Sweetie belle asked Scootaloo, who shook her head.

“No sissy stuff like that. I mean bows as in archery! I hear the ponies in Canterlot Palace pay good bits for a decent bow,” Scootaloo explained, looking to both of the bewildered fillies.

“Okay, but… how in tarnation do we make one, Scootaloo?” Applebloom asked.

“Oh, that’s easy. I read it in one of Spike’s survivor stallion comics that he made a bow from a tree and braided grass and rocks for the arrowheads,” Scootaloo put a hand to her chin trying hard to recall all that was in the story. “Most, if not all of the things we could find lying around the Everfree Forest, because the comic said the Stallion used a piece of yew wood.”

“We could also grab Spike’s comic book for reference when we gather up all the materials,” Sweetie Belle chimed in as the idea hit her

“You can get it from Spike an’ I’ll put it all together...” Applebloom smiled, giving Sweetie Belle a look as she smirked playfully. “Besides, you like him, an’ I don't trust ya with carpentry tools.”

Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out at Applebloom, trying to hide the blush on her face. But she didn’t succeed, and it made Applebloom and Scootaloo giggle. “Let’s go fillies! We won’t earn our cutie marks sitting here all day!” Sweetie Belle stood up from the chair with a smile, as did Applebloom and Scootaloo.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders! YAY!” The three fillies chanted as they made their way out of the clubhouse to the Everfree Forest for the materials for their bows and arrows.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders soon made their way into the Everfree forest proper on a path they had taken numerous times to go to Zecora's hut.

Scootaloo soon found a large meadow area with dead timber and other materials they needed off the beaten trail, and it was there she and Apple Bloom began to collect wood for bows while Sweetie Belle made bow string from the long grass by braiding it.

The task too most of the afternoon, but as evening fell, , the CMC had gathered what they thought was enough materials to make multiple bows and arrows for each of them. They even came away with a bonus, in the form of shed feathers from some of the forest birds for the arrows, and after their successful foray, they bundled the collected materials up and tied them together with the fresh made bow strings. As they prepared to leave the clearing, they were oblivious to the six eyes that had been watching and studying the fillies for the last hour as the shadows in the Everfree Forest lengthened. Stalking, waiting for the perfect time to strike its ambush. Pulling in tighter and tighter circles it had its victim marked.

Oblivious to the potential danger, the girls picked up a bundle that each could carry: Scootaloo a medium bundle, Apple Bloom the largest, and finally Sweetie Belle the lightest. Satisfied, Scootaloo turned toward her friends. “Ready you two?” she asked.

Sweetie Belle nodded eagerly while Apple Bloom shifted her bundle to rest it on her right hip. “eyu...”

Apple Bloom's words were cut off by a loud roar as she was tackled by an eight-hundred-pound beast, and immediately screamed.

The fillies freeze in terror looking at what just attacked their best friend. The monstrous beast stood five feet at the shoulder, possessing the hindquarters of a black goat but the forequarters of a tawny lion. Upon its back laid a set of brownish-black dragon wings while the most attention was had at the front.

This beast had not one, but three heads belonging to the various creatures that comprised it, but looked all the worse for them being together. The first was a goat head colored pitch black with glowing amber eyes and long ocher horns, while the second was a lion head surrounded by a brown mane whose maw was filled with sharp teeth. The lion's head had its sickly glowing green eyes focused on Applebloom as it swiftly tore apart the large bundle she carried, separating her from it with its razor sharp teeth before finally pinning her down with a large paw. The long 3 inch claws sadistically raked across her chest slowly to both prolong her death, and to keep the other two morsels in the monster’s reach as they watched in fear.

“Help ME! ...HELP ME! HELLPP!” Apple Bloom screamed at the top of her lungs, not knowing who could save her.

The last head of this monster was that of a dragon covered in orange red scales and its eyes a soulless black. The head also looked toward the two shell shocked fillies and inhaled sharply before ejecting a stream of flame towards them.

Sweetie Belle was only aware of something warm running down her leg as Scootaloo acted to save them both. Dropping her bundle she turned and swiftly tackled a frozen Sweetie Belle before the flames could consume them. Scootaloo yelped loudly in pain as a few molten embers landed on her wing feathers.

Injured, on the ground and unable to escape should the beast attack again, she clutched Sweetie Belle, closed her eyes and waited to die with her best friends.

Braxton had just finished assembling a traveler's pack and had donned his armor when his keen hearing caught the scream of a child in distress not far from his temporary home.

He shut the window in haste and rushed back downstairs taking the steps two or three at a time before charging for the front door. He opened the entrance with his left hand, his right held back behind him. “Kylnn!” he called to her, and by the time his left hand had open and shut the door, his sword and scabbard was resting in his right. Braxton raced out of the house slamming the door behind him and heading with all his considerable speed for the sound of the screams.

The adventurer ran with all his might hoping to all the benevolent gods he was not too late; he had a few weaknesses but children in distress were one of them. The thought of their peril impelled him and in the span of three seconds Braxton had run nine hundred feet. Arriving at a clearing, Braxton spied what he thought was three children menaced by a monstrous beast; as he got closer he also saw the Chimera sadistically raking one child with its claws.

“Back, beast!” Braxton pointed his left hand at the chimera and five six-inch bolts of magical energy, each an inch thick, crackled to life. At his mere thought, they flew like missiles to strike unerringly upon their target, causing it to recoil in surprise and pain, turning its attention from the young girls to him. With his right hand he flipped the sword, changing his grip from the throat of the scabbard to the handle of the blade and flicked his wrist to part the sword from the scabbard. A sharp ring of steel seemed to announce the sword’s presence to the fight. Braxton jumped to close the distance just as the dragon head turned to breathe fire at him.

The fire breath of the dragon head hit two feet higher than Braxton's arcing jump as the chimera had fallen for an illusion that projected his position on the ground below where he actually was. It was a well-practiced tactic for him, one that had served and saved him many times in the past. And now it would save three young girls who were turning towards him in astonishment and desperate hope as he brought his sword overhead in an overhead strike, targeting a wing to prevent the Chimera from taking flight.

The blow struck true, cleaving the right wing from the Chimera with a sickening splash of black blood. The dragon head howled in pain while the unaffected lion one turned with surprising speed, whirling its entire body to take a wild swipe at him. Braxton pirouetted away from the lion using a back cross parry to deflect the claws of the Chimera, which in turn left the dazed dragon head exposed. The seasoned fighter then seized the opportunity and, in a single masterful stroke, severed the dragon’s head from the Chimera.

The chimera howled in frenzied pain as it sought to get away from a situation it wasn't prepared for, abandoning the three girls and fleeing as the hunter became the hunted. Not about to let it escape, Braxton reared back and hurled Kylnn Ka’ Tar at the now fleeing chimera. The sword tumbled end over end trailing a streak of blue light before it struck, burying itself in the creature’s chest up to the hilt while piercing a lung and the beast’s black heart.

The chimera crumpled as the goat head gave one last bemoaning bleat and the light left its eyes. The body shuddered once as a pool of black blood began to slowly spread out around the fallen beast as its life left and the forest seemed to return to its silent foreboding state.

His foe vanquished, Braxton rushed to the side of the first child that the chimera had been working over. As he looked to the young child, he quickly realized from her equine features that she belonged to a race he hadn't seen before, but that detail that would have to wait. “Easy, lass, you’re safe now…” he promised her as he broke open a small personal first aid kit pouch on the left thigh of his Mithril greaves. Braxton began to staunch the wounds left by the claws and took a vial from its holder on the left side of the small of his back. He pulled the stopper from the vial and placed his thumb on the child's chin to open her mouth and poured a third of the liquid into her mouth before using his thumb and two fingers to hold her nose and her mouth shut. Though it tasted awful, Apple Bloom reflexively swallowed.

Given the shallow nature of her wounds, far less severe than his the previous night, the potion’s effect was instantaneous. Awakening immediately, and with memories of the Chimera still fresh in her mind, Apple Bloom's eyes shot open in terror as she recognized the alien above her and flailed her arms trying to get away. Her hand hit the blue vial , sending it flying and shattering against a tree as she skittered backwards towards Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who reflexively hugged her and each other after their close call, staring in wariness and fear at the newcomer.

With adrenaline still coursing through their veins, the effects of pain had not been felt, yet their focus was no longer solely upon the chimera but the alien creature before them. He was a tall figure nearly as tall as Celestia herself, who stood on two legs as they did, but didn't have hooves. This creature also had two extra fingers upon his hands, hair that looked like silver and his eyes a shade of blue they had only ever seen in stones.

His armor was strange as well; it had a almost soft iridescent green sheen against its black backdrop that the light danced across as he moved. He wore a modeled cape with a hood that also possessed that same iridescent sheen. By the time they returned their gaze to his face they saw that the sword he threw earlier was upon his back once again, but he hadn't moved from where he had been to retrieve it.

“Okay. You clearly haven’t seen my kind before. Then let’s try this…” he mused aloud, realizing they didn’t understand his language.

What bewildered the three frightened fillies the most was that he didn't close the distance but knelt to their eye level and made a slow pinch like motion with his right thumb and index finger. Scootaloo, and Applebloom held their breath as he moved slowly to take a glowing neon blue vial from behind his back. Setting it upon the ground, he held up his right hand and pulled on one of the laces that held his hooded cape he wore. Removing it, he set it on the ground next to the vial and, to their astonishment the cloak turned to mimic the ground,becoming nearly imperceptible so the figure set the vial on the cloak, and backed away slowly.

The fillies released the breaths they had been holding as he backed away, still clutching each other with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle still burned and in pain. But they held it again as they watched him point to the vial and then to Scootaloo. He pantomimed a drinking motion and held up one finger.

“I’m th-thinkin’ he... he wants you ta dr-drink that Sc… Scootaloo,” Applebloom stuttered to her pegasus friend, wondering what had happened to Sweetie Belle. She looked at her friend who seemed to be in a near catatonic state from the shock she suffered, beginning to shake slowly at first.

A soft whistle got their attention as the fillies looked the figure pointed to the cape and made a motion to wrap himself in it and pointed to Sweetie Belle. The look in his eyes said “now.”

Scootaloo moved quickly, the pain was starting to become more prevalent as the adrenaline wore off and the burns from her wings made themselves known. Obeying the stranger’s instructions—he had seemingly saved Sweetie Belle, after all!—he quickly wrapped Sweetie Belle in the cloak as her shaking became more and more pronounced, but not before she suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream and collapsed within the cloak and Scootaloo’s embrace, breaking down sobbing as she did so.

With Sweetie Belle for the moment taken care of, Scootaloo then focused her attention on the mysterious blue vial. Taking a better grip and removing the cork from it, she took a good swallow. The taste was horrible but the results were amazing, as the pain from her wings seemed to fade away immediately once she recovered from the taste. Scootaloo couldn't help but look to the figure in wonder, before he pointed towards Applebloom and mimicking a drinking motion, her attention immediately focused on her friend's well-being and she approached quickly.

“Here, Apple Bloom! Drink this. It tastes horrible, but it takes away the pain,” Scootaloo said as she gave the vial over to Apple Bloom.

Applebloom blinked through her tears as the pain was getting worse than the time she cracked a hoof last summer. Taking the vial into unsteady hands she drank the last of it down and dropping it when she emptied it. Scootaloo had warned her of the taste but it was near vomit-inducing and it was all she could to keep it down. She couldn't argue with the effects, though, as the pain seemed to melt away and she was soon able to relax and gather her thoughts.

The figure pointed once more to the now white unicorn filly in the cloak and brought his arms forward like a pair of forks for carrying lumber. The two girls took a moment to process this realizing the figure was asking to carry their unconscious companion.

“Can't ya talk, mister?” Applebloom asked the figure whom looked to her but didn't answer, making only the same motion asking again. With a glance at each other, the girls moved aside and the figure picked up Sweetie Belle gently in his arms. Once he had her situated, the figure craned his head in the direction deeper into the forest. The girls merely shook their heads no—they’d been told over and over not to go home with strangers, after all, and instead started heading back towards Ponyville at a smart pace, motioning for the figure to follow them.