Author's Note

Just a heads-up... A few violence references ahead... Been working on this for a bit and hope its to yall's liking... As always, please like/dislike/comment... Thanks!

Library Meeting

As the women filed into the room, Tim felt it proper the stand and remove his hat as they approached the table. He stood at attention as the women circled their way around the table to their chairs and his actions didn’t go unnoticed by one of the women in particular. A woman wearing a form-fitting white summer dress with perfectly curled violet hair walked up to him and eyed him up and down, all the while with pleased smirk on her face. She placed a hand delicately to her chest just above the plunging neckline of her dress and took a half step back as she spoke.

“My, such a true gentleman, rising from his seat as a lady approaches the table,” she held her opposite hand to Tim, daintily bent down at the wrist as she batted her eyes at him. “I am Miss Rarity Bell, a pleasure to meet you, good sir.” Tim softly took her hand in his and gently shook it, politely smiling at the woman as he did so. As she retracted her hand, she brought it up to her hair and gave it a small flip, bouncing her curls and revealing a small ivory horn, very much similar to Twilight’s, just below her hairline. Tim was unknowingly starring at the unusual appendage, at least until an observant Applejack discretely slapped him on his knee with the back of her hand, breaking him from his trance. He awkwardly smiled at the purple-haired beauty, just as a pink blur filled his vision.

“Hi! I’m Pinkamena Diane Pie, or Pinkie Pie, or just Pinkie! Whatever you want to call me is A-OK in my book!” The young woman in front of him had took his hand with both of hers and was shaking it violently, her overly permed pink hair bouncing and swaying as she hopped in place. The wideness of her sparkling blue eyes was only rivaled by the even wider smile she sported as she continued to speak a mile a minute. “It’s sooooo nice to meet you! Oh! We need to have a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party for you! That way you can meet everyone in town! Doesn’t that sound exciting! We can have cupcakes! And punch! And games! Do you like games? Of course you do! Everyone loves games!” Tim could only stare at the bouncing woman before him dressed like some sort of street-ballet dancer- she wore a short sleeved denim jacket over a white shirt with balloons on the front which she had paired with a pair of dark blue capris type pants and a frilly pink skirt which matched the color of her hair. At about the time that Tim was sure the pink ball of energy was about to pull his arm from its socket, another woman from the group stepped up to intervene.

“Whoa there, Pinks, tone it down a notch,” a tanned, rainbow haired woman said as she grabbed the pink haired girl’s hands and literally pried them off of Tim. Other than her unique colored and spikey hairdo, this new woman seemed rather normal. She was about a head shorter than him and had an athletic build about her, which was obvious in the way she was muscling the hyperactive pink girl away from him. She pushed the girl around the table and into a chair, and upon sitting in the chair, Pinkie Pie crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at her friend. The athletic woman simply smiled at her as she turned and smoothed out her baby-blue track suit. Then, to Tim’s surprise, a pair of cyan colored feathered wings materialized behind her back and spread wide out past her shoulders. With a few slow flaps of the newly formed wings, she floated across the floor and landed directly ahead of Tim who promptly stumbled backwards at landed in his chair with a thud. The rainbow haired woman chuckled as she extended her hand down to Tim.

“Ha! Take it easy, big guy, I don’t bite.” Tim could only continue to stare in amazement as her wings folded up behind her back and faded out of existence. “The name’s Rainbow Dash, put ‘er there!” Tim took the woman’s hand was again surprised by the woman as she pulled him up out of the chair with ease and got him back on his feet. Tim found himself trying to look over the woman’s shoulder as she strongly shook his hand. Seeing this, Rainbow Dash smirked and called forth her wings again, rapidly spreading them to their full span out from her back. This time, Tim only stepped back from the winged woman instead of falling back into his chair, and hearing the woman laughing at him, Tim cut his eyes at her, not appreciating the joke. It was Rainbow Dash’s turn to be slapped on the front of her thigh by the seated Applejack, who was glaring at the woman as well.

“Damn, hayseed!” the track suit wearing woman stated as she rubbed her stinging thigh, starring daggers at the blonde at her side, “can’t you guys appreciate a little humor? How was I supposed to know the guy was gonna fall on his ass?” She turned back to Tim and pointed to the last unknown woman in the room. “I mean, didn’t you meet Fluttershy the day you got here? She has wings too, didn’t ya see hers? I didn’t think I’d spook you like that, but damn, that was rich!” She dissipated her wings once more as she turned and walked back around the table, still snickering and sitting next to the woman who was apparently named Fluttershy. The fair skinned, blue eyed woman hid behind her flowing pale-pink hair, slowly twirling a stand of her hair around her finger and looking nervously at her rainbow haired friend.

“Um, no, Dashie, I didn’t actually get to meet Tim because he, uh, was kind of unconscious at the time.” The shy woman then turned to Tim, crossing her arms across her chest and looked at him apologetically. Tim couldn’t help but noticed the woman’s large breasts under her yellow, long sleeved sweater as she spoke to him. “I’m, uh, so sorry about not properly introducing myself Mr., um, Tim, but you were being tended to by Nurse Redheart and Dr. Horse when I arrived and I was helping Applejack and Granny Smith see to Twilight… I didn’t mean to not let you see my wings and make you be less surprised when you saw Rainbow Dash’s wings; again, I’m terribly sorry…” She was interrupted by the purple haired woman in the white dress wrapping an arm around her and patting her shoulder.

“Dear Fluttershy, you simply have nothing to be sorry for, so don’t you dare apologize for Rainbow’s rude behavior,” Rarity then turned to the athletic woman, her blue eyes seeming cold as ice. “Besides, we all know how crude and improper Miss Dash acts when not under appropriate and direct adult supervision.” The rest of the women at the table, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, chuckled at the athlete’s expense. As Tim joined the others and sat down in his chair, he couldn’t help but smirk at the now aggravated Rainbow Dash who was slumped down in her chair with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. Tim leaned forward, crossing his arms and resting them on the table. He nodded to the group and raised one hand in a half-hearted wave to the group. “Well, hello, ladies,” he spoke as he smiled to the group, “it’s a real pleasure to meet all of yall. I really hope to be able to help ya out with yall’s situation here…”

“Hehehe!” he heard as he saw Rarity lean over and nudged Fluttershy slightly with her shoulder and whispered a little too loudly to her shy friend. “Why, he speaks with a southern drawl like our own Applejack! It suits him sooo well- quite adorable!” Tim shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat as his face took on a slight blush and he brought his hand up to his mouth to stifle a small cough. Fluttershy promptly let out a small “EEP!” as she slid down in her chair a bit as Rarity giggled just a tad bit more. With that, Rainbow Dash sat up in her chair and leaned upon the table as well, resting her elbows upon it as she dismissively waved a hand toward Tim.

“Yeah, yeah, he talks like a hayseed, too, big deal.” She rolled her eyes as she continued. “My question is what exactly is it that makes you so special that you had to be brought here by Twilight after all her egghead research?” Her and Tim locked eyes and seemed to be sizing each other up, Tim raising a brow at the athlete as she leaned back in her chair again and crossed her arms with a ‘well, what?’ type look on her face. Tim leaned back from the table and took his right hand into the palm of his left, cracking his knuckles loudly before reversing the process and cracking the knuckles of his left before crossing is arms at his chest with a snort, never breaking eye contact with the seemingly arrogant woman. “What exactly are ya wantin’ to know, Miss Dash?” Tim asked her, noticing the silence now surrounding the table.

“Exactly what I said, big man,” Rainbow Dash began, her gaze never faltering, “After knowing how much time and effort we have all put in trying to figure out what in the hell is goin’ on across half of Equestria and where in the world the princesses have disappeared to, not to mention the fact that Twily over there damn near KILLED herself exerting all of her magical reserves finding you and bringing you here after weeks of being locked up in this library! So,” she raised a hand and waved it around once more, “what you got to bring to the table, redneck?” she smirked at Tim, noticing his scowl deepen and his eyes squint at her. “Other than some greying hair, a crappy camo hat and jumping at the sight of wings, that is.” Rainbow Dash crossed her arms back across her chest and grinned at the man, earning a gasp from Rarity, a scowl from Applejack and stares from the rest of the group. Even the young man Spike, who had just stepped into the room from the kitchen with a tray of hot tea, stopped in his tracks and gulped at the tension in the room, resulting in him slowly backing to from where he came.

“Well,” Tim spoke, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table once more, but this time pointing a finger across the table at Rainbow Dash. “First off, you go and address me as a redneck like it’s a bad thing one more time, and I’m gonna force-feed you my ‘crappy camo hat’ with my size thirteen boot, ya feel me, Twiggy?” He watched as the rainbow-haired woman sank in her chair ever so slightly and a touch of worry come to her eyes. He cut his eyes to the side for a split second as he heard a low whistle from the blonde woman to his left. He brought his gaze back to the athlete before slowly scanning the table noticing the looks he was getting from the women, all of them seeming to want an answer to the question. He lowered his hand to the table, placing both palms down straight out from him. He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, locking eyes with the athlete once again.

“I guess I’ll just start at the beginning- as a kid, I grew up poor, wearing homemade clothes to school and getting bullied by everyone. The only meat we ever had on the table was what me and my ol’ man could bring down huntin’ or catch fishin’. I’ve always had a good head on my shoulders in school, mostly because if I made anything less than perfect marks I’d get beat at home with an old leather strap. I’ve worked fields, raised livestock, cut wood and helped raise my younger sisters. As I got older, I got mean. Got taller and stronger than the folks that gave me hell all through grade school and started gettin’ some get-back, fightin’ and drinkin’ hard liquor on a regular basis by the time I was fifteen. I was ridin’ bulls and bouncin’ at bars in town for cash after I graduated high school with one of the highest scores of my class, despite all the hell I was raisin’. Life only got worse then; I was homeless for a while and was fightin’ and stealin’ for money. Then, one night when I won a guys money who was a real sore loser, I got shot.” Tim leaned back just long enough to pull up the hem of his shirt to reveal a nasty looking scar just below his ribs on his left side, earning a wince from most of the table and a soft “Oh, dear!” from Fluttershy, “I decided I needed to slow it down a bit.”

“I got tired of runnin’ from the law and getting along by the seat of my pants. I got a real job doin’ maintenance work and got my life straightened out a bit. I still felt like I needed to right all the wrong I had done. Luckily, I had never been locked up, so I decided to try and get into law enforcement. My record came back as clean so I got the job. I started protectin’ folks from guys like I used to be. I started fightin’ the criminals and protecting the weak, and I was damn good at it. Hell, it even made me feel good, and the better I felt, the more I wanted to do for others. I went from just patrolling the streets to working on investigations; everything from burglaries and arson to rapes and homicides. I even worked for a gang intelligence unit for a while and got down deep in the underbelly of the workings of gangs such as the Surentos, the Bloods, the Crips and the Aryan Brotherhood, just to name a few. It was during that time that I met the woman of my dreams and got married and decided to raise a family.”

“Ann came from a great family; they were some of the best people I had ever met. We hadn’t known each other a month before I just knew I had to marry her. Ann gave me three beautiful kids- a boy and two girls- and I done anything and everything for them. My love for them and my need to keep them safe drove me even harder in my work. I wanted to make sure the world was going to be safe for the family I was buildin’ and I busted my ass to rid the world of folks I knew would hurt anyone I loved. I started to get a reputation on the streets as a take-no-shit hard-ass and it earned me a target on my back. The gangs started puttin’ hits out on me, and with a hefty price on my head I was constantly getting’ jumped and attacked, but I always came out on top, most times actually having to take the lives of those who were tryin’ to take mine. That’s when my world turned back to shit.”

Tim’s eyes were still locked on Rainbow Dash, who had now leaned forward upon the table and was listening to him intently. The man blinked a few times as he felt a burn in his eyes and looked to the others around the table, most of them sharing the same awed expression as the athlete. His gaze stopped at Applejack as tears slowly started to form at the corners of his eyes. The cowgirl saw this and leaned up ever so slightly and rested a hand on his knee in a small attempt to comfort the man. Tim smiled at her in thanks for the gesture before turning back to group. He sighed and brought a hand up to wipe his eyes as he continued.

“Since they figured they couldn’t get me directly, they’d get me the long way around. They went after my family.” The tears began to flow slowly down his cheeks as Tim coughed trying to keep his composure. “I was working the night shift as I had been doing for a few years by then. My wife had gotten the kids ready for the day and was fixin to take them to school. I had just ended my shift when I got the call from my wife that morning, just like I did every morning I was working, but this time it was different. I could tell right away something was wrong.”

“She was scared and crying. Ann told me someone was beating and banging on the outside of the house. I could hear my daughters crying in the background and my son trying to calm them down. I told her to just stay inside and I would be home soon. Just then I heard the sound of the door being kicked and my kids screaming… My wife was screaming ‘No! Stop! Get out!’ and then I heard the other voices. They were laughing…” Tim was visibly shaking and his voice was cracking and trembling, but he swallowed hard and kept on talking.

“I got home as fast as I could. I was seeing red when I got there and seen the door off its hinges. I ran up to the house and in the door…” Tim was staring holes through Rainbow Dash as he sat there, shaking with anger and fear from years ago. “The body of my sweet Annie was laying in the living room floor, slash wounds all over her arms from fightin’ her attackers and her throat cut clean through; she was gone. I looked up and saw four men coming down the hall from my kid’s rooms. They were laughin’ as they came into the room.” Tim gritted his teeth and forcibly clenched his eyes shut as he brought a hand to his head and ran his fingers through his hair, absentmindedly knocking his hat into the floor. He brought both his hands in front of him and stared into them, seeing something on them only he could, before he brought both fists down to the table with a slam, causing all six women to jump with a start.

“I… I killed them. With my bare hands. I don’t remember how, and to this day I still don’t care. I was cut up and bruised, but I was alive. When I stepped over them and went to find my children… I went in my son’s room… all three… throats cut… the stabs wounds… the blood…”

Tim lost it. He covered his face with his hands a shook, sobbing into his palms. The women surrounding him were in different stages of shock; Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie could only stare, mouth hanging and tears silently tracing down their cheeks. Fluttershy had her sweater sleeves over her hands and was wiping her face as Rarity sat trembling with a hand brought to her mouth and mascara stained tears streaking down her face. Rainbow Dash had done fell back in her chair, her hands clutching the armrests and her face wet with tears as well, shaking her head and staring down towards the floor. Applejack was crying as well, her Stetson now resting on the table before her, but unlike the others, she slid her chair from the table and went to Tim’s side. She bent down to him and wrapped him in a warm embrace, bringing the broken man tight into her breast, one arm around his back and the other cradling his head, softly stroking his salt and pepper hair. She wept with the man and held him close, no-one around the table daring to speak. It was only when Tim pulled his face up from the caring cowgirl’s chest and nodded to her, raising an arm and placing it around her and patting her back in thanks that Applejack let him go, pulled her chair closer to his and sat next to him, her right hand still rubbing his back tenderly. He stared back in Rainbow Dash’s direction, but seemed to be blankly staring straight through her.

“They were gone. All of them. There was nothin’ I could do to bring them back. I failed them- I failed in keeping those I loved the most from harm… it was all my fault. My world ended. I quit work. I didn’t even leave the house until it was time to go to court over the whole thing. Of course I was cleared for what I done to those men after the court seen what had been done to my wife and kids and my reputation as an honest and loyal officer in my region. Once it was all said and done, I sold almost everything I owned and left North Carolina. I was just goin… Didn’t know where, but I was goin. I ended up on the northwest coast of Alaska. I got a boat and kept goin even further. I didn’t want to be around anyone in any way shape or form. I lived off the land the best I could. I’ve suffered the brutal cold, sickness, broken bones, infections and weeks with nothing to eat but berries and roots when I couldn’t harvest any game. And I done it all alone for almost fifteen years. And now,” Tim raised his hands and spread his arms wide, looking at everyone around the room, “here I am.”

He brought his hands down on his thighs with a slap. His eyes were now focused back on Rainbow Dash; her expression now soft and mournful. Tim reached down and picked his hat up from the floor and placed it back on his head, clearing his throat and wiping his eyes for a final time. He ran a hand down over his short beard and crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned over the table. He continued staring at the athlete across from him. “Well, does that answer your question, Miss Dash? I don’t think I’m special by any means, but I’ve seen a lot, done a lot and been through a lot and I aint dead yet.” He expectantly looked at the woman, waiting for a response. All she could do was turn her head from the man and cross her arms back across her chest.

“Naw, bro,… I’m good.” She turned to face Tim, her eyes red and a somber expression still on her face. “I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to jump on you like that. I don’t want any hard feelings…” Tim interrupted her by holding his hand up and waving it dismissively. “It’s over and done. Frankly, I don’t want to talk about it anymore, so,” Tim stood from his chair and slowly walked around the table and across the room to the door. “Not to be rude, but I need a bit of fresh air. Now, if yall ladies will excuse me,” he said as he grabbed the doorknob and slowly opened the door, ”I’m gonna go for a little walk. I’ll be back in a bit.” With that, he stepped out the door and pulled it shut behind him. Silence once again took the room over as the women just sat at the table and took turns glancing at one another.

“Well,” Rarity spoke up, breaking the silence and drawing the rooms attention to her, “I feel simply dreadful for our new friend Tim,… I couldn’t even begin to imagine experiencing those dreadful things..” she brought a hand back to her mouth as her eyes began to tear up once again. The rest of the group simply stared down at the table, just shaking their heads. Suddenly, Applejack stood up, picked her hat up from the table and placed it upon her head and briskly walked across the room, stopping just in front of the door. She turned back to the group, a weary look on her face. “Ah’ma go after him. Don’t know when we’ll be back. Don’t wait up.” She nodded and disappeared out the door, the only sound was her boots fading in the distance as she ran down the steps and away from the library.