A Change in Strategy

Stratus Fairweather wiped sweat from her brow and took a long sip from her glass of lemonade. The hot pink silly straw helped improve the flavor, Pinky swore.

Today was the day. The day when all of her packets and parcels finally arrived. The small town of Ponyville had seen quite the stir this morning as a specially scheduled train arrived full to bursting with wax-paper wrapped boxes and crates. A legion of earth ponies had poured from the train to help haul all of the various goods and objects down the main street to the Fairweather Flarket. Stratus had pitched in with the other laborers, even though her weak physique could only handle a fraction of the weight. Mostly she took a supervisory role and directed the workers on where to place the various strange goods were to go.

First thing first: storage space. This included all of the shelves and tables inside the shop that would be used to house the goods. Then the rows of tall shelves that were placed in the warehouse, and the slightly shorter ones that went in the freezer room attached to said warehouse.

After several hours, and with no sign of the flood of items ceasing, the ponies of Ponyville decided that they'd stood around gawking enough. An ad-hoc holiday of sorts was declared and the mares and stallions of the rural town got to work getting, in a certain farmer mare's words, "that darn train out of our way!"

With the villagers' help the process was much faster. Brightly colored fruits, vegetables, and plants were stocked in various bins. Claws, teeth, and other strange and foreign animal parts were placed in display cases. More exotic food was frozen until specially ordered. Half the citizens of the town couldn't make heads or tails of what most of this stuff was even for. Those that did know, however, were suitably excited for Stratus' taste.

One Twilight Sparkle was practically sprinting around the store, gasping in excitement like a foal on Hearth's Warming with every new item brought in.

"Basilisk tails?! Those sell for a fortune in Canterlot, nevermind the travel time! Oh my Celestia, is that Wither Root? And leaves of Primary Sage?"

The poor mare seemed like she was about to faint with shock. Stratus chuckled softly and put down her glass of lemonade, thanking Pinky for it. The ever-smiling earth pony had put on a little barkeep outfit that was absolutely adorable and handing out glasses from a cocktail shaker.

"I told you I'd have quality wares, didn't I?" Stratus said, only a little smug.

As Twilight was chattering on Stratus began to cough. It was light at first, but soon she couldn't hide it anymore. The hacking grew more intense until her body was wracked with spasms. Small flecks of red spattered the golden fur of her arm, and she quickly tried to hide it.

When she looked back up from her fit she saw Twilight standing there, eyes wide and completely locked up. Stratus gave the purple mare a wan smile, "It's alright Ms. Spa- Twilight. I've been this way my whole life. I just... overdid it today."

Twilight placed a gentle lavender hoof on Stratus' shoulder and the two locked amethyst eyes, Twilight's holding a look of deep concern.

For reasons she couldn't quite define, Stratus' eyes strayed to the unicorn's face. Her little button nose with the slight indentations of reading glasses. The rounded cheeks beginning to crease with laugh lines after a lifetime of scholarly isolation. That one decidedly vibrant stripe in her hair...

She's really cute, Stratus thought, and gave the silly librarian goofy grin.

Twilight saw the smile and then tried to pull away smoothly and without blushing. She failed.

It was only then that Stratus noticed something was wrong, and the shouting reached her ears.

Scarlet Ember was not doing okay.

Night after night, day after day, for almost two weeks. It would be little things. She would catch a golden reflection in a plant pot that reminded her of Stratus' hair. Or she would see a flower whose purple hue matched the eyes of that thrice-cursed she-devil to a T. She just could not escape thoughts of her new neighbor, no matter how hard she tried.

And Celestia knows she'd tried hard. She hadn't actually seen Stratus except for very infrequently when they would pass on the street, and she hated that it was always the highlight of her day. That tall, slender figure with her massive wingspan was impossible to miss. She stood out like a bonfire at night.

Today, though, she'd given up the ghost. Everypony was helping unload Stratus' stuff into the mare's store, and as anxious as Scarlet was about seeing her again, she wouldn't let a little thing like that stop her from helping out a fellow pony! Her earth pony bloodline practically boiled at the thought. So she'd gotten off her ass and went to help like the rest of the town.

She was walking down the middle of Mane Street with a heavy box wrapped in her hooves when she heard the first shouts of alarm. She looked over and what she saw made her blood freeze.

Charging down the road was a Manticore. An honest-to-Celestia, fully grown, adult manticore. The leonine head was snarling ferociously, its massive claws dug furrows into the ground that were a meter long, and the dull red tail extending out from its back dripped with a dark green poison that hissed and spat when it hit the ground.

The roar it let out knocked her and many other ponies off their feet as they stumbled back. Scarlet's box tumbled to the dirt and rolled heavily, coming down with a clonk a few feet from her.

She sat, heart skipping beats with fear, paralyzed, until she realized where the thing was heading. She saw the look in its eyes. Hunger. Pure, animal, and raw. It passed cowering ponies without even a second glance. The beast's hungry eyes never looked away from Stratus' shop. At this rate, at that speed, it would level the building just by slamming into it.

It's going to kill her... Scarlet thought.

Something filled her, then. An emotion she had never felt, and a feeling she could not describe. It was like... light had fused with her limbs. And there was only one thing she could do.

Scarlet moved.

The roar shook the building that Stratus, Twilight, and Pinky sat in, causing all three of them to freeze in panic.

"What was that?" Stratus asked, worried. She could hear something. A noise like a dull drum, pounding. And it was getting louder.

She hopped off of her stool and went to look out of the front window. The Manticore greeted her, only a few strides away, teeth bared in a sickening grimace.

Time seemed to slow for her as the beast charged. She couldn't believe it. Was this really happening? Was it some strange dream? She felt weak. So very weak, all of the sudden. She dropped to the floor and her vision started to fade. But not before she saw a red blur impact the side of the Manticore with enough force to shatter her front window.

Hours later, Stratus was still being patched up by Nurse Redheart at the Ponyville clinic. The room was sterile and smelled of cleaning product, but quite frankly Stratus was just happy to be alive. She'd been told what happened, although again she could hardly believe what she was hearing. Apparently one of the many flora she'd had shipped in was called the Mantilure, and she could see why. The creature had smelled it from miles off, and had come running directly for it, tearing a trail of destruction that ran straight through the Everfree Forest. Luckily the herb had been identified and sealed with magic in time that no more of the beasts had appeared, but Twilight was advising the Mayor to keep the town on high alert for at least another week in case any more were able to track the scent.

In the end only the few ponies brave or fool enough to try to stop the rampaging thing had been injured. This included her savior, and the mare that laid in the hospital cot next to hers. Scarlet Ember.

According to local rumor, Scarlet had launched herself at the monster with such force that she'd broken more than half of its ribs and ruptured its lungs with a single solid kick. She'd also shattered her own back legs in the process, but with a bit of healing magic she'd be right as rain that very same day.

"I don't even remember any of it," Stratus heard the other mare tell one of the doctors, "I saw it, I felt... something in my veins, and then everything went white."

At that point she'd looked over at Stratus with a sleepy smile, "I'm just glad you're alright. If that thing got to you, I-"

She choked off, and Stratus was shocked. She had no idea the other mare felt so strongly towards her. Honestly She'd assumed that Scarlet had wanted to be strictly business, given how she'd been acting since the party. Now Stratus had a lot more to think about in that respect.

As she lay in her little white bed, looking up at the tacky ceiling tiles, she thought about today with a mixture of confusion and amazement.

"Happy Grand Opening I guess..." she muttered to herself. She then heard Scarlet snort a laugh beside her, which made her smile and took a bit of the sting out of the bitter remark.

With that she turned over, and tried to find some solace in sleep.