Spirit Waker

The start of autumn winds could be seen blowing in. They wrap themselves amongst the leaves and gently play with the foliage like a child with a prized toy. It flips, dances, and glides with the invisible force known as the air before being laid gently upon a stream of water.

Quietly the leaf goes unaware of the journey ahead of it. Unaware of the world that it shall find itself a part of. Will the stream lead to its doom crushed beneath the mighty roar of the maelstrom of crashing waves and violent rocks, or will it find comfort within the lulling grasp of the slipstream awaiting a final resting place upon the water-soaked edges of a pond? One could not say because one does not know the leaf and its struggles to survive.

When given all the possibilities in the world of where one may end up, life can be more unsure than you would think. Anything can happen anywhere; nothing is impossible unless otherwise stated. That's why hope is always present in the mind of most creatures. Despite the varying degrees of intelligence, any creature can hope.

The same could be said for the plant. As it is not seen as a creature, one would think that it bares no feelings. It does not hope nor does it fear. For what does a mighty oak grown in the solitude of a forest require feelings such as these?

But that is where they forget that it lives.

Just as anything classified as a "creature" does. It eats, thinks, and wishes to live its life to its natural conclusion. While longer than most things, a death of age is long sought out by most creatures. But just like any creature, they have to struggle to get there. From diseases to other creatures trying to snuff its living flame out early.

Warry is the bush that grows amongst massive oaks and buried is the flowers that find themselves sprouted beneath the willow. Life is cruel to all of its "creatures" no matter the limbs or organs.

Nature as the concept of a creature is something one can easily sympathize with. To apply that concept to something more... monstrous. Impossible for some.

Monsters, while often seen as not creatures but a thing of their own, can hope as well. Their hopes and wants may be different than the hopes and want of most others. Their dreams, if they could be called that, ebb and flow much like a leaf in the wind. They're always guided by something they most likely will never understand.

The sun guides plants in a path that allows them to eat the most. The people guide the monsters in a way that allows them to feed the most. The monster guides the people to survive and strive so they may feed the most.

Few question it. The motive. Most figure they already know everything about said monster and simply write the plot out the only way they can see it. Then they push the narrative onto others. Others believe it over the monster and soon everyone knows everything there is to know about monsters.

It is shameful.

No one can know anything about that person unless they have been that person. Or a mile in someone else's shoes, they say. What is it like to be so scared of life and death that all you know is to take so that you can't lose? Is the loss so scary that you force others to lose in your place so you can never know hurt?

Was the narrative really so false that you can start to believe it yourself? If you believe in what others say about you, doesn't that mean you've been lying to yourself from the start? Did you question when did it ever become true? Did you ever wonder for a moment if this was the way that life was always supposed to be for you?

It's hurtful.

It hurts.

It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts

Autumn is coming a bit sooner than expected. At least that is what every Earth Pony could feel. It was soaked in the air. The chilling nip of the start of the fall season. It would be bad for what crops remained in the ground if they are taken out too late. But that also means that the growing season has changed again.

A phenomenon such as this was never really such an odd occurrence. After everything had happened, of course. If the world was still the way it was supposed to be, well, perhaps they would be freaking out. Instead, there is a law to this series of events that would have otherwise started, who knows, a wild stampede of ponies trying to figure out why everything was wrong all of a sudden.

Such a thought would bring a chuckle to mind. If not being so accurate to how many of them were once.

Being wrong was okay now. Being wrong was a bit of the norm. Despite the pride built up inside of her throughout the years, a young rainbow-colored Pegasus could admit that. As a leading Pegasus of the Pegasi race, specifically known as Contrayls, she could understand a thing or two about admitting when you're wrong.

She has had to admit to it a few more times than she would like in her ever-shortening life. From little things such as admitting she was wrong about another cookie before bed to grandiose actions such as assuming an entire town had to be burned due to them turning against the main faction because they thought their way would be better.

Letting your best friend in the whole wide world befriend a demon could also be seen as one of those. On a scale of wrongness, she'd have to say completely wrong.

She haphazardly, almost as if in a daze, looks towards what was once known as the Everfree forest. Her mane, cut down just above her ears and pulled back into a tight knot, seems to move in its own stream for a bit. The start of the autumn air was not yet strong enough to cause the flowing of one's mane but was a nice refresher after a long day of exercise Her eyes, unfocused and swimming, continue to scan the Everfree for something that may not even be there.

Before, one would look and feel nothing but dread and fear from it. Now, all they could do was feel either hatred or pity. A dome had covered the entirety of the forest preventing anything from coming out or going in. Many had tried, herself included, but none could get through.

Whether force, trickery, or persuasion of all things, the dome would not budge. It was like it was mocking them. Mocking her. Telling her that she would never be good enough.

It enraged it.

It's crazy, really. She once almost broke her neck on that thing. Yet despite that, she continues to try. Every day, every week, every month, and every season. Some new or repeating plan. Sometimes crazier than the last. Until one day, she snapped.

She had something of an epiphany. She stopped during the middle of one of her crazy constructions and thought to herself, if there was nothing that she could build or do herself to break the dome, she'd just have to find somepony who could! It was genius!

And so, she got to work hunting down the knowledge she needed. She took notes and began to do experiments outside of her normal lunacy.

If it hadn't been for Applejack slowing her down, she'd have been dead for sure.

When discord came and took Fluttershy for her protection, everypony protested. But he wouldn't hear it. Fluttershy tried to convince him, but he looked shattered. Like he was coming apart at the seams. As if he was the only one suffering...

After he had disappeared, the barrier went up. From then on, not a peep was ever heard from him.

Now if only that was the only thing she was wrong about...

Twilight... Dear lovable egg-headed Twilight... The thing she didn't want to be wrong about. She always had an ace up her sleeve. She believes, or well believed, that one day she'll show up again at her front steps with that sheepish smile of hers looking for the right words to say to apologize to her. After that, she would gather up everyone, break down the barrier, and fry that bastard back to wherever it came from along with the rest of its ghoulish horde.

But that was supposed to have been years ago. What feels like ages ago. She knew the exact time as she would always think about it while flying. It's what kept her flying. It's what keeps her trying.

"Attempt number 5,678."

She turns towards the machine crafted for recording and playing back sounds the user makes. She has already logged so many of her experiments and ideas into this thing. She's even had to go out and buy more simply because they're not to hold as much as she puts in. But all of this would be worth it if she could just figure out how to...

"Rainbow! Consarn it! Why the Tartarus are you out here again! Don't you know this is a fools' errand! You'll wind up doing who knows that type of damage that you already haven't!"

"Leave me alone! I got to figure it out! It's not like you've done anything to find her!"

"I have! You think I haven't!? We both know her bo-"

"Don't you fucking dare!" Venom could be felt and heard.

Rainbow was in her other "friend's" face in an instance. A dark shadow had fallen over both of their faces. Their resilience against one another had grown even worse over time. No longer were they rivaling friends, but heated neighbors.

"You have to face facts. She's. Not. Coming. End of discussion. End of story. No rainbows and sunshine and happy songs. Rainbowdash, everypony is concerned for you. They want their general back."

"I'm not coming back. Not without her. Not without everything fixed. I'll do it on my own if I have to. You and all of you cowards and stand back and watch me fix it all myself! I'll prove everypony wrong and I'll do it my way!"

"You'll only hasten your death! Damn it, girl! Don't ya see what all of this has done to you!? What it done to the town!? Do you even care if anypony else gets hurt!?"

"Twilight will fix it!"

"Twilight is dead! Stop this foalish nonsense and oof!"

Rainbowdash hadn't made a noise. She didn't show any signs of moving, but suddenly Applejack had found herself on her back at the front gates of headquarters where many of the resistance to corruption stay. They had started spouting off a name for themselves, but she could care less what they were called.

The only things she really cared for were her family, her friends, and putting everything right again.

Rainbowdash was once again wrong. In thinking that she would be the one to fix everything by herself and wrong for thinking everyone was a coward. Day in and day out they would hunt through ruins captured bases, and the corpses of their enemies to find what they could. To find what she needed, and to help bring closure to all of this.

At times, Applejack had wished it was her instead of Twilight. For Pinkie to even be here to somehow work her magic to put things where they need to be. Applejack merely shakes her head watching the trail of rainbow disappear back to where they had been. Was she going to become another threat of her own? Or did she actually know what she was doing...

"Did... did you talk to her?"

Applejack didn't have to look to know who had approached her. While some ponies were content with letting the world slip by, Applejack simply took it as another obstacle that needed to be beaten. And beat it she did.

She slowly turns smiling at her friend and lover Sturdy Trunk. While many broke down around them and questioned what the point of living was, there were all the same those sane enough to know that this was only the start of something new. Something that could be used to make things better than they were before. One such ponies were Sturdy Trunk and all his glorious ideas and motivation.

Sturdy Trunk wasn't big in stature. Most of his body was built, ironically, the opposite of a sturdy trunk. Lanky and built like a fallen twig, Sturdy proved himself to be on the weaker side of the spectrum of ponies. Now, this wasn't bad per se. What he lacked in strength was made up for by his ideals, charisma, and endurance. Much like a freshly cut trunk, he stayed rooted to whatever he had his mind set to. It didn't matter how much one would try to remove him from where he stands, because he wasn't going to budge for anyone or anything. The world would end, or end more so than usual, and he would still be there to argue his point of view to the utmost perfection. He was the sole reason why they had chosen Ponyville for their Head Quarters in the first place.

Honestly speaking, the two being together seemed like the worse thing imaginable. Two headstrong ponies that always seemed to butt heads in the simplest of situations? Certainly a recipe for disaster. Yet, they proved everypony wrong by not only announcing that they were dating but even going so far as to find a way to not only implement both of their ideas at once but even effectively push back the Scourage and all of its horde. Currently, the leader of the area they reside in, known as Scraggle, has been seen hopping mad trying to figure out how they manage to defend themselves and yet take base after base from underneath him. Even now while this was happening, Applejack had already sent out her elite team to take care of a pesky little creature known as a Liquefier that had managed to halt the front team from sieging one of Scraggle's research stations. Once they succeed, because there was no other option, they would cut off a key point of Scraggle and he would be forced to show himself. At that moment Sturdy would reveal his hand and have the Horde shaking in their boots.

"I did." She states her eye probably betraying her smile.

"And?" he asks moving out of her way as she makes her way inside.

"I think she might just be as stubborn as us on this one. She wasn't even gentle on the landing this time around."

"I'll just have to kiss and make it better later."

Applejack whirls on him heat raising into her face, "H-Hey! You watch yer tone in public!"

"Ah yes there's that beautiful accent I love." He says giving her a surprise kiss before moving past her, "Now if you aren't too distracted with the promise of later, we do have something to oversee hun."

"Consarn it! You really know how to push my buttons don't ya! I swear on Granny's grave I'm a give you a lashing later fer that!"

"But of course, but of course." He says chuckling at her turn of demeanor.

Applejack quickly follows after her mate blush still present on her face as she tries to rectify her appearance.