New seeds for Stable two

Chapter 2 - Towards New Appleloosa

Our way now led south. The vegetation seemed to sadden Appletree, as the trees looked sickened and the wreckages of broken vehicles were laying all around. I kept my eyes open for enemies, but apart from a few Bloatsprites that I striked down telekinetically with a box, there wasn’t much to see. Bubbles explained a lot about the wastelands and I even received a message from Pip. At first she was worried that we had vanished because of her, but I was able to reassure her otherwise. She said, if we needed help with Appletree’s legs, we should get in touch with her. If we were close enough then, she’d come over to help. Sadly she still hadn’t found Velvet yet, instead she had met a new friend called Calamity and had been to New Appleloosa herself. When we were taking a short rest I took a look at the book of these Zecora. The first chapter was about potions - magical and non magical in nature. I felt like the ointment of healing could be useful and turned to Appletree. “Hey dear, do you know any of the plants described here?”

I pointed at the book and she looked at it pondering. “Yea”, she said finally. “I’d been seein’ them ‘round out here. Should I pick ‘em up on the way?”

I nodded. If we were to be injured, this would help us get better healing. We walked along the edge of a forest; I Pipbuck called it the Everfree Forest. Appletree kept collecting various herbs and plants and stowed them away in small bags or plastic tubes to examine them later. I looked at Bubbles. “What do you know about this place?”, I asked nicely. “It’s full of monsters, better not to go in there. At least that’s what my mother always says, even though it’s this far away from home.”

As dusk came and we had to look for a place to camp we were still on the edge of that forest. An old bus station worked perfectly, when suddenly a huge, wooden monster jumped at us out of a patch of trees. I flinched and recognised the animal; I got cold, an adult, seemingly mutated Timberwolf was standing right in front of us. Why mutated? It was about 50 percent bigger than anything that was written in books and glowed bright green. The beast sprinted towards Bubble, panting. She screamed and ran behind the station. The wolf followed as my sister rammed into it with full force. She reared up and rammed her claws into the wood, ripping off bark and wood. Resin dripped out of the wounds of the animal. I sent a lightning bolt after the animal, but it just shook it off. As Appletree got ready for the next strike the wolf threw her through the air and rushed after Bubbles once more. I tried to help Bubbles by creating a magical sphere right in front of the wolf’s eyes to blind it. Unfortunately Timberwolfs rely on their noses; I realized then. Appletree rammed into it again, this time against a tree. She continued to tear up its side and even caught its snout. Which only caused it to rampage. It bit into Appletree’s shoulder. Blood splattered as the monster ripped out a good chunk out of my poor little sister. Nausea hit me when I saw all of that blood. She cried out in pain. I was scared and everything started to spin around me. The shock sent me down, whimpering. I thought about the times I always told he she was as strong as two timberwolves. I never thought we’d ever be confronting one.I was scared to lose her and that I’d be next. Then I thought about how I would explain all this to my family and the Overmare. But then she got up once more and jumped beneath the head of the beast and kicked with her hind legs. I heard the hiss and the head flew under hydraulic pressure about 10 meters further. The monster fell to the ground - dead. I could hear the rumble from her compressor and ran towards her. A good chunk of flesh and skin was missing from her shoulder. “By the goddesses, is everything all right?”
I had tears in my eyes. “I won’t call it ‘all right’.”, the deep voice of my sister answered.
“It hurts like hell, I thought that’d be it and I wasn’t gon’ be able to protect ya no more.” She tried to put on a brave smile, but I could see the guilt in her eyes.

We rested at the bus station. I bandaged the wound of my sister, prepared a soft pace for her and disconnected her legs, putting them next to her so she could reach them easily. “Rest a bit. I found everything I need for the zebra healing salve and will make some for you. The wound will heal faster then.” She nodded thankfully.
“Better not write to Mama, she’ll worry otherwise.” She seemed sad and serious. I caressed her mane softly and reset her bow tie telekinetically. After sending a message back home, simply describing the day as uneventful, I started with the cooking. The most disgusting part of the recipe were the bloatsprite wings. I shook myself a little and then threw away the rest. But Bubbles actually came back with it.
“But you can still eat some of that in a soup or something”, she said bewildered and I immediately had to gag. “We’re ponies, we’re vegetarians, well apart from medicine.” Ich contemplated; I had just put the wings of animals into this salve, was that actually true? Well, you’re not eating, but applying it. Bubbles spoke once more.
“You don’t eat meat?” She looked at me confused.
“You Stableponies are weird.”, she said while shaking her head and rolling those disgusting things away again.
“I wouldn’t even know how to prepare something like that. The thought alone grosses me out.” Bubbles looked at the book.
“Don’t you have a cookbook right there, there’s got to be a recipe in there.” I was careful not to laugh out loud so that I wouldn’t wake up Appletree.
“This is the magic book of a zebra. It tells you how to make potions and elixirs, not how to cook bloatsprites.”, I said smiling. Bubbles lay down as well. I applied the salve onto Appletree’s wound carefully with levitation. Then I also lay down to sleep, exhausted.

I was woken up by what sounded like gunfire. I hid instinctively in a corner and looked around. I saw two ponies in raider armor fighting against something about 200 meters away. It sounded like a Timberwolf. I looked around the camp, everything was right there, still. Bubbles lay curled up in a corner of the bus station and slept. She must be a heavy sleeper if not even gun fire can wake her up. I looked over to Appletree’s camp, her legs lay neatly arranged in the corner and her… I suddenly got cold. She was gone. I started to creep around the camp, but couldn’t find her. It was dark and few of Luna’s gracious moon beams broke through the cloud cover from time to time. I sneaked further towards the fighting Raiders. They had to have her, maybe gagged so that she couldn’t scream. One of the Raiders already lay dead on the ground as I came closer and a second just fell to the Timberwolf’s claws. I hid and hoped that the monster wouldn’t notice me, but I still couldn’t see her. I got nauseous as I heard how the beast started to feed on one of the Raiders, probably. I got ready to sneak back to the camp. But just as the light of the moon hit the Timberwolf, I could hardly believe my own eyes. I couldn’t move. What I was seeing was too disturbing, too wrong. I had to throw up loudly and I got dizzy. That couldn’t be. The Timberwolf howled deeply and ripped out another chunk of flesh out of the side of the Raider; just that that was not a Timberwolf. It was Appletree. Where her cyberlegs used to be now were legs made of tree bark that glowed green. I could through the gaps of that bark and the interior was empty. I looked at her, her otherwise orange eyes now flashed green and long fangs protruded from her snout. Her ears were a mixture of leaves and bark. She looked at me. With the big, red bow on her head it all seemed even more grotesque and surreal. She raised her nostrils and started to sniff, licked the blood from her teeth and came towards me. I retreated carefully and wanted to run as I heard a squeak coming from her - like that of a dog. I stopped. Hesitant, nearly shy, she came closer. I felt like she recognized me. As she stood next to me she sniffed at me and then rubbed her head against mine carefully. “Little sister… is that.. is that really you?”
She nodded slowly. I pet her mane cautiously. The bark that had grown over her ears felt weird. “Can you understand me?” She nodded again.
“But not speak?” She nodded again, but looked sad. I was still looking at her a bit dismayed. “Why did you start to eat them?” I tried to sound calm, but from her flinching I knew that I sounded more terrified than I wanted.
“And you won’t try to eat me?” I looked at her seriously, she shook her head violently.
“Then let’s head back to the camp.” I said, a little calmer now. She gave me a sign to wait a minute as she turned back around and walked back to the corpse and looked at me, guilty like in the afternoon before. I looked away and covered my ears as she continued to feed. When she was done her snout was covered in so much blood that she wasn’t even able to lick it all off. A little disgusted I let tissues levitate out from my overall and cleaned off her face. She smiled shyly, which looked a bit weird with the fangs, but also kind of cute. When we were back at the camp she lay back down in her place, licked across my cheek once and fell asleep. I was perplexed, confused and overwhelmed as I fell asleep. Has this all just been a dream? I woke up in the morning the the sound of Appletree throwing up multiple times. She was herself again. “You’re you again!”, I said happily, as I held up both braids telekinetically so that they wouldn’t get puked on. At least she had managed to reattach her legs before she spread her bloody nighttime meal behind the bus station. She looked at me guiltily.
“I…I didn’t want that. I had the urge to stop ‘em when they came close to the camp.” I rubbed her back softly. I was shocked to see her wound had closed up when I changed her bandage - with tree bark. I scratched the back of my neck skeptically - What had happened to her?

“You protected us from the Raiders, don’t be sorry about that. But-” I didn’t really know how to ask that question - and luckily I didn’t have to, she answered as she wasn’t stupid just because she was strong and knew where I wanted to go with that.
“It was an inner urge. I was so hungry, they looked so tasty, so juicy and muscular…” Another gush of stomach acid and bloody Raider remains left Appletree loudly. She was slowly catching her breath, panting.
"It was like being an animal, at least I think so." She was breathing heavily, trying to calm her stomach somehow.
"I had no control and it tasted so good..." Another choke and splash.
"Everything out now?" We had sat back down and Bubbles telekinetically pinched her nose in disgust. I looked at Appletree worried.
"How many of those did you actually, well, eat?" In my head I held my hoof in front of my head, I could have said that in a nicer way. She looked to the ground sadly,
"Both completely. You will only find gnawed bones.”
“You ate other ponies?” Bubbles looked shocked and confused. I calmed her down and explained what had happened last night. Then I looked at Appletree "Are you going to pose a threat to us?" I asked sheepishly. I didn't want to hurt her, but I needed reassurance.

"No! I could smell you all the time, you smell like family and the little one like friend.” I looked skeptical. “How does that smell?” I looked at Appletree, she was thinking. Bubbles was still a bit confused and scared but also disgusted and just said: "Both definitely smell better than this. Can we go on please?” We trotted on towards New Appleloosa.

My Pipbuck showed me that we had probably taken a slightly different route than Littlepip. Our way led us through the town of New Hoofington tomorrow. "I'm curious to see what a post-apocalyptic city looks like," I said happily.
"New Hoofington is the breadbasket for New Appleloosa,
" Bubbles said casually as two ponies with a two-headed cow passed a road crossing. Bubbles greeted them,
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Carrot." She waved politely. The two looked at her, then us, puzzled. "Bubbles, you're fine, thank the goddesses. We were all terribly worried. Your mom is worried sick.” Bubbles smiled.
“I'm fine thanks to my two rescuers. The Priestess and Children of the Night, Stardust!” She pointed at me and I let out a surrendering sigh. I myself was happy to see that the belief in goddesses still existed. Her eyes widened, then they both got on their knees and bowed.

"Your Eminence, it is a pleasure to meet you." I blushed more than Appletree ever could.
"I'm not initiated, I'm an amateur if anything, please get up again!" I was very embarrassed about the whole thing, but I enjoyed it a little bit inside. "And this is Appletree, she's..." I saw her thinking. I didn't like the other thing that I saw. I heard Appletree sniffing, her gaze fixed on the two-headed cow carrying the crates and I could see Appletree approaching it. The cow seemed nervous and mooed as well. Mr. and Mrs. Carrot watched this spectacle skeptically and I could already see them hesitantly drawing a revolver. I could see the saliva running down my little sister's chin as she circled the cow; her eyes fixed onto it. I knew what was going on and did the only thing I could think of before the situation escalated. I rolled up some paper, surrounded it with a telekinetic field and levitated it towards her. First Mrs. Carrot fired the warning shot in the air just as Appletree prepared to jump. She jumped.
I slammed the paper roll onto her butt with full force and cried out in a firm voice: "STOP IT APPLETREE, BAD GIRL!"
She gave a short squeak and then trotted back to us. The Carrots now looked at us skeptically. Appletree hid behind me again. Bubbles had now found the right word. "That's Appletree, botanist and since yesterday, well, timber werewolf?" It sounded more questioning than stated. Mrs.Carrot put her gun away again and they both looked a little more relaxed.

It turned out that both were traveling salesmen. Mrs. Carrot was actually a doctor so I asked her to take a look at Appletree's shoulder. She was amazed when she saw the bark over the wound. "Have you been bitten by an oversized Timberwolf?", she asked Appletree calmly and gently. We had set up a small camp and ate a little something. Mr. Carrot had even prepared some tea. The two-headed cow always kept a wide distance from Appletree. At Mrs. Carrot's question, she nodded hesitantly.
"You are a medical miracle. In fact, everyone dies from the stigma and radiation in the bite. But your body absorbed them completely, it's amazing.” She had reopened a small part of the wound with a pry bar. She seemed content and bandaged the opening.
"It hasn't become infected and I think," she said, looking thoughtful, "that this bark will fall off like common scab when you're healed."
Appletree rested her head back on my side. "I'm sorry I scared your cow. It was like I was a different person.”, she said in a shy voice. Mrs. Carrot scratched the back of her head.
"Let’s try something out", she said and smiled.
"Close your eyes, big one." Appletree closed her eyes. Mrs Carrot got a larger piece of meat from her stores and held it up to Appletree's nostrils, which immediately began to sniff and I could see her drooling again. Then Mrs. Carrot threw the piece of meat away in a high arc. "Get it, big one!", she said smiling. Appletree shot after the meat like an arrow and came back looking happy with the piece of meat she was chewing on.
"I thought so," said Mrs. Carrot.
"Through this, let’s call it ‘infection’ with stigma, a kind of Timberwolf personality has mixed into her. She behaves exactly like a young timber wolf. But you'll have to learn to control that.”, she said, smiling softly while Appletree tried to tear the flesh with her teeth. She also held it with her claws so that she could eat it better. I had to giggle, it was so absurd but also so cute.
"Wait little one, I'll help you." I levitated a knife from my luggage and cut the meat into bite-sized chunks. She chewed on it with relish. When she was done, she blushed and hid under her hooves again.
"Your sister is really interesting.", Mrs. Carrot said, smiling. I was still a bit disgusted that she was eating meat now, but she was still my little sister - timber werewolf or not. "This will never go away," Mrs. Carrot now said darkly. “Stigma stays in the body forever. Until you die.” I looked at her, worried. She said a little nicer again:
"You can help your sister by practicing with her to tame her inner Timberwolf." She looked at me questioningly.
"What has she eaten up to now?" My gaze became sad and shaken.
"Two raiders who attacked us. But don't worry, she can tell friend from foe by smell." I added the latter quickly when Mrs. Carrot started to seem nervous.
"Oh yes, actually, what do you want to have for the meat, the treatment and the tea?" I said, while the warm zebra tea that I loved filled me with comforting warmth.
"Oh, you know, give me five bottle caps for the piece of meat and that'll be fine. I mean you’re escorting Bubbles home safely, I appreciate that.” I levitated 5 caps out of my saddlebag and handed them over to her. Appletree had actually managed to close a small deal with Mr. Carrot. For a bottle of Sparkle-Coke she got seeds from eight different plants, which went straight into her collection. Then we parted ways again.
"I've got a nickname for you!" Bubbles told Appletree.
She blushed again "Wh..which one?" She sounded as embarrassed as ever. "Little wolfy!" she said, giggling. Appletree nodded, "I kind of like that," she said, smiling.

Night fell and we found a good camp under a tree. I confessed to my mother what happened last night and she was worried until Appletree said she was fine. We built the camp and Appletree undocked her legs. I didn't go to sleep yet, wanting to see what would happen. When the first rays of the moon broke through the cloud cover, I could hear my little sister whimpering in pain. I heard her bones crack and shift. The sound made me nauseous again, but I was able to keep the food inside. Bubbles watched the whole thing very fascinated. A green glow spread over her from her wound. Creaking, her wooden legs began to appear, beginning over the docking points. Bark also grew around her ears, and each had a large leaf. I saw her teeth grow. When the transformation was complete, she howled loudly once; she was about to jump up and run when I carefully stopped her. "Sister, do you hear me?" I looked at her cautiously. She smiled cutely again and nodded eagerly.
"You're hungry and want to go hunting, right?" She nodded again, a bit shy and hesitant. "Well, rule number one: don't eat ponies, you don't do that and you don't tolerate pony meat!" She nodded.
"Rule number two: you'll be back in two hours at the latest."
She nodded eagerly. I stroked her mane again. "Good hunt, my little wolf."
I said softly and she chased off into the night. "That's really scary, but also kind of cool." Bubbles said only as she curled up under her covers.
"Sleep well and have a good hunt", was all she said and as she was already dozing off. I also curled up under my covers after sorting Appletree's legs. I was woken up by something trying to crawl under my covers. I quickly realized it was Appletree. I looked at her, lifted the covers and she took me in between her wooden front legs and licked my cheek. I patted her head.
"Fed?" I asked, smiling, and when I saw that her snout was full of blood again, I cleaned it again.
"You're a little piglet," I said with mock seriousness. Her bloodied snout didn't startle me as much now, but it was gross nonetheless.
"You didn't eat ponies, did you?" She shook her head, showing the size of one of those two-headed cows with her claw. My eyes narrowed.
"You didn't eat the Carrots' pack animal, did you?" My tone sounded more cutting than I wanted it to, she twitched and shook her head. Then we fell asleep again.