New seeds for Stable two

I awoke as I felt Appletree's arms disappear, the green glow retreating into the wound. I looked around wearily; The first thing I saw was some yellow things lying next to me with a little note that said Look I hunted for you too - that's corn, Mr. Carrot said it was very tasty and vegetarian. I nibbled on one of these cobs and the sweet taste was amazing. Then near the camp I saw the skeleton of one of those two-headed cows. Someone must have been very hungry, I thought to myself just as I noticed that a group of about 6 ponies was approaching. The mare at the head seemed to see that I was awake and waved me over. I blushed briefly. By the goddesses, she's cute, I thought. She had light pink fur and a black mane. She also wore a brown cowboy hat with a gold star on it and incredibly sexy boots. She was accompanied by 4 other ponies wearing hats with silver stars. They didn't look too bad, otherwise Appletree would probably have been awake by now. I trotted over a little sleepily. "Howdy, I'm Sheriff Sugar Crush," she introduced herself kindly. "Do you happen to know who brought this skeleton here?" Somehow I didn't like the question and I answered cautiously "Yes, I think I know who that was, why?" A gray unicorn in the group answered "Yes exactly, that was my poor Molly!" said the stallion angrily. I gave myself a facehoof. Rule number three - don't eat farm animals of other ponies, I thought to myself. Sugar Crush sat down and pulled out a notepad. "Then tell me, I need your name and..." She looked at my jumpsuit "Ah, you're from the same stable as Littlepip, am I right?" she said smiling. I nodded. "My name is Stardust and I'm from Stable 2, that's right." She nodded and took notes. "You know who killed and gutted poor Molly?" she asked kindly. I nodded cautiously, "Yes, but what happens to the person if I tell you that?" I looked at her questioningly. “Well, damages have to be paid and they might have to go to jail for two or three days or do community work in the fields. That person only killed one bramin, although I have to say I still don't believe farmer Cracker's story.” She looked at him and giggled, “Too much apple whiskey again, huh?” Cracker just looked annoyed. I looked at her questioningly. "He said something about a being that was half timberwolf and half pony. With a big red bow on her head and blond mane; ridiculous, right?” I shook my head. "How much does the farmer get?" I looked questioningly at the sheriff. "200 bottle caps or two days' work in my fields!" said the gray unicorn. I looked at my pipbuck's inventory charm; I had exactly 70 caps and knew Appletree didn't have any. I sighed and looked at the farmer. "Then the guilty one will probably work in your fields for two days. And no, you weren't crazy.” Everyone widened their eyes except for Cracker, who just said, “I told you I wasn't drunk!” Sugar Crush looked at me again, “What kind of being was that?” I sighed . "My little sister has been turning into a, let's call it, a timber-werewolf at night the last few days." Sugar Crush's mouth almost touched the floor, she was so shocked by the response. "Oh, Nelly, every night? Does she always attack farm animals?” I thought about it; she actually hunted like a timber wolf, they probably couldn't tell game from farm animals. I passed that on to Sugar Crush and she thought, "I'm going to tell Mister Hoovs, the mayor of New Hoofington. He will decide whether you are allowed to continue traveling through our territory or not. Until then, your sister will be paying her debt to Cracker.” She said kindly. "Where is the monster anyway, I want to see it..." Appletree just trotted up behind me tiredly on her cyber legs and towered over everyone by about a head. Sugar Crush looked horrified. "Oh, Nelly, what happened to your legs, big one?" Appletree yawned and noticed that everyone was looking at her - and she disappeared behind me. "Cracker, didn't you say something about wooden legs?" Sugar Crush then said, "These are clearly mechanical parts, not wood. I think you need glasses.” I gently stroked Appletree's mane to calm her. "She lost her legs in an accident, so she has cyber legs. By the way, Littlepip also worked on them.” I said kindly. Appletree hesitantly lifted her head and looked at the farmer, "Was that your animal?" He only nodded with a narrow look, "I'm sorry, I was so hungry." She admitted sheepishly. “About the wooden legs” I said to Sugar Crush again. "She really has them at night, Cracker’s not crazy." She nodded and we split up the group. The law enforcement officers reported back and we went to Crackers Farm.

He had calmed down a bit in the meantime and said: "You, big one, Appletree, right? How good are you at farm work?” Appletree smiled confidently for the first time, it was adorable, and in her pleasantly deep voice she replied, “I’m a trained botanist and farmer. My specialties are fertilizer production and management, field plannin’, mappin’ and establishment as well as studyin’ the genetics of plants and their manipulation.” Cracker looked like a pipbuck monitor. "Then I’d say, as compensation, you create a new field of corn for me and plant it, alright? When you're done with it, no matter how long it takes, you're free to go.”, he said smiling now. "But at night you’ll be in the big cage at the barn," he said seriously. Appletree nodded in agreement, then Cracker said, "You ate Molly all by yourself?", sounding a bit disbelieving. She nodded, blushing, "You probably don't want to hear that, but it tasted great." Cracker laughed out loud. "I'm glad to hear that, I breed them for food." His laughter was honest and warm. "Then tonight you'll have a big bowl of meat, and for the two of you - how about a delicious carrot stew?" Me and Bubbles nodded. I offered to do something useful, too. When Bubbles told him I was a Children of the Night, he asked if I could restore the wayshrine at his farm. Appletree spoke up again, "Can I have some apples with the meat too? And well,” she blushed a bit again “the meat raw with a lot of blood, if that's possible.” I noticed how nauseous I was again. My sister turned into a real monster, which was really picky as well. Cracker thought about it. “How about some kind of goulash; I'll cut the meat into small pieces, cut up pieces of apple and add fresh blood?” Appletree beamed with joy from head to toe. I was a bit shocked but also kind of glad that she wanted plant-based food as well.

Bubbles was just playing around in the yard, exploring and fooling around. I smiled; at least kids could have fun, still, out here in the wasteland. I saw Appletree go to work. She measured out the new field, dug irrigation channels and plowed the ground. I myself went to the small shrine a little ways down the path. It was mainly dirty, but not ruined. I started cleaning it. It was a small cottage with an altar that was half white and half dark blue. There were also some holders for candles, only the offertory box had been broken open. That was blasphemy! I shook a little and then started cleaning. It took quite a while and Celestia's statue in particular was very uncooperative. Then it was Luna's statue’s turn. I looked at her and imagined that I really was a Children of the Night. Giving ponies the grace of Luna, ridding them of nightmares and helping them get a good night's sleep. I snapped out of my daydreams and started cleaning the Luna statue. She was more cooperative until I touched the horn - and suddenly I was standing in a meadow.

The sky was clear and I could see the moon and stars. I heard a melody; that I knew and heard singing along with it. The Song of the Children of the Night. I looked around, I was in a walled garden on top of a mountain. When I found a staircase I went down. I stood on a balcony and looked at a small square where about twenty ponies were standing and singing the song. What particularly struck me were their bat wings and larger ears. Then my eyes got as big as the moon and I trembled in awe. They all stood and sang in a semi-circular square at the straight end of which was a throne in the center on which my goddess was seated. She looked straight at me and waved me over. I started moving slowly and with uncertainty, thinking feverishly. Had the razor grain been bad? Or was Appletree's stigma causing me harm? Then I stood in front of her. I looked at her; she was beautiful, like the ancient hieroglyphic images from Somnambula. She gently stroked my fur while the bat ponies continued to sing; it was wonderful. Then she said, "It is about time, after more than a hundred years, that another Children of the Night is born." She smiled, I had fallen to my knees and remained silent in awe. "Get up, Stardust. You will be my first child in a long time." She walked ahead and we looked over the edge of the square. I saw Luna's horn flash. A shooting star broke out of the sky and hit near a larger city. "There you will find everything you need to become my child." She said with a soft and kind smile. I felt stupid asking a question. "P...Princess Luna, where are we, why me? And is it all just a dream?” I blushed, trembled again, and I was spinning. Then I felt her wrap one of her wings around me "Shhhhhh, that's fine my little Stardust." I sat down and she answered my questions "This is the garden of shadows. The place where my soul lives on after physically leaving Equestria. You are very religious and wish to spread my message. I want to make that possible for you." Now she giggled. "And yes, of course this is a dream. You're still lying in front of the wayshrine at farmer Cracker's farm.” She rubbed my back again soothingly. "Those bat-winged ponies, who are they?" Luna looked at them happily; they had stopped singing and played together or talked. "My chosen people, The Batponies. Unfortunately, there are almost no more of them in Equestria, only here. You will soon meet one of their descendants. She will be an advisor to you on your travels.” I nodded in understanding. "You'll wake up in a moment. If you need my advice, dream of our song and I'll be with you. Now wake up, my little Stardust, wake up!"
I felt something lick my face and recognized Bubbles' voice. It was already dark and I looked up into Appletree's green glowing eyes and her cute little fanged snout. The shrine was sparkling clean and I felt refreshed. "C'mon, Cracker's got dinner ready." I trotted along with the others when I noticed with amusement that Bubbles was leading Appletree on a leash. We all met in the barn. A large cage had been lined with blankets and Appletree's legs lay neatly arranged within. "Appletree, we still have to send a message to Mom," I said, remembering that it was already dark. Bubbles replied, "She's already done that because she knew she couldn't do it after dark." Appletree jumped back into the cage and snuggled up to her favorite pillow. Cracker put her portion of dinner in the cage and locked it and we all ate together in the barn. Appletree's stomach wasn't as bad as the last few days either. She seemed to be enjoying her meal, our meal was excellent as well. "Crackers, my respect, you cook almost as well as our mother." He bowed, "I try my best, but we all know that mothers make the best food." We all laughed, even Appletree, and that was interesting. Her laughter had a reverberation, or rather a small echo that was even deeper than her own voice. As we cleaned up after dinner my thoughts returned to what had happened this afternoon and the vision. We all went to bed after telling little scary stories. I asked Cracker to lock me in together with Appletree as I didn't want her to be alone. Cracker was really nice, I honestly didn't expect that when we first met him. I snuggled into Appletree's side, she hugged me with her timber wolf legs and we fell asleep. When I woke up it was still the middle of the night. I also noticed that by the wooden legs that were around me, still. I thought about everything that had happened up until now. I had tormented and killed others; for good reason, I believed, but it still made me sad, shocked and disturbed me. I felt like a hole was slowly opening up in my soul. I trembled slightly again and my stomach reported back again. The fear of Ponyvillel came up again, I felt sick. Then I thought about the last few days and my thoughts got stuck on Sugar Crush, that damn sexy looking sheriff earth pony. I could still hear Appletree snoring. I took the opportunity to be as quiet as possible when I found myself getting very warm at certain points just thinking about Sugar Crush and her leather boots. My right front hoof disappeared under the covers. Two happy cramps later, I turned around completely relaxed to snuggle back into Appletree's fur when I heard a sniff and turned bright red... Damn, she hadn't heard it, she smelled it. She opened her eyes and gave me a tired but fierce are you kidding me look. I was just about to start explaining when she grinned wickedly and did the meanest thing you could do to a horny unicorn mare: she ran her warm tongue twice over my horn. I tensed up a third time, she seemed to giggle, hugged me again and was asleep. The lovemaking dream between me and Suger Crush got weirder when my Timberwolf sister joined in. Thanks Appletree, it's going to take a while to get the thought out of my head!

The next morning came and Appletree woke me up by tickling me. "Hey, stop that!" I said tiredly. "Now wake up, you little drip cave mare." I blushed again. "Not a word - to nobody!", I hissed. "I needed to calm down from everything that had happened!" She gave me a kiss on the cheek and before jogging off to work she said, "Of course I'm not tellin’ anyone, why should I?" She smiled and continued digging. I went for a walk myself and then asked Cracker for a map of the area. He got up from his old, already somewhat rotten rocking chair and shortly afterwards came back with a few maps of the area. "What do you need these for? I thought you wanted to continue to New Appleloosa?” I nodded, “That's the goal. I just had a dream of a place I'd like to see.” I didn't dare use the word vision. After about an hour and with the help of Bubbles and Cracker, I found my destination. I marked it in my pipbuck as Appletree galloped over to us. "Guys, I found somethin’ weird and my pipbuck is clickin’ like crazy." Cracker rose from the rocking chair again. “Probably just an old ammo box or something; happens ‘round here sometimes.” I asked Bubbles to wait at the farm - high radioactivity is not for little colts. It was angular, but not a box. Small tubes were attached to the surface; a bubble in a tube rolled through green liquid and caused a reading on the thing to change. I was thinking hard about what that could be when Cracker slowly began to withdraw. "Girls, run away, far, far away! This is a Hellfire Bomb - a Zebraian Megaspell and it seems to be active again. RUN!” Appletree and Cracker ran, but Appletree stopped dead. "Dusty, come on, we have to go!" I shook my head. I had seen the part with the bubble before. I levitated out the zebra spellbook and found what I was looking for. That was an alchemical timer. It also said how to remove it. "Run, I'll try to disarm that thing! Appletree, throw the other two over your back and go!” Appletree nodded briefly, then threw Cracker over her back. I saw her grab Bubbles on her back as well and gallop away at top speed. I took a deep breath. Meat from a cow, wings from a parasprite, seven different herbs. I had everything that was needed. I had to process it into a viscous mass until I realized that I didn't have anything with me. I frantically turned the pages when I found a hoofwritten comment from Zecora "If you don't have anything to stomp on, don't be discouraged, chew it up yourself, have courage". Terrible rhyming and I looked in disgust at the cuts of meat I wrapped for Appletree. I got over myself and chewed the meat; it actually didn't taste that bad. Then the wings, I almost had to throw up doing it. The texture of these things was disgusting. The spices made it worse. I saw that the time display now had a number. Unfortunately, I didn't know any zebra numbers, so I chewed faster. I felt bile seep into my esophagus, then felt the mass warm up. That was the sign it was done. I let it float out of my mouth onto the tube where the bubble was dancing. It slowed and stopped, suspiciously close to what looked like a one. The device spoke in an exotic dialect, "Warning: timer defective. Warning: internal navigation defective. Device is switched off due to an emergency. For reactivation please contact a technician.” The numbers disappeared and I threw up in the new field. Not even because of the meat or the wings, but with relief. After about an hour the others came back and Cracker was amazed. "Girl, you did an excellent job. I'll sow the field myself tomorrow." He turned to Appletree, "Big one, can you climb out of holes with those claws too?" She nodded, "Then dig one over there." He pointed to a spot about 200 meters away. “Dig a hole 10 meters deep and 5 meters wide?” she nodded and immediately started to work. It lasted until the afternoon. In between, the sheriff mare returned and looked at the object, then at me. "You saved our butts, sweetheart!" she said in astonishment. "This calls for a party, Cracker." He nodded, "I'll set everything up, you get the rest." Sugar Crush looked at me gratefully. "A heroine deserves a reward." she said with a smile and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I felt myself blush and fainted. The last thing I saw was the sheriff mare's puzzled face and I heard Appletrees giggle.

When I woke up I was back in the barn, but not just me. About 20 other ponies. Including Bubbles, Appletree, Cracker, Sugar Crush and even Mister Hoovs a... I looked at him like a Pipbuck, a gray pegasus with an orange mane. I thought all Pegasi lived above the clouds. Appletree was transformed again by this time, as usual, and was lying comfortably on a few blankets next to the large wooden table. Cracker said, "First I hated you guys, you know, because our little wolf ate Molly before she was supposed to be eaten; but now you are our heroes! To the wolf and to our Children of the Night” everyone raised their glasses. I was given one too. It was apple schnapps, it burned my throat a bit, but felt good. Next, Cracker turned on an old radio while everyone at the table began to unwind to eat. There was plenty, with and without meat. Appletree had another big bowl of blood goulash, now with carrots and razor corn in it too. The radio came alive and I caught the end of a song that I actually understood. It was a song by Sweetie Belle, our stable's first overmare. Then a male voice began to speak. "Good evening my little ponies out there in the wasteland of Equestria. Remember when I told you about the little mare from Stable 2 that saved lovely Dizzy Doo? She seems to be getting reinforcements. I just got word from the mayor of New Hoofington that a unicorn mare and an earth pony mare have defused a dud megaspell and buried it safely. Thanks ladies! Unfortunately no real name was given. Wait a minute, I'll read what my lovely assistant Homage just gave me. The earth pony is called the she-wolf or little wolf because she seems to be a timber-werewolf." He paused briefly. "Oh, I imagine that to be really powerful and really scary, so you raiders, watch out, otherwise she'll shred you or just eat you up.”, he said with a mocking creepy undertone. He fell silent again and sounded even more awestruck now. "The unicorn is one they call The Priestess. I also know of a few raiders who call her a witch, but the other name-”, he interrupted himself and called out, “Homage, are you sure you got that right?” The radio went silent for a moment. “The other name touches me personally and I hope she lives up to it. Children of the Night!" There was a brief silence again, "You heard me right, my little ponies, the old church of Luna seems to have sent a new moonlight into the wasteland after more than a hundred years. May Luna and Celestin's blessings be upon us all.” He revealed a few other things, concluding with the words “A really exciting day today, it seems Stable 2 is a real hero forge. Thank you, my three ladies. And now back to music, Sweetie Belle is now singing about the truth of the wasteland.”

I wanted to sink into the ground again. I may become a Children of the Night, but I'm not yet. I shook my head and enjoyed the carrot and razor corn salad as Mr. Hoovs sat down next to me. He wore an elegant pre-war suit. His cutiemark looked like a cloud with lightning, but the square around it looked weird... Like a brand. "So you want to continue to New Appleloosa?", said the Pegasus stallion with that much charisma in his voice that I would have bought a used carriage from him. I nodded while levitating a carrot over to Appletree which she happily ate. The funny thing was that she was a magnet for the kids, who found her kind of creepy but also thought she was a smart dog. Mr. Hoovs spoke again and pulled out a sack. "I have a few small conditions that must be met before you move on. These terms apply to both the New Hoofington and New Appleloosa Territories. When your sister transforms, you're responsible for everything she does!” He looked at me seriously. "Here you have a good leash and a muzzle. With that she can eat normally, but not hunt.” I looked at the things and nodded slowly. I didn't feel comfortable restricting my little sister like that, but I guess it was necessary. The collar and muzzle were well padded though, I saw, which gave me some peace of mind at least. "We are all very grateful to you for saving us, but how did you actually do it?" He looked at me questioningly. "I have a book on zebra alchemy that told me how to disarm the timer. And since the thing didn't know where it was, it shut itself off.” He nodded slowly. "But I don't want to be unfriendly either, and I brought a small reward for the little wolf.", he said, smiling as he pulled out a plastic bag. There were a lot of small pieces of meat that were still bloody. He tossed one over to Appletree. She caught it in the air with a big leap. Two foals perched on their backs screeched enthusiastically. I shook my head in amusement. So tomorrow night we might finally see Littlepip again and Appletree might be able to overcome her shyness to befriend her.