I Am Not Afraid

I Am Not Afraid

Story 1

Chapter 4: Time to Go

By: FluttersIsAwesome

After we had all eaten our fill, we said goodbye to Evergreen and made our way back to Ponyville. By the time we got back, it was about nine thirty. We all agreed that Nova would be helping me today, so he said goodbye to the others and headed towards Sweet Apple Acres. “Buckin’ apples isn’t that hard, despite how I made it sound. I was just trying to point out that it ain’t as easy as you may think either. I’ll show you how it’s done, and then you can give it a go, that sound good?”

Nova jumped off the ground, hovering over me as we, well I, walked. “Totally. In fact, I’m way pumped to get to work. I feel like I can take on anything after what happened this morning, even if it was an act!”

I couldn’t help but smile as he flew circles over me. “That’s great! That’s exactly the kind of effect Twilight was saying it would have on you. And if she’s right, helping everypony out will only make that even better.”

After a few minutes without a response, I looked around and notice Nova wasn’t even near me anymore. Rather, he was over by one of our dead trees, tapping it with his hoof. “Jackie, there has to be something wrong here. This one died while we were gone. We both/i] know a perfectly healthy tree couldn’t die in just an hour or two. Is there anypony we can talk to about this?”

I had to admit, having so many of my apple trees die so quickly did put me on edge. “I know just the one. Okay Nova, I’ll show you how it’s done, and you can work on getting some apples while I got visit her, is that alright?”

He nodded quickly, moving to one of these trees that was actually bearing fruit. “Go ahead, Teacher.” He let out a small snicker at his little joke.

Applebloom came out after I called her name, carrying the bucket we usually catch the apples in. “It’s not that hard once you do it a few times. All you gotta do is,” I turned around so my hind legs were facing the tree, and with all my strength I slammed both my legs into the trunk, causing every apple the tree had to fall. Applebloom ran circles around it, catching all but two apples in the bucket. “There ain’t nothin’ to it. Now you try.”

He looked at another tree, turning around and stretching his legs. “I’m not really sure this will work. You know pegasi aren’t as strong as Earth Ponies.”

I patted his shoulder and gave him a little wink. “I don’t appreciate that kind of negativity. Go on, try it some, and I’ll be back with some help.”

I trotted off in the direction of a certain zebra I know could help. Turning around, I saw Nova attempt to buck the tree, but he only got about two apples. He and Applebloom simply laughed about it and tried again. It was nice seeing him so happy; he kind of didn’t seem like the same pony anymore. I always remembered him being a bit more withdrawn and shy. Those fires he was responsible for may have been forgiven, but ponies still avoided him like the plague. It made me feel a might bad for him, so seeing him like this was a welcome change.

“Oof!” I was so wrapped up in thoughts that I didn’t even realize that the very girl I was looking for was right in front of me at the edge of the Everfree Forest. I helped her up and apologized for bumping her. “Hey Zecora, I was just looking for ya.”

Her voice seemed kind of weak and hoarse when she spoke. “What for?”

I tilted my head a little, one brow lowered. “Zecora, is everything alright?”

She nodded slowly. “A fail potion, simple as that. I mean not to be rude, but I wish to avoid chat.” Her hoof met her mouth as she let out a loud cough, “But if you need help, please don’t be shy. Simply ask me; you know I will try.”

The farm was almost the exact opposite way I came, so I had to turn around just to point to it. “My apple trees are all up and dying. We both know it’s way too early for this to be happening.”

Zecora scratched her chin and looked in the direction I was pointing. “Show me where, there is no time to spare.” We both took off for the farm as fast as we could, and as we got close, I began to smell smoke. That could only have meant one thing.

“Jackie!” Nova was up in the air, dumping a bucket of water on a tree that was consumed by flames. He and Applebloom were going through a cycle of dumping water and filling a bucket back up, since there were three buckets.

“What the hay happened, Nova!”

Panicking, he spoke between pouring buckets. “This one here just died in front of me, and I freaked! I-I’m sorry, Jackie, I really didn’t mean it!” He looked around for a moment, bolting away and returned with a dark grey cloud. The rain that fell when he stomped on it was enough to put out the fire, but he kept the rain going for a little bit to make sure it wouldn’t start back up. When all was said and done, he landed in front of me, his ears lowered. “I’m sorry, Jackie….”

As upset as I was, I couldn’t be too angry at him. None of this was his fault, but I knew him sticking around wasn’t a great idea. “Nova, I think you should go. I’m not upset, I just think it will be a bit safer without you around.”

“But I-“

“Nova.”

“But Jackie, I-“

I stomped my hoof on the ground to quiet him. “Nova, I said I wasn’t upset, but I’m starting to get there. Please just go.”

He hung his head as he turned to leave. “I understand. I’m sorry….”

After a long sigh, I turned to Zecora who was already looking at one of the other dead trees. She scratched some of its bark off and took a sniff of it. After that, she asked me to help her clear a small patch in the dead grass so she could look at the soil. When we had, we saw that the earth itself was dry and gray as opposed to its usual soft, brown.

Zecora looked at me with one of the most somber expressions I think I’ve ever seen. “It is not simply your plants that are dead, but the very earth they stand on. If we do not act quickly, soon all your trees will be gone.”

I wish she knew how appreciative I was of her help despite her apparent sore throat. “So what can we do?”

The zebra looked up to the sky for a moment. She pointed out a solitary black cloud in the distance. “An evil power is consuming all. Stop it, you must, or everything shall fall.”

After she spoke, I turned tail and bolted for Twilight’s place, with Zecora following me. I guess Nova was headed for the same place, because we caught up with him on the way there. “Nova, come on! I know what’s been killing my trees!”

Immediately he brought his head back up and jumped in the air, speeding towards the library with us. “What’s the problem?”

“Zecora said it was something evil, and if we didn’t stop it soon it would take over everything!”

When we got to the library we didn’t even bother knocking, but we probably should have; poor Twilight looked like she was about to have a heart attack when we came in. “Twilight! We need to send a letter to the princess as fast as possible!”

She jumped up a little, slightly panicked now. “Why? What’s wrong? Spike! Come down here please!”

As Spike walked down the stairs, I pointed out the window at that black cloud Zecora had shown me. “See that? Zecora said that’s some kind of evil power, and that’s what’s been killing my trees! If we don’t stop it soon, it’ll take over everything!”

She turned to Spike, who was already writing. “Did you get all of that, Spike?” He nodded, and she began circling around him. “Tell her that we would like to request that she send a few soldiers to check this out. If this really is something dangerous, we need act quickly. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.”

When she was done, Spike set his quill on a table and set the scroll ablaze. I don’t even think two minutes had passed before he belched up another scroll in a burst of green flame. “My faithful student, I would like for you and your friends to look into this matter yourselves, I’m quite sure you all can handle this. Also, if Nova Dash is still with you, allow him to accompany you. I believe he will be of assistance as well. Wishing you the best of luck, Princess Celestia.”

Twilight raised a brow after Spike finished reciting the letter. “I can understand her tasking us with this, but… why would having you a long make a difference, Nova?”

Shrugging was easy since he was still in the air. “Maybe she thinks this will help me build some confidence?”

Before the two could say anything else, I nudged Twilight and motioned my head towards Nova. “Hey Nova, do you think you can round up the others for us?”

He nodded and took off out the door. “Start a timer; I’ll be back here in less than five minutes!”

I chuckled at his joke and turned back to my friend. “Do you know he almost torched our entire farm?”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head quickly. “Are you sure? I know for a fact I put a spell on him to prevent any more accidents. How could that have happened?”

All I could do is shake my head in response. “I don’t know, Twilight. Maybe that magic is just… stronger than you thought? I mean, none of us really know what exactly is going on with him.”

Twilight opened her mouth, but was interrupted by the door slamming open again. “Okay, this is everypony. How long did I take?”

Disregarding Nova’s question, Twilight motioned to the cloud. “Okay girls, we have a problem. See that cloud over there? Zecora believes that an evil power is centered there, and that evil power is what’s been killing Applejack’s trees. Apparently if we don’t get rid of it, it will consume everything. Princess Celestia has asked us to go check it out.”

Rarity took a good look at it before turning back to Twilight. “Do we even know where to go? Or how far away it is? It could take us days to get over there!”

Everypony started putting their two cents in, and as I looked around I noticed Nova was gone. “Hey, did anyone see where Nova went?”

The minute I said something, everything got quiet as we all looked around. He was nowhere to be found. Spike even checked upstairs; there was no sign of him. We took a quick peek outside, but we still couldn’t spot him. Rainbow started to fly up to see if she could spot him, but he himself was just starting to descend from the sky.

When he landed, his expression looked like what one might look like when their mother was insulted out of the blue. “Girls, that’s no cloud. It’s a hurricane. It’s strange, though,” he turned toward it again, his mouth forming sort of a half-frown, “It’s not moving like storms usually do. There is definitely something up with this.”

Rainbow touched back down, tilting her head until a quiet popping was heard. “Could you tell how far away it was?”

He rested his eyes on all six of us for a few seconds each. “Pack your bags. From the looks of it, I’d say it could take at least four days if we make nightly stops for sleep and food. Twilight, if you have any maps you think would be useful, bring them too. We’ll need at least two compasses in case we lose one, at least one container for keeping water, enough food to last us the trip and back. Pack enough food for every day even if you think you can go a day without it, or at least bring the necessities to make some. You never know when your body will decide to make a liar out of you. When we’re all ready, we’ll meet back at the town square.” He then turned his attention to Spike, who stared at him wide-eyed. “Spike, write a letter to the Princess and let her know we’re on our way to check this out. Twilight, if it’s okay with you, I’d like Spike to join us so we can have constant access to Canterlot should we need it. Alright, let’s try to be back here in at least an hour.”

When he was finally done, he was almost panting. I don’t even think I heard him take a breath throughout that whole little spiel. Most of us were simply speechless, but his sister jumped up and got in his face. “Wait a second, since when were *you the leader, scaredey cat?”*

He chuckled and ruffled his sister’s mane. “Since I was the older brother. Now come on, we have packing to do.”

Everypony except me walked off in the direction of their home, while I turned to Twilight. “Did that really just happen?”

All she could manage was a shrug.

-------

As we walked back to my cottage, I couldn't help but think about what just happened. “Wow Nova, that was impressive.”

After a nervous chuckle, he scratched the back of his head. “Yeah… I guess it was.” His pace slowed a little bit after a moment of thinking. “Oh no, what have I done?” His eyes were wide, and he was staring at the ground. “I don’t know if I can do this or not, I don’t even know if I was *thinking when I said all that stuff. Who know what could happen out there? Who knows what we’ll find when we finally get there?”*

As he spoke, I could feel the ground under me begin to heat up. I jumped back, and before I knew it a small fire had started where I had been standing. My entire body was shaking, and the only thought in my head was to go and hide. “Nova, stop!”

He was still chattering to himself, but stopped immediately when I called out to him, stomping out the fire. “I’m sorry, Flutters. I’m just… really freaked out about doing this, despite how I sounded earlier. I guess the only thing I was thinking about was the fact that something had to be done, and I’m just now thinking of how dangerous it could be.”

I lowered my ears, starting to think about that myself. “Yeah… there could be dragons, we could get lost, we co-“ I would have continued, but talking isn’t easy with a hoof on your mouth.

“Let’s not get started again. The last thing we should be thinking about is what could scare us, that’s what got me freaking out in the first place.”

I nodded, and we continued quietly back to my cottage. We both grabbed canteens and put enough food for five days in our saddlebags, just in case we were out there longer than we expected to be. We both agreed that carrying *too much might be an issue, so we decided that I would carry a pillow, Nova would carry a blanket, and we would simply share. He still looked quite somber as we made our way to the town square to wait for the others, so I patted his shoulder.*

My friend stopped walking and stood there for a moment. The sky was gray and the air still. It may sound odd, but right now I would have preferred a roaring dragon to this piercing silence. Finally, he lifted his head to me. “Why me, Flutters? Why does all this have to be happening to me?”

He knew I couldn’t answer that question. He knew probably the only ones that could answer would be one of the princesses. However, I had a strange feeling, and something told me I should share it with Nova. “I… maybe you’re special. Maybe you’re meant to do big things. Maybe this evil springing up right when you came to visit isn’t a coincidence. I don’t know why… that just the feeling I get.”

His gaze shifted down again as we resumed walking. “Unless an unbroken streak of five major cup wins is qualification of being some hero, I’m nothing special.”

Ever since he had started talking, my head was filled with memories of all the things he’d done. Finally, I stepped in front of him, my own head down, forcing him to stop. “Nova, you know me. One of the few things I’m not afraid to do is admit that I’m afraid of everything. You claim to be a coward because you’re afraid of yourself, but I’ve seen the real you. Whether you know it or not, you’re a very brave pony, and you’ve taken action in situations where most would have run away. You *can do great things if you believe in yourself. You may not be Equestria’s bravest hero, but you’re my hero.”*

I didn’t even realize it, but at this point I was nuzzled under his neck, and he was smiling. “Thank you, Flutters. You have absolutely no idea how it feels to know somepony actually has some faith in me.”

My face had gotten hot again and I was shuddering slightly. Being with him like the made me feel almost exactly like I had when we embraced yesterday. It made me feel… just a little more able to go on this little quest.

“Let’s get moving, the others are probably waiting on us now.” He smiled again and let me go. We walked side by side the rest of the way to the square, where the other girls were all waiting for us.

Everypony was packed and ready to go, so when we got there, Twilight stood to face the group. “Alright, everypony, are we ready to do this?” After a quick nod from the group, she responded with her own. “Okay, let’s get moving.”

As we all started to move, we noticed Nova sitting still with one of his hooves out. He was smiling at us and waving it slightly, waiting for at least one of us to take the hint. Applejack finally caught on and put her hoof against his, followed by me, Rainbow, Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity.

We all lowered them a little before throwing them up and shouting, or in my case, whispering loudly, in unison. “Let’s do it!”