I Am Not Afraid

I Am Not Afraid

Story 1

Chapter 5: You Did It

By: FluttersIsAwesome

The Dash siblings stayed in the air to act as our guides as we walked. The most direct path to that black cloud took us right past Fluttershy’s cottage and into the Everfree forest. As we walked, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Rarity looking at my saddlebag.

“Twilight, your bag looks a little heavy. Are you carrying something extra?”

I nodded an opened it so she could see. “I brought the Elements of Harmony with us, just in case we need them. I figured that they might be necessary since the Princess saw fit to send us.”

“Hey, I see something!” Nova shouted down to us, causing all heads to look up. Indeed, a small figure could be seen in the distance flying in our direction. We all stopped and prepared ourselves in the case that it was hostile, but as it got closer, we could see the left arm was waving and the figure eventually became Gilda the griffon.

With her identity now discovered, we felt safe moving forward. Eventually she joined us, but Rainbow Dash took away anypony else’s chance to talk to her.

“Gilda, what are you doing here?”

I guess it didn’t really matter; I’m sure that would have been the first question she was asked, no matter who it was that did the asking. “Well, you know how I’ve been working as a guard in Wellsprings? Well, they transferred me to this big city called Luvenhëgen. From what I hear, it should be the answer to my complaints about Wellsprings being too quiet. Anyway, I was on my way there, and then I saw that nasty looking cloud, so I went over to check it out. It’s actually… kind of frightening; that cloud is right over where my former tribe’s settlement is.”

Fluttershy looked up at our new companion, then to the cloud. “Oh goodness. I hope they’re not in any danger.”

“Wait!” Rainbow hovered in front of her, keeping her from moving. “Won’t they kill you if you go over there?”

The griffon shrugged nonchalantly, letting out a quiet yawn. “I figure they’ve got bigger worries than me if something’s going down over there. Besides, you all are gonna need my help if you’re really hoping to survive out here. Whether you like it or not, I’m coming with you.”

They both got in each other faces, with Rainbow gritting her teeth as she spoke. “I’m not letting you go in there just to get killed.”

Gilda growled and pushed against her. “You need my help! You know I can hold my own in a fight, so I’m your only hope if you get attacked by something out here!”

They argued and argued for what felt like hours until Nova finally pushed himself between the two. “Hey! Both of you knock it off!” He glared at his sister, turning away from Gilda completely. “Bow, having Gilda here will help us a lot. She’s made it obvious that she’s not afraid of what might happen.” After he said this, he turned back to Gilda with his ears lowered. “I wish I could be more like that.”

The griffon raised a brow at him. “What, you mean not being afraid of anything? Ha, it’s easy when you’re as tough as me.”

Rainbow hit her in the shoulder with a smile. “Where’d that come from? You weren’t always like this in flight camp!”

Gilda, in return, flicked her nose and laughed. “That’s more than you can say! If I recall correctly, you were the one always hiding behind me!”

They laughed and joked with other for a time, while Nova touched down and walked with the rest of us. Fluttershy patted his back, trying to cheer him up. “Come on, Nova. It’s not as bad as you think. Being scared isn’t always a bad thing.”

He sighed, hanging his head. “It is when you’re dangerous like me. Every time I even talk to somepony, there’s a chance I could light them on fire.”

I stopped walking and turned to him. After thinking about it, I noticed that everything he had said about his situation had a definite key point. “Nova, let me ask you something. Next time we run into something dangerous, I want you to go out in front, and do your best not to think about what kinds of things can go wrong. Do you think you can do that for me?”

He looked up at me with a simple shrug. “I guess I could try. I don’t see what good it would… do…. Hey, I see what you’re saying.”

Fluttershy quickened her pace to get beside him again, smiling. “Remember earlier when you jumped up and started giving orders? You told me that you weren’t even thinking about how dangerous the trip could be, you just knew we had to do something.”

Pinkie bounced up along his other side, doing a spin. “Yeah! You should be more like me! I never think of sad stuff, and that’s why I’m always happy! And guess what, it works!”

As he looked up at the sky, I saw a smile start to form on Nova’s face. “Yeah, you’re all right. That’s what I’ll do from now on. No more thinking of scary stuff!”

There wasn’t really much to talk about after that conversation, so we did our best to occupy ourselves by singing and making up little games. By the time the sun started going down, we were at the edge of the Everfree Forest and were headed towards the Goldpine Mountains. Gilda stopped us when she saw the mountains and blocked the way forward.

“We need to stop here. It will take an entire day just to cross those mountains, so we need to rest. We should separate in half, with one half looking for firewood and the other half setting up. Hop to it!”

Nopony really said anything back, seeing as how Gilda did have the most experience with outdoor survival. The Dash siblings, Applejack, and Gilda were the four that went out, leaving Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and myself to set up. Luckily, we had Spike along, so I had him carry a tent large enough for all of us in a backpack. It wasn’t that heavy on its own, and I was carrying everything else I wanted to bring, so it also wasn’t too much of a strain for the little guy.

He handed it to me, but tugged on my tail before I walked off. “Twilight, are we really doing this?”

“What do you mean, Spike?”

He shrugged. “Well, we just crossed the Everfree Forest, tomorrow we’re going through Goldpine Valley, and who knows what else all because of some storm. Not only was it super sudden, but doesn’t it seem just a little… ridiculous?”

Spike had a point, but at the same time I knew that whatever that hurricane was, it wasn’t natural. “You are kind of right, Spike, but if Princess Celestia believes that this is a problem worthy of concern, then we should trust her judgment and do as we’re asked.”

“I guess you’re right, Twilight. It just seems weird. Kinda like the princess knows something we don’t.”

“Well, Spike, if there’s something she isn’t telling us, I’m sure she has a good reason for it.”

We set up the tent without much conversation, and we all went in to make sure we had enough room. As we were setting up our sleeping bags, I felt another tug on my tail, this time from a rather concerned looking Rarity.

Her lower lip was curled and her brows were sloped up, an uncommon expression for most, an almost everyday thing for her. “Twilight, I’ve been thinking. Are you really sure it’s a good idea to have Nova along with us? I mean no ill will towards him, but, don’t you think he’s a tad dangerous to be tagging along?”

Her concern wasn’t unwarranted, but I did feel a little bad since she was basically saying she didn’t have faith in him. “I don’t, Rarity. I think with our help, he can learn to be quite the brave soul. In fact, I’ll be his partner for tonight’s watch shift and I have a plan. Don’t worry; I’m positive things will work out. Besides,” looking to the cloud, I finally decided to bring up something that I had been thinking about for a while, “I don’t know why, but I feel like Princess Celestia had a special reason for asking him to along. Don’t ask me what I think that reason could be, because I don’t have the foggiest idea. I just feel that she has one.”

“We’re back, y’all!” Applejack shouted to us as the rest of our group came out of the woods. Applejack was carrying a load of wood on her back, while the other three had the luxury of flying and carrying wood in their arms. They stacked it inside the circle of stones we made, and I lit it with a quick fire spell.

Looking around at all of us, Gilda cleared her throat. “If anyone brought food, now is the time to prepare it.”

Ironically, most of us had started eating before she said anything.

* * *

As strange as it sounds, the night seemed almost peaceful despite us being in the Everfree Forest. We all agreed on two hour shifts, with two of us taking shifts together, in case one fell asleep. Nova and I had the first shift, and I was very glad he agreed to take it with me. He didn’t know it, but ever since he first came to me explaining his problem, I’ve been writing up various theories and plans for ways to help him.

While his back was turned, I quick snuffed out the fire, causing him to jump. “Twilight! What just happened?”

I could tell he was frightened by the stuttering in his speech, and that’s what I wanted. “Calm down, Nova. I want to try a few exercises with you that I believe will help you with your fear issue. I realize you’re scared right now, but remember what we talked about. Focus on something else. It could be anything, just not how frightening being here without light is.”

The log we were sitting on began to vibrate slightly; he was probably shivering now. “O-Okay, I’ll try….”

It wasn’t easy, but I could manage to see with what little light the moon provided through the canopy of the trees. Nova closed his eyes, and after a moment I felt the log stop shaking. I reached out to pat his shoulder, but when I touched him, he jumped back and a small fire sparked up on the log. Luckily I stomped it out quickly enough to prevent any major mishaps. “That was good, Nova, but I want to go further with this. I want you to try and relight the fire.”

I could almost feel his confused gaze. “How? You said yourself that I can’t control it.”

“Well no, I didn’t exactly say that. You’ve proven that you can calm yourself, at least for a moment, and that’s the key to keeping your magic from escaping without you wanting to. What I said was that you couldn’t cast spells without a catalyst such as horn to actually expel the magic. I doubt any other kind of catalyst would provide spell casting abilities, but I do believe if you had something else, then you could at least use your magic to some extent.”

He simply shrugged. “What else would I use? I high doubt my wings could handle some kind of magical discharge.”

He was right. I’d never actually seen a condition like his before, so it was hard to come up with any ideas. However, after looking around for a moment, my eyes came to rest on the tent and my thoughts drifted to who had been carrying it.

I jumped up and turned to Nova quickly. “I have an idea! Your mouth! You could use your mouth as a catalyst to expel magic just like a dragon does to breathe fire!”

“SSSHHHH! The others are sleeping, remember?” I clasped my hooves to my mouth and nodded, almost forgetting. Nova turned his attention to the stack of charcoal as I set a few more stick in it. “So what am I supposed to do, think happy thoughts with my mouth open? I’m sorry Twilight, but I have serious doubts about this.”

Shaking my head, I pointed at the fire pit. “Not exactly. I like I said, thinking ‘happy thoughts’ is only the key to calming yourself down. What you need to do is imagine a situation that would replicate the feeling of that meteor. You were brave enough to fly into it headfirst. If you can recreate that feeling, then picture the magic coming out of your mouth like fire. If I’m right, it will use that as a means of escape, and you’ll breathe flames. That is, if I’m right. I guess we’ll see.”

After a long sigh, he looked to the fire pit as well. “If you say so.” Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and sat there. I looked from him to the fire pit and back again about three times before he thrust his head forward and opened his mouth. The sound of him exhaling was audible enough, but no flames.

“Try it again. Think of something more intense than what you were last time. Come on Nova, I’m sure this will work.”

After his second attempt yielding the same results, I decided it was time for a little push. “Try harder. Nova, whatever is going to be at the end of this journey is powerful enough to kill nature. If we don’t stop it, all the plant life in the world will die, and eventually we’ll all starve. If we want to have any hope of victory, we need your power to help us. Think of your sister. Think of Fluttershy. Think of all the ponies that are counting us. Think of-“

I was certain every living creature within half a mile was awake now. The flames were large and bright, and his scream was deafening as he clasps his hooves to his mouth.

“HOT HOT HOT HOT THAT’S HOT!” He let his tongue hang out of his mouth, and it was rather red. However, I believe he thought it was worth it after seeing the look on his face when he saw the blazing campfire he had just reignited.

All the others, including Gilda, came rushing toward us. There was no doubt in my mind that they all wanted to speak, but Rainbow beat them to the punch.

“Nova! Did… you do that?”

His speech was slightly slurred by the tongue still hanging out of his mouth as he turned to his sister. “No, Bow, ny tongue ith red becauth I thried to lick the fire!”

Everyone crowded around him, congratulating him on what he had done and patting his back. Fluttershy managed to take care of the “burns” on his tongue and lips, but his tongue was still kind of red. Watching him, I felt like I had figured out why the Princess wanted us to bring him along.

“Nova, we’re going to need to keep doing this so you can get used to it. Do you think you can?”

He gave a quick nod, but Fluttershy stood up and looked around his mouth. “Are you sure? You’re not super hurt or anything, are you? Maybe it’s a tad dangerous for you to keep doing this, Nova.”

He smiled and gave her a hug. “Don’t worry, Flutters, I’m fine. Besides, this is something I need to learn how to do if I’m going to be of any help to you all when we get to… whatever it is that we’re going to. You don’t need to be afraid.”

She nuzzled herself under his chin while I tried to calm everyone down. “Alright, girls, remember that we still have about three days of traveling before we reach that storm. Go back to bed, and we’ll wake you when it’s time for your shift.”

The excitement finally died down, and everyone was sound asleep again. I turned to Nova an received a massive hug from the smiling stallion.

“Thank you, Twilight. Thank you for never giving up on me. I feel like I could do anything right about now.”

I smiled and returned his hug. “I’m glad you feel that way. Now, how about some more practice?”