Preview of the Next Chapter of All-American Girl · 9:14pm Jan 20th, 2014
“Whut’s wrong, sugarcube?” Butter asked her husband as he sat down on the couch, frownlines practically embedding themselves on his face. Both foals were asleep, and it was a rare chance for both Butter and Elusive to spend some time together since the mare’s foaling. Before he could say anything, she moved behind him and started giving him a backrub, her forehooves running across his slumped withers.
“Aren’t you the one I’m supposed to take care of?” he said with a wan smile. “And yet here you are, taking care of me. You spoil me, you know that?”
“Well, Ah’m an earth pony,” Butter reminded him, “an’ b’sides, apples don’ go well with spoilin’, hun. So, wanna tell me what’s got ya bothered?”
“My family is falling apart, love,” he told her. “I’ve got a sister I just met who bears a great hatred towards our mother and ambivalence towards our father. And while I know how she feels about me – about us – I know she hates Minty completely and utterly. And if that isn’t enough…Minty is…Min….” He broke down, sobbing, barely feeling as his wife wrapped her forelegs around him. “She’s dead. I…I can’t deny it anymore…my sister’s dead….”
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry,” Butter said, holding her husband close. While Minty had been a mercurial mare, she had always gotten along with Butter, since Minty had always looked out for both Elusive and Blitz. Butter had gotten along much better with Minty’s husband Toffee Crunch, and of course she adored her niece, Gumdrop. But they were now gone as well – all three victims of the Tartarus that Equestria was becoming in the wake of Nightmare Moon’s return.
Must be strong fer me an’ mah family, she told herself as she pulled her husband closer to her. Whatever’s happenin’, Ah just gotta trust cousin AJ an’ mah mother-in-law. The Knights’ll save us. They always have – they always will.
But neither Applejack nor Rarity had saved Minty, the realization sunk in. And certainly if Minty would have been rescued, they would have done the same for her husband and foal. And if there was a way to save those three, they would have saved Fillydelphia…and Cloudsdale….
Cold fear sank in: maybe this time there was no way to save the day. Maybe this time the Elements of Harmony had met their match. Apple Butter’s body suddenly went cold from the realization; she wanted to break down and cry herself. But she couldn’t; she had to be strong for her Elusive.
The two held each other in broken silence as she felt the hot wetness of his tears as he mourned the loss of his sister and her family. After a while, she let go as well, the two adults crying and both thankful their newborns were asleep long enough to let them both get this out of their systems. Both of them needed it to get over their grief at the moment.
Unfortunately, a knock came at the door. Because Elusive was still out of sorts, Butter forced herself to act. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she told him she would get to the door while he composed himself. And it was a good thing she got to the door as well: standing there, looking completely morose, was Rainbow Blitz himself.
“Hey, Butter, good seeing ya,” he told her. “You’re looking good – recovering well?”
“Uh-huh,” she told him. “The usual?” she asked him.
“Yeah,” he said glumly, a warning sign if she ever heard one. Blitz was always mercurial, but sad or depressed wasn’t in his usual rollercoaster of an emotional range.
“Blitz?” she asked.
“I know…I know I shouldn’t….” His voice was halting. “It’s…my parents, they never….” He was reaching around the words to say, unsure to step in a boundary he’d never done before.
“You loved her as well,” Elusive’s voice said as he walked into the living room. The look in his eyes was bleak. “She was just as much your big sis as she was mine. Always looking out for us, because she was the oldest.”
“Always being my big sis, because I didn’t have siblings of my own.” The dams in Blitz’ fragile emotional state busted again. “Why the hell is this happening to our family? First it was your mom and mine and our aunts, then Aunt Scoots and your dad, and now Minty and her family! Is somepony trying to kill us?”
“Blitz, calm down – I don’t think it’s that. Frankly, I don’t know what to think,” the unicorn sighed. “But I do know that Minty wouldn’t want us to fall apart like this.”
“Yeah,” he said, as Butter passed him a bottle of cider. “She always looked out for us, didn’t she. Even when she was at her…well, even when I deserved to get my plot beat…she always looked out for us, didn’t she?” Elusive merely nodded, saying nothing else as he sat down in the seat next to his cousin. “And yet she’s gone and here we are. And I get the feeling this is just the start of something. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling our flanks haven’t even been through the worst of it yet.”
Elusive’s eyes narrowed in anger, while Butter gasped at Blitz’ comments.
The pegasus looked at his cousin and best friend, and his cousin’s wife. “Don’t worry – nothing’s going to happen to your kids, you two. So long as Rainbow Blitz is here, I’m going to give it my all to protect them.”
“Just like Aunt Rainbow,” Elusive said with a smile as he brought his cider forward in a toast.
“Just like Aunt Rarity would do,” Blitz answered, clinking his bottle against Elusive’s in response.
oh boy, you have no idea of who are after you and all your family
This fragment tastes like 'famous last words'.
1741383
He's the child of Rainbow Dash and Soarin'. Of course he's going to bite off more than he can chew.
Don´t they know Minty was rescued from Fillydelphia´s ruins?
1743060
Well, remember that the Infirmary was destroyed, so they could consider that she was killed in that, or that Elusive is, like his mother, having a histronic moment and that Blitz, who like his mother, is having a very mercurial moment at the same time - logic tends to go out the window at those times.