Chapter 17
Rarity
Rarity ran for her life. Her legs ached—she could feel the stitches Inkie had sewn ripping open—and she was ever so tired. She'd been running non-stop since Celestia had sent her down into those caves, and she hadn't even had the chance to shower at Pinkie's before leaving! She didn't realize that get dirty would mean staying dirty...
The sounds of explosions were behind her as she left Pinkie and her sisters. She knew that she was running in the wrong direction—Ponyville was the other way—but she had to keep the Elements safe. She wasn't sure where this forest would take her, but she was determined to lose the changelings in it.
The sounds of explosions began to fade as she ran further and further into the woods.
I hope Pinkie and her sisters are ok...
Rarity glanced behind her. Four changelings were following her, gaining speed as they flew in the air. Blinkie's bombs must have really done a number on them, if only four had managed to follow.
She wasn't sure which woods she was in; it was thicker than White Tail, but not as creepy as Everfee. She knew for sure it wasn't Everfree, because it was on the other side of Ponyville from the direction they were coming from.
Rarity whipped out a bomb from her bag. She fumbled as she tried to recall the combination Inkie had told her.
After a few failed attempts, two of the changelings caught up and tackled her to the ground. Rarity thrashed, trying to throw them off. Suddenly, the grenade was blinking and beeping. Rarity screamed and panicked. Without realizing how, she shoved the grenade into the mouth of the changeling holding her down. That caused it to stagger off, just enough for Rarity to jump up and run.
She didn't get far enough away when the bomb went off. The force from it threw her a few feet forwards and through a thick patch of trees, onto a road on the other side. It was a different one then she and the Pie sisters had been on.
She struggled to get up. While the blast helped her in getting ahead of any remaining changelings, it didn't help her injuries at all. And what was worse, was that as she slowly stood up, her breath stopped and she went into utter panic mode—her bag had flown off. It had landed on the other side of the road, near a ditch leading into more of the wood on the other side.
"No no no no no," she cried. She half walked, half crawled towards the bag. Something stirred behind her. She turned her head to see two of the changelings stagger out of the wood. They caught her eye. Then they saw the bag. Rarity looked at the bag and then back to them. She was half laying in the middle of the road, halfway to it.
The changelings charged. One jumped in the air and dove towards the bag, while the other kept on the ground. Rarity quickly levitated the bag towards her and threw her body on top of it. She hastily shimmied her front legs through the straps. At least it was semi-attached to her.
The changeling in the air turned and dive-bombed onto Rarity. It pinned her hind legs to the ground, as the other one came and stood on top of her, pinning her front legs. The one holding the hind dug in harder, causing Rarity to scream in pain. Her wounds were definitely open now, and the changeling was purposely pushing into the gashes.
"Help! Someone help me!" Rarity screamed.
She couldn't move, not with two of them holding her down, but she tried her hardest. She levitated a nearby stick and repeatedly hit one of the changelings with it, but it didn't move. The one on front snickered down at her and lowered its horn to hers.
Rarity began to feel dizzy and sick. Everything around her began to spin. She'd never felt so nauseous in her life. She tried to scream again, but wasn't sure if the sound came out right. What was it doing to her?
Somepony suddenly said something. A male's voice. The weight of the changeling shifted off of Rarity, and all went black.
Rarity wasn't sure how long she had been out for. The sky was lighter as she slowly opened her eyes. It was further in the day. Thankfully she no longer felt dizzy or sick.
Trees were to her immediate left. The same road she had been on before was to the right, and then more trees on the other side of that. She looked up the road a couple of feet; she could see the spot where she and the changelings had struggled. The stick she had been using as a weapon still lay in the middle of the road. Two voices could be heard arguing somewhere a bit into the forest to the left of her.
Slowly standing, she realized she wasn't on the ground. She also noticed that her hind legs were bandaged again—not as neatly or efficiently as Inkie had done, but at least someone made an attempt to repair her.
Her bag lay beside her. Panicking, she opened the side with the Elements inside. Her spell hadn't broken. All six were safely tucked inside. She closed it and put it on her back.
It took Rarity a second to remember where she recognized the strange car she now stood on. It was a strange device, for harvesting apples, one that she had seen a few times at Applejack's farm. She couldn't believe it.
She carefully stepped down from the machine, and cautiously headed in the direction of the voices.
"Just stay here and—"
Sure enough, there was Flam. He stopped midsentence when he saw that Rarity was awake. He nervously glanced towards the forest and then back at her.
"You're awake," he said.
"You saved me," she said, shocked. Flam and his brother had seemed terribly cruel towards Applejack and her family. The fact that he had saved her blew Rarity's mind. But she was thankful, of course.
"Of course," Flam said. Something rustled in the bushes beside him. He nervously glanced towards it again, biting his bottom lip.
"What is it?" Rarity asked, trying to look over his shoulder. Flam sighed.
"When I saw them trying to do the same thing to you as they did to my brother, I just couldn't handle to see it happen to another pony. I mean, obviously I was coming to your aid anyways; those creatures are terrible. I'm not sure what's worse though; being stuck in one of those cocoons, or..."
Flim stumbled out from the bushes. From what Rarity could see, he looked perfectly fine. A little roughed up, as did Flam, but that was understandable given the current circumstances.
"He looks—"
"Cider cider cider cider cider... TRAVELING SALESPONIES NONPARIEL!!"
Flim did a little dance and tipped his hat up and down. A bunch of leaves fell from within it. When he saw the leaves fall, he gasped and scrambled to pick them up and stuff them under his hat again. It was then that Rarity noticed that he had leaves stuffed under his shirt as well.
"W-what's wrong with him?" Rarity whispered. Flam put his head in his hooves and sobbed for a second. He then sighed and stroked his mustache, as he stared at his brother. Flim continued to talk to himself, picking new leaves off of a nearby tree.
"I have no idea," Flam said quietly. "We were attacked a few months ago, just like everyone else. I was put in one of those cocoons, but Flim freed me with his magic. It was after then that those.. those things viscously attacked us. All around they were putting other ponies into cocoons, but they attacked us differently. A couple of weeks ago, they caught up to us again. They got a hold of Flim, and before I could stop them... they did this. It's like.. they scrambled his brains."
"I'm so sorry," Rarity said quietly. "He seems.. happy though?"
"I know," Flam said quietly, "But he's completely in another world. I don't know why, but he's obsessed with leaves suddenly. Collects them, tries to eat them. We have a huge stockpile of them in the car now because of him. And don't even mention A-P-P-L-E-S. Drives him crazy, gets him into a fit and takes forever to calm him down. We've just been on the move ever since. It's been difficult; traveling with him slows things down, but I can't just leave him to fend for himself. I don't know how to help him though, how to cure him..."
Flim suddenly approached Rarity. He glared at her and pushed her slightly. She stumbled, her hind legs giving out. Flam caught her. Flim then proceeded to pick up a large leaf that Rarity had been standing on. He brushed it off, glared at Rarity again, and walked towards the car, struggling to hold onto his pile of leaves.
"Sorry about that," Flam said, helping Rarity steady herself again. Flim tripped and dropped all of his leaves.
"UNIMPEACHABLE!" he shouted. He then scrambled all of the leaves into a pile in front of him and tried to carry it again.
"It's like.. like he's forgotten he can do magic," Flam said quietly. "I tried to show him that he can levitate the leaves using his horn but.. he forgets.."
They stood in silence and watched Flim struggle with his leaves.
"Well... anyways," Rarity said awkwardly. She looked back at Flam. "Thank you again for saving me. I hate to rush off but... I need to get going."
She took a step forward and almost collapsed again. Flam caught her again.
"You can't walk in this condition; you've clearly been through a major ordeal. I'm sorry my first aid skills aren't to par; Flim was always better at it than me, but in his current condition..." Flam shook his head. "Where are you headed? What happened to you?"
Rarity sighed. Flam was right. She couldn't walk in this condition.
"I need to get to Ponyville," she said. She glanced towards their car. It had been pulled into the ditch and out of sight. Flam followed her eye.
"It still works; I just pulled it over because we saw a few changelings fly by earlier; a huge crowd of them. And then Flim saw all of the leaves and got excited and ran off into the woods... then I heard you scream..." he shook his head again. "Anyways, I've been wandering essentially on my own for a long time now. I could use another sane pony's company. I can take you to Ponyville. Flim will be satiated now that he has some new leaves to obsess about."
"Ok..." Rarity said slowly. "My friend might be able to help him anyways. I'm meeting her there, along with some others. She's good with magic. She'll know what to do."