Best Intentions
By:
Dancewithknives
10/18/2012
It was a crisp day in Autumn as two earth ponies trotted through the forest.
The two traveled happily with big smiles as they moved to the clicking beat of the many buckets of tree sap that they had gathered throughout the day.
The larger of the two, a dark caramel-colored mare hummed to herself as her six heavy and full buckets jigged and moved with her body, while the seventh was being carried by its handle in her teeth. Her companion, a red amber colt, likewise moved with only five buckets, all being carried in a similar fashion. Both ponies listened to the leaves rustling in the wind as they walked home from a hard day’s work.
As they neared their destination, the colt began to slow down, and started breathing heavier.
The larger of the two didn’t notice at first, but slowed down when she could feel that he was not at her side.
She turned around and slowly approached him as he set down his fifth bucket and began to cough and wheeze as he sank to the ground.
She set down the bucket in her mouth and sat next to him, stroking a hoof down his side.
He sat and wheezed for a few minutes, coughing until he could breathe again.
The two picked up their buckets and continued their trek home.
When they entered the perimeter of the wildlife fence, the colt stopped again and almost dropped his bucket, but still managed to not spill any of the precious sap.
The older of the two came to his side again and forced him to sit down.
“How are you feeling, Leaf?”
He kept coughing and shakily dropped to his barrel.
The older mare grabbed his saddle and pulled the heavy burden off of his back.
His body rose and fell with greater ease as he finally managed to calm down.
Maple Leaf, breathing heavily, sat up and regained his composure.
He reached for the bucket that he had carried in his mouth but a hoof on the back of his head made him set it back down.
“I’ll finish the rest, Leaf. Go inside and take some of your medicine.”
The colt nodded and said, “Okay, mom.” before he shakily got back up and walked into the cabin in the woods.
The mother walked past the cabin and to a small shack. She set her seventh bucket on top of a table in the structure before she removed the other six buckets.
She then turned around and walked back to where five more buckets of sap waited.
Before she could pick one up, she looked out at the gate that she had clumsily left open.
She went to the gate and closed it, latching it and locking away the rest of the forest.
She then took the five buckets of sap and entered the smokehouse.
She set wood in the stove and heated the hot pads before she set down one of her large frying pans.
She brought the first bucket of sap and set it on the counter next to a bag of sugar and a large mason jar with a custom label. “Maple Syrup’s Everfree Delight: Voted best in Ponyville.”
Maple Syrup and Leaf sat together on an old couch in front of a large wooden fire and enjoyed their last pieces of home-cooked cheese and mushroom pizza.
After a long day of work, the meal was very satisfying.
After eating most of his piece, Leaf set the premade crust down and offered it to his mother.
Syrup took the offer with no hesitation and bit it in half.
“Leaf, you should eat as much as you can. How else are you going to grow up big and strong?”
Leaf set his head down and rested it against his mother’s back. “But you know I don’t like crusts!”
Syrup rubbed her ten-year-old’s mane, her hoof feeling around his frail frame. “I know. How are you feeling?”
Leaf moved his bottom legs and sat up taller. His stunted growth would show if he stretched like that. “Okay. When are we going to town?”
“At the end of the week. Why?”
“I used the last of my medicine today.”
Syrup pondered what to do. She had more jars to fill, sap to turn to syrup, and she needed to set the buckets back in their places. She could take her current load to the market, but that would be slightly counterproductive….But Leaf was much more important.
“Okay, we’ll go in the morning… are you sure you don’t just want to see that filly?” she teased.
Leaf blushed. “NO!“
Syrup took off the red handkerchief that she had around her neck and threw it on her son’s eyes.
“I think you Are-re!”
“Applebloom’s a year older than me!”
“Oh, you even know her name! How romantic!”
“Mom!”
Syrup giggled and held her little colt closer. “I’m just teasing, Leaf.”
The colt huffed at his misfortune. “Teasing doesn’t make friends.”
“You’re right,” she said. “Good thing I am your mother.”
The colt had an idea. “Mom….SPIDER!”
Syrup jumped off the couch and rolled around on the floor, trying to crush the insect that had climbed onto her anatomy. If there was one thing she despised, it was tiny creepy crawlies with eight legs.
After she registered the sound of her son’s laughter, Syrup sat up with a great frown on her face.
“That’s not funny!”
The colt kept laughing and settled down when he began to cough and wheeze.
The two waited until the embers of the fire extinguished before finishing the closing ritual for the cabin.
It was dangerous where they lived; the Everfree was filled with large animals and predators. But all it took was the necessary precautions and the environment would be safe.
Lock the gate.
Make sure the chimes were attached to the fence.
Seal all the windows.
Latch the door.
And, above all else, don’t go out after dark.
The two ponies did their routine. Leaf finished by climbing to the top of the A frame cabin and sealed the tiny spyhole that let them peek out at the nightlife.
After the cabin was locked down, Leaf jumped into the bed in the back of the three room cabin and got ready.
Syrup sat at a dresser and slipped a hoof into a brush that was made for earth ponies.
She then used her hoof to straighten a few earthy colored hairs that were tangled throughout the day and, when done, she set it down.
Right next to where the comb went was an old picture. A stallion, a mare, and a foal were all present.
Syrup felt the edges of the silver frame and then turned around and joined her son in the only bed in the cabin.
In the middle of the night, Maple Syrup rose from the bed and walked out of the bedroom and into one of the other three rooms in the cabin.
She had to answer the call of nature, and being that the cabin was in lockdown, the last room had been turned into a lavatory just for this case.
When she had finished her business, she returned to the bed and found Maple Leaf waiting for her.
“Did I wake you?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.” She climbed in and tucked herself nice and close to him, sharing the valuable body heat under the quilts that comforted them.
The two laid there, not speaking as they listened to the wind chimes that kept the predators at bay.
The night dragged on until they heard something. It was like a constant rush and roar of air, not the gentle whispers of the wind.
Their ears perked up and Syrup actually sat up, Leaf joined her until she told him to stay.
There was a loud *THUD* as something incredibly heavy landed on the ground.
Startled, Maple Syrup walked towards door to their house and made sure it was latched.
It was.
Maple Syrup froze as the sound of the air seemed to dissipate, and the night became incredibly quiet.
She then climbed up the ladder to the top of the A-frame and opened the peep hole.
She opened the tiny window and looked out at the night sky.
The magic lamp that they kept lit at their door only illuminated a small bit of the dark and surrounding forest.
She waited, watching for anything in the dark. Maybe it was a turkey that got through the fence. Maybe it was a raccoon that was in the smoke house, eating the syrup and sap they had gathered earlier. Maybe a tree had fallen over in the wind. Either way, she watched and nothing happened.
“Must be a tree…” she said to herself.
Maple Syrup sealed the hole and wandered back to bed. Maple Leaf was waiting for her.
“What was that?!”
“I think a tree fell.”
She climbed back into bed, and held her son closer with the unease over the anomaly.
But she could not sleep. Soon after she had pulled the quilts back up, she knew something was wrong.
The night was too quiet.
But to make things worse, she could hear something in the leaves.
Hoofsteps, strong hoofsteps, kicking leaves with every movement and snapping twigs under every step.
The only thing they could do was hide in the cabin. There was no way it could get inside.
But keeping it out didn’t worry the mother. It was how it walked.
Maple Syrup had lived in the wood for long enough to know that one could find a great amount of information about a creature by its tracks.
Predators moved silently, not wanting to be heard while they stalked their prey.
Clumsy animals stayed away from attention. Their large size and clumsy steps made anything in their path a minor inconvenience.
But the predators at the top of the food chain, the ones that were the most dangerous, they walked with no care in the world. They made their presence known to show that they were the true alphas of the forest.
They looked for fights.
Maple Leaf and Syrup held each other and hoped that the monstrosity outside their cabin would go away.
They didn’t even breathe.
Suddenly, bright blue lights began to shine outside the cabin, looking in.
Maple Syrup had never heard of any occurrence like this before in her life.
They could see it through the tiny cracks in the windows, or through the pin-sized holes in the logs’ sealant.
This was a new predator.
Maple Syrup wrapped her hoof around Maple Leaf and pulled him underneath the bed.
If they were quiet enough, they could just hide underneath the mattress.
Maple Syrup was very afraid. She couldn’t even think of what was outside her log cabin.
The steps and the lights circled the cabin.
Maple Leaf and his mother shook under the mattress.
They heard something reminiscent of pounding outside of the door to their cabin.
There was another loud strike against the door.
The two ponies held their breath as the sound was sucked away from the world.
Maple Leaf looked at his mother. “Maybe he went away….”
There was a loud shatter as, no doubt, the door to the cabin was bucked in.
The extra clanking of wood told them that the door must have been shattered in the action.
Maple Syrup wrapped a hoof around her son’s mouth to keep him quiet.
She slowly pulled herself out from under the bed and moved her dresser, pushing it as quietly as she could in front of the thin door to their room before hiding again.
That was their last line of defense.
There was the sound of the foundation creaking as the thing outside stepped through the largest compartment of their cabin.
The two small ponies shook like leaves on a tree with fear under the bed.
Her ears perked up as she heard static, like a scratched record player.
The two shook even more, for it wasn’t an animal who had intruded, but a pony.
Maple Leaf’s mind ventured to robbers.
Maple Syrup had other things on her mind.
She was a mare, all alone with her son in the woods. A big stallion had just broken into their home.
She did not want to think of the evil things he was going to do to her….
Or if he was going to make Leaf watch.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The thing in the living room was walking through their cabin, slowly, almost as if it was searching for them.
Syrup put her hoof in Leaf’s mouth in case he started making any sounds.
The old hinges on their bedroom door started creaking until they were stopped by the dresser.
There was a smashing sound as top half of their door was broken off. Then more strikes occurred and the dresser was no more, only broken planks of wood .
With every crash of the intruder against the door Leaf bit further into his mother’s hoof in terror.
As the two shook underneath the mattress, two feet came into view.
Syrup could see in the darkness what looked like some oddly-shaped metal horseshoes slowly stepping into the room.
The blue light from outside now illuminated the room, circling like a siren.
It was at that moment that the two ponies realized that with every movement, a strange hiss was heard, like the steam of a teapot being released.
It stepped in front of the mattress, right on the silver picture frame that was once on the now destroyed dresser.
The scared ponies froze as two appendages reached under the mattress and brought it up.
They sat and gawked at the bipedal monster, clad from top to bottom in some sort of metal.
The bright light was coming from the shoulder of the giant behemoth next to what they assumed was a head.
That light somewhat blinded the two equines, they froze in terror as they thought they were locking eyes with the thing. They could not move, instinct had them lock up.
The light focused on Maple Syrup, making a grid of blue lines on her body, then it swept left and did the same for Maple Leaf.
After blinking, two straight lines locked on the center of the equines
“RUN!”
Maple Leaf ran through the thing’s legs as Maple Syrup jumped, turned around, and bucked one of its legs.
The mare vibrated after she took all of the attack.
The thing did not take any notice as it turned and reached for Maple Leaf but missed him.
Syrup followed suit and galloped as fast as she could out of the cabin.
Maple Leaf was at the gate and already had it half unlocked when Syrup joined him.
“What is that?!”
“I don’t know!”
They looked back as the thing from earlier kicked down the entire side of their cabin with a mighty kick.
It followed after them and reached its front appendage, something that was more qualified as a claw from a dragon or griffin, to its leg and pulled out a strange device that caused a red laser to light a straight path wherever it pointed.
The two ran through the forest, dodging between trees and trying to break their sight with the big thing.
As they ran, several *pops* followed and something shaped kind of like a syringe flew past them, most being wedged into the trees they hit.
“Do you think we lost it?”
“I don’t know…I don’t know… But we aren’t safe.”
The two had slowed to a trot and cautiously walked through the Everfree Forest.
The only light that helped them was the full moon in the sky, lighting their flight away from the thing that had broken into their home, something they felt was safe and secure.
“Mom… can you slow down?”
Maple Syrup stopped a few steps later as her son caught his breath. “Okay, but we need to move. The Everfree is dangerous at night.”
“Where are we going?”
“We need to get out. We’ll be safer if we get out of the forest, but we need to get back to town. Maybe if we get more ponies we will be able to scare it away.”
“Scare it..? It kicked down our cabin!”
“Please Leaf, don-”
At that moment, a loud call of one of the wanderers in the night pierced the air.
A Timber Wolf was singing to the moon, praying for their hunt to be easy.
The two ponies began to run. The moon call was designed to scare it’s prey, and it did.
The mare and colt began running, dodging trees as they swore they saw movement in the shadows.
Maple Syrup kept pace with her son so they would not become separated as they bounded over logs and broke through shrubs, completely losing track of where they were going and with that any direction they had previously determined.
But their luck ran out. They had run into a tall wall of rocks. They were cornered.
They turned around and found a new group of pursuers were ensuring they would not escape.
Maple Syrup backed up and made sure that Maple Leaf was behind her.
She kept her eyes on the wooden canines that were surrounding them in the moonlight.
She whispered to her son. “Leaf…..Find a place to hide.”
Maple Leaf began to whimper as he turned and squeezed himself between a few of the rocks of the small cliff that trapped them.
The carnivores began to move forward as the handkerchief-wearing mare hoped that her son would survive.
They kept growling with every step, using their wooden tongues to lick their wooden teeth.
Out of nowhere, a sharp and quick crack ripped the air, and with that, one of the wooden predators was split open.
Maple Syrup looked up and, of all things, the pursuer was crouching at the top of the cliff, pointing a big red laser down and aiming at another one of the wolves.
It was the better predator.
Three more cracks caused three more of the wolves to fall.
But the pack was finished with the games. At that moment, one of the bigger members got into position and pounced.
But midflight, it was returned to the ground by the boots of the seven foot tall metal monster.
Its head was crushed.
The other wolves began to circle and attack at once.
It returned a long device to one side of its back and grabbed another one that was on the opposite side.
It brought a part of the weapon at one of the leaping animals before aiming it from the hip and fired.
The loud boom ripped the next Timber wolf to pieces with the force of thunder. After a *chu chink* sound, another thunderclap destroyed another Timber wolf.
Syrup, seeing the opening, called for her son. “Leaf! Leaf hurry, we can escape!”
The colt came out. His mother pulled him to his hooves but came face-to-face with their original problem.
It slid the awesome weapon onto its back, where it clicked into place, and reached out to grab the equines, steam and air being released whenever it moved one of its joints.
The two equines backed up until the biggest Timber Wolf, angered by the death of it’s pack, jumped and tackled the metal giant.
It kept its prey down, using its wooden teeth to try and draw blood from the thing’s head, but had no such luck.
The mare pushed the colt as they ran past the combatants.
Maple Syrup turned when she heard a *Tssssssnnnnkik* and a shiny pointed piece of metal was in the invincible predator’s hand.
It brought the knife into its assailant’s head, then bore both hand into the new wound, and began to pull the two sides apart.
The mother and son ran away before they witnessed the alpha male of the Timber Wolf pack being ripped in half.
More air was released as it continued its pursuit.
Due to the overhang of leaves that remained in the trees, the moon was absent from the night sky.
Syrup and Leaf stopped for a break in the near complete darkness , keeping a lookout for the seven feet of metal.
Leaf was panting as Syrup kept turning in circles, not allowing anything to get the drop on them again.
“Mom…..Where are we?” asked the winded colt.
Maple Syrup had to admit their predicament. “I don’t know, I don’t know. We need to get moving soon before that thing finds us again.”
At that moment, a blue light began to light the dark, casting long shadows from the many trees of the forest.
Syrup took Leaf and stuffed him into a hollowed out log.
She slipped in and hid with her son.
They held each other in the hollow log. The dark shadows of the stretching trees gave the blue light a frightening and striped pattern in the once dark night.
As the light kept searching for them, the stomping of the unstoppable giant’s steps neared.
The two ponies held each other in the low lying cover for the second time in the night, looking out. They could not see it, but they knew the thing was nearing, not just because they could see the light, but as they listened, they could hear the telltale movements of leaves being kicked and crushed around them.
But they could tell they were not in danger until the strange hissing of the thing’s joints became clearer.
Tssssssss
Tssssssss
Maple Syrup snuck a hoof around Maple Leaf again.
It was at moment, she realized that the pursuer wasn’t the only horror in the night.
Tssssssss
Tssssssss
As she held the colt, she could a tapping sensation on the outstretched limb.
It wasn’t uncommon for spiders to nest in the undesirable places of the forest, like around rocks, between leaves, and, as they recently found, in hollowed out tree logs.
Syrup squeezed Leaf tighter as she felt more and more of her deepest fears crawl over her because of their intrusion of their nests.
Tsssssssss
Tsssssssss
Syrup whined and closed her eyes as the arachnids covered her body.
Tsssssss
Tssssssss
She opened her eyes and saw the bottom-most parts of the metal thing standing outside their hiding spot.
The two tiny equines shook underneath their rotten wooden hiding spot and prayed to both Celestia and Luna that they would be safe.
The thing stood for a few seconds until it hissed some more and took a few steps away.
Even though they were covered in spiders and moss, they sighed as the thing passed by, walking opposite of them so they saw its back as they watched its very movement.
A cascade of clicks became audible as the thing played around with its arm.
To both of their horror, it pointed its arm at the nearest tree and summoned fire to set it ablaze!
Leaf jumped, but did not go anywhere because he was tightly held down to his mother.
The thing kept setting the surrounding trees on fire in order to spook its quarry.
The smell of smoke was making the little ponies want to run as fast as they could in fear that they would be burned.
It pointed its wrist indirectly at the two ponies, and Syrup could see a pilot light and a type of fuel source being heated up in preparation to launch another bought of panic inducing flames.
Maple Leaf shrieked and finally jumped out of the hiding place and ran away.
Syrup crawled out and cried for him, but he was gone.
The thing aimed its other arm and pointed it at the fleeing colt.
More of the sound of a scratched record occurred as it took aim.
Syrup ran out and confronted the thing, rearing and tried to push it away.
“What do you want from us!” she demanded.
The thing looked down at the mare who had disrupted its aim and shook it away.
When Maple Syrup pushed against it again the thing’s only response was a swift backhand that sent her away with a swelled lip.
It aimed and fired, causing a web shaped net to fly out and into the darkness.
“Help! Help! Mom! *Cough* Help!*Cough*.”
“Leaf!” Syrup staggered to her hoof and was pushed down under the boot of the pursuer , but not for long.
A loud roar filled the jungle as the biggest creature on the block came out to play.
Big blue paws came down and knock the metallic life form into one of the trees it had set ablaze.
Syrup looked up and saw, of all things, an Ursa Minor had wandered into their engagement.
It roared as the thing got back to its feet.
The massive blue bear roared as the smaller thing pulled out a black pole from its belt.
It hit some sort of switch and it extended to about three times its original size.
Syrup had no idea what the new weapon was, or how it magically summoned what looked like lightning that rippled its length.
Syrup crawled away as the massive paw of the celestial bear and electricity of the black pipe met, and the pipe won.
The Ursa cried in pain, which only angered it more.
Syrup ran and found Leaf wrapped in a type of spider web made out of thin strings being linked to heavy balls.
Syrup hurried to the wheezing colt’s side and used her teeth to gnaw through the strings, freeing her son.
She did not let him get up. Instead she bit into the scruff of his neck and flung him onto her back.
When she felt him wrap his hooves around her neck, she sprinted as fast as she could, leaving the sounds of the battle behind.
Maple Syrup ran for as long as she could, reaching a clearing near a freshwater stream, before she slowed down and checked on her son.
He was fine now, except he was as scared as she was.
For the first time since the day before, Syrup looked to the sky and saw the sun, barely peeking out from the curves of Equestria.
Syrup looked at the creek that blocked their path and recognized it immediately.
They had run in a near circle.
Syrup went out on a limb and began to call out to see if a certain creature was present.
“Mr. Magnet! Mr. Magnet! Are you there?”
Sure enough, possibly the only non-hostile large game creature in the entire Everfree Forest emerged from the water. A blue sleeping stocking adorn his large and perfectly sculpted mane as the sea serpent rose from the water.
“Oh Heeelllllllllooooooo. How may I be of ssssssssservice to you? ”
“Thank Celestia you’re awake. A thing came and blew down our house; can you help us get to Ponyville?”
At that moment, the equines heard the leaves in the woods being kicked away as a large presence that had pursued them the entire night came running after them.
Syrup looked around and could not see the seven feet of metal that was coming after them.
“He’s coming!” shouted Maple Leaf.
“Jump on, little ponies!” said the serpent as he angled himself down for them to board.
They climbed on and he began swimming down the creek.
There was a muffled, but constant sound of, what they guessed, was one of the pursuer’s weapons.
“Ah!” shrieked Steven as the louder sound of something hitting his side filled the air.
A few of his scales fell off after blocking the attacks of the invincible predator.
Biting his mane for dear life, Maple Syrup turned her head and watched as an orange light emerged from an oddly shaped device. After every spark, the light would reflect off the outline of, what she thought, was the thing. It was somehow making itself see-through, but she could still see it slamming into the shallow sides of the creek.
The three stopped on the swampy ground of an offshoot from the creek. Steven Magnet poked his head up after his riders disembarked. “This is as far as I go. Good luck, little ponies!”
The mother and son team trudged through the muck and high water until they reached dense ground.
They walked through the morning light and felt relief as the trees became less and less dense.
Finally, as they neared the furthest reaches of the Everfree, the morning light brought good news.
In the distance, Maple Syrup could see their closest living neighbor, a yellow mare named Fluttershy.
Maple Syrup and Leaf began to give a few laughs in relief as they joyously trotted closer and closer to salvation.
“It’s finally over!” declared Maple Syrup as she hopped closer to the end of the nightmare.
*POP*
Maple Syrup dropped as she felt a great sting pierce her flank, and then pressure as she felt a fluid being pushed into her bloodstream.
She looked over and, with absolute horror, saw the seven foot tall monstrosity was stalking behind them, holding a device that had launched a blue syringe into her side.
“RUN!” she screamed as it began picking up it’s pace towards them.
While her muscles began to become unresponsive, she looked to her son who was equally in shock that they had not escaped the pursuer.
Maple Leaf backed away as the thing slowed down as to not plow through the colt.
Due to his frightened body, the little colt began hyperventilating. He keeled over and began coughing and wheezing as air failed to reach his lungs.
Maple Syrup saw this and screamed out, “Leave him alone! Take me!”
The seven feet of attitude kneeled down and pulled out a big needle and pierced the side of the colt’s neck.
As she tried to crawl over, she somehow heard something over the hissing and static that usually broadcasted it’s presence. “Administering Corticosteroids.”
Slowly, Maple Leaf stopped coughing.
The big monster picked him up and threw him over its shoulder.
It walked over and stabbed a device into the ground near the sedated mother as her vision became blurrier and blurrier.
“Let him go! Take me instead!”
A bubble like sphere formed around the mare as the thing walked away, its prize in tow.
Like in the night before, a loud roaring of wind filled the air and a big metal flying carriage descended.
It did not have wheels, and it was being lifted by a white fire raging from each corner.
A hatch opened and the seven foot intruder stepped in.
With her vision getting cloudier and cloudier, Maple Syrup cried and pleaded to the thing for grace. “Please, not him. Anything but him. Maple Leaf! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I love you! Don’t go.”
And with that her vision became so clouded that she could not see. Seconds later, she was unconscious.
What awoke the sleeping mare was a sharp pain as the needle that had sedated her was ripped from her side.
She kicked and tossed herself around in the leaves as her body woke up.
“MOM!” came a familiar voice that she had feared she would never hear again.
Maple Syrup breathed and rubbed her eyes as a tight vise was brought around her neck.
She could hear the unnatural rushing of wind becoming fainter and fainter as she looked into the wide eyes of Maple Leaf.
“Oh, thank Celestia!” she cried, “You’re safe.”
The two ponies clutched each other for what felt like an eternity before even looking into each other’s eyes again.
“What did it do to you?”
“I…I can’t remember.”
Maple Syrup looked at her son’s face, and then she lifted his heaver frame in her hooves, checking it out quickly.
It was strange, he was denser than usual.
“How do you feel?”
“I think they shot stuff into me that help the attacks. I…I feel like I can breathe easier!”
Maple Syrup forced her son to move and she looked at his neck.
She jumped in shock.
Bound tightly to his coat was a metal collar. It had all sorts of lights and gizmos blinking on it.
Maple Syrup looked around and pulled off her handkerchief. She quickly tied it around his neck, concealing the strange device from the world.
Maple Leaf looked at his mother, “What are we going to do now?”
Maple Syrup looked around, it was starting to become dark again, she began to wonder how long she was out.
Even if their house was not destroyed, they would not make it back before nightfall.
“Come with me, Leaf. We need to get to shelter.”
The mother and son walked out of the forest and to the front door of their nearest neighbor.
Maple Leaf sat when his mother knocked on the door, he was incredibly tired.
There was a slight crash as something fell, but soon after the door opened.
A yellow head with a bunny on top poked out. “H- Hello…..Syrup. I-it’s a little late, don’t you think?”
Syrup scratched her neck where her handkerchief was absent, “Fluttershy, I don’t want to impose, but our cabin was attacked last…..” Syrup had to think how much time had elapsed from when they fled from their home. “…night and we have been running through the woods trying to get to safety. Could we please rest here for the night?”
The yellow pegasus’s eyes became large with the flow of sadness over the two homeless ponies hardship.
“Oh, you poor things! Come right in, I was just cooking up some soup.”
She opened the door more and let her guests enter.
“Thank you, Fluttershy.”
“Oh, you’re more than welcome! Make yourself at home. You deserve it.”
Fluttershy walked into another room, probably the kitchen, while Maple Syrup and Maple Leaf looked around.
Maple Leaf saw a couch near a fireplace and slowly walked over to it.
He got himself comfortable and set his head down.
Syrup was right behind him. She bit onto a nearby quilt and pulled it up around his body, tucking him in.
The two looked at each other in the eye, “I love you, mom.”
“I love you too.”
Maple Leaf closed his eyes and breathed in nice and deep, something he previously could not do, then exhaled slowly.
By the time Fluttershy had poured three bowls of hot tomato soup, Maple Leaf was sleeping peacefully near the warm fire, safe and sound.