Chapter Seven
Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and the four guard ponies find themselves walking down the trail to Zecora’s house, hoping that she can relate the tale of what happened to her, to Captain Swiftflight and her ponies. On their way there Swiftflight trots up to Rainbow Dash, wanting to ask her a few questions. “So, Rainbow Dash, the information we have about you says you’re a pretty good flyer...”
Rainbow Dash turns her head around and gives Swiftflight a look of smug confidence. “Well duh! I won the Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale. There is no pony in all of Equestria who is a better flyer than me! I’m going to join the Wonderbolts you know.”
“Really now?” Swiftflight gives Rainbow Dash an amused look as she continues talking. “Care to put that to the test sometime? I’m not always on the job you know, and I love a good race.”
“Oh, you know it! Although don’t be too sad when I totally leave your sorry flank in the dust!” Rainbow Dash declared. “I’ll take you on anytime, anywhere.”
Captain Swiftflight let out a quiet laugh as she looks at Rainbow Dash. “Once this whole thing blows over, when I’m on leave, I’ll take you up on that boast.” With that Swiftflight flew up into the air, giving a look out at the canopy of the Everfree forest, and upon deciding that it was all clear she landed down again next to Twilight and kept walking. Rarity was still watching the stallion, Regal Mask, with a dreamy stare while walking behind him.
Suddenly somepony let out a chuckle, breaking Rarity out of her entranced state. “Beg’ pardon Rarity, you see somethin’ you like?” Applejack asks, stifling a grin at her friends expense.
“Oh Applejack, you wouldn’t understand. You don’t know what its like to be in love.” Rarity says in a singsong voice, turning to look at her. “He’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a pony...” Rarity gives out a sigh as a small smile creep across her face.
“Ah, I see. Just like you were ‘in love’ with that young stallion who came to yer store so long ago, an’ then Caramel, an’ after that Prince Blueblood, an’ fer a little while Rainb-”
Rarity quickly interrupts Applejack before she finishes the last name. “Uh-uh-uh! Quiet you. This time it’s different, he’s so charming, oh and he’s not full of himself, and he’s shy! Besides, that last time I was confused, it’s all in the past. Anyways, this one is... different.”
Applejack gives out an exasperated sigh at Rarity as she mutters. “Yeah, different, just like every other pony was.”
Twilight, who’s leading the group, stops as they have arrived at Zecora’s home. She trots up to the door and taps on it with her hoof. “Zecora, it’s me Twilight. I brought everypony else, along with some of the Royal Guard, they want to talk to you about your encounter.”
“Of course, come on in, just beware, my voice is a little coarse.” Zecora responds as she let out a cough. Twilight looked back to the other ponies with a rather worried look, how could Zecora be sick, she has a cure for everything, right?
Captain Swiftflight walks up to Regal Mask, and orders him to stay outside to make sure nothing sneaks up on them. Upon hearing this, Rarity quickly speaks up. “Uhm, if Zecora is sick I don’t think I want to go in. I’ll just stay out here if that is okay with you ponies.”
“Ah think ah will too.” Applejack chimes in, wanting to watch her friend to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid with this stallion.
Twilight, looking somewhat perplexed, simply nods as she, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Swiftflight, Full Trust, and Summer Darling walk into the zebras house. Swiftflight walks up to Zecora, who is brewing a potion. “Greetings, zebra I am Captain Swiftflight and, at the behest of Princess Celestia, I am here to solve this monster problem.”
Meanwhile, as Zecora starts retelling what happened to her, Rarity is trying to make an advance on Regal Mask. “Oh, you decided to stay out too? I had no idea!” Rarity says to Regal Mask, trying to start a conversation.
“No ma’am. Captain Swiftflight told me to guard the exit, as I am sure you heard her say.” Regal Mask responds, his voice completely monotone. His remark causes a small snicker out of Applejack, but she quickly stifles it as Rarity gives her a harsh look.
“Oh, of course, how silly of me. So, Regal Mask, whats it like working for Captain Swiftflight, hmmm?” Rarity asks the stallion, giving him a large smile as she blinks a few times in rapid succession.
“It’s nice. She is a very strict boss, but she’s good to us. I’ve learned a lot from her.” Regal Mask replies.
Rarity keeps looking at him expectantly, waiting for more, however when she realizes that is all he is going to say she starts up again. “I see, I see, oh do go on. Please?” Rarity’s pupils grow large, trying to urge Regal Mask to talk some more, hoping to learn as much about him as she can. However, Regal Mask suddenly starts, and stares off into the distance, causing a surprised look from both Rarity and Applejack.
“Wha’ is it, Regal?” Applejack asks.
Regal Mask only makes a shushing sound as his horn starts glowing, and a small dagger that was hidden in his armor, moves out of its sheath and floats to his front. He then slowly creeps towards where he is looking at. Rarity looks back at Applejack with a frightened look on her face, and upon seeing that her friend is scared, Applejack slowly moves in front of Rarity. After about three minutes of all three ponies just standing there, Regal Mask slowly levitates the dagger back into its sheathe and trots back to where he was standing beforehand.
“Wha’ was it? Wha’ did you see, or hear?” Applejack asks him.
“Nothing. I just wanted a few minutes of silence from some pony, I got it.” Regal Mask responds, giving a smirk at Rarity, who is looking rather dejected. However, despite Rarities obvious embarrassment, Applejack cannot help but laugh at the situation. At this point, the rest of the ponies come out of the house, being led by Zecora.
Twilight Sparkle looks at the three ponies who had stayed behind. “C’mon you three. Zecora talked about a strange thing, almost like a rip in the air, that she saw before she encountered the monster. Those things have been appearing all over Equestria and it was because of them that Princess Celestia called me away. I believe that the monster and the rip may be related, so Zecora is going to take us to see it.” With that, everypony followed Zecora into the woods, off of the beaten path.
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Meanwhile, at Fluttershy’s cottage, she is sitting on her couch in complete shock. She is shaking with fear, Angel Bunny is cuddling up with her, trying to comfort her. Fluttershy has no idea what really just happened, and tries to clear her mind, so that she can try and make sense of the past couple of minutes.
She had come home to find her cottage in ruins, and a beast, most likely the monster that attacked Zecora, outside about to eat Angel Bunny, surrounded by the bones of multiple chickens, with the chicken coup completely burned down. She remembers that it said something, although she only heard the words “I’ll kill your precious rabbit!” Suddenly all of her fear was gone, replaced only with deep, burning anger. Anger that her chickens had been killed and most likely eaten. Anger at the fact that Angel Bunny was about to be next. Mostly though, she was completely enraged at this... this thing that stood before her. “You... Monster. You evil, nasty, beast!” Fluttershy shouted at the creature as it looked down on her. Fluttershy’s eyelids shot up like window shades, her pupils dilated to the point that not even her iris could be seen. All of her anger and hate was being directed at the beast in front of her. The monster faltered a bit before staring directly back at Fluttershy, trying to stare her down into submission. It was his final mistake in their confrontation. As it looked deep into her eyes, something in its mind sparked, a deep, primal fear. It dropped the rabbit onto the ground and tried to tackle Fluttershy, but only landed on its knees. Fluttershy took a few steps closer, now almost face to face the the beast. She started whispering in its face. “How... Dare... You... You do not! I repeat. You do not! Lay a finger on my animals. Especially. Not. Angel Bunny!” Even though Fluttershy had started whispering, her voice barely audible at the beginning, she ended by screaming at the top of her lungs , the force of her voice blowing back the fur on the beasts muzzle. It made a strange whimpering sound, as it turned tail and ran on all fours to the Everfree forest. Fluttershy kept staring in the direction that it went for a good five minutes before she walked back into her cottage and collapsed, exhausted. Now she just sat there as she felt a myriad of emotions: anger, fear, sadness, revulsion, relief, among many others, swirled around in her mind.
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After having run for what felt like miles Drub finally slowed to a stop, extremely tired. “By... By the ti-titans... What just happened?” Drub asked himself, the last thirty minutes had been a blur. He sat on a stump in the forest and tried to think back. He had threatened to eat the rabbit that he found if the little pony with wings wouldn’t talk, hoping to just plain demoralize her so that he could get information out of her about where he was. However it seemed to have the opposite effect. The winged pony started screaming, and started staring right at Drub’s eyes. This shocked him, as in his clan, when you stared at another charr, you were fighting them for dominance. Drub chuckled inside and figured thats what this pony was doing. He started staring right back at her, having won a few dominance fights in the past. However the moment he did, he realized he couldn’t look away, even if he tried. He could see his own reflection in her, now completely black, eyes and it started to unnerve him. A trickle of doubt entered Drubs mind as his worry and unease increased. He tried with all his might to fight it. I am a Charr dammit. I will not lose to such an insignificant piece of meat! Yet despite all of the self-assurance that Drub may have been able to muster, it was hopeless. Those eyes, those black pores seemed to just absorb all hope, they were like black holes into the void! As a last hope, Drub tried to attack the winged pony who seemed to have so much control over mind affecting magic, but he couldn’t do it. He landed on his knees, and just stared at her as she came closer to him. Her voice was like knives grating against a chalk board, at least thats how it sounded to Drub. He couldn’t take it anymore and tried to mutter an apology as he turned and ran from the devil pony.
“How could I have let myself be affected by her magic? Dahgar was right, I need to train more if I plan on becoming as good at occlumency as he is.” Drub resolved to not let her, or anyone, make a fool of him ever again.
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Sweetie Bell looks at both of her friends. “So... how do you actually go about finding a monster?” Applebloom and Scootaloo both stare at her, then each other, perplexed.
“The Everfree forest, obviously!” Scootaloo exclaimed to her friends. “Lets go!” Scootaloo then runs off and both of her friends follow. They took the path that they knew, at least somewhat, which passed by Fluttershy’s cottage. As they galloped passed her cottage, they noticed that the door was left open, and they thought they could hear the sound of soft crying coming from inside.
“Wha’ is that?” Applebloom asked her friends. “It sounds like Fluttershy.” Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell nodded in agreement as they trotted towards the open door, curious about why Fluttershy was crying.
“Do you think she saw the monster? What if she’s hurt!?” Asked Sweetie Bell as a look of worry overcame her.
“Fluttershy? I doubt a monster could make her cry like that! She’s awesome! She’s called The Stare Master for a reason, she could stare down anything that tried to hurt her!” Scootaloo responded, not sure why her second favorite pegasus would be crying, but sure that she wasn’t hurt or anything.
“Well, Sweetie Bell may have a point. Ah don’t doubt that Fluttershy could stare down any mean ol’ monster, but what if it hurt some of her pets? Even if she stopped it, if it even hurt one o’ her pets she would be so sad.” Applebloom reasoned, trying to give credence to both of her friends ideas, so as not to cause an argument. Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell agreed, and all three friends went into her cottage to find it in an extremely sorry state of affair. They saw Fluttershy on her couch quietly crying, with her pet rabbit cuddling up next to her, however when it saw the three fillies it tried to shoo them away, however they didn’t pay any heed to it, just like every other pony in Poneville, except Fluttershy of course. Fluttershy looked up at the three fillies, with an extremely sad look in her eyes.
“Oh... Hello girls. Is, is there any-anything I can do for you?” Fluttershy asked, in between sniffles and the occasional swallow.
Applebloom spoke first. “Uhm, we, we were just wonderin’ what was wrong Fluttershy? Anything we can he” - “Did you see the monster?!” Sweetie Bell asked urgently, interrupting Applebloom to say it. This caused Fluttershy to go into another bout of crying as she buried her head in her ankles and let her hair fall over her face. Followed by a facepaw by Angel Bunny, who stopped looking at the three fillies and returned to trying to comfort Fluttershy.
“Uhm... Ah think Scootaloo should find Big Mac and bring him here.” Applebloom suggested, knowing of the casual friendship that they had with each other.
Scootaloo looked at her friend. “Why me, and why Big Mac?” She asked her defiantly. “I wanna stay here.”
Applebloom glared at Scootaloo as she responded. “‘Cause, yer the fastest of us all, and Big Mac is good with cheering people up along with bein’ good at housework.” She said, as she motioned to the wrecked house. Scootaloo only grumbled as she trotted out of the cottage, and then took off at top speed towards Sweet Apple Acres.