They galloped down into the shallow ravine to the stalled caravan, or rather Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle galloped, while Scootaloo flew ahead on her Cumulo-Nimbus 2000 training cloud. She swept up to the head of the wagon train, and past the front of the horses pulling it, then did an Immelmann turn that would have warmed the heart of Baron Von Richthofen, and came to a stop a couple of feet away from the horses' heads, at eye level. She pushed back her goggles.
"It's okay guys, those baddies are history!"
The two draught horses were nervous but they were well trained, and didn't react. Neither did the driver, but more from shock than anything else. Scootaloo wasn't too happy at the lack of reaction, and moved the cloud a bit closer. "Hey, maybe I didn't expect to be showered with praise, but a simple 'thanks' would be kinda nice!"
Having something so close was too much for one of them, and he whinnied and reared up. Scootaloo back winged, hauling her cloud up and back out of the way. "hey, watch it! Now that's just rude!"
"Save it Scoots, I don't think anyone's home!" stated Apple Bloom, examining the pair as she arrived. "No cutie-marks, no conversation, and they smell like the bad end of the barnyard. I think they're just animals! Like in Humans and Horses."
"You play Humans and Horses?" exclaimed Scootaloo, smirking as she laid full length on her cloud, forelegs crossed under her chin.
"What's wrong with that? Twist has been running a campaign since before the three of us met!" The earth pony exclaimed. "We don't play as often as we used to, but I still do it. I have a human paladin all the way up to 15th level."
"Humans are only filly tales, sissy stuff!" responded the orange pegasus, in a tone that clearly stated she was too grown-up for such things.
Sweetie Belle had noticed the bipedal forms sitting behind the horses, but hadn't really paid attention. Also, after shouting a warning to the caravan as a whole, she'd had to turn back to focus on helping her friends by tripping up the attackers with her telekinesis, and singing the song that seemed to have helped them to fight.
She hadn't really noticed the half dozen appearing from along the stalled caravan line carrying bows, and she'd been further up the slope so none of them had come near her. Now she looked back along the caravan line, and started to get worried. "Uh, you might want to re-think that! Those sure look like humans to me!"
"Just because they stand up-right, and have hands, and no coat of fur, and really short manes, and practically no ears… and are wearing clothes, even though this can't be a fancy occasion…" Scootaloo tailed off. "Okay, maybe they _are_ humans, but that's okay, we haven't stolen a princess. Humans only get mad at you if you steal their princess!"
Apple Bloom chuckled. "I thought you didn't read filly tales?"
"We should… say something!" Sweetie Belle interjected, slightly nervously. "What if one of them is an evil witch, or a grand vizier, or something? I wouldn't want them mad at me! I don't even know which are the stallions and which are the mares?"
"Human mares are lumpy up front." Scootaloo had decided that having been revealed as a secret filly-tale reader, she might as well get what mileage she could out of it. "And they generally have longer manes, and fancier costumes, but not always."
"Alright!" Apple Bloom set herself, and stepped forward to look up at the human who was sat on the front of the front wagon.
"Sorry, about that, sir or ma'am as the case may be. We're kinda confused right about now, and our manners have gone straight out the barn door with it."
She tapped her chest with a hoof. "I'm Apple Bloom, and these are my friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Together, we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Are you really humans? And are you a good human, or a bad human?"
Dayton Marrel had been a carter for twenty years, and owner of his own string of carts for the last six. He'd travelled all over the realm, from the Free City of Greyhawk to the High Tops, and seen all kinds of people and creatures on his travels.
None of this had prepared him for meeting a mini-unicorn, an equally miniature pegasus, and a pony, all of whom wore clothing, talked and seemed to think _he_ was the mythical creature. Oh sure, there were tales of unicorns and pegasi, but he'd never seen one, or talked to anyone who'd seen one for real, except when they'd gotten into the winter wine.
The fact that the pegasus seemed to have her own private cloud didn't even make it to the top of 'things my brain is having difficulty accepting' right then. While he was aware that there were spells that could probably do something similar, bulk freight didn't pay enough margin to hire even a low ranked mage.
Which brought him back to the fact that these three had taken on a goblin raiding party to protect his caravan. While he'd hired a pair of guards, and some of his own people had hunting bows, he had no illusions as to the havoc it would have wreaked if it had gotten in among them. He managed to pull himself together enough to reply.
"I'd like to think people would say good. My name's Dayton Marrel, this is my wife Maia..."The middle aged woman who'd been sitting up on the buck-board beside him smiled somewhat bemusedly, "... and this caravan train is mine."
He handed the reins to his wife and lowered himself down, not wanting to scare them. Some of the other carters were moving forward to look but he waved them back. "Thank you for your help. Those goblins would have taken this whole train to pieces."
It was an inane thing to say, but his normal way with words had deserted him. Still it seemed to satisfy the three ponies. The yellow pony with the big red bow in her mane, Apple Bloom she'd called herself, gave a start and eyes widened. She thumped the ground with a hoof. "Goblins! I knew they seemed familiar! They were in the H&H Bestiary Book, but we haven't fought them since we were 1st level. No wonder I didn't remember 'em right off!"
Then she seemed to realise she was talking to herself, and back looked up to the caravan master. "Sorry 'bout that. But it's okay, we saw you guys were in trouble and wanted to help."
She seemed to be the leader of sorts, and spoke Common with an accent he'd never heard before. All three seemed harmless, almost childish, until you remembered that fight, even the unicorn had been casting magic, and powerful magic at that. He owed them a great debt anyway, and he never failed to repay his debts.
"If there's anything I can do in return, you have only to ask."
"Well, as it happens, if you could take us to the city where your princess lives,or tell us how to get there, we'd be really grateful. We need to ask her to cast a spell to get us back to Equestria."
"Actually, we may not." the unicorn suggested. "If we all find our talents, won't the spell send us back? If this was how it was supposed to work, surely it should return us after we have our cutie-marks."
Most of this he didn't understand. What did a princess have to do with casting spells. Equestria must be where they came from, and it seemed they were sent here by a spell, but what were these 'cutie-marks' they thought so important?
Jace, one of the guards he'd hired, came up behind him and coughed politely. "Master Marrel, those goblins will most likely return, and in greater numbers. We have to get moving!"
Dayton looked over his shoulder and nodded, then turned back. "I can take you on my wagon, and we can talk more about all this later. I'm sorry, but I have to get this caravan moving again."
He turned properly and started issuing orders. "We don't have much time, so get emptying this cart! Milton, you sort the reloading across to the other carts, Jace, Yancy, you two get up the hillside and keep watch for the goblins."
"Hey, I can help with that!" The pegasus chimed in. "I can go up and keep watch too."
He wasn't about to refuse such an offer. "That would be useful."
He should have realised that up meant exactly that, as she, he thought it was she, flew straight upwards on her cloud. The regular pony was examining the the cart with alert interest.
"We have to clear this cart off the road so the rest of the caravan can move," he explained as he opened the back board. He was grabbing on to the normalcy as a life or at least sanity preserver, given the fact he was talking to a pony, at least one who could apparently talk back. "We won't be able to move it with the wrecked wheel unless we unload it first. Do they have carts in Equestria?"
"Of course, but I'm not allowed to pull one yet. It'll be another couple of years before I can test for my license. Uh, wouldn't it be easier to fix the wheel, or replace it?"
"If only I could!" Dayton said with feeling. "We'll salvage what we can, but the rest of the wagons are pretty well fully loaded already. We used up our last spare wheel in the mountains, and I don't see a wheel-wright around. Unless your unicorn friend..."
"Sweetie Belle!" the unicorn interjected.
"... Miss Sweetie Belle, can mend it using her magic."
The unicorn shook her head. "I don't know how to make a wheel, and the wheel doesn't _know_ what shape it's supposed to be. I learned that from my sister. You need to have the skill to make something for real if you want to do it magically. Oh, you can stick it back together if it's just broken, but that thing's smashed."
Apple Bloom spoke up, "She may not know how to fix a wheel, but I sure do! It don't look no different to the wheels we use on the apple carts back on the farm. I fixed them plenty of times."
That raised a whole load of fascinating questions, but there were problems. "I can't spare anyone to help you, and we're unloading as fast as possible. Besides, you don't have the tools..."
"Yes I do." Apple Bloom replied. "If you just figure on unloading to take the weight off that side first, I'll try and fix up the wheel. If I can't, I can support it while you move the cart off the road, so there's no time lost either way."
At his somewhat sceptical look, she slid herself under the side of the cart, legs bent and straightened up, drawing strength from the earth. The cart creaked, and Dayton's wife had to calm the horses as the entire side of the cart was lifted up, only an inch or so, but enough to let the wheels clear the ground.
"Sweetie Belle..." Apple Bloom was clearly straining. "Get that box... that one over there... under the back."
The unicorn moved over to where an unloaded crate had been set down, and pushed it with her fore-hooves and a glowing horn, sliding it into place. The carters unloading the wagon stopped and stared as she worked, until a command from Dayton got them moving again.
Apple Bloom let down the cart with a sigh of relief, and moved over to the rock that was against the wheel, putting her shoulder against it, and pushing it aside. Dayton's estimate of her strength went up again, he would have expected to need a couple of men with levers to move it.
She went over to Sweetie Belle and reclaimed her saddle bags, then pulled out a hammer with her mouth. She went over to the broken wheel and expertly knocked out the pegs that held it onto the shaft. Laying them to one side, she pulled the wheel off and laid it out. Most of the spokes on one side had been cracked or broken completely.
"Huh, that's gonna be a problem," she said. "I hoped I could just fit spokes in but I'm going to need to take it to pieces and we don't have time to get a fire going."
Sweetie Belle had come back beside her and asked, "What's the fire for?"
"Y'see that iron band running around the outside? That holds the pieces of the wheel together. To take it off you heat brands and use them to heat the ring. It expands from the heat and you can pull it off."
"Big sis had a spell for resizing rings, jewellery at least, but I haven't learned it yet," said Sweetie Belle, hanging her head.
"Maybe you can do one of them magic music things," suggested Apple Bloom.
Sweetie Belle's face scrunched up in concentration, and her horn started to glow. A syncopated rhythm started up, followed by brass, and she started singing, to the tune of 'In the Mood.'
"In the ring, that's where the wheel is,
we must spring, to make the wheel whiz,
Get it clear, metal expanding,
that's the sort of action I'm commanding!"
The iron ring glowed green, and floated up off the wheel to land beside it. Apple Bloom looked sidelong at her companion. "That worked, but where was the song from?"
"I made it up, but the tune is an old one, and I thought that style of music would help," Sweetie Belle replied, grinning.
"What style's that?" Apple Bloom asked as she retrieved her hammer.
Sweetie Belle responded with a giggle, "Big band music, of course!"
Apple Bloom winced, but quickly got to work, knocking apart the sections of rim. With Sweetie Belle to hold things in place, both with hooves and telekinesis, she quickly removed the damaged spokes and every other undamaged one. She even found a couple of suitable sticks and trimmed the ends with a chisel to create additional spokes.
It only took her a few more moments to spread the undamaged spokes around the rim and push the wheel sections together on the hub, hammering them down tight. She held the iron ring back on, while Sweetie Belle did her thing again and the iron band tightened.
The yellow earth filly flipped the wheel up on it's side, and expertly slid it back onto the axle. Shoving the pegs back in, she secured them with some well placed hammer taps, and flipped the hammer back into her open saddlebag.
"And that's how we do it on Sweet Apple Acres! It ain't a permanent fix, but if the weight's on the far side, it should hold you until you can get to a real wheel-wright."
Dayton was looking at her with a stunned expression, and not a few of the un-loaders were equally surprised. "Remarkable! Alright people, you heard Miss Apple Bloom, get the remaining stuff loaded on the other side. You can leave out the water butt, we can get water elsewhere, and we don't want to over load it. Water the horses if we've got time!"
As they set to, Sweetie Belle said, "Looks like you impressed him! It was really cool how you just fitted everything together like that. You have a real talent for fixing things, like the club-house, and I couldn't have built the set for our talent show song without your help. I wanted to be the designer, but you're far better at it than I'll ever be..."
Apple Bloom was the one blushing now, but then it hit her, an epiphany, Sweetie Belle was right! She felt her flank grow warm, almost burning as she suddenly realised that making and fixing things was what she was best at. The sensation hit her like the biggest sugar rush ever.
She'd felt a bit like this under the influence of Heart's Desire, but now she knew how fake that had been. The sensation compared to a photo of something versus the real thing. She now knew what her talent was, beyond doubt or peradventure. She stood there in a daze for a second before she was aware of someone calling her name.
"Apple Bloom!" Sweetie Belle's voice was excited. "Look! Look at your flank!"
She turned her head almost lazily to see what she knew would be there, what she'd dreamed of and wished for so many blank flanked nights. There, emblazoned on her flank, was a cart with a stack of apples in it, just like one of the one's Twilight had once magicked up for her, but with a crossed hammer and screwdriver underneath it like a engineer's Jolly Roger.
"YES!" She punched the air with a hoof, and beamed.
Dayton asked the obvious question. "What just happened? I assume it was important."
Apple Bloom was still geeking out so Sweetie Belle explained. "Every-pony has some talent, the thing that makes them special. When you realise what your talent is, your magic creates a cutie-mark..." she presented her flank and the magic musical notes. "... to show it. It usually happens as a colt or filly grows older, but we're the last in our school class to get them.
"That's why we became the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the three of us swore to band together, try everything we could until we discovered our special talents. I found a spell in an old book that was supposed to show us what out cutie-marks were, but it sent us here instead. But I'm thinking that's what it was supposed to do, send us somewhere where we could earn our cutie-marks.
"And it's worked!" she said jubilantly. "I got my cutie-mark after singing that spell for my friends, and Apple Bloom got hers when she worked out that fixing things was her talent. It's so obvious, she's always been good at that, but I guess Twilight and the others were right, you really have to realise it for yourself."
Suddenly their earlier discussion made sense. "Twilight? Another pony?"
Apple Bloom finally returned from la-la-land with a giggle. "Well she's not a dragon! Her assistant Spike is though. Twilight Sparkle is a really powerful unicorn, one of my big sister's best friends. She's the personal student of Princess Celestia herself! And Princess Luna visits her too."
"More unicorns?" The reloading was almost finished, but he had time for one more question. He'd got the impression Apple Bloom was from a farm, but she was in schooling, and knew some powerful people, which would have made her a child of a noble. She could be putting on airs, but he didn't think so. It was too artless, too direct. You didn't get to make a living in the carting business unless you learned how to spot a con, and his instincts were telling him she was telling the truth as she knew it.
"Oh no!" Sweetie Belle put in."The princesses are alicorns, winged unicorns, the rulers of all Equestria. Princess Celestia raises the sun and controls the day, while Princess Luna raises the moon and brings the night... we only have one moon, you see. That's why we want to see the princess who raises your sun..."
"Or one of the ones who control the moons, I'm sure they'd do just fine too!" Apple Bloom added.
"... because they would have the power to send us back. Though it might be that the spell itself will send us back as soon as Scootaloo earns her cutie mark."
That floored him, figuratively at least. Pelor, the god of the sun, might watch over the Realm and all good beings, but he didn't come visiting. Once again they'd said it matter-of-factly, like the 'sun rises in the east', so they clearly believed it. In Equestria the sun apparently rose in the east by royal decree.
Of course, these Princesses might be pretending, but if there were lots of these unicorns about, even to fake it must make them powerful mages. No wonder these ponies thought they could get the local equivalents to send them home.
He'd have to explain the facts of life to them, though there might be alternate possibilities...
Scootaloo dropped out of the sky, breathless. "Goblins coming!"
"How many?" Dayton asked, marvelling at how quickly you could get used to something, even if it was a pint sized pegasus on a cloud, hovering at head height.
"Uh... All of them, I think!" Scootaloo replied wide eyed.
Dayton didn't waste a moment. "Alright everybody, into the carts and let's get moving! Jace, Yancy, rear wagon. Discourage them!"
People rushed around, scrambling into carts, and the other two ponies looked rather lost. "You three can get in the back of my wagon. I'll send Maia, my wife back to get you comfy after we're safely away."
He climbed up on the buck board, and the ponies hopped in the back, but he noticed the pegasus was still hovering outside, looking down at the other ponies, then back along the direction the goblins were most likely to come, and then glancing at the open water barrel. She seemed to come to some sort of decision, and moved her cloud over the top of it, dropping it down like stuffing in a pillow.
He heard Apple Bloom call out. "Scoots, c'mon!"
"It's okay, I think I know a way to slow them down, the front ones at least!" The pegasus looked determined again. "I can do this by myself. You guys get in the wagon!"
"Now don't do anything crazy!" the earth pony called, jumping up over the back board, then reaching down to hook forelegs with Sweetie Belle and haul her up.
"You know me!" Scootaloo replied.
"I do know you, that's why I'm saying it!"
Scootaloo hauled her cloud back up out of the water barrel. It looked denser, darker, and slightly bigger. Dayton's wife started the wagon moving, and the other wagons followed, with Scootaloo keeping pace with the backboard where Apple Bloom was looking out. She pulled on a strap and ducked her head, allowing her saddlebags to ride up. ""Here, take my saddle bags, I need to be as light as possible."
"Uh uh, you _are_ going to do something crazy!"Apple Bloom didn't want to take the bags, but Scootaloo looked at her with a pleading expression.
"It's okay, I've seen Rainbow Dash do it dozens of times. Please, I need to do this!" Apple Bloom relented with a sigh, and caught the saddle-bags as they slid off her shoulders.
Scootaloo backed up and pulled down her goggles with a set expression. "If this doesn't get me a cutie mark, nothing will!"
She peeled off, and flew back along the line of carts, waggling her wings as she passed. She headed for the line of goblins, the fastest runners, who'd just emerged from the tree-line some distance behind them. A few arrows sought her, but she manoeuvred between them with ease, unimpeded by her now swollen cloud.
She veered off to one side, and soared, then as she came level with the line, did a one hundred and eighty degree turn that was too wide to be called an Immelmann, but also didn't leave her hanging at the top of her turn as an easy target for arrows. She dived on the line, weaving and dodging the few arrows that came at her, and swept across the front line at a speed that wouldn't have embarrassed Rainbow Dash.
As she came in like a storm front, she also delivered a storm, or at least as shower, drenching the goblins with the water she'd drawn from the water butt. Some slipped and fell, others just weathered it. As she finished her first attack run, she started frantically rubbing her fore-hooves on the cloud stuff, but not letting that distract her from more evasive manoeuvres as she soared away.
As she reached the top of her zoom, she jumped up in the air, kicking the cloud in a way which made it do what skate boarders would call a kick flip. In this case a half kick flip as it ended up upside down. Of course she'd spun end for end herself in mid-air, facing back towards the goblin line. Landing on the inverted cloud, she started to dive again.
This time the covering fire was more sustained, as more goblins with bows had emerged from the forest. Thankfully, firing on the run made their aim bad, and she was anything but an easy target. Once again she dived on the front line, but this time as she passed the centre line, she slammed her fore-hooves down, causing the new underside of the cloud to bulge down.
This formed a neat little inverted cone, which discharged a bolt of lightning to the ground below, a result of the static electricity she'd built up by rubbing the cloud on the way up. It wasn't exactly Independence Day, more Independence Minute, but it was enough to zap the nearest soaking goblin. The lightning crackled merrily from goblin to goblin as she flew along until the whole line had collapsed, hair more frizzed out than usual.
The goblins behind them had to break stride to cope with the soaked, slippery ground, and the uneven terrain, to whit their erstwhile comrades. The goblins who were behind the second wave didn't see what all the fuss was about, and kept running. The result was predictable, a massive pile-up which stalled the entire force.
Scootaloo hadn't stuck around to observe the result of her ploy, and was now heading back to the receding wagons as fast as her wings and cloud could carry her, which was pretty fast, and pulled a genuine barrel roll. She was glowing with pride, even her idol would have to admit pulling off a Cumulus Cloudburst and a lightning bolt from such a small cloud was a neat trick.
She suddenly knew that the sort of awesome stunt she'd just done was hers and hers alone. Let others fly fast, amazing stunts and acrobatics were where Scootaloo reigned supreme! She also felt a patch of pelt on her flanks burn as if branded, but this didn't feel painful, it felt amazing, and the feeling spread throughout her body.
Apple Bloom had been hanging out over the back board, relaying a blow by blow description to Sweetie Belle, and reported joyfully, "Woo hoo! She's coming back! She did it, she actually did it!"
What happened next was a miracle, for one of the goblins, at least. He had been on the leading edge of the attack and had somehow evaded being zapped and the the resultant pile-up. He shouldn't have managed to get out in front of the others. He certainly shouldn't have had time to fire off an arrow from the oversized human crossbow he was holding before having to dive to the ground to avoid the arrows coming the other way from the rear-most cart.
Even so, the shot was at extreme range, fired in a hurry, from a wrongly sized weapon and should have been lucky to hit one of the wagons. So only a miracle could explain how it instead flew straight and true at the pegasus who was flying high past the end wagon and up the length of the train.
The bolt hit her with her wings raised, and plunged into her left side at a shallow angle, right under the wing root. She gave a shrill cry of pain as her wing beats faltered, and her left wing went completely limp. Apple Bloom watched in horror as she slumped down on the cloud, which began to lose headway, and started turning an ominous pink.
"NO!" The farm-filly was about to call out to stop the carts, when she realised it wouldn't happen. They were all going as fast as, or faster than strictly safe, and they needed to as the goblins were still chasing them. If any cart stopped, it was likely all that would happen would be a pile-up,and the goblins would over-run them.
If she was to do anything, she had to do it herself. But what? Even if she ran back there, Scootaloo was out of reach, up on that cloud... Suddenly she had an idea. She plunged her head into Scootaloo's discarded saddle bags and grabbed the bottle in her mouth, popping the cork.
Then she sprang to the back of the cart, and out over the backboard ignoring Sweetie Belle's cry of dismay. She raced down the line of carts, praying to the Princesses she'd be in time. She was, barely, she reached the end cart and sprang up onto the buck board to the startled exclamation of the driver, and then up onto the roof.
She used her memory of where the wooden cross supports for the canvas were from seeing the inside of the first wagon to jump along to the very back, and sprang into the air from it in the mightiest leap she could muster. It still fell short of the flying cloud which had now fallen back behind the last cart.
However, reaching it wasn't her goal. It was close enough for the cloud, drawn by the pull of the bottle to start moving towards her. Apple Bloom landed on widely spaced legs, facing a goblin horde that had finally managed to untangle itself and start chasing them again. Arrows dropped down either side of her, but she ignored them.
She wheeled on her hind legs and ran, overtaking the carts, with a reddening cloud carrying an unconscious pegasus trailing her. It was now low enough for the carters on the buck-boards to see everything as they were overtaken. She finally reached the front cart and with a final, great leap she jumped up and scrambled her way over the back board.
Sweetie Belle had been joined in the back by the middle-aged woman they'd seen out on the front earlier. She was one of those one of those motherly people who made wonderful primary school teachers or senior nurses. Her face and form had never been beautiful, but it was a fair bet when she smiled, she suddenly looked that way. However at the moment she was sharing a look of shock and horror with Sweetie Belle at the state of the pegasus that trailed in after Apple Bloom.
She quickly pulled a blanket from the shelves up front which were clearly their own stuff rather than cargo, and laid it out for the pegasus. Apple Bloom had intended to re-bottle the cloud, but the cart was rattling, and one particularly violent lurch made her reconsider. She stoppered the bottle, and the cloud drifted back against the back board, where it stayed, holding the pegasus away from the bouncing cart floor.
Maia didn't spend any time wondering about this, but just moved up and pushed back the blood soaked crusader cloak that hid the worst of the injury. Sweetie Belle turned green and looked away gulping frantically to keep her gorge down. Apple Bloom had a stronger stomach, but only because if you live on a farm, you're going to see blood, especially at birthing time.
The wicked cutting edge of the arrow headed bolt had gone deep, though at a relatively shallow angle and was jammed into the muscle. The pelt and wing around it was slicked with the blood that was clearly still oozing from the relatively small wound, but it was clear from the outlines under the pelt that the wing muscles were damaged where they weren't plain severed.
Maia didn't bother introducing herself, but just pulled a canteen and a bundle of healers supplies from another cubby. "I can clean and bind the wound, but I'm not sure it will help. She's clearly lost an awful lot of blood. It will be touch and go whether she even survives."
Apple Bloom stood aside to let her work, but asked Sweetie Belle. "Please tell me you've got a magic spell for this!"
"Are you kidding, ugh, I can't even look." The unicorn made a sick sound.
"Even if she survives, I'm betting she'll never use that wing again with those injuries." Apple Bloom exclaimed. "C'mon, this ain't the kind of fixin' I'm any good at!"
Sweetie Belle gave a little whimper, and turned to face them,eyes closed. "Okay... I'll try."
She was racking her brain to think of word and music to heal the friend who had comforted her up on the promontory, who was always so much larger than life, who now looked so still and quiet... She felt it in her horn, and gave a sigh of relief as words came unbidden, as they had before when her friends were in mortal peril.
"Horn, please gleam and glow.
Let your power shine.
Make the clock reverse.
Bring back what once was mine."
This was no rock ballad or jazz number, this was a heart felt plea, and gentle music rose to enfold it. She stepped forward as her horn started to glow with a golden light, unlike her normal green, and lowered her head, touching the tip of her horn to the pelt at the edge of the compress Maia was holding on the wound. The bloody bolt lay discarded beside her.
"Heal what has been hurt.
Change the Fates' design.
Save what has been lost.
Bring back what once was mine... What once was mine..."
As Sweetie Belle sang the second verse, both edges of the pad glowed brilliantly with the same warm yellow light. When she finished, the music faded with the glow, and she slumped down on legs that would no longer hold her as a wave of weakness swept over her.
"I...I did it... I think..." she said feebly. Maia lifted the pad, ready to put it back if needed, but it wasn't. Scootaloo's side was once again unbroken pelt, and her wing no longer drooped awkwardly. Even the blood on the pad Maia had put there was gone. Apple Bloom's heart lifted, and then sank again.
Scootaloo was still and silent, no movement or signs of life, and Apple Bloom hoped they hadn't been too late. The rescue, Sweetie Belle's epic healing spell, they couldn't have all been for nothing. She leaned close to the pegasus and whispered.
"Don't you leave us now Scootaloo! You ain't a quitter! You just got your very own cutie mark and it's really cool, just like those amazing moves you pulled back there! We went into this together and we're returning home together!"
Her quiet but intense monologue was interrupted by a burst of sound, a snort, which turned into a regular snore from the mouth of the pegasus. She dropped back on her haunches, surprised at first and then she started giggling from sheer relief. Sweetie Belle looked at her incredulous for a moment and then joined in.
At first, trying to speak just triggered another burst of giggles, but she eventually got it under control. "Whew! That filly sure knows how to scare some-pony! Is my cutie mark still there? I'm worried the shock made it fade."
"Still there!" Sweetie Belle reported, and gave a big yawn. "And so is Scootaloo's!"
It was true, both of them now got to have a good look at the marking on the orange pegasus' flank. The overall shape was a heart, but on half was an outline, a rainbow band starting from a point at the base, and looping up and over to a wide band at the notch at the top. The other half was a lens shaped puff of cloud, angled up on it's side.
It took a few seconds to get, but then they saw what it represented. The rainbow was a contrail for the flying cloud, seen in perspective. The cloud had clearly started at the bottom and far away, and looped up and over, approaching till it now filled out it's half of the shape while still up on it's side.
"She's gonna be pleased as Winona with a new chew toy when she wakes up." Apple Bloom said, then looked around. "We're still here..."
Sweetie Belle looked downcast, and sleepy. "I guess the spell won't return us automatically after all."
"Now don't fret none," Apple Bloom smiled. "We're all alive and safe, and it wasn't our only way..."
There was a yelling from behind them. They looked out of the back-board, along with Maia. The men driving the cart behind them called out. "We've got problems! Those green beggars are still following us! Yancy's hurt, can't pull a bow, not that it matters, they've run out of arrows!"
Another look to the rear of the train confirmed that the goblins were not too far behind and slowly closing. The valley had forced them to bunch together, trying to run along the hills on either side would have turned into a steeple chase of tree stumps. But that wouldn't matter if they caught up.
"We have more here!" Maia called out. "I'll throw them back to you, pass them on!"
Apple Bloom figured out how long it would take to throw those bundles from cart to cart, and how many would be lost, against how those goblins looked to be closing, and her not so fancy mathematics came up with an answer she didn't like.
"Ma'am, there may be a better way." She opened her saddle bags and dumped her tools, then pulled out the bottles of apple juice and the neatly wrapped apple pie and put them aside. "Load me up, I can get them there faster!"
Sweetie Belle staggered to her feet, made unsteady by fatigue and the constant movement of the cart."Hey, I can help too!"
Apple Bloom shook her head as Maia loaded her saddle bags up. "You can barely stand. I guess those spells took a lot out of you..."
Apple Bloom was confident she could make it to the hindmost wagon safely, but she didn't think Sweetie Belle could match her, which was a pity, because it'd be useful if she could do that healing spell again. Unless... she didn't weigh that much.
"If you're willing to risk it, I'll carry you." She checked the straps on her saddle bags, and hunkered down. Sweetie Belle clambered up onto her back, looking nervous.
"Now hold on tight! Ugh! Not... that... tight!" She wheezed as the forelegs around her neck imitated an apple press. She looked over at the human. "You're going to have to let down the back board, I'm not sure I can jump it with Sweetie Belle too. And make sure Scootaloo's safe."
Maia nodded, and released all but one of the pegs that held it up. She towed the sleeping pegasus by one hoof forward and rested her behind some of the remaining cargo, then moved to the back where Apple Bloom was standing ready.
"May Pelor watch over you!" Maia dropped the rear board and Apple Bloom jumped out, landing heavily and barely sidestepping her much larger cousins as the next wagon came charging through. Sweetie Belle was holding on tightly, but apart from during the initial jump, she wasn't much of a burden. Apple Bloom wheeled alongside the line of carts and started running with them as the next to last passed her. This meant she was up to speed and running level with the rear of the last cart when she moved behind it.
"I brought you more arrows!" she called up to the man who was using the back board as cover. She remembered the caravan owner had called him Jace. "Help Sweetie up, and I'll get up there!"
He looked confused, but leant over the back and got his arms around the body of the unicorn, lifting her up. She let go and started scrambling up as soon as her fore hooves were over the board. The both of them tumbled backwards onto the piled goods as a goblin bolt splintered the wood where she'd hung.
Apple Bloom free of the weight of her companion made a mighty leap, and got her own fore-hooves over the back board. She used the arrow as temporary purchase to climb into the back of the cart, dropping forward just as it broke off. A javelin flew over her head and plunged into a big sack by Jace and Sweetie Belle.
The other man they'd heard about, Yancy, was lying back against the side wall of the wagon. He'd been wearing battered leather armour like his companion, but his was now off, and there was an arrow stuck in it. He was holding a bloody rag to his shoulder, and looked to be in considerable pain.
Apple Bloom pointed to Yancy with her muzzle and called to Sweetie Belle, "Do that healing song again!"
Jace had already gotten back up and started pulling the bundles of arrows from her saddle bags. He moved back to take up a firing position, picking up the longbow behind the back board and started firing. "Thank the gods, now we may have a chance!"
There was a gasp of mixed relief and amazement as Sweetie Belle's golden glowing horn touched Yancy's shoulder, but he didn't waste time once he could move his arm again, taking up cover along the other side and firing his own longbow.
Apple Bloom spared a glance out the back and saw the closest goblins couldn't be more than a dozen pony lengths away. The two bows were taking their toll (and she tried not to think of exactly what those arrows were doing when they hit), but she felt useless. If only there was something she could do...
She sniffed a familiar scent coming from the pierced sack. "Apples?"
"Yeah, crazy that we're risking our lives for a bunch of produce, isn't it?" called out Yancy. "Help yourself, I don't know if we'll see another meal!"
"They ain't lunch, they're ammunition!" Apple Bloom grinned, and pulled open the rip, spilling apples out. "Sweetie, mind moving a couple of them across above the back board."
Sweetie Belle was slumped on the floor, ignoring how it rattled and bounced under her, but her horn glowed and a pair of apples lifted from the spill and hovered over the back board. "I thought that was your big sister's thing?"
"I'm an Apple, ain't I? You saw me and my big sis workin' together, didn't ya?" Apple Bloom assumed the position, turned her head to check her targets, and let fly with a pair of back hooves. One apple simply squished on a goblin breast plate, but the other one hit another right between the eyes.
Getting a face full of apple and being blinded when your going at a dead run over uneven terrain is a recipe for disaster, or rather falling over, but when you've got dozens of other goblins running behind you, the two are the same thing.
That set the routine, Sweetie Belle set the apples in place, and Apple Bloom bucked them. Not all of them hit their targets, but enough did that combined with the fire from the two guards, the goblins started dropping behind.
Sweetie Belle squeaked when another javelin flew in through the open upper half of the back, and her telekinesis automatically grabbed it, and flung it back out. It wasn't aimed, or well thrown, tumbling sideways in mid-air, but this proved to be a blessing, as it hit the front row of goblins at knee height, and caused them to stumble, bringing down a whole bunch of them and creating a pile-up almost as bad as Scootaloo's.
Apple Bloom, not having a loader for the moment, picked up and apple by the stalk and flung it over her head to where she could buck it, but called out, "Yeah! Do that again!"
Sweetie Belle pulled the javelin from the sack of apples and flung it out of the back like the last one, but kept a grip of it using her telekinesis, and deliberately dropped it under the leading lines feet then pulled it up causing them to trip, and another pile-up. It proved to be the last straw for the goblins, they started slowing down, scrambling off to each side to avoid being trampled.
The two guards whooped, and Apple Bloom cheered along with them. "Hey Sweets! That did it!"
But that last effort had finished off the unicorn filly's stamina and she'd dozed off on the floor of the cart, ignoring it's bouncing. Jace moved forward to tell the driver, and there was more cheering and yells as the news passed up the caravan chain. As they came out of the ravine onto the more open plains, the caravan finally started to slow down to a more sedate pace.
Jace moved into the back again and looked down at the sleeping unicorn. He looked big and tough, but his face showed honest concern. "Is she alright? And what happened to the flying one?"
"Just tired out I guess." Apple Bloom replied. "Scootaloo got hit by one of them arrows, but I managed to get her back to where Sweetie Belle could heal her."
Yancy had his hand to his shoulder, and was rotating his arm. "Well whatever she did, it worked! I don't usually have the money for magical healers, and I never saw one who sung before. Of course, I never saw a unicorn before, either!"
He gave a grin, and Jace chuckled. "Wouldn't have thought you still qualified."
"Include yourself." The other guard shot back.
"What in tarnation are you two going on about?" Apple Bloom asked innocently enough and was surprised to see them both splutter and look away. "Uh, we're both too big and mean, yeah!" Jace finally supplied.
"Oh, okay. You should see Sweetie's big sis when someone messes up her wardrobe. She has a mad that'd give a dragon pause, a full grown one, not just Spike..."
Sweetie Belle stirred, it appeared her fatigue was momentary. "Ohh! My horn stings... Is everything alright?"
"Yep! That last little stunt you pulled finished off the chase." Apple Bloom replied warmly. "You pumped out a lot of magic really quickly, maybe it's like getting sun burn when you stay out in strong sunlight too long."
"That might be it..." Suddenly the little unicorn's eyes widened, and her face took on an expression of realisation. "Oh my!"
"What?" Apple Bloom exclaimed, worried, "Did we miss something?"
"No, I just realised, I'm going to have to update our theme song!"