Crazy, Clever and Cunning

by Fresnor

Road to Recovery

I still don’t know how she did it, but Pinkie Pie somehow turned the entire town into one massive party in the short time she was gone. She even was able to prepare the exact cake I mentioned for it even though the bakery never made this kind before. Even more amazing was how she was able to round up various ponies to run the various games and rides that were set up.

Of course not every pony in town was that happy about the party being thrown and the resulting mess left by it. When Mayor Mare found out that Pinkie was throwing the party for me and that I made her wait over a year to do so she started to glare at me every time she passed by. I think I even heard her mutter something about making it a law to not give Pinkie so much time again.

Still the town was taking my appearance relatively well considering their usual reactions to strange beings. The exception to that being the flower trio as they flew into a panic after I smiled at them, and I later found them hogtied in a tent which I assume was Applejack’s doing. A few others expressed their interest in what I was, most especially the ones that I had been working with. I think Mr. Rich had plans to use my looks as part of a sales pitch to probably drive up his profits a bit more.

I actually found myself enjoying the party after escaping from Pinkie’s clutches. While I do appreciate what she did, she does tend to get a bit overzealous about getting others to have fun in ways she considers fun. So after leaving her when she started dancing the Pony Polka I made my way to some of the other areas that had music playing. One area had a white unicorn wearing a pair of ruby shades playing some interesting music. I would have stayed there longer, but the volume was way too high for me while I was still recovering from a headache.

I did find another area that had a small group playing orchestral style music, which I sat in on to relax for a bit. It was a casual setup with two earth ponies on a cello and violin, and a unicorn on a lyre. The calming music they played actually helped my headache lessen a bit as I enjoyed their playing.

Eventually I decided to head home as I remembered that Selene had been alone for the last few days, probably scared and wondering where I was. I stopped by the food area to grab a few things for her, and was intercepted by Pinkie Pie again. She tried to drag me off somewhere else again until I reminded her of my houseguest. She let me know that the other two Crusaders had been over there taking care of her the last few days, but understood why I wanted to leave. Of course she somehow managed to pile more food into my bags than I would have managed, though where she pulled them from I have no idea.

As I was heading back I caught sight of the three Crusaders, Scootaloo I guess having been released after I left. I thank the other two for taking care of my place while I was down, though when they turned and noticed me they tackled me yelling their thanks for saving Scootaloo. The pegasus filly for her part just sat there looking embarrassed until I reached out with a tail to pull her into the hug with the other two.

I take this moment to whisper to her, making sure the others two don’t hear, as I may not see her again before the weather teams begin the first winter snow. “If you ever need somewhere to stay you know you can take one of the extra rooms I have. I don’t know what your situation is, but I think I can guess and you don’t want others to know.” I feel her stiffen up at my words, though she soon relaxes and nods her head as the three break from the hug.

I then mention where I was headed, while doing my best to ignore the tears they were all trying to hide, and they decided to join me after raiding the food tables again. They load up on many of the things I didn’t grab, and one of them even fills a couple thermoses with a few of the different drinks there. As we make our way back to my place they bombard me with questions about what I was and what I could do. There isn’t really much to tell them as I never really hid what I could do anyways beyond my real form, though I didn’t mention what all I could turn into as I knew they would want a demonstration which I couldn’t do while drained.

Soon enough we arrive at my home and head inside. I was about to call out for Selene, but I was interrupted by a small furry missile crashing into me from the side. Luckily I had already taken off my packs or else things could have been messy. Looking down I find Selene wrapped around my side with tears in her eyes so I move a tail over her to comfort her. The other three fillies also close in and join in another group hug, even Scootaloo after a moment’s hesitation.

We all just sit there comforting her for as long as she needs it, though I catch sight of Pinkie Pie holding up a sign. On it reads ‘Applejack and Rarity know their sisters are staying at Scootaloo’s place.’ I nod to her, and figure she probably knows about her situation already considering there seem to be no secrets in town from her. She soon vanishes back to wherever she came from, probably back to the party once again.

Eventually the pile moves over towards the couch and the food and drink is set out for everyone. Selene doesn’t leave my side through any of this, and eventually falls asleep there and is soon joined by her friends. I sigh as I realize I won’t be going anywhere tonight unless I want to wake them all up so I just settle down myself and fall asleep with a smile on my face.

<><><><><><><>

Over the next few days I had frequent visits by those that knew me best from around town. Twilight of course wanted to know more about me and my kind, but she was disappointed when I couldn’t tell her much as even I didn’t know. She did seem interested in what I had found out from the Diamond Dogs, as well as how I handled them. She had noticed a rapid decrease in incidents with them since the time I interacted with them, but thought it was more due to Rarity’s handling of them when she was there.

When I visited the library for the first time I found that nobody had told spike that I was out yet. This was rectified pretty quickly by my sneaking up on him and tapping him on the shoulder. I kept up a small shield as a precaution, which was a good thing as when he turned to see my sharp tooth-filled smile he accidentally let out a burst of his flames. Needless to say Twilight was not happy with my little prank as the book he was holding at the time was torched.

Rainbow Dash really didn’t change how she treated me all that much, though she really took advantage of the time that my magic was still recovering. As winter had started she always seemed to ‘accidentally’ send a snowball in my direction whenever I passed by. Of course I got her back for this when my magic had recovered sufficiently by bombarding her with dozens of snowballs at a time in retaliation. Needless to say Twilight was called out to end the impromptu snowball war that was caused that day.

Pinkie Pie remained completely unaffected by my new form, which really isn’t surprising for her. Strangely enough though she seemed to mellow out a bit whenever she came over now that she threw that party. I expect it was more for Selene’s benefit as she no longer fled in terror at the sight of her, but I was still happy to see her not being completely random at all times.

Applejack was probably the only one of them that had any real issues with me, but that was mainly due to my abilities. Hiding who I was for so long just rubbed her the wrong way as it was a form of lying, and with her being the Element of Honesty at really went against her values. Of course me keeping her sister out of trouble as well as helping her with some problems at her farm seemed to appease her.

Rarity and Fluttershy were the ones that really changed how they acted at my revelation, but not because of my form. They invited me to go to the spa with them during one of their usual days, and seeing as I could use the pampering to my fur coat I agreed. It started off well enough, but then the trip pretty much turned into a therapy session.

While we were in the sauna Rarity decided to broach the question first. “Flarenza, we’ve been wondering since that time in the hospital, but what you said about your mother…” She falters at this when she sees me freeze up, though Fluttershy’s touch calms me a bit as she continues the question. “What happened that night? We can see that it really hurt you and we would like to know so we can help you. If that’s okay with you I mean.”

I look between the two as we head towards the massage area, though I decide to skip right to the hot tub nearby. I wrestle with my emotions as I try to decide if I should tell them the entire story or not. I eventually came to a decision once they finished with their treatment and joined me in the hot water.

“It’s… really hard for me to think back on this. You see ever since I was a kit I was traveling with my mother. We had no home, no family but each other, and our only possessions were things that we could easily carry. I never knew why she started traveling, but my mother never really talked about where we came from or about any other family I might have had. This led to me completely relying on her for just about everything as I never had time to make any lasting friends with the traveling.”

I can tell from the looks on their faces that they already had some questions, but thankfully they withheld them. “Most of the towns we traveled through looked at us oddly, but didn’t really do much other than avoid us. At worst some of them chased us out of town in fear of not knowing what we were. Even so my mother was very skilled at finding ways to get enough for us to live on even with how we were treated.”

I take a deep breath to calm myself before continuing on to the part they wanted to know. “That all changed when we reached Rocktalon Heights. It was a good size town out on the griffon side of the Borderlands that had a large tower in its center. We were able to get into town just fine, but that was the trap with the place and we should have suspected something with how nice we were treated as it was out of character from anything we dealt with before.”

I close my eyes as it gets harder and harder to continue. “We were given some of the nicest rooms at an inn near the center of the city which came with a large spread of food. It was pure chance that I dug into it first while my mother took her time to rest before joining me. She only had one bite of it when she saw me collapse on my side, the food having been laced with something to cause paralysis.”

The eyes on the two widen at this, but I just push on in a monotone voice. “My mother didn’t get enough to be affected right away, so she snatched me up with all our things and tried to get out of the town. Unfortunately she was spotted quickly and soon the entire town started to rouse and chase us. While it wasn’t much, the amount my mother had ingested was enough to start slowing her down so when she found a hollow near the edge of town she hid me and all our stuff in it and concealed it with her magic.”

I can feel tears forming in my eyes as I can still clearly recall the last sight of her when she was alive. “She promised to lead the mob away and come back for me later, but she never did. It was sometime after midnight when I finally could move again, and I was in a panic over her not returning yet even though the town was quiet. I snuck out of where I was hidden and started searching for her until I heard some guards talking about them catching her and bringing her to the tower.”

I can feel the two mares drawing closer to me, but I am too caught up in the story now. “I’m still not sure how I wasn’t spotted by something, but I eventually found the entrance to the tower which was unguarded. Once inside I made my way up it trying to find where they were keeping her. I saw few guards in that place, but the ones I did see weren’t living anymore but fleshy imitations of what they used to be. I didn’t know at the time, but the owner of the tower was a necromancer, a user of one of the darkest branches of magic.”

I can feel the two shiver as they had gotten close enough to support me as I push on. “I eventually found my mother at the top of the tower, but it was too late. When I saw her form on the alter I rushed to her heedless of any dangers there were but stopped in shock at what I found. All that was left of her was a bloody mess as everything inside of her body was removed and set to the side, along with her fur. They had gutted and skinned her body for whatever ritual it was they performed.”

I vaguely hear the two gasp in horror at this yet I still continue on, heedless of the tears now flowing down my face. “I was in complete shock at the time, and likely would have died if the owner of the tower didn’t show himself in front of me to gloat. He was a dark colored unicorn and he was still dripping blood from his horn. What I still remember the most was the look in his eyes, there was nothing there, no emotions of any sort.”

I feel Fluttershy shift as I had already made mention of him to her before. “I’m not sure entirely what happened then, but with a combination of my fear, grief, and anger I completely lost control of my magic. Fires started to rage around me and spread through the entire room, incinerating everything that they touched. Even the necromancer wasn’t spared as he was consumed without even a chance to defend himself, yet through it all the look in his eyes never changed.”

“My memory gets hazy at this point, but I fled the tower trailing flames in my wake until I am outside in the town. Even then the buildings around me are engulfed as I flee towards the last place that I felt safe, the hollow I was left in. I don’t remember much after that, but I awoke a few days later in a situation similar to what put me in the hospital. I couldn’t move, see or hear for a long time, but when I came to I found the city in ruins, and myself in possession of my second tail. What should have been a happy day for me as I earned my mark of adulthood was instead the worst day of my life which left me alone for the next six years.”

At this point I am freely crying with the two holding my as I shudder from the pain of loss catching up to me again. They carry me out of the tub to another nearby room I hadn’t been in before. In it is a couch, which they bring me near, as well as many covered trays. They try to get me as comfortable as possible while they comfort me through the grief I had held in all these years.

I’m not sure how long we all sat there, but by the time I had finished crying I was stiffening up from the muscle spasms that accompanied it. “Feeling better, dear?” Rarity asks after a period of silence to which I nod. “A little, I haven’t thought back to that time in so long. Even the little I told Fluttershy before skipped most of it.” Fluttershy had been silent through most of this, but when she did speak up she brought over one of the covered trays.

“This may not help much, but I always found a small snack tasted better after a good cry.” As she lifts the cover on the tray I find that it is filled with a variety of sweets and other tidbits. It seems this room was set aside for those that were in need of a culinary style pampering. While she was right about it not helping much, I did feel a little better as I had built up an appetite while we were here and the taste helped calm me a bit more.

We talked a bit longer after that about other things, mostly things about them that they usually don’t tell others. When they felt I was recovered enough we went back out into the other areas of the spa and cleaned up the mess of my face and did a bit of after-spa grooming. When we left I felt and looked better than I ever had in years and was thankful to be able to call the two my friends.

Author's Note:

Aaaand I got nothing, pretty much all the important backstory is finally there now.. Another chapter done and still watching for comments and flames.

Comments

[Liarra Sniffles]

Don't worry about the lack of huge comment sections that most even remotely popular stories gather, your story just has all the conservative readers who prefer to read good stories than spend lots of time commenting.

Put it this way: a good eee portion of commemters on high traffic comment sections are usually complaining or not adding anything constructive.

I really like this story so far, even if it is a bit far paced in places. I don't always want a 15k word chapter describing half an average day. This is nice.

[Fresnor]

4393914 Sure the comments may not always be useful, but considering the trainwreck the original first chapter started out as which was pointed out to me...

As for the pacing, while it does speed up at times, I feel that it is a bit more realistic than having things happen day after day constantly. Take Daring Do for example, while each of the books may be a bit fast paced they all don't happen in rapid succession. There are potentially months or even years between the different books which isn't gone into. I forget the exact quote to explain this, but it was something like 'Adventure is long periods of boredom, interspersed with small periods of action.'

[Liarra Sniffles]

4394227 i know, right?

In real life, I don't remember every second of every day, just what makes it different from every other day.

It's nice to read a faster paced story that isn't just fast because the author can't describe details.

Your story is in my favorites for actually being a favorite, not because I don't use the read later function. I like it.

Sorry for any errors in my comments btw, i'm using a touch screen phone that has tiny buttons ( compared to my tablet ) and it lags too much for me to use the edit function. I'm surprised I can type this well with the screen flickering between other tabs as it is.