Crazy, Clever and Cunning

by Fresnor

Last of the Blanks

The next morning I awoke to the sound of someone screaming letting me know that the latest visitor was probably awake. Leaving my room I found Umbra outside of where Mitta was left last night with her rubbing the back of her head looking a bit sheepish. I just sighed and entered the room to find Mitta hiding in a corner with all the covers from the bed. Suddenly I was glad to have a couple days before bringing her over to Sweet Apple Acres to meet Applejack.

I just sat down near Mitta and waited for her to calm down. Eventually she stopped shaking and peeked out from under the covers to see me waiting. “I-it’s really over isn’t it? This isn’t just some horrible nightmare?” She sounds really scared but I can sense a bit of hope in her tone as well. “Yes, the town is finally gone and you are free now thanks to Princess Luna.” At my words she breaks down again and grabs me up in a hug as she begins crying again. I just sit there and try to give her what comfort I can while I wave Umbra away and try to quietly ask her to get some food.

Hopefully she got the right message as she nodded to me and went off elsewhere. I sat there with the grey mare for a while until she finally couldn’t cry any more. I could tell she was still awake as she hadn’t let me go at all. “Come on, how about we get you some food, you probably haven’t had a good meal in a long time.” At my words her stomach let out a loud roar which caused her to jump in surprise. I just chuckle as she releases me so that I can lead her down to the kitchen.

She hides behind me when we reach it as both Selene and Umbra are already down there. Since the town was only filled with earth ponies she probably hasn’t seen many other types so two thestrals, though one is a fake, would be a real surprise for her. After introducing her to them she seemed to calm down a little when hearing that Umbra was one of Luna’s guards.

For the next couple days I worked with her to get her used to the idea of what Ponyville is like. She was a bit scared at how many ponies were in the town, but seemed to get used to the idea of there not being only earth ponies in it. I hoped that she wouldn’t react badly to Applejack over that fact, but Applebloom would be the best way to break that barrier if needed.

The note I left for Pinkie Pie vanished by the time I looked for it again, so I knew she got it. The question though was when and where she would throw the party even if I had a good guess. I just hope she didn’t scare Mitta too much when it did happen considering her role in town is the same that Grey Hoof’s was.

By the time Applejack and the others returned from their camping trip I was able to at least prepare her somewhat for what to expect. I led her the long way around town so she wasn’t forced to deal with a bunch of unfamiliar ponies all at once, and Selene actually decided to come with as well. She had helped a bit during the last few days as she had some knowledge of Sunny Town, and she seemed relieved to hear of its end.

When we arrived at the apple farm I had them wait behind me as I knocked on the front door to the Apple home. Luckily Applejack was there instead of out in the fields, probably recovering from the time out camping. “Well howdy Flarenza, what brings you around these here parts?” I wave a paw towards Mitta before responding. “Well I was hoping you could do something to help her, if you could call Applebloom out here you will see why.”

AJ just looks at me strangely as I say this but yells into the house for her sister to come down. Soon enough the filly comes down from upstairs to see what’s going on. “Hey sis, what did ya need me… for…?” She slows to a halt as I step to the side so she can see Mitta who was watching AJ warily. When she heard Applebloom’s voice she looked over at her with wide eyes. Applebloom had a much different reaction as she ran out to tackle her in a hug.

“Mitta! What… How are you even here? What happened with Sunny Town?” As the two catch up with each other I turn back to Applejack to explain since she looks confused. “She was the one to help your sister escape from Sunny Town that time she accidentally stumbled on it. Her sister was the one that was murdered which caused the place to be cursed and she was caught up with the rest of the town until, with Luna’s help, she was finally freed and the town destroyed. I was hoping you would be able to help her out with a place to live and to get her used to how things are now.”

Applejack looks surprised at much of this information but she soon looks at Mitta with pity and respect in her eyes. “Well shoot, ya don’t have to ask for something like that after she saved my sister. I always thought that she was fibbing about that place, but for you to say it really happened.” She shudders at the thought of the place being so close to Ponyville but soon gets a hard look in her eyes. “Anyways you can count on us to get her settled in; nopony should lose their family and not have anypony to fall back on.”

I nod in thanks to her as we watch the two as well as Selene talk together. I catch a flash of pink out near the barn which causes me to wince before turning back to Applejack. “Thanks for doing this; you are probably the best ones to help her out after what happened. I’m also sorry about what is probably about to happen with your barn since she is new around here.” She looks at me funny for a second before she realizes what I said and runs for the barn. I just let out a chuckle and get the other three to follow me over to it as well.

When we entered the barn and Pinkie sprung the surprise both Selene and Mitta hid behind me. Selene recovered a bit faster, and with Applebloom’s help were able to coax Mitta out from behind me. I wondered what the ponies thought about the banner Pinkie put up which read, ‘Welcome to Ponyville and Congratulations on not being a cursed zombie anymore.’ Most probably thought nothing of it and just chalked it up to Pinkie being Pinkie, but I knew of at least one that would know otherwise.

Letting Selene and Applebloom introduce Mitta around, with Pinkie’s help of course, I went over to talk with Twilight. Seeing that she was about to ask something I decided to just cut in quickly before she can get into her research mode. “Yes Twilight, she is the Mitta from Sunny Town which is no longer there. A couple nights ago Princess Luna showed up to take care of the place while I kept watch. At the same time she freed her from the curse which let her sister Ruby finally rest.”

She looks as if there was more she wanted to ask, but my guessing some of what she was going to ask threw her off. Soon she just shakes her head before turning to look at the young grey mare. “Well I guess it’s good that everything has been taken care of with that place. I still can’t believe it even existed in the first place. What is going to happen with her now though?”

I sigh as I can guess some of what she means. “Well Applejack agreed to take her in already, I figure that having lost her family and having saved Applebloom it would be the best place for her as they will treat her like family for that. While it was earth ponies that hurt her, she knows next to nothing about the other pony races so would feel uncomfortable around them as well. Also they live pretty simply out here, so she can get used to how times have changed at a slower pace with AJ and Applebloom without having to worry about any fancy stuff too quickly.”

Twilight ponders this for a second before nodding. “That makes a lot of sense, and with Big Mac and Cheerilee dating they can also get a bit of help from her as well.” I didn’t know about the last part, though I did hear about them interacting with each other during a Crusader fiasco a while back. I turn to look at the trio going around and see that Rainbow Dash is talking with them. I am about to go over myself, but am surprised to find that Selene is handling herself well enough, especially now that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo have joined up with them all as well.

I spend much of the time at the party just keeping an eye on them to make sure that they are settling in well. I think Pinkie may also be doing the same thing as she spends more time around them than any of the other ponies, and seems to be a bit less random while with them as well. Soon enough the party starts to wind down and I see Applejack leading Mitta towards the house. Applebloom looks to be very excited about this as well as she wasn’t told until then that Mitta would be staying with them.

I collect Selene and we head back home while talking about the party. It seems that Rainbow Dash was more distracted by how cool Selene looked to actually find out anything about her. I realized that I was overthinking things a bit with her as Rainbow really wasn’t much of a thinker beyond the things that interested her or something that was overly odd. Enough thestrals had been through the town for them to not be as odd as before, and Umbra Rose being around helped as well since she often challenged the cyan mare occasionally.

Still that leaves just one more mare in town to introduce Selene to, and then the hardest part of getting her to talk with the two princesses. I wondered if getting Princess Cadence to help out on that end would be a good idea or not since with her talents she could get a better feel for Selene.

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The next few weeks were a bit hectic around town as the Apple family had a reunion coming up that they were planning for. Rainbow Dash also got a letter accepting her into the Wonderbolts Academy which helped keep things a bit more organized as she wasn’t around to get in the way with pranks or failed stunts.

After making sure that Selene was doing well enough for me to take off for a while I made another trip through the Everfree forest. Once I was prepared I made my way to the location of where Sunny Town used to be to check on the area and update my map. It felt odd to be in the area as it didn’t feel like the rest of the Everfree anymore, as if the chaotic magic there had been removed or something. I made a note to check more on this later before I continued on again.

For this trip I decided to check out more in the direction of the castle ruins as there should be something in that area since the castle was located there. Strangely enough I found a set of stairs near the bridge that I had missed every time I came by before, yet there wasn’t anything down in the gorge except for a cave with a strange old tree.

I climbed out of the gorge and chose a direction at random to start with. I soon found a river that I proceeded to follow to see where it would lead. Judging from the map the other direction should lead back towards the river that crosses the path to the castle so the other direction may lead to something interesting.

Along the way I found a couple things of interest until I settled down in a cave I found for the first night. For the next couple days I followed the river while checking out anything of interest I saw on the way. There were a few odd plants and fruit trees along the path that I took samples of to show Twilight once I returned for testing. I made sure to be careful with them as they were unfamiliar and with what poison joke could do I wouldn’t trust anything unknown in this forest.

Soon enough I reached a small lake with a waterfall that was feeding into the river. What was strange though was there was a waterwheel and lift assembly here that looked fairly new. I decided to be careful as nothing in the forest was to be taken for granted and climber the cliff a distance away from the waterfall. Once I made it to the top I was surprised to find a small village populated by what looked like ponies.

Right, after Sunny Town and the other dangers of the Everfree I am definitely not going to just waltz in there and see what’s going on. I hide myself, both physically and magically, and wait until nightfall. It’s a good thing I did as after it grew dark the streets of the town cleared and I could see flashes of a familiar emerald light from inside the houses. I’ve only seen that color one other time before, and that was during the wedding. I wonder…

Sneaking up to one of the homes I confirm my suspicions as I look through a window to find it inhabited by a changeling. I was about to turn away when I notice that this one looks familiar somehow, and I know why when I see the orange glow of his eyes. Hey, it’s good old Citrine Eyes again. I had wondered what happened to him when he ran off, maybe I should go in and say hello.

I chuckle to myself at the idea and mentally mark this home down to return to later. After searching through the rest of the town I find that all the inhabitants really are changelings and there didn’t seem to be any kind of prisoners in it. There weren’t many in it either, maybe about a hundred at the most, so I assume that it is just some sort of outpost or something instead of a regular home.

Sneaking back to Citrine’s home I find that he has fallen asleep by now and I sneak in through the front door. After a quick search of the place I find that he is here alone but there are no indications of why they are all here. Just knowing that they are here is enough for now though since I don’t feel like searching every building.

I sneak my way over to his room and crawl my way up onto it before standing above him. I then encase myself in a small barrier for safety and let it give off my fiery aura before I try to nudge him awake. As I see his eyes open and turn towards me in confusion I let out a laugh. “Well, well, well. Look at what I’ve found again. I’ve been wondering where you went, are you ready to go for another spin?” I give him a really big grin after that and his eyes widen in horror.

“N-n-no! Not you! Not again!” He then screams and bolts through his still closed window before running screaming out of town. I let my laughter rise to loud levels than can be heard echoing throughout the village before I vanish and sneak my way out again. The entire place is in panic after what I did and they all seem confused as to what is going on.

I decide that I had enough for this trip and decide to make my way back home again. I was able to swipe a small boat from the town before I left and I used it to just float most of the way back before disembarking at the path to the castle. I had been gone for a couple weeks by this time so I made my way back home so I can clean up before seeing what was happening in town. I was only delayed a bit by a Greater Timberwolf, which was easily driven off with the threat of fire and a pepper bomb.

Passing through the area that was Sunny Town I could tell that it felt even cleaner there than when I passed it before and made another note to not only look into it, but to get Luna’s and Twilight’s opinions as well.

As I entered my territory I felt that something was really off as there seemed to be a strangely familiar visitor in the area. I started moving cautiously towards my home now and at the edge of the forest took a careful look around. Everything seemed to be fine in the area and I couldn’t see anything wrong in town from there either. Quickly crossing to my home I climb up onto the roof and get a look at the other side.

There in front of my door I see a familiar serpentine figure which brings a grin to my face. Using a barrier to slide down behind him I quietly observed what he was doing before speaking up. “So you’re back again for some more embarrassment, huh?” I was impressed with the height he got on his startled leap, but that was to be expected from Discord.

Author's Note:

Yay, time for some more fun with chaos again. From here on I'm not sure how often I will have Mitta show up again, though she does have at least one more planned bit for her. Things are going to get somewhat interesting now with good old Dissy back again, and with really only 2 more episodes to go(as two of them take place at the same time) from season 3 it could get wild.

Comments

[Liarra Sniffles]

i still really like this story :3

[Asolem2]

Sneaking up to one of the homes I confirm my suspicions as I look through a window to find it inhabited by a changeling. I was about to turn away when I notice that this one looks familiar somehow, and I know why when I see the orange glow of his eyes. Hey, it’s good old Citrine Eyes again. I had wondered what happened to him when he ran off, maybe I should go in and say hello.

Oh I'm sure he would love to see you again

I sneak my way over to his room and crawl my way up onto it before standing above him. I then encase myself in a small barrier for safety and let it give off my fiery aura before I try to nudge him awake. As I see his eyes open and turn towards me in confusion I let out a laugh. “Well, well, well. Look at what I’ve found again. I’ve been wondering where you went, are you ready to go for another spin?” I give him a really big grin after that and his eyes widen in horror.