War over the Sun

by starfox64x

Ch 4. Fearing the future

“So…” Rainbow Dash spoke up, interrupting the awkward silence that had filled the carriage since they left that morning. Everyone seemed to have their own thoughts on their mind, staring off into space and keeping to themselves. It was only when Dash spoke up did everyone seem to come back to reality, “What does everypony else thing about this?”

The others were quiet at the question, uncertain of the proper way to answer.

The awkward silence was too much for Fluttershy now, she had to say something to keep the air filled with noise, “About what exactly? Us going to war? What we’re going to do about it? Are we going to fight? Are we going to be FORCED to fight? What’ll we do if something happens to our homes?” It seemed like she just couldn’t stop asking questions, all the worry and concern she had been bottling up had broken free and was spilling out into the carriage, “What if we have to evacuate Ponyville? Where will we go? What if someone else gets captured? What happens if the dragons win? What if they take us prisoner? I don’t want to be a prisoner! What’ll they do to us?” she began to tear up, shaking a little as her words began to strike fear in her own heart, “Will they force us to work in their mines? Forced labor? What if they EAT us? Or worse? What if they keep us around a-a-and-“

Applejack had enough, quickly hugging the sobbing pony, “It’s alright, Fluttershy, none of that is going to happen, I promise.” Fluttershy got quiet and allowed herself to be held, sobbing silently into Applejacks shoulder…

Rainbow dash bit her lip, no longer wanting to know what the others were thinking. If the innocent fluttershy had such dark thoughts on the situation, she didn’t want to know what the others were thinking.

The rest of the ride was quiet, but luckily they weren’t far from Ponyville. When they arrived, Applejack decided to take Fluttershy home to give her time to calm down.

“Why don’t we wait for her at Sugarcube corner?” Pinkie smiled a little, although noticeably less hyper than usual. “We can have a snack and talk about what we’re gonna do about all this craziness.” Rarity couldn’t help but smile. The idea that Pinkie Pie had found something that she considered to be crazy seemed funny.

“A cupcake sounds amazing right about now.” Rainbow dash let out a little chuckle, the idea of something sweet already calmed her nerves.

Rarity seemed to enjoy the idea as well, “Some tea would be absolutely lovely, dear. You DO have some, is that right?”

“I’m sure we have some somewhere.”

The group of three headed into Sugarcube corner, taking a seat around the table. Pinkie headed into the kitchen to fix up some drinks and snacks, leaving Rainbow Dash alone with Rarity.

“Well, Rainbow Dash… You seem to be curious about other people’s thoughts… what are yours?” Rarity rested her chin on her hooves, staring at the pony across the table.

Rainbow dash shifted, still feeling awkward about causing fluttershy to burst into tears. “Well, I dunno… It pisses me off that they would just attack us like that for no reason! And I want to smack them across the country until their scales pop off!” she slammed her hoof down on the table, making a loud noise. Pinkie poked her head out to see if things were okay, but she figured it was nothing to fret about.

“I completely understand your concern Rainbow Dash… And to be honest if I could give them a wallop in the face I certainly would… but…” she shifted a bit, her gaze shifting from Rainbow Dash.

“What? What is it?” Dash wasn’t sure what was going through her head now, but it was obvious something was on her mind.

“I’ll be honest, Dash. I don’t want you to go and fight. I know you want to and I’m sure you could protect many ponies with your speed and strength.” She let out a little sigh, still keeping her gaze away, “But you’re my friend… All of you are the greatest ponies in my life and I don’t want to lose any of you.”

Rainbow dash couldn’t argue with her about that, “Yeah, I know, I don’t want to lose any of you girls either… You’re all great! But… If they make it to ponyville I’m going to make sure they don’t get anywhere near you guys. I’ll knock ‘em down and bury ‘em in the forest!”

Rarity smiled a little at her words, they were sweet in Rainbow’s unique style, “I know you will, Dash…”

“Yeah, and you could join me!” Rarity was a bit shocked by the invitation, but before she could question it, Rainbow continued, “You could sew up a straightjacket and hold them down for me while I knock them around like a punching bag.” Dash began thrusting her hooves out in a quick rhythm, making impact noises and short grunts as she bobbed and weaved in her seat. Rarity couldn’t help but laugh at the entire situation. She couldn’t stop long enough to answer Pinkie when she arrived at the table with a tray of drinks and sweets.

“What so funny everypony?” Rarity just pointed at Dash while she continued to giggle uncontrollably. It became contagious and soon Rainbow Dash was also laughing at the imagery she had created. Pinkie didn’t need a reason to join, she just started to laugh and giggle along with her friends around the table…

Applejack sat down with Flutershy when they arrived at her little cottage. “You doing okay sugar?”

Fluttershy quietly nodded, curling up on the couch to relax.

“Hey, don’t get down… I’m sure it’ll end up being okay…” she rubbed Fluttershy’s head gently, trying to comfort her.

“But ponies are gonna get hurt… I don’t want everyone to fight.” Her head bobbed gently to the rubbing of her friend’s hoof, but other than that she seemed fairly motionless in her current emotional state.

“I know fluttershy.. I don’t want it either, no one does… but we gotta protect our friends… Think about your little animal friends outside right now… If those dragons came here, wouldn’t you want to defend them?”

Fluttershy’s head immediately shot up, looking Applejack directly in the eye, “Of course I would! I would never let anyone harm my friends!”

AJ smiled at the sudden burst of emotion, “See? That’s the kinda attitude you need to have. I know you don’t wanna fight, and nopony is gonna force ya to fight anyone… but you gotta keep that feeling in your heart to defend those you care about if the time comes…. You remember the dragon at the top of the mountain you stood up to in order to defend us?”

Fluttershy nodded, it wasn’t hard to forget that moment… she was absolutely terrified of the huge dragon, but something clicked inside her heart that gave her the strength to stand up to him and get him to move along. “Yes, I remember it… I couldn’t just sit back and watch him hurt you all.”

“Exactly! See what I mean?”

“although you all DID kind of force me up that mountain…” Fluttershy seemed to be holding a bit of a grudge against that, but her facial expression made it apparent that she didn’t mean to let that slip out.

Applejack had an awkward look of her own appear from her short statement, “Well… you know what, you’re right about that… I won’t tell you that you’re wrong about that… But if we hadn’t brought you along we’d be dragon chow by now!” she gave Fluttershy a gently nudge, “you have a special talent… and you’re a special person to us. You have more ability than you give yourself credit for.”

Fluttershy sighed, turning away, “I suppose…”

“We won’t force you to fight… I promise… but we’d really appreciate your support; in any way you can give it.”

Fluttershy turned back to her friend, now a look of worry filling her eyes, “Are you going to go and fight?”

Applejack was quiet for a moment… she had given it thought, but she seemed uncertain, “I don’t know… I want to help out, but I think I might stay at the farm… maybe donate food to those fightin’, but I can’t just leave Big Macintosh to take care of Apple bloom and Granny Smith by himself… not t’mention the farm. I think I would do more good there anyway.”

Fluttershy smile a little, “I’m glad… I think it would be best for you to stay there with your family.”

“Yeah… me too. I’m a family mare as it were, heh…” she smiled a little, suddenly receiving a big hug from her friend. She gladly returned the affection, holding each other like two old friends.

The next day the girls got a letter to meet up at Sugarcube corner, Twilight was heading back home to Ponyville and let them know she would be there soon. The girls gather inside, with Pinkie Pie already gathering drink and breakfast for everyone to enjoy while they waited. It wasn’t long before Twilight walked inside to join the girls. They exchanged a quick good morning to one another, no one was too excited to see her, since they knew what would need to be discussed now that she arrived.

“So Twilight, is Celestia okay now?” Pinkie placed a plate of food in front of her before returning to her seat.

“Yes, she’s awake and feeling much better.” Twilight levitated the fork full of eggs to her mouth, eagerly taking a bite.

“Great! I hope she enjoys my super special ‘Get Well Soon’ gift” Pinkie seemed happy about it, but everyone else stared at her, worried about her mystery gift.

“Uh, please tell me it won’t like…” she paused, trying to comprehend what could possibly be in this box of pinkie magic, “Explode or anything, will it?”

Pinkie giggled, “No, silly, not this time. Just a few cupcakes and a card.” The group let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay, well… What did she say about what she wants us to do?” Rainbow seemed curious about what she wanted to have done…

Twilight nodded, knowing it was something that needed to be discussed thoroughly, “Well, she said we just need to talk to everyone about what’s going on and drum up some support… I’ve come up with some ideas, if you’re interested…” the girls nodded, listening quietly to Twilight. She began to list off ideas for everyone to contribute. Rarity would make promotion patches, Pinkie would hold bake sales, with the help of Applejack. Rainbow dash would create promotions in the clouds. Rarity offered to get some strong fabric to help make more clothes for those who would actually do the fighting. Rainbow Dash offered to keep watch from high in the clouds to keep Ponyville safe, and Applejack offered to build a barrier around the town to hopefully slow down any attackers if they were to come their way.

“Um… h-how can I help?” Fluttershy asked softly when she found the opportunity. The group seemed quiet. The others glanced around the room, as if hoping for someone else to give an answer… there didn’t seem to be one on anyone’s mind.

Finally Twilight tried to get something out into the room of silent ponies. “Um, well you could always help Rainbow Dash put up the promotions with the clouds… You’re probably more artistic and… articulate when you do something.”

“Hey! I’m artsy” Dash interrupted, looking around the room for support… none came.

“Well, I’m sure you’d appreciate the help, get it done more quickly…” The idea of finishing a job early intrigued the rainbow pony. “what do you think fluttershy?”

“I-I suppose… It might be fun.” She said with a little smile. The rest of the group smiled, glad that she could join in and assist. “But what about you Twilight? What did you have planned?”

“Well… The princess said she had some special ideas in mind… I have no idea what she means though.”

“Well, I’m sure it’s something important. She’d only give you the most important tasks to take care of.” Rarity sipped her beverage once before continuing, “Do you think it’ll be something soon?”

“Who knows? It could be today, or six weeks from now…” she sighed, continuing to eat, “To be honest, I’ve been thinking about this all morning… lets try talking about something else…”

The others seemed to agree, and began trying to find other topics to discuss…

Comments

[Gwenio]

Nice story so far, though there are some capitalization issues to address.

Off the top of my head words with issues are: Pinkie in chapter one and in chapter four there is Ponyville, Bloom (for Apple Bloom), Fluttershy, and Dash (in Rainbow Dash).

Looking forward to more, particularly what the plans for Twilight are.

[starfox64x]

86812 Yeah, i might've missed a few things like that... i'll go back later and tinker with things like...

As for Twilight... I'm still not not certain of what i will have planned... i have a few benchmark events, but i'm not entirely certain what will be between them... i want something pretty big to happen to everyone, but so far i'm not certain...