Chapter 4
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“How many days do ya reckon til we reach Somnambula?” Bright Mac asks as the four of us sit around a campfire.
“If’n Ah’m readin’ this map Meadowbrook gave us right, about two more days,” Pear Butter says, taking out the map from her pack and looking it over.
She glances up from it to look at me. I’m leaning against Fwinxie, well, more she’s cuddling me like a toy, with a paw wrapped around me, nuzzling her cheek against mine, purring like a cat.
We’ve been traveling for two days on hoof. It’s been slow going, since the four of us are way smaller than Fwinxie, I mean, she’s about the size of an Ursa Minor, so she’s been having to move slowly so we can keep up. I can tell it’s been hard for her, resisting to just charge off to find her mama, but she seems to sense how she’d get lost if she did.
I think the fact I’m pink like Somnambula, even if my coat’s a few shades lighter, and I have a horn, she feels comfortable close to me. Might even be the reason she’s resisted running off. She’s likely still not sure if we really are bringing her back to her mother and is staying close to me because I remind her of her.
“Autum?” I look over to Pear Butter, who is putting the map back in her pack.
“Yeah?” I ask. From her expression, it’s clear she wants to ask me something. I’ve noticed her giving me that look over the days we’ve been traveling, like she’s wanted to ask something, but has then been stopping herself.
Pear Butter looks to her husband, before taking a deep breath, letting it out and looking back to me. “Can you… can ya tell us about our family? Do ya know how they’ve been all these years?”
I don’t answer at first, just let Fwinxie continue to nuzzle me as I try to think how best to word my response.
After a while, I answer. “Do you wanna know about your parents first, or them?”
They both blink, looking to each other with confusion. “Parents?”
“Granny Smith,” I nod to Bright Mac, before nodding to his wife, “and Grand Pear.”
At once, her hooves fly to her mouth, tears welling in her eyes.
“Ya know what happened ta Grand Pear?” Bright asks, getting up and sitting down next to his wife, wrapping a foreleg around her.
I nod, giving a small warm smile. “He learned his lesson. Took him a long time, but two years ago, he moved back to Ponyville and met your foals. He and Granny made emends.”
“Pa came back?” Pear Butter whispers, tears draining down her face as a small happy but sad smile comes to her lips. “He really came back?”
I nod, before looking down sadly. “It’s just a shame it took him thinking his daughter was dead to bring him back.”
The two gasp.
I nod. “I know you’re not dead, but you’ve both been gone so long, everypony assumed it. It’s why I was so shocked when you both found me. I can only imagine how shocked everypony else is going to be.” I blink, before giving a small chuckle. “Pinkie Pie will be happy to know she’s got more relatives.”
“Huh?” the two look to each other, then back to me, Pear Butter trying to wipe away her tears.
I giggle, before looking to them. “Turns out the Apples are distant relatives of the Pie Family and now two Pies live in Ponyville. Well, one of them lives in Ponyville Adjacent, but who cares about those technicalities?”
The two look to each other again, seeming speechless.
I blink, before facehoofing. “Wow. I got a bit off track there. You guys ask about your family and I go on a tangent about distant relatives.” I take a deep breath, before smiling at them. “How about I tell you about your foals?”
The two turn to me, smiling.
I spend the next few minutes talking about what I know relating to their children. How Applejack helps run the farm and is an Element Bearer. How Big Mac took so much after his father, letting his actions speak louder than words and how, like Pear Butter, he wasn’t one to want everything to be a big splash. How little Apple Bloom was so grown up now and had her Cutie Mark, helping others find their purpose alongside her two best friends. Even about how Big Mac is going out with Sugar Belle, possibly leading to a new member in the Apple Family a bit later on.
It felt good, talking to them about all of it. Help me feel like I wasn’t holding them up because of everything that’s happened.
Once I finish telling them all I can, we all settle down for the night, not that that means much for me. I’m already swished against a big fluffy baby that’s keeping me warm. I just hope she doesn’t roll over in her sleep again.
That had not been a fun way to wake up.
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“Phew. This desert sure ain’t cool,” Bright Mac says, fanning himself with his hat as we walk along the sandy ground.
“Well, they aren’t exactly known for it, are they?” I ask, sighing as I slump on Pear Butter’s back.
It took a while, but we’re finally close to Somnambula. Half a day’s travel and we should be there. Fwinxie has been getting more and more excited since we reached somewhere she recognizes. It’s pretty cute, seeing the sparkle in her eyes.
Suddenly, a roar rings out across the land, causing us all to freeze in place.
My eyes widen. Shit! I know that roar. What in the world is he doing here?!
An explosion in the distance makes us all look to each other, the Apples nodding and running, myself freaking out. I hope Fwinxie is bigger than him, but if we’re about to run into who I think we are, we are so screwed.
After five minutes of running, the top of a pyramid appears in the distance, over which I can just make out flashes of light, followed by the booms of explosions.
What in the world is Daring Do doing? Why doesn’t she just grab whatever relic it is and go instead of letting Ahuizotl drag it out. The area looks like we’re getting close to Somnambula, so why is she letting him put innocent ponies at risk.
As the explosions go further down the base of the ever growing pyramid, I can hear the sounds of ponies screaming in fear.
Damn it! At this rate, Ahuizotl will have destroyed the village and gotten away with the relic before we even get close. We need to get there now!
No sooner have I thought that, I feel my horn heat up and realize too late I’m somehow casting a teleportation spell before I can stop it.
There’s a red flash around us, before we’re running through the Egyptian like streets of Somnumbula, the sudden change in scenery causing the two adult ponies to halt in their tracks, confused and disoriented.
However, their stopping allows me to finally see what’s happening… and I find myself confused.
It is indeed Ahuizotl, but he isn’t the one using the relic, a staff that reminds me of the ones from Equestria Girls Movie Magic, but an Earth Pony stallion. His coat is a greyish green, his mane and tail, cut short, black and he’s wearing an outfit similar to Daring’s.
I blink, before it clicks. This is the Equestrian version of Stalwart Stallion… or should I refer to him as Mojo?
“You dare try to steal the Sceptre again?!” Ahuizotl snarls as he pushes himself off the ground, but I notice he looks injured. “Did you not learn from your last time?”
“You are getting soft, Ahuizotl,” the stallion named Stallion sneers, holding the sceptre out, it’s red top glowing. “You really should consider retirement.”
“Ahui?”
I blink, turning to look at Fwinxie, who’s looking at the enemy of Daring Do… with a sad happiness?
Stalwart lifting the sceptre up, a sphere of energy pooling at its tip.
“AHUI!” Before any of us can do anything, Fwinxie rushes forward, fear in her eyes.
The sound of her cry causes Ahuizotl to look to her as the sphere of energy is fired at him.
To our horror, Fwinxie leaps in front of the downed beast and is hit with the blast instead, sending her hurtling back and slamming through the wall of a nearby building.
I just stare, my mouth agape.
Stallion looks towards the hole in the nearby wall with confusion. “What in Equestria was that?” He shrugs, before looking back to Ahuizotl. “Now, where were we—?”
“You fucking bastard!”
Before he can turn, I’ve rammed into him, my horn blazing, my eyes wide with rage.
We crash through a stall, tumbling around and around.
By the time we’ve stopped, we’re several feet away, the sceptre getting tossed from his grasp in the process.
Stalwart looks around for the sceptre, before glaring at him… then blinks in confusion. “An Alicorn filly? Since when was there an Alicorn filly?”
“You’re gonna wish you never knew about me, you sick fuck!” I snarl, my horn flaring with red magic, a massive orb of red energy forming at its tip.
Stalwart’s face pales and he quickly looks around, trying to find the sceptre and dives towards my right.
I whirl around, thrusting my head forward, a massive beam of magic surging from my horn and soaring towards the stallion.
He digs frantically through a pile of wood, before turning around and a beam of energy firing from him, meeting mine.
He laughs. “Alicorn or not, you do not stand a chance against even one of the relics!”
I yell in rage, the energy from my horn growing hotting in intensity, but he seems to be meeting it evenly.
Stalwart cackles. “Foolish foal! I am Stalwart Stallion! You cannot defeat me!”
“But she can keep your attention!”
Before I know what’s happened, my beam knocked his beam aside, myself barely keeping my footing from the recoil.
I wince, putting a hoof to my head. It’s pounding like crazy.
Looking up, though my vision is a little unclear, I can see Ahuizotl is holding Stalwart up with his front right hand, while the sceptre is in his tail hand.
I step forward to try and get it back from him, but collapse, exhausted. That took more out of me than I’d expected.
I hear the sound of footsteps and look up, glaring as his hulking form looms over me… but he isn’t glaring. He isn’t looking down on me like a villain does when they win. He’s looking… grateful?
“Thank you, little Alicorn,” he says, nodding his head. “I have been after this thief for weeks after he stole the sceptre and its fellow relics when Daring Do was returning them to Marapore. If not for you, I may very well have lost them forever.”
I blink, confused. Huh? Returning them? Why would Daring return the sceptres?
Ahuizotl looks up, his face softening, before he sits up on his hind legs and offers me a hand. I take it hesitantly and he lifts me up onto his back and starts walking back in the direction I’d come, carrying me atop his back.
As we get closer, I hear two voices sobbing, but with joy.
“My Fwinxie! My little Fwinxie! I thought I’d never see you again!”
“Mama! I missed you, Mama!”
As we round a corner, it’s too show the baby Sphinx hugging a particular Pegasus mare, the Apples standing a little to the side, a hoof in hoof, smiling at the scene and each other.
Ahuizotl lifts his head, sending me sliding back a bit. “I do not understand. How is she alive? How is she still a baby?”
“Sphinx’s a tougher than ponies, Mr. Ahuizotl,” Somnambula says from within Fwinxie’s grip. “She was merely stunned.”
He shakes his head as I slowly push myself up and try to slide off, only to tumble down.
“Autum!” Pear Butter’s voice calls, followed by hurried hooftseps and I’m lifted up, raising my head to see her looking to me in worry and relief.
“How were you able t’ do that?” Bright Mac asks, looking at me, impressed. “That was a fancy amount of magic.”
“I… dunno,” I say honestly, putting a hoof to my head, it still aching from earlier. “After I saw Fwinxie get hurt, I just wanted to hurt Stalwart. I don’t really think I was thinking at all.”
“What?! What are you doing here?”
The three of us turn to see Somnambula out of her daughter’s grip, now standing before said sphinx in a defensive position, her eyes narrowed.
I blink in confusion, before glancing to my wings and horn and sighing. Whoops.
“She ain’t who ya think?” Pear Butter says quickly, coming to my aid. “If’n ya let us explain, ya’ll understand, Ah swear.”
“I find that very hard to believe,” the Pegasus says, snorting. “You mean to tell me the filly standing there is not the same Cozy Glow who attacked Canterlot? Who had myself and my friends locked up?”
“In body, yes,” Bright Mac says firmly. “In mind, no!”
She cocks an eyebrow at him. “Very well. As she helped to save my child, I am willing to at least listen.” She narrows her eyes, pointing at me. “But, know this, Cozy Glow: If you try any of your lies, I shall be able to tell.”
“My question still remains answered as well,” Ahuizotl says, looking around at our odd group as ponies start gathering back in the village and surround us, some giving me the stink eye.
“Answer me something first,” I say, looking pointed at him, trying to look tough despite the pain in my head and the looks of the other ponies. “Why aren’t you trying to destroy the village and make off with that relic right now? What did you mean Daring was returning the relics to Marapore? Aren’t you supposed to be the bad guy?”
“That is, as ponies of nowadays say, the pot calling the kettle black, no?” the Pegasus snorts.
Ahuizotl looks to me, his expression hurt, before sighing, dropping Stalwart on the ground and folding his arms. “I get that a lot.”
The next few minutes are spent with us each exchanging information, all sides surprised by what the other reveals.
Apparently, Ahuizotl isn’t a bad guy at all. He’s actually something called a Guardian Creatures and all Daring’s books and the one episode in which he was in back in season 4 were temples he was meant to protect, hence why he was always trying to stop Daring.
When I question him about the events of episode four specifically and even the line in Daring’s first book, the Sapphire Stone, where he said the world would suffer his wrath, they were all heavy misunderstandings.
In the Sapphire Stone’s case, he’d never actually said that line at all, Daring had written it assuming that’s something he’d have said. And as for Daring Don’t’s events and that whole “eight hundred years of unrelenting sweltering heat”?
…
Yeah, the heat, in question… He made it quite clear it was embarrassing to talk about and, since I used to be an adult and noticing the blushes on Pear Butter, Somnambula and other gathered mares, I was able to figure out what the “years of heat” were meant to be.
Talk about getting the wrong idea. Wow.
He’s surprised when I inform him how Fwinxie had been afflicted by the Swamp Fever plants, though calms down after I explain things.
For some bizarre reason, even though I know we’d gone near several areas likely to have the plants as we’d been leaving Hayseed Swamp, there literally was no trace of any Swamp Fever trees or plants.
More odd were the groups of ponies traveling with residents of the swamp. I think I even saw a Diamond Dog and a Hippogriff at one point. What were they doing in the swamp?
After all is finished and explained, Somambula is giving me a measured look, before turning to the Apples.
“You are certain this filly can be trusted? I’ll admit, some of the things she’s said about the world from which she claims to come from sound too outlandish, even for Cozy Glow to come up with, but you understand my scepticism.”
No kidding I can understand. Apparently, after Cozy and the others got Grogar’s magic, they’d attacked Canterlot, while also having caused so much disharmony that the Windigoes had literally come back. The fucking Windigoes!
And, let’s just say, as an Alicorn, Cozy hadn’t held back at all. She’d nearly killed Twilight on several occiusions.
Sheesh. No wonder she wanted to switch bodies with me to avoid punishment. I honestly don’t think, aside from Grogar, any being could’ve committed more crimes against Equestria.
We do a bit more talking, during which we finally convince the Pegasus I’m not the same filly who did those horrible things.
After that and several goodbyes, the Apple parents and I hope on a train headed for Ponyville.
Pear Butter holds me close as the train starts moving. Time for them to go home… and time for me to face Twilight after all of Cozy’s crimes.