//------------------------------// // 19 - Liquid Courage // Story: The Hollow Pony // by Type_Writer //------------------------------// “And you’re sure it’s not going to suck us dry? I’m very hesitant about anything drawing from my soul. Especially in these times, you understand.” “Zecora d-didn’t seem to th-think so. It sh-should be safe.” We had left Apple Bloom, or the Hollow that had once been Apple Bloom, on the road far behind us. We were drawing close to Ponyville’s northwest gate once more, and I had been telling Trixie everything I knew about Zecora and her work ever since. I felt…strangely energized. The words now came a lot easier, and speaking for so long didn’t seem like such a struggle. It helped that I had been practicing my breathing the entire walk back, but even that felt like less of a chore, and my mantra of flare and flicker seemed easy to maintain as I spoke about subjects completely unrelated. “Well, it certainly works wonders for injuries, we know that...you can carry it though. If any souls are going to be whittled away, mine won’t be one of them.” I chuckled as the gate loomed through the fog. “Th-that’s fine.” We paused just before we approached the gate proper, and I shifted my quilted armor against my breast once more. I’d stashed Zecora’s bottomless bag—now mine, I supposed—within my armor, and Applejack's horseshoe beside it. While the crystals pried from the lizard had been safely stored within, it seemed like it might arouse suspicion if I pulled the horseshoe from the bag when we returned it. Applejack might have known that Zecora had owned it, or worse, might recognize the bag as being specifically hers. It would be best not to give her any more reasons to throw us back in a cell. I wore my sheathed sword at my side for the same reason, so it wouldn’t seem strange that I was traveling without it. I glanced back into the fog one more time, though I would have been surprised to see anypony besides myself and Trixie out here. We had stopped by the hollow tree where Lyra and Bon-Bon had been hiding, but they had vacated their hiding-hole while we were busy with the Ashen Wallowers. Whether they’d left for Canterlot proper, or just a better hiding place, I didn’t know. “If you’re quite finished staring at the mist…” “S-sorry.” We started towards the gate in earnest, though I turned back to talk to Trixie. “D-do you think Applej-jack will let m-me talk to D-Dinky?” “Probably not; I’ll be surprised if she actually lets us back in to begin with. She might just have us pitch the shoe over the wall, and respond with a message in a bottle. Why?” I looked down at the ground, where the hard-packed dirt of the road had loosened back into mud, over the course of the endless age in which we were trapped. “Sh-she deserves to know. Ab-about Apple Bloom, so she knows Z-Zecora’s been avenged.” Trixie shrugged, as we came to a stop before the gate. “If you say so. Do you know how to get their attention?” I had a strange moment of deja vu. It was familiarity, but the familiarity itself was alien. This was the same gate that Apple Bloom had stood under when she called up to her sister, but that wasn’t my memory; it was hers, and I knew it only because I had stolen it from her. The thought still made me sick, and I could only shake my head in response. “Ehh, fine. Stand aside, for this is a task that Trixie excels at.” She stepped back, and her horn’s magic glowed around her mouth. When she spoke, her voice was amplified, and the mud rippled under our hooves. “Hey! Idiots on the wall! We did your killing and brought the shoe, now let us back in! The Great and Powerful Trixie was promised her wagon in return!” A moment later, a pony wearing a dull yellow construction helmet poked his head over the side. After a moment, he leapt off the wall and caught the air with a pair of dark gray wings. He landed beside us, while Trixie cancelled the spell that had amplified her voice. “Y-you did it? W-where’s the h-horseshoe? Or d-did you b-bring something else f-for proof?” He seemed to have the same trouble with his breathing that I did, his voice stuttering and gasping. There was something comforting to me in knowing that I was not alone in that regard. Slowly, so as not to startle the Hollow guard, I withdrew the horseshoe from against my breast. I held it out for him to inspect, and he took it in his own hoof, where he peered at it for a few moments before his embers flickered in surprise. “Wow, that ac-actually looks r-right. Okay, I’ll t-take it b-back in, to the C-Commander. Sh-she’ll know for sure.” “W-wait!” The pegasus turned at my shout, as he spread his wings. “C-can we come ins-inside? I w-want to check m-my friend, and t-tell her I’m okay.” He shifted on his hooves nervously. “Um...I’ll a-ask her, b-but no p-promises. She’s b-been really b-busy dealing w-with the G-Golden Guard.” “Okay.” I nodded, and he beat his wings, once, twice, then he was over the wall. Trixie and I stood there together in silence for a few moments, watching the wall, but it seemed he would take longer than we hoped. Eventually, I looked over at Trixie. “D-dealing with?” “You’re asking me?” Trixie said with an incredulous snort. “Hay if I know what he meant. I wouldn’t be surprised if that stupid hick was really trying to boot out the army; she seemed mad enough to think she could take them on herself, and the whole Everchaos too.” As Trixie trotted off to the side of the road and sat down, I strained to listen. The fog made sound travel weirdly, and there was a whole undead settlement in between us...but eventually, I could pick out the low rhythm of the thumping cannons, a few miles away, still firing into the Everchaos. They were still holding the line, with or without Applejack’s intervention, and that was a small comfort. I joined Trixie by the side of the road, and together, we waited for the pegasus to return. We clearly had time to kill, so I coughed to get her attention a few minutes later. “Um...y-you said s-something, earlier. You c-called me a ‘b-bright little spark’?” Trixie leaned away from me, but didn’t stand. She looked me over from head to tail, then closed her eyes, and seemed to repeat the motion again. After a moment, she nodded. “I did, yes. Interesting…” “W-what?” I looked back at myself, trying to see what she could. “And w-what did you mean b-by that?” Trixie smirked, and her eyes opened. “Before I tell you, why don’t we make this little arrangement official, hm? You’ve proven yourself competent enough, and it does seem as though we’ll be working together for a while yet.” “Ar-arrangement?” “Mm-hm.” Trixie’s horn lit, and she used her magic to brush a few flecks of mud from my armor.  “As the Great and Powerful Trixie is currently without an apprentice, or rather, an assistant, she could see her way towards taking you on. We’d be picking up where that zebra shaman left off, starting with a proper fireball. It’s not as basic as combustion, but it’s a spell no Pyromancer would be caught dead without.” I mulled it over for a few moments. I still didn’t trust Trixie; she’d proven herself opportunistic, conniving, and downright deceptive in nearly everything she did. But for all her bluster, she was, in a couple ways, genuinely “great and powerful.” If nothing else, she did know Pyromancy, far better than most if Dinky was to be believed. That alone made the offer tempting. But she had also proven herself willing, even eager, to kill. That unsettled me, and though I had eventually agreed that it had needed to be done, everything about what we’d done to Apple Bloom rubbed me the worst way. I couldn’t shake an awful guilt whenever her memories were recalled as though they were mine, and that Trixie had done that to other ponies, enough times to practice ignoring it...that terrified me. Thankfully, the decision was postponed when the militia pegasus appeared over the wall once more. He gave us a wave, and when we waved back, he disappeared. A few moments later, the door began to grind open, and we both jumped to our hooves. As we shook the dew from our coats and started to walk back into Ponyville, I shrugged to Trixie. “G-give me a bit to th-think it over.” Trixie just gave me a smile that was probably meant to be reassuring, and she said, “Take as long as you need, assistant!” A militia unicorn was waiting on the other side of the gate. “Which one of you is Trixie?” She gasped at the insult, innocuous and unintended though it was. “The Great and Powerful Trixie, you mean!” The unicorn mare shrugged. “Whatever. We’re supposed to watch you while you stay here. The Hollow is supposed to follow Thunderlane to the jail and back. Applejack’s on her way here, and she’ll give you two the instructions regarding the next target in person.” The dark gray militia pegasus dropped onto the ground beside her, and he smiled at me. “Okay. L-lead on,” I said, with a nod. Trixie gave a huff and found a new spot to sit on this side of the gate. Once again, I noticed a surprising amount of unicorns all stationed around the gate, and how they watched us all very intently, but especially Trixie. While they only sometimes glanced at me, their eyes were focused on her for any sign of trouble. The pegasus stallion—Thunderlane, apparently—took the lead, and I dropped in behind him. He cut a very straight path through the town, towards Friendship Square, but I did notice he stuck to wide roads instead of cutting through alleys. It might be that he didn’t terribly trust me, or maybe he just didn’t like the confined spaces between the buildings. Most pegasi, so used to soaring above the clouds, felt some inherent degree of claustrophobia. As we turned down a road, I noticed a small crowd had gathered around a stallion standing atop a soapbox. He seemed about middle-aged, but his muscles hardened from farm work persisted, and he spoke loudly to anypony who would listen. He had violet fur, but no mane to speak of. It seemed to have migrated south instead, to form a beard and goatee. He wasn’t yet Hollowed, but his eyes were dark, and he didn’t look as though it was far off. It was hard not to listen, as he addressed the small crowd before him, and we passed by. “No no no, you haven’t read the old lore tablets at all, you moron! All of this was ordained long ago! This sun-stricken existence we know now was always fated to happen, for this is merely part of the endless cycle of light and dark! “The sun shall set on our age of light, and an age of dark shall be upon us! But fear not, my listeners, for it too shall pass, and there will be an age of light once more. But that too shall pass, and there will be another age of dark! Then, an age of light! An age of dark shall follow of course, but then, there will be an age of spiders! Yes, spiders. It will be awful. That shall pass with an age of fire, thank the stars, and an age of light shall follow that! “Then an age of machinery! We shall accomplish great things! Great brick walls shall be erected, to hold back the monsters of old, but have yet to be created in our time! But that machinery will bring about an age of dark as well, even as we try to light up the abyss with that same machinery! It shall be an age of steel, and brass, and glittering gold! But eventually, dark shall prevail, and the age of darkness shall be long and cruel. Then, an age of fire will warm our world once more! And then more spiders!” One of the onlookers rolled her eyes, and she left the crowd, having lost interest in hearing him rant and rave. Instead, her eyes caught those of my escort, and she smirked as she pointed at him. “Oh, a guard! Excellent, perhaps you can deliver us from this plague of gripes that has befallen our poor town!” He shrugged, and we continued to walk. “I’m…a little busy right now, miss.” “Of course you are, bah,” She passed by us, and disappeared into one of the nearby buildings as we left the street crier behind. The strange stallion’s ranting faded as we turned a corner, and we continued onwards toward the giant crystal castle. Friendship Square seemed slightly more reinforced than it had before. Though the Hollow militia was still mostly milling about, the sandbags had all been recently repaired, and two additional automatic gun emplacements had been set up in front of the barracks. I got a few sharp looks from the ponies guarding the square, but Thunderlane waved them off as we proceeded towards the jail. I hadn’t gotten a good chance to inspect the building before, since we’d been hauled into and out of the building by Applejack herself the previous time I’d been here. I took the time to pause and look it over now, while Thunderlane explained the situation to the guard at the door. It looked like it had always been a place of authority, and had maybe been a small constable station? That would explain the cells and bindings, though it was odd to have one across from what Dinky had claimed to be a school. Maybe it had just been limited to petty thugs, or mostly served as a drunk tank? I pondered if Applejack had originally used this building as her base of operations, before she started to reinforce the barracks. After a short conversation, the guard let us in, and we trotted inside, past a bunch of desks and into the door marked “Cells,” which led down into the basement that I was far too familiar with. I glanced around briefly to see if there were any new changes or additional prisoners, but it seemed just as Trixie and I had left it. I moved to our former cell, and rapped my hoof against the bars, while Thunderlane stood beside me. I jumped in horror as Dinky looked around, and sat up. We had been gone for only a short time, but in that time, Dinky had begun to Hollow significantly. The old mud and blood—that we’d all been stained with on our hectic run back—now stood out more than the original color of her thinned fur did. Her mane had grown a few shades more dull, and she seemed small in her bindings, as if she’d shriveled from dehydration. Worst of all was her eyes. Dinky’s eyes were a bright, golden color when I first met her, and they had shone with health and curiosity whenever we talked to each other about the world around us. But at some point, those pony eyes had been lost, and golden embers replaced them inside her sockets. I didn’t want to think about that process in detail, or where those old eyes might be now. “H-Holly?” “Dinky!” I swallowed, and leaned against the bars to get as close as I could to my friend. “W-what happened? You, you’re-” “I know,” She mumbled, as she shifted towards me. She leaned limply against the bars, and I wrapped my hooves around her. Thunderlane looked a little jumpy at that, but he decided to look away, to give us the illusion of privacy. Dinky shivered at my touch, but to my relief, she was still warm and alive, for the moment. “I haven’t been f-feeling great...sorry you have to see me like this. I d-didn’t think you’d be coming back, Holly.” I nodded. “D-didn’t think I w-would, either. It’s d-dangerous out there.” Dinky looked over at Thunderlane, and the sword at my side. “Are you being l-locked back up? And w-where’s Trixie?” “No, j-just visiting. T-Trixie’s waiting by the gate, but I w-wanted to see you, s-see my f-friend. Applej-jack let me do that much, after we did the w-work she asked.” “The killing, you mean.” Dinky mumbled, but she still rubbed her cheek against my forehead. “How’d it go? Obviously you’re b-both okay, so…” I still fumbled over my words, as I related the story to Dinky, and we huddled together. I spread a little bit of my fire into her as I spoke, and while I could feel it being filtered through the cold iron, it seemed to reach her eventually. She perked up when I told her about Bon-Bon and Lyra, and she nodded when I told her they had likely left for Canterlot already. Her face fell again when I started to describe the rock farm, and when I asked what was wrong, Dinky explained that it had probably been Pinkie’s family home, and that I should tell her about it when I got a chance. Her interest was piqued when I told her about the crystal lizard, and how I’d retrieved a couple of crystalline lumps from the battlefield, even though I couldn’t show them to her directly now. She shivered with worry when I told her I’d died again during the fighting, but we clung to each other tightly again, and that seemed to allay her fears. Finally, I told her about the Ashen Wallowers, and how they’d been near-feral themselves, but their leader had been at least willing to negotiate a bit. “Th-there’s one l-last thing.” Dinky looked at me with that same curiosity in her embers as her eyes had held before, and I leaned back to reach into the collar of my armor. “We ran into A-Apple Bloom on the w-way back.” Dinky’s eyes went wide. “D-did you beat her? Is she st-still out there?” I swallowed. “N-no. Trixie taught me how to f-finish an Undead...properly.” Dinky’s embers winked out as she squeezed her eyes shut in pain. “Properly. That’s...that’s one way to put it. I didn’t want to think about that, but if it means she doesn’t hurt anypony else...and it avenges Zecora...” I nodded, as I reached into the bag against my breast. Thunderlane’s eyes were on the cage full of Hollows, so I drew the flask from the bottomless bag. The glimmering light from the dram of liquid sunlight shone across Dinky’s face, and she gasped quietly as I held it between us. “W-what…?” Dinky had never seen the glowing bottle, aside from when Apple Bloom had stolen it from Zecora. “Z-Zecora’s research. I d-don’t know where M-Meadowbrook is, but I c-can keep this safe until I f-find her. And th-there’s something else...Apple B-Bloom did something s-strange with it, when we f-fought her. She d-drank the liquid s-sunlight, and it s-seemed to heal her w-wounds.” “Heal her…” Dinky mumbled in confusion. “W-why would it…like a healing potion?” “I g-guess,” I said, as I nodded. I tilted it towards my friend. “T-there’s not much, b-but it replenishes b-by itself. You sh-should have a taste.” Dinky smiled sadly, as she leaned her head against the bars. “I think I’m a b-bit too far gone for that to help, Holly.” “P-please,” I murmured. “Please just t-try.” Dinky sighed, and nodded, so I pulled out the silver-wrapped cork. She couldn’t hold the bottle in her own hooves while she wore the shackles, so I held it up to her mouth, and tilted the bottle so she could drink. The golden sunlight poured down and into her mouth, and Dinky’s eyes widened as she glowed slightly. Then the trickle of glowing sunlight was gone, and I re-corked the bottle, while Dinky smacked her lips. “Tastes like…doesn’t really t-taste like anything? Like...sparkles on your tongue. It’s liquid magic, for sure. I don’t know enough ab-about alchemy to say anything more.” “H-how do you feel?” I slid the flask back into the collar of my armor, and the bag hidden within. Dinky shook her head, and leaned back against the bars. “I don’t th-think my eyes would have come back even if I’d had a whole bottle to drink. I’m s-sorry, Holly.” “I’m s-sorry too,” I mumbled, and we held each other tightly again. “I’m g-gonna get you out o-of here, okay? I p-promise.” “I know. It-it’s not so bad, being in here.” Dinky chuckled mirthlessly, though I could feel her smile. “Sn-Snails comes by every once in a while, and he’s happy to talk to me. I don’t remember a lot of what he tells me—never had an interest in b-bugs, or animals, really—but I enjoy the company.” “D-do you want me to st-stay? Instead of g-going out?” Dinky swallowed. “D-don’t ask me that, please. I’ll be f-fine, like I said.” We huddled together tightly for a while longer. Eventually, Thunderlane trotted back over. “We should p-probably get moving s-soon. I don’t w-want to k-keep Applejack waiting. S-sorry to b-break you two up.” “Al-alright,” I whimpered, and me and Dinky clutched each other again tightly one last time before I broke away. As Thunderlane led me back up the stairs, I couldn’t help but look back at my friend, where she lay in her cell. Would there be anything left of Dinky, by the next time I returned? * * * Applejack wore a furious glare when Thunderlane and I finally returned to the northwest gate. “‘Bout damn time. Took the long way there and back, huh?” “I didn’t think I’d ever agree with the hick, but you were gone a while. She’s terrible company,” Trixie snarked. She’d been lying on her back out of boredom, but rolled back onto her belly as we approached. Between them both, Applejack had spread an old, yellowed map of Ponyville and the surrounding area. Charcoal lines had been drawn across the cloth to mark the walls that girded the impromptu fort, and more lines had been drawn to indicate the free-fire line between Ponyville and the Everchaos. Finally, a large amount of scribbling had been drawn atop a nearby lake. “Shaddup, convicts.” Applejack waved her hooves, and they took on a glow as a dagger withdrew itself from a leg sheathe. She used it to point at various details on the map. “Now, this moron’s been telling me about your little adventure while you’ve been gone. Just so I can get this from both of you, where were they set up?” Carefully, I approached, and stared at the map for a few moments. I had genuinely no idea where their hideout had been, geographically speaking; eventually, I tapped a rocky area to the southwest, near a large ravine. “Here-ish? Th-there was a q-quarry there, and Trixie c-called it a r-rock farm.” Applejack frowned when I couldn’t place the exact location, but she tapped a part of the map a short distance away from my hoof with the tip of the knife. “Sounds like the Pie farm, yeap. And you cleared the whole place out yourselves?” “Yep,” Trixie said, but Applejack turned to glare at her sharply and shushed her. I looked between them both. “Uh...n-not by ourselves, th-there was a big l-lizard in the q-quarry, covered in c-crystal-” Trixie groaned. “Ugh, you’re too honest, it’s no fun! I bet they would have kept sending ponies in for that thing to hunt!” Applejack flicked the knife in Trixie’s direction. “Ah warned ya! Lie to me again, and this is going into one a’ yer eyes! Now, is there anything else at this danged farm?!” “Nope, totally-” “Ah said shaddup!” I gulped as Trixie and Applejack glared at each other. “Th-there’s a few p-pigs left, but they m-might be g-gone soon. The l-lizard is st-still there, and it’s a p-predator. It h-hunted them f-for us, when we b-baited it out.” Applejack nodded, and a nearby unicorn guard started to write that down in an ancient notebook. “That all? Good. We’ll send scouts—ones we can trust—to confirm from a distance, but y'all have a new job.” Her dagger flicked back towards the map, and she pointed at the mass of scribbles around the lake. “This here’s the Ponyville reservoir-” “Told you.” “Last! Warning!” Applejack barked at Trixie, as she stabbed the dagger into the map out of frustration. “Interrupt me again and I’ll gut ya, before I toss you down a well to fight the frogs!” All was quiet for a few moments, as Applejack huffed and grunted, and calmed down somewhat. When she was “calm”, she continued. “Now, this used to be just Ponyville’s reservoir. Long time back, Cloudsdale fell out of the sky and landed in it, and now the water from there’s turned black. Real weird, real gross. And there’s skeletons hanging around the ruins. Ah got no clue what the hay’s going on up there, so I want you two to probe around, see what you can find, or at least try and figure out how big the problem is exactly. Then come back here, and we’ll mount a proper force to clear out the ruins, ‘cause it’s too big a job for just the two a’ ya.” I raised a hoof, and Applejack glared at me. “W-what if we g-get attacked, and c-can’t make it b-back?” “Ya’ll don’t come back, we’ll assume there’s something out there worse than skeletons,” Applejack grunted. “For now, seems they’ve mostly kept to themselves, ‘sides the odd wandering pile a’ bones. Like ah said, don’t go lookin’ for a fight. If you’re really spoilin’ to die, you can go with the fightin’ force. Need some good cannon fodder.” “Great. Anything else, o Princess of Ponyville?” Trixie asked, with a grimace. Applejack made a point of yanking the dagger back out of the map and pointing it at Trixie. For a moment, I thought she’d finally been pushed too far, and Trixie was about to get a knife in the throat. But after a moment, Applejack just snarled and sheathed the blade. “Nope. Get the hay out of mah town, both of you.” The militia unicorn beside her looked up at the gate. “They’re ready to go! Open up!” Trixie stood and stretched, as I wandered over to stand beside her. “Well, once more into the mist. Have a nice chat with your little friend?” “S-something like that,” I mumbled, as Applejack wandered away, and the great wooden gate began to open before us. They stopped it when it was only a couple of body-lengths open, and we both drifted out into the fog towards our next destination.