Beyond the Forest
“What the HELL was that for?!” I massage my jaw as Fluttershy holds the second pony back. The light blue pegasus’s face is flush with rage, and she looks like she wants to tear me apart.
“Too, feelicanice, tey sawsiabyt meusamicus sajitta! Egotay necabo!” The blue one shouts at me in pony gibberish. Fluttershy struggles to keep her friend, and her violently swinging hooves, away from my face.
“She says, ‘You son of... bad word… you shoot friend with arrow, you die.’” She directs her attention to my assailant. “Rainbow! Cumque hok diximus essay aksidens. Nonmi tibi intuitus!” Whatever she had said worked, because the pony in her arms immediately calmed down and backed away. “Sorry, this is friend Rainbow Dash. Umm... she… overprotective.”
I rub my aching jaw and nod. “Yeah, well... I guess I kind of had it coming. But she should know that I am truly sorry for what I did.” Fluttershy relays the message to Dash, who eyes me coldly but nods all the same. “Actually, meeting you was probably the best thing that could have happened to me and Cat. I don’t know if we can survive much longer on our own. Wait a second...”
I turn to the couch and see Cat lying there, still sound asleep. “She must really be tired to have slept through all that. Hey, Cat, wake up!” I gently shake her sleeping form, but there is no response. “Cat, rise and shine” I shake her again, a little harder this time, but she still doesn’t wake up. I put my ear to her mouth and hear nothing. “Something’s wrong, she’s not breathing. Caitlyn! Wake up!” Trying not to panic, I put two fingers under her jaw to feel for a pulse. I feel nothing and start to panic.
“Let I check.” Fluttershy nudges me out of the way and holds a hoof to Cat’s wrist. “She haves heartbeat, but very small. Look if injury.” We look over her arms and legs, and gasp in horror when we get to her ankle. The veins are a dark green and protruding from the skin.
“Oh God, she’s been poisoned! What do we do, what do we do?” The thought of losing the only family I have left wipes every trace of survival training from my mind. I start to hyperventilate before Fluttershy smacks me with her wing.
“Sorry, but please calm. I trained medicine.” She flies off for a second and returns with a piece of cloth about a foot long. I stare in confusion as she wraps the tourniquet just under Cat’s knee. “What?”
“Y-you’re a doctor?” She nods and points a hoof at a plaque on the wall. It’s written in pony-ese, but there is a picture of a stethoscope at the bottom.
...and a squirrel.
“Oh. You’re a veterinarian. Sorry, but don’t you have a hospital or something we could take her to instead?” She shakes her head and gives Rainbow Dash some instructions, who until now has looked on in confusion. Dash gives a salute and flies off into the next room, returning with a bottle of clear liquid and some rags.
“Really think is good to take she to hospital? Them treat you like monster! No worry, me have very much experience taking care of all kind of creatures.” She notices I’m pacing back and forth behind her. “Um, you give some space? If that alright... How about you go eat something? Food in there.” She points to a room. I don’t want to leave Cat’s side, but Fluttershy seems to know what she’s doing.
I duck under the doorway into the what I guess is the kitchen. There's not much in here besides a sink, a small countertop, and a few cabinets. Not even a stove. I turn around and look at the fireplace in the other room, it has pots and pans hanging from the mantle. Ah. I nervously poke around in a cabinet, the shelves are lined with vegetables and cans of what I assume is animal food. On the top shelf are a few cans of something called Para-Sprite. I crack one open and take a swig, and it turns out to be a sort of lemon-lime soda.
I rummage through some more of the cabinets, revealing an unbelievable stockpile of apples. Not just any apples, either. These apples are the ones that Fluttershy brought to us each morning until about a week ago, the reason I was about to go looking for her. I don’t want to seem greedy, so I only take two. There’s a breadbox on the counter, whose contents I use to make a sandwich with a few vegetables and some meat from my bag.
Before I can enjoy an actual meal for the first time in forever, Fluttershy calls to me from the next room. I promise my sandwich I will return for it and go see what the yellow pegasus wants. Cat is still unconscious, with an IV in her arm. Wow, Fluttershy's good with her hooves. Her leg looks a bit better, but the strange colour has spread.
“I sorry, I’m doesn’t know what wrong. Need to bring friend Sunset… er… Twilight to help, her can use magic to tell what did and how help. Okay?” I don’t like the thought of any more ponies knowing we’re here, but Cat doesn’t really have a choice. I nod in agreement and Fluttershy writes a quick note. “Rainbow, pocet placuereet vobis... Rainbow?” We look around for the blue pegasus in question and hear munching sounds coming from the kitchen.
I run over to the doorway to see Rainbow Dash finish the last bite of my sandwich. “Oh, fenum!” She downs the last of my Para-Sprite and crushes the can against her forehead. “Didvos fasseat quod sandwich? Erat delectamentum, ced gustaveet jenus fatum.” I stare in quiet fury as Fluttershy peeks her head around the corner.
“Oh, I sorry, should have told her your sandwich. Dash, illud nonerat valde nice! Wait a bit, I’ll make new one.”
“Umm, Fluttershy? That sandwich had meat in it.” Fluttershy turns several shades paler and slowly approaches her friend. She translates the message, and Rainbow looks confused. She elaborates a bit more before Dash goes from blue to white to green. She becomes a blur as she flies to the bathroom, and overly-dramatic vomiting can be heard. I examine the plate she left behind; she didn’t even leave any crumbs. “Goodbye, my love...”
“Well, guess Dash can’t go, so...” Fluttershy sighs and pokes her head out the front door. “Pinkie Pie, pocess- Ah!” She jumps in surprise as yet another pony seems to appear out of nowhere, this one bright pink with a curly, dark pink mane and tail, and no wings.
“Hi ibee, Fluttershy! Kwid faciamuss-” her question is cut short by a gasp when she sees me standing there. “Hi there! I’m Pinkie Pie, who are you? What are you? Are you Fluttershy’s friend? I’ve heard a lot about youyou’renewintownIshouldthroughyouawelcomtoPonyvillepartylikeIdowithallofmynewfriendstherecanbecakeandgamesandmmfhhh-” Fluttershy covers the pink pony’s muzzle with a hoof, but she keeps talking.
“How can she speak English? You’ve spent a lot of time with me and Cat, and you’re not as good as she is!”
She gives me a big shrug and says, “No ask, just is Pinkie. We used to it.” She removes her hoof for a few seconds, and Pinkie’s saying something about an alligator. “Pinkie, could please take this note to Twilight? It emergency.”
She copies Rainbow’s salute. “Okie dokie loki, you can count on me! And you!” She points a hoof at me. “I will throw you a Welcome-to-Ponyville Party! I swear on it!” Just as mysteriously as she arrived, the pink pony disappears in a cloud of confetti.
One fresh sandwich later (about fifteen minutes), we hear a frantic knocking on the door. Fluttershy opens it and a very frantic-looking purple pony walks in.
This one has frazzled dark purple hair with a pink highlight and a… horn? She trudges in with the pink one bouncing in behind her. She looks up at me, pauses just briefly to stammer out a "Hello" and continues her way inside, following Fluttershy over to Cat.
I watch in nervous anticipation while Pinkie incessantly bounces up and down next to me. How she can be so bouncy with hooves on a hardwood floor is beyond me.
"Would you mind giving me a little personal space, Pinkie?"
"Sure!" She answers and bounces about two inches away.
Twilight and Fluttershy are mumbling to each other. Now there's a strange purple glow coming from Twilight's… horn.
"What's she doing?" I ask Pinkie, pointing a suspicious finger at the purple one.
"Magic!" Pinkie shouts.
Magic? Well that just explains everything, doesn't it.
After a few minutes of waiting around Twilight seems to have determined something. She mumbles something to Fluttershy. Their mumblings seem to be more that I can't hear them than it does that I simply can't understand them. Twilight marches right past me and says something to Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, who has just returned from her bout of food poisoning. It’s nice to know that Twilight is putting Cat's well being over formalities like small talk and introductions. Or maybe she's just scared of me.
They all walk out of the door. I quickly turn to Fluttershy. "Where are they going?"
"Oh, um, they go to forest. To friend Zecora for um… medicine."
They had guts, I'll give them that. Three defenseless ponies trekking into a forest infested with carnivorous beasts and who knows what else. Fluttershy mostly just flew over the forest from what I knew, although she seemed to be fairly unconcerned with the dangers when she walked us out.
On one hand, I can't just leave Cat here in this condition. But on the other hand, can I really let her potential rescuers go unprotected into the not-so-proverbial lion's den on a medicine run?
"Will they be okay out there?" I ask.
"Oh, yes…" I don't know why, but I could sense a tiny inkling of doubt in her soft voice and in her big eyes.
I run over to the couch, pick up my bow, arrows, and knife. I lean over Cat and kiss her gently on the forehead. "Bye Cat, I'm going to get you some medicine. I'll be right back, I promise."
"Take care of Cat for me!" I yell back to Fluttershy as I run through the open front door of her cottage, to catch up with the little colorful dots on the edge of the forest.
"WAIT FOR ME!"
Sorry this took so long, but my family has been going through a lot of crap right now. I know this chapter kind of goes against the others, but I think any story, no matter how serious, can benefit from a little comic relief. I’ll be sure to make up for it in the next one.
Thanks to theRedBrony
PS- a cookie to whoever can figure out the pony-ese