Applejack glanced aside at Rarity while her hooves plodded along the gravel path. They had first left town on the path leading to the Acres, but quickly took a left, down a lesser used, but still well kept path that led South, towards the Forest. Surprisingly, Fluttershy had picked up her pace going down the path, and Applejack wondered why that might be.
Right now, though, she was still more distracted by Rarity. Or, more precisely, fuming over her. The silly, prissy mare was trotting along, looking proud of herself, while flaunting a finely embroidered silk shawl draped over her shoulders. It seemed a bit dated, to Applejack's mind, like something Granny or her friends might wear, but she didn't know much about fashion.
"Ya know, Rarity, when you said you needed to stop at yer place for 'protection' I thought you might mean somethin' a might bit more . . . practical, than that!" The farmer said, glaring at the other mare, who turned a gimlet eye on her.
"I'll have you know, this shawl is perfectly practical, Applejack." She said, lifting an eyebrow and her head slightly.
"And how in the hay is that ol' thing s'posed to be practical?!" She said, and the ivory unicorn lifted her eyebrows in mock surprise.
"Well, I'm not certain, Applejack, why don't you tell me how practical your hat is, darling?"
Applejack bristled up, reaching a hoof up to touch the Stetson on her head. "Y'all leave my hat outta this! SHe's plenty practical! Keeps off the rain, and the sun!" She said, glaring at the mare who nodded.
"Mmm . . . ANd yet it's not raining right now, and further more, I find it highly unlikely we shall have to worry about sunburn through most of this journey. And yet, you're still wearing it." Rarity pointed out, and Applejack turned away, grumbling. A moment later, Rarity continued, voice softer. "I know why, Applejack." She said, and the farm pony turned, looking at her with narrowed eyes. Rarity smiled softly, sapphire eyes meeting emerald. "It was your father's, yes?"
Applejack's mouth tightened, and she glanced away, not meeting the fashionista's eyes. Her ears laid back and her tail tucked slightly, before she nodded, briefly. Rarity continued. "I've lived in this town my whole life, darling. I know about your loss, the same as any pony."
Nope. Y'all don't, and none of y'all can ever. Applejack thought to herself, though she didn't respond, only glancing over at the other mare. "So . . . What's that gotta do with anythin'?" She said, gruffly, and Rarity nodded, smiling sadly again.
"Well . . . You and I are not so different, it would seem." SHe said, reaching up to touch her shawl. "This was my grandmother's." She said, softly, and Applejack blinked in shock, ears perking. Rarity tilted her head, making a small sound. "She was the one who always encouraged me to follow my heart. When I got my Cutie Mark, I thought my talent was in . . . finding gems!" She gave a wry chuckle. "I was so disheartened. I wanted to be a designer, even then! It was my grandmother who pointed out that I didn't get my Mark for finding gems; I got it for finding the beauty in something ugly. A gorgeous geode, a nest of gems, hidden inside of a plain, ugly old rock."
Pinkie Pie stuck her head up, from closer to the front of the group. "HEY! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ROCKS, HUH?!"
Rarity blinked, looking up, but the pink mare had already put her head back down, as though nothing had happened. She did not continue, and Applejack did not press. THe fashionista had a distant, though somewhat happy look on her face. As of nostalgia. Applejack sighed, frowning, pulling the brim of Tellula down over her eyes and watching where she put her hooves.
She glanced back, briefly, eyes resting on the scarred Mark on her right flank, and bit her lip to keep it form trembling. Her parents hadn't lived to see her get her Mark. She turned back to say something to Rarity, but her eyes were instead caught by the sight that lay ahead of them, momentarily taking her breath away, even in the silvery light of the moon.
The sound of running water had been a constant in her ears since they had left the main road, and she knew they were following along a small tributary off of the Epona River, called Willow Creek. She had grown up here, after all, knew the farm, and the town, and the countryside like the frog of her hoof. That said, she hadn't been down Willow Creek in a long while, and this was new to her. The aged, weeping willows that gave the creek its name were still there, as beautiful as ever, their long, tendril like leaves glittering in the light of the moon. However, the trail they were following led to a quaint, simple little wooden bridge, leading over the creek, and the entire area, from every tree, post and bush large enough, seemed festooned with bird houses, windchimes and hanging decorations of all kinds.
On the other side of the creek sat a beautiful little cottage, its windows glowing warmly with light. Lichen and moss grew along the top, which was shaded by the leaves of an old oak tree. Perhaps most shocking of all was the number of animals that surrounded the cottage; deer, rabbits, falcons, hawks, songbirds of all sorts. Day animals and night alike were all standing outside of the cottage. However, as the six mares approached, the animals turned to them, before parting before a small white bunny rabbit that came bounding out of the group up to Fluttershy, who trotted out to meet the animal.
The rabbit promptly began chittering and bouncing in place in a manner that would have looked cute, if it weren't for the anger and frustration that was radiating off of him in waves. Fluttershy frowned, leaning in closer and . . . was she speaking? It was soft, to soft to make out her words, but she was definitely speaking to the critter.
Twilight glanced aside at the others, frowning in confusion. "Um . . . What is she doing?" She asked, and Applejack and Rarity both shook their heads.
"Beats me."
"Who cares?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flapping her wings to stay hovering above them. "We need to get a move on!"
Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, was frowning at the 'conversation' taking place in front of them, mouth slightly tight along the corner. Applejack, not sure if she'd ever seen such an expression on the pink mare's face, leaned over. "Somethin' wrong, Pinkie Pie?" She asked, but the mare didn't respond, instead starting to march forward even as Fluttershy turned, a sad expression on her face that didn't quite extrend to her eyes or ears.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, everypony, but . . . My animal friends are all so scared, and I've left them alone too long, already. I can't-"
"Oh, no ya don't, missy!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed waltzing up and glaring at Fluttershy, silencing the pegasus, before turning the glare on the small, white rabbit, who crossed his forelegs over his chest and returned the glare with equal measure.
Rarity looked over at Applejack, lifting an eyebrow. "What?" She pondered, and Applejack shrugged.
"Pinkie Pie." She said, shaking her head, and Rarity sighed, looking at her hooves.
"What does that mean?!" Twilight exclaimed, frowning even harder than before as she looked back and forth between the mares alongside her, and the two before them, one looking like she wanted nothing more than to run into her cottage and hide, while the other was glaring angrily at a small bunny rabbit.
Finally, Pinkie Pie spoke up, reaching out and tapping the bunny in the chest with her hoof. "You listen here, Angel Bunny! I don't care if you've not been fed your satued carrots and red lettuce salad yet! We need Fluttershy with us!" She paused while the rabbit chittered back at her, shaking a fist, while Fluttershy looked on with an expression of shock on her face. Pinkie continued; "I don't care! Listen here, you little shh. . . If she doesn't come with us, then the SUN might never COME UP again! You know what that means? No sun means no plants can grow!" She paused, glaring at the bunny who maintained his rigid posture, forelegs crossed over his chest, but his ears folded back against his head and his small, beady black eyes glanced aside at the yellow pegasus. "Including CARROTS!" Pinkie finished, and Angel's forelegs dropped, eyes going wide.
It had been one of the strangest sights Applejack thought she'd ever seen, watching a tiny little rabbit forcibly pushing a softly protesting pegasus pony off down the path behind her cottage, past a small paddock and chicken coop, and towards teh forest. Once Fluttershy had caved in and started moving on her own, the bunny had given a last chittering chastisement, glared at Pinkie Pie, who's response was to stick out her tongue at him, and then bounded back off to the cottage and the gang of animals waiting there.
Twilight seemed mildly shellshocked, which Applejack recognized as the expression of somepony who'd never had to deal with a Pinkie Pie moment before. They'd all been there, Celesita knew.
Now, the farm mare looked around as they trotted down a winding dirt path through the woods. Apparently, Pinkie Pie knew where they were going, as she was back in the lead, bouncing along happily, not even really watching where she was going. The rest however, were noticeably afraid, though Rainbow Dash would probably have punched anyway who said it out loud. Still, the way the blue pegasus had slowed her pace and dropped down to hover nearby Applejack, and how her eyes kept moving around, watching the trees warily, showed her fear.
Fear. Fear was contagious. It spread through them, over them, around them. Perhaps it was fear of her, as was natural for prey to fear a predator, but she was not hunting. And that which made others afraid could be a threat to even her.
Applejack shook her head, taking a deep breath, watching her hooves as she followed the others, trying her best to ground herself. The emotions in the air were mixing with those welling up inside of her, It was making it hard to separate herself from the demon inside her, to tell where her thoughts began and Its ended. She took another shaking breath, letting it out slowly, grinding her teeth together. This wasn't good. She had lost control once already because of all this. She couldn't afford to here, not around these others. They could be in danger, if the monster got loose, here.
Applejack had been doing some thinking. She'd seen plenty of odd things, in her life already, but she still tended to not put much stock in 'coincidence'. The fact that she lost control so suddenly and violently, right before all this . . . if Twilight was to be believed, and Applejack had seen nothing to make her doubt the mare, then Nightmare Moon was real, and had been sealed inside the moon for a thousand years. The farm pony wondered, then, if maybe her transformations had something to do with that. They had often seemed to tied into the phases of the moon, occurring most frequently around the full moon, when the image of the Mare in the Moon was at its brightest, glaring down on the world below with hatred and scorn.
Could it be that NIghtmare Moon was responsible for her condition? If so, then would defeating her . . . Could it cure her?
"Are you alright, Applejack?" A soft voice asked, and the mare glanced up, blinking in surprise, to see the butter yellow pegasus who was walking alongside her, to her left, frowning slightly from behind her mane, her gentle turquoise eyes taking in Applejack's face as they looked at each other.
This close, Applejack was struck by how . . . well, beautiful was really the only word to describe the mare. Not like Rarity, where it was all make-up and eyeliner and four hours in a spa at least twice a week, and who knew what kind of diet.
No, Fluttershy's beauty was something deeper than that, a natural grace and gentleness of speech and movement, that made it seem as though she was both not there, and would always be there when you needed her.
Applejack blinked, shaking her head slightly, coughing. "Uh, s-sorry, Fluttershy . . . I don't . . . I'm fine. Just . . . worried, is all, about all this." She said, frowning deeply. It wasn't like her to get caught up in her thoughts like that, and, while she had nothing against it, she had never really thought about another mare that way, before, either. On top of that, she finally put a hoof on something that her inner Beast had been grumbling about since the shy pegasus had joined their group, back in town; She had no scent to speak of.
She smelled, just like how Pinkie Pie smelled of the bakery, and sugar, and bread and wrapping paper, and how Rarity smelled of make-up and desperation. But those were surface scents. Everypony had those, based off of where they spent their time and what they spent it doing. SHe could tell that Twilight spent a lot of time around books, because she smelled of faded ink and old paper.
But they also had a base scent that was uniquely their's. Rarity smelled of marshmallows, for some reason, and Pinkie Pie . . . Pinkie Pie smelled like Pinkie Pie. Applejack had never encountered another scent that matched the pink pony's, and it often made her Beast cringe in fear inside of her.
But the point was, they all had surface scents, and a deeper, personal scent.
Fluttershy had surface scents; Angel Bunny's scent was most dominant, but there were also a ton of other animal smells all mixed together, with her. She also smelled faintly of baking, and of trees and grass, probably from her cottage.
Applejack would be the first to admit that she wasn't an expert at parsing scents. Still, she had been playing with her heightened senses for a decade or better, and she could usually pick out a pony's personal scent pretty quickly. It usually stood out as being different from all the surface odors.
Fluttershy didn't have one. THere was nothing there, under the smells of the animals and her cottage. Or, if there was, it was so faint as to be nearly undetectable. Applejack was interrupted by the soft, sweet voice of the mare. "A . . . Applejack?" Looking up, she saw the pony staring at her, wide eyed and a little fearfully. "D-D-Did I do something wrong?" She asked, voice shrinking as she shrunk back to hide behind her mane.
Frowning, Applejack looked her over, and her nose twitched as she scented the pony in front of her. Still no base scent, but there was also nothing there to point towards any sort of lie or dishonesty. In fact, the pony's fear was strong enough that the farm mare could smell it, rolling off of her. She was genuinely concerned and worried.
"Uhhh, AJ? What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash's voice intruded, and Applejack flinched, coming back to herself, and realizing that everypony had stopped and was staring at her. Fluttershy was curled up on herself, practically in a ball at Applejack's hooves, while the farm mare was looming over her, nose pracitcally touching the mare's mane and ears as she sniffed of her.
Applejack jumped back, chest heaving as she turned away from them all, squeezing her eyes shut, feeling her beast clawing at her guts, wanting out, wanting to run, wanting to hunt and to hide and get away from all the fear in the air. . . .
"AJ!" Dash's voice snapped, and Applejack opened her eyes.
"I'm fine." SHe said, swallowing thickly, forcing the Beast back down, and turned to continue down the path.
"Bullshit! What the fuck was that about?!" Rainbow Dash pressed, flying over to hover in front of Applejack, floating backwards while her forelegs were crossed over her chest, glaring angrily at the farm pony.
"I said I'm fine!" APplejack snapped, not sure how to explain her actions, and left shaken by how quickly she had caved to her instincts, to the Beast hiding inside her. She couldn't lose control again! She couldn't let it out! NOt here, not now!
"Stop lying, Applejack, you fucking suck at it!" Dash snapped, flying up to the mare, forcing her to stop. "Now, what the fu-" She was cut off, mid expletive, by a loud roar that echoed through the wilderness, shaking leaves from teh trees and sending a flock of starlings out of a nearby bush, startled into the air.
The six mares turned, looking out into the darkness of the trees, as they began shaking, a spaling cracking and falling, seemingly uprooted.
"Um . . .girls?" Twilight said, swallowing. "That . . . isn't good." She said.
"No shit, Sherclop." Rainbow Dash said, wide eyed, chest heaving, as the brush suddenly erupted in front of them, boiling forth a beast from nightmare, bigger than a bear, with the head of a lion, dragon's wings and the tail of a scorpion, a pair of horns sprouting from its head.
Several of them screamed, including Rainbow Dash, though she would deny it later, and the Manticore roared again, the sound loud enough to send Fluttershy rolling and pinning Twilight and Rarity in place, eyes wide in fear.
Applejack froze as well, eyes wide and glowing slightly as she locked on the superpredator, one of the more dangerous in the forest, as it snarled and leaped forward, right towards her. She felt her Beast clawing in her throat, wanting out, to fight or flee, but her conscious mind fought, trying to keep it inside, and so she froze, unable to do anything.
She was going to die, here.
And then a prismatic blur shot through her vision and the monster rushing towards her reeled back, skidding across the ground as its upper body tipped backwards from the force of the blow that had struck it on the jaw.
"Stay the fuck away from my friends!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, twisting in mid air, wings turning to bring her up and around, into a sharp dive towards the beast. Applejack watched as the pegasus, in spite of the fear that was obvious in her, attacked the creature with a yell, both rear hooves planting firmly into its face and knocking it back. The manticore toppled, falling to its back, only for its wings, no good for flight, but still useful in some ways, to snap open, flipping it over and back to all fours, even as Rainbow Dash rushed in for another strike. The great beast lashed out with one paw in a lightning quick strike that swatted the young pegasus from the air. Dash spun through the air, hitting the ground hard and flipping over several times before skidding to a halt against a rock, where she lay still.
Applejack felt her heart stutter, before her rage clawed at the back of her throat. Her mind fought back, but even so, she felt her teeth pricking her tongue before she gave a yell and leaped forward.
THe manticore had reared back, claws at the ready to strike the downed pegasus a killing blow. The beast's paw came up, and then down, claws glinting in the moonlight that filtered through the trees above.
And its paw stopped, very suddenly, and it gave a shocked grunt, blinking at the orange form that stood below it, forehooves pressed into its foreleg. Glowing emerald eyes locked onto the manticore's yellow gaze, and a mouth with sharper than normal teeth opened, snarling as the pony's rear hooves dug into the earth and it pushed his leg up.
Snarling, the manticore attempted to grab the pony with its paw, but suddenly felt itself being turned and thrown. It flew through the air, slamming into a tree hard enough to crack the trunk and get the wind knocked out of it. It slumped to the ground, heaving, before looking up with an enraged snarl, eyes glinting with an odd blue light behind them.
Fluttershy looked between the Beast that had hurt one of her friends, seeing the light in its eyes, and realized what needed to be done, as the earth pony mare stared it down, snarling in return.
Applejack felt like she was being torn in three directions at once, as she fought for control of her mind and body, the Beast inside intent on killing the manticore, while her pony mind was half frozen in fear and panic. She glared at the creature as it rose from the base of the tree, letting out a roar that shook the air between them. She felt fear flood her, wanting to turn and run, but, oddly, given this enemy now, her Demon did not want to back down from this challenge, and she felt it clawing, digging, trying to get out again.
It hurt. She had fought the change before, and it never felt good. Like her guts were being torn open and twisted around a fork, like spaghetti, while her mind felt like scrambled eggs.
The manticore took a step forward, and Applejack's beast, more than she herself, took an answering step forward, teeth bared in what would have been a truly fierce snarl, had she fully changed already.
And then there was another blur in front of her, this time a soft, butter yellow. She blinked as Fluttershy flapped up in front of her, meeting her eyes for a moment, her own seeming to glint oddly in the off light of the moon. Then the pegasus turned, and Applejack felt that sensation drift away, along with her rage as she suddenly simply felt . . . tired. She sat on her rump, panting, feeling like her Demon was . . . falling asleep, almost.
She looked up, in time to see the strangest thing, ever. Fluttershy, hovering in the air before the massive monstrosity of the Manticore, and the beast did not move, simply stared at her, rocking side to side in a manner that followed the drifting motions of the hovering pony. As she watched, Applejack saw something, like a shadow, vaguely blue tinged, that drifted into the air like smoke around the creature's head, before evaporating gently into the night.
The creature's eyes drifted shut, and it fell into a snoring heap before the yellow pegasus, who drifted down to land on the ground, legs shaking as she did. She turned to look at Applejack, and in that moment the farm mare knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the slim, tall pegasus mare knew what she was.
She gulped, glancing over at Twilight and Rarity. The pair just now seemed to be coming unstuck from their fearful state, staggering forward, questioning and congratulating Fluttershy, before Twilight looked over and blanched. "Rainbow Dash!" She said, moving over quickly.
Neither of them gave Applejack much of a thought, and she figured it had been dark, and things had happened quick. Maybe they hadn't seen enough of her to know something was up.
But Fluttershy. . . .
She looked again at the pegasus, who was already rushing over with Twilight to check on Dash. Her eyes . . .
She knew. Applejack didn't know how, or what was up with the pegasus anyway, but somehow . . . she knew.
Dash was alive, but banged up pretty good. Her right rear leg was hurt, somewhere in the pastern. Twilight said she thought it might only be a sprain, but to keep weight off it, anyway. That worked out fine for the pegasus, who simply took off and flew above them. The way she held herself, though, made it clear she was hurting more than she let on. A blow like the one she took probably at least bruised her ribs, Applejack figured.
When told that the earth pony had saved her life, the pegasus had flown over and, rather awkwardly, thanked her, with an assurance that she had the manticore on the ropes, totally. Applejack snorted, thinking about how cocky the blue mare was, but at the same time . . .
She had rushed out there in spite of her own fear and without care for her own well being, to protect Applejack and the others. Maybe there was more to the filly than Applejack thought. She glanced around at the others, Rarity with her shawl and Fluttershy . . . Maybe there was more to the lot of them, than she thought.
"Heya, Applejack!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing up alongside the mare, who glanced over at her, clearing her throat. Speaking of a pony to whom there was more than met the eye.
"Pinkie Pie." She said, nodding, reaching up to tip her hat before realizing it wasn't there. She blanched, turning immediately to go look for it, before she felt a weight on her head and glanced up, seeing Tellula, right where she belonged. She glanced at Pinkie, who had placed the hat on her head, and saw the baker smiling at her kindly.
"Would want your head getting cold, out here, would we, Timberjack!?" She said, giggling, before turning to pronk off. Applejack blinked, before what the mare had said registered.
"Wh-, Timber . . . Pinkie, what?!" She snapped, eyes wide, but the pink mare only giggled, looking over her shoulder.
"Don't worry about it, Jackie! C'mon! We've got some ghosties to go giggle at!" She said, before turning and bouncing away down the path, the other falling into step behind her.
Applejack felt her heart slow back down to normal as she shook her head, tightening her mouth. Great. So that made two who . . . maybe knew something. This night was just getting worse by the minute.