//------------------------------// // Chapter 16C: Rescue, Part 3 (G. Gilda, H. Fluttershy, H. Applejack) // Story: On the Fine Art of Giving Yourself Advice // by McPoodle //------------------------------// G. Gilda. “How much do you know about wolves?” Gilda asked. “A fair amount,” said Fluttershy. “Assuming the Everfree ones don’t talk, fly, or do anything else outlandish. So are you going to try and rescue Granny Apple without hurting them?” “I can’t guarantee that. I do guarantee that I won’t kill them.” Fluttershy frowned for a moment. “I guess that’s the best I can hope for,” she said. “You’re also going to talk to them, and everypony will be looking at you.” Fluttershy shrank. “I...I can do it. For the sake of the wolves.” “And the ponies,” added Rainbow Dash. “Yes,” Fluttershy said with a pause. “For the ponies.” The trio walked out of the house. Rainbow Dash tried not to flinch as the candles ceased to be lit behind her. # # # Ahead of them, the dozen ponies under Mayor Mare were milling around in the gloom, each of them with a candle mounted on their head in a sort of metal cage enclosure. A few extras were being carried unlit on ponies’ backs, inside strapped-on trays. Big Mac, Doctor Horse, the medical carriage, and two ponies were gone, presumably gone to the clinic, but Nurse Redheart had joined the group, carrying a pair of saddlebags with all of the supplies that might be needed to treat an injured Granny Smith. The puppy from earlier had just finished being tied to a tree by Applejack (“Wow this is hard with hooves!”). “Are we settled?” the Mayor asked Gilda. “We are,” Gilda replied, then took to the air. “Ponies, we will be going into the Everfree, together. We will find these wolves, and Fluttershy here will find out what they are up to. And then we will handle the situation together. I’m sorry that you don’t have somepony like Mane Allgood or Lofty here to lead you, and I’m sorry that I didn’t get to be here long enough for you to get to know me. It looks like I’m your best choice to lead you under these particular circumstances, but I’m sure you’d rather be led by a friend than by a stranger.” “I’m willing to take a chance on you,” said the Mayor. “My assistant vouches for you, and that’s enough for me.” Gilda looked around. To her complete lack of surprise, Raven was nowhere to be seen. “I saw you with Amethyst,” added the sky-blue-furred mare. “As silly as it sounds, if she picked you out to be a ‘guardian’, that’s good enough for me.” Some of the ponies were convinced by these arguments alone. The others grumbled a bit, but each of them saw that they really didn’t have a natural leader of their own with so many of them out of town, while the Mayor...they loved her dearly, she was great at delegation, but monster fighting? Not so much. And griffons were renowned for their bravery and ability to handle pressure, unlike themselves. “What about you, Applejack?” Gilda asked, settling back down and extending a claw. “You have the biggest personal stake in this.” Applejack shook her head slightly, reminding Gilda and the two pegasi that strictly speaking, this wasn’t her family. “I just want Granny safe,” she said. “If you promise to deliver her, then I’m with you.” “Alright,” Gilda said, taking once more to the air. She wheeled about and pointed at the forest. “Fluttershy, could you tell us where the wolves entered the Everfree?” All eyes settled on Fluttershy. She closed her eyes, took a couple breaths to calm herself, and when she opened her eyes fixed them on Gilda, so she wouldn’t have to focus on the judging crowd. She started to walk forward and then with a second thought took to the sky, hovering a few inches off of the ground. She flew over to the sharply-defined edge of the forest and scanned back and forth. She stopped at an obvious opening in the greenery. “They came out of here...and went in over here. Everyone please stay behind me, please. We can’t get the trail trampled on.” A light approached her head and she flinched. But then saw that it was one of the candle helmets, being hovered over to her in Dr. Tarbell’s magic. Knowing she couldn’t both fly and put on the helmet at once, she sat down on the ground beside the trail before taking and donning the headwear. She then resumed her flight slowly into the forest. Gilda settled behind her with a distance of two ponylengths, the other ponies gathered close behind her. Mayor Mare stayed behind, illuminated by the light of a single candle. When Rainbow Dash looked back, she sometimes saw one shadow behind the Mayor’s back, and sometimes two. Rainbow Dash wanted to be beside Fluttershy, to steady her nerves, but knew that she couldn’t do that in this case. So she worried for her. She really wished she could fly, so she could go high enough to spot any dangers before her dear friend could. A few steps in, she saw the group veer to the right, even as Fluttershy continued to fly forward. “Stop!” she cried out, trying her best to be loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to draw the attention of too many of the Everfree monsters. Grabbing a spare helmet and candle off of one of the blue-and-pink ponies, she pushed to the front of the crowd. “The magic of the Everfree is leading you astray,” she explained. “I’m drained, so it isn’t affecting me.” “Oh, I didn’t even notice,” Fluttershy fretted as she turned around to see what was going on. “Well you don’t need to worry anymore,” Rainbow said proudly. “I’ve got all your backs.” Dr. Tarbell lit her candle at that moment, making a literal point that Rainbow would light the way for them. Gilda felt the eyes of the ponies settle on her, to see how she would treat this “threat to her authority.” It would only be considered a threat by someone with an ego bigger than their brain, but that category included most of the griffons she had ever known, so she decided not to get mad. Instead, she settled her paws and claws on the ground and stepped back to let Rainbow Dash take the lead. As the party moved forward once again, she looked around every few seconds to look for threats. She sensed the ponies behind her relaxing a bit, giving her a bit of their trust. She couldn’t be quite sure that what she felt was actually magic or not. She hoped they were giving more of it to Fluttershy than to her—she was the one who needed it the most. # # # The party continued on for several minutes, with Rainbow having to herd the group and in a couple of cases Fluttershy from going in the wrong direction. As they walked, they introduced themselves to the visitors from Cloudsdale. The ponies with interchangeable color schemes were Aloe and Lotus. With no warning, they suddenly emerged into a large clearing full of wolves. Fluttershy looked back to see that all of them were now visible, and settled to the ground with an air of defeat. “I would have asked you to stay behind in the brush, but it’s too late for that now.” The five wolves nearest to them turned, the fur on their backs bristling as they let out warning growls. Fluttershy sat up and held out her hooves. “We mean you no harm,” she said. Applejack pushed through the crowd to stand right next to Rainbow Dash. She pointed across the clearing. “There’s Granny Smith!” she exclaimed. The other wolves now all looked at her. She lowered her hoof. Fluttershy looked where Applejack had pointed with an appraising eye. At the back of the clearing, surrounded by most of the fifty or so wolves, was a large dark shape, with Granny Smith bent over in front of it. “Hello?” she cried out. “I’m here to help.” “You’re a bit too late for that,” Granny Smith said, her voice tightly controlled. As she walked towards the ponies the wolves silently parted to see her past. The ponies gasped at the sight: Granny Smith’s forehooves were coated in blood. Behind her could be seen a large wolf, lying on its side. Gilda fought off her instinct to lunge for the big wolf as revenge for savaging Granny. Instead she looked to Fluttershy. Fluttershy walked over to Nurse Redheart. “Give me your saddlebags, please,” she said. The nurse blinked in surprise, then did as she was told. Fluttershy took out a towel and handed it back to the nurse before donning the pack. Then she turned and walked calmly to Granny Smith as the old earth pony was hobbling towards her. Briefly, Fluttershy looked down to look at the blood, then continued past Granny Smith, heading straight for the large wolf. The wolves closed ranks, snarling at Fluttershy and looking like they would jump for her throat at any moment. Fluttershy for her part looked them coldly in the eye, showing no fear. “I came to help,” she said once again. She opened a saddlebag to show the supplies within. There was a quiet yelp from inside the closed-off area, and the wolves reluctantly moved to let her in. Nurse Redheart used the towel to clean up Granny Smith, finding only a few minor scratches underneath the blood. The five wolves closest to Gilda and the other ponies were soon joined by ten more. A wolf with a scratched-up nose, appointing himself their leader, ordered them to fan out, and await an opportunity. Granny locked eyes with Applejack as she approached. “It was her,” she said in a voice tinged with hate, referring to the wolf she had been working on. “She’s the one who took them from us.” “But we just found the bodies at the edge of the wood,” Aloe said. “How do you know—” “—I just know!” Granny exclaimed. A few uncomfortable minutes passed, as Fluttershy worked on the big wolf and everypony waited. Gilda closed her eyes, imagining giving back the magic that the ponies had leant her. She figured it would be best if these magic transfers were short-term operations, and she didn’t need it for now. She saw them all looking at her when she opened her eyes. Not judgmentally. They were looking to her for direction when the time for action came. “Applejack, Granny Smith?” the voice of Fluttershy drifted over to them. “The Alpha would like to speak with you.” Her voice sounded strained, like she found the request she was conveying unpleasant for some reason. The two earth ponies looked at each other, then walked away from the others. The group of fifteen wolves let them pass and waited until they were too far to offer any aid, then started converging on the others. H. Fluttershy. At an instruction from the “alpha”, the wall of wolves around her parted to let the two Apples in. An exhausted Fluttershy was lying at the Alpha’s side, having finished a minor surgical operation on the wolf. Beside the two of them were two newborn wolves. Unlike the dark gray coats of most of the other wolves, these two were colored a dark yellow and a dark peach. The Alpha herself had a dark purple color to her fur that was nearly black in the flickering candlelight. Some distance apart from all of the other wolves was a wolf that paced back and forth, its eyes on the Alpha, Fluttershy, and the pups. “This is the Alpha, the leader of all wolves in the Everfree,” Fluttershy explained between pants. “Four months ago, two armed earth ponies stumbled on this clearing. In that cave, they saw her first pup.” She pointed to the back of the clearing, the bottom of a cliff with a small cave in it. The two Apples peered into the cave, and saw the glow of a pair of green eyes. After an encouraging call from the Alpha, a juvenile wolf crept forward. It had an orange fur the same color as Applejack’s. “They thought that their daughter was being held captive. The mother pony dashed forward and was attacked by the Alpha’s hot-blooded mate. He seriously wounded her. The father pony killed the mate. And the Alpha killed both of the ponies.” Applejack stood there silently, taking this in. These weren’t her parents. But it was still awful. Granny Smith shook, trying to contain her emotions. Fluttershy slowly rose, looking like there was an awful taste in her mouth. “The Alpha found another mate.” She pointed at the wolf that was holding himself apart. “She chose to have twins, despite the danger. And as you see, she delivered successfully. She has provided a replacement for her former mate, as well as for herself.” At a direction from the Alpha, two wolves went into the cave and pulled out two objects which they dropped at the hooves of the two earth ponies. The objects were axes, with specialized handles so they could be strapped to hooves. One of the blades had dried blood on it. “She is now prepared to give you her life, in exchange for the ones she took. She has spied on the ponies, seen that they love their young as her kind does. She saw the orange daughter when she exiled herself from the pony settlement, and realized the cause of the misunderstanding. She has lost pups of her own, and wishes to join them.” The Alpha bared her neck to them. The mate froze in place, breathing heavily, its eyes locked on the weapons. “She wants us to kill her,” Applejack said simply. “Yes,” Fluttershy said, looking away in frustration. Applejack looked over at Granny Smith, who stared long and hard at the Alpha, before turning to Fluttershy. “No thank you, I’m good,” she said. “I forgive her.” She looked calmly back at Applejack. Applejack huffed. “This isn’t fair,” she said to Fluttershy, “and you know it. It’s easy for me, but I’m not the Applejack who needs to do this.” Fluttershy shrugged her wings. Granny nodded slightly. “Well, I forgive her,” said Applejack. “What about Big Mac? Does he need to be in on this?” Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “According to the Alpha, ‘females make the responsible decisions, while males are stupid.’” The Alpha huffed a few times in what might be considered to be wolf laughter. Applejack did not appreciate the joke. “Well, this Alpha here should expect a return visit someday. From ‘me’, and Big Mac.” “Consider it a conjugal call,” Fluttershy said. “She named the orange one Applejack, and would like to name the newborns after your parents, if you’d like. Wolves never name their young.” “Buttercup and Bright Mac,” Granny Smith said, looking to Applejack to be sure she had her approval. “We would be honored if you named your own after the departed.” Fluttershy held out a hoof. “A little help?” she asked. The other two ponies surrounded her, supporting each other as they made their way past the other wolves and beyond the ring. As soon as they were past, the other wolves ran in to see their leader up close. An argument soon broke out, silenced by a loud bark by the Alpha. G. Gilda. As soon as Granny Smith and Applejack had disappeared beyond the wall of wolves, the group of fifteen began growling, showing their fangs and claws and spiking out their fur. Gilda sprang into the air, her own claws on display as she growled back at them. The wolves refused to be intimidated by this lone display, and continued to close in on the group. “Are there any unicorns who know any offensive or showy spells?” Gilda asked in an authoritative voice. “Any pegasi that can summon lightning without having to go up and get a cloud?” The ponies shook their heads—all of those ponies had gone after Rarity, and lightning wasn’t in Windy or Bow’s repertoire. “Any magic at all?” “I’ve got my bath bombs,” answered Lotus, producing a small round ball of soap. It was rather porous-looking, and glittered in the candlelight. “It explodes in water, or I suppose if I throw it hard enough.” “How accurately can you throw it?” Gilda asked. Lotus grimaced. “I could throw it,” said Play Write, a pale yellow earth pony mare with a darker tan mane in a bun. “I used to be a pretty mean hoofball player before becoming a teacher.” (Rainbow Dash sighed. As a human, she was without a doubt the most accurate throw of any group she might find herself a part of. But without the opportunity to really work with this body, she was best staying on the sidelines. Maybe you got that kind of self-knowledge automatically when you got magic.) Gilda hovered down to be only a few inches from the ground. With her eyes still locked on the wolves, she picked up the ‘bomb’ and handed it over to the teacher. “Play Write, when I give the signal I need you to throw the bomb at the paws of the closest wolf to you. Do not hit the wolf directly. Can you do that?” “Uh-huh,” Play Write said nervously, rolling the soap sphere carefully back and forth on her upraised hoof. “You can do this,” Gilda told her. “I believe in you. We all believe in you.” Play Write looked around her, at the reassuring looks of her fellow ponies. Her doubts evaporated, and she looked sternly out at the wolves. “And when she does that, I will take care of the rest with my wind magic,” Gilda concluded. The ponies were rather surprised by this revelation that griffons wielded magic, but she spoke with such firm conviction that they accepted it. Gilda had turned her head away from the wolves in order to make that last statement, and Scratch took that as his opportunity to attack. He leapt through the air straight at Gilda. “Now!” Gilda cried, before batting at Scratch with a talon. The wolf’s trajectory was slightly altered, causing both of them to tumble chaotically to the ground behind the ponies. Meanwhile Play Write had picked her target, jumped up in the air, and then launched the bomb. It landed as expected, fragmenting instantly and blinding the nearest wolf. Gilda deliberately kicked Scratch in his injured nose with a paw. Out of the corner of her eye she saw all of the ponies watching her instead of the incoming wolves. She thrust her wings downward, and was surprised to be launched much higher than she expected. Wheeling around, she spread her wings wide, channeling her magically-generated wind towards the pile of soap crystals. This caused them to fly up into the eyes of all of the wolves, who ran around at random and rubbed their heads into the dirt to try and clear their vision. Since her magic was not being used for its intended function, Gilda plummeted out of the sky. She was caught by the assembled ponies, who raised her up. Scratch leapt towards Gilda once again. Turning to face him, Gilda screeched with all of her might, channeling her abnormally large reservoir of magic into her voice. The sound was so intense that it knocked Scratch out of the sky. He turned, and with ears bleeding, fled into the forest. At the sound of the screech, the Alpha’s mate emerged from the ring and confronted the blinded wolves, castigating them and herding them back to be chewed out by the Alpha herself. H. Fluttershy. Granny Smith and Applejack had done what they could during the brief battle, trying and largely failing to stop any of the attacking wolves. For Granny, this was because of her fatigue after operating on the Alpha. For Applejack, it was for the same reason as Rainbow Dash: she just didn’t know this pony body well enough. She had turned around and attempted a buck, but ended up falling on her face. Fluttershy had found herself frozen by what she was witnessing. It was a cowardly attack, an attempt to kill a few innocent ponies just so Scratch could then challenge Spottacus to be the Alpha’s mate. (These of course were Fluttershy’s names for these wolves. As I mentioned earlier, most wolves don’t name themselves.) The behavior was far too reminiscent of something a human would do. In the aftermath, Fluttershy cursed herself. She should have seen what was about to happen. She should have used her special talent to talk the group down. But most of all, she should have been able to do something. Working with animals was her life. What kind of veterinarian would she be if she couldn’t control animals? Her musings were interrupted by Granny and Applejack resuming their places at Fluttershy’s sides. H. Applejack. “You’re going to fix this, aren’t you?” Granny asked Applejack over Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Fix what?” Applejack asked. Granny reached over Fluttershy’s back to tap Applejack on the head. Applejack laughed. It figured that the Granny Smith in any universe was able to see her as she really was. “I’m headed to the Princess first thing tomorrow,” she said. “You should have your Applejack back before the day is out.” “This better not be your fault,” Granny warned. “It wasn’t,” said Fluttershy, interrupting. “It was—” “—A unicorn?” “Yes.” “Figured as much. So, Talker, did the little rebellion back there have anything to do with the tussle we just witnessed?” “No,” Fluttershy replied. “The leader of this group wanted to take over. As for them...” She looked back at the main wolf pack. “It appears that most of them didn’t know the Alpha’s plans. They wanted to punish us, but she shut them down.” “And both threats have been crushed, at least partially because of us,” Granny Smith said with a nod. “Good. I tried to get through to those timber wolves three hundred moons ago, let them know that ponies could be their friends, but they just didn’t want to let go of their hate. Maybe now we’ll finally have an ally in the Everfree.” She stopped, just as they finally reached the group of ponies. “I just wish the price wasn’t so high!” She fought to hold back the avalanche of emotions that suddenly caught up with her. Fluttershy stepped back, allowing Applejack to embrace Granny. She found Nurse Redheart, and handed over the depleted saddlebags. “Just get me to the house,” Granny whispered in Applejack’s ear. “I don’t need no ponies poking their snouts where they don’t belong!” Applejack gave her one last secret hug before straightening up. “Fluttershy was our in-between with the wolf pack,” she explained. “My parents’ deaths were a tragic accident. One for which their leader was willing to pay the price. We forgave them.” The ponies took this in. “I’m alright with that if you are,” Gilda said. “We are,” said Granny, her voice barely under control. “Then we’ll head for the clinic,” Gilda said. “Everyone wait here while I get my bearings.” She flew up into the sky, wheeling around until she figured out the shortest route to the road that led to their destination. Unseen by the others, she grinned in exhilaration and because of an adrenaline rush that had not yet faded. She was right! There was no way she should have accomplished what she did with her wind magic, not without the magic given to her by the ponies. “I feel like I’m ten years younger!” Gilda heard Play Write telling the others. Applejack turned to Granny Smith. “There’s something I need to tell you. Big Mac—” “—Got hit on the head by the very tree he was chopping down. I saw the whole thing in between dodging wolf bites...that I now realize were all fakes,” Granny said. “They tricked him into doing it. That’s when I knew I was dealing with smart wolves, and stopped trying to resist where they were herding me.” She laughed out loud. “Wolves herding a pony! I guess that makes me the sheep. Speaking of which, how’s Winona? Oh wait, never mind. I can hear her yapping.” She broke from the group and immediately started walking towards the sound. Gilda, seeing this, immediately landed. “Or we can just follow Granny,” she said sarcastically, raising a laugh from the other ponies, many of whom had been the victim of the old mare’s antics in the past. Under Granny’s leadership, there was no need for Rainbow Dash’s guidance, as she never wavered from the correct course. Both Rainbow and Gilda came to the same conclusion: Granny had lived in this area so long, and had visited the Everfree so often, that she instinctively knew how to deal with the wild magic. For Gilda in particular, it offered some hope that one day she might be able to find that ruined castle again. It was vital that she do it alone—after all, how could she take the job she had in mind if she never interviewed with her future boss? When they reached Winona, Granny untied her. Only now did she take a candle helmet. “Well, I’m off to the clinic. They’ll probably be closed for visitors, so that means I’ll be camping outside the door all night. Who’s with me?” “I’ll open the clinic, for immediate family, for a half hour,” Nurse Redheart declared, taking the lead. “And that’s it.” The others headed for the house, and the road to the main part of Ponyville. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, preferably before the Canterlot train starts boarding,” Dr. Tarbell told Applejack. “The fare is three bits each way. If you expect to stay more than a day then that will be five bits a night, assuming you can’t haggle a lower price.” As he walked away he asked Windy, “Could you tell me again why she has to come with us? I don’t see why her visiting Canterlot has anything to do with the sonic rainboom.” The two groups parted ways. A little more than an hour later, Applejack and Granny Smith trudged their way back to the farmhouse in a darkness illuminated only by the full moon and the guttering lights of their nearly-burnt out candle helmets. A sleeping Apple Bloom lay in a basket that Applejack carried in her mouth. Applejack was startled as she walked into the suddenly-illuminated world. “I didn’t think you had that kind of technology!” she explained after setting down the basket. “Or magic.” “We don’t,” Granny said with a scowl. “Usually.” She stomped hard on a particular floorboard. The candles started flickering again. Applejack looked around herself with wonder. In her conversations with the ponies on the train prior to the breakdown, she had gained the impression that earth ponies were fairly useless compared to unicorns or pegasi. They were strong, they were good farmers and craftsponies, but that was it. And absolutely none of those abilities were actually supposed to be magical. Meaning that the “experts” were wrong. As usual. The number of similarities between Equestria and America were quite surprising. “Blow them out when you’re done gawking,” Granny Smith groused as she started climbing the stairs. “Same old Granny,” Applejack said to herself with a smile, blowing out the candles one by one before picking up the basket with her sister. G. Gilda. All of the boarders at the Ponyville Inn were sound asleep in their beds. With the exceptions of Gilda, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. “Does the phrase ‘friendship is magic’ mean anything in the world you came from?” Gilda asked. Fluttershy had no idea where that question came from. Rainbow knew exactly where that question came from. “It shows up a few times in the Elements of Harmony, our holy book. It obviously means something important, but nobody knows exactly what. ...Outside of the priesthood, at least. They keep all kinds of secrets.” “I don’t know what ‘magic’ means in the Elements,” Fluttershy added. “But friendship is one of the primary goals of Markism. ‘Make friends of all the world’, it is said, ‘and there will be no more enemies.’ It’s...it’s not really possible for humanity.” “Not 100%,” Rainbow Dash said. “But there’s enough people we can befriend to make a huge difference.” Gilda nodded. This human world sounded in a lot of ways to be more like Griffonstone than Equestria. “Alright, second question: what’s a theme park?”