A Tail of Two Ponies

by Lilyheart

Chapter Five: The Guardian

🎂
I’ve been a girl for less than half a day and I’m already a damsel in distress. Honestly, I’m not even complaining. I was distressed before. Might as well be a damsel.
Also, I screamed. I don’t normally scream. Like, my voice isn’t meant to be loud. I could give Fluttershy a run for ‘Most Ignored Creature.’ You know rallies and stuff like that where people all yell and cheer for their favorite sports team, or something? When I do that, my voice comes out something like, I don’t know, a dying aye-aye. I don’t know what aye-ayes sound like, dying or otherwise, but just think about one and imagine it. That was me trying to cheer as a human.
But now I can scream properly. And screaming makes me feel more girly. And feeling girly makes me feel happy inside but also a little embarrassed. Of course, now that the surprise was over, I didn’t feel like screaming anymore. But I suppose I should try to let Robin know where I am, shouldn’t I? Well, here goes nothing…
I shrieked. And I shrieked again. My ears folded backwards. Goodness, I can really do this now. The sound hurt. More shrieking. This is getting old. I’ve been falling for thirty minutes! Or was it twenty? I know it’s only been, like, two, but I mean Loki. How long did he fall? And why doesn’t being dragged like this hurt?
Trees whizzed past, and even if I could grab ahold of something on the ground, whatever it was wrapped around my ankle… cannon? Is that what those are called? Whatever, it could very well just yank my whole leg off. Not that I was worried too much about this body; it might very well be made of rubber. But rubber has its limits, doesn’t it? Pain still seared into my leg. I needed to know what this was.
Okay, let’s try this. Using the three legs I had, I lifted myself up into a jump and flipped over to my back. Ha! This is also becoming my favorite pony position, isn’t it?
“Let’s see what you are…” I mumbled and lifted my head up.
What I could make out was a thorny black vine wrapped at least thrice my cannon.
“What’s this? Are these the seeds that Discord planted?” I looked up to see if I could make out where I was going, but off into the distance I could only make out hazy darkness. Oh, I don’t like this.
I let my head fall back. The ground scratching my back was a bit like a massage.
“God, please help.” Not that I deserved help. But it’s not about deserved, is it? “Do you want me to try scrambling and grabbing a hold of things, or just sit here and pray?”
How is Catholicism compatible with Equestria? Honestly, how does any belief system hold up in light of a world full of magical ponies? Still, I learned a while ago that some things you just can’t understand. Only when you accept that things start to make sense.
Well, God, if this is my time, I accept it. Please take me home. Thank you that I got to be a girl, first. This has been… the best day of my life, I think. Getting eaten by some evil tree isn’t going to change that.
No. That’s how I used to be. Too cerebral. Always thinking. Never feeling. Never trying. I’ve done the depression thing. But the joy I felt today? I’m going to fight for it.
“Not today, thorn vine thing! I’m a pony, and you're not going to take away my happiness! Big Sister, I could use your help!”
And with that, I lunged for a tree branch. A log. A rock. Anything.
My hooves scrambled across a smattering of twigs and roots. I managed to hold on to one particular root for a second, but the vine pulled tighter, and I lost my footing… hoofing? Hooving?
“I. Said. Not. To. Day!” I slammed my two front hooves into the ground and dug them into the dirt. Still it dragged me, but much slower.
“Grrrrrrrrrrr,” I growled through gritted teeth. “You.” I pushed my hooves down deeper. “Will. Not. Win.”
I was slowing. But the vine tugged harder. My cannon hurt. Use the pain. Use the pain.
My front hooves suddenly caught on something hard. I couldn’t bother to be concerned with what it was. All I know is that with the new support, I had now slowed to a stop.
The vine and I remained still in a mostly quiet tug-a-war. My back left leg pointed straight backward, while my right one flailed useless for a while. Finally, I managed to dig it into the dirt, and gained a little more support. But it hurt.
My front legs were on fire. My jaw clenched and I felt like I was going to burst a blood vessel in my face. I was shaking. My breath made little puff sounds as it struggled to escape my pursed lips.
But amidst this all, I was becoming aware of another sensation: the feeling of the vine slipping. Even as it did so, it tightened even more in a desperate attempt to cling on to me. Almost like… a predator unwilling to relinquish its prey.
Slip. Slip. A little more. But the pain was unbearable. I felt my eyes bulging out of their sockets. I whimpered. I was tired. Pain. Pain. Pain! With what little brain power I had, I still prayed. Pain! Pain!
I screamed.
And suddenly, freedom. My back left leg collapsed to the ground and the rest of my body followed. I heard the crash of leaves and bushes behind me as the vine disappeared into the darkness. And for the third time since becoming a pony, I found myself crying. Was it the pain? Was it the fear?
It didn’t occur to me until that moment that what I experienced was scary. That was fear. For all the jokes which played in my head, my prayers acting like everything was fine, my fake confidence against the vine… I was afraid.
I hugged myself, and continued to whimper as the little tears flowed.
My left back leg still hurt. I wasn’t sure I could walk with it. Still, in the show ponies walked with three legs all the time. So it ought to be okay, right? So long as I can get out of the Everfree Forest. I tried to wipe my face with my hooves. They were sore.
Shaking leaves behind me. I didn’t have time to turn around.
Suddenly, the vine wrapped itself around my back left hoof again. And my back right hoof. And my front hooves. And my body. A quick lurch backward. I found myself in the air pulled like before. It wasn’t one vine, it was several. And now, I was helpless.
I shrieked.
And something shrieked behind me… more like a rattle.
The vines whipped me around.
Before me was a monster. Nothing like I had seen on the show. It looked a bit like a Basilisk; or rather, a large snake. But its scales were made of what looked like wood, and its coils like that of a moving, twisted tree. At the top of the head and down much of its back was covered in bushy leaves. And from those bushes, all the way down to the tail (which looked a bit like a Pine Tree) grew thorny tendrils, some of which were currently wrapped around me.
But most terrifying were the eyes and mouth. Large, bloodshot eyes the size of a pony, and a gaping mouth making up a third of its own body. The Pine Tree tail bristled together, and made the shrieking rattle. The vines were pulling me closer to that horrible mouth. I was less than a snack.
“SOMEB-B-B-PONY HELP ME!”
Whirling wind. Something shot out of the darkness. I was falling. And the next moment, I was in… something’s arms (hooves?) flying through the air. And plop. Back on the ground.
I turn back to look at the hideous monster. Between us was an angel.
Not a real angel, biblically accurate or otherwise. But it was a pony that looked like an angel, an angel of the night. A pegasus, to be exact. His coat was a midnight blue, his mane and tail a little darker. But he swirled with lighter streaks, and seemed to shimmer with stars. His wings lay wide open, a guardian of the night.
“B-beautiful,” I whispered.
“Heyah!” my guardian shouted, and took to the air in a flurry.
The monster shrieked with the rattle. Vines shot from every which direction. But with speed and agility to make Rainbow Dash jealous, the dark blur glided past them all. His speed was such that I could barely keep track of him. He darted back and forth, slashing some vines apart with his wings. And suddenly, he was right in front of the monster, and kicked its nose with a solid buck.
The snake shrieked again, but the midnight angel was gone. The rattle rose up, puncturing a hole in the canopy. Starlight rained down, and for a moment, I got a single glimpse of the Equestrian moon. It, too, was beautiful.
But a shadow fell upon me. Twigs dropped all around. The rattle was coming down. At me.
“Wah!” I cried. Pegasus grabbed me and pulled me away before I could react.
BOOM. The sound of the rattle hitting the ground. The trees swayed from the concussion.
“What are you waiting for? Get out of here!” barked the angel.
I was on my hooves again. And Pegasus was gone. He was at the monster, giving another kick, this time to its eyes.
More shrieking from the rattle. Vines whipped more frantically. One slashed a tree beside me. It splittered, snapped in half, and crashed to the ground in a blink.
I backed up. How… were ponies capable of fighting a thing like this? I’m watching a war between titans.
Vines wrapped around Pegasus. More than I could count. He was caught. Yet his confident glare didn’t cease. He began spinning. His figure was replaced with a tornado. The vines unraveled and snapped apart. But the tornado continued and shot towards the monster, bonking the head. Pegasus reemerged.
For a moment, time seemed still. He shimmered in the light; loosened feathers danced around him, gleaming in the night. His eyes were closed, and he gracefully fell backwards, somersaulting and landing upon his hooves.
The monster made a guttural groan, and collapsed. The earth shook.
The angel turned his head to face me; his fierce, discerning eyes…
“W-who are you?” I asked.