//------------------------------// // Visiting Hours // Story: Stolen Fire // by Tzelael //------------------------------// Stolen Fire by Tzelael Chapter 9: Visiting Hours __________________________________________________________________________ Fluttershy awoke the next day. She pulled herself upright and yawned. She looked over to the side and smiled at the sight of Stitches, who still slept while he held her. She looked out the window and saw that it was daylight, but only barely so. The overcast sky filtered the sunlight from above into a dim gray that almost felt cold to look at. Fluttershy went to grab the bag of feed for her animals. She stepped outside the cottage and called out to them. “Breakfast, every–” She found that all of the animals that were just near the fence last night were gone. Fluttershy panicked, her eyes widened while her breath grew shallow. “Oh no. Oh no no no no no...” She ran around the cottage and searched desperately for the animals who had gone missing. She checked around every tree she could find, and even looked near the border of the Everfree Forest, but couldn’t find them. She almost took to the sky when she heard a voice call from her house. “Fluttershy! Are you in there?” Rarity stood in front of her door. She looked to one side of the cottage to find her yellow pegasus friend out in the grass. “Just a minute!” Fluttershy barely squeaked in an attempt to reply from the distance. She ran toward Rarity, still panicked. She struggled to catch her breath as she tried to speak to Rarity. “Have... Have you seen... My... My–” “Your animals? It’s the strangest thing, really. When Applejack and I met up at the schoolhouse to drop off our sisters, she told me that she had seen your animals running toward her farm. She’s keeping them in the barn for now and has had them fed.” “Oh, thank goodness! I thought they got lost, or maybe worse...” “Don’t trouble yourself, darling. I’m sure Applejack has everything under control.” Rarity reached into her bag and produced a letter. “Actually, I was coming here to talk to you about something else. I got a letter from the hospital. Pinkie Pie’s surgery went without a problem.” “That’s wonderful... Is everypony going to visit her?” “Yes, we’re all going to go there this afternoon, after Applejack and I pick Sweetie Belle and Applebloom back up from school. Sweetie told me that after they got some things from home, they would be off doing their ‘Crusading,’ so they should be busy while we’re visiting Pinkie Pie. The Cakes already visited her this morning.” “Did they tell you how she was?” “They said she was...” Rarity sighed and looked away for a moment. “That she was quiet. They said she was her usual cheerful self, just... Quiet.” Rarity’s ears drooped momentarily when she finished speaking. Fluttershy’s stomach sunk at the word “Quiet.” “I guess asking one of you to look after Stitches while I’m gone wouldn’t be fair...” “Couldn’t you ask Spike to keep an eye on him?” Fluttershy considered the option. “Somepony would be here while I’m gone, but... Spike didn’t handle my animals very well last time I left him to look after them, plus I don’t know how Stitches will affect him...” “I think it’ll be better if I just leave him alone. I think he can handle himself.” “If you say so. I’ll meet you at the hospital this afternoon.” Rarity smiled and trotted down the road back to her boutique. Fluttershy smiled gently and waved at her. While she walked back toward her house, she couldn’t help but look up at the sky. To see an overcast sky with no rain was disheartening, especially when she considered that the pegasi generally never put clouds in place unless a drizzle or a storm was scheduled. Stranger yet was that there weren’t any pegasi to clear the sky anymore, but given their success yesterday, it made sense that they had given up. Fluttershy came back inside and took a look at Stitches. He picked himself up and yawned, an almost inaudible rumble came out of his throat. He looked at Fluttershy for a moment as she smiled at him. “I think you’d like to know that Pinkie Pie is getting better.” Stitches perked up at Pinkie’s name, and a lopsided smile stretched across his face. “I’m going to visit her today, but I’ll need you to stay here. I wish you could come with me, but... Well...” Fluttershy trailed off. She avoided eye contact with him while her head hung down. Stitches only nodded slowly and scooted toward the back of the room. “I mean, it’s not anything against you, it’s just... I don’t want you or anypony else getting hurt...” Stitches looked back and nodded. He turned over to the fireplace and stared blankly into it. Fluttershy trot over and hugged the cobbled-together stallion from behind. “I won’t be leaving until this afternoon, so...” Fluttershy thought for a moment. Stitches’ spirits only rose slightly at the knowledge that she wouldn’t leave until later in the day. She then realized something. “... Maybe you’d want to send Pinkie Pie a message?” Stitches’ eyes brightened for a second, but then he tilted his head in confusion. “You could write her a letter and I can take it to her when I leave.” Stitches’ smile returned and he showed a few of his teeth. He nodded quickly as he rushed up the stairs. In his haste, he tripped over himself a few times, but he didn’t seem to mind. When he came back down, he held his inkwell, quill, and several pieces of parchment that he didn’t use. Fluttershy smiled at him as he set up his workspace on the floor. He sat next to him and leaned over the paper. “Now... What do you want to say to Pinkie Pie?” Stitches scribbled away with the quill and stopped every once in a while to turn to Fluttershy. **** Pinkie Pie lay down in her bed, bored completely out of her skull. She would bounce a ball or something, but the doctor said she wasn’t allowed to do a whole lot until she fully recovered, or else she’d hurt herself. The whole time she was there, she simply hummed a happy tune to herself to relieve her boredom, but she couldn’t go into a full-out song. Pinkie Pie found that, after the operation, she was too short of breath to actually sing. Earlier that day, the Cakes stopped by to visit her. They were nice enough to her, but then they argued with each other over what color her sheets were. The argument was funny at first, but she quickly didn’t like how hostile they were toward each other. They left not long after. Now it was late afternoon, 3:35 PM. At this point, she was so bored that she was able to easily see what the exact time was on the clock all the way across the room. Her friends said they’d come by to visit her today, and to see them all would be a welcome distraction from being stuck in bed all day long. She heard the door open and perked up. The first to come through was Rainbow Dash, who waved at Pinkie. “Hi Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash walked up her and gave her a hug. Each of the others surrounded the bed and leaned in for a group hug. Pinkie feebly raised her forelegs and wrapped them around her friends. “Hi everypony!” she rasped out with as much cheer as possible. The other ponies stepped backward and smiled at their friend. Rainbow Dash spoke up next. “Pinkie, what exactly happened to you?” “Well,” she paused, trying to catch her breath. “I was...” She caught her breath again. “Playing tag with... Stitches, you know? And... I was winning... But... I might have... Wanted to... Kinda let him win... So I sort of... Let him... Catch me... And he had to... Jump to get me... So he might have... Hit me... A teensy bit... Too hard... And I fell out... The window.” She smiled sheepishly as she finished. All of them seemed relieved, except for Fluttershy and Rarity, who seemed like they already knew this, or at least something about it, the whole time. “You named him Stitches,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned. “You named the big super-strong juggernaut stallion Stitches.” “Well... Duh... Didn’t you... See them?” Pinkie grinned at Rainbow Dash. “... Okay, I’ll have to give you that one. I would’ve named him something cool though, like Groundbreaker, or Flankenstein or something.” Rainbow Dash looked away from Pinkie and brushed her bangs to the side with her forehoof. “Well, Pinkie Pie, I wanted to gather all of us here because there’s something important we all need to talk about concerning, well... Stitches.” “Wait...” Pinkie held up her hoof. “I hadn’t... Had... Anypony... To talk to... For days...” “Weren’t the Cakes just here?” Twilight tilted her head to the side. “Yeah... But they... Spent most of the time... Arguing... I just... Want to... Talk to you guys... For a bit... Before... Important stuff...” She pouted and stared at the whole group with big bright eyes and a pleading expression. “Pleease?” “Well...” Twilight sighed heavily. “Okay.” “Yay!” Pinkie rasped again, then coughed soon after she did so. After she took a moment to recover, she looked to her friends and smiled. “So... What’s... Everypony... Been up to?” **** Professor Flamebearer sat down on a lounge chair at the lobby of the inn, a book held in his hooves. Every so often, he took out a pencil and wrote notes in it, looked up from his book at the door, then back down again. He sat and watched each pony who came through the door, but still no sign of his three little informants. “I wonder if something is delaying them...” He got up from his chair and walked to the window. He pulled back a curtain and surveyed the dark, gloomy landscape. On the road, he saw three fillies who wore capes and very carefully walked toward the inn. All three of them seemed particularly wary, as they constantly looked over their shoulders. Flamebearer closed his book and walked to the door. Before he walked outside, he turned to the innkeeper. “I’ll be back later.” “Good riddance, you pompous jerk. Think you’re better than everyone else with your book and your reading? I oughta shove my hoof up your–” Flamebearer stepped out of the inn and shut the door behind him. He sighed and muttered to himself. “Everywhere the Leaden One goes, it’s always the same...” He then saw the three fillies walk up to him, their faces hardened. “So, are you all ready to go?” The Cutie Mark Crusaders all nodded in unison. “We’ll take you to Fluttershy’s and see if she’s home,” said Scootaloo. “But if she ain’ there, we’ll go back and wait ‘til later.” Applebloom gave Flamebearer the sternest look she could muster. “After all, it ain’ polite to jus’ barge into somepony else’s house when they’re not home.” “Of course,” Flamebearer replied. “We should make our way there quickly and carefully. All of these other ponies are under the influence of the creature’s magic... If we’re careful, we might not run into any problems, but if any of the ponies try and stop us, run straight to Fluttershy’s cottage.” The Crusaders nodded again. The four of them then walked to the side of the road while they made their way to Fluttershy’s. “For now, we ought to keep a low profile,” Flamebearer said to the Crusaders, who still wore their capes. “Yeah... It’s too bad we forgot the glasses and false moustaches at home.” Sweetie Belle drug her hoof across the ground, defeated. “Oooh! I still got my marker! Maybe we can draw them on!” Applebloom pulled out a black felt marker. Flamebearer looked between the three fillies in bewilderment. He simply muttered to them. “... Let’s just keep to staying off the road.” **** Raucous laughter echoed through Pinkie Pie’s hospital room as her five friends stood around her bed. As it slowly died down, the other ponies looked away from Pinkie for a moment. Twilight finally was the one to speak up. “So, Pinkie Pie... With your permission, I’d like to start discussing what we should do about Stitches.” The others turned to Twilight as Pinkie Pie slumped down in the bed. “What’s... There... To talk about... With him...?” “Well, for one thing, he got you hurt!” Rainbow Dash blurted out. “It was... An accident...” Pinkie rasped out. She slunk down further in her bed. Fluttershy shrunk away and remained completely silent as she pulled out the letter Stitches wrote to Pinkie Pie. She stared at it quietly while everypony else carried on the conversation. “This is a decision that we should all make together," said Twilight. "Each of us will make a suggestion on what to do about him, then we’ll work something out. First though, I think we need to get our facts straight.” Applejack stepped forward and lowered her hat. “Well, for one thing, we know he drives ponyfolk around him crazy jus’ by bein’ around for too long. When he’s gone, most folks don’ remember what happened all that clearly, except that they think somethin’s wrong with Stitches. He needs to go.” Applejack put her hat back on her head, then stepped back. Rainbow Dash approached the "floor" of the discussion. “He’s got unbelievable strength that he has almost no control over. He gets stronger when struck by lightning, and I don’t know how, but storm clouds form near where he is that are almost impossible to break up for very long. We have to get rid of him.” After Rainbow Dash walked back to the outside, Rarity cleared her throat and stepped in the center of the room. “He’s an intelligent and gentle-natured creature. He can learn skills like writing and communication very quickly. He has difficulty speaking, but he possesses a certain degree of empathy. He is aware that he frightens others, and he doesn’t want to.” The others turned over to Pinkie Pie. “He’s... Like a... Big Colt.” Pinkie smiled, nodding with satisfaction at what she had to add. “He... Wouldn’t... Hurt... Anypony... On purpose...” Rarity nodded at Pinkie and held out her hoof. “He shouldn’t be run out of town like some monster! It’s not like he’s doing this to hurt anypony. Maybe we should just keep him somewhere secret.” “Actually, there’s something I should bring up about that... I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Twilight stepped forward and pulled out some yellowed pieces of parchment from her saddlebags. “What do you mean, Twilight?” Rarity turned to her friend, her brow furrowed in irritation. “I think if we hide him, there’s... Somepony who’d be after him. His name is Professor Flamebearer, and he came to me asking for my help in trying to find Stitches.” **** After they cut across roads and wove behind trees and houses, Scootaloo, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Professor Flamebearer cautiously walked toward Fluttershy’s cottage. The Crusaders looked around warily, though they clumsily bumped into each other. “It’s never this quiet around Fluttershy’s house,” Scootaloo whispered to the others. “That’s ‘cause her animals are stayin’ at the barn. Applejack said they got spooked by somethin’...” Applebloom looked up at Flamebearer. “Do you think it was the monster, Mr. Flamebearer?” Sweetie Belle asked. “The creature does generally scare off animals that are anywhere near it... I’m fairly certain it’s here.” Flamebearer pushed his glasses up his snout, then walked down the path. Sweetie Belle ran ahead, then knocked on the door. “Fluttershy, are you home?” Heavy, uneven hoofsteps thumped from inside the house. As Sweetie Belle backed away, Flamebearer stepped in between the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the front door of the cottage. “Those are its hoofsteps...” He leaned to the side, then peered in through the window. “You three, check the perimeter and make sure nopony else comes here. If they do, they might get hurt!” “But what about you?” Sweetie Belle asked shakily. “Yeah, we can take him!” Scootaloo shouted. “You can’t. This creature is stronger than you can imagine.” He turned to them, his face stern as he shouted his order. “Go, now!” The Crusaders immediately bolted off to the bottom of the hill. Flamebearer turned over to the door and stood still as he heard the thud of more hoofsteps growing closer. The professor swallowed hard. The door creaked open, a pale, yellow eye glaring at him. “So you are here...” Flamebearer stared as the creature was revealed. His mismatched eyes gazed at his visitor. His blood practically froze as he saw the imposing figure in front of him. He steeled himself and examined the monster before him. “Yooouuuuu...” The creature growled at Flamebearer, his face twisted into a snarl. “You remember who I am.” “Y-Yyyyeeeeeees...” “Good... We have much to discuss.” **** “Somepony’s already been hunting Stitches?!” Rarity asked Twilight, bewildered at the news. “It seems like he’s been after him for a while... The amount of information and detail he’s given me about Stitches is staggering. It’s... Actually kind of suspicious.” “So he wants Stitches gone, too. What’s the problem?” Rainbow Dash held her forehooves out and gave Twilight a confused and slightly irritated look. “I don’t think he’s being entirely forthcoming about who he was. It has a lot to do with how much detail there is in these notes and discrepancies with his story... I mean, listen to this.” She flipped through the notes, then read from one of the pages. “‘Each body part and organ is cut out from a different corpse. They’re infused with a concentration of the appropriate humour, most of them being infused with bile and blood...’” Twilight stopped herself when Rarity shuddered in disgust. “Eughgh... That’s a ghastly amount of detail!” Rarity nearly gagged at the description. “Exactly my point. Not only is it... Graphic... But it’s far too specific to be done by somepony who was just trying to track this thing down and making unsuccessful attempts to capture him.” “What’re ya tryin’ to say, Twi?” Applejack asked Twilight uneasily. “I’m saying there’s only three ways he could’ve found this out: Either he killed Stitches and dissected him, he created Stitches in the first place, or he found whoever did and asked them to relinquish their notes.” Twilight began to pace back and forth. She tapped her chin with her hoof as she listed each of her conclusions. “Given that it’s extremely unlikely that he did the first one, and that if the third one happened, Equestria would have certainly heard of somepony creating life by now, I can’t help but think the most logical assumption would be that he created Stitches to begin with. I think if Flamebearer got Stitches back, he might take him apart, study him, then try to repeat his experiment.” “So... You’re saying we need to get him out for his own good,” Rarity mumbled in dejection. The others turned to face Twilight, except for Fluttershy, who still looked at the letter in the corner. “Yes, and we have to make sure he gets away without anypony noticing.” Twilight backed away, then turned to Fluttershy. The group watched her as they cleared the floor, Fluttershy stared listlessly at the paper in front of her. “Fluttershy... What do you think we should do?” Twilight walked over to her and nudged her. The yellow pegasus slowly raised her head, her expression completely crestfallen. “I suppose if it’s for his own good... We should get him out of here. But... Can I have one more night with him? Just to get him ready?” Fluttershy looked desperately at the others. “Of course, Sugarcube. I don’ think we’d have it any other way.” Applejack smiled at her. The others closed in around Pinkie’s bed, Fluttershy walking to the bed’s end table. She placed the letter from Stitches there. The six ponies leaned in and embraced in an enormous group hug, keeping silent for just the moment. **** There was a long, uncomfortable silence between Stitches and Flamebearer. The two merely stared each other down until the professor peered over the creature's shoulder to look into the house. “Well, I don’t think it’d be good for us to stand out here, especially not with foals outside...” He held his hoof toward the inside. “After you...” Stitches growled, then stepped aside to let the Professor inside. He slammed the door shut and glared at Flamebearer with the kind of intensity that could gouge out the professor’s eyes. “Whaaat... You... Waaaaant...” The creature snarled at the stallion who stepped around the house. Flamebearer stopped for a moment and turned to the creature. He sighed heavily and adjusted his glasses. “I... Realize you don’t like me very much. Frankly, I don’t blame you.” Flamebearer began to pace the room, walking toward the fireplace, then back again. “It was a mistake, making you like this... I never thought you’d be the one suffering for it, too.” He walked toward Stitches and looked out the window. “Yoourr p-p-pooooiiint...” Stitches stuttered at the professor with increasing frustration. “There’s one of two ways we can do this. One, we can keep going as we have. You go to one town, try to blend in, then get driven away or injured by an angry mob while I’ll have to track you down all over again...” Flamebearer adjusted his glasses. “Or... I could end it quickly. I could kill you and put an end to this... Nightmare of a life you have.” “N-Niiiiightma-ma-maarrre...?” “Your life is bad. It’s rife with agony and despair.” “Life... N-Not baad... Annnnymoooore... Have... F-F-Frieeennnds...” The creature gave the professor a determined stare. He held his head high despite his trembling right foreleg. “So a few ponies are able to tolerate your presence and suddenly everything’s all better? I think you know better than that, Leaden One.” Professor Flamebearer quickly walked to the window and pointed outside. “Take a look around you. Look at the sky. Look at the ponies of this town! Everything is still the same as it was before, just with a few scant exceptions this time, and even then, they aren’t safe.” “I-I... I w-w-woo-woon’t h-hurt theeeemm...” Stitches’ voice trembled far worse than usual, each of his words choked with what was very nearly a sob. When his back legs began to twitch, he lost his balance and crouched down. Flamebearer towered over him, his hoof still pointed outside. “That won’t matter! You’ve already hospitalized one of your ‘friends,’ and sooner or later, all of those ponies that your presence is driving insane will become violent! Don’t you see?! It will be exactly the same everywhere you go, no matter how many exceptions to the rule you find!” At the last sentence, Flamebearer stamped his hoof into the ground. Stitches cringed at the sound of it. “B-B-Bu-Buuuut th-they-they’rrrre mmm-mmm-my frie-fri-frieeennnds...” His stutter became overpowering, not helped at all by the sobs he was trying to swallow and the tears welling up in his eyes. Suddenly, the two stallions heard a set of three voices outside, the fillies that Flamebearer brought with him. The professor held up his hoof and beckoned the creature to the window. “Come here." The professor stared at Stitches, who remained motionless. Flamebearer grew impatient and tried to pull the creature up. "Look out here.” Stitches stumbled onto his hooves. He walked toward the window and saw three foals. They looked at the ground, into the forest, then at the cottage. They fret to and fro, and very nearly looked into the window. Upon nearly being seen, Stitches crouched down. He shook while he lowered himself to the ground. “These foals aren’t much older than you are. And there are thousands of them, millions of them all over the world... Eventually, the ponies they thought they knew will go mad and possibly kill them and your friends.” Flamebearer stepped to the door. “I’ll give you one day to think about it... Just remember that your fleeting happiness comes at a price.” Flamebearer stepped out the door and left the quivering, sobbing Leaden One on the floor by the window. The professor shut the door behind him, looking at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The three fillies looked at him and tilted their heads. “Is the monster in there?” Scootaloo asked. Flamebearer looked back inside. “... No. I... Must have heard things.” He then held out his hooves to the three of them. “I think it’s best you head home...” He looked over to the window and glared into the cottage house. He muttered to himself while he adjusted his glasses. “It’s not safe for you out here.”