''Are you really sure, you can handle this on your own?''
Three ponies were standing on a clearance on the southern fields of Sweet Apple Acres and viewed through the incredible amount of apples.
Applejack gulped. ''You know, I can help you any time; in fact, that is exactly what the princess told me to do.'' Hazel shot her an expecting look and waited for her to answer.
''No can do, sugarcube. I said I'd do this on mah own and that's it! If Ah broke that promise, I couldn't be considered the Element of Honesty!'' she smiled at him confidently, but Hazel noticed the little drops of sweat building at the border of her forehead.
More like the Element of Stubbornness....
He sighed. ''Fine, but how can I make myself of an use?'' Hazel looked around, ''Is there any work I could do?''
''Hmm...'' Applejack put a hoof to her mouth and looked around. ''Ah think Granny Smith sure would appreciate yer help in the kitchen! Oh, and you could take care of those nasty cracks in the barn's wall. Or you could help Big Mac fix up the wheels of that ol' wagon!''
''I think I get the idea, there is lot of work to be done around here.'' he lowered his head in defeat ''I have another question, though.''
''Spit it out already.'' Applejack gave him an encouraging smile.
''What do you want me to do when I am done?''
''I think that's plenty of work for one day, but if you think you're that fast, go out and find some work on your own. You're old enough, Ah think.'' she winked at him.
He gave a smirk of his own and bowed slightly, ''As you wish.''
Standing up he turned over to Mac.''Shall we start then? I assume the wagon to be a good thing to begin with.''
''Eeyup.''
As expected... he smiled inwardly.
He threw a last look over his shoulder towards Applejack when they left for the barn.
This is impossible, I must find a way to help her out...
Given the fact that he had literally no experience in craftsmenship, Hazel didn't do so badly. Sure, the nails were a bit crooked, the pies tasted a bit floury and the wheels still had a little squeak to them, but it wasn't all bad. He did as fine as he could and everything else would be learned as time passed.
Despite his merely average job, the work Applejack had assigned him to only took him a couple of hours, noon wasn't even over yet, but neither Granny Smith nor Big Macintosh had anything else to offer that could have been done. Big Mac still had to recover from his injury, but the geriatric mare asured him, she would be doing a much better job on her own when he offered his help on making Mac as comfortable as possible.
''Take a walk, Ponyvill's a beautiful place. But keep out of the Everfree Forest, strange things are goin on in these woods. It's dangerous to go in there. But what am Ah talkin', go out, have some fun!''
Fun, huh? Well dangerous sounds like just like the right fun for me. Besides, perhaps I could go on a visit....
It couldn't have been easier to find the Everfree Forest. Like a suffocating green blanket it lay over the landscape of Equestria. It ends reached from the border of Ponyville to the far ends of the lakes beyond Canterlot, a blurred silhoutte in the distance.
Hazel flew over the first few trees, ever following his instinct to guide him to the place of his choosing. Clouds didn't concern him much, but the nature of the clouds of the Everfree Forest had something strange to them, as if they were alive. He pushed that thought aside and simply whizzed through the cotton candy formed moisture.
It didn't took him long to reach the entrance of the small cave right beneath the ruins of the old castle, that had been abandoned after Luna's transformation.
He walked in. The complete darkness inside the cave didn't bother him the least, as he could see even better when blackness surrounded him. Finally, he hit the dead end of the dark cavern and sat down, his backside against the wall.
Here it all started; my awakening, my oath to pledge my life onto my mistresses' provision and the long age of my duties by their sides. How much has already happened, how much will be happening, how few I have got to do with this all.
He shook his head. No, this wasn't the time to fall into melancholia, he had a mission to fulfill.
Dashing out of the cave, he sat his hoofes on the other side of the bridge. He didn't look back.
Taking the first hoof forward, he decided to do what Granny Smith had told him to do: take a walk. These promenades of his seemed to affect him in a positive way: Becoming ever calm and restful, he went through his memories, thinking of situations he experienced with Canterlots elite, how he acted, how they reacted, how he could have acted, how they would have reacted. Some of these scenarios made him smile, imagining the stunned faces of these oh so beneficent ponies.
He took in a deep breath and continued his walk with closed eyes, soaking in the scent of the woods, listening to the sounds of the many living things in the forest.
He had walked for a while, when an odd smell caught his attention: It reeked of the moldy stench of decay, wavering towards him from all sides.
He opened his eyes. Hazel found himself surrounded by canine creatures, that seemed to be sewn together of branches, roots and other parts of a tree. Their eyes had a discomforting yellow glow, and they snared and growled while they drew the circle around Hazel ever tighter.
Now look at that, what a cute bunch of doggies. But simply rotting them out would be too easy, let's see if I can make this a little more fun...
He closed his eyes again and listened carefully to every move they made. Nothing escaped his sharp perception, not the stink of their breath, the creaking of their limbs, nor the cracks of the little branches they stepped on while coming ever closer.
One of them saw it's chance to attack and leaped high into the air, aiming for Hazel's back. His mouth only a foot away from his shoulders, a wing extended and hit the timberwolve's chest. The impact made it burst into pieces.
However, this was the sign for the rest of them to attack. Three jumped at him, trying to get a bite off his neck, left wing and left hind leg.
Hazel was quick to react, as he took out the one that was lunging at his leg by whirling around his own axis, raising his right hind leg up and smiting it down onto the wolf's snout, hammering it into the ground. The other two ones where still airbourne and so, he smacked them both down with his wings, letting them fall on their backsides and smashing them down. All three of them burst. Only three points of his body now touched the ground: the tips of his wings and his right hind leg. Kicking the ground with said limb, he put his front hoofes onto the ground, resting there in a handstand, and waited.
A crack. That was all he needed, to know what he had to do. Hazel took a swing of his wing and rotated himself, spreading his hind legs and kicked the two wolves ,that jumped him, simultaniously.
He fell back into the fighting stance he had begun with and waited once more for the perfidious cracks of lose branches.
The following moments, Hazel was a whirl of hoofes and wings, dodging jaws, hitting chests, nostrils and tighs, shattering the whole pack into little sticks and leafes. When there was no wolf left he opened his eyes.
Not too shabby, but no challenge, I wished they had lasted longer.
He sighed and wanted to move onto his walk, but was stopped when he heared a crackling and rumbling sound behind him. As he turned around, he saw that the branches and roots were connecting with each other again, building up to the wolfes he had just slain. The horde, now full rebuilt, began sneaking towards him again.
Well, this is interesting already. Seems like I indeed could get some fun now...
Meanwhile, not so far away from the old castle, the multiprismatic colored mane of a cyan pegasus mare waved in the wind of speed as she zig-zagged through the sky, diving into a triple-backflip, then stopped and launched herself up into the air. The zig-zagging from before had the effect, that three clouds stood perfectly in one straight line. On the top of her flight she glanced downwards and clenched her wings to her body. Rainbow fell right through the clouds, drawing a stream of waterdrops behind her. She took a hard edge before landing on the ground, then spread her wings and came to a sudden stop. The small dropplets hit her rump and she watched in awe at the glimmering image of a rainbow above her head.
Rainbow was sure, this trick might come in handy sometime and would definitely advantageous when it came to her assignment for the Wonderbolts.
Now there was one more routine she wanted to perform before heading back to Ponyville for her afternoon nap. Rainbow steadied herself. The trick she was about to do was held a ponytale, but she knew she could do it as she had long ago. The last week she non stop trained for this act, always in the Everfree Forest because she didn't want any spectators before she wasn't sure it would work the way she wanted it to. She jumped. The cyan mare with the magenta eyes flew ever higher, leaving the ground far beneath her. Higher as any bird could reach, her wings took her into the sky. Finally she came to a stop, at a height were Rainbow feared her feathers would freeze from the chilly air. Her breath formed small clouds before her nostrils and she rested there for a short moment, readying herself for what would be following now.
The fall was liberating. Rainbow could hear the wind howl into her ears as she opened her wings and flapped to become even faster. She fell ever deeper and kept on beating her wings to their limits, muscles already burning from the exertion, but still she went on. Suddenly, she felt it. There it was, the feeling she had almost gotten used to to already: The air around her became somehow more dense as if it was holding her back from slamming into the ground. She was close and she knew it. Like a missile she rushed towards the closer coming ground, the air building up in a sharp cone around her, but the rainbow maned fillie held on.
Just a little bit faster, that is all she wished for. But this simple wish was crushed and thrown away by the abrupt stop Rainbow found herself in. Just like her hopes for accomplishment, she got stuck at the tip of the cone and was shot back with an incredible force that launched her towards the trees beneath her. She hadn't noticed how close she was to the ground already, but now it hit her in form of the trunk of an oak.
Again she had failed miserably at performing what would sure be the ticket to the Wonderbolt's ranks: a Sonic Rainboom. She had lost count of how many times she had already tried it, but she was sure to not give up. She was Rainbow Dash! The day she would give up on something, was the day she would cut off her wings!
Rainbow Dash had never imagined it would turn out to be that hard, however, as she knew, she had done it when she was just a foal.
She leaned back on the tree, resting her head at it's rough bark and took a deep breath.
The smell of rotting grass and withered leaves made her jump, however. She knew that smell just too well, having had some unfaithful encounters with the forest's wildlife when she started training here the first time. She remembered the nasty bite marks she had left with and had learned the hard way, that Timber Wolves are of the worst kind of enemies.
Because of that, she was surprised to hear several of them gasping and whimper. This couldn't be right! She had a black belt in Karate and even she got beaten up pretty badly, so who would be stupid enough to mess with them?
She had to risk a peak. Flying up into the nest of a tree, Rainbow peered to the source of the noise and watched in awe as she saw a single pegasus beating a whole pack of wolves into piles of sticks and roots. Never had Rainbow seen such a grace in a fight. Sure, she wasn't an easy opponent, but this stallion just made it look like it was a walk in the park. Another thing she noticed were his eyes: they were closed all the time as if he hadn't even to see his foes to know where to land his kicks and punches.
He barely dodged the fangs and claws grasping at him, but never was he touched by one of them. Like a phantom he moved around, not doing anything more than necessary, but still shattered a wolf every time he he raised a hoof. Or a wing.
He had just destroyed the last of the wolves, when their parts connected again and the pack was complete again. But rather than attacking him again, they fled, tails between their legs and ran for the better of it.
Finally the white pegasus opened his eyes and pulled a face in played dissapointment.
His voice was deep and soft like silk and sent a shudder down Rainbows spine down to the tip of her tail.
''Ooh, why are you already leaving? I was looking forward to round seven!'' he laughed and threw his had back as he did so. ''I hope to see you again some time!!'' snickering even more he turned the other way and started to walk in a relaxed pace.
Rainbow couldn't control herself anymore. With a wild scream she jumped out of the tree and landed before the white stallion. Her voice nearly flipped from excitement as she spoke.
''You. Were. AWESOME!! Like this totally awesome kick with that turn and then the jump and you were like HAH! HEYUH!! HADAAAA!!'' Rainbow cowered down, jumped up and struck the air furiously with her hoofes.
''The name's Rainbow Dash, if I may ask, where did you learn to fight like that? You knocked out like thirty of these mutts! I've been training my whole life and I couldn't stand a chance against these mutts. But you, you were awesomely amazingaticly fantastic!!''
She looked up to him and with shimmering eyes as if she was fillie, seeing the presents beneath the Heart Warmings Eve tree on the first morning.
Hazel backed off slightly, overwhelmed of the excitement the rainbow-maned mare brought upon him.
He shook his head and took on a polite smile before he spoke.
''I only counted seventeen, but to answer you question, well, I have come around quite a bit and picked up some tricks every now and then. I was even in the royal guard once, so this explains it quite well, I think.''
Her mouth opened even wider. She scuttled around and her wings opened up with an audible pompf. All of a sudden Rainbow stood up straight and looked at Hazel with a challenging spark.
''Hey big guy, how about you fight me?''
He didn't expect something like that, but the rainbow maned pony seemed like nothing could change her mind, so why not? It would make up for the cowards of wolves.
He nodded and grinned at her.''Agreed. And my name is Hazel Eyes.''
Both fell into a fighting stance, lowering their fronts, waiting for the other one to make a move. Slowly they began circeling around each other, gazes locked.
''Fillies first.'' Hazel broke the silence and bowed before Rainbow. That little move was invitation enough for her to attack. Rainbow dashed forward, planning on landing a strike with her right front hoof against his cheek. She had seen what he was able to do, so she would not be holding back.
What followed , however, was not what she had planned.
Just when she saw her hoof hitting it's target, the image of the white pegasus before her faded and she felt the touch of a feather on the back of her head.
Startled she turned around to see said pegasus standing right before her very eyes still in the same position when she attacked him. He arose and fell back into his fighting stance, seemingly expecting her to make her move.
Did she just imagine her attack? But even so, why was he behind her?
She clenched her teeth and started anew. This time, she jumped up into the air, flapped her wings and stretched out her hind leg to land a hard kick on Hazel's muzzle.
Hazel, although, merely leaned his head to one side. The move he made was so fast, that Rainbow couldn't keep track with her eyes.
She lay on her back, the air had fled from her lungs and a white hoof rested lightly on her chest.
Hazel stood above her, a sheepish grin across his face, and simply watched her while she slowly came to taking breath again.
Hazel backed away from her and simply stood there.
''Come on now, you can do better than that. Try again.'' he gave her an encouraging smile.
''Try again my rump...'' grumbling under her breath she sat up and fell into a fighting stance once more.
She jumped forward. What followed next was a storm of punches, kicks, strikes and smites, all but aimed to confuse her opponent and make him dizzy so she could land the finishing blow.
But Hazel simply refused to be hit by any of her his. Whenever she thought she had beaten him, her hoof touched nothing but thin air while he dodged the next several strikes, always keeping up that confident smile that soon drove her insane. No matter how much she tried, what complicated moves she took or which feint she tried to use, nothing worked.
She broke down heavily panting, gasping for air. Rainbows muscles burned from the session, she couldn't even manage to stand up, so all she did was lie there, looking up to her opponent in quiet anger.
How was he doing this? She had put all her skills into this fight and although he never lifted a hoof to attacked her, her she was, bathed in sweat, laying on the cold ground while he towered over her, reaching out with a hoof to help her sit up.
Rainbow had too much pride to allow herself taking the help of the stallion that had just defeated her like it was the easiest thing in the world. She knew that she would have a hard time fighting this guy, but he simply outplayed her. He hadn't even needed hitting her for his victory.
She came to breath again and somehow managed to ignore the pain from her strained limbs as she sat up to face him.
''No fair! This wasn't a fight! You just dodged my strikes and avoided getting hit! You had to strike back!'' she yelled at him, not being able to take his stupid grin anymore. Oh, how she wanted to beat the living hell out of this guy.
''Would you like a rematch?'' he snickered.
''Ah, forget it!'' she turned around and had to put all her effort to not let him see the small tears that started to build up in the corners of her vision, part from the pain that seared through her body and part from the humiliation she had just experienced. Rainbow had always thought of her as one of the best fighters of Equestria. She was sure she could even take on most of the guards. Being dismantled like a beginner put a bad sting to her confidence.
As she started to walk away, Rainbow felt the softness of light feathers brushing over her back.
From out of nowhere, Hazel walked right next to her, holding one of his large wings over her.
''Please excuse my absolutely terrible behaviour, Miss Dash. What I did was certainly not what a gentlecolt should. I beg for your forgiveness, mylady, and I offer to make up for my rudeness from before. If you may give me a chance, I shall do my best to comfort you in any way you please.'' with the last words said, he kneeled down onto one knee and waited for her to answer.
First Rainbow as taken aback by this well formulated excuse and after the first shock had settled she began to laugh.
''Oh, gimme a break! Stand up and talk properly, I don't want Rarity to translate everything you said into proper Equestrian.'' she still giggled.
Then an idea came to her mind.
The cyan mare trotted up to him and put a hoof at his chest. With a lascivious grin, she ran up his front until his chin while letting her gaze travel all over his body. Hazel stood there, looking curious at the mare before him. When Rainbow had finished her sight-seeing tour she gleamed at the tall stallion.
''You said, you'd do anything to make up for it, does that mean really anything?'' she grinned.
Well, well, well, look what we have here.I must say, she has a pretty nice flank. A bit skinny, though....
''Yes, I did and yes, it means anything.''
He bowed down, inching ever closer to her face and so did she. Just before their lips met each other, Rainbow turned away quickly and gave Hazel a brush with her tail.
Spitting out a hair, he shot her a confused look.
She smiled at him and walked away slowly making sure he'd get a good look of her behind.
''Cool, then it's settled, by tomorrow afternoon, you will teach me how to fight like you. Don't be late, I hate waiting!''
A streak of colors followed the disappearing pegasus with the magenta eyes as she flew back to her home town.
Hazel looked at the slowly fading silhoutte and hesitated with what to do next.
What in the name of Celestia just happened? Did this fillie... turn me down? When was the last time something compareble happened?
It didn't help. A bit deflated by the rejection, he continued his walk, but all the spirit had vanished from his steps.
The scuffing of heavy feet, dragging along a massive paunch, filled the dome with a cascade of echoes. The disgusting servant of the statue brought out another three black gems which he held in his way too long and thin arms. He tumbled towards his master and let the gemstones roll over to the center of the cave.
''Master, I have bad news: These are probably ones of the last I can find. The hoard is close to empty and I can't find any more.''
He fell on his knees and wrung his hands as if he had committed a terrible crime.
Suddenly, a deep voice spoke in is head.
''Blood.... I need.....blood....''
The creature jumped. He gazed around in the dome, but the only possible source was the statue of his master. A shiver took ahold of his disgusting body and again he lowered his head until it touched the ground.
''You order, I obey. Blood is what you desire, blood is, what you get.''
He stood up and headed out to the only exit in the cave. This was the final part. Soon, he would awaken and then....
The creature drooled.