A New Perspective Ch. 6
Returning home at about 8:30 I could tell that something was wrong. All the lights in the cottage were off, and the door hung slightly ajar. Two things I knew for a fact about Fluttershy is that she never went to bed until I got home, and she ALWAYS remembers to lock her door if she is out in town, or if she isn't going back out for the rest of the day. This was too weird.
I went quietly up to the door, hoping that nopony was inside waiting to stave my head in. I pushed open the door as quietly as I could, although it squeaked very slightly on it's hinges. Peeking my head inside, I called out, "Hello?"
Kinda stupid, in retrospect.
I tiptoed my way inside, being careful not to make too much noise. Even through the darkness, I could see the dismal state that the cottage was in. Everything looked like it had been gone through, and none too gently. All of the drawers in the hutch had been pulled out and had their contents dumped on the ground. Every picture and knick-knack had been swept off of the mantelpiece, the furniture had been flipped over and searched, even the umbrella stand had been upturned.
I was too busy staring at the spectacle before me to notice the very slight hoof steps behind me, at least until one if them brushed against the downed coat hangar, causing it to scrape slightly against the ground. I turned my head, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a black form about to jump me.
I beat whoever it was to the punch, fortunately. As they brought down their hoof, hoping to try and knock me out, I parried it with my front leg and put them into a police hold, forcing them to the floor. Looks like those MMA lessons were good for something.
Keeping them there, however, was going to prove more difficult. The mysterious pony quickly broke my hold and flipped over, bringing one hard kick into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. It also threw me off balance enough to knock me out the door, sending me sprawling into the front garden.
The pony followed me out the door, and as I was flat on my back they straddled across my chest, ready to bring down the punch that would knock my lights out. Only under the moonlight did I see who I was fighting.
"Fluttershy, WAIT!! It's me! It's Evan!
"Evan?" she yelped in disbelief, quickly getting off of me. "Oh no, I'm so sorry! I thought you were that pony that ransacked the cottage. Oh dear, I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"I'll be fine," I coughed out, getting to my hooves. "I'm more concerned about you. You weren't here when it happened, were you?"
"I was upstairs reading when I heard somepony come in. Thinking it was you, I started coming downstairs, only to find some stranger going through the cottage. I panicked, and well... I sort of... hid in my closet," she said, sheepishly covering her face with her bangs.
"Well, I can't blame you, I would have been right alongside you. Did you at least manage to get a good look at who it was?"
"No, he was facing away from me at the time. I couldn't even see his coat because of the cloak that he was wearing."
"Do you have any idea who it might be?"
"Well, I don't have a name to give you, but before I bolted whoever it was turned slightly, and I saw a silver unicorn horn from under his hood."
A silver unicorn going through the house, obviously searching for something, and trying to keep their identity a secret...
"Oh pony-feathers! We need to get to the library NOW!" I proclaimed, taking off my cape and putting it on top of the coat hanger.
"What? What's wrong?"
"This is only a guess, but that might be the unicorn from my dream. And judging by the look of this place, he was searching for something. If my hunch is correct, it was probably..."
"... The necklace! But if he's looking for the necklace then... OH NO! Twilight could be in trouble!"
"Exactly. When was he here?"
"About 45 minutes before you showed up. He left about 15 minutes ago."
"Good, we might be able to head him off before he gets to the library. Bring some medical supplies though, just in case we're too late."
"I'll be right back," she said, galloping back upstairs.
I hope we make it there in time, because this all really falls on my head if anything happens to Twilight. I dragged her into this mess, and now she might be paying the consequences for my actions.
"Alright, I'm all set," said Fluttershy, coming back downstairs with her saddlebags loaded down.
"C'mon, we don't have much time," I said, already hovering in the air. I flew out the door, with Fluttershy right behind me, managing a decent pace even with her saddlebags. Looking back, I noticed a sadness in her eyes the likes of which I hadn't seen in her before.
Man, I hope we aren't too late, for Twilight's sake as well as Fluttershy's.
===============
We arrived at the library in record time, but I could tell that we were already too late. The door had been busted down, and there were sounds of a struggle coming from inside. Landing about a foot from the door, I was forced to dodge a stray bolt of magic before I had even folded my wings in. I could practically feel the heat coming off of it, and watched as it turned a merchant stand across the street into a cactus.
We galloped in to find a gruesome scene. The mysterious unicorn, still cloaked, had Twilight on the ground and kicked her in the side, sending a yelp of pain echoing through the library.
"I grow tired of your insolence," said that same silky, deep voice that had graced my ears."If you value your life, you will tell me where the Key is. NOW!" he added, punctuating his shout with another kick to her side.
"I've told you, I don't know what your talking about," she pleaded, tears forming in her blackened eyes "If you want money I don't have any, just please stop!"
"I will only ask you once more," he whispered, in that menacing I'm-about-to-kill-you sort of way, "WHERE IS IT!?" He let loose a bolt from his horn, which struck Twilight square on the flank, singing her fur and blacking out her cutie mark. Her shriek pierced the night air.
All right, that's it.
I galloped toward him, slamming my head into his side as hard as I could. He let out a stray bolt in surprise, which struck one of the bookshelves and set several volumes on fire. I forced him to the floor and proceeded to wail on him, slamming punch after punch onto every available part of him that I could.
I'm not sure how he accomplished this, but using nothing but raw magic he managed to hurl me off of him. I was sent flying into the burning bookshelf, and the heat from it singed the fur on the left side of my face, as well as burning a few of my feathers. As I regained my footing he turned to face me, and I saw his face for the first time since my dream.
Except it wasn't him.
His hood having fallen off during our struggle, he was clearly not the same unicorn from my dream. Where there should have been a well groomed chestnut mane, instead there was a slicked back mane of flame red, and where there should have been deep blue eyes, there was bright green. The only similarities were that they were both unicorns and that they both had a silver coat.
"Ah, so you are the one my master speaks so highly of," he said, his voice changing from the dream unicorns to a mellow tenor. "Not really much to look at, are you? I expected more."
"Well, thanks for the frank appraisal of my appearance," I retorted, my wings flared in preparation. "Care to explain why you ransacked an innocent ponies cottage, and then proceeded to torture my friend for information she clearly didn't have?"
"Well, I do apologize if my methods were a bit..."
"Medieval?"
"I was going to say harsh, but whatever works for you. As for the information, she did posses it, but refused to relinquish it. She deserved what she got."
"Nopony deserves what you did to her. Except maybe you."
"Well, looks like somepony is in a bitter mood. I would fight you here, but my master wants you in as pristine a condition as possible, and I don't wish to disappoint him. I'll see you again soon enough."
"How's now fit into your schedule?" I asked as I charged, ready to fight to the death if I had to. I leaped to throttle him when he disappeared into a few wisps of black smoke. Just *POOF*, gone.
I tumbled through the smoke and landed belly first on the floor with a dull thud. Bewildered, I turned to where he had just been, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me. Alas, they weren't. He just simply wasn't there, gone like a snowball on a hot July day.
"Horse-apples. I couldn't even get a bloody name out of him."
"Evan, I need your help," said Fluttershy, snapping my thoughts back to Twilight, laying on the floor and struggling for breath.
I rushed over to find Fluttershy rubbing some sort of cream on Twilight's burn. "Oh good, at least you're alright," she said, looking up and breathing a sigh of relief. "While I'm working on her burned flank, could you get out the medical tape and bandage up her chest. I checked and there are only a few bruised ribs, but I just want to be safe."
I reached into the bags and pulled out a roll of tape, which I began to wrap around Twilight. She only winced slightly, which I took as a good sign.
"Twilight," I whispered, "I am so sorry."
"Sorry... for what," she asked through labored breaths.
"Sorry that I dragged you into this. Sorry that I forced my memories on you. Sorry that I delivered that freaking necklace to the party. This is all my fault."
"Evan," said Fluttershy, "Don't blame yourself. If anything, it was my fault for getting that as her gift in the first place."
"But I should've known better. When it started glowing when I picked it up, I should've just dropped it right there. I was being so STUPID!"
"Whoever's... fault it was... it doesn't matter now," interjected Twilight. "All that... we need to... to focus on... is finding that... unicorn in the forest."
"Twilight, stop talking," advised Fluttershy, "you need to save your strength. Here, let us help you get up to bed," she added as she applied a last bit of cream to her burn before bandaging it up.
We got on either side of Twilight and gently helped her to her hooves. She was a bit shaky at first, but managed to walk with us supporting her. We started the long steady climb up the stairs to her room, having to take it one step at a time.
"Hey," I asked, "where was Spike during all of this? I thought he was like your lifelong friend or something."
"He had to... go to... Canterlot. Royal... business."
"Oh. Well, he sure as hay picked an inconvenient enough time."
Twilight managed to force out a hoarse chuckle before she started coughing, but it showed that she would probably be none too worse for the wear when she healed up.
"Listen, I am so sorry that I dragged you into this. If you could find it somewhere in your heart to forgive me..."
"I... already have. You risked... risked your life... to fight off... that unicorn. You've... earned it."
"Thank you, Twi. I promise, I will make the pony behind this pay."
"Give... give him an... extra punch... for me," she said, forcing a smile
"You betcha," I replied, reciprocating her smile.
After an agonizing 15 minutes, we finally managed to get Twilight into bed, which she took to like a duck to a junebug.
"Now, I'm going to leave some bandages and the rest of that cream here," said Fluttershy as Twilight started to doze off. "I want you to change your bandages twice a day, once when you wake up and once before bed. Let me know if anything changes, or if the tissue starts to turn gangrenous. It hopefully shouldn't come to that, but let me know if it does."
"Thank... you," croaked Twilight before succumbing to her exhaustion. Fluttershy and I crept back downstairs to find that the book fire had burned itself out, but had left several of the tomes ruined. Aside from that and the door, though, nothing was really out of place in the library.
"Great," I muttered, "now what? Without Twilight, we have no guide to the ruins, which means we are even further behind than when we started."
"Well," offered Fluttershy, "maybe one of these books has a map in it that can show us the way."
"Hmm... possibly. Let's get looking."
We combed the library for a good hour, but were still nowhere nearer to finding any book that could show us the way.
"Any luck?" I asked as I combed the top shelf of the bookcase furthest from the door.
"None ye- wait, yes! I think I've got one!"
"Well, what's it called?"
"'A Historical Guide to the Everfree Forest' by Pen Stroke. Sound good?"
"Perfect. Stick it in your saddlebags, because we need to get to Rainbow Dash's place, pronto."
"Wait, we're going NOW?" asked Fluttershy, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, now. Whoever this unicorn from my dream is, he hires some pretty bad help to get what he wants. I have a feeling he isn't as prim and proper as he seemed to be, so we need to stop him as soon as possible from doing... whatever it is he's planning on doing."
"Are you sure it's wise to go into the forest when it's so... dark?" she asked, shuddering a little on that last word.
"It may not be wise, but unfortunately, it's necessary," I replied, getting the remains of her supplies packed away.
"I... I don't know," she said, kicking her hoof nervously. "Maybe it would just be better if I stayed here overnight, just to keep an eye on Twilight. I... I wouldn't want to slow you down. I'm just too much of a scardey-pony when it comes to that place. That's why I took so long on the preparations."
"Hey, it'll be alright," I said, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "If there is one thing that you have shown me over the past week or so, it's that you can be tough when you need to be. Would a scardey-pony have been so quick to try and jump me because you thought I was a burglar?"
"Well, no, but..."
"Exactly. And would a scaredy-pony have gotten mad at me for sneaking out like I did?"
"No, I guess not," she replied, standing a little more confidently.
"Precisely. And would a scaredy-pony have decided on the drop of a hat to go into the forest with me in the first place?"
"No, a scaredy-pony wouldn't have."
"You have amazing stores of courage, you just need to learn to use them. And tonight is when you need to start. I need you to fly back to the cottage and replace anything you used while fixing up Twilight while I run and get Rainbow Dash, then meet me at the edge of the forest. Understood?"
"... Perfectly," she replied, standing tall before grabbing up her bags and zipping out the door. I followed her out, making my way towards the outskirts of town, where Rainbow's floating home was.
Things were about to get interesting.
===============
I reached Rainbow's home at 9:30 and fortunately her place was unmarred. That unicorn must not have discovered her connection with all of this yet, and for the time being I wanted it to stay that way.
It's a good thing that I'm a pegasus, and therefore can walk on the clouds that make up her home. I walked up to the door and gave it a vicious knock, part out of impatience and part out of worry. "Rainbow, you home?" I called, praying that she wasn't too asleep to hear me.
A few muffled grunts came from inside, as well as some very tired sounding hoof steps. The door swung open a few minutes later, to reveal a very tired Rainbow Dash, her mane in a tangle and bags under her eyes.
"This had better be important," she said, eyeing me up with a slightly annoyed expression.
"Is the cottage being ransacked by a crazy unicorn, as well as said unicorn breaking into the library and torturing Twilight for information she didn't have important enough?"
She snapped to attention at these words, eyes widening in horror. "Oh man, is everypony okay? Twilight isn't too hurt, is she?"
"Fluttershy and I fixed her up. As far as we could tell, it was nothing but a few bruised ribs and a really bad burn on her flank. Apparently, magic burns. Fluttershy and I are fine, thank goodness."
"Well, that's good to hear. Why did you come to see me, though? I would've probably found out tomorrow."
"We need to get into the forest tonight, and you agreed to come with us."
"Why? I thought that this was something Twilight wanted to do. If she is too hurt to go, then why are we?"
Welp, time to spill the beans.
"Okay, thing is... I wasn't being entirely honest with you."
"Oh boy, here it comes," she said, rolling her eyes. "Before you get into this, how 'bout we get more comfortable. C'mon in, grab a seat," she said, getting out from in the doorway to allow me entry. "You want anything? Soda, juice maybe?"
"I'll be fine," I said as I walked in. She went back upstairs, probably to get presentable, and I walked into the living room. Rainbow's house was actually pretty cool. It had a sort of old world feel to it, like ancient ruins that had been restored to their original state. There were large columns supporting the second floor, as well as tapestries that covered the walls, depicting large battle scenes.
But I wasn't there to critique the décor. I still had a lot to tell her, and I doubt that she was going to like any of it.
I was just settling onto a couch that seemed to be made entirely out of clouds wrapped in fabric when she came back down. She hadn't done much, just brushed the tangles out of her mane and gotten that general look of sleepiness out of her appearance.
"So," she began, sitting in the chair opposite me, "what is it you need to say?"
"Well, first thing is that this is no archeological expedition."
"Sorta figured that, based on how vague you were being when we talked yesterday."
"Yeah. Anyway, you may want to get comfortable, cause we could be here a while."
"I've got all the time in the world," she said, settling back in her chair. "Shoot."
And so I recounted to her everything, from the day I got here to what had happened at the library. I skipped over most of the boring parts, but gave her the whole picture within about an hour. By the end of it, it looked like her head was about to explode.
"Alright, let me wrap my brain around this," she said holding up one hoof. "You appeared here about two weeks ago. You have no idea how you got here, and only a few memories to guide you."
"Yep."
"Also, that necklace Twilight got is connected to you somehow, and there is a crazy unicorn out in the forest who you think wants it really bad. Bad enough to try and take it by force."
"That pretty much sums it up."
"And you didn't speak up sooner BECAUSE?"
"I had really wanted to keep this between Fluttershy and I, but I guess that cat's out of the bag."
"What else are you hiding, huh? Are you really a unicorn? Are you even a pony or what?"
"Listen, Rainbow-"
"No, YOU listen." she interjected, getting out of her chair. "I can understand why you lied to Fluttershy, you were just trying to protect her, but why did you have to lie to me? Were you ever planning on telling me, or was the incident at the library just a catalyst?"
"It wasn't anything like that. I was planning on telling you, but what happened just accelerated the process."
"Well, no matter who-or what-you are," she said with an accusatory glance, "I agreed to help, and I don't back out on a promise. Let me just get some stuff together and I'll meet you outside." She turned and galloped back upstairs, but I could tell she was peeved. Good thing her sense of loyalty was keeping her from backing out on this.
She came back downstairs five minutes later carrying her saddlebags, which appeared to be full to bursting, and with two rainbow colored stripes on her cheeks, just under the eyes.
"Well, are you just going to stand there, or are we going to get moving?" Her normally upbeat demeanor was cloaked under a cloud of cynicism, and I'm not quite sure I liked that aspect of her personality.
But who was I to judge? I'm just a compulsive liar.
"After you," I replied. We both took off, flying out the door. She maintained a quick pace, and I struggled just to keep up. It's almost like she was trying to lose me, trying to get out of my presence.
And who could blame her?
===============
We got to the part of the forest that borders the cottage at 11, thanks to the murderous pace that Rainbow kept while we were flying over. I was winded when we touched down and sat to catch my breath while Rainbow went over to talk to Fluttershy. She was probably venting about how I had kept her in the dark, but Fluttershy was good at calming ponies down.
After catching my breath, I went over to them, hoping that Rainbow had simmered down a little.
"Listen, I understand that he didn't want anypony getting hurt on this little expedition, but if I'm supposed to be a bodyguard then I have a right to know what's going on!"
Nope, she hadn't.
"Rainbow, I know that you're mad," said Fluttershy, in that same consoling voice she had used when I dislocated my wing, "and I was really mad when I found out too. I wanted to throttle him when I found out that he had lied to me. However, over time, I began to see things as he had probably meant them, and I could see why he wanted to keep this hidden. He was just trying to protect me, and he was just trying to protect you, too."
"For your information, I can protect myself just fine, thank you very much."
"And I'm certain that Twilight thought the same," I interjected, wanting to bring an end to this before it tore us apart. "But just look at what happened to her."
"Yeah, well that may as well have been your fault too," said Rainbow, getting up in my face. "If you hadn't insisted on going over there and fiddling around with that necklace, she probably wouldn't have been made a target. No matter which way you slice it, this is YOUR FAULT!!"
"Look, Rainbow, I never meant-"
"Yeah, well a fat lot of good what you MEANT did for Twilight. She's laid up, and it all comes down to you meddling in things that weren't any of your business."
"It was my business, that dream-"
"Oh yes, that dream," she said, in massive sarcasm, "THAT DREAM! How do you know that that wasn't just a dream, huh? How do you know that-"
"RAINBOW!!!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs, tired of being constantly interrupted, "I GET IT! I understand that this all comes down to me and my actions, and that Twilight's hurt because of me! I get that this may just be a wild goose chase! I get that I'm putting all of us in danger because of little more than a hunch! I GET IT, alright!? The last thing I need is YOU getting up in my face about this."
"No, that is EXACTLY what you need! You need somepony to bring you back down to the ground, to get you thinking straight again! You've been getting all worked up over nothing!"
"Is what happened to Twilight NOTHING!? Is what happened to the cottage noth-"
"QUIIIIEEETTT!!!" screamed Fluttershy, who until now had been silent. We both turned in shock at the unexpected third voice in this argument.
"Both of you, stop it RIGHT NOW! This constant infighting is going to tear us apart! Rainbow, you're probably right. Evan should have been more open with us from the get go about this whole thing."
"You're dang right I'm right," she said, throwing a dirty look to me.
"But that is no reason to throw the blame for everything that has happened since right on him. He couldn't have known that Twilight would be attacked any more than you could've. He did all that he could to protect her, even risking his life to fight off that unicorn that was torturing her. She also forgave him for getting her involved in this, or didn't he tell you?"
"Well, no," said Rainbow, her expression changing from rage to embarrassment. "He sort of skipped over that when he was giving me the abridged version of recent events."
"Well, she did. And if Twilight could forgive him, despite everything that happened to her, then I'm pretty sure that you can."
"But he-"
"Rainbow," said Fluttershy menacingly.
"*sigh*... I'm sorry, alright," she said to me begrudgingly.
"Sorry for what?" asked Fluttershy, arching one eyebrow.
"I'm sorry that I snapped like I did."
"And?"
"... And that I placed all the blame for this on you. I realize that you were just trying to help, and I was wrong to get so upset over it."
"Apology accepted," I said, giving Rainbow a quick hug, which she reluctantly returned. "And let me just say that I will try to be more open with you about things like this, as long as they won't get anypony hurt."
"Good job, both of you," said Fluttershy, getting out of mother-disciplinig-her-children mode. "Now back to the matter at hand."
"Right." I said "Do we have everything that we're going to need?"
"Yep. I've got all of the medical supplies and food that we're going to need."
"And I brought two pup tents, just in case we have to stop and set up camp," added Rainbow, shaking her saddlebags.
"Alright. And courtesy of Rarity, I have three sleeping bags packed into my own saddlebags. Well, let's get this over with. Ladies first," I said, gesturing to the entrance to the forest.
"Age before beauty," replied Rainbow Dash, mimicking my gesture.
"Oh, alright, little-miss-wisenheimer."
And thus I took my first steps into the Everfree Forest.
A bit anti-climactic, if you ask me.