Journal: Today is the third day of being in Stalliongrad. On the day we arrived I found that the new steel I’m searching for is in fact rare. It is made somewhere in Northern Equestria, but the smiths were not sure of where, the steel comes to them in bars from a wandering trader. After that I was quite literally forced to take a trip to the spa. I’ll have to be more thorough with my bathing for now on to avoid the spa. While the scrubbing with soft brushes did feel good, it was unnerving to be the only stallion in there receiving treatment. Yesterday we made a decision to stay for three days starting yesterday and afterwards to head to Dappleshore, the cider capital of Equestria. I then spent the day with Applejack. We went to the outskirts of the city to find out more about the food grown here. That took all day. It’s weird but I can feel myself becoming more self-conscious when Applejack is around. What is going on with me?
Now done writing I head down to have pancakes for breakfast. The girls are all eating, even Rarity. Did I sleep in? While eating we discuss what the groups for today will be. It’s decided that Rainbow and Applejack will go together; then Rarity and Fluttershy; with Twilight, Pinkie, and I being a group. Once we split up Pinkie says “Can we go to a cake shop I spotted yesterday?”
Twilight asks her “Why didn’t you go then?”
“Because yesterday was cold weather clothes shopping! I didn’t want to get cake on brand new clothes! Rarity would have been very upset!”
I now say “I don’t see why not, I won’t be eating any though.” Pinkie just bounces happily a few times then drags Twilight and I at top speed to the shop.
Walking inside the aroma of fresh cake is amazing. Even though I had just eaten I was visibly drooling…as was Twilight and Pinkie. I can tell it’s taking all of Pinkie’s willpower to not bite into a cake. Can’t say I blame her. The baker walks over “Welcome to my store. Would you like sample?” All three of us nod. “I take it this will be your first cake in Stalliongrad. Lets see…” He starts going over the types of cakes he has “Chocolate burst, Vanilla blast, Chocolate mousse, Strawberry, Raspberry, marble…” He continues to name cakes. By the end there must have been a river of saliva dripping from us. “Haha, I can see you like. Here, try Chocolate mousse.” As I bite into the cake I can’t believe how good it is. The rich taste of the cake is complemented by an incredibly smooth frosting. Then I taste a little bit of something else, I can’t place it but it accentuates the flavor.
After Pinkie finishes her piece of cake she just falls backwards with a gigantic smile on her face and her leg twitching. I look at Twilight “Does this usually happen?”
Twilight just giggles “I haven’t seen it but judging by her smile I’m pretty sure she’s fine.”
Pinkie stays on the floor “I’m more than fine Twilight. That cake was amazing.”
The baker laughs “I’m glad you like. You want to buy?”
“You bet! I’ll take two Chocolate Mousse cakes!” As we leave the store Twilight and I are each magically carrying a cake.
I say “The other girls are gonna be surprised. This cake is amazing, though what was the other flavor mixed in the batter? I couldn’t place it.”
Pinkie says “Oh that was a splash of mint!”
Getting back to the hotel we leave the cakes in the girls’ room and head to the library. On the way I spot a poster. Smirking I say “I know where Applejack and Rainbow went.” I get quizzical look from Twilight and Pinkie so I point at the poster.
Twilight responds “Oh fun, this’ll turn into another competition though.” Now it’s my turn to give Twilight a quizzical look. “Well, for as long as I’ve known them Applejack and Rainbow Dash have been competing to see who the most athletic pony is.”
“Oh sweet, so do you want to go watch them compete?”
“Nah, I’ll pass for today. There are still quite a few books I want to read.”
Once in the library the three of us find different books. Twilight has a history book, Pinkieis reading about sweets, and I found a book about northern Equestria. Around noon we break for lunch but come straight back to read. I’m engrossed with this book. I now understand why the Northern cities would want a stronger metal, they have a warrior culture. For the past 500 years they’ve been competing with another over the strength of their ponies. And of course their arms and armor are strength tested. Unfortunately the book has no mention of crucible steel, the book dates back 10 years,
The book took about 5 hours to read. As I put the book down, Rainbow slams open the doors, spots us and hides under our table. I’m about to ask what’s up but a group of ponies walks into the library, and they look like they mean business. The group consists of 8 stallions; 5 earth ponies, 2 pegasi, and a unicorn. They walk around holding a picture and asking “Have you seen this Pony?” When they reach our table I see that the picture is of Rainbow Dash.
When they ask, I answer “Haven’t seen her.”
They look me over once and the Unicorn says “You look new in town so I guess you don’t know who we are.”
"Not a clue.”
“Let me clue you in. We are the Carya Family and what we say goes. We own City. You’d do well to cooperate.”
“Fine, first tell me why you’re looking for her.”
“We own her.”
“Says who.”
“Says us.”
“I’ll tell you what, I tell you the truth, and you believe the truth. Then you leave.”
“And what is the truth?”
“I haven’t seen her. For all I know she’s miles away.”
“Look pal we saw her enter this library…”
I cut him off, visibly showing agitation “Did you consider that she took the rear exit and fled? In case you didn’t notice we were reading.”
The Unicorn looks at the others “Check the rear exit…NOW!” Now he looks to me “You’re off the hook, this time. See that you don’t cross us, or you might end up dead.”
He leaves through the front doors, and his goons are heading towards the back door. Once they’re all gone, Rainbow attempts to speak up but I hold a hoof to her mouth. I go up to the front door and put my ear to it. I hear “must still be in there. Surround the place. When she comes out we will catch her. Her body will make us millions.”
I think I’m gonna be sick. I walk back to the girls and whisper “We have to get out of here without being seen. These ponies are sick.”
Twilight whispers “One second, I can get us out of here easily.”
Now Twilights horn lights up, and the next thing I know we are in the girls’ room back in the hotel. “Twilight, we need to get Rarity and Fluttershy here as well. We can’t let those sickos get them.” With that, Twilight teleports out. It takes a few minutes for Twilight to return with Fluttershy and Rarity in tow. During This time I’m very nervous and Rainbow curls up into a ball,
Rainbow doesn’t look well at all. I don’t want to but I have to ask “Rainbow, what exactly happened? Why are those ponies after you?”
Poor Rainbow looks really shaky but she says “Everything was going fine at the competition. Applejack and I signed up, and we competed. Every event that we took part in, we took first and second place. At every event we notice that there is this group that is getting…upset. Why? I don’t know. But after the competition is over these men come up to us. They say that we cost them a lot of bits, and to compensate them we were now theirs, and going to use our bodies to pay off our debt. Applejack and I took off. At first we start together, but they catch up to us so we split up. I took to the air while Applejack ran towards the warehouses hoping to lose them there. I knew Twily’s group would be at the library so I flew there without making a sonic rainboom so they couldn’t follow me, and that’s when I ran into you.”
As Rainbow told her story I could feel my anger building. These ponies are scum. And the thought of making a pony a slave just to cover an imaginary debt is despicable. As Rainbow finished her story I can feel my body heating up I’m so mad. I get so mad I think my anger turns cold. I know I’m angry, I’m well beyond pissed off, but I can think straight, and right now I don’t care. We need to save Applejack and beat the ever living hay out of these guys. I look at the girls “Look, we need to find Applejack and we need to find her now. We need to get to the warehouses. Rainbow Dash, I know you’re worried, we all are. But together we can beat these guys. No pony. I mean no pony, sells my friends into the sex trade, let’s go kick some flank.” This cheers Rainbow up and I help her to her hooves.
Leaving the hotel we are met with some of the thugs. They see Rainbow and attempt to grab her but are met with bone breaking telekinetic forces, they don’t get back up. Twilight says “Hey flame, how about you use your fire hooves spell?”
I reply “Not yet, I want to save my energy for the scumbags. Not waste it walking.” As we get to the warehouses the scum try to take us one on one, we take turns knocking them out of commission. They keep trying to stop us until we find Applejack surrounded by 50 thugs. “Twilight we need to get in there NOW!”
I hear “Way ahead of you!” as we’re teleported in front of Applejack.
One of the unicorns recognizes me “Ah the new colt in town. I knew you were hiding something from me. And I see you’ve brought friends. Good. We need more money anyway. But you, we’re going to make you watch, make you suffer. I hope you enjoyed your last free day.”
I can’t contain my anger anymore “So, you’re the kind of pony who makes debt to get your way, sells whoever you have to, to anypony with cash.”
He looks smug “Well yeah…”
“I WASN’T BUCKING FINISHED! You need to disappear. NOW!”
This is met with laughter “So what happens if we don’t just run away? You’ll beat all of us?” I cast my spells, what should have been my hooves igniting became my body igniting in intense flames, red flames on my hooves, blue flames on my body, and white flames in my mane. My strength spell pushes my muscles to the limit. The flames are intense enough to crack the pavement. Of course they laugh “Oh look fire magic, whatever shall we do?”
I look to the girls “We’re not getting out of here unless we all work together.” All six step forward ready to fight.
“I don’t think the boss will mind us roughing up the girls, subdue them all. Leave the hot head alive, he doesn’t know who he’s messing with.”
The leader stay in back and the rest attack all together, starting with unicorn magic. Rarity, Twilight, and I put up a strong barrier, and it blocks all their spells. Once they realize it’s futility they use the mass of pegasi and earth ponies to attack. The battle becomes a brawl. Slowly but surely we are winning. Each blow that comes at me hits but is countered by either bone crushing telekinetic forces or a strengthened fire hoof straight into the chest or head, as I hit I hear bones either crush or shatter and flesh burn. Most of them I hit don’t get back up. I don’t care if they’re dead or not, they don’t deserve any better. I can see years of apple bucking has made Applejack quite strong, she easily takes out anypony who comes at her but she's still taking hits. Rainbow is also fairing quite well, she's easily taking on the pegasi. Rarity is using the surrounding materials as a club. Twilight is releasing a staggering amount of magic at the scum, I’m glad we’re on the same side. Pinkie fights using a party cannon loaded with anything she can find, like grapeshot. Only Fluttershy seems to be having issues but she stays behind and is covering our backs so I don’t mind.
Once the men start thinning out I head straight to the leader, ignoring any hooves coming at me, he’s NOT getting away. As I reach him he tries to run. I don’t let him get the chance as I teleport to him, knock him down, and start pummeling. At this point I so consumed with rage I don’t know how many times I deliver crushing blows and burns to him. Even when my spells wear out from a lack of energy I keep pummeling. It takes Applejack latching on to my leg to snap me out of it. When I look at the unicorn, he’s still alive. But he’ll never be the same again. Looking at Applejack I see she’s crying and covered in hoof marks, and she says “That’s enough Flame. That’s enough, ya don’t have to kill him, ah’m just glad yall came ta save me.” With that I’m pulled into a hug. Within her embrace I can feel myself calming down. So I in turn embrace her “When Rainbow told me about these guys, I just wanted to know you were safe Applejack. (I can feel her tears run down my back) I’m so sorry you had to go through something like this. But it won’t happen again. I won’t let it.” As I say those last words I tighten my hug and Applejack does the same.
That’s when it hit me. Now I know why I’m so self-conscious around Applejack. Now I understand why I worry how she views me. I care for this pony. I want her to be safe. I want her to be happy. But most of all, I want to be the one to make her happy, to keep her safe, to soothe her when she’s upset. But now isn’t the best time to confess when there are unconscious or dead thugs all around us. I don’t want to let go of her. Rainbow speaks up “Look I’d hate to ruin the moment but we have to get out of here and back to the hotel, I don’t know how many more we can fight.” Slowly Applejack and I release each other, only to lean against one another while walking back. The fight took a lot out of all of us so the walk back is slow and silent. We’re all physically spent from the fight. Looking at us we are all covered in growing bruises. Twilight seemed to have fared the best, I guess being an alicorn has its advantages.
After a 45 minute walk we’re at the hotel. Once there we’re so tired we all head back to our rooms. As I’m about to go into my room “Uh Flame, do ya mind if ah join you.”
“Not at all Applejack, come on in.”
As we enter my room “Thanks Flame. ah have something to talk to ya about. Ah’m sorry ah made ya worry about me. I didn’t know it would…”
I silence her with a hoof “Applejack, you have nothing to be sorry about. Those ponies were not truly ponies, they were the lowest of the low and they deserved what they got today. You had no way to predict they would try what they did.”
Applejack looks to be on the verge of tears “But that’s not all I have to say. When you were fighting with us, when you were putting yourself at risk, it made me happy to know you’d do anything to protect us.”
I lift her head so she’s looking at me “Applejack, I realized something when I was fighting today. All of you are my friends, and I’d do anything to keep all of you safe. (This garners a weak smile from Applejack) But after you stopped me I realized something else, I care for you Applejack. I want you to be safe; I want you to be happy, more than that I want to be there for you. It just took a while to get through my thick skull. Applejack, will you be my special somepony?”
At this she launches herself into a hug “Yes ah will Flame, let’s just take this slow. No sense in rushing.”
“I agree. I don’t want to ruin this. How about we go to sleep? You’ve had a rough day.”
“Sleep sounds good, just remember, no funny business.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything. I promise.” So Applejack and I crawl into bed and fall asleep in each other’s embrace. For how bad this day could have been, I’m glad it ended up like this. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, than with Applejack. I can’t believe how thick headed I was to not realize it sooner.