Before long, the entire populace of Ponyville had arrived at Sweet Apple Acres seeking food and warmth. Me, AJ, Flutters, Pinkie, Rare, and Rainbow passed out apples to all the ponies, who thanked us before heading over to warm themselves by the bonfires.
“Thanks fer helpin’ me out with this you guys,” I stated, gratefully.
“Oh it’s really no problem at all, dearie,” Rarity replied. “Doing all this on your own would’ve been just a nightmare to handle.”
“We’re more than happy to help you out,” Fluttershy answered with a smile.
“Of course," Rainbow Dash agreed, passing out another apple to a grateful pony. "No pony should ever have to go it alone on anything.”
“Ain’t that tha truth,” Applejack remarked. “Ah had ta learn that lesson tha hard way when Ah wouldn’t let Twilight or anypony else help me out with Applebuckin’ season when Ah was tryin’ ta do that 'n help out ev’rypony else at tha same time. Tha only thing goin’ it alone led ta was exhaustion, injuries, 'n cupcakes with worms in ‘em.”
“Ugh,” Rainbow protested with a look of disgust on her face, “don’t remind me about those cupcakes. I’ll never get that taste out of my mouth.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I remembered that episode.
“One thing we could always count on was that Twi would always be there fer us when we really needed her,” Applejack commented.
A look of sadness then came across the faces of all five of them.
“Hey,” I started, “ev’rythin’s gonna be fine. Princess Twilight 'n tha others will wake up soon 'n, ‘til then, Ah’ll do ev’rythin’ in ma power ta make sure no harm comes ta any pony.”
This appeared to lift their spirits ever soo slightly as they slowly smiled and came over to hug me. After the group hug and with all the ponies served, we grabbed our own apples and headed over to a bonfire. Pinkie soon got an idea.
“Hey I’ve got an idea,” she announced, “why don’t we tell each other stories to pass the time.”
“Great idea, Pinkie,” I replied.
“Thanks, Davey.”
I smiled at this newly reborn nickname that she had christened me with as we all settled in around the fire to tell our stories.
* * * * * * * *
“…and so, soon afterwards, I found Fluttershy living in Ponyville and, since I was the only real pony friend that she had at the time, I decided to move from Cloudsdale to Ponyville with her. It just so happened that the day I moved to Ponyville was also my birthday,” Rainbow Dash finished up her story.
“Wow that was a really cool 'n interestin’ story, Rainbow,” I commented before taking a bite out of a Golden Delicious.
“Thanks.”
Many hours had passed by with many ponies telling stories of their own personal adventures or life experiences. From Octavia’s first symphony to Derpy’s latest escapade with Doctor Whooves, there was no shortage of interesting stories to go around.
“What about you, David?” Fluttershy asked. “What kind of story do you have?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow remarked, “I think we’d all like to know what it’s like in your world where you come from.”
“Ah know Ah certainly would.” AJ stated.
“Me too,” Rarity replied.
“Me four!” Pinkie beamed.
I smiled at Pinkie’s response as many other ponies expressed their interest in knowing about this world that I came from. What story would I tell them, though? Numerous stories flashed through my mind, some more personal than others. Should I tell them about how I got my love for singing from Backstreet Boys concerts? Ha, they wouldn’t even know who the hell they were. I sure as fuck wasn’t gonna tell them about when I wound up in a psychiatric ward. They’d probably be terrified shitless. Finally I came up with a story that I figured was safe enough. The only question was how I would tell it to them.
“O.K.,” I started. “So where Ah come from, we have these things called ‘conventions’. They’re basically these huge gatherin's where people from all over come ta celebrate tha arts. Everythin' from music ta movies ta TV shows ta even literature, includin’ comic books.”
“Wow,” Spike commented, “comic books are considered art where you’re from?”
“Oh yeah. Definitely. Tha comic book industry has been hugely successful ever since nearly a century ago when it first started in America. Uh… where Ah’m from.”
“That’s amazing.”
“So anyways, Ah was at ma first convention ever called Tha Midwest Media Expo. Ah had specifically come there ta see this one specific group who Ah had won a free weekend pass for tha Expo from, but there was one girl in particular from that group who Ah was a huge fan of both her voice actin’ work 'n her singin'. Her name was Meredith.
“So on ma first day of tha Expo, Ah was buyin’ some items from a vendor table 'n who else should walk up ta me but Meredith. Ah tell ya, Ah was, as we like ta say, fangirlin’ out soo hardcore, Ah was soo excited ta finally be meetin’ her. We got ta talk several more times over tha course of that weekend. Ah told my girlfriend about how Ah met her 'n she was super jealous of me.”
“Savannah Grace wasn’t it?” Fluttershy questioned.
“Yeah or jus' Savannah; she's such a huge fan of Meredith's, like me. But anyways, ta this day, that memory is still a personal favorite of mine.”
“I’ll bet it was,” Rainbow Dash remarked excitedly. “I mean, getting to meet someone like this Meredith who you've been a fan of that much must've been huge for you. It reminds me of when I first got to meet the Wonderbolts.”
“Ah’m sure it would.” I stated with a smile before taking another bite out of my apple and looking at my watch. “Whoa 9:30. Ya guys should get some sleep. Ah’ll stay up 'n keep tha fires burnin’.”
“I should probably be heading back to the castle in case Twilight wakes up,” Rainbow stated.
“You do that Dashie.”
With a smile on her face towards me, she swiftly flew off towards the castle. Many of the ponies then started to get settled in for the night. Fluttershy walked over to me and I let her lay her head down on my lap, for which she was grateful. I stroked her mane delicately until I heard her soft, gentle snoring and smiled. It wasn't long after she fell asleep that Applejack walked up and sat down next to me.
"Ah'm not sure if Ah ever asked ya, but do ya have any family back home?" Applejack asked.
"Ya didn't, but Ah do," I replied. "It's me, ma mom, ma dad, ma sister, 'n ma four brothers 'n that's only countin' immediate family."
Applejack let out an impressed whistle.
"Ya sure do come from quite tha large family, much like me. 'N you said that yer tha oldest of yer siblings?"
"Sure did."
It was then that Applejack looked at Fluttershy resting her head on my lap and smiled.
"She sure seems ta like ya."
"It appears so."
"It's just kinda funny seein her like this with you. Fluttershy don't typically warm up ta strangers this fast."
"She was pretty timid when Ah first met her, but, back home, Ah have no real problem makin new friends. People, 'n Ah guess even ponies, find me very approachable 'n amiable."
"Seems that way. When ev'rypony learned ya weren't here ta cause harm, they all seemed drawn to ya."
"When Ah was little, ma sister, Rebekah, would often lay her head on ma lap 'n fall asleep as Ah stroked her hair, much like with Fluttershy now. Me 'n ma sister are about 2 years apart in age so we were close growin up..."
Applejack sensed my trailing off.
"But?" she asked.
"But then work happened. She'd be workin' six days a week, sleepin in on her one day off, 'n it became harder fer us ta spend time together. After a while, we jus... drifted apart. Now she's gonna be movin away in a few months. Possibly ferever."
"Maybe ya should tell her how ya feel when ya get back ta where yer from. Let her know how important she is ta ya as a sister. Ah know Ah'd do tha same if Ah was in yer situation with Apple Bloom. Ya don't wanna wait til it's already too late or you'll jus find yerself full of regret."
I slowly smiled at Applejack.
"Ah guess yer right."
"Well Ah guess Ah'd better hit tha hay."
"Ha," I laughed. "Ah get it. Cuz yer a pony 'n ponies like hay."
"Yup," Applejack chuckled. "That's what Ah meant."
"Nice pun."
"Thanks."
"G'night AJ."
"Night Dayvid. See ya tomorrow."
And with that, Applejack headed over to join her family, leaving me by myself. As I was obviously going to be up for a while keeping the fires burning, I pulled out the spellbook and began looking over the many different spells inside, memorizing as much as I could and even practicing a few that I knew wouldn’t disturb the other ponies. A couple hours passed as I read the book while occasionally refreshing the fires every half hour. Suddenly, I saw movement off to my right. Looking over, it was Spike coming towards me.
“I can take over as fire keeper while you get some sleep,” Spike told me.
“Oh no Spike.”-I shook my head-“Ya need yer rest.”
“I’ve already gotten plenty of rest and you need it too. You’re the savior. There’s no point in you saving us if you’re too tired.”
I realized there was no point in arguing with him and reluctantly agreed. As I shifted to lie down on my back, Fluttershy stirred briefly and wrapped her forelegs around my torso.
“No David…,” she murmured in her sleep with a twinge of fear and panic, “please… don’t go.”
Realizing that she was still feeling nervous even in her sleep, I reached out to touch her mane and wings, stroking them tenderly to offer comfort and calm her down. It worked as a smile slowly crept across her face and she let out a contented sigh.
“Don’t cha worry, Flutters,” I whispered softly with a smile. “Ah ain’t leavin’ nopony.”
And with those final words, I slowly drifted off to sleep, not knowing what would happen later that very night.
* * * * * * * *
I was only asleep for 2-3 hours before I started to hear screams of panic and Spike calling out my name.
“David!” he shouted. “David you need to get up! The golems are coming!”
At the mention of the golems, I sprung up immediately, looking around for wherever they were coming from. In the distance, I saw fire glowing, but this wasn’t from the bonfires. It was the golems.
Getting my first look at them, they were terrifying to behold. Large hulking beings with stony skins, long, razor-sharp fangs and claws that glistened in the firelight, twisted horns on top of their heads, flames glowing from their open mouths, and, even more terrifying, no eyes; just open holes from which hellfire burned reminding me of the nightmare I had just the other night.
I knew that the first thing I needed to do was get the ponies to safety. Looking at the barn, I knew that it could hold a large amount of ponies without a problem.
“O.K.,” I shouted, “everypony head for the barn. Mares and foals first.”
Everypony ran for the barn without hesitation. With the ponies out of harm’s way, I could focus on the immediate threat of the golems. Realizing that they were made of stone and fire, I knew that I could use water against them as it both extinguishes fire and erodes rock. Remembering a hydrokinetic spell I had read earlier, I concentrated hard, trying to extract water from the air. I was able to produce several liquid tendrils which I then directed at the golems.
“Here. Have a drink,” I laughed with a wicked smile on my face.
The tendrils entered the flaming eyes and mouths of several golems, putting them out of commission. I then directed the tendrils towards more golems before freezing them, impaling the golems on icy spikes. As I was focusing on those golems, I noticed that several got past me and started heading for the barn.
“Oh no you don’t, bitches!”
Punching the earth, I caused a chasm to open up, swallowing them whole before closing. I then realized that I needed to erect a protection spell on the barn to prevent them from harming the ponies. Once that was established, I turned my attention back to the approaching golems.
I began throwing everything I could at them from impaling them on ice or rock spikes to bashing them with giant rock fists that I summoned from the ground, but no matter how many I defeated, their number was seemingly infinite. I could quickly feel my energy draining from me as I struggled to stand my ground against the onslaught. The golems seemed to notice my frail state as they charged me with full force.
The one leading the charge swung his fist at me, sending me flying headfirst into a nearby tree. My head erupted with explosions ringing in my ears. The last thing I remembered was the golems charging the barn as the protection spell wore off and then darkness.
* * * * * * * *
I came to countless hours later with a pounding in my head. Placing my right hand on my forehead, I felt something warm, wet, and sticky. Sure enough, when I pulled my hand back, it was caked in fresh blood. I then remembered the other ponies and how the golems had gone towards the barn when the protection spell went down, but I couldn’t go and tend to them since I was in no position to be up and about. This I planned to rectify swiftly. Thinking hard about the healing spell that I had read about the night before (and worsening my headache in the process), I healed my head injury, mostly; there was still a slight throbbing numbness that I felt as I struggled to get to my feet. Looking around, I was shocked by the horror I saw before me.
The Apple family’s barn had been completely demolished, ponies were lying around all over with various injuries, and all the apples that me and AJ had worked soo hard to harvest and store up just the other day were now either trampled or burnt. Judging by the sky, it must’ve been about late afternoon by this point. I then made my way over to the other ponies, healing them as I went. All the while I was completely shaken and horrified by the wanton destruction surrounding me. How could someone be soo cold, unfeeling, and heartless as to inflict this sort of trauma upon countless innocents? The longer I thought about it, the harder it was for me to come up with an answer to my own question.
Suddenly, I heard a cry of pain and fear come from the collapsed barn.
“Somepony! Anypony! Please… don’t just leave me here!” a familiar voice panicked.
Fluttershy.
I then ran as fast as I could to the wreckage without overexerting myself and clawed my way through the planks, ignoring the fact that I was getting splinters under my nails as I dug. Finally, I cleared a plank away to reveal a trembling Fluttershy underneath. The first thing that I noticed was that one of her wings had been impaled by a wooden beam, pinning her in place and staining her cream feathers red. Her face was marked with dirt from where tears must’ve been and she was also hyperventilating from the trauma.
“David! Please! It! Really! Hurts!” she uttered between breaths and tears.
The pain in her voice broke my heart inside, but I knew I needed to be strong for her. First thing I had to do was calm her down.
“O.K. I’m gonna get you out of here and fix you up. What I need ya ta do is ta keep your eyes on me and stay calm. Ya think you can do that, Fluttershy?”
She nodded nervously, trying to get her breathing more under control. I then gripped the beam with a firm hand, placing my other hand gently on Fluttershy’s impaled wing to hold it in place.
“O.K., Fluttershy. I’m gonna do this as gently as possible. Just keep your eyes on my face, a’ight?”
“O.K.,” she replied, trying to be brave.
I then, with a firm grip on the beam, began to slowly pull it out of her wing. Fluttershy let out a scream of pain as the beam came out little by little. It hurt me to hear her like this, but I knew it had to be done. After about 5 seconds, the beam was out. I then used my healing spell on her wing, which healed up nicely. After she was healed, she hugged me for comfort and I did the best I could to soothe her after this traumatic experience.
“Shh. It’s O.K. It’s O.K.,” I whispered to her as she wept, “It’s over now. What’s past is past. You’re gonna be fine.”
She didn’t see this while we were embracing but, in that moment, tears ran down my face also. Not just for her, but for all the ponies who had suffered through this tragedy.
“The others,” Fluttershy gasped. “They were in the opposite corner when the barn collapsed.”
Stopping the embrace, the two of us ran over to what used to be the far corner of the barn. The debris there was even worse than the corner I found Fluttershy in. I quickly dug through the splintered wood to reveal Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie lying underneath with eyes closed. Looking at them, I relaxed when I could make out steady breathing from all three of them.
“They’re just unconscious,” I told Fluttershy. “They’ll come to eventually.”
“Oh thank Celestia,” she replied with a sigh of relief.
I then pulled all three of them out of the rubble to a clear area where they could stay til they came to. After moving them, I saw the other ponies heading towards me with unhappy looks on their faces.
“So ‘savior’ what’s your plan now?” Snips mocked.
“Oh please,” Diamond Tiara laughed, “as if any plan he has would be a good idea.”
“Can’t you guys see he’s trying his best?” Fluttershy defended. “He just found out he was the savior two days ago.”
“And he’s been doing such a bang up job since then,” Snails scoffed.
“Where will our food come from now?” Trixie questioned sadly.
“What if the golems come back?” Mrs. Cake asked, nervously. “How will we keep our children safe?”
“How do we even know that you’re the real savior?” Silver Spoon shouted.
The entire crowd then erupted simultaneously in even more questions that I had no answer for. All of their voices combined reflected the same emotions as their faces. Anger, sadness, fear, doubt, some voices were even full of venom, hatred, and spite. With all these voices overwhelming me and not a clue as to how I would help them, I turned and ran away. I had no idea where I would go, what I would do, I just ran, wishing that I could just wake up from this nightmare that I was trapped inside.
"David, wait," Fluttershy called out to me.
I heard her, but I just blocked it out. I already had numerous other thoughts going through my head at the time. When would this end? How much longer would these ponies rely on me? Would I ever get back home? These questions and more plagued me as I just kept running, wishing more than anything for answers in this time of uncertainty.
* * * * * * * *
I ran for several minutes until I came to a hilltop. Feeling like I couldn’t run anymore, I collapsed at its peak and remained there for several hours in silence as the sun set in the distance. With night upon me, the wintery chill swept in as it started to snow. I didn’t care about the bitter cold. I didn’t care if I froze to death out here. Death would be better and more welcome than living in this nightmare.
“I can’t be their savior,” I finally spoke to myself, sadly. “I just… can't. Who am I, an insignificant speck in the universe, that I was chosen to be their savior, their Messiah,… their Jesus? I never asked for any of this. This is too large of a burden for just one person to handle.”
I then looked up at the full moon as the snowflakes fell softly around me. With a heavy heart full of insecurity and humility, I did something that I hadn’t done in a long while: I prayed.
“God? Princesses? Someone? I’m not sure if you can hear me all the way out here… but if you can, I come to you with one request. Please… I… I just want this all to end.”
Tears slowly began to stream down my face as my voice cracked.
“I care too much for these ponies to see them suffer like this. My heart breaks for them and the suffering they have to go through… and I feel soo worthlessly inadequate… to be this savior that they looked up to me as. Please, I beg of you… take this burden away from me.”
Suddenly, I heard a faint noise in the distance. I couldn’t quite make out what it was until I listened closer to hear that it was screams of horror. At that moment, I heard the voices of everypony ringing in my head. Jumping up, I ran like the wind in the direction of their screams. Their voices all said the same three words that struck fear and worry into my heart for every last one of them. It’s the hag.