//------------------------------//
// 2: A Firewood Problem 
// Story: Seeing Sanguine 
// by Winged Cat 
//------------------------------//

Sanguine walked the rest of the way, folding and stretching her long wings back along her flanks to obscure her cutie mark.  That had been too close.

The walk to Fluttershy's cottage was a long one - Sanguine was soon reminded why she preferred to fly everywhere, zipping about here and there on the winds.  Even when the journey took a while even while flying, one needed merely spread one's wings and hold them there, instead of picking up and putting back down each hoof, over and over again.  But each time she thought to fly, she immediately considered what would happen if any pony saw her mark.  Slow walking in peace was far superior, in her opinion, to being the target of a lynch mob.  Still, at least her gut said she was heading the right direction.

Eventually she reached a short bridge over a river, and just beyond it, what at first glance looked like the largest shrub Sanguine had ever seen, atop a "hill" that was only slightly taller than she was.  One with a front door at the end of the path leading to it.  And windows.  And...were those bird houses in its upper reaches?  Those were definitely natural leaves - evergreen of some sort - covering it, preventing her from seeing the walls, unless somehow the leaves were the walls - unlikely.  Looking close, she saw what might be small caves at the base of the hill - subterranean entrances?  But too small for a pony.  Regardless, the smooth stone path lead right to the front, so she followed it and-

Something caught her eye off to the side.  Looking that way, she saw what was presumably the Everfree Forest.  There was not much of a border: a few bushes, then a line of trees, then enough trees to quickly block line of sight further inside, though here and there along the tree wall she saw the beginnings of meandering paths.  It was the kind of edge that left you either in or out of the forest, no middle ground.  Far behind the forest, a ridge of mountains pushed up at the sky, tinged purple by what was undoubtedly many miles of sky between herself and them; even if not for the trees, Sanguine was fairly certain the mountains' bases would be below the horizon and not visible from here.  Turning her eyes back to the forest, something...something was inside, she knew, though she saw no movement, no strange lights, nothing but the trees standing as they undoubtedly had for centuries.  The trees seemed a bit chaotic - what some ponies would call "spooky"; a bit of observation suggested this was partly because many of the trees had short, withered lower limbs, perhaps eaten away by the forest's residents and not grown back after the current forest canopy had grown in.  Her instincts called for her to go in - but that was not what she had been ordered to do.  Strangling down her gut, she turned back to the door and knocked.

The door soon opened, but just a crack.  Sanguine thought she smelled musk from inside.  "Yes?" came a timid voice from somewhere beyond the door.

Sanguine frowned.  Surely this could not be the bravest pony in Ponyville.  "Are you Fluttershy?"

"I, err, y-yes?" she squeaked.

Sanguine looked behind her, trying to locate the source of Fluttershy's fear, but gave up after a quarter minute of fruitless searching.  "A letter for you, from Princess Celestia."  She offered the letter through the crack.

Fluttershy - or some pony inside, but Sanguine assumed it to be Fluttershy - took it and quickly read.  "...sentence...one week...may return...I don't have a firewood problem."

Sanguine looked around, but did not immediately see where this cottage stored its firewood.  "Maybe Princess Celestia was misinformed.  May I come in?"

"Oh...w-well, if Celestia says I need to teach you something..."  The door opened the rest of the way, admitting more of that musk scent.  Inside was a cream-yellow pegasus with the pinkest mane Sanguine had yet seen.  The building was indeed of wooden construction, with mostly pink and green furnishings...and a mousehole, Sanguine noted - no, two, but exactly shaped as if they were meant to be there.  For a moment, she wondered if the owner of this place toyed with shrinking spells, but the bags of birdseed in one corner of the room quickly explained: whoever lived here tended to small animals, perhaps the town's veterinarian.  Little chutes and conveniences for smaller creatures were here and there; this was a house shared with a small herd.

And it would apparently be her home for the next while.  Sanguine walked through the doorway, looking about, but eyes finally resting on Fluttershy.  "So...do I call you Master?"

Fluttershy twitched, backing away.  "What?"

"You're not the first one she's had me 'tend to'."  Sanguine looked over Fluttershy, eying her to try to discern what manner of torture the other pegasus was likely to put her through.  "I'm yours for the week, and then until you release me."

"Uh...but..." Fluttershy stammered, "I don't need a servant.  Youcangoifyouwant."

Sanguine shook her head.  "Not for a week, if I want to live.  That's the choice I've earned: do what Celestia says, or..."

"..."  Fluttershy looked at the letter again.  "O-okay.  Then, just call me Fluttershy.  What did you do?"

Sanguine's heart sank.  She had been dreading this.  On the way to Ponyville she had tried to think of many ways to segue into the topic, some way to introduce it gently...but none had come to mind, and the topic had now been broached.  Best to just deal with it.  "I killed ponies."  She raised her wings, letting Fluttershy get a good look at her cutie mark: a pony head, severed at the neck to a bloody stump.

"..."  Fluttershy's eyes went wide.

Sighing, Sanguine continued, "So, Celestia said-"

"Get out," Fluttershy interrupted.

"Uhh..."  Sanguine blinked.

Fluttershy frowned and pointed at the door.  "Get out.  Now.  I don't know who put you up to this but this joke is not funny."

"It's no-"

"OUT!"  Fluttershy roared, seeming twice as large for a moment.

Logic faltered and survival instinct took over.  Sanguine found herself scurrying out the door before she knew what was happening.

"AND STAY OUT!"  Fluttershy chucked the crumpled letter at Sanguine before slamming the door.

Slowly, rationality seeped back into Sanguine's mind.  She worked up courage, then knocked on the door.

"GO AWAY!"

Sanguine sighed.  At least Fluttershy was not organizing a lynch mob - Sanguine hoped.  Then again, perhaps she was organizing all her little critters to surround Sanguine and inflict a death of many cuts.

Which would be kinder than what Celestia would do if Sanguine ran away.

"I can't," Sanguine eventually replied.

"NOT!  FUNNY!"  Sanguine heard Fluttershy panting on the far side of the door - her anger must be cooling off.  "The prank is over.  You can leave now."  But there was still steel in Fluttershy's voice.

"It's not a prank," Sanguine protested.  "I wish it was."

"Who put you up to this?" Fluttershy demanded.  "Forging Celestia's letters is a crime, you know!"

"It's not forged!  And if I leave before the week's up..."

After a moment, Fluttershy prompted, "Yes?"

"Look, look," Sanguine offered.  "If you don't want me inside I'll stay right here for the week and then we can tell Celestia I was here all week.  Alright?"

"No, that is not alright."  Fluttershy cracked the door a bit.  "Do you have any other way to prove it?"

Sanguine hung her head.  "...o-only one.  And...and I really really don't want to...k-k...k-ill..."  She squeezed her eyes shut.

Fluttershy frowned, but her resolve quickly melted when she saw tears beginning to form on Sanguine's eyelids.  She opened the door, walked out, and hugged Sanguine.  "Shh.  It's okay.  But even if you're telling the truth, why would she send you to me?"

"I don't know.  All I know about you is what's on that letter.  I...I figured you must have something, some special skill."  Sanguine looked at Fluttershy's flank, examining her cutie mark: a trio of pink butterflies.  She was a handler of small animals, alright.

"If Celestia sent you..."  Fluttershy considered.  "Oh!  Maybe Twilight knows something!  Let's go ask her!"

Sanguine blinked.  "Twilight?  I've heard that name before, but where..."

Fluttershy giggled.  "Twilight Sparkle.  She's only Celestia's favorite student!  Her special talent is magic itself.  She's saved Equestria many times!"

Sanguine nodded.  "That's right!  Bearer of the Elements of Harmony!  And her friends - I saw this stained glass window once, showing all six-"  She froze, jaw open mid-word, and stared at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy tilted her head.  "What?"

"You," Sanguine gasped.  "You were there too!  That was you, right?  Yellow pegasus, pink mane...ah, Kindness, wasn't it?"

"Yes, I suppose I was there t-"  Fluttershy blinked.  "Why are you bowing?"

Sanguine, eyes closed, rested her head on the ground at Fluttershy's feet.  "It is an honor to meet you.  You're, like, a super-duper knight or something, right?"

"No?"  Fluttershy tilted her head the other way.  "I'm just Fluttershy."

Sanguine took in a breath to steady herself.  "I humbly request the honor of your tutelage, Just Fluttershy."

"..."  Fluttershy smiled.  "Alright, alright.  I'm still not sure what I can teach you, but we'll figure it out.  And just call me 'Fluttershy'."

"Alright.  Fluttershy."  Sanguine stood up.  "Now, you said Twi-"  She blinked.  "Err...please don't be scared of me."

Fluttershy's eyes had suddenly gone wide, and her body set to shaking as she reared back.  "N-not...you..."

Sanguine felt a shadow descend over her.  She turned around and nearly had her wings blasted off by a titanic roar.

"Ohmyohmy."  Fluttershy broke and ran for her cottage.

Sanguine looked up, and up, at three towering constructs of lumber in lupine shapes, with eyes glowing lime-green.  One of them sniffed at her, with enough force to pull her mane toward the nose briefly, then looked to the cottage.

Panic told her to run in every direction; logic noted that the trio was apparently uninterested in her.  So she stayed very still for the moment.  "What are they?"

The yellow pegasus peeked out of her door.  "Timberwolves.  I'd heard a pack was forming but I thought they would stay in the forest.  Why would they..."  She looked around.  "Angel, do you know something about this?"

A white rabbit off to the side of the door shrugged.  Sanguine was ready to dismiss it as uninteresting when she noticed it had been whittling branches, smaller but of the same shade and grain as made up the timberwolves.

"Angel!" Fluttershy groused.  "I am very cross with you right now!"

Sanguine looked at Angel's branches, then at the timberwolves to confirm the similarity.  "What?  What's going on?"  Sure enough, the timberwolves seemed to be narrowing in on Angel.

"That was going to be their next of kin," Fluttershy explained.  "It's about half the wood needed to make a new timberwolf.  Angel probably mistook it for an unlit campfire, but he really should know better by now."

Angel continued whittling.

Sanguine sighed.  "So now those timberwolves are bent on revenge, and are probably going to kill us and all the animals here?"

Fluttershy backed into the cottage.  "Um.  Probably.  Get inside before they can-"

Fluttershy could not clearly make out Sanguine's mutter, but it was somewhere between angry and annoyed and ended with, "...again."  The red pegasus stepped in front of Angel and glared at the giant wooden trio.  "Hey!  You three!  I'll give you one chance to leave!"

Triple gouts of green flame converged on the location she had just been at, thoroughly immolating the air and scorching the ground but fortunately stopping just short of the cottage.

But Sanguine was already on the move.  In one bound she leaped up to the neck of one timberwolf, bucked it in mid-air sending her over the neck of the second, which she stomped to gain enough airtime to reach can cannonball through the third neck.  The timberwolves held stationary until she landed, at which point all three collapsed into kindling.

"FLUTTERSHY!"  A paniced voice heralded the arrival of five more ponies.  "Are you alright?  We came as soon as we saw those three come out of...wait, they're already down?"

Sanguine recognized Rainbow Dash from before - and blinked as she pictured that window.  There had been a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane there too.  An orange pony with a blonde mane and a cowpony hat, a pink earth pony with a dark pink mane, and a white unicorn with a purple mane accompanied Rainbow Dash.  Leading them, and having called out to Fluttershy, was a purple unicorn - no, alicorn, Sanguine's mind corrected: she had a unicorn's horn and a pegasus's wings - with a dark blue mane with a red stripe.  Sanguine's mind reeled as she registered that she was now in the presence of all six of Equestria's national heroes.

Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs.  "Huh.  Guess the newcomer can fight."

"You know her?" the violet one inquired.

Rainbow Dash nodded.  "Met her earlier.  She's on some sort of sentence from Celestia.  Wouldn't let me see her cutie mark."

Sanguine self-consciously folded her wings to cover her cutie mark and backed toward Fluttershy.

"...sentence?"  The orange pony trotted up to the timberwolves, inspecting carefully.  "Twilight, Celestia warn you about this?"

Fluttershy was just staring at Sanguine, jaw open.  "I...you...you've done this before, haven't you?  To...not-timberwolves.  This is your special talent."

Sanguine sighed, eyes downcast.  "Got my cutie mark for it.  This makes three timberwolves, twenty-five ponies, a griffon, and a..."

The lavender alicorn froze abruptly, staring at Sanguine, eyes wide.  "Twenty-five...you mean...you actually...?"

Fluttershy ran up to her and hugged tight.  "That is the most awful thing I have ever heard of!  You poor dear!"

Rainbow Dash scratched her mane.  "Uhh, what's going on?"

The orange pony studied Sanguine for a moment, then her expression darkened quickly as she looked to the alicorn and apparent leader - Twilight, Fluttershy had called her - for confirmation.  "Ah think I get it," she drawled with an accent to match the look her cowpony hat gave, as she poked the timber that had recently been wolves, right where Sanguine had touched them.  "That wasn't just fightin' she did just now, Rainbow Dash.  But, Twilight, ain't those kind o' marks supposed to be impossible?"

Twilight nodded, her expression one of unmasked fear and surprise.  "She told me, Applejack.  B-but...I thought Celestia was speaking in metaphor, not...I didn't think she literally meant...e-excuse me..."  She dashed to a nearby bush and noisily expelled her breakfast.

Applejack took off her hat and held it to her chest.  "Rarity.  This mare needs to hide her cutie mark somethin' fierce.  If you could make her a dress, ah'll pay for it."

"Sure I can.  But what cutie mark could be so terrible it needs hiding?"

Fluttershy looked at her friends, not breaking her hug.  "One that needs to remain a secret.  Promise me!"

The other three not-occupied ponies quickly agreed.  "Ah swear!"  "Pinkie promise!"  "If the need is so dire, I do promise."

Rainbow Dash shrugged.  "What's the big deal?  Cutie marks are supposed to be aweso-"

Rainbow Dash had had nightmares - not that she admitted to them - about exactly what receiving The Stare might be like, but they had not prepared her for the real thing.  When Fluttershy's face suddenly hardened and her unforgiving eyes turned to look straight at Rainbow Dash, the latter instinctively summoned a raging river of courage to wash away all fear, but it broke against the dam that was Fluttershy's eyes.  Their fury burned away her courage-water-analogy, leaving her mental landscape to bake and crack like badlands in a drought, crumbling into desert, then melting away entirely leaving nothing to shield her from raw panic, fear, and guilt.  Distantly, the back of her mind was aware of directing her body to cower behind Applejack, though it could not get her eyes to break contact with Fluttershy's.

"OkayokayIpromisesorry!"

"Good!"  Fluttershy instantly replaced The Stare with smiling eyes.

The brave, courageous pegasus, whom many looked to as an icon of self-assurance, fainted.

Applejack winced upon seeing Rainbow Dash collapse.  "Ah think that was a mite too much, sugar."

Fluttershy blinked.  "Oops!  Uh...I'll apologize when she's awake.  Anyway.  Yes, Rarity, the need is dire.  Her special talent..."  Fluttershy nudged one of Sanguine's wings up with her own, revealing her cutie mark.  "...is killing.  She is a murderer."

"I see."  Rarity processed that for a moment, her expression the carefully controlled mask of a pony with long experience not showing when things disturbed her, then looked over to the bush and her still-indisposed friend.  "Twilight, I have heard such unpleasant rumors of what happened to a certain twenty-four ponies just over a month ago.  Would those be among the ones Sanguine referred to?"

Twilight nodded, looking like she wanted to speak before another load expelled itself.

"I see."  At first it looked like Rarity was shivering subtly, but Sanguine had seen Rarity's expression and body language before: the carefully constructed mask of a pony doing all she could to hide her emotions.  "Applejack, don't bother with the bits, her dress is on the house."  Rarity's poker face dissolved into a grimace, her composure rapidly faltering.  "N-now if you will excuse me dears, I'm afraid urgent business calls."  She ran off to join Twilight at the bush.