//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Daring Doh // Story: Cultivating Love (Book 5) // by LotusTeaDragon //------------------------------// CHAPTER ONE: DARING DOH She saw it from the protective cover of her boulder: a creature beyond the edge of the vale, where the green grasses became golden stalks of wheat. Massive, it was, sporting a wide trunk, with four long, thin arms waving up and down, as it threatened the village before it. A monster so menacing that, if gazed upon forthrightly, would chill the very blood of lesser ponies. Apple Flutter, however, was no ordinary pony. She was a seeker of knowledge, skilled in the art of stealth, and possessing a sharp mind that absorbed facts and figures without the slightest effort. She was a great adventurer, hero to many, and envy of all who shared her profession, which was that of a hero. Well, not just a hero, but something even greater, something better than just hero. Um, adventurer hero? Wait, that’s not it. Hmm... “Did you eat all of the choco-nibs?” The unwelcome and intrusive voice tore her away from her crucial inner monologuing as well as the unsightly visage of carnal destruction waiting for them across the field, and forced her focus onto her traveling companion: her dumb sister. Apple rolled her eyes as she turned to face her companion. “Can’t you see I’m trying to concentrate, Zephyr? Here we are,” she began, as she spread her forehooves wide as if to encompass the entirety of their environs, “surrounded by demonic forces set to unleash their vile abominations onto the center stage of the world, destroying all of pony kind in their wretched wrath, and all you can do is complain about my alleged eating of the choco-nibs.” Zephyr stopped poking at the empty packet, tossing it on the ground as she gave her sister a half-lidded stare in return. “Oh, is this what we’re doing again? We’re doing this?” She asked. “Doing what? What do you mean?” Apple replied, a face of innocence framing her question. “Oh, you know, this so-called adventure?” she held up both hooves, making air quotes as she said the last word. Apple Flutter shook her head sadly, keeping her eyes on her errant sibling. Some ponies just weren’t born with the spirit of discovery that marked the truly great from the truly... less great, probably. “If you don’t like living on the bleeding edge of danger, you didn’t have to come along, you know,” she retorted, dropping to her rump and grabbing a bottle of grape soda from their shared saddlebag sitting next to her. She took a long drink, and then hoofed it over to her sister. She didn’t really want to share, but she had discovered early on in their entwined childhoods that an ounce of prevention was easily worth the forestalled pound of cure. Zephyr shrugged. “What can I say? I like spending time with you,” she said before taking a drink. “I have a soft spot for ponies in need of guidance.” “I’m in need of guidance?!” Apple asked with unrestrained incredulity, “are you saying that I, your big sister, am incapable of leading? I will have you know,” she snapped as she got to her hooves, “that I am an impeccable leader, adroit in experience and skill, and fully capable of controlling not only my destiny, but that of my little sister’s as well!” She hmphed as she dropped back to her rump. Zephyr raised an eyebrow. “Little sister? I was born before you were. You were practically the runt, really. What a shame, too, all of that talent went to me.” “Don’t you call me runt, and yes! As we both know, I am the most capable between the two of us. It was I, after all,” she added, putting a hoof to her chest, “who learned to tie my saddlebags all by myself, and before you did.” “Only cause mom showed you before she showed me.” “Nuh-uh.” “Uh huh.” “Nuh-uh!” “Uh huh!” “Nuh-uh infinity!” “Uh huh infinity plus one!” “Hey, you can’t-” A heavy rustling in the nearby bushes caught their collective attention, and they turned toward the sudden noise. Zephyr nearly dropped her soda, looking to her sister. “What was that?!” Apple Flutter shook her head, put a hoof to her lips and got to her hooves, her boulder giving her ample cover as her eyes darted about, taking in any sign of immediate danger. She yelped, jumping into the air, when she felt something brush her flank, and collapsed into a heap of trembling filly, her hooves covering her head. “Sorry, that was my tail!” came an aggravatingly familiar voice from behind her. “Sssshhh!” Apple quipped, much more harshly this time, as soon as she realized the voice belonged to her sister. “Sorry!” Zephyr stage whispered, as she scooted up next to Apple Flutter. “I thought I told you to sit and wait!” Apple Flutter whispered with vehemence in her voice. “All you did was put your hoof to your lips and shake your head!” her sister retorted sotto voce. “Don’t you recognize the universal sign for sit and wait while I look around?!” Apple replied, her hoof to her forehead in disbelief. “That wasn’t the universal sign for sit and wait, the universal sign for sit and wait is to put your hoof out and then motion downward.” “Oh, please,” Apple retorted, “it says right here in Professor Ignoble Thesis’ ‘Comprehensive Semaphore and Signaling Guide’,” Apple said as she grabbed the book sticking out of her bag and opening it to a heavily highlighted page, “that putting your hoof out and motioning downward is the universal sign for ‘be seated’, which is only used in slightly formal situations requiring indirect non-verbal communication, and since we’re in a very informal setting, I doubt that a signal like that would apply to this situation.” Zephyr rolled her eyes. “Professor Ignoble Thesis is a hack. He was discredited around the time Dr. Wayward Compass proposed the new, more streamlined ‘Signals and Signs: A Required Reading for the Erudite Unspoken’, which, I might add, outsold your vaunted Professor Thesis’ book two to one, and reached the Canterlot best-sellers list twice; the first time was for the initial printing, and then again for the 20th anniversary of its publication.” Apple Flutter narrowed her eyes. She could handle being shorter, she could handle being the younger sister, she could even handle being possibly wrong about some things, maybe, if such an event were ever to feasibly present itself, but no one, no one said anything derogatory about Professor Ignoble Thesis! That stallion was a living legend! Well, he was dead, and probably a hermit in his final years, so a dead, hermit legend, but definitely a legend nonetheless! “That’s it!” she growled, as she leapt forward to tackle her sister to the ground. Before Apple could get her sister into a foreleg hold, a blood curdling scream echoed through the meadow, and brought them back to their surroundings, chilling them down to the marrow. In one motion, together, they bolted upright and to their hooves. “What was that?” Apple squeaked. Zephyr just shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know, and that she didn’t want to know. The two fillies remained silent and stock still, looking like no more than two fully realized pony statues standing out in the meadow, the tall grasses acting like devoted followers giving alms to their stony benefactors. At least that’s what Apple was thinking as she stood there. Zephyr just wanted to go pee really badly, and she would have, if she didn’t also think she was able to get attacked by a wild animal, or whatever it was that caused the scream that had ended their fun. So she waited in silence. Apple, meanwhile, had formulated a strategy. She stopped imitating the statue they would build to her one day, and motioned to Zephyr to follow her. She knew Zephyr understood when her sister’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Excellent. Communication established. Turning slowly, and peeking around the boulder once more, she motioned for Zephyr to follow her. Crouching down as low as she could, she began crawling through the tall grasses, looking for any sign of danger. At first she couldn’t hear anything and was about to turn around, when she finally took note of the light crunching sound of dirt behind pushed aside. Good. Her sister was following orders. After what felt like the longest minutes of their lives, the fillies managed to crawl their way to a dry stream bed, situated on the outside of the Everfree forest. They knew never to go into the forest, and the bed acted as a visible boundary to keep that from happening by accident. They continued moving along the stream bed, watching for any overt sign of wild animals. This close to the forest, a pony never knew what could be found out here. Finally, they made their way to a log that had jammed itself along the bank of the stream bed, back when it had been used to move logs down the river toward Trotston, before the Ponyville Droughts had taken away the flowing water and replaced it with fine silt, and had turned a tiny logging village into a ghost town. Pressed up against the massive log, the fillies peeked over the top, taking in what lay on the other side. “Well, hello there, young fillies! What y’all be doing out in this neck o’ the woods?” The fillies screamed as a black hoof reached toward them. ***