//------------------------------// // 21 // Story: Seven Lights // by Fresnor //------------------------------// “Finally! I almost though that she wouldn't let me out of the house in time for our sleepover. It's really annoying when she gets like this.” Scootaloo started walking away with Applebloom towards Carousel Boutique for their sleepover with Sweetie Belle. “At least I was able to talk her down a bit so I didn't have to take half the house with me.” Applebloom looked over at the bags being carried by the pegasus before shaking her head. “Ah can guess how ya feel. Mah sister would have done much the same thing if something happened to me. Ah am surprised that she is letting you out of her sight already.” The two continued on their way not knowing that their sisters could still hear them as they talked. Applejack looked over at her friend as she watched her sister walk away while nervously shuffling her hooves. “Are ya going ta be all right there, sugarcube? Ya really aren't looking too good.” Aegis Flare sighed as she tried to bring herself under control again though she didn't take her eyes off of her sister's retreating form. “I'll be all right. You know how much she means to me, especially since our parents vanished. I just can't forget the look in her eyes as she fell away from me back in Cloudsdale. If Rainbow Dash wasn't there to save her I don't know what I would have done.” The farm pony threw one of her forelegs over her friends withers and pulled her close. “Ah know just what ya need. Why don't ya join me and Rainbow Dash as we sample the latest crop of hard cider that is ready? Ya really look like you could use some ta help calm your nerves.” With a nod the two walk off towards Sweet Apple Acres where they were soon joined by the hero of the week. It was a couple hours later when the three were found by Twilight. Walking into the barn she saw the three sitting around a mostly empty cask sipping from a cider mug. “Really? You're drinking this early in the day? And while I'm glad to see you out away from your sister, Flare, couldn't you have chosen a better way to do it?” The purple mare flinched back from the smell as Rainbow Dash tottered over to her and started speaking with a slight slur. “Lighten up egghead. She needed something to relax and nothing says relax like hard cider. Maybe you should try it sometime?” All three mares just shake their heads at the pegasus before she drains another mug of cider before she keels over backwards and begins to snore. “Dagnabbit Rainbow Dash. I told ya ta take it easy with that. I guess it was too much to think that you would actually taste it like ya were supposed to.” Applejack sipped from her mug before she sighed and turned her head towards Twilight. “Sorry about that sugarcube. Rainbow Dash always overdoes it when ah break out the cider, hard or not. Ah think she finished half the barrel herself.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at this as she moved to take a seat near the two still awake mares while tentatively accepting a mug for herself. She curiously sniffed at it before setting it beside her and looking over at the other unicorn. “Well I guess I should at least be glad that you aren't falling all over me like Rainbow almost did. I still don't think you should be drinking this early in the day though especially after how you've been acting lately, Flare.” The addressed unicorn just sighed as she took another sip from her mug before setting it down next to her. “You probably are right, but it helps to have a bit of numbness to help thing this out more clearly. My parents adopting me was always the best thing to happen to me and since then family has always been important to me. I was scared when my mother got pregnant with Scootaloo but when I first her tiny and defenseless form I knew that I would do anything for her. After our parents vanished I put everything aside just so that I could take care of her. To almost lose her in front of my eyes like that without being able to do anything completely terrified me.” She looked over at the slumbering pegasi before continuing with her alcohol inspired speech. “Before you showed up I would have really thought much of Rainbow Dash other than somepony that my sister enjoyed watching. Yet these past few months have let me truly get to know her and I feel ashamed of myself for ignoring her especially after what she has done for me. I'm really not sure where I'm going with this but I really have to thank all of you for everything these last few months.” Twilight rose an eyebrow at Applejack who just shook her head while the orange unicorn stared into her mug of cider. The two still sober ponies scooted closer to each other so that the third pony couldn't hear their whispering, normally at least. “Is she always like this when she drinks?” Applejack just shrugged before responding to the question. “No idea. This is the first time ah've seen her even touch a hard drink. Ah never would have expected her ta be a talky drunk, of course ah never would have expected her to even drink much in the first place.” The purple mare just shook her head before she let out a sigh. “Well I came over to let you know that your sister's had a small change of location for their sleepover. Something must have come up that Rarity had to take care of since Fluttershy decided to watch them instead. I had a couple other things to do so I'll leave you three to what you were doing. Sorry I couldn't join you though.” The farm mare just chuckled as she pointed something out to her friend. “It's a bit late to say that after already finishing off an entire mug of cider that fast.” Looking down at the now empty mug being held in her magic, Twilight's eyebrow rose in confusion. “Huh? When did that happen?” ~~~~~~~ Fluttershy's Home The butter colored mare sighed as she finally got the three fillies to settle down enough that they just calmly explored her home instead of running rampant. They had already eaten but she was taking a bit of time to fix them up a small snack before putting them to bed. She was a bit worried that the three would break something else but they started to calm down a bit as they burned off their previous excess energy. “Hey, Fluttershy! Why do you have one of these hanging up in your home?” Fluttershy's ears perked up at the question from Scootaloo and she brought the vegetable treats out to the three fillies. She looked around for the three and found them staring at a tapestry hanging from the back walls and her ears folded back. “Oh dear. Are you sure you want to know about that?” The tapestry wasn't a big affair and was composed of only a few colors. A golden crown was on the front while a tangle of white roots were growing out from the bottom of it. All that was atop a blue shield while a pair of gray thestral wings were spread above it. The entire thing was set on a field of night blue to finish the look. Scootaloo's head turned back to her questioningly before fluttering her wings a bit. “Well, yeah. My parents have something like this in their room and I never found out why. I don't think I've heard of anypony else in town having something like this.” With a sigh Fluttershy set the tray of snacks down for the three before moving over to run a hoof over the tapestry. “I never met your parents, but I remember your sister saying that one of them was a thestral. My mother is a pegasus and she used to live out in Transylmania when she was younger until she met my father. She never talks about him but she says that this is the only thing of him that she was allowed to keep when he abandoned her.” The three fillies cringed at the older mare's sad tone of voice as they turned to look at her. The older pegasus was surprised when the three moved in to give her a group hug and she looked down at the three fondly. “That's so sad. Why would anypony just abandon their child like that.” Scootaloo flinched away at Sweetie Belle's question which was noticed by Fluttershy. “Um, Sweetie, my sister says it is because many thestrals are just jerks. They'll work with other ponies but if you aren't a thestral you aren't family.” The other two fillies look over at her in shock while Fluttershy just nods sadly. “She's right, though I've heard stories that are even worse of families abandoning their foals out in the wild to die. Ponies that are not thestrals or are of too bright of a color or are malformed in some way are generally unwanted.” Once again the fillies initiate another hug around the mare to cheer her up after they brought up some sad memories again. “You'll always be wanted here.” Fluttershy had to smile at the unicorn filly's words and had to admit that she did feel better. ~~~~~~~ Later After the fillies were put to bed, after a small musical number and the following chaos outside, the three noticed that some of the chickens were missing. Sneaking outside the three noticed that the tracks lead out towards the Everfree and the were about to follow before they were stopped. “Hold up girl, I need to grab something before we go in there.” Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at their pegasus friend in confusion as she ran back into Fluttershy's house once again. Moments after leaving their sight she reappeared again with the saddlebags that she had brought with to the sleepover. “My sister would ground me for years if she ever found out I went in there without this. Here, put these on before go into the Everfree.” The two looked confused as as Scootaloo passed a pair of goggles to both of them while pulling out a pair for herself. When they put them on they let out a gasp as the world around them brightened up from that of a dark night to more of a cloudy day. “Wow Scootaloo? Where did you get something like this from? I bet we could really find a lot of things to do with these for our cutie marks.” The only response she got from her friend was a grunt of annoyance as she rolled her eyes behind her goggles. “My sister forced me to bring these as well as a ton of other things she thought I would need. I still don't know why I would need shark repellent or an extra strong towel and this was after convincing her to cut back on what she had me carry.” Her friends give her an odd look before they also roll their eyes before peering into the saddlebags themselves and shaking their heads at what they say. After sealing them up again the three look at each other before nodding and heading off into the forest after the lost chicken. With the goggles they were easily able to follow the trail but they spent more time arguing than following it. They were so distracted by it that they didn't notice Fluttershy get ahead of them until they literally bumped into her. The older pegasus tried to get them to leave the forest rather unsuccessfully and even mention of a cockatrice wasn't enough. “A cockatrice? My sister says those aren't that scary and she's driven them away from Ponyville all the time. They can't be that bad.” Fluttershy is taken aback by her nonchalance until she leans in and gets a closer look at the goggles they were wearing. After recognizing the design of them to be exactly like her unicorn friend's she calmed slightly but that wasn't much with the level of terror flooding through her. “We really need to go now, girls. You don't know how dangerous they can be even without their gaze.” The fillies weren't sure what she was talking about but were distracted by the sound of clucking nearby. They soon found the figures of two different chickens rising out of the nearby bushes and when they tried to catch both of them while Fluttershy looked on in terror they found the only one of them was a chicken while the other was a cockatrice. After backing away a few steps in shock at it's appearance they watched as the cockatrice turned on the chicken and turned it to stone. Two of the fillies started screaming in panic at the sight while Scootaloo just stared at the cockatrice in surprise. She had heard things about the creatures in the Everfree from her sister but she didn't expect them to be like this. She did remember her sister explaining about the goggles though and how they were important because they stopped the abilities of things like the cockatrice. “I-it's not that scary. My sister says that these can't do a thing to you as long as you keep these special goggles on.” The creature looked at the filly as it tried to turn her to stone but it was confused when nothing was happening. Seeing that it's original plan wasn't working it swiped its tail forward an across the filly's cheek which drew gasps from the rest of the gathered ponies. Scootaloo drew a hoof up to her face and her eyes widened at the sight of blood on it before she started screaming herself and took off running followed by her two friends. When the three ran into the stoned form of Twilight things got even worse as they started panicking until Fluttershy got them to hide behind her. The three watched in awe as the pegasus Stared down the cockatrice and scolded it enough that it backed down in fear. It soon was sent running away after it depetrified both the chicken and the unicorn in the area. There night from their night was peaceful as the headed back to Fluttershy's cottage and settled in to sleep. ~~~~~~~ The Next Morning “So I heard that you went out into the Everfree Forest unsupervised when you were supposed to be going to bed.” Scootaloo looked away from her sister at her words though she was confused at how she had been caught as she had only now gotten back. “How did you hear about that? Fluttershy and Twilight haven't said anything about it yet.” The filly rubbed at the bandage over her cut as she looked towards the other two adults that were also looking at the orange unicorn curiously. “Well you did just tell me that you were in the Everfree.” The filly facehoofed at the joke while the two older ponies giggled a little at the two. “Also your saddlebags have a few tracking gems in them that only activate if you go into the Everfree or far enough away from Ponyville.” Fluttershy steps forward to defend the filly. “Um, she wasn't in too much danger really. She did have a set of those goggles you always wear so the cockatrice wasn't that big of a danger to her.” The young filly turned towards the shy pegasus in shock before sheepishly turning back to her sister who was rubbing the bridge of her nose with a hoof. With a sigh she shook her head before looking at her sister with disappointment. “At least you wore those since they make a cockatrice from on of the most dangerous to least dangerous creatures in the forest, but I've told you time and again that you should never go in there. You know how much I hate having to punish you when you do something that I've asked you not to do.” The filly looks a bit worried as her sister ponders what to do about the situation. Seeing that her sister always had an excess of energy and the two didn't do enough together she came up with an idea pretty quickly. “Starting tomorrow I think I'll be teaching you much of what our father taught me from his training. If you are going to do something dangerous like that then I might as well make it where you can at least run away from just about anything. Now run off back to your friends but be ready tomorrow.” As the filly ran off the two adults looked even more confused as they couldn't see how this was a punishment. “Are you sure that she is going to learn not to do something like that again just from that? I'm really not sure what you're thinking, Flare.” The orange unicorn just gave Twilight a small smile as she watched her sister run off. “Well I had some time to think and this is the only thing I can think of to calm her down a bit, at least for a while. I won't be able to stay with her always so I might as well teach her something. If the pre-training drills for the Black Guard don't wear her out then nothing will.” Twilight and Fluttershy just stare at her in shock for a moment before turning back to look at the orange filly with pity.