My Little Balladeer

by Ardashir

Chapter 5

None of us, not human nor pony nor little dragon, said anything as we went to the spot Applejack and I’d seen that morning. If we’d gone to see air other thing, I’d have right relished that walk. The green of the grass and the leaves on the apple trees shined like jewels, brighter than I could ever recollect seeing before anyplace else. The fields where I could see them looked a mite bare, but even this early in the season I could see where the plants were a-starting to sprout. The sky hung blue and clear overhead with only a few white clouds here and there dotting it all.

I didn’t know what else to say, so I just commented on the farm to Applejack. “If this is all yours, you and your family must be right hard working to keep up with it all.”

“Aww, shucks,” she looked away but I saw how her freckled cheeks flushed, “Thank yah kindly. Granny Smith an’ Big Mac and Apple Bloom an’ me do work pretty hard at it, but we got some help. You’ve met Caramel already. Later on in the season we’ll hire a few more hooves iffen we need them…”

By now we were coming up on the edge of the orchard, right by where I’d seen the walking dead from the night before. As we came closer I smelled that stink from before, the nasty sweet rotten odor you get from off of a dead animal that’s been allowed to lie. I could see those splotches on the ground where they’d stood, black and greasy against the clean brown of the dirt and the fresh green of the grass. I could hear and see flies buzzing through the air, and they looked like any other flies I’d ever seen in my life. They didn’t talk to me or bid me howdy or air such a thing. They seemed like any other flies to horses too, to judge by the way Twilight and Applejack started switching their tails at them. I saw the one land on Applejack’s rump. Before I could say anything or shoo it, she yelled and slapped at it with her tail like you or I would with our hand. A trickle of blood showed when it flew away.

“Durn yah, yah nasty little bloodsuckers!” Applejack gave those flies a dirty look. “Say, Twi, yah know any spells good for gettin’ rid o’ flies?”

“Sorry, Applejack, but – ouch!” Twilight twitched and flicked an ear. Spike just grinned. I reckon those flies didn’t bother him with his scales air bit. “Nothing that comes to mind right now. Besides, you’re a farm pony. Shouldn’t you know something?”

“Yeah,” she grumbled back, “Ah hang up flypaper.” Then, a bit quieter, “Right here’s where John ‘n Ah saw them. See it?” She pointed one forehoof at the ground by the tracks. Twilight and Spike bent closer to look, and so did I.

The dirt under and around the prints looked rotted and slimy. Like it’d been made sick from those dead ponies just a-standing there for howair long they’d been a-watching Applejack’s house last night. The air even felt the slightest itty bit colder by them. Spike gulped and swallowed like it scared him. I reached out to poke a finger at it, but stopped when Twilight spoke up.

“Don’t,” she said, and I listened. Her horn glowed again, and some of the slime on the dirt rose up by her nose and mine. The stink got sharp and fierce, and I winced back from it. Spike gagged where he sat before he dropped from her back and hurried back to where Applejack stood. Twilight snorted, but she looked for a moment or two longer before she let it drop. It splatted like mud would. She and I both stepped back from it, and I felt right glad to be a-doing so.

“Well, what d’yah think?” Applejack asked from behind us. Twilight looked at her as she added, “It don’t look to me like any natural thing.”

“Maybe it’s zombie ponies?” Spike said where he stood, and his voice shook to say it. Twilight just shook her head and sighed.

“There’s no such a thing, Spike. And it’s not some fungus,” Twilight said. “It looks and smells like something rotten, but that’s all I’ll say. And it sure looks like hoofmarks.” She pointed her horn at the mess. “John, Applejack, you said there was more of it?”

“That I did, and that there is,” I responded her. “Look and see there.” I pointed further down the trail leading between the planted lines of trees. Twilight looked and saw what we’d seen earlier, those rotted-looking hoofmarks going back towards the forest. She let Spike get back aside her back and then followed them. Applejack and I followed her. We all went slow like as though to watch for anything that might be a-lurking there, maybe trying to sneak up on us and jump from behind. Though the way poor Spike shook and how his fangs rattled, I doubt we’d have heard air thing a-sneaking up on us. I saw no new thing from that morning. The air seemed stuffy and closed in under and among the trees where those marks lay. The closer we got to where the prints left the forest the thicker the smell got until it stank worse than a skunk. I saw Twilight and Applejack wrinkling their noses up at it, and I reckon my eyes watered at the nastiness of it. Spike held his nose against it. Once we passed by one of the apple trees that stood right tall and proud and looked thick enough through the middle for a good-sized dining room table. Save where one of the tracks lay against its roots. We could all see a big gray rotted-looking patch spread on it. Applejack groaned at the sight of it.

“Mah great grand-pappy planted that tree,” she said. “Right the year after Princess Celestia gave this land to mah family, when Granny Smith found the zap-apples and we brought in the first harvest o’ them. She won’t be any too happy to find out what happened to it.” She looked down the trail and scowled, her ears going flat. “Ah don’t know why those things came here, but if they’re looking for enemies, they’re on their way to makin’ some.”

We came out from under the orchard’s trees and into the dirt road. Twilight stopped out in the front of us and looked at the edge of the forest. I reckon it was the first time I’ve ever seen a forest that looked darker in the daylight than at night.

“Okay, so it did come from the Everfree,” she said with a little tremble in her voice.

“Didn’t Ah say as much?” Applejack responded her. Then, sounding nervoused herself, she said, “Say, Twi, ain’t that where Thorn run off to? Yah don’t think he could be in that village Apple Bloom told us about? It’d be his kinda place.”

“Please, Applejack,” Twilight said. She turned to her and took a deep breath before she started to say just like some teacher lady in a school, “They’re just some type of Everfree monster we haven’t seen before. The walking dead and curses are just old mares’ tales. None of the books I researched in Canterlot said anything else about them.” She looked right certain of herself to say it. I might could have said something about the times I’ve seen curses and dead men walking my own self, but just then wings sounded overhead and Rainbow Dash dropped down by us.

“Twi, AJ, Spike,” she said, greeting them all. No word to me, just a sharp glance. She said to her friends, “I found Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner. I think I convinced her not to go throwing any parties just yet, and I found Rarity and Flutts at the spa. They’re all gonna meet us at the library. And I have ta tell you, Twilight I heard what you were saying, and,” she pointed her hoof at me as she hovered there a-flapping, “Humans are supposed to be just stories, too, and we’ve got one standing right there.” She looked at me and said, wary again, “Or maybe these things ain’t from Equestria. Maybe they followed you here from wherever it is you come from.”

“Might be they did, and I don’t know about Equestria,” I said to her, “But I’ve run up against both curses and dead things that walked by night in my time. I nair was happy to see them, either. And whatair those things were that we saw last night, you all act like it’s not common for something to come right out of this Everfree Forest and up to folks’ front doors.” Twilight and Applejack both looked unhappy at that. The unicorn opened her mouth but Applejack spoke first.

“Granny Smith told me when Ah was little that back when they first got the land grant and settled here, sometimes the Everfree critters would come prowling around the farm looking for food. Pigs, or chickens, and once or twice they tried snatching ponies. But that all stopped when Ponyville got founded and we got ourselves a guard and lights at night. These days, you got to go into the forest most times iffen you want to see something big an’ nasty.” She looked at the hoofprints and asked, sounding worried, “So why did these here things come right up close by the farmhouse?”

“Whatever they wanted, they don’t seem to have gotten it,” Twilight said, “Besides, you said John chased them away just by playing some music. So how scary could they be?”

“Unless his music’s that bad,” Spike said and snickered to say it.

I frowned to hear it and got ready to say something, but then Twilight bespoke her first.

“Spike! Show some manners, okay?” She looked at me. “What did you play, exactly, that drove them off?”

“The Last Judgment Song,” I answered her. “I learned it as a boy from an old uncle of mine, T.P. Hinnard. He allowed it to be strong against evil and unchancy things, and I’ve found he was right to be saying it.” They looked at me curious-like, so I added, “It goes a bit like this.” I pulled my guitar around and played the first verse from it:

I wondered myself when I’d done playing it if it would do anything to Twilight. It was only bad against wicked things, true, but I didn’t know how my music and her magic might could get along.

If it did her anything, it didn’t show. Instead she half closed her eyes in concentration. The purple light started along her horn again, and she bade me: “Play those lines again.” I did as she asked, and the warm purple glow from her horn went on my hands and along the strings of my guitar as I did. It tickled, almost. When I finished it faded away.

“What kinda song is that?” Dash asked no one in particular. “Something about alicorns and the Summerlands? It sounds kinda weird, Twilight.”

I looked at her peculiar, for I’d not sung those words she used. Twilight must have seen the wonderment on my face for she spoke up.

“I think some of that’s due to my translation spell. Not every word is exactly the same when translated from other languages. Sometimes you just get the closest equivalent.” She pointed at my old guitar with her horn. “But there’s a power in that and in your music, John.”

“I don’t know about me or this old guitar,” I lifted it towards her, and the sunlight shone on the silver strings, “But the song has always been right good. I might not be alive and here to tell of it save that I’ve used it when I needed to. That aside, I’ve got some little learning I picked up here and there and it’s been a good shield by me. I hope to learn something new today, and live to profit by it.”

Twilight smiled to hear me say that. Then she shook her head, her mane whipping around. “Ah, I forgot! The others will be at the library by now. We’d better get going.” She jerked her head at the road and down it towards where the town lay. Rainbow Dash flew off down the road, circling around to keep an eye on us. Twilight started after her. I walked alongside of her and I could hear Applejack coming along behind me.

“Yah oughta like this, John,” Applejack said to me. “Ponyville’s a right nice town. Er, most ‘o the time.”

“I’m right eager to see it,” I responded her, and they were true words. And I wondered myself if I’d finally find out just who this “Thorn” was, and why I might be here, and what sort of trouble could be brewing here.

Because something about the way these three kept a-acting told me that trouble was a-brewing here by the double bucketful.

Twilight felt a little thrill as she went along the Everfree Road and Ponyville came further into sight. She’d lived here for close to two years now, and actually felt a little surprise at how much she’d grown to love this place. She wondered if Celestia expected as much when she’d first sent her here. It wouldn’t surprise her a bit if she did.

She glanced sidelong at their guest as he accompanied them. Twilight made sure to go at a slow canter to give him ample opportunity to keep up with her. Being a biped, she doubted he could run as fast as a pony, though something about the easy way he ambled along told her that he possessed quite a bit of endurance. She thought, as a loner and a mountain dweller, he’d probably need it.

“So who is this Thorn fellow you all keep talking about like you were a-scared of him?” He asked out of the blue. “The way you all talk about him, he’s no good man to know.”

“No,” Twilight said, fighting down a shudder, “He isn’t. He… visited Ponyville, just over a week before you arrived. He scared some of us pretty badly.” Part of her wanted to laugh at how mildly that encapsulated what he’d done. Instead she just said, “I’ll explain everything when we’re all together in the library.”

“Who else can I be expecting to see there?”

“Well, there’s Rarity. She’s the local dressmaker and fashion designer. She’s a unicorn like me, but with a white coat and purple mane and tail. Her cutie mark is three diamonds. Then there’s Fluttershy. In fact, that’s her house right across the bridge there.” She pointed to the low bridge as they passed it. Fluttershy’s house was just barely visible, the green of her roof showing beyond the little stream. As Twilight spoke Rainbow Dash dropped down before her.

“I looked, and they’re all at the library,” she said. “Pinkie looks like she wants to start hanging some streamers and balloons, though.”

“Urrgh!” Twilight facehoofed. “Dash, please go and remind her that when I said no parties, I meant no parties!” Dash grinned at her words and shot off like an arrow. Twilight started as a new thought struck her, and yelled after her, “And Dash! Dash! Remember to tell Captain Bastion we’ve got company, and he’s okay! Rainbow Dash!” If the blue-coated Pegasus heard, she gave no sign as she vanished towards the town.

“What-all is that last part about?” John asked. Twilight thought she heard a faint wariness in his voice as he said, “The part about a captain somebody needing to be a-told about me?”

“Oh, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t too big a surprise for the ponies in town,” Twilight said back to him, giving what she hoped was a reassuring smile. She felt Spike shift uneasily on her back, and saw the curious look John gave her and the annoyed one Applejack sent her way at her less than honest words. Swallowing and hoping there’d be no trouble with the Royal Guards posted in town, she said, “Like I was saying, that’s Fluttershy’s place…”

After we left from by where those things from last night came up out of the woods and onto Applejack’s farm, we started down a road that ran near about half a mile as I can figure. That haunted forest loomed all dark and forbidding on our left hand. I tell you all, even by the light of day it looked like no kind of a place for air soul to go if they wanted a long life. I wondered me how these little ponies found the sand in their craws to stay here.

When I looked over on the right I saw sights kindly better to see. I could see ponies plowing their fields with pony-sized plows, getting theirselves ready for spring planting just like in the bottomlands back home. I heard some of them a-howdying to Applejack and Twilight and even Spike. One or two of them froze and went silent when they saw me. Like I say, they knew Spike, but I was a stranger to them. And I began to guess, a frightful one.

“You’ve been here in this town a while now, I’m guessing,” I said to Twilight and Spike. They both gave me surprised looks.

“Ye-es,” Twilight said, looking mighty curious. “About two years now. How’d you guess?”

“By the way those ponies react to him,” I nodded at Spike. “You said dragons were rare here, but they call to him like they do Applejack and you. I reckon he’s been here long enough to become known.”

“Sure have,” Spike said back, and he drew himself up to look proud when he said it.

By now we were coming closer up on that little fairy-tale town. It looked to be a pretty enough place. True, you smelled the kind of smells you get around farms and fields with horses when you approached it, but the ponies seemed clean enough that it didn’t get too thick.

The sky hung blue and clear overhead with only a few white clouds here and there dotting it all. And one big cloud by the mountains to the north. I reckoned I stared to see others of the pegasi flying around those clouds and a-pushing them like they were solid things.

I must have said as much out loud, because Rainbow Dash answered me. “That’s my job, normally,” and she flew in front of me, a-puffing her chest up. “I’m in charge of the Ponyville Weather Patrol. Every year when the kingdom gets polled about who has the best weather ponies, we come in at the top or near it. We did better this year than we did the last, and we’ll do even better the year after that.”

“You’re to be admired,” I responded her, and she puffed herself up even more. “But howair do you move clouds? I thought they were just water vapor.” She just stared at me like I’d said fire was hot.

“Duh,” she said, “of course they’re just water vapor, what else would clouds be? But us pegasuses can move them. It’s a part of what we are, like cloudwalking or using our wings.” She flapped hers for emphasis, and then said with a grin, “Nopony else is as good as me at flying or doing cloudbusting, though.”

“Ten seconds flat,” I heard Applejack say from in front of me. Twilight giggled a bit to hear it. I figured it for a joke on Dash when her blue cheeks just turned red.

“Arrgh, I only said that once! Can’t anypony let go of it?” She flapped up higher and went on ahead. She looked more than a little annoyed by it all. I turned to Applejack to see her grinning over her shoulder at me.

“You might could want to be careful about saying things like that to her,” I said, “especially if she can witch the weather. Bad weather can pure down kill a harvest.”

“Ah know,” she answered me, “believe me, Ah know. But it’s all good. Dash knows we’re just funnin’ her. To be honest,” and she slowed a bit so we could walk alongside each other, “She probably is the best weatherpony we ever did have here in Ponyville, but she’s got a big enough head as it is. Once or twice she got a little too full of herself and caused some trouble, going ‘round and callin’ herself a big hero, ‘fore we could get her to settle back down.”

As soon as she flew out of sight I minded me of what Twilight said about her friends and how to know them, so I asked, “You were a-saying how I can know your friend Fluttershy when I see her?”

“Oh, yes! Fluttershy’s a Pegasus, yellow coat, long pink mane and tail, and three butterflies for a cutie mark. And Pinkie Pie, well, she’s pink, mane and coat, and her cutie mark is three balloons. Trust me, you’ll know her when you see her.”

“Good to know I won’t be mistaking them for anyone else here, then,” I responded her. She gave me a look like she wondered if I was a-making fun of her. She must have seen I meant no such thing, because she nodded at me and turned back to walking, or I reckon I should say trotting or cantering. She might have said more but that Rainbow Dash dropped back down and told her that her friends were all at the library and waiting on her. There was something or other about how one of them, Pie or the like, wanted to set up for a play-party or frolic. It seemed an odd time for it from all Twilight said to me. That purple unicorn didn’t look any too happy about it herself. She slapped her hoof against her face the way some human folks will when they get just plain tired of others’ foolishness, and told Dash to try and settle Pinkie Pie down. Those ponies had some right strange names, but I figure mine to be air bit as odd to them.

Twilight said more, words I wasn’t sure I liked to hear, about some Captain or other who needed to be told about me. It looked like Dash either didn’t hear or much care. She flew off without air sign she’d noticed.

“What was that last part there, about your Captain a-needing to be told about me?” I asked her. She gave me a smile, and it looked like a nervous one.

“Oh, I just wanted to make sure the ponies in town knew about you,” she said. The way I saw Spike and Applejack looking on, I figured there to be more to it than that. But Twilight just said, “Like I was saying, that’s Fluttershy’s house.”
I looked and maybe I stared. I’d seen Sweet Apple Acres, and it looked like any well-kept old farm back home. And I’d seen the houses in town from a distance, and they looked enough like the ones I’ve seen elsewhere to be no great surprise. It did wonder me a bit that pony houses looked so much like our own. But Fluttershy’s house? No mistaking it for any human home, howair you tried.

It stood on the far side of a small stream, a little cottage all roofed with grass like it’d pushed itself up from the meadow instead of being built there. Like it grew there like a Gardinel, that’s a rare plant that makes itself look in some ways like a house for men to tole them in where it can eat them. Only I nair heard of a Gardinel that would have birds a-fluttering around it and all singing away, the sweetest birdsong you ever did hear. Nor yet would it have birdhouses hung on every eave and tree.

I saw something else there too, and it almost made me run. Something like a little hairy hill, all brown and shaggy. It lifted up its head and pointed its snout at me. I saw how that wet black nose twitched to catch my scent, and heard that bear grunt as he stood up, higher than air man could stand. He looked at me and I looked at him and I wondered if I could get high enough up one of the trees if he charged before he caught me.

“What’s the matter, John?” Applejack asked me. She looked at me and wondered, “Ain’t yah ever seen bears afore? That’s just one o’ Fluttershy’s friends, he won’t do yah nothin’.”

“I’ve seen bears afore,” I answered her. While I did that bear dropped back down and curled hisself up to sleep. I saw chickens clucking around the yard by the bear with no care at all, but they were chickens and those birds got no sense. “I just nair yet seen one kept for a yard dog afore.”

“That’s Fluttershy,” Twilight said back to me. “She gets along with animals better than most ponies do.”
“Like that fellow they call Saint Francis from over the sea,” I said as the road jogged a hard right away from Fluttershy’s little hill-house. “Or like Johnny Appleseed.”

“Johnny Appleseed?” I reckon no surprise to see Applejack take interest in that. “He sounds kinda like you n’ kinda like me. Who was he?”

“He wandered the whole country over, my country air way,” I responded her, “And air place he went, he made friends with beasts and folks alike, and he planted apple trees.”

“Sounds like mah kinda fella,” Applejack said with a chuckle. And no more words then for a bit as we went maybe another half mile or so, away from that Everfree Forest and right down into Ponyville itself.

The fields gave way to pasture, or what would be pasture back home. We passed by more cottages such as I’d seen at a distance, most all of them half-timbered and thatch-roofed like houses in fairy tale books like the ones by Andrew Lang or the Brothers Grimm. I smiled for a moment. Then I thought myself of what those stories were really like. Not the versions you see at the movies, but the old ones where folks died, often in right bad ways. It gave me a turn and maybe more than a turn to think I might be ending up on some ogre’s table for dinner.

Off in the distance I saw a big clock tower sitting in the middle of a field, right at the edge of town. More ponies like Applejack in the streets, but all different colors. Some of them like her or air pony back home, and some of them colors such as you’d nair see on any pony that hadn’t been painted for a show or a joke. And flying up above, more pegasi like Rainbow Dash. But no sign of her air place. I must have said that out loud, because Twilight responded me.

“She ought to be at the library with Rarity and Pinkie and Fluttershy,” she said. “I just hope she mentioned you like I asked her to.”

I wondered myself if she did as Twilight asked. The way she’d glared at me, she might not have seen air reason to tell the ponies about me.

By now we were down in the town proper. I saw just a few ponies out in the streets. Most looked like they were either going for their morning shopping or off for their work. The few to be seen started to wave and call hello to Twilight and Applejack. But when they clapped eyes on me they went scared and quiet. Conversations stilled when we went walking by, and after we passed those ponies leaned their heads together and started a-whispering. I caught many a fearful glance sent my way. I saw how Twilight shifted like it bothered her or reminded her of something

“Folks seem less than neighborly,” I said. “Is it just me, or are they always this unfriendly?” Twilight looked on me like she wanted to say something, but Applejack spoke up first.

“It ain’t you, exactly,” she said. “It’s just that the last fella looked like you caused some ruckus here, and folks ‘r still a mite scared.”

“Glad to know it’s not just me, then.” I said. I went so far as to tip my hat and smile at three bright-colored mares with flowers on their flanks as we passed, hoping they’d see it for a friendly gesture. I recognized a lily on the one, and what seemed like a rose on another. They all wore saddlebags the way womenfolks back home carry baskets when they go to market. They flinched from me and hurried away.

We passed by a one room schoolhouse, painted barn red. I saw a few smaller ponies outside of it, about the size of Applejack’s little sister. I saw Apple Bloom her own self getting shooed in with the others by a purple pony who followed along behind to make sure that her little scholars went where they were supposed to go. I figure I smiled on seeing it. I‘m not so old that I don’t remember how little I loved schooling on sunny spring days. I looked to my side and saw Applejack there, looking both tired and happy at the once.

“Leastways I know where she is,” she said, and shook her head. “My little sister keeps me busy, and no mistake.”

“Most little brothers and sisters do,” I said back to her. Twilight laughed like she agreed. Spike just crossed his arms and snorted. I wondered me how he could be a little brother to her.

We passed through another cluster of houses and came out into the town proper. More buildings here but less ponies to look scared or curious on us all. And all of them with those marks on their flanks, and they curiosed me more and more to see. Off a ways, one house like a big gnarled tree. No, not a house, but a right big tree itself, set with windows and a balcony with a telescope on it and a carved wooden sign out front. And setting aside it, big tents with little flags at their tops like what they used to call pavilions, striped gold and white, and what looked to be a chariot big enough for more than one pony to ride in.

“Here we are,” Twilight said. “Everypony else ought to be inside by now. Come on, John, and let’s get everything explained.”

“One thing I’d kindly like to know now, if I could,” Twilight cocked an eyebrow at my words like to say to go on. So I asked, “What-all are these marks you and everyone else here has on their flanks?” I pointed at the star she bore on hers, and said, “I thought at first they were brands of some sort, but they look growed in to your coat.”

“’Growed’ in?” Twilight rolled her eyes at my words, but then she brightened. Just like some scholar lady a-teaching students, which I guess she was right then, she began to say, “Cutie marks are very ancient among ponykind, being metaphorical images of a pony’s most basic personality traits and desires, and have been traced back to cave art from the Paleo-Pony Period. Poets have called them ‘the pony’s soul made visible’…”

“They’re marks yah get when yah figger out just who yah are or what you ought to be doin’ with your life,” Applejack broke in, and it sounded like she hurried to say it all. “Whatever it is that you’re best at or most love doin’. They don’t control what yah do, but they can help guide yah where yah need to be.” Twilight gave her an annoyed look like she didn’t relish being interrupted. I wondered my own self. Applejack seemed better mannered than that from what I’d seen. She didn’t look at the either of us. Instead, she looked off to the side, and worry showed in her face. My eyes followed hers, and I felt some worry at what I saw. AJ said, “Sorry, Twi, but I don’t think we got the time for one o’ your long explanations right now.”

Twilight looked and saw what Applejack saw, what I’d seen. Two armored, white-coated pegasi walked towards us along with an armored and gray-coated unicorn. The crests of their helmets waved above their eyes, which were set right on me. Their armor and helmets looked like someone took the armor of the old Greeks or Romans and tried to make it fit a pony’s body somehow. The armor was a mixtry of solid pieces, what they call plate, and the rings worked together that make what folks call mail, all golden-colored. Blue crests on their helmets like old-timey Greeks, and the one in front with the biggest crest showed scars on his coat and decorations on his armor like rank bars. I took him for their leader right there, and those scars made me think of a sergeant more than an officer. The looks they gave me weren’t friendly or welcoming air way.

Twilight flinched. Then she set herself between him and me.

“Captain Stalwart Bastion,” Twilight said, and even though I didn’t see her face somehow I knew she smiled broad and friendly to say it. She jerked her head back towards me like to point with her horn as she said, “Let me introduce you to John. He’s new here to Equestria, and…”

“And it’s our duty to place him under arrest, Miss Sparkle.” No anger nor yet fear in that voice, just calm and steady, like a man with a nasty job he knows he needs to be doing. He shifted slightly as he spoke. The sunlight glittered off of his armor where it’d been buffed to a shine. “You know this just as well as we do. It‘s Princess Celestia’s express command.” He looked right at me and said, “I order you to place yourself into our custody, right now. Don’t make us have to hurt you.”

Worry blossomed in Twilight at the guard captain’s words. Behind the white-coated Royal Guard pegasi and their gray-coated unicorn companion from the Spellguard she could see one of the chariots Celestia ordered sent to Ponyville in case she and her friends were needed in Canterlot. She sagged a bit in relief at what that meant. Discord’s still held in stone. Good. The guardsponies’ pavilion stood nearby, striped gold and white. She wondered where the rest of them were. Then she looked at Captain Bastion before her and gave what she hoped was her friendliest smile.

“Oh, captain, there’s no need for that,” Twilight said with what she hoped was a reassuring laugh. The look on Stalwart’s face didn’t change. He watched John closely, his gaze not wavering. Twilight added, “He’s nothing like Thorn.”

“That’s not my call to make, Miss Sparkle,” he said, “Nor yours either. I have my orders. We have to take him in.”

Twilight kept the smile on her face as she maneuvered to keep her eyes on both the captain and John. John still looked calm, but she saw how he balanced lightly on the balls of his feet, ready to run or fight if need be. Captain Bastion noticed it too. He lowered his head and scraped at the ground with one forehoof, getting ready for a charge. His subordinate followed suit, the muscles bunching under both their coats. Unconsciously, they spread their wings wide, making themselves look larger. The Spellguard unicorn went off to the side where he could use magic if he needed to without endangering his fellows. In another second, Twilight thought, they would tuck their wings in and try to bear John down beneath their weight until they could restrain him. Something told her he wouldn’t give in any more peacefully to them than he had to Dash and Applejack.

And if he was really the help they’d summoned, then what?

“Now just hold on there!” Applejack stepped between John and Captain Bastion. Applejack pressed her forehead against his, looking him eye to eye. “This here John’s a guest o’ mine. He spent last night under mah roof and ate at mah table. An’ he helped save mah little sister’s life last night in the Everfree. He ain’t like Thorn. Ah’ll vouch for ‘im if that’s what the trouble is.” Captain Bastion stepped back and looked ready to say something, but Applejack said, “As a Bearer o’ the Elements of Honesty, I’ll stand fer his good behavior.”

At that Captain Bastion snorted, sounding impressed. But he still looked to Twilight Sparkle. Worry showed in his eyes. “And you, Miss Sparkle? Will you promise good behavior from this John being, as well?”

Twilight hesitated only a second before she stepped forward and said, “I do, and so would Rainbow Dash if she were here. Yes, she’s met him,” she said quickly, cutting off any further complaints about disobeying Princess Celestia, “and furthermore, I also speak as Princess Celestia’s apprentice and Bearer of the Element of Magic. I’ll stand good for this pon – this being’s behavior.” She stepped close and added in a quick whisper. “Besides, it’ll be him with all six of the Elements of Harmony at once. How much trouble could he actually be under those circumstances?”

“Some of us wondered that about Discord,” he answered her, his voice soft but stern, “And we know what happened then.”

She winced at his words. “Discord got us separated in the garden maze and discorded us one at a time. This time we’ll all be together.”

The captain’s nostrils flared, then he added in a more conversational tone, “But you are the Princess’s representative. We were commanded to obey you. If you promise to prevent him from hurting any of Her Highness’s subjects, then so be it.” He turned and went back to his post by the chariot, accompanied by his fellow guards. Twilight let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding until then.

“I so hope that’s the last interruption,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry about that, John. Things are just a little tense around here right now what with everything that’s happened.” She started off towards the library. “But come on, we’re almost there.”

To Twilight’s relief, they reached the library with no more problems. John made some sort of comment on a tree of knowledge in a way that suggested the words meant more to him than her. She looked at Applejack and was rewarded with a shrug. Inside, she could hear her friends’ voices as they talked. She opened the door with her horn and entered, followed by John and Applejack. Spike dropped off her back as they entered and went over to stand by Owlowiscious’ perch.

“Well, here we are,” she said. They were all there. Rarity and Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. She smiled at them and said, “Ladies, this is John, and I want you all to meet him.”

“Well, here we are,” was what Twilight said when we walked into her treehouse library. I admit with no shame, I’d felt a moment or two of worry when those two guards wondered if they needed to try and make a prisoner of me. I felt right glad for them and me, more for me maybe, that they didn’t try any such a thing. I ducked under the doorframe and stepped through to the side to let Applejack come in. Spike dropped down off of Twilight’s back. They all went over to their friends and greeted them while I looked around. There was a right much to be seen.

It was built into that tree, one even bigger than the ones I’d seen thus far in the Everfree or on Applejack’s farm. Kindly like a gnarled oak, over thirty feet across at the base, big enough to enter through a double door such as I’d seen on Applejack’s house, anyway, and big enough to have more than the one floor inside from the stairway leading up behind a big safe that looked like it belonged in a bank. I did wonder myself why these ponies made so many things that might better suit folks with hands. And books everywhere, on shelves carved into the walls and on desks and even piled on the floor here and there. I reckon maybe I envied Twilight Sparkle some to see it. I’ve always dearly loved books. And in the middle of the room, a circle-shaped table like a reading desk with a statue of a unicorn atop it. All carved out of the heart of the tree, not built. And by that table, three new ponies.

I looked closer at them as they crowded around Twilight and Applejack. Dash was there, hovering up off the floor, the wash from her wings blowing over the open pages of some big book lying open. Applejack and Twilight stood between what must have been their friends Rarity and Fluttershy, greeting them horse-style with whickers and craning necks. They both noticed me looking at them and walked over.

“Oh, thank you, Mister John,” Fluttershy said in near about the softest voice I ever did hear, so soft and shy you strained to hear air word. Her name suited her right well. When I looked down at her she hid partways behind her long pink mane and blushed. “Applejack told us how you saved Apple Bloom from that terrible creature in the Everfree Forest.”

“Could be more like she saved me,” I knelt down and answered her. “She most likely could have run and gotten away, but when she saw me in trouble, she stayed and helped me. It was a brave thing for her to do.”

“But what else could she have done?” Fluttershy spoke me back, like it would be the most natural thing to risk your own life for someone you just met. I looked closer at her and she flinched back, “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that I doubted you.”

“You have nair thing to be sorry for, Miss Fluttershy,” I held out my hand by her hoof. “And if we’re to be friends here, just call me John.” She looked up at me through her mane, smiled, set her hoof in my hand and gave me a gentle shake.

“If we’re all friends, then you can just call me Fluttershy,” she said, and then added quick, “I mean, if that’s alright with you.” I might have said more to her, but right then the white unicorn with mane and tail like a long curly purple ribbon spoke up in a smooth voice that sounded like she practiced to make it so musical, like an actress on a stage. It put me in mind of some of the rich ladies from up north who come to the resorts we have in the mountains. The kind who like to say how quaint we all are to our faces.

“These are handmade, aren’t they?” I saw how she looked close at my hickory shirt and blue duckin pants, like someone who knew sewing. “But it wasn’t all done by the same pony. This tear here,” she pointed to one I’d mended shortly before I found myself here, “It was done by someone other than the original seamstress, yes? If you like, I’ll gladly redo the stitches later if we have the time.”

“You’re kindly right, Miss Rarity,” I answered her. “My wife Evadare made the shirt and pants, but now and then I’ve torn them and I fixed them up myself.” She looked surprised at how I knew her name, so I added, “Your friend Twilight was kind enough to tell me some little about you all.”

“Ooooh! Did she tell you about me too?” I near about jumped out of my old boots when a pink blur hopped up in front of me. She like to have appeared out of nowhere. Her mane showed all puffed out like cotton candy at a county fair, and she had the happiest eyes and biggest smile I’ve ever seen. “Hi, John! My name’s Pinkie Pie! I’m so glad to meet you! I was worried a teensy-weensy bit when Dashie first told me about you because I wondered if you were like that big meanypants Thorn but now that I’ve met you I know you’re a really nice guy for a human even if you get mad when people call you Silver John and…” Applejack stuck her hoof around from behind and set it over Pinkie’s mouth.

“Take it easy, sugarcube! Give the poor fella a chance ta breathe.” Pinkie Pie followed her back to a corner by Twilight. Fluttershy already stood there, slightly behind them. I just looked at Rarity and she smiled at me.

“That’s our Pinkie Pie,” she said. She accompanied me over to right before where Twilight stood, her elegantly groomed mane and tail swaying as she moved. “She’s a bit intense, but she’s a darling. And you, sir, perhaps you might be a gentlecolt and tell us a bit about yourself?” I noticed too now how she wore saddlebags, the same way Fluttershy did, the same way Applejack and Rainbow Dash did, all marked like the marks on their flanks. Only Pinkie lacked them – the saddlebags, not the mark.

I looked at Twilight. “This here is everyone who you think needs to hear this?”

“It is.” She nodded back. “Please, John, maybe you could tell us something about yourself?”

I like to think I did my best. I told them what there was to tell, how I’d been born at midnight along Downing Creek, how my father died right afore I was born and my mother right soon after, how I’d been raised by a maiden aunt who taught me my letters and when I grew went into the army and saw the lands overseas where we fought the war. And it was like the good book says, all confusion and garments rolled in blood. They looked ill at that, so I hurried on to other things. How I’d returned to the mountains where I’d been born and raised. I learned to play the guitar and traveled the whole country over, gathering up the old songs that were a-dying like flies.

And then the parts I reckoned they wanted to hear. About witch-men and women like Mister Onselm and Tiphaine and the Voth brothers and Mister Loden who’d lived near three hundred years and might have gone three hundred more but for my a-calling up George Washington’s ghost without meaning to and killing him. And about the things I’d seen that weren’t people but weren’t either natural things either, like Kalu and Molech and the Raven Mockers who’d tried to drink my blood. If they didn’t believe, they showed no disbelief. They acted special interested when I told them about One Other, who came up from whatever strangeness could be found beyond the Bottomless Pool, and how I’d driven him away. And then, how for the past week I’d been a-hearing the same five chords I’d heard from Applejack’s sister the last night, sung by a chorus of women’s voices, and how they seemed to pull at me until I came here.

I didn’t say air word yet about how their voices reminded me more than a bit of the women’s voices that sang that song. I wondered me if it might not be the wisest thing to say right then.

“Wow, you’ve done a lot in your life,” Twilight said to me when I’d finished, sounding impressed. By the way the sunlight shone in the window and over her we’d gone from early to mid-morning, if days here were like those back home. “You’ve faced a lot of evil sorcerers and monsters and won every time.”

“Yeah, we did right when we used the Elements and got you!” Pinkie Pie said, sounding pure down delighted. I saw she had a plate of cupcakes in her hoof and wondered me where they’d come from. Then her words hit me.

“Wait, what does that mean, that you all got me here?” I looked around at them all. None of them would look back at me. They all looked away, shamed of a sudden, like small children when the store owner caught them with candy in their pockets. I turned around on Twilight. She did look at me, but I saw how she blushed.

“It’s like this, John...” She broke off, trying for the words she wanted to say, and just sighed. “I think maybe we’re the reason you’re here. I think maybe we called you across worlds to help us, and – please! We wouldn’t have done this if we’d any other choice!” Hurt and worry showed in her eyes.

The others broke in, sounding just as sad as Twilight.

“It’s the pure down truth, John! We reckoned on some help and asked for it…”

“Oh, please don’t be angry with us, John, if we weren’t so frightened for Twilight…”

“Believe us, sir, if we’d had any other choice available…”

“That big meany-pants Thorne scared everypony so bad…”

“Hey, we got desperate, okay?”

I reckon I gopped at them like a gone gump before I could make the words come. “Whyever would you do that, and how?” I asked them when I could speak again.

They all just shifted where they sat or laid and looked at Twilight. The purple unicorn looked down, sighed again, and then looked straight at me.

“John,” Twilight bespoke me, “This won’t be easy or short. Maybe you’d better sit down yourself, and I’ll tell you about Rowley Thorne.”