//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - More horses!! // Story: Fighting the Darkness // by ScottishPony //------------------------------// "Uh... Howdy there..." came the rather awkward reply from the pony. Silence. The two beings simply stared at each other in complete disbelief. The Satyr couldn’t believe the pony could talk. The pony couldn’t believe the Satyr could talk. The lack of words lasted for a few more minutes until the distant call of a much younger voice came. "Applejack? What the hay are you doin’?" "A-Applebloom, get outta here." the staring pony simply replied, before slowly backing down the tree. Sheamus gulped down hard, and moved into a position to which he could peer over the edge. Once more, he spotted the orange pony staring up at him, but more in confusion than shock. By her side, there was a much smaller pony who also seemed to hold the power of speech. The smaller one seemed to have curiosity and intrigue pained across her face, rather than the elders concern. "Hey, Applejack, who’s that fella up ther’ anyway?" the smaller one, presumed by Sheamus to be the ’Applebloom’ that was mentioned just a moment ago. "Ah don’t know, but Ah want you stayin’ away from it." the elders gaze met with his, showing that he wasn’t too hidden from his vantage point. "He seems friendly enough!" Applebloom smiled, before defying the larger one’s orders and hopping to the base of the tree, "Hey, Mr! What’s your name? I’m Applebl-" "Applebloom! What hav’ Ah told you ’bout doing stupid an’ reckless things like that!" ’Applejack’ scolded the little filly as she pulled her away. "Well, if he had the intentions of hurtin’ me, then why hasn’t he already?" she quickly retorted, "Besides, he doesn’t look like the second comin’ of Cerberus, now does he?" "Just because it hasn’t made a move doesn’t mean it won’t make one!" With the two in a rather heated argument, Sheamus decided to carefully wriggle out from the trees branches, and down onto the grass. "An’ that’s the- Huh?" the pony quickly whipped her head around to face him before leaning into a defensive position, "Don’t you dare make another move! Applebloom, get behind me now!" "But why? He’s not gonna hurt me!" the young filly seemed to ignore her superiors word, and wandered casually up to him, "As I were sayin’, mah name is Applebloom, and this is my annoyin’ big sister- Applejack." "Applebloom, get back here now..." the warning seemed to fall on deaf ears as Applebloom gently sat down and spoke with him casually. "So what’s your name?" the filly asked, her eyes as wide as moons. Sheamus gulped but remained as cool as possible, "My name? My names are the Celtic Warrior, the Great White, etcetera, but everyone just calls me Sheamus." "Really? That’s so cool! Ah wish Ah had names like that, but Ah guess Applebloom is okay." casting a quick glance to Applejack showed the elder pony begining to relax, and her eyes slowly filling with curiosity, "So, where’d you come from and how’d you end up in a tree?" "Well, I’m not exactly sure how I ended up here of all places, but I came from a place called ’Earth’, an-" "Earth? Is that some obscure town at the edge of Equestria?" the curious filly interrupted him, but he knew it was out of curiosity and not malicious. "Well, I’m not sure where it is in relation to here but it’s a vastly different place with loads of-" "Is it populated by things like you?" interruption number two, but Sheamus merely chuckled. "Applebloom, stop interruptin’ him." Applejack spoke to the filly, before quickly straightening up, "Well, Ah’ll go get Twilight. You jus’ stay right here." she cast a suspicious gaze to Sheamus for just a moment, before disappearing beyond the trees. "Well... Alright then." Sheamus said in a rather surprised tone. "Eh, don’t mind her. She gets like that every now an’ then," Applebloom shrugged, before her eyes were flooded with curiosity again, "so as Ah were sayin’, is your home place, wherever that is, populated with creatures like yourself?" Sheamus chuckled, "No, not really. You see, when I got here, I was somehow changed from my original self, into a..." "Satyr!" a high-pitched voice beyond the trees chirped in. "Huh, Sweetie Belle?" Applebloom jumped and whipped her head around to face the direction of the voice. "Who now?" Sheamus asked with a frown. "Oh- uh, they’r mah friends. Sweetie Belle..." a small white filly unicorn with a curly pink and purple mane walked out, "... an’ Scootaloo," another, equally small filly pegasus pony with bright orange fur and a magenta mane rode out along side the other on a small scooter. They didn’t seen like threats, so Sheamus gave them a hearty smiles and began to speak, "Nice to meet y-" "Wow! You’re a real Satyr!" the orange one gasped. "And didn’t you say you were from a different dimension?" Sweetie chimed in. "Ah know, ain’t that just so cool!" Applebloom continued. Sheamus carefully let himself sit down and lean against the tree. For a few moments, he sat simply smiling and watched the fillies share their pure excitement, ’Kids. They’re the same in every dimension.’ "Okay, CMC, calm down." Applebloom announced over the top of the other two before cleaning her throat, "Now, this fella here is called Sheamus. Ain’t ya’?" Sheamus chuckled a little bit. It was like meeting fans back home! "Yup. That’s my name." but he bit back the fact it was only his stage name since he wanted to see if he could truly trust these ponies first. "Sheamus? That’s so cool..." Scootaloo breathed with wide eyes, "so, uh, why don’t you have a cutiemark?" "A cutie- what-now?" Sheamus quickly dissolved into confusion at the mention of that word. "You know, a cutiemark?" Sweetie replied seeming confused as to why he was confused. The tree fillies twisted their bodies to show him their but- eh, flanks, and each of them had little shields on them, with small individualized emblems on them. Instantly, one thing sprung to Sheamus’s mind. ’Okay, which one of these three is going to betray the other two?’, he thought bluntly, as he could only see the trio from the WWE reflected in these fillies. "They represent what your special talent is. You know, what makes you different to ev’ry other pony." Applebloom explained, pulling Sheamus out of his mind. "Oh, cool," Sheamus commented with a short nod, "Wonder what mine would be." He continued, suppressing his laughter, as he could only imagine the poor son of a bitch that got stuck with a humiliating cutiemark like a middle finger or something even more immature. "I know. Why don’t you have one?" Sweetie asked out of curiosity. He shrugged, "Dunno. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t found my talent. I’ve travelled the world God knows how many times doing what I love." "You have? What as? An entertainer? A comedian?" Applebloom asked. "Oh, I’m a global sports entertainer." Sheamus spoke casually, and grinned as he watched Scootaloo’s expression change in an instant. "Really? What as? What kind of athlete? Like, are you a sprinter? Or... or a cyclist or...." Scootaloo’s eyes shimmered brightly with pure, raw energy. "Wrestler." Sheamus narrowed his eyes and gave a huge grin. Scootaloo gasped with pure joy and excitement, which Applebloom and Sweetie Belle gasped out of shock. Scootaloo shot forward to him, "Whoa! Does it not-" "Hurt?!" the other two chimed in along aside her. "Aye, of course! Can you imagine getting your ass whooped while simultaneously whipping other people’s asses on a day-to-day schedule in different countries, and while safety isn’t always guaranteed?!" he watched their faces drop to sheer shock- even Scootaloo didn’t seen to hot any more. "B-But why would you do that?!" Sweetie interjected, with her jaw still lying on the floor. He shrugged, "I love it- I’ve always loved it. And honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing about it." He smiled while getting in a more relaxed pose; crossing his legs and putting his hands behind his head. "You’re just so casual about it..." Applebloom breathed. "Yeah, can’t it seriously take a toll on you?" Scootaloo gulped. "Well, yeah. I was put out for six months straight because of an injury in a ladder match. One of my pals had his neck forced down onto a crutch which nearly collapsed his throat. Not to mention to hundreds of other injuries which have happened in the past to people other than me. Hell, some people have even died in the ring, or ended up... worse..." his throat caught a bit when he spoke the last few words. "R-Really... I knew it was dangerous, but not that dangerous..." Scootaloo gulped, her eyes falling to the grass below her hooves. "What did you mean by ’worse’?" Applebloom gulped, almost instantly regretting asking the question. Sweetie simply stared in stunned silence as Sheamus took a long, breathy sigh, "Honestly, just forget I ever said that, okay. It’s a bit of a sore spot to talk about, and I don’t want to worry you fillies." "O-Okay..." Applebloom gave a soft inward sigh of relief that he has decided not to give a reply. Sheamus, feeling the conversation was dying a bit, quickly gave a smile and decided to turn back to a more uplifting topic, "So, what do you fillies like to do for fun?"