//------------------------------// // In The Everfree // Story: Meanwhile... // by WatchMeShadow //------------------------------// ------------------- The CMC ------------------- Applebloom had been practicing growing apple trees and other plants in secret, every chance she got. She was getting better at it going from a sprout, to a seedling, to a sapling, and now she can almost make a full grown tree with apples and all. After some experiments, she learned it was much easier to grow seeds than it was to grow anything that had already started to grow. The earlier in its stage of growth it was, the easier it was to make grow. She considered telling ponies about how well she can grow plants, but really wanted to wait until she could make a apple tree with actual apples. She planned on ‘wowing’ everypony. She also on several occasions tried to heal plants. Every time was incredible slow. There was no noticeable improvement with this ability. She eventually gave up on the idea of healing other things. The fact that healing was even a thing a she could do, regardless of it being painfully slow, was nice to know. One time, while running home from her secret training area. She got distracted and tripped on a root, earning herself some nasty scrapes on her forelegs. They stung. She removed any debris from them, knowing that they'd only hurt more if she didn't. She'd gotten plenty of scrapes while crusading with her friends and as such knew exactly how to handle it. Hot water, soap, and then a band aid or three would do the trick. With that in mind she got up and resumed at a slower pace. She barely made it two steps when the pain was gone. Glancing at her forelegs, she saw that they looked like they always did. A second look, revealed that they, in fact, did look like they usually do. She clearly remembered falling down and getting some nasty scrapes. Yet, her forelegs were fine, like nothing had happened. After a little bit of thought she came to the exciting conclusion that she can heal herself. She wondered why she never thought of that before, though she wasn’t eager to test it out. She knew Twilight wanted them telling her if anything weird happens and knew this definitely counted, but Applebloom didn’t want ponies to know about what she’s been practising, not yet at least, so she kept it too herself. It’s currently noon on Tuesday and Applebloom had just got done with lunch. She was pretty excited about today. She was going to go see Zecora and finally show her how much she has improved on alchemy and her new ability to grow plants. With a yell of, “Going to Zecora’s,” she was out the door before anypony could say anything. On her way there she ran into her friends, “Applebloom!” they yelled as they approached. “You ready to do some more crusading?” Scootaloo happily asked once close enough. They all began walking together in the direction Applebloom was going. Passing by rows and rows of apple trees. Applebloom normally would have loved to, but she really wanted to see Zecora, “Maybe later, right now Ah’m going to Zecoras. Ah’m gonna show her how much Ah’ve improved on my alchemy. It’s been a long time since Ah visited her, also Ah want to show her that new plant growing ability Ah got.” Sweetie has been to Zecoras only four times. The first time she was a little freaked out, but those fears were quick to melt away, “Oh! can we come to?” Sweetie didn’t mind not crusading, as long as she was with her best friends. Applebloom didn’t need to think for her answer, “Absolutely!” Sweetie brought up a hoof then elbowed down while yelling/hissing, “Yes,” she quickly got embarrassed as Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at her in amusement, “What? It was so boring being grounded for three days…” This reminded her of an important part of why she was grounded in the first place, “I need to tell Rarity I’m going to Zecoras,” Sweetie began to run towards Raritys then stopped, “I’ll meet you at the entrance!” Sweetie yelled leaving again. Scootaloo hardly got any sleep last night. Her mind felt numb if that made any sense. She just kept getting nightmares about falling and not being able to move. Waking up as soon as she hit whatever nightmarish ground her devious imagination came up with. Sometimes Rainbow Dash would save her then look at her in disappointment and walk away, those nightmares were the worst. Left alone with Applebloom, they decided to wait for Sweetie at the entrance once they got there. Fluttershy stopped them as they approached, no doubt to prevent something like last time from happening. They explained they were waiting on Sweetie who was telling Rarity, before they went to Zecoras. Fluttershy decided, well if Rarity is okay with it than she’d be okay with it. Eventually, Sweetie came back with the green light, figuratively speaking. It was a pretty uneventful walk. Soon they made it to Zecora’s hut. Well, It’s more of a tree with a wicked zebrican witch theme with bottles strung about the branches a tiki face above the door, and one window on both sides of the door. They knocked on the door which posed some nasty scratch marks on it. After a brief wait, the door quickly opened, “Come in fast if you wish for your life to last,” Zecora said urgently. As they entered Applebloom asked, “What’s going on Zecora? You seem spooked.” “The creatures of this forest are naturally frightening. Recently, they’ve acted much more aggressive, worse than lightning.” Zecora answered while closing the door. “Applebloom wanted to show you how much better she got at making potions and something else, and we wanted to come along,” replied Scootaloo, looking around at everything. She thought this was pretty creepy when she first visited last year, but after she got to know Zecora she kind of liked the design. “Yeah, and its been awhile since we seen you,” Sweetie beamed. Sweetie never got to see Zecora as often as Applebloom, as she was never as interested in alchemy as Applebloom is. The one time she did try it they ended up poisoning Appleblooms brother and her teacher. It didn’t give her the best impression of it. Once everypony and zebra was settled in, Zecora got a good look at her unexpected guest before her. Scootaloo looked pretty sleep deprived at the moment, and this gave her an idea. “You leave me with great interest. So I will give young Applebloom here a test,” Zecora said as she went and gathered several ingredients that were around them. She put them on a table along with some tools that might be needed to complete the test. Once she got done she said, “Young Applebloom to complete this test, you must make me something that will help somepony get some much needed rest.” Applebloom was aware of this potion, but she hasn’t actually made it. The instructions in the book were clear, but words are not the real thing. She gathered the tools she knew she needed but paused while looking at the various ingredients. She was missing something but she couldn’t quite remember if it was the tree’s hoof nail, or the tree’s armpit. Both are the same species of brown mushroom that grows on trees the only difference is where they grow therefore changing them enough to have different uses but mostly similar looks. The tree’s armpit grows under a tree’s branch while the trees hoof nail grows on the roots. Applebloom remembered a failed joke Twilight tried to tell about the tree’s hoof nail and foals sucking their hooves while sleeping. Twilight was, at the time, trying to explain why where the mushroom grows can make such a big difference in its uses. Applebloom got the trees hoof nail and moved on. Ultimately the extra tools didn’t confuse her as much as the extra ingredients almost did. Zecora was impressed that Applebloom made no mistakes while completing her task. She congratulated Applebloom on making the potion of rest with no issues then inquired about the other thing Scootaloo mentioned. Applebloom asked for a pot with dirt and a flower seed. Unsure of where this was going she obliged and got those things. Applebloom took the seed and threw it on the dirt in the pot, “Okay, before Ah start, let me just say, Ah’ve gotten better since last you saw me do this,” she explained while looking at Sweetie and Scootaloo. “We’ll see about that,” Scootaloo said skeptically. Applebloom just smirked confidently at her. “Come on, show us already!” Sweetie excitedly exclaimed. Zecora still had no clue what they were talking about, but she assumed she was gonna find out real soon. “Alright, alright,” Applebloom said. She breathed in and brought her hoof down on the seed. With her will she demanded the seed to grow. Zecora then watched in silent amazement as a snowcap daisy quickly popped up before her eyes. Scootaloo on the other hoof said, “Cooool! Ahem, I mean, not bad, not bad.” Sweetie was so excited she hugged Applebloom, who was quick to pry her off in embarrassment. They explained a lot of what happened to them recently. Zecora recalled Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow asking her about them a while ago. Some of the things they told her definitely made her interested in their story, and she planned on visiting Twilight soon. “That is quite the tale, but it is getting late, to Ponyville we must travel without fail,” Zecora said as she went and grabbed a pouch and put it to her side. She also strapped the potion Applebloom made onto the pouch. They existed the treehut and Zecora lead the way to Ponyville. It’s about a twenty minute walk to Zecoras from the edge of the forest. After about ten minutes of walking Sweetie was getting bored. She remembered Twilight mentioning that Zecora helped her improve the technique that let her float that feather, “So Zecora you trained Twilight how to use her magic once right? How could you do that when you’re not even a unicorn?” Just before Zecora could answer there was a loud roar in front of them, but its maker could not be seen thanks to some bushes. The CMC bunched up and Zecora tensed up. Something huge with rage filled eyes pounced at Zecora from behind the bushes. She jumped out of the way and got a good look at her attacker. A manticore. Not just any manticore but one she had encountered two times before among the many other creatures acting unusually aggressive. She reflexively reached in her pouch and threw a white dust at the manticore. The manticore stumbled to the side with its eyes closed allowing Zecora to make a path in the bushes for the fillies to run thru. She motioned for them to run while holding the path open. Sweetie was scared out of her mind, but her friends took the hint and ran ahead. Fear kept Sweetie in place. She involuntarily shook, staring at the huge manticore completely overwhelmed. She didn't want to die. Then its angry blood red eyes opened. She ran. Scootaloo and Applebloom were waiting for them on the other side quite a bit aways from the bushes. Sweetie soon joined them. Just as Zecora took a couple steps on the other side of the bushes she stopped and said, “We must make haste, there is no time to waste” She figured that dust gave her time to do so; unfortunately, the manticore did learn something from it’s last two encounters with her. Right after Sweetie turned to see Zecora speak, she watched in horror as the Manticore jumped out of the bushes again, but this time Zecora was clearly unprepared as a paw plunged downwards. A memory washed over Sweetie's mind. It was one of the many times she felt helpless to prevent a tragedy, but this one was different. This one didn't involve alicorns, gods of chaos, or a changeling army that she couldn't hope to stop. This was one she had a chance at stopping. The sight of Scootaloo running towards a sword that had obliterated a canteen. All she could do was watch as one of her best friends blindly ran towards what she felt at that moment was a public execution. “STOP!” Sweetie yelled at the top of her lungs. She closed her eyes and took some breaths ready to cry. After some waiting she noticed something. Nothing happened, there was no yell in pain and Applebloom and Scootaloo didn’t crowd around her. Confused she opened her eyes to see the manticore did stop, thinking maybe it listened to her, “GO AWAY!” she demanded. It didn’t move. She then looked at Applebloom who looked like she was in the middle of warning Zecora then towards Scootaloo who looked tired but ready to fight. She put her hoof in front of Scootaloos eyes and moved them back and forth to see if they would follow but they didn’t. She noticed her horn glowing. After some more testing, she quickly came to the conclusion she must have stopped time, because everything was still. Sweetie got an idea on how to save Zecora. She ran up to her. She put her fore-legs on Zecoras leg and tried pushing her, but to no avail. She put her head on Zecoras foreleg and tried pushing, but Zecora was still unmoving. She tried pulling Zecoras foreleg with both forelegs then she tried her mouth. She put her back to Zecoras foreleg and tried moving her with her back legs. Every attempt was more desperate than the last. They all failed miserable. She felt tired after about six minutes. She was losing hope. Frustrated with her magic she complained, “Stupid magic, how come you never do what I want you to?” angerly staring at her glowing horn. She began walking back to her friends in defeat. She felt trapped in a situation where all she could do was watch Zecora get hurt badly. Her magic stopped time just before it happened to rub it in her face. She hated it. Tears began to go down her face and she began to sniffle. A thought came to her as she replayed the events that lead up to where she is now. This was her fault, she gave the manticore time to recover from Zecoras powder stuff. If she hadn’t been so scared and ran when her friends did, this wouldn’t have happened. It was her fault. Applebloom was trying to warn Zecora, even though it was clearly too late. Scootaloo looked ready to fight. Something stirred within her at the sight. ‘No’ she thought blinking away tears, ‘I’m a Cutie Mark Crusader and we never give up! and I can’t let somepony or somezebra get hurt when I can do something to stop it,’ determined, she looked back to Zecora who wore a shocked yet somehow sad and accepting expression, ‘Especially when it’s my fault to begin with.’ She ran back to Zecora and thought. She couldn’t use her magic because she already is using it and she has no clue how she is. Plus, she didn’t trust her ability to do anything safely with it. Pushing and pulling didn’t work. She also couldn’t move anything else around them. This was frustrating. “Augh!!” she yelled in anger as she walked away from Zecora to look at things from the side. This was too much for her to take, she was losing it. Thinking was getting her nowhere fast. “WHY!” she yelled, “WHY!” she began to sprint towards Zecora, “WHY!” she got a halfway to her, “WON’T,” she got a quarter way, “YOU,” she got closer then jumped and yelled “MOVE!” Scootaloo was terrified for her friends safety, but ready to distract the manticore for them if it came down to it. Applebloom was busy warning Zecora about the manticore when Scootaloo saw a light in the corner of her eye and heard a pop right next to her. In that instant she saw a horrifying scene in front of her. Another bright light appeared to the side of Zecora and Sweetie rammed Zecora with her body knocking Zecora to the left just enough to avoid the swipe from the manticore which hit Sweetie instead. Sweetie let out a pained scream while she was in the air, but when she hit the ground she was silenced. Everypony and zebra was confused by this. The manticore was blinded by the flash of light next to its face and startled by the loud scream right after, stunning it briefly. Scootaloo could only look at Sweetie as she laid on the ground. Scootaloos mind raced and time seemed to slow down when memories began to flood her fatigued and adrenaline filled mind. She could only whisper, “Sweetie Belle?” before memories took her away from reality completely. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A little over two years ago It was her first week in a new town and she didn’t know anypony. The first couple days were harder than she thought they possible could be. It almost made her want to go back. She was walking in the park with her scooter not really in the mode to ride it and looking down. She accidently bumped into somepony and apologized, and kept walking not bothering to look up. “Hey, I’ve never seen you before,” said the pony she bumped into in a high squeaky voice. Scootaloo looked up to a white unicorn filly with a stylized puffy mane smiling at her, “I would hope not I’m new in town,” Scootaloo responded with a slight hint of anger. “Oh okay,” The unicorn replied oblivious to the anger she just received, “Did you know the summer sun celebration is taking place tomorrow?” “How could I not everypony in town is talking about it,” Scootaloo responded with the same tone. “I know isn’t it great Princess Celestia is gonna be here, and there’s going to food from Sugarcube Corner and Bon Bons,” the unicorn said happily. “Wait there’s gonna be food there?” Scootaloo stopped and asked as she looked at the unicorn. “Of course there is... um, My name is Sweetie Belle by the way. What’s your name?” Sweetie asked. “Scootaloo,” Scootaloo simple replied. “Hey all this talk about food has got me hungry you wanna go to the Hayburger and get something to eat? My treat!” Sweetie asked while smiling. “Um, sure. That sounds cool. I could use something to eat as well,” Scootaloo replied as she followed Sweetie. One week later “I can’t wait till school starts it is gonna be so much fun!” Sweetie said while Scootaloo was busy trying a new trick on her scooter. This tripped Scootaloo up and she spectacularly messed up the trick and rolled on the ground making the fall more comical than anything else. “School?” she said loudly while getting up, “Um, yeah sounds like tons fun,” She said sarcastically. “I know, It’s starting in three days I can’t wait!” Sweetie said completely oblivious to the sarcasm she just received, “We’re gonna have so much fun because Miss Cheerilee is the best teacher ever!” she continued. This gave Scootaloo some pause to consider some things for later, “I guess, but let me finish this trick it’s gonna be awesome once I do it.” Eight days later “When are your parents going to write that letter?” Sweetie asked suddenly while looking confused and sad. Scootaloo previously was just walking along the park not doing much today. Scootaloo took a look and saw Sweeties frown, “Oh I think they’ll have it done for next week like I said they can get very busy." Sweetie smiled at that then continued, “That’s good, I can’t wait to see you in school next week!” “So you said there was gonna be a party today?” Scootaloo asked. “Yeah, but it’s the cutescenera of Diamond Tiara and I do not want her to know I exist if I can help it,” Sweetie said in her squeaky voice. “Well didn’t you say lots of ponies will be there? All we have to do is stay out of her sight and we can enjoy free treats from Sugarcube Corner, just imagine the cupcakes, the cookies, the cake, the punch, the ice cream!” Scootaloo argued back while her mouth began to water in anticipation. “Ok, let’s go you made me hungry,” Sweetie said. Two weeks later They just got done crusading again and had plans to do a talent competition. They were walking away from Appleblooms home for the night. “Oh I can’t wait till the talent show we’re gonna get our cutie marks for sure!” Sweetie squeaked out. “Yeah, I’m totally gonna make our theme song for the talent show, it’s gonna be as awesome as Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said with no clue how hard it was going to be for her. “I got some ideas for the set up to... Hey Scootaloo?” Sweetie stopped and asked out of nowhere. Scootaloo noticed this and stopped after, “Yeah, what’s up?” “Um, I just wanted to thank you for getting me to go to Diamonds Cutescenera,” Sweetie said with a smile. “What? Why? All she does is pick on you now… Well us, but that’s not the point. I know you didn’t want that to happen. But it is! Because of me! I don’t even know why you’re still with me,” Scootaloo said laying her thoughts out there. At the time, she felt pretty guilty about basically being the only reason Sweetie got bullied. She didn’t understand how Sweetie could thank her for that. Sweetie gasped and quickly hugged Scootaloo, “Don’t say that! You’re one of my best friends!” Scootaloo was tempted to hug back but let her hug for a little longer before lightly pushing Sweetie off her. “Okay, okay I get it, enough with the mushy stuff,” as she looked at Sweetie she couldn’t help but notice Sweetie’s eyes were slightly moist. SMACK, ROAR! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Shocked by this, Applebloom stared at Sweetie on the ground. She wasn’t believing this. The manticore soon got in her vision as it slowly lowered its head to Sweetie. Before it could get too close, Zecora bucked its head with her hind hooves which made quite the impact sound followed by a painful roar from the manticore. The manticore moved both its front paws towards Zecora letting Applebloom see its side. The manticore struck its tail at Zecora who jumped back, barely dodging its tail and began running. The manticore began to give chase. Seeing this as an opportunity Applebloom yelled, “Sweetie Belle!” and ran towards her. The manticore noticed her almost immediately, skidded to a halt and went back to Sweetie, though its attention was fully on Applebloom. Applebloom kept running, preparing herself, as the manticore raised the paw that stuck down Sweetie. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Scootaloo was brought back to reality when Zecora hit the manticore, though she didn’t see it. She did however hear and see Applebloom yell Sweetie’s name and start running straight towards Sweetie Belle. She felt so helpless, like she already failed. All she had left was right in front of her and all she was doing was watching. A tear began to fall down her cheek as she still had those memories in mind. Her lack of sleep for the last couple of days and the adrenaline running through her system was scrambling her already fatigued mind. She watched as the manticore raised its now bloodied paw at Applebloom, as she got closer. She just saw that paw strike down Sweetie, and now it aims to do the same with Applebloom? A feeling began to stir within her, one she hasn’t felt since before she met Sweetie. Hatred. Her focus on that paw was the last thing she remembered before blacking out in pure rage. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Applebloom heard a beastial yell behind. She was about to look behind her but something brought her attention upfront. A spiked rock shot from the ground and impaled the manticores raised paw. It happened fast, and the sound of earth crumbling to make way for it was weird. She kept running to Sweetie though. The manticore struggled to get its paw out of the spike making pained roars as it did so. Applebloom made it to Sweetie but kept her attention on the manticore as it got on its hind legs and put its free paw on the spike and raised its trapped paw free. The second that happened an orange blur came into her vision. An explosion of wind expanded where the orange blur made contact with the manticore. The manticore was gone. She looked ahead past the now destroyed bushes and saw it falling down from a tree that took some heavy impact damage. It didn’t move after it hit the ground, and if it did it was too far away to notice. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When Scootaloo came to she saw the manticore falling to the ground a good distance away from her. She quickly looked around confused and saw Sweetie and Applebloom behind herself. “Sweetie Belle!” she yelled, horrified by the pool of blood forming around her. Sweetie had three large gashes on the side of her back. Only one of the gashes looked to be the main reason for the amount of blood. She quickly ran up to Applebloom who was in front of Sweetie staring down at her. “Say something Sweetie!” Applebloom panicked. Sweetie Belle looked up at her friends, weakly she asked, “Di...” cringing in pain, “did I save Ze...cora?” Scootaloo on the verge of tears now responded, “Yes, yes you did,” as she watched Sweeties chest slowly rise and fall. Sweetie gave a weak smile before quietly saying, “Th, that’s good,” as she closed her eyes and went into unconsciousness. “Sweetie, come on, stop it! You’re going to be ok!” Applebloom said with disbelief. She quickly got the idea to try and heal her. She put her hoof on Sweetie’s wound and tried but nothing happened, or if it did it hardly mattered. Zecora unfortunately, misjudged the manticores intentions and thought it was going to give chase after it struck its tail at her. By the time she realized it wasn’t, she was too far away to do anything but watch as Applebloom and Scootaloo ran to Sweeties aid. The stone spike and Scootaloos attack on the manticore was a surprise to her. She was still too far away to help Sweetie but she got there just as Applebloom put her hooves on Sweetie. “Applebloom quick use your bow tie to stop the bleeding, this is no time to be pleading.” Applebloom took off her bow tie and with Zecoras help they wrapped it around Sweeties body two times. It didn’t help much, but then Zecora asked Applebloom to put pressure on Sweeties wound, that helped a bit. Zecora lowered herself for Applebloom and Scootaloo to get Sweetie on her back. Zecora instructed Applebloom to get on her back to keep pressure on her wounds, while they made way to the hospital. Zecora then galloped towards Ponyville Hospital. Scootaloo followed close behind. “You hang in there Sweetie, we’ll get you to the hospital and everything will be okay,” Applebloom said while they made their way to the hospital. As they made their way Applebloom kept saying things like that, trying to make it true by saying it. Scootaloo just ran along side, trying to ignore Appleblooms near constant ramblings, she really wanted to believe they were true. End Chapter 11