//------------------------------// // On Her Own Again // Story: Crimson Mare // by Sphinx_Herald //------------------------------// Fluttershy watches quietly as Nova packs her things away into a few bags. The bags have an copy of her cutie mark embroidered on them. “A-are you sure you want to leave? It’s still pretty cold outside,” she asks as Nova slides her book in next to a chess set. “Well, I’m fully recovered.” Out of the corner of her eye she sees Fluttershy raise an eyebrow at her. “Mostly recovered,” she corrects herself. She unconsciously shifts her weight off of her leg that was bitten. “Point is, I’m well enough to walk. And, I don’t want to be anymore of a bother than want I have been.” “You haven’t been a bother.” “I scared off most of the animals, broke the door, almost burnt down your kitchen. I let my friend, and coltfriend sleep here without bothering to ask you…” she lists off. “Okay, so you might not be the most, uh… pleasant pony to be around. But-- yep!” she yelps as Nova turns to face her. “S-sorry, I-I didn’t mean--” she starts thinking she upset the crimson mare. Nova chuckles and throws her bags onto her back. “It’s fine. Honestly, that’s what I’ve been trying to say.” She gives Fluttershy a smile and walks over into the hall. “Well, I best get going. See you around.” “Where are you staying?” Fluttershy asks as she follows her to the door. “I, uh, I’m staying in town. Don’t worry, I’ll see you around.” With that Nova heads out the door and into the cool spring air. Back on my own… again… She sighs and starts down the path to town. A few stops are needed before she heads back home. She idly looks up at the branches as she walks. Green dots the branches as the leaves and flowers beginning to bloom. The green hue around the branches briefly reminds her of the timberwolves. A grin pulls at her lips, but she pushes the memory aside trying to convince herself that the whole fight was a bad situation. “Maybe I should head back there sometime and burn off some more anger.” She mulls over the thought glancing back at the forest as it disappears in the distance. Sounds like a great plan, but I think we should start at the cottage, then make our way to the forest. “Nah… Fluttershy would have my hide if I burn down the forest. I swear, that mare can probably kill somepony with that stare of her’s.” She chuckles a little at the thought. Soon Ponyville comes into view. Even though it’s rather early in the morning quite a few ponies are out on the streets getting on with their business. A thought buzzing around Nova’s head brings her to a stop. What if the fillies told someone… What if Applejack told someone, she can’t exactly lie. We should get rid of them, just to be sure. Nova snorts out of annoyance. Yeah, I’m sure that’d go well. She sighs and starts back up toward the town. Well, only one way of knowing. As she walks into the town only a few ponies stop, even then most of the ponies that stop smile and wave at her. Well, at least they can keep a secret, for now. She huffs out a breath of smoke, hoping the ponies looking simply think it’s vapor from the cool air. Most of the ponies outside are busy ‘wrapping up’ the last of winter. A term which she heard from Fluttershy over the past few days. Winter Wrap-Up had happened the day before last, but Nova does mind that she missed it. Even though it’s apparently a large event for most of Equestria. She simply glances over at the working ponies as she walks past. After a few minutes of walking she arrives at her first destination. She stops just outside the post office. The brick building stands the same as last time she was here, though that was before winter. Nova looks up at the sun, figuring that the building should be open at this time. With a final sigh she trots inside. A small bell above the door rings as she enters, catching the attention of the limegreen stallion at the counter. He blinks a few times as she walks over, after a few moments he smiles at her. “Hey Nova, still in town?” “Yeah. Uh… can I talk to Derpy?” “Oh, she’s not here right now. She’s out doing the mail run, but she should be back in an hour or two. So, you can come back then.” Nova lets out a snort and heads over to the row of chairs. “Thanks, but I think I’ll wait. I have nothing to do anyways.” She dumps her saddlebags onto the ground by the furthest chair. As soon as she sits down she reaches into the bag and pulls out her book. It’s an hour and a half later when Derpy walks into the post office. The little bell above the door rings, welcoming her as she enters. She immediately notices the red mare sitting in the lobby. “Nova?” Blinking a couple of times Nova looks up from the book. She drop the book onto the chair next to her and gets up onto her hooves. “Morning, Derpy,” she says giving her a hoofshake. “You’re still here? We kinda thought you left when winter came.” “Nah, I was just pretty badly hurt,” she says holding her bandaged leg up. The injury is only a day old, but it still gets the point across. “Oh, what happened?” Nova shrugs and sits back down. “Ran into a tree.” Punched a timberwolf, ran into a tree, not that far off from the truth. A chuckle comes from Derpy and she shakes her head. “You might be almost as bad as me when it comes to that.” “Sorry about not telling you, I’ve just been bedridden for a while.” “Yeah, that could have been helpful. It’s a little too late now, we gave your job to someone else, and with the holidays over, I’m afraid we don’t really need anymore help.” Nova just shrugs again, having expected as much. “That’s fine, I deserve as much.” She gets up again and puts her book away. “Just came by to make sure. I’ll have the bag and hat back to you tomorrow.” “I’m sorry about that, if we knew you--” “Nothing to be sorry for, I should have been the one to tell you.” She slumps the bags across her back again and heads for the door. “Sorry, Nova. I hope we can still be friends.” Nova freezes just in front of the door. You consider me a friend? She sighs and opens the door. “Have a nice day Derpy, maybe we can hang out sometime.” She goes outside, letting the door close behind her. I really shouldn’t try making promises I won’t keep… She pushes the thought aside and heads off to her second destination. “Well, now I have to figure out a new source of income,” she mumbles to herself. She thinks back to the bulletin board at the town hall. “Yeah, guess I’ll give it a check… Tomorrow though, today I have to get back to my home… cave.” That's one thing I'll miss about that shy one's place, the bed was nice. You should get a bed. “What does it matter to you? You live in my head. But, you do have a point, I’ll need to make the place more… homely. Well, then again, I don’t plan on staying there forever.” As she walks past Sugarcube Corner she takes a whiff of the freshly made pastries inside. She pauses and looks inside, her eyes topping a little too long on the pies and cakes on the counter. “That’d be a nice place to work… if I could bake.” She goes to continue on her way, but sees a pink mare bounce in from the kitchen. “I recognize her, she was there the day I got here.” She stays and watches for a few seconds before continuing. “Perhaps I should introduce myself to her at some point.” I thought you didn’t want friends. “Of course I don’t, but I vaguely remember being rather rude to her. I really should apologize.” She shrugs and doesn’t bother stopping, instead she notes it down on her mental ‘to do list’. After another minute or so of walking she comes to Golden Oaks. The tree stands baren, like all the others. Though, its bright colors still give it some semblance of life. She looks up at the budding branches, finding herself smiling at the memory of the wolves. She shakes her head and walks up to the door. Before she has a chance to knock she hears voices from the other side. She freezes while she debates what she should do in her mind, that is until she hears her name being mentioned. She presses her ear against the door, catching the last part of a sentence. “...don’t know what she is either?” It’s Applejack’s voice, a little muffled but still easy to pick out the country drawl. Nova waits a moment for the answer, but she doesn’t hear anything save for the scuffling of hooves. “Well, she’s not that bad. Yes, sh-she’s easy to upset, but she really doesn’t want to hurt anypony.” To Nova’s surprise it’s Fluttershy’s voice. Not a surprise she’s here talking to Twilight, rather a surprise she can hear Fluttershy through the door. “She’s just so afraid she’ll hurt somepony.” “Makes sense, she’s a pegasus, I doubt she can control her powers too well,” Twilight says. “It sure didn’t look that way in the forest. It looked like she had pretty good control of it while she was blastin’ that timberwolf ta bits. Sure looked like she was enjoyin’ herself while she was doin’ that.” There is a sharp gasp from the other side of the door. “S-she d-did that to--” Nova takes a few steps back, not wanting to hear the rest of Fluttershy’s reaction. I probably should have told her about that… She sighs and sits off to the side. They’re trying to figure out what we are. Let them, they won’t get far before I’m done. And if they do? They’ll figure it out eventually. One of them is a princess has a close relationship to Celestia. And they’re the Elements of Friendship, or what-not. I already know they'll figure out, if they find out sooner... it won't change anything. She waits a few minutes, simply to avoid arousing their suspicion of her, though it’s probably useless. Once she figures she let enough time pass she knocks on the door. The door swings open to the small purple dragon. “Hello, how--” he freezes once he realizes who he’s talking to. “Uh, Twilight, it’s… it’s for you.” The lavender alicorn turns around to face her, as do Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow, who apparently had been there for the conversation. Whatever conversation they were having dies immediately. Fluttershy refuses to look her in the eyes, while Rainbow and Applejack scowl at her. “N-Nova, it’s good to see you this morning. How are you doing?” “I’m well, glad to finally be outside. But, there is one issue, I’m still pissed someone knocked me out a few months ago,” as she says the words Nova glares at Twilight, her eyes flaring to an orange hue. Twilight give a nervous smile, though it only lasts for a brief time before she takes on a more serious look. “Well, I’m sorry, but you were hurt, I wasn’t going to leave you on your own.” “I’ve been on my own until now, I would have been fine.” “You would have died! You were living in a--” “And you put everyone in the hospital in danger. Trust my life ain’t worth that much.” Twilight opens her mouth to say something, but Nova cuts her off. “Just don’t do it again, ever.” She turns and heads back to the door. She slows as she gets to the door, until she comes to a stop just outside. “By the way… thanks for telling Lore about me getting hurt, it was… thoughtful. I’ll be seeing you around.” With that she closes the door behind her and walks away. So, you’re not mad at her? “What?!” She catches herself, and quickly glances around to make sure no one heard her. Of course I’m mad, I’m pissed. She knocked me out for buck’s sake! I’m just… I’m just a little grateful she got Lore to come. She sighs as she turns down the road toward the mountain. Finding no sense in walking there with an injured leg, she takes to the sky. A couple of minutes later she’s flying above the path through the forest in front of the cave. You didn’t think about landing, did you? Yeah, kinda forgot about that. She angles her wings downward and quickly starts dropping in altitude. She lands down hard, though her leg manages to hold out against the impact. However, the slick grass underhoof sends her skidding past the entrance to the cave. Luckily, she comes to a stop not far off with few injuries. She groans and heads back to the cave entrance. Gotta learn how to land… “Home sweet home,” she mumbles as she comes closer to the entrance. Nothing remains of the wall she had attempted to build before winter. Small patches of ice glaze over parts of the rock wall, leaving thin streams running down the mountain face. She walks in to find the cave pretty much the same as how she left it. Her outcropping/ bed sticking out of the wall on one side. In the corner of the cave is a pile of rocks, where she had buried her last bag, and where her things still should be. She mentally scolds herself for having forgot all of her things while staying at Fluttershy’s. She drops her new bags onto the floor and heads over to the older ones. A sigh escapes her lips when sees everything is still there. Her photo album, a worn black cloak, her empty bit pouch, and a few other miscellaneous things. She starts putting them away again, until she gets to the photo album. She sighs and heads over to the outcropping and starts looking through the old photos.