Bonds and Fate

by Al Capony

(11) A series of unfortunate events

Chapter 11 – A series of unfortunate events

“I don’t mind answering a few questions, as long as I’m allowed to pass any that I feel like.”

Twilight practically exploded with glee, rocketing off the ground and nearly hitting the ceiling. For a second I mulled over the image of her horn embedding itself in the wooden planks above but I quickly dismissed it. I had to remain completely focused on the task at hand, for I was about to allow the most curious mare in Equestria test the absolute limit of my sanity.

“Oh ponyfeathers, I forgot my list of questions at the library... I’ll be right back; just, wait here while I get them.”

Or not. Well, at least until she got back – then I was really in for it. I mean, she had a list. Considering how Twilight could probably come up with fifty-plus relevant questions on the spot, that list would have to be pretty damn long.

And in the blink of an eye, she was gone. At first I thought she had teleported off, but from the slamming of the door and the sound of hoofsteps galloping away I concluded that she had decided to travel on hoof. I didn’t mind, of course – more time to prepare for the oncoming storm.

Or so I’d hoped.

It all started with a knock on the door. The hollow bashing sound reverberated through the wooden room, drawing my attention to the front of the house. At first I assumed that Twilight had rectified her error in walking before teleporting there and back, and the knocking on the door was merely a polite gesture; though after a second of consideration I doubted that Twilight was trying to smash the door down.

Smash the door down...

I dismissed the idea – Miss Dash had made it pretty clear that she didn’t like me very much the day before so bar looking for a fight she had no reason to come here. Unless of course she was trying to make peace, but if the force of the knock was any indication she was anything but peaceful.

I heard Applejack canter over to the door, relying on my ears due to wall separating me and the cyan terror. Everything seemed to slow – the as of yet unnoticed ticking of a small clock in the corner; the echoing hoofsteps on the cold wooden floor; the faint snoring coming from the rocking chair in the next room. I even had time to take note of Fluttershy’s faint humming as she worked on Big Mac’s prone form.

I wondered what she was doing, seeing as how Big Mac was fully bandaged and she’d been doing her thing for at least ten minutes, but before I could muse on the subject I was interrupted by a noise emanating from the house’s entrance.

“Hey AJ, how’s it hangin’? The Alien not been too much trouble has it?” asked the invisible and obnoxious guest. Already I gave a mental moan at what was to come, a hollow dread filling the cavity that was my soul.

“Eerr, no trouble really. Actually he-“

“Oh come on Applejack we both know the truth; what’s it really been like?”

“Well, it’s been a might hectic’ since-”

“I’ll say!” exclaimed the unseen interloper, “it looks like half the farm’s spread on the floor out front!”

“Well, this morning-”

“What did it-”

“Gosh darn it Rainbow would ya jus’ shut yer trap an’ let me speak already!?”

The shout elicited silence from the interloper while momentarily rousing Granny Smith, who uttered “Huh, what’s goin’...” before again falling victim to her slumber.

“Thanks, now please jus’ wait in’t lounge while Ah get some coffee. Ah’ll explain everythin’ in a bit, ‘kay?”

The intruder remained mute and obliged her friend’s request, slowly sulking into the room. As she crossed the threshold of the chamber she threw me an aggressive yet otherwise uncaring glance before fixating her eyes on Big Mac.

An audible gasp left her lips and her ears twitched unintentionally. She turned again to face me, her expression turning from shock to anger. Her brow furrowed, her wings flared out and her teeth became visible as she snarled.

Oh, and shit hit the fan.

“WHAT IN TARTARUS DID YOU DO!” she yelled. Any other day I might have gotten up and slugged her there and then in frustration - a little something to ‘diffuse the situation’ - but at that point I was thoroughly exhausted beyond any further violence.

For a couple of seconds I just sat there, on the rugged sofa, with a disinterested look and a distinct lack of words leaving my mouth. As it turns out, when faced with a problem such as this one, my reaction was not the best way to respond.

“WELL? SAY SOMETHING, MONSTER!”

‘Monster’. I hated that word. A word that the weak and the fearful use to describe something they don’t understand. They only know it’s stronger than them so they become scared, going from ‘potentially a risk’ to ‘utterly evil and existing only to hurt’ in an instant, without even trying to understand that which they refer to.

I felt like Frankenstein’s so called ‘monster’; the younger ones were gleeful and accepting while the older ones were somewhere between cautious and downright aggressive. To be fair, anyone would have the right to be cautious about an alien appearing from within an already mysterious forest, and all things considered they were handling it pretty well.

It was really only Rainbow Dash who aggressive and boy did it piss me off, probably more than it should have done, but taking into account that I had only woken up there one day earlier I’d say I was entitled to having a slightly shorter fuse.

“Look, Bitch; I don’t care how angry you are, I don’t care how much you care about Big Red over there and I especially don’t care about your wellbeing. So let’s call a truce: you calm the fuck down and I won’t use your feathers to stuff a pillow.”

I kept my voice calm in order to help sell the threatening facade. In truth I was so fatigued I could barely pluck a chicken, let alone an agitated Rainbow Dash.

“You wouldn’t dare!” she snarled, somewhat intimidated but certainly no less angry.

I must admit that at that point I relaxed a little. I avoided showing it, but on the inside I was flooding with relief, a numb tingling forming at the base of my skull. The immediate threat having seemed to have passed, I relinquished my body to the sofa’s surprisingly comfortable grasp.

“You’re bluffing, aren’t you.”

The words were spoken with a hint of malice as she began unravelling my deception. I contemplated dragging out the act a while longer but as I thought about how I must have looked it was obvious that I wasn’t doing any pillow stuffing that day. I mean Rainbow wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, so if she’d seen through my ruse already I must have looked pretty bad.

Nothing to gain at this point, might as well fold.

“Well, you got me; yes I’m bluffing. But before you jump to any conclusions let me just make it clear that it wasn’t me who hurt Big Mac.”

“Bullshit!”

Rainbow Dash stomped the ground to emphasise her point. And I shit you not what happened next was by far one of the craziest coincidences I’ve ever come across.

The stomp reverberated through the floorboards and up the walls, the force enough to dislodge one of the pictures and sent it falling to the ground. It clattered onto the table below, knocking over a crystal lamp and in the process spilling the copious remainder of the torturous cleaning whiskey across the wooden slats.

As the pungent fluid spread around the room Rainbow Dash began to shrink back slightly, seeing the messy consequence of her anger and regretting her outburst. But the worst was yet to come.

While the cyan pegasus furled her wings and retreated from the unfolding incident, I facepalmed at the way things were turning out. With perfect timing Applejack then entered the room with a stern expression about her face and body.

“Rainbow, Ah-”, her would be lecture being smothered as she took in the sights before her.

“What in tarnation is goin’ on in here!?”

“Uhm, well-”

Rainbow Dash was interrupted by a blinding flash and startling *CRACK* as Twilight appeared in the centre of the room. All the attentive ponies (i.e. not Fluttershy) jumped back in surprise while I hugged the sofa’s comforting arms for protection.

Now for my favourite part; you see, a teleportation spell involves the rapid replacement and a subsequent displacement of matter within a given volume. The loud *CRACK* is created by the expulsion of air from the space which the teleported object now inhabits, while the flash is a by-product of both the magic and dust particles in the air momentarily heating up from friction... which also happens to be capable of igniting a floor that is soaked in copious amounts of flammable whiskey.

Before I knew it the ground in front of me was engulfed in little flames and Twilight was barrelling towards me at a starling pace. There was no time to evade before she collided into me, toppling us both over the sofa and onto the floor behind. While Twilight moaned in discomfort despite my body breaking her fall, I heard Applejack shout “Fire!” and rush out of the room.

It took a couple of seconds for me to take in everything that had happened.

Rainbow Dash got angry, spilt whiskey on floor.... Twilight appeared and scared the living daylights out of everyone... Floor lit up on fire... Twilight rugby talked me like a professional flanker... fire was put out by...?

Loading... Loading... Done.

Shit.

I got to my feet and further absorbed the carnage before me, making sure to take in the flames in all their glory. Until I heard screaming.

As the sound graced my ears my brain got to work figuring out who it was. Rainbow was trying to stamp it out; Twilight was moaning in pain so it wasn’t her; Applejack was somewhere else, but the scream was much closer; Granny Smith was somehow still asleep; and finally, Fluttershy was still working on Big Mac, completely oblivious.

Who screamed then...?

And like that, it just clicked: I had forgotten about Applebloom... again...

My eyes darted around the room, frantically searching for the filly and finally finding her cowering beneath a coffee table. Addendum: the one that had the whiskey on it. Also, the one that the fire had almost consumed.

Looks like the fun never ends...

My heroism kicking in, I vaulted over the leathery sofa and charged into the knee-high flames. Applejack had reappeared in the doorway with some strange object in her mouth, though because I was so focused on gaining brownie points saving Applebloom, it failed to come to my attention.

As I reached the coffee table and bent down in order to scooch Applebloom up in my valiant, manly arms, the unpleasant heat of the flames licking at my legs was replaced with an unpleasant, cold stickiness.

Looking in front of me, I could see my arms outstretched and frozen. Not literally frozen, mind you - I was just holding them perfectly in place from the shock of the temperature shift.

My eyes drifted to Applebloom, taking in the odd sight of her crimson mane matted to her cream fur. I looked down to find the ground scorched but no longer alight and my trousers to be completely soaked.

The crackling of the fire had been replaced by an almost eerily silence, occasionally permeated by somepony’s audible breathing.

Twilight moaned and popped up from behind the somehow unburned sofa. Rainbow Dash started giggling. Granny Smith snored. Applejack and her sister just stared at the aftermath of the carnage with wide eyes.

“There, there, all better now,” squeaked Fluttershy, as she leaned back from Big Mac to observe her work. Satisfied that she’d attended his wounds adequately, she looked up.

“Oh… my…”

I totally lost it.

Author's Note:

Sorry this has taken so long guys, just stressed out over GCSE results and all. Got an A* in English literature and language though (then again, that could just go to show they'll give out a good grade to anyone these days )

Anyhoo, I get my results in a couple of days so the chapters should start flowing a bit faster, along with getting to the more juicy bits.

But what des David mean by, he 'lost it'...?

Comments

[Maeroon]

Fucking Rainbow Dash...

[Al Capony]

3076830 Cheers for that mate, really means a lot to have some positive feedback

And sorry for going along with the trope of the voices, I wasn't aware it was such a big thing, but even then they aren't going to be permanent and do play quite a role in the story.

[JBL]

GCSE, is that O Levels?

[Al Capony]

3078076 Yeah, but I mostly took the Cambridge International (IGCSE) courses