To Tread Amongst the Living

by RobertPooner

Chapter 11

The next day in Ponyville was a somber one, last night’s events still fresh in the minds of its residents. One pony in particular was cut more deeply by what had transpired than anypony else. Applejack, usually up well before Celestia’s sun could shine upon her family’s orchard, was still shut away in her room. The farmer’s slumber that night was anything but restful, her pillow still stained with the tears over what occurred. Thoughts of her parents had dominated what little sleep she had gotten. Lying in her bed with her back to her bedroom door Applejack stared out her window, the rolling hills of Sweet Apple Acres only exacerbating her already broken heart.

“If only you both could see it now” says Applejack speaking aloud to herself. “Ah hope you’d be proud of us.”

A knocking on her door brought her mind back to the here and now, if ever so slightly.

“Applejack, can Ah come in?” asks Big Macintosh, having nothing but silence to meet his ears.

With a sigh Big Mac opens the door to his sister’s room. Looking to his left he sees his younger sister with her back to him, the sound of sniffles coming from his sister trying to stifle the tears that she had been crying. Walking to his sister, Big Mac sat down next to her at the edge of her bed.

“Sis, Ah know what happened” says Big Mac. “If it really was them than...”

Rolling onto her other side to face her brother, “It WAS them Big Mac! That pony brought em back!” shouts Applejack interrupting her brother.

Big Macintosh could now see his sisters face as she stared indignantly at him. The bags under her eyes were only accentuated by the tears that now flowed freely.

“Ah wasn’t there sis, but would you want em seein you like this? Look out that window and tell me what ya see.”

Turning back to the window, “Ah see the orchard.”

“That’s right, not just our hooves helped make this what it is. Ma, Pa, and everypony before them made this here farm what it is today. That’s them out there AJ; in the trees, in the apples that we harvest every applebuck season. They’ve never left us as long as we’re here workin this here land.”

“Ah suppose you’re right big brother” says Applejack, her mood perking up slightly.

“They’re always here sis; we don’t need some fancy magics to try and bring em back here again to know that.”

Applejacks eyes opened wide with a realization. “That’s it! If Ah can find that Mr. Nox, he did it once than Ah bet he can do it again!”

Jumping out of bed and bounding towards the door, Applejack calls back to her big brother, “Thanks Big Mac, you’re a genius!”

Dumbfounded by his sisters quick reaction he calls out, “That’s not what Ah meant!”

Face hoofing, Big Mac leaves his sisters room and returned to his work around the farm.

Though she went about finishing her normal routine, Fluttershy’s thoughts were still on her visitor that morning.

“Twilight said that he used magic to save her, but that pony wasn’t a unicorn” thought Fluttershy to herself.

Looking up from her task of spreading seed for Elizabeak and her other chickens, Fluttershy saw an orange blur running down the path toward town.

“That looked like Applejack. I wonder where she’s off to in such a hurry.”

Returning to her task and her thoughts, “He seemed the same as Twilight said; tall with a grey coat and dark grey mane, green eyes.”

Those eyes, Fluttershy could not force the thought from her mind. His emerald green eyes seemed to pierce her being, but something seemed off about them. Deep in his eyes, he seemed to be in pain, hurting. She needed to see Twilight, to ask her about the stranger who called himself Nox. Returning the burlap sack of corn seed to her shed, Fluttershy walked back into her house.

Calling out softly to her pet, “Angel, I need to go into town for a little bit. If you don’t mind, could you watch the house while I’m gone?”

With crossed arms and a huff of annoyance, the rabbit reluctantly nodded in agreement.

“Thank you so much Angel” says Fluttershy as she scoops up Angel in a soft hug, which the rabbit accepted begrudgingly. Placing the rabbit back down, “I’ll be home in a little while Angel” says Fluttershy as she exits her home.

Closing the door behind her, Fluttershy begins the short walk to Ponyville.

Walking through town Fluttershy could see that most of the decorations and stalls from Nightmare Night were taken down; much to her delight, she relished seeing such creepy things if she could avoid it. On the path ahead of her laid her destination, Golden Oaks Library. Walking up to the door and preparing to knock Fluttershy can hear voices inside yelling; one sounding like Applejack, the other Twilight.

“What could they be arguing about?” she thought to herself.

Forgoing knocking, Fluttershy opened the door and walked in to see a heated argument between her two friends. Seeing Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash sitting together in the corner watching the events unfold, she quietly makes her way to sit between Rarity and Rainbow as they watch the argument unfold.

“If he did it once than he can do it again Twilight!” yells Applejack

“Even if it was them Applejack, who knows if it is safe? I’ve never seen magic like that before and have read little to nothing about it. The ramifications of performing something like that are beyond anything I could even think of!” shouts back Twilight with equal volume.

“What are they fighting about?” whispers Fluttershy as quietly as she can to Rarity.

“It’s about that strange pony Nox, he did something last night” whispers back Rarity.

Rainbow hearing her friends’ hushed conversation, “He brought Applejacks parents back from the dead.” Rainbow Dash filled Fluttershy in on the events of the previous night.

Fluttershy was awestruck. She remembered that day when she was a foal. At that time she was new to Ponyville, but attended the
funerals with the rest of the small town that day.

“It was them Twilight! Don’t you think that I would know my own parents?”

“My point still stands Applejack, that kind of magic could be dangerous. The amount of magic that a unicorn would need to do something like that is hard to even fathom.”

Through the heated exchange, a small whisper of a voice speaks up.

“Umm…Twilight…” says Fluttershy, her voice unheard by either of her arguing friends.

“Excuse me…umm…would you please…” continued Fluttershy still unheeded.

Taking action, Pinkie Pie reached into the recesses of her pink mane and retrieved a rather large party popper. With a pull of its string accompanied by a large bang, Pinkie Pie spoke up.

“Fluttershy has something to say!”

Shaking timidly from the sudden explosion as well as the abrupt attention given to her by her five friends, Fluttershy manages to speak.

“Oh, umm… thanks Pinkie.”

With a rather large smile and a squee of satisfaction, Pinkie sat back to listen to her buttercream colored friend.

“Twilight, you said that Nox is a unicorn…but umm… I saw him earlier and he isn’t, he’s an Earth pony.”

“Wait, you saw him today Fluttershy? When?” asks Twilight.

Fluttershy recounts the events of earlier that morning to her friends whom all listened with rapt attention, especially Twilight and Applejack.

“And then he asked me what time it was. When I told him it was almost dawn he seemed worried. Then he ran back to the Everfree forest.” Says Fluttershy as she finishes her story.

“Well that explains where he teleported to, that poor stallion” says Rarity with concern in her voice.

“But who was the pegasus who saved him from princess Celestia?” asks Twilight

“The only way that we’re gonna know anything is if we find him! I need to do this Twilight…” says Applejack.

With a defeated sigh, “We’ll find him and ask him about it Applejack but please; we need to find out more about this pony and his magic BEFORE we do anything else, ok?” says Twilight. “And with what Fluttershy said, I have a few more things to ask him. There’s something strange going on.”

“YAY IT’S ADVENTURE TIME!” shouts Pinkie Pie hopping around with excitement.

“Let’s do it ponies!” says Rainbow flying a circle around her friends heads.

After an hour or so of walking, Nox finally reaches his cabin in the Everfree just as the sun is rising fully into the thick forest canopy. Under a tree awaiting his arrival was Lilith and from her scowl, none too pleased to see him.

“It took you long enough!” yells Lilith.

“I was delayed Lilith. Please don’t yell I am not fully recovered from last night’s events.”

“Don’t yell?! I told you what would happen Nox! I told you what those ponies would do, but did you listen to me? Nooo…the wise seer didn’t see what was right in front of his face!”

“ENOUGH!” boomed Nox, his voice shaking the very forest around them. “If you were not so blind my dear, you would have seen that almost all of the ponies acted well enough!” Then continuing in a much softer tone, “It was just that foal Celestia, still too many tales about necromancers milling their ways around that thick skull of hers i suspect.”

Walking to see the devastation around his cabin, “As you can plainly see…” sighing, Nox flared his magic causing the displaced earth around his cabin to bend and mold to refill the crater. Approaching the door with Lilith at his side, Nox touches the glowing barrier, dispersing it, and walking inside. Hanging up his black cloak, Nox takes a seat by the room’s unlit hearth.

“This was not unforeseen, but occurred at a most inopportune time.”

“I need to know, why all of this effort for that one particular filly Nox?”

“The two; Burgundy and Honeycrisp, when they passed…it wasn’t their time.” Nox said casting his eyes downward in shame.

“There was a time when we could rectify this, but it has been too long. Their spirits have yet to find rest…” looking up through the dark and meeting Lilith’s eyes, “I must do this Lilith. We have been gone far too long from this world.”

Moving over to the unlit hearth, Lilith began to attempt to coax a flame. Her magic, while paltry compared to an average unicorn, is more than any other pegasus can boast. With a quiet breath, Lilith exhales a small spark igniting the coals that previously lay dormant in the base of the fireplace. Now looking up from the hearth at her master turned friend through the newly rekindled flame she saw something that she had never seen in all of her years with him, sadness. The eyes that have always shown so much strength now began to water with sorrow and regret.

“I miss them Lilith.”