The Quill of Eternity

by Written Dreams

Chapter 11 - Strongheart

“I‘m just never going to be able to believe what Braeburn said till I see it for myself.” The rainbow-maned pegasus said quietly to herself as she stood at the top of the high cliffs overlooking the vast apple orchard of Appaloosa. Her magenta eyes slowly scanned the area before looking off into the distance, “They‘ve expanded…” It was true. The number of apple trees in the orchard had drastically increased since the ponies had last visited Appaloosa so long ago. Rainbow Dash proceeded to fly down into the orchard, cautiously scanning the area but as she looked at the trees she noticed something off about them.

The trees themselves were still normal but similar to what happened in Ponyville, the fruits on the trees had drastically grown in size, leading her to believe the apples to be at least several times bigger then normal apples. Rainbow continued trotting through the trees, her eyes scanning the area and after a matter of minutes, she reached the edge of the orchard, looking off into the cold and deserted landscape, “Time to find out what happened to the Appaloosans.” She then took off, flying off into the distance, recalling the place where she had spent time with the buffalo, remembering how they had accidentally abducted Spike in their attempt to simply steal the apple tree Applejack had named Bloomberg.

Rainbow Dash sighed a bit to herself, her flying rather slowed compared to her normal speed as she felt the memories return to her. Her confrontation of Little Strongheart, even the pegasus herself slamming into a train sign while the buffalo made off with the train car containing the tree. The ponies had gone through so much arguing, Rainbow Dash hearing herself chuckle a bit as she remembered the sheriff’s and the chief buffalo’s responses to Pinkie Pie’s resulting song about sharing.

Rainbow Dash ceased her flight after a few short minutes before going to a slow trot and walked up to a rock, peering over it towards the buffalo’s camp. As she looked across, the teepees and small fire pits sat in the distance, the buffalo themselves nowhere to be seen, “Probably all sleeping…” Rainbow Dash then smiled softly to herself recalling how Pinkie Pie had unknowingly broken her cover the last time she had tried to sneak into the buffalo’s territory. Rainbow then gave an odd look as her eyes scanned the area, not seeing any of the ponies from the town, “An entire town‘s population gone without a trace… Gnngh!” Rainbow Dash groaned as a rock impacted her head, the rainbow pegasus falling forward into the dusty ground, the assailant taking her tail into its mouth and dragged her away towards an unknown location.

Twilight awoke nearly two hours later to Applejack nudging her with her hooves, “Twilight… Twilight wake up…” The unicorn slowly blinked her eyes and paused as they adjusted to the semi-darkness of the room, a small lantern on the table next to one of the other beds providing a bit of light for the room, but not so much as it would be hard to sleep, a small white candle gently glowing within the metal frame.

The mare sat up as she felt the sleepiness leave her body slowly and shook her head for a moment before looking up into the worried face of Applejack,

“Applejack…? What‘s wrong?”

“Twilight, I just talked to Braeburn and he told me that he hasn‘t seen Rainbow Dash for a few hours.” Twilight paused for a few moments before tilting her head slightly,

“Have you both checked the clouds?” Applejack simply shook her head in response, her look of worry only growing deeper as she stared at the unicorn,

“There‘s not a cloud in the sky tonight though. Braeburn said he hadn‘t seen her since you were tellin‘ him ‘bout the Quill of Eternity. Twi, I‘m really worried. Ya think she might‘ve gone off on her own?” Twilight slid out of the bed and nodded to the country pony in response, walking over to the door before turning back to her,

“Knowing Rainbow Dash it‘s possible she went to go have a look for herself… but two hours? There‘s no way she would be gone that long, especially with her speed to back her up. Something must have happened…” Twilight slowly looked down as she finished speaking, a look of deep thought on her face. Applejack walked over to her, raising a hoof and patted her shoulder lightly a few times to comfort her,

“I‘m sure she‘s okay Twilight, but let‘s head over to the orchard to see if we can find anythin‘ that might tell us where she might‘ve disappeared to.” The two ponies left the inn and headed to the cliffs off to the side of the town overlooking the orchard, the two mares noticing how the apples were much larger along with the sheer quantity of apple trees that now resided in the orchard. They were relatively silent as they slid down the mountainside and trotted through the orchard, the two looking around slowly and cautiously until they both thought that they were safe among the trees, “Twilight… I think she might have flown over to the reservation where the buffalo live.” Twilight gave her a rather disturbed expression and looked off into the distance ahead of them,

“Then we need to head out there now!” Twilight’s expression became much more serious as she finished her sentence and then took off down the path followed quickly by Applejack who adjusted her hat before she started to run after the unicorn.

Rainbow Dash let out a bit of a groan, blinking her eyes a few times as she awoke, “Ooh… my head…” She raised her hoof to her head, wincing for a moment as she felt a bump but as her vision cleared she slowly looked around, seeing a small fire pit with a few ignited logs within it and the stone walls of a cave around her being gently illuminated by the flickering light. She paused for a moment as her hoof rubbed against a few bandages that had been wrapped around her head and she looked around quizzically seeing no-one else in the cave, “Is anypony there?” Rainbow Dash stood before wobbling for a moment as her vision blurred and her head throbbed,

“Easy there Rainbow Dash… I hit you a little harder then I wanted to…” Rainbow paused before looking in the direction of the feminine voice, seeing a few pictures of Little Strongheart looking at her with a look of concern in the firelight although she seemed to be a bit of a lighter hue then before, seeming like color had almost all drained away from her. Rainbow Dash felt her vision right itself and she shook her head trying to clear it a bit more as she looked at the buffalo girl,

“Why did you hit me with a rock in the first place?” Little Strongheart looked a bit ashamed of what she had done to the pegasus but also looked like she felt she had no choice in the matter,

“I really am sorry that I knocked you out Rainbow Dash but I couldn‘t risk surprising you in any way. I don‘t know how you deal with surprise so I thought it would be best if I simply brought you here so we could talk.” Rainbow was silent for a few moments as she listened to Strongheart’s explanation and gave her own rainbow mane another light rub,

“I guess that makes sense… and I don‘t blame you since you had a good reason. I might have yelled feeling a hoof on my back… I was a bit tense sneaking around.” The buffalo seemed to smile gently as she looked across to her friend with a bit of an embarrassed blush on her face,

“Still I apologize. I didn‘t know of how much force the impact would have. I‘m really glad you‘re here though, are any of your friends here as well? I could… urgh…” Strongheart seemed to recoil a little as she lifted a hoof to her own forehead and closed her eyes. Rainbow Dash instantly noticed this and looked at her with deep concern,

“You okay?” She lowered her hoof a moment later and paused letting out a slow breath before nodding a little to Rainbow Dash,

“I‘m really not sure of how long I have left before I become like the other buffalo… I‘ve been fighting the change as much as I can but…” She paused and motioned to her body, “As you can see, almost all of the color has drained from my coat like the others.”

“I can see that… all of us were like that at one point but Twilight was able to bring us all back, only barely though. I‘m sure she could help you as well if we can get to her. She and Applejack are in Appaloosa right now. Do you think you could make it?” Little Strongheart paused for a few moments as she thought before slowly shaking her head,

“I do not think so… Appaloosa is nearly twenty minutes from here and I doubt I have that much fight left in me. Listen closely Rainbow Dash because I‘m going to tell you everything I can about what‘s been happening.” Rainbow Dash was silent as she nodded and laid down, watching as Little Strongheart laid down as well, looking across to her as she started speaking again, “It was something out of nowhere when it happened. A few days ago things were going normally as they did every day but then this wave of what I believe to be magic seemed to wash over everything. The apples in the orchard grew much, much bigger and… then the entire tribe with the exception of myself lost all coloration in their fur. But after that… the chief… he made plans to move and take Appaloosa‘s ponies.” Strongheart seemed to give a disheartened sigh and looked down, “They did just that. Moving on Appaloosa. I could do nothing to convince them not to do it and it didn‘t take long for them to enslave all of the ponies there.”

“Where are the ponies now?”

“In the day they‘re forced to work in the orchard, picking the apples and stockpiling them for the buffalo and at night I believe they are retired to the caves around here. I haven‘t been able to locate them myself as the chief himself said that if I continued attempting to get them to stop then I would have to work with them as well and… I ran away.” Rainbow Dash was silent as she took all of this in, pausing as she was looking down at the ground before her gaze returned to the buffalo,

“I don‘t blame you. Strongheart, there was nothing you could have done to change their minds. It‘s impossible to reason with them if they‘ve been effected by Discord‘s magic.” Little Strongheart seemed shocked as she heard the name and gave Dash a wary stare,

“D-Discord?! Meaning the spirit of chaos and disharmony himself has returned?!” She then paused as she looked down with a sigh, “That explains everything that has happened then.” Rainbow Dash nodded silently, realizing that the buffalo had not received a letter from the princess about what had happened given that, from what she had said, the events that occurred seemed to have happened after Rainbow Dash and the other five of her friends had confronted Discord, “Rainbow Dash… why is our land like this?”

“We fought Discord and we lost… he took the Elements of Harmony from us and used them against us all turning all but Twilight into stone. And she only escaped because Princess Celestia sacrificed herself to save her. Discord took Princess Luna from Twilight but gave her a choice of two of the five of us to be released from stone and she chose myself and Applejack. We‘re after something called the Quill of Eternity and one of the clues led us here because apparently the next clue is in the middle of the stampeding grounds in the orchard.” Little Strongheart seemed to pause for a moment at the mention of the quill and gave Rainbow Dash a bit of an odd look,

“I‘ve heard a legend about that from the chief a few times. He told us that about a thousand years ago or maybe it was more… anyway, a pony came to the stampeding grounds and befriended the buffalo there. He was very kind to the buffalo and requested that he be able to bury something in the middle of the stampeding grounds. Obviously this was no trouble and so he was allowed to do it.” Rainbow Dash gave her a quizzical look as she tilts her head,

“Has it been dug up before?” Strongheart simply gave a nod in response,

“It was dug up numerous times before being buried again. A few of the ponies who were looking for the quill asked us if they could simply take the stone tablet with them but we‘ve been sworn to protect it to this day.”

“Then where is it now? The clue is a bit of a minor priority right now but I know it‘s going to be itching at the back of my mind and both Applejack and Twilight‘s till we find it.”

“I‘d gladly bring you to the spot but…” Strongheart looked at her hoof, a bit of brown on her fur still remaining, “I fear as though we wouldn‘t be able to get there before I change completely. You should return to your friends Rainbow Dash and tell them what I told you. If the solution is as simple as one of Twilight Sparkle‘s spells then you should all be able to sort out what‘s happened with little difficulty.” Rainbow Dash looked down in silence for a few moments before slowly shaking her head with a sigh,

“Given how big the buffalo are it‘s gonna be hard for Twilight to get close to any of them. We‘ll do what we can. I promise.” Little Strongheart gave a nod before letting out a slow sigh, Rainbow Dash walking past her to the mouth of the cave before looking back, seeing the last of the color leave the buffalo and Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as Little Strongheart looked back at her with a rather dark grin, the pegasus taking into the air and flying quickly away from the cave.

Rainbow Dash continued flying for a good ten minutes before her gaze drifted to the ground, seeing two ponies running through the moonlight across the savanna. She turned and headed towards them, Twilight and Applejack skidding to a halt as the rainbow pegasus landed in front of them, “What‘re you guys doing all the way out here? I thought you‘d still be sleeping.” Twilight instantly ran up to Rainbow Dash and hugged her tightly, the pegasus blinking as she looked down at the relieved face of the pony and gave a bit of a groan, “Twilight… a little too tight…” Twilight Sparkle blinked for a moment before releasing her friend, the pegasus letting out a few quick breaths before smiling towards them and Twilight spoke,

“Rainbow you‘ve been gone for hours! We were really worried something had happened to you!” Rainbow Dash blinked for a moment before tilting her head as she looked across to her friends,

“A few… hours? Erm… sorry about that. Little Strongheart found me and knocked me out so as not to risk me yelling if she surprised me. I guess I was out for longer then I thought.”

“You found Little Strongheart?” Twilight asked as she looked around for a few moments before looking back to Rainbow Dash, “What happened? Where is she?” Dash gave a sigh in response, shaking her head as she looked at the unicorn and earth pony in front of her,

“When I woke up she was mostly lost to Discord‘s magic but had been fighting it for the last few days. She told me that the ponies are being forced to work gathering the apples from the orchard in the day and are sent to some cave system but she couldn‘t give me an exact location…” Dash seemed to pause as she looked down with a sigh, “As I was leaving she was lost to the magic… that look she gave me… like she would tear me to pieces. Twilight can you use that memory spell on all the buffalo?” Twilight Sparkle thought for a moment, bringing a hoof to her chin before looking back up to Rainbow Dash and shaking her head,

“Even if I was able to get that close to the buffalo, I wouldn‘t be able to change more then one or two back without the risk of waking up the others. If I could somehow use the spell in a mass wave then I could probably do it but now… I just don‘t see a way it would work.” Applejack spoke up next, adjusting her hat a little as she trotted over to Twilight’s side,

“So what‘re we gonna do Twilight?” The unicorn was silent with her head lowered a bit, her wise eyes fixed upon the ground before she looked up again with a serious expression a minute later,

“Rainbow Dash can you take us to where Little Strongheart was?” Rainbow Dash nodded before turning her head a little and giving Twilight an odd look,

“I can… and I think Applejack and I could restrain her long enough for you to bring her back but what are you planning Twilight?” Rainbow Dash and the other two mares began running back towards the cave Rainbow Dash had come from a little while ago, the unicorn looking ahead before she let out a slow sigh,

“We can at least bring back Strongheart but girls… in the end I don‘t think we‘ll be able to save the Appaloosans. We have to think about what might happen if we did try. We could end up enslaved or…” Twilight ended her sentence rather abruptly as Rainbow Dash looked back at her, remembering the expression Little Strongheart gave her as she was leaving the cave, “Maybe even dead…” Both of the other two ponies simply nodded as they thought about confronting an entire herd of buffalo on their own. They had taken over the town of Appaloosa in a mater of an hour or two but it was possible there may have been casualties in the take-over given how sharp the horns of the buffalo were.

The three approached the cave after a little over ten minutes and Rainbow Dash whistled quickly towards it, “You there Little Strongheart?” There was only silence for a few minutes before the discolored buffalo slowly walked out of the cave to face them,

“You came back? What idiots.” Strongheart was giving the three mares a fairly dark glare and Rainbow Dash took a step forward as the buffalo got down low, stamping her hoof as she growled, “This is my land… and I take care of those who trespass on it.” Little Strongheart let out a yell as she charged them, the three moving back as the buffalo quickly scanned the three before leaping up and over the three, skidding for a moment as she turned and lunged with a sinister growl.

Applejack turned and narrowed her eyes for a moment as her eyes locked onto the buffalo leaping through the air towards her and the farm pony leapt back, before turning her back to Strongheart gave her a hard buck with both of her legs, the buffalo’s eyes going wide for a moment before she instantly collapsed to the ground with an angry groan, “I… I‘ll kill you… I swear it…” Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded to each other as they approached Little Strongheart on each side, each pinning her down to the ground and she began struggling against the hooves binding her as Twilight approached, her horn glowing brightly before she touched it to the buffalo’s forehead, her eyes closing tightly before opening wide. The color slowly returned to her coat, sort of flowing up from her hooves up to the top of her head and tail before she blinked slowly and looked up at Applejack and Rainbow Dash released her, “Applejack… Rainbow Dash… Twilight…?” Twilight took a step back from her as Little Strongheart stood up before her eyes widened for a moment and her legs buckled making her fall forward, “Nngh… I feel like I got hit by a train.” Applejack approached her with a bit of a sorry look on her face,

“Ah‘m mighty sorry about that, but I really wasn‘t takin‘ any chances with that murderous look in your eyes.” The three ponies carefully lifted the buffalo and brought her into the cave where Twilight wrapped a bandage from her bag around the buffalo’s torso and began using her magic to help mend the damage from Applejack’s kick.

Comments

[Jolttix]

Sooooooo, you put some shipping in then... Poof? Where did it go?