Friends like these

by Istaran

Chapter 5: The absence of neighbors

It was well after midnight when the cab finally pulled up to the cabin and let Relena out. She paid in cash, and tipped generously when the driver finished unloading her recent purchases. He was probably quite suspicious of her; an eight year old girl didn't typically have that much cash, much less in such a manly wallet. But he didn't get paid to ask questions. He got paid to drive people where they wanted to go, and this drive had been a rather lucrative one.

Relena was pragmatic. Her father had done everything in his power to prepare her to stand on her own two feet, knowing some day she would be an adult and have to carry on without him. They had both expected to have another decade or more together before that day came, but they hadn't squandered the time they had. The biggest obstacle she was going to face was dealing with the outside world that thought they knew better than her. So the second thing she needed to do was convince the outside world that her father had gone into early retirement rather than died on an alien world. Mr Swift had hid nothing from his daughter: she had his passwords, and knew his daytrading and investment business well enough to divest anything temporary from his portfolio and set up a stable income stream that should cover the taxes on their cabin indefinitely, along with the few supplies she couldn't gather, grow or hunt for herself. Arranging to end their lease on the apartment in the city, transport what she needed and sell what she didn't would be a long and somewhat difficult process without an adult.. maybe that mailing list of Daniel's would come in handy after all. Scott was an adult, and probably had plenty of free time...

The first thing to do was get herself situated with enough supplies to get started. The cab driver had picked her up from the supermarket with a trunkload of the top things she knew she would need, everything from spare drinking water, food, and vegetable seeds to first aid supplies and spare bedding. She slipped her key into the lock, started to turn it, and then froze. There was a sound from within the cabin.

She slipped away quietly, and let herself into the locked shed, where she pulled up the loose floorboard and unlocked the hidden gun safe. The pistol with the bright pink grip was her favorite, of course. People could laugh if they wanted, but the business end of a handgun was the business end of a handgun no matter what color the hand grip was. She loaded the gun, made sure the safety was on, and returned to the front.

There was that sound again. Was it.. snoring? She peeked in through the window, and fell on her butt in surprise. Good thing the safety was on. 'Safety first!'

There, on the rug in her living room slept a light blue unicorn, covered with a star-studded cloak and pointy hat. What the hell was the 'Great and Powerful' Trixie Lulamoon doing in her living room!? Whatever the reason, it probably didn't warrant an armed response, so she slipped her gun into her bedazzled holster and resumed unlocking the front door. She opened it with a loud creak, letting it crash noisily into the wall. No response. She stomped a bit loudly as she walked. No response. She brought her supplies in and put them away. No response. She locked the front door and walked over to Trixie. No response. She poked Trixie with a booted foot.

"Who dares sneak up on the great and ever watchful Trixie?!" she demanded of the eight year old now levitating upside down in her magic. The gun fell to the floor and bounced. 'Safety first!' This was exactly why you never turn off the safety until there's something you want dead in your sights.

"First! Be careful, that's a gun, you don't want it going off on accident! You almost got one of us killed. Second, I'm Relena Swift and this is my home you are trespassing in, Miss Lulamoon, so show some respect," she replied in a sharp but measured tone. As Trixie set her down she continued, "and third, I did my best to wake you from a distance but you were sleeping harder than a hibernating bear in winter. What are you doing here, anyways? Do you even know where here is?"

"Or course Trixie knows where here is! Trixie does not go anywhere Trixie does not mean to be! Trixie just did not know you lived here.." she sputtered.

"Alright, well, you're welcome to stay here with me. It was going to get lonely since daddy didn't.. make it back from Equestria," Relena said sadly. "I wasn't counting on having anyone stay here with me, least of all a unicorn, so we'll need to sort out food and such. And I would suggest you might be more comfortable sleeping on a bed than the floor. Though I could be wrong about that. I'm not a unicorn."

"The great and powerful Trixie will consider this bed you have to offer," Trixie offered generously.

A few minutes later Trixie was sleeping soundly in Relena's dad's old bed, while Relena slipped into her own. An hour after that, Relena slipped sleepily from her own bed and slipped in beside Trixie, snuggling tightly.

---

Cherry Blossom woke from her nightmare with a start. Her fur was matted with sweat, so she must have been in it for a while. The pink earth pony filly panted on her bare bed as her eyes slowly came back into focus. She slowly became aware of the absence of her pillow and covers, as her awareness of a giant mangled pile of corpses climbing out of a pit faded away.

The light of the sun was starting to stream in through her window between the shutters, so she got out of bed anyways.

"Morning, Blossom!" her mom called out to her, before seeing the state her daughter was in. "The shower's all yours. But don't take too long. We can talk about it on the way."

Blossom nodded, and went to wash herself off, doing her best to be presentable. As a filly of a family of seasonal workers, she was never all that skilled in the matter, but she could at least wash off all the dirt and sweat and brush herself thoroughly, using a bit of their scented oils for special occasions. After all, she was going to see a Princess. Sort of. And despite any caveats, now was a time to look her best. With some skillful maneuvers, she soon had a nice pink bow in her mane to complete the look.

The Cherries checked out of the inn and got on the road, joining in with the dozens of others setting out at first light. There was a buffalo with them, and she was glad to see that at least one of them had survived. He looked lonely though, surrounded by ponies. She recognized some of the other ponies from her years of farmwork, both itinerants like themselves and those who lived on the farms. She knew some of them were homeless now, or were in the process of rebuilding.

Despite all the horrors of the war, the orchards themselves were largely intact. The enemy forces killed ponies indiscriminately and razed buildings readily but rarely harmed a tree. It was strange, but it was hardly the only strange thing about them. In their wake, that left the farming ponies with more work to do, rather than less, as there were fewer hooves to buck the fruits free, on top of the urgent need to rebuild shelter.

But still.. this was a day when all of that would be set aside.

Wherever the little procession reached a fork in the road, more ponies joined them from other farms, towns, villages. The little back roads were expanded by countless hooves pushed out to the fringes, tromping down grass and bush, though nature would recover soon enough. It was long weary hours on the road before they arrived at their destination.

Booths were set up all around the area, serving food and drink. No bits were exchange; instead the itinerants and farm ponies deposited what fresh fruit they had been able to carry with them, and everypony enjoyed refreshments of fresh squeezed juice and freshly prepared dishes. Everypony's contribution was a labor of love, tinged in somber reflection.

Once they had been refreshed, the Cherries waited their turn in the much longer line. Groups of a few dozen were admitted at a time, so the line moved in large lurches, leaving them to rest and wait, making small talk with their neighbors. Cherry Blossom was avoiding such conversations, until a little colt sat next to her, and looking vaguely into the distance with her simple said, "nightmares, huh? Yeah, me too." That was all either of them said, all that needed to be said.

Finally, they entered the massive archway into the ruined fortress. While there was no dead bodies to be seen, there was still stains of blood, scorched rock, and churned earth; plenty of concrete signs of the battle that had taken place here. A scholar droned on at length about everything they had learned about the epic struggle, but Cherry couldn't focus on it. Instead, she nudged the little colt and they broke off ahead of schedule, heading for the chalk outline in Luna's shape. Within was a few dozen unlit candles. They each took one and headed back out into the crowd.

The two foals found a place to settle where they could watch other children play. The day passed slowly but it did ultimately pass.

Celestia controlled the moon now, and the stars as well, in her sisters' absence. She set the moon in its place in the sky, looking like a pony's eye, as the brightest stars in the sky arranged themselves into the shape of an alicorn. Looking down from the lunar perspective, a tear was brought to her eye as she the Alamare lit up with thousands of little winking stars, matching her own display in love if not in lumens.

Nightmare Night would never be the same again.

Comments

[Morning Dusk]

That was an emotional chapter. But you did do a good job on it. The somber mood is really well portrayed, as well as the feeling of shared loss

[Istaran]

5962540
Thanks. Also ended up with a weird sort of crossover with Itinerant Kingdom. We get to see two divergent fates for the same filly, though neither is particularly good. Poor Cherry Blossom, perhaps your cutie mark will show how good you are at being doomed.