My Little Balladeer

by Ardashir

Chapter 11

My Little Balladeer
Chapter 11

Twilight trotted out the library door, Spike on her back, her Elements in one saddlebag and that… thing, in the other. The sun felt blissfully warm on her face after the events inside the library. It looked like it would be a lovely finish to a lovely day. If not for what just happened with Lyra and Thorn, and some of what the Princess said to her in that last letter, she’d feel perfectly happy. The Princess’s words especially bothered her. Should John prove treacherous, do whatever you must to prevent him from doing any damage to yourself or anypony else. Do not let him escape like Thorn did.

John was the first to follow her outside, and as he did, he asked, “I’ve a question here. How are we going to be digging the hole for burying the book? Are you ladies a-going to be digging it with your hooves?”

Twilight froze, unable to believe that she hadn’t thought of something that simple. She looked at her friends as they exited the library, the Crusaders in tow. Rarity looked horrified at the very idea of rooting in the dirt. Twilight looked to the side and saw her answer.

“No, we’ll be using their tools.” She trotted over to the small encampment beside the library where the Day Guards stood watch by their chariot. Bastion approached as she did, leaving his stallions behind him. Twilight smiled her sunniest smile and hoped for something to go her way today as she said, “Hello, Captain Bastion. This will be an odd request, but do you have a shovel or some digging tools we can borrow for an hour or so?”

“Yes, we have some, but what would you need them for, Miss Sparkle?” Bastion’s voice was steady but his eyes were wary as they rested on John. The sunlight glinted off of his armor and helmet, kept at a parade level of polish even here in the field.

“I’m going to be getting rid of that spellbook that made all the trouble so far,” she said to him, her voice dropping. Nopony else was nearby right now, but given what Lyra said about her and Thorn’s capabilities, Twilight felt uneasy about saying even this much in public. “Our guest, John, said he knows how to remove its influence and I want to give it a try.” Captain Bastion looked uncertain, so she added, “I do have Princess Celestia’s permission. And one more thing. Could you please accompany us? In case somepony, I mean something, goes wrong.” She smiled nervously. Captain Bastion looked from her to John and then back to her. She wondered if he guessed at her real reasons. If John tried anything at the last minute, she wanted somepony there who could handle violence.

“I would be happy to accompany you, Miss Sparkle. It might be for the best in any event, if the summons comes through.” He turned and gave orders to his pegasi and the unicorn. They snapped to attention and the armored unicorn’s horn glowed that mix of pale light gray and chartreuse green all of their magic seemed to when they used it. Twilight wondered what color his magic would be when used out of armor, or if he’d even be gray. The first time she’d seen her own brother in uniform he’d looked like any other Spellguard, covered by the spells set on the armor. She’d needed him to speak before she’d recognized him. A pick and shovel came floating out from the pavilion they were using and came over to John and the captain. Bastion took the pick, setting it in a loop hanging from his barding’s harness and John took hold of the shovel. John nodded at Bastion in a friendly fashion. Bastion seemed a bit surprised at the gesture, but he nodded back as they began walking after Twilight and her friends.

“Where we goin. Twi?” Applejack said to her as they began walking south through Ponyville. “I don’t want to bury that book o’ Thorn’s anywhere near the Everfree.”

“Neither do I, AJ,” Twilight said. “I want to bury it in Whitetail Woods. That’s about as far as we can get from the Everfree with John along. But first, I want to grab some food to take along with us at Sugarcube Corner and I want to leave your sister and her friends off at Carousel Boutique. I really don’t want them near Thorn’s book at all while we’re doing this.”

“Ya think Thorn’s likely ta try something?”

“Right now I’m just being careful. Thorn and Lyra got chased away and I doubt they’ll try anything for a while.” She looked around as they walked down the street. She saw thatch-roofed houses, a few shops like the one where she and Spike took care of everything they needed for their letters to Princess Celestia, and some ponies in the streets. A few were foals or older fillies and colts playing before dinner, but most were either late day shoppers or coming home from work. She even saw Derpy making a late delivery. The mailmare gave her a friendly wave and Twilight and Spike returned it. Pinkie enthusiastically waved to several, and they returned her greetings. Most, however, looked worried at the sight of a Royal Guard in armor. And John’s appearance also seemed to unsettle them. Twilight understood why, given Thorn’s actions, but she still felt dismayed at their treatment of a guest. She looked at John, hoping he wasn’t taking it too personally.

If it bothered him he didn’t show it. He walked along with a steady pace beside Captain Bastion. Apple Bloom and her friends were sticking close by, with ‘Bloom holding forth to her friends about what had happened last night. Sweetie Belle looked frightened and Scootaloo looked envious. Rarity and Fluttershy were staying close by the Crusaders, and Rainbow Dash flew high above, sometimes doing loops or other aerobatics. Once she stopped and hovered before flying on again. Twilight realized that she was keeping an eye open for trouble. And Pinkie was being Pinkie, bouncing up to chat with various ponies before going back to her friends. She was just finishing a talk with a brown stallion bearing an hourglass cutie mark. Twilight remembered seeing him around town a few times before.

“So, you won’t need any help then?” He asked in that cultivated accent of his.

“Naww,” Pinkie said, “This is a different crossover entirely. But thanks for asking, Doc! We’ll see you later!” She bounced back over to Twilight. Twi wondered if she wanted to know what that was all about.

By now they were approaching Sugarcube Corner. Twilight smelled the delicious scents from within and heard her belly rumble in response. She wasn’t the only one. Pinkie’s belly growled like a dragon at the smells of the usual dinnertime rolls and muffins the Cakes were baking. Rainbow Dash dropped down, licking her lips. Even John and Captain Bastion looked hungrily at the building.

“Say, Pinkie,” Twilight asked her, “you think you could get a few muffins or the like to take along? I don’t think any of us have eaten since breakfast,” she looked at her friends and they shook their heads no, “and I think we could use something to eat on our way to Whitetail Woods. And I’m sure the girls would like something.” She indicated the Crusaders, who suddenly looked quite interested.

“We sure would!” All three of them said. Twilight smiled and gave Pinkie a few bits.

“Okey-dokey-loki!” Pinkie said as she bounced off through the bakery door. “I wanted to say hi to the Cakes anyway.” Twilight and the others sat down to wait. Spike dropped down off of her back and walked over to Rarity. The lovely unicorn and the young dragon began speaking. John crouched and balanced on the balls of his feet. The girls pressed around him, asking questions. Twilight hoped they didn’t tire him out.

“Twi, I got ta ask yah a question.”

Twilight started a bit. She hadn’t even heard Applejack walk up to her.

“Sure, AJ. What’s up?”

“Just this,” Applejack leaned close and spoke quietly, keeping her words for Twilight’s ears alone. “What all did Celestia really say ta yah about John?”

Twilight wondered briefly what she ought to say, and decided on the truth. Applejack was her friend, and a fellow bearer of the Elements. Not just any Element, but the specific Element of Honesty. She deserved nothing less.

“She asked me to keep an eye on him, and to make sure he doesn’t do anything to hurt anypony like Thorn did. And if he did, we should let the Guards handle him. I don’t think he would do anything,” she hurried to say, noticing how Applejack looked ready to protest, “but those are Celestia’s orders to me, Applejack.”

“Ah guess Ah can see why she said it,” Applejack answered her, sounding displeased, “But ah got to tell yah, Twi, if I thought he’d do us any wrong Ah’d have never said yah should trust him in the first place. He ain’t like Thorn.”

“I agree, AJ, but look at Lyra. Who ever thought she’d do what she’s done? And if Thorn can corrupt ponies like that, maybe John can too. Maybe he’s just,” Twilight wondered how she ought to put it, “Just being nice to us because Thorn’s his enemy.” Applejack gave her a wary look at that.

“Yah remember when yah warned me about judgin’ Zecora just cause she was strange ta us?” She reached out with her tail and tapped Twilight’s saddlebag where it hung heavily against her flank. “You’re startin’ to sound like Ah did, sugarcube. I think you’re still ascairt of Thorn’s spellbook an’ what it did to yah.”

Twilight gave her a shocked look. How could AJ even think that of her? Her anger suddenly boiling up, she hissed her next words at Applejack.

“And if it’d done to you what that, that thing almost did to me…!”

“Chow’s here!”

Twilight and Applejack both sprang back as Pinkie suddenly appeared between them, a sweet-smelling basket perched impossibly atop her mane. She bent her head down and offered the contents, sweet rolls and what smelled like apple muffins, to both Applejack and Twilight.

“Here, Jacky, the Cakes said to offer you these because they really liked that latest load of apples they got from you and all the customers do too so maybe you could let them buy some more next time? And Twilight, I remember how you like those sweet rolls I baked and why were you talking so angry to each other about our new friend John?”

“Pinkie!” Twilight gasped and winced. She looked over her shoulder. Her friends were looking at her, curious. Rainbow Dash fluttered down by her and Rarity and Fluttershy walked over to join them. John seemed to be busy talking with Bastion and the Crusaders alternatively. They seemed oblivious to their conversation. Twilight wondered how to put it when Applejack spoke up.

“Twi’s worried because the Princess asked her an’ us to keep a close eye on John in case he’s some snake like Thorn, an’ I told her I disagree.” She looked steadily at Twilight.

“Huh? Twi, Celestia asked you to do that?” Spike stepped up, holding a muffin that had tiny bits of ruby studded in it. Twilight wondered how Pinkie found a way to grind jewels for baking. Spike said, “She wants us to spy on him?”

“No, Spike, not that! It’s just,” she sighed and shook her head. “The Princess doesn’t want me to make another mistake in trusting too easily. And we don’t really know anything about him.”

“We know he’s here because we summoned him, darling,” Rarity said. She pointed her horn at Twilight and Applejack’s saddlebags where they held their Elements. “We used the Elements, and surely they wouldn’t allow something or somepony dangerous into Equestria.”

“What if we didn’t summon him, or he’s not the one we did summon?” Twilight saw Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s eyes widen at her words. Fluttershy eeped. “The being we wanted to summon might never have gotten through. And doesn’t it seem weird that we found almost the exact pony for the job?” Her friends looked as worried as she felt. Then Pinkie spoke up.

“Wasn’t it kind of weird that you were reading about Queen Meanie right when she was about to break free? Wasn’t it weird that you met the five funniest and most honest and loyal and all-around best for the plot ponies when you first came to Ponyville, Twilight?” Twilight fell silent as she considered Pinkie’s words. “Maybe that’s just the way they work. John was the best pony or whatever on his world to help us stop meanypants Thorn from making everypony unhappy, so they brought him here. Like how we were the best ponies to heal Luna and to stop Discord from ruining Equestria,” her mane drooped slightly as she said, “And bringing chocolate rain,” before it poofed back up and she finished in her usual bubbly voice, “So they made sure you met us!”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, frowning. “That makes everything seem a little too predestined for my liking.”

“Oh, um, if I can say something,” Fluttershy cut in, “right now John does seem able to help us, and he wants to help us, even when he could have said ‘No’ after we admitted to bringing him here. And I have to agree with Rarity and Pinkie and Applejack, Twilight,” she looked back at him as he shared some of his muffin with the Crusaders, “He just doesn’t feel like Thorn does. He did help Apple Bloom when he could have run away. I, I think we can trust him.”

“Yeah, well, maybe you all do but I’m not sure that I do,” Dash said. “I kinda haveta agree with Twilight and the Princess. We really don’t know anything about this guy, and Thorn did work kinda hard on getting John to join up with him.”

“An’ John told him where ta stick it,” Applejack responded. She looked at the horizon, where the sun was just beginning to touch it. “An’ one more thing. If we’re gonna bury Thorn’s spellbook, Twi, we’d better go an’ do it now. Ah don’t want either Apple Bloom r’ me ta be walking back t’ Sweet Apple Acres in the dark, not with Thorn an’,” she shuddered, “those things still out there.”

“Okay, you’re right,” Twilight looked around at her friends. “I just… Thorn almost tricked me into freeing Discord. I don’t want to do that to you or anypony else. Ever.” She shivered at the memory of Discord’s brief reign and what it did to her friends and herself. The slight chill in the air from night’s oncoming didn’t help. She drew herself up and said, “So let’s get rid of Thorn’s book right now, and then we’ll decide on everything else. Okay?” They chorused agreement at that.

“You all are done eating, then?” John and Bastion came up with the Crusaders close by, Bastion licking his lips over the muffin he’d eaten and John looking pleased with his own meal. The Crusaders, for their part, looked like they could have eaten much more.

“Yes, we’re done,” Twilight said. Spike got up on her back as she added, “Now let’s just swing by the Boutique and drop the girls off,” the Crusaders looked ready to argue, but then Sweetie Belle whispered something to them, and they smiled innocently in agreement as Twilight went on, “and then we’re getting rid of Thorn’s grimoire.” The group of ten ponies, one dragon, and one human set off again, and as they did Twilight thought, and I hope this doesn’t somehow lead to even bigger problems.

* * *

The food that Pinkie got for us all from her little bakery was right good, and I said as much to her when I ate the first bite of the apple muffin I took. It was warm from the oven and smelled sweeter than near airy thing I could remember eating before. Maybe not better than Evadare’s cooking, but right close to it.

“Thank you, Mister John!” She said and bounced when she did. I tried to hide a smile, but she caught it and laughed her own self. “That’s okay, I like it when I make ponies laugh! And I cooked the muffins myself. Oh, but Gummy helped!”

“Gummy?” I inquired her.

“My pet alligator, of course!” She said, and hopped off to where Twilight and Applejack were talking about something, and sounding close to quarreling about it. I recollect I started a bit when she said about a pet alligator. I must have said it out loud, because Fluttershy answered me in her quiet way.

“Oh, yes, Gummy is her pet alligator. She takes such good care of him.” She looked at her friends talking up afore us. The look she wore wasn’t a happy one. They’d started talking quietly, but now their voices were a-getting louder. “Oh, dear,” she said. “Please, Mister John, Captain Bastion, I think I’d better see if I can help.” She hurried off to them. Rarity made to follow her, but first she turned to Apple Bloom and her friends.

“Sweetie Belle, you and your friends stay here and watch your manners around John and the good Captain.” She smiled at me and batted her long eyelashes at him the way some women will when they think it looks pretty. They agreed her polite enough. Bastion smiled back at her. She turned and walked up to where her friends were a-talking.

I ate and enjoyed it, the way I mostly like to eat good food. It looked about right for that bakery, which looked its own self like something from the fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel and the witch, like a gingerbread house big enough to live in. The little fillies – I knew Apple Bloom, and she made her friends known to me as the little orange pegasus Scootaloo and the little snowy unicorn, Sweetie Belle. She seemed shy of us both. Scootaloo was eager to be talking with Bastion, the way some children do when they meet a soldier. He seemed right happy to talk back to her about flying and what you needed to be able to do to belong to the Royal Guard. He spoke to her in what I’d call a fatherly way. I wondered myself if he had some little children or foals of his own somewheres else. So I squatted down alongside Apple Bloom and we spoke some.

“I tol’ everypony in school about you,” she said, and sounded proud to say it. “They all wanted ta hear ‘bout how you ‘n me fought that monster in the Everfree. Miss Cheerilee said I was real brave. Silver Spoon an’ Diamond Tiara said I was making it all up.” She looked less happy then. Then she cheered up again. “But then I tol’ Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle an’ everypony that after school they could meet yah and see I wasn’t no fibber. An’ Scootaloo was sayin’ we could talk to yah and maybe get ourselves a Monster Fightin’ Cutie Mark. And here we are!” The way she looked at me, I reckon she thought I could give her one of those marks right then and there.

“That all minds me,” I said to her. “Whatair were you doing out in that forest? And whatair happened to your friend, the one with the golden mane and gray coat?” The way she suddenly looked worried, I figured that wasn’t something she ought to have been doing. She held her hoof up to my mouth like to shush me.

“I don’t want mah big sis ta know,” she said, a-whispering it to me, “but she’s mah friend Ruby. She lives, ah mean, she stays with other ponies at this old village called Sunny Town out in the forest. It’s…” she looked away, like she wondered herself how to say it, “Applejack says it’s a bad place an’ I oughta stay away.”

“If your big sister says that, she like as not says it because she worries about you,” I replied her.

“Well…” Apple Bloom began to say, “She’s kinda right. Sunny Town is sorta haunted. I followed Ruby to it once, an’ the other ponies there tried to make me like them.” She shuddered, and when she spoke I could hear the fear in her voice. “They look normal sometimes, lahk other ponies, but real scary other times. They’re all black an’ red and if they touch you, you feel real weak and if you don’t git away, you die and become one o’ them. I ran from them an’ Ruby helped me git away and we’ve been friends since. I tol’ big sis an’ Miss Twilight, but Twilight don’t believe me an’ Applejack just tol’ me ta stay way – What’s wrong?”

“I think I’ve seen your Sunny Town,” I reckon her mouth looked ready to drop off her face. “I dreamed about it, and some little about you just this last night. They were a-having a party when you saw it, weren’t they? With balloons and cakes and such?” She looked on me with wide eyes when I told her the rest, about how I’d seen a young stallion and colt, a green mare like her granny but younger, and a gray stallion who seemed to be running air thing there. And then how they’d made her like them, and snatched my guitar away before I woke up. “One more thing,” I said to her. “Nary one of them had that cutie mark on their flanks like your sister and her friends do.”

“Ah know,” Apple Bloom answered me. “That’s why they wanted me ta stay, so I wouldn’t get the ‘curse’ an’ get my cutie mark.” She looked at her bare flank, and she looked sadder than sad.

“You’ll likely get it when the time’s right,” I told her, mostly because it felt like I ought to say her something hopeful.

“Ah know,” she looked at her sister and her friends. “But ah want it now!” I saw that Applejack and her friends looked to have finished whatair they’d been talking about. I’d finished my muffin and I saw that Bastion and the fillies were done with their own, so I picked up the shovel and walked over to them. I asked if they were a-done their own selves, and Twilight responded me that they were.

“Let’s just drop the girls off at Carousel Boutique,” she said, “and then we can go and get rid of Thorne’s spellbook.”

“That sounds good,” I answered her. “It’s getting kindly late.” The sun looked to be low, just about touching the horizon. It showed crimson and made the sky ruddy too, like iron worked in a forge. I said to no one in particular, “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”

“Around here, we say, ‘Pegasi’s delight’,” Bastion said. He seemed to be warming up to me some little bit. I liked him some, too. He minded me of my old sergeant in the Army, who’d cussed us all a blue streak when we made mistakes but worked harder than airy three other men to keep us all alive. He seemed ready to talk to me some more, so I decided to ask him something I wondered about from what Apple Bloom said.

“You were the one in charge of the search for Thorne when he ran into the Everfree, then?” He made me known he was, and I asked him, “Did you see or hear airy thing from your men, I mean your ponies, about some old pony village in there?”

“You’ve been listening to some of these locals, haven’t you?” He glanced at Apple Bloom where she ran along her sister, with Apple Bloom taking two-three steps to every one of her sister. “One of my troopers said they saw something like ruined buildings in a clearing, but when he checked closer he saw nothing there. And I heard how some of the Night Guard said they saw earth ponies once or twice deeper in than any searcher could or should be, but nothing came of it. I doubt there’s anything to it.”

“I did meet a nasty something in the forest, and it like to tried to kill Apple Bloom and me,” I answered him. He just laughed at it. I suppose I frowned. I didn’t rightly see what I said that was funny.

“It’s the Everfree,” he said, “The worst monsters still found within Equestria’s borders live in there. Most ponies in Canterlot and elsewhere think the Ponyville ponies are all crazy to be living here. I’d not be surprised to hear of anything seen in there, but a village of ghost ponies?” He ruffled up his wings like to shake his head no. “I’d have to see it for myself to believe it.”

I said nothing to that. I just thought myself how I’d seen a right many strange things in my time, and not all of them what you’d call good or pretty things, but they’d all been real and sometimes I’d been right happy to get away alive from them. By now we were a-passing by a tall building like a tower. I’d seen it that morning at a distance. Now that I walked closer I saw stands and tents around it. I saw what looked like a fancy porch built onto it, too, like for someone to stand on and give speeches. I could see a pool and a statue of a rearing pony on one hoof balanced on a ball. A chariot like I’d seen by the library lay there. White pegasi in their armor, what you’d call barding when it’s on horses, stood right by it. They saw me and one of them started over only to stop when he saw Bastion.

Just past that tower I could see the other fork of the river that I’d crossed this morning with Twilight and Applejack and their friends. I wondered me if it’d just been less than a day ago. I went through it in my mind. Me entering what I knew now to be the Everfree, and right soon meeting Apple Bloom and Ruby. The sending right after that, and then the night at Applejack’s farm and eating dinner with her family. The dead ponies a-using round for whatair reason that night, and that morning I met Rainbow Dash and Twilight and Spike and then all the others. They’d told me about Thorne’s wicked doings and I’d met him my own self and seen that they told no lies when it came to what sort of a bad man he was. And now here we were, a-trying to help some young woman and her friends and neighbors out of trouble they didn’t ask for nor deserve airy way. It was a right busy day when I thought back on it all.

By then we were passing over a small set of rail tracks with a neat-made station beside them. It mostly looked to be the ticket office and a place to wait for the next train. From a pole and crossarm there hung a lantern set with red glass. The rails were a narrow gauge such as you don’t often see any more. I wondered aloud if they were just a little spur route.

“That’s the Ponyville line,” Applejack answered me back. “We just got it put in this past year, but we got us a real steam engine to run on it.” The proud way she said that, I wondered me if steam was the best they had here.

“Whyever do you use rails, when you have folks that can fly or teleport?”

“’Cause not everypony can fly, especially not like me, that’s why,” Dash answered me from my other side. She flapped her wings and looked pleased. “’Sides, it’s easier to get food and cargo around that way. And for earth ponies who want to travel, it’s the easiest way.” We’d passed over the rails and the bridge by then. We were coming up on a place that looked like a fancy merry-go-round such as you see at circuses and big parks, all white and pink and purple. On the upper floor I saw weathervanes made to look like horses trotting. From the very top there flew a small flag like what they call a pennant. And right close by, more of those big tents and another chariot and more of those armored flying ponies I’d seen afore. Whatever worried these ponies must have been right bad for them to be keeping guards at three separate places in town.

“Sweetie Belle, girls, here we are!” Rarity went up to it. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed her. Apple Bloom looked back at me like she wanted to stay. Rarity’s horn glowed and the door opened. She said, “Now, I want you to stay here until we get back. You can have snacks, and please don’t harass poor Opal again. Play nicely with her! I’ll see you when I get back.”

“We will, big sis,” said the little unicorn, and “Thanks, Miss Rarity,” said the little orange Pegasus as they walked in. Apple Bloom made to go, but then she turned to Applejack.

“Cain’t I help you n’ John?”

“Apple Bloom, now I tol’ yah no.” Applejack gave her little sister a hug. “Y’all wait here. When I git back, we’ll go back to Sweet Apple Acres together. Go on now,” She gave her a nudge in the direction of the door. Apple Bloom went in after her friends, but before the door closed she gave me a sad look.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon,” Rarity said in after them. She closed the door. Then she looked at me like she all of a sudden realized something. “Oh, John, I do beg your pardon, but perhaps I could impose upon you to stay here tonight after we return? It’ll likely be dark by the time we’re done, and I would hate to send you to Sweet Apple Acres in the dark, especially now.”

“It’s kindly all right, Miss Rarity,” I answered her. “I’ve walked through the woods after dark many a time, and I want to say my proper thanks to Applejack’s family for giving me dinner and a roof over my head the other night.” I thought that’d be it, but Twilight spoke up.

“Actually, John, I’d like to ask you some more questions about your world and its magic if that’s okay with you. And it’d be easier to do it here at the Boutique then to go all the way over to Sweet Apple Acres and back to the library again.” She sounded right hopeful. I looked at Applejack.

“Aw,” she said, “go on, it’ll be fine. Ah’ll make sure ta tell Granny Smith an’ Big Mac how much yah like what we did for yah. They’ll be pure down pleased to hear it.”

“Thank you kindly, I’ll do that then.”

“Can we get going before we’re here all night?” Dash flew out over the fields and towards some trees that grew a little ways off past them and we all followed. Those fields looked right well done, the earth of them looked browner, more alive somehow, than airy field I’d ever seen on earth. Just starting to be spring here and they’d already been worked and planted. We went a mile or maybe two across them, past signs with those cutie marks on them. I reckon the ponies did it that way to show which fields belonged to which pony. I saw how Applejack looked them over like she measured each field for how well done it was. Once or twice she shook her head like she’d seen something done wrongly, though whatair she saw, I missed it.

We reached the woods and stopped. The trees there looked tall and proud. I could see that nair axe ever touched them. The new leaves were a-coming out on the branches, in all the shapes you see on earth. Long and thin and short and fat, all kinds. I saw some maple trees, and they were being tapped. Buckets full of the sap hung under them. Pinkie went up to one and took a dollop out on her hoof to lick off. She smacked her lips like she’d tasted water from Eden. She saw how I looked and offered me some.

“Go on,” she said, “have a taste. It’s great!” It dripped off her hoof slow-like. The color looked like gold in that light. I tried some to be polite and wondered myself if I’d ever tasted airy thing as sweet as that.

“You’re to be admired for having trees that give syrup that fine,” I told her. “I suppose I’m lucky I came by now, when the trees could be tapped. A few weeks later and I’d have missed this.” She looked curious at me.

“Really? Why? They can be tapped all the way up to the Running of the Leaves. Oh, that’s when we ponies run a race through the woods and bring the leaves down off the trees.” She grinned with her whole face, took one more taste, and bounced off with her friends. That Pinkie was a right happy to be alive young lady, and no mistake.

I started after her and them and as I walked into and under those trees I wondered myself about her and her friends and this place. It minded me some of the stories from some old folks I knew, about how the little people – I suppose I ought to say little ponies, here – managed nature and the wild things. They seemed a right much friendlier and kindlier than the fairies I remembered reading about, though. It made me think of that place a poet named Yeats once said of, the Land of Heart’s Desire, where beauty has no ebb and decay no flood, where joy is wisdom and time an endless song.

But that thought reminded me of what Thorne said when he a-tried bringing me over to him. Those old stories of people in Faerie also said about the ones who never returned, or who returned to worlds that had grown old and distant and strange to them. Once I met me an old man who said he was me, the me from some other time and place, and we went to some men of authority and told and showed them things that might could have stopped a war that would have eaten up the whole world. He left after that and I nair did see him again. Now and then I’ve wondered whatair became of him, or if he even still existed or would exist since the things that brought him to me nair happened. It was noways a comforting or pleasant thought to have.

“Mister John? Are you alright?” Fluttershy said. She flew up beside me off the ground and said in that kindly voice of hers that soothed like goose grease on a bad burn, “You look unhappy about something. We can stop if you need to rest.”

I looked from her to the others. They all looked back and showed concern on their faces. All of it for me, and nair bit for their own selves. Dash looked to be annoyed the least bit, but I think she just looked that way most times.

“It’s kindly well,” I spoke her and them all back. “I was just a-worrying about some folks I know back home, and if they might be wondering their own selves about me.”

“We swear, John,” Rarity spoke, “We’ll get you back to the exact spot you were brought from as soon as Thorne’s been stopped. I promise. We all promise.” When she said it, she meant it, airy word. The other ponies and even Spike all made agreement with her. I felt a little unhappy myself then to think of the troubles they were all in. They’d asked for help and some power or other brought me here to do whatair lay in my hands to help them, and I’d do just that.

“I know,” I replied them, “But first let’s be doing this task we have here.” I looked around. We were off the main trail and in among where the trees grew thicker and close together. It looked like we were air the first soul to be there since they were first grown. I stopped and set the shovel down. The ponies gathered round.

“Okay, John,” Twilight said, “where do we bury it?”

I looked around and saw what looked like a good spot by a big old oak. If you’d cut it down you could have enough wood for a house and some for the chicken coop after.

“That there looks like as good as any,” I said. We all went to the tree. I reached for the pick but Bastion took it by the end in his mouth. The handle went broad there, for a pony to take a good grip with their jaws.

“I’ll do this much,” he mumbled around the handle and swung it down hard into the dirt. He brought it down a few more times, working it in the sod and earth to loosen it. When he stepped back I took the shovel and started digging. It felt right odd to use, made small like for a boy to use and with a short handle and wide grip, made for a pony’s mouth and no man’s hands. The work went hard, what with how I had to crouch to dig but I didn’t mind. Many’s the time I’ve walked down one rocky ridge and up another and maybe one or two more past that to get to a doing I’d promised to be at. And then once I’d gotten there I’d played and danced till near about dawn. I’ve kept myself active ever since I was a tad and I’ve been happy for it more than the once.

And so I dug out a hole, maybe as deep as your forearm and broad enough round for the book to be put in. I stepped back from the hole, and I felt it in my shoulders and back from using that shovel. Twilight stepped forward like to toss it in but I held up my hand.

“Wait,” I told her, “This needs to be done the right way.” I looked around on Twilight and Applejack and Dash and all the rest. “Thorne got you all to take part in inviting him here into Ponyville and Equestria…”

“We didn’t know!” Dash said, bristling herself up to be saying it.

“I know,” I responded her, “But airy way, he tricked you into helping him. Now you’ve all got to help in a-burying it. I’m asking your participation.” They looked from me to one another and then to Twilight. She looked wary, and then she nodded at me.

“Set it in,” I bade Twilight. Her horn glowed. Spike hopped off her as her saddlebag opened. The book came out. It looked near as nasty in the shadows under those trees as in Twilight’s library, with the hair crawling thick on it and that red mark on the cover like fresh spilled blood. She floated it over the hole and dropped it. It didn’t thud the way a book should. It more like flopped softly. Like a dead man’s body, I thought, and I shivered to think it.

“Now what?” she inquired me. “Now we have to do, what was that? Say a funeral service?”

“That’s mostly it,” I said. I stepped up to that hole and she stepped back. I tried to remember the words for a burying, and I said, “Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.” I thought more, and, “In the midst of life, we are in death.” I made to start throwing the dirt back in.

“Hold on,” Applejack said. “It might go better if we do it the way it’s done here.” I stepped aside. She walked up to the edge of the hole, looked at the tree, and began saying as solemn as a preacher in church, “Y’all give ta feed and shelter us when we need it and no complaint did you make. So here we are, givin’ back ta you whatair yah need from our body an’ bones. We come up from the earth like yah did and now this one’s gone back to it.” Her face looked solemn to say those words. I saw how Pinkie past her looked the same and it wondered me who they’d had to bury and if they hoped to ever see them again. Then Applejack looked up and smiled at Twilight.

“How yah feel, sugarcube? Any better?”

“Actually,” she said, and her voice sounded lighter than I could remember, “Yeah, I think I do. John, Applejack, thanks. I really mean that.” She sighed and it sounded relaxed. “So, John, anything else?”

I held the shovel out to her. “You toss in the first spadeful,” I bade her, and she took it with her magic and did that. Before she could set in another I took it and threw some in. Then I handed it to Applejack. “Now you.”

“I know this,” she said. She took the shovel’s handle in her mouth and threw more dirt in and then gave it to Rainbow Dash. “Ever’ pony takes turns and puts a shovelful in. The work’s done faster and yah git less tired.”

“That’s rightly so,” I answered her. We took turns putting the dirt back into the hole we’d dug. It didn’t take long, and when we were done I looked and saw a rock about the size of a loaf of bread. I set that atop the dirt. “That should ought to do it,” I said. “Leastways, it did in every telling of this I ever heard of.”

“And that’s a relief,” Twilight said. She looked and sounded happier than I’d yet seen, like she already felt some weight be taken off from her shoulders. “Now all we have to worry about is Thorne, and without that he should be easier to handle.”

“I purely down hope so,” I responded her, and with that we turned and began to head back to Ponyville.

* * *

Twilight almost sighed with relief as they made their way back through Whitetail Woods as Celestia’s sun yielded to Luna’s moon. A weight she didn’t know she’d been bearing felt lifted from her shoulders with the removal of Thorn’s grimoire from the library and her life. She found herself humming cheerily as she trotted along.

“You look a lot happier, Twilight,” Spike said, sounding relieved himself. Then, more cautiously, “You think that what John did really got rid of it?”

“Yes, yes it did,” she answered. “I’m not completely sure how, but what he did and what Applejack said got rid of that spellbook. Thankfully. I feel like I want to sleep for a week!” She almost felt Spike’s joy at her words before she said, “But I want, no, I need to speak with John some more tonight before I collect everything and send it off to Celestia.” At Spike’s groan she added, “Come on, Spike! He’s from another entire universe. How many chances like this do you get?” Spike just grumbled at her. Twilight said in a sly tone, “Besides, we’ll be spending a few hours at Rarity’s.”

“We will?!?” Spike drew himself up to say in what Twi knew he fondly thought of as a more mature voice, “Oh, I can handle a few more hours of writing, then.”

By now they were passing the fields and headed for the river on the edge of town. Dusk had fallen and the stars were beginning to shine above. Luna’s moon showed too, waning now until it grew great again. Twilight looked up at the old familiar constellations, Orion and all the rest. She wondered if John’s world held similar ones. There would be so many questions she could ask, so many more that she wanted to ask, and the ones she ought to ask but wouldn’t simply because she didn’t know enough. She remembered one of her instructors telling her that it took lifetimes to know one single world. How many more, she thought, to understand another completely different one?

“You seem much happier than you were these past few days, Twilight,” Rarity said as she came up alongside her. Her white coat almost gleamed in the moonlight. “It is such a relief to see you free of that literary incubus of yours. I do hope nopony ever finds it where we put it.”

“It’s gone,” Twilight said. “I can feel it. Oh, pardon my asking, but it will be okay for me to stay a few hours at the Boutique to ask John a few questions?”

“Why of course, dear! I have to admit,” Rarity glanced back over her shoulder, “I’m curious about him myself.”

Twilight looked over her shoulder at her friends. Pinkie trotted along, going now and then to examine a rock or insect or plant that caught her attention before hurrying along to keep up with everypony. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were talking together. From what she heard they were discussing how they’d done in the Running of the Leaves. To her surprise she saw Fluttershy hanging back by John and Bastion. They seemed to be deep in conversation. She hoped they didn’t leave John too tired to talk to her later.

“Thanks for letting me stay late to speak with John tonight, Rarity. There’s just so much I, we, can learn from him.”

“It’s perfectly fine,” Rarity said. “Truth be told, if my sister and her friends will be spending the night, I’d like someone to help keep an eye on them. And with John, I hope you don’t monopolize his time too much. There are some things I’d like to try.” Her eyes held a familiar gleam. Twilight fought down a laugh.

“Rarity, please tell me you won’t be doing a makeover on him!”

“And why not?’ she said. “After the help he’s so freely given you and us, I want to do something for him. Besides, I rarely make clothes for stallions and never for bipeds. It should be a challenge. And artists need challenge, dear, if they’re to stay fresh.” She looked thoughtful and added, “Besides, I think I might want to hear some of the songs Applejack said he played at her farm last night. She’s hoping to hear them again herself.”

“Well…” Twilight realized that they were indeed a part of what he knew, and while she’d never studied music formally it might make for interesting listening. “Sure, why not?”

Twilight saw the Boutique ahead, majestic in the dark. Lights showed in the lower windows. Beside it, the Day Guards were changing off with the Night Guard. Their golden eyes with cat-slit pupils almost glowed under those web-crested helmets as they took their positions. They kept their bat-like wings tucked in close. When they saw Twilight, they nodded gravely. She politely returned it and then headed for the doors of the Boutique, with Rarity close behind.

“Well John, here we are,” Rarity said as they stopped at the front doors. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is sleek, chic, and magnifique!” Twilight wondered what the words sounded like to John through the lens of the translation spell. Rarity opened the door and looked inside, only to emit a shriek. “Oh, no! Sweetie Belle! Not my best fabrics again!” She charged inside with a panic-stricken look on her face. Twilight fought down a laugh. She looked around at her friends and at John. He seemed amused, and her friends all bore light hearted ‘here we go again looks’ on their faces. Fluttershy turned to head off for her home, and Pinkie and Dash and Applejack all went into the Boutique.

“Finally,” Twilight sighed, “things are starting to get back to normal again.” And with that she walked inside the Boutique.

* * *

And back in Whitetail Woods, at a spot only recently vacated by Twilight and her friends, several ponylike figures dug desperately at a spot of earth with their hooves. A glance would have shown they were no normal ponies. Not with those skeletal forms or empty eyesockets from which, impossibly, somehow tears flowed.

“It hurts,” one moaned in a hollow voice. “It’s like I’m digging in hot coals! It hurts so much!”

“Just keep digging, Starlet!” Another hissed at her. It whimpered in sudden pain but kept scraping at the dirt, which somehow seemed to never grow less despite how much they threw aside. “Thorn needs that book to help us! Don’t you want to be alive again?” Then, with a hiss of effort, “We should be making that backstabber Ruby do this. This is all her fault!”

“Just keep working,” said a third figure, larger than both of them, “And never mind Ruby. When we’re alive again she’ll be sorry to see that she missed on it. And when we get that book back?” It looked off in the distance at the dim lights of Ponyville, eyesockets flaring red. Anger and envy chased their tails in its speech as it said, “When we get the book back and Thorn does what he has to, Ponyville will be the new Sunny Town. And all of those lazy and selfish ponies will know what it means to be the monsters in the Everfree!”

And so they dug, and dug, and dug…

Comments

[roryokane]

For those who don’t get the reference, you can get the backstory of Sunny Town and Ruby by playing the horror fangame Friendship is 8-bit: Story of the Blanks.

[Godiswithus3]

While understandable, the mistrust towards John was getting downright annoying. Hope this deed lessens it.

Apple Muffins...........I really want to try those.

And looks like Twilight and the others are free from the curse of that damn book. Things are starting to look up.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

“Sweetie Belle, girls, here we are!” Rarity went up to it. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed her. Apple Bloom looked back at me like she wanted to stay. Rarity’s horn glowed and the door opened. She said, “Now, I want you to stay here until we get back. You can have snacks, and please don’t harass poor Opal again. Play nicely with her! I’ll see you when I get back.”

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=rocky+and+bullwinkle+show+poetry+corner&&view=detail&mid=F165C21939FB1085F472F165C21939FB1085F472&FORM=VRDGAR

[DualKitsune]

Hmmmmm....they are going to be digging for a while aren't they?

[Ardashir]

9523144
You'll see how long. They could have dug a lot longer without it doing much good.