• Published 20th May 2012
  • 6,390 Views, 200 Comments

My Little Balladeer - Ardashir



The Elements of Harmony find themselves facing an evil beyond their knowledge, armed with an alien magic. In desperation they use their Elements to summon aid and get - a hillbilly with a silver-strung guitar?

  • ...
7
 200
 6,390

Chapter 14

My Little Balladeer
Chapter 14

“Stay still,” Fluttershy told me and you may well believe that I listened to her right then. The timber wolf came closer, moving slow and crouching down close to the ground the way an animal will when it’s setting itself to leap on you and tear you apart. I lay still with Fluttershy on the one side of me and poor Rarity and Captain Bastion on the other and wondered myself what if anything I could do. Before I could think of airy thing, Fluttershy stepped away from me and towards the timber wolf.

I opened my mouth to call after her and tell her not to do any such fool thing. Before I could she drew herself up and looked it right in the eyes. It got ready to leap. Then it froze as she started speaking to it in a stronger voice than any I thought she owned.

“Look at you! You should be living in the forest, not running around Ponyville and terrorizing innocent ponies! I know we look like dinner to you, but this is still no way for you to behave. Now you turn around right now and march back out of town this instant.”

I reckon I stared at her to hear her say that. I wondered if maybe she’d lost her wits to fear. Then I looked at the timber wolf. It lowered itself like a scolded dog until its belly was against the ground, looking at Fluttershy all the while. It started a-backing away, whimpering. Just as I thought it meant to turn and run, Lyra came charging up and bowled Fluttershy over as she went by her.

“Fluttershy, I’m sorry!” She yelled it at the yellow Pegasus as she ran right by her. She kept galloping right up until she got to Rarity. She shivered and whimpered at the sight of her laying there. She bent her head down and snatched Rarity’s saddlebags up in her teeth. She slung them across her back. Before she ran, she saw how I looked on her.

“You shouldn’t have come!” she said, and sobbed to say it. “Thorne shouldn’t have come, either! I wish I’d never done any of this!” She wheeled and galloped away from the ponies as they all ran and screamed. She headed for the woods, a-crying as she went, “Master Thorne! Master Thorne! I have one of the Elements! Get me out of here now!”

I was about to get up and chase after her when I heard a growl. I looked and saw the timber wolf shaking its head before it turned its cold glowing green eyes back on Fluttershy. She was still getting herself back up. The timber wolf growled again and started for her. And me? I still felt it in my head from whatair spell Lyra used on me, so maybe what I did the next wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve air done. I ran at the timber wolf, yelling and waving my arms.

It flinched and looked away from Fluttershy and at me. Then it gave an almighty big growl and leaped over her to land afore me. I backed off as it came on like an advance agent for Judgment Day, snarling and snapping those thorny fangs together. They sounded like a bear trap’s jaws snapping together, and they wanted to snap right on to me. I heard Fluttershy cry out like she yelled for help. I backed away from it, wondered me if the silver on my guitar would stop it, wondered if I’d have the time or chance to try.

And a purple glow I’d gotten to know came and wrapped itself around the timber wolf. It tried to leap again and yelped when it got stuck floating off the ground. Its legs worked a moment like it tried to grab the air, and then it flew off at the statue in the square. It hit hard and fell. Most of the statue fell atop it and I heard a snapping like branches breaking.

“John! Are you alright?” Twilight said as she came up to me. I saw a knot on her head, right by her horn, and she gasped like she’d been punched hard in the ribs. Fluttershy stood close by her like she wanted to help hold her up. Twilight just shook herself and said again, “Are you okay? And, and Rarity…” She looked on her friend and I saw the hurt in her eyes. I felt it too, the worse in some ways. If I’d been quicker, she’d be alive. But right then neither of us had the time for such thinking.

“Hear me now,” I said to her as I pointed off down the street, “Lyra snatched her saddlebag, the one with the Element in it, and ran off that way. She’s a-yelling for Thorne to help her. Do you want him to get his hands on any of these Elements of yours?”

She started like I’d near about thrown cold water in her face. She turned and charged off after Lyra.

* * *

Twilight zigzagged across the town square at a full gallop, ignoring the stitch in her side and the way every strike of her hooves against the dirt sent spikes of pain through her skull. One of her best friends lay cold and still behind her, as did Bastion, and maybe more ponies soon to join them both. She’d heard cries of agony as she threw the one timber wolf away from John and Fluttershy into that statue hard enough to kill it. Part of her felt horror at her use of unicorn magic to kill and at how easy it’d been.

And then there was the other part of her that felt a savage satisfaction in seeing what she’d done to something that threatened her friends’ lives.

The author of it all grew larger in her vision as Twilight shot under an archway between two shops onto Library Lane. She saw the sweat along Lyra’s sea-foam green sides as she galloped, heard her sobbing for breath as she cried out to Thorn for help. Twilight wondered why she didn’t just teleport before realizing that the power of the Element must be stopping her. But most of all Twilight saw those saddlebags hanging over her flanks. White saddlebags, embroidered with three blue gems. Rarity’s saddlebags.

Her dead friend’s saddlebags.

Who’d died because Twilight failed her.

“No!” Twilight gasped as they passed the Riches’ mansion, both sets of hooves thundering. Library Lane opened onto another, smaller square, the one with Sugarcube Corner and the old well. Dirt clods flew from under Lyra’s hooves as she aimed for another archway on the far side, the one that led past the Library onto the Everfree Road. And Thorn.

Twilight grabbed the fire in her head and used it to power her teleport. The world exploded around her a second time, sending stars through her vision. But when it cleared she stood in the archway, facing a fast-approaching Lyra.

Lyra’s eyes engulfed her face. She tried to veer around Twilight and keep running. Twilight reared and brought her hooves down into Lyra’s face. She felt the shock of impact along her forelegs and heard Lyra’s shriek as she dropped, a hoofmark right by her horn. Where she hit me, Twilight thought, and felt her anger burn higher in her at it.

“LYRA HEARTSTRINGS!” The words boomed out of her. Her head felt like it wanted to split open, but that was unimportant now. Nothing meant anything but dealing with Lyra here and now. Twilight glared at Lyra, her eyes and horn glowing with a magic surge. Lyra got back on her hooves and shrank back, shaking and eyes wide as Twilight shrieked at her.

“YOU KILLED RARITY!” Lyra turned to run. Oh, no, that’s not happening. Twilight reached out with her telekinesis even as she thought it. Lyra gave a little shriek as she was snatched up off the ground, all four legs flailing. Twilight yanked her back to face her eye to eye. Lyra somehow started shaking even more.

“You killed Captain Bastion! You almost got Fluttershy killed!” With every accusation, Twilight tightened her grip on Lyra and gave her a shake. Lyra’s panic-stricken whimpering only enraged her further. “You tried to kill John, and you tried to kill me! And you were about to give Rarity’s Element of Harmony to Thorn after you stole it from her body!” Lyra’s half-voiced pleading was more of a wheezing now, mixed with gagging and choking. Twilight realized she was on the verge of strangling Lyra and found the thought oddly pleasing. The pain in her head became a roar as she got ready to bring her telekinetic ‘hands’ together around Lyra’s neck until they met in the middle. The green unicorn pleaded at her with her eyes. Twilight hissed in a voice as gentle as dragonfire, “Do you have anything to say before I give you what you deserve, murderer?”

Lyra didn’t, couldn’t, speak. Pain and terror chased their tails in her eyes as she cringed and kicked.

“Please,” she finally whimpered, “Please, don’t kill me.”

Twilight almost laughed in her face at the thought that Lyra dared to try and ask for mercy now, and slowly began to crush her neck. But then she looked into Lyra’s face again. And froze.

Tears spilled down Lyra’s cheeks, urine splashed into the packed dirt beneath the archway as her bladder let go. She shook helplessly, shivering like young filly Twilight once did when she’d tried to hide from a solar eclipse, convinced that a bad dragon just ate Celestia. All Twilight could see was fear in Lyra’s eyes. Fear of her.

“No!” Twilight cried out as she dropped Lyra into the mud puddle of her own urine. Twilight found herself panting as though she’d run the Running of the Leaves all over again. She looked at Lyra. The other unicorn cringed from her.

“Don’t hurt me,” she whimpered. Twilight took a step towards her. Lyra scooted back, on her belly, shaking. “Please. Please. Don’t kill me. I – I – I never wanted any of this to happen, I was just so happy I had proof humans were real, and Thorn promised he’d teach me great things, and, and then you all refused to just give his spellbook back, a-and,” she swallowed hard and said, “Then I said those words Thorn taught me, and everypony was running and screaming, and Rarity…”

“Those ‘words’ were Nightmares and Windigos, called upon to kill!”

“What? No!” Lyra choked at Twilight’s words and said, “B-but Master Thorn told me it was just an apportation spell. It was supposed to bring you to him in Sunny Town so he could talk it all over with you again, a-and…” She shivered and said, quieter than ever, “Did I really kill her? Am I evil?”

“Lyra, I’m sorry, I…” Twilight shook herself and felt her wits return. “Lyra, please, give up now! We’ll help you save Bon Bon, I swear, but you can’t give one of the Elements to Thorn!”

Lyra looked very strange then, as though she wanted to beg for help and run all at once. Twilight somehow thought of a pony trapped inside a cage, frightened to leave but even more frightened of what waited for her outside. She opened her mouth, to defy Twilight, beg her for help, whatever, she didn’t know.

Then Twilight felt something familiar, what she’d felt in the library when Lyra spell-bound her and the others, and Lyra vanished from under her eyes. One second she lay there and the next came the soft pop of air rushing in to fill the space where she’d been. Rarity’s saddlebags went with her.

Twilight stared, unwilling to accept what she’d seen and what it meant. She’d let Lyra get away or be taken away by Thorn’s magic. Thorn had one of the Elements now.

And it was all her fault.

She turned and began heading back into the square, her head lower than her withers. She wondered if the fight was still on, but by the time she got there it looked to be over judging by the lack of screams and timber wolf snarls. Pained whimpers filled the air as she saw Nurse Redheart and Tenderheart as well as a pair of the Guardsponies taking care of the wounded. Tenderheart seemed to be living up to her name, looking shocked, but Redheart moved with efficiency as she directed the help being given to the injured ponies. Several of the guardsponies were among them, as well as some of the Ponyville ponies. A quick fear went through her. She looked closer and relaxed slightly. None of them were anypony she knew well. The few Guardsponies still up and uninjured were stumbling around the square, their barding battered and dented with bite marks from the timber wolves. Some of them had greenish sap from the timber wolves smeared on their forehooves and along their armored greaves. One or two just stood still, supported by other ponies and shaking as the aftermath of the fight washed over them. One Night Guard staggered by her, shivering, his face a mask of blood from a wound on his scalp. Two of the Day Guard immediately went on either side of him and supported him as they led him to their pavilion.

The bodies of the timber wolves lay there as well, bulking large and ugly amid their own splinters. Part of her wondered what they would do with them. They’d have to drag them out of town and burn them, wouldn’t they? One lay smoldering and broken, like it’d already been partly burned. Another pair lay nearby, one looking like it’d been trampled to ribbons – Twilight guessed that to be from the Guardsponies – and the other displaying a pair of ragged holes blasted completely through. The two unicorn Spellguards were going around, checking the other timber wolves, their horns glowing as they kept battle spells ready.

Something CRUNCHed nearby. She looked and saw Rainbow Dash finish stamping in the skull of the timber wolf Twilight remembered throwing into the statue. Dash looked battered but otherwise okay. She rose back into the air, her wings beating furiously and sap dripping from her hooves. She headed for the next fallen timber wolf. Once there she flew up and then power-dived, driving her hooves into its skull with the CRACK of splintering wood. It twitched once but did nothing else. Dash looked around for more, anger in her eyes and tears streaking her cheeks. Twilight stepped forward, wanting to beg her to stop.

“Don’t, Twi,” Applejack said nearby. She walked out from behind the nearest fallen timber wolf. She looked as banged-up as Dash, and like her, the marks of tears showed on her cheeks. But when she spoke, a low fury boiled in her voice. “This is something she’s just plain gotta do.”

“This,” Twilight began, looking around, hearing the whimpers and sobs of pain, smelling blood, “This wasn’t supposed to happen, AJ. How could we, I, let this happen?”

“Weren’t any of us, Twi,” Applejack responded. “It’s Thorn an’ Lyra. Speakin’ o’ which,” she walked around Twilight and looked her in the eyes, “Where is she?”

“She, she teleported away,” Twilight answered her. Applejack said nothing, but Twilight looked down in shame. “I wasn’t able to stop Thorn from yanking her out. She got away with Rarity’s Element.” Applejack said nothing, but the breath hissed from between her teeth. Twilight quickly added, “It should be okay. Thorn can’t use it against us.”

“An’ we can’t use it or ours against him,” Applejack said, sounding just a little more tired than a moment before. She looked over to the side and added, her voice thickened with hurt, “Not that we coulda anyhow.”

Twilight’s gaze followed her. She felt her heart freeze as she heard Spike crying. The little dragon rocked back and forth, cradling Rarity’s head in his arms. He looked more battered than Twilight could ever remember, steaming blood trickling from several cuts and bites. Captain Bastion lay beside Rarity. Thankfully somepony had set a blanket across him, covering his face. John stood nearby, looking over the wreckage in the square like someone who’d seen this all before.

Spike looked at Twilight. For a moment his face brightened. Then the grief came back onto it as he turned back to Rarity. Twilight walked up to her. John went with her, and the rest of her friends gathered around. Twilight looked at them. Applejack held her hat in her hooves. Pinkie looked stunned. Fluttershy went to comfort Spike, tears filling her own eyes. Anger and grief chased their tails across Rainbow Dash’s face. Then she looked at John, and the anger drove the grief away.

“You!” she spat at him, “You were supposed to make stuff like this not happen! We trusted you, and ponies died because of it. Rarity died because of it! What good are you?” Twilight saw John’s hands double into fists at the accusation like he wanted to strike her. Instead he looked past Dash at Rarity. His eyes narrowed. He walked past Dash and knelt down by Rarity. She started after him, her eyes blazing. “You think you can just walk away from me? LISTEN UP, YOU BUCKING HAIRLESS MONKEY –”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy flew up in front of her, looking angry herself. Dash dropped to the ground, looking surprised, as Fluttershy said, “This isn’t John’s fault! We brought him here! He warned us all how dangerous Thorn can be. We’ve got no right to be angry with him because Thorn,” her voice choked and she pointed at Rarity, “Because of what happened. We just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Dash snorted, her ears flat and eyes burning. Pinkie and Applejack came up on either side of her and began talking to her quietly. Dash looked like she wanted to weep. Instead, she gave a fierce glare off towards the Everfree. Her wings flared and beat and she rose up off the ground like she wanted to fly there and fight it out with Thorn right then.

“Dash, no!” Twilight grabbed her with her telekinesis. She returned Dash’s glare with one equally fierce. “Listen, more than ever, we need a plan! If we go rushing off then Thorn will just do to us what he did to Rarity, and…”

“And I crave your pardon,” John said from here he knelt, and he sounded very happy indeed, “but Rarity’s not dead.”

* * *

“Rarity’s not dead,” It felt right good to say those words, maybe better than I thought it would feel given that I’d only known these ponies one day and most of another.

It’d been a scary few minutes there after Twilight chased Lyra out of the square. I’d nair thought she could do what she did, when she glowed like a falling star and hurled that timber wolf into the statue hard enough to shatter both. I near about ran after her before I looked and saw Fluttershy a-lying there stunned. I didn’t see any way I could get across the square as Twilight went running after Lyra, so I stood by Fluttershy and tried to protect her as best I could. Though after what she’d done, I wondered if maybe she wouldn’t be the one protecting me.

As for what else I saw, it was too much like what I’d seen in the Army in wartimes. The ponies might not have looked much like human people, but they screamed and ran and bled and died just like any man of woman born. I saw the one timber wolf leap on little Spike before they both went a-rolling over, the timber wolf snarling and Spike yelling words none of us would want written for our last. I wanted to go and try to help, but Applejack lassoed it by the neck and yanked it back from him. It snapped and snarled those thorny teeth together. Dash dropped on its head like a hammer, hooves first, just as Spike breathed his fire into it. It caught and screamed once like any dying dog before Dash broke its skull in. It went down and stayed there. Dash and Applejack raced off to find another of the timber wolves. And Spike just raced to Rarity’s side, where he held her head up and wept.

Past that I caught sight of one of the other timber wolves, backing away from several of those armored Guardsponies. They’d dart in on the one side, rearing up to lash out with steel-clad hooves and what looked like ax-blades set along their fetlocks like a rooster’s spurs, and when it turned on them they’d fall back and the ones on the other side would rush in at it. Once, twice, one of those brave ponies got hurled away with a scream and in a flurry of blood and feathers. Where they fell, they didn’t move again. I saw the two unicorn guards nearby, with things like spears made of light forming out of their horns. One of the local ponies ran past the timber wolf, a-trying to get away. It snarled and leapt on him. He screamed the once and then he hung from its jaws by his neck. It shook its head back and forth like a dog trying to kill a rat. The pony screamed and sobbed. I snatched up a rock and hurled it, hitting it on the ear. It hurled him away, yanked its head around and growled at me. Near as soon as it did, those spears of light shot from those unicorns’ horns right through it like bazooka rockets into a tank, wood chips flying everywhere. It howled once and then the Guardsponies swarmed all over it. Their plunging hooves and sharpened spurs rose and fell like they were stomping out a fire. It went down, but they trampled a little more before they stopped.

And when they did, I realized the fight was over. I saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash going from one timber wolf to another, making sure they were dead. No more sounds but sobbing and ponies begging for help. I went to try and do whatair I could. If you’d been there I reckon you’d have done the same.

“No, John!” Fluttershy came up by me and set herself between me and the rest of the square. I made to protest but she put her hoof on my chest and made me stand still, saying, “You were hit by that spell that,” she choked, “That killed Rarity and Bastion. Just, just sit down for a few moments. You won’t do anypony any good if you hurt yourself worse.” She spoke the truth, though right then I didn’t want to hear such a thing.

Past her I saw three-four ponies with cutie marks like red crosses come racing into the square. They set to helping the ponies they found. By one or two ponies I saw them look at the one leading them, a white mare with a pink mane and tail. She looked at them and shook her head no, and they went to other ponies. It made me feel a little cold to see it. I saw how Fluttershy watched, and wondered if I ought to say to her what it meant.

“Those are the ones nopony can help,” she said, her voice soft and sorrowing. One of them lay flat and still, which was a mercy. The other looked around, his eyes wide with fear, like he asked for someone to come be by him. Fluttershy started to go to him. She stopped and looked at me like she pleaded for permission. I just gave her a little shove. She settled over down by him and talked to him soft and gentle.

I shuddered to look around that square, and no mistake. It looked a ruin, like air town or village I’d seen in my Army days after the fighting ended and naught remained but broken bodies and folks weeping and wondering why this had ever happened to them. I looked at Rarity where she lay like she slept and wondered myself how I’d tell her little sister what had befallen. I’ve told folks a few times afore that ones they loved were gone to the place no one air returns from. Each time I did I nair wanted to do it again.

And yet I wondered myself as I watched and saw her bleeding from her mouth and nose and a cut on her leg. That meant something, but right then I was too foolish from being afeared and from that spell to think rightly what.

Right about then Twilight came back into the square. She stopped by Applejack and they spoke. Then they both headed for me where I stood, and where Rarity lay. Fluttershy came away from the pony she’d been speaking to. I saw some blood on her side from where she’d laid by him, and tears on her cheeks. He lay still and quiet behind her. Pinkie Pie followed, her mane looking like it lay near flat. We all stood there. None of us spoke for a second.

And then Dash flew at me. She looked like she wanted to either cry or hit someone or both. She said things I like to think she didn’t mean right then, and I worked right hard to stay calm my own self. Fluttershy flew to her and talked to her right sharp, a-telling her not to go blaming me for what happened. And while they did, I went to Rarity to see about that thing I’d wondered.

Spike didn’t notice as I knelt down by her. He looked too lost in his own grief. I saw how she still bled just a little. That wondered me, and I remembered. Dead people and ponies don’t bleed.

“I crave your pardon,” I said to all her friends, feeling happier than I’d been to say it, “But Rarity’s not dead.” They just turned and stared at me. I set my hand on her neck and held it there. You could feel the life in her, slow and gentle.

“John, what?” Fluttershy came up, and then she looked at the little trickle of blood. Her eyes went wide and I knew she understood what it meant. “Girls! Spike! John’s right! Rarity is alive!”

Spike looked up at me, sudden and hopeful. Twilight and the rest rushed over. They all took turns checking Rarity’s pulse and saw that she lived, she’d just been knocked cold. They all joined me in slapping her cheeks and rubbing along her legs, trying to wake her up. Right soon she groaned in an elegant kind of way and stirred.

“Ohh, my head,” she moaned, rubbing one hoof against her head by her horn. She looked up at us all. “Girls, what happened? Why are you all staring at me like that?” She might could have said more but I didn’t hear it, because right then Spike whooped and hugged her. Twilight and the others weren’t far behind, and they all wept and embraced each other. I took a step back. Right then it didn’t feel like I should be there. But Rarity said, “Girls, please! I have to ask John something.” They stepped back from her, smiling more than I ever thought airy soul could smile. Rarity got up from the street, wincing. She said to me, “What did you say, right before that spell hit? And why am I lying in this dirty street? My tail and mane are a mess!” Only then did she look around, and she gave a gasp.

“It was another one of those spells from The Long-Lost Friend,” I told her. “I said it as quick as I could when I saw what Lyra meant to do, and it looks like it helped.” I looked over to where Bastion lay. Some of his pegasi picked him up and were bearing him back into his pavilion. The ladies and Spike looked at him and went somber again. Past them, I saw the two Guard unicorns use their magic to help carry hurting ponies off. I said, “It helped some, just nowhere near enough.”

“I’m still alive, which I’m happy for,” Rarity said to me. She smiled, and if it looked weak, it still brought some heart back into me. “And John, I’m afraid that what happened would have happened under any circumstances. Something tells me that Lyra would have turned those timber wolves on us in any event.” She shook her head, slow and sad. “I simply cannot believe it. Lyra, of all ponies. How could she do this?”

“Don’t be too hard on her,” Twilight said, sounding tired herself. “When I had her cornered, she told me that Thorne is using Bon Bon to force her to obey. And that she didn’t know what that spell would do. Thorne lied and told her it was meant to teleport some of us off to him rather than a killing spell.”

“That sounds kindly like the sort of low-down thing he’d do,” I added. Twilight nodded me.

“Yeah,” she said, “And then Thorne snatched her away with his magic. Girls, John, I’m so sorry, but Thorne,” she choked and brought herself back under control, “Thorne has your Element, Rarity!”

Her friends stared, all but Rarity, and I reckon I did too. I didn’t know all about the powers of their Elements, but I knew they needed them all to stop Thorne. I wondered what we might could do next.

And then Rarity just laughed, soft and clear.

“Oh dear,” she said, shaking her head. “Twilight, are you quite certain that Thorne snatched Lyra away with those saddlebags of mine?”

“I was there, Rarity. I saw him do it!”

Rarity looked around at us all and smiled.

“I hope the poor dear doesn’t get in too much trouble,” she said. “You see, my Element is safe back at Carousel Boutique. I had my sister’s new capes in my saddlebags! I so wanted to work on them for her. That and,” she gave Spike a sad look. “Spike, darling, I was going to do something special for you with that fire ruby you gave me a few months back. But now it’s gone. I so hope you can forgive me.”

* * *

A few hours later, things finally started to settle down in Ponyville Emergency Care. Twilight sighed and sank down on her haunches in the small examination room room given to her and her friends. Most of the rest of the small hospital was filled with the wounded from the attack. Thankfully, most would not only live but be perfectly fine in a day or so. The few more seriously injured were being seen to and it looked like they would recover, according to what Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie told her.

All save, of course, the two townsponies and three Royal Guards in the morgue. Twilight shivered at the memory. Ponies had been killed in Ponyville. And it could happen again.

The least injured of all her friends, including Spike and John, immediately volunteered to assist Nurse Redheart and the rest of the staff upon arrival at the hospital. First, however, Fluttershy insisted on checking out John, Spike, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and herself. The nurses didn’t fuss much with Fluttershy’s decision. They seemed frightened of John, and gladly gave him room. Fortunately their injuries turned out to be minor, with Spike the worst hurt, and even he was ambulatory. Thinking of that, Twilight removed the ice bag from her head with only a slight wince and looked at her assistant.

“Hey, Twi,” Spike said. He sounded more tired than hurt, in spite of the bandages covering his injuries. Rarity sat next to him where she’d fussed over ‘her Spikey-wikey’ for the past hour or so. Her Element showed at her neck. Rainbow Dash had flown to her shop and fetched it back, informing them that Rarity’s parents were there. They’d heard the commotion – though thankfully not about Rarity’s near-death – and announced they were staying there with the Cutie Mark Crusaders until Rarity returned home. Spike must have noticed her concern, for he puffed up his chest and said, “I feel a lot better than I look right now.”

“You’d better,” Twilight said to him. “We’re going to have one hay of a letter to send Princess Celestia after this.” He groaned audibly, and she smiled. “We can wait a bit, though.” Spike smiled and sat back against Rarity. She looked much better herself, as did John. The effects of Lyra’s attempted death-spell seemed to wear off swiftly.

“We can’t wait any too long, Twi,” Applejack said from where she sat herself. Dash hovered nearby, calmer than before but still looking much like a lightning bolt getting ready to strike. AJ added, “I don’t want Thorn to try an’ get any more bright ideas. He did enough damage already for one day.”

“Ahh, we kicked his flank but good,” Dash said. She puffed herself up and threw her mane back with one hoof. “Right now he’s probably giving Lyra a hard time for snatching those capes and that ruby.”

“I purely hope so,” John said where he sat on the floor, his guitar across his lap. His injuries were minor, and when his offer to help the doctors and nurses was politely if fearfully turned down, he’d gone back to his guitar, checking it over and making sure it was still in one piece. Occasionally he’d played something quiet on it, no words, just music, but when he did Twilight and her friends made sure to listen. None of them were songs he’d played in her hearing before. She wondered how many of those mountain songs he knew and how many more he didn’t know.

“I purely hope so,” John repeated himself, “Because this was bad enough, and you pardon my saying it. We know about those timber wolves now, and the things from Sunny Town. What all else is there in the Everfree Forest that Thorn might could send at this town or us?”

“Ahhh, nothing much,” Pinkie said. She’d been on her hooves most of the day, and had been dashing in and out of the room to assist the nurses and other ponies, but she still seemed full of energy. “Normal stuff, mostly. One or two dragons, that hydra in Froggy Bottom, parasprites once in a while, manticores, the Ursas, some cockatrices...” Pinkie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Oh, and Steve Magnet, but he’s okay.”

“That all is normal?” John blinked at what she’d said. “Wait, what about this friend Steve of yours? Any chance Thorn might try something with him?”

“Not really,” Twilight giggled at the idea. “Not unless he wants a fight with a river serpent who can control all the water in his river. That might be a bit much, even for Thorn.”

“A river serpent?” By the look on his face, John must have felt foolish to be repeating Twilight’s words to her. Rarity answered in her stead.

“Oh yes, and he’s such a dear. When we first met I cut off a piece of my tail for him when Nightmare Moon tried to use him against us. He visits sometimes along the river here in town, but not too often. He frightens ponies for some reason.” Twilight thought John looked like he wanted to say something to that, but he must have realized what it would sound like coming from him. Instead, he just asked another question.

“Is there airy other friend of yours in there, we might need to worry about?”

“Only Zecora,” Twilight said, “But she knows the forest pretty well. She should be safe.” Then, feeling curious, she asked him, “John, you seem surprised at what we’ve got in the Everfree. What kind of monsters do they have in your mountains?”

“Well, there’s…” He began, and then stopped. Twilight turned to the door of the room. She could hear voices outside, angry ones. Nurse Redheart was one of them. She sounded short and angry with whoever spoke to her.

“I will not have you barging into my hospital, bothering my patients, and I don’t care who you are! Now you just turn around and leave now!”

“We’ll leave,” an angry voice answered her, and she recognized it as Filthy Rich’s, “after we’ve had our say. Twilight and her friends and that, that thing have no right to allow their private problems to get ponies killed!”

Twilight looked at her friends. They were all standing now. Rainbow Dash, to her surprise, hovered between John and the door. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

Outside, she saw who she’d expected to see. Nurse Redheart stood defiantly between the door and the ponies facing her, most of them Ponyville’s more well-to-do citizens. Mayor Ivory Scroll stood there, looking decidedly unhappy. Next to her Filthy Rich stood with a bandage on one foreleg and his ears down as he glared at her. A silvery grey earth pony stood behind him. Twilight remembered him as the father of Silver Spoon, a nasty filly she’d heard about from Apple Bloom once or twice. Behind them, one or two other ponies she knew nothing of aside from their being business owners in town. Most of them looked more frightened than angry. Nurse Redheart looked over her shoulder when the door opened.

“Oh, Miss Sparkle! There’s nothing wrong here, you can rest and…”

“No, she can’t,” Filthy Rich said as he pushed past Redheart to glare into Twilight’s face. His friends seemed content to stand back and let him appoint himself their representative. “Young mare, we need to talk, right now, about the trouble you and your friends and,” he jerked his head at John, “That, are bringing into our town.”

“Thorn sent Lyra here,” Twilight said to him calmly, remembering what she’d read about conflict resolving. It helped keep her mind off of things like thinking how much she’d like to telekinetically toss Filthy through the nearest window. “We didn’t bring her or those timber wolves here. Thorn sent that trouble here. And he,” she nodded at John, “Has a name, and it’s John.”

“Well then, you and John,” Filthy laid a venomous emphasis on his name, “Need to listen to what we’ve decided about how to deal with Thorn.” He swept one hoof back to take in the Mayor and the other ponies with them. Mayor Ivory Scroll at least was decent enough to look Twilight in the face. The others seemed either too embarrassed or too frightened to do even that much. Filthy added, “Somepony has to do something, after all. You and your friends haven’t stopped him.”

“We’re working on it,” she said, knowing how weak it sounded. Filthy snorted at her words.

“There’s no further need for that,” he said, a little more calmly. Twilight worried that she knew what he intended to say next. “It’s simple. Thorn wants his spellbook back. Go and give it to him.”

“Are you crazy?” Rainbow Dash almost shouted it out before saying in a lower but still loud voice, “That thing nearly drove Twilight nuts, and from what her and John said, it’d only be worse if he got it back!” Filthy gave her a cold look. Dash began to ruffle up, looking ready to fight before AJ got a grip on her tail and pulled her back down.

“Yes,” Filthy said to her, pointing at John, “He said that. Do you know if it’s true?” He looked ready to say more but right then John stepped up to stand before him, towering over the stallion. Applejack stayed by him, looking as though she expected she’d have to hold him back next. The other ponies with Filthy stepped back, but he held his ground, though he flattened his ears in his fear.

“I hope you didn’t call me a liar there, friend,” John said to Filthy. “I nair lied with airy thing I said to Twilight or any pony here about either Thorn or his spellbook. I know about the Letters of Cold Fire from what I heard from people back in my own place who fought it and the people who made it. It’s the worst kind of bad thing, and if Thorn gets it back, he’ll do worse than he’s already done to this town and air pony in it.” He bent over Filthy Rich and added in a cooler tone, “And if you say you think that either me or my friends here are liars either one, then I’ll be asking you outside and see if I can’t teach you some better manners. I don’t lie and I don’t appreciate being called a liar, by either a man or a pony.”

Filthy took a step back, his tail swishing. Judging by the look Twilight saw on the Mayor’s face, she didn’t look like she’d be sorry to see Filthy get his flank bucked. But she still stepped up to speak.

“No one here is calling you a liar, Mister John. But this is the first time in decades that monsters from the Everfree have come right into the town, and it’s been longer since we had any kind of violence like this here!” Her words sounded as heartfelt as Filthy’s, if a touch less arrogant. “Thorn’s shown us all how powerful and fearless he is…”

“No he hasn’t,” John answered her, “and I beg your pardon for interrupting, ma’am. Thorn’s shown nothing but that he’s a scared out coward. Airy soul can hide and shoot people dead when they don’t even know what he’s about. And he’s not powerful. He’s lost every fight he’s made against you ponies, even before I showed up here.”

“How do ya figger that?” Applejack asked, curious, and Twilight had to agree with her.

“She’s right, John. Thorn’s done pretty well so far…” She broke off as John shook his head at her.

“No he hasn’t, and I’ll tell you how,” he said, holding up fingers and ticking points off on them. “The first night he came here, he hoped to scare all you ponies into falling down and doing whatair he said, and he tried to make Twilight set Discord free again.” Twilight heard a sudden intake of breath from Filthy and the Mayor and the rest. She realized that she should have told John not to mention some things. He went on, saying, “He failed at the both of them. Only the one of you went over to him, and from what Twilight said she’s wanting to get away from him right now. And she didn’t free Discord. The next was when I came through from my own home place and met Apple Bloom in the Everfree. Thorn tried to set something of his on her and kill her for whatair reason, but she and I stopped it. Then he sent Lyra into the library and tried a-using her to get his spellbook back, and that didn’t work.” Twilight found herself nodding, and she saw several of the ponies with the Mayor were also doing so and looking a little more hopeful. Spike groaned behind her.

“Twi? I feel kind of weird.”

“Not right now, Spike,” she shushed him as she listened to John.

“And now, today, he sent Lyra and those monsters into Ponyville. He tried to kill some of the Element-bearers here, and he tried to kill me, but he did nair such thing. He didn’t even snatch Rarity’s Element from her like he wanted.” Rarity preened and showed it off where it hung around her neck. John looked at Twilight and then at the Mayor. “He wants air soul to think he’s stronger than everyone, but right now he’s losing every fight he gets in. And air fight he loses makes him the weaker, and us the stronger.”

“Well then, should we just wait for him to make more attacks on Ponyville so you can beat him again?” Filthy asked sarcastically. John shook his head at him.

“No, because we’ll be finding him after we leave here,” Twilight wondered how, but she didn’t say it, “And then Twilight and her friends will use their Elements on him. And after that, he’ll be put past any troublemaking, here or air other place, ever again.” Filthy and the others looked at him, and then at Twilight and her friends. They seemed far less sure now than a moment before. With a sigh Filthy turned and trotted out the door, followed by the others. The Mayor lingered long enough to give Twilight a hopeful smile before she also left. Nurse Redheart followed them, and Twilight closed the door.

“That sounded mighty good there, John,” Applejack said as the door shut, and Rainbow Dash added, “Yeah, we’ve been kicking Thorn’s flank for him! Maybe we should just let him try an’ attack again, and then beat him when he comes at us?”

“That’d be a bad idea,” John said, shaking his head at her. “Someone wants to fight you, they’ll come at you whatair way they please and then you have to face them when and where and how they want to face you. We want to be picking out our own place and time, and make Thorn fight us there. Someone wants to box you, wrestle him, and if he wants to wrestle you, box him.” Twilight didn’t quite get the metaphor. To her surprise, Pinkie spoke up.

“Yeah, it’s like a really great game of checkers or tic-tac-toe, you can’t win unless you start making your own moves. Like this one time I played Rarity, and I won best fifty-four of eighty-one, and then she went first and I started to lose for the first time since ever, and…”A bandage surrounded by the glow of Rarity’s magic went around her muzzle.

“Ahh, I think we understand, dear,” Rarity said hurriedly. Ignoring Pinkie’s glare, she said, “Twilight, dear, if Thorn is in the Everfree somewhere, then we need to ask Zecora for help in finding him.”

“You’re right, Rarity,” Twilight said. She turned to the door and began opening it. She heard her friends getting up behind her. “We’d better get going if we want to get to Zecora’s before nightfall, and...” She broke off at a groan from Spike.

She turned to look directly at hm. “You okay?”

“Maybe not,” Spike answered her. He was scratching at himself like he itched everywhere at once. “I feel weird, Twi. Like something’s tugging on me, and—“

He vanished, and something dropped to the floor where he’d been standing. John exclaimed something that didn’t sound like a blessing. Dash added something that definitely wasn’t one. Rarity gave a gasp and picked up the object on the floor with her magic.

They all gathered around to look at it. Twilight brought it closer to her eyes with her own magic. It looked like a crude little doll of Spike, made from purple and green cloth, and with a long steel needle thrust through the chest.

“It’s a poppet.”

“John, what…?” Twilight said. She looked at him and wondered how he could look as grey as she felt.

“It’s something used in witch magic,” he said, his voice low. “You make an image kindly like someone, and if you have something of theirs to use, either some hair or blood from them or something they wore, you can use it to either kill or tole the person it’s made to resemble to you from whereair they are.”

“And the needle?” Rarity asked, her voice shaky.

John just looked at her. “Miss Rarity,” he said, “I kindly doubt you need me to tell you what that means, or what Thorn’s a-threatening to do by sending it here after taking Spike.”

“But, no,” Twilight said, unwilling to say it out loud but feeling forced to. She felt her blood running cold. “Spike’s not much more than a hatchling. Thorn wouldn’t…” And then a new and horrifying thought struck her. She looked at Rarity. “Rarity, he must have used the fire ruby, you had it in your saddlebags.”

“What? No!” the elegant unicorn said in return as she looked at Twilight. “Twilight, darling, I’m so sorry, I’ll go and bring Spike back myself, I swear.”

“No, no,” Twilight said, the words rushing out of her, “That’s not it. Rarity, what else did you have in your saddlebags?”

“The ruined Cutie Mark Crusader capes Sweetie Belle made for Apple Bloom and Scootaloo and herself –“ Rarity got no further. Her eyes widened, then shrank down to pinpricks.

“Sweetie Belle,” she moaned out. Before any of them could stop her she galloped out of the room so fast she seemed to almost teleport. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were hot on her hooves behind her.

“Girls, wait!” They ignored Twilight as they raced out of the hospital, leaving yelling ponies in their wake. Twilight pounded after them, John racing along nearby on his long legs. She could hear Pinkie and Fluttershy behind her, racing to keep up. Twilight saw Rarity galloping as fast as she’d ever seen her run, her long tail hanging out straight behind her as she raced for Carousel Boutique. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were the two best athletes in Ponyville and they only barely seemed to be pacing her as she charged through the town and over the bridge and railroad tracks to the front door of her Boutique. AJ and Dash followed her in. A moment later Twilight and John reached the doors.

Don’t let it be true, Twilight thought as she headed for the stairs. She dimly caught sight of Rarity’s parents off to the side, ignored their cries for an explanation as she pounded up the stairs. Not after everything else, please no please no…

And then she heard the panic-stricken neighing of ponies coming from Sweetie Belle’s room.

She ran down the hallway and entered it, dreading what she expected to find. The breath sobbed from her lungs. John stuck close behind her, and she heard him breathing hard.

Rarity sobbed as she lay beside the bed. Dash and AJ held her, tears flowing down their own faces. Twilight stepped past them to the pillow and what lay there. She barely heard more hooves pounding up the stairs or John when he spoke to her from the door.

“He’s got them, hasn’t he?”

“Yes,” Twilight said dully. She lifted the three poppets, of a pale yellow earth pony with a bow in her red mane, a purple-maned and tailed orange Pegasus with small wings, and a little white unicorn with a cotton-candy mane. She showed them to John, the steel needles driven through them. By now Fluttershy and Pinkie had caught up, and she heard them gasp. “He’s got them, and he left something for us.”

“Well, whatever is it?”

Twilight silently showed it to him, just as Rarity’s mother screamed behind her. It was a piece of parchment, tightly rolled and tied in a ribbon. It looked almost mockingly like her friendship reports to Celestia, save for the writing on it in symbols she couldn’t read. She didn’t need to be able to read them. She knew what they meant.

PLEASE GIVE THIS TO MY FELLOW HUMAN, SILVER JOHN