A Rabbit Hearted Mare

by MissytheAngle

Chapter Nine: Taking the Reins

Chapter Nine

Taking the Reins

The rain continued to fall. The fog lingered in the air. Hope was thinning.

She walked to the edge of the piece of land, looking down at the crashing waves below. Far far below. Stepping away, she looked over at the other side. The rope dangled pathetically, with the wind blowing it in the breeze. With the gap too wide, she had no chances of jumping over it.

Roseluck’s eyes wandered behind her, over her shoulder towards the forest. It was dark, and a creature howled from somewhere inside. Even if she could reach home without any injuries, she feared that Soothing Tunes would retreat, taking all the ponies away from his hiding spot. Or even worse, hurt other ponies simply because she couldn’t figure this out herself. She could not let any of that happen.

He needs me.

She took a long breath, shuddering from both the cold air and the pressure building in her shoulders.

They need me. Daisy, Lily, Muffins…The list went on, and it wouldn’t end unless she did something.

Roseluck ran along the edge. Somewhere, she had to come across another way to the other side. A connection of earth to the two sides, a fallen tree, anything. Even if she had to run for miles, she would find a way.

A bat dove from the trees and blurred past her. She waved it away with a screech before hurrying her pace.

She needed to find a way, and fast!

The rain had soaked her head to hoof. The ground was no better. Dirt coated her hooves and even other parts of her coat. The thought of a warm bath welcoming her home upon return made her run faster.

More noises reverberated from the forest, and she prayed to Celestia that they were not near. With no one to help her, she only had her hooves to aid her escape. And just the walk along the path proved to be tiring.

A peak of earth erected from the side. It was a slope that, at the very center, created very little distance between the two sides of land. Roseluck approached it with caution, stepping easily in fear of touching weak ground. When it did not break, she stood at the edge.

Reaching out was not an option. It was too far and too risky to try and attempt. She needed to jump to get to her friends, despite it being also somewhat dangerous. She forced herself to look away from the wild water below.

With a heavy gulp, she shut her eyes. Then opening her eyes again, she backed several feet back. With a quick kick against the dirt, and a burst of newfound courage, she trotted ahead and leaped at the last inch of earth underneath her hooves. She reached out her hooves to the other side as she soared through midair.

Rocks crumbled to the water, but her hooves gripped the edge with all her might. They quivered, but she held on. And perhaps it was her earth pony strength, but she pulled herself back up. Her whole body met the ground, and she sighed.

Her breathing became heavy for a moment, and she inched away from the drop to recover. Adrenaline had run its course fast, though she begged it would stay around for the rest of the night. It’d be really helpful right now.

With a sigh, she marched back toward the cave. Roseluck peered up as the sky gradually began to clear. Clouds parted to reveal a shining moon and stars that glittered like bright diamonds. She blinked a little, but then smiled at the painted sky.

It’s so late.

She yawned. Though tired, she knew she was far from done, and headed back toward the cave.

***

When she arrived, the vines covered the cave again. With a grunt of annoyance, she brushed them aside.

Arriving through the narrow hallway, she stepped quietly toward the room. Her heart pounded at the thought of facing Soothing Tunes alone. Even as an earth pony, she didn’t have much strength in terms of fighting, and she didn’t have the advantage of magic. Despite all of this, she had no choice but to face whatever awaited her at the end of the hallway.

Roseluck peeked around the corner, her eyes scanning around the area. On a seat perched by the opening, she saw Soothing Tune. She was tempted to step away at the sight, but then she caught another thing: his eyes were shut. With his slower breathing, and the way his body slacked against the chair, she visibly relaxed.

Sleeping. Sleeping! She would’ve sighed, maybe even teared up with relief. She pushed it away, however, and walked toward the room with great caution. Her hooves made scarcely any sound as she rounded the corner and stepping inside the large room.

Her heart sank when she found him. The Doctor was tied by strong ropes in a chair beside Soothing Tune. Even his mouth was tied by a small cloth, although his eyes could be seen, those eyes that had morphed into a darker shade. When his gaze met hers, though, they widened.

She smiled. “It’s okay,” she mouthed.

The Doctor’s eyes lightened.

Roseluck looked around, then back at him. “Where is it?” she whispered into his ear.

His eyes shifted over to the cloth that was the stallion’s cloak littered on the floor. A small lump hid underneath the dark cloth, and she nodded at the Doctor before trotting over to the cloth, tensing at the lack of distance between herself and Soothing Tune. His snoring was plenty loud in her ears. She lifted the cloth to reveal the flute resting underneath, shining silver once it hit the pale lights of the torches.

Once she pulled the cloak to the side, she took the flute and stared at it. What could she do? Now that she had it, what was the next part?

Then something took her around the foreleg, the one not holding the flute. Her whole body froze for a second before she peered up. Soothing Tunes glared at her, shock apparent in his eyes. His eyebrows narrowed.

“Give that back!” the stallion yelled, his horn bursting alight with a yellow aura.

Roseluck yelped and did the first thing that came to mind; with a swift rise of her hoof, she smacked him across the face with his flute.

Soothing Tune recoiled back in pain and more shock, blinking before realizing Roseluck was kneeling on the ground. Roseluck clutched the flute in her grasp, tightening her grip as his glare tightened. His nostrils flared.

The Doctor yelled something she could not decipher due to the cloth. However, she did what she was certain he had said, or something along the lines:

Run.

She ran out of the cave, bringing the flute into her mouth. Magic shot the walls, bringing rocks and debris raining down. With a cry, she dove into the narrow hallway.

Behind her, she could hear magic shooting toward her. She ducked and moved as best as she could. The grass burned before the magic dissipated. And once she retreated into the trees, it shot one of them, leaving it a shriveling old form. The mare kept running.

Her hooves didn’t stop until they tired themselves out. Exhaustion washed over her, and her lack of sleep began catching up on her. She leaned against a tree and had to catch her breath again. Escaping was no longer an option. Glancing around, she saw no sign of him.

The flute rested in her hooves now. Her eyes lingered over it, trying to see if there was any sign of a way to break the spell on her friends. Yet nothing. It was nothing but a silver flute. There were surely magical qualities embedded somewhere within it, but to her, it looked normal.

What do I do what do I do what do...?

Hoofsteps. She concealed herself behind the tree, her heart pounding hard against her chest. Eyes squeezed shut, she heard hoofsteps walking around her.

“Where are you?” Soothing Tune asked somewhere. His voice was low, but she heard each word loud and clear. More hoofsteps, and he called again. “Get out here!”

Biting her lip was all she could do to keep herself from so much as breathing too loud. She waited with great patience for his steps to quiet down. Eventually, he had to lose track of her. That, she felt certain of. Or at least, she wanted to.

A minute passed by, and she could no longer hear him too well. His last yell for her came too far north, and she shuddered a breath and collapsed onto the grass. Her body shook, but looking into her hooves, she knew there was more to be done.

She needed to get rid of this thing. It was nothing but trouble. But what defeated strange magic like this? Roseluck poured through her head of any sort of situation like this, some way she could end and destroy the trouble it caused…

Once the sparks hit, Roseluck stared at the flute one more time, before deciding on something. With nothing else to go on, she looked around. A large rock caught her eye, and she pleaded inside her head for this to work.

With a heavy groan, she rose the rock into the air before thrashing it against the flute. A tiny crack could be heard, and she looked down with a groan. It had thin cracks, but did not break in its entirety. She did it again, with the volume of impact growing. Worse, the hoofsteps stopped, almost like her heart did at the pure silence.

“What’re you doing?!” he yelled.

Grunting, she picked up the rock again, sweat pouring down her face. Her muscles ached, but she begged them to not give in. Not yet. She smacked it again. The cracks grew, but it needed more than two impacts of a rock to break it. Worth a lot of bits. I guess it was worth it, she thought grimly as she threw it down again.

Through trees, and in the corner of her eyes, a shadow of a lanky stallion appeared. His eyes grew.

“Get over here!”

She screamed, while bringing the rock down onto the flute one more time. It’s cracks deepened. Panic surged through her like electricity at the stallion’s outburst, and she rose onto her hind hooves. Mustering the remaining strength in her legs, she brought one hind leg down onto where the cracks crawled on the flute.

Craackkk.

Soothing Tune burst through the trees, and his screaming echoed in her ear, as did the sound of the snapped flute. In between the two halved pieces, wisps of red magic slipped from the holes. It exploded in the air before her, leaving nothing in its wake. There was pure silence for a moment, and Roseluck felt her body slack onto the ground. The bottom of her hoof ached, but it was the least of her worries.

When he turned back at her, dark yellow eyes dug into her heart. She tried to stand up, but Soothing Tune leaped at her. He pushed her onto the ground, her body pressed against the grass and dirt. Her head spun from the impact for a few short moments.

Despite his lanky appearance, his hooves pinned her down with great strength. She could only struggle in his hold.

She winced, feeling his grip tighten around her fore fetlocks. Looking up, all she saw was angry, golden-brown eyes.

“I wasn’t going to actually hurt them, ya know,” he whispered, inches from her face. He rolled his eyes. “They weren’t anything to me. They were just pieces for getting the money. Like pawns on a chessboard, you know?” He stared back at her, as if expecting her to answer.

Roseluck tried to speak, but couldn’t.

His face hardened. “But you ruined that. You, and that Doctor.”

She hated herself for crying now. “Y-you’re getting in so much trouble for nothing,” she whimpered through her tears, to which the stallion simply groaned. “You wanted money and didn’t get it, and now you’re risking ponies’ lives just ‘cause of it! It’s… stupid!” she spat.

“I’m not here for criticism! They were never going to be harmed. I wasn’t planning on that, remember?” He frowned at her, and his voice lowered. “Then you and that Doctor had to screw up everything! So I guess that’s out of the question!” His hoof rose into the air.

Roseluck let out a forceful cry with shuddering breath. Her eyes shut.

When she heard a smack, she cringed, as if she expected the sound to land against her head. Instead, she heard a body fall to the ground, the hooves around her losing its grip. Opening her eyes, she saw Soothing Tunes shaking his head. Roseluck pushed herself away from him, until she looked up and saw Muffins flying a few inches from the air.

Muffins looked down at the dazed Soothing Tunes, her eyebrows knitted downward. Roseluck wrapped her hooves around herself.

“I… he-he tried to hurt you. Did…” Muffin’s face softened, her eyes large and filled with concern. She flew over to Roseluck and took the earth pony’s hooves in hers. “Did he hurt you?”

Roseluck gulped. “No, you came just in time.”

Muffins looked her over and pulled her into a hug, squeezing her body against hers. “You’re still shaking. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Roseluck gave out a relieved laugh and rubbed the tears from her face. “I will be when I know everypony’s okay.”

Smiling, the pegasus pulled away from the hug. “Yeah! You saved us, Roseluck. But,” she added, shooting a look at Soothing Tunes, who was brushing his bruised cheek, “we still need to deal with him.”

Soothing Tunes at last rose to his hooves, rubbing his face where Muffin smacked him. Then his horn glowed.

Roseluck reached out for Muffins and tore her away from a beam of magic directed at them. Muffins yelped as they landed onto the ground. The beam did not even touch them, though they heard a shot explode somewhere deeper in the forest. Muffins turned around, as did Roseluck, and Soothing Tunes was trotting towards them. They flinched at his burning gaze.

When he looked up and over them, however, he stopped.

“You tryin’ to hurt Rose and Muffins? Get out of here!”

“You’ll have to take us before you get near them!”

Before she could blink, Lily Valley and Daisy approached her, standing in front of her. They turned toward the stallion, and Roseluck looked between her friends to see Soothing Tune’s ears peel back.

“I mean, you did take us.” Lily blushed and tilted her head. Then she narrowed her eyes again. “But now we’re back!”

“And you’re sooo not touching our Rosie,” Daisy said. “Especially since she saved our flanks.”

Tears stung Roseluck’s eyes as a large smile grew on her face. Soothing’s hardened expression cracked. He began to open his mouth, but instead of responding, he pushed the pony closest to him, Lily, aside and into the three mares. Muffins squealed, and Daisy caught her friend before she fell to the ground. Roseluck stood up, and Soothing Tunes ran off.

Until the Doctor stepped into the stallion’s path, flashing a wide smirk of pearly whites. Ponies joined behind him, all either angry and with smirks.

“I’m afraid you’re done here, Soothing Tunes.”

His teeth showing in his rage, the unicorn shot a golden ray at the Doctor. Roseluck stepped forward, but if he was anything, the Doctor was quick, sashaying away from the magical shot. Even as Soothing Tunes continued firing shot after shot, they never hit, and the misfires became klutzy and too inaccurate in his desperation.

Soothing Tunes stepped back, but Lily snuck behind him and pulled out a hoof behind him. He tripped, falling on his back and back onto the grass. Daisy grinned, with Roseluck giving her a similar look. Their faces fell, however, as the Doctor walked over to Soothing Tunes, who backed into a tree.

“Let’s get one thing clear,” said the Doctor in a grave tone, standing over the defeated stallion. “You’ve endangered the lives of these ponies, including those I care about. That’s not a very smart thing to do when I’m around. I warned you before about taking a wrong step, and almost hurting someone crossed that.”

The fallen stallion was shaking by now, but the Doctor continued.

“I’m aware that this… place is far more lenient in its punishment, but I will warn you that if they weren’t here, I would not let you off easy.”

“Doctor.”

Muffins placed a hoof on his shoulder, and he turned to her, eyes softening. She took the Doctor to the side, leaving a shivering, defeated stallion on the ground.

Soothing Tunes, through the corner of her eyes, looked away from them all, paying more attention to the dirt on the ground. Misunderstood or truly a danger in his instability, she’d never know. And she didn’t want to find out anytime soon.

Ponies began rounding him up, tying him with the same ropes he used for the Doctor. Mayor Mare would decide what to do with him. Roseluck didn’t want to worry about him any longer.

With the adrenaline at its end, Roseluck turned around to her two friends. Daisy and Lily stared at her, eyes glossed over and actually staring at her. And she couldn’t help but laugh in pure bliss—and perhaps disbelief. How long had it been?

Okay, a few days, but it felt like so much longer. And there they stood, no longer cursed, but bursting into beams and tears as they ran to her.

The impact sent them onto the ground, dirt scattering around. But at the moment, dirt in their manes mattered little as they embraced one another.

“You’re all okay, right?” Rose asked, her expression straightening for a moment.

“Now we are!” Lily exclaimed.

“Cause of you!” Daisy finished, and they both nuzzled her. All three were laughing through their tears. Once they sobered up, she added, “And hey, you saved everypony. That makes you a hero, Rosie!”

Roseluck stiffened as they started standing back up. “Well, it wasn’t just me—”

Another pony forced her from Lily and Daisy, but before she could protest, she saw who it was and smiled.

“Roseluck, you did it! You saved everyone!” the Doctor cheered, holding onto her by her shoulders. His eyes lit up like sparks of electric blue, the happiest she had seen him in these past few days.

She couldn’t help but feel a touch of pride, knowing it was all because of her. Her cheeks burned as she shied away from his gaze. “I-I mean, I wouldn’t be here without you o-or Muffins to help—”

“Oh, the rescue was all you, Rose!” He picked her up, lifting her into the air. She let out a squeak of surprise, but he didn’t notice in his excitement. In a blink, he brought her down only to pull her into a tight hug. “Brilliant, just brilliant!”

Roseluck’s hooves made it to the ground when he put her down. Amethyst Star pointed out to the forest, where on the other side was home. “It may be dangerous, but it’s our only way home. Does anypony have a way out, since the bridge is down?”

“Well, I can’t carry everypony.” Muffins thought over that for a moment. “Well, I could take you one at a time, but that would take a while. And I’d hate to have some ponies stay in the forest too long.”

“Then let’s not do that!” Daisy panicked. She brushed her mane from her face, sighing.

Roseluck gestured behind her. “I found another way to get over here. You need to jump, but it’s not as dangerous. It’s a little far, but…”

“Better than nothing,” Lily breathed with relief, with Roseluck humming in agreement.

As the ponies all headed forward, with Roseluck at point, Daisy and Lily walked over to her. They both had a bounce to their step. “So, you ready to go home?” Lily asked. “It’s been a crazy night.”

“It’s been a crazy few days,” Roseluck corrected her. She looked up, realizing they were surrounded by pure purples and blacks of the night. Another yawn escaped her.

“So a forest walk is probably a cake walk. Then it’s pillows and hot chocolate.”

“Hot chocolate, yes!” Roseluck’s excitement woke her up a touch. “Oh, Lil, you make the best hot chocolate.”

They smiled at one another. She glanced at the Doctor, who was talking to Muffins in a whisper away from the crowd of ponies in the back. They both had serious looks on their faces. At one point, Muffins peered at Roseluck, and a suspicion crawled over and told her they were talking about her.

Then she glanced back at her friends, who stargazed at the lights in the sky. With a sigh, they reached the point where everyone had to jump, and Roseluck began her jump to demonstrate. Her worry about falling was nothing compared to the thought of sitting in a comfy house with Lily and Daisy keeping her company.

Whatever her new friends were talking about could wait.

Author's Note:

This chapter was a mega-bitch. It was the last chapter I worked on, so boy, there was a lot I needed to work on. Thank god my proofreader was there to help me. XD

And I'm really sorry about taking so long. I had to deal with computer issues and other situations got in the way. Plus, I've got work nowadays... haaaaaaaaaalp. lol

Only have the epilogue left. Yay!

Comments

[FamousLastWords]

Whoo! Update!

[The Bricklayer]

Wow, what a conclusion! I was surprised to see Lily and Daisy show up to help take down Soothing Tunes. Why do I have the feeling Muffins and Whooves are about to invite Roseluck as a companion?

[MissytheAngle]

7306799 About time, right?! Probably worth it, cause this chapter was a bit of a mess before Seven got to it.

7306946 Is that bad surprise? Just checking, cause I figured they'd be quick to find and protect Roseluck as soon as the curse was lifted. And keep that feeling in your pocket for a while.

[The Bricklayer]

7308297 No, it's actually a good surprise! Hey, a bit off topic here but did you know I finished up on writing my Doctor Who crossover at the end of May and am now working on a mini-sequel?

[MissytheAngle]

7308325 Awesome! After this story, I'd like to work on a sequel for this, as well. If I ever get to it.

[The Bricklayer]

7308330 Go for it! Go big, go bold, make the stakes higher! That's what sequels are often like, right? My sequel, isn't quite like that but it's meant to be self contained anyway...