Things to Do in Ponyville When You're Dead (Part 4)
We’d found a few more ponies since the track from the Motobug ran out, but since it seemed to disappear into thin air, there was no way we could track down Robotnik. “I don’t think there’s any more ponies in here,” I said, as the last one passed the threshold of the Everfree Forest. “We shouldn’t push our luck any harder than we have to. Let’s get out of here.”
“Not all just yet,” Twilight replied. “Fluttershy’s still in here somewhere. And we can’t just leave Soren behind, either.”
“If nuthin’ else got to him first, what with us leavin’ him there on his lonesome and all,” Applejack added. “Why’d you take us both with you? Couldn’t one of us have looked after him?” Before I could think of an answer, a few streams of white light burst through the choking trees, even passing over the canopy. “What was that?”
I shrugged, but Twilight seemed more concerned than anything. “Either Soren’s found somepony who’s another Player... or something really big just teleported in. Either way, we should probably take a look.” The pair of them ran back into the forest, and Twilight turned for a moment, beckoning me to join them with a hand. Sighing, I went back in behind them, ignoring every instinct that was telling me to get out of there.
I guess this is what being a hero means, Soren, I thought ruefully. Pity I don’t actually have a Triforce of Courage of my own.
~~
When I came to some time later, I was under a straw roof, a combination of strange smells floating through the air around me. “Ugh...” I groaned, trying to figure out what was going on. “Am I dead? Or in Detroit? Please tell me I’m not in Detroit.” My father had once told me a story about how he ended up in Detroit after drinking too much one night, and the first thing he’d described was the smell. I wasn’t sure what any of the smells around me were, but I was just delirious enough to think that they could have come from Detroit.
“A city far, yet we are near. You hit your head quite hard, I fear.”
“Oh, good, so I must be dead. Wait, what?” I sat up suddenly, touching my chest where the attack had hit me before. My chest had healed over entirely. If it wasn’t for the burn mark on my shirt, which was hanging over a wooden pole on the other side of the room, I wouldn’t know where it had happened to begin with. “What am I saying?”
I tried to stand up to retrieve the journal from the pocket of my jacket, hanging nearby, but stumbled and fell as I did. A hoof touched my shoulder. “You should not move just yet, my friend, for my salve’s work has yet to end. That hit you took was quite severe, and so—”
“Would you cut it out with the rhyming?” I said, exasperated. “Who are you, anyway?” As I turned, I saw that the pony I was speaking to wasn’t exactly a pony. From the stripes covering her body, I could tell she was actually a zebra, though she had the proportions of a pony, and even Cutie Mark on her flank, though it was far more stylised than any pony’s I’d seen.
The zebra sighed and said, “If my rhyming causes you offense, I apologise. It is traditional among my people that we do not make connections outside our own kind, and the rhyming was my way of appearing more different from the ponies that have surrounded me for some time. But...”
“Oh, shit, sorry. I didn’t know it was a thing...” I shook my head quickly. “...and now we’re both tripping over each other’s apologies and trying to make each other more comfortable. Though I guess I’m even further in offensive debt, since I asked for your name without telling you mine. I’m Soren, by the way.”
“I cannot tell you my name,” the zebra said, “as I have just said. However... You may call me Zecora. It is as good a name as any other.” I nodded and tried to stand up again, only to be pushed back to sitting by Zecora’s surprisingly strong hoof. “I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to leave in the state that you are in. The salve for your burn is still having a clear effect on your body. I was not even sure if it would work on a being such as you...”
“Ponies are in danger out there in the forest,” I replied. “I know you barely even know them, but neither do I, and I’m still trying to save them. My friends are in there as well, helping me, and I don’t know how long I’ve been here, unconscious on your bed. I’m sorry, but even if that salve is affecting me, I can’t spend any longer here.” I forced myself to stand again, and this time Zecora didn’t stop me. I left the shirt behind, since it was ruined by the huge burn mark, and put my jacket on without zipping it up. The spear I’d been lent by the militia’s commander back in Ponyville was gone, but my sword was still at my side.
“Wait.”
“I don’t have time to wait any longer!”
“Those monsters are still out there, and you may well be injured again, or encounter a pony who is. Take these.” She held up several small bags which contained a strange-smelling green liquid. “This salve should allow any injured ponies at least the strength to return to Ponyville. It is what I used for your burns, but it doesn’t have any ill effects on ponies. I do not know quite why, but...”
I took the bags and put them in my pocket one by one, noticing that they were entering my inventory as they did. “Doesn’t matter. Thanks, I suppose.” As I was about to leave, I turned again. “Oh, one last thing. Did you see a yellow pony with a pink mane and tail earlier? Or a group of three people like me, humans?”
“Three humans, no,” she said, tilting her head and thinking for a few seconds before she continued. “But I did see a pony of that colour. She passed by here for a moment, heading east.” She pointed with a hoof in the indicated direction, which I definitely wouldn’t have known myself.
“Even with these detours I’ve taken, she might still be okay... Thanks again,” I said, walking around the hut to where Zecora had said was the eastern side. I turned back once to see that she’d come outside as well, and waved goodbye as I headed further into the forest once again.
I’d barely gotten out of sight of the hut when I noticed some tracks in the dirt below. There were a large number of overlapping tracks, but the two long, thin marks forward and one back were undeniably Karin’s foot. I’d seen the tracks she left on the plains, and these were basically the same. I immediately turned and ran through the denser forest, following the tracks she’d left. Though the silence of the forest was starting to weigh down on me, my own running gait and the sounds that I made crashing through the overgrowth helped me to focus on the task at hand.
The tracks disappeared at the centre of a clearing about a mile further into the forest, strangely surrounded by tracks of kinds I couldn’t even try to identify. They crossed over each other and Karin’s tracks, coming and going in all directions to the point where I couldn’t even tell which ways they’d come in and out. I’d never been much of a tracker in any case, so I gave up and sat down, wondering just what had happened to my companion.
When my eyes fell on an out-of-place pastel pink and yellow shape on the far side, I stood up and rushed over there. “Fluttershy?” I asked, and she opened her eyes with obvious effort. “Oh, no, no, no...” Her hind quarters were stuck beneath a fallen tree, and a lot of her blood had pooled beneath her. I couldn’t make out just how much it was, and I didn’t know how much blood ponies generally had, but it looked bad. “Fuck me...”
“Sss... Soren?” the limp pony asked weakly. “What are you...?”
“Don’t speak, save your breath!” I cut her off quickly, trying to lift the tree off her body, even just a little bit. The tree didn’t budge at all. “Damn it, think!” I thought out loud, breathing deeply a few times to try and get my concentration back. “What skills do I have that could help me?” According to the book, I was a Freelancer, which meant that in theory I was able to do just about anything. The problem was that ‘anything’ was a rather large amount of things, and with my lacking experience, I didn’t know what was available at all.
“What would Twilight do?” I asked myself. “Probably set fire to the tree or pick it up with her magic. I don’t have any magic, unless I can change jobs like the other Freelancers...” Unable to come up with any ideas that made more sense, I focused on Twilight and her magical ability, and I felt my clothes changing around me. My coat got longer until it touched the ground like a robe, my sleeves expanded until my hands were barely visible, and my scarf turned into a hood which hung loose over my shoulders. My fingertips seemed to be tingling with an unknown energy, and I thrust them towards the tree, which immediately burst into flames. The fire burned through the tree, but stopped as soon as it had been entirely burned away.
Returning to my ‘regular’ form, I pushed what was left of the tree off of Fluttershy, who took a deep breath and tried to push herself back up to standing. She barely made it a few feet off the ground before she fell back down with a yelp, and I saw why a second later: her hind legs had been crushed worse than I thought. Even with how magic worked in this world, I doubted she would ever be able to walk properly again. I also didn’t think that Twilight had any healing spells yet that I could call on, even just to ease her pain.
I remembered the bags that Zecora had given me, and I pulled out one of them. The green liquid still burned my fingers as I touched it, but I was able to rub it on Fluttershy’s most injured areas, and she seemed to appreciate it. She smiled weakly as I finished the last of the bag’s contents, but with her legs destroyed, there was still no way she could stand up. “Nothing for it,” I murmured to myself. “Let’s hope you’ve been on a diet lately.”
Taking care not to touch her hooves, I pulled her forelegs over my shoulders, and immediately collapsed to the ground. Ponies were heavier than I’d anticipated, apparently, even the fragile ones like her. “Damn it!” I shouted, as I pulled myself out from under her. She squeaked again, and I immediately felt bad about it. “There’s nothing more I can do here,” I told her more quietly. “I’m sorry, but we’re gonna have to wait for more help...”
“It’s okay,” she replied softly, and I leant in closer in case she had any more to say. “I don’t think I can make it. Go help somepony you can still help.”
“What are you saying? I don’t even know where any of them are!” She gasped again, and I grabbed her face, trying to keep her looking at me. “Don’t go to sleep! Don’t die here! Please... don’t die...”
To be honest, I couldn’t say why I wanted to keep Fluttershy alive so badly. Something came over me that I couldn’t really describe, especially not as high on adrenaline as I was. I couldn’t think, I could barely see, and every instinct of mine was telling me to try and find some way of protecting her, of keeping her alive just a little bit longer. And then, through the haze, something occurred to me.
I immediately shouted down the thought; after the huge speech I’d given to Applejack and Strongheart, it would be wrong of me to force Fluttershy into it, even if she was a latent Player in the first place, which I had no way of knowing besides Twilight’s blurry dream. As I calmed myself back down, though, the thought kept reappearing in my head every time I tried to flush it out, and eventually I gave in. “Do you trust me?” I asked.
“Huh?” Fluttershy’s eyes were barely still open at this point.
“I said, do you trust me?” She nodded slowly as her eyes closed some more. “Then take my hand. Don’t be afraid. I’m here.” I reached out a hand, somehow knowing exactly what was to come. Slowly, painfully, she reached out her hoof in return.
As soon as we touched, the bright white light reappeared, engulfing her body as it had the previous two. Again, I felt the indescribable feeling in my arm that spread through my body, and rushed into that of the pony whose hoof I was holding. The light disappeared, revealing Fluttershy in a new form. She was wearing a short yellow dress, attached around her neck with a clamp shaped like a butterfly, the same pink and green colour as her Cutie Mark. Long white gloves and opaque stockings covered her arms and legs, thankfully no longer destroyed beyond repair, and the butterfly reappeared on her shoes, as well as in her true Mark on her left thigh. “I’m so sorry about this,” I said quietly, and for some reason I hoped I had said it too quietly for her to hear.
When she opened her eyes and looked straight into mine without moving, she gasped in surprise, and again when she saw what had happened. “What did you do?” she asked. “Why are we...?”
“I’ll explain later, I promise,” I replied. “For now, we have to get out of here. This forest is dangerous, and more so than usual with...” A robotic crab about half our height stepped out of the bushes, and as its claw opened, I tackled Fluttershy to the ground. Both of us managed to avoid the yellow ball of energy that passed through where she’d been. “With these things around,” I finished, quickly standing and drawing my sword. “Stay back. I’ll handle this.”
Before it could charge up another attack, I rushed forward and cut it clean in half with a stroke, releasing a small rabbit inside which ran off into the woods. As I turned around, Fluttershy gasped and pointed behind me, and I ducked just in time to avoid another shot. “There’s more of you?!” There were indeed more of them, and they burst out from the treeline, surrounding the two of us. “This is not good...”
“They ate the animals...” Fluttershy muttered behind me.
“I don’t think that’s quite it—”
“They ate my friends.”
“They’re being used as batteries, at least I think so—”
“I won’t let you harm them!” she suddenly shouted, and a weapon that looked like a scythe on the end of one of a pair of nunchaku appeared in her hands as she charged forward. It ripped through one of the crabs easily, the blue bird inside chirping once in confusion before retreating. Without pausing to see to its welfare, she struck at another crab, and then a one-wheeled beetle that attempted to run her over from behind. Caught up in her sudden display of expertise, I was almost run over myself, but I managed to collect myself just in time to parry the charging beetle and strike it down.
More and more animals continued to retreat from the clearing as Fluttershy and I fought off the robots, and I found myself focusing on my footwork to avoid stepping on them as much as to avoid the robots’ attacks. Before I knew it, she’d cleaned most of them out, but three more crabs came then, backed up by as many bees. “Damn it, I can’t hit anything flying like this!” I shouted. For a moment, I considered calling on Applejack’s skills, but I didn’t have a bow of my own, so I shoved that thought aside quickly.
Racking my brain for options, I thought back to the gust of wind that Twilight had summoned accidentally earlier that day, and decided to change back to Mage. My clothes changed their shape again, and I felt the same magical energy from before, but this time I focused it in another direction. The loose robe began flapping in the wind that I summoned, and the bee-shaped robots were blown back by the gale. Two of them crashed into trees right away, but the third fired a shot that I had to stop casting the spell to dodge. To clear it out, I quickly created a fireball and thrust it in the bee’s direction, which sent it spinning to the ground. Like the others, it cracked open as it did.
A sudden yelp behind me caught my attention, and I turned to see that Fluttershy had been hit from behind by the slow-moving shot that I’d dodged before, which burned a hole into her back. One of the crabs grabbed at her left hand with its claw as she stumbled forward, and she actually screamed from the sudden pain. Returning to normal, I drew my sword again and separated the offending claw from its owner, before striking down said owner with two more strokes. Fluttershy struck down another crab, before turning on the third, leaving us alone in a clearing full of broken metal parts. “You okay?” I asked, pointlessly. Her adrenaline had all but run out, leaving her breathing heavily and clutching at her hand.
I pulled out another bag of the salve Zecora had given me. “This’ll probably sting a little, but it’ll hurt a lot less after...” I stopped as I realised something. It seemed as though her clothing hadn’t been destroyed at all by the attack, despite the fact that I’d seen the hole that it burned through, like it had with my own shirt. If I was going to treat it, I’d have to reach up Fluttershy’s dress, and even if she didn’t know it was a human taboo, there was no way I could do it naturally enough that she wouldn’t catch on right away.
“After what?” Fluttershy asked, turning around. The way she looked at me showed her innocence plainly, and I found myself stammering. She looked at the bag in my hand and brightened up immediately. “You want to heal me? If you don’t mind, then...”
I shook myself back into focus. If she wanted me to do it, then I’d just have to avoid getting too close to anything sensitive. “Yeah, yeah, just hold still, okay?” Gingerly, I turned her around and dipped my fingers in the viscous green liquid, the burning in my fingertips dulled by recognition. Using my uncovered fingers to check for the burned patch by Fluttershy’s yelping, not being willing to put my other hand up her dress at the same time, I started to apply the salve. “Too bad we can’t do anything about your hand,” I said, looking over her shoulder for a moment. Just like the dress, her glove had completely healed from the cut, though she still seemed to have trouble moving her fingers on that hand. “Don’t know what’s up with your clothes that they’d just heal better than your body. Another mystery for the Merchant to answer...”
“What merchant?” Fluttershy asked suddenly, shifting slightly to face me.
As I desperately tried to keep my hands in the right position, I only ended up losing it entirely. “Damn it, I told you to stay still! Why...” She seemed frightened by my outburst from the way she turned away and mumbled some sort of apology. I sighed and removed my hand from under her dress. “Well, I guess that’s about all I can do for now. Feel any better?”
“A little,” she said, just barely loud enough to hear. Slightly more loudly, she asked again, “What merchant are you talking about?”
I slapped myself mentally for saying that out loud. “Look, I can’t explain it here,” I said quickly, standing up and motioning for her to do the same. “As soon as we’re safe back in Ponyville, I’ll tell you everything I know about what’s going on, but we can’t just stay here. Besides more of those robots, anything could be out there...”
“Indeed it could,” a voice said suddenly, surprising both of us. I drew my sword as I turned to face it, and somehow Fluttershy’s... weapon reappeared in her hands as well. “Now, now, I have no desire for a battle here. I only wished to congratulate you on your resilience.”
“Well, you’ve done that now,” I said. “So why don’t you go away? We’re a little busy.”
“But it would be rude of me not to introduce myself,” the voice replied, its owner stepping into the clearing. The man was... round, in a word. His torso seemed like a sphere only slightly stretched, his head poking out from the collar of a bright red jacket. A black jumpsuit covered the rest of his body underneath the jacket, and with his eyes covered by thick glasses and a vestigial pair of goggles sitting above his bald scalp, the most notable feature on his face was the impossibly large moustache that seemed twice the width of his face. “My name is Eggman. And you two are...?”
“Does it matter?” I asked again, wanting nothing more than to be left alone to get out of the creepy forest with Fluttershy. “You’re wasting our time. C’mon, let’s go.”
“Oh, it matters,” Eggman shot back. “After all, if you don’t tell me your names... there’ll be nothing to write on your headstones!” I raised my sword at him again, and he backed up a step. “I told you, leave those alone! You could put an eye out.”
“You can’t just make threats like that and not expect a reaction. Do you want to kill us or not?” Either way, if he said another word, I was willing to actually attack him at this point just to make him stop talking.
“Oh, you’re going to die. But I’m not the one who’s going to do it.”
“What?” Fluttershy suddenly asked. “But...”
“She is.”
At that point, I could hear undergrowth being crushed and thumping sounds approaching at a rapid pace. “What the heck...?” I barely had time to ask that under my breath before something burst through the trees, stopping just behind its creator. The surprising charge knocked me off my feet, and the yelp beside me indicated that Fluttershy had fallen as well. It looked like a giant robotic gorilla, though the yellow paint covering it made it all the more surreal. It couldn’t have been less than nine feet tall, either, even slouched over as it was. I quickly stood up, and then helped Fluttershy to stand up as well.
Eggman chuckled to himself. “Well, I’ll leave you to get acquainted. Have fun with my latest toy! Egg Sasquatch, go!” It suddenly stood to its full height and let out a metallic roar as it beat its chest, and Eggman chuckled again as he disappeared into the treeline. I called out for him to stop, but the Sasquatch slammed the ground with its fists again, forcing me to back off and let him go.
“Nothing for it,” I told Fluttershy. “We wouldn’t make it if we tried to run. Looks like we’re in for a boss fight.”
“But... how can we beat it? It’s so... big, and...”
“It should be powered by an animal inside it like the others. All we have to do is cut through to the power source, and it’ll shut down.” I looked over it as it stomped closer. “I’m not sure where that is, but if we start by removing the limbs, we’ll be able to work it out from there. Taking out the limbs would also make it harder for it to attack us...” I gave it another once-over, trying to work out any obvious weak spots. “Try and cut at its joints, if you can. Maybe it’ll leave open something else after it attacks. And speaking of attacking, move!”
At least the Sasquatch was slow enough that when it started raising its arm to swing a punch, Fluttershy and I had plenty of time to get out of the way. I stepped forward to try and attack, but it immediately swung its arm straight back, knocking me out of the way. I fell to the ground and skidded slightly, stopping against a tree. Luckily, it wasn’t chasing after me; it was now more focused on attacking Fluttershy.
As it turned to bear down on her, I stood up and tried to get behind it, suddenly noticing a large red area on its back. Nice of you to show me its weak point, Doctor, I thought to myself as I charged forward. It raised its arm to attack again, and that was when I jumped, clambering up its back. It reached behind itself to try and pick me off, but I was faster, striking at the red area with my katana and slicing through the thin metal more easily than I expected. It let out another roar and stood to its full height, leaning backwards as it did. I wasn’t expecting the move and fell off, landing harder than I meant to, but stepping out of its range quickly.
Noise suddenly filled the air, and I saw several other Badniks appearing in the clearing, perhaps in response to Sasquatch’s cry. “Fluttershy!” I shouted, and she turned to face me through the large robot’s legs. “Keep the little guys off me! I’ve got Sasquatch under control!” Without warning, it spun around 180 degrees, now facing me solely. “Shit, spoke too soon... Forget it! We’ll both have to clear out the little guys!”
Nodding once, Fluttershy turned away from Sasquatch to fight some Badniks on her side of the clearing. Though I didn’t want to take my eyes off the boss for long, I didn’t have much of a choice. Switching to Mage again, I looked around me both ways, spotting a Buzz Bomber incoming from my right side. I blew it out of the air with a wind spell, returning to Freelancer as it crashed to the ground to cut through an approaching Motobug. For some reason, the animals seemed reluctant to retreat immediately, though they scattered with Sasquatch’s fist came crashing straight down on top of where I’d almost been. Afterwards, though, I could see them starting to crowd around Fluttershy. Maybe they were hers from the cottage?
She looked around herself, taking in each of the critters in turn. Despite the Badniks circling her, she seemed surprisingly calm all of a sudden. “Go!” she suddenly shouted, stretching out an arm. The critters all shot off at once, jumping on top of Badniks and beating with their paws, biting with teeth or, in the case of a blue bird, pecking with its beak. I didn’t think it’d be that effective, until suddenly I heard the telltale sound of Badniks falling apart, and more animals gathered back around their ‘leader’.
I was so distracted that Sasquatch had a chance to grab me, clutching my torso with a single hand and keeping my arms pinned to my sides. I even dropped my katana, half out of surprise and half from the pressure being exerted. “Crap, little help?” I called out, and at Fluttershy’s command, the animals immediately sprang into action again. All of them seemed to congregate around the robot’s right shoulder, and since I was held in its right arm, I assumed that they were trying to break the joint as I’d suggested earlier. Meanwhile, Fluttershy herself was climbing its back, at which it roared suddenly and reared up again. Fluttershy seemed to be expecting it, or else she was more coordinated than I was, and she managed to hold on long enough to drive the bladed end of her weapon into its back where I’d struck it before.
Another roar, this one almost sounding pained, followed. It let go of me, and I fell to the ground, immediately backing up and grabbing my katana again. A few seconds after, it crouched on the ground and spun its torso quickly, throwing off Fluttershy and her animals with the sudden force. I ran across to where she’d fallen to help her up, asking if she needed any more of the salve. She shook her head and turned back towards the giant robot, whistling to call her critters back to her as more Badniks filled the clearing again.
“I think I can handle the small ones, with my friends,” she said. “I’ll leave Sasquatch to you. I just hope that whoever’s inside it can be helped in time...” I nodded at that, turning back towards the robots’ boss. Without regard for the small fry, I charged forward, watching as a squirrel charged to intercept a Crabmeat’s claw that had been trying to intercept me with a shot. I ducked under Sasquatch as it swung at me, but it spun as quickly as it had before, making sure it was always facing me. I didn’t expect to need more than one more hit to bring it down, but it certainly wasn’t going to make it easy on me.
I’m not sure where that is, but if we start by removing the limbs, we’ll be able to work it out from there. After the animals had failed, I wasn’t sure it was still possible, but I decided to try anyway, striking at the joint between its torso and one of its legs with my katana as I passed underneath it again. It didn’t do nearly as much as I expected, but then Fluttershy suddenly appeared next to me and struck at the same spot. That worked much better. The leg sparked at the base, and I quickly rushed her out from under Sasquatch as it separated from the torso and fell to the ground, followed by the main body. It roared again before breaking off its own remaining leg, allowing it to sit on the ground, immobile but still capable of turning its torso.
“That looks like a good start,” I said. “We might have some trouble hitting the rest of it, unless we have some way to freeze it.”
“What about the magic you used before?”
“Don’t know any freezing spells.”
“Well...”
Sasquatch roared again, though the effect was somewhat diminished by its legs missing. “Never mind. We can beat it like this. Even with the spinning, it can’t stop all of us at once.” A flash of inspiration came to me suddenly, and I repeated, “The spinning.” Sheathing my sword, I returned to the Mage. “I’m going to use my wind spell to try and keep you stable on top of it. That should allow you to deliver the final blow!”
“Do you really think so?”
“It’s worth a shot, anyway! You ready?”
Fluttershy nodded assent, and I raised my arms as she lunged forward, using the wind to push her towards Sasquatch’s body. It tried to swing at her by rotating, but she managed to grab on just in time. I started changing the wind’s direction to try and stop Sasquatch from moving, but it caught onto that just as Fluttershy moved over its shoulder, and began to spin both ways at once. Several animals started approaching as well, trying to hold down their master, but with a roar, they were all blown away again.
“Well, we tried,” I said ruefully, switching back to Freelancer.
“Not yet...”
“Fluttershy?”
“I won’t let you hurt my friends anymore!”
A now-familiar yellow light shone in her eyes, and extended behind her back into ethereal wings. The scattered animals, even though most of them shouldn’t have been able to, all floated back towards her. Sasquatch turned to face her and let out another scream, this time seeming almost afraid of what was to come. All at once, the animals extended forward in a chain, surrounded by the same yellow light that Fluttershy was emitting. The chain extended towards Sasquatch, arcing over it towards its back. It tried to spin away, but the effort was futile; the chain simply twisted itself to continue towards the exposed weakness. As soon as the first animal touched it, all the others charged forward along the chain, striking with their combined force. Sasquatch screamed again, but this time, it was cut off by an explosion that sent the animals flying back towards their master, who floated down to the ground along with them as the light faded.
Since I was sent flying as well, I barely saw what remained in Sasquatch’s wreckage. The smoke, the light, and my disorientation combined made it nearly impossible to tell. I gave up trying and let myself fall back, when I suddenly heard a familiar squawking sound from the direction of the wreck. I jerked myself back awake, trying to confirm if it was really what I thought. When the sound repeated, I scrambled to my feet and ran towards the wreckage, sparing only a glance towards Fluttershy, who seemed unhurt, if slightly rattled by her own Limit Break.
As I’d thought, I found Karin where Sasquatch used to be, and for a moment I was enraged that Eggman had gotten his hands on her, before relief that she was safe again overtook it. I embraced her, ignoring the smell, and she cooed happily, returning the gesture with her wings as best she could. Slowly, Fluttershy approached us, and Karin looked over at her for a moment before returning her attention to me. Hopefully, that meant that she wouldn’t protest any further to her presence.
“Soren!” a voice suddenly shouted, and I turned away from the Chocobo towards it. “We saw a flash of light, and we thought it was...” Twilight, who had been speaking, trailed off as she looked around at the scrap metal filling the clearing, the animals, and her friend in another world. “Fluttershy?” she asked, after a few seconds of unnatural silence. “Is that you?”
“Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, almost inaudible. “Applejack?” The cowgirl nodded slightly. She turned to Link for a moment, but after not recognising him, ran towards the other two girls, who all embraced together as I had with Karin. Link tilted his head slightly at the display, and I ran up to hug him suddenly. He yelped and pulled away, and the girls all giggled together at the scene. Eventually, Link laughed awkwardly as well.
“Looks like everything’s sorted out,” he said. “We found all the ponies that went missing... if I can assume that you’re part of the Game as well.” He turned towards Fluttershy at this, and she tilted her head slightly. “Ask Soren for the details; he probably knows more than me. But with this quest resolved...”
“Do you feel any more like a hero?” I asked.
He considered the question for a moment. “Would’ve helped if you saved some for the rest of us.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll get a chance later. Even if you don’t go looking for it, I’m sure it’ll find you. Destiny isn’t easy to keep at bay. But, with any luck, this’ll give you some time to yourself.”
“Can we get outta the Everfree Forest now?” Applejack cut in. “I don’t wanna spend any more time here than I gotta. Even with the situation solved, for now...”
“I do have something else I want to ask,” Link said, “but that can wait until we’re back in Ponyville.” He looked around the clearing. “Does anyone remember the way out?”
~~
Almost everypony in Ponyville was gathered at the entrance when the ‘humans’ finally came back out. They cheered for their heroes, and I stamped the ground appreciatively until I felt like I could ditch and go back to my pad. But then I noticed something, and I couldn’t just ignore it.
I’d heard the stories about how Applejack had been turned into a human, only a few hours after the two new ones appeared. The one in the scarf was the most likely culprit, but it was still only rumours. But I definitely remember Fluttershy going into the Everfree to help her animals... and she came out looking just like him.
Something came over me then, and I put everything into forcing it down. It wouldn’t do to attack the town’s heroes at a celebration in their honour. But as soon as the one with the scarf was alone, I’d teach him a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget.
Nobody messes with Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash’s friends and gets away with it.
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- NerfedFalcon · 33k words · 35 7 · 812 views
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7093938 Well, now that I've finished Knightmares, I might give this one a read.
y so long 4 update?
7094142 Not so much writer's block as writer's trainwreck. I get too many ideas at once, and they all pile up in my head until I can't write any of them at all.
7094292 well you know what they say about train wrecks you know you shouldnt look at them but you just cant look away
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