295 - Knight Time
“In all the cosmos, only two types of beings exist.”
Fruit Crunch’s voice was solemn as he recited the words, his eyes closed as he kept his hoof on Severance. Nor was he the only one; arranged around the weapon in a radial pattern, Fiddlesticks, Cleansweep, Straightlace, and Feathercap were in similar positions, eyes closed and holding a hoof out to touch the scythe. “The strong, who do as they wish,” intoned the other four in unison, “and the weak, who suffer what they must.”
“While both can be mighty, the power of the strong flows from their own self, while the weak have only what power they’re allowed to borrow,” continued Fruit Crunch.
“Thus the strong do as they wish,” repeated the others, “while the weak suffer what they must.”
“And in the darkness, when all light is gone, the truth between the strong and the weak is made known, for, um…for the…the…” Sweat gathered on Fruit Crunch’s brow as he struggled to remember what came next. The words hovered on the tip of his tongue, but refused to make themselves clear as the seconds ticked by. Eventually, he shook his head. “I can’t remember,” he muttered, shamefaced.
The others opened their eyes, sharing worried looks as they slowly lowered their hooves from Severance. “Crunchy...” started Cleansweep, a pleading tone in her voice.
He shook his head in response. “Don’t, Dust Bunny. I’m the leader. I volunteered for this.” Letting out a slow breath, refusing to let himself feel afraid, Fruit Crunch steeled himself as he opened his eyes, looking up at Severance. “I volunteered for this,” he repeated, before nodding at the scythe.
Slowly, the weapon drifted away from him just a little, tipping its blade downward until the tip of it touched Fruit Crunch’s foreleg, still outstretched. Trying to stop himself from shaking, Fruit Crunch bit his lip, holding his foreleg steady as the razor-sharp tip of the Severance’s blade pushed down and pierced his skin. The puncture wasn’t deep, not even a quarter-inch, but it was intensely painful. The pain grew worse as the metal began to heat up, the blade beginning to glow a dull red, and Fruit Crunch couldn’t suppress a moan of agony, now trembling all over as he fought the instinct to snatch his foreleg back.
After several seconds Severance began to move again, drawing the tip of its blade down the length of the colt’s foreleg, the scorching-hot metal easily parting the flesh as it moved. No blood flowed from the cut, the heat from the blade cauterizing the wound instantly. Finally, Severance reached the end of Fruit Crunch’s hoof, pausing for just a second before tilting upward, removing its sharp edge from his leg, the red glow fading as it moving back to its upright position. For his part, Fruit Crunch wasn’t able to suppress a gasp as the excruciating pain began to fade, almost falling over.
Instantly, his friends were at his side, doing what they could to support him.
“We should stop,” whimpered Feathercap, looking like he was going to be sick as he helped the others hold Fruit Crunch steady, guiding him down into a sitting position.
“N-no.” Fruit Crunch’s face was pale as he forced himself to take deep breaths. “I can keep going.” He closed his eyes again, licking his lips as he thought back over the words that Severance had repeated while it had cut him. “And in the darkness, when all light is gone, the truth between the strong and the weak is made known, for the strong revel in the darkness, while the weak fear it.”
But this time no one repeated the refrain, causing him to frown as he opened his eyes. “Guys, I’m serious…”
“So are we,” snapped Fiddlesticks from where she’d gone to check on her sleeping brother, though her face registered worry more than anger as she gently lifted Tiddlywinks onto her back. “You’ve already done that three times tonight! That’s enough!”
“Crunchy, please,” begged Cleansweep, blinking back tears. “Let’s call it off for now. You look like you’re really hurt!”
But she could already see Fruit Crunch’s face settling into that stubborn expression of his, the one that said he wouldn’t stop until he had his way. “You think Lex wasn’t really hurt when he fought all those ghouls?” he shot back, though his injury made the words contain far less force than they normally would have. “Or when he killed all those other monsters he fought before he even got here? I told you I asked some of the other ponies here in camp. When he slew that dragon-”
“You’re not Lex!” Cleansweep almost shouted the words, only getting herself under control at the last second.
For a split-second a hurt look crossed Fruit Crunch’s face, before it was swallowed by anger. “And I never will be if we keep taking things slowly! I asked Severance what the fastest way was to earn the Night Mare’s favor, and it starts with this! Not to mention that I’m the one doing the hardest part, so I don’t know why you all are complaining so-” He stopped speaking abruptly as Severance floated over, touching the end of its shaft to his side. He let out a low breath, but nodded. “We’re done for tonight,” he announced wearily, all the fight going out of him at once.
The others breathed a collective sigh of relief, with Cleansweep giving Severance a grateful look before she flew to Fruit Crunch’s side, gently taking his injured foreleg and laying it across her shoulder. “C’mon. You need to go lay down.”
“He should go to the river first,” added Straightlace. “My dad says to always wash a cut, even if you don’t have any soap.”
Fruit Crunch gave a noncommittal grunt at that, no longer hiding his exhaustion now that Severance had said that they were done. Cleansweep nodded, turning her attention back to her friend. “C’mon Crunchy. The river’s not far away from here, okay? We’ll just splash some water on this, and then we’ll get you all tucked in.”
She led him toward the water, while Fiddlesticks, Straightlace, and Feathercap trailed after them, leaving Severance behind. But after a few minutes, Fiddlesticks held out a foreleg, causing the two colts who’d been following her to stop. Both of them shot her inquisitive looks, but she waited until Cleansweep and Fruit Crunch had continued forward, not wanting them to hear what she was going to say. Once she was certain they’d moved far enough ahead, she turned to the other two. “Should we keep doing this?” she asked bluntly.
“What do you mean?” murmured Feathercap, looking vaguely nervous…though Fiddlesticks was starting to wonder if that was his default expression.
“This!” she repeated. “All of this! The Knights, Severance, everything we’re doing!” She nodded toward where the other two members of their group were headed toward the river. “This is only our second meeting, and look at what’s going on!”
“You think we should quit?” asked Straightlace.
“You don’t?” she shot back.
He bit his lip for a moment, looking past her at Fruit Crunch and Cleansweep as he replied. “I’m worried that if we quit, Fruit Crunch will keep doing this on his own. I don’t want him and Severance alone together without somepony there to step in if things go too far.”
Fiddlesticks frowned. It wasn’t an unreasonable point. But it wasn’t the only option, either. “Then we should just tell Lex about-”
“No!” Feathercap’s eyes were round with fright, his whole body shaking like a leaf at her idea. “We can’t tell him we’ve been using his magic scythe without his permission! He’ll curse us!”
That was enough to stop Fiddlesticks in her tracks. She wasn’t sure that Lex would do that to them, but she wasn’t sure he wouldn’t, either. And she’d been bringing Tiddlywinks with her, too… He wouldn’t curse a baby, would he? Tiddlywinks didn’t even do anything with us, he just slept through it all! She didn’t think Lex would do that, but if she was wrong there’d be nothing she could do about it. The thought took the wind out of her sails, leaving her shuffling her hooves uncertainly. “We could at least tell Miss Sonata,” she muttered.
But Straightlace shook his head. “She’s Lex’s girlfriend. She’d tell him right away. Besides,” he added after a moment, “even if we stop going now, Severance could tell Lex what we’ve been doing anyway.”
Fiddlesticks blinked, not having thought of that. “But…but it’d get in trouble too!”
Straightlace shrugged. “Maybe, but I’m guessing it could handle it better than we could.”
Letting out an unhappy huff, Fiddlesticks stomped a hoof, but there was no real force behind the blow. “So that’s it, then?” she asked unhappily. “We can’t quit, and we can’t tell anypony, so we just keep doing what we’re doing and hope it all works out okay?”
“Maybe it’ll be alright?” ventured Feathercap, looking like he wanted someone else to assure him that it would be. “I mean, if Fruit Crunch is right, we could all gain magic powers if we make the Night Mare proud of us. Then we can stop doing this and we won’t have to tell anypony, right?”
Fiddlesticks couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that. Feathercap was the most timid pony she’d ever met; trying to reconcile him with everything Severance had been telling them about what it meant to be strong was completely impossible. If anything, he seemed like the perfect example of what “the weak” were like. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, she thought guiltily. Even if he wasn’t the toughest pony around, he was still a perfectly nice one.
But according to Severance, that was irrelevant, which was what made her so uncomfortable with what the scythe was teaching them all. None of its lessons so far had included anything about friendship, or love, or harmony. It was all about strength, and power, and control. It was nothing like the values that her parents had taught her to live by, something she’d pointed out when Severance had begun instructing them yesterday.
The scythe’s answer was to ask her how well those values would have protected her against the horde of ghouls if Lex hadn’t been there. It had then followed up by asking how well they would have protected her little brother. It bothered Fiddlesticks greatly that she hadn’t been able to answer that at the time…and still couldn’t now.
Upset, Fiddlesticks fell back on the only argument left to her. “I still don’t see how any of what we’ve been doing is supposed to convince the Night Mare that she should give us magic powers,” she groused. “We can memorize a bunch of stuff about whatever, and Fruit Crunch can let Severance hurt him when he messes up, but what good does any of that do?”
Both colts shrugged. “I dunno,” admitted Straightlace. “But my dad says-”
“What’s going on?” interrupted Feathercap, suddenly pointing back toward the camp. Blinking, Fiddlesticks and Straightlace followed the line of his hoof, which was directed toward the distant train station. In the light of the campfires, they could just barely see a crowd beginning to form, ponies gathering to look at something behind the building.
“I don’t know,” admitted Fiddlesticks. “But we should-”
“Go check it out,” came Fruit Crunch’s voice.
All three turned to see him limping toward them, Cleansweep at his side. “Something might be going on,” he added. “If it is, it’s our job as the Night Mare’s Knights to head over there and help.”
“With what?” snorted Fiddlesticks. “We still don’t have any magic powers yet.”
Fruit Crunch scowled at her. “And we won’t ever, if you keep acting like that. Weren’t you paying attention to anything Severance told us?”
“I was, and I don’t remember anything about rushing in blind whenever something happens,” she countered.
Cleansweep moved between the two, giving Fiddlesticks a pleading look. “Let’s compromise, okay? We’ll get closer and see what’s going on, and if it’s not an emergency we can figure out what we should do, or if we even need to do anything at all, okay?”
Fiddlesticks rolled her eyes. “Fine by me.”
“Fine by me too,” snapped Fruit Crunch, turning and starting toward the station. Despite how much of a drag Fiddleface was, he felt a smile tugging at his lips. “This could be our very first mission guys, so let’s make it snappy!”
Raising his injured hoof, he pointed it toward the crowd of ponies. “Time for the Night Mare’s Knights to save the day!”
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Already with the scarification? Lex is going to be seriously angry with himself for being so weak against such a display. After all, he cant do anything against Severance which even Xirial could only delay.
These kids really remind me of The Wave for some reason.
Fruit Crunch's determination is foolish and yet admirable at the same time though I really do wonder if he'll ever attain the power he desires since from what I can see, Severance is simply instructing them on the basic teachings of Night Mare's religion and punishing any failure to memorize it by heart. Baby steps I guess.
Their upbringing seems to have made learning the dark goddess' dogma more difficult for some more than others, well that and how young they are so some of it might go over their heads. Still, everyone know what happens when they play with fire. The only question is who will get burned first and who will endure.
Unless someone decides to be a tattletale that is.
Fruity tooty is gonna try get some booty?
9291920
Yeah, but that's because Severance is a major artifact of a powerful God.
“We can’t quit, and we can’t tell anypony, so we just keep doing what we’re doing and hope it all works out okay?”
this is not the way you have so much to learn and some lessons will be painful.
9291920 Not the best comparison; remember, even if it was a hard-fought victory, Lex killed Xiriel.
9291927 I wouldn't say that. Severance is just teaching them strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through...oh.
9291959 Fruit Crunch has basically asked Severance for a crash course in being the Night Mare's disciple, throwing himself into the role far more than his friends are...and far more than Cloudbank ever did, for that matter. The difference is that Cloudbank had already earned the Night Mare's recognition with her actions during the fight against Tlerekithres, and only needed to be pointed toward the goddess by Lex afterward. Fruit Crunch and his friends, by contrast, still need to demonstrate why she should bother with them, though as noted Crunchy is trying the hardest. The others still have, as we saw, varying levels of doubt.
How this all works out will be anypony's guess.
9292319 Wait, are we talking as in "treasure" or as in "a girl"? Though at the moment I'm not sure he's really looking for either.
9292630 Certainly, their reasoning isn't the best. But that's sort of what you'd expect from kids, especially when they're burdened with the knowledge that this was their idea in the first place. Hopefully things won't end up too badly for them.
9292733
It's more an attempt at a rhyming joke.
9292736 Okay. That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure.