A Filly's New Hope

by Mocha Star

Chapter 28

Nova winced as the setting sun glared into her eyes, silhouetting several equine shapes outside the tunnel entrance. She noticed them shuffling around her and she squeed when she noticed Tree. Running to him she jumped into his open forelegs and tumbled over him giggling. “How’d you find me?”

Tree squeezed her tight and let her go, sitting up as she stumbled back from him, still smiling. “Trek has a tracking enchantment on her equipment. So when the staff was with you, so were we.”

“That… is so spiffy!” Nova gawked at him and looked around at the smiling faces around her. “Who’s the, everypony?” She tried to count but lost track after eleven local ponies.

“We’re from the town the birds set on fire,” a mare said as she faced the tunnel, a large rock nearly the size of her head in her magic, hovering beside her head and a scowl on her face. Nova looked around to see the ponies, now looking at the tunnel as Rild was led out, the tarp torn and wrapped tightly around his wings, his legs tied so firmly he could barely move them.

“Monster! You nearly killed me,” the mare shouted as she hurled the rock at Rild.

It struck him with a thud but he didn’t slow his walk from the tunnel. Several other rocks, stones, sticks, insults, and some fruit were flung at him and Vacca. Vacca was less unwavering and winced, tripped, ducked, and grunted as objects struck her.

Nova gasped and galloped towards Vacca. “Stop! She’s a nice bird-cat, he’s the meanie.”

The jeers didn’t stop, but the townsponies redirected their anger toward Rild, to not hurt the filly more than spare Vacca. “You burned my family legacy!”

“You burned my son in the fire you set.”

“They deserve to be set on fire, like our town!”

“Yeah!” a dozen voices agreed.

A distinct pop gathered their attention. “Nay, ponies,” Trek shouted to quiet the rowdy crowd. “The crime is a level three violation. I have sent word to the nearest contingency of guards and they will be tried in court by a royal tribunal,” Trek looked to the two gryphons she had now standing side by side, “and perhaps even Princess Celestia will show her wrath upon you for destroying a growing town.”

Vacca winced at the word ‘wrath’, beginning to tremble. Her panther tail curling under her as her feathers fell flat to her body, making her look more sleek and smooth.

“Do your worst, for even you Princess can not change the world.”

“Maybe not, bird-brain,” a stallion shouted as he flung a clump of dirt and grass, “but she can change you into a pile of ashes!”

Cheers and jeers filled the air.

“Come, Grape,” Tree stated, “I’ve got to help set up camp. Mark Spot?” he called to a yellow stallion with a bright pink mane that made Nova giggle. “This’ Grape Juice. Watch her while I go take inventory of what I have left on my cart and pack it back up. Then, I guess I’ll start with tents.”

“Heh, hiya, Grape. Nice to meet you,” Mark held a hoof out. She bumped it and followed him a short way before stopping with him and meeting several other fillies and colts.

Nova made a couple good friends right away. She played tag, hide and seek -the shortest game she’d ever played since there wasn’t anything to hide behind in the plains-, and finally, as the sun began to set, she sat around a small fire pit for just the youth.

“Wow. It must’ve been so scary to be captured like that. I was hiding but, I heard about it on the way here.”

“What was it like to be with the birds? Did they eat you?” A colt asked.

“How could they eat her? She’s right there!” retorted another in shock.

“They could have eaten part of her. Like, her tail or something before she was rescued.”

“Did you get to use magic on them?”

The group of fillies and colts gasped in unison at the new flood of questions that filled their minds.

Nova puffed her chest at the unbridled attention and did her best to answer the questions as fast as they were asked before telling them of the most amazing foalnapping of her life.

…

“So then, like, I was thrown in the corner and they were all ‘stop talking or I’ll eat your tail, puny pony.’ and they were yelling at me. I wasn’t scared at all,” Nova sat tall, the firelight dancing across her front and reflecting in her eyes as she regaled the foals in her adventure.

“Woah~...”

“I got up and told ‘em ‘Hey, don’t put me in timeout cuz you’re the mean ones!”

“She’s so brave,” A colt said, melting slightly at the sight of the super-filly before him.

“Yeah,” a filly replied in the same way.

Nova raised her forelegs over her head. “I don’t listen to ponies!” she shouted in a gruff voice causing a couple children to yelp in surprise. “You will be on timeout… Forever! Mwahahaha.”

“And then what happened?!”

“Oh, it was totally cool. I took a stick when they weren’t looking and gave the boss cat-bird a whuppin’ he won’t ever forget!” she finished landing on all fours with emphasis.

The other children erupted into jubilant cheers and hollers. Nova soaked it all in and beamed a proud smile across the group, catching the happy face of Tree by the adults’ fire. He winked at the filly and turned back to his group to listen in on another story.

“Grape Juice, you’re the coolest pony in the history of ever! Did you know that?”

“I wanna fight gryphons when I grow up.”

“I’m gonna be in the royal guard and save ponies from gryphons!”

“Me too!”

“Grape Juice, can you stay here and be our teacher? We need to know how to fight monsters like you.”

Nova sat proudly and let her gaze travel to the south to a tight pen that held the three gryphons. Their legs were tied thoroughly, their heads were covered with blankets, tied firmly, and their wings were held shut with a makeshift splint set.

Without a word, Nova stood up and adjusted the gem that she had tied into her mane for the trip, taking it out and hovering it in front of her. The firelight danced through it, sending ripples of light throughout the camp.

“Wow! What’s that? Is that a gryphon gem? Can I touch it?”

Nova turned her head to the gryphons and back to her gem. “They should go free.”

Silence befell the campsite.

“Grape, what a funny girl,” a stallion laughed gathering the attention back to his story.

“No,” Nova said softly as she trotted around her firepit and toward the adults, “they have to go free.”

“Grape,” Tree leaned over and held a hoof out, “you need sleep. You’ve been through a lot today.”

“No, Tree!” she shouted. All attention was on her now. She didn’t falter. “I was a slave for almost my whole life before I met you,” she stated, ignoring the reactions, “and all I wanted, all the time, was my freedom. I didn’t even know it then, but I was a prisoner in my mind, and in my heart,” she placed a hoof on her chest.

“I had a mom in there. She wasn’t my real mom, but she was my mom. I think she’s dead now since I escaped after the boss tried to hurt me, back there…” A round of gasps filled the silence, “but once I was free; from that place. I made family, friends, and we all love each other… I have everything a filly needs.

“But, I know that there are things as bad as being a slave, and that’s what those gryphons are in trouble with.”

“Darling,” an elder mare started, “they foalnapped you. Robbed from your family, burnt our town in fire…”

“I, I know,” Nova scuffed the grass, “but they’re slaves to somepony out there that they have to pay or something bad will happen. I, I just think… No, I know that it has to stop,” she stomped her hoof. “If we just punish the ponies that get caught then we won’t stop the bad; it’ll just go somewhere else, right?” she asked.

The adults sat in silence, looking between each other. They glanced to the gryphons then back to the filly. “Grape, look-”

“I think we should discuss this,” Tree interjected, “in private, Grape.”

“B-but, if we stop their boss, then their boss won’t hurt anypony like my boss tried to hurt me,” Nova said sheepishly.

Silence befell the area again. The fillies and colts lay still, listening and watching the adults’ reactions.

“I say she’s right,” a stallion said with a snort.

A mare nickered in agreement. “Hear, hear. Cut the snake off at the head, not at the tail.” Several winnies and nickers in agreement followed.

“Let’s think this through, first,” a pony with glasses said loudly, “are we in any position to capture or find a black market seller of, whatever, that lives or operates out of Celestia knows where in Equestria, or beyond? This sounds way above us, guys.”

The adults sat in silent agreement.

“Well, why not ask the princess? She’s supposed to help us all, right?”

“Um, Grape, it’s not that simple. Celestia is the princess, she doesn’t do everything. No pony can, that’s why we have councils and representives in Canterlot.”

Nova tapped her hoof on the ground in thought. “Why not pull the string? Remember that scarf Apple made and it had that loose yarn? I pulled it and it was a little but then it was almost half the scarf. Those birds are the start of the string and we can just, I dunno, pull ‘em? Does that make sense?”

Smiles formed on the adults as the idea swam through them all. “Ya know, I think she’s onto something...”

Comments

[deltablaze22]

I loved it when nova was gloating! It was so cute!

[Moonlit Path]

Nova is stronger then some adult ponies. Who else would go through that and still tell everypony to let them go?