House of the Rising Sunflower

by kudzuhaiku

Break

Perhaps a mistake had been made. Rain came down through the opening in the roof in a steady trickle—the same opening that allowed all the heat to escape—and water dripped into the fire. This caused the fire to sizzle, spit, steam, and smoke, which in turn, filled the stone cottage with choking smoke—something the fire had already done before it had started raining during the night. Before, the smoke had been a minor annoyance, a tickle to the nose, a slight ache to the lungs, and a persistent need to sneeze, but now? Everything was just so much worse and Sundance could not help but wonder if that, perhaps, a mistake had been made .

The cottage—his cottage—was as cold as an icebox. What little heat that his fire made went straight up and right out the opening in the roof directly above it. Sleeping on a wooden shelf wasn’t comfortable, not at all, and the straw did nothing to cushion him, it only caused him to itch. This was, without a doubt, the most miserable Sundance had ever been in his whole life, which was saying something, because he had once had the feather flu.

But then, as things often do, everything took a turn for the worst when Sundance realised that if he was miserable and suffering, then so too also were his peasants, his ponies. And they had been living this way for years. A deep and abiding sense of shame overcame him when he thought about how one night was enough to break him, and, huddled beneath his blanket, Sundance began to cry while he wished for the consoling, comforting company of his mother.

---

The floor of the dining hall was a bit muddy and this seemed to concern several ponies, who stood, stared, and clucked their tongues at the offending filth. This place had a good and proper roof that didn’t seem to leak—which made it tempting to move into. A fire blazed in a stone and clay hearth and the smoke was vented through a proper chimney. It was remarkable how good of condition this building was in, and hours must have been spent rubbing the walls with oil for them to gleam the way that they did.

Sadly, the roaring fire did nothing to actually warm the vast hall, which was drafty and cold. The windows only had shutters, not glass, and these rattled in the wind. But by the fire—where Sundance just so happened to be sitting—it was toasty enough. Cucumber too, was sitting next to the fire, bearing whatever misery he endured with a stoic grace that left Sundance feeling rather inadequate.

“What’s for breakfast?” Sundance asked of his trusty retainer. “Or do you not know?”

“Cornmeal mush, with bits of fruits and nuts that’ve survived winter storage,” Cucumber replied. “This dampness’ll be the death of me, so it will. I’ll need a long soak in the springs to get this damnable ache out.”

“Floodgate is out standing in the rain like an idiot—”

“That’s his business, Pinto Bean.”

“I don’t get it, Stump. Why does he like watching running water so much? Why ain’t he got the sense to come in out of the rain?”

Stump drew in a deep breath to summon his patience. “So he can understand how it flows. He’s the reason this box canyon doesn’t flood.” Then, with a huff of annoyance, the older, shorter earth pony stomped away to avoid further conversation.

“Milord, we’re missing a few head,” Cucumber said in a low voice that was a bit raspier than usual. “It’s normal enough. We have some who skip an early breakfast and eat come mid-morning, so they do. And if it is raining, Floodgate won’t likely come inside. If there’s even a hint of flooding, he’ll let us know. He’s like Potato, Milord, and we’d be in trouble without him.”

“Good to know,” Sundance remarked as some of the warmth from the fire eased his cramps from shivering all night.

If this was spring, Sundance couldn’t imagine the sheer brutality of winter. Already, in the back of his mind, he was making a list of priorities and better housing hovered near the top of things to do. How? He didn’t know. These were things that would cost money, no doubt, and he was up to his wingpits in debt. He had once complained about cold floors, and he would whine about how the radiator wasn’t warm enough, but now, having spent just one night in a primitive stone cottage, he would gladly go back to living with cold floors and a creaky, hissy radiator.

As Sundance sat thinking fond thoughts about his once hated radiator, the door was thrown open and a wet, muddy pony stood in the doorway, panting, with her tongue hanging out. Sundance recognised her as Rocky Ridge and he saw right away that her pupils were tiny pinpricks of panic.

“There’s been an accident!” Rocky Ridge almost coughed out the words and her voice was ragged. “I went out to pick mushrooms with Earwig and Earwax! Earwax slipped on the wet grass and got her leg wedged in a crack! She’s bleeding! Come quick! Cucumber, we need you to get her out! Hurry! It’s bad! Real bad!”

Sundance was on his hooves in a second, but Cucumber took far, far longer.

---

Cucumber utterly lacked the means to hurry and stumbled over the rough ground, his knees popping and crackling with each pained step. Sundance, realising that every second mattered in an emergency, knew that drastic measures had to be taken. Unfurling his wings, he whipped away the raindrops that clung to his feathers and then took to the air with but a few powerful flaps. Upwards he rose, circling like a bird of prey, and then… he dove.

There was a startled cry from Cucumber when Sundance hooked his forelegs around the old unicorn’s barrel, just behind his front legs, and lifted him aloft. The startled cry became a wail of terror as the ground fell away, and Rocky Ridge, realising this was a vital necessity, broke into a full gallop. Even though she was older, she was in marvellous shape and her acceleration was brisk. Sundance flew overhead and Cucumber wailed like a siren that echoed through the canyons of the city.

Others also followed and a small, fast herd was formed. Hooves thundered and tore muddy divots from the black soil. Cucumber’s pitiful screeching hit a fever pitch as his hooves pawed the empty air and his terror flowed out from behind him in a steady yellow stream. Somehow, as a group, the earth ponies were even faster and Rocky Ridge continued to pick up speed as her fellow earth ponies pressed in around her, but Sundance wasn’t struggling to keep up.

In the distance thunder crackled and on the south horizon, black clouds gathered.

---

With a horrified gasp, Sundance realised that Earwax was hanging by her leg, which was wedged tight in a crevasse. She had slipped, slid down the escarpment, hit the crack, her leg had gone in, and her body had kept going—thus snapping her leg. There was a considerable amount of blood and jagged, splintery shards of bone were visible, having torn through the skin. Earwig was trying to comfort her sister, who whimpered and had her teeth gritted.

Just looking at it made Sundance’s dock tingle and he felt like throwing up.

“Oh, that’s bad, so it is,” Cucumber said from down below where he stood on relatively flat ground. “I done reckon I’ll have to saw that off.”

“First we need to get her out,” Earwig said in a voice that cracked with each spoken word. “We need rope to stop the bleeding, it’s coming out in heartbeat spurts.”

“I brought some rope,” Pea, a stallion, said around the rope he held in his mouth.

Closing his eyes, Cucumber went to work with his magic and a faint glow could be seen around Earwax’s leg. The rocks shifted a bit, the mare bawled in pain, but Cucumber did not falter. When he grunted, the ground parted a bit, the crack in the escarpment spread just a tiny bit, which was enough for Earwig to pull the twisted, lumpy remains of her sister’s leg free.

“Get a tourniquet around that leg and then tie her to my back—”

“Milord?” Cucumber’s eyes fluttered open as the glow from his horn dimmed.

“Don’t take my sister!” Earwig clung to her sibling while also assuming the most submissive posture possible. “Look, I’ll work twice as hard! I won’t be disrespectful, I swear! I’ll do anything you ask… anything! Just don’t take my sister!”

“I need to get her to Canterlot, to a hospital.” Try as he might, Sundance couldn’t understand the panic.

Cucumber was already moving in with the rope and Earwig eased both herself and her sibling down the muddy, gravel-strewn escarpment. The remains of Earwax’s leg flopped around like a scarf in the wind and the injured mare howled in agony. Behind Sundance, somepony threw up, and his ears pivoted backwards to the sound of their retching.

“You’re gonna take her into the woods and leave her! Don’t lie!”

“What?” Sundance blinked a few times in confusion. After a long night with little sleep, no breakfast, and now this, there was just too much to take in. “I have no intentions of doing any such thing! How barbaric!”

“Don’t take my sister!” As Cucumber began to tie a section of rope around the bloody, mutilated stump, Earwig continued to plead. “I’m sorry we were rude! I didn’t mean it! Please, please don’t take her out into the woods and leave her!”

“Milord, the last Milord allowed nature to take its course in matters such as these.” Cucumber cinched the rope tight and the resulting shriek from Earwax made every ear twitch. “There’s no saving that leg. She won’t be able to work and she’ll just be a mouth to feed that does nothing—”

“Cucumber, shut up!” Stomping his hooves against the stony ground, Sundance tried to get a grip on his own rising panic. “We don’t have much time and I need to get her to Canterlot. Get that mare strapped to my back right now and try to secure that leg somehow!”

“Milord—MASTER! Please!” Earwig let go of her sister and crawled on her belly to grovel before Sundance. Laying prostrate in the mud, she began weeping while reaching for Sundance’s front hooves. “I will do anything you ask and never once make a word of protest! I am giving the whole of my life to you for hers! Let me care for her! Don’t take her!”

Sundance grunted when Earwax was slung over his back and she was far, far heavier than he anticipated. Lightning crackled in the south and several heartbeats later, thunder rumbled. The rain was picking up now, washing away the blood. Rivulets of water trickled down from Sundance’s mane and into his eyes. Earwax struggled, but she was weak—too much of her blood was now in the soil and not in her body where it belonged.

“There won’t be no flying’ in that storm,” Cucumber said while he wound the rope around both Sundance and Earwax. “Rather than flying off with her, perhaps we should go home and I could tend to her there. I could have what’s left of that leg off in no time with a saw, so I can. Surely we can talk about what to do—”

“Don’t take my sister!”

“I’m taking your sister to Canterlot and I’m not leaving her in the woods! That’s horrendous!” Sundance had to lean into a powerful gust of wind blowing up from the south and it’s icy chill stung his flesh. His muscles sang with adrenaline and his wings ached to be flying. “Nopony gets left out in the woods, I promise!”

“The last Milord made promises too,” a quiet voice said. “He never kept a one of them. Why should we trust you?”

“Because I’m not an asshole!” Sundance snapped and he winced when Cucumber pulled the rope taut. “I’m taking Earwig to—”

“Earwax, Milord.”

“I’m taking Earwax to Canterlot and that’s final! And then she’s coming home, where she belongs, and that’s all there is to say about it!” The rough rope being wound around Sundance was sure to leave rope-burns, but that was the least of his concerns. Eyeballing the storm, he knew that he needed to get moving, and now. When Earwig clutched his front hoof, he looked down at her and felt his heart breaking.

“Don’t take my sister,” she wailed. “Send us away together so I can take care of her!”

“Cargo secured, Milord.” Cucumber’s voice was thick with regret. “Sire, I beg of you to reconsider.”

“Cucumber, you are in charge until my return,” Sundance commanded. “I must be going!” Spreading his wings, he turned around, facing the wind, and took off at a run, angling his wings into the powerful gusts with the hopes of getting the most lift. Earwax was much heavier than he anticipated, exceeding even the heaviest loads of cargo that he had once carried on his courier job.

Pumping his wings, Sundance lowered his head, squinted his eyes, and charged into the wind. His hooves slipped in the muddy earth and he had to scramble to remain upright, to not pitch over. The tight rope cut into his belly, his sides, and his wingpits, restricting his movements. He hadn’t thought this through very well, and Cucumber clearly didn’t know how to secure a load to a pegasus. When at last his hooves left the earth and did not return, Sundance let out a crow of triumph as he began to soar, skimming just above the muddy, rocky ground.

“Don’t take my sister!”

Author's Note:

So, anybody remember the descriptions of Canterlot during a stormy, blustery day in The Mask Makes the Pony?

Comments

[Spamotron]

Okay so next on Sundance's to-do list. Pick up some emergency signal flares and smoke powders.

[Bast]

Well now, shit meet fan the best of friends.

[HoneyBadgerr]

So, anybody remember remember the descriptions of Canterlot during a stormy, blustery day in The Mask Makes the Pony?

yeah! absolutely!

_{someone help remind me!!}

[Bahamuttone]

anybody remember remember the

Is the repetition on purpose?

[mastermenthe]

I remember something about vertical downdrafts strong enough that when they hit Canterlot terrain they turned sideways and became horizontal-rain hurricane-force winds.

[mastermenthe]

Now, on a lighter note to distract from this chapter, a bad pun: "House Of The Rising Souffle"

[kudzuhaiku]

8694377

[AyanamiRei]

A new peasant appears, and now we got this heroic rescue! What a chapter! <3

[Hodios]

Oh, so the old lord was that bad. I see.

[Hoof of Approval]

Now is the time, Sunflower! Show them you can be the best lord!

[CommanderBigMac]

That’s a pretty bad cliff hanger. And the suspension this chapter leaves me in is no fun either. Want to know what happens next

[Majk]

Damn, bit by bit, you keep revealing all the shit hidden in the shadows before Celestia finaly moved her duff to do something about it.
The wait for the next update is going to suck soooop bad.

[High_Light]

I do remember that! Masterful stroke, I love this universe!

[Raul]

So, anybody remember the descriptions of Canterlot during a stormy, blustery day in The Mask Makes the Pony?

... bad?

Ill be back in ten minutes. Hold up.

Edit: yup, really bad.