Chapter 17
It was early, and the first glow of morning was still only promising a new dawn. A murmur of activity and industry was already bustling from the camp now setup on the flats below the homestead, despite the early hour. Provender and Remedy fidgeted outside the front door, checking supplies and saddlebags.
“Are you sure you won’t take your blades?” asked Provender, counting provisions for the fourth time.
“Dad. This is a peace mission. What would it look like if I go in there armed to the teeth. Not to mention how little good it would do if I was really attacked,” Remedy’s muffled voice replied from within another saddlebag. “Now stop fussing, and you worry about your job,” she said, coming up to breathe. “When Sunny comes to water the flowers this morning, you HAVE to stop her running off to find me. I know she will. The same goes for Trade, if he comes back early from his trip or something. Remember they are pegasi, so don’t just blurt it out, because they’ll be gone before you can stop them, so take them inside the house first. OK?”
“Yeah, I get it,” Provender grumbled. “Although I’d feel better if your friends were with you.”
Remedy shook her head. “Sunny didn’t cope well with the last trip. She puts on a brave face, and she’s loyal to a fault. But I don’t want her to go through this. I’ve already been through it so – damage done, right?” She smiled weakly.
Provender frowned.
“Trade is currently on a make up mission from his father,” she continued before he could object. “I don’t want to put pressure on him to leave. But when they do arrive, they’ll definitely try something foolhardy like diving into the forest to try and find me. So, keep them safe for me?” She put her foreleg over his withers. It didn’t quite reach.
“Yes, alright. You just worry about getting back safe and don’t be late either. Otherwise I’LL be coming in to find you.”
Remedy hugged her father.
“All ready to go?” a cheery voice called out across the once-green and now somewhat trampled front yard.
Peridot walked over wearing his trademark robe with the hood down. Beside him a runty cream earth pony with a shock of curly orange hair carried an ornate wooden box on his back. A golden key hung on a chain around his neck.
“This is Ki, one of our little troupe,” said Peri. The diminutive pony gave a respectful bow. “And here is the offering. Now, you remember what we talked about last night? The offering is for the leaders of the tribes. All of them. We don’t want anyone to feel left out.”
Peridot levitated the box from Ki’s back, resting it on Remedy’s. “I’ve enchanted it to prevent it being open...”
ZAP!
“Ouch!”
Provender sheepishly sucked his hoof and glared suspiciously at the box while the others stared at him with mild astonishment.
Peridot narrowed his eyes at Provender. “AS I was saying – to prevent it from being opened before midnight. After that, it’s up to you to keep it safe until it’s unveiled.” Peridot passed the key to Remedy.
“So why all the mystery?” asked Provender.
“There is nothing more mysterious in this world than a locked box. As to why it’s to be kept locked – this is a precious offering, and one for carnivores. Its contents would not be appreciated by present polite company. I have done my research after what you told me about the council members and am quite certain that the gift will leave quite an impression. So, don’t worry about it. Just open it when all the members are present.”
Remedy nodded. “Got it.”
Provender hugged Remedy one last time and pressed his forehead to hers. “If there’s any chance of danger. You get away, straight away! The mission doesn’t matter more than your life.”
Remedy hugged him back. “I understand, but don’t worry. I do have friends on the inside after all.”
Remedy gave them all a final nod, and the three stallions watched as Remedy walked down the, now well trodden, path.
“You best pray to Celestia that she makes it back safe. For YOUR sake,” said Provender, a steel edge in his voice.
An amused expression curled onto Peridot’s face. “I’ll keep that under advisement.”
A dark rain cloud zipped across the sky. A pair of yellow forelegs holding the heavy vapours in a tight hug. Sunny glanced down and squinted. She spied a familiar taffy coloured mare walking towards the forest. She gasped and kicked off her cloud into a steep dive.
Remedy walked along at a determined pace. Running through a mental checklist of readiness and preparation.
Sunny glided up behind her. “And WHERE do you think you’re going?”
Remedy stopped and gave a heavy sigh. “He had one job.”
She forced a grin onto her face. “Hi, Sunny,” she said with uncharacteristic cheer.
Sunny frowned, a frown the match of any chastising speech.
“You’re early today,” Remedy continued, stiffly. She had never been a good liar.
“Well I thought you might need help setting up this party you never told me about.”
“Party?” Remedy cocked her head.
Sunny landed and started to stalk around Remedy.
“Uh, yeah. Nearly every mare in Ponyville got invited. So, if you’re not preparing a party, what ARE you up to?”
“Sunny, I don’t know anything about a party.”
Sunny continued prowling around Remedy. “Funny, since it’s at your place. It doesn’t look like you’re out for a stroll, or just collecting flowers. You’re packed to your withers there.”
“Uh, it’s a... See the thing is,” Remedy stalled, searching for the right words or indeed, any words. Lying to Sunny felt terrible, and was usually shamefully ineffective. That mare could sniff out a scandal like a sow finds a truffle.
Sunny marched in front of Remedy and gasped. “And you have your seal! I KNEW IT – you're going back into the forest!”
Remedy gave a guilty little smile and chuckled weakly. “Aw shucks, you got me,” she said, downplaying the seriousness of her crime.
“No! Na-ah. No way! I won’t let you.”
Remedy sighed again, settling on her haunches. “Sunny, I know this is going to be hard for you, but I’m on a very important mission.”
“I don’t care!” Sunny blurted.
“You know all the bad stuff that’s been happening over the past month. It’s because of the carnivores. I’m taking a peace offering to try and reopen negotiations.”
“Then someone else can take it. You’ve done enough already. We already thought we’d lost you once.”
Remedy smiled sadly and looked down, touching the seal. “It has to be me, Sunny. I’m the only pony who can safely meet the carnivores. I don’t want to see anypony or any animal hurt. I’ve already made up my mind. Even Dad has let me go.”
A dozen tragic thoughts flicked through Sunny’s mind, their shadows reflected in the inflections of her face. “W-Well then – I’m going too!”
Remedy smiled sweetly, “But if you come with me, who’s going to water the flowers?”
Sunny glared with all the joy and effervescence of a tax audit. “Remedy. Sod your flowers,” she dead-panned.
Remedy frowned, losing her lingering pretence of humour. “Sunny, I know you want to help me, but I’m going into the forest. You’re terrified! I can see your legs shaking just thinking about it. I can’t ask you to come with me.”
“I AM scared,” said Sunny, her voice cracking. “Really scared. My heart is beating so fast, it feels like it’s going to burst out of my chest and run away without me.”
Sunny sniffed, hot tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She took a deep breath and continued, “but if you think I’m letting you go in there alone. Well you don’t know me at all – and if you try and run off without me, I’m going to follow anyway – and if I get lost and eaten, it’ll be your fault – and I’ll come back as a ghost, and haunt you forever.” Her words babbled out with barely contained hysteria, tossing her mane defiantly, and stomping her hoof, even as her tears started to run.
Remedy’s eyes watered and she wrapped Sunny in a big hug. “You really are the best friend. Are you sure I can’t change your mind?”
Sunny sniffled and let out a short pained giggle. “Not a chance.”
Less than half a mile away, the treeline whispered and hushed in the breeze, as if calling them. They both sat holding each other for a moment, watching the distant boughs twist and wave like an old friend – beckoning. Remedy looked back at Sunny. “Are you sure about this?”
Sunny looked anything but, but she nodded firmly anyway. Remedy smiled sadly, and led them both towards the forest.
“So what’s in the box?” squeaked Sunny, desperate for any distraction.
“It’s just a gift for the council.”
“Yeah, but what is it?”
“I don’t know, but apparently it’s not really fit for ponies so it’s been sealed with a —”
ZAP!
“Ouch!”
Remedy looked over her shoulder. Sunny was hovering above, glaring angrily at the box, sucking her hoof. “— spell. You know at first I thought having a spell was excessive, but now I think he had a point. The fact is – it’s not going to be opened before midnight.”
Sunny settled down next to Remedy. Before them, the dark maw of the forest approached. Remedy stopped on the edge of the forests shadow. “Last chance. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“If you’re going, so am I. Not negotiable,” said Sunny defiantly, but a tremor in her voice betrayed her fear.
“Ok then, stay close. Here we go.” Remedy stepped forward and was swallowed by the shadow of the forest canopy. Sunny swallowed against the dryness in her throat, and followed after.
For a while, they both walked in silence. For Remedy, it was familiar yet strange. The forest was quiet now. Far different from the howls and growls, the pounding hooves and heartbeats or the rushing of blood in her ears that accompanied the last time she walked this path. There was no sign of tooth or claw, but all around the forest murmured with activity. Unseen undergrowth rustled, twigs snapped, sudden flurries of wing-beats took flight and exotic birds squawked suddenly in the dense foliage. Sunny jittered constantly. Her head and ears twitched and swiveled, scanning her surroundings incessantly.
An acorn fell out of the tree next to Sunny striking a stone with a loud CLACK. She performed a standing leap the envy of any cat, landing on Remedy’s opposite side. A squirrel dropped onto the ground next to the errant seed. It squeaked and tilted its head at the cowering mare before retrieving its recent harvest.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” asked Remedy, concern creasing her brow.
Sunny trembled. “Alright? No, I wouldn’t say that. I don’t know how you can stand it. I just know a hundred hungry carnivores are probably watching us right now.”
Remedy placed a hoof against Sunny’s face to draw her fevered focus back to her. “Are you sure you want to come with me. You could fly up and out of here in an instant. Above the canopy the sun will be shining and you can easily find your way home.”
“No way. I’d never find you again if I went above the treetops, and I told you already. I’m not leaving you alone here,” she spouted defiantly, ignoring the knocking sounds of her knees.
Remedy frowned. “Sunny, it’s only going to get worse from here on. We will be meeting all the carnivores, and some of them are not as friendly or fluffy as Faolan.”
Sunny swallowed hard and took a deep breath, gritting her teeth to stop them from chattering. “I’m not leaving you.”
Remedy sighed, but couldn’t suppress a grateful smile. “Come on, we’ve got a long walk.”
As soon as Remedy turned away, Sunny’s brave face deflated like a balloon and she tucked her tail in tight. She shadowed close behind Remedy her ears and head scanning once again.
“How do you even know where you’re going in here? Everything looks the same,” said Sunny, daring to speak after another few minutes of walking.
Remedy chuckled nervously. “Well, I don’t really know my way back to the wolf den. I was so focused on getting out that I wasn’t really taking note.”
“Wait, what!? Our plan is to wander around until something finds us?”
Remedy winced. “Well, not exactly. I’m going to ask for directions.”
“Directions?”
“Remember how I was chased in here by the wolves?”
“Uh-huh,” said Sunny, suspiciously.
“Well, I escaped them the first time. I ran down this very path. I was racing for that opening over there,” she said, pointing to a bright portal of light leading to freedom. “Except I was cut off at the last second. So instead, I ran down this path.” Remedy started walking down a dark and forsaken corridor lined with thick cobwebs.
Sunny shivered, and quickly followed. She let out a pitiful whimper as the pathway closed in around her. “Oh, why does it have to be so tight,” she mewled. She tripped over an unreasonably thick cobweb strand and gave a stifled shriek that dissolved into a miserable sob.
Remedy came to a stop before a dry, leaf-covered clearing.
“Oh finally, it opens up,” whimpered Sunny.
Remedy blocked her with a hoof before she could bolt out of the oppressive, cramped tunnel. “Now, Sunny. Aleena can be a little… intimidating, but as long as you stay with me you’ll be fine. Just stay with me and try not to freak out.”
Sunny’s ears flattened and she pinched off an involuntary whine.
Remedy tried to smile reassuringly, but couldn’t stomach Sunny’s miserable expression. She turned away and pushed down the pit of boiling sympathy in her chest. Remedy grit her teeth, and boldly walked into the center of the clearing. Sunny shadowed closely behind.
Remedy lifted her head and called out in a loud voice, “Aleena, don’t eat us. We’ve got business with the council and I need help finding them.”
From the dark depths of the canopy above, her voice – sweet and silky – filled the clearing. “More guests? And Remedy the pony no less? I’ve never been so popular.”
One, two, three, four, long sleek black legs slid silently from the canopy above and planted themselves around the perimeter of the clearing. “I didn’t expect you back so soon, I would have tidied up,” the voice crooned.
Sunny’s head flicked around watching the black chitinous tree trunks pierce the ground around her. Her breath quickened, and she slowly tilted her head up.
Aleena’s massive body slowly descended with an uncanny silence that belied her mass. Two large, red, pupiless eyes stared eternal, a ridge of six smaller ones dotted around her head like jewels in a crown. Plump, bristled pedipalps polished her twitching fangs, like a steel sharpens a knife.
Sunny’s pupil’s dilated, and she sucked in her breath, her mouth – agape. Her legs stopped trembling. In fact she stopped moving all her muscles.
“And it seems you’ve brought me a present. Ooh how I love having friends for dinner,” Aleena tittered.
An undignified gurgle bubbled from deep in Sunny’s throat. Her eyes rolled back in her skull and her brain vacated the premises. She teetered over and collapsed into the leaves.
“Sunny!” Remedy cried out.
“Oh dear, too much?” said Aleena.
“Aleena! She’s not food for you! She’s my friend! This is already terrifying enough for her without you going on like that,” Remedy barked. She placed an ear to Sunny’s chest.
“Well, if she was so terrified of the forest, why did you bring her then?” Aleena pouted.
Remedy sighed with relief at the sound of a short breath. She gathered Sunny up and cradled her head against her chest. “She’s just trying to protect me.”
Aleena let her body rest on the ground and gathered her legs up, crossing a pair in front of her. “Even when she is this terrified? It seems to me, she’ll need you to do the protecting.”
Remedy smiled and gently cleared a few strands of mane from Sunny’s face. “Maybe not physically, but Sunny saves me in lots of other ways.”
Aleena smiled. “You’ve changed a lot since I first met you. Ah – that look of complete abject terror,” she reminisced with a wistful fondness.
“Gee, I wonder why.“
Aleena watched quietly for a minute. She smiled at Remedy who was completely unconcerned with the ancient predator, slowly rocked the unconscious pegasus, still held tightly against her chest. “Perhaps I can make some amends," she said suddenly. "If you’re going to be wandering around the forest, we need to do something about your appearance.”
Remedy raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with my appearance. I’m wearing the seal. Isn’t it supposed to tell everyone I’m with the council?”
Aleena lifted her body and combed sheets of golden silk from her spinnerets. “Of course, dear, if they see it before it’s too late. Ambush predators tend to have a kill first – ask questions later. policy. And some, poor eyesight as well.”
“Oh. Well thanks, I guess. You know, if you didn’t insist on eating everything that walks in here, I’m sure you’d be a nice spider to talk to. Who knows, you might even make some friends.”
Aleena laughed with the frivolity of a summer festival. “I have friends, thank you very much.”
Remedy smirked. “Was that before or after you paralysed them and wrapped them up like a fresh bean burrito?”
Aleena pondered for a moment then shrugged. “Some from column a, some from column b.“
Remedy’s smirk flashed into horror. “Uh, what? I was kidding!”
Aleena continued to draw silken sheets, gathering a large spool of fine thread. “Just because you’re going to eat someone doesn’t mean you need to be rude about it,” she said, indifferently.
Aleena hung the loom of silk on a protruding branch where it was swarmed by tiny spiders. She drew out strong drag-line threads into a simple frame that stretched from floor to canopy. The tiny spiders climbed down the threads, each carrying one end of a strand of golden silk provided by Aleena and together, began a choreographed ballet, weaving in and around each other as they moved across the temporary loom.
Aleena turned back to Remedy with another length of silk stretched between a pair of legs. She sized Remedy up from head to tail like a measuring tape. But Remedy barely noticed, caught instead, in her own deep rumination.
“What’s the matter, dear?” asked Aleena.
Remedy clenched her eyes and sighed “I’m trying really hard to see things from the carnivore perspective. I really am. I know you’re not the monsters I once thought you were, or that you pretend to be. You have feelings, make friends, fall in love, raise families of your own. Just like us. But I just can’t reconcile how you can so easily take a life. Like it is the most normal and mundane thing. Like doing your laundry, or going to the markets. Don’t you ever think about how much pain you cause to those left behind?”
Aleena paused from her measurements and frowned at the hopeless expression Remedy was wearing.
Aleena smiled gently. “You are not the first pony to struggle with understanding our nature.”
The great black widow reached deep into the heights of her burrow and, without looking, pulled out a colourful stack of silk. She laid the bundle at Remedy’s side. It was a book or tome, except made entirely of woven coloured silk. Each page, a tapestry.
Aleena flicked the tome open to a middle section. The shiny silk pages, ancient, but as bright and colourful as the day they were woven, formed a montage of ancient history.
“In the time before Discord – the Spirit of Chaos, I was fortunate to receive fresh bounty into the heart of my burrow. A group of ponies, foraging in the forest, stumbled upon my den in search of shelter from a sudden storm. One of their number grew curious and, exploring, stumbled into my lair. Things began about as well as you know.”
Remedy shivered.
“The rest fled in fear, but just like for you, others came looking. Two more ponies like I’d never seen before. They were young, like you. Sisters.” Aleena turned the page. A white alicorn with a light pink mane, and a dark blue alicorn with a mane of starlight stood at the mouth of the burrow. A bundle of white suspended from the cave roof.”
“They look like princesses. Like Princess Celestia,” said Remedy, pointing at the alicorns.
Aleena pointed at the pink maned alicorn. “Indeed. Celestia, and her sister Luna.”
“You’ve met the Princess? Wait! I didn’t know Princess Celestia had a sister? What happened?”
Aleena turned the page. The next page was double size and rolled out to reveal a furious scene. The two alicorns stood, wings flared, stances low. A desperate rage was woven into the fabric of their eyes. Brilliant beams of light streaked from their horns towards a beautiful jewelled spider, curled inside a cocoon of pure white. The spider in the tapestry was wrought with silver and gold threads, and specks of amber and precious stones were woven amongst the stylised portrayal of Aleena.”
Remedy giggled at the flattering portrait.
“At first they sought to fend me off and take back their friend. Their magic was powerful, and I, coming from a time before it was tamed, do not wield it. But my silk is special. My threads are strong, and are immune to the persuasion of magic. Only my spiders and I can manipulate it. So I weathered the storm of their wrath, until the last of their magic was spent.”
Aleena folded up the double wide tapestry and turned the page. The next silk sheet showed the princesses with wings hanging limply by their sides, meagre sparks flickering from their horns. The spider had its legs wrapped around the captive bundle in a spiny chitinous hug.
“At that point, I commended them on their efforts but told them the prize was still mine. The fight had kindled my appetite and I saw no reason to relinquish my meal.”
Remedy whimpered, crestfallen. She reached and touched the soft silken portrayal of the hanging cocoon. “That poor pony.”
Aleena smiled sweetly. “But it was then that I was taken by surprise. You see, Remedy, the role of the Guardians is not just to be the pinnacle example of our kind, but we also are tasked with another purpose.”
Remedy looked up at Aleena with a raised eyebrow.
“Each of the Guardians represents and projects a virtue. Ulrica is the bastion of Family and Leadership; Abidah - Wisdom and Freedom; Don Zemar - Courage and Curiosity; and Nyoka - Instinct and Patience.
“And you?” asked Remedy, incredulous.
Aleena grinned and turned the page. “Love and Sacrifice.”
“Whoa, now. Love? You!? You’re the guardian of Love?” Remedy scoffed, laughing at the sheer absurdity.
Aleena raised an eyebrow at the accusation of incredulity. “You doubt? Love is primitive and powerful, both beautiful and terrifying. No more fitting a visage don’t you think?” she declared, using a free leg to invite inspection of her impressive frame. “But alas, I am but one of the Guardians of Love. Love is far too powerful a virtue to be represented by a single entity.”
“You also said Sacrifice. How can you be the Guardian of Love, when you also promote sacrificing creatures!?”
Aleena leaned forward to drive her point home. “Greater love hath no creature than they that would lay down their life for another. Sacrifice; is love's greatest expression.”
Aleena drew Remedy’s attention back to the book. The white princess appeared to be in some distress, while the darker alicorn stood forward, a livid gash across her chest, and her hoof extended with a glowing heart suspended above it. The spider reached out beyond the cocoon towards it.
“The younger sister proposed a trade,” continued Aleena. “Much to the distress of her older sibling, she offered her own life in exchange for the life of the young colt trapped in my silk. Such selfless courage touched me deeply, and I couldn’t refuse her offer.”
“Wait!” Remedy interrupted. “You ATE Princess Celestia’s SISTER!?”
Aleena grinned wickedly. “Well a sacrifice without a cost is not really a sacrifice, is it?”
Before Remedy could interject, Aleena flicked the page. A white leash of silk was now bound around the dark alicorn’s neck, and a grey pony laid across the young Celestia’s back.
“Celestia only agreed to the trade if I promised not to kill her sister for one whole day first. Of course I never had any real intention of killing her, I just felt I was owed some modicum of amusement for my lost meal. I also knew the deal was meant to buy time for the older sister to come up with an alternate means of rescuing her sister, which amused me. So instead, for a while, I had a pony pet.”
“So you didn’t eat her, you just wanted a pet? You are ridiculous you know that, right?”
“Is it so absurd? Ponies keep dogs and cats as pets. Why should it be so strange for me to have a pony pet?”
Remedy turned the page and grumbled under her breath. “It’s just weird and wrong.”
The next page showed Luna sitting, laughing and clapping with an animated Aleena, playing music. A jaunty tune, or so Remedy imagined.
Aleena continued. “Luna couldn’t reconcile our diet’s either. But we still became fast friends over the course of a single evening. We argued about our differences and shared our similarities. Each of us discovering the many coloured threads that make up the tapestry of our lives. Even though, at the end of the day, I didn’t promise not to eat one of her ponies in the future, nor did she promise not to fight me for them, or even sacrifice herself again.
“In fact, Luna became friends with all the Everfree Guardians. She never agreed with our ways, but made peace with them. She was the first into a fight, and the first to forgive. Did you know that ponies used to live within these very forests an eon ago?”
Remedy shook her head slowly, awestruck by the tale and vibrant images that flashed by, page after page.
“It is unfortunate that Celestia was not quite so interested in getting to know us,” said Aleena.
Aleena paused to pass off the length of silk she had used to measure Remedy to a spiderling. She folded her legs in front again, watching as Remedy flicked through the many paper thin tapestries. Image after image of impressive or impressionable creatures who had wandered across Aleena’s dangerous path. Many who likely never saw another day.
Aleena watched as each image of potential victim bore a prick of empathy upon the pony. “Remedy," she said softly, "this world is filled with life, but also its equal measure of death. Just as the light shines brightest in the darkness, so too the shadow needs a light to cast it. For eons before even your Celestia, the world has maintained this balance. We carnivores are a part of that balance. In some small primitive part, population control. But more importantly, a necessary force to keep greater evils at bay, and a foil to sharpen and strengthen all races against the harshness of the world itself.
“Even with our unseemly nature, we still experience love, loss, anger, joy and sadness like any other creature. That we can constrain these feelings to our own familial circles is just another aspect of that nature. We don’t apologise for this, and we understand why we are not understood by those who don’t share it. Like light and dark, each perfected in their opposition. Forever bound, but never joined. So, Remedy, think of us not as broken or evil. But a necessary suffering. A lesson in perseverance, rather than a demonstration of persecution. And to all those who weather our affection, a reward of richer character born of that perseverance. And character, as we all know, is the foundation of hope.
“So my advice to you, my dear Remedy is this. Persevere. And stop worrying about the bits of us you’ll never understand. Focus instead on what you can connect with.”
Remedy smiled sheepishly. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m trying too hard to think like a carnivore. Instead, I just need to be a herbivore among them."
“That’s the spirit, now take a deep breath, and don’t worry about the gory details.”
“Remedy?” Sunny groaned, a dim consciousness invading her mind.
Remedy looked down at the timid yellow pegasus in her lap, her half lidded eyes creeping open.
“I had a terrible dream and I…”
Above Remedy loomed a giant black spider with fangs as long as a pony’s leg.
Sunny screamed. She snatched Remedy around the waist and beat her wings desperately, pulling her backwards, kicking up a flurry of dried leaves.
“SUNNY, WAIT. CALM DOWN. IT’S ALL RIGHT!” Remedy shouted, but Sunny stared with primal fear into the glistening red eyes of Aleena. Remedy lifted off the ground.
“SUNNY, STOP!” Remedy twisted out of Sunny’s grip and fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Sunny was still on full reverse thrust when the relatively heavy Earth Pony ballast was released. She rocketed backwards in an out of control spin, slamming into the thick silk curtained walls of the burrow. The sticky threads wrapped around her. She panicked and flapped harder, still screaming. Remedy winced as Sunny crashed around the clearing. One wing was now completely bound. In a matter of seconds, she was completely cocooned and swung gently from the canopy from a single twisted cord, crying and sobbing.
“RUN NOW! While you still can!” she yelled, tears streaking down her face.
Remedy gently grabbed the dangling bundle and held it steady, turning Sunny’s head to face her. “Hey, hey, shhh. It’s all right. You’re not in any danger and neither am I.”
Sunny sobbed, rivulets running down her face. “Remedy, I hate it here. Why did you have to come in here?” she wailed, her body shuddering from the agony of her ragged shallow breaths. Her wing, twisted painfully behind her back.
“I know it can be scary and dangerous. But we have friends here, and I want to help.” said Remedy, soothingly.
Aleena poked the stranded pony with a pointy leg, eliciting another blubbering sob. Remedy swatted her leg away.
“Tsk, she wrapped herself up good and tight. I’ll need to get my spiderlings to cut away the silk,” said Aleena, frowning.
“Now you’ve gone and gotten yourself all good and tied up now,” Remedy translated.
“Am I going to be eaten now?” whimpered Sunny, between broken gasps.
“No, silly. We’ll have you out of that in a jiffy. But… we need the help of Aleena’s spiders to cut you out.”
A miserable wail rose from Sunny’s throat. She bucked and struggled, causing her bundle to sway uselessly. “But I don’t like spiders.”
Remedy grabbed Sunny’s face, locking the pegasus’ eyes on her own. “Hey now, I told you you’re going to be fine. Don’t you trust me?”
The wailing subsided, as did the struggling. Sunny calmed down to a mere bubbling cauldron of snot and haggard breaths. “I’m scared Remedy.”
“I know. How about I sing you a song while they cut you free?”
Sunny took a deep breath and swallowed her sobs. “I’ve never heard you sing before.”
Remedy smiled sadly, “I used to sing with my Mum a lot. Other than her, I’ve only ever sung to one other. But I think we can make an exception for the occasion.”
Sunny bit her lip to stop it trembling. “Ok. But you have to dance as well. A good song needs to be danced to.”
“Do you promise to be brave, and not panic?”
Sunny snorted back, what sounded like, about a half cup of mucus. “I’ll try.”
Remedy looked up at the still pondering spider. “Aleena, can you give me a swing in E-flat minor?”
Aleena blinked, startled by the command. She quickly drew a thick cord from an overhead branch and anchored it to a tree root. With one leg she drew the cord taught, the other plucked a deep base note. A large tarantula crawled up on an old log holding two sticks.
Remedy leaned in close to Sunny. A sly grin crept over her face as the deep swinging bass line filled the burrow. She stepped back, her hips swaying to the rhythm and mischievous eyes locked on Sunny.
test
The dawn has come I’ve got work again.
I need to feed us all, so it’s to the plough I’m chained.
The earth is filled with stone, and the air with dust
But seed won’t sow itself so onward I must strain
I maybe just a simple earth pony
But even I won’t wanna work, when my jobs a thankless chore.
I want to lay down,
Wanna take a day off
I want to sleep in
all day is work work work work
I say Oooh ooh oh
I-I’ve got nothing but my four hooves
And I just wanna let you know that I’m
about to go on holiday,
you’ll have to soon take
That plough,
That plough and pull yourself.
A thousand tiny spiderlings crawled down the tether, gathering around the seams of the cocoon and biting the tiny silk threads. Sunny glanced away from Remedy, fear creeping back in, but Remedy sauntered forward grabbing her face and focusing it back onto her and her song.
This unicorn walks by the farm.
Allergic to the mud and grime, looking like she found a crime.
Looks down on me, nothing but revulsion
Looks at me to say, can you keep your dirt away.
I want to lay down,
Wanna take a day off
I want to sleep in
All day is work work work work
I say Oooh ooh oh
I-I’ve got nothing but my four hooves
And I just wanna let you know that I’m
about to go on holiday,
you’ll have to soon take
That plough,
That plough and pull yourself.
Plough that field, and sow the seed.
Milk the cow and shear the sheep.
Raise that barn, and fix the fence.
A thousand chores need to commence.
But Unicorn and Pegasus,
when work abounds they exodus.
I have neither wings nor horn
So on the ground I work till worn
I want to lay down,
Wanna take a day off
I want to sleep in
my day is work work work work
I say Oooh oh oh
I-I’ve got nothing but my four hooves
And I just wanna let you know that I’m
about to go on holiday,
you’ll have to soon take
That plough,
That plough and pull yourself.
With a final strain, Remedy closed her performance and caught her breath. Sunny laughed and clapped her now free hooves. Remedy walked over to help her down from the final strand of silk.
“You should totally sing for Trade, he’ll go crazy for it,” beamed Sunny, her fear forgotten.
Remedy smiled and blushed. “I-I’ve only sung for three ponies. One was my mum when I was very little, the other was Natara. You’re the third.”
“Oh,” said Sunny, some of the cheer dampening. “Third time's the charm?” she chuckled morbidly.
Remedy looked away to hide her emotions but Sunny caught her before she could and pressed her forehead to Remedy’s. “Thank you. It really helped.”
“It was quite delightful.” The soft patter of clapping paws drew everyone’s attention to a new voice at the edge of the burrow. A tiger sat providing applause with an amused expression on his face.
Remedy faced the new arrival, making sure the council seal was on clear display. Sunny huddled in close to Remedy.
Seeing the defensive behaviour of the two ponies, the tiger held up his paws disarmingly.
“It’s ok, I’m not here to hunt. I just heard music and my curiosity was piqued.”
“A good thing too,” Aleena interjected. “Because these two are not only under the protection of the council, but my personal favour as well.”
Two silken cloaks wrought in gold and black fluttered over the two pony's heads. Sunny yelped from the sudden darkness but managed to remain planted on the ground.
Remedy pulled back the hood and took stock of her new robes. “Sunny, you have to look at these,” she gasped.
Sunny shook her hood loose from over her eyes and marveled. “Ooooh.”
The silk was almost iridescent in the dim forest light. What stray beams of light that made it through the canopy, danced along the fibres, emitting little sparkles of light. A pattern like a spider's web was inlaid in black and silver against the golden robe.
The two ponies “ooh’d” and “aah’d” as they modeled the new robes to each other. Sunny poked her wings out two specially made slots in the side of her robe.
“The silk in these robes is my own special brand. They will not fade or stain. They are as waterproof as duck's down and the fibres are as strong as steel cords, yet as soft and light as a morning fog. The colours and patterns on them will let any who see you know you bear my favour.
Remedy paused in her admiration of the garments. “Aleena, these are stunningly beautiful and I don’t have the words to thank you, but why are you doing this for us?”
“Oh pish-posh, it was nothing,” said Aleena, dismissing their compliments with a flippant wave of a tree-sized leg. “You two have grown on me a little, is all. Both of you have risked everything to come here today. And as you know, I have a soft spot for selflessness.”
“If you don’t want the robes, I’d be delighted to have them.“ The tiger now sat beside Remedy. He had snuck up as silent as the grave in the intervening distraction and now sampled the corner of Sunny’s robe between the digits of his paw. “I just adore the pattern. I’d be the talk of the pride.”
Sunny shrieked, and leapt behind Remedy again.
Aleena frowned. “I assume you’ve come from the southern jungles with the other cats, so I’ll forgive your ignorance in just walking into my burrow uninvited. Fortune would have you be more useful to me than a mere snack.”
The tiger’s ears fell flat back against his head.
“As it happens, Nyoka is meeting with Don Zemar about the little pony gathering just outside the forest. And Remedy, I assume you’re looking for Faolan and the other wolves?”
Remedy blinked, suddenly remembering her original mission “Oh, right! Yes.” She ran over to her discarded bags and the magic sealed box. Quickly wriggling them on. “I’ve come to give a peace offering. Something to reopen negotiations with Princess Celestia. Aleena, you’re invited as are all the other Council Members.”
“Really?” said Aleena. She looked hard at Remedy for a moment. “Well colour me surprised, you’re telling the truth. Perhaps Celestia has changed after all this time.”
“Pfft, of course. I wouldn’t lie about something like this,” said Remedy.
“Well, this is doubly fortunate then. Nyoka and Don Zemar are currently meeting at the Feline’s temporary camp, which are also not far from the wolves. Nyoka will be able to contact Abidah for you. And now you have an escort.”
The tiger sneered, straightening his posture proudly. “I am no sitter of ponies. Even ones with a council seal. I’d be the laughing stock of the tribe. No thank you.”
Aleena’s gentle manner and timeless age belied the speed and grace of which she was capable. In the mere blink of an eye, the giant black spider drew a lasso of silk and looped it over the tiger. In that single flawless moment the tiger was yanked into the air, all four paws bound tightly together and his body flung upside down. Aleena raised the struggling feline to her face. Her fangs twitched with agitation, and her pedipalps polished them in preparation. Aleena spoke again – quiet, calm and terrifying. “Once again, I’ll choose to believe it is your ignorance which leads you to speak so boldly to me in my home. These ponies are indeed under the protection of the council, to which Don Zemar and your kin are all party. That alone should make their escort both your highest priority and privilege. They are also under my personal favour, and while favours for me may not garner praise among your peers, I’m sure their mockery would be most tolerable compared with the alternative.”
The tiger growled.
Aleena jangled the tiger like a dinner bell. “Let me make myself clear. You WILL escort these ponies to your camp. You WILL treat them like royalty. And you WILL be grateful for the opportunity.”
Aleena leaned in closer, and whispered, “Otherwise, if I hear that anything has happened to them. I WILL find you. I WILL capture you. And then, while you’re still alive, I will digest all your insides – organs, bones and what brains you possess. All of it. And once I have drained your lifeless husk of all its vital juices. I will turn your hide into a decorative throw rug for my burrow so that any other ignorant, vainglorious cats will know fair well the dangers of a careless attitude. Am I understood?”
The tiger mewled and nodded slowly.
“Excellent, well I’m glad that misunderstanding has been corrected,” said Aleena, cheerfully. She unceremoniously dumped the cat back onto the forest floor and removed the loop of silk.
“Remedy, Sunny. This tiger here will escort you to the cat camp. There you can inform both Don Zemar, and Nyoka of your plan, and they can inform the other guardians with their magic. Not something I’m much good for unfortunately. From there I’m sure you can find escort to the Shadowmoon Den.
“Thank you, Aleena. That will help a lot. And thanks again for the cloaks and well – everything. Tonight around midnight the gift will be revealed, so don’t be late. Who doesn't love a surprise.”
“How avant-garde,” Aleena chuckled. “I wouldn’t miss it for all the flies in the forest.”
Remedy waved and cantered off, following the tiger as he sulked back into the forest. Sunny, tried to give the spider a friendly smile, but withered under the imposing sight. She gulped, and quickly ran after Remedy.
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I hope that the box is really an offering of peace, when Peridot told him that he had investigated and that all the advice should be, I began to worry that they sent a kind of bomb to end the counci advantage of that it trusts in remedy
meybe i´m a little paranoic
9714087
Yeah no, calling it now, Celestia is mailing a magical pipe-bomb or some shit like that.
9714243
Was Celestia? It seemed to me that Peridot acted on his own because his subordinate mentioned that he would get into trouble if Remedy was wounded
9714256
Remember: “A real shame. Why is it always the pretty ones?”
That line made me think that it would kill her, or at least put her in great risk.
I wanted to say that Peridot acted on his own and I think that because his subordinate warned him that he would get into trouble if Remedy got hurt
PD: english is not my frist lenguage
9714243 It's what I do to my enemies, after all.
Trojan Horse weapons are the best! It's amazing that after 2,500 years, they STILL fall for it!
Stupid enemies like that DESERVE extermination! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!!
Also, still don't sympathize at all with the preds. Now they just appear to think of themselves as a crucial force of nature, which we can see in the show isn't true at all since Equestria's fine without them. So we already know it's self-righteous BS to justify their clearly cruel ways, despite all the rigmarole of their needlessly long-winded explanations.
Compared to them, Discord was a saint BEFORE he reformed! Chrysalis is still a bitch, though. And stupid. REALLY stupid.
The predators could always eat Cozy Glow... I have no objections to her being torn apart while still screaming. She is the worst character ever.
9719741
no it is not fine.
9721585 It's fine. The only villains left are like, 4 creatures. That's it. And we all know they're either going to be reformed or stoned by the end.
I'd say it all worked out perfectly!
All thanks to plot convenient kiddie show writing!
9722073 Cliché's in and of themselves don't make a story bad - or good for that matter.
9732350 When the story is nothing other than the clichés, then yeah, it tends to be pretty bad.
Just look at the "Lion King" remake. It's a bland copy with every trace of artistic merit and tone sucked out of it. I think actual lions would have done a better job at making emotional expressions!
9719741
People fall for Trojan horses because they’re not actually used that often since the rational response is “fine, you can’t be trusted so we’ll just kill you indiscriminately in case you try to do it again”.
As for the story itself, it’s shit. There’s so much I can say about it but I know I would get the hammer if I said more.
9750519
Ahahah, just the hammer?
Nay, youll get both the hammer and the sickle.
Be ready for the gulags comrade