62 - Savior
Chapter Sixty-Two
Savior
Sirius waved a hoof at the phoenix before she vanished in another flash of flame to meet back up with Sunset on the Hogwarts Express. He sighed in contentment as he thought back on what he and Harry had done over the winter holidays. That they were winter holidays at all was a little counter-intuitive as Equestria was only a few days into the last month of fall.
In fact, upon the Apples' invitation, he and Harry had taken part in an event known as the Ponyville Running of the Leaves. It was apparently part of the process of changing the seasons. Something the ponies did manually. Of all the things he had seen in Equestria so far, that was certainly among the hardest to wrap his head around. Having lived all his life with seasons that changed on their own, the very idea of having to do so manually was bizarre to him.
After Sunset's suggestion back at the Burrow, he had taken some time every evening, after Harry had gone to bed, to meditate and work on a way to go directly from his pony form to his regular animagus. She had been correct in her guess as he was quickly able to establish the basics of such a connection. Now that Harry was back in Hogwarts, he could go back to his house and finish his work.
After maybe an hour of concentration, he opened his eyes and, with nary a thought, effortlessly slipped into his canine form. After shifting back and forth a few times, he was certain that he could shift freely back and forth. He shifted back to his human form and from there back to his animagus, just to make sure neither of those connections had been impaired then, once he had assumed his unicorn form once more, he walked out of the house to work.
With the aid of Princess Celestia, he had been able to convert some of his sizable personal fortune, inherited from one of his uncles, another anomaly in his usually dark family. Still, he didn't enjoy living off his fortune alone. He preferred to have some income to balance out whatever he spent. To that end, the Apples had offered him work on their farm. Rumor had it that they were testing the waters, trying to see how much they could get done with some extra hooves. If their experiment proved successful, they might well choose to expand their farm by an orchard or two.
After maybe half an hour of relaxed walking – his new house was on the opposite end of town – Sirius began walking through the already expansive orchards towards the farmhouse at their center. When he was maybe another minute out, he began to hear the noise of small, light hooves approaching at a hasty gallop. A moment later, a familiar orange filly crested the hill ahead of him.
Her mane was slick with sweat and her expression was a mixture of fear, worry and determination. It did not bode well.
"Whoa there! What's wrong Jackie?"
Sirius could tell that something was quite significantly wrong just from the fact that Applejack completely failed to react to his nickname for her. Usually she found it to be completely obnoxious and was all too happy to inform him of that. Now, however, she didn't seem to care at all.
"Ma! Pa! Timberwolves! Granny sent me ta get tha guard!"
"Where?"
"East orchard."
With a grim nod, Sirius turned his gaze eastward. "Go get them, I'll buy you some time."
He didn't see Applejack's nod, but he just heard her gallop off as he lit his horn, ignoring the still unfamiliar sensation, and focused. A split second later, he was engulfed by the uncomfortable yet familiar sensation of apparition.
When he arrived, the strange, reverberant howling and the cries of terror were more than enough to point him in the right direction. Almost absently, he made use of his new-found ability to go directly into his animagus form. He was faster as a unicorn than he was as a human, but he was faster still as a dog.
In barely half a minute he arrived at the edge of the orchard to see a dire scene. Four timberwolves had managed to surround Bright Macintosh and corner him against one of the orchards larger and older trees. A fifth had Buttercup pinned beneath it, a gnarled, wooden claw poised to strike at her face. Another three of them were slinking around in the area. And they were not the only ones if the stench was anything to go by.
He had arrived just in time.
He immediately turned back to have full access to his magic and jumped out between the trees. "Flippendo!" Had he been using his wand, he would have had to point it more or less straight at his target. But he wasn't using his wand. His new horn could attack in a far wider angle than his wand could and the almost instinctive control that came with it allowed him to guide the bolt of pale blue light straight into his target.
The timberwolf that had managed to get Buttercup pinned down was torn both off of her and off of its own paws and thrown backwards a good distance. It would get back up, but it would be out of the fight for a few seconds. Another beast immediately moved to replace its packmate, but a call of "Bombarda!" sent it to the ground in a scattered mess of branches and twigs.
Buttercup didn't hesitate to take her chance and use her restored freedom and the distraction Sirius had provided to get back to her hooves and deliver a powerful buck against the downed timberwolf Sirius' spell had thrown off of her, shattering it to pieces as well.
Sirius, meanwhile, with a call of "Confringo!" sent a bolt of orange into another of the timberwolves that had now moved to attack him. The moment the spell hit its mark, the timberwolf violently flew apart, sending wooden shrapnel into the other two wolves that had moved against the new threat alongside it. Seeing how he hadn't been able to take a breath for another incantation, Sirius used a simple, silent Protego to ward off the splinters.
Emboldened by their success and by the fact that one of the wolves that had been focused on him had turned to attack Sirius only to be blasted apart by the splinters from his exploded pack-mate, Bright Macintosh pushed off from the tree behind him and jumped over the distracted timberwolves before him. One of them managed to notice his escape and took a swipe at him, but the gash across his barrel didn't feel particularly deep.
He landed by his wife's side joined, a moment later, by Sirius who had jumped over the splinters of his latest victim with practiced ease. Turning his horn to the sky, he sent a jet of bright blue sparks upwards.
Galloping at full tilt Applejack managed in two minutes the distance that had taken Sirius fifteen. Panting heavily she pushed open the door to the guard barracks just barely past the edge of town.
Seeing the distraught filly, the lieutenant on duty, a pegasus by the name of Nimbus Sentry, immediately put down his cup of tea and nearly jumped over the counter. "Whoa, what's the matter?"
Still badly out of breath, Applejack just barely managed to give him the same rundown of the situation she had given Sirius, but, for the trained professional, it was more than enough. "Alright. Rest now. We'll take it from here." He turned to the unicorn mare he shared duty with. "Smokescreen, I'll take the pegasi. Alert the others and follow us."
As he rushed out of the room and into the small yard where the other two pegasi of Ponyville's E.U.P. detachment were resting, he heard Smokescreen send a bolt of magic against the enchanted bell that would alert those guards that weren't currently at the barracks before turning to the filly who was still recovering from her run. "Your brother is in town, isn't he? You might want to let him know."
He just heard the scramble of tiny hooves before the door fell shut behind him. "Guards, we have a situation," he called, immediately attracting the attention of the four others in the yard. "A timberwolf incursion at Sweet Apple Acres. Mist, Stratus, you're with me. The others will coordinate with Corporal Smokescreen. Come."
Without another word he spun around and took to the air, followed shortly by Private Mistwalker and Private Stratus Blade. They had flown for barely a few seconds, when a jet of brilliant blue sparks from the east orchard prompted them to change course in that direction.
"Orbis!"
A bolt of light hit the ground beneath the timberwolf held up by Sirius' creative application of Snape's old Levicorpus-Charm. The earth formed up into a dust storm, engulfing the creature and pulling it beneath the ground. They had taken out the last of the original Timberwolves nearly a minute ago, but they kept putting themselves back together and more of them kept showing up.
As such, his eyes were lit with an aura sight charm as he looked for some way to permanently destroy them. A smirk crossed his muzzle as he watched the wild magic that animated his latest victim disperse beneath the earth, swallowed up by the much stronger innate magic of this world. Back on earth, this wouldn't have worked. Then again, back on earth, wild magic would never have been strong enough to even form such beasts in the first place.
Still, this method of destroying them was complicated and risked over-saturating the ground with the foul wild magic of the Everfree forest, perhaps even enough to prompt that place to expand towards the town. He needed something better. But his idea had at least given him a clue. The thing that seemed to animate the wolves was a bundle of moss and sap in their torso. Right where, if his knowledge of canine anatomy was accurate, which, given he had a dog for an animagus, it almost certainly was, a real wolf would have its heart.
He could only guess that destroying that was key to stopping their regeneration permanently.
When a powerful buck from Bright Mac shattered another timberwolf into pieces, only for the magic to start putting it back together, he leveled his horn at the 'heart'. "Finite!"
The magic flickered and stopped. The heart was still glowing, but it wasn't putting the beast back together. For the moment. His counter-spell wouldn't suppress it for long. Fortunately, it was enough for his purposes. "Incendio"" A burst of magical fire engulfed the 'heart' and sent it smoldering. For a moment, that was all it did, then it exploded into flames as the magic that held it together finally gave out, setting the rest of the wolf aflame as well. A quick call of "Aguamenti!" stopped the fire from spreading to the rest of the orchard.
For a few moments, they managed to work a rhythm. Bright and Buttercup would use their innate strength to keep the wolves back while Sirius would destroy them one by one. When only three of the attacking wolves were left, a deep growl sounded from behind him. Ah, I was wondering when he'd show up, Sirius grimly thought as he spun around. A massive timberwolf, easily three times the size of the largest they had faced so far, stood there, growling at them. It's paw was raised, ready to swipe.
The alpha had arrived.
As they arrived at the location the sparks had indicated, Lieutenant Nimbus and his squad saw Applejack's parents and a large black dog fighting three normal timberwolves and an alpha. All three of them had various scratches and bruises and one of Bright Macintosh's forelegs was bent in a direction forelegs decidedly weren't meant to bend in. Still he fought just as ferociously as the other two. The dog was confusing. They knew that the family owned a dog, but that dog was still a young puppy and certainly not cut out to fight timberwolves.
A few signs from Nimbus were enough to send him and his two squad mates diving at one of the regular wolves each. Their impacts shattered the wild constructs leaving only the alpha to deal with.
With their combined might, the group quickly managed to overwhelm even the large wolf and scatter it as well. As it fell to the ground, the dog began to shift and warp, quickly changing into the shape of a forest green unicorn with a scraggly black mane. The new pony in town.
The guards watched with some confusion as the stallion turned to the scattered remnants of the three regular timberwolves and lit his horn. In short order he used a series of spells to suppress the magic that animated them and set them aflame. After doing the same to the alpha and extinguishing the resulting fire with a water spell, he finally relaxed and turned to the guards.
"Thank you. You came right on time. I didn't think swords would be so effective against those beasts."
"Normal swords wouldn't. But ours are enchanted to interfere with wild magic. They're standard equipment for guards stationed near the Everfree." The lieutenant held a hoof out. "Nimbus Sentry. Those are Privates Mistwalker and Stratus Blade. I don't think we've met?"
"We haven't. Sirius Black. I'm new in town."
"Well, y'all certainly did us a solid-" Bright Mac was cut off by a pained wince as he unintentionally put weight on his broken foreleg.
"Woah, take it easy. One moment." Sirius pointed his horn at the injured limb. "Ferula."
Several of the nearby sticks and branches floated over. three of the larger pieces transformed into long, straight pieces while some of the others became clean bandages that wrapped the broken leg into an impromptu splint.
"There. We should get you to a hospital to get that properly healed. My knowledge of healing magic only goes so far. But I should be able to heal most of those cuts. Episkey." He pointed his horn at the particularly severe cut on the underside of Bright Mac's barrel where the timberwolf had managed to scratch him as he jumped over it. The cut quickly began to heal and even the skin and fur atop it regrew, leaving behind a rather odd looking clean line among the dusty and bloodied fur around it.
Sirius repeated the spell a few more times to heal both Buttercup's injuries and his own, then he turned to the two farmers. "How did they even get in here?"
The farm mare pointed a hoof towards the edge of the orchard. "Broke through tha fence over thar."
With a nod, Sirius walked off. Private Mistwalker looked at her superior questioningly, then, when he nodded, trotted after the unicorn. It didn't take long to reach the broken fence. A quick Reparo later, it was restored and they made their way back.
On their way back to the town, they were first joined by Granny Smith carrying Apple Bloom as they walked past the farmhouse, then a highly worried Big Macintosh not long after they reached the path back into town. He was then followed by the rest of the Ponyville E.U.P. detachment led by Corporal Smokescreen.
The gray unicorn mare seemed very interested in the Apples' tales of the spells Sirius had used to combat the timberwolves. Finally, not long before they reached the town, they came across Applejack who seemed very relieved to see her parents alive and, mostly, well.
Before long, they reached Ponyville General while the guards, save Nimbus and Smokescreen, returned to their barracks.
When Sirius learned that this world didn't have a spell to mend broken bones, only a potion that, even for such a simple fracture, would take several days to reach its full effect, he headed straight back to his house. He had a message to write.
It seemed more magical exchange was in order.
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I'm really glad to see that Pear Butter and Bright Mac are going to live in this universe, and be with their foals.^_^
9681413
honestly I thought them long gone as canon and don't remember reading about them being alive, miss sneeze
9681446
They were mentioned as alive in chapter 51. This is a good five or so years before FiM even starts.
9681449
Ah ok...
faust bless you sirius
Here it is, the butterfly we've all be waiting to see. Will be quite interesting to see just how much this changes Big Mac, AJ and Bloom, let alone how having Bright and Buttercup around will change Ponyville itself.
It is a blessed irony that a world of dark violence was able to develop medical arts a more peaceful Equestria never did.
9681512
It kinda makes sense... necessity is the mother of invention and all that... it isn't like they didn't have some magical means... just not as much impetus to make faster acting medicines
Place your chips on Black for the win.
A very positive outcome for the Apple family! I approve wholeheartedly. I'm glad this iteration allows Applejack to keep her parents.
Bright Mac and Buttercup jerked the most tears for me in the "Perfect Pear" episode.
nice work.
Really enjoyable chapter, funny how the best parts of this story are the ones where Sunset has little to no involvement with the chain of events.
Y'know it does make a bit of sense. Almost all meaningful human medicine owes something about it if not the whole of it to people experimenting on a corpse to learn anatomy, how things are put together, etc. Enough to get an intimate first-hand knowledge of it and being able to construct models and diagrams. Ponies on the other hoof probably wouldn't be comfortable enough to do something like that in a world where necromancy is probably very much a thing, and probably very much a thing you don't want to be associated with. If a potion exists and doesn't take something esoteric and rare to create, there's not much reason to experiment on a living pony when it comes to fixing broken bones, which would be painful as all get-out.
9682094
You do realize that EVERYTHING involves Sunset, right? Because if she didn't do the things she has, NONE of it would happen? People like you who have a problem with how Sunset is being portrayed are just getting on my nerves at this point.
9681163
That... doesn’t make sense, considering the entire goal of chess is to get a check mate, which requires trapping the king. The king is, by extension, the piece in the greatest amount of risk, because every enemy piece is trying to work to trap him. Taking out his army is only secondary, you don’t need to take out his army, you only need to put them in a position where they can’t help.
Also in the movie Ron was riding the horse, which would’ve allowed him easier vision.
9681229
I mean, I can see how having two kings makes it harder. But I don’t see how replacing the king would remove the concern for yourself. You still have to get a check mate, you still can only move one space in any direction, and thus you’re still at the same amount of risk as if you were playing normal non-giant chess. The only difference I see is the two kings vs one king idea, which honestly doesn’t make that much of a difference if you can actually play chess. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of games out there where people have never even moved certain pieces. You don’t need all your pieces in chess, only enough to get the king into check mate. So the player as a pawn or whatever else, can simply hang back with the king and be absolutely fine.
Oof, the butterfly gets ever bigger. Applejack’s parents didn’t die.
9682272
To be fair, there’s experimentation on other animals as well that add to our repertoire. By understanding other things, we learn how to better understand ourself. Perspective and all that.
The ponies could do the same, I highly doubt they don’t do any research full stop. But, I’m willing to bet their research isn’t as hands-on. Scanning spells, and other methods. Scan a pony as they eat, oh look how that thing is moving, scan that, oh so it’s expanding and contracting, but what’s causing it to do that? Couple more scans, oh it’s electrical signals! Where are they coming from? Scan scan, what is this organ? The brain? Neat!
But you can’t really avoid it. There has to be trials on test subjects, otherwise what you’re testing could potentially kill everyone who uses it.
Ghost Ponies in the Sky
Tiny plot hole here. In previous chapters, Sunset did say that she knew healing magic for a broken bone, but only for ponies. But now the ponies do not have such a spell, even with medical experts, who would be more aware of advanced magic like that.
Edit: never mind. Though I would expect medical unicorns to have such a thorough knowledge of anatomy like Sunset.
Applejacks OC parents.
Nope, those are her cannon parents
9694830
Nope, its her canon parents
As much as I love seeing Sunset strut about being awesome, it was a welcome change to see how things are shifting and adjusting in Equestria.