Sweet Pink Sunset

by Annon56

To Take a Risk

Four days have gone by, four days of intense training and as it so happens to be, a day that Fluttershy had to make another rare delivery to Froggy Bottom Bog. Another case of an overpopulation of frogs somewhere near Ponyville's wildlife.

"Thank you for coming with me while everyone else was busy." Fluttershy pecked the strong red stallion on the cheek as he pulled a carriage of frogs for her.

"After what happened last time, I'd never let you go off on your own that close to the Everfree." Big Macintosh replied with a comforting grin.

"I m just sorry for taking you away from the farm like this, well, I mean, you also have things to do and-"

"And bein' with you is one of em'," Big Macintosh cut in mid speech and gave the light yellow pegasus a kiss causing her to blush radiantly and giggle lightly.

Fluttershy and Big Macintosh continued to walk down a narrow dirt pathway, the greenery began to darken, the light brown dirt pathway was slowly fading into a colour of dark brownish-green resembling semi-dried moss until finally they have reached their destination. The couple walked past a tree and entered the swampy land of Froggy Bottom Bog, the swamp water still brown and murky and bubbling, the swamp trees still standing on their roots silently guarding the area.

"Here we are... wow, i- it's unusually quiet here..." Fluttershy muttered in discomfort.

"Now that you mention it, I don't hear any insects either... swamps are usually crawlin' with em'," Big Macintosh complied.

They looked around for any other sights of living organisms until a multi-purple shaded dragonfly buzzed past them and drew their attention to a far end of the swamp on their side where other frogs were seen hopping on to the land from the lilly pads on the swamp water.

"Oh, there they are," Fluttershy said with glee, "they must have been expecting us."

"Eeyup," Big Macintosh added and smiled as he followed Fluttershy's lead, 'well, it's good ta know there s no Hydra around for now, took a while for Ponyville to calm down.'

The frogs leaped out of the carriage as the two ponies got closer to the other side, the frogs jumped around repeatedly, exploring the new area they were let into and joined a new family, a new home and a job well done.

Fluttershy giggled as some of the frogs jumped on top of her and jumped off again, "Aw, I think they like it here already, they look sooo cute and happy."

Big Macintosh chuckled at the adorable sight. "Eeyup."

The newly formed frog pack leaped away and left the couple to their own duties, the mare and the stallion exchanged caring smiles to the success of their task until voices from afar were heard. Big Macintosh and Fluttershy directed their heads to the source, but all they saw were some trees, but the voices were heard once again, somepony was shouting out what sounded like commands and other voices soon responded, the could not make out what was being said exactly.

"Sounds like someponies in trouble, think we should help em'?" Big Macintosh asked.

"Um, n-no, I mean, that leading voice sounds fimiliar... like a... a-" Fluttershy was interrupted as an unexpected view was bestowed upon them; the four heads of a Hydra roared as they sprang over trees bordering two parts of the swamp. The Hydra roared again loudly as a green mane zebra struggled to keep balance as he stood on top of one of the middle heads.

"Easy! Easy!" The zebra yelled, and soon the Hydra lowered itself to a calm state going beneath the trees once again.

"A HYDRAAAA!" Fluttershy yelled as she tried to fly away in utter worry whilst holding on to Big Macintosh, unable to move him.

"Woah, stay calm! hold on a sec-" He was interrupted as the voices of other ponies got louder.

"The scream came from behind the trees, let's check it out," an unknown voice said.

"Right!" another voice affirmed.

Big Macintosh realised what was going on, he recognised the zebra and so did Fluttershy, It was the enemy forces. He quickly grabbed the light yellow pegasus and hid behind a large bush that was close to the dirt pathway.

"Listen sugarcube, we don't have time to run cuz they will see us," Big Macintosh whispered to her, "please do this for me... fly back to town and go to the training field, our friends are there, they can help."

"B-but what about you?" She replied in worry.

"I'm gonna stay here and buy us some time."

"N-no, I can't just leave you here! what if they-" her response was interrupted as Big Macintosh brought his lips to hers and smoothly kissed her with such ease, making the moment last with haste.

"I love you..." He added, Fluttershy nodded as her eyes became misty.

"I-I love you to..." she dolefully replied and kissed him on his cheek before taking off, she flew just above the trees to keep herself unseen.

Big Macintosh narrowed his eyes as he ruffled some leaves and tried to see if anyone was close, that was when he had witnessed two dark grey earth pony stallions in dark copper armour and a red symbol on it, a sphere with an arrow head pointing down and a dash on each side, 'they look like guards or something,' he thought to himself.

"What s that carriage doing here?" one guard said to the other.

"I don't know, it wasn t there before," the other guard replied

"Hey, look at this, hoof prints... they lead to the pathway."

"Let's check it out..." the two guards followed the hoof prints that Big Macintosh left behind, he could feel sweat forming on his forehead as they got closer, both of the guards had spears on their backs and Celestia knows how well they can use them, he could not risk them seeing Fluttershy as she tried to fly away, and so he had to risk his own life.

"It's okay, It's just me..." Big Macintosh said, alerting the two guards causing them to turn to the bush and walk closer up to him.

"Just who?" one guard asserted, "identify yourself, what squad number are you?"

"Squad number three," Big Macintosh replied, biting his lower lip.

"Squad three? Aren't you supposed to be on the other side of the terrain?" the other guard asked.

"I was asked to keep watch on this side in-case of unexpected visitors," he replied.

"Really? well would you care to explain why your hiding in a bush?" the guard asked curiously.

"Maintaining camouflage..." they went silent for a moment as Big Macintosh saw one guard whispering to the other, he managed to pick up the words 'let's just kill him now, squad three is not a camouflage unit'.

"Camouflage, huh?" one guard said as they both slowly grabbed their spears.

"Eeyup." he replied calmly.

"Squad member, are you sure?" one guard asked as they both took an offensive stance, ready to stab the red stallion.

"Nnope," Big Macintosh complied, and the next thing one of the guards saw was two hoofs heading towards his face, Big Macintosh had launched away one of the guards by kicking him with his hind legs, the guard landed on the other side of the swamp water hitting the edge before going inside.

"Woah!" The other guard shouted in surprise, he then lunged his spear into the bush, but Big Macintosh had jumped out before the spear had gone all the way in, the red stallion stood on his hind legs as he grabbed the guard, who was trying to pull out the spear which was stuck. Macintosh then lifted him up, causing him to let go of the spear and kick his back legs frantically.

"Let go of me!" the guard demanded as he grabbed Macintosh by the hooves.

Big Macintosh then used one hoof to hold the shorter stallion as he prepared his other to land a punch, "years of kicking trees and pushing farming carts only gets you so far," he added as he grinned in victoriously.

"No way... your a farmer!" the guard exclaimed in outrage.

"Eeyup," he affirmed as he then forcefully punched the guard, sending him to join his comrade in the swamp water.

x

"We've been waiting for almost an hour now, is she even in the boutique?" Twilight started as she turned to Doctor Whooves who was standing next to Arrow.

"Well the black smiths said the prototype for the pegasus battle suit would be ready today, well thats what Rarity told me yesterday." Whooves replied.

"The curtains are still closed, perhaps there is something wrong..." Arrow added as they all looked at the Carousel Boutique from the outside.

The three ponies walked to the entrance of the boutique, Twilight knocked on the door as she called for Rarity and asked is everything was okay, Arrow had realised that the door was quite shaky as Twilight knocked on it, "excuse me Twilight, may I just have a look please?" he asked her, and in response she moved aside to let Arrow get to the door.

Arrow placed his hoof on the door nob and slowly pulled down until a click was heard, he pushed open the door to reveal that the boutique had no one inside, the lights were off and the door to Rarity's room was wide open. Twilight flicked the light switch on, the buzzing of the bulbs were a bit loud but soon became silent as the flashes of the light bulbs had fixed themselves to shine constantly, that was when they could see what was inside clearly; a rug on the floor was torn from the side, some of the model dummy s had been knocked over and broken up, Twilight and Whooves were shocked, Arrow dashed off to Rarity's bedroom to find an empty room once again and saw that her door was not just wide open, but was actually separated from it's top henge.

"Rarity has been abducted!" Arrow exclaimed as galloped back to Twilight and Whooves.

"Oh no." Whooves replied feeling anxiety building up.

"What! when was the last time you saw her doctor?" Twilight started as she went up to him.

"W- what, I-I don't know, I mean-"

"What do you mean you don't? you were with her yesterday weren't you?" Twilight was getting to close to Whooves, making him more anxious and worried.

"Woah, Twilight, I can't think when your pressuring me like this I-I-"

"Pressure! My friend is missing!"

"Twilight, he does not know what happened, stop treating him like he is an inmate." Arrow said calmly yet angrily at the same time.

Twilight realised she was about to traumatize the easily overwhelmed stallion, she then recollected herself, allowing herself to think properly, "we need to look for clues," she stated as she looked around the main hall of the boutique. The rug was torn half way with a pair of scissors, Twilight concluded that Rarity tried to escape at this point, Whooves figured she also tossed the dummy s around using magic in hope that she would strike her abductor.

"Twilight, what is this?" Arrow questioned as he looked at Twilight while holding a hoof-full of strange sparkling sandy yellow powder.

Twilight inspected the strange substance as she narrowed her eyes while getting closer to it, she suddenly felt drowsy and quickly jumped back in reaction and shaking her head, "that s sleeping powder, the abductor put her to sleep while she was trying to escape... I read about it in the book of Super-naturals, most of its ingredients are found in the Everfree... Zecora knows how to make these things."

"Are you saying that Zecora took Rarity?" Arrow questioned immediately.

"What? of course not, Zecora would never do something like that... but we should go see her because she just might be able to help us."

The three then rushed out of the boutique only to bump into the other defenders.

"Wow there you guys, what s the rush? Row, dude, we've been waiting for a whi-" Jokey's sentence was held as Arrow overtook his voice.

"Rarity has been taken! we must hurry!"

"What!" the other three defenders replied in shock at the sudden event, but before they could question anything, the voices of two young fillies greeted them ecstatically.

Scootaloo had arrived along with Apple Bloom as her passenger on the scooter; Scootaloo brought the scooter to a sudden halt in font of the group, the two fillies then jumped out in excitement.

"Hey everypony!" Apple Bloom exclaimed joyfully, "have any of you seen Sweetie Belle?"

"Sweetie Belle? You mean she's not with you?" Twilight asked.

"We've been looking for her all day, and today s the day we each try to earn our cutie marks in..." the fillies then held a sealed box together,
"Fireworks making!" they asserted in more excitement.

"That doesn't sound very safe," Jokey added.

"Hold on a second, you can't find Sweetie Belle... and Rarity has been..." Boa mused in realisation to the situation.

"W- what's wrong with Rarity?" Apple Bloom asked, the smile fading from both the fillies faces.

"Captain Thundertred!" A group of guards shouted out as they made their way to the defenders.

"North Charlie? What s wrong?" Forest responded.

"We have a problem, one from our group has gone missing." One of the guards replied.

"Wait a minute, there s four of you here, you guys are a full squad, each squad is made of four guards." Boa stated.

"Wait, is there supposed to be five of you? Princess Luna herself stated that the maximum number is four guards per squad." Jokey added.

That was when Forest had realised that the fifth guard was not supposed to be there from the very beginning

"The fifth guard is not one of ours, he's the one that took Rarity." Forest complied.

A loud cry for help was heard from above, the ponies looked up to find a troubled frightened Fluttershy who was trying to fly as quickly as possible, a speed which she was not used to and so led her to lose control on herself which was going to lead to an unsafe landing. As she was about to land the others could tell it was not going to end well.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight called out in worry.

"Heeeelp!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she soon flew past them and was about to crash, Forest stood on his hind legs and dashed ahead of her in a line of blue lightning, he quickly reformed as he was directly in front of the crashing Fluttershy and caught her in the nick of time, the impact of the catch made Forest slide back a bit but he managed to keep his balance. He safely put down the tired light yellow mare, she was exhausted not only from pushing herself past her limits but through mental stress as well, the mare was taking deep breaths trying to calm down as best as she could.

The others stared at Forest wide eyed except for the other defenders, it was the first time they had seen a pony rush in lightning speed or in the form of lightning itself to that matter.

"Oh thank Celestia... your all here..." Fluttershy said while panting.

"Another spell that comes naturally?" Twilight uttered under her breath to Forest in a sarcastic tone as she walked up to him and Fluttershy.

"I already knew that from before, honest, we'll talk about it later," Forest replied to her remark, the excuse he was using the past four days in his training.

Twilight then patted Fluttershy on her back, "It's okay, stay calm Fluttershy, now, what happ-"

"Froggy Bottom Bog!" Fluttershy exclaimed, "Big Macintosh is at Froggy Bottom Bog with the enemy!"

"Enemy?" Forest uttered.

"The strange green haired zebra th- that hologrammed himself to Ponyville with that other strange stallion... he was at Froggy Bottom Bog trying to capture a Hydra and he has other ponies with him! A- and Macintosh tried to buy me some time and he's there fighting them all alone now! We need to hurry!" Fluttershy continued.

"North Charlie, prepare yourself, we're heading to Forggy Bottom Bog," Forest commanded his squad, they confirmed a 'yes sir' to him, "Jokey, Arrow, Boa, it's time to help our friend!"

"Right!" The other three defenders confirmed to Forest.

"Twilight, what will you do from here?" Arrow asked before leaving.

"We're gonna stay behind and take care of Fluttershy and the girls, we'll visit Zecora once you get back."

The guards and the defenders nodded to Twilight and took off, "and be careful!" she added as they left.

x

Kanthon looked around as he found several guards of his squad knocked out and some simply unable to get up, he then looked in front of him where Big Macintosh was bound as two guards were pointing the tips of their spears at his neck, one on the left, the other on the right.

"Well I must say, that was quite an impressive last stand you put up, it's been a while since I've seen an earth pony do something like this alone," Kanthon remarked to the eldest Apple sibling, who looked up at the zebra angrily and saw the four headed Hydra standing calmly at least three meters behind him.

"Why don't you join the legion?" Kanthon continued, "we could use somepony like you, not to mention you will be paid quite handsomely, a farmer won't always be at profitable standard you know..."

Big Macintosh's expression changed to one of disgust, he felt insulted that the green haired zebra would even stoop down to a level which he considered so low, "go chew on a horse shoe, olive eyes..."

"Pff, so be it," the zebra pulled out the scythe which was sheathed at the back of his black full body suite with the red symbol on both sides, he placed the handle above the blade next to Big Macintosh's neck as the guards holstered their weapons, the zebra then swayed the scythe back and forth like a golfer taking aim to a golf ball, he then swiftly pulled back the blade and was ready to make a fatal swing.

A flash of blue lightning appeared in front of the zebra as he swang the scythe, Forest Thundertred had blocked the blade with a metal staff with green metal tips, Jokey Bizzare appeared from a burst of flames and kicked the right guard to the face, sending him back at least a meter and a half, the ground rumbled under the left guard and a perfect cylinder erupted from the ground which sent the guard away over the trees, Boa Quakes soon jumped in taking the guards place, the royal guards of North Charlie then fell into formation around the three defenders.

"Orange!" Big Macintosh cheered in relief.

"Sorry we're late, buddy..." Forest replied.

Forest and Kanthon narrowed their eyes as they stared at each other, their weapons shaking from from the opposing forces.

"Thundertred..." Kanthon uttered.

"Stranger..." Forest replied.

The zebra jumped back to the Hydra and placed the scythe on his back again as his troops fell into formation, "It begins."