Chapter 12 - The Lesson
Celestial Year 993 AB
"I'm tellin' you sugarcube, I just don't see the appeal."
Light Flow groaned in annoyance.
He was trotting alongside a familiar pair of orange hooves, which were connected up to his unfortunate friend, Applejack. The orange pony was currently wearing her hair up in two ponytails which curled down over her neck, and she had a large frown on her face.
He was currently trying to hype her up for their impending trip to the Everfree forest. He hadn't been there since his impromptu trip last year, and he really wanted to find an excuse to visit again.
Unluckily, his friend caught wind of his initial plans, and decided that she couldn't let him 'traipse off' into such a dangerous place.
After a lot of shouting that made his throat hurt and his eyes tingle, Applejack had conceded to his demands; but not without adding a condition.
She wanted to come with him.
He could tell she really didn't want to go, she was just coming along to ensure his safety. But that didn't mean he couldn't try and make her a little excited.
"Orange Hooves, I'm telling you! It's great there! It's really dark, and cold, and quiet, and there are lots of cool creatures living there! Like Timberwolves!" He was really hitting all the bases with that one. There was no way she wouldn't-
"Sugarcube, I don't think there's a single one'a those things that sounds good..."
His face fell, and he groaned again. He supposed they were just too different. Although....
"Didn't you use to brag all the time about your frequent trips to the forest?"
Her uncertain expression seemed to melt into one of quiet consternation. She quickly stammered out some sort of excuse, but he stopped listening in favor of hiding a smile behind his collar.
He really did love his cloak. He would have to have it refitted at Rarity's soon, but that thought wasn't as horrible as he would have imagined.
Rarity really was a genius. He had been wrong about her, he would admit it. His cloak had been made exactly to his specifications.
He took a moment to look over his apparel. He thought back to all the decisions that had gone into the list of details he gave to the genius seamstress.
He had looked through a book of fabrics and decided on what was called a 'satin weave' turned inside out, so that it wouldn't catch the light. But unfortunately, the inside would still catch a flash of something from time to time. He had been thinking about having the cloak remade in a different, less shiny, fabric, but that would be expensive.
He was also really fond of the way the silky texture felt on his fur. Like he was in bed all the time.
So the matter would wait until sometime else.
The cloak was black on both sides, which rendered him looking rather like a shadow in the daytime. It had a rising collar up to about level with his mouth, which was perfect for hiding mocking faces behind. The collar connected back to a hood laying just behind his head, which he often left up, though he made an exception for talking to Applejack.
The neck was held together by a small, yet sturdy silver chain. If it was really quiet, he could hear it jingle as he walked, which added something very.. needed. It would do well to announce his presence without words.
The entire thing had a dark brown bordering, even around the hood. It was just a couple shades darker than his coat, which he supposed was symbolic. Somehow...
And the finishing touch, the one thing he had been glad Rarity hadn't compromised on, small little grey skulls sewn just above the bordering. He had been positively giddy when he had seen them, though he hadn't let it show to the white seamstress filly.
The whole thing was suppose to come down to just above his hooves, though he was getting a bit too big now, and it only reached down to around his knee. He should really pay a visit to Carousel Boutique....
He was brought out of his reverie when he felt a hoof jab him in the side. He turned an angry glower at the pony beside him.... who was looking off in a different direction. She had some sort of intense stare on her face, but he found it hard to care. He couldn't believe that she had the gall to punch him without even having the decency to look him in the eyes.
He opened his mouth wide, ready to give her a lecture on apparently forgotten decorum; when she whispered something that made him stop.
"Y'all hear that, sugarcube?"
He frowned, and strained his ears to try and hear whatever it was that had her so concerned. Try as he might, he couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary.
They were walking through a little grove of trees on their way to the Everfree forest, so all he could hear were the little chirps of birds and the little rustling sounds of nature. There was literally nothing interesting here at all, so what was getting her in such a fuss?
He groaned, and stomped a hoof on the ground. He just didn't have the time for playing another of Applejack's little games.
"I give up. What is it?"
He couldn't see her face, but the edges of her jaw tightened as she began to trot forward into the small patch of woods.
He watched her wander off with a tired look on his face. He couldn't believe she was doing this again. She always got distracted, always.
He looked up at the morning sky above, and sent a silent prayer to a deity he still didn't know the name of. He lowered his head and followed Applejack into the trees.
He had already lost her in the thick foliage, so he was forced to blunder through like an idiot. He imagined the sight of him. The feared shadow in the daylight, tripping over twigs and stones like a foal just learning to walk.
"Stupid Applejack and her stupid games with their stupid twists and their stupid stupid stupi-"
Did he hear crying?
He was pretty sure he did. A small choking sound coming from somewhere nearby. It sounded like a filly, but he knew it wasn't Applejack.
She cried on the inside apparently.
He followed the sound of the soft crying through the bushes, as he wondered how Applejack could have possibly heard such a subtle noise from where they had been walking. Seriously, it was so quiet, he barely heard it even now.
He slowly pushed his way out through the last bit of brush, and came out into a small clearing in the woods. The sun shone down into the circular clearing, which clearly highlighted the two ponies standing inside.
He saw Applejack, who seemed to be comforting what looked to be a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane.
He couldn't see much from where she was sitting hunched over something, but he could at least see her triple-butterfly cutie mark and her orb.
Speaking of the orb, he had finally settled on just calling them ponies' souls. It seemed the most apt out of all the choices.
Her soul was, unsurprisingly, yellow. It was small, and very dim; like it was trying to make itself as unnoticed as possible. He also caught a flash of something deeper, very close to the center of the sphere. The sphere itself sat there quietly, not really moving at all; quite a bit like the sobbing pegasus it belonged to.
Seriously, she was quiet. He knew she was sobbing by the way her shoulders were shaking, but she was barely making any noise at all. He wondered again how they were able to find her at all.
Applejack and her apparently incredible ears were sitting next to the hunched pegasus, and whispering something soft that he couldn't hear. She was using one hoof to rub the filly's back with slow, broad strokes.
She flicked her eyes over to where he stood, and jerked her head in the direction of the shaking filly next to her. He silently shook his head back. He didn't want anything to do with this stranger.
Applejack's expression did that scary thing where her eyes get all small, and he quickly hurried over.
It's not like he was scared of her..... but she did know a lot more about wrestling than he did. He didn't want to feel his own back hoof touch itself to his head ever again.
Never again.
He reached the other side of the filly, and finally got a good look at what she was hunched over.
It looked to be a small dead mouse.
He didn't see any visible wounds, and it didn't look underfed either. Its soft grey coat was unbroken and plump. So he guessed it was likely sudden sickness or some kind of internal trauma. Maybe blunt force? Poisoning?
He looked over at the filly's face, but it was covered by two yellow hooves, so he couldn't make out any details.
Well. He was here. Now what?
He looked at Applejack over the hunched form of the pegasus, and shrugged his shoulders. Applejack's exasperated face stared back at him, and she mouthed something he couldn't make out.
Seriously, he could never understand why ponies did that. Who could understand stuff like that?
Applejack's face got scary again, and he quickly got the message.
"Hey there. How're you doing?" His voice sounded fake, even to him, and he mentally smacked himself in the face. Real villains should be great at faking emotions, why was he so bad at it?!
He licked his lips and tried again.
"Um... S-So why're you crying?" He felt like jumping off a bridge. It was obvious why she was crying. He saw Applejack roll her eyes at him, and he stuck his tongue out in response. Who was she to make fun of him? It's not like she was-
"B-B-Bec-c-cause Muh.. Mmm.. M-Mr M-Mouse is..is...is..!"
He stared down in surprise at the jumbled reply of the sobbing pegasus. He hadn't actually expected her to answer his dumb question.
He took note of her shaking voice. It was soft, and sweet, sort of like candy. A voice like candy. He had never heard something so disgusting.
He bit his lip, and tried to think of a way to calm her down.
He could... no, that wouldn't work. Oh! He could... no that would probably make her cry more.
Ah!
He leaned his head down to the pegasus and whispered. "Hey... Hey there Candy Voice. Look at me. Come on, just look at me real quick alright? I've got something to tell you."
He waited until a pair of wet, teal eyes peered out of their yellow hiding place. He gave her a smile that he really didn't feel, and put on his best 'wise' voice.
"Now listen Candy Voice. You're sad because your little animal friend is dead, yeah?" He saw her give a flinch at the word 'dead' but she nodded her head even as she shook harder.
He sighed internally, and wished his mother was here. She always knew what to do when a foal was crying.
"Now I know you're sad, really sad. Probably sadder than you've ever been, huh? Well, let me give you a little lesson on death." He placed his hoof on her withers as he spoke, and felt how much she was shaking. She was really broken up about this.
"Death... Everypony always says that death is....the end. But I've never seen it like that. I'm not gonna say something cliché like 'what comes after is better' or something. I'm just going to say that I... I don't really think anything really dies."
"I've always sort of thought that.. when ponies, or animals, or any creature dies, they just.. get.. repurposed."
He saw Applejack's mouth gape open, and she shot a harsh glare at him. He continued on. She didn't know where he was going with this, so she really shouldn't start judging.
"What I mean by that is... Um... When something dies, eventually... their bodies decompose, or some other animal comes along and eats them, right? Well.. I've always thought that... in a way.. That is a form of living."
The pegasus had lowered her hooves at this point, and was baring her soft yellow face to the world. Teary teal eyes had unfocusedly trained themselves on him, and he felt the pressure immensely. This was the kind of situation she was going to remember for the rest of her life, he supposed.
Why did this have to be him?
"So... when a creature dies.. nature takes over, right? And... and that's the way it's supposed to be. Eventually, we are all meant to die, and leave our current existence behind. So... in a way... it's just like.. moving on to our next stage of life. A stage where.. where we help the world in more... uh.. subtle ways. Therefore, it is a type of living... which can't be a bad thing..?"
He finished his tirade unsteadily. He wasn't really sure where those words had come from, but they seemed to be having an effect.
The pegasus was busily wiping her eyes with a hoof while sniffling quietly, and he could see the shaking in her body start to lessen.
"W-Well, um, that didn't really.. help... But I guess I feel.... better?" The pegasus spoke again in a voice that was still sort of warbily, but far improved from before.
He cheered internally, and shot the frowning Applejack a victorious glare. Shows what she knows about calming crying ponies!
Applejack's frown slipped off her face as she leaned her head down to whisper softly into the pegasus' ear. He had to strain to hear, but it sounded like she asked for the stranger's name.
The pegasus took a moment to reply, still sniffling and occasionally glancing down at the dead mouse.
"I'm... My name is... uh.. well.. that is, to say... I'm Fluttershy.."
Wow. This pony was quiet. The way she tripped and stammered over her inaudible words was, in a word, astonishing. He hadn't ever met someone this shy.
Wait....
Damn it! He hadn't been listening to her name! He had really been trying to work on that bad habit, but every time somepony told him their name, he just... lost it.
He got distracted by a bird, or their soul, or their face, or the sun, or his plans for the day, or something. He always missed it!
Luckily, both other ponies were too distracted by each other to see him smack himself in the face. Applejack turned her head up to him just as his hoof fell back to the ground. She looked a little concerned at the red hoof-mark on his forehead, but she seemed to brush it off.
"I'm gonna walk Fluttershy here back to her.. er.. well, to the ground beneath her home. You should head back too sugarcube, and don't even think about going off to them woods without me, y'hear?!"
He groaned audibly, and nodded his head. He couldn't do much about this. There was no stopping Applejack when there was a pony in need, much to his frustration. He just wished she would be a little less kind.
Applejack and the pegasus-whose-name-he-had-missed-again were still talking quietly, so he turned around and made his way to the edge of the clearing. If Applejack wasn't going to let him go to the Everfree today, he would just go home.
He flipped his hood up over his head as he exited from the proverbial scene. Now he just had to think of something cool to exit out on. He hid a secret smile as he found the perfect phrase.
'He had better things to do than hang around somepony so shy they couldn't even face death.'
"Nailed it."
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someone is gonna flip out if they see him just cuddle a timberwolf or something
10764203
I imagine seeing an 11 year old colt walk up to one of the most feared creatures in rural Equestria to nuzzle it would be quite jarring, yes.
Hope you're enjoying the story either way!
10764212
yup
since the timberwolfs seem to obey necromancers without question would they assist or defend without question aswell or do you want to keep that secret?
10764221
Well, I suppose I could expand what I consider the lore around Timberwolves.
I'm not sure they were ever explained in any official media. Maybe in one of the comics I haven't read? Anyway, since there was no official lore, I made up my own out of bits and pieces of multiple stories I've read over the years.
Basically, a Timberwolf is just a lost soul. Usually the soul of a normal woodland creature, but occasionally some higher being can be forcibly lowered to such a state. When a creature dies in an especially magical way that is startlingly ill defined in-fiction, their soul may become trapped in the mortal realm.
Upon this event, it may seek out some sort of body to inhabit. One such method of finding a body is to create one out of sticks and wood. This is a Timberwolf. Simply just a lost soul inside a held-together body of wood.
Since it's just a soul fused with some wood, they are naturally fearful of one such as a Necromancer, who has great control and dominion over souls.
They fear the cold touch of their deathly magic, so they would probably obey orders.
I literally just put all that together after a full day of writing, so it may be a little scattered or sparse. Hope you enjoyed it either way!
i forgot what your question was halfway through i'm sorryWhere can I read that story?
10764252
Well you could've just looked it up, but here
It was one of the first stories I ever read on this site, and I love it to bits.
If you're considering giving it a read, I would wish you well. That is, to say, I hope you enjoy it!
Oh, that is IRONIC given older Fluttershy.
(Estee's " Five Hundred Little Murders" is a perfect example, IMHO. )
Congratulations on getting featured, I don’t know if you’ve gotten featured before, but I noticed it this time.
At what point does ‘Orange Hooves’ stop being demeaning and becomes an affectionate nickname?
Nailing one liners is absolutely vital in the villain industry
10866663
So is learning how to monologue without learning yourself vulnerable
If you want a fictional god you can go with Urgathoa otherwise I would suggest Baron Samedi.
10866663
En realidad, tener frases ingeniosas en momentos adecuados es necesario si quieres tener un personaje carismatico y que sea querido
Tbh what matters is he tried. I'm enjoying the character growth, he's still himself, but Flow is learning nuance, what might upset people and how to handle people.
At this point in the story he strikes me as a sociopath, impulsive and lacks empathy. However, he's trying because he does care what people think about him.
Awesome characterisation
He’s freaking adorable. He’s a little ball of cuddly evil, one could say.