Killing Time

by JohnnyNorthrain

Decisions

In the days since leaving Canterlot there had been no plan. We returned to Ponyville and somewhat settled back into the routine of finding lost items and pets. Most of my attention had been focused upon coming up with a plan of action yet the paper sat blank on my desk waiting for me to write down what should be done. The only weapon I had was my switchblade and that’d be next to useless against the Changelings. I could just imagine trying to fend off a group of them with three and a half inches of steel. The ponies had no firepower to speak of and even something as simple as a sling shot was lost on them. How would they ever use it with their hooves? I’d spent some time consulting some of Twilight Sparkle’s books on weaponry but it was all pretty much useless or pageantry such as jousting lances that were attached to armor. None of it was practical for me and I’d thought about having a blacksmith make me a few blades yet there was none to be found. Even though they had hooves these ponies did not wear horseshoes and had no need for a smith. All the rest of the metal objects they used came from Trottingham or Canterlot.
I needed to make a decision if we would fight Chrysalis directly or try something else. I needed to decide what the alternate decision would be. I needed a drink more than anything at the moment. For the third day in a row my mind drew a blank on what to do. I’d had enough of sitting around waiting but I couldn’t come up with a solution. Grabbing my hat and coat I headed out for a walk away from Ponyville and the blank sheet of paper.

I waved at and chatted with a couple ponies on the street yet I wanted to be away from them all. I stepped lightly going past Sugar Cube Corner just in case Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out of a bush and greeted me. I escaped unscathed and continued on past Fluttershy’s and Derpy’s homes. My walk brought me deeper and deeper into the woods until there was a solid wall of rock blocking my path. I touched the outcrop with the palm of my hand feeling the warmth of the sun through my fingers.

There was a time years ago when I was sitting in a club nursing a bad hang over. Black coffee with a lot of sugar was my medicine as my head would not stop aching. I held onto that porcelain mug as if it were my only pillar of support in a rolling ocean. The Coffee was hot against my hand as I held it there for a couple hours until I felt well enough to climb into bed for a week. Just as I got up to leave the club a woman took the stage and started singing as the black men behind her played Jazz. The song was sweet and dark just like the coffee I’d been drinking near a gallon of. I stayed and listened to her sing a couple more before she left the spotlight and backstage we’d had the dressing room to ourselves. I don’t know what I said that day that made her let me in or what I’d said for the next year that kept her around. It was that voice of hers though that I fell hard for. When the time was up and everything ended I found myself going to various clubs trying to catch just a fragment of that perfect singing voice.

Pulling my hand away from the rock face I turned to go and I heard that same damned voice. No it wasn’t quite the same. The owner was sweet and unrefined but still sang with the emotion that had once ensnared me. I stepped through the undergrowth and around the trees to find the source and saw a small filly with the zebra Zecora ahead of me. They were gathering plants into a basket and she was singing while picking the flowers and leaves. I leaned against the nearest tree and folded my arms across my chest just listening to her. I knew I’d seen this pony somewhere before but there were so many of them in Ponyville I could never remember all of their names.

A soft sigh escaped my lips as her song mellowed my heart and the zebra looked over her shoulder spotting me only twenty yards away. She inclined her head and went back to picking. Neither one of us wanted to interrupt the sweet filly that sounded as if she was a perfectly tuned bell. Of course I’d seen her before; she was Sweetie Bell the sister of Rarity. I laughed at my slowness of recognizing her and when she stopped singing I tipped the brim of my fedora towards her and made an awkward bow. Standing hurt a little but my shoulder had mostly healed in the four days since being shot. Whatever magic Celestia had used saved me weeks of pain.
“That was simply beautiful. Does it have a name?” I asked letting my hands drop to my side.
“It’s my own song.” She said shyly and put her small bundle of flowers into the basket.
“You should sing that in a night club in Canterlot. Get a bass to play the background and every pony would toss you roses.”
“I’m not that good.” She squeaked.
“You’ve the voice of an Angel.”
“It’s good to see you up and about after hearing of your injury I had many a doubt.” Zecora smiled.
“Lyra’s been making sure I don’t overdo it. Zecora you don’t happen to have a bottle of whiskey at your place do you?” I asked with just a little hope.
“Whiskey is all fine and good if you are a Human and want a head full of wood. What I have brewed with my stirring stick will not give you an alcoholic kick.”
“What’s alcohol?” Sweetie Bell asked dropping more flowers into the basket.
“It’s a potion that helps you forget but once it wears off you just feel worse.” I walked over to the basket and looked at the plants they had gathered. “You need more of these types?”
“We will make a special thing for Sweetie Bell and her ability to sing.” Zecora nodded.

I set myself to task helping them gather the ingredients and even convinced Sweetie Bell to sing a couple more songs while the three of us worked. It was not long until the basket had been completely filled and I carried it back to Zecora’s hut following behind the two ponies with a smile at the corner of my mouth. Neither one of them really cared what I’d done in my past or if they did they never asked. The days following my arrival they were in shock but some of the elder ponies had seen a Human before. Two weeks later they had accepted me as a new resident and there was an unwritten code of conduct that I’d seen. Many followed it close but some were less strict on how they treated everypony in Ponyville. There was harmony and joy to be had in droves. Sadness the kind of which I’d grown up with and known nearly every day hardly existed out here.

That’s why that first murder had been such a hit to the community and I’d seen it through the lenses I’d always worn. It was just another body to me. I wondered if some of these ponies had really gone through hell trying to cope with the fact that someone had killed a pony. I was not going to let it happen again. Seeing Sweetie Bell and hearing her song had been all the motivation I needed. By the time the brew was finished and bottled I had a plan. Rarity had shown up soon after to pick up her sister and thank Zecora for making her a special potion. The two of them left and I was alone with the zebra for the first time since coming here. She looked at me over the cauldron with those knowing mystical eyes. She set to work making something while I removed my coat and sat it next to a giant painted African style mask.
“I’m going into the Badlands.” I stated and she merely nodded.
“This I have known since the seeds of destruction had been sown. The Changeling Queen was not content to sit in the badlands and simply vent. ” She tossed a reddish vine into the mix.
“Is there anything I can take with me that will help? I have a knife and a broken pocket watch. That’s not much compared to what awaits me there.”
“You’ll need to pack supplies for three for you will have some company.”
“Three? Who are the other two that will be going?” I rubbed my shoulder watching her work.
“Heartstrings will accompany you and Derpy Hooves will be number two. When you came back to Ponyville they stopped by fearing you to be ill. Both asked for help to cheer you up and I gave each of them a full cup. You have good friends that care and in your mission they want to share.”
“What do I do then?” I asked as she stirred the mixture and brought it to a boil. “I don’t want to put them in a situation where they could be killed or turning like I am. Once I’m there how am I going to fight Chrysalis much less defeat her?” I refrained from mentioning Nick.
“You will do what you must do for answer your own questions only can you.”

She gripped the stirring stick in her teeth and added something else to the mixture. I turned away from her and looked at the mask while she worked. I’d seen things like this in a museum before. They had been faded and slightly warped by time but this was brightly painted in green with a white rim and red facial markings. It had been carved from one piece of wood and there was fringe made of braided grass all along the edge. The time it must have taken to create this was incredible. Zecora and the zebras did not have hands nor did they have magic so they had to be working with their hooves and teeth using rocks to carve out the wood. She had several masks like it lining the walls and all of them different sizes. Dedication was the word that came to mind for someone like her. Dedication to her culture and to those she considered friends to want to help. She’d done so much good for the town and they all appreciated it.

Lyra had been there for me through a lot and at times I took her for granted. It was the addition of Derpy though that threw me for a loop. She wanted to come along and I couldn’t exclude her but I hoped the two of them knew what we were getting into. With Lyra’s magic we might just stand a chance. Having Derpy along to… no… we were all going to die. That little pony bless her heart was a walking time bomb of unintentional destruction. I started laughing and couldn’t stop. Turning around I saw Zecora look up over the cauldron and raise a brow. Every time somepony had set Derpy to a task she royally messed it up sometimes with hilarious consequences and other times so badly that it couldn’t be fixed. All I needed to do what get her to use that bubble brain of hers against Chrysalis and just sit back and watch. The entire badlands would go up in a firestorm and I wouldn’t even have to lift a finger. Picking up my coat I finally stopped my laughter and wiped a tear from the corner of my eye.
“I am happy you find my mask so funny. I was wondering if I needed to calm you with a dose of honey.”
“It’s not the mask although that’s a great work of art. It’s Derpy. I think I know how to use her to our advantage in the badlands.”
“Do not presume to use a friend or you’ll be alone in the end. Allow her natural talent to come out and the enemy it shall route.”
“I won’t use her in any way she does not agree to. I wouldn’t do that to a friend.”
“Very good for her and you yet right now I’ve finished your brew.
“What’ll this end up doing?” I asked trying hard not to fall into her rhyming cadence.
“It will keep you from having thirst but before entering the badlands you must drink it first. There is dose enough for three one Human and two pony.”

She ladled it out into three small earthen bottles and stopped them with a cork. I slipped them into different coat pockets and bid her a farewell. Leaving her hut and the Everfree Forrest I had a plan sketched out in my head. I did not even need the paper anymore. I’d be taking the fight directly to the Changeling Queen. She still needed two tokens to break the barrier and I would make sure that she would never get them. If she wanted me as nick had said then I would go and offer her my head. Sighing at my own thoughts for rhyming I kept walking on ready to tell Lyra and Derpy that the plan was strong.