Twilights Mane Passion

by Darkonshadows

79

Standing on the edge of a cliff three figures looked on silently at the vast gorge before them. These three silent figures were wearing cloaks and just staring at the vast gaping maw before them that was on the edge of a vast desert. One was wearing a beige cloak, another a brown cloak and the last one in a royal red cloak.

They just stood there for a few moments and turned around to leave until a sound caused all three of them to pause and turned around, a hoof was seen holding onto the edge of the cliff and a fourth cloaked figure pulled it up to the surprise of the other three. This figure in the dark green cloak was suddenly surrounded by the other three and pulled into a hug.

“How did you survive? We heard you were thrown from the cliff.” Figure two said in complete surprise, she was the one wearing the beige cloak.

“Oh, I was. It’s just too bad the grand vizier who think himself almightier then every other pony really didn’t think to outright kill me himself when he had me cornered at its edge.” The dark green cloaked figure was positively brimming with anger at this vizier. “So what is that despot in his oh so grand wisdom doing now with all of his power?”

“Uh, we’d still like to know how you survive the fall. Other than that it is quite horrible, he is taking any mare that he fancies for himself as personal slaves and is bullying the people into poverty. Eventually he plans to turn one into his personal concubine if he can’t find my charge soon enough.” The first cloaked figure said wearing the brown one. “There have been quite a few injuries and the vizier is just throwing ponies in jail without even the slightest provocation. We are only glad he is unwilling to spread his influence for fear of earning the ire of the sun and love goddesses whom protect their lands with fervor.”

“I hit a ledge ten feet down, it still hurt a lot though and I could use a healers touch. I barely climbed back up on my own.” The dark green cloaked figure was suddenly slammed into by the red cloaked figure and crying could be heard as the red cloak pulled the green cloak closer. “It’s okay my love, we’ll find a way to free your father from that dastardly villain’s clutches. We just need to find some way around his guards and destroy his source of power.”

“Yeah, about that… sneaking in is going to be hard. We need to deal with those guards eventually and they won’t stop searching for your royal lady here. I’d rather solve this problem by working alone, but apparently I can’t do that now and keep you three out of trouble.” The beige robed figure was shorter than the other three present that were all taller by comparison. “We need to lay low, we’ll only last a week out here at best if we stretch what supplies we still have. We could feasibly make it to one of the surrounding oasis outposts and wait there for help.”

“I will not put my charge in danger by taking her near the city again or those who will tell the vizier of her location for a price.” The brown cloaked being was pretty firm on that note if his voice was anything to go by. “Defending my true liege’s daughter is my honor and I will not rest in keeping her safe from harm.”

“Even I in all my cunning am weary and need to recover from my fall.” The dark green cloak spoke slightly grunting in pain putting weight down on one of his hooves.

“Well your royal highness?” The beige cloaked one said to the red cloak that seemed to be staring at the ground with tears slowly dropping from the shadowed hood.

“We need to find help, of that I will not deny. We will go to the nearest place where the vizier has no influence. We need to hire more adventurers like you, our friend, to aid us.” The red cloaked figure pulled out a map and pointed to a spot on it, it was a relatively new little town in the territory of the sun goddess. “We are but a few against a mighty force, these badlands aren’t too far away. We could still make it to this place. Even the loosest lips from the merchants of the sands will not cross the grounds where a buffalo treads.”

“Works for me, I’m not about to fight an entire war even if I’m as cunning as this guy here.” As soon as the beige cloaked figure finished speaking while motioning to the green cloaked one, they all nodded to themselves and set off. Three of them were already missing their home among the dunes, whereas the beige cloaked one knew the situation was far beyond the normal kind of trouble she usually handled.

Tress Ravel and Twilight Sparkle hopped off the train in Appleoosa, they were currently doing a job for Applejack in transporting some seedlings to the distant town in the badlands. They weren’t alone in their travels, Chrysalis needed to check in with the hive to see if everything was going alright with her people. The still growing changeling left her giant monarch butterfly in the care of Fluttershy promising to return to Ponyville as soon as she was done, she was currently between Twilight and Tress in size. Soon she would enter her cocooned state and would be gone for a year, she’d truly miss being able to help out during the Nightmare Moon event.

“Ciao guys, see you tomorrow. I’ve got some friends of mine to discuss how the changes in our policies are doing.” Chrysalis, in the form of the black furred Fluttershy, immediately ran off the minute the train stopped. In her haste she bypassed the earth pony stallion that was waiting to greet the newcomers.

The stallion had heard his cousin Applejack said she hired some respectable mercenaries to bring over some saplings for the little budding town; they hadn’t exactly gotten their apple groves going full tilt yet but they soon would be bringing in good harvests.

“I wonder where that mare was going… well howdy and welcome to APPLEOOSA! The names Braeburn Apple and welcome to our humble little town, I take it you two young things are the ones cousin Applejack sent over?” Brae was shaking hooves with the two before they knew what had happened and found themselves being dragged about the boring little town. He was already in the midst of showing them the most unimportant of events going on.

“That’s nice and all Brae, but we need to get your saplings off the train… you know the one we were just dragged away from.” At least Tress was glad the excited stallion had the decency to blush, she turned around and started walking away. “Come on Twilight. Let’s go get those saplings off before the train decides to depart with them still on it, especially while we’re receiving this rather fascinating two bit tour for free.”

“Sorry about that Brae, but my partner and best friend has a point. If you will excuse us we have a job to do, once we get the trees off we need you to show us where the orchard will be.” Earth pony magic was rather fascinating to Twilight, none of it was harmful to nature and they could accelerate the growth of plants without shortening their lifespan. It wasn’t anywhere near related to Tress’s special talent; if it was then Twilight would be eating daisies for the rest of her life from a large field of flowers. The unfortunate downside would be not having a mane growth formula or the friend that she knew and loved from a different plane of existence, one that lets her dote on such a beautiful lengthy mane.

Tress had already managed to get half the tree’s off by herself, her physical strength definitely wasn’t getting any worse. She slept in her Mane-iac form now; since it slowly generated its own energy build up until it hit the full maximum capacity of which her body could carry. She had about twenty five percent more power in her full Mane-iac form by this point in time. Staying in control of her form really wasn’t that much trouble, though shifting between them took about five seconds. Her body still itched quite a bit to shift, but she was getting over that faster every single time.

Twilight levitated the rest of the somewhat heavy half sized saplings from the train and then turned to Brae with a questioning gaze.

Taking that as an example to show them where they needed these trees, Brae immediately led them to where the apple trees were to be placed. He had a roguish charm to his excitability at seeing the new trees arrive; he even called all of his kin to get started on making their grounds a fruit bearing paradise in the middle of this somewhat arid place. Braeburn had Dark blonde and orange hair with a yellow coat that made him kind of cute looking to Twilight, but Tress wasn’t amused by his painfully giddy demeanor. His single apple cutie mark was kind of boring to look at for the taller mare as well.

Idly Twilight realized that changelings hardly needed water and the best place to put a hive would be a place no pony would normally wish to go. This was probably why Chrysalis didn’t invite them to see her hive, even though she knew she could trust the two of them not to give its location away. It was probably in a place with minimal water as changelings didn’t need as much water as an actual pony to live. In all the time that she knew her, Twilight had never seen Chrysalis so much as drink something from since she was still an average looking changeling to the ambassador of her people she was currently slowly turning into now.

“Well that was nice, how about we hit the saloon and see what they’ve got going on. I’ve heard of western towns in my world having card games and awesome bar brawls.” The soonest they arrived at the bar after a job well done of delivering a bunch of plants, Tress was sadly disappointed at how boring the place was. “Well this is boring.”

“You’re world was built out of nothing but interesting concepts Tress. Not everything in this world has to be as exciting as my family or Ponyville.” Twilight took a seat at the bar and was soon joined by a lazy looking Tress, the bartender quickly popped up with a smile.

“Howdy there, what can I do for ye’ pretty ladies? I’m willing to give ye’ two free ones on the house for the tree delivery, us apples know an honorary family member when we be seeing them.” He was about as accented as every other pony here.

“Actually we’d rather pay for it. We kind of have this friend who is so chronically generous that she’d give you her home if you were homeless and then would proceed to live on the streets happily knowing she did a good deed.” At the thoughts of the fashion pony, Tress chuckled at how much Rarity gave to others at times. She’d almost swear the Rarity was trying to buy off her friends if she didn’t know her so well. “It’s just unfortunate we can barely curb that little problem of hers by forcefully paying her the bits she needs to stay in business. In any case two cold ciders please.”

“Whoa there, no looking a gift from our family in the mouth now! You’re friend sounds like a real nice sort that every pony should know; it’s still on the house though.” The owner of the bar thought these two were too nice for their own good to not accept things given to them freely. Even then both mares placed a bit on the counter, he chuckled dryly at them as he took them.

“It’s a tip for the good service here. Also this town seems to have its fair share of apple related kin around here, willing to talk us into buying another round?” Twilight stated sweetly even if the first one was on the house she still felt bad about not paying it fully. It reminded her way too much of Rarity since Tress bothered to mention her.

“Thank ye’ kindly. Why we apples are a large and loving clan, honest good hard working members each and every last one o’ us. With the few occasions of bad apples every now and then, but even then they are just really grumpy folk. There is nary an apple that will fall that far from the tree without a good reason to do so.” The bartender could really jabber on about the extended family, he only stopped to think about what to say next. “Anything in particular you need to know about the clan, like any o’ the juicy stuff you might have heard in passing? I don’t just provide drinks, I tell stories too! Any good bartender worth their saltlicks knows a good yarn.”

“Could you tell us what happened to Applejack’s parents? She really didn’t like to talk about it much.” The minute she asked that, Tress received the deepest frown she would likely ever see cross the bartenders face.

“Now there’s a story I wish that had never happened. They were good folks; the entire family came together in Smith’s aid when they went.” The bartender swept his hat from his head and a few tears appeared in his eyes. “It’s not a pretty tale to tell two wonderful young gals like yourselves, are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Even if it’s sad, we still want to know about how our friend became like a mother to her own little sister. To truly be an honorary part of the family, we have to take all the good with the bad don’t we?” Even Twilight was curious about this as well and since Tress placed it out there, why not? “You can trust us to handle a sad story.”

“Well now, I guess I better get started. It all started on a warm and sunny day. A bit too warm if you are to be asking me and that was exactly the problem…” The bartender went into his woeful tale of as he dished out two more filled mugs after the mares finished their first and paid for the second round.

Author's Note:

Just to be a jerk, I'm skipping to Applejack's backstory of how she lost her parents.

Will the four cloaked figures require help from the Trouble Takers and their present tag along Chrysalis?

Comments

[Sporkz]

Of course the cloaked figures will need help from the Trouble Takers. Why else would they be in the story?

[raw666]

Hope to expect more updates soon. Keep up the work.

[Imperium Bedlam]

Paragraph one, please rewrite it.
Anyhive, oooohhhhhhhhhhh you sneaky devil.

[Silent_Knight]

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