Sauer Kraut is dealing with her own issues on her family's farm in the Mysterious South when one day an alien creature literally drops out of the sky and into her life.
Years before six brave mares faced off against a returned Nightmare Moon, a young mare by the name of Sauer Kraut lived on her family’s farm in the Mysterious South at the foot of Macintosh Hills.
Her biggest issues in life were the constant search for new challenges and projects as well as her family's unenthused reactions to them. But was it really her fault that nopony got the brilliance behind her ideas?
However, her entire life got turned upside down the day a patrol of the Southern Equestrian Legion shot down a mysterious creature flying right overhead.
Hello out there! My name is Ayn Wye. I would like to tell you a bit about myself. However, before I do this, you should know about somepony else first. Her name is Sauer Kraut. I haven’t met another mare like her in all of Equestria, and I have traveled quite a lot in my younger years. If she wasn’t the way she is, well, I can’t even imagine how my own life would have turned out. So, please, enjoy her story. See you soon!
~~~~~~~~~
Sauer Kraut woke up when the rays of the early morning sun shone onto her face, disorienting her for a few moments. Since when was her bed in a spot where the sun hit it in the morning?
Oh right!
She recalled that she had moved her bed across the room the evening before so she would be woken up by the sun. After all, it was up to her to get everypony out of bed until the rooster was ready again.
She jumped out of bed energetically and pushed it back to its usual position, grinning to herself.
Stage One: Completed!
Sauer put on her favorite neckerchief and allowed herself a short glance into the mirror. Her purple hair was the usual mess, but she didn’t care, that’s why she wore her mane so short after all.
While trotting out into the hallway, she pondered what would be the easiest and quickest way to wake everypony up. Suddenly, a brilliant idea hit her!
OooOOoohhh, this is going to be fun!
With glee, she turned to the door of the bedroom next to hers and entered without hesitation. Sauer noticed to her satisfaction that the room’s owner was still fast asleep in her bed. She quickly trotted over to the bed, whirled around and gave it a powerful buck, flipping it on its side and sending its occupant into the gap between the wall and the furniture.
Sauer pulled herself up to the edge of the sideways bed and grinned down at the noisy, confused, twitching bundle of pony and blanket.
“Good morning, Sis! Time to wake everypony up!”
The bundle stopped moving, and an angry-looking eye glared up at Sauer from within the fabric. Sauer took this as her cue to slide back down the bed, sit a few steps away and put her hooves over her ears.
“What, by the Mare in the Moon, Is wrong with you, you insane lunatic?! Have you finally snapped, you verfickter nutjob?!” This was followed by a few feral screams and the sounds of a pony fighting her way out of a blanket
Sauer Kraut listened to the hallway and could hear voices and movements from the other rooms. “Perfect! Looks like everypony is awake now. Thanks for the help, Blauy! See you at breakfast!” With this, Sauer Kraut happily left the room and turned towards the stairs. One of her cousins was peeking out of his room with sleepy eyes, and she wished him a good morning in passing.
That went absolutely smoothly! I guess I’ll use that trick every morning until the rooster is ready again!
Sauer was halfway down the stairs when she heard the movement of a heavy piece of furniture followed by the sound of angry galloping in the corridor above.
Oh, come on! Not again! Blau often showed a lack of appreciation for Sauer’s idea—especially those involving her without being asked first. Then again, she usually declined whenever Sauer asked her sister upfront. This seemed to be one of those times Blau got super angry—and ponies called Sauer the irrational one!
The sound of galloping ended at the top of the stairs, and Sauer tensed up, preparing for the impact. A moment later, a pony sized projectile hit her and sent her flying down the rest of the stairs.
The two siblings tumbled a few pony-lengths along the floor before they slowed down. Sauer managed to control their momentum in her favor, so that she landed on top of her sister and pinned her down once they came to a halt.
Blau fought against her sister's grip but without any success. “You crazy hay brain! You are going to pay for this!”
Sauer sighed. “Calm down, Sis! It’s over; everypony is awake, and beyond a little scare, you are fine as well. Stop being so childish!”
Blau struggled futilely for a moment until a deep, husky voice sounded from behind her. “Do I even wanna know?”
Both mares froze and turned towards the source of the voice. At the head of the otherwise empty table in the center of the common room sat Weiss Kraut, their father. He looked at them with a raised eyebrow while holding a mug of coffee in his one remaining front hoof.
Verdammte scheisse, how does he manage to always beat me down here no matter how early I get up?!
Blau used her sister’s distraction to throw her off with one rough thrust. “Papa, Spotty bucked my bed upside down for no reason!”
“No, it was for a very good reason! I needed to wake everypony up since the rooster can’t do it, and you were my alarm clock. It was super efficient!”
“Wha… WHAT?!” Blau looked about ready to attack her sister once more.
However, once again both mares’ attention snapped to their father when he put his mug down onto the table with a loud clank. “Spotty, dear. Why can’t the rooster wake everypony up today? He did just fine yesterday.”
Oh, scheisse! I shouldn’t have mentioned that. Sauer started fiddling with her forehooves. They will probably not understand, as always, and look at me like… like I am nuts. Oh, scheissdreck! They already started staring!
Weiss Kraut leaned a bit forward, a warm but strict smile on his face. “Spotty... What about the rooster?”
“Well…” Sauer glanced at her sister, who was staring back at her, eyebrow raised. She wasn't going to get out of this one. “He can’t wake everypony up today since he is gagged.” Blau’s eyes widened, and Sauer quickly looked back to her father. Weiss Kraut still smiled, and unlike her sister, he showed no sign of shock. However, there was something else in his look. Disappointment? Worry? Sadness?
Maybe if she just explained the rest, he would understand and stop looking at her that way. “Look, Papa. The rooster has been out of tune for months! So, I finally took it upon myself to teach him how to crow correctly. But obviously, I can’t let him continue with his out-of-tune crowing until we are done—otherwise, he will just fall back all the time, and it will take forever! So, I gagged him yesterday before I went to bed.”
Sauer pleadingly looked at her father. He would understand, right? He was smart, after all, and her logic was correct: the teaching would be unnecessarily prolonged if the rooster was allowed to continue his flawed crowing.
Her father examined her a moment longer in silence before focusing on something behind her. Her adopted little brother had just come down the stairs. “Schlingel, my boy,” Weiss Kraut said. “Be a dear and quickly run to the stable and ungag the rooster!”
Well, at least somepony isn’t asking questions—he just smiles and runs off to do as he is asked. Why can’t Blau be like that?
“Spotty, come over here.” Her father made an inviting gesture with the shoulder of his missing foreleg. Blau had already turned to the kitchen, probably preparing her breakfast.
She sighed and trotted over towards her dad and sat down so he could lean onto her in a hug-like manner, while his remaining forehoof was free to ruffle her mane. “You do realize why gagging the rooster and literally kicking your sister out of bed is not right, don’t you?”
Sauer fought against a misty sensation in her eyes. He was talking to her as if she was a filly again. She was a grown up, adult mare for crying out loud! She was the oldest amongst her siblings! Just because they… misunderstood her way of thinking didn’t make her a child!
“Don’t you?” Weiss Kraut repeated.
“I…” She gritted her teeth, before her shoulders slumped. “No. Not really…” She tried to avert her eyes, but her father put his hoof under her chin and turned her head so she was facing him.
Still smiling, he replied in a calm and patient voice. “Put yourself in the position of the rooster or your sister. Do you believe they enjoyed what you put them through?”
“It worked! Well, it would have...”
“Sweetheart, an idea needs to be more than just working in order to be a good one. For starters, it shouldn’t make other ponies feel bad. The same goes for roosters, by the way.” He gave her a peck on the forehead. “You are smart young mare, Spotty, and just a bit nuts like your mum used to be. I know you’ll figure it all out eventually.” He let her go. “Now have some breakfast and get ready for the day. It may not be harvest season, but there is still more than enough to do!”
~~~~~~~~~
Upon leaving the main house of Kraut Land Hof, her family’s farm, Sauer was met by the disapproving look of the now un-gagged rooster. He opened his beak wide, and gave his annoyingly out-of-tune crow. However, one angry stare later, he quickly retreated to wherever he spent his day.
Blau accompanied Sauer on her way to the field she was going to work on that day. Sauer could tell that her younger sister was still cross with her because she didn’t say a single word. What was she so mad about? Sauer had already promised that she wouldn’t use her as an alarm-clock again. Now that she wasn’t allowed to gag the rooster anymore, there was no point in doing so anyways. What was Blau expecting from her? An apology maybe? Sauer didn’t see any point in that. After all, she had been in the right!
Eventually, they parted ways when they reached the northern fields. Each of them would work on one of two neighboring fields. Sauer Kraut welcomed being on her own so she could focus on her work. She enjoyed giving her absolute best in her work—or everything she did for that matter. Having other ponies around usually only caused her distractions, because they would constantly ask her to slow down and take it easy. Killjoys!
Around noon, Sauer was lying under a tree at the border of the field she had been working on, panting and covered in sweat. She also felt super happy! She had already finished her chore that was supposed to take the entire day.
She fished out her lunch from within her saddlebags and started looking around the landscape while chewing on her sandwich. There, she could make out her sister still only halfway done with her own field. On her other side was the field Sauer was supposed to take care of tomorrow. Maybe she could finish it today as well? She felt her muscles ache and laughed a bit to herself. Maybe just start with it.
Sauer looked towards the Macintosh Hills mountain range to the north. She had never been to the Equestrian Heartland. Then again, she wasn’t sure if she would really enjoy being there. From what she has been told, life was pretty boring up there. For the past thousand years, Princess Celestia had ruled her peaceful utopia without anything interesting happening. Life down here was a lot more exciting with the constant threat of Troglodyte raiding parties attacking.
Sauer finished her sandwich and laid back looking into the bright sky. What a beautiful day. When she turned west, she could even see the small cloud settlement hovering above Cloppenburg. She then noticed a single pegasus, high up in the sky, flying towards her. As she came closer, Sauer noticed that something was off about the flyer: she clearly had the shape of a pony, but Sauer couldn’t make out any wings. Or were those translucent blurs on either side of the flyer supposed to be wings?
Who or whatever it was, it was no normal pegasus!
Sauer curiously watched the mysterious creature as it continued to fly eastwards. When it was right overhead, she noticed it’s erratic flying as if it was struggling with something. This thing was in trouble!
Suddenly, a flash of light startled Sauer when a magic bolt was fired into the air from not very far away. The magic projectile hit the creature, and it started dropping towards the ground.
Sauer was on her hooves in an instant. She took a moment to observe the falling creature in order to judge where it would crash. Then she started galloping.
Her muscles ached from the sudden exertion after they had already been pushed to their limits from her chores. But Sauer ignored it; if nothing broke that creature’s fall, it would be horribly injured, if not worse!
The mare’s mind was racing. The creature would come down in the middle of the field. Sauer knew that there was barely anything around that could soften its impact, much less anything she could get into place in time. Well, there was one thing. Sauer made the decision in an instant: she was an earth pony; she should be able to take the blow. And every bit of force she could take away from the impact, however small, would increase the creature’s chance of survival.
Sauer looked up as she ran—she was nearly in position with only seconds left before it would hit the ground. She noticed that the unconscious creature was definitely not a pony; it was covered in some kind of dark material, and there were large holes in its legs. Instead of feathered wings, it had limbs that reminded her of a dragonfly.
Yet, all that didn’t matter—what mattered was that she save it! But Sauer could tell she wouldn’t make it in time; the creature was falling too fast.
Out of options, Sauer screamed at the falling figure. “Wake up!”
Suddenly, its eyes flickered open. Two otherworldly blue glowing spheres instantly widened in panic. The creature produced an un-equine shriek and started buzzing its wings rapidly, slowing its descent just a tiny bit.
It wasn’t much, but it had to be enough! She thrust her hind legs out with all her strength and leapt into the air just in time to—
“Oof! Ow…” The impact hurt like hell! Sauer’s vision went blurry for a moment while she dragged herself back to her hooves and got her bearings. She gave herself a quick check over and thanked her earth pony ancestors for the incredible resilience she inherited from them. As far as she could tell, she hadn’t broken anything.
The newcomer lying next to her was another story entirely. It had been knocked out again by the collision. Sauer examined the strange creature with curiosity. Its skin was dark-grey and covered in what appeared to be scaly chitin plates like an insect’s exoskeleton. Along its back was a hard carapace. It had cracked in places, oozing out bluish-green fluid of some kind. Blood? There was even more of it dried around a lot of older wounds all over its body.
What kind of creature was this? It was clearly not a pony at all. It seemed more like a cross between a pony and a giant bug—familiar in some ways, yet completely alien in others. Sauer couldn’t even tell its gender. Well, going by the lack of certain… obvious features, it was surely female.
For a few moments, Sauer just stared at her in astonished fascination. Then, she managed to snap out of it. This… mare—whatever she was—was in desperate need of help!
Sauer was pondering how to lift the unconscious creature onto her back without risking any further injuries when she heard the sound of a group of approaching ponies. She looked up as a patrol of five soldiers closed in on her in a quick canter. Sauer recognized their leather combat barding as that of the Southern Equestrian Legion. The patrol was lead by a maroon earth pony mare with a sword strapped to her back. At her side glided a pegasus stallion with a readied crossbow. They were followed by two more earth ponies carrying spears, flanking a unicorn stallion.
The leader shouted in a strict voice. “Stand clear, citizen! This creature might pose a threat!”
Sauer quickly assessed the situation. She saw the direction the legionnaires came from. She knew that the magic blast could only have come from the unicorn which accompanied them. A burning fury rose up within her. She positioned herself between the approaching soldiers and the fallen creature and took an aggressive stance, her voice a guttural rage. “You!”
The maroon mare came to a halt right in front of Sauer and gave her an irritated look. “Pardon?”
“It was you! Verfickte Scheisse! You shot her down!”
The legionnaire's look turned from irritation to annoyance. “Watch your language, citizen! This is not your concern.”
Sauer got right in the pony’s face and screamed. “Fick dich! Don’t you criticize my verschissene language! It is my concern, verdammte scheisse! You just tried to kill her!”
"Calm yourself down, citizen; it was just a weak stun spell. Nopony's trying to kill anyone."
"N’scheissdreck! What do you think happens to somepony who is flying when they can't move their wings?"
“When an unidentified flyer is spotted in Southern Equestrian airspace, it is standard procedure to hit it with a minor stun spell that will force it to land. It was never supposed to—”
“Get off this land! You and your verfickte cohorts are not welcome here!”
The now furious looking soldier shouted back at her. “I’ll have you know, the Legion is the official protector of this realm, and—”
Sauer wasn’t having any of this high and mighty Legion talk. “My family has been protecting this land from the troglodytes long before you arschlöcher started doing your job! My dad lost his verfickte foreleg fending off a scheiss raiding party by himself!”
After that, there was a moment of silence as the two mares glared at each other, panting heavily. The pegasus stallion had landed next to the patrol leader and kept a cool, calculating look towards Sauer. The remaining three legionnaires stayed two pony lengths behind and shifted nervously in place.
The the maroon mare visibly relaxed and took a deep breath. “Enough of this tomfoolery. You have already wasted enough of our time, little filly. We—”
That’s it! Sauer whirled around and sent the mare flying with a buck to the head. The pegasus stallion instantly turned to face the unicorn within their group and shouted, “Paralyze her!”
Looks like we have another volunteer!
Sauer’s hind hooves connected with a pony for the second time within moments. Before she could turn her attention towards the remaining three legionnaires, there was a flash of light, and she lost all feeling in her body from the neck down. She then collapsed, hitting her head hard on the ground.
“Scheiss die wand an!” Okay, apparently she could still speak. She tried moving her body, but simply nothing happened. She focused her glare on the unicorn, who involuntarily took a step back. “Take this verschissene spell of me! Right! Verfickt nochmal! Now!”
For a moment, Sauer thought the young unicorn stallion was actually about to obey, but then he looked to his fellow legionnaire next to him, a green earth pony mare.
The sudden attention snapped her out of her stupor. “What? No! The Lieutenant gave the clear command to paralyze her before she knocked him out.” She blinked a few times as if realizing something and continued with more conviction, “Also, she knocked him out! And Commander Eiserne Regel! This is like a war crime or something! Don’t you dare listen to her!”
After that, the three soldiers did their best to ignore Sauer no matter how loud and wild she became as she screamed at them. The unicorn and the mare who seemed to have taken over command walked over to the alien creature—giving Sauer a wide berth—while the remaining earth pony looked after the still-unconscious commanding officers.
“What is going on here?”
Sauer recognized her sister’s voice. She instantly stopped screaming and tried to look behind her, but her body still ignored any command she gave it.
“Blauy! Please, you gotta help me! They’re going to hurt her! Please, don’t let them do more harm than they already have!”
Blau Kraut appeared in her sister’s vision from the side, looking expectantly at the soldiers while ignoring her sister. What was she doing? Sauer tried and failed once more to get up. She watched helplessly as the mare in command walked toward her sister.
“Stay clear, citizen!” the green mare said with attempted determination. Her nervously shifting eyes betrayed her lack of confidence. “I am Corporal Grün Schnabel. This is official Legion business, and we cannot allow you to interfere!”
Without missing a beat, Blau replied, “I am Blau Kraut, and you are at Kraut Land Hof, my family’s property. Also, this screaming lunatic on the ground here is my sister. I daresay, I have the right to be here and to know what is happening.”
Taken aback by Blau’s confidence, and maybe a bit frightened by the notion that this was the sister of the mare that had just knocked out the senior members of her patrol, the corporal seemed a bit intimidated when she continued. “Well, yes… Okay. You may stay. But don’t do anything which would interfere with our operation!”
Blau gave a short nod in acknowledgement, and Grün Schabel returned to her unicorn comrade, keeping a nervous eye on Blau.
“Please, Blauy”, Sauer pleaded in a hushed voice. Her sister kept a close eye on the legionnaires and the bug creature, but her ears flicked in Sauer’s direction. “They’ve already shot her down for no reason. She nearly died! Those hay-brains have no clue what they’re doing. If they take her away, she’s not going to make it. Please, we can’t let this happen.”
Blau didn’t show any reaction; she just kept watching. Her eyes were slightly closed—a sign that she was thinking something through.
“Blauy?”
Without even looking back at her paralyzed sibling, Blau took a few slow steps in the direction of the creature and the two soldiers inspecting her. She stopped far enough away that the already worried-looking young legionnaires would not feel threatened. “So, you shot her down? Since when does the Legion take such extreme measures unprovoked?”
The unicorn stallion was visibly disturbed by this accusation. “We don’t!”
Grün Schnabel gave him a disapproving look before turning back to Blau. “It was not our intention to shoot her down. The spell was supposed to make her stiffen up, so she would have to land.” She tensed up a bit before continuing. “But when the spell hit, she dropped like a stone. Check out these wounds. My guess is she's been in a fight recently. She was pretty banged up, so she was barely holding it together. Then the stun spell pushed her over the edge. It was an accident.”
Oh no. Sauer’s gut twisted up. This couldn’t be right, could it? If it really had been an accident, that would mean that she… Sauer shoved the self-doubt into the back corner of her mind by focusing on Blau’s next question.
“And what are you gals going to do with her now?”
“She’s a member of an unknown species. We need to take her to the outpost to make sure that she…” The corporal glanced at the broken body next to her. “or her species in general isn’t a threat.”
N’scheiss! Sauer could tell that her sister had a plan and already knew exactly what she wanted to say.
Blau tapped her chin in thought “I see. You have special medical facilities for alien creatures in your outpost then?”
“Um… no, actually, we don’t.”
Sauer watched with satisfaction as the realization hit Grün Schnabel, who gave the creature a worried look. “We’d have to take her to Cloppenburg…”
“You wanna take her all the way to Cloppenburg?” Blau asked disapprovingly. ”In her state? You honestly think she’s gonna make it?”
The corporal’s discomfort grew visibly. She looked over to her comrade who was trying to revive the patrol’s still-unconscious commander and lieutenant. The stallion shook his head. Sauer couldn’t deny that she felt a bit pleased with herself; when she knocked somepony out, she knocked them out good.
“Look.” Blau took another step towards Grün Schnabel. “The biggest threat to Southern Equestria is currently the troglodytes, correct?”
The soldier gave her a confused look before nodding. “So what?”
Blau gestured towards the fallen creature. “She is some kind of insectoid—much like the Great Mantis in the west. And troglodytes eat mantis!”
Sauer had never heard of this before. “How do you—”
Blau gave her a rather annoyed look. “I read books! You should try it sometime.” She turned back to the green mare. “But I’m right, aren’t I?”
Grün Schnabel gave Blau a short nod.
“So, I can’t see those bug ponies working with the troglodytes. If anything they might actually be potential allies for Equestria.” Blau gave the soldier a moment to think that over. “I’ll make you a deal: Our farmhouse is a lot closer than even your outpost. We can take her in. This way, the risk that she dies before somepony can treat her is minimized, and you know exactly where she is. How about that?”
The corporal exchanged a look with her comrades, but neither seemed to have any better ideas. “Okay, we will leave the creature in your care as long as you promise to take care of her to your full capacity and allow the Legion access to her when asked for. Agreed?”
“Agreed!” Blau stretched out her hoof, and with visible relief, the green mare bumped it.
“So, what about my sister?” Blau asked.
The legionnaire regarded Sauer with angry glare. “She attacked us and knocked out both our officers. She is under arrest!”
“I see. Yes, that seems reasonable.”
Sauer felt her blood run cold at her sister’s words. “Blauy… what are you doing?” she whispered through clenched teeth.
