//------------------------------// // Chapter XIX: Friends and Foes // Story: The Equestria Games: First Blood // by 8_Bit //------------------------------// The bushes were beginning to get uncomfortable, but Twilight was far too fascinated by what she was seeing to move. Papercraft had been keeping himself busy since the games began. To put things simply, he’d been building a raft. At the Cornucopia, it seemed the only things he was able to grab was a large axe and a length of rope, so he’d spent the first couple of hours of the game gathering wood, before slicing the rope into useful lengths. He was from District 7, the lumber center after all, and he must have grown up doing simple tasks like this. As such, he was perfectly suited to the task he was dedicating himself to. Twilight had spotted him from a distance shortly after she’d heard the snapping noises after going through her stuff. He had been carrying a large pile of logs, heading towards the sea. This was way more than you’d need to build a fire, so naturally that caught her attention, and twinged her curiosity. When he reached the coast, he’d had piles of even more wood, and had begun tying them together. Twilight soon hid in the bush, and watched in amazement as Papercraft expertly lashed the logs together with the lengths of rope. Less than an hour later, and he had something that vaguely looked seaworthy. It was only when her stomach began to complain that she decided to back away to get some food. The rations in her pack would best be saved for emergencies. As she began to back out of the bush, trying hard not to make too much noise, the cannon fired. She froze on the spot as Papercraft began to look around defensively, axe in hoof. There was no way she could move without being spotted. After a few tense minutes, when Papercraft finally decided that whoever was responsible for the pony who had just died was not within an area close enough to be of immediate danger. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as he finally went back around to building his raft, and she was able to retreat into the forest. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Apple Cloud ran as fast as he possibly could, the voices of his pursuers fading slowly but surely into the background. He was adapting poorly to the inability to use his wings, and stumbled clumsily through the forest. Having initially panicked and run from the bloodbath, he’d soon turned back, realizing the need for supplies. Sure, the clique ponies were probably holding a defensive position, but it was worth a shot. When he arrived, he held back, watching the cornucopia from a distance. He was greeted with the sight of Nighteye, dragging a moaning Caramel out of the giant horn, who was covered in bruises, looking too limp to move. He’d watched in horror as they reached the outer ring of entry pads, where Pinkie Pie had smashed a bottle of something in his face, and Pyro had thrown a lit match onto him. The guttural screams made Apple Cloud wince, as Caramel convulsed violently in hopeless attempts to put out the flames consuming his body. The screams seemed to just go on, before fate finally took mercy on the poor stallion, eventually gracing him with death as an escape from the agony of his gradual burning. Apple Cloud hadn’t moved once from his hiding spot, and he daren’t move for fear of being seen by the clique ponies, whom all were scattered around the cornucopia, gathering up the various supplies. Time seemed to slow down, as the complete lack of movement began to take its toll on Apple Cloud’s muscles. He briefly turned away from the cornucopia to stretch his aching legs, only to panic as he turned back, to see Blueblood carrying a sword, and Rarity with a bow and arrow, both heading straight towards him. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Twilight flinched as she heard a snapping noise from the tree above her head. She quickly backed away to get a better view, instinctively taking her knife in hoof as a preparation to defend herself. The sight that greeted her, however, was significantly less threatening than she had expected. Above her, she could make out the distinct shape of a yellow pegasus, who was leaning in to closely inspect a bird’s nest. She was pulling leaves off the tree to line the nest, and somehow, was talking to the birds in a way they understood. They chirped appreciatively as she carefully placed the leaves in the nest, being extra delicate as to not disturb the eggs waiting to hatch. “There,” Twilight could hear her saying kindly. “That will keep your eggs nice and warm until they hatch.” This was a marvel to behold. They had been placed into an arena to fight to the death, and seven ponies had already been killed, so they were hardly in the best of situations. Yet here she was, tending to small animals without a care in the world. “Fluttershy,” Twilight said, hoping to get the Pegasus’s attention. To say that got her attention would actually be an understatement. The yellow pony squealed with fear, jumping backwards onto the next branch, and nearly taking the nest with her. She then proceeded to scramble desperately up the tree, clinging on to any branch she could find. Her choice of hold was poor though, as one of the branches snapped, sending her tumbling to the forest floor. She landed with a painful thud, and Twilight quickly ran over to help. “Don’t kill me!” she squealed pathetically. Thankfully she didn’t seem too badly injured, as the forest floor was littered with decayed foliage, which softened the landing slightly. “It’s okay,” Twilight said gently as she leaned over the cowering pegasus. “I’m not gonna hurt you.” Fluttershy had closed her eyes tightly as she’d fallen, and kept them closed while she had begged for her life. She gingerly opened one to look up at Twilight. “Um, w-what do you mean?” This made Twilight smile slightly. “It means what you might expect it to mean,” she said while offering her a helping hoof. “I’m not going to kill you, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy closed her eye tightly again, not moving from her spot. “Um, t-then why are you holding that knife?” Twilight had completely forgotten about the knife. She quickly returned it to its place in her saddle bag, before turning back to the still-cowering pegasus. “Look, I’ve put it away now. See? No knife.” Fluttershy once again opened an eye slowly. Determining that Twilight had been truthful when she said she’d put the knife away, she opened both eyes and stood up. The fall left her with a slight limp, but there were not any visible signs of serious damage. “Sorry about scaring you,” Twilight said sheepishly. “Oh, um, i-its okay. You didn’t mean to.” “What were you doing up there anyway?” Fluttershy’s sheepish expression turned into a happy smile. “Well, see, my animal friends needed help. Somepony must have come along and pulled out a branch or something, cause I was walking past here and I heard them chirping sadly, so I look up and I can see their nest is about to fall off. So I simply had to climb up there and help, cause I’d hate for some poor birds to lose their home all because I saw them in danger and chose not to help. So then I get up there, and I can see they’ve got eggs in there, so once I put the nest somewhere safe, I showed them how to line the nest to help keep it warm, and that’s when you came along.” Twilight’s mind raced. She’d never heard Fluttershy string together more than a few words per sentence, and whenever she had, it was almost too quiet to hear. But just ask her about animals, and she not only talks quickly, but at a volume within the range of equine hearing. This was indeed a revelation. “In the middle of all this, and you stop to help a family of birds?” Fluttershy nodded happily. “Mmhmm. It just makes me feel so good to help animals in need. And on top of that, the birds offered to get me some food as a way of saying thank you.” Twilight looked at her suspiciously. “They said that, did they?” Almost on cue, two large blue birds appeared holding large bunches of berries. They dropped them on the ground in front of Fluttershy, chirped appreciatively, and returned to their nest. Twilight’s mouth hung open in sheer disbelief. “See.” “I…you…birds…wha?” “I live in District 10 see. The animals there live in horrible conditions, but I do my best to help them out. Not many ponies seem to understand if you just show a bit of kindness to an animal in need, they’ll return the favour in gratitude.” “But you understood them. They spoke to you, in chirps and whistles, and you understood them?” Fluttershy nodded. “Years of practice. Come on, want some berries?” Twilight smiled as she took the berries, knowing from her years in the Everfree Forest that they were completely safe. She pushed Lightning Dust’s warnings about getting to close to other ponies to the back of her mind as she sat with her new friend, enjoying this brief moment of calm while it lasted. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Apple Cloud was regretting his decision. As soon as he’d seen Rarity and Blueblood walking towards him, he'd quickly climbed up the tree he was hiding behind. Years of working the apple orchards of District 11 had quickly adapted him to tree climbing whenever any apples were being difficult and refusing to fall, especially the summer he'd broken both of his wings trying to impress the mares at school. However, he had not considered anypony else when he climbed the tree, as when the District 1 ponies had headed out, Pinkie Pie, Fire Work and Pyro had started patrolling the perimeter, armed to the teeth to ward off would-be attackers from attempting to rob the stash they were now holding down. They were walking slowly in a circle around the cornucopia, about ten meters into the tree line. The spacing was far apart, but so were the trees in the area, meaning everypony would have a long line of sight, enough so that even with the gap between the sentries, Apple Cloud had no way of getting away without being spotted. He’d been clutching the tree for half an hour when the sound of another cannon erupted. The sound waves pulsed aggressively in his ears, and the fright caused him to momentarily lose his grip. He quickly tried to grab at the tree branches as he fell backwards, only for it to snap off in his hoof as he fell. He tried to roll backwards as he landed, in an attempt to change the direction of the momentum to minimize the damage caused from the fall, only for his back to crunch awkwardly as his body twisted to the side, leaving him in a pile a few feet from the tree. “Hey!” he heard Pinkie Pie call out from nearby. “I've got one over here!” Not needing any more invitations, he got up to run, only to stumble as his spine burned with pain. He’d clearly had a serious fall, and as he turned away from the cornucopia to try and make his escape, he spotted a small cluster of rocks right where he’d fallen. He stumbled away as fast as he could as arrows whizzed past his head, striking the trees around him as the clique ponies gave chase. Horrified, he saw Blueblood and Rarity up ahead, quickly turning left to avoid them. They looked injured, but he didn’t fancy taking his chances with them. Blueblood was quite bulky, and he looked like he could easily give chase, even with his injured colleague on his back. Apple Cloud couldn’t think like that. He had to escape, and he couldn’t allow his agonizing back pain to slow him down. The arrows that were still flying past him were a constant reminder of this. He grinned as the voices of the clique ponies began to fade into the background. He turned his head to look back as he ran, happily seeing nopony behind him. His joy was short lived, as he turned forward to briefly see a flash of red, before he crashed into something, and went sprawling onto the forest floor. He screwed his face and moaned as he landed on his back, still throbbing from his fall, only to look up and see he hadn’t crashed into a something, but a somepony instead. His eyes widened as the bulky figure of Big McIntosh turned to face him, muscles bulging under his bright red coat.