Chapter Three
“Delta: Bursting Passed Over Paradise”
Applejack was gonna have a word or two with Rainbow Dash at some point… right after she was done cleaning up the damage that stupid windstorm had caused.
It wasn’t anything too bad, a couple of trees got knocked over and apples were scattered everywhere. The point was that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Fortunately, she had some help with the cleaning; one of her other friends had shown up to check on Applejack and her family.
“Ah sure am glad ya showed up when ya did, Twi.” The cowpony said as she helped Big Macintosh straighten a tree back into place, while the lavender alicorn levitated numerous apples into baskets that would be sorted by Granny Smith and Applebloom later.
“Just because I’m a Princess now doesn’t mean I no longer care about what’s going on in Ponyville.” Twilight Sparkle giggled “And I’m always available for my friends.”
With the tree back in place, Applejack trotted over Twilight just as she used her magic to load the filled baskets on to the cart so that Big Mac could take them to the barn.
“Did ya manage ta find out what that storm was all about?” Applejack asked but Twilight shook her head sadly.
“I’m afraid not. I ran into Rainbow Dash on the way here and she had no idea what had happened either.” Twilight replied as the two of them began to head to the next section of orchard to continue the clean up “She told me that one minute it was clear, the next there was a huge storm cloud, and then it was gone before they could even mobilize pegasi to take care of it.”
“Yeah, well, it stayed long enough ta mess up the harvest.” The cowpony huffed in irritation “If’n we’re very lucky, half a’ the apples knocked outta mah trees’ll be good enough ta sell on the market.”
“Well… if it’s any consolation, Rainbow Dash said she’ll be by later to help with whatever clean-up’s still needed and I’ll make sure she apologizes when she does.” Twilight said, giving Applejack an apologetic grin.
Their conversation was interrupted a chorus of howls coming from the Everfree Forest.
“Tha’s odd, it’s way too early for the Zap Apples.” Applejack said, staring in the direction of the wild forest “Somepony musta stumbled upon a pack a’ timberwolves, an’ a big one at that.”
“We should go check it out and make sure nopony gets hurt, AJ.” Twilight replied and began to trot quickly in the direction of the howls. Applejack looked back at Big Mac, who was beginning to strap himself to the cart.
“Keep an eye on things here, Mac, Twilight an’ Ah are gonna go see wha’s got the timberwolves all riled up. An’ make sure Applebloom don’ wander off, ya hear?” She called out to him and began to gallop after her friend.
Applejack didn’t think much about it at first, but as she and Twilight got closer to the meadow separating the orchard from the forest, they began to hear strange sounds; namely wolves snarling and yelping in pain along with grunts of exertion, what sounded like an axe smashing a bunch of twigs and a voice yelling out strange words that made no sense to her.
Suddenly it went quiet, causing her and Twilight to pause and look at each other. Then they heard a voice call out.
“Don’t get comfortable, you two, the wolves are doing something new!”
“Aw snap, we got a boss fight on our hands!” Another voice cried out excitedly, but it quickly turned to disgust “Ugh, what the hell is that smell?! It’s like something crawled up its butt and died!”
The first sounded like a young filly, probably around Pinkie Pie’s age while the second sounded kind of like Rainbow Dash, but that’s not what concerned Applejack. What worried her was that if they’d been fighting against the timberwolves, then she could assume the stupid things were about to band together to create an Alpha, which was not only bigger and nastier than a normal timberwolf, it also had a poisonous stench that made anypony that breathed it in very sick, making them easy prey.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Applejack?” Twilight asked in a worried voice and the cowpony nodded.
“Sure am, Sugarcube.” She replied “Ah don’ suppose ya can conjure up some masks with yer fancy magic, can ya?”
“Yes I can, just give me a moment.” The alicorn replied and closed her eyes just as her horn began to glow with a magenta aura.
After just a couple of seconds, Applejack felt something appear around her muzzle, covering up her nose and mouth and she noticed that Twilight now had a magenta-colored mask around her own muzzle. They nodded at each other and charged into the meadow to see the huge Alpha Timberwolf stalking slowly forward towards its victims, who looked extremely odd but Applejack decided she could talk to them once they’d dealt with the timberwolf.
“Twilight! How d’ya suppose we go about stoppin’ this thing?” Applejack called out to Twilight, who put a hoof up to her chin in thought.
“I’ve read about these things; normally, making a lot of noise is enough to drive them away since the spirits inhabiting them are hurt by sound waves, but that won’t work on an Alpha!” Twilight called back, a determined look on her face “However, I think I can create a kind of bomb that will use a sonic frequency to disrupt the bonds the spirits are using to hold it together!”
“Alright, then. Ah’ll distract it while ya get yer magic ready ta go!” Applejack replied and turned to the huge timberwolf “C’mon ugly! Ah’m yer new target, come n’ get me!”
She galloped up to one of its forelegs and bucked it, the wood cracking but not breaking. However, the wolf gave a cry of pain and turned its angry glowing eyes to her just as she galloped under it and out the other side, turning to face it once more.
The wolf turned slowly around to face her and gave out a loud roar before raising one huge paw and bringing it down on her head. Applejack managed to get out of the way just as it slammed the ground where she’d been just a couple of seconds ago and galloped to the foreleg she’d attacked previously, bucking it once more and this time, large chunks flew off and exposed the soft vines beneath.
Then the wolf surprised her by kicking out with its wounded leg and sending her flying away, landing hard on the ground and knocking the breath out of her. She struggled to rise, but then saw a shadow descend over her and when she looked up, she saw the wolf had raised its paw and was about crush her.
Or it would have, but just before the paw began to fall, a third voice cried out from the other group.
“MeVak Kruz!” The voice, a male by the sound of it, yelled and a bunch of flames appeared around the weak point on the limb and exploded, causing the wolf to howl in rage and pain as the severed limb went flying and landed several yards to Applejack’s right with a boom.
The cowpony turned to look at the one who’d summoned the flames and saw one of the strange group grasping its long and strangely shaped stick shakily and holding one strange claw-like appendage up before collapsing to the ground, whatever strength it had conjured up to save her apparently spent.
Unfortunately, Applejack didn’t have time to celebrate as glowing green strands snaked their way over to the severed limb to pull it back towards the wolf. Applejack galloped over quickly and put as much strength as she could into bucking its supporting leg, but all she did was cause some of the bark-like armor to fall off and cracks to appear in its wooden hide.
But just before the wolf could reattach its limb, Twilight finished her spell with a great cry and energy burst from her horn in an explosion of sound. The effect on the wolf was immediate and it fell to pieces as the glowing green wisps began to flee swiftly back into the forest to escape the terrible sounds.
Applejack galloped back over to Twilight and noticed that the lavender alicorn looked exhausted, though she gave the cowpony a weary smile as she approached.
“Whew, coming up with a new spell on the spot is a lot of work.” She said, breathing heavily, but then pointed a hoof towards the strange beings “I just need a moment to catch my breath; go check on the ones the wolves were after, see if they need any sort of treatment.”
“Alright, Twilight.” Applejack said with a nod and trotted quickly over to the one who’d saved her “Uh, hey there. Y’all okay? We got some medicine down at the farm if ya need it; timberwolves got a pretty poisonous breath to ‘em, ‘specially the Alphas.”
He was a strange fellow, with what appeared to be some kind of clothes covering him from top to bottom and the strange stick thing was lying on the ground next to him.
He rolled over a bit to look at her and she thought that his face seemed kind of pale, tinged slightly green. He then raised a limb that looked similar to Spike’s claws to point shakily to his right where a strange, cat-eared being was laying next to a pile of what looked like vomit and it was groaning in misery.
“Help her…” He muttered as he attempted to push himself up into a sitting position “Get her… medicine.”
Applejack nodded and trotted over to the cat-eared being, who merely continued to groan and when the cowpony put a hoof to her head, she could feel the being was burning up.
“Hey, Twilight, get over here quick-like!” She called out urgently and her friend trotted quickly over, giving a worried glance to the cat-eared being “Ya got enough magic in ya ta get this’n over to the farmhouse?”
“Yes. I think I can manage it.” Twilight replied and put her own hoof to the stranger’s head “Sweet Celestia, she’s got a really bad fever! The poison must be having an adverse effect on her system.”
“We got medicine at the house that can help, but ya need ta hurry and get ‘er there. Don’ worry ‘bout actually givin’ it to ‘er, Granny n’ Applebloom’ll know what ta do.” Applejack told her and the alicorn nodded resolutely.
She helped put the strange creature onto Twilight’s back, which made the alicorn grunt with effort.
“She’s really heavy!” Twilight said “It must be that armor she’s wearing.”
“Ah imagine, jus’ be glad ya don’ hafta take that monster of a blade with ya.” Applejack replied with a laugh and Twilight gave a small smile before charging her horn with magic and disappearing with a flash of light and a pop.
The cowpony then turned to the male, who was sitting up at this point and had his head in one of his claws. Applejack thought he seemed well enough, so she turned her attention to the third stranger, who was sitting hunched over on the ground with one claw-like appendage to its mouth.
“Ya feelin’ alright there, Sugarcube?” She asked the small stranger, who glanced up at her briefly before closing her eyes in pain.
“Ugh… I feel like I’m going to be sick…” It, a female judging by the voice, replied. Applejack sat on her haunches next to the stranger and patted her back with a hoof.
“Well don’cha worry none ‘bout that, Sugarcube.” She assured the strange creature with a smile “It’s just an effect a’ the poison, you’ll be right as rain here pretty soon.”
“What… what about Haruka?” The stranger asked, giving Applejack a concerned look “She looked pretty bad from what I could tell, plus you had that other one teleport her somewhere rather than try and talk to her like you did me.”
“Hah-roo-kuh? Tha’s a weird name.” Applejack said with a frown but then turned a calm expression to the stranger “Ah ain’ gonna lie ta ya, Sugarcube; yer friend’s in a pretty bad way. But don’cha worry ‘bout her, she’s in good hooves. She’ll be back on her, uh… her legs, ‘afore ya know it.”
The stranger gave a weak smile and looked like she wanted to say something else, but then a shadow fell over the two and when Applejack looked up, she saw that it was the male, looking surprisingly healthy for somepony who’d just been suffering the effects of timberwolf poison. He crouched down in front of the female stranger and extended his claw-like appendage.
“Rip Teyn.” He murmured and his claw glowed for a second as the female was surrounded in a strange silvery aura.
When they stopped glowing, the female stood up and stretched, giving a few experimental jumps before turning a smile toward the male.
“Thanks Mu, I feel much better now.” The female said and the male nodded and smiled.
“No problem, Rosemary. You did a great job against the wolves.” He replied and then turned his attention to Applejack “Aren’t you a strange creature; are you a new kind of NPC the developers are introducing to the game?”
“Beg yer pardon?” Applejack replied, giving the tall male a curious look and he put his claw-like appendage to his chin in thought.
“Never mind for now, I’ll explain later.” He replied calmly and pushed what appeared to be glasses further up his strangely shaped muzzle “We would appreciate it very much if you took us to where you sent our friend. We can probably help her better than you can.”
“Mmm, Ah suppose tha’s true.” Applejack said, nodding in agreement and then stood up “The farmhouse is just a short walk this-a way. C’mon, y’all!”
And thus the cowpony and the two strangers left the meadow, with the two strangers carrying a huge blade between them. What none of them saw was the single eye on a tree staring at them as they left before closing.