//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Mourning and Recovery // Story: The Balance of Harmony // by The Rising Tide of Night //------------------------------// The next day, we all gathered together in the meeting area. Fluttershy was still somewhat withdrawn, but the others were pleased to see her upright and interacting with everyone. We all felt the pain of the loss of Rainbow Dash, and much of the morning was spent in mourning. We reminisced about past adventures with her, and did our best to celebrate her amazing life. It wasn’t until the afternoon that I decided to broach the subject that Fluttershy and I had discussed in the night. “We need to spend some time this week helping Fluttershy train,” I said, after outlining her request. “Any suggestions?” Applejack spoke up, “Well, Ah can teach her how to fight. We can spar together.” Rarity shook her head. “I need to work on something else this week. Our outfits need to be stronger. Those timberwolf claws were able to shred through my hard work much too easily, so I will be busy strengthening my work.” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down on her heels. “I can help Applejack!” She popped over behind Fluttershy, wrapped her arms around her neck, and ruffled her hair. “We’ll make sure she’s ready for anything!” Fluttershy looked apprehensive, but smiled. “Thank you, everyone. I won’t let you down any more.” Applejack shook her head. “You’ve never let us down, Sugarcube. We should’ve thought more about bringing you down there in the first place.” Fluttershy smiled back at her gratefully. I nodded. “Sounds good, everyone. I’ll leave you to get everything set up.” I turned to Spike, and said, “Spike, can I talk to you about something?” He looked up at me, surprised. “Uh, sure, Twilight. Whatever you need.” I motioned him away from the others, and we headed over to a corner of the room. Looking down at him, I asked, “Spike, what happened yesterday?” He looked down, wringing his hands, slightly abashed. “I’m not entirely sure, Twilight. It felt like the time when I grew into a full size dragon before. It didn’t start until I got really mad when Rainbow Dash was knocked down, and I just jumped on the timberwolf and started clawing.” “Spike, you grew claws and got bigger. It was amazing! Do you think that you could find a way to control your changes?” “I dunno, Twilight,” he replied, looking uncertain. “I’m not sure I can.” I patted him on the shoulder, smiling. “It’s ok, Spike. Don’t worry about it. If you find you can, it would be a great help, but we’ll be fine if you can’t.” He smiled up at me. “Thanks, Twilight. I’ll see what I can do.” I ruffled his hair. “No problem,” I replied. We decided to take another week of rest and preparation. Pinkie Pie worked out her grief and frustration by playing with the twins and continuing to surprise us throughout the week. Fluttershy and Applejack spent a frustrating week working out together, with Fluttershy having some trouble getting used to the idea of attack and defense. She often came out of their sparring practices battered and bruised, but still determined to come back and learn. Applejack did her best not to let her frustrations show during the sessions, but I walked in on one late in the week where she lost her temper with Fluttershy. “C’mon Fluttershy, you gotta put some effort into your attacks!” she yelled, stomping away from a defeated Fluttershy, who was lying on the ground, dazed. “What’s going on?” I asked. Applejack rounded on me, frustration plain on her face. “She’s not trying! Ah keep trying to show her defensive moves, but she’s not putting any force behind her attacks. If she doesn’t try to hit me, anything Ah do just flings her to the floor!” Fluttershy pushed herself up, shaking her head. “Applejack, I need to know how to fight! I need you to show me what to do!” “But Ah can’t show you what to do if you keep pulling away!” Applejack punched at one of their sparring bags, knocking the entire rig to the ground. “Applejack, calm down!” I called. “You know she’s never been very aggressive. Overcoming years of a behavior takes a long time. You need to be patient with her.” Leaning against the wall, Applejack sighed. “Ah know, Ah know. Ah guess Ah’m just anxious and frustrated. Ah used to spar with Rainbow, and y’all know how competitive she was.” Fluttershy let out a sob, and Applejack’s expression grew contrite. “Ah’m sorry, Fluttershy. We all miss Rainbow Dash, and Ah’m taking it out on you.” “It’s ok,” whimpered Fluttershy. “I know I’m not her. But the least I can do for her is to try not to be so weak.” “Can you two take a break?” I asked. “It might do you some good to relax. You’ve been at this almost nonstop for the entire week.” Applejack nodded, fatigue showing in her eyes. “Yeah, Ah think that would be good. We’ve been working hard these last few days, and Ah’m exhausted.” Fluttershy shook her head. “If it’s alright, can I stay here? I want to practice some more.” We both looked over at her in surprise. “Are you sure?” I asked. “You must be exhausted.” She looked at me with a determined expression. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Just set up the punching bag, please.” Applejack and I looked at each other, concerned. “All right, Sugarcube,” Applejack said. “If you’re sure.” She righted the bag and frame and headed towards the door, where she paused. “Fluttershy, the biggest thing that’s holding you back is yourself. We can keep this up, but Ah think we might be better off with you learning to shoot.” With that, she left the room to go rest. I turned to Fluttershy, who was lining up with the punching bag, fists ready. As I watched, she let loose with a few quick strikes, sending the bag bouncing, and followed it up with a swift kick. She bounced back, readying herself, and pushed forward once more, hitting the bag with a combination of strikes. Her aggression was apparent, but I noticed that it was fueled more by frustration than anything else. “Fluttershy, maybe Applejack is right,” I said after a few minutes. She kicked the bag once more, and whirled to me, fury in her eyes. “What do you mean?” she demanded. “Exactly what I said. Maybe you’re having a hard time with this because you’re attacking a person, and not a bag. You’ve never been one for direct conflict, and even willpower won’t change that. Maybe a gun is the better option for you.” She glared at me for a while longer, then dropped her eyes, defeated. “You’re probably right, Twilight. It’s been so hard this week, and I’m pushing myself so much, but every time Applejack attacks, or asks me to attack, I just freeze.” I put my hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “It’s ok, Fluttershy. We know who you really are, and a fighter you are not. We love you regardless.” Fluttershy smiled, still looking down at the ground. “Thanks, Twilight.” She looked up at me gratefully. “I’m going to go find Applejack and see what she suggests I use.” She headed out of the training room, and I watched her leave. I walked over to the punching bag they had been using, rested my hand on it, and sighed. “What are we becoming?” I asked myself. Drawing my fist back, I gave the bag a punch and immediately winced. Shaking my hand from the pain, I shook my head as I left the room and wondered just how they could hit that all the time. We spent a few more days working on our preparations for our next venture. We knew that with Rainbow Dash gone, we would have a harder time getting the elements to work, but we were hopeful that we would be able to find someone who would be able to use the element in the meantime. Fluttershy and Applejack spent a much more agreeable time training, as Fluttershy took to gun use much easier than hand to hand combat. Rarity had been spending the entire time reworking her magically armored outfits. Taking her lesson from our fight with the timberwolves, she did her best to strengthen the spells on the material, keeping them as maneuverable as possible while keeping us protected. I visited her the day before we were to leave in order to see how she was coming. I walked into her crafting room, knocking on the door as I opened it. “Rarity? How are you doing?” I called into the room. A moment later, I jumped in shock as I heard a gunshot, and rushed further into the room in a panic. “Rarity!” I cried. Rarity, earmuffs on her ears, was standing in the back of her room, aiming a smoking gun at one of her new outfits. She looked satisfied as she lowered her gun and removed her earmuffs. She moved forward, oblivious to my presence, and inspected her handiwork. “Perfect,” she purred, obviously pleased. “Rarity, what’s going on?” I asked. She jumped in surprise, and turned around. “Twilight!” she exclaimed. “I apologize, I didn’t notice you there. Have you come to see my new line?” She gestured to the hanging clothing. “Look, no holes. It successfully stopped the bullet. I think I’m on to something!” “Wow, Rarity, that’s amazing!” I moved over to inspect her handiwork. There was a small scuff mark on the clothing, but no hole from the bullet. I looked around the room and found the bullet had flattened, bounced off, and landed a few feet away. Rarity blew on the barrel of her gun and smiled. “I shall call it ‘bullet proof fashions.’” “That’s great,” I replied, feeling the material. “And they’re still nice and flexible, too.” Rarity looked proud of herself. “This just might be my best work yet. As much as I dislike insinuating anything about my friends, it was a good thing that Fluttershy was unable to handle combat, since this extra time has allowed me to fine tune my methods.” I nodded. “Well, since Fluttershy has taken much better to the gun use, it was a worthwhile delay. Besides,” I continued wryly. “The elements aren’t going anywhere.” I noticed that Rarity turned to her workbench and grabbed her tape measure. She turned back to me, a smile on her face, and she said, “Well, since you’re here, let’s get your outfit ready. Strip!” Seeing the determined and happy look on her face, I sighed inwardly, and proceeded to follow her directions. She measured me top to bottom, all the while cutting and measuring her material with her magic. A half hour later, with the assistance of her magic and her natural talent for dressmaking, I was the proud owner of a new armored outfit, custom designed to suit me. “And it fits you just perfectly,” Rarity gushed. I twirled around for her admiration, and she nodded to herself in satisfaction. “Perfect!” she repeated. “Now, all I need are the others. Could you please go get them for me?” Another hour later, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike were all in Rarity’s craft room, waiting to get fitted for new clothing. There was a short pause as Rarity shooed Spike out of the room before starting in on the others. I waited outside with Spike, who was sulking as I quietly smiled at him. A few hours later, Rarity called him into the room, and the others exited behind him, each sporting their own outfits. A short while later, Spike emerged with his own outfit, and a few minutes after that, Rarity was basking in the glow of our admiration. The last day was spent resting and planning. I sat with Big Mac and Cheerilee mapping our path to the southern city. I was very apprehensive about going to the capitol of the Changelings, but if we were able to retrieve the element from them, we would be that much more confident going after the rest of them. The loss of Rainbow Dash was still weighing heavily on us, so we attempted to take as much as we could into account. The overall path to the city would be relatively simple and easy, and with Fluttershy’s sense of the surroundings, we would be able to avoid any dangerous animals on the way. The hardest part would be when we got into the city. The map that Cheerilee had was an old map, and didn’t take into account any changes the Changelings may have made to the layout. However, we felt confident that if we could find the location of the Queen, we would find the element. The following day, we all rose bright and early. I had stayed with Fluttershy for the entire time we were there per her request, but there were no more incidents like that first night. Neither of us slept very well, as she would often wake up in the middle of the night crying, and one time she woke screaming in terror. I did my best to comfort her each time, but often enough she fell asleep crying in my arms. We stepped out into the town after saying goodbye to our hosts. It was a cool morning, the sun trying to break through the gray clouds but failing. “You know, Ah don’t think Ah’ve ever seen the sun since we got here,” Applejack complained. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was Discord’s doing,” I replied. “Sunlight would be something that would encourage hope.” We headed out of the town, carefully picking our way through the ruins, and started on the road to the south. The road snaked through the hills as we walked, and the landscape around us was desolate, with few animals around, and not a single person in sight. It was easy going, as far as travelling was considered, but it was also boring. Many times, Rarity voiced her complaints as to how bored she was, which usually resulted in Pinkie Pie breaking into some sort of song and dance routine in order to cheer her up. The results of this, however, were often as random as Pinkie herself was. Sometimes we would all follow along, feeling the cheer and singing with her, and sometimes her attempts at levity were met with stony silence or a snappish response from one of us. It took us three days to get to the southern city. Each night we camped on the side of the road, taking shifts during the night to keep watch, but our overall trip was uneventful. The landscape started to vary about halfway there, with the desolate plains giving way to forested land. Fluttershy’s sense of living creatures allowed us to avoid any large animals, including what in the distance seemed to be a pack of timberwolves. We arrived at the city in midafternoon. As we crested the hill, we looked down at what appeared to be a walled city, with a large structure in the center. The structure was a tall building built in the shape of a castle, including the crenellations around the top. The overall city appeared to be a maze of differently shaped buildings, laid out in a vague circular form. We could see three main roads that cut through the city, all approaching the center castle from different directions. A river ran through the rear of the city, filtered through the walls by a fine grate. We paused there, looking down at the city, and rested for a while. Applejack and I went over the copy of the map we received from Cheerilee and Big Mac, trying to see what things had or hadn’t changed. Fluttershy sat by herself, watching the city quietly, holding the pair of handguns that Applejack had found for her. Rarity stood talking with Pinkie Pie while Spike stood next to her, gazing up at her with the admiration that I was used to seeing from him. After some time inspecting the walls, we determined that the easiest way to enter would be to see what the defenses were around the main entrance and plan from there. Our second plan would be to locate an area of the wall that was damaged, and see if we could find a way through. After this discussion, we regrouped and headed down to the city below. As we walked, I turned to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, do you sense anything down there?” She was silent for a moment, then replied, “I’m not sure. I think I sense something, and then it’s gone. The animals I sensed on our way here were always constant, as were the timberwolves. These are different.” “That doesn’t make sense, dear,” replied Rarity. “I know it doesn’t,” Fluttershy murmured. “But that’s what I sense.” In the wake of this unsettling information, we kept a very careful watch on our surroundings as we approached the city. While nothing appeared untoward, the general sense of the area was one of anticipation as we neared the main entrance. The wall around the city appeared to be upwards of twenty feet tall, with the entrance was about half that size, with large wooden doors that hung halfway open. Applejack carefully approached the open doorway, and peeked inside. She turned back to us, shaking her head, indicating that there was nothing there. We hurried over to where she was standing. “Nothing?” I asked, surprised. She shook her head again. “Nothing,” she replied. “Ah don’t get it either. Ah’m afraid it might be another trap.” “Let’s move quickly then,” I replied. “If we can get directly into the city, we can hide among the buildings and hopefully hide from anyone looking for us.” Applejack unslung the rifle from her back, holding it at the ready. The rest of us also readied our weapons, and we slipped through the open doorway and into the city of the Changelings.