Mysterious Alicorn

Chapter 19

By Aponymous

"It could work"

Twilight seemed to be doing calculations in her head

"I had my treehouse insured, I'm fairly sure you had your house insured as well Rarity, we could afford a sizeable abode."

Rarity nodded in agreement

"It would be quite nice, assuming the rest of you can keep the common areas clean."

Rainbow Dash just looked confused

"What are you girls talking about?"

Pinkie, who was still bouncing around excitedly, came to a sudden stop

"Isn't it obvious Dashie! We should make a community house! A place for all of us to live together!"

Pinkie was brimming with excitement, you almost couldn't tell her house had just been burnt down. Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at my drawing, thinking. Applejack however, was the first to speak

"You only drew six ponies."

She spoke in a monotone, as though not wanting to betray an opinion, I however, was sure she was hoping this mean't I was planning to leave.

I was about to start drawing again when Rainbow spoke

"My place didn't burn down..."

That may have been the first time I'd ever heard that sentence said with a hint of sadness... Not that I had to many memories to begin with. I had taken this into account, thus the six ponies.

"Well it's not like you can't sell your place to live with us Dashie!"

Pinkie's smile still hadn't faltered, it was actually kind of creepy, the duo began then began talking about the different reasons for joining us or not joining us.

"I'm not sure I'd like to be away from the sky..."

"But you'd get to spend so much time with your friends! We could go pranking or partying or clubbing or drinking or-"

"There's that... but what if we get sick of each other? I'm not sure I could spend that much time with Rarity, no offence, without ripping mane out"

"It'll be fine! We'll have a ton of fun and everyone can be together and we'll be like a big family!"

For some reason, that last part -about the family- sounded intensely sad. Nothing about it in particular was that terribly sad, it was something about how forced the cheeriness in her voice sounded. It seemed to reverberate between all the ponies present because nopony talked for a few moments.

"I suppose it could work..."

Rainbow Dash didn't seem to want to talk about this further, and Pinkie didn't press the issue, beyond gushing about how fun it would be, how every night would be like a sleepover. I drew a seventh pony around the large house for a reason I wasn't sure of, for some reason, it gave me a feeling of security to know I was still going to be allowed in their lives, even after all that I'd wrought, they still didn't hate me.

The feeling of security wasn't bound to last forever though...

Nothing was left of Twilight's library, nothing at all. I suppose a treehouse filled with books is rather Flammable. Twilight took it far better than the others though, I suppose she hadn't been here quite as long. The only thing interesting was finding out from spike that the other Fire-throwers had... expired... overnight.

After finishing at the Library we had one more destination before Fluttershy's Cottage.

Sweet Apple Acres.

My worst fears had come into fruition. As we approached Sweet Apple Acres even Pinkie Pie quieted. It seemed the Fire-Throwers had done just enough damage to make the fire in the orchard spread, reducing the majority of it to ash. The barn hadn't been touched as badly as the library or the boutique but still had quiet a bit of damage.

Applejack didn't have the same reaction as most of the others, she simply put on a strong face and trotted forward, towards the barn house. The rest of us exchanged concerned looks before following her. As we walked up the road leading to the barn the destruction of the orchard became more evident. Ashen tree stumps covered the hills for as far as we could see, it didn't look like any trees survived, a sad sight to say the least.

Once we got to the barn we found there wasn't much need for rummaging, everything was mostly intact and the overall structure of the barn wasn't to badly damaged. It was the orchard that was the problem, the trees would take years to grow back.

We split up, each taking a different section of the farm, except for Applejack that is, She just wandered off in a random direction. Unfortunately, the direction she went in was also in the area I was checking...

After about 10 minutes of wandering I came across Applejack leaning up against a tree, bawling her eyes out. I'm going to be honest, I wasn't sure how to approach the situation. She clearly didn't want anypony to see her crying, Applejack however, seemed to have a different plan

"C'mon out"

I stepped out of the tree stump I'd been hiding behind, embarrassed at being caught spying.

"What do ya want?"

I shrug awkwardly, still unsure of what I could say. Applejack was just getting angrier and angrier

"I said, what do ya want! Oh, that's right! You can't talk! Maybe if you could you would explain why you're still here!"

I just stood there, doing my best poker face.

"Look at what you've brought on! Nothing but destruction! Some random stallion shows up, unable to talk and gets a crush on Fluttershy and suddenly he's family! Suddenly he's worth risking everypony's lives for! It's not like you've earned our loyalty!"

I couldn't disagree, everything she said rang true. I just hung my head low and took the berating, hoping at the very least to let Applejack vent herself. It went on like that for a while until tears started flowing. Applejack noticed this and sighed

"Let's go back to the others"

The rest of the walk back to the others was an awkward silence, the sadness in Applejack had turned to rage, the rage had been vented at me and she seemed to be feeling better. Once we met up with the others we exchanged curt nods and once again embarked on our next destination.

Fluttershy's cottage.

We had seemed to have fallen into a routine, get to a place, comfort the owner of said place, rummage around for a bit before continuing to our next destination and falling silent once we arrive at said destination. The trip to Fluttershy's cottage was no different. This time however, talking took a much more abrupt stop. Twilight was the first to break the silence

"Oh dear."

I wouldn't say that summed up the situation. Even from a distance you could tell this would be bad. Gore mattered the ground, leaving very little room to walk without stepping in... something... Blood was everywhere, you could hardly look away, mostly because there wasn't very many places that you could look that weren't bloody. Gasps ensued from all 5 of the mares, even Rainbow Dash. Twilight, once again taking the lead asked in a quiet voice

"Did you do this?"

I averted my eyes and nodded. They didn't ask any follow up questions, they didn't talk amongst each other as I went to rummage, they didn't sympathize or condemn, there was just silence, something which seemed to be becoming a theme in my life. Silence is one of those things that can be one of the most comfortable things in the world or one of the least comfortable things in the world. Guess which one that was.

The entire time spent at the house was nothing but uncomfortable. We spent less time at the cottage than any other house. It was made of sturdy stuff and mostly survived, it might even be salvageable, but nopony wanted to stay there, it was starting to stink.

The same routine seemed to remain true, even after the ordeal that was the cottage small talk still leaked back into the walk back to the hospital. I didn't pay much attention, basicly just caught snippits, stuff about the new house, about where to put it. The only thing that interested me enough to draw me from my pit of self-pity/hatred was Twilight, who said

"The mayors supposed to be having a speech at noon, about what we should do about this attack."

My heart stopped, I hadn't even thought about the rest of the town, how they'd be affected by this. My sympathetic thoughts quickly turned into paranoid ones however, fearing they'd want to kick me out of the town, it's wasn't like they'd be unjustified. Apparently this worry was written all over my face however, because Rainbow Dash attempted to comfort me

"Relax, It's not like they'd know that you were partially the caus-"

She cut off abruptly, realizing what she'd said. Pinkie looked worried as well though

"Don't be silly, nopony blames you for this! It was those meanie-mean-meanie-pants ponies. Your not a meanie mean-meanie-pants pony!"

Strangely... This was really comforting for reasons I couldn't quite explain. I turned my gaze over each of them in turn, taking in their expressions. My gaze stopped at Applejack for a moment, who, while not quite as comforting as the others simply said

"I've said what I think, no need to be a broken record."

I gazed up at the sun, trying to figure out the time. By my reckoning it was around 11, we had spent a while walking. Twilight once again took charge

"Shall we head to the town hall?"

It took about 20 minute to get from the outskirts of town to the town hall, a sizeable crowd had already gathered around and after about ten minutes of waiting; the mayor came out, looking nervous but determined.

The ensuing speech was fairly uplifting, I suppose if it's your whole job to be a public speaker, you'd be good at manipulating crowds. After the speech the crowd dispersed to the damaged parts of the town, all doing their parts in the effort to rebuild.

Needless to say we had quite a job ahead of us, rebuilding, regrowing and above all, figuring out who or what was attack us.

That was exruciating to write... Did it come across? I've been unable to write very well for a bit. Got some "Writers Block" it seems. It should clear up sooner or later. I'll try and keep the chapters coming.

There may be a time skip soon, nothing to far, just a few days.

Thanks for all the reviews, they make me feel smiley.