“He looks so peaceful.”
Some of the mares turned towards the yellow Pegasus while the others simply nodded in agreement. Everything had been silent since Big Macintosh had been brought home, so it was rather surprising that Fluttershy was the first to say something. However if there was some commotion going on, the Pegasus’s words would have probably gone unheard. It would have taken longer to get the big stallion all the way to the hospital than it would have to simply bring him back to the farm, and it really didn’t seem like he was wounded in any serious way besides some bruises. Nevertheless, a request was sent and a doctor was on their way.
When the doctor arrived he went to work right away. He asked questions, he inspected the sleeping Apple, he asked questions while he inspected the sleeping Apple.
“Has he woken up since he was brought here, or perhaps during the ride home?”
Applejack merely shook her head in response. Ever since he was brought back home and put in his bed, she hadn’t left his side. She refused to even take her eyes off of him most of the time.
“Is he gonna be okay, Doc?” Little Applebloom looked up at the pony who now held one end of a stethoscope against Big Mac’s chest. He didn’t respond at first, instead choosing to hold his eyes closed as he concentrated on the stallion’s heart. After a long pause, he pulled the disk away and pulled out the plugs from his ears.
“Besides a few bruises and burns, he seems rather healthy. You have a very resilient stallion in your family. My best solution would be to simply give him rest until he wakes up. Tend to the burns around his face here, and then leave the rest to patience.”
The others nodded and the doctor began packing up what equipment he had brought with him. Upon finishing, he took the case in his mouth and began making his way towards the door only to nearly knock over a small purple and green dragon that tried to enter through the same doorway. “Oh, excuse me.”
“No problem. Hey girls, how’s he doing?” Spike stepped forward and took the liberty of hopping onto Applejack’s back to get a better look. Applejack didn’t seem to mind, as she made no objections.
“The doctor said he’ll be fine. He just needs rest, is all.” Applejack nearly mumbled. A frown appeared in Spike’s expression and grew in size as his eyes ventured to see the expression of the other girls. Fluttershy stood near the back with half of her mane covering her face, Pinkie’s mane looked slightly deflated, Rainbow Dash looked restless and Rarity, much to his dismay, looked like some of the makeup around her eyes had been smeared. He sighed and joined in on their continued stares.
“I wish I could have been there… maybe I could have helped.”
“Sorry Spike, but I don’t think even a fully grown dragon could have been much of a threat to Princess Luna’s foalnappers.” Each pony in the room, and the dragon, turned their gaze to the doorway to see the familiar purple Unicorn who had opted to stay behind while the others escorted Big Macintosh back home.
“Oh, come on Twilight!” Spike hopped down and began taking steps towards his closest friend, “If Applejack’s big brother could manage to beat one, how could a fully grown dragon possibly fail?”
Twilight, as if expecting this question to come, used her magic to levitate an object into the room. Most of the others eyed it curiously, but it was Applejack who stepped forward. “Is that…?”
Twilight nodded. “This is the sword that ponies claimed the stallion was using.” It levitated forward and began spinning in a soft rotation, allowing them to get a full view of the object. “I took it back to the library because I was curious. Something like this obviously isn’t your common material, and these,” A few small, broken shards came forward, “Are shards of his mask. Do you see? They’re the exact same material.”
“What is it you’re getting at exactly, darling?” Rarity said, stepping up to get a closer look. If there was anypony in the room who had an eye for detail than it would be her, and she couldn’t help but feel a little surprised that she couldn’t place a name for what exactly it was that floated before her.
“This,” Twilight gestured towards the pieces and the sword, “Is dragon bone.”
There was a long silence before the smallest of the group spoke up. “It’s made from WHAT?”
-------------
“You did WHAT?”
Relinquish eyed Severance with a half glare. He didn’t bother to fully look in the night blue Unicorn’s direction, as his attention was more directed to the mare that was crying into his chest. “Calm down, Severance.”
“Calm down?” The ex-guard hissed, “Do you understand what has happened? Because of her and her uncontrollable temper–”
“Yes, I understand perfectly well. You must forget that Silence was just as much my friend as he was Fury’s.” His eyes turned back towards the chained red mare that continued sobbing softly into his fur. He gently stroked her mane in an effort to calm her. “Mistakes were made, that much is obvious. But through his sacrifice we have learned a few things.”
Severance gave an angered sigh as he glared forward at the two of them. “Do tell.”
“Firstly,” the three eyed pony began, “We have learned that the ponies we had encountered are far more resilient than we had first expected. A prime example of this being how they managed to take Silence by surprise. Whether or not this could have been avoided is irrelevant as there is no way to change what has happened. Secondly, from Fury’s report we have learned that the Queen’s escort from earlier had in fact been the supposed holders of the Elements of Harmony.”
“The Elements? But how? Only the Queen and her sister managed to have control over their power. To be able to contain such a thing within an individual… they must have an incredible will. But where is your evidence of this?”
A sharp sniff came from Fury’s direction as she turned her head to allow herself to speak. “After what happened… I got so mad… I was more worried about getting Goliath somewhere safe… than finishing the fight… I saw those mares from before… they all wore some kind of… tacky jewelry… ‘Blinded by my emotions’ or not, it wouldn’t take a genius to be able to tell what those were… I could feel it in the air.”
Deciding against taking a mental note of how the mare had used the phrase he had in fact planned on using and instead took a deep breath. Returning to a calm state of mind, he looked up once more. “So what is the next plan of action then, Relinquish? Are we to stand by until the Queen has returned to her normal state, or are we to go on the offensive and avenge Silence’s death?” Severance knew which one he would personally prefer, but he was not the one in charge here.
“We will wait.” Relinquish returned to stroking Fury’s mane. The sobbing had stopped, but that did not mean she was calm. “If they come to us, which is likely, then we will deal with them. We cannot be too hasty when making our move; otherwise we may endanger everything the Queen has worked for.”
Severance, assuming there were no further orders to be given, nodded quietly before turning towards the door. He stopped upon hearing Relinquish continue.
“Celestia is alive. That much is certain. Whatever may have happened to us, the Queen was left alone to face her sister. She did something to her… And it changed her. I do not know where she is now, but I gave my word to the Queen that I would stop at nothing in order to help her sit atop the throne. I know I have asked you this question once before, but I must be sure. Are you prepared to kill in the Queen’s name? Are you prepared to kill Celestia, should the task be ordered?”
Severance and Relinquish stared at each other in silence for what felt like an hour. Severance looked into those dark eyes expecting to find some trick to his questions, but found none. With no change in tone, he replied, “My loyalty has always and will always remain with my Queen. And if I must kill my mother to satisfy the other, then so be it.” Without waiting for a response, Severance turned once more and stepped towards the door.
“I am sorry if you think I find your loyalty questionable.” Severance stopped just a few steps from the door, but did not turn around. “I just know that if anyone is to have mixed feelings towards the success of our cause, it would be you. To fight against a parent is a burden I must count myself lucky to have never experienced. If you ever need to stop and just talk… you know where to find me.”
“…I’ll keep that in mind.” With that, Severance walked out the door and shut it behind him.
A small sniff brought Relinquish’s attention back to the mare that still held closely to him. His gentle touch was enough for her to pull back, but she couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eyes for more than just a moment.
“Are you going to be alright?”
A simple nod and a shaky sigh, “I’ll be fine…”
He put his hoof on her shoulder, “Now, I need you to take a few deep breaths… Good, and now I need you to tell me exactly what happened again. I need as much detail as possible. Anything left out may turn out to be something crucial. Can you do that for me?”
Another nod came before Fury slowly began telling her story once more – this time with less tears and breaks involved. “… I was too concentrated with my own fight to really know what was happened, but from what I had caught a few glances at it seemed that Silence was keeping that other stallion on his hooves. I didn’t think he was too serious about it until he started firing off shots. He scored a direct hit, but somehow he survived… It didn’t make any sense! I’ve seen entire walls blown apart by it! I could tell how surprised he was, because that little barnyard mare threw a… she threw…”
-------------
Taking a few steps to the left after shutting the door, Severance collapsed into a sitting position against the wall. The sound of his dark blue armor clanging against itself caused a louder thud than he would have preferred, but at the moment he cared little. He felt exhausted, both in mind and in body. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly and heavily in an attempt to simply will the stress away.
“Star Light?”
It appeared that Silence was short for this world in two ways. With a bit of a sigh, Severance opened his eyes halfway and tiredly looked to the side. Several feet to his right stood a young earth pony colt with a coat and mane colored just like his.
“Mercy,” Severance said quietly. “I’ve told you before to call me by Severance.”
Mercy bit his lip gently, to which Severance assumed was the child rebuking himself in his head once more. “Right, sorry…”
“Think nothing of it.”
The colt nodded silently. Before the feeling of silence could return, he continued, “Is something wrong? I saw Red – I mean, Fury come through earlier… she looked like she had been crying… did something happen?”
Severance was about to answer when he felt something tug at his insides. Mercy was still just a child, even if a supposed one thousand years had passed. Was he mature enough to know the truth?
“Silence… he isn’t coming back.”
He was reluctant to look at the colt’s expression, but he knew he would have to sooner or later. With a sideways glance, he saw that Mercy looked merely bothered by this revelation rather than truly saddened. Had he misjudged the child’s maturity?
“How is Fury taking it?”
“About as well as you would expect.”
Just then, the door that was between them flew off its hinges as Relinquish was thrown outward. The three eyed pony gasped as the wind was knocked out of him and held a hoof to his chest. Severance and Mercy only watched with widened eyes before slowly turning their attention back towards the newly opened doorway. The room itself practically looked on fire just from the essence of overflowing rage, and in the middle of it all was Fury. Her body was braced and locked to the point where she looked like she could block a buffalo’s charge just by standing her ground. Her eyes were illuminated by a bright light and her chest heaved with heavy breaths.
“I’M GOING TO BREAK HER!!”
-------------
“To think that he was able to break it!”
Twilight Sparkle was still mesmerized by Big Macintosh’s feat of strength even as she walked out the door. She had made the decision to take the weapon to Princess Celestia with news of what had happened, as well as the condition of Applejack’s brother. The other girls followed behind her with their mission still in mind. The sun hadn’t moved since they had woken up, leading them to assume they probably still had plenty of daylight hours to make a move.
Applejack was about to take a step outside when she suddenly felt something tugging at her. It wasn’t physical, but rather as if something was tugging at her heart. Deep down she knew what it was, and she dreaded it. A challenge more threatening than the mare who called herself Fury awaited her.
“Uh, Ah’ll catch up with y’all in a bit,” the farm mare said just loud enough for the other girls to hear.
“Well, alright dear, but please do try to be quick about your business! I daresay we may not have much time to collect ourselves.” Rarity’s voice became fainter as the group made their way towards the edge of the farm. Applejack took a long, heavy sigh before quietly closing the front door and turning around to face her new challenge.
“Ah’m a patient mare, deary, and Ah coulda waited.”
“No Granny.” Applejack hopped up into a single seat chair, “This talk was gonna come sooner or later, and Ah’d rather do it sooner.”
Granny Smith had waited patiently on the couch for her granddaughter to come down from her grandson’s room. An hour had passed, and then two... And even when she was about to walk out the door, the old mare still said nothing. It was up to Applejack to remember what was most important, and she gave an inner sigh of relief knowing that while Applejack’s older brother may be hurt, he wasn’t the only one.
“Ah’m sure Macintosh has already spoken to ya about how we’ve been feelin’ about yer adventures.” She spoke calmly but with a hint of sadness in her tone. She didn’t lift her gaze to meet Applejack’s eyes but rather chose to look at that old military style helmet she had worn just before Family Appreciation Day at Applebloom’s school.
“That he did.” Applejack nodded as she too eyed the old memento.
The elderly mare let out a soft sigh, “Sometimes it seems like yer off savin’ the world just about ever’day… and Ah suppose Ah wouldn’ be a very good guardian if Ah didn’ worry about ya from time t’ time.” She carefully turned the helmet over so it was upside down. “Now Ah won’t stop ya from goin’, since the whole world needs ya, but Ah want you t’ remember that we’re keepin’ ya in our thoughts back here at home.”
Applejack smiled and took off her Stetson to press it against her chest. “Thank ya Granny… Ah don’t know what Ah’d do without all ya’ll back here.”
Granny Smith smiled softly, “Ah just want ya to remember to always be careful.” She glanced momentarily at the name that had been written on the inside rim of the helmet. The name of a pony that never got an opportunity to leave much behind for the ones they loved, or the sister they adored. “This family has already seen enough Apples leave and never come back…”