Fire of Passion

by Zachurra

Chapter Two

“Twilight… Twilight, dear, wake up!”

“Huh, wuzzat…?” Twilight Sparkle mumbled groggily into whatever her face was firmly planted in. Her eyes felt heavy and her head was pounding, so she honestly couldn’t have cared less what it was exactly that her face was stuffed into, but all she cared about was the fact that it was soft enough to be comfortable.

“Twilight, will you please git yer head outta Pinkie’s mane so we can figure out what in the hay is goin’ on here?”

Twilight’s eyes shot open and, just as her friend had said, all she could see was the pink that was one of her closest friends. The Unicorn wasn’t quite sure which reason was the first to compel her to pull her head away quickly: the fact that it was Pinkie’s mane and only Celestia knew what in Equestria could possibly be in there, or the fact that her previous thought sounded far dirtier than she had expected it to.

Pinkie Pie could only giggle as her friend’s control over her stiffened body proved to be fully returned as she attempted to scrape away anything that could possibly have gotten into her mouth with her hooves. After Twilight was satisfied that she had wiped away any unknown threats to her oral hygiene, she finally took a moment to look around. From her surroundings, she appeared to be in a barn. She, like some of the other girls save Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, were lying on a large pile of hay.

“What’s going on…?” Twilight groaned as she tried to speak. “Oh, Celestia… I feel like I just drank some of ‘special cider’ that Granny Smith makes again… Where are we?” Twilight rubbed her temples in hopes that it would ease the pain of her pounding headache.

“Back at the farm, apparently,” Applejack responded quickly to her friend’s question. “Mah brother found us about an hour ago. Said he tried wakin’ us up but we were out harder than the cattle after a hootenanny.”

The five other mares looked at the earth pony with odd glances. Applejack slowly pulled her hat down to cover part of her face, “Alright, so that one may have been a little forced… But that’s beside the point. The fact o’ the matter is that somethin’ happened to the Princess and it’s up to us to figure out what!”

“I dunno, AJ,” Rainbow Dash said, crossing her hooves as she hovered a few feet off the ground. “I don’t think it’s that much of a mystery as to what happened to her. It looked like a pretty obvious ponynapping from my angle.”

“Well some of us didn’t exactly get to see much after fallin’ flat on our face.” Applejack replied. “What in the hay happened to us anyway?”

“While I can’t say for sure,” Twilight pulled herself out of the hay after feeling confident her legs could support herself now, “My best guess is that whatever knocked us out must have been some kind of magic that even Princess Luna hadn’t seen before. I wasn’t able to get too good of a look, but the mist seemed to have been originating from one of those mare’s horn.”

“Speaking of those ponies, why did some of them look so… scary…” Fluttershy’s already quiet voice began to further pull itself back as thoughts of the strange and slightly disfigured ponies began to return from her memories.

“Yeah, what they hay was up with those guys anyways?” Rainbow said, “I’m not the only one who saw the dude with three eyes, right?”

“While it’s entirely possible and likely to be more probable that it was simply the poison in the air that caused us to hallucinate, Princess Luna looked genuinely frightened to see them…” Twilight looked to the floor and touched her chin as she thought back to the prior night’s events.

“Hallucinations or not, they certainly looked as real as can be up-close. And felt real…” Rarity shuddered a little as she remembered the way that silver mare looked at her. Such hunger in her eyes when she looked down upon the Unicorn…

“You don’t think those guys could have been the same ponies that followed Princess Luna when she was still plotting to be a meanie-pants, do you?”

The mares each turned towards the pink pony who had so far remained even more quiet than Fluttershy during their discussion of the event. “That’s impossible,” Twilight was quick to respond, “That would mean they’re over a thousand years o–“ Twilight suddenly stopped dead in her argument as she thought back to all the other ponies who certainly defied the concept of death due to age. Celestia, Luna, Discord, Sombra, Granny Smith, and one might even be able to debate just how long the lifespan of a Changeling Queen might be. “…Alright, so maybe it isn’t totally impossible… But it’s still very unlikely!”

“Well you all saw the necklace that that one pony was wearing, right? It looked just like the Amulet that Trixie wore when she was here, so it’s not totally unlikely that they could have survived all this time with the help of magic!”

Twilight was about to give further rebuttal about the unlikelihood of a small number of seemingly average – at least some of them seemed average – ponies maintaining their youth for slightly over one thousand years, but then she took in just what the pink earth pony had said. Had that one stallion, whom the Unicorn presumed to be the leader of the group, been wearing what she thinks he had been wearing? She tried to think back, but all she could see was a blur of what had happened. Although, if he truly had the artifact they had come in search of…

If the Alicorn Amulet, which Luna said only had one third of the power the Fire of Passion did, could allow somepony like Trixie to perform age spells than it truly wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for somepony to keep themselves alive all this time.

“Well whatever they hay they did, we can’t let ‘em get away with it!” Rainbow let herself drop to the ground and stamped down her hoof for emphasis. “We need to go back there and show those ponies that they can’t just go around taking our Princesses!”

The other mares cheered. Rather, four of them cheered while the other only rose her voice to a normal speaking level, but that was more or less expected. They began to make their way out of the barn, ready to head back into the forest and save the Princess they so idolized. As they returned to the open fresh air, a few of them noticed that the sun seemed rather sloppily put up into the sky. Had Princess Luna put it up? Would her captors allow her to do such a thing? Before any more thought could be put into it, a hoarse cough caught the attention of the mares. Each turned to see the big red stallion they all knew sitting by the barn door. He was sitting up as straight as he could and for some reason did not have that familiar friendliness in his eyes. Instead they were replaced by something serious but it remained a far cry from what could be considered a glare. Before any of them could ask why he was there, his eyes locked with his younger sister’s.

“Come with me. Ah need to show ya somethin’.”

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Applejack was led away from the others by her older brother. The mares agreed to meet by Fluttershy’s cottage once their business was finished. Big Macintosh led Applejack straight through town and their journey was a silent one. Applejack attempted to question what exactly her brother was planning but she received no response.

Applejack gave a heavy sigh and stopped in her tracks. “Ah ain’t got time for this, Big Macintosh! The Princess is in trouble and darn near anythin’ could be happenin’ to her right now!” She attempted to turn around and start making her way towards the cottage where the rest of her friends were waiting but a large red hoof stopped her.

“Ah now you’re in a rush,” Big Mac said, just as calmly as he always spoke, “But Ah just need to show ya somethin’. It won’t take long, Ah promise.” When Applejack gave him yet another sigh, he dropped his hoof and continued on his way. “Once we’re done, ya can do what ya want. All Ah ask is that ya humor me just this once.”

Applejack watched her brother continue walking away, not even turning to look back to see if his sister was following. She made a glance in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage before shaking her head and quickly trotting to catch up to the stallion. The rest of their journey returned to relative silence, save for the few unintelligible grumbles Applejack made under her breath. After a few more minutes of walking, Applejack finally realized just where they were heading.

A small schoolhouse could be seen just around the corner. Outside all of the little colts and fillies were playing and talking. It seemed they were on their recess break for the day. A small smile came to the younger Apple’s face as she watched all the little ones smiling and laughing and generally having a good time. The mare felt a touch of against her leg and looked to see Big Mac looked down at her. He gestured towards one group of fillies in particular. Some distance away, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applebloom were all going about their normal shenanigans. This time it seemed to involve a tree somehow, as they were attempting to climb one only for the one on top to end up falling down. The one below her tried to catch her only to fall herself, and the same happened for the one that was the lowest. The Crusading group landed in a dogpile, to which they all began to laugh at themselves.

Applejack’s smile shined a little brighter. While she constantly worried for her little sister and the danger she and her closest friends always seemed to get into, it made her happy to see just how ambitious she could be when she set her mind towards a goal.

“We both know she cares deeply for ya, Applejack.” Big Mac said quietly as the two continued to watch the three fillies. Apparently one of them came up with a new idea and they began to run off in a different direction. “Granny ain’t as swift as she used to be, and me… well, Ah don’t exactly see mahself as a role model fer anypony. But you,” His gaze returned to his sister’s sap green eyes, “You’re somepony she looks up to. And if somethin’ were to happen to you, Ah know for a fact she’d be the most devastated.

Applejack’s smile slowly faded with each word her brother spoke. She felt she had a hunch she knew where this conversation was going.

“Ain’t nothin’ gonna happen to me, Big Mac–”

“You don’t know that, Applejack.” The mare kept quiet as her brother cut her off. “You and you’re friends are always goin’ out and tryin’ to save the world from whatever kinda evil forces are tryin’ to make their way here.”

“And we always succeed!” She tried to defend herself.

“Ah know ya do. And Ah’m mighty proud of ya for the things you’ve done. But ya gotta understand just what’s at risk ever’time you go into that darn forest, ever’time you go to fight some kinda monster. Ya have a family, Applejack… ya have ponies who lova ya. Now, Ah won’t stop ya from goin’ with the others to save the Princess, mostly ‘cause Ah know Ah wouldn’t be able to stop ya, but also ‘cause Ah know you’re one of the only ponies who’d be able to get the job done. All Ah’m askin’ of ya is that ya remember what’s waitin’ for ya back home.”

Instead of with words, Applejack replied to her brother’s words with a tight embrace. The apple-buckin’ mare certainly didn’t know her own strength but that didn’t stop him from trying his best to return the hug.

“Thanks Big Mac…” She said as she pulled away, quickly reaching up to rub away a tear that had begun forming. “But you can trust me when Ah say that everythin’ is gonna be just fine!”

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The winds gave a harsh blow, causing all of the leafs upon the trees to burst into applause. From these trees came two figures: one was large and wore a mask carved from bone while the other was small and drug chains with her wherever she went. The wind began to die down and soon the only sound was that of the links scratching against each other with each step the mare took.

“Ugh, it smells disgusting in there!” She shouted at nothing in particular. She then spat on the ground, hoping that would be enough to get the taste of such think nature out of her mouth. “Even the prison didn’t even smell this bad, and I bet you remember how much of a shithole that place was!”

The stallion gave no response, only watching her with bloodshot eyes that were wide open. As if expecting such a response, the mare continued her rant. “And why do we have to be the ones to come all the way out here and take a look around? Why couldn’t Regret have just–”

Her words came to a sudden halt as the stallion lifted his hoof up to his chest and took a deep breath. The mare watched as his chest expanded before shrinking back down to its normal size. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and brought her own hoof to her chest, taking the same deep breath. When her dark brown eyes revealed themselves again, most of the anger had subsided.

“May as well get this over with… Hey, I think I see a town right over that hill.”

Author's Note:

Well, the whole "weekly update" thing is out the window, it seems. But hey, at least it's updating twice as fast as Puppets did.

Anywho, its a little shorter than the last, but I pretty much know how I want the chapters spaced out so if the word count is always fluctuating, than that's just the way it's going to be.

As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you think